Hey guys, sorry that I didn't post on Friday. Things were a little crazy. Anyway, here's the new part. I hope you like it and won't kill me for the ending.
http://www.mediafire.com/?f9ymwggsuxk
Part 9 Look at You (Screaming Trees)
2005 (Continued from before)
Roswell New Mexico
Liz could not remember when a long hot shower had felt so good. She had stood in the hard spray for a while and let the water rinse the dirt and muck off of her before she shampooed her hair and washed her body. Then she had done it again just to be sure she was clean. She was glad that they had an industrial size water heater otherwise Dean would have been stuck with a cold shower. When she was done, she toweled herself off and pulled on a pair of gray yoga pants and a T-shirt and ran her hands through her hair, using her powers to dry it before she emerged from her bathroom.
Dean was no where to be seen yet so Liz picked up a couple of blankets and the bottle of whiskey and climbed out her window to her balcony. Given the fact that it was the middle of the night, the air was not overly hot and it was very quiet with all the surrounding businesses closed up for the night. It was so quiet that Liz could hear Dean as soon as he pushed open her door and she yelled to him to let him know where she was.
Dean squeezed out of the window easily and out onto the fire escape that he knew had always been Liz’s haven. “Wow, I haven’t been out here in forever. It looks a lot smaller then I remember.”
“No, you’re just bigger.” Liz stated.
Considering it had to be around a decade or so since he’d been on the fire escape, Dean knew she was right. She still had lights strung up on the brick, a couple of tables and something that looked like something that used to be a lounger lawn chair. “What happened to that thing?”
“Um, it kind of melted.” Liz explained as she looked at her old lawn chair. She’d been out on her balcony with Kyle when Sheriff Valenti had told her about her parents and she had lost control of her powers. “I’ve been meaning to fix it or get rid of it but haven’t taken the time to do it yet.”
Dean could see that Liz was holding something back about the chair, which he found odd. “Strange that it melted considering that its made of metal and all. Did a fire bomb go off up here or something?”
Liz bit her lip for a minute as she thought about what to say. After everything, she just couldn’t lie to Dean any more about her powers. “I did it. After I found out about my parents, it just kind of happened.”
“What are you talking about?” Dean asked confused. How could Liz just happen to melt a metal lawn chair?
Liz grabbed the bottle she had brought out, took a long swig out of it before she handed it to him. “Here, sit down and take a few drinks of this first. You might need it.”
“Oh, if you’re giving me alcohol, this can’t be good.” Dean stated as he took the proffered bottle and took a few shots. He swallowed his last one just as Liz held her hand out towards some candles that had been sitting nearby. She snapped her fingers and a flame burst to life on the each of the wicks on the candles.
“Son of a …I need another drink.” Dean exclaimed before taking another drink of whiskey. “I’ve heard of firestarters before but never actually seen one. Not unless you count Drew.”
“Drew?”
“Drew Barrymore, the movie Firestarter?” Dean answered. “She grew up to be a total hottie, no pun intended, once she got over that coke habit of hers.”
Liz couldn’t help but laugh a little. Comparing her situation with that of a character in a movie, one who was female nonetheless was totally Dean. “I’m not a firestarter, well not like your thinking anyway. It’s just part of what I can do, one of the cooler things actually. The visions suck the most.”
“What? Like a psychic? ” Dean asked curiously.
“Yeah, sort of. I get visions or a flash of something that either happened or is going to happen when I touch someone.” Liz answered. Now that she had told him, she was relieved but it felt weird. “But not everything.”
Dean realized then that Liz hadn’t been suffering from grief alone but guilt that she hadn’t been able to see her parents’ death and be able to stop it. He passed the bottle to her, which she took a long swig from, before he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Hey, it sucks big time. Believe me, I live with it every day. We both seem to have these let’s say skills to help people yet we can’t save everyone. Even those closest to us.”
Liz curled towards Dean when she felt the warmth of his body. “That’s why I melted the chair. I couldn’t understand why I would get visions of something as small as what is in a piece of mail but not see that something would kill my parents. I was so angry and heartbroken that I just kind of erupted. Something like that would have happened earlier too if I hadn’t broken down. It’s either tears and sobbing or I fry something around me.”
“That has to be a pain in the ass.” Dean stated.
“Considering the alternative, not so much.” Liz declared causing Dean to raise an eyebrow in question. “These powers are sort of a side effect, from being healed after I was shot five years ago.”
Before Dean could respond, Liz launched forward with her story. Over the next hour, she told him everything. As she told him about the alien craziness, Liz felt almost as if she was at a confessional. Being able to tell her story to someone on the outside of it but who also knew her so well was very freeing.
And Dean just sat there and listened, occasionally making a comment or taking a drink from the bottle that was quickly being depleted due to the two of them drinking it. The things that he didn’t know she’d been hiding shocked him. He had always envied Liz a bit for her life when they were growing up and now her life was just as messed up as his. “So the little boy I saw with Max...”
“Xander.”
“Xander is actually his and Tess’s son who was born on another planet but who he is now raising by himself because she gave herself over to the Air Force?” Dean verified.
“Yeah.” Liz replied as she looked up at the stars that were twinkling above. “Max was going to give him up for adoption even had his dad arrange it but they didn’t even get to the airport with Xander before Max called them and said he couldn’t do it. So they brought him back to Roswell and made a deal with Max so that he would move back in with them and he and Xander would live there until Max graduated high school. Things between him and I after that kind of cooled off. He was trying to learn how to take care of his son and I got my acceptance letter to Northwestern. We still loved each other, slipped up a couple of times as a matter of fact but things just couldn’t go back to how they were. We’re still friends, good friends even and Xander is a sweet little boy.”
“Out of everything you told me, the image I can’t get out of my head is of you being a bad girl, robbing a convenience store and ending up in handcuffs.” Dean stated before a grin appeared across his face when the picture his words described appeared in his head. “On second thought, I think I’ll keep that image filed away.”
Liz just shook her head as she lightly punched his arm. “We didn’t rob it…technically.”
“You weren’t already planning the heist when you had me teach you to shoot did you?” Dean asked.
“No. That was for genuine protection. Of course knowing how to handle a gun did come in handy while we were in there.” Liz explained. “And I felt better working late at night in the café knowing I knew what to do with the gun Dad kept there.”
“What is going to happen now to the Crashdown?” Dean asked trying to change the subject.
“Honestly, I don’t know. Even with all of the extra work I’ve done, I still have until the end of summer so I should go back. But this restaurant, in one form or another has been in my family for four generations and I can’t just let it go. I’m going to talk to Maria and Michael about it tomorrow. They’d been working with my dad as kind of co-managers when needed so I could leave it in their hands until I finish school.”
“Maybe if I’m in Chicago, I will swing by.”
Liz rolled her eyes. “Yeah right, I’m not unleashing you on campus full of college girls. Do I look stupid?”
“Hey! I’d behave. Well if I had to.” Dean admitted.
Pulling her eyes away from the sky, Liz looked at Dean. “So what about you?”
“What about me?” Dean asked.
“I’ve been sitting here spilling all of my secrets and you haven’t said anything about your life. About hunting or anything. Come on; tell me how things have been with you.” Liz clarified.
“Well I’m still alive so I must be doing something right.” Dean answered and was surprised when he started talking about what he’d been doing the last few years. He told her about various jobs that had been tricky, different dives where he had hustled money out of especially stupid people and about life on the road.
“What about women?” Liz asked. “I mean I know that Sam used to talk about how you’d pick up girls at bars and stuff but then what? Are they just a stop on the map or do you go on dates?”
“I don’t know if you’d call them dates so much as one-nighters. There’s no point in getting any closer.” Dean lied, trying not to think about Cassie.
Liz stared at him for a minute before saying anything. “You’re lying.”
“What?!” Dean exclaimed.
“I said you’re lying,” Liz repeated. “And before you ask, no I can’t read your mind or anything like that although I can if I have to. I can just tell that you are lying. It’s written on your face. I’m guessing that you got close to someone and it didn’t work out. Am I right?
Dean opened his mouth to dispute what she said but instead said, “Her name was Cassie. I met her about a year ago while I was working a job.”
“Was she part of the job?” Liz asked, and when Dean shook his head no, she understood. “So she didn’t know what you really do for a living?”
“No, she didn’t. We dated for a few weeks then I had to leave town, she broke up with me, and I left. End of Story.” Dean stated.
“You were in love with her.” Liz stated as she studied his face. “Don’t argue I can tell by how uncomfortable you are that you cared about her. Did you think that maybe if you had explained to her exactly why you had to leave that she would have been more understanding?”
“Here’s the thing, I did tell her.” Dean snapped. “I told her everything and she didn’t believe me. She thought I was nuts. That’s why she broke it off with me. I left and haven’t heard from her since.”
“Oh.” Liz said feeling bad that she had pushed. “Well she’s pretty callous if she thought you would make up something like that.”
“Yeah, well it was stupid to tell her.” Dean confessed.
“But you shouldn’t lock yourself away just because of one bad experience.” Liz said trying to cheer him up. “Look at me, I know and I haven’t run away screaming.”
“You’re…different.” Dean declared thinking of how true his statement was. Liz had always been there for his family. She cared about them and like her parents, and was there when they needed them.
“I take that as a compliment.” Liz said with a smile.
“You should, I meant it as one.” Dean stated. “But I still think most women are going to see me as a good looking guy sitting at the end of the bar to take home at night.”
“You’re more then that, Dean. And some day, you’ll find someone who sees you like I do. A sweet, funny guy who would do anything for those he cares about especially his family. And she’ll be lucky.” Liz said as she leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss on Dean’s cheek, right at the corner of his mouth.
The feel of Liz’s lips and the feeling that accompanied them his surprised Dean. The kiss was such a small thing but so warm and comforting. And something more that he couldn’t put his finger on. He looked at Liz, who had not backed away, and saw that she had felt it too. Then before he realized what he was doing, Dean brought his hand up to cup her cheek and to bring her lips back to him, this time to his lips.
Yay! So I thought I'd come and give you guys a new part.