Don't dream it's over (DA Xover, Liz/Alec /ADULT)(Complete)

[Calinia]

Winner - Round 5




Title: "Don't dream it's over"
Author: Kat/Calinia
Email: calinia@wildmail.com
Category: DA Xover, X-tremer, Post Departure
Rating: YTEEN for now, will turn ADULT, promise
Disclaimer: I don't own the Roswell characters or the ones from Dark Angel, so don't sue, I'll cry.

Summary: Liz and Kyle leave directly after Departure to go to Florida over the summer. One night they get drunk and wake up the next morning remembering nothing only to discover that they both have tattoos of barcodes on the back of their necks. Shortly after that they meet two Manticore soldiers who think that Kyle and Liz are from Manticore too. Liz and Kyle on the other hand think they are aliens...

Author's Note: First of all I want to thank LittleBit for all her help with this story, I would have never started to write or dared to post it without her.

I love Dark Angel, and the end of S2 of Roswell left me very upset with Max - S3 did nothing to change that, quite the opposite actually - and so I thought I'd write an X-tremer fic. This starts post Departure, but I changed a few things about that episode. And in case school wasn?t out in that episode yet, it is in my story. Hope you like it.


Part 1

Liz was sitting in Kyle's car, staring out the window at the scenery that was flying by without really seeing it. She still couldn't believe it. Tess had killed Alex. They'd had a traitor right in their middle for months and had never known it. And now she was gone and pregnant with Max's child.

How could all this have happened?

She didn't know. She didn't know anything anymore. All the things she had believed to be true had turned out to be nothing but lies. Tess wasn't essential for their survival after all. She had been working against them for months, maybe even years.

And everything Liz had done in the last months, all the pain she'd gone through - it had all been for nothing. Instead of keeping them all safe she had caused the death of one of them. If she hadn't done what she did Alex would still be alive. And Tess wouldn't be pregnant with Max's child.

Liz squeezed her eyes shut at that thought as if to block out the pain and the guilt. But it didn't work. Nothing worked. She didn?t want to think about what had happened, but she just couldn?t help it. The events of the last few hours kept running through her head like a movie, over and over again?

Max came out of the Granolith chamber alone and they all ran down the hill together to watch the Granolith take off with Tess on board.

He?d let her get away. She?d killed Alex, and Max had just let her get away with it. Liz felt the anger rising up inside her, mixing with the millions of other emotions racing through her, making it hard for her to breathe. She felt like she was suffocating. Again.

Until then she'd busied herself with the search for Alex's killer, not allowing herself to think about anything but that. But now that she had found the person behind Alex's death she couldn't do that anymore, and everything just came crashing down on her.

Her hopes, her dreams, her beliefs, her whole life - all that was left of that was a pile of ruble. All the important things in her life had slipped through her fingers without her being able to do anything to stop it. They were all gone. Irretrievably gone. Nothing would ever be the same again.

When Max had told her that she had nothing to lose he had been wrong. So wrong. Wronger than wrong. She had risked everything, and lost everything. And now she asked herself if it had even been worth it.

The events of the past weeks were finally catching up with Liz and it was all too much to bear. Alex?s death, Max?s betrayal, her friends deserting her - she just couldn't take it. And so she just let herself go numb. She shut down, closing herself off from all the emotions she couldn't deal with anyway. Not then. Not there. Maybe not ever.

She just turned around and walked away, not hearing Max calling after her, not noticing Kyle holding him back from following her and running after her himself or Maria saying something to Michael and following them. She was hardly aware of Kyle guiding her to the Jetta and pulling her on the back seat with him, could hardly remember the drive home or Maria dropping them both off at the Crashdown to go back and pick up the others.

Kyle came up to her room with her to make sure that she was okay. But she wasn't okay. She didn't know if she would ever be okay again. And she just couldn't stand being in her room. It held too many painful memories. Of Alex, of Max, of her search for Alex's killer. She had to get away from it, from Roswell, from the aliens, from everything.

"Come to Florida with me," she suddenly said.

"What?" Kyle asked, surprised at her request, surprised that she had actually spoken.

"Come to Florida with me for the summer. Please. I can't stay here, and I don't wanna go alone. I don't wanna be alone anymore."

It wasn't a hard decision for Kyle. He could either go to Florida, spend his summer at the beach away from Roswell and the aliens, or he could stay in Roswell, in the room where Alex had been killed, without the one true friend he seemed to have left.

"Okay, we'll go. Today. Start packing. I'll talk to your parents and tell my dad and then come pick you up in an hour or two around lunch time. Okay?"

Liz opened her mouth to say something, but Kyle interrupted her. "Don't worry, we'll drive. I know how much you hate flying. And I couldn't stand being separated form my car for three whole months anyway," he said with a wink.

Liz gave him a forced smile that did nothing to cover up the pain he could so clearly see in her eyes. It broke his heart seeing her like that, and once again he had to fight the urge to go over to the Evans and just kill Max for everything he had put Liz through..

"Thank you," she whispered.

"There's nothing to thank me for. I'll be back in a few hours." He gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead and reluctantly left her room.

Liz started packing, or rather throwing various articles of clothing and other things that happened to be within her reach into a suitcase. It was impossible to concentrate on what she was doing. Her thoughts were racing, but she didn't allow them to linger anywhere because that would mean confronting her feelings. And she knew exactly that if she did that, she'd break down under the weight of it all. She couldn't take any more.

Liz hesitated before she put her journal into the suitcase too. She was sure that it would be a very long time until she could write again, but who knows? She might need it after all.

After finishing packing she went out into the living room to talk to her parents. They understood that she didn't want to stay in Roswell the whole summer after Alex's death, that the whole town just held too many bad memories. Not that they knew how bad those memories actually were.

Nancy had already called her sister to ask if it was okay for Liz and a friend to come and stay with her over the summer. Having no children herself, Mandy was thrilled to have Liz with her again since she had thoroughly enjoyed her company the year before.

* * * * *

An hour later Liz was pacing in living room of their apartment, anxiously waiting for Kyle to come and pick her up, afraid that Max or somebody else might beat him to it. But nobody did.

When Kyle arrived at the Crashdown they put her suitcase into the trunk of his Mustang, said good-bye to the Parkers and took off without telling anyone else that they were leaving. Liz just wanted to get out of Roswell as fast as possible, to get away from everything and everyone there.

"Liz?"

Kyle's voice startled her out of her thoughts. She tore her gaze away from the scenery rushing by. "Hmm?"

"You wanna make a stop and grab something to eat? We can drive a few more hours after that and then find a motel to spend the night."

Liz realized that the sun was staring to set. She glanced at her watch. It was past seven already. Where had all the time gone? And when had she last eaten? She couldn't remember. And thinking about it, she was starving. For the first time in weeks she actually felt hungry.

"Yeah, let's stop."

"Okay." He paused before asking her, "Are you alright?"

Was she alright? Would she ever be alright again? She didn't know. The last few days she?d had the feeling that the ground was slowly slipping away from under her feet, and she had just been waiting for the fall, but now the ground seemed to slowly be coming back. She was getting better again, and the farther away she'd get from Roswell the better she'd be.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Or at least I will be." She gave him a small smile, causing Kyle to smile himself. It was nice to see her smile again. He reached over to give her hand a squeeze. And for the first time in weeks she knew that everything really would be alright, no matter what.

[Calinia]

Disclaimer: Song is “Just a Girl” by No Doubt, don’t own it.
AN: In case any of you are wondering, there will be nothing between Liz and Kyle except a very close friendship. It might look like their relationship is going in a direction other than that in this part as well as in a few others, but it's not.


Part 2

It was almost midnight when Kyle and Liz finally discovered a motel with a vacancy sign. They went to the front desk to get a room only to be told that there was only one with a double bed available. Too tired to get into the car again to find another motel they took it.

"God, this place is a dump," Kyle muttered after opening the door to their room and flipping on the lights.

"It's only for a night," Liz said, trying to suppress a yawn.

"Tired?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah. I didn't sleep very much in the past few days," Liz admitted.

"I can imagine. Why don't you go take a shower first? I'll get everything ready out here."

Liz did just that. She washed her hair and soaped her body twice. Only when she felt thoroughly cleansed did she step out of the shower stall. After brushing her teeth, drying her hair and putting on gray cotton draw-string pants and a baby blue tank top she went back into the bedroom to see Kyle making himself a make-shift bed on the floor.

When Liz entered the room Kyle looked up at her. "I got us something to drink and some snacks in case you're hungry."

"What are you doing Kyle?" Liz asked him.

"What do you mean?" he replied confused. As if it wasn’t obvious what he was doing.

She pointed to the blankets and pillows on the floor. "That."

"I'm making myself a place to sleep. You can have the bed," Kyle told her.

"Oh come on Kyle, that's ridiculous,” Liz replied. ”We can both sleep in the bed. What's the big deal?"

Kyle hesitated. "I don't know Liz. I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

"You wouldn't. You'd make me uncomfortable by sleeping on the floor. Really, I don't mind. Come on." She picked up the blankets and pillows and put them back onto the bed, smoothing down the blankets and arranging the pillows at the head of the bed, making sure that everything was neat and where it was supposed to be. Some things would never change.

Kyle still hesitated. “Are you sure?”

“Yes!" Liz said, getting slightly irritated. "Now go and get ready for bed, we have a long day of driving ahead of us tomorrow.”

Kyle, knowing that tone all too well, did as he was told.

* * * * *

The next morning they left the motel early and after a quick breakfast at the diner across the street they continued their journey. Liz couldn’t remember when she had last slept so well. For the first time in weeks she felt rested and refreshed, and so she offered to take the first shift driving.

Kyle wasn’t exactly a morning person, and so he drifted back off to sleep after a few minutes. But Liz didn’t mind, it was nice to have some time to herself. She rolled down the window, enjoying the warm breeze tousling her hair and hummed along to the songs on the radio.

She felt good. She actually felt good. When had she been anything close to happy the last time? It was like she had left all her sorrows and all her pain behind when they’d left Roswell.

That combined with the fact that she was driving down the highway in a red Mustang much faster than was allowed with the wind in her hair – she’d never felt so free before. It was like she didn’t have a care in the world.

The next song on the radio brought a smile to her face. Her first genuine smile in weeks. She turned the volume up a bit and sang along.

Take this pink ribbon off my eyes
I'm exposed and it's no big surprise
Don't you think I know exactly where I stand
This world is forcing me to hold your hand

'Cause I'm just a girl, oh little old me
Well don't let me out of your sight
I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite
So don't let me have any rights
I've had it up to here

The moment that I step outside
So many reasons for me to run and hide
I can't do the little things I hold so dear
'Cause it's those little things that I fear
'Cause I'm just a girl, I'd rather not to be
'Cause they won't let me drive late at night

I'm just a girl guess I'm some kind of freak
'Cause they all sit and stare with their eyes
I'm just a girl, take a good look at me
Just your typical prototype
Oh, I've had it up to here

Oh, am I making myself clear?
Am I making myself clear?

I'm just a girl, I'm just a girl
I'm just a girl, in the world
That's all the you'll let be

I'm just a girl living in captivity
Your rules of thumb makes me worrisome
I'm just a girl what's my destiny?
What I've succumbed to, it's making numb

I'm just a girl, my apologies
What I've become is so burdensome
I'm just a girl, lucky me
Tweedledum there's no comparison
Oh, I've had it up to, oh, I've had it up to here

* * * * *

Kyle slowly woke up. Was he moving? Where the hell was he? He pried one eye open and realized that he was actually moving, or rather the car he was in was. Wait a minute, this was his car. And if he was sleeping, who was driving?

He glanced over and breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was only Liz. And then he looked more closely and was utterly shocked at the sight that met him. Liz was singing along to the song on the radio, the wind tousling her hair. And she was smiling. A real smile. A genuine smile, one of the kind that lit up her whole face. She looked radiant. He couldn't remember when he last saw her looking so beautiful, or so at peace with the world and herself.

In the last two years she'd never seemed to be really carefree. She always had some secrets to hide, huge things to deal with, problems no normal teenager should ever have. But now the weight of the world she'd being carrying around with her much too long seemed to have been lifted off her shoulders.

The song faded out, and Liz stopped singing.

"Wow."

Liz's head whipped around to face him. "Kyle! You're awake!” she said much too loudly, blushing at the same time. “Um, sorry if I woke you."

"That's okay. Why did you never tell me that you could sing?"

Liz’s face grew even redder. "Oh...I...um...I…I really can't sing."

"Are you crazy? I just heard you. You're great," Kyle insisted.

"You really think so?" Liz asked, surprise written all over her face.

"Yeah. Come on, don't act so surprised. Somebody must have told you that before," Kyle said, asking himself how overmodest a single person could be.

"Um, actually, no. I've never sung in front of anyone before," Liz admitted.

"Why not?" Kyle asked surprised.

"I thought I wasn't any good."

"Okay, you are crazy. You're amazing, and I'm not exaggerating. You really are."

"Thanks," Liz said, once again blushing, and another small smile gracing her face.

"You're welcome. And now let's find a place where we can get something to eat. I'm starving."

"Kyle, you had pancakes, waffles, ham and eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast not even three hours ago," Liz told him.

"Your point being...?" Kyle asked.

Liz rolled her eyes trying to look annoyed, but she laughed. "You are such a dork."

"Hey, I resent that," Kyle replied in mock outrage, but with a twinkle in his eyes, giving Liz a playful slap on the arm.

* * * * *

Kyle took over driving after their early lunch break and Liz got some sleep during that time. They stopped again in the afternoon to buy themselves something to drink and to get more food for Kyle. How was it possible that that guy could eat that much?

When the sun started to set the stopped again for dinner and ate it sitting on the hood of the Mustang, resting against the windshield, watching the sunset. Kyle was just polishing off his second burger when he noticed that Liz was staring at him with a strange look on her face.

He frowned. Was something wrong? "Is something wrong?"

"I..." Liz sighed. "Nothing. Forget it."

"No, tell me," Kyle insisted.

"It's just..." Liz paused. "Why are you here?"

"Why I'm here?" Kyle asked confused.

"Yeah. Why did you agree to come along with me?" Liz asked, still hesitant.

"You're asking me why I agreed to come along on a three-month, practically free vacation to Florida to spend the summer at the beach instead of rotting away in Roswell?" Kyle asked, not understanding what Liz was getting at. Like staying in Roswell had even been an option.

"So you really want to go to Florida?" Liz asked, uncertainty lacing her voice.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" Kyle asked, still not getting it.

"I don't know. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't just agree to come along because of me," Liz told him.

"I didn't. But I would have agreed to go anywhere with you at that moment as long as it meant leaving Roswell."

"Why?"

"Why? I don't know, I guess the prospect of spending the whole summer in the room where a friend of mine was killed didn't seem too appealing at that moment," Kyle replied.

Liz's eyes immediately clouded over, and it cut Kyle to the bone to see so much pain in them. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No, it's okay. I should start to try and deal with Alex's death. You know Kyle, it's just...I have so many regrets. There are so many things I still wanted to say to him, so many things I never got the chance to tell him. I wanted to make sure he knew how much I cared for him, and how important he was for me, and how proud I was of the man he'd become over the last years, and to have him as a friend. But I was too wrapped up in my own problems and so I never told him all those things, and now it's too late," she said, her voice breaking.

"Hey, shh, don't cry Liz, don't cry," he said, pulling her into his arms, rubbing soothing circles over her back. "Liz, you didn't have to tell him that, he already knew it. He knew how important he was to you, and how much you loved him. Trust me, he knew all those things."

"Kyle, I don't want to make the same mistake again. I...I never really apologized for the horrible way I treated you after I got shot. I'm sorry, I really am. I never wanted to hurt you, and I never wanted to lose you."

"Shh Liz, it's okay. I understand, really, I do. And you didn't lose me. We're friends, we always were, and we always will be. I’m here, aren’t I?"

"But I wasn't a very good friend in the past few months. I mean, after that set-up for Max I practically ignored you, avoided you at all costs. And I'm sorry. You did so much for me, and that's the way I paid you back. I'm really sorry," Liz said, the sobs once again overwhelming her.

"Liz, stop, okay? You have nothing to apologize for. You just didn't want to rub it in, to hurt him even more than you already had. And that's nothing to be ashamed of. Really."

"You don't even know why I did what I did, and still you're convinced that I have nothing to be ashamed for?" Liz asked stunned.

"Liz, I know you, and I know that you would have never done something like that without a very good reason. And I understand that you couldn't tell me your reasons, and I understand if you still can't, or if it's too painful to talk about. But just know that if you ever want to talk about it, or about anything else, I'm there."

"Thank you," Liz whispered, snuggling up against Kyle to watch the rest of the sunset together, letting the feeling of his strong arms holding her comfort her and the peaceful atmosphere sooth her. She’d be lost without him.

[Calinia]

Part 3

Kyle and Liz decided against spending the night at a motel again, having had enough of overpriced, dirty rooms they had to share with a few six-legged friends and instead planned on taking turns driving the night through. They both wanted to reach Florida as soon as possible because it meant being as far away from Roswell as momentarily possible.

Since Liz was the one who had last slept, she took the first shift. Up to the day before she had dreaded the night, dreaded being alone during it because she was scared that everything would catch up with her, and that it would just be too much to handle. And she was scared of realizing just how alone she actually was.

But now she didn't mind the night anymore. And she wasn't alone anymore. Having Kyle sleeping beside her reassured her and made her feel safe in a way she hadn't felt in a long time. Soft Soul and R'n'B music was coming out of the loud speakers of the radio, and she just savored the peaceful, cozy mood it created inside the car. She hadn't been able to enjoy things like that for a long time.

In the early morning hours of the next day Kyle woke up and they switched places, Kyle took over driving and Liz went to sleep.

When she woke up again the sun was just beginning to rise, casting a pinkish hue over the soft white clouds in the sky as well as the desert they were currently driving through.

It was breathtakingly beautiful.

She moved, trying to find a position that was more comfortable, and noticed that she was wrapped up in a blanket. Kyle must have stopped to cover her with it sometime during the night so that she wasn't cold. Could anyone be any more considerate or sweeter?

"Morning," Kyle said when he noticed that she was awake.

"Morning," she replied. "Thanks for the blanket."

"No problem. I didn't want you to get cold. So, are you hungry?"

"Yeah, I am actually. I'd love some pancakes."

"Well, then pancakes it is," Kyle replied. "There should be a diner coming up in a few miles, we just passed a sign for it."

Ten minutes later they arrived at said diner and ordered themselves some food and coffee - strawberry pancakes for Liz and a double serving of plain pancakes for Kyle. They spent the time there joking around and making fun of the hideous uniforms the waitresses were wearing. For once in her life Liz was glad about the uniforms they had to wear at the Crashdown.

When they continued their journey an hour later Liz took over driving again.

"You know, I've been thinking about what you said last night, and I think it would only be fair to tell you what that whole pretending-to-sleep-with-you thing was about, since you helped me and all and didn't tell anyone about it no matter what."

"No Liz, really, you don't have to. You shouldn't tell me just because you think you have to or that you owe it to me or something," Kyle insisted. He did want to know what had driven Liz to doing something so extreme, but not because she though she owned it to him.

"I know, Kyle. But I want to tell you, I really do. It would be nice to have someone around who knows everything. You’re the only real friend I have left right now. And I trust you."

"You sure?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah," Liz replied.

"Well then, shoot," Kyle told her, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Okay, but I warn you, a lot of this is gonna sound pretty unbelievable."

"Liz, we were both shot and brought back by the clone of a dead alien king of a planet in another universe. How much more unbelievable can it get?"

"I'll remind you of that when I'm finished telling the story. Okay, so here goes. A few days before I came and asked you for your help someone came to me to ask me for my help. It was the future version of Max who had modified the Granolith to artificially create a tear in time space and travel back in time to change the future. Or actually to get me to change the future. He told me that present Max and I would get back together, causing Tess to leave Roswell forever because Max was a huge prick to her afterwards, and because of her not being around later when their enemies attacked them the world would end and everyone would die, including Isabel and Michael, and so he wanted me to make present Max fall out of love with me. So first I tried to set Max up with Tess, but that didn't work, and so I went to Max's room and told him that I didn't want to be with him, that I wanted to have a safe life and be in love with normal boys. But that didn't work either and so I went to you. And you know the rest."

Kyle looked at her, totally stunned. "Wow," he said after a few minute. "I mean, I knew there must have been something big behind it all, but I never would have thought that it was that big."

"I told you it was pretty unbelievable," Liz reminded him.

"Yeah. It is," Kyle said slowly, lost in thoughts. He paused to study her.

"What?" Liz asked, squirming under his intense gaze.

"I can't believe you did all that. I mean, you gave up everything you ever wanted to save everyone else."

Liz looked away, uncomfortable with what Kyle had just said to her. "It’s not like I had a choice. I just did what needed to be done. Anybody could have done that."

"Yeah, but not everybody would have done that. Really Liz, I have never been so much in awe of anybody before in my life,” Kyle told her honestly.

Kyle’s last words provoked a small smile to appear on her face and her cheeks pinkened. “Thanks. It’s sort of nice to have someone who appreciates what I did.”

“You make it sound like I’m the only one.”

“You are.”

“Does nobody else know about it?” Kyle asked.

“Maria does,” Liz replied.

“And she didn’t appreciate it?” Kyle asked not believing it. What was wrong with that girl?

Liz shrugged. “I don’t know. She at least never said anything in that direction.”

“Well, what did she say when you told her?”

“Not much. She was just glad that I hadn’t really slept with you.”

“What?! That’s all she had to say to it?”

“Yeah. I mean, I think she was just worried about me when I told her that the rumors about us were true because doing something like that would have been so out of character for me, and she was relieved when I told her that it wasn’t true after all. At that time I was just glad to get it off my chest you know, to just have someone to talk to about it. I never really thought about her reaction that much.”

“You and Maria aren’t really that close anymore, are you?” Kyle asked, realizing how alone Liz had truly been in the last few weeks, if not months.

Liz sighed. “I guess not. I think we started drifting apart months ago without really noticing it. Maria was trying to get her relationship with Michael to work and I was trying to do just the opposite and distance myself from the pod square. But the last few weeks really drove a wedge between us. I mean, she didn’t believe me either, at least not until I showed her some proof. And she did help me after that, but that can’t make up for deserting me before when I needed her more than ever. She even went as far as telling me that I didn’t care who’s life I was screwing up and that she didn’t even know me anymore.”

“Ouch,” Kyle said wincing. “That must have really hurt,”

“Yeah, I guess. I didn’t really register it at that time, I was too busy with other things. But now…”

“I’m so sorry,” Kyle told her, cursing himself for making that sad look reappear in her eyes. He felt horrible for her. She had gone through so much and all her friend had deserted her when she would have needed them more than ever before. He wished he could somehow make it up to her.

“Yeah well, at least I have one friend I can always count on,” Liz said with a sad smile, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah you do,” he replied reaching over to squeeze her free hand, swearing to himself that he’d make sure that it would always stay that way. He’d make sure that Liz finally got what she deserved, and if it was the last thing he did.

[Calinia]

Part 4

It was early afternoon. They had crossed the state boarder to Florida a while ago and so it should only take them a few more hours to get to Palm Beach.

“So, what’s your Aunt like?” Kyle asked Liz, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled over them after talking about Future Max.

“Oh, Mandy is really cool. You’ll love her. And you’ll love her house. It’s really big, and it has a pool and a whirlpool, and a billiard table, and two guest rooms and a fitness room, and it’s right at the beach.”

“Wait a minute. What exactly do you mean with she’s cool?”

“Oh, well you know, she’s quite a few years younger than my mom, she just turned thirty a few years ago, so she’s more like an older sister to me than a second mother. And she doesn’t really have a lot of rules or a curfew or anything.”

“No rules?” Kyle asked not even trying to suppress the hopeful tone in his voice.

“Yup, no rules,” Liz answered grinning. She had known exactly how Kyle would react to that.

“And you didn’t take me along last year?!? You know what? We should take full advantage of that. Finally enjoy life, and do all the things we can’t do in Roswell.”

“What exactly can you do here that you can’t do in Roswell?”

“I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about you. I mean, aren’t you sick of being Miss Goody-Two-Shoes? I’d say it’s high time we explore your wild side.”

“My wild side?” Liz asked skeptically. “I hate to break it to you, but I doubt that I have one.”

“Come on Liz, of course you do. Everybody does. You’ve just been suppressing it till now. And this summer is the perfect time to let it out.”

Liz still didn’t look convinced. Her wild side? Yeah, right. She could really see that happen.

* * * * *

It was early evening when Liz and Kyle finally arrived in Palm Beach. Once they had reached Florida they had stopped speeding. They both knew that it was pretty stupid, not to mention dangerous, to drive too fast all the time, and that they were damn lucky to not have gotten a dozen speeding tickets, but they’d both just had this uncontrollable urge to put as much distance between themselves and Roswell as possible, and that urge just hadn’t been satisfied until they’d crossed the state boarder to Florida.

And Kyle of course just couldn’t resist driving a little faster than was allowed. What’s the point of having a fast car if you don’t ever take advantage of that?

Liz’s aunt had obviously been waiting for them because she came running out the front door as soon as they pulled into her driveway. Liz jumped out of the car, not caring that it was still moving, and ran straight into the open arms of Mandy who caught her up in a bear hug.

“I’m so glad you’re finally here,” Mandy said. “The house seemed so empty without you. And we have so much catching up to do,” she continued, still not releasing Liz from her grip.

Liz smiled, ignoring the fact that she couldn’t breathe. How could someone that small be so strong? Mandy was around 5’2’’, about as tall as Liz, and had the same brown hair and brown eyes. They used to joke that there must have been a mix up and that Liz was really Mandy’s daughter and not Nancy’s.

Liz had missed her aunt. Because of the not so big difference in age they were more like cousins than aunt and niece, and they’d had lots of fun during the last summer. At least as far as it had actually been possible for Liz to have fun back then.

It was so much easier for Liz to talk to Mandy than to her mother because Mandy just seemed to be more of the same generation, even though she was more than fifteen years older. She just understood things that Liz knew her mother never would. She never judged Liz, she just listened to her and gave advice if Liz wanted to hear her opinion on the situation. And she never tried to tell Liz what to do, she always encouraged her to figure things out on her own.

Mandy finally let go of Liz and turned to Kyle. To his surprise she hugged him too. “Kyle, it’s so nice to finally meet you, Liz has told me so much about you.”

“Oh, I deny everything and claim the opposite,” Kyle said with his trade-mark smile.

Mandy laughed, a deep, throaty laugh that nevertheless reminded him of Liz. He knew immediately that they were going to get along great with each other. Especially if the no-rules-thing was true.

“Come on, let’s get your bags inside,” Mandy said. Kyle opened the trunk of the Mustang and grabbed Liz’s suitcase and the bigger one of his two bags, while Liz took their backpacks and Mandy carried Kyle’s second bag.

Inside they left their stuff in the hall and went into the kitchen to get something to drink.

“So Kyle, I assume Liz told you something about the rules in this house,” Mandy said, looking very serious and…stern? Had Liz been joking when she’d told him that there weren’t any rules? Mandy's next words confirmed his suspicion.

“I expect you to be home at ten during the week, you can stay out till midnight on the weekends, but no clubbing, or drinking, or making out, definitely no sex and I guess I don’t have to mention that drugs are strictly forbidden too. I expect you to help with the household, either cook or do the dishes every evening and take care of the pool. Oh, and hand over the keys to that hot little car of yours.”

Kyle was absolutely stunned. She wasn’t serious, was she? But there wasn’t a hint of humor in her expression, no twinkle in her eyes and the corners of her mouth weren’t tugging upwards either.

After a few seconds Liz and Mandy burst out laughing, and Kyle suddenly felt very foolish. “Very funny you two.”

“Yeah, I thought so too,” Mandy grinned. “Okay, seriously now. There are some rules in this house. Not many, but the ones I have are all the more important. One – no driving if you drank something, or getting into the car of somebody who drank something, two – no having unprotected sex, three – no hard drugs. I don’t care where you go or how long you stay out or what you do, but I want to be able to reach you in case something comes up. And I will not bail you out of jail, at least not with my money. Any questions?”

“Yeah,” Kyle said, quickly having recovered from his initial shock. “Are you saying that we can drink?”

“Yes, I am. I think the law forbidding alcohol until you’re 21 is plain stupid. There’s wine and beer in the fridge, and all the ingredients you could possibly need to mix some cocktails in the bar in the living room. Just help yourself.”

Once again, Kyle looked stunned. “We can help ourselves?”

“Yeah. I hope you don't expect me to mix your drinks for you,” Mandy answered. Turning to Liz she said “I thought you’d have told him about the rules by the time you got here.”

“I did,” Liz answered in mock annoyance. “I guess he had trouble grasping the concept behind them or something.”

“Men,” Mandy muttered, shaking her head.

Liz sighed. “I hear you sister.”

* * * * *

Mandy had planned to take them out to dinner, and since Kyle and Liz were both sick of sitting in a car they walked there. They went to a little Italian restaurant close by called “...nel Giardino”, enjoying eating something other than fast food.

Since both Kyle and Liz were exhausted from their trip they decided to call it a night quite early. The headed back home together and Mandy showed them their rooms, first Kyle's and then Liz's. Kyle went down to get their luggage and when he came back to Liz's room to bring her her suitcase he found her standing in front of the desk starring at the lap top resting on top of it.

"Liz? Everything okay?" Kyle asked. She had seemed so much better in the past few hours, but now the haunted look on her face had returned.

She didn’t react to his question and so he tried again. "Liz?"

She whirled around to face him. "Kyle! God, you scared me. I didn't here you coming. Did you say something?"

"Just wanted to know if everything's alright. Is it?"

"Yeah," Liz said dejectedly.

Kyle raised an eyebrow, not believing a word she said.

Liz sighed. Since when could Kyle read her every emotion like that? "It's just the laptop."

"The laptop?" Kyle said, not understanding.

"Yeah. Mandy already put it in my room for me, assuming that I'd need it again this year. You know, last year I spent hours in front of it every day writing emails to Alex or chatting with him. That helped me a lot last summer. But this summer..." she trailed off, not trusting her voice any longer, not knowing what to say.

"I'm sorry," Kyle said walking up to her to wrap his arms around her.

"I miss him so much," Liz whispered, fighting the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. She couldn't cry now. Not here. Not like this. Not in front of Kyle.

And so she pulled herself together and away from Kyle. "I'm fine, really. I'll just go to bed now. You should too. We'll see each other tomorrow."

Kyle hesitated. He knew that Liz was anything but okay, and that she really needed to get everything out of her system, but she was fighting it.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'm so tired I'll fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow anyway," Liz said, trying to convince both Kyle and herself.

Kyle still wasn't sure if leaving her was a good idea, but he didn't know what else he could do, so reluctantly he left her room, closing the door behind him.

Liz breathed out a sigh of relief. She was finally alone. Not that being alone was that great, but being around Kyle somehow unnerved her. It was like he always knew what was going on with her and how she was feeling, even though she didn’t even always know that herself.

She crawled into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. She just wanted to go to sleep, to not have to think about what happened anymore, to not have to feel all the feelings she could no longer bear.

But sleep wouldn't come. After an hour of tossing and turning she decided to go down to the beach. She'd done that a lot last year whenever she hadn't been able to sleep. Watching the tide roll in onto the beach to only be drawn out and away from the shore again had always calmed her, as well as listening to the sounds the waves made when crashing onto the beach.

Liz quickly changed into her draw-string pants and a sweater, grabbed a blanket and made her way down to the beach. Spreading out her blanket and sitting down on it she looked up to the sky. It was a cloudless night and the stars were twinkling brightly, building a stark contrast against the pitch-black sky.

But looking at the stars was no longer what it used to be. It no longer had the same calming effect on her as the ocean did.

Liz sighed. She hated the way everything in her life had changed. Nothing was like it used to be.

A few years ago she had loved looking at the stars, wondering what might be out there. Now she wished she didn't know.

Alex had always loved looking at the stars too. Isabel had gotten him hooked on stargazing, and he and Liz had done it countless times together ever since.

Alex.

She missed him so much. He'd been ripped away from her in the most horrible way possible. Much too sudden. Much too soon. She didn't know how she could go on without him. Without his witty comments and corny jokes. Without his strange sense of humor and strong sense of loyalty. He had always been there when she needed him. And now he was gone.

The reality of that thought began sinking in, and Liz could no longer hold back the tears. They started flowing down her cheeks, only one at a time at first, but they steadily became more frequent until she was openly sobbing. She pulled her knees up to her chest, buried her head in her arms and cried and cried and cried. She was shaking, sobs racking her body. She cried for what seemed like hours until her exhaustion got the better of her and she sank down onto the blanket, curling up into a ball and falling into a restless slumber.

Never did she notice the person hidden by the shadows only a few yards away who had been watching her the whole time.

[Calinia]

Part 5

The next morning Liz woke up as the first rays of sunlight were beginning to peek over the horizon. At first she was disorientated, not knowing where she was, but she soon remembered the night before and realized that she must have fallen asleep.

The next thing she realized was that she was curled up in her blanket. Not just lying on top of it. Curled up in it. How had that happened? She couldn't remember waking up during the night and covering herself with it. Had Kyle come down and done it? No, he would have taken her up to the house had he seen her down at the beach in the middle of the night. Did that mean that someone else had done it?

That thought chilled her to the bone. Someone coming up that close to her while she was sleeping and completely vulnerable…God knows what could have happened. No more sleeping on the beach, Liz decided.

She stood up, stretched, shook off the sand from the blanket while picking it up and made her way back to the house. She prayed to God that nobody had noticed her absence while creeping into the house and up the stairs to her room. Everything was quiet. Apparently they really hadn't noticed that she’d been gone.

She went back to bed and tried to go to sleep again, but to no avail. It was simply impossible, and so she decided it was useless to lie around in bed. She got up and went down stairs to make herself some breakfast. And coffee. Lots of coffee.

Twenty minutes later Liz was sitting in the kitchen reading the morning paper, sipping a cup of coffee and nibbling at a fudge pop tart that was still too hot to eat. She tried to keep herself from thinking about what had happened while she was sleeping on the beach, but her thoughts kept drifting back to it.

Had some stranger really covered her with her blanket during the night? Or could she just not remember doing it herself? Or did she maybe do it in her sleep? As reasonable as those explanations were, deep inside she was pretty sure that it had been somebody else.

In a way it freaked her out to know that a person she had never met had come up that close to her while she was asleep, maybe even touched her, but on the other hand it was oddly comforting. Whoever it was had clearly not had any bad intentions, and it was nice to know that someone who didn't know her seemed to care enough to make sure she wasn't cold.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Kyle came into the kitchen. He was clearly still half asleep since he only mumbled a few incomprehensible words that could have been a "Good morning" and trudged straight over to the coffee pot to pour himself a cup. He then slumped down in the seat across from Liz at the kitchen table.

After a few minutes and half a cup of coffee later he started to wake up.

"Hey," he said to Liz. "Slept well?"

"Oh, um, yeah. Just great," Liz said a little too loudly, praying that Kyle hadn't noticed that she had been missing after all. Apparently he hadn't, and he was still too asleep to notice her strange reaction to such a simple question. Liz had always sucked at lying and covering up the truth, but somehow the people never seemed to notice. "So, what do you want to do today?" she asked, changing the subject.

"I don't know. We could go job hunting. I really need money."

"Yeah, me too. When do you wanna go? Right after breakfast?"

"Fine with me."

* * * * *

Forty-five minutes later they made their way down town, once again leaving the car behind. They walked a few minutes to one of the busier streets and then split up. Liz took one side of the street while Kyle took the other one. They agreed to meet up at the ice cream parlor at the end of the road to discuss possible jobs they'd found so far.

Almost two hours later Liz came to the ice cream parlor to find Kyle already waiting for her. Her feet hurt and she was tired and most of all discouraged. She plopped down in the seat across from Kyle, breathing out a deep sigh.

"Found anything interesting?" he asked her, already knowing the answer by just looking at her.

"Nope. I couldn't find one decent job. Either there were way too many hours or I would've had to start working in the middle of the night or it was a waitressing job. And that's the one thing I'm definitely not gonna do." She sighed. "What about you?"

"Same here," Kyle replied.

"This sucks," Liz said. "I didn't think finding a job would be that hard. We've been running around searching for something for hours, and we have nothing to show for it."

"Come on Liz, it was only the first day. We'll find something, I'm sure of it. For now, how does some good old vanilla ice cream sound?"

"With lots of fudge on top?" Liz asked.

"Yup," Kyle said, laughing at the way the prospect of ice cream lit Liz's whole face up. She looked like a little kid about to open her Christmas presents. "Just stay seated. I'll get it. You don't look like you're capable of moving right now."

Kyle got up and went inside to get their ice cream. Liz let her gaze wander over the different shops and the people walking by when the hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood up. Along with that came the discomforting sensation that she was being watched.

She hastily looked around, trying to find the person causing the unpleasant feeling she just couldn't shake off, but she couldn't spot anyone.

"Here," a voice suddenly said right beside her left ear, causing her to jump and a muffled cry to escape her throat as she whirled around.

"Kyle! God, you scared the shit out of me," she told him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." He examined her face closely. She looked pale, and there was a trace of fear left in her eyes, which were wide open and still darting around as if looking for something. "Are you okay? You look sorta spooked."

"Fine!" she said a little too quickly and a little too loudly while she was nodding at him. "I'm fine. Perfect," she said, still nodding. She then reached for her ice cream and started eating without saying another word.

Kyle didn't believe her for a second that nothing was wrong, but he knew that pushing her towards telling him what was going on would lead to nothing, and so he decided to remain silent. For now.

They finished their ice cream and then decided that they'd had enough of job hunting for the day, and so they went back home. Liz's feet were killing her and half way home she was convinced that she couldn't walk another step, which she proceeded to tell Kyle.

He sighed, turned around, bent over a little bit and gestured to his back. "Hop on."

Liz squealed with delight at the prospect of getting a piggy back ride. She climbed onto his back and Kyle to the first staggering steps, pretending to almost topple over. "Damn Parker, when did you get so heavy? I think we'd better cut down on the ice cream for you," he said, earning himself a slap on the back of his head.

For a second Liz once again felt the sensation that she was being watched creeping up on her, but it was gone as quickly as it came and so she blamed it on the lack of sleep and quickly pushed the thought to the back of her mind.

Back at home, Kyle and Liz made themselves some sandwiches and then changed into their bathing suits and packed their stuff to go down to the beach.

They spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach, lying around and enjoying the sun with the occasional swim in the ocean to cool off.

When the sun began to set they followed the lead of most of the other people at the beach and started gathering their stuff together. After washing off the sand from their bodies under the showers at the edge of the beach they went back up to the house. Once inside the got some drinks out of the fridge and sat down in the kitchen, glad that it was nice and cool. Oh, the joys of air-conditioning.

Still tired from their trip they decided to stay at home that night. Mandy joined them in the kitchen and they ordered themselves some pizzas, all too exhausted to cook something. The three of them settled down in front of the TV munching on their pizzas while watching old black and white movies. At the end of the second movie they were all more asleep than awake and decided to call it a night. Kyle fell asleep instantly after going to bed, only to be woken up again a few hours later by screams coming from Liz's room.

[Calinia]

Part 6

Kyle fell asleep instantly after going to bed, only to be woken up again a few hours later by screams coming from Liz's room.

He instantly jumped up, searching his room for a weapon. Finding none he grabbed the lamp off his bedside table, not bothering with pulling the plug out, rushed over to Liz's room and ripped the door open with the lamp held high over his head ready to attack.

But the sight that met him instantly made him drop the lamp and rush over to Liz. She was lying on her bed, curled up to a small ball, crying.

He kneeled down beside the bed. "Liz? What's wrong? I heard a scream. Are you okay?" Stupid question. Of course she wasn't okay. She was crying her eyes out.

"Liz?" he asked again. He was starting to get scared by her non-existent reaction to his presence in her room.

She finally stirred and looked at him. "Can you just hold me?" she asked in a small, raspy voice.

Kyle's heart broke. She looked so tiny, so lost, so sad. He just wished he could do something to take away some of her pain. But he didn't know how, and so he did the only thing he could do to help her. He crawled onto the bed, lied down beside her and pulled her into his arms.

He stroked her hair and whispered gentle, soothing words into her ear, assuring her that everything would be okay in the hopes of calming her down a bit. It didn't take long till her breathing evened out and she was asleep. Kyle followed soon afterwards.

* * * * *

The next morning Kyle woke up with a heavy weight pressing onto his chest. He opened his eyes and saw that it was Liz who was still wrapped up in his arms. He didn't dare move as to not wake her up, so he just watched her sleep.

She looked so calm, so peaceful. He only wished she could somehow achieve the same while she was awake. But he knew that it would probably be a long time till that came to pass. So many horrible things had happened to her during the last few weeks, the last few months actually. It still amazed him that she had yet to break down under the pressure of it all.

About an hour later Liz began to stir. She opened her eyes and turned her head up to meet Kyle's gaze.

"Morning sleepyhead," he greeted her.

"Morning," she said yawning. "Have you been up long?"

"Not that long."

"You know, you wouldn't have had to stay with me. You could have gotten up."

"I know. I didn't want to."

"Oh," Liz said, sitting up in bed.

"Liz, what's going on? I know you're not okay, so please don't say that. Can't you just tell me? I'm really worried about you."

"It's nothing, really. I just had a bad dream."

"Only tonight? Or maybe more like every single night of the last few weeks?"

Liz refused to meet his eyes and didn't say anything, but that was answer enough for Kyle. "Why didn't you say anything Liz? You shouldn't keep everything bottled up inside you, that's not healthy."

"I know, Kyle. But what would have been the point of telling you? It's not like you can change anything about it."

"I know, but still. I want to be there for you Liz, and I can't do that if you won't let me in."

"I just don't want to be a burden," Liz said, still not meeting his eyes.

Kyle reached for her chin and gentle lifted it up till she was eye to eye with him. "Liz, you or any of your problems could never be a burden to me, okay? Don't ever think that."

Liz gave him a small smile. "Okay," she whispered, not trusting herself to speak any louder, scared that her voice might break and she'd start crying again.

Kyle pulled her into a hug again. "Do you want to tell me about your dream?"

Liz shrugged. "I don't really remember much. Only that it was about Alex, and that Tess was there too." She involuntarily shivered at that thought.

Kyle tightened his grip around her. "You know, you didn't have any nightmares at the motel or in the car,” he began, hesitating slightly before he continued. “Maybe it helps if you're not alone. I could sleep on the floor or something."

Liz looked surprised at his proposal, but after a few seconds of stunned silence a small smile appeared on her lips. "Kyle, I thought we've discussed the sleeping on the floor thing. It's ridiculous. This is a king sized bed. There's more than enough room for both of us. And before you ask, no, it wouldn't make me uncomfortable."

"So you agree with me staying here during the night to see if it keeps your nightmares away?" Kyle asked, hoping that Liz would say yes. He hated seeing her suffering like that, totally helpless to take the pain away. It tore him up inside.

"Yeah,” Liz replied. “But only if you really don't mind," she added. She didn’t want to make Kyle uncomfortable, and she didn’t want him to think he had to take care of her 24/7.

"Mind? Oh come on Liz, no red-blooded male would say no to the chance of spending the night in the same bed as such a beautiful young lady as you," he grinned trying to ease some of the tension.

"Dork," Liz said, giving him a playful shove.

But she was smiling again, and that was all that mattered to Kyle.

* * * * *

After breakfast they once again went job hunting, this time checking out some of the other big streets that were a little farther away. Once again they didn't have any luck. They spent the afternoon at the pool this time, having had enough of all the sand the day before.

They were both lying on air mattresses, floating over the water in the pool when they bumped into each other. Kyle grabbed hold of Liz's mattress to prevent them drifting apart again.

"So, what do you wanna do tonight?" he asked.

"Do tonight?"

"Yeah. It's Friday night. You can't not do anything on a Friday night. It's like a holy rule for teenagers to go out at least two or three times per week during their vacation."

"Holy rule?" Liz asked smirking at him. "Yeah, right."

"Yup, holy rule," Kyle replied deadly serious, totally ignoring her sarcasm. "And you know, we decided to explore your wild side, and tonight would be the perfect opportunity to begin with that."

"You decided," Liz shot back.

Kyle shrugged. "Same difference."

"Look Kyle, as...uh...tempting as that offer sounds I think I'll pass. I'll just watch a little TV and then go to bed."

"Parker, I hate to break it to you, but that's pathetic. Come on, it's time we had some fun.” Liz didn’t seem very moved, and so Kyle decided to change tactics and switch to begging. “Please? I don't want to stay at home, and I have no idea where the cool clubs and bars are, and I don't know my way around. I'll get lost and end up having to sleep on a park bench and freeze to death. Come on. Please? I'm begging you."

"Freeze to death? Kyle, it's June and we're in Florida. The only possibility to freeze to death is spending the night in the deep freezer."

Kyle made puppy dog eyes at her and Liz sighed. "Fine. But only tonight. And forget that crap about exploring my wild side, that ain't gonna happen one way or another."

"We'll see about that," Kyle muttered. "When do you wanna leave? Eight?"

Liz let out an exaggerated sigh. "Whatever. And if you'll excuse me now, I have to go take a shower, I still have sand everywhere."

* * * * *

A few hours later Kyle and Liz met in the kitchen, ready to go. Kyle was wearing jeans with a black button-down shirt and Liz was wearing dark green pants and a black tank top.

"So, let's go," Liz said after entering the kitchen.

"Not so fast. I think we should celebrate our first night of pure freedom," Kyle replied.

"Celebrate?" Liz asked, not really wanting to know what Kyle was getting at.

"Celebrate," Kyle repeated while opening the refrigerator and taking out a bottle of white wine, as well as two glasses out of the cupboard.

"Oh...um....Kyle, no, I don't think that would be a good idea. I mean, if we got drunk we'd be sure to do lots of stupid things that we'd probably regret the next day, we wouldn't have any control over ourselves anymore..."

"Liz, nobody said anything about getting drunk. We'll both just have one glass of wine. That won't make you drunk. It'll just calm you down a bit, relax you. There's nothing wrong with that."

Liz hesitated before saying: "Okay, one glass. But not any more."

Kyle agreed and poured them both a glass.

"Cheers."

"Cheers."

They both took a sip, and then everything in front of their eyes started to blur...

[Calinia]

Part 7

Liz slowly drifted back to conscience. Where was she? What had happened? Her head was throbbing and she was incredibly thirsty. She got up to get a drink of water, but a wave of dizziness overcame her and she toppled back onto her bed, landing on something hard. Something that was moving underneath her.

She rolled over, groaning as every fiber of her body protested against the movement, and tried to focus her gaze on whatever it was that was now lying beside instead of underneath her. When she managed to do so she realized that it was Kyle.

What was he doing here? And how had they gotten there? And what the hell was he wearing? Were those leather pants? And since when did Kyle wear tight shirts like that?

Liz would have dwelt on those thoughts a little longer, but the ache in her head made it impossible to concentrate on anything longer than a few seconds. She collapsed onto the bed again, unable to move any more and drifted back to sleep.

What seemed to be hours later she woke up, feeling Kyle stirring beside her. He moved to get up, probably also driven by his thirst, but collapsed back onto the bed groaning.

Liz slowly turned her head to look at him as he did the same.

"Hey," she rasped out.

"Hey," he mumbled, prying his left eye open.

"I don't remember what happened," Liz said, trying to clear her throat.

"Neither do I," Kyle replied, finally managing to open both his eyes. He looked at her, blinked a few times, and then said "What the fuck are you wearing?!"

"Me? What are you wearing?" Liz replied.

They both looked down their bodies only to discover that they were both clad in tight black leather, showing off more skin than could ever be labeled as decent, especially Liz.

"What the hell...?" Liz said, trailing off. Never in her life had she worn clothes like these before. The black leather pants were tight and hung low on her hips, barely covering all of her ass. Her top was also black, made out of a lacy, see-through material leaving the bigger part of her mid-drift bare, and it showed of quite a bit of cleavage. Since when did she have so much cleavage anyway?

She glanced over at Kyle, who was also stunned by what he was wearing - equally tight black leather pants and a tight, black, sleeveless shirt, showing off the muscles on both his arms as well as his chest.

He slowly glanced over at her to meet her eyes, the stunned expression having not yet left his face. "What the hell did we do last night?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Liz replied.

"You..." Kyle hesitated before continuing. "You don't think we did something stupid, do you?"

"Stupid?" Liz asked.

"Yeah. Stupid."

"Oh!" Liz's eyes widened as she realized what Kyle meant. "NO! I mean, come on, we wouldn't do something that...that- would we?" she asked getting scared. What if they had done anything stupid after all?

"Yeah, you're right, probably not," he said, wondering who he was trying to convince - Liz or himself.

"Yeah, and we definitely wouldn't have gotten dressed afterwards again, right?" Liz replied, the rational part of her brain finally kicking in.

"Absolutely," Kyle replied, breathing out a sigh of relief, glad that they had a real reason to believe that nothing had happened between them the night before. "So, what do you think did we do last night?"

"I think I really don’t want to know that," Liz answered, slowly sitting up. Kyle followed her lead and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"OH SHIT!" Liz suddenly yelled.

"God, Liz, not so loud, my head is about to explode, or implode, or whatever," Kyle muttered massaging his temples.

"You- you- you-" Liz stuttered, pointing at him.

"I what?" Kyle asked, slightly irritated.

"You have a tattoo," Liz blurred out.

"WHAT?!" Kyle screamed, making Liz wince this time. "Where?"

"On the back of your neck," Liz answered as it was her turn to rub her temples.

Kyle stood up and rushed over to the mirror, trying to get a look at his neck.

Despite the pain in her head and the rest of her body, Liz started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Kyle asked, his irritation growing.

"You look like a dog chasing his tail," Liz giggled, quickly turning serious again when Kyle glared at her, or at least trying to. "It's impossible for you to look at the back of your neck," Liz explained. “Wait a minute, let me get another mirror." She got up and went into her bathroom. On the way out she grabbed a scrunchie and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

Kyle turned away from the mirror to face her and Liz held up the second mirror so that he could see the reflection of the back of his neck in it.

"Oh shit," was Kyle's reaction. "What the hell was I thinking? And why the hell did I chose that motive? I mean, it's a fucking barcode!" he exclaimed.

Liz shrugged her shoulders, unable to answer any of his questions, before turning around to put the mirror on the bed, and when she turned back to Kyle he was staring at her with his eyes wide open, pointing at her. His mouth kept opening and closing again, but no sound came out. He looked like a fish.

"You okay Kyle?" Liz asked.

"I-You- I-" Kyle stuttered, obviously not capable of forming a full sentence.

"Yes?" This time it was Liz who started to get irritated.

"You have one too," Kyle finally managed to say.

Liz's jaw dropped to the floor. Quickly she grabbed the mirror again to take a look at the back of her neck.

Kyle was right, she had one too - a barcode just like his. What the hell had they been thinking? Okay, that was an easy one. They obviously hadn't been thinking.

Liz sank down to the bed. "My parents are gonna kill me."

"Come on Liz,” Kyle said. “You're almost eighteen. What can they do? And you can always get it removed before we get back," Kyle told her, sitting down beside her. "And we probably did some things that are a whole lot worse than getting a tattoo," he continued.

Liz glared at him, and Kyle quickly said "Just kidding" while putting his arm around her to calm her down a bit.

At the first contact of his fingers to the bare skin of her arm a rush of pictures hit him, overwhelming him. He saw him and Liz walking down the street they had been job hunting the first time, or rather staggering. Them going into a store, picking out their new clothes, and then heading to a place where you could get tattoos as well as piercings.

Kyle jerked his arm away, falling off the bed.

Liz stared down at him. "Oh my God. Those were flashes. Alien flashes," she said hyper-ventilating, panic rising within her. Was Ava right? Had she been changed? Had Kyle been changed too? Did they have an alien part inside themselves due to being healed by Max? Was that alien part starting to come through?

Oh no. This was the last thing she needed right now. One of the main reasons for coming to Florida had been getting away from all the alien stuff in Roswell. But how could she get away from it if she now was part alien herself?

Liz suddenly realized that Kyle had yet to say something. She sank down onto the floor beside him.

"Kyle? Are you okay?" she asked concerned.

Kyle blinked a few times before he focused his gaze on Liz.

Flashes. They'd had some flashes. But humans didn't get flashes. Only aliens did. So why had they gotten them?

"Are we turning into aliens?" he asked, dreading the answer he already knew anyway.

"We're not turning into aliens, Kyle. We're just not...completely human any more," Liz said, trying to be diplomatic.

"Great," Kyle said, standing up and starting to pace. "Fucking great."

"Kyle..."

"Shit, Liz - do you realize what that means? We can never have a normal life again. We're trapped in the alien abyss forever." He took a deep breath, trying to calm down, trying to handle this rationally. "Do you think we have any powers?"

"I don't know. Probably. Now that you mentioned it, our tattoos seem to have healed pretty quickly. A little too quickly."

"You think we helped along with a little alien magic?"

"Well, I'm not an expert on tattoos, but I do know that the skin is pretty sensitive the first few days, and red. And I think they should scab over after a day or so. But we don't have any of those things. Ours look like they're at least a few weeks old and not just a few hours. Turn around and let me see yours again," Liz said.

Kyle did as he was told and Liz studied the back of his neck. She brushed over the tattoo lightly with her fingers. "Does that hurt?"

"No."

She did it again, this time applying a little more pressure. "What about now?"

"Nope."

She scratched over it lightly with her nails. "Now?"

"Not really. Guess we did use a little alien magic to heal 'em. Can all the aliens heal?" he asked, realizing how little he actually knew about them.

"Little things, yes. Only Max can do the big stuff though."

"So you think we can heal little things too?"

"Probably. Just like we can probably change the molecular structure of things like they can. And they of course all have their individual powers."

"Do you think we'll have one of those too?"

"Maybe. Maybe we'll also have powers none of them have. I don't know. I'm not exactly an expert on these things." She paused a moment before asking "Do you think we should tell them?"

"No," came Kyle's immediate reply. "It's not like they can help us anyway. We should figure out what we can do on our own first before we tell them anything."

Liz hesitated. If they told them now Max would probably insist that she come back right away or even come to Florida himself, and seeing him was the last thing she wanted at the moment. And Kyle was right. It wasn't like the podsquad had any experience with humans turning into aliens anyway. They wouldn't be able to help them, at least not much.

"Okay. Let's not tell them, at least not yet," Liz said.

Kyle sat down next to Liz again, and they stayed like that for a few minutes, both lost in thoughts of their own. It was Liz who broke the silence.

"You know Kyle, I think it's really important to find out what exactly happened last night. To make sure we didn't do anything stupid or dangerous, like using our powers in front of someone else."

"Yeah, you're right,” Kyle agreed. “But how?"

"I don't know," Liz said slowly, obviously just coming up with an idea.

"What?" Kyle asked.

"I just thought of something. When we touched the first time we got flashes from last night. Maybe we can get more flashes if we connect."

"Connect?" Kyle asked confused.

"Yeah. You can sort of see into the soul of another person. See their memories, their feelings. Max did that with me right after he saved my life, to show me that he was still the same person," Liz explained.

"Okay, let's give it a shot. What do I have to do?"

"Just turn to me and cup my face with your hands, like this," Liz said, demonstrating what she meant. Kyle followed her lead and did as he was told.

"Okay, now look into my eyes and just try to let your mind go blank."

Kyle did just that. After a few minutes he was about to give it up when he was suddenly sucked into Liz's mind. He saw images of her childhood fly by, her being shot, her time with Max, he felt her pain as she left him to his destiny last year outside of the cave, her confusion when Future Max showed up, the agony of having to hurt Max like that, her fear of what would happen if she told Max the truth, keeping her from doing just that.

The next series of flashes almost made him keel over in pain - Alex's death, his funeral, nobody believing her about it not being an accident, her search for the truth, Max's insulting behavior towards her, seeing him with Tess, finding out that Tess was pregnant and that they were leaving the planet.

He wondered briefly how she could bear it all before the next row of images assaulted his senses. He saw their trip to Florida through her eyes, the strength she drew from his present, arriving in Palm Beach, Liz breaking down at the beach, the nightmare she had the next night, her getting ready to go out the night before, them meeting in the kitchen, drinking the wine, walking down Main Street together, Liz pulling him into the leather boutique, picking out her outfit, then going on to get the tattoos, choosing the motive by blindly pointing at one, getting it done, then going on to find a bar. The last thing he saw was a neon sign that read "Jaded".

The connection broke and Kyle and Liz drew apart breathing heavily. After a few minutes of trying to catch his breath Kyle asked "What did you see?"

"I saw everything. Your childhood, the time after your mom left, us dating, the year until you got shot, the time afterwards, our trip to Florida and last night."

"What was the last thing you saw?"

"Hmm. I think it was a neon sign. Something that started with a "J", but I don't know what it was."

"Jaded?"

"Yes! Exactly. You saw it too?"

"Yup."

"Anything after that?"

"Nope. Do you know where that is?"

"No idea. It's probably a bar, but it must be new. It wasn't here last year as far as I know."

"So, what do we do now?" Kyle asked.

"I don't know. We should go there again tonight. Maybe we'll remember something, or get some flashes or something."

"Okay. Liz, do you actually remember last night now?"

"Not really. I just know what I saw through the flashes. It was like I was watching someone else, you know, like that person wasn't really me."

"I know what you mean,” Kyle told her. “God I'm thirsty. I'm gonna go and get myself a glass of water."

"Yeah, bring me one too. While you're at it, why don't you bring the whole container up?"

"Sure." Kyle went down to the kitchen, grabbed two glasses and the canister of water before heading back up to his room. They both stilled there thirst before Kyle said, "I'm gonna get some more sleep. I feel like I was hit by a truck."

"Yeah, me too," Liz told him.

"Wanna stay here?" Kyle asked.

"Sure. But I'm not gonna sleep in these leather pants. It's uncomfortable as hell."

Kyle cracked a smile at her. "If you have the urge to undress don't let me stop you."

"Very funny," Liz said as she started taking off the pants. Kyle did the same before he crawled into bed beside her. Within minutes they were both asleep.

[Calinia]

Part 8

A few hours later Kyle slowly drifted back to consciousness. He felt better than before, but still not exactly great. He was however hungry, which he knew from experience - lots and lots of experience - was a good sign. Glancing over at a still sleeping Liz he decided to go downstairs and make them some sandwiches. It was already early evening and they had yet to eat something that day.

He got up, drank another glass of water and left the room quietly as to not wake Liz up and crept down into the kitchen. After preparing the sandwiches he grabbed a few pieces of fruit out of a bowl on the kitchen table as well as a box of chocolate chip cookies - Liz's favorite - out of the cupboard and placed it all on a tray which he then proceeded to take up to her room.

Liz was already awake and sitting up in bed, drinking a glass of water, when he came back with the food.

"I made us some sandwiches," Kyle said. "You hungry?"

Liz nodded. She hadn't realized it till then, but she actually was.

Kyle set the tray down on the bed and sat down across from Liz. They both grabbed a sandwich and started to eat in silence. When Liz was half way through with hers Kyle already reached for his second one. They then continued with the fruit - Liz ate an apple, while Kyle had an apple, a banana and an orange. After polishing off the fruit they both grabbed some cookies. Due to the sandwich and the apple, Liz had enough after two or three of them, but Kyle kept right on eating until the box was empty. Liz only stared at him. The amount of food Kyle could eat still amazed her.

"So," he said once he was finished.

"So," Liz echoed.

"Well, what should we do know?" Kyle asked

"You mean about...?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"I don't know. Maybe we should try out what we can do," Liz suggested.

"Yeah, maybe we should," Kyle replied, not sounding all too sure about it.

"Okay, um, what do you wanna try?"

"Well, I don't know. What do you wanna try?"

"I don’t know. Maybe change the color of something?" Liz suggested.

"Okay. Go ahead," Kyle said, not wanting to go first.

"Okay," Liz said taking a deep breath.

Liz grabbed one of the throw pillows lying on the bed and placed her right hand over it. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the pillow, imagining it turning from white to blue. After a few minutes she opened her eyes again. Nothing. The pillow was still white.

"It's not working," she said, not knowing if she should be relieved or disappointed.

"Well, just try something else," Kyle suggested. He took a pencil of his bedside table, broke it in two and handed it to her. "Try to fix it."

Liz wrapped her hand around the two pieces holding them together. Once again she concentrated, trying to fuse them together again, but to no avail. Nothing happened.

Liz was ready to give up when Kyle suggested trying one more thing. He stood up, filled a glass with water and handed it to her. "Try to heat the water up," he said.

"Heat it up?"

"Yeah, heat it up. Like Isabel always did at the Crashdown when she thought no-one was looking."

Liz took a deep breath. She took the glass, closed her eyes and concentrated. But again, nothing happened. She opened her eyes and sighed. "Maybe we just don't have these powers," Liz suggested. "Maybe a little healing is everything we can do. Or maybe we didn't even heal it. Maybe it just healed quicker cause of the alien part in us."

"Yeah, maybe," Kyle said, sounding almost disappointed.

Hadn't he just been ranting about being an alien a few hours ago? Men! They never knew what they wanted, Liz thought, shaking her head. "So, do you wanna try anything?" she asked him

"Why not?" Kyle said, picking up the broken pencil. He tried mending it back together like Liz had, tried changing the color of the cushion, tried heating up water, but he too failed at all three tasks.

"You know what, Liz? We should just give it up for today. Forget everything that happened and go out tonight and have a good time."

Going out and having a good time seemed to be Kyle's solution for everything.

"Yeah, cause that turned out to be such a great idea the last time," Liz replied rolling her eyes.

"Without alcohol this time. We could hunt down that bar we saw when we connected. You know, make sure that we didn't do anything funny there."

"Yeah, that's probably not a bad idea. It might help us remember last night. And maybe we'd even get some flashes from there."

"Okay, great. Let's get ready. What do we need? Money, car keys, driver's license, also cause we need an ID... an ID... Wait a minute. If “Jaded” is a bar, how did we get in there? You have to be at least eighteen to get in, if not twenty-one."

"You're right," Liz said, standing up and rummaging through the purse she'd had with her the night before, looking for her driver's license. "Here it is," she said when she finally found it. "Oh shit."

"What? What is it?" Kyle asked jumping up, grabbing the card from Liz's hands.

"Oh. Shit," Kyle said.

"Glad that you agree with me," Liz muttered.

Kyle ignored her, still staring at the card in his hand. There it was. Liz's birth date. Or rather, not really her birth date. The ID clearly said that Liz was already twenty-one. Kyle new a lot about fake ID's, and this one was perfect. Too perfect. There was no way that normal human teenagers could ever make fake ID's looking so real. Especially not if they're totally pissed. No, normal humans surely couldn't do that. Humans with a few alien traits on the other hand were a different story all together.

"Guess we were wrong about not having any powers, huh?" Liz said.

"Obviously. And this also proves that we knew how to use them when we were drunk. So if we remember last night..." Kyle trailed off.

"...we'll probably know how to use them," Liz finished. "Well, let's get ready to go out then, huh?"

"Yeah. So what are you gonna wear? I think that new outfit of yours is really..."

"I advise you to not finish that sentence," Liz said with a stern look on her face.

Kyle held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay," he chuckled and went over to his room to take a shower and get dressed. Tonight could definitely turn out to be interesting.

* * * * *

Half an hour later they met down in the kitchen and then headed out to Kyle's car and started searching for the bar. After about twenty minutes they found it. It was only a few blocks away from Mandy’s house and close to the beach.

Kyle parked the car, they got out, headed over to the entrance and after showing their ID’s at the entrance went inside.

Both looked around, hoping to recall some of the events that took place here last night, but remembering nothing. Liz sighed, disappointed at the lack of recognition, and fallowed Kyle over to the bar.

The sat down and waited for the barkeeper to come over and take their order. When she did Liz ordered some orange juice, determined to stay away from anything that reminded her of Roswell, and that included Cherry Coke.

Kyle on the other hand ordered nothing, he was obviously too busy staring at the barkeeper.

God, someone dangles a pair of breasts in front of a guy’s face and his blood immediately leaves his head to go and supply more ‘important’ body parts with it. Liz rolled her eyes, and when he still hadn’t broken out of his daze a few seconds later she elbowed him in the ribs, almost causing him to fall of his bar stool. He caught himself before he actually landed on the floor and quickly ordered a Coke for himself, stumbling over the words, clearly embarrassed about being caught staring at the girl like that.

When the barkeeper was gone to get their drinks Kyle glared at Liz. Leave it to her to spoil the moment. When the girl had come over to take their order he’d glanced into her eyes once and immediately lost himself in them. They were large, liquid pools of the clearest blue and with certainty the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. Who would have been able to help themselves and not stare?

Liz obviously. And then she had to go and almost push him off his seat. What was she thinking? Did she have to publicly humiliate him?

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Liz said. “I didn’t mean to shove you off your stool.”

“It’s okay,” Kyle said, instantly forgiving her. Who could ever be mad at Liz for longer than three seconds? And they had more important things to worry about at the moment anyway.

“So, do you remember anything?” he asked her in a low voice after glancing around to make sure that nobody was close enough to hear them. It was scary how quickly the paranoia of being watched became part of your daily life.

“No. Absolutely nothing. I can’t believe it. I was so sure that this would somehow trigger a memory. I mean, what are we gonna do now? We don’t remember anything that happened. We don’t know how to use our new-found abilities. And the fact that we have them in the first place means that our lives are in danger too, even more than before when we were just on the outside of the whole thing. I mean, if the government finds out about this we’ll probably turn into their number one target since we’re no longer just associates of them – we’re one of them now. And what if we did something really dangerous like exposing ourselves last night?”

“Liz calm down. I know exactly how you feel. I mean, when we came to Florida I was hoping that we’d finally be able to get our lives under control again, to just be the normal teenagers we should have been all along. And now we found out that that would never happen, that the running and looking over our shoulders might never stop. And believe me, it scares the shit out of me too. But we’ll just have to try and deal. It’s not very probable that we did anything stupid last night to expose ourselves, especially since there haven’t been any consequences till now. And if we’re patient I’m sure we’ll remember everything, or figure out how to use our freaky little powers be ourselves. Okay?”

“Okay,” Liz replied, relieved that she wasn’t in this alone, relieved that Kyle actually kept his cool when she couldn’t. Future Max had been right. Kyle was definitely turning into a great person.

“And for now we’ll just enjoy a nice evening out having fun, without wasting another thought at the four-square or any of that stuff. You game?” he asked her with a mischievous grin.

“I’m game,” Liz replied, a smile of her own playing over her lips. How did Kyle always do that, making her feel better with a few words, or a smile, or even just by being there with her? She didn’t know, but in that moment she couldn’t have cared less. She was just grateful for having him there with her when she needed a friend more than ever before.

But the smiles would have very quickly left their faces had they known that somebody had been listening to every single word they had spoken since entering the bar.

[Calinia]

Part 9

Liz and Kyle did indeed spend a nice evening at the bar. They chatted about the most shallow, unimportant things they could come up with, played pool and didn’t waste another thought at the aliens, Roswell or their new abilities. Around midnight they headed back to Kyle’s car to drive home again.

Liz walked upstairs behind Kyle, suddenly wishing that they’d stayed at the bar a little longer. She dreaded going to bed, dreaded going to sleep. She knew what that would mean. The nightmares would come back.

Kyle had offered to stay with her during the nights, but she wasn’t sure if that offer was still standing. And she didn’t want to ask Kyle about it. She didn’t want to talk about her nightmares, didn’t want to remember that she had them in the first place and even less what caused them.

When they reached her bedroom Liz hesitated to go inside. She didn’t want to be alone. She didn’t want Kyle to leave her side.

But since she didn’t want to ask him to stay, going into her room was the only possibility. She changed into her PJs, and brushed her teeth. After washing her face she started brushing her hair. She knew it was stupid, but she wanted to put off having to go to bed as long as she could. She was scared of going to sleep. Scared of the dreams returning to haunt her.

Just when she couldn’t think of anything else to do there was a knock on her door. “You decent?” she heard Kyle ask.

Liz breathed out a sigh of relief. She didn't have to be alone after all. “Come in,” she said.

Kyle opened the door, but he hesitated to actually come into the room.

"What's wrong?" Liz asked.

"Nothing," Kyle replied quickly. "I just, um, well..."

"Yes...?" Liz asked raising her eyebrows at him.

“You know we talked about us sleeping together, and I just wanted to let you know that the offer is still standing. But if you changed your mind that’s okay too. I don’t want to do anything to make you uncomfortable so-“

"I'd love you to stay," Liz said interrupting him. She got into bed and moved over to the other side. Kyle slipped in beside her and turned off the light. They curled up next to each other, only their fingers touching, and within a few minutes they were sound asleep.

* * * * *

Kyle and Liz were laying next to in each other in Liz's bed, fast asleep, their fingers still touching...

"So, let's go," Liz said after entering the kitchen.

"Not so fast. I think we should celebrate our first night of pure freedom," Kyle replied.

"Celebrate?" Liz asked, not really wanting to know what Kyle was getting at.

"Celebrate," Kyle repeated while opening the refrigerator and taking out a bottle of white wine, as well as two glasses out of the cupboard.

"Oh...um....Kyle, no, I don't think that would be a good idea. I mean, if we got drunk we'd be sure to do lots of stupid things that we'd probably regret the next day, we wouldn't have any control over ourselves anymore..."

"Liz, nobody said anything about getting drunk. We'll both just have one glass of wine. That won't make you drunk. It'll just calm you down a bit, relax you. There's nothing wrong with that."

Liz hesitated before saying: "Okay, one glass. But not any more."

Kyle agreed and poured them both a glass.

"Cheers."

"Cheers."

They both took a sip, and then everything in front of their eyes started to blur.

Liz started giggling uncontrollably, pointing her finger at Kyle and almost falling off the bar stool she was sitting on.

"What's so funny?" Kyle demanded indignantly after finishing off his glass of wine in one big gulp.

"You...you..." Liz said in-between giggles. "You're double!" she finally spit out, going into hysterics.

"I am NOT double,” Kyle insisted. “You're drunk! What a wussie. Parker, you really disappoint me," he said standing up, only to fall back into his chair. "Okay, why is the room suddenly spinning?"

"The room isn't spinning you dork. You're drunk!" Liz squealed before a fit of giggles once again took over.

"I am not drunk. I don't get drunk from one glass of wine," Kyle insisted. He stood up again and took a few steps away from the table. "See, not drunk," he said.

"Yeah Kyle, whatever," Liz said rolling her eyes at him. "You can still walk. That proves a lot."

"I am not drunk Parker. You're drunk."

"Can't argue that," Liz giggled. "Come on, let's go."

"Okay," Kyle said, grabbing his keys from the counter.

"What do you think you're doing?" Liz asked placing her hands on her hips.

"Taking the car keys? Unless of course you wanna short-circuit it," Kyle replied.

"Kyle! You can't drive. You're drunk!"

"Parker, I am not drunk, okay. I only had one glass of wine. Trust me, it takes a little more to get me pissed."

"Yeah, right," Liz replied, grabbing the keys from his hand. Kyle lunged at her, trying to get them back, but ended up losing his balance and almost falling flat onto his face.

"You know what Parker? Let's walk," he said.

* * * * *

Liz was walking down the street where they had first gone job hunting next to Kyle, looking around for some place they could go. Had this part of the city been so boring last year? She couldn't remember. Last year she hadn't exactly been looking for fun.

"So, what do you wanna do?" Kyle asked her.

Good question. What did she wanna do? Go back to her aunt's house and crawl into bed to lick her wounds and drown in self pity? Go to Roswell to make Max pay for hurting her so badly? Go to Antar to kick that stupid bitches ass?

No. She was here to get away from all that crap. She was here to have fun. She was here to experience new things. She was here to meet new people. Normal people. She didn't want to brood all the time. She didn't want to be sensible all the time. She didn't want to act responsible all the time.

She wanted to just seize the day. She wanted to enjoy herself. She wanted to become the person she used to be. Take risks. Be open. Be happy.

But she knew she couldn't go back. So she had to go forward. Move on. Let herself grow.

"I wanna change."

"You wanna change?"

"Yeah. You were right you know?"

"I was? I was! With what?"

"That we should use this opportunity to do things we couldn't do back in Roswell. I am sick of being Ms. Goody-Two-Shoes. Of being perfect little Lizzie Parker. I want to explore the other side of me. Will you help me?"

A huge grin spread over Kyle's face. "You bet I will. So what's the first step?"

Liz looked around, and then down herself. "I am. If I want to change on the inside I have to change on the outside first.”

“Makes sense,” Kyle agreed.

“Come on, let's get me some new clothes," Liz said, dragging Kyle along with her.

After a few minutes she suddenly stopped, causing Kyle to barrel into her, almost knocking her over.

"Sorry 'bout that," he muttered. "Why did you stop?"

But Liz didn't reply, she was too busy staring into the display of a shop.

"Woah there Liz. Isn't that maybe a tad too wild?"

"No," Liz replied, still staring at the display. "It's perfect."

* * * * *

Liz was standing in front of the mirror, admiring her new outfit. It had taken her nearly an hour to find, but it was perfect. Exactly what she'd had in mind. She was wearing tight black leather pants that hung low on her hips, so low that she had to be careful to not give people a free show whenever she bent over. Her top was black too, made out of a lacey, shimmering, see-through material. In the front there were two layers to provide the minimal required level of decency, but in the back it was only one. It ended good two inches above her navel and showed off her cleavage. You couldn't wear a bra underneath it but the way the top was cut you didn't need one anyway. It made you look like you were wearing a push-up bra. Perfect.

"Kyle, will you finally hale your ass out of there?" she asked, clearly annoyed.

"Liz, I am not wearing this. I look like I'm gay."

Since Liz had decided to get herself a new outfit she figured that Kyle should too. Kyle however had not come to the same conclusion and had refused to look through the stuff in the store, and so Liz had simply picked out some clothes for him. She had forced him to try them on by threatening to tell the football team about his new-found spiritual awareness in Buddhism, but so far all her attempts to get him out of the changing room had failed.

"Okay Kyle, you have five seconds to get your cute little ass out of there or else I'm gonna start undressing right here in the middle of the store for the whole world to see."

Kyle was out of the changing room before she had even finished the sentence.

"See Kyle, that wasn't so hard now was it?"

Kyle only glared at her. Then he looked her over. "What the hell are you wearing?!" he exclaimed.

"Clothes. What do you say, wild enough?"

"Clothes? Liz, that's not a top, that's a tissue."

"Wild enough," Liz stated, nodding. "And I don't know where your problem is, you look great."

"No I don't, I look like the leather fetishist from the Village People."

"Kyle, trust me, you do not look like that. You look hot. Wait, I'll prove it to you," she said. A girl just came out of one of the changing rooms and Liz went over to her. "Excuse me, could I ask you something? Do you think that guy over there looks hot?" she asked pointing at Kyle.

Kyle was mortified. Had Liz lost her mind? The girl seemed to be embarrassed herself judging from the way she blushed, but she smiled at Kyle and told them that he did indeed look hot, blushed some more and quickly left.

"See? I told you so," Liz said, clearly very pleased with herself.

"You're nuts Liz!"

"Maybe I am. But you know what? I love it," Liz replied with a huge grin on her face.

When had he seen Liz so happy the last time? He couldn't remember. And if it made her happy to have him wearing these clothes, then he would do just that. He sighed. "Come on Parker, let's pay for this stuff."

"You'll wear it?" Liz asked excitedly.

"Yeah, I will, now let's get out of here before you have some more crazy ideas."

Liz squealed, jumping up and down, and threw herself into Kyle's arms. "Thank you," she whispered.

After paying for their stuff they headed to the exit when Liz once again suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, causing Kyle to once again barrel into her.

"What is it now?" he asked, already dreading the answer.

"Look," Liz said.

Kyle followed her gaze. She was staring at a tattoo and piercing studio that was a part of the shop. Oh no. What was she up to now?

[Calinia]

Part 10

“Liz, tell me it’s not what I think it is,” Kyle pleaded with her.

“Kyle, this is perfect! Getting a tattoo is the ultimate bad-girl-act.”

“Liz, this just isn’t you,” Kyle said, trying to reason with her.

“That’s exactly the point. The Roswell-Liz would never have done anything like this. But you’re talking to the Florida-Liz. And Florida-Liz is gonna get herself a tattoo like the good bad-girl she is.”

“Look, uh, Florida-Liz, I think Roswell-Liz will have a problem with having a tattoo when we go back home. As will Roswell-Liz’s parents, don’t you agree?”

“Yeah well, Roswell-Liz can go to hell. She’s messed up my life enough already. Now it’s my turn.”

“Okay Liz, I think you’re taking the whole "let's pretend to be schizophrenic"-thing too far. How about we agree on there only being one Liz?”

“But Kyle, I don’t feel like there’s only one Liz. Ever since we came to Florida it’s like I’m a totally different person. The person I could have become if that whole alien-shit hadn’t been dropped on me. It’s like I’m finally free from it all. And that’s just the most amazing feeling in the world.”

“And if you already feel free, why is getting a tattoo as an act of liberation necessary?”

“Because so far I only feel like I’ve escaped the alien abyss. Now I have to free myself from the prison I built myself with my goody-two-shoes image.”

“Liz, I’m drunk. Can you try to be a bit less philosophical?”

Liz rolled her eyes at Kyle. “Come on, let’s get ourselves some tattoos,” she said, dragging him along with her.

“W-w-wait. What exactly do you mean with ‘ourselves’? You mean ‘yourself’. I’m not gonna be a part of this. In fact I think I’m gonna wait outside,” Kyle said turning around to leave.

He only got a few feet away when Liz’s voice stopped him. “Wimp.”

Slowly Kyle turned around. “What did you just call me?”

“Wimp,” Liz repeated, challenging him with her eyes.

“I am not a wimp!” Kyle insisted.

“Yeah, whatever you say,” Liz said turning around and starting to walk towards the tattoo parlor, a smirk on her face. Kyle was so predictable.

“Hey, I am not a wimp,” Kyle repeated following her. “I just don’t want my dad to disinherit me. And I might get thrown out of the football team. I can’t risk that.”

“Kyle, those are just excuses. You’re dad would never disinherit you just because of a tattoo. And if you don’t want to get thrown out of the football team, just get the tattoo in a place that the coach won’t ever see. It’s as simple as that. But I think that the real reason for not wanting a tattoo is that you’re scared. And you know what? That’s okay. Everybody is scared of something. In your case it’s pain. That’s no biggie. Just because you’re a guy doesn’t mean that you can’t have your shares of fears. And it's really wrong of me to try and force you to get one if you're scared. So maybe you should really wait outside.”

Kyle just stared at Liz at first. Scared? Of pain? Him? No way! “No way! I am notscared of pain, okay? It’s just a tattoo. I could handle that.”

“Kyle, really, it’s okay,” Liz said, trying to suppress the smile fighting to break free, “You don’t have to pretend with me. I understand. I don’t think you’re any less a man because of it.”

Okay, now she’d gone too far. Kyle grabbed Liz’s hand, dragging her along. “You think I’m scared of a little pain? You’re nuts. And I’ll prove it to you. We want tattoos,” he told the guy behind the counter.

The guy looked them over skeptically. “How old are you kids?” he asked them.

“Twenty-one,” Liz replied, not batting an eyelash.

Kyle looked at her like she'd lost her mind. Hmm, maybe she had.

“You got an ID?” the guy asked, clearly not believing her.

“Sure,” Liz replied, digging her drivers license out of her purse. Kyle once again looked at her as if she'd gone nuts. He knew exactly that her ID didn’t say that she was twenty-one, so why bother showing it to the guy?

Suddenly something caught Kyle’s eye and he glanced down at Liz’s hands. Clutched tightly in them was without a doubt her driver’s license. But that wasn’t what had caught his attention. There was a faint blue glow coming from her hands.

Kyle blinked a couple of times, sure that he was seeing things, but he wasn’t. Liz’s hands were glowing.

As fast at it had come, the bluish light disappeared again and Liz handed the guy her driver’s license. She then dug into the back pocket of Kyle’s leather pants and got his wallet out. She repeated the process with Kyle’s ID and also handed it to the guy.

The guy studied both IDs carefully, but couldn’t seem to find anything wrong with them. He handed them back to Kyle and Liz, got out a few folders and books and put them on the counter. “Chose a motive and tell me when you’re ready.”

“Okay,” Liz replied after pocketing her ID again.

Kyle also took his ID back. What had Liz done with it? Had she changed the birth dates on their driver’s licenses? And if so, how? Kyle glanced at his ID, but his vision was so blurry that he couldn’t make out anything clearly.

He sighed and put it back into his wallet. He’d have to find out what just happened in the morning when he had his senses back together.

“Shit,” Liz suddenly cursed. “I can’t make out any of the pictures.”

Kyle glanced at the folder she was going through. She was right. Everything was blurry. All the images looked the same to him.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to come back another time,” Kyle said, secretly relieved that he wouldn’t have to go through with it. He was sure that Liz would change her mind when she was sober again.

“Why? We’ll just have to trust out instinct when it comes to picking our tattoos,” Liz said.

Kyle groaned. “Why don’t I like the sound of that?” he muttered. “Care to elaborate that?”

“We’ll just pick them blindly,” Liz replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She closed her eyes and pointed at on of the pages. “Come on Kyle, don’t be such a spoil-sport. Just point at one.”

Kyle sighed and did just that.

”We’re ready,” Liz told the guy. He came back over to them and looked at what they were pointing at. “Good choices. Those seem to be the newest trend. Where do you want them? Most people get them on their necks."

“On their necks? That’s an interesting place. I think I want mine there. What about you Kyle?” Liz said.

“Sure, whatever,” he replied.