His Father's Son (CC ALL,MATURE) [COMPLETE]

[Midwest Max]

Thank you, Tas - I used your suggestion in this next part


Part Eleven

“Do you want to know what I’m doing?”

The conversation had started out innocently enough - Alyssa had phoned to make sure Nate was okay after his traumatic events of the day before. They’d chatted amicably for a good ten minutes, and then the conversation had slipped quickly into a prior agenda, one interrupted by Max. Now, on the other end of the line, Alyssa was breathless, her voice a throaty whisper.

“What are you doing?” Nate whispered back, his eyes fixed on a spot on the wall without really seeing it.

“I’m circling my nipple with my finger,” Alyssa answered.

Nate bit his lip and closed his eyes. He remembered Alyssa’s breasts well and the mere thought of her touching them made him squirm with longing.

“But do you know what I’m thinking about?” was Alyssa’s next question.

“What are you thinking about?” Nate asked, his breath catching in his chest.

“I’m wishing that it wasn’t my finger, that it was really your tongue...” She let out a little moan and Nate felt his heart jump in his chest, its rhythm doubling. “Do you wonder what I taste like, Nate?”

He nodded mutely, not even considering that she couldn’t see him do so.

“I remember how you taste,” she breathed into the phone and Nate recalled the sensation of her tongue flicking across his nipple the night he’d rejected her, a lifetime ago. A shiver ran through him. “If I can’t taste you again, then I want to hear you. I want to hear you come, Nate.”

There was going to be no denying her this time. There was no shame, no hesitation as Nate reached for his zipper, his breath coming in ragged gasps.

“Come for me, Nate...”

Nate’s fingers slid over the bulge in his jeans, his body trembling with anticipation. He grasped the tab of his zipper and started to tug it down -

A soft knock sounded against his door, the wood sounding solid and ungiving.

“Nate?” came Emma’s voice. “You in there, sweetheart?”

“Dammit!” Nate hissed into the phone, disappointment washing over him and sobering him immediately.

“Nate?” Alyssa said in his ear. “You okay?”

Nate closed his eyes, shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “My mom’s at my door.”

There was a pause, then a snorted laugh on the other end of the line. “You’re kidding me.”

“I wish I was.”

With that, Alyssa gave a full-out belly laugh as Emma knocked again. “Your relatives suck, Nate,” she said jokingly.

He rolled his eyes and sat up. “Tell me about it. I’ll call you later, okay?”

“Okay. Bye.”

Nate flicked off his phone, blew out a sigh, then said, “I’ll be there in a minute, Mom.” He looked down at his pants, at the evidence of his arousal and frowned - he couldn’t answer the door and speak to his mother like this. Quicky, he rose and pulled off his jeans, threw a housecoat over his T-shirt and underwear. That should help...

Nate opened his bedroom door and found Emma waiting patiently on the other side. When she saw his face, concern immediately furrowed her brow. Reaching out, she touched his face.

“Honey, are you feeling okay?” she asked, moving her hand to his forehead. “You’re all flushed and you feel warm.”

Nate pulled back slightly, giving her an affectionate eye roll. “I’m fine. I was just taking a nap.”

She didn’t look convinced, but apparently decided to let it slide. “I wanted to talk to you. Can I come in?”

Nate nodded and stepped aside to let her in. For a moment, he mused how strange it was for Emma to ask permission to enter his room. When had that happened? Nate couldn’t pinpoint the date or age when his mother had started to respect his space, but it was obvious that she understood he wasn’t a child anymore.

Being a typical mother, Emma picked up Nate’s discarded jeans and folded them. Panic raced through him that she’d realize they were still warm, but she appeared not to notice.

“Your father told me about the money - for college,” she said carefully, turning to face him.

Oh. That. Nate glanced at the floor, shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his robe. Beneath the folds of fabric, his desire waned immediately - nothing like thoughts of insulting his father to squelch a raging erection.

Emma sighed lightly, her expression understanding as she slowly sat down on the end of Nate’s bed. “You’re an adult now, Nate. You’ll be nineteen in March - you don’t need to ask our permission for anything. You know that.”

Nate sat down in his computer chair, worked his mouth. “I know, Mom. But that doesn’t mean that I can just act out of selfishness.”

She smiled lightly at him.

“I know that Dad needs help with the store. I know that’s the reason I didn’t go to school when Annie did. I understand that. I didn’t want to accept Max’s offer without talking to you guys first.”

“We appreciate that, son, we really do,” Emma said, her gaze steady. She paused then looked away for a moment. “Jonathan is a proud man, Nate. All of these years, he wanted to be the one to send you away to school.”

Nate listened mutely. It may have been what Jonathan desired, but maybe it was also out of his means.

She looked down at her fingernails, hands of a working-class woman. “But we have to think about what’s best for you. We want you to accept Max’s offer.”

Nate’s eyebrows lifted slightly.

Emma looked up and he thought he saw a hint of tears in her eyes. “It’s for the best, Nate. It may be the only opportunity you’ll ever get. We went over our finances and it could be years before we could make the same offer. It’s not fair to you.”

Her words and the resigned expression on her face tugged at Nate’s heart. Rising from the chair, he sat beside her on the bed and put his arm around her shoulders.

“Mom, this doesn’t change anything between us,” he said, trying to be reassuring. “You are - and always will be - my parents. I don’t want you to think that now that Max is in my life, that you don’t matter. You do matter - more than you could know. I wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for you. You’re my mom - and I love you.”

The threatening tears finally manifested themselves in Emma’s blue eyes.

Nate tilted his held, a lump forming in his throat. “Don’t cry, Mom.”

She breathed a laugh and cupped his cheek. “It’s just that you’re such a sweet man, Nate. How did we get so lucky to get such a sweet person in our lives?”

He smiled gently and removed her hand from his cheek. “Because you’re a sweet person, Mom.” He put his arms around her and held her tightly, this woman who had welcomed an abandoned baby into her home without having any idea what he truly was.

Emma pulled back, wiped at her eyes with the sides of her fingers. “Let your dad help, Nate.”

“How?” Nate asked curiously.

“Let him buy books, pay rent, anything.”

Nate shook his head. “I can’t do that. He’s going to need to hire someone to take my place at the store - “

Emma was shaking her head the entire time he was speaking, negating his words. “You have to let him help, Nate. It’s the only way he will ever find any peace with this decision.”

Nate fell silent. Perhaps she was right, perhaps if Jonathan contributed something, the sting of Max swooping in and shelling out large quantities of money would be lessened a bit. He nodded in agreement.

Emma smiled widely. “Thank you, Nate. We’ll be okay. Really, we will. We ran the store before you were old enough to help out there - we’ll be able to do it again.”

They were also ten years older than the last time they’d been without help. The Spencers were not young people anymore and Nate knew that the added work was going to be a burden on them. He thought of the pallet of 40-pound salt bags they’d gotten in that day; to Nate, lifting the bags had been annoying, but to Emma and Jonathan, the labor would be difficult if not impossible. He frowned at the thought.

Emma patted his knee affectionately. “You’re going to school, Nate,” she said proudly. “Be proud of that - you’re doing something neither of your parents ever had the chance to.”

In fact, none of Nate’s parents had been awarded the luxury - Tess had died before she had even graduated high school, Max had been pulled into a life of public servitude, and Emma and Jonathan had never found the means or the reason to go. Nate was going where no one in his family had ever gone. He felt a twinge of excitement just beneath his breastbone.

Emma was beaming at him. “It’s meant to be, Nathan.”

He returned her smile, then watched as she exited his bedroom in a mood lighter than the one in which she’d entered.

Nate sat at the end of his bed for a long time, thinking about how understanding the Spencers were of his new relationship with Max. It was obvious that Jonathan was a tad wounded at having another man offer to provide things for his son that he couldn’t - but that hadn’t stopped him from agreeing to it. Because he knew it was for the best, that it was in Nate’s best interest.

Max’s words came back to Nate - perhaps it was true that parents only wanted something better for their children than what they’d had. Even if it was painful to watch that happen. It was hard for Max to give Nate away, knowing that he’d have a better life if he was removed from his life. It wasn’t easy for Jonathan to accept another person’s generosity. And yet both men had made those sacrifices so that Nate could have a good life. A wave of humility washed over Nate - he would do everything in his power not to disappoint any of them.

A soft ‘ding’ on the other side of the room drew his attention. Nate glanced at his computer screen and saw that he had mail. Rising, he went to the PC and found that he had a message from MightyMouse. Smiling, he opened the note - there was no text in the note, only a picture.

Nate studied the image for a long moment. In the picture, Liz was smiling brightly, but her eyes showed the evidence of tears. Her arms were wrapped around Max’s shoulders, while he had his palm against her round belly, the same look of relief and devastation in his eyes. Nate’s gaze drifted to the subject of the note - “Home at last.”

Nate sat back in his chair and thought about Max’s twenty-seventh day with his wife. Liz still had three and a half months to go before the baby was due - that was over one hundred days, four times the number of days that Max had been home in the last year. Nate hoped Max made it to stay home until the birth, and at least some time afterwards.

But given Max’s track record, he doubted it.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Oh, Susan - Chicago is fun! But here's another part to tide you over

Thanks to everyone else for their comments. It's late here and I don't have time to answer fb, but please know I truly appreciate it


Part Twelve

The next day, Nate found his father shoveling the walk in front of the store, a lake effect snow shower having blown through that morning.

“Dad, let me do that,” he said, taking the shovel from the reluctant man. The walk was long and Nate had been begging Jonathan for years to get a snow blower instead of shoveling it - of course, his agenda had been to get himself out of the work, but now he realized that his father was not a young man and shouldn’t be lifting the heavy snow.

“I can finish,” Jonathan said, even as he righted his back and worked to regain his breath.

“Go inside, Dad,” Nate said gently, already shoveling twice the volume the older man had.

Jonathan stood silently for a moment, then adjusted his stocking hat. “Think I’ll stay outside with you for awhile,” he said quietly.

Nate shrugged in agreement, a pang of guilt ripping through him. Who was going to do these things when he left?

“Your...um, your mom mentioned she spoke with you yesterday,” Jonathan began uneasily.

“Uh huh,” Nate answered, shifted his hands on the shovel to redistribute the strain.

“So, I guess you’ll be going...”

Nate stopped shoveling and stood up straight. The running had helped - he was barely winded. “I think so,” he confirmed.

Jonathan looked away briefly. “Good, good. That’s good, son.”

Nate worked his mouth, wishing he could say something to soothe his father’s soul. At a loss, he resumed his shoveling until his mother’s words came back to him. “You know,” he said, tossing a shovel of white stuff to the side. “Max never mentioned anything about books.” From the corner of his eye, he saw Jonathan watching him curiously. “I mean, I know that I can get a job to pay rent and stuff. Maybe I can even get a roommate.” Not that he intended on telling them who he had in mind for that position. “But I’m not sure I can handle all of that and books too.”

“Oh?” Jonathan asked, a tinge of interest in his voice.

Nate stood upright again. “Yeah. It could be tough.” He paused for effect, then said, “You don’t think maybe you could...you know - help me out with that?”

Jonathan couldn’t help the smile that came to his face. “I’m sure I could.”

“I mean, I’ll pay you back, when I get a real job - “

“Nonsense,” his father answered, all business again. “It’s what I want to do.”

Nate grinned. “Okay. Great. Thanks, Dad.”

“No problem.” Jonathan lingered for a few moments longer, then retreated into the warmth of the store, a little more self-assurance in his step.

Nate watched him go and felt a small tug of satisfaction deep inside. His mother had been right - it was a simple thing and yet it had done a world of good.

January turned to February and Nate continued to look at schools. He didn’t phone Max right away to take him up on his offer as he knew that the Evanses needed some time together without the rest of the world invading. In his mind, he imagined what their reunion must have been like - the last time Max had seen his wife, she’d been barely pregnant and still in her usual shape. But now, Liz was very pregnant and had taken on a new shape all together - that shape being round. It must have been like getting to know a brand new person. Then again, Nate imagined that they were parted so often that pregnancy or no, Liz and Max were on a perpetual cycle of re-acquaintance.

On February 13th, the day before Alyssa’s birthday, Nate took her gift to FedEx and had it sent via overnight mail. He wanted to make sure it got there on her birthday - not a day before, not a day after. The man behind the counter must have thought Nate was an idiot because Nate couldn’t keep the grin of anticipation from his face.

And the next day that anticipation was satisfied. While Nate sat behind the counter at his father’s store on a painfully dull Valentine’s Day, his cell phone vibrated silently in his pocket. Putting down the magazine he’d been leafing through, he checked the caller ID window and immediately broke into a wide smile. Before he answered the phone, however, he cleared his throat and tried to summon his best voice of innocence.

“Hello?”

There was nothing on the other end but a long silence, followed by a shuddering sob.

Nate’s eyes grew round, worry rushing through his veins. “Hello? Alyssa, are you okay?”

“Why?” she gasped out.

Nate swallowed. Maybe his gift hadn’t gone over so well... “Why what?”

Alyssa hiccupped a little cry. “Why...do you have to be so wonderful?” And with that, she blubbered - literally blubbered.

Nate’s anxiety washed away as he realized she was simply overcome with emotion. “Happy Birthday, Alyssa,” he said, smiling.

“Th-thank you.” On the other end of the line, she sniffled, then let out another sob.

Nate waited patiently, amused, but there seemed to be no end to the water works. “So,” he said after several minutes of listening to her cry. “Do you...um, like it?”

“I do,” she said, her voice still choked. “It’s absolutely beautiful. And so are you, Nate.” Merely speaking the words brought about a new wave of tears.

Unable to take it any longer, Nate laughed lightly.

“Don’t laugh at me,” she scolded without malice. “I don’t get over-emotional very often and when I do I can’t control it.”

“It’s okay,” he soothed, though he was smirking the entire time he said it. “You take your time. How about if I talk to you for awhile? Maybe I can take your mind off it.”

“We can’t,” she sniffled in disappointment. “Daddy’s coming to pick me up for dinner and he’s the last person I want to catch me doing that.”

Nate’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “I wasn’t talking about...uh, you know. I can’t talk about that, either - I’m at my dad’s store. I thought maybe we could just chat. Maybe you’ll feel better if we do.”

“I don’t feel bad,” she stressed. “I just got your gift and I opened it up and it was so pretty, Nate. It just hit me right in the heart.”

For some reason, he felt a little sting at the back of his eyes as he imagined Alyssa’s reaction to opening the emerald necklace.

“And it wasn’t the fact that it was a pretty necklace, it was that you remembered me and went to the effort to get me something and mail it all of the way here. And then I realized something...”

Nate waited for her to continue and when she didn’t, he gently prompted her. “What did you realize, Alyssa?”

Alyssa sighed heavily, her sobs abating. “I realized that I don’t want to live another day without you, Nate.”

He stared straight ahead into nothingness, stunned at how easily she was willing to reveal her feelings to him.

“And I know it’s corny because it’s Valentine’s Day and all. I wanted to get you something, but I wasn’t really sure how you felt about me.”

Wasn’t really sure how he felt about her?! Nate nearly laughed at that one. Did she think he was willing to have phone sex with just anyone? It was an odd moment of insecurity from an extremely self-confident girl.

“All I know for sure is how I feel about you,” Alyssa said, an underlying tone of vulnerability in her voice.

Nate cleared his throat, his heart suddenly beating noticeably against his ribs. “How, Alyssa?” he asked cautiously. He imagined her on the other end of the line, mustering her courage.

“I think I love you, Nate.” There was a split second of absolute silence, then Alyssa broke into tears again.

Nate blinked, taken off-guard and desperately trying to take control of the situation. “Shhh,” he said softly. “Honey, don’t cry.”

“I can’t help it!” she sobbed into the phone. “I told you - I can’t deal with the emotional overload!”

Nate grinned at the comedy of it all, then decided to push her over the edge entirely. “Well, want me to give you something else to deal with?”

“What?” she gasped.

“I don’t have to think, Alyssa. I know I love you.”

There was another moment of silence on the other end of the phone, then Nate heard what he imagined to be the receiver dropping to the floor and anguished cries on the other end. Biting his lips to keep from laughing, he waited patiently while Alyssa digested his announcement. After a few very long minutes, she picked up the phone, her voice filled with tears.

“Alyssa,” Nate said softy. “Your dad is going to come over to take you out to celebrate your birthday and find you with make up smeared all over your face. He’s not going to take you anywhere looking like that.”

For the first time since she’d called, she coughed a laugh.

“You’re a runny make-up mess, aren’t you?” he teased.

She laughed again and he imagined her running her fingers beneath her eyes to wipe away her tears.

Nate fell serious, his affection growing tenfold for this sweet, brash young woman. “I meant everything I said to you,” he confirmed. “And not because it’s your birthday, and not because it’s Valentine’s Day. Because I really feel that way about you.”

Alyssa sniffled but didn’t break into tears again. “I meant it, too, Nate. And I don’t have to think about it, either. I know.”

Nate smiled, closed his eyes to savor the moment. “That’s great news,” he said. “It’s what I wanted - what I needed to hear.” He brought his hand to his chest without really thinking about it. “You’ve made your way into my heart, Alyssa. And now that you’re there, I don’t want you to leave.”

“You’re in mine, too,” she replied, her words strained and Nate knew the flood was returning.

“Don’t cry,” he repeated gently. “It’s your birthday. I don’t want you crying on your birthday.”

“I’m only crying because I’m happy,” she wheezed.

Nate smiled, his own happiness threatening to water his eyes as well. “You deserve to be happy,” he told her softly. “You deserve to be with your dad tonight, too. So, go get cleaned up - I don’t want you to be late for your dinner. Call me later if you want.”

“Okay,” she said quietly. “Thank you, Nate. The necklace is perfect - I’m never going to take it off.”

“Okay,” he laughed. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Alyssa.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Nate,” she replied, then the phone went dead.

Nate sat staring at his phone for a long moment, then turned it off and stuffed it into his pocket. A plethora of emotions was swirling around inside of his head, all of them accompanied by a euphoric high he hadn’t felt in a very, very long time. She loved him. Alyssa Guerin was in love with him. And better yet - he was finally willing to admit he was in love with her.

It felt entirely different than what he’d felt with Annie. He’d known Annie for so long that he assumed what he felt for her was the epitome of love - but now he knew that while what they’d shared had been special, it was going to pale in comparison to what he and Alyssa had.

When he’d first met Alyssa, when they’d shared their first kiss in that laundromat late that night, she’d told him that she thought there was a special connection between them. Nate had felt something out of the ordinary as well, thought he didn’t understand it at the time. Maybe he still didn’t understand it fully, but he felt that maybe it had to do with finding someone who understood him completely, someone whose soul complimented his own.

And now that he knew what that felt like, he had to wonder if Annie had ever really loved him at all, or if she’d been programmed to make him believe so. There was, however, one thing he knew for sure - Annie had never once cried when he’d told her he loved her.
tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Thirteen

“So, it’s been four hours. Do you still love me?”

Nate smiled against his pillow at the question whispered softly, tentatively in his ear. His room was entirely dark save for the sliver of moonlight that streamed in through his curtains. He’d managed to fall asleep after quelling his elation at being in love again, but the shrill ring of his cell phone had awakened him only a few moments before that question was asked.

“Of course I do,” he answered sincerely. “What would change in four hour’s time?”

“Well,” Alyssa’s voice was soft, a little uncertain. “I was a little bit over emotional when you said it...”

“Doesn’t mean I meant it any less,” Nate clarified. “I do still love you, over-emotionalness and all.” His grin faded away slowly. Sure, during their conversation, he hadn’t been over-emotional, but she had been. His heart plummeted, afraid that maybe she was trying to tell him something. “Uh, I guess I should ask - did you say something you regret now?” He cringed, waiting for her answer.

“What? No!” she giggled. “That’s not what I was getting at. It’s just...”

“It’s just what?”

“Too good to be true?”

Nate smiled again - he knew the feeling. “No, it’s not. We deserve this.” He really believed that - everything about this just felt right. “Um, you know it’s late here...”

“Oh. Do you want me to let you go? Did I wake you?” Alyssa’s voice was full of disappointment and apology.

“No,” he answered playfully. “That’s not the case. I was just thinking...if you want to, um, finish what we started, we could...if you wanted to...I mean, my parents are both in bed and I doubt anyone is going to call at this hour...”

There was a pause. “No, Nate. I don’t want to do that.”

Nate’s eyebrows rose slowly as his erection halted at half-mast. “You don’t?”

“No. Not anymore.”

His brow furrowed. “Okay...um, did I do something wrong?”

“No, it’s not like that.” She sighed, like she was trying for the right words. “It’s different now. All of those things I wanted to hear and wanted to imagine - I want to experience them now instead. I don’t want to know how you sound when you come until you’re lying right beside me.”

Those words did nothing to staunch Nate’s arousal. He closed his eyes, imagining lying naked with her, kissing her in all of the placed he’d ever dreamed of.

“Nate? Are you mad?”

Nate’s eyes popped open and he shook his head. “No, I’m not mad. I really understand that. And I think you’re right. It’s just going to be tough...waiting...”

“Until I’m eighteen?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, that’s part of it.”

“You don’t have to.”

He laughed lightly, in disbelief. “Well, the law says I do.”

“Like I would turn you in,” she laughed.

“You wouldn’t - but your dad might.”

“He can’t.”

Nate’s brow furrowed again. “What do you mean?”

“I’m an emancipated minor, Nate. I’ve been a legal adult since I was sixteen.”

He thought about that, confusion swirling around in his mind. He sort of understood what that meant, but he thought that only kids who wanted to “divorce” their parents took such actions. After deciding he couldn’t understand the reason for it, he asked, “Why?”

“Because of who I am - because of what my father is,” Alyssa said, a hint of regret in her voice. “My dad lives a dangerous life. He might not always be around, if you know what I mean. My only surviving grandparent died two months before I turned sixteen. If something happened to Daddy and then something happened to Mom, I’d be an orphan. In short, I would become a ward of the state, and my dad couldn’t stand to see that happen.”

Nate frowned slightly at the dismal thought. It was somewhat humbling to think that there were people out there who lived this way, always putting themselves in position to deal with the worst-case scenario. It made him appreciate his upbringing all the more.

“So, when the day comes,” Alyssa continued, “you won’t need to worry about going to jail.”

Nate smiled. “That’s a relief.”

“I have some more news,” she announced.

He shifted onto his back and stared up at his dark ceiling. “Okay.”

“I’m going to graduate a year early.”

“You are?” He managed to put just enough surprise in his voice to sound convincing. “That’s great, Alyssa!”

“Yeah, I can’t wait,” she answered, her voice full of pride. “I hate that school. I can’t wait to go away to college.”

In that moment, Nate knew exactly what his path should be. “I’m going, too.”

“You are?” she echoed, equally surprised and happy for him. “Where are you going?”

“Wherever you go.”

There was another pause on the line and Nate wondered if that wasn’t what she wanted. But when she spoke, he realized that couldn’t be farther from the truth. “Would you really do that for me?”

In actuality, there wasn’t much Nate wouldn’t do for her. “Absolutely.” And he’d be doing it for himself as well. “So, where are we going?”

Alyssa laughed. “I’m not sure yet. But I have it narrowed down to a couple of schools.”

“Great. Can you email me the information?”

“Yep.” She let out a soft laugh. “I’m too happy, Nate.”

“Me, too,” he agreed light-heartedly.

“Uh...I think Mom’s home. I should go before she goes ballistic because I’m up and on the phone.”

“Okay.”

“Um...I love you.” She said the words cautiously, like she was still getting used to them.

“And I love you,” he replied, grinning.

After they hung up, Nate knew his chances of getting back to sleep were zilch. So he laid on his back and stared at the ceiling with a stupid smile on his face until the sun came up.

Later that day, he phoned Max to let him know he was going to accept his offer to pay Nate’s tuition.

“That’s great, Nate,” Max said, his tone reserved even though Nate knew he was pleased by that decision. “Wherever you want to go, just let me know.”

“I’m not sure yet,” Nate laughed. “I’m waiting to get some...um, information.”

“From Alyssa?” There was no surprise in Max’s voice.

Nate, however, was more than surprised. “Uh, yeah. How did you know?”

“Because you’re hopeless, Nate. I already told you that.”

Nate laughed, flushing slightly - because he knew Max was right.

“How did she like the necklace?” Max asked, knowing Alyssa’s birthday had been the prior day.

“She cried,” Nate answered in semi-disbelief. “I mean, like really cried. Like someone had run over her puppy.”

Max laughed lightly. “Well, she can be emotional sometimes. But she’s not like that all of the time - you must have hit a tender spot.”

Nate nearly burst with pride at that.

“Sweetheart - what are you doing out of bed?”

Nate recoiled slightly, wondering if Max had gone daft before realizing he was speaking to someone else. Faint, he heard Liz’s repentant voice.

“But I want to talk to Nate, too,” she said quietly.

“Well, go back to bed and I’ll bring the phone in there, okay? Please, baby?” Max said, his voice muffled as though he was holding the phone to his chest.

Worry started creeping through Nate’s body.

“Sorry about that,” Max said clearly into the phone.

“Is everything okay?” Nate asked cautiously.

“Perfect,” Max replied. Nate could hear rustling, like Max was moving about their house.

“Is Liz okay?” Nate asked bluntly.

“She will be.” Max’s next words were spoken to Liz. “Here, lean into me. Good? Are you comfortable?”

“I’m fine,” Liz sighed, then spoke to Nate. “Hi, Nate.” She sounded chipper enough...

“Hi, Liz,” he replied, immediately grinning at the sound of her voice. “Are you okay?”

She sighed again and he could imagine her rolling her eyes. “Yes. I just need to stay in bed for awhile.”

“Awhile?”

“Okay, until the baby is born.”

Nate’s eyebrows shot up. That was three months! Certainly that wasn’t normal.

“I can see you scowling all of the way over here,” Liz scolded lightly. “My blood pressure is up a little bit. That’s all. I feel fine. But they - including Max - are making me lie in bed all day. I’m bored as hell, Nate.”

There was a click as Max picked up another phone. “Don’t worry, Nate,” he said, obviously not suffering from Liz’s sense of claustrophobia. “I’m not going to let anything happen to my girl. She’s going to be okay - and so is the baby.”

“Okay,” Nate said weakly. There was something in Max’s voice, just a hint of uncertainty, that made him uncomfortable.

“Nate wants to go to college, honey,” Max said to Liz, filling her in on the news.

Liz squealed - literally squealed - in Nate’s ear. “Oh, sweetie! That’s great news! Where are you going to go?”

“Wherever Alyssa goes,” Max answered teasingly.

Nate immediately blushed a deep red. It was one thing for Max to tease him about his new girlfriend, but to put Liz in on the joke was going to be painful.

But Liz didn’t rib him too hard. “Ah, that’s sweet.”

“Well, I couldn’t have done it without you,” Nate said bashfully. “Thank you. Very much.”

“Oh,” Liz said, her voice soft and affectionate. “You don’t need to thank us. We wanted to do it.”

“I’m sorry,” he chuckled lightly. “I was raised to be grateful. And I am.”

“Well, in that case - you’re welcome, Nate!” There was a lot of satisfaction in Liz’s tone and it did Nate’s heart good to know that she could look beyond past adversities and be happy about helping him.

“Keep us filled in on the details,” Max said. “Call anytime. Now it’s time for Liz’s nap.”

“Max!” Liz squeaked in irritation.

Nate couldn’t help the smirk that came to his lips - it was possible that Liz was finding out that having Max under foot 24/7 wasn’t what she’d dreamed of. Especially not when he was mobile and she was not.

“Doctor’s orders,” Max replied, end of story. “Take care, Nate.”

Nate said goodbye, then clicked off his cell phone. He was happy to be going away to school. He was happy to have Alyssa Guerin in his life. But a sense of discord was starting to creep in around the edges of his mind, a foreboding of something bad.

And he had the feeling that it involved his baby sister.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Fourteen

Winter months in the east tended to drag out insufferably, especially when the days started to grow longer. Weather through February and March was unpredictable - perhaps sun for eight days straight, perhaps snow for nine. The lake began to thaw, heightening Nate’s anxiety that someone would fall through the ice - the anniversary of that child’s death was looming like an unwelcome house guest in his mind. Because of that tragedy, all of the newspapers and television stations were bringing it up again as a way to remind the public not to venture out onto the lake, that the ice was much thinner than it appeared. Every time Nate heard a newscaster begin with “It was almost a year ago” he cringed.

Despite Nate’s concerns for his new sibling, life at the Evans house seemed to be on an even keel, Liz pretty much frustrated with her prison sentence, Max tripping over himself trying to make her happy and sometimes achieving just the opposite. Nate tried to email them or phone every couple of days, just to let them know he cared about them and to help ease his uneasiness over the arrival of the baby.

Alyssa phoned on a regular basis and she and Nate would talk well into the night. There was so much that they didn’t know about one another, so much territory that had yet to be covered. Nate learned that Maria’s second album was nearing completion and would be on the shelves by June. He also found out that one night Alyssa had been awakened by the sound of her mother giggling in the hallway - and she hadn’t been alone. Of course, this had done nothing but disgust Alyssa - until she’d found Michael’s car in the drive the next morning.

Nate continued to work at his father’s shop, trying to get as much maintenance done as he could before he departed in the fall. He and Alyssa had decided on Boston College and they were only awaiting acceptance. It was a bold move for both of them - Nate would be ten hours from his family and Alyssa would be on the opposite side of the country from hers. But they would also be closer to Max and Liz and to Isabel and her family - and it just so happened that the Ramirezes had a loft for rent above their garage. When Max had informed Nate of that little tidbit with a “Who’d’ve thunk it!” tone to his voice, Nate had immediately realized that 1) there were no coincidences in life and 2) Max Evans sucked as a liar.

February turned to March. Alyssa’s graduation was now a definite thing, but she never pressured Nate to come to her ceremony. He never asked to be invited, either, all the while planning covertly behind her back. He’d made a promise to Max, and he intended on keeping it.

A surprise came on March 15th as Nate turned nineteen - his father turned thirty-eight. They shared the same birthday. That wasn’t a coincidence, either. Obviously, no one knew when Max had truly been born, since he’d hatched from a pod in the form of a six year old human. The courts had assigned him an arbitrary date of March 15th. Nate, having been born in a different galaxy, suffered from the same problem. Not knowing what else to do, Phillip Evans had assigned Nate the same birth date as Max. It was an astounding thing to think that every year when Nate had been celebrating his birthday, somewhere in the world Max had been as well.

When Nate returned home from the shop on the day of his birth, he found a flat, rectangular package waiting for him on the dining room table. Immediately he broke into a grin as he pulled off his coat and dropped his gloves onto the table. He picked up the package, felt its considerable weight, then looked at the return address - Alyssa Guerin, Roswell New Mexico. He touched the brown paper reverently, held it to his nose to see if he could catch her scent - all he smelled was paper. Then he glanced around the house and decided he wanted to open the gift in private.

In his bedroom, he carefully pulled the paper away from the item, found a flat cardboard box inside. He took his time undoing the tape on the box, not wanting to damage anything he might find inside. Once he had the box undone, he lifted the lid to find Alyssa’s gift. It was a scrap book, or a photo album - something along that line. Sliding his fingers into the box, he released the book and laid it on the bed, flipped open the cover.

A ball of emotion immediately twisted in his chest and worked its way to his throat. Tears sprang to the backs of his eyes and he had to struggle to keep them from spilling forward. A letter was adhered to the front page, written in Alyssa’s meticulous handwriting.

Dear Nate,
I thought long and hard about what to give you for your
birthday. I wanted it to be something as special and as
beautiful as what you got me. And then I realized that
YOU are special and beautiful, that the best gift I could
give you was your past - and your future. I hope you like
it.
Love you with all of my heart,
Alyssa

Nate’s fingers were trembling as he reached out and turned the page. The book was filled with photos, outlining a personal history of which Nate had no recollection. The first photos were of Max and Isabel as children - the very first one looked like it was taken outside of an orphanage, with Diane Evans beaming over her two new children. Nate studied Max’s face - at that young age, he seemed so confused, so lost, so worried about everything. Isabel, on the other hand, looked like she was ready to move right in and set up court. Nate laughed at that.

As he flipped through the pages, he saw Max and Isabel maturing until eventually another boy entered the picture - a kid who looked like he’d been kicked one too many times in the ribs. Nate frowned at the anger and bitterness he saw in the boy’s eyes, then he realized that that boy was Michael Guerin, a ward of the state. Suddenly Michael’s strange request that his daughter become an emancipated adult no longer seemed so strange - this boy was a product of the system and he knew what awaited his daughter should she not have the freedom to choose her own path. Nate felt a sense of new-found respect for Michael, even if it was a cautious one.

Eventually Liz came into the picture, and Maria as well. There were other familiar faces - Kyle Valenti, the deputy who had terrorized Nate’s sense of humility in Roswell. But there was a tall, dark-haired boy that he didn’t recognize. Nate liked his face, thought he looked like an honest person, like someone who laughed a lot and forgave even more often. Why hadn’t he met him while he was in Roswell?

Near the back of the album, Nate came across a group picture, taken before a formal dance, perhaps. He surveyed the faces, recognized all of them except the dark-haired boy and a blond girl. Alyssa had stuck a Post-It to the page with an explanation -

The guy beside Aunt Isabel is Alex Whitman.

Nate gulped. Oh, God. This was the man his mother had murdered...

Alyssa’s note continued -

The blond woman is Tess Harding. I’m sorry - I
couldn’t find any other pictures of her. No one
seems to have any.

Nate sat back, stunned, his eyes fixed on the pretty, petite blond in the picture. His mother. He swallowed hard, not really sure how to feel about seeing her for the first time. In the photo, she was smiling. His eyes skimmed over the rest of the people in the group - Tess looked no more evil than anyone else. She just looked like a girl, dressed up to go to a formal. His eyes shifted back to Alex Whitman, then back to his mother and curiosity got the best of him.

Carefully lifting the plastic cover from the picture, he pulled it out and flipped it over. There was a date on the back of it - March 2001. He worked his mouth - from what he’d heard, Alex Whitman had died in March of 2001. And Nate had been conceived shortly thereafter. He flipped the photo over and studied it again, all of those happy, smiling faces. This was the calm before the storm - none of these people had known what was coming their way.

Nate sat for a long time, just staring at the picture, at two people who were now dead, two people who had played an integral part in his existence. Without Tess murdering Alex, there never would have been a wedge driven between Max and Liz, Max would never have slept with Tess. Simply put, Nate lived because Alex died.

Nate wished that Alyssa had never included that picture in the book.

Somewhat angry at himself for feeling that way, he slid the picture behind its protective covering and turned the page. What he saw there made him stop and reconsider. It was another Post-It.

I know what you’re thinking. I debated whether
to let you see or not, but I decided you have a right
to know. It doesn’t matter how you got here, Nate,
only that you’re here....now stop frowning and turn
the page.

Nate smiled in spite of himself and flipped the page. The next four pages were filled with photos of Max and a baby, a child Nate assumed to be him. Nate looked at the pictures in awe, mostly surprised at the proud look in Max’s eyes. They’d only been together two weeks before Nate had been taken away, given to the Spencers. But Max had documented their time together with endless rolls of film, something for which Nate was grateful. He found his mood lifting a bit, the thought that Max had indeed wanted him helping to cut the pain of knowing how he’d come to exist.

There was only one more page to flip and when Nate did, he let out a little laugh and felt himself lose the battle against his tears. The last picture was of Alyssa, professionally taken. She was wearing his emerald necklace and a dark blue sweater. She had also stuck a note on this page. It read:

That was your past. I’m your future.
I love you, sweetheart - Happy Birthday!

Nate gasped a little laugh and touched the note with his fingertips. She thought he was a beautiful, special person - but he paled in comparison to her. Wiping the back of his hand across his eyes to dry them, he reached for his cell phone and hit auto-dial. In a few moments, she picked up, her voice playful.

“Happy birthday, Nate,” she said, sing-song

“You’re unbelievable,” he breathed, refusing to cry. “Thank you so much. How did you do all of this?”

“I had some help. Mrs. Evans, Mrs. Parker, Mom. Do you like it?”

“Oh, honey, I love it.” The bulge returned to Nate’s throat and he had to choke past it.

“Are you by chance crying?” Alyssa teased.

“Nope,” he croaked out. “Not me. Real men don’t cry.”

“Hmm. I see. Then I guess you have a cold or something then because you sound all stuffy.”

“Yeah, that must be it.”

Alyssa snorted. “Okay, Nate. Whatever you say.”

He laughed at the tone to her voice - there was no way she believed him. Reaching out, he touched her photo, ran his fingers down her cheek. “You know which picture I like the best?”

“The one of Uncle Max and Aunt Isabel covered in silly string?”

Nate laughed lightly. “No, not that one.”

“The one of Mom and Daddy dressed up as clowns for Halloween?”

“Not that one either.” Though it was comical to see Michael Guerin with a red ball nose...

“Okay, then. I’ll have to give up. Which one is your favorite?”

Nate smiled gently. “Yours, Alyssa. You will always be my favorite.”

There was a pause, then a strained, “Dammit.”

Nate raised his eyebrows slightly. “You okay?”

Then he heard a sniffle. “Do you see how you are?” she accused, her voice full of tears. “I try to make you cry and look what you do to me! It’s your birthday. You’re supposed to be the one in tears!”

The irony of that made Nate belly laugh.

“And now you’re laughing at me again.” Nate imagined her tossing her hand into the air, throwing in the towel.

“I love you,” he said, a smile in his voice. “I love what you did for me. I love that you cry over things like being told I like your picture the best. I love everything about you, Alyssa.”

“Yeah, me too,” she choked out. “Now I have to go bawl in private, okay? Okay.”

Nate said goodbye to her and then hung up, his heart light and free, unburdened by the real world.

Almost.

March slipped into April and April slid into May. The lake thawed without incident, the trees regained their leaves, the spring flowers bloomed gloriously. All the while Nate silently went about his plans to travel to New Mexico for Alyssa’s graduation.

While reserving his airline ticket online, he suddenly started to feel weak, like he could barely sit up straight. A few moments after that, he found that he could barely breathe, that he was struggling for each breath. Rising to his feet, the room spun and he barely made it to the bed before pitching face-first onto it. Frightened at what might be happening, his heart slammed into his ribs at a terrifying rate, at the same time his body going cold. He didn’t even have the strength to call for help.

Before he could find a way to stop it from happening, he slid into unconsciousness...

The shrill ring of his cell phone awakened him hours later. Strangely, the weakness in his limps, in his lungs, was gone. Trying not to freak out about what had happened, he flipped the phone on, just knowing that it was bad news.

“Nate, it’s Max.” His voice sounded tired and worried.

“What happened?” Nate asked, sitting up quicky.

“The baby has been born.”

Fear ripped through Nate’s body. It was too soon - a month too soon! “Is she okay? Is Liz okay?”

“Liz is fine,” Max said steadily. “She’s pretty worn out - she’s sleeping right now.”

“The baby? How is she?”

Max drew in a breath. “She’s small, Nate. She’s on a ventilator. Her lungs are under-developed. But don’t you worry - nothing is going to happen to her on my watch.” The last sentence was spoken with typical Max determination.

Nate felt the sting of tears in his eyes. “Max, I’m so sorry...”

“Nothing to be sorry about, Nate,” he answered confidently. “I have a new baby girl - that’s nothing to be sorry about.”

“Yeah,” Nate agreed wanly. “Congratulations, Max.”

“Thanks, Nate. Look, I gotta go. I just thought you’d like to know you have a sister.”

“Of course I want to know! Take care, Max.”

After he hung up the phone, Nate stared out the window for a long time. What had happened earlier had not been normal. Lost in thought, his hand went to his chest, remembering the suffocating feeling he’d experienced.

He couldn’t help but think that he’d been there with his new sister, struggling to breathe right along with her.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

No time for comments now - I'll try later!


Part Fifteen

She was so small...

Nate pressed his hand against the window of the nursery, his lips turning downward into a sad frown. On the other side of the glass, the baby lay in an incubator, tubes and wires running here and there, a ironically cheerful pink stocking hat on her tiny head, her feet swimming in booties that would have barely fit Nate’s thumb. A card taped to the end of the bed identified her only as “Baby Girl Evans.”

Not that Nate had needed to ask which baby was his sister. He’d known as soon as he’d rounded the corner which one she was. Again his hand raised to his chest subconsciously, making a short back-and-forth motion there. He could feel her - she was so full of confusion and yet extremely determined to survive. She was fighting, this tiny little warrior. She wanted someone to hold her and make her warm again. She wanted her mother, whom she identified only by her scent and the sound of her voice.

“Are you the father?”

Nate looked up quickly into the smiling face of a female nurse. He shook his head and tried to give her a pleasant smile. “No, ma’am. I’m her brother.”

The nurse raised her eyebrows sharply. Obviously there was a huge generation gap there. “Oh, well, I can’t really let you in to hold her then. I’m sorry.”

“I understand,” he answered quietly. “Is it okay if I just stand here a bit?”

She gave him a look of complete compassion and lightly patted his arm. “Of course you can.” She glanced at the baby. “She’s a fighter, that one. I can tell.”

Nate smiled as he returned his attention to the incubator. “I know.”

He’d driven all night, ten hours straight to this Boston hospital. It was an impulsive thing to do, but after he’d felt the baby’s struggle to survive in his own body, he felt compelled to indulge that impulse. So it had been a full thermos of coffee a couple of Hershey bars at the gas station to help keep him awake and he’d hit the road. He hadn’t even told Max and Liz that he was coming. It was just something he felt he had to do.

“Good Lord,” a tired voice sounded behind him. “You’re a crazy man.”

Nate whirled and found Liz about ten paces away, leaning her weight against one of the hallway walls. She was wearing a polka-dotted hospital gown, a blue robe and a pair of house slippers. Her hair was shiny and freshly washed, but her skin was pale, her dark eyes seeming to float in the whiteness. Nate went to her immediately, took her by the arm.

He wanted to ask her what she was doing up, but then he realized he sounded too much like Max and was sure Liz wouldn’t appreciate that, not after Max’s months of clucking after her like a mother hen. “Liz, you okay? Do you need a wheelchair or something?”

She smiled weakly at him. “I’m okay. They said walking will help. I just...don’t move very quickly.”

“Then we’ll take our time,” he said, trying to be cheerful. Despite her outwardly relaxed demeanor, he could feel the anxiety coming off her in waves.

They shuffled along together, Nate trying to remember that he was a good foot taller than her and that one of his steps equaled two of hers. Against him, her body trembled with the exertion of walking toward the window.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, more or less just to fill the dead air space. He already knew how she must feel.

“Tired,” Liz sighed, her speech thick and Nate had to wonder what pain medications were swirling through her body.

“Is Max here?”

She shook her head. “He’d been up for two days straight - he went home to shower and to try to get some sleep.” She gave a small laugh. “But I know Max - he won’t sleep until we’re home.”

Nate smiled gently at her. She was probably very right on that one. They stopped before the window and Liz let go of his arm, rested her hands on the sill. In her eyes, Nate saw so much love that he feared she might burst right before him.

“She’s beautiful,” he said softly, wondered why he wanted to cry.

Liz nodded. “Thank you.”

“Does she have a name?”

“Emily Marie,” she said, blinking slowly.

Nate nodded his head. “I like that.”

She studied the tiny girl for a few long moments, then shook her head slowly. “She’s a miracle, Nate.”

He watched her silently, caught up in her expression, which was full of love, pride, fear and despair. It was astounding that someone could express all of those things at once.

“She shouldn’t be,” Liz continued. “She wasn’t meant to be. I tried for twenty years to make sure she didn’t happen. And she did anyway.” There was no resentment in her tone, only disbelief that her best-laid plans had been thwarted by such a small creature. “And now look at her.” Liz worked her mouth, tears leaping to her eyes. “Look how pretty she is and I did all I could to prevent her from being.”

Nate felt a lump form in his throat and put an arm around her shoulders in support. “But she’s here now. I think you might be wrong - I think she was meant to be, Liz.” A jolt ran through him as he realized that’s what Alyssa had been trying to tell him - it didn’t matter that he’d been born of deception, it only mattered that he had been born.

“Do you believe that?” she asked, her voice quiet and choked.

“Mmm hmm,” he said, rubbing her shoulder gently. “I think that everything happens for a reason. I think she happened for a reason.”

Liz looked up at him, having to crane her neck to see his face. Her eyes, normally sparkling with life, were dull and glassy with the effects of the narcotics she’d been given - she wasn’t altogether there at this moment.

“She can’t even cry,” Liz said, her voice choking on the last word. Nate gave her a reassuring squeeze as she looked at her baby once again. “How can she even tell us what she needs if she can’t cry?”

“She wants you,” he said quietly. “She doesn’t understand where she is or what’s happening to her. She wants you to comfort her - she needs her mom.”

Liz’s bottom lip trembled and her eyes welled up again. “You can feel that, can’t you?”

Nate nodded silently, her tears making his eyes sting. “Go hold her, Liz.”

Wiping her eyes, Liz reached out and pushed the buzzer for the nurse to let her in. She looked over her shoulder at Nate, who gave her a reassuring smile, then slid through the door, her steps still slow and measured.

Nate watched through the window as the nurse showed Liz where to sit. Then she removed the baby from the incubator, wrapped her up tightly in a blanket and handed her to Liz. A rush of peace, a sense of security washed through him and it was in that moment that he lost the battle with his tears. He let them run openly down his cheeks as he watched Liz awkwardly adjust the baby a few times, then find the exact place where holding her felt right. As Liz smiled, Nate smiled.

It was one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen.

Later, Nate sat in the chair in Liz’s room and watched her sleep. She’d held the baby for about an hour, and then he’d helped her back to her room. She’d been exhausted, refusing to eat any of her dinner, and had fallen asleep almost immediately. She slept soundlessly, dead to the world, and Nate felt a stab of sympathy for her. It was apparent that she hadn’t planned on being a mother, hadn’t planned on being alone most of the time while raising Max’s child. But this was the hand she’d been dealt...and maybe she was finding out that it wasn’t such a bad thing.

Nate had seen her face as she’d rocked that baby. An army of fifty thousand couldn’t wrench that child from her arms. She’d kissed her head, snuggled her against her body, frowned to no end when the nurse advised it was best to put the infant back in the incubator. One would have thought that she’d just been told she’d lost the state science fair by a tenth of a point. No, maybe Liz hadn’t planned on being a mother - but she was definitely already falling into the role.

Nate looked up as he saw a shadow pass the door. Max was there, a massive bouquet of white roses across his arm. For one ludicrous, sleep-deprived moment, Nate thought he looked like he’d just been crowned Miss Universe; immediately, he snorted a giggle.

Max raised an eyebrow, probably curious as to what was funny and why his son was in Boston. His eyes shifted to Liz and he smiled softly. Trying to not make a sound, he laid the flowers on her tray and then motioned for Nate to follow him.

Out in the hallway, Max gave Nate a quick hug and a thump on the back. “God, it’s great to see you, Nate!”

“Same here,” Nate said, a little bashful at Max’s public display of affection. He held out his hand for Max to shake. “Congratulations, Pops.”

Max’s grin stretched from ear to ear as he shook his hand. “Thanks, Nate. Did you see her?”

Nate nodded and gave him a grin. “I did. She’s beautiful, Max.”

Max’s grin spread even wider. “I thought so, too.” There would be no humility as far as Baby Girl Evans was concerned. Pointing toward the elevators, he asked, “Could you use some coffee?”

Nate nodded. More than Max could know. Then again, Max looked like he’d skipped the nap - as Liz had predicted.

Two generations of Evanses piled into the elevator and the doors slid shut behind them, Max pushing the button for the ground floor.

“Is Liz going to be okay?” Nate asked. “She didn’t look so good.”

Max nodded, a brief flash of worry clouding his eyes. “She lost a lot of blood, but I think she’ll be okay. Liz will heal faster than other women.”

The elevator came to a stop on the ground floor and the two men headed for the cafeteria. They fixed their cups at the coffee counter, then went to the register to pay. The cashier saw the identification band on Max’s wrist and gave him a huge smile.

“Congratulations, Papa,” she said as she handed him his change.

He gave her a smile. “Thanks.”

Max and Nate took seats in a corner of the cafeteria, by some windows. Max let out a tired groan as he sank to his chair.

“You look popped,” he said to Nate. “Did you drive straight through?”

Nate shrugged. “It’s only ten hours. Besides, I felt like I should be here.”

“You’re always welcome here,” Max reiterated. “You know that.”

Nate nodded, thanking him with a small smile. “What time was she born?” he asked.

“Three twenty seven,” Max answered, sipping his coffee.

Nate breathed a disbelieving laugh. “Max, around that same time, I felt something strange. Like I couldn’t breathe, like I was suffocating.”

To Nate’s surprise, Max’s reaction was decidedly passive. He leaned on his fist and listened silently while Nate told his story.

“I felt so weak - I couldn’t even call for help. Then I passed out. I woke up when you called.”

“Huh,” Max said, taking another sip of his drink.

Nate waited, found that he wasn’t getting the hysterical reaction he’d anticipated. Maybe Max was so sleep-deprived that he was failing to see the connection or the freakiness of the situation.

But Max sighed and reached for a sugar packet. “I felt you when you were born.”

Nate’s eyebrows jumped to his hairline. “You did? But wasn’t I on...” He glanced around to make sure they were alone. “A trip?”

Max nodded, shook the packet in his hand. “Yep. I knew as soon as you’d come into the world - you called out to me for help.”

“I did?” Nate had the feeling his eyebrows would never rejoin the rest of his face.

Max nodded, his gaze falling to the table. “I passed out cold. Unfortunately, I was swimming at the time. If it weren’t for Liz, I would have drowned.”

Nate paled, the thoughts of being responsible for yet another drowning too much to bear.

Max drew in a long breath and Nate got the impression his exhaustion was starting to catch up with him. “I’m not really surprised that you felt when Emily was born. When we were born - me and Michael and Isabel - we could all feel one another. I can still remember just knowing that there were others. We couldn’t talk, but we knew what the other was feeling, what they were thinking. It was a great comfort. It felt like I wasn’t so alone.” He eyes softened. “And I know now that Emily wasn’t alone, either. I’m glad for that, Nate.”

Nate felt a little burst of pride, though he wasn’t sure why. “Did you feel her?”

Max nodded. “I did. But I think it’s important that you felt her as well.”

“Why?” Nate asked curiously.

Max’s smile was a little devilish. “Because I think maybe your powers are developing.”

Nate withdrew, failing to keep himself from grimacing, which prompted Max to laugh.

“It was going to happen sooner or later, Junior,” he joked.

Nate pushed thoughts of that to the back of his mind - he didn’t want to deal with that now. “Can you still feel her?”

Max shook his head. “No.” His eyebrows drew together slightly. “Can you?”

Nate nodded silently.

Max looked momentarily surprised, then smiled easily. “Good. I think it will fade in time, but for now she must need something to hold onto. She’s chosen you.”

There was no mistaking the burst of pride now. Nate barely had time to relish it when Max’s gaze drifted over his shoulder and he laughed lightly.

“Ut oh,” Max said.

“What?” Nate asked, almost afraid to turn around.

“I think Hurricane Deluca just rolled into town.”
tbc

[Midwest Max]

Hey everyone! ::Wave:: Sorry I missed a day Damned RL I'll try to answer comments/questions later


Part Sixteen

Nate whirled around so quickly that he nearly spun his body onto the floor. After all - where there was a Deluca, a Guerin was sure to follow. He spied Maria standing in the doorway to the cafeteria, looking like the successful woman she was. As Nate had noted when he first saw her in Roswell, it wasn’t her clothes or her expensive shoes - it was simply the way she carried herself. This woman had busted balls in her life - and she wasn’t afraid to do it again if she had to.

Maria’s eyes settled on Max and she quickly crossed the cafeteria. As she neared the table, Max stood and held his arms out for her. She stepped into his embrace, giving him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. Nate rose politely, but his eyes kept traveling back to the door.

“Hey, Max,” Maria said as she pulled away, rubbing lipstick from his cheek with her thumb.

“Hi, Maria,” he replied. “Good of you to come.”

She turned to look at Nate, who glanced away shyly.

“Ma’am,” he said quietly, suddenly embarrassed of all of the dirty things he’d imagined doing to this woman’s daughter, like she could tell that just by looking at him.

“Hello, Nate,” she said, a tone of I-know-what-you’ve-been-up-to in her voice.

“Sit,” Max said, pulling out a chair for her.

“I don’t want to sit,” she protested, pouting slightly. “I want to see Lizzie.”

“She’s asleep,” Max explained. “Have a seat. We’ll catch up and then we can go up and see if she’s awake.”

Maria relented and took a seat adjacent to both of the men. Nate found it really hard to look at her for fear of her scrutiny and he also found it impossible to keep from looking at the door, waiting for Alyssa to enter. In fact, his palms had gone sweaty and his heart was starting to beat a little quicker, just anticipating that she could be here, in the same city, the same state, even the same time zone.

“How is she?” Maria asked. A couple of people walking past her nearly fell over themselves gawking at her, but she didn’t appear to notice.

“She’s okay,” Max said, punctuating with a reassuring smile. “She’ll be okay. They’ll both be okay.”

“So what’s her name?”

“Emily Marie.”

Maria wrinkled her nose. “You didn’t name her after me?”

Max shrugged unapologetically. “Isn’t Marie close enough to Maria?”

“No. Christ.” Maria let out a laugh just when Nate thought she was seriously affronted by that. “Give me the details.”

Nate looked to the door again. Maybe Maria was queen enough to make Alyssa park the car?

“She’s eighteen inches long, five and half pounds,” Max said proudly.

“Five and a half pounds?” Maria asked, looking a little sick.

Max reached over and put a hand over hers. “She’s big enough, Maria. Don’t worry.”

Maria pulled her hand away from his. “I’m not worried, Max. I just find it horribly unfair that I had to pass an eight and a half pound bowling ball and Liz got to squirt out five and a half pounds.”

Max laughed while Nate blushed at the unromantic, blunt way with which Maria described Alyssa’s birth. Speaking of Alyssa, he just knew she’d walk through that door any minute -

“For Christ’s sake, kid, she’s not here.”

Nate jumped, startled, and turned to see Maria looking directly at him. His ears immediately turned red.

“She’s got school to finish,” Maria said bluntly. “So keep it in your pants for now.”

Nate looked down into his lap, duly admonished. From the corner of his eye, he saw Max cock his head and give Maria a look that Nate read easily - take it easy on him.

Maria sighed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “I’m sorry, Nate,” she said guiltily. “I hate flying and it was a long trip and I’m worried about Liz and I’m just cranky. That was rude of me.”

“It’s okay, Ma’am,” he said softly, still not raising his head.

“Let me make it up to you,” she said, abruptly snatching her purse and popping it open.

Nate watched her curiously while she rummaged, then pulled out an envelope.

“Here’s a consolation prize,” she announced, handing it to him. “Don’t ask me how she knew you’d be here.”

Nate perked up immediately and took the letter from Maria’s hand. On the front, he saw his name written in Alyssa’s delicate handwriting and his spirits immediately lifted. From that point on, he heard nothing that Max and Maria said. Trying to keep his fingers from shaking, he broke the seal on the envelope and pulled out a slip of lavender paper. As he unfolded it, a ghost of her fragrance drifted to his nose and he thought he’d died and gone to heaven.

Dear Nate,
Congratulations on your new baby sister! I wish I could be
there but Atilla the Pop Star is making me stay at home and
study. She claims she knows what it’s like to be my age and
in love, but I’m doubting it. Anyway, kiss your sister for me
and tell Uncle Max and Aunt Liz I said hi. I knew you’d go
to them - I knew you couldn’t stay away. And that’s one of
the reasons I love you.
With all of my heart,
Alyssa

Nate re-read the words many times, especially the part where she said she loved him with all of her heart. He would never get tired of hearing that from her. Not even after the ten millionth time.

“Nate? Are you coming?”

Nate looked up and found that Maria and Max had both stood up, that it was Max who had spoken to him. Blushing a light red, he folded the letter and stuck it in the envelope, slid it in his jacket pocket and followed them. Of course, he hadn’t been listening to them, so they could be leading him off the end of a pier for all he knew...

But they were only heading for the nursery. As they stood shoulder to shoulder outside of the window, Nate was relieved to see that in that short amount of time, the ventilator had been removed from Baby Girl Evans. Apparently Liz wasn’t the only one who was going to heal quickly. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his sister, found that making a connection with her wasn’t as immediate as it had been before and Nate had to wonder if maybe Max was right - his ability to feel his sister was going to fade with time. For now, Emily was content, a little less frightened now that she was breathing for herself.

“Oh, God, Max,” Maria breathed, her hand going to her necklace and toying with it. “She’s so tiny.”

“Yeah,” Max said quietly. “She is. But she’s a fighter.”

Maria gave him a sideways grin. “She’s an Evans.”

Max laughed lightly, then buzzed for the nurse to let him in. He showed her his ID band, then she took him to the rocker where he could sit to hold his daughter. Nate and Maria watched silently while Max laid a tender kiss on the baby’s head, then began the motion of the rocker.

It wasn’t until several minutes later that Nate realized he was alone with Maria, with one of Alyssa’s over-protective parents. He suddenly felt very, very uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure what to say to her, and even if he did speak, was he going to say something entirely inappropriate?

“Where’s Liz?” she asked, abruptly turning to him.

Nate withdrew involuntarily, stabbed by her piercing green eyes. “Down there,” he said, pointing over his shoulder.

“Let’s go. They’re not going to let us hold the baby, and there’s not much point in standing here watching Max do so.” With that, she brushed past Nate and marched down the hallway, her shoes making loud clacking noises in the relative silence.

He followed her like an obedient puppy. He didn’t remember Maria being so terse when he’d met her in Roswell, and he had to wonder if something bad had happened there. Naturally, he’s thoughts turned to Alyssa and what “something bad” might mean to her.

But when they got to Liz’s room, Nate saw that Maria’s unapproachable demeanor was due to flat-out worry. Liz was awake, her cheeks holding a little more color than they had when Nate had first seen her, and as soon as Maria saw her, she practically broke into a run for her friend. They collided in a tight embrace and Maria burst into tears. Nate stood in the doorway, dumbfounded.

“Sh, it’s okay,” Liz laughed lightly, her own eyes tearing up. “I’m okay, Maria.” Then she scooted over and Maria climbed onto the bed with her.

Nate watched silently while they wrapped their arms around one another, friends for longer than he’d even been breathing. He imagined they’d always been this way - holding one another and crying over some guy that had broke their hearts, or perhaps over the injustices of being a member of an exclusive and potential fatal club. When Liz had found out about Tess Harding and the baby that would some day be Nate Spencer, had she crawled into Maria’s arms and cried like they were crying now? It was a humbling and shaming thought.

Nate backed into the hallway and closed the door on them. They deserved privacy, these best friends. He stood in the hall for a long time, then drew in a weary breath and made his way back to the nursery. When he got there, he saw that while rocking his daughter, Max Evans had finally managed to fall asleep despite the constant noises of Neonatal Intensive Care. Nate had to smile at the picture - mighty alien king and tiny premature baby girl. A paradox of monumental proportions.

“Hey there.”

Nate jumped, having been snuck up on, and whirled to see his Aunt Isabel standing beside him, her gaze fixed on her brother, a little smile on her face. He’d forgotten how breathtakingly beautiful she was...then again, the last time he remembered seeing her, she’d been disposing of FBI agents with her bare hands. Her long blond hair was pulled into a braid, which hung mid-way down her back and she was wearing red lipstick that matched her sweater perfectly.

“I thought I felt a, um, family member near here,” she laughed lightly, turning to him and wrapping him in her arms, squeezing him tightly.

He’d also forgotten how tall she was.

When Isabel pulled back, she looked into his eyes, hers full of affection and acceptance, then stepped to the side and motioned behind her. “This is Jesse Ramirez, my husband.”

Nate’s eyes shifted to the man, who was graying slightly at the temples - he guessed that Jesse was several years older than his wife. A Latino man, he was dressed in an unbelievably expensive suit but had an air of complete humility about him. Nate liked him immediately. Together, Isabel and Jesse were an incredibly beautiful, striking couple.

“Good to meet you,” Jesse said, extending his hand in greeting and smiling.

“Likewise,” Nate smiled, taking his hand. Another relative, another face with a name.

“When did you get in?” Isabel asked, looking back to her brother.

Nate glanced at his watch. “A couple of hours ago, maybe.”

“Did you drive?”

Nate nodded. “Yeah.”

Isabel raised an eyebrow, looked at him in mild surprise. “Yeah? Jesse and I have been to western New York before, Nate - it’s not a quick trip. You didn’t sleep at all last night, did you?”

Nate shook his head sheepishly.

Then she broke into a wide, Covergirl smile and looped her arm through his. “Then you’ll come home with us.”

“Oh, I couldn’t,” he said, starting to retreat.

“Nonsense,” she said easily, refusing to let go of his arm. “I never did get the opportunity to know you very well, Nate. Not with other things that were going on at the time. Max will sleep in that chair until they kick him out, then he’s going to want to be with Liz - and I suspect Maria is here as well.”

Nate nodded mutely.

“Then you’ll come home with us. We’ll get some dinner and I’ll show you where you’ll be staying next fall. Then you can rest.”

He looked at her warily, afraid of infringing on their hospitality.

Isabel heaved an exaggerated sigh and looked over her shoulder at Jesse. “Well, dear. Go get the car - it looks like we’re going to have to abduct him.”

Startled, Nate glanced at Jesse.

“Okay, I’ll open the trunk,” Jesse said casually, turning on one heel and removing his keys from his suit pocket.

“Okay, okay,” Nate laughed. “I’ll go willingly.”

“Thank God,” Isabel said as she tugged him down the hallway. “I didn’t want to have to get out the anal probe.”

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Seventeen

As they rode toward Jesse and Isabel’s home, Nate sat in the back seat in complete awe of Jesse’s car. The seats were real leather and Nate had practically been swallowed up by them when he’d sat down. On top of it, the car rode like it was gliding on air and even though Jesse was hauling some relative ass, Nate couldn’t hear one whistle of wind noise. It was a hell of a lot different than cars he’d ever owned, that was for sure. He didn’t know just what it was that Jesse did, but it had to pay well - really well.

When he’d finished inspecting the car, he took to examining his captors instead. Though Isabel and Jesse didn’t drip with the same ooey-gooey, heart-on-the-sleeve adoration that Max and Liz did, it was apparent that they cared a lot about one another. From the bits and pieces Nate had gathered - and with the help of Alyssa’s photo album - he figured that the Ramirezes had been married the longest of any of the alien/human couples and they still seemed very fond of one another. At least they didn’t fight like Maria and Michael did.

“Where are we going?” Nate asked, not worried but curious nonetheless.

Isabel turned in her seat to address him. “Well, we figured we’d whisk you out to the woods, strip you of your clothing, drill holes in your molars and then stick you aboard the mother ship.”

Behind the wheel, Jesse snorted a laugh.

Nate cocked his head and blinked a couple of times to let her know he wasn’t buying it.

“Cape Cod,” she answered with a grin, turning back around.

Cape Cod? Jesse Ramirez was doing well by himself indeed.

“Were the boys home when you left to pick me up?” Isabel asked Jesse.

He nodded.

That’s right - Isabel had kids. A bunch of them. Nate dug back in his memory, recalled the picture he’d seen atop the Evans’ mantle. His brow furrowed, trying to remember if they were all boys. If they were, then that meant that until Emily’s recent arrival, Alyssa had been the one and only female offspring. She’d spent her life surrounded by boys. No wonder she was so blunt and aggressive.

Isabel turned in her seat again. “Do you like seafood?”

Nate nodded.

“I picked up some fresh crab at the market today. I think I’ll make that for dinner.”

He nodded again, gave her a smile of thanks. Fresh crab. Now there was something you’d never find in a grocery store in Chautauqua.

When the car pulled into the drive, Nate’s mouth dropped open. The house seemed to sprawl forever, the garage over which Nate would live was bigger than the Spencer’s entire house. Jesse pulled around the circle drive and stopped before the front door to disperse his passengers. Before Isabel got out, he took a lock of her hair between his fingers and she smiled at him.

“I’ll be right back,” he promised, giving her a grin, his teeth white and perfect. She grinned back, practically squirming in her seat.

Nate blinked. Maybe he’d been wrong - maybe Jesse and Isabel could be as bad as Max and Liz.

As Jesse pulled away, Isabel gave a contented sigh and motioned for Nate to follow her.

“Welcome,” she said, pulling open the front door, which Nate was sure was made of solid oak.

Inside, his gaze traveled up and up and up to the high foyer ceiling, his eyebrows rising and his jaw falling. Isabel laughed lightly and took him by the arm.

“Come on, this way,” she said, tugging him through the foyer and into the house.

Nate tried not to gawk, but it was hard, considering the sheer expense and beauty of the house. They stopped at the doorway to a family room, which sported a huge TV at one end and an even bigger fireplace at the other. Before the TV, two boys sat transfixed, their expressions nearly identical. In fact, everything about them was nearly identical. Nate had always thought that identical twins were spooky - but part-alien/part-human, half-Latino/half-Covergirl twins had to take the cake. Nate guessed them to be about fourteen years of age.

“Jason and Justin,” Isabel called. “Say hello to your cousin Nate.”

The boys looked up at the same time and said, “Hello” in perfect unison, then returned to their show, neither impressed nor put out by Nate’s arrival. Isabel sighed and shook her head.

“They’re not the most social sometimes,” she said to Nate, not really caring if they overheard or not. “Jason, Justin. Where is Jeremy?”

The twins shrugged simultaneously.

Isabel waited a beat, then motioned for Nate to follow her into the kitchen. “Jeremy is our oldest. He’s sixteen. He breezes in an out of this place like it’s a friggin’ hotel.” She paused before the huge stainless steel refrigerator, her hand on the handle. “Then again, I was like that when I was his age, so I guess I don’t have room to criticize.” She winked at Nate and set about preparing for dinner.

After being extended an invitation, Nate slid onto one of the stools at the counter to keep her company while she cooked. He heard Jesse enter the house and a more enthused greeting from the twins followed. He felt a tug of sympathy for her, realizing that she was surrounded by boys - two of whom apparently preferred their father’s company.

“Do you like wine?” Jesse asked, appearing at Nate’s side as he undid his cufflinks.

Nate nodded. He did like wine - even though he wasn’t nearly old enough to drink it.

Jesse smiled. “Excellent! I never have anyone to drink with. The wife can’t hold her liquor.” He tossed her a wink when she glanced over her shoulder.

As Jesse disappeared into the basement to get a bottle, Nate looked questioningly at Isabel. She laughed lightly.

“Alcohol does bad things to us,” she explained, filling a large stock pot with water. “We found that out the hard way.”

Nate wrinkled his nose. That couldn’t be good.

“Max found out, actually,” she said, placing the pot on the stove.

“How’s that?”

“Oh, he got lit up like a Christmas tree with Kyle Valenti one night - from one sip.”

Nate’s eyebrows shot up in disbelief and he laughed. “No kidding!”

“Honest to God.” She grinned, remembering the event. “Wasn’t funny at the time. He went on an irresponsible rampage through Roswell, doing all kinds of dopey things to prove he loved Liz Parker.”

Nate chuckled, enthralled by tales from Max’s past. “There wasn’t a Mariachi band involved, was there?”

Isabel stopped what she was doing and glanced at him, probably wondering how he knew about that, then shook her head. “No, not that night. A few months later, though. For someone who wanted to be inconspicuous, he used to have a knack for bringing attention to himself by doing the most dumbass things.” She laughed lightly. “God bless him.”

Nate imagined Max being quiet and easily embarrassed and just not being able to control his drive to obtain Liz’s affections. It was sweet, really.

Jesse returned with the bottle of wine, popped the cork and poured two glasses. He retrieved a third glass for his wife and poured something non-alcoholic into it. Then he raised his glass.

“To new baby girls,” he said, grinning.

“To new Evanses,” Isabel added.

“To new sisters,” Nate chimed in and they all touched glasses and took a sip.

Isabel cooked for over an hour while Jesse and Nate sat in the kitchen to keep her company, getting to know one another. Jesse, it seemed, had made partner at an obscenely young age with a Boston law firm. Isabel owned a dress shop, where she spent most of her days while the kids were in school. They’d met at a Fourth of July picnic when Jesse had worked for Philip Evans and had immediately fallen for one another. They’d married shortly after.

Without Jesse knowing the secret.

Nate looked to Isabel in surprise and she hung her head slightly, obviously still ashamed of her actions.

“But in the end, it didn’t matter,” Jesse said, pouring himself a third glass of wine and going over to put his arm around his wife. “Because I love her no matter what she’s made of.”

Isabel gave him a tender smile. “You’re getting drunk, honey.”

He shrugged and planted a kiss on her cheek. “It is what it is.”

Nate smiled at them, at how easily they got along despite past deceptions.

The twins managed to pull themselves away from the television long enough to come to the dinner table. They sat across from Nate and simply stared at him, unblinking, like two cats studying their prey. Several times Nate cleared his throat and sipped his water, but they didn’t take the hint until well after Isabel had brought the meal to the table.

Jeremy never did appear.

After dinner, Nate insisted on helping with the clean up even though he was dead tired. He and Jesse did the dishes while Isabel packed up the left overs and put them in the refrigerator. With a full belly and a glass of wine in his blood, Nate was nearly ready to crash.

“Why don’t I show you where you’ll be staying?” Isabel said, drying her hands on a towel.

Nate nodded and followed her outside and toward the four-car garage that sat behind the house rather than attached to it. Using her powers instead of a key, she opened the door and then turned on a light that illuminated a long staircase.

“I think you’ll like it,” she said over her shoulder as she mounted the stairs. “It’s got a lot of space and -“

Her words cut off in her throat as she reached the top step. As Nate pulled up beside her, he heard a lot of scuffling and then a resounding, “Oh! Shit!”

Before them, a young man Nate assumed to be Jeremy was sprawled out mostly naked on the couch, a rather embarrassed-looking young girl clutching a sheet to her chest beside him. Isabel looked like someone had smacked her across the face - hard. The boy’s eyes shifted helplessly from her to Nate.

It could have been the lack of sleep. It could have been thoughts of being found by Maria on the couch with Alyssa, but whatever it was, Nate snorted a laugh, causing the boy to flush a deep red and look at the floor.

“Jeremy,” Isabel finally said, her voice strained. “This is your cousin Nate. From New York.”

Jeremy met Nate’s eyes briefly, then his gaze flitted away again. “Hi.”

“Nice to meet you,” Nate said, wanting to burst out laughing at the poor kid’s predicament.

“This is, um, Mandy,” he stammered.

The girl didn’t move, her eyes fixed on her bare feet.

“Mandy,” Isabel said. “Nice to meet you. Under my roof. Without any clothes on.”

The girl cringed.

Nate tapped Isabel’s arm. “Why don’t we go downstairs and let them get dressed? We can come back later.”

After a few moments and a long hard stare at her son, Isabel agreed and followed Nate down the steps. Once outside, he lost all control, finally howling with laughter. He was sure the others could hear him, but he was simply too weary to care. Isabel stood with her arms wrapped around herself for a long moment, obviously furious, but Nate’s laughter was infectious and finally she covered her face with her hand and snorted a laugh.

“That fucking kid,” she moaned. “I swear to God I’m going to get him neutered.”

A few moments later, the door to the apartment swung open and Mandy and Jeremy scuttled past, their gazes downcast. Isabel only held her parental “shame on you” face until they were past her, then she had to fight to keep the grin from her lips as they crammed themselves into Jeremy’s car. After they disappeared, probably afraid for their lives, Isabel took Nate by the hand.

“Come on,” she said. “I’ll put you in the guest bedroom. I’m not making anyone sleep up there until that place has been sterilized.”

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Eighteen

The next day, Nate finally got a look at his new apartment. It was essentially a loft that ran the length of the garage, with a small room cordoned off at the back to create the bathroom. It reminded him of his attic room at his parents’ house, only much, much larger.

“What’s the rent going to be?” he asked Isabel as he turned his head this way and that, checking out the possibilities of decorating it to make it his own. He had a sinking feeling that he’d never be able to afford the rent on Cape Cod. When his aunt didn’t reply immediately, he turned to her and raised an eyebrow, waiting.

“Not much,” she said, tucking a strand of long blond hair behind her ear.

Nate worked his mouth. “Ballpark figure?”

Finally, she blew out a sigh of resignation and tossed her hands in the air. “Okay, okay. Jesse and I weren’t going to charge you.”

Nate immediately recoiled. “Thank you, but I can’t accept that. I believe in making my own way.”

Isabel’s expression clearly read that she understood that, but still had a problem taking his money. “Look, Nate, it’s not like we need the money. And this space is just here, not being used for anything.”

At that, Nate failed in suppressing his snort of a chuckle. He thought just maybe the loft was being used more regularly and for more activity than Isabel wanted to know.

“Okay, so maybe my oldest has been frequenting the place,” she relented. “But as far as I know that’s all it’s been used for. Come on, Nate - let us help you out.”

While she understood his position, he also understood hers. It was time to compromise. “If you won’t take money, then we need to barter.”

She laughed lightly, surprised. “Barter?”

He nodded. “Yep. You provide living quarters - I provide a service of some kind.”

She looked dumbfounded. “Like what?”

“Mow the lawn?”

“We have a landscaping service for that.”

“Shovel the walks?”

“Same landscaping service for that.”

“Clean the house?”

“Maid.”

“Wash the cars?”

“The boys do that for their allowance.”

Nate stopped, his lips pursed and his head cocked to the side. “Do I really need to volunteer to work in your dress shop?”

Isabel burst out laughing, then put her arms around him and gave him a quick hug. “God, you are so adorable,” she chuckled as she released him.

His cheeks turned pink and he looked away shyly.

“Okay,” she finally sighed. “I’ll let you walk my dog.”

His eyebrows drew together. “You have a dog?”

She shook her head. “No, but if I ever get one, I’ll let you walk it.” With that, she winked at him and descended the stairs, victorious.

Still a little uncomfortable about sponging off his new-found relatives, Nate took one last glance around the apartment - and wondered if it was big enough for two.

The next day, Philip and Diane Evans arrived on the East Coast, eager to meet their new granddaughter. As it was, Emily was healing by leaps and bounds, to the point where the doctors speculated that Liz’s due date had been grossly miscalculated and the baby was actually later-term than they had first guessed. Of course, everyone else knew the truth - she was a special child who would always heal faster than she should.

So would her mother. Liz was released from the hospital that day, but stayed there in order to feed her baby, who was now able to eat without the hindrance of so many tubes. That same day, the Parkers arrived from Roswell and all talk of alien business ceased abruptly. Nate was amazed that these people slipped in and out of caution without ever slipping up.

With so many people in town, he decided that it was time for him to move on and let the grandparents spend time with the new arrival. Max pleaded with him to stay, but Nate knew that it was the right thing to do. The time would come, in the fall, when he would be a permanent resident of Boston and they would have plenty of time to be together. As long as Max wasn’t sent away on family business again, that was.

Nate packed his bag, passed a skittish Jeremy in the hallway, thought about saying goodbye to the TV-bound twins but ultimately decided not to disturb them, then found Isabel waiting for him outside. His truck was parked in the circle in front of the house, cleaned out and washed by his cousins, looking to earn a little extra in the allowance payment that week. Isabel grinned and pulled him in to give him a tight hug.

As Nate indulged her need to display affection, he thought back on the first time he met her. That night, scared and tired and hungry, he’d seen her as not much more than an abductor of his girlfriend, something dangerous and deadly who would pluck an innocent girl from safety and toss her mercilessly onto a dirty cave floor. Isabel had frightened the hell out of him that night and he wasn’t sure he’d ever want to get to know her.

But now, standing before this beautiful home on a sunny afternoon, Nate realized that she was a person of immense devotion to those she loved. She was kind and gentle and a true caretaker of people who were special to her. And if anyone ever happened to tread into territory that would jeopardize the safety or happiness of those select few - she would stop at nothing to make them pay.

It was a bizarre paradox. To be gentle and loving one minute and deadly and vengeful the next. How had she become this way? Was it the circumstances surrounding Alex Whitman’s death that had turned her into a warrior? Or had she always been this way?

As she pulled away, holding him at arm’s length and smiling softly at him, Nate saw none of that in her eyes. He just saw a sweet, pretty woman, someone who had taken him into her home and treated him like family, like he’d been with them since his birth and not just for a few months. Despite the fact that his mother had murdered the man she loved.

“You be careful,” she warned in a motherly tone. “People drive like maniacs.”

He smiled and nodded in reassurance. “I will. Thank you for everything.”

She waved him off with a hand. “It’s nothing, really. We’ll see you in late August, right? If not before?” She looked hopeful, like he’d say he’d visit over the summer.

He gave a little shrug. “Sure. If not before.” Then he smiled, climbed into his truck and headed for the hospital.

There were strangers in Liz Evans’s room. Nate stood outside a fair distance away and peeked in, curious at the newcomers. The man was thin and wiry, his face marked by time. The woman’s hair was a pale red, her shapely legs evident beneath a soft spring skirt. Max was also there, his grin apparently permanent, and Liz was sitting on the edge of the bed talking animatedly, waving her hands about. She was wearing street clothes, which prompted Nate to remember that she was only at the hospital in order to care for her daughter - Liz was well on her way to full recovery. Another glance around the room revealed to Nate that the woman was holding the baby, freed from her prison in the NICU.

Just when Nate was thinking about retreating, Max looked up and caught him standing in the hallway. Too late.

“Nate,” Max called, beckoning him to enter the room. “You can come in. I want you to meet someone.”

As all eyes shifted to him, Nate suddenly felt under the microscope. The woman’s eyes were curious, but the man’s seemed to be judging him already. These people knew Tess Harding - Nate was sure of it. Max rose and held out his hand, motioning for Nate to come in. Swallowing past his anxiety, Nate stepped into the room and Max took him by the arm.

“These are Liz’s parents,” he explained. “Mr. and Mrs. Parker.”

Nate felt his stomach drop to his toes. Liz’s parents. What must they think of him, of what Max did? They had to know the pain Liz had endured after Max had slept with Tess and conceived a child. Nate was sure that in the Parker family, it was the dirty little secret everyone knew about but never mentioned. He felt a stab of anxiety as he wondered how Max would introduce him - just a friend? A buddy to shop with and go to a movie afterwards? A bastard child he’d been tricked into conceiving?

“Mom, Dad, this is my son. This is Nate.”

Nate was so surprised at the proud tone in Max’s voice that he almost missed Liz’s father extending a hand in greeting. In fact, he was still processing the fact that Max openly acknowledged him to people who shouldn’t give a rat’s ass about him as he shook Mr. Parker’s hand, trying to remember his manners. He turned his gaze to Mrs. Parker, her eyes still a tad wary; she was studying everything about him. Looking for similarities to Max perhaps?

“Ma’am,” he said quietly.

“Nice to meet you,” she said, a vacant smile on her face. She looked down at the sleeping baby in her arms, then back to Nate. “Have you been able to hold your sister yet?”

Nate’s eyebrows shot up. Apparently in all of her studying, Liz’s mother had decided that he was okay, that he was a part of Max and Liz’s nontraditional family. “No, ma’am.”

Her smile was a little warmer as she rose and started to hand him the baby. Then she paused and looked at him curiously. “Have you ever held a baby before?”

He shook his head.

“Sit,” she commanded, motioning to her vacant seat.

Nate looked questioningly at Max, who laughed.

“It’s so if you drop her, she doesn’t have as far to fall,” he said.

In that instant, anxiety ripped through Nate. He shouldn’t be doing this. He wasn’t prepared to hold an infant. He was going to break her or ruin her for life.

Apparently his fear was written all over his face as Liz reached out and thumped Max hard on the arm. “That wasn’t nice!” she protested. Max continued to snicker, but Liz turned her gaze to Nate. “You’ll do fine. Just sit in the chair and Mom will show you how to hold her.”

Nate sat down uneasily, not liking that he didn’t know what was coming, not liking that Liz’s dad was about two feet away and staring at him. He thinks I’m a freak...

“You want to support her head,” Mrs. Parker was saying as she laid the bundle across Nate’s arms. “Like this.” She showed him how to cradle Emily’s neck against the bend of his arm, so that her little body molded right into his embrace.

All panic flitted away in a heartbeat. Touching her for the first time, he felt a little burst of familiarity, a connection to this tiny little person. He already knew her - she’d introduced herself as she’d entered the world. She’d chosen him as her foothold on life, as Max had explained it. They were bound together, siblings, neither alien nor human.

Emily wiggled but didn’t wake up. Nate got the impression that she was acknowledging him in some way. She recognized him, too.

Her pink stocking hat had been removed and when Nate nudged the blanket back, he saw that she had a respectable amount of extremely dark hair on her tiny head. Another push of the blanket revealed an impossibly small hand, her fingers curled into a fist. Nate couldn’t quit staring at it - it was somewhat unbelievable that hands as large as his had started out as small as hers.

The conversation in the room had resumed around him, but Nate was oblivious to it. He was too enraptured by this new life in his arms. Max squatted before him and picked up his daughter’s hand.

“Go like this,” he said, smiling at his son and running one of his fingers from Emily’s wrist to her palm. Immediately, her fingers opened, then clenched around his finger.

Nate breathed a little laugh as Max gently tugged his finger free. Nate repeated Max’s actions and Emily gripped his finger with all of her might. He wiggled his finger, but she held steadfast.

Max was grinning again. Max was always grinning these days. “And look at this,” he said, pulling the blanket down to reveal one of her feet. He slid off one of her booties and held her foot up to Nate. “Look at those toes!”

Nate’s eyes went to her feet, settled on her little toe in particular. Now, if he thought the size of her fingers was ridiculous...

Eventually, Nate had to relinquish the baby to her grandparents. It was time that he hit the highway, headed back to Chautauqua for a few more weeks. Max walked him out to his truck and gave him a tight, fatherly hug in the parking lot.

“Thank you for coming,” Max said, clapping him on the back. “It meant the world to me.”

Nate smiled shyly. “It meant the world to me, too. She’s special, Max.”

For once, Max’s we-can-be-best-friends demeanor slid away and Nate got the impression he was addressing him as a father and not a buddy. “So are you, Nate. So are you.”

Nate smiled awkwardly and said his final goodbye, then climbed behind the wheel of the truck. As he pulled out of the parking lot, he glanced in his mirror, saw Max watching him leave, his hands stuffed in the front pockets of his jeans, a man happy with his world.

That brought a smile to Nate’s face. Max deserved some happiness. He was forever taking care of the world without the world knowing it, sacrificing his family life to do so. It was good that he was able to smile, that he was content in his life. Nate had the feeling that such days were few and far between for Max Evans.

Once on the New York Thruway, Nate turned on the cruise control and simply enjoyed his ride. Under his calm, relaxed facade, however, his heart was starting to beat a little faster, his blood infused with excitement.

In a few short weeks, he was on his way to Roswell and an event he knew was going to change his life forever.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Nineteen

Nate was greeted by Emma with so much relief that he had to wonder if she’d decided he wasn’t ever coming home. In truth, he’d been in Boston less than a week and had tried to phone them as frequently as possible. But as she rushed out of the front door and threw her arms around him, he thought he saw a hint of tears in her blue eyes. It stabbed him straight through the heart.

To make matters worse, he had to then explain to them that he was leaving for Roswell for a week. They knew of Alyssa and his friendship with her, but they hadn’t guessed the true nature of the relationship. Both Emma and Jonathan looked shocked to hear Nate profess his love for the girl, especially since he’d met her while Annie had still been in the picture. He lied and told them that he and Alyssa were just acquaintances until very recently, the truth being that he had known as soon as she’d kissed him in that desert laundromat that there was something unusual, something strong, between them.

His parents didn’t know what to say. So they said nothing, which only made the situation all that much more awkward.

Nate spent the days before leaving on his trip helping out as much as he could at the store. It was late May and the tourists had been trickling in for weeks now. In another week, when the Memorial Day holiday hit, the place would be overrun. A stab of guilt was constantly twisting in his gut to know that he was leaving them in the lurch on the first busy weekend of the summer. So he worked extra hard, sometimes twelve hours at a time, trying to prepare the store for the onslaught. If he got far enough ahead, maybe they’d be okay to take care of the place themselves.

But he knew that was a fallacy. The Spencers weren’t young people any more. Having to keep up with the crowd was going to be a hardship for them. For the first time ever, Nate had to choose between the parents who had raised him and the family to which he rightly belonged. He expressed his remorse over the matter in an email to Max, looking for nothing more than a sympathetic ear to listen to his sadness.

Not a day later, Nate’s cell phone rang in his pocket as he hoisted cases of pork and beans into a neat stack by the door - campers always bought those. Blowing out a deep breath from the exertion, he dug around until he found the phone and flipped it on. Surprisingly enough, it was his Aunt Isabel.

She never called.

Panic ripped through Nate. Something had to be wrong. Not even aware he was doing it, he put his hand to his chest, trying to reach out and feel his baby sister. Certainly nothing had happened to sweet little Emily...

Isabel laughed, a joyful sound that seemed to mock him. “Easy, kid,” she chuckled into the phone. “Don’t spaz on me. Max didn’t mention that you had the tendency to spaz.”

Nate’s brow furrowed. He didn’t have the tendency to spaz. Not unless you counted the incident in the movie theater with his glowing birthmark...or the time Max had revealed that he was an alien and put up that shield thingy...or the first time the birthmark had appeared...

He shook his head, not wanting to entertain thoughts that he might really have the tendency to spaz. “I’m sorry,” he said to his aunt. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, fine,” Isabel assured, her voice sounding like it belonged to a younger person as it traveled over the airwaves. “I’m sending Jeremy your way.”

Nate raised his eyebrows. What had that kid done this time? Maybe he and his friend Mandy had been found desecrating some other room in the Ramirez estate.

“You are?” he asked. “Any particular reason?”

“He has a penance to pay,” she said simply. “I think maybe a few weeks away from his little chickie might cool him down a bit.”

Nate bit the corner of his mouth. “But...I’m not going to be here, Aunt Isabel.” A little rush of surprise raced through his veins - this was the first time he’d addressed any of his newfound relatives by their title and he hoped he hadn’t overstepped his bounds.

Not that Isabel seemed to even notice. If she did, she slid over it without comment. “That’s why I’m sending him.”

Confusion twisted Nate’s attractive features.

Isabel laughed lightly again. “So he can work in your dad’s store while you’re away.”

Nate shook his head even though she couldn’t see him. Conscious of eaves-droppers, he glanced quickly around the store, spotted his father out of earshot. “That’s not a good idea. Dad can’t afford to pay him,” he said softly.

“I don’t expect him to be paid,” Isabel stated bluntly. “If they can put him up and feed him, they’re free to work his ass off.”

Nate couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled forth. He was suddenly glad Emma had never learned the art of tough love.

“Go to him tomorrow,” she said cryptically. “When you offer, he’ll accept.”

Nate’s brow furrowed. What did that mean?

“Trust me,” Isabel said confidently. “Talk to you later, Nate.”

And surprisingly, when Nate approached Jonathan the next day and mentioned that his cousin was being punished and sent to work there, the man accepted without much hesitation. It wasn’t as though he’d been brainwashed or anything, just that maybe he was a little more open-minded about accepting help.

Nate could only guess that his aunt had whispered secrets and comforts into his father’s head while he’d slept. Sometimes the power of suggestion was a very powerful tool.

Jeremy arrived a week later, looking dutifully remorseful for the scene he’d caused in the garage loft. Once Nate had introduced him to his parents, he took the boy up to his room and showed him where he’d be staying. Then Nate laughed and cuffed him playfully on the arm.

“Dude,” he said. “You gotta be more careful than that.”

Jeremy flushed a deep red and looked at his shoes, an embarrassed grin creasing his features. “Yeah, I know.”

And just like that, it was all forgotten. Jeremy loosened up and was quite the talker once Nate got him started. He could tell that they were going to be good friends when Nate moved to Boston.

But for now he had to get on a plane and head west. As he strapped himself into his seat, he realized that the ends of his fingers were tingling with anticipation. It was a bizarre sensation, so he held his hand up and noted that he was trembling, but not in a bad way.

“It’s okay, honey,” an elderly woman across the aisle said to him. “The chances of this bird going down are millions and millions to one. I used to be nervous like you, too. Don’t worry - we’ll be okay.” She gave him a grandmotherly smile and Nate smiled back, all the while knowing that a fear of flying was not why he was shaking.

On the long leg of the flight, Nate watched the sun setting behind the clouds. Tomorrow, Alyssa graduated. She didn’t know he was coming. He’d sent a bouquet of flowers just that morning to arrive tomorrow morning, hoping to throw off any suspicions that he was planning a sneak attack. The suspense of anticipating her reaction to his appearance was only heightening the buzzing within his body.

Diane Evans picked him up at the airport, squishing him within an inch of his life again before chastising him for not hooking up with them in Boston. But her threats were mild and he easily smiled his way out of any reprimand.

To Nate’s amazement, Diane showed him where he’d be staying - Max’s old bedroom. Nate grinned as he dropped his bag, imaging Max as he was in the pictures in Alyssa’s photo album, brooding in teen angst as he occupied this very masculine room. The curtains were a brown plaid and Nate guessed that they had been there for years.

The following day, Nate slid unseen into the gym of West Roswell High. He sat apart from the Evanses, in the event that Alyssa should spot them in the stands. He avoided Michael and Maria as well - for many reasons. As soon as he sat down, his eyes roamed over the mass of students in their royal blue caps and gowns, his gaze falling nearly immediately on the object of his affection.

He was sitting behind and to her right, so he could only see part of her profile. But what he caught a glimpse of made his heart jerk in his chest. A wave of impossibility washed over him - after so many months, so many phone calls and so much interrupted mutual masturbation, he was really in the same room with her. She was only thirty feet away, tops. Nate felt his body start to become warmer with excitement, his heart fighting to find a good rhythm. For one moment he felt sick, like he was going to pass out and a little flare of panic lit in his gut.

Then he smiled. He’d totally forgotten what it was like to be so in love that it made him ill.

Nate heard nothing of the commencement speakers’ carefully prepared speeches. His eyes were glued on Alyssa, on the way her cap sat slightly tilted on her head - a fashion statement? He could imagine that she found traditional graduation garb ridiculous. He detected an air of sadness about her, like she was only going through the motions. Was she thinking of him? Was she wishing that he was near? Did she suspect that he was only yards away?

After the speeches, the graduates received their diplomas, an endless river of teens in blue entering and exiting the stage. Nate watched her take her diploma, turn to the camera man and smile, then walk across the stage and down the steps. She wasn’t smiling. She wasn’t frowning, either, but Nate knew that she was relieved to be out of that school - being different than everyone else and cursed by the reputation of Michael Guerin, which still permeated the staff, she’d been a prisoner. She’d never said as much, but Nate knew.

After the ceremony, as the families began to mingle for pictures, Nate high-tailed it out of the gym before she might spy him. He drove around Roswell in Diane Evans’s car for about an hour, stopping in the Crashdown for a shake and reminiscing about the first time he’d been there, the day he’d met that ballsy teen. It seemed an eon ago and yet it hadn’t even been nine months. Then he drew in a breath of confidence, straightened his tie and headed over for the Deluca residence.

There was a string of cars parked along the curb outside of the small house. Nate was surprised at that - apparently Alyssa was more popular than her melancholy would indicate. He had to park at the end of the block and walk to the house, hoping that the hike didn’t make him sweat. He didn’t want to see her for the first time soaked to the bone.

As he walked up the driveway, he realized that the party was in the back yard - at least that’s what the noise would indicate. As he passed the house, Maria pushed open the door and raised an eyebrow in his direction. After her rudeness in Boston, he wasn’t sure what to expect from her. But this time she snorted a laugh and tossed a resigned “Horndog” in his direction. Nate smiled and kept walking.

Just as he was about to round the house, he had to stop in his tracks. He was shaking, trembling like a frightened rabbit. He needed to gather his composure. All he needed was to pass out at her feet - yeah, that would be embarrassing. So he drew in several deep breaths and tried to calm his raging heart. Then he stepped around the corner.

Her back was to him as she talked with several other graduates. Her hair was longer and blonder than he remembered, hanging across her tanned shoulders and midway down her back. She was wearing a white, form-fitting sun dress, the kick pleat in the back revealing much of her shapely, tanned legs. Nate put a hand to his heart - he’d never loved anyone so much that his heart had physically hurt. For some unknown reason, tears were threatening to leap to his eyes.

Swallowing hard, he slowly approached her, caught the light scent of her perfume on the breeze. She laughed - music to his ears and he nearly lost it right there. When he was an arm’s-length behind her, he reached out to touch her shoulder -

And she turned around, like she’d known he was there.

Alyssa’s dark eyes were a boiling pot of emotions - confusion, recognition, disbelief, then undeniable passion. Without speaking a word, she threw herself into his arms, holding him so tightly he thought she’d snap him in half. Against him, her body quivered as the realization hit home - they were finally together.

Releasing a sound that was half cry and half laugh, she pulled away from him just far enough to press her lips against his. Nate felt his world spin, drunk immediately on her kiss. He’d longed for this for such a long time that it seemed somewhat surreal. But when her tongue pushed past his lips, he knew that it wasn’t a dream, that they were truly in one another’s arms again. He fell into her, tasting the saltiness of her tears, forgetting that there were other people around them. All that mattered was this - the two of them, together.

Unfortunately, human biology dictates that the body needs oxygen. They parted and Nate smiled gently at her, wiping her tears away with the tips of his fingers. Her eyes were red and puffy and he thought he’d never seen her look so beautiful...

Nate’s eyes drifted over her shoulder and found her friends looking at them in disbelief. He smiled sheepishly, certain they had no idea who he was. He supposed it was time for introductions.

Then the friends and the sun itself were blocked out by a hulking figure stepping in front of them. Nate was staring at a broad chest and dread filled his every pore. His arms were still around Alyssa as his eyes traveled up -

And into the face of Michael Guerin.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Twenty

The fog of passion quickly evaporated from Nate’s brain and he straightened abruptly, swallowing with difficulty. Alyssa was still looking up into his face and her smile slowly melted away as she saw Nate’s mood shift. She turned quickly and he could no longer see her expression as she regarded her father - was she pissed, worried, ashamed?

Nate would never be ashamed that he loved her. He wasn’t really pissed that Michael had broken the spell around them. But he couldn’t necessarily say he wasn’t worried. After all, this was the man who had tossed him like a rag doll into the pod chamber wall. Sure, Michael had apologized before Nate had returned to New York, but the potential to maim still existed under the surface.

Michael’s eyes narrowed slightly, but other than that he was expressionless. He pinned Nate with a stare and didn’t even look at his daughter. “I can’t change how my daughter feels,” he said evenly. “But you will show her respect - you will never do that in front of an audience again.”

Alyssa blew out an exasperated breath and held her head momentarily, an action that led Nate to believe that he had been discussed more than once in the Guerin household. “He didn’t do anything, Daddy,” she said, dropping her hand. “I did it. I kissed him.”

Nate’s blue eyes shifted to the friends Alyssa had been talking to before he’d arrived, a girl and a boy - they looked like they wanted to crawl beneath the snack table and become invisible. Nate gave them a sympathetic look, then was drawn back to Michael, who was still staring at him.

“Knock it off, Michael,” Maria barked as she walked by carrying a bowl of potato chips. “Don’t make me put you back on your leash.”

Nate’s eyebrows popped up in surprise and Alyssa’s friends quickly covered their grins with their hands. In front of him, Nate felt Alyssa relax just a tad. Michael glanced at her, gave Nate one last look of warning, then moved slowly away. Everyone froze until he’d rounded the house, then Alyssa spun around, her grin having returned to her face.

“Jesus, Nate!” she cried, her fingers trailing across his cheek, causing little tremors to run through his body. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

His grin matched hers. “I wanted to surprise you. Did I? Surprise you?”

“Did you!” she laughed. “I think I may have wet myself!”

Nate blinked at her crassness as she spun around to her friends again. Then he realized that their closeness had had a rather obvious effect on him and he made sure to stand slightly behind her until the evidence went away.

“This is Nate!” Alyssa announced proudly to her friends.

The girl looked momentarily confused, then a look of “Oh, that Nate” crossed her face and she looked at him in a whole new light; the boy looked disappointed.

“Nate, this is Jeannie and Brian,” Alyssa said, looking up and over her shoulder to address him.

Nate looked at the girl in confusion, then a look of “Oh, that Jeannie” came to his face. Orgasm Instructor Jeannie, the girl who had shown Alyssa how to please herself. Nate had yet to ask for details about that event. His eyes shifted to Brian and he decided almost immediately that this kid wanted in his girlfriend’s pants.

“Nice to meet you,” Nate said politely.

Jeannie slipped her drink and gave him the once over, grinning around her straw.

“Put it in park,” Alyssa said only half joking. “This one’s taken.”

Jeannie shrugged and moved to the food table. Brian gave a defeated scowl and followed her.

Alyssa turned around in Nate’s arms again and put her arms around his shoulders, laying her head against his chest. He squeezed her tightly, closing his eyes in relief of just being able to hold her again. She pulled back and looked up into his eyes, hers warm and creased at the corners.

“I didn’t mean to scare away your friends,” Nate said, gesturing toward the two people who had escaped to the buffet.

Alyssa shrugged. “Who cares?” she whispered conspiratorially. “Hopefully they’ll all leave soon and you and I can be alone.”

Nate’s eyes scanned over the crowd, at the many people who were there and wondered how she could not be happy that so many had shown up. It did, however, seem that most of them had come to see the famous Maria Deluca. He frowned slightly and rubbed her bare arms.

“It’s okay, baby,” he said soothingly. “I understand.”

And he did. She had probably had a lifetime of being Maria Deluca’s daughter and never just Alyssa Guerin. Most of these kids were probably hoping to get an autograph or maybe even a sneak listen to the impending new CD, due to be released in June. Nate imagined word spreading quickly each year through the new crop of freshmen that Alyssa had a famous relative. No wonder she’d hated it there - it had to be hard to separate the sincere from the opportunists.

But eventually guests arrived that Nate was sure were among the pure - the Evans and the Ramirezes. He grinned immediately, seeing his new family gathered for a celebration. It warmed his heart to see Alyssa so happy that they’d made the effort to come, that Jesse and Isabel - sans a punished Jeremy and two creepy twins - had traveled such a far distance to be with her.

It almost made up for the absence of her favorite uncle.

Diane Evans could always be counted on, however, to soothe anyone’s wounds. She had pictures - tons of them - and a DVD home movie Max had made before his parents had returned to Roswell. Squealing, Alyssa threw her arms around the woman, who laughed affectionately, then grabbed Nate by the wrist and dragged him into the house. A trail of Evanses and Ramirezes followed them.

Kneeling on the floor before the TV and obviously not caring about her white dress, Alyssa quickly popped the DVD into the player and turned on the TV. The group took their seats; Alyssa backed away from the television, not wanting to miss a moment, and sat down on Nate’s lap, wrapped her tanned arm around his shoulders.

The screen flickered once, then everyone in the room let out a collective “Ah!” as an image of Max and Liz appeared on the screen. They were sitting on the couch in their house, a bundle in Liz’s arms.

“Hi, Alyssa,” Max said, smiling into the camera. “We really wanted to be there, but I think you know why we can’t. I talked Nate into coming in my place.”

Alyssa turned to him and rested her forehead against his, closing her eyes in happiness.

“We want you to meet someone,” Liz said next, leaning toward the camera and tipping the bundle slightly. “This is Emily Marie.”

Alyssa’s mouth dropped open slightly and her eyes misted quickly. On the screen, the baby was awake, her tiny arms waving as if she hadn’t much control over them.

“You’ll get to meet her for real when you come to Boston in the fall,” Max said as Liz leaned back into her seat. He looked at Liz, an awkward “Are we done?” look shared between them, causing them both to laugh. “We love you, sweetheart,” he said. “Congratulations!”

“Congratulations!” Liz echoed, then reached into the blanket and took her baby by the arm. “Can you wave bye-bye?” she baby-talked. “Say bye-bye.”

There was an echo of Max’s laughter as he got up to turn off the camera, and then the screen went black.

Alyssa had tears streaming down her cheeks. She reached over and took Diane’s hand. “Thank you so much,” she choked.

“Oh, sweetie, you’re welcome,” Diane said. “They wanted to be here so badly.”

“I know,” she replied, her voice almost completely choked out. Then she turned and put her head on Nate’s shoulder, crying quietly.

He rubbed her back and gave the others a helpless look. They didn’t return it, though - they simply smiled in understanding, without judging.

“Who needs a beer?” Jesse asked, giving Isabel a playful slap on the knee. He turned to face Philip Evans. “I know you need a beer, Councillor.”

Philip nodded easily. “That I do. Where’s the keg?”

“Out back. I’ll show you.”

Nate grinned as he watched each of them make some excuse to leave - Isabel needed to use the bathroom, Diane needed to see if Maria needed help in the kitchen, Jesse and Philip were on a beer hunt. They weren’t fooling anybody - their actions were but to leave Nate and Alyssa alone.

“Hey,” Nate said, smoothing her hair. “You okay?”

She sat up and wiped her tears, nodded. “It’s just a hard day, you know? All of those phoney people out back, only here to see my mom. And then you came, Nate.” She touched his face. “You saved my whole day for me. And then to have them come and to bring with them the DVD of the baby...” Her voice trailed off as she shook her head. “It’s just an emotional day.”

Nate smiled gently at her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. For the first time, he noticed that his emerald necklace was around her neck, as she’d promised. He trailed his fingers down her chest, stopping at the jewel.

“You’re allowed to be emotional,” he told her softly. “You’re allowed to feel whatever you want. No one judges you for that, Alyssa. All of the people who were just here love you, no matter what crowd of groupies is in the back yard. I love you.”

She watched him silently, then picked up his hand in hers. “Let’s leave,” she said abruptly.

He lifted his eyebrows.

“If I’m allowed to feel what I want, then I feel like getting out of here.”

One quick kiss on the lips was all he needed. If she didn’t want to be at her own party, then he wasn’t going to force her to stay.

They drove around town for hours, Alyssa’s mood lifting immensely. Nate loved being next to her in her sports car, sneaking peeks at her as they roamed the streets of Roswell. Away from the crowd, she slipped back into the girl he loved, the carefree, say-anything temptress who insisted on “accidentally” leaning into his lap one too many times.

As the sun began to set, she ordered him to drive out to the desert so they could watch the sky change colors. Being the dutiful boyfriend he was, he obliged. They parked in the middle of nowhere and watched the sky turn pink and purple and red before the sun dipped over the horizon. With nothing else to look at, they decided to look at one another instead.

Stretched across the back seat of the car, Nate found that he barely had room for his legs and that the two of them narrowly fit onto the seat. The sky had turned black and dotted with millions of stars. Around them, they heard the sounds of the night, the sounds of nature. In the distance, a coyote howled. Not that he cared.

They’d been kissing for twenty minutes, rapidly descending to a point of no return. Nate was aware of nothing but the quick pants coming from her, the taste of her soft skin and the thudding of his own heart...or maybe it was hers - he couldn’t tell anymore. He smoothed his hand down her side, over the round curve of her hip and was eternally grateful that she hadn’t inherited Maria’s ass - that woman had the butt of a twelve-year-old boy. Not Alyssa - she was rounded and curved in all of the right places. If anything, she had a body resembling more her Aunt Isabel’s than her mother’s. Nate found the bottom of her white sun dress and pushed it up, running his fingers along her firm thighs, prompting her to gasp.

All the while they kissed, their hands roaming. Nate found frustration when he reached for the buttons that decorated the front of her dress - they were tiny and about an inch apart all of the way down the front of the garment. Moving to kiss her neck, he ordered his fingers to be patient as he worked the buttons, undoing about a dozen of them before sliding his hand inside.

Alyssa let out a moan and arched her back as Nate’s hand closed around her breast. Someone also groaned - it may have been him, he wasn’t sure. Her breasts were fuller than her clothes would suggest. He cupped her, caressed her, circled her nipple with his thumb, but it wasn’t enough. Breaking away from her neck, he turned his attention to her dress, gently pushed it aside to reveal a white lacy bra. Her chest was heaving with desire, her breaths quick, a thin sheen of sweat on her skin. Sliding his fingertips inside of her flimsy bra - Victoria’s Secret? - Nate pushed the cup over the curve of her breast. For the first time, he got to see what she looked like, the tanned skin, the pink nipple - from now on, he knew his dreams would be much more vivid. She was simply beautiful.

And uncertain.

Nate glanced up into her face, saw worry and apprehension in her eyes. “You’re perfect,” he breathed, smiling softly at her.

She smiled in return, but it was weak.

“Is this okay?” he asked, raising his eyebrows questioningly.

She looked away for a moment, then nodded her head lightly. “No one...um, no one has ever...”

He smiled softly, removed his hand from her chest long enough to touch her face. “It will be okay,” he whispered against her ear, kissing a trail down to the treasure he’d just discovered.

Alyssa let out a gasp, arching her back and letting out a short succession of gasps, her fingers weaving into his hair, holding him firmly to her breast. Nate grinned internally - it was time to give her that hickey she’d requested so many months ago. Within a few moments, she was reaching hastily for his zipper.

“Oh, God, Nate,” she moaned.

He found himself getting lost in this, this thing he’d wondered about for so long, but as his zipper dropped and a rush of cool air flowed over him, he realized that something was just...wrong...

Releasing her breast, he crawled back up her body and kissed her as her hand slid into his pants. God, he wanted her so badly. But still he took her by the wrist, stopping her.

“Not here,” he breathed heavily into her ear.

“I want to,” she replied just as breathlessly. “God, baby, I want you so much!”

He shook his head, kissing her cheek. “Not in a car - not the first time.”

She stopped and pulled back slightly, disbelief in her eyes.

“Your dad was right,” he shrugged. “I need to respect you. And I can’t let this night happen in this way.” Nate brushed her hair away from her stricken face. “I love you too much to not let that night be special.”

She stared at him for a long moment, then she started breathing quicker - but not in an erotic way. She was about to burst into tears.

“Hey,” Nate said softly, nuzzling her ear. “You don’t have to be unsatisfied.” He took her hand from his pants and brought it to her own body instead, placed her palm beneath her skirt, over her panties. “Show me what you do when you think of me.”

Alyssa’s eyes were full of apprehension.

Nate kissed her slowly, their bodies warm from the desert heat and their attraction. “I want to see. Show me.”

Never taking her eyes from his, she slid her hand into her white lace panties, gave a little moan. She closed her eyes slowly, but only briefly, as her fingers started to work beneath the fabric. Nate grinned at her, then laid his head against her chest, watching her actions. When he felt like she might be nearing climax, he slid his hand down her quivering stomach and gently pushed her hand out of the way, replacing it with his own. Alyssa’s whole body shook, her cries and pleas echoing in the desert. When she finally came, it exhausted them both.

Nate cradled her body against his, afraid that she’d become chilled. “Sometime soon,” he promised her. “We’ll be together.”

Later that night, Nate lay staring at the ceiling in Max’s old bedroom. He’d dropped Alyssa off at her mother’s house and then returned here, hormones still running wildly through his veins. He frowned in frustration - he was never going to get to sleep tonight. Not while he could still taste her on his lips, feel her against his fingertips. To top it off, he’d never really been able to get rid of his erection - who could sleep with that going on?

Nate jumped slightly, startled at a sound outside. His heart thudded a little quicker as he wondered if there were burglars outside. Then the noise happened again and he realized it was a pebble against the window. Slipping out of bed, he walked over to the window and peeked through the curtains - Alyssa was on the other side. Afraid that there had been hell to pay when she got home, he quickly pulled open the window and helped her inside. His body leaped just at her touch.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. “Are you okay?”

Her jaw was set firmly. “Fuck sometime soon,” she said. “How about now?”

With that, she held up a key. A motel key.

tbc