Long Lost Sister (CC,TEEN) Part 3/3 Feb 28 2009

[Chrisken]

Title: Long Lost Sister
Disclaimer: I didn't create 'Roswell', I didn't make it a TV series, I didn't originate any characters or plots from the show -- I'm just adapting them.
Series information: #5 in Kismet Unchained.
Pairings: Isabel/Alex, Kyle/Tess, Liz/Max, some Michael/Courtney.
Category: Alien Abyss for the above M/C content. Drama/Fluff.
Rating: Teen
Summary: When hosting Houston dupes, Max and Isabel run into a serious complication with the family.
Author's note: Since I've been asked for this, Kismet Unchained is back. This is just a little piece to warm me up for 'War and Peace and Politics.' Hope you all remember the previous parts of the series:

Kismet unchained so far: (Titles are links.)
Not Written Yet.(corresponds to 'End of the World')
Husk Funeral. (corresponds to 'Harvest')
The Big One. (corresponds to 'Wipeout', kinda.)
Pieces of Eight. (corresponds to 'Meet the Dupes')

Part One

Max was woken out of a fairly decent dream about Liz by the door bursting open and footsteps entering. For a long moment he was too disoriented by the sudden transition from dreaming to waking to be clear even about where he was, but once he was with it enough to see Alex Whitman standing over his bed, wearing old grey sweat pants and a nervous smile, he wasn't really surprised or confused about the circumstances. Alex hadn't come into his room first thing in the morning like this before, but he'd been half expecting it, had even been told of the possibility by...

"Situation details?" he croaked automatically. "Err, I mean..."

"That's okay, your majesty," Alex said, with his best disarming chuckle. "I think that your mother had a somewhat uncomfortable night, and - well, Isabel thought that she was likely to..."

"Right," Max said, cutting off any more of the explanation, and making the usual tamping down gesture to suggest that Alex should try to moderate his volume. (The guy tended to be highly excitable even in calm moments.) "What about D... oh, right," he whispered a moment later. Dad was off in Phoenix, working as special advisor in an important case about the bankruptcy proceedings of some big dot-com corporation, and he probably wouldn't be back for days. Well, if it was only Mom to worry about, then Isabel's plan was probably sound - if she wanted comfort or companionship, Mom would come to Isabel, and nobody would likely disturb them before Max could work out an escape plan for Alex. Hmm...

"So, umm, what do we do now?" Alex asked, with an apologetic nod to Max.

"Nothing very loud," Max replied, pulling himself slowly up into a sitting position, taking care not to let the bed creak. "I... I want to hear if there are more footsteps outside."

"Okay, right." Alex gradually sat down on Max's desk chair himself, and the two of them fell into a not-that-awkward sillence. Max started thinking, as he often did lately, of all the things that had recently turned his comfortable life in Roswell on its side - one of which was his sister and Alex becoming nearly inseperable and prone to keeping company in bedrooms together - which was why he'd had to come sneaking out into his. Sigh. But then there was heightened levels of alien responsibility and danger, unexpected lookalikes, and...

Liz, of course, made any awkwardness or threat pale away in comparison. After a long summer apart, and about a month in which she'd been struggling to keep him at arm's length, the two of them were 'Max and Liz' once again. Not quite as close and 'cemented' as Alex and Isabel were, not for lack of some sensitive trying on Max's part, but he was content that that kind of intimacy would come at its proper time. Even Tess had come to terms with the fact of their reconciliation, mostly because Max and Liz had encouraged her to find out if she had a true love of her own... and the first candidate for that position looked like it was Kyle Valenti.

"Any word from... Michael and our new friends?" Alex whispered, clearing his throat slightly.

"Umm - yeah, actually. Michael called last night, said they'd probably get here around four AM or some horrible time like that." Max checked his clock radio - it read ten minutes to seven. "We could probably swing by his place before first class."

"What if all three of them are asleep?" Alex asked.

Max shrugged. "I wouldn't suggest waking them up on purpose, but there's no real harm in checking to see if they're not." Alex nodded, and was about to reply when Max shushed him.

Footsteps, outside Isabel's room. A quiet knock - and Mom was let into Isabel's room. Max hurried to slip on jeans and sneakers, throwing Alex a t-shirt and some old shoes that he didn't wear too often. Alex gave him a funny look, perhaps wondering why Max was dressing so quickly and getting ready to leave - and really, Max had no reason to slip out of his house, the same way that Alex did, but he was seized by a desire to do just that. They could go over to Michael's apartment together, and if nobody was awake there, then maybe they'd go to a coffee shop and have breakfast together. Max could ring Liz, but not quite this early, and they'd figure out how to meet as soon as possible today. Oh, right, he'd better grab his cell phone, if he wanted to call anybody after he left home...

The escape from Evans house actually went very smoothly, and almost entirely without incident. Once Max had pulled the Jeep out into the street and driven away, Alex turned to face him from the passenger seat. "So, just didn't think I could hack it out in the big wild world all alone today?"

Max had to chuckle at the way he'd put that. "Come on, man, how would you even have gotten home? Or to school, or wherever. It's not a short way, and I didn't see your Dad's car parked anywhere around. My darling sister was in the driver's seat last night, wasn't she?"

"In more ways than one," Alex blurted out, and then caught himself a moment too late, realizing how that would probably affect Max. "Err, I mean --"

"Yeah, I think I know what you mean," Max said, "but we should never speak of it."

"Okay, then changing the subject - just why IS high school so far away from home for you?" Alex asked. Max made a sound that betrayed the surprise he had at such a question. "I mean, there are other schools in town than WEST Roswell High - and you guys live right on the east side of town, as far away from it as possible without... without I'm-not-quite-sure-what. But - well, you wouldn't even be in Roswell High district, but..."

"Wilburn High," Max said, sighing slightly.

"Okay, that. So why?"

"Well, my Dad managed to find some special program that he could get us transferred on, because he thought that it was the best school in the area," Max said. "Something about geographical diversity program."

"Oh - figures," Alex said.

"What about Liz?" Max asked. "She's downtown - she should be Roswell High."

"Haven't *you* ever asked her about that, soulmate Max?" Alex put in, laughing, and refused to say any more about it.

----------

Michael's apartment door was ajar when they arrived, and Max just shrugged once before stepping inside. Sam was sprawled out on the couch, (it still confused him to see his own face with that sandy brown hair framing it,) and across the living room, Sondra was snoozing on a metal cot that Max had never seen before. Max looked over at Alex, who shrugged, and pointed over towards the door to Michael's room. Max shrugged too, and led the way over.

The bedroom door was ajar as well, and Michael was sprawled over the bed, wearing a dark blue t-shirt and matching boxers. A slightly familiar slender figure with straight blonde hair was sitting up next to him, and nudged him in the side a little with her knee when she recognized the newcomers. "Hey, Guerin, your friends are here."

"Hello, Courtney," Alex said, with an awkward smile on his face. Max wondered if Alex was still a bit upset at Michael having cut Maria loose and taken up with this fully alien girl. "You don't really need to wake him up on our account, we were just dropping by to see if..."

"No, I'm up," Michael groaned, his eyes remaining shut and his body completely prone. "Really." After that, he did manage to open his eyes just a bit. "Maxwell?"

"And Alex, yeah," Max said. "If you want to try to go back to sleep, don't let us stop you or anything, just thought that we'd..."

"No, it's alright," Michael insisted, sitting up, giving Courtney a tight good-morning hug and a kiss on the cheek, and swinging his legs over so that they fell down his side of the bed at the knees. "Sam and Sondra should probably be getting up too, I think. Do you want to go grab breakfast at the Crashdown or something?"

"Maybe somewhere a little bit less conspicuous," Alex suggested. "Where people won't notice Max's identical twin so readily, or spot Sondra and wonder if Isabel really changed her hairstyle a lot."

"Hmm... yeah, that's a good point," Courtney put in as Michael considered. "Coughey's shoppe?"

There was a short silence. "Yeah, that will probably work," Max said. On one level, it seemed to be tempting fate to be seen anywhere in public, here in Roswell, with Sam - but he didn't want the guy to feel like a pariah now that he'd come to Roswell. At least their hair color was different enough that it would tend to disguise the facial similarity unless somebody was really paying a lot of attention.

It was really quite a long time before everybody was woken up and ready to go - especially since there were so many people who wanted to wash up, and only the one little bathroom with a shower stall. Sondra mentioned out loud that she and Sam really needed to find their own place as soon as possible - in fact, she brought up the idea more than once. Even though he hadn't showered that morning, Max didn't make a point out of insisting that he get a chance before they left, though Alex did spend a lot of time at the sink while Michael was showering - probably washing himself down with a handcloth to save time.

And nobody did pay much attention to the six-person party when they arrived at Coughey's shoppe and started ordering. Max had gotten the full stack of blueberry pancakes, which came with Quebec maple syrup for some reason, and also a honey cappucino and a fruit salad on the side. Liz showed up when he was around halfway through, because he'd called her over from Michael's place once the destination had been settled on.

"Hehe, it's good to see you, Max," Liz said as he hugged her hello, "but not so much to smell you. Whoops, um - didn't mean to say that quite so loud." Looking into her smiling face, Max couldn't get too mad, even when Sam started snickering, but he excused himself to use the bathroom stall, and there quickly cleaned off every trace of dirt and unpleasant scent that he could find, and made an attempt to synthesize something close to his favorite cologne. Liz didn't comment as he rejoined the company, but favored him with a bright smile. He couldn't immediately tell if that was because she appreciated the change or just her way of apologizing for being less than delicate and subtle before. As much as he loved her, sometimes Max and Liz's rapport still fell distressingly short of 'unspoken understanding.'

"So, umm, what do the two of you want to do now that you're here?" Liz asked Sam and Sondra. "I guess, like Courtney, you won't need to worry about attending school, so you'll have a bit of free time when most of the rest of us are tied up there."

"Not sure, I have to admit," Sam said. "Getting a job might make sense, if I can keep it low profile. I'm having a hard time getting out of the war mentality, to be honest."

"We should at least keep up monitoring patrols," Courtney insisted. "Jack Brennan might have blown away all the Skin agents who were gunning for you guys in Houston..."

"And himself," Alex put in quietly.

"Well, yeah. And the rest of the Copper Summit husks are probably dying by now. But those aren't the only enemy aliens here on Earth. And if they're going to make a move, then it makes sense to attack BEFORE this big Conference. Keep us from attending, if we can."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Sondra agreed. "And speaking of the pow-wow, there's a lot that we'll need to brief you on, and decisions to make, before anyone leaves for Denver." She sighed slightly. "But that'll have to be mostly outside of school hours, I suppose."

"Yeah," Liz agreed, and then turned to Michael. "Have you seen Maria yet?" She noticed Courtney, sitting next to her guy, stiffen, and then realized that the question might seem like a second instance of tactlessness. "Um, sorry, I just mean..."

"No, I get it," he said gruffly. "But no, I haven't - I didn't want to call on the homestead in the middle of the night just to tell her I was back around. Amy mighta bitten my head off, literally." Alex chuckled weakly at that possibility. "She doing okay?"

"In terms of what happened - with Brody Davis? Yeah, more or less," Liz said sofly. "Still pretty shaken up about what might have happened - and she overreacted when Isabel used her powers the other day." She paused, weighing whether to go into more details on that, and then skipped it for the time being. "Also, Nicky really told her off for missing the gig, and they're on a unilateral break now. Sort of adding to the injury, you know."

"What? He thought it was her fault??" Michael demanded, outraged. "Didn't somebody think of telling him that she was - I dunno, that she'd gotten mugged or something? I realize that we couldn't speak of the whole truth, but - a carefully managed partial truth..."

"I did think of that," Courtney said softly. "Or maybe Tess mentioned it first, I can't remember. She flat-out forbade it. Didn't want that kind of deception to rescue her relationship. I don't know what she told him, herself, or if she even tried to explain."

"Oh, boy," Sam said, and Sondra shot him a look. "Well, not our worry yet, I guess. Has anything else interesting been going on?"

"Not sure what would be interesting to you," Alex admitted with a bit of a cheerful tone. "Pam Troy got suspended yesterday at school, but - nahh."

"Oh, come on," Sondra insisted. "What did she do, and do we like her or hate her??"

"Hate her, definitely, she totally had it coming," Liz put in. "Small-time mean girl bully with delusions of Queen Bee grandeur. Apparently she went too far at the Harvest Moon ball and ripped two other girl's dresses in the bathroom, punched one of them who tried to do it back to her. Took a while for the victims to actually come out and testify, but..."

"Wait a second, the Harvest moon ball?" Courtney put in. "The same one that I showed up for, and Nicholas and the other Skins crashed?"

"The very same," Max told her. "But the party isn't just about us and what we went through." Sondra laughed at that, and Courtney made an upset face.

"Okay, what else?" Sam asked, and it was a long time before anybody else spoke.

"Pass the marmelade, please?" Liz asked.

-------------

At that time, Maria, Kyle, and Tess were all sitting down to eat at the Crashdown. This meant, of course, that Maria wasn't on shift, just showing up as a customer. It was a bit odd, she had to admit, that she was choosing to spend time with that particular couple instead of going out looking for - well, for Liz and Alex. But somehow, she suspected that they would be with Michael, and Maria felt like she was in no mood to see them after her rebound guy had emotionally imploded on her... or whatever it was that Nicky had done. (Exploded, actually, might be the better term.) She wasn't even sure why she was convinced that Michael had arrived in Roswell, aside from the sterile fact that his ETA had come and gone. The certainty deep inside her spoke of other reasons, but she wasn't sure what those might be and didn't really care at the moment.

Besides, the fact was, Maria had grown closer to Kyle and Tess while the rest of the gang had been off in Houston, and she didn't mind admitting that fact to herself. (She'd also come a very little nearer to understanding Courtney, but that was a seriously complicated thing - not only because of Michael/Courtney hookupage, but because it was the mission to find Courtney's missing friend-of-a-friend that had nearly made Maria walk into getting her brain wiped by a secret enemy mole...)

"Hey, have you reached mental orbit yet, or can I drag you down?" Kyle asked wryly, and Maria smiled at him for a brief moment before reaching out to pick up the bottle of honey and pour some over her waffles. "Were you thinking about he who we shall not name?"

"Among other things," Maria admitted. "Including - well, how glad I am that we've sort of become better friends lately. I... I really needed someone over the past few days, and though Liz tries hard, she's so wrapped up in the Max thing that..."

"Hey, those tunnel vision times come and go in any relationship, I think," Tess admitted. "Certainly did with us." And she shot a very fond look over at Kyle. "Something will happen that'll let Liz see the world outside of her no-longer-star-crossed love life more clearly, and she'll once again be the best friend who you can share everything with. In the meantime, I'm happy to pinch hit for her. Surprised a bit, I admit, but happy."

"Yeah," Maria said.

"Maybe she and Evans need to just do the nasty, and get waiting over with," Kyle said. Tess turned around to look closely at the guy she was sitting next to. From across the table, Maria raised an eyebrow. "Oh, come on. That wasn't just a guy thing. At least one of you was thinking it too."

"Not me," both girls sang out automatically, and started to laugh when they recognized the unison of it. "Okay, umm, moving on to something a little bit less controversial, umm..." Maria said, and then ran out of conversational steam and took another bite of waffle.

"You should come up to the conference, Maria," Tess said suddenly. "I'm not getting left behind again, myself, and - well, you said that you had to go out on a field trip sometime soon to keep your membership in the 'aliens inc' club in good standing."

"That - that was before the Harvest dance," Maria pointed out. "Getting chased out of the school Gym by an Antarian Skin and having to get my butt saved by C and he-who-I-shall-not-name... doesn't that get me renewed for another two months at least?"

"Hey, come on, that was pretty light stuff compared to what SOME of us went through that night," Tess pointed out hotly, and then deflated a bit. "Well, I guess it's up to you. Sort of a different thing, when you just get mixed up into alien weirdness that's happening here on home turf, and when you're willing to ride the bus out to the away games."

"Maybe I'm n... oh, I don't know," Maria admitted. "For Max, and Isabel, and you Tess... I'd go if there seemed like a good reason, something that I could help out with, you know? Like - well, I do think that I accomplished something by poking into Court's mystery, even if I bit off more than I could chew. Brody's been unmasked and he's run away from Roswell."

"Woulda been nice to actually catch the bugger," Kyle muttered under his breath.

"Yeah, even so," Maria shot back. "But really - what would I do at some alien peace conference?"

"None of us know what will be expected of us," Tess put in reasonably. "So it makes sense to take as many friends with different perspectives as we can. You're not a bad negotiator, your own self."

"Hmm..." Maria sighed, not able to come up with a counter-argument to that on the spur of the moment. Head bent down over her breakfast of plate, she didn't see the newcomer who towered over her until after she'd spoken.

"Hey guys. Umm... have you seen Alex this morning?"

Tess smiled while Kyle was shaking his head. "No, hi Isabel, we haven't had the pleasure. Sort of expected that he was with... Alex and Liz, and maybe those we were expecting back late last night."

"Hmm. Could ya slide over, Maria?" Maria looked up and gave Isabel a tired glare, but that bounced off as Isabel turned her Ice Princess facade on momentarily, and Maria made a big sullen show of moving over to the far interior of the booth table. She wasn't quite sure why Isabel's arrival had gotten her into a bad mood - ever since the two of them had come to terms, not long after Maria and Liz had found out the secret, she'd liked the tall, elegant girl alright. (Well, no, that wasn't quite true - they'd continued to butt heads somewhat for months, mostly because they were each protective of Michael in their own ways, but...) Was it because Maria had found a particular kind of security in being alone with Kyle and Tess, and the arrival of anyone else would change the dynamic?

"So, I tried over at Michael's, and nobody was there, though - well, the beds were unmade, smelled kind of fresh, and not in the pleasant way. Shower was recently used, too," Isabel said, grabbing the menu that was propped up against the wall, against the unexpected arrival of new friends like this. "So - well, I thought that they might have come here."

"Beds?" Kyle clarified. "How many?"

"Two beds, including one that I don't think Michael had before he left, and the couch," Isabel put in. "So I'm guessing that S and S spent the night there."

"Might not have wanted to come here, then," Tess pointed out. "Max and yourself are both long-standing regulars, right?"

"Well, not sure if I'd say long-standing about myself," Isabel admitted. "A little more than a year of recurring visits, something like that..." Tess sighed loudly. "Okay, I do take your point. Where else might they have gone?"

"Coughey's." This time, it was Kyle and Tess who spoke their answer at the same time, and each started laughing - Kyle with a deep and hearty chuckle, Tess giggling in a squeaky way that was somehow irritating and faintly endearing at the same time. Maria shot Isabel a sidelong look, and got a puzzled glance back.

"Yeah, that does make some sense," Maria had to admit.

"What about Coffees?" Isabel had to ask.

"No, it's - well, I'm not going to make a point of spelling it out or anything," Kyle said. "Coughey's shoppe. Out on the west side, near school. It's been a hangout of mine for a while - and I guess that the rest of the gang's heard of it, except you."

"Oh, whatever," Isabel said, and then did a double-take. "What makes you think I wasn't spelling it right in my head?"

"I don't know... not the pronunciation, more the attitude," he said off-hand.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean it?"

"You didn't know WHAT we were talking about, and so anybody who doesn't know the place wouldn't know how it was spelled," Kyle said. "That's all. They'd think we meant coffees the drink."

"Okay, well..." Isabel sighed. "How would someone get there from here?"

"You're going to leave us, after all that?" Tess said. "Come on, stay for a Crashdown coffee at least."

"I... I just want to see Alex as soon as I... wait a second, that's a little excessive." Isabel shook her head, and then reached behind her to grab the coinpurse that was slung over her shoulder, fetching out a small coin. "Alright, heads is looking for Alex, and tails is staying with you jokers, how about that?"

"Sounds more than fair," Maria muttered, still feeling that she would rather Isabel did leave them alone, though she wasn't sure if she should, and knew that Tess at least didn't have the same attitude.

"You don't think that flipping a coin to pick your breakfast companions is excessive, or weird?" Kyle asked. Isabel just withered him with her best glare, (much better technique than Maria's own attempt occasioned by Isabel's arrival,) and spun the penny in the air above the table. It bounced off at around a forty degree angle, between Kyle and Tess' heads, and there was a cry of surprise from the next booth over in that direction.

"Hey, what gives?" From the voice, and what little Maria could see, there was a group of younger boys there, probably in their last year of junior high.

"Just flipping it to decide something," Isabel called over to them. "Did it land fair?"

"Yeah, sure. Before I saw how - what were you deciding?" Kyle chuckled at that response.

"Whether I stay here or go somewhere else."

"Okay. It's heads." By this time three different junior high boys had taken their turns to speak up.

"Then I'm off." There were disappointed sounds from the boys table at this - and Tess joined in at this point. Kyle was laughing out loud. "Keep the penny, and thanks." With that, Isabel took off for the front door of the dining room.

One of the little boys, a tall fellow with dark brown hair falling down around his neck, poked his head well above the seat between their booths, looking their way. He stared off in Isabel's direction for several seconds, (or possibly the direction of her bottom,) and then noticed Tess and Maria. "So, how're *you* ladies doing?"

"I've got dibs on Tess," Kyle immediately put in, grabbing her hand in his. Tess' eyes went round from shock, but she couldn't keep a smile from starting to form on her face at the same time. "The pretty girl across from me is a free agent, so you can try your luck, but fair warning: she's in a sort of grouchy mood, and her ex-boyfriend called her high maintenance."

Maria shook her head and mimed shooting a bit of something off her fork at the newcomer, who shrugged and sat back down.

------------

It was fourth period by the time Michael caught up with Maria, which was her lunch hour. The word 'caught' is picked deliberately, since Maria had, to a certain extent, been trying all day to keep one step ahead of her ex, not looking forward to the meeting. But fourth period was NOT Michael's lunch hour, and he'd been more diligent than usual about making it to classes when no alien danger was imminent, so she hadn't expected the chase to continue at this point, and was quite surprised to look up from her plate of spaghetti and meatball and see him standing over the table.

"So you ditched on English just to get this over with?" she asked a bit lazily.

Michael looked around the table, where Alex, Isabel, and Max were keeping Maria company. "Um, not quite ditched, no. I'm abusing the hall pass, I'll admit that much." And he briefly flashed the authorization in question, which would indeed attract some attention here in the cafeteria. "But I did want to talk to you myself."

"Why?" Maria flared. "You could have been back home in Roswell, and talked to me days ago, if it was that important. But you sent Liz ahead to check on me for you, while you schlepped back on the interstate with your new friends. So it's pretty obvious just how important I am to you. And I know that Liz has made her report. So what else is there to say?"

For a second, it seemed that Michael would flare up into an angry response of his own, and one of the great Michael/Maria fights could ensue at that point, like the old days. But he just took a long breath. "I... I'm sorry to hear about you and Nicky. Do... do you think that there's any chance you'll work it out."

For a long moment, that just earned him a frosty glare from Maria. Then, finally: "Maybe, but if so, it'll still be none of your business."

"Maybe. I wish you the best of luck, whatever that means for you." And then with a nod to his other friends at the table, he turned and jogged towards the cafeteria door.

"Now, I won't say that he definitely didn't deserve that, but... man, that was pretty cold," Alex opined without being asked.

"I'm... huh. I was going to say 'I'm sorry,' but I'm not - except that you had to be around if it was uncomfortable at all," Maria said. "Oh, who am I kidding - of course it was uncomfortable for all of us. But... I'm sorry, I'm just fed up with dealing in Michael's garbage. If coldness - or the heat of anger - is what keeps me from getting sucked in again, then that's all fine by me."

"Be careful with the heat of anger part," Max said. "I mean, I thought for a moment that if he started shouting back at you... that something might happen."

"Well, yeah," Isabel agreed. "You guys always did have the 'keep shouting louder until somebody can't resist the passion' dynamic going on. Like Xander and Cordelia on Buffy."

"Oh, great, that makes me Cordelia Chase?" Maria joked.

"Not necessarily," Alex put in. "Though Michael isn't really the high-maintenance drama queen either... umm, err?"

"Question, Maria," Max put in. "If we need you to... to work with Michael, to be around him without making things difficult on anybody, do you think that you can..."

"Oh, right," Maria said. "Tess suggested that you might want me along for the conference."

"Yes, or as close as we can bring you," he said. "Sam suggested that getting more than four people into the actual negotiations might be tough."

"And you're not going to leave Liz out, not for anything," Alex guessed.

"Not on your life," Max insisted. "No offense."

"Well, if it's really for the best of... everybody, then yeah, I think I can keep it together, your Majesty," Maria insisted. "I'm not happy with Michael right now, but like I said... I'm not letting him get to me, and I guess that means not going to extremes to stay away from him. The investigating team of Guerin and DeLuca is on hiatus, though."

"Understood - we wouldn't ask you to collaborate that closely with him," Isabel said. "And I think that you've got your pick of new partners. Everyone seems to have made a point of mentioning how impressed they were - with the Brody thing."

"Oh, yeah. Except for the little bit of going with him into his office BEFORE I figured it out." Maria sighed. "Even Michael warned me not to do something foolish - and I laughed him off, said that was his department."

"You weren't being deliberately reckless, just - unlucky," Isabel put in. "I did say we needed to do something about Brody, and then let you talk us out of it."

Max turned to look at Isabel - shocked, and then noticed the teasing smile on her face. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," he laughed along. "I know - but... but it seemed like a believable alibi at the time, and then - I guess his innocence started to become a given instead of reasonable doubt."

"Yeah, I get that," Alex agreed. "As new evidence about the Skins came in - what they were like and what they were capable of, if we'd really looked at Brody he'd probably have started to look fishier." He turned back to Maria. "But you were the only one who realized it."

"That's me," Maria agreed quietly. "Okay, enough of this stuff. Isabel, did you get a chance to see last week's Creek?"

"No - have you got the tape?" Isabel shot back with a grin. Max rolled his eyes and sighed slightly.

------------

"Hey, how's it going?" Sam said, stepping out from behind a tree as Max, Liz, Isabel, and Alex walked away from the school grounds at three thirty. The four of them had driven to school together after breakfast, (after a side trip to return the car that Isabel had gotten to Coughey's in,) and had just been in the middle of discussing plans for the afternoon. Max looked around in alarm, trying to figure out if anybody who mattered had noticed anything about Sam, and by the time he had reluctantly turned back, Sondra was also in their presence. "Have you guys got some time? We wanted to go into a few more specifics about the Conference."

"I thought you said you didn't really have any more specifics yet," Alex said guardedly.

"Well, that was then," Sondra put in. "Quite a few days ago. And more info has just come in, over the wire, as it were."

"From where?" Liz asked, her eyes glinting with a spark of excitement. Max pulled Liz close to him and started walking on, slow enough that everybody could follow them. After a moment, Liz nodded and began matching her stride to him. They probably *would* attract less attention walking in a rough clump, instead of talking while standing still in an even rougher circle.

"Friend of Brennan's, in Californi," Sam said offhand. "Human, but he knows quite a bit about alien comings and goings on Earth. Makes a point of not picking sides, and cultivating himself as a useful information relay and mediator."

"Interesting," Isabel put in. "Where in California? Los Angeles? San Francisco?"

"No, I can see how you'd think is was one of the big cities, but he lives in some back-of-nowhere mountain town, that I can't even remember the name for more than a minute, because that's how small it is," Sondra rattled off.

"Maybe you need to train your memory," Alex put in, feeling Isabel bristle. "Even things that might seem unimportant can be important to memorize."

"It was a figure of speech," Sondra grumped.

"Okay, back on track," Max said insistently. "What did mister relay have to say?"

"Preparations are already starting in the Denver area for our Conference attendance," Sam answered him.

"Started by whom?" Liz asked, her voice steady. "Skins?"

"Yes, but not Kivar's," Sam continued. "I didn't realize that there were others kicking around, but apparently Taliernan agents are doing the legwork here."

"Are they neutrals?" Isabel said. "I'm trying to keep things straight."

"Not... really. I don't think that there's anybody who's neutral, and in terms of the Kivar/Liaret struggle, I think that Gevina would probably be the closest to disinterested. Taliernar is slightly on Kivar's side, if anything, but mostly they just want the fighting to start because they're getting other factions blowin' each other up on Tali territory."

"Yeah, the planet Taliernar is mostly rainforest, right?" Alex asked Sam.

"A lot of it."

"Well, that makes some sense. The forest dwellers always catch the worst hell of a war."

"Huh?" Sondra asked.

"Never mind, he's probably quoting Douglas Adams or something," Isabel explained tolerantly. "So Gevina is neutral, Taliernar and Breoll are sort of with Kivar, and Rahlicx is sort of with..."

"Hold that thought," Max advised his sister softly, and she looked up at him, only slightly peeved at being interrupted. "Where's your ride, guys? We won't all fit in the Jeep."

"No ride," Sondra put in. "I mean, it's back parked near Michael's. We had enough time to walk over here, figured we'd get to know the territory from the boots up as it were, and..."

"And we didn't think you'd be lacking for wheels," Sam admitted. "Sorry."

"Actually, maybe we can swing it," Alex said, brushing a bit of Isabel's hair back.

"No, better not," Max said. "And - well, it probably shouldn't be just the six of us, even though we're more than enough from a logistical point of view. What about Michael and Tess, at least?"

"Michael's got shift right now," Liz said. "And so does Maria, come to think of it, which might mean some trouble. I'd been thinking of going to grab a cherry coke and be on hand in case they needed a mediator of their own... but this is more important."

"Hey, Tess?" Liz turned around to see if Tess had actually come upon them unexpectedly, but no - Isabel had been speaking over her cell phone, apparently too impatient to wait for the end of Liz's explanation to finish before she'd dialled. "Listen, are you doing anything much? Besides that, sheesh..."


Tess dropped Kyle off at the central high school on the way, grumbling about not getting to watch her boyfriend play on her first opportunity since they had become a semi-public couple. She'd also given Isabel and Alex a ride over to the Evans house, and soon all seven of them were gathered around the living room to continue the conversation.

"Let's see, where were we?" Liz asked. "Sam, you had mentioned that Gevina Skins were starting to organize things in Denver, and... and I think that got us side-tracked."

"Hey, sue me if I'm interested in knowing more about the different people we'll be talking to once we get there," Isabel said huffily. "I don't think it was inappropriate."

"No, not really, but everything in its time and place," Max acknowledged. "Sam, was there anything else that you were leading up to?"

"Just that you should probably call these guys directly," Sam said. "They're doing this for your benefit, mostly, and would appreciate the hello before we show up in Denver."

"Why didn't they try to communicate with us on their own initiative?" Tess asked.

"You're kind of unknown quantities, from the Antar cluster's point of view," Sondra explained. "And dangerous. Probably they weren't sure how you'd react, so they've been putting it off, or hoping that somebody else would do the dirty work for them."

"Okay," Max said, nodding. "By now, I almost like to hear that. And yeah, I can pick up the phone, though I may need to be careful so that nobody gets suspicious about the long distance records. You've got a number for me?"

"Yeah, I..." Sam checked his pocket, and groaned. "It must be back at Michael's. Just a second. Tess, can I borrow your wheels?"

"Hey, frere, no need to get it right away," Max protested. "It can wait for later..."

"No, this is important, and I need to make sure that I can find it," Sam explained. "Better now. Sondra can keep explaining things while I'm gone. See you all soon." And after catching car keys from Tess, he hurried out the front door.

"Who's there?" someone else called immediately. Max knew that he needed to hurry Sondra out of the room, but panic had frozen him, and as it turns out, there wasn't time after all. Quickly the den door opened, and his mother stepped into the living room. Max had assumed that she wasn't around - her car hadn't been in the driveway or on the street. "Oh, looks like the whole gang, nearly. What's up, people?" After a moment, she did a double-take, looked back and forth between her daughter, and Sondra, a few times, over to Max, and then back to Isabel.

"Who's the friend who looks so much like you, darling?" she asked. "And... is there something else that you need to tell me about your campus visit last weekend??"

"Mom, umm - it's a long story," Isabel hedged.

"I've got nothing but time."

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Chrisken]

Part Two

Before anyone else reacted to break the tableau, Max immediately spoke up, or blurted out. "Mom, I just realized that I need to..."

"No, I don't think that there's anything else you need to do but stay here and talk to me," his mother said in her firmest ever tone.

"Does that apply to all of us?" Tess said. It seemed likely that she had realized the same thing that Max had - that the first step in damage control was making certain that one particular thing didn't happen to make the situation any worse - which was Sam walking into the Evans house without preparing for the consequences of being spotted by Mrs Evans, if he decided to go in at all. One mysterious identical twin could be explained away, though Max was starting to get a sinking feeling at what the consequences of the explanations would lead to. But for him to get a perfect look-alike of his own would strain all possible bounds of credibility on the part of the Evans parents - and anybody else who they might tell about these events.

Diane turned to Tess and considered her. "No, Tess... if you have somewhere that you need to be, you can go ahead. Because you *didn't* take off when the others did, and because you're not dating one of my children - at least, if you and Max have 'hooked up' or whatever the right term is, then I haven't heard it through the grapevine yet."

Tess laughed and took her cue from the older woman. "No, no need to worry about that, I'm still with Kyle Valenti and very happy with him - and trying to keep Max and Liz apart is a mistake that I won't be making again. But if Kyle's going to stay happy with me, then I shouldn't be keeping him waiting."

"Alright." Everybody else watched and waited as Tess slipped on her designer denim jacket, nodded meaningfully at Isabel, and made her way out the front door. Then the silence began to lurk around the room.

Alex was the next one to get up the courage to break it. "I don't know about anybody else, but I'm tired of just standing around the hall here. How about, umm... living room or dining table?"

"I think that it feels like an 'around the coffee table' kind of moment, eh?" Diane Evans said, smiling at the thought and the effort that Alex had put forward to make the scene feel more comfortable. "I can gather up some cokes and a few spicy snacks or something."

"Yeah, thanks Miz Evans," Sondra blurted out. Diane looked at her, as if evaluating the similarity in facial features once again and playing over the voice that she had just heard in her head. Soon enough they were all settled - Max and Liz taking the loveseat, Alex, Isabel, and Sondra sitting in a row on the couch, and Diane looking a bit out of place in her husband's lay-z-boy, neither reclining the backrest or even allowing the chair to rock visibly.

"There's... there's more than one reason we went to Houston together," Isabel said after making a neat pile of barbecue chips on her disposable plastic plate. "I... I'd rather not get into all the details at this point. We - we didn't expect to find Sondra, but Max and I - and Michael, we were following a clue about... about where we came from."

"As in, your real parents?" Diane said softly.

"Well, yeah, that's connected to it," Max agreed. "I... I'm sorry that you had to find out this way..."

"It's alright, honey," Diane told him. "Well, not completely 'alright', but something that your father and I have expected might be coming soon enough. Between the strange similarities in... in how we adopted you guys, and how Michael showed up in foster care - and the fact that none of you have been exactly prone to confiding about your feelings outside your own closely-knit peer groups... I'm glad to see that the roster has been expanding at least. Liz, Alex - I'm not making judgements, but I just want to let you know that your parents have been a little concerned that you're catching 'the secrecy bug' from my own beloved children. Philip and I have had years and years to get used to their antics."

"Right, Missus E," Liz said. "I guess I need to find the time to have at least one good heart-to-heart with them."

"I think that we've already had that talk," Alex put in. "Just day before yesterday, so maybe it didn't make it through the grapevine yet."

"Alright, well enough. Now for the new girl," Diane said, focusing her attention on Sondra.

"Sondra Johns, ma'am," she said, making an attempt to stand up and shake Diane's hand, and spilling some cola on the cream-colored carpet in the process. "Oh, man..."

"Leave it," Diane said. "I don't know what it is about this house, but no stains ever seem to stick around for long." Liz did her best to strangle a nervous giggle, suspecting that it wasn't elves who cleaned the room at night. "I have a lot of questions, Sondra, but maybe it would be better if you told me a little about yourself. Pick whatever you think is most important."

"Umm, let's see..." Sondra hesitated for a long-ish moment. "I grew up in Houston, with... with a great foster father, Mister Brennan, and a few other orphans. Actually, Isabel and some of her friends remind me of my own 'family.' But Mister Brennan... passed on just recently, and the other kids split up, though we're staying in touch. And I... since Isabel found out about me, I thought I'd come to Roswell and see what her home was like."

Diane waited for a moment. "So, did you grow up knowing anything at all about... your parents?"

Sondra blinked. "Some... but, no offense, it *is* personal."

"Oh." There was a moment's awkward pause. "Yes, I guess I can see that, but..."

"Broad strokes," Sondra put in reluctantly, "Mother and father were... were very important people, from far away. When their lives were endangered in - local unrest, they had me sent here as a baby, with sufficient arrangements to be sure that I'd be safe here in America. Or that was the plan at least. Things didn't exactly go as expected, though I don't have any huge complaints about the situation I ended up in."

"Alright." Now Diane Evans turned to Isabel. "Do... do you think that Sondra is your identical twin sister or something like that?"

"I... I'm not sure," Isabel said, threading her way through the half-truth. "Obviously there's a strong family resemblance, but whether we're actually twins or some other connection I can't really be sure."

"I see. Well... well, I guess I should call my husband to let him know something of these developments - and then there's a lot to be done before this evening?"

"A... a lot to be done?" Sondra repeated doubtfully. "Like what?" Isabel was supressing a small smile.

"Like preparing a proper welcome dinner, and making up the guest bedroom." Sondra tried a protest, but didn't get the words out in time. "No arguments, Miss Johns. If you're any relation of my daughter's, then you're obviously enough of family to stay right here. I will *not* have in any other way."

"Seriously, Sondra," Max chimed in. "Arguing with my mom over something like this has never gotten us anywhere."

Sondra sighed dramatically. "Okay then, what's the specialty of the house table?"

------------

By this point, Tess had run into Sam on his way back from Michael's apartment, told him why he shouldn't go back to the rest of the group, and after a few moment's discussion they had agreed to 'hide out' over at the Valenti house. The first ten blocks or so of the drive were quite awkward. Finally, Sam told her, "I'm sorry, I guess I'm still not quite used to this identical clone stuff. You remind me so much of Annie, but there are these little differences in the way you act..."

"Hey, I'm right there with you," Tess agreed. "Keep wondering when Max died his hair or something like that."

Sam chuckled easily. "Okay, well... I guess that spending time together like this will help get over that awkwardness," Sam suggested. "It worked okay with the others, back in Houston. I have to admit, after what I heard about you, especially from Michael - I wasn't quite sure what to expect in person."

"Oh, really?" Tess affected an offended look. "And just what kind of things have they been telling behind my back? I thought that Michael was on *my* side."

"Is it really a you versus them thing?" Sam asked, suddenly worried.

"Hmm? Oh, no, not really, I was just joking around."

"Good. It wasn't that sort of thing anyway - well, not really, anyway. He was explaining all about what Liz and Max have been through to be together..."

"And I was number one on the list of hurdles, challenges, and hardships that they've had to endure, I suppose," Tess agreed. "That one, I guess I deserve."

"Not that you ever did it just to be contrary or to stomp on their happiness, I suspect," Sam told her. "You... you thought that Max was *your* one true love, that the two of you had been born to be together. It's natural that you'd want to fight for him, and to see Liz as the intruder, for getting involved in his life when you hadn't expected him to be spending time with human kids like that." Tess considered that much, and nodded. "And, Liz would indeed see you as the usurper, from her point of view, which would naturally lead to an escalation of rivalry between the two of you, with Max not at all sure where to choose, between his natural affection for Liz, and all of the convincing arguments why you might make the better mate. To me, the only surprising thing is that you've been able to defuse the dilemma together - that Max has made his choice and you're doing okay with it." Sam chuckled again.

"Well, it's not like I had much choice," Tess pointed out. "By the time I figured out what was going on, at the Harvest ball... it was really too late to escalate things. I... I could see it on their faces - Max and Liz's love was a settled deal by then, they'd managed to sort out everything that was keeping them apart, including every trick I'd pulled to draw Max to me. The only thing I'd have accomplished by fighting harder would have been to alienate Max and Isabel - and I didn't want that."

"And then, there was the other guy in your life," Sam pointed out. "Kyle Valenti. I admit, I'm curious about him too."

"Yeah, Kyle is... really something, I have to admit." Tess turned onto her home block. "And maybe you'll get your chance to meet him now."

"Interesting." Sam actually rubbed his palms together in anticipation as Tess parked the blue SUV, and followed her up the driveway to the door, but inside they found, not Kyle Valenti, but his father, quickly putting together a suitcase lunch as he prepared for a weekend afternoon spent in the station getting caught up on the budget.

"Oh, hi Mister V," Tess said breezily. "Kyle not in?"

"Um, no, he left a message, umm, where was that..." Jim scrabbled on the kitchen counter and managed to come up with a post-it note. "He wanted to be very sure that you'd get it, so it's probably a good thing that you came in at this point..." As he handed the slightly gluey paper to Tess, Jim caught sight of Sam. "Oh, hello Max, what's up with the hair..."

"This, uh, this isn't Max," Tess told him. "Sorry, I should have remembered to do the introductions. Sam, from Houston. We, err, we did mention about..."

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Jim said, shaking his head in surprise. "Even mentioned that Sam, and... and Sandy would be coming here to Roswell..."

"Sondra," Sam insisted, but he smiled and stretched out his hand in greeting to the lawman. "Don't let my sister hear you call her Sandy, like out of 'Grease' or whatever. Nice to meet."

"With an o," Tess clarified. "Sondra. Near the beginning, not at the end."

"I just... I guess I didn't realize how similar the faces were," Jim said wonderingly.

"Yeah, we were just talking about that ourselves," Tess told him, and finally made a point of claiming the note. "Sticking around the Crashdown, in case a riot breaks out, with Michael, Courtney, and Maria all on shift. Hmm." She considered that. "Yeah, that's probably a worthwhile application of his time if nothing else is pressing."

"That depends, I suppose, on if he'll do anything productive if the fighting DOES start," Sam pointed out. "If he's just there to spectate..."

"Yeah, good point," Jim agreed. "Well, I've got to take off, see yas."

"Right, bye," Tess said, with a wave. "Hope the numbers aren't too horrible." After Valenti had made his exit, she turned back to Sam. "Alright, that went okay, all things considered. Just thought of something, too late to warn you about it, but you didn't happen to blunder into it."

"Hmm, what's that?" Sam asked, a curious half-smile on his face.

"About Kyle and myself... Jim doesn't actually know about us. I mean, that we're dating, and... and fooling around, and so on."

"Oh, yeah, got it. I'll keep that on the quiet around him, then. But... but do you really think that you can keep him from finding out eventually? He does seem pretty observant. And if he realizes that the two of you, his own son and the girl he welcomed into his home, have been hiding things from him..."

"Yeah, well... that's just it. Oh, should I offer you something to drink? Juice and tabasco?"

"Sure, alright."

"Well... it's because we *are* both like children to him, and the circumstances that follow from that," Tess said as she started pouring out the juice and mixing. "How would you expect any father to react to an announcement like that? In addition to the anxieties and neurotic overreactions that any parent might have when he finds out that a son or daughter is in a serious relationship like that - I mean, you know, adult situations serious..."

"Which would probably be different for the sons and daughters, so there's that double standard which is suddenly thrown into conflict," Sam put in, taking his glass and following Tess to the kitchen table.

"Yeah, that. And the vague hint of psychological incest created by the fake sibling relationship that we've been thrown into. All in all, it's a messy situation, and... and I'm not sure if there's any way to clean it up, once it's come out at all... except for me leaving the house." She sighed. "And... and as much as I'm falling for Kyle, I don't want to have to do that, and where would I go anyway? Moving in with Michael??"

"Yeah, that's tough," Sam said, and took a swallow of his drink, smiling at the combination of sweet and hot tastes. "I guess I hadn't realized how tough it might be to have to live with a human parental figure - even one who knows the truth about you, like Mister Valenti." That set Tess off into nervous giggles. "What?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm just wondering what Missus Evans is thinking of Sondra so far."

It only took a few seconds for Sam to follow the implications there. "You... you think she might have told Son that she's moving in?"

"Well, from what I know of her, it's one reasonable reaction to finding out that her adopted daughter has a long-lost twin sister or something like that."

"Hmm." Sam considered that. "How soon do you think you can call over to get some details?"

"Not yet," Tess said. "Though maybe there's somebody else I can call back first."

----------

Over at the Crashdown, overt fighting had not yet started, but it was pretty easy to sense the cold tensions in the way that Maria interacted with both Michael and her least-favorite fellow waitress. (It didn't help that there were no other wait staff on duty who might have buffered the strain between Maria and Courtney.) As Kyle sat in the front corner booth and kept an eye on things, he did what he could to reassure Maria and lift her spirits from time to time and keep her from exploding over little annoyances, but also felt somewhat constrained to speak politely with Courtney when she came over, which she did rather often considering she wasn't really assigned to his table. Maria did bridle visibly after the third time, and Kyle suspected if Courtney was trying to compromise the other girl's only immediate source of emotional support for no other reason than to aggravate her rival - or perhaps she was trying to needle Maria into a confrontation.

So as he nursed his galaxy fries, and a plutoburger, (which for no reason Kyle could tell, was breaded poultry - that was, he was unaware of any association that Pluto might have with avians or white meat,) Kyle also mulled over some subtle way to turn the tables on Michael's new girlfriend and demonstrate his solidarity with Maria that wouldn't cause a big enough scene to get him thrown out. (Hmm... who would make decisions like that on the spot? There had to be somebody functioning as an assistant manager as long as the restaurant was open, Kyle supposed... and for several reasons it seemed likely to be Maria. So she probably wouldn't order him away as long as he was taking her side, but still...)

While Kyle was still musing on such things, mostly lost in sidetrack, his cell phone rang. Just seeing the home phone number brought a smile to his face, though he did have to answer it with, "Hello, who's calling?"

"Your favorite person in the whole world - or at least I hope so," Tess' soft purr greeted him. "As a disclaimer, or maybe a disclosure, though... I should tell you that I brought another guy here with me."

"Huh?" That did throw Kyle for a moment. "Umm, is he one of the usual suspects?" Not Michael, since he was here, but she might have wanted to talk with Max about something, or maybe even Alex...

"Not so much - he's new to town, though you might have heard something about Sam and his sister..."

"Oh, right, okay." Kyle debated whether to ask more about exactly why Tess was showing Max's clone around, and then decided it could wait a while. "How are you guys doing? Feel like coming down for a... no, I guess that could be awkward, with him in tow. Don't want anybody recognizing the resemblance."

"Yeah, pretty much, though he's waving a 'go on' to me. I'm not sure if I can trust him not to get in trouble on his own, though. How are things going down there?"

"Not too well. Maria's obviously having a tough afternoon, and... well, though I'm doing my best to cheer her up, Courtney keeps chatting with me too. Not flirting or anything, honey," he quickly clarified. "Just... well, I think that she's just copying to piss Maria off, or something like that."

"Yeah, that's one of the oldest tricks in the book," Tess answered. "I think I've actually pulled that same sort of trick... pre-Roswell. Like stealing attention, but it's focused on one other girl - trying to horn in on her friends, her guy, anything that wasn't nailed down."

"Okay, then it's a good thing that you called," Kyle put in. "What's the best way of not letting that routine work with me? I mean, I guess I could just ignore her and pretend I didn't even hear her. That's kind of subtle, and it would get the point across to both of them."

"The marble statue routine? Hmm... yeah, that could work, but I think I have a better idea. What you should do next time is..."

Once Tess had finished giving him instructions, Kyle hung up the phone, waited, and then Maria went on a break, so he talked with her for about five minutes and offered her some of his fries. (He did wonder what he should do if Courtney came up while Maria was there, because Tess' plan didn't account for that, but the other girl kept her distance.) Then, a few minutes after Maria left, Courtney breezed up with a 'Hi, Kyle' and a big bright smile.

"You know," Kyle said, before looking up all the way, "I think you should try talking to Nicky again."

"Huh? Nicky??"

"Oh, what?" Then Kyle made eye contact. "Oh, it's *you*, Courtney. I thought I was talking to Maria..." After a moment, he shrugged, and did his best 'you're excused' wave. "Never mind."

"What the..." Courtney muttered, staring at Kyle with incredulity and not moving from her spot just yet.

Kyle took a deep breath, nerving himself for what might be the hardest part of the whole routine to pull off. Without a single word, he made a more emphatic gesture this time, (though not one of the crude ones that his football buddies might use for emphasis.) Tess had told him that he had to give the impression of royalty thundering 'BEGONE!' while staying perfectly silent and dignified.

He wasn't quite sure how much of the effect was successfully conveyed, but Courtney huffed and walked away, at least. And the smile he got from Maria made the whole effort worthwhile.

------------

When Philip Evans got home later that afternoon, (but earlier than his usual arrival, even when he was working on a weekend,) the house was a bustle of activity. Max was the first person that he saw, trudging down the stairs, with his hair looking slightly sweaty and dust all over his blue t-shirt. "Hey, what's up?"

"Oh, well, let's see... Mom's trying out something thai for dinner - because of the hot sauces," Max said, and his adoptive father chuckled appreciatively. "I've been working on - well, on making sure that the guest room is ready for somebody new to move in."

"Yeah, your... your mother mentioned something about that," Philip said, and gestured Max closer. "She might be content to not ask that many questions, but... well, I have to say that I have concerns. Just how did you find out about... well, about a Houston connection?"

"Concerns?" Max said, taking the question as easily as he could. "Dad, are you worried that somebody's trying to scam us? It's obvious that Sondra and Isabel are related. Just wait until you see her."

"Max, you'd be surprised the sort of things I've heard of, in my job." Philip said with a sigh. "As an outside and admittedly unlikely scenario, that resemblance could have been contrived."

"You mean, that she went through plastic surgery?" Max said, a little too quickly. Probably didn't matter. "No, dad - come on, we'd know if it was a deal like that."

"Just how would you be able to tell?" There was a pause. "And even if there is a real relationship, that doesn't mean that her intentions are completely honorable... or that somebody else might not be manipulating the whole situation for their own reasons. Please, could you just answer my question?"

"Well, let me try and sort it out so that the explanation will make sense," Max muttered, wishing that somebody else were here to help him spin this tale. "I, umm, I wasn't one of the ones who did the finding out..." He hoped that this dodge would actually be helpful and not catch them out in a blatant inconsistency.

"Yeah, okay." Philip waited a second, and then caught himself. "I guess I don't need that many details right now... I mean, I hate to give you the impression that I'm cross-examining you or anything."

"No, it's okay," Max insisted. "Very briefly... Isabel and I have always been interested in unusual stories about adoptions and orphans on the 'net. Sondra was... was trying to find out what might have happened to her parents - she had been given to her foster father when she was around four or five, on the strictest promise that state social services shouldn't be told about her unless there was no way it could be avoided."

"Hmm... yes, that does sound unusual," Philip agreed. "Not the same sort of thing that happened with you, but... what then?"

"We just kind of followed the situation, and - I guess it was Alex who found her social page, there wasn't an obvious link, and she didn't talk about being an orphan there... but there was some of the same background info there. On the second page - Alex saw her picture, and that's when we decided we had to go to Texas."

"And you didn't think about telling your mother or I at that point? We'd... I think we'd have understood and supported you - even if you felt it was something that you'd have to do alone."

Max just shrugged, hoping that his parents wouldn't harp on this. They HADN'T known who they'd find in Houston when they left, but that got much deeper into the barrel of alien worms, trying to explain what they really had known. "Umm, excuse me," he said, and finally made his move to pass Philip by.

"Sure. What time is dinner, and what do you have to do that's more important than getting your own self washed up?"

"Nothing much I guess... just wanted to let Sondra know that she can take a look at her new place - though I think what luggage she brought to town is still... still back at Michael's." (He hoped that they wouldn't insist on driving over after it, in case they spotted Sam - or Sam's luggage - or enough to ask questions about Courtney... or...)

"Right, of course." Philip backed well up against the wall. "Who else is coming to dinner? Are Liz and Alex anywhere about?"

"Yeah, Alex was helping Izzie and me with the cleaning, and Liz was chatting with Mom as she cooked," Max said. "I think that Michael may be invited over as well. You know, a nice little intimate get-together, just family."

"Right, seriously," Philip said, his eyes rolling. "Which doesn't include Tess, this week?"

"Umm... did it ever?" Max said, turning back to blink in surprise. "I mean, Tess is a good friend, and I was spending a lot of time with her when classes were first starting, I have to admit." He looked at his father for a second. "Are you trying to imply, without asking, the question of if Tess and I were dating?"

"And what if I were?"

"I guess I'd just ignore it and make you ask," Max quipped, and disappeared out the doorway to the front hall.

Philip considered for a moment, then headed up towards the guest bedroom. He got more than he had planned on seeing on his arrival; his daughter Isabel and Alex Whitman kissing very enthusiastically, with the young man's hands... well, they were above her clothing and technically still in the 'back' region, but close to the small of the back and not very far from... "Oh, umm, I don't think..." he muttered, and backed out of the doorway area.

"Huh?" Isabel exclaimed. After a moment, her voice continued. "Dad? It's, umm... it's safe to come back, I'm pretty sure."

"Not entirely sure I can get that picture out of my head so easily as long as the two of you are in the room," Philip said ruefully, but he stepped up to where he'd been standing before anyway. Taking the hint, Isabel stepped through the doorway to meet him with a properly innocent hug and a girlish kiss on the cheek. Alex also tried to leave the scene of the crime, but there wasn't enough room for him to get past without squeezing his body past Isabel's, which obviously didn't seem like a good idea at the time.

"So, when did you get home, Dad?" Isabel asked with a bit of forced cheer mixed in with a natural good mood. "Meet up with Sondra yet?"

"No, err, I went towards the landing when I got inside, not quite sure why, and talked with Max on his way through," he told her, leading Isabel out of the way to let Alex get into the hall. This brought him into the doorway opposite the guest bedroom, which was the small office that he used for the briefs that he brought back from the office, and also the hand-written sheets of notes and statistics devoted to his much-beloved fantasy baseball team. "He said that he was going to pass the word to 'Sondra' that she could come up and try out the room, though I guess the two of you were testing the bed out for her."

"Umm, well," Alex started, but it didn't really seem like a good idea to anyone for him to continue along those lines.

"I did suggest that he should grab a shower before dinner... since Liz Parker is in the building, does anyone else suspect that she might try to slip into the stall with him?"

"Dad!" Isabel exclaimed, flushing bright pink in a way that she seldom did. "Sheesh, even *I* don't want to think about that one."

"Serves you right," he managed to mumble.

"Serves who right for what?"

"Huh?" Philip looked back down the hall, and was startled to see a young lady with shoulder-length dark hair, in blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a sort of a vest overtop her t-shirt, coming near. "Umm... nice to meet you, obviously you must be Sondra. It's... it's incredible really, aside from the hair and the clothes, you might very well be Sondra's twin. Err... did you actually hear me whisper that from all the way over there?"

Isabel shot the other girl a look that was... not quite hostile, but severely warning? "Umm... hello there, Mister Evans, happy to have the pleasure. As far as that goes... well, I've always had a long ear, as they say over Texas-way."

"Hmm, I've never heard that one before," Philip admitted.

"And it served me right," Isabel said. "Never mind for what - it's a whole big thing about inappropriate displays of affection."

"I've always been a big fan of those," Sondra smirked. "In theory, or as a spectator, that is. Never really had that much of an opportunity to indulge in any myself. Anyway, the lady of the house said that dinner will be ready in ten minutes, with coffee and crackers being served in the living room as of now."

"Max is gonna have to hurry if he's going to get in any more than a quick sponging off," Alex said, a half-smile crossing his face.

"Hey, wait a second," Mister Evans said, pointing at the door.. "Max, Isabel and Alex, put all this effort into getting your room ready, Sondra. You need to at least take the tour before we go down to dinner."

"I've never been one for staying with the tour group," Sondra said, breezing into the spare bedroom. "Bed, mirror, dresser, closet, desk, window, lamp, bedside table, clock radio, calendar. There, I've seen the sights, it looks great. Let's go. Crackers!"

"Huh?" Mister Evans stared in disbelief as Sondra flourished past them and back the way she had come. Trying to hold back a serious laughing spree, Isabel took Alex's hand and followed her.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Chrisken]

Part Three

"Hey, baby!"

Kyle looked around in surprise, recognizing the voice. "Umm, hey sweetie." He gave Tess a quick hug. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Well, I came to watch you play, of course," Tess said, indicating Kyle's basketball uniform. "And I thought that I wouldn't be able to, but it looks like our schedules worked out after all. When I called you earlier and you said that you were at the Crashdown, I guess I thought that the game was already over, but of course it doesn't make sense. Why didn't you tell me there had been a delay? And why was there one, anyway?"

"I... I don't have much time to explain," Kyle said. "Tip-off is in two minutes."

"Okay, never mind. Go kick some butt." Tess kissed him.

Kyle looked down the hallway, considering leaving things at that, and then decided to risk saying one thing more. "What about Samuel?"

"Hmm? Oh, he's back hanging out chez Guerin," Tess answered. "Doesn't really need somebody to bodyguard him, just to stay out of sight."

"Oh, okay." As Kyle blew her a corny kiss and hurried away, Kyle thought about that. He had hardly gotten used to his alien acquaintances, (Tess probably included - he loved her, but had to admit he didn't entirely understand her,) and was very hard-pressed to adjust to the idea that there were actually two of each of them, in a strange way - clones, one of each set having grown up together in Houston. It was probably just as well for him that Tess' twin, Annie, was unlikely to show up in Roswell anytime soon, as she was off 'on a mission' in New Jersey to try and find out what happened to the real Brody Davis, and whether the skin who had impersonated Brody had any confederates there. One Tess in his life was more than plenty, and he wasn't sure how Tess would react to meeting her identical clone - of the four, she was the only one who had stayed behind in Roswell when the others had gone to Houston to find out what was going on, and found the clones, along with their alien protector, calling himself Jack Brennan.

'Being an alien bodyguard does seem to have a high mortality rate,' Kyle muttered to himself, and then nearly kicked himself for making it any more than a silent thought. And then the coach and the team captain were calling, and he hurried the rest of the way out into the gymnasium to join the huddle.

In comparison with all of this alien stuff, the answers to Tess' questions were quite simple, or at least so Kyle himself thought, as he settled down to ride the pine bench for the first ten minutes or so. Reminded of his hybrid lady-love, he looked around the bleachers for that unmistakeable sweep of blonde curls, spotted her, made a little wave and grinned when she waved back, and got gently cuffed by Adam, next to him, and not-so-gently teased by everyone else on the bench. Ah, well, so what did that matter? Half of them were being pretty hypocritical, because they behaved more or less exactly the same when they had a young lady that they really liked and it was going well with the girl in question. And the other half... really, were stereotypical 'macho insensitive guys' who were really just not evolved enough to be capable of decent behaviour to the opposite sex, and who Kyle sort of pitied the girls who they did pay any attention to.

It was a bit weird that high school guys all bought into this concept that treating a girl well and being excited about a relationship was something that was 'sissy' or otherwise worthy of scorn. Now, where had he been?

Right, Tess' questions. Kyle hadn't told her about the game being delayed because, with typical self-centeredness, he'd figured that she probably already knew, and had taken it as confirmation when Tess hadn't been surprised at being told that he was hanging out in the Cafe. As far as the reason for the delay, it apparently had something to do with a pipe leaking onto the gym floor - probably not that the leak had still been going on when the West Roswell team had shown up at their traditional rivals and the game had been scheduled to begin, or else the game would have been cancelled, based on what little he knew about the cleanup time required for such things. But if the leak had been fixed earlier in the day, and the drying out process was partly done...

Well, that was enough of that. Kyle let his mind wander, and wasn't too surprised when it orbited back to alien matters. (Great, now he was even making puns to himself about them.) Only two of the clones had come to Roswell, arriving that morning, as he understood it, Sam, who looked like Max with darker hair, and Sondra, who was a clone version of Isabel. Sam's appearance had been kept low-profile, though Kyle's father had found out briefly, Tess said - on his way back out to the office after grabbing some dinner at home, or something like that. Tess had brought Sam to Kyle's home, where she now lived too, to keep him out of the way, because Sondra had been discovered by Mrs Diane Evans - Isabel's mom had even seen her side by side with the Houston version, scratching any possible plan to have Sondra pretend that she was simply Isabel in an unexpected outfit and choice of hairstyle. Tess wasn't sure, but suspected that they were probably playing on Max and Isabel's adopted orphan status, allowing their parents to believe that Sondra was a birth sister of Isabel, who they had recently reconnected with. Somewhat close to the truth, even.

Wow, it was amazing what you can absorb, Kyle realized, even when you're not really paying attention to your girlfriend on your cell phone and eating Galaxy fries.

"Valenti, in for McCauley," Coach Simpson snapped, and Kyle suddenly leapt up to prove his readiness to go into the game. And his head rebelled against the sudden movement, making him sway just slightly. Adam snickered.

THAT one, Kyle would have to pay him back for somehow. But later.

A familiar voice, faint against the crowd, nevertheless let out a noticeable cheer as Kyle loped onto the court. Unmistakeably Tess.

------------

"Well, definitely a full house," Philip Evans observed as he served some sauce carefully onto his rice. "I guess the only usual suspect who's missing would be Michael, and... is he still seeing that waitress friend of yours, Liz?"

Alex cleared his throat much more loudly than would seem to be necessary. "Um, no, actually," Liz mumbled quietly. Max nudged her with his knee, trying to be gentle and encouraging about that. "They are *not* getting along lately, and it's been a major source of angst for the whole group, really."

"Really?" Max's mother said, making a sort of motherly cluck and passing down a bowl of vegetables fried in light olive oil. "That's so awkward. I remember the days like that."

"Heck, I'm not sure we're past that kind of drama, Diane, even in days like these," Philip pointed out. "There was a considerable flap in our bridge club when the Morrises started their legal seperation."

"But still, it's not quite the same thing, dear," Diane replied. "Are they seeing other people already, Liz?"

"Um, yes, it's been a few weeks," Liz allowed. "But, umm... Michael, well, he's dating one of the other waitresses at the Crashdown, a new girl who started at the cafe this summer, Courtney."

"Oh, yes, I remember seeing her, I think, when I came in to pick up a pie the week before last," Diane said. "She seemed like a n... well, I guess I don't know her enough to say, do I. Does she go to your school, as well?"

Liz hesitated, and Isabel stepped into the conversation. "No, Mom. Courtney's... a little bit older, and she doesn't go to school."

"I know it's none of my business, but that sort of thing disappoints me," Philip put in. "A girl at that point in her life should have her dreams before her, and I can't believe that just working in a cafe is going to get her closer to a better life. No offense, Liz, but..."

"That's quite an assumption, Mister Evans," Sondra put in. "First off, just because she doesn't go to any school, you assume that Courtney's stuck working at the cafe, like there couldn't be anything more to her life than school? You didn't ask if she had another job, or if she was studying something on her own outside of school, or if she had something like art or music that she was devoting her spare time too."

Liz stifled a nervous giggle. The only thing that Courtney was devoting her time to outside the Crashdown and Michael was probably alien war tactics, and she suspected that Sondra knew that much. Then again, maybe Liz was judging the girl a bit too harshly too. She had hardly read the entire book of Courtney, she hadn't really wanted to after it became clear that Maria saw her (with some justification) as 'the other woman', and maybe there was indeed something more to her, that Michael had seen.

"Yes, I guess that's true," Philip said after a pause. "I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. Very sloppy of me."

"And even IF that's all she's really up to at this point in her life, maybe she doesn't have any bigger dreams, and doesn't feel like she needs them," Sondra continued hotly. "It's a bit arrogant to apply your white-collar WASP values to someone that you don't even know, and..."

"Now wait just a second," Philip interrupted, leaning towards the new girl in his household and showing a glint in his eye that Max had never seen since the days that they were training to try and get him onto the debate team. "I have nothing against the principles of multiculturalism - I'm a creature of my society, and if you catch me out in a blind spot that's really unfair to someone from another class or creed, then I'll thank you for the tip and try very hard to look hard at life from their point of view. But I don't believe in relativism, that everything is equally valid just because somebody believes in it. Some things, like endemic laziness or a disinterest in the possibilities and profusions of the wilder world, are signs of inferior character, and I don't believe that they should be lightly excused."

"Oh, you don't, do you?" Sondra seemed just as eager for this debate as Philip did. "Okay, then, if Courtney..."

"Let's leave Courtney out of the discussion at this point, because I suspect that we'd be taking her into further and further hypothetical convolutions of her personality that aren't really fair to the girl herself," Philip countered. Slightly taken by surprise, Sondra could only manage a slight nod. "Okay, if Pamela..." He left one more slight pause for Sondra to continue with her own point, then proceeded. "If waitress Pamela *isn't* pursuing art, or music, or studying something on her own outside of school, then why on Earth not? There's a big world full of possible interests, and all of those things are much more accessible to people than they ever have been before..."

"Easy to say, for the guy who probably grew up with the best education that his parent's money could buy, and lives in a gorgeous home with top of the line internet service..."

"I may have had a slightly easier time finding out about certain things than someone from a background who hasn't had those advantages, but that's not the point."

"Isn't it??"

----------

"You were great," Tess said, taking Kyle's hand and walking away from Roswell High with him, but not towards the parking lot where both of their cars would be found. "My rebounding hero."

"I thought you were the one who rebounded," Kyle corrected, leting his fingers tease their way up her arm. "Heck, for two weeks after we first hooked up, you were still carrying a torch four feet high for Max, and everybody who saw you knew it."

Tess looked over at him, and sighed softly as she looked at his face backlit against the street lights. "I... I'm sorry about that?"

"No, actually you aren't, and that's okay, because I'm not looking for an apology, just stating a fact," Kyle continued. "The heart has its own rules, and yours was wrapped up in Max baggage for exactly as long as it was."

"But... but I *did* nurture that baggage and wallow in it," Tess pointed out. "I'm not proud of that, and it wasn't fair for you. THAT part I really am sorry for you - not so much that I still had a thing for Max, but that I still made it more important in my heart than you."

Kyle grimaced. "Accepted."

"Whoops."

"File under 'Earth tact,' alien girl," Kyle joked. "And it's not a terribly big deal. Tact, really, is a social convention about hiding the truth in order not to offend the people close to us, but really... I think that truth, and honesty is a big deal, and a few bruised feelings aren't a great cost for some more truth in our lives. I'd rather get a few little 'ouch' moments like that, than have you start hiding what you really feel for me in a great sweep of tact that really goes too far."

Tess pondered that one for a long moment. "Okay, then - but how can I tell what's too far? When the right moment is for tact as opposed to truth?"

"Now that's a good question," Kyle agreed. "One of those things that make you go 'hmm.'" And indeed, he mulled over it for more than a score of paces. "One thougth I have, is that it's related to the amount of expected hurt versus the expected usefulness of the information. If there's something I do that bugs you somewhat, for instance, then if you tell me it'll probably hurt my feelings that I didn't realize I was bugging you. But it's information that's useful to me, because I can choose to change my beheviour - or maybe not."

"Oh, thanks a lot!" Tess sighed, and looked around at the Roswell street lit up by bright orange lamps on concrete poles as the last of the fall twilight faded away. "Okay, I think that we need a new topic of conversation now."

"We can't go back to how great I was during the game?" Kyle teased her.

"Maybe." Tess sighed. "I still remember Saturday morning, when you took me out to the court to teach me a thing or two. One of the best days I've had lately."

"You're a quick study," Kyle said, and kissed her again. "Wasn't as great a day for Maria, though."

"Yeah, I guess so." Tess reached out for Kyle's hand. "Is it weird that I'm pushing Maria to come up to Denver for this conference thing? I mean, she's been through some pretty traumatic stuff because of aliens recently, even if you leave out the Michael angst, and any jealousy she feels about Max taking Liz away from her. Maybe it'd be better to just let her stay away?"

"Hmm." Kyle considered. "Actually, no, I think that you're doing the right thing, as strange as it sounds. Maria's a tough cookie - if she really wants to cut loose from us all and start a new page in her life, then she's strong enough to do that no matter what we say, but - if she wants to make things better with Liz, she won't do that by avoiding her. A little nudge in the right direction might help a lot." He stared into Tess' eyes again. "And I think it's so great that you care about what's best for Maria, and what she's going through with Liz, and everything. Back, back when we first got together - you did have some bitterness issues. Now, that was hot in a way..."

"Oh, really?" Tess arched an eyebrow and tried to keep from laughing.

"Well, yeah. But, all things considered, I guess I prefer the soft touch."

"If I'm a softy, it's because loving you made my cold heart melt," Tess breathed. "Oh, man, yet another top contender in the 'I can't believe I ever said that' category..."

"I'm glad that you did," Kyle said. "But we do need something else to cut through the treacle." There was an awkward pause. "Man, this is awkward."

"Hmm... I wonder how dinner at the Evans house is going," Tess said thoughtfully, nestling close to her guy.

------------

"Time out, everyone back to neutral corners," Isabel declared. "Even better, umm, we need to go back and close some conversational loop that didn't involve the two of you at each other's throats, kay?"

"I'm not at anybody's throat, Isabel, least of all Daddy dearest," Sondra insisted. "This is just a little verbal sparring. I love it. Reminds me of... well, of Jack."

"Oh, was that the man you talked about, who'd been... been trusted to look after you since you were young?" Missus Evans asked.

"I think you'd asked about Michael and Maria, Mom, when we got off into a sidetrack about young woman in service jobs," Max put in. Probably Sondra could carry on a conversation about Jack Brennan, her protector, without letting his parents realize that anything was odd about the guy, or about Sondra's fellow protectees - but Max didn't mind attracting a little attention to change the subject away from this anyway. "About if they were seeing anybody."

"Yes, I suppose I did," she said, after a moment and a slightly curious look shot over at her husband. "Suppose that I got my answer, more or less, about Michael's new fling, before the thread got hijacked."

"So, what about Maria?" Philip Evans said without missing much of a beat? "Is she dating anyone too?"

"She was seeing Nicky, the lead guitar player in my old band," Alex offered. "I think they really liked each other. Actually, you might have seen them together, here - at the pre-party you guys held for us the night of the Harvest ball."

"Oh, right," Diane said. "And I met Courtney then too, though I guess I didn't recognize her as a waitress, so much out of uniform." She paused, counting up the attendance from that evening in her head. "And you were there with Kyle, Liz, and you asked a girl who I don't think I ever saw again, Max. Tess... Tess came alone?"

"That's right," Max said. "Emily was a nice girl, and I'm glad that we went together, and had a bit of fun. Neither of us would have had dates otherwise. But... but she doesn't hold a candle to the number one girl in my heart, I have to admit."

"Interesting," Philip said. "Sort of begs the question of why you and your number one girl weren't together that night, Max."

"Not the only question," Sondra put in. "You and young mister Valenti, Liz? I thought he and Tess were an item."

An awkward silence came crashing down around the whole room at that moment. "Kyle and... and Tess Harding?" Diane breathed. "The orphan girl that his father took in?"

"You, you can't say anything to Mister Valenti, Mom," Isabel said, after shooting Sondra a very dirty look. "They're - they're going to tell him, soon, as quickly as they can find the right moment to... but it's a bit awkward, because Kyle's worried that his Dad will lose his temper, and Tess... is worried that she'll get sent to live someplace else."

"Well... I can sympathize with either of those reactions in Jim," Mister Evans said very paternally. "But I do know something about keeping confidences." He looked around at the table. "I suppose we might have had room for Tess here, if we hadn't just taken in another orphan of our own."

"Probably less awkward for Tess to find someplace else," Liz blurted out. "Sondra, at least, I think I can trust to not mess around with the teenage boy she's sharing a bathroom with."

"Ahh, I see," Diane said. "Liz, you didn't explain just why you *were* Kyle's escort to the dance."

Liz froze, trying to rehearse the explanation in a way that made any sense. Let's see... Kyle and Tess were fighting, because Tess suspected that Max and I were getting back together and Kyle was upset that Tess was still hung up on Max, so Kyle asked me to the dance to make Tess jealous and distract her attention from any connection between Max and I. Which meant that Max needed to find a date of his own, and quick, to make sure that he and Tess weren't both going stag, which is why he found Emily so quick. And why couldn't we just let Tess know that we were together, Max and I, and let her deal with it however she wanted to? Well, I kind of had this idea that she would run away from town, and we didn't want her to, so...

"Err, it's complicated," Liz muttered. "Really. And I'm not so much in the mood to rehash."

"I'll tell you what's complicated, some of the stories about the 'disturbance' at that dance," Philip muttered. "A gang attacking, holding the gym hostage, drugs in the punch, and other stuff that sounds even crazier. I tell you, we'll be wanting some answers, and assurances that this nonsense won't repeat, or there'll be no permission slips for the Winter masquerade thing."

"Dad, you don't have to sign a permission slip for dances anymore," Max said under his breath.

"Then maybe they should start that up again," Philip continued. "A tort liability suit could help out with that. And slip or no slip, if I don't want you going, you won't be there." Pause. "Strictly, that was only aimed at the kids who live under my roof."

"Hey, if Isabel isn't going, then I'll be wherever she is," Alex said loyally.

"Yeah," Liz agreed. "Guess we'll have to make our own Christmas-y fun. Oh, hey, is there any left for third helpings?"

-----------

"Your place or mine?" Courtney asked Michael as he hung up his apron and started to wash his hands, arms, and face thoroughly in the employee bathroom sink.

"Umm..." Michael poked his head up to the door to look around, and Courtney got a slightly upset expression on her porcelain-pretty face. Well, what if he was checking to make sure that Maria didn't hear her saying such things? There was such a notion as 'taking things too far', and in Michael's own opinion, Courtney had been starting to cross the line in her unofficial rivalry with his ex-girlfriend. What he couldn't figure out was what had changed. To hear Tess's version of what had been going on when Michael and some of the others had been off in Houston, Courtney had been looking to mend fences with Maria. Had all of that been more cynical than it seemed - a deliberate cultivation of a good amateur detective to solve a mystery that Courtney had on her hands? Could she not even feel any gratitude to a mere human girl? Or... or was it resentment about what she owed Maria that had started off the passive-aggressiveness again?

His thoughts still whirling to no decent conclusion, Michael finished drying off his washed skin and put his arms around Courtney, kissing her forehead. "Umm, neither? Sorry, but I do need to catch up on my sleep and stuff, so maybe we just say we'll meet again tomorrow?"

Courtney's eyes narrowed slightly, but she caught any further reaction. Good poker face on that lady. "You're breakin' my heart, Guerin," she told him lightly. "Way back when, you promised to teach me about the ways of love, human style. I think that I'm still behind on a few of my lessons."

"Another time, pretty lady," he said. "Count on that."

"Well, then how about one more ride back to my apartment, for old times' sake?" she pressed.

"What, is your car in the shop again?"

"No, but it's over in your parking lot again."

"Well - maybe I should give you a ride as far as my place, since I'm going there anyway, and then you can continue on your way," Michael bantered back. "Otherwise you'll probably be calling me tomorrow morning to pick you up."

"And is that so bad? I thought you loved to pick up girls like me."

"Hmm." Michael sighed. "I'm too tired to argue. Any way you want to play it."

"ANY way??"

"Any way that doesn't have us both ending up at the same place," he clarified. "I'm sticking firm on that."

"Really?" Courtney pressed her body closer to him. For a second he was intensely aware of the concept that she was wearing a Husk - a second skin. But that was only a fraction of an inch thick, he knew from experience. Underneath, the body was one hundred percent her. "Are you sure that there isn't a way I can convince you... to be firm a different way, maybe?"

She pulled Michael's face down, he not resisting, and kissed him. All of a sudden, he heard footsteps, and the door from the dining room, and fought down a strange urge to jump away from Courtney, as if they were cheating on somebody. Instead, he finished the kiss a bit more gently, and dropped his hands down to his sides, before looking up. Maria smiled gamely at them both.

"Don't let me interrupt anything." She held up her phone awkwardly. "Any idea why Kyle would be texting me?"

"Umm, no, not offhand," Michael managed to say. Have... have a good evening?"

"I'll try." And Maria set her head down slightly before pressing onward to the side door out of the kitchen. She hadn't stopped to take her uniform off, although the antennae weren't still sticking out of her hair.

Courtney had been looking up at Michael silently. She waited for a few more seconds before saying, "Okay, how long do we have to give her to leave the parking lot before going to your bike?"

"Umm... we could leave now if you want," Michael said, but it sounded hollow. "Or - don't you want to change?" He gestured at the bathroom door.

"Twist my arm," Courtney said, and stepped past him to the interior of the little room, starting to unfasten the snaps of the blue-green waitress dress. She didn't close the door at all.

-----------

"Wait a second, I know this neighborhood," Maria said, following through the last few turns on the directions that Kyle had given her in his text message. After several rechecks, she at last had enough of the instructions straight to get her where she was going without picking up the phone again. But the enigmatic descriptions hadn't explained the nature of her destination, only the route. "Something that I've done here, but not with Kyle. Before that..."

And then she had to park, too busy with the intricacies of that operation for a few seconds to keep thinking about the mystery. Looking up from the car once it was firmly in place, she felt torn between recognition and confusion. 'The Rec Hall - Leisure sports for the whole family - now open 'til 11pm weeknights,' the sign on the front of the building read. She got up and closed the car door, shaking her head, remembering her mother taking her when she was just a little girl, and other occasions, all many years ago...

"Maria?" a familiar voice called, and Maria spun around, blinking. "Is this whole mysterious message stuff your idea?"

She had to laugh as she saw Isabel and Liz arriving from the direction of the Jeep. (Lord have mercy, Max must have let Liz go somewhere without him, and let one of them borrow the car too,) and shrugged a huge shrug. "Nope. I got a message of my own. Did yours come from Kyle, Isabel?"

"Uh... no," Isabel said, shrugging. "Wasn't sure of the cell phone, but the number looked like it might have been Sam's."

"Weird." She smiled slightly. "Well, even if the situation is a bit bizarre, I... I guess I'm glad to see both of you."

Liz and Isabel exchanged a look. "Me too, honey." Liz stepped up to Maria, hesitated, and Maria buried her old friend in a big hug. "Sorry if I've been neglecting our friendship, but - well, so much has been happening, and..."

"It's okay," Maria whispered into Liz's ear. "I... I understand, really I do. And I'm so happy for you, and for Max. I... I was scheming with him just to get the two of you back together, so I could see you this happy, not so long ago. But... but it's good to take a little time now and then, have a girls' night out, huh?" Liz made a slightly surprised uh-huh sound. "And, since a girls' night is pretty clearly what's been hatched, I think I have an idea just what sort of evil schemestress is behind the whole deal. Come on. She's probably waiting for us inside."

'She' had been - but when Tess spotted her friends approaching, she came out of the Rec Hall to meet them on the sidewalk. "So, are you surprised!"

"We were," Isabel reassured her, "and pleased. Maria figured it out already though. At least, I think that she knew it was you."

Maria nodded. "*Maria*, I think, is much too smart for her own good," Tess put in, but the slightly bitter tone was entirely cancelled out by the shy and friendly smile she favored everybody with.

"Hey!" Maria protested. "I'm not the big brains of the operation here," she insisted, waving her hand so close to Liz that she accidentally brushed aside some strands of long dark hair. "Whoops."

"It's okay, but... I think that you're just as smart as I am," Liz told her friend sincerely. "Or - nearly." Isabel chuckled. "Just, people smarts and street smarts, not book smarts."

"Yeah, tell that to Brody Davis," Maria grumbled as they went inside. "Would somebody who was street smart and people smart walk into the lion's den with an alien mastermind?"

"Maybe," Isabel countered. "But who else could figure out an alien mastermind's secret identity, at the nick of time?"

"At the very WRONG time," Maria corrected in her turn, keeping her voice down. "If I hadn't figured out, right when I was within range of his telepathy, then... oh, never mind. What should we do? How about the mini bowling? I think that there's a lane free."

"No, come on, no bowling," Liz muttered. "I have too many bad memories of that."

"What?" Maria asked, puzzled. "When did you ever have a bad experience bowling?"

"Umm... I don't know," Liz said, shaking her head. "Maybe I repressed too much, but still..."

"Ping Pong!" Tess suggested, pointing out the large tables with the paddles racked up nearby. "We could play doubles."

The other three girls exchanged a few looks. "Maybe, alright," Isabel said, with a little theatrical sigh at having to lower herself that far. Liz snorted, and that started Isabel off laughing at her own theatrics. "Who goes with who?"

"I'm with Harding, I think," Maria put in. Liz looked the question at her. "Well, this way, it's neither - umm, Czechoslovakians versus Americans, or the tall versus the short, entirely."

"Don't knock us short girls, sister," Tess put in. "I think that Liz and I could probably take you to school."

"Wouldn't count on that," Isabel put in. "I've got a wicked slam that you need to look out for."

"Tess gave me an idea," Maria said in a low voice once they had rented the table and all selected their paddles - and chosen her to serve, so for a minute, she had a captive audience. "With everybody's agreement, I'd like to call to order the first weekly meeting of the IKAA sisterhood."

"I-what?" Liz asked, wrinkling her nose slightly.

"I K A A," Maria spelt out loud. "Name is up for debate, but..."

"It's a nice thought, but I don't know," Isabel said. "I already got one new sister today, and Sondra might pitch a fit when she finds out she wasn't included."

"She can pledge," Tess put in. "But it was... well, the three of you to start, more or less, and I'd like to think that I've earned my place already."

"Just recently," Liz kidded her. "When you lost the attitude."

"Funny, Kyle and I were just talking about that," Tess started.

"Enough, enough," Isabel said, shaking her hair every which way for a second. "Okay, okay, I second the motion, reserving the right to open up a debate for name changing later."

"Aye," Liz called before Maria could ask for those in favor. Tess looked around at each of them, and put up her hand, presumably to indicate 'me too.' "Now serve the ball, dear sister mine."

"Thought you'd never ask," Maria did, trying her patented backspin trick shot. (Why she didn't leave that for later in the game, she wasn't sure.) Isabel leaned over the table and smashed the little white plastic ball right back at her.

THE END.