So apparently, the last chapter didn't go over too well with you readers, but I want to keep you up to date on the Roswell front too... Oh well
bluebballjumper-Maria is nothing if not loyal to Liz, so I doubt that she'll tell Michael what's going on. But methinks you may be on to something with you Tess theory. And I put in an author's note to say that skins are in this story, but Courtney is just not one of them.
Redrumm-I'm glad you're hooked on my fic. It especially means a loot to me because when I read your story Switching Places, it was one of my favorite fanfics. It's kind of surreal to be getting a comment like your's from an author whose story I thought so highly of.
Thanks to bluebballjumper and Redrumm for your encouragement and support. I appreciate it.
To all: I'm kind of shamlessly begging here that you guys show up to my author's chat on Saturday (two days from now) at 10 PM EST. This will be the last chapter I post before then, so I feel the need to beg now. Please don't leave me alone.
And now for the feature presentation...
Chapter 11
"Are ya ready girl?" Serena called out as she let herself into Liz's and Eileen's room. Luckily for Liz, Serena was too busy dancing around to notice that Liz had been mysteriously changing the color of her nails.
"Geez Serena, don't you ever knock?!" Liz exclaimed. That had been close, and she really couldn't let anyone else into the group, especially without the presence of the others to discuss the decision with. Liz was also having a hard time hiding her pregnancy. It seemed that everyday she was getting up at the crack of dawn with morning sickness, and with the communal bathroom situation, she was pretty sure that soon someone would pick up on her daily ritual, and she knew that depending on the person who found out, Liz could have trouble explaining it away. Fortunately, Liz had already established herself as a party girl even though she had only been at boarding school for three weeks. So if she outed herself and revealed she was pregnant, it wouldn't be too hard for her fellow students to believe, which was kind of funny considering the students at Roswell would have been shocked.
"Testy aren'tcha? Where's Eileen?" Serena was excited. She had been having more fun this year than she had ever had. Liz was a ton of fun, and it had been easy to get her to go to a party with Eileen and Serena. Originally, Serena had been worried that his year would be more boring than ever. Her own roommate had seemed like a dud and even though Eileen was right next door, and she was plenty of fun to hang out with, they had been worried that when Eileen finally got a roommate, that the roommate might cramp their style. They had definitely gotten lucky with Liz. Apparently, she had decided quickly that without the supervision of her parents, she was free to do whatever she wanted, and that included going out every weekend for a party at one college or another.
"Sorry, I've been grouchy all day, which is why I want to go to this party so badly." In reality, Liz was actually a little annoyed that she had to go to yet another party, but she was trying her hardest to uphold a partier persona, and she was going to do her best to keep it up until at least the time she went home for Christmas.
"Don't worry about it. You'll get over it soon. Are you planning on hooking up with somebody tonight again?" Every weekend party the trio attended, Liz made a point to pick a guy to sneak off with at some point in the night. She always picked someone different, and she always made sure that either Serena or Eileen saw and noticed her disappearing act. She was a little worried that they would start seeing her as a slut, but she did what she had to do to carry out her long-term plan. She was determined to do the most she could to protect both her child and the world's future.
"I don't know. We'll see." It was the answer she gave every weekend, but she wanted to give the illusion that she just kind of went through life by the seat of her pants. She didn't want her new friends to even suspect that her laissez-faire attitude was actually all planned out. Serena just nodded to Liz's reply and waited till Liz wasn't looking to roll her eyes. Serena didn't know why she even bothered asking Liz. She always said the same thing, but it really wasn't important. Liz was quickly become Serena's best friend at Winnaman, and therefore Serena wasn't going to make any judgements about her.
"So. Ya ready?" Serena was bouncing on her toes with anticipation. They were getting ready to head to a party that she knew Charlie would be at, and Charlie was currently the boy that Serena had a crush on.
"Yeah, almost. I just have to get my shoes on, and then Eileen asked us to meet her in the lobby. She had some kind of meeting and she decided to just go to it dressed for the party."
Serena laughed and then sarcastically said "And what break the uniform rule?!". It wasn't unusual for Eileen and Serena to push the envelope on all the major rules. They had a habit of finding loopholes and taking advantage of them. It was the reason Serena purple hair and a nose stud. Apparently, the rules stated that a person's hair could only be one color. Loophole was that it never mentioned what the hair color should be. The the rules stated that a girl could only have two piercings, but neglected to say that the piercings had to be in the ear lobes. So Serena had an earring in the cartilage of her right ear and a nose stud instead of the traditional earring locations.
"Well the loophole was that while it was a meeting concerning school related topics and located in the classroom, it was concerning a group project, so it could have easily been held in one of their own rooms. They just needed a bigger area."
"Nice. Nice." Serena nodded, and Liz stood up from the bed, having just buckled her sandal and walked over to the dresser to grab her keys.
"Ok. Let's go." Serena and Liz left the room, and Liz turned and locked the door before they both headed down the hall to the stairs. After they met Eileen in the lobby, all three started walking down street to the party they were planning on going to.
They arrived at the party somewhat early, but that was typical for them. They were usually so anxious to get out of Winnaman that they showed up at the actual starting time of the party, but no one else had usually showed up yet. They liked it that way though, because it gave them a chance to hang out with the people who were throwing the party and that meant that they got to know a lot of guys, and they easily found out when and where the next party would be.
A couple hours later, Liz, Serena, and Eileen were dancing together in the middle of a packed throng of people. Liz was just getting ready to make her usual dodge to the bathroom where she spent an hour or so and then pretended she had been with a guy. But as she was getting ready to find a guy to leave with, she spotted someone across the room who at first glance seemed to look a lot like Max, and Liz lost it. She had been in a bad mood all day anyway, and with the missinterpretation of what she saw, Liz couldn't handle it anymore. She quickly spotted a guy to act like she was leaving with and then ran to the bathroom.
While she was there, Liz just sat and thought. She had been feeling so down lately, because even though she was making friends with Serena and Eileen, she missed her own group of friends in Roswell, especially Max. She knew that she could never really be with him again because she couldn't chance the end of the world. But of course the main reason was that she doubted Max would ever forgive her for "sleeping with Kyle". Liz didn't know if she would be able to forgive Max if he broke her heart the way she knew she broke his.
But that wasn't the only thing that was making Liz feel down. She also felt completely vulnerable. Here she was, pregnant with an alien child, and she had no one with her to take care of her if something weird happened. She also had no way of knowing what was normal for an alien pregnancy and what was abnormal. As far as she knew she was the first human to be carrying the child of a human-alien hybrid, and while she was sure that the human part of Max would allow her to have a relatively normal pregnancy, Liz was unsure about the whole thing.
Of course it also didn't help that Liz felt a nagging feeling that she was forgetting something. She had been having the feeling since the beginning of her pregnancy but she hadn't noticed because first she was too distraught with grief, then she was too wrapped up in her plans to get out of Roswell. But now that Liz was at Winnaman, she had more time to think about her pregnancy and her future, and she was beginning to realize that she felt anxious about something. At first she had assumed that she was just anxious about the entire situation. It would be a normal feeling for any teenage girl who was becoming a mother so young, but after a little bit of hard thinking, LIz felt like it was more than that, and that scared her. She really couldn't think of what she could be missing, and she was worried that she wouldn't find out until too late.
It was this whole thought process that led Liz to the idea of training her own powers. Just in case she was missing something, she wanted to be able to take care of herself, because she had a bad feeling that all the preparation in the world might not be enough, but she had to protect herself and her child. So Liz decided that she would somehow get herself some alone time every other day to start training her new alien powers, and she would start training tomorrow.
*****
Alex was happy. It was 7:00 on a Friday night, and he was spending his evening with none other than Isabel Evans. It had been three weeks since Liz left for Winnaman, and things had changed. In fact, they had changed more than he thought they would. After Liz had left, Alex had thought that he would end up spending more time with Maria, especially because her and Michael were not together at the time. But Michael and Maria had made up shortly after Liz's departure and that meant that Maria was spending most of her time with Michael. Alex would have been left alone, but he decided that he would work harder on his band. Unfortunately, after the Whit's had performed a few weeks ago, there was a big fight between the drummer and a guitarists, and the two absolutely refused to play together. Alex had tried his hardest to get them to reconcile, but they were pretty tight lipped about the whole thing and opted to throw punches instead of working it out. This meant that Alex was left without a band.
Alex was a little worried that he would be forced to follow Maria around and act as a third wheel in order to have any sort of company whatsoever, when Isabel suddenly started to invest her time into getting to know Alex. He was a little apprehensive about the whole thing just because he didn't expect Isabel to randomly start spending time with him. But Alex wasn't one to really look a gift horse in the mouth, and when he really thought about it, it made sense the the two of them would spend more time together. Alex didn't think Isabel was really that close to Michael by themselves, and she had never really bonded with Tess. So with Max's decision to isolate himself from everyone, that left Isabel alone, and with Alex also being alone it just made sense that they would start hanging out.
So they had started by just sitting in the Crashdown and talking about various topics. Isabel had mentioned that she was worried about Max and the way he was pushing everyone out, and Alex had told her that he was concerned for Liz leaving by herself. He had wanted to tell Isabel the truth of course, but that wasn't possible, and so he settled for offering up a similar concern about a friend.
After Isabel and Alex had started talking a little bit, they both seemed to gravitate toward each other more and more. Pretty soon they were eating lunch together by themselves in the Cafeteria at school and placing bets on when Michael and Maria's next fight would be, and what it would concern. They had thought originally that they would eat with Michael and Maria as well, but the couple seemed to always be off in the eraser room, and neither Alex nor Isabel wanted to go anywhere near that. They had also started spending their weekends together, and tonight they were going putt-putting. Apparently, Isabel had never been and while she deemed the actual activity a bit beneath her, she agreed that she would go with Alex.
That was why Alex was currently obsessing over what he was going to wear. He didn't know why he really cared about it, when they weren't going on a date, and they had been hanging out for a couple of weeks now, but obsessing was what Alex did.
Alex was suddenly startled from his thoughts when he heard the doorbell. He knew that it was going to be Isabel, because when he looked over at the clock it was exactly 7:30, and Isabel was nothing if not punctual. Alex took a quick look in the mirror, decided that his clothing was at least good enough, and raced to answer the door. When he swung the door open, he was met with one of the most beautiful visions that he could ever hope of seeing. Isabel was standing there in a form fitting black top, dark blue jeans, and black boots, and she looked wonderful.
"Hey Alex," Isabel said somewhat shyly. She had been looking forward to this all week, and if she were honest with herself, she would admit that she was a little nervous. After her initial resolve to get to know Alex for the information she could gain, Isabel had quickly placed herself in a situation that would allow her to get the information, but it had rapidly changed into just a personal mission to get to know Alex better. She realized that Alex was a great guy, and she liked the way she felt around him. She felt special, and while she wouldn't go so far to say that she had a crush on him or anything, she couldn't honestly say that the didn't enjoy her time with him. "You ready to go?"
Alex smiled before he said, "Yeah just let me get my keys. You look beautiful by the way Isabel." Alex felt a little stupid that had told Isabel she was beautiful, but Alex couldn't help himself. It was the truth after all. But Alex still blushed mildly in embarrassment at not being able to control his own tongue, so he hurriedly rushed out the door. Luckily for Isabel, Alex was so busy hiding his own blush, that he didn't notice that Isabel had blushed herself before she turned to lead the way to the car.
At the end of the night, both Alex and Isabel were pleased with their pleasant night. They had ended up tying in putt-putt by scoring twenty over par, but they had a ton of fun, and when they went to bed that night, both ended up dreaming of the other.
The Consequences of Turning Green (CC/Teen) Complete 6-12
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ultimatepickupline
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:29 am
- Location: USA
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ultimatepickupline
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:29 am
- Location: USA
Chapter 12
In light of the fact that Chapter 9 got the most feedback and it was about Khivar, while the next two chapters didn't get very much feedback, I have edited my storyboard, and there will be more chapters with Khivar than originally planned. They should appear about every fifth or sixth chapter. So for those of you who liked that...here's a gift from me to you (plus I think the added chapters will enhance my fic, and they're my favorite to write anyway).
Sternbetrachter-Danke schön. Ich bin froh, daß du die Alex und Isabel Teilen geliebt hast. Besonders weil du Sternbetrachter Geschichte magst. Und ich liebe deine Name. Ich denke, daß es geschickt ist. (Ich dachte ich sollte mein Deutsch üben. Hoffenlich war es nicht so schlecht).
Redrumm-I thought Alex and Isabel were cute, so I'm glad a couple of people agreed. I also thought Kyle and Tess were cute in the previous part, but apparently only my sister liked their part. Anyway, I realize that we haven't seen much of Max lately, but no worries. You will hear from him at the end of this part. So stay tuned. (I stink at putt-putt too btw, but I still think it's fun).
Orphyfets- Thanks, and I don't know if I said this before, but I plan on updating every three or four days ideally, so you shouldn't have to wait to long.
L-J-L 76-Well you don't have to wait long for the next part. This time it was less than 24 hours for you. I'm glad you like the story.
And now sit back and enjoy.
Chapter 12
Liz quickly walked down the hall to her dorm room door and looked around secretively. Then she put her hand over the doorknob and waited for the sound of a click before she opened her door. Today was the first Wednesday after her resolution to practice her powers, and with Eileen gone with a German club meeting, it was the perfect time to practice. So today would be her first official power practice.
Liz had now been at the school for nearly four weeks, and she was now about two months along. Because she was so tiny, she could already tell that her body looked rounder, but she hoped that no one else could tell a difference, and with the blouse and skirt that she had to wear for a uniform, it was easy to hide a little bit of a weight gain. In fact, Liz was a litte thankful for the uniforms because not only did they hide the weight gain well, but the blouse was long and the skirt came up high, so the silver handprint was a lot easier to hide than it would have been if she had to wear regular clothes. It was really just when she went out to party that she had to be careful about her clothing choice, because her party clothes were more likely to show both her figure and the handprint.
Once Liz entered the room, she stood in front of the door for a minute while she contemplated things she could do to work her powers. The problem was that she knew that she couldn't even try to work on four of the powers she knew about. There was no one around to try mindwarping on, no she knew was asleep so she could dreamwalk them, and she doubted that she would be powerful at the start to dreamwalk someone who was awake. She wouldn't be able to see if she could blast while she was in an enclosed space, and working on healing would always be somewhat problematic.
Liz crossed the room to her bed, sat down and looked around her. Then she glanced down and saw where she had nicked herself while shaving her legs. Maybe she would try to heal that. So she placed placed her hand over the nick closed her eyes and pictured her skin coming together. She waited for a few seconds, then removed her hand and looked down, only to see that nothing had happened.
Liz scowled at the nick and decided to try again. She placed her hand back over the cut and this time she tried thinking about the moment she got cut. Suddenly, in her mind's eye, she saw each individual skin cell, and she imagined that the gap between the cells diminished. As she went through two cells at a time, Liz quickly felt her energy drain, so she hoped that it was working. When she abruptly loss concentration due to lack of energy, the picture evaporated from her mind, and she fell back on her bed. After a few minutes of rest she slowly sat back up and looks down where the nick had previously been on her shin. She was ecstatic to note that it was completely gone, and the skin looked flawless. But she was also discouraged that just such a small healing had left her so wiped out. She resolved to work on her powers a little each day and try to do harder and harder stuff each day so that, she could work on her ability and her endurance. She was absolutely determined to be able to take care of herself, but even Liz's strong will could not keep her awake after the energy she expounded, and she fell asleep not a second after she laid back down on her bed.
*****
Eileen opened the door to her room to see Liz curled up in a fetal position on her bed sleeping soundly. It wasn't really an unusual sight, but it baffled Eileen none the less. It seemed that everyday she came back from classes Liz was asleep. But Liz also went to bed with Eileen every night and got up with her in the morning too, so Liz slept a lot. It was insane really. Liz seemed to always be tired from the beginning, but in the last week, she was sleeping even more, and it worried Eileen a little.
But as much as Eileen didn't think all that sleep could possibly be healthy for Liz, she also didn't want to wake her. Unfortunately for Eileen, dinner would be in just fifteen minutes, so once again, she would have to wake Liz, which was something she was loathe to do. It wasn't that Liz was grouchy or mean when she woke up, it was just that Eileen always had a thing about waking people. Her mother told her that even when she was little and had nightmares she would refuse to wake her parents. So instead of going inside her parent's room, she would sleep in the hallway outside their door, and they would find her in the morning.
Eileen tiptoed to Liz's bed, placed a hand on Liz's shoulder, and gently shook Liz while she whispered "Liz. Liz. You need to get up, you have fifteen minutes 'till dinner."
Liz groggily rolled over and sat up, then looked at the clock and turned back to Eileen, and slowly grumbled, "Thanks for waking me. I'm starving, and I have to meet Serena after dinner to work on physics together." Eileen nodded and then went to her side of the room to get out a change of clothes.
After Liz watched Eileen for a moment as Eileen got out her jeans, T-shirt, and hoodie, she looked over to the backpack sitting on her desk. She hadn't packed her stuff for the study session with Serena yet, so she needed to get that together, and she also needed to find her camera so she could get a picture of Serena and Eileen. Liz had been practicing her powers faithfully now for nearly a week, and she had decided to try dreamwalking. Unfortunately, she didn't think she would be strong enough to reach someone half-way across the continent, and she didn't have pictures of anyone closer to her. So her plan was that she would take a picture of Eileen and Serena tonight and then get it developed over the weekend. Then she would start trying to dreamwalk them on Monday.
Over the past week, Liz felt that she was getting better. She had quickly run out of even tiny things to try to heal and had moved on to other aspects of her powers that she thought she might be able to develop. Over the past weekend, she had gone off by herself to try her hand at blasting, and while she knew that most people wouldn't consider her that successful, she had been proud of what she was able to accomplish. She had been able to bust up a few small rocks before she was completely drained, and at the very least, she realized that the power was a possibility for her. The problem was that she didn't really know when she could practice anything bigger until she got back to Roswell and could practice in the desert. As it was, it was very hard to find a place where she was secluded, and she was a little worried that if her powers got away from her, she would have a hard time covering it up.
It seemed to Liz that so far, of the powers she had tried out, she had been the best at basic molecular manipulation and telekinesis. But those were the ones she could practice easily in her dorm room. So far she had been able to keep ten small objects floating around her room for a solid three minutes. Of course, the objects all had to be in one massive ball of odds and ends, but she was growing more confident.
As for tonight's experiment, she was going to see if she could try a very simple mindwarp on someone. She thought it might be easier to get into someone's mind, if she had direct contact with him or her, so she planned on trying to make Serena or Eileen see a yellow apple in the lunch line. The only problem with the plan, was that Liz didn't know exactly how she was going to make sure that it worked or not, but she was still determined to try.
By the time Liz finished packing her bag, and brushing out her hair, Eileen was ready, so the two girls left the room and headed to the cafeteria. On the way, they knocked on Serena's door and when she answered after two knocks, the three girls linked arms and started to sing a lovely rendition of "We're off to eat the Cafe food" to the tune of "We're off to see the Wizard" complete with skips.
"We're off so eat the Cafe food
The horrible Cafe food that kills"
Once they reached the entrance to the Cafe, the girls settled down and got in line to choose their food. Eileen and Serena split up into different lines, so Liz followed Serena and when they got to the part where the fruit stayed, Liz made sure that her arm was touching Serena's and tried to form a quick connection to her. Liz had never had anyone to try that on before, and had only ever formed a connection with Max, but she tried anyway, and when she felt something in her shift, she thought she may have succeeded. So she quickly shut her eyes and focused on making on of the apples look yellow instead of red. Liz could feel her energy draining as quickly as it had when she first tried to heal herself, and was swiftly brought out of her concentration when she felt Serena move.
Liz opened her eyes and saw that Serena was already paying for her food, so Liz quickly grabbed the closest thing next to her and rushed over to get back in line behind Serena, before she noticed that Liz wasn't behind her anymore. Serena and Liz swiped their ID cards, then headed over to the table that Eileen was already saving for them. Eileen started teasing them immediately for picking the slow line, and suddenly an idea popped into Liz's head as a way for her to see if she had been successful in her attempt to mindwarp, and she decided to promptly check it.
"Hey Eileen. Did you have an yellow apples in your line? I've been craving one, and I don't know if I've ever seen one here." As soon as Liz was done asking her question she held her breath and desperately hoped for the response she wanted. Luckily she didn't have to wait very long, because before Eileen even opened her mouth to reply, Serena was already talking.
"Liz there was a yellow apple in our line. Why didn't you get it?"
Inside Liz jumped for joy at her small victory, but she kept a straight face as she said. "Really? I didn't see one."
Serena then frowned and said "Well I think it was yellow. Maybe it was more of a red and yellow mix. Maybe that's why you didn't see it."
Liz didn't want Serena to be confused by anything so she conceded and said that she had seen the mixed apple, but she wanted a solid yellow one. Liz was slightly disappointed that the apple didn't turn out completely yellow in her mindwarp, but she was happy that at least part of the mindwarp worked, and she was positive that with a little bit of work, she would be able to do a full-blown mindwarp, maybe not quite as successful as Tess's, but at least decent, and it could protect her if need be.
"So what's everybody doing for Thanksgiving this week?" Eileen asked abruptly. "Because my parents are going to Hawaii, and I'm staying here."
"Well you'll have my company." Liz said. "We didn't want to spend the money on a bus ticket to Roswell, when I'd only be there for two days and then have to turn right around and come back, so I'm stuck here too."
Serena looked between her two best friends and commiserated with them. "Well I guess we're all in the same boat, 'cause I doubt my parents even realize that tomorrow starts Thanksgiving weekend. So I'll be here too."
The three girls all nodded and then planned their weekend. If they were all going to be stuck at boarding school, with bad food instead of a traditional Thanksgiving Day feast, they might as well make the best of it. So they planned to fill every possible moment with shopping and parties and girl stuff.
*****
Max was wrapping up his shift at the UFO center, and he was dreading going home. It had been nearly five weeks since Liz left, and it have been two months since his whole world had been destroyed, but he wasn't feeling any better. By now he had be able to find a way to throw himself into his school work and the UFO center, but if he had free time he never knew what to do. He either laid on his bed and listened to Counting Crows or he read the words of a random book, but didn't actually comprehend them. He was getting tired of the way he felt, but he didn't really know what to do about it. Maybe he should see about getting out of Roswell altogether. It might be easier.
With all the extra hours he had taken on at the UFO center, Max had already saved $2000, and while that wasn't a lot, maybe he could stick it out for the rest of the year and try to go somewhere over the summer. Or maybe he should see if he could graduate early and go off to college. Since the catastrophe with Liz, Max had thrown so much effort into his grades, that his already good grades, were now near perfect. He thought he had straight A+ in all his classes except one, and that one was an A, so he could probably pull something off. He didn't know what he wanted to do exactly, but he couldn't handle living like this anymore.
Sternbetrachter-Danke schön. Ich bin froh, daß du die Alex und Isabel Teilen geliebt hast. Besonders weil du Sternbetrachter Geschichte magst. Und ich liebe deine Name. Ich denke, daß es geschickt ist. (Ich dachte ich sollte mein Deutsch üben. Hoffenlich war es nicht so schlecht).
Redrumm-I thought Alex and Isabel were cute, so I'm glad a couple of people agreed. I also thought Kyle and Tess were cute in the previous part, but apparently only my sister liked their part. Anyway, I realize that we haven't seen much of Max lately, but no worries. You will hear from him at the end of this part. So stay tuned. (I stink at putt-putt too btw, but I still think it's fun).
Orphyfets- Thanks, and I don't know if I said this before, but I plan on updating every three or four days ideally, so you shouldn't have to wait to long.
L-J-L 76-Well you don't have to wait long for the next part. This time it was less than 24 hours for you. I'm glad you like the story.
And now sit back and enjoy.
Chapter 12
Liz quickly walked down the hall to her dorm room door and looked around secretively. Then she put her hand over the doorknob and waited for the sound of a click before she opened her door. Today was the first Wednesday after her resolution to practice her powers, and with Eileen gone with a German club meeting, it was the perfect time to practice. So today would be her first official power practice.
Liz had now been at the school for nearly four weeks, and she was now about two months along. Because she was so tiny, she could already tell that her body looked rounder, but she hoped that no one else could tell a difference, and with the blouse and skirt that she had to wear for a uniform, it was easy to hide a little bit of a weight gain. In fact, Liz was a litte thankful for the uniforms because not only did they hide the weight gain well, but the blouse was long and the skirt came up high, so the silver handprint was a lot easier to hide than it would have been if she had to wear regular clothes. It was really just when she went out to party that she had to be careful about her clothing choice, because her party clothes were more likely to show both her figure and the handprint.
Once Liz entered the room, she stood in front of the door for a minute while she contemplated things she could do to work her powers. The problem was that she knew that she couldn't even try to work on four of the powers she knew about. There was no one around to try mindwarping on, no she knew was asleep so she could dreamwalk them, and she doubted that she would be powerful at the start to dreamwalk someone who was awake. She wouldn't be able to see if she could blast while she was in an enclosed space, and working on healing would always be somewhat problematic.
Liz crossed the room to her bed, sat down and looked around her. Then she glanced down and saw where she had nicked herself while shaving her legs. Maybe she would try to heal that. So she placed placed her hand over the nick closed her eyes and pictured her skin coming together. She waited for a few seconds, then removed her hand and looked down, only to see that nothing had happened.
Liz scowled at the nick and decided to try again. She placed her hand back over the cut and this time she tried thinking about the moment she got cut. Suddenly, in her mind's eye, she saw each individual skin cell, and she imagined that the gap between the cells diminished. As she went through two cells at a time, Liz quickly felt her energy drain, so she hoped that it was working. When she abruptly loss concentration due to lack of energy, the picture evaporated from her mind, and she fell back on her bed. After a few minutes of rest she slowly sat back up and looks down where the nick had previously been on her shin. She was ecstatic to note that it was completely gone, and the skin looked flawless. But she was also discouraged that just such a small healing had left her so wiped out. She resolved to work on her powers a little each day and try to do harder and harder stuff each day so that, she could work on her ability and her endurance. She was absolutely determined to be able to take care of herself, but even Liz's strong will could not keep her awake after the energy she expounded, and she fell asleep not a second after she laid back down on her bed.
*****
Eileen opened the door to her room to see Liz curled up in a fetal position on her bed sleeping soundly. It wasn't really an unusual sight, but it baffled Eileen none the less. It seemed that everyday she came back from classes Liz was asleep. But Liz also went to bed with Eileen every night and got up with her in the morning too, so Liz slept a lot. It was insane really. Liz seemed to always be tired from the beginning, but in the last week, she was sleeping even more, and it worried Eileen a little.
But as much as Eileen didn't think all that sleep could possibly be healthy for Liz, she also didn't want to wake her. Unfortunately for Eileen, dinner would be in just fifteen minutes, so once again, she would have to wake Liz, which was something she was loathe to do. It wasn't that Liz was grouchy or mean when she woke up, it was just that Eileen always had a thing about waking people. Her mother told her that even when she was little and had nightmares she would refuse to wake her parents. So instead of going inside her parent's room, she would sleep in the hallway outside their door, and they would find her in the morning.
Eileen tiptoed to Liz's bed, placed a hand on Liz's shoulder, and gently shook Liz while she whispered "Liz. Liz. You need to get up, you have fifteen minutes 'till dinner."
Liz groggily rolled over and sat up, then looked at the clock and turned back to Eileen, and slowly grumbled, "Thanks for waking me. I'm starving, and I have to meet Serena after dinner to work on physics together." Eileen nodded and then went to her side of the room to get out a change of clothes.
After Liz watched Eileen for a moment as Eileen got out her jeans, T-shirt, and hoodie, she looked over to the backpack sitting on her desk. She hadn't packed her stuff for the study session with Serena yet, so she needed to get that together, and she also needed to find her camera so she could get a picture of Serena and Eileen. Liz had been practicing her powers faithfully now for nearly a week, and she had decided to try dreamwalking. Unfortunately, she didn't think she would be strong enough to reach someone half-way across the continent, and she didn't have pictures of anyone closer to her. So her plan was that she would take a picture of Eileen and Serena tonight and then get it developed over the weekend. Then she would start trying to dreamwalk them on Monday.
Over the past week, Liz felt that she was getting better. She had quickly run out of even tiny things to try to heal and had moved on to other aspects of her powers that she thought she might be able to develop. Over the past weekend, she had gone off by herself to try her hand at blasting, and while she knew that most people wouldn't consider her that successful, she had been proud of what she was able to accomplish. She had been able to bust up a few small rocks before she was completely drained, and at the very least, she realized that the power was a possibility for her. The problem was that she didn't really know when she could practice anything bigger until she got back to Roswell and could practice in the desert. As it was, it was very hard to find a place where she was secluded, and she was a little worried that if her powers got away from her, she would have a hard time covering it up.
It seemed to Liz that so far, of the powers she had tried out, she had been the best at basic molecular manipulation and telekinesis. But those were the ones she could practice easily in her dorm room. So far she had been able to keep ten small objects floating around her room for a solid three minutes. Of course, the objects all had to be in one massive ball of odds and ends, but she was growing more confident.
As for tonight's experiment, she was going to see if she could try a very simple mindwarp on someone. She thought it might be easier to get into someone's mind, if she had direct contact with him or her, so she planned on trying to make Serena or Eileen see a yellow apple in the lunch line. The only problem with the plan, was that Liz didn't know exactly how she was going to make sure that it worked or not, but she was still determined to try.
By the time Liz finished packing her bag, and brushing out her hair, Eileen was ready, so the two girls left the room and headed to the cafeteria. On the way, they knocked on Serena's door and when she answered after two knocks, the three girls linked arms and started to sing a lovely rendition of "We're off to eat the Cafe food" to the tune of "We're off to see the Wizard" complete with skips.
"We're off so eat the Cafe food
The horrible Cafe food that kills"
Once they reached the entrance to the Cafe, the girls settled down and got in line to choose their food. Eileen and Serena split up into different lines, so Liz followed Serena and when they got to the part where the fruit stayed, Liz made sure that her arm was touching Serena's and tried to form a quick connection to her. Liz had never had anyone to try that on before, and had only ever formed a connection with Max, but she tried anyway, and when she felt something in her shift, she thought she may have succeeded. So she quickly shut her eyes and focused on making on of the apples look yellow instead of red. Liz could feel her energy draining as quickly as it had when she first tried to heal herself, and was swiftly brought out of her concentration when she felt Serena move.
Liz opened her eyes and saw that Serena was already paying for her food, so Liz quickly grabbed the closest thing next to her and rushed over to get back in line behind Serena, before she noticed that Liz wasn't behind her anymore. Serena and Liz swiped their ID cards, then headed over to the table that Eileen was already saving for them. Eileen started teasing them immediately for picking the slow line, and suddenly an idea popped into Liz's head as a way for her to see if she had been successful in her attempt to mindwarp, and she decided to promptly check it.
"Hey Eileen. Did you have an yellow apples in your line? I've been craving one, and I don't know if I've ever seen one here." As soon as Liz was done asking her question she held her breath and desperately hoped for the response she wanted. Luckily she didn't have to wait very long, because before Eileen even opened her mouth to reply, Serena was already talking.
"Liz there was a yellow apple in our line. Why didn't you get it?"
Inside Liz jumped for joy at her small victory, but she kept a straight face as she said. "Really? I didn't see one."
Serena then frowned and said "Well I think it was yellow. Maybe it was more of a red and yellow mix. Maybe that's why you didn't see it."
Liz didn't want Serena to be confused by anything so she conceded and said that she had seen the mixed apple, but she wanted a solid yellow one. Liz was slightly disappointed that the apple didn't turn out completely yellow in her mindwarp, but she was happy that at least part of the mindwarp worked, and she was positive that with a little bit of work, she would be able to do a full-blown mindwarp, maybe not quite as successful as Tess's, but at least decent, and it could protect her if need be.
"So what's everybody doing for Thanksgiving this week?" Eileen asked abruptly. "Because my parents are going to Hawaii, and I'm staying here."
"Well you'll have my company." Liz said. "We didn't want to spend the money on a bus ticket to Roswell, when I'd only be there for two days and then have to turn right around and come back, so I'm stuck here too."
Serena looked between her two best friends and commiserated with them. "Well I guess we're all in the same boat, 'cause I doubt my parents even realize that tomorrow starts Thanksgiving weekend. So I'll be here too."
The three girls all nodded and then planned their weekend. If they were all going to be stuck at boarding school, with bad food instead of a traditional Thanksgiving Day feast, they might as well make the best of it. So they planned to fill every possible moment with shopping and parties and girl stuff.
*****
Max was wrapping up his shift at the UFO center, and he was dreading going home. It had been nearly five weeks since Liz left, and it have been two months since his whole world had been destroyed, but he wasn't feeling any better. By now he had be able to find a way to throw himself into his school work and the UFO center, but if he had free time he never knew what to do. He either laid on his bed and listened to Counting Crows or he read the words of a random book, but didn't actually comprehend them. He was getting tired of the way he felt, but he didn't really know what to do about it. Maybe he should see about getting out of Roswell altogether. It might be easier.
With all the extra hours he had taken on at the UFO center, Max had already saved $2000, and while that wasn't a lot, maybe he could stick it out for the rest of the year and try to go somewhere over the summer. Or maybe he should see if he could graduate early and go off to college. Since the catastrophe with Liz, Max had thrown so much effort into his grades, that his already good grades, were now near perfect. He thought he had straight A+ in all his classes except one, and that one was an A, so he could probably pull something off. He didn't know what he wanted to do exactly, but he couldn't handle living like this anymore.
Last edited by ultimatepickupline on Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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ultimatepickupline
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:29 am
- Location: USA
Chapter 13
Hey all, I appreciate the feedback that's picked back up again, and I also thank everybody who had voted in my poll so far. Like I said, I'm a bit of a geek. You would think I'm a marketing major or something, but no such luck. Anyway thank you all.
Redrumm-I'm glad you like the scenes with Liz and the girls. I always did kind of wonder what happened to their friends outside of the 'I know an alien' club.
Lillian-Yep, I also love when Liz has powers, so I thought hey why not in my story? It's perfectly feasible. I also love when people suddenly find out about the somewhat secret life the eight have been living. So all I'll say is "I have plans. I have plans." And those plans are for Serena as well as a few choice others.
L. Spencer-I'm glad you're reading my fic so far. I hope that you continue to read it. I'll be studying abroad in Heidelberg Germany. Where did you study abroad? Btw, I love the quote in your signature. That's probably one of the funniest quotes ever (I may exagerate a little, but it's for a literary reason called hyperbole (yeah sure, that's what they all say)).
lab6651-So I really thank you for your comment, because it made me realize that while I have the entire back story for Serena laid out in my head, I have neglected to actually write it out. I'll have to make sure to put that into one of the next parts I write. Thanks!
Tanya7496-I like the Alex and Isabel parts too, so thanks! As for Max, all I will say is that right now Max can't leave cause it's the middle of the school year, and he doesn't have someone like Alex working on helping him get away.
bluebballjumper-Thank you. I also see Liz as a very strong character, and I'm glad to see someone thinks the same. I also really enjoy writing the chapters while she's at boarding school, because I have a few of my own characters to work with, which I love. And I'm glad you think it's genuinely getting better with each part, because I was starting to get a little worried that my beta was getting lazy with each part. No offence. I'm totally posting this so that my beta's efforts to stay awake and beta my last few parts will not be in vain. Thanks!
Let the festivities begin...
Chapter 13
Tess was a little stressed. Today was thanksgiving day, and she was determined to have something of a normal Thanksgiving. It would be her first time celebrating the holiday in any real fashion, and she wanted it to be perfect. Or at least nearly so. She had spent all morning cooking and she was just about ready to sit down to eat. Unfortunately, it did not seem that things were quite ready. Kyle and the Sheriff had been watching football all day, and while she didn't really fault them for that because she had insisted that they carry out their normal thanksgiving day activities, with the exception of eating at the crashdown, she hadn't realized that it was going to be so much work. Kyle seemed like he would have offered to help, but Tess had kind of shut him down before he could even offer. Well there should be no problem, she was an alien after all. Tess quickly ran her hand over the dishes to clean them, and put away everything that wasn't suppose to be out. Then she set the table, and ran her hand over every individual dish heating up what had gotten cool, cooling off what has too hot, and cutting what hadn't been ready to serve yet.
"Okay guys. Dinner is ready!" Tess called from the kitchen.
"Just a minute!" they guys yelled back, then Tess heard "Go go go go goooo!!! Touchdown!"
Tess didn't want to wait, so she lifted her hand in the direction of the TV and willed it to turn off. She new she was successful when she heard the resulting groans. Tess smiled. Worked every time.
The guys grumbled as they headed into the kitchen. "What did you have to do that for Tess? We would have come in." Kyle complained. Then he saw the table and his jaw dropped. He had realized that Tess seemed to spend a lot of time cooking, but he didn't realize she had gone all out. He quickly smiled at Tess and then took his seat and waited for his dad and Tess to do the same.
"Wow, Tess, this looks great." Jim said to Tess. This would be his first real Thanksgiving meal since his wife had left, and he couldn't say that he didn't appreciate it.
Tess felt the unfamiliar emotion of pride. She had felt it a little before, but since she had always been taught that emotions were weak, she had stuffed it down. Now that she was living in a more human way, she was realizing that there were a lot of things that she was happy to experience, and emotions was one of them. She was proud that she had obviously been successful in making the Sheriff and Kyle happy. They had given her a lot, by giving her a home, and while she would probably never say it, she was very thankful for it. She was the happiest she had ever been, and she couldn't even imagine her life any other way.
"Great!" Tess said. "Now dig in!"
The three all began helping themselves to heaping piles of food, and even Tess who didn't usually eat a lot of normal food, was getting herself some pretty generous portions. She had tasted the food as she made it, and she had to admit, that for food that was made the normal human way, she found it pretty tasty. Of course, if she were truthful, she would also have to admit that part of the reason for that was that she was just proud that she had made so much of it by herself, without the use of alien powers. At least till the very end, and that didn't count.
When they were done eating, Kyle convinced Tess to watch football with him and his dad. He didn't think that Tess would comply, but he thought it was worth a shot, and he would do almost anything to spend some more time with her. So they sat down to watch the game. Unfortunately for Kyle, Tess didn't really understand anything about football, and he had to explain everything to her.
"Okay so what are they doing now?
"They're in a hudle."
"What's that?"
"It's where the coach is going to tell the players what play to run in order to score a touchdown."
"Is that when they run the ball to one of the 'Y' looking thingys?"
At that point Kyle suddenly got distracted because it looked, like his team might just be getting ready to score, and he could not focus on anything other than the TV screen. When the team finally ran the ball to the endzone, Kyle and Jim both jumped up from the couch and did a little jig for their team, after giving each other a high five. Tess just watched and shook her head. She would never really understand why Kyle was so obsessed with football. All sports seemed pretty pointless to her, at least to watch. She could kind of understand why someone might want to play them, but she thought that watching them was pretty boring. It was why she decided to liven up the game for her by asking Kyle a ton of questions. First of all, she hoped that maybe if she understood the game better that she would appreciate it more, but secondly, she knew that if she got enough continuous questions going, that Kyle would eventually get pretty exasperated, and that could be fun in and of itself.
As soon as Kyle and the Sheriff seemed to be over the majority of their celebration, Tess started asking questions. She would have asked them before, but she knew that she just would have been completely ignored.
"How come the score changed by so much?"
"What do you mean?"
"It went up by six, shouldn't it go up by two?"
Kyle gave puzzled look before he realized why Tess thought it would be two, then he rolled his eyes before he answered. "No, that's basketball. A touchdown in football is worth six."
"Oh. What are they doing now?"
"Setting up for the extra point."
"What's the point of that? Why don't they just start over?"
Kyle looked over at Tess like she was crazy to think that the rules of football should be different, but before he could answer her, the phone rang, and his concentration was taken off of the questions, as he heard his dad's side of the phone conversation. It looked as if the most perfect Thanksgiving that he had had in a long time was going to be soiled. When the Sheriff was done, he hung up the phone and turned to Kyle and Tess to say, "Well, it looks like there's been an accident, and they're calling me out to take a look at it. Tess you fixed a great meal, and both of you have a good evening, I might not get home till late."
Kyle and Tess nodded, then Kyle turned back to the TV slightly more subdued, and started to watch the game. They stayed staring at the TV for a few minutes while the Sheriff left, and then Tess decided she had had enough of football. So she held up her hand and switched the TV channels. That got Kyle's attention.
"Hey! None of that alien voodoo in the house it creeps me out! And I was watching football!" Kyle reached for the remote and turned the TV back to the the football game.
"Fine. No powers. Then give me the remote." Tess held out her hand, but Kyle looked at her like she was crazy.
"No. It's Thanksgiving, your supposed to watch football, so it's already on the right channel."
Tess put her hands in her lap and breathed out. Then she looked at Kyle with a slightly evil glint in her eyes. Kyle looked back, and was a little worried about what Tess was thinking about doing, when Tess said, "Then I'll just have to get it myself." Without warning Tess practically threw herself across Kyle and grabbed the remote, then she jumped off the couch and did a little dance at her success.
Kyle was not about to be outdone, and grabbed Tess by the waist, tugged her down to the couch, and reached for the remote. Unfortunately for Kyle, Tess saw his intentions right away, and quickly put the remote behind her back. The two struggled for a bit for the remote, when suddenly they both realized the position they were in. Kyle was pretty much laying on top of Tess, and Tess was effectively trapped. Kyle froze because he had never expected to be in this position, quite literally. But Tess decided to finally go for it and lifted her head up to kiss Kyle. Kyle was stiff for all of a second while he quickly processed his shock, before he began to kiss Tess back. His last thought while he was still able to think was that perhaps Thanksgiving hadn't been ruined at all.
*****
The Deluca household was having an unusually good Thanksgiving this year as well. Amy had insisted that Maria invite Michael to Thanksgiving dinner, and while Maria was reluctant to do so because Amy had been down on Michael ever since she walked in on them making out of the couch, Maria had eventually conceded and convinced Michael to come. Now it was looking like that was one of the best ideas her mom had had in a long time.
Michael had never really had a Thanksgiving meal. Hank couldn't cook, and didn't really see the point when he could just drink beer and watch football all day, and while Michael had usually been invited to the Evans' house for dinner, he never ended up going. Michael saw it was more of a family time, and he was just invited out of pity. But this year, he had had no choice but to go with Maria. First of all, Maria could be more stubborn than anyone he knew if she wanted to be, and although he was disinclined to admit it, he really had met his match with her. So Michael had shown up to Thanksgiving expecting it to be one of the worse days of his life, complete with embarrassing questions about what his intentions toward Maria were. But it hadn't been anything like that. The minute Amy opened the door for him, she welcomed Michael into their home, and while Michael could never really be described as a conversationalist, Michael was having a good time with both Maria and Ms. Deluca. Both of them loved to talk, and for the most part he could sit back and just let them chat.
Maria was also having a good time. Michael was acting pretty pleasant, and while she had been expecting an interrogation like Michael, she couldn't say that she was completely shocked at her mother's behavior. She just knew that her mother had decided on a more diplomatic and subtle way of getting information. Though she was surprised to note that Michael seemed to actually be having a good time. He would even jump in and offer comments here and there, and Maria was happy to note that he had been smiling almost the whole time, though she doubted he knew that.
Amy was proud of herself for coming up with the idea of inviting Michael over for Thanksgiving. She had been worried about his and Maria's relationship, when she walked in on the end of their reconciliation after about a month or so apart. She was worried that Michael would treat her little girl like Amy herself had been treated, and Amy didn't want that for Maria. But after spending most of the day with Michael, Amy felt much more at ease. It was obvious that Michael made Maria happy, and vice versa. That didn't mean that she would just let the relationship go unchecked, but she would try not to interfere too much either.
By now it was pretty late, and Michael was getting ready to leave after the movie they had been watching. Amy had a little bit of pity on him for having to go home so late and after he stood up to leave, she considered offering to let him stay the night, but quickly decided against it and instead asked him if he would be able to drive home safely.
Michael gulped. He wasn't used to someone trying to watch out for him, and while he knew he should appreciate it, it really just kind of freaked him out. So he swiftly grabbed his jacket and offered up an excuse. "No, I'm not that tired Ms. Deluca. And it isn't that far to my apartment, I'll just leave now. Bye." Michael then quickly exited the house without looking back, and without saying goodnight to Maria.
Maria turned to her mom, rolled her eyes, and left Amy to wonder what exactly had happened. Well she guessed that maybe there was more to Michael that she thought. She just hoped it didn't get her daughter into trouble.
Redrumm-I'm glad you like the scenes with Liz and the girls. I always did kind of wonder what happened to their friends outside of the 'I know an alien' club.
Lillian-Yep, I also love when Liz has powers, so I thought hey why not in my story? It's perfectly feasible. I also love when people suddenly find out about the somewhat secret life the eight have been living. So all I'll say is "I have plans. I have plans." And those plans are for Serena as well as a few choice others.
L. Spencer-I'm glad you're reading my fic so far. I hope that you continue to read it. I'll be studying abroad in Heidelberg Germany. Where did you study abroad? Btw, I love the quote in your signature. That's probably one of the funniest quotes ever (I may exagerate a little, but it's for a literary reason called hyperbole (yeah sure, that's what they all say)).
lab6651-So I really thank you for your comment, because it made me realize that while I have the entire back story for Serena laid out in my head, I have neglected to actually write it out. I'll have to make sure to put that into one of the next parts I write. Thanks!
Tanya7496-I like the Alex and Isabel parts too, so thanks! As for Max, all I will say is that right now Max can't leave cause it's the middle of the school year, and he doesn't have someone like Alex working on helping him get away.
bluebballjumper-Thank you. I also see Liz as a very strong character, and I'm glad to see someone thinks the same. I also really enjoy writing the chapters while she's at boarding school, because I have a few of my own characters to work with, which I love. And I'm glad you think it's genuinely getting better with each part, because I was starting to get a little worried that my beta was getting lazy with each part. No offence. I'm totally posting this so that my beta's efforts to stay awake and beta my last few parts will not be in vain. Thanks!
Let the festivities begin...
Chapter 13
Tess was a little stressed. Today was thanksgiving day, and she was determined to have something of a normal Thanksgiving. It would be her first time celebrating the holiday in any real fashion, and she wanted it to be perfect. Or at least nearly so. She had spent all morning cooking and she was just about ready to sit down to eat. Unfortunately, it did not seem that things were quite ready. Kyle and the Sheriff had been watching football all day, and while she didn't really fault them for that because she had insisted that they carry out their normal thanksgiving day activities, with the exception of eating at the crashdown, she hadn't realized that it was going to be so much work. Kyle seemed like he would have offered to help, but Tess had kind of shut him down before he could even offer. Well there should be no problem, she was an alien after all. Tess quickly ran her hand over the dishes to clean them, and put away everything that wasn't suppose to be out. Then she set the table, and ran her hand over every individual dish heating up what had gotten cool, cooling off what has too hot, and cutting what hadn't been ready to serve yet.
"Okay guys. Dinner is ready!" Tess called from the kitchen.
"Just a minute!" they guys yelled back, then Tess heard "Go go go go goooo!!! Touchdown!"
Tess didn't want to wait, so she lifted her hand in the direction of the TV and willed it to turn off. She new she was successful when she heard the resulting groans. Tess smiled. Worked every time.
The guys grumbled as they headed into the kitchen. "What did you have to do that for Tess? We would have come in." Kyle complained. Then he saw the table and his jaw dropped. He had realized that Tess seemed to spend a lot of time cooking, but he didn't realize she had gone all out. He quickly smiled at Tess and then took his seat and waited for his dad and Tess to do the same.
"Wow, Tess, this looks great." Jim said to Tess. This would be his first real Thanksgiving meal since his wife had left, and he couldn't say that he didn't appreciate it.
Tess felt the unfamiliar emotion of pride. She had felt it a little before, but since she had always been taught that emotions were weak, she had stuffed it down. Now that she was living in a more human way, she was realizing that there were a lot of things that she was happy to experience, and emotions was one of them. She was proud that she had obviously been successful in making the Sheriff and Kyle happy. They had given her a lot, by giving her a home, and while she would probably never say it, she was very thankful for it. She was the happiest she had ever been, and she couldn't even imagine her life any other way.
"Great!" Tess said. "Now dig in!"
The three all began helping themselves to heaping piles of food, and even Tess who didn't usually eat a lot of normal food, was getting herself some pretty generous portions. She had tasted the food as she made it, and she had to admit, that for food that was made the normal human way, she found it pretty tasty. Of course, if she were truthful, she would also have to admit that part of the reason for that was that she was just proud that she had made so much of it by herself, without the use of alien powers. At least till the very end, and that didn't count.
When they were done eating, Kyle convinced Tess to watch football with him and his dad. He didn't think that Tess would comply, but he thought it was worth a shot, and he would do almost anything to spend some more time with her. So they sat down to watch the game. Unfortunately for Kyle, Tess didn't really understand anything about football, and he had to explain everything to her.
"Okay so what are they doing now?
"They're in a hudle."
"What's that?"
"It's where the coach is going to tell the players what play to run in order to score a touchdown."
"Is that when they run the ball to one of the 'Y' looking thingys?"
At that point Kyle suddenly got distracted because it looked, like his team might just be getting ready to score, and he could not focus on anything other than the TV screen. When the team finally ran the ball to the endzone, Kyle and Jim both jumped up from the couch and did a little jig for their team, after giving each other a high five. Tess just watched and shook her head. She would never really understand why Kyle was so obsessed with football. All sports seemed pretty pointless to her, at least to watch. She could kind of understand why someone might want to play them, but she thought that watching them was pretty boring. It was why she decided to liven up the game for her by asking Kyle a ton of questions. First of all, she hoped that maybe if she understood the game better that she would appreciate it more, but secondly, she knew that if she got enough continuous questions going, that Kyle would eventually get pretty exasperated, and that could be fun in and of itself.
As soon as Kyle and the Sheriff seemed to be over the majority of their celebration, Tess started asking questions. She would have asked them before, but she knew that she just would have been completely ignored.
"How come the score changed by so much?"
"What do you mean?"
"It went up by six, shouldn't it go up by two?"
Kyle gave puzzled look before he realized why Tess thought it would be two, then he rolled his eyes before he answered. "No, that's basketball. A touchdown in football is worth six."
"Oh. What are they doing now?"
"Setting up for the extra point."
"What's the point of that? Why don't they just start over?"
Kyle looked over at Tess like she was crazy to think that the rules of football should be different, but before he could answer her, the phone rang, and his concentration was taken off of the questions, as he heard his dad's side of the phone conversation. It looked as if the most perfect Thanksgiving that he had had in a long time was going to be soiled. When the Sheriff was done, he hung up the phone and turned to Kyle and Tess to say, "Well, it looks like there's been an accident, and they're calling me out to take a look at it. Tess you fixed a great meal, and both of you have a good evening, I might not get home till late."
Kyle and Tess nodded, then Kyle turned back to the TV slightly more subdued, and started to watch the game. They stayed staring at the TV for a few minutes while the Sheriff left, and then Tess decided she had had enough of football. So she held up her hand and switched the TV channels. That got Kyle's attention.
"Hey! None of that alien voodoo in the house it creeps me out! And I was watching football!" Kyle reached for the remote and turned the TV back to the the football game.
"Fine. No powers. Then give me the remote." Tess held out her hand, but Kyle looked at her like she was crazy.
"No. It's Thanksgiving, your supposed to watch football, so it's already on the right channel."
Tess put her hands in her lap and breathed out. Then she looked at Kyle with a slightly evil glint in her eyes. Kyle looked back, and was a little worried about what Tess was thinking about doing, when Tess said, "Then I'll just have to get it myself." Without warning Tess practically threw herself across Kyle and grabbed the remote, then she jumped off the couch and did a little dance at her success.
Kyle was not about to be outdone, and grabbed Tess by the waist, tugged her down to the couch, and reached for the remote. Unfortunately for Kyle, Tess saw his intentions right away, and quickly put the remote behind her back. The two struggled for a bit for the remote, when suddenly they both realized the position they were in. Kyle was pretty much laying on top of Tess, and Tess was effectively trapped. Kyle froze because he had never expected to be in this position, quite literally. But Tess decided to finally go for it and lifted her head up to kiss Kyle. Kyle was stiff for all of a second while he quickly processed his shock, before he began to kiss Tess back. His last thought while he was still able to think was that perhaps Thanksgiving hadn't been ruined at all.
*****
The Deluca household was having an unusually good Thanksgiving this year as well. Amy had insisted that Maria invite Michael to Thanksgiving dinner, and while Maria was reluctant to do so because Amy had been down on Michael ever since she walked in on them making out of the couch, Maria had eventually conceded and convinced Michael to come. Now it was looking like that was one of the best ideas her mom had had in a long time.
Michael had never really had a Thanksgiving meal. Hank couldn't cook, and didn't really see the point when he could just drink beer and watch football all day, and while Michael had usually been invited to the Evans' house for dinner, he never ended up going. Michael saw it was more of a family time, and he was just invited out of pity. But this year, he had had no choice but to go with Maria. First of all, Maria could be more stubborn than anyone he knew if she wanted to be, and although he was disinclined to admit it, he really had met his match with her. So Michael had shown up to Thanksgiving expecting it to be one of the worse days of his life, complete with embarrassing questions about what his intentions toward Maria were. But it hadn't been anything like that. The minute Amy opened the door for him, she welcomed Michael into their home, and while Michael could never really be described as a conversationalist, Michael was having a good time with both Maria and Ms. Deluca. Both of them loved to talk, and for the most part he could sit back and just let them chat.
Maria was also having a good time. Michael was acting pretty pleasant, and while she had been expecting an interrogation like Michael, she couldn't say that she was completely shocked at her mother's behavior. She just knew that her mother had decided on a more diplomatic and subtle way of getting information. Though she was surprised to note that Michael seemed to actually be having a good time. He would even jump in and offer comments here and there, and Maria was happy to note that he had been smiling almost the whole time, though she doubted he knew that.
Amy was proud of herself for coming up with the idea of inviting Michael over for Thanksgiving. She had been worried about his and Maria's relationship, when she walked in on the end of their reconciliation after about a month or so apart. She was worried that Michael would treat her little girl like Amy herself had been treated, and Amy didn't want that for Maria. But after spending most of the day with Michael, Amy felt much more at ease. It was obvious that Michael made Maria happy, and vice versa. That didn't mean that she would just let the relationship go unchecked, but she would try not to interfere too much either.
By now it was pretty late, and Michael was getting ready to leave after the movie they had been watching. Amy had a little bit of pity on him for having to go home so late and after he stood up to leave, she considered offering to let him stay the night, but quickly decided against it and instead asked him if he would be able to drive home safely.
Michael gulped. He wasn't used to someone trying to watch out for him, and while he knew he should appreciate it, it really just kind of freaked him out. So he swiftly grabbed his jacket and offered up an excuse. "No, I'm not that tired Ms. Deluca. And it isn't that far to my apartment, I'll just leave now. Bye." Michael then quickly exited the house without looking back, and without saying goodnight to Maria.
Maria turned to her mom, rolled her eyes, and left Amy to wonder what exactly had happened. Well she guessed that maybe there was more to Michael that she thought. She just hoped it didn't get her daughter into trouble.
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ultimatepickupline
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:29 am
- Location: USA
Chapter 14
So due to the overwhelming lack of support for my last author's chat, the author's chat has been rescheduled. The hope is that Saturday night was a bad night for people. So the new date will be Tuesday, August 22nd at 9 PM. It will be held at Roswell Heaven this time, which is at ezboard.com. Please people don't leave me hanging this time.
Redrumm-I'm glad I have candy fan who liked my scene with Maria and Michael. I find them a bit hard to write. I'm also glad you liked the Kyle/Tess scene. That one was fun.
rar1942-Thanks for the advice for Germany. I wish I had known about the orchid house in Frankfurt when I visited a couple of years ago. Frankfurt was a bit of a let down after the other cities. I do speak German btw, (see my comment to Sternbetrachter in the last chapter). I'll have to make sure to save your comment before it gets pruned so that I can actually take advantage of it all.
izzyandkyle-I'm glad you were intrigued by the banner. I think Tanya did a great job, it was better than I could have hoped for, and I'm glad you're enjoying the Kyle and Tess stuff. I always wanted them to get together on the show too. Oh and thanks for letting me know how you found the fic. Like I said in the poll, I'm a bit of a geek like that.
Lorastar-yep there is obviously going to be problems with the way Max feels towards his child. To be honest, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to resolve the feelings. I'm not much for angst, so I'll prolly try to make it as minimal as possible. But we'll see.
Roswelllostcause-I wanted to update two days ago, but I had a hard time getting out my most recent chapter, which is funny, cause it's one I've been waiting for, but I just couldn't get going.
Anyway, here's the update.
Chapter 14
The entire ship was silent in fear. They had been traveling for a month now, and Khivar seemed to always be angry. No one wanted to approach him, and while that was a pretty normal thing at the palace, Nikolas had always told Khivar what needed to be revealed. Now though, even Nikolas feared for his life, and so no one had told Khivar one tiny bit of information that he might have wanted.
*****
Thehlec was starting to notice something different. He didn't know what it was, and he was almost worried that he might need to see a physician, but in their haste to leave Antar, Khivar had not taken into account that someone might get sick. So the only people on board the ship were Khivar, Nikolas, the ten soldiers Khivar had called for, Soirafen, and Thehlec. Soirafen had had a little bit of medical training, and it was rumored that Khivar had once dabbled in medicine, but no one was really qualified to monitor bigger problems, and that greatly worried Thehlec.
Thehlec himself had taken a few classes in school related to biology, and he knew that something was wrong, he just didn't know what. He had been feeling steadily warmer since they had left Antar. It wasn't that it was literally warmer in the ship than it was on Antar, it was more that Thehlec suddenly realized that he wasn't constantly getting cold, and now it was to the point where he was almost always hot. But he didn't really feel feverish. It was more like there was just a ton of extra energy coursing through his body.
Then there was the fact that he didn't seem be getting as tired as he had been. He had always needed a good eight hours of sleep a night, and now he found he couldn't sleep past six hours. As soon as he finished his six hours, he would suddenly wake up with tons of energy. So again it was as if there were extra energy in his body.
The whole thing actually didn't sound that bad, but that was the very thing that worried Thehlec. It seemed that too much was different, and since he couldn't possibly think of what the change could be, Thehlec's only guess was that it must be something that was so bad, that you actually had to be a physician to understand what it was.
*****
Nikolas tentatively opened the door and inwardly cringed at the thought of what he was going to have to inform Khivar. Khivar had summoned Nikolas to his chambers earlier in the day and told him to have as much information ready about the planet Earth and their journey to said planet as possible. Nikolas knew that the length of the voyage would greatly anger Khivar, but that wasn't the only bad news that Nikolas would have to deliver, and he knew that the second would by far be the worse.
Khivar heard the door slowly open and knew that it must be Nikolas and he must be worried about something, which greatly disturbed Khivar. Nikolas usually only got worried when he knew that he was going to have to tell Khivar something that he knew would make Khivar angry, and Khivar knew that his early sign of trepidation was not good for his own mood. "Nikolas!" Khivar commandingly called out, "Come in already and tell me what information you found."
Nikolas swallowed and shut the door; then he headed over to the table where he could sit and lay down the file that he had brought to make the information he brought look more official. "Lord Khivar, I have gathered all information possible at this point. What would you like to know?"
That was a delaying tactic if ever Khivar saw one, and he narrowed his eyes in suspicion, then asked, "We have been enroute to earth for over a month already, yet I have seen no signs of the planet. How long do the scientists say that it will take for us to arrive?"
Here's where Nikolas knew he had to deliver his first bad piece of news, and he really didn't want to do it, but he guessed he might as well get it over and done with. "Yes Lord Khivar, we have been traveling for some time now, and unfortunately the journey is calculated to take us about six more months, which will be about the middle of June according to earth's calendar." Nikolas saw the anger in Khivar's eyes and quickly tried to offer any information that would slightly placate the King. "At least it's a lot better than the ten year journey the pods had to go through to reach the planet." Khivar didn't seem to be relenting at all, and Nikolas felt his heart begin to beat about three times its normal pace. "Plus we should still get there before the heir is born. According to the old research of the planet, a human's pregnancy lasts for nine months, so we should be arriving before the birth."
Khivar sat and studied Nikolas for a minutes with a calculating stare, while Nikolas fought the strong urge to squirm. Khivar felt somewhat pacified with the news that at least the heir and the queen would be left rather vulnerable when he arrived. He doubted that if human pregnancies were anything like antarian pregnancies, that the queen would be able to move around too well. After several minutes, Khivar relented and moved on to the next line of questioning. "Fine. If we have so much time until we reach earth, we should do something in the meant time. I assume that we have not been in contact with our group there." Khivar raised his eyebrow, and when Nikolas shook his head, he continued, "Then we can at least start preparing as much as we can for the assassination. I want you to learn as much as you can about earth and inform me about the most important aspects. I also want you to inform the scientists that they must find a way to get the power suppressors set up properly on earth. They need to be able to immediately be able to wipe out the powers of everybody on the planet, with the exception of me of course, so they may need to get started on that, but they have plenty of time." Khivar noted the fearful look on Nikolas's face and shrewdly asked, "What do you need to tell me Nikolas?"
Nikolas gulped as he looked back up into Khivar's eyes. This was the knowledge that he had been dreading to impart. "Lord Khivar, in the haste to leave antar, the power suppressors could not be effectively dismantled enough to be brought on board, and still control the people of antar in your absence."
Khivar felt rage boil through him. "DO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT WE HAVE NO WAY OF SUPPRESSING ZAN'S POWERS?"
Nikolas tried to push himself into the back of his seat as much as possible, and sputter out his explanation, but before he could, Khivar became deathly quiet again, and said, "Make sure that the scientists know that they have until the time that we arrive on earth to recreate the power suppressors. If they don't, they know what they're punishment will be, and make sure that no one knows about the absence of the repressors. I don't want them to suddenly think that they can use they're powers against me. Understand?" Nikolas quickly nodded and rose from his chair. "Then get out." Nikolas headed for the door, and as he reached the door, Khivar called out. "Oh and Nikolas?" Nikolas stopped and turned to Khivar. "Here's an added warning that it would be in their best interest to follow my orders efficiently."
Khivar raised his hand and sent a concentrated beam of energy to Nikolas's left arm. Nikolas felt fire shoot through his arm and burn all his nerves. His eyes teared up, but he refused to show any pain, and after a few seconds, he couldn't feel his arm at all. It just hung limply from his shoulder. Khivar's voice drifted to him as he turned to walk through the door. "If the scientists don't succeed, if will also be your life on the line, so I suggest that you make it your mission that they don't mess up."
*****
Thehlec was in shock. He hadn't meant to listen in on Nikolas and Khivar's entire conversation, but he had been sent to the supply room right next to the King's chambers for some more silicon filament, and he had quickly discovered that he could hear they're voices through the air duct.
Thehlec didn't know how he felt about the whole thing. He always knew that Khivar was ruthless, but Thehlec didn't think that he was quite as crazy as everyone said he was. Now he wasn't sure. There was definitely something maniacal about him.
Thehlec also wondered at the bit about the power suppressors. If it meant what he thought it meant, then there had been something back on antar designed to inhibit the powers of the citizens of antar, and Khivar had been planning on using it to incapacitate Zan, whoever that was. But the power suppressors had been left behind. That might be the explanations for what he thought was a sudden illness. Thehlec knew that he had felt different since leaving the planet, and since most of his symptoms seemed to be about an excess of energy...was it possible that really all of the weird things in his body were just his powers returning to him? He'd have to check that out later somehow. But right now he had to get back to the lab. He didn't want to get caught snooping, especially with how angry Khivar had sounded at the end. Thehlec didn't even want to contemplate what Khivar had probably done to Nikolas during that little interchange.
*****
Isabel looked all around her, but she didn't recognize anything. Everything looked gray and misty. She didn't know where she was, and she was a little anxious as to how she had gotten here. She didn't remember a thing. Suddenly she got the feeling that she wasn't even standing on solid ground anymore. She was just floating through space. In her mind's eye she saw all kinds of different looking planets and stars, but if she looked around with her literal eyes, she saw nothing. After a little bit, she got the feeling that she was was standing on solid ground again, and felt the urge to sit cross-legged. She needed to wait for someone, but she didn't know who. She closed her eyes and just waited for something to feel different.
When Isabel opened her eyes again, she saw Liz and Tess sitting in the same position as her and forming a tight triangle with her. She touched both of their shoulders and their eyes startled open. They sat there just staring into one another's eyes for a bit, when they all started shivering. Isabel suddenly felt very cold, and the once foggy looking lanscape was now completely clear, but there was a large shadow falling over the triangle formed between her, Tess, and Liz, and Isabel realized that part of her chill was actually the result of being paralyzed with fear. She didn't know what she was afraid of, but that scared her even more. She couldn't handle this fear.
Isabel abruptly opened her eyes and swiftly sat up in bed, then let out a small cry. She couldn't remember what her dream was, but it terrified her. She very uncharacteristically wanted to go to her brother and let him make everything alright. But she hadn't done that since the few months after she was adopted, and she refused to do it now. Besides, with Max's current emotional state, he probably wouldn't be able to help her anyway. So Isabel laid back down on her side, and tried to push the residual terror from the dream out of her mind. She would deal with it later.
*****
Tess screamed and shot up in bed. She couldn't remember what she dreamed, but it filled her with terror, and for the first time ever, she didn't feel like she could deal with it by herself. She crawled out of bed and crept down the hall to the living room where Kyle was sleeping on the couch. They had been together now for a total of nearly two weeks, and while that really wasn't enough to be sharing a bed with him, she knew, she couldn't resist the feeling that he could make everything alright. She had never had anyone to go to with bad dreams when she was little, and now that she might have that, she refused to discount it.
Tess gingerly walked over to the couch and gently shook Kyle awake. Kyle opened his eyes to see Tess looking at him with an expression he had never seen on her face before. If he didn't know better, he might call it fear, but he knew he had to do something, so he silently lifted up his blanket and pulled her down on the couch with him, where he held her to his body till they both fell asleep.
*****
Liz woke up abruptly, and looked around her room. She hadn't had a nightmare since, she was nine, but she was petrified from her most current dream. She wished that she had woken up in her own room at home, and that she was little again, and she could run to her mommy and tell her she had a bad dream. But Liz wasn't at home, she was alone and boarding school. Liz couldn't even remember what her dream was, but she was so emotionally overwhelmed that all she could do was turn over and sob into her pillow until she cried herself to sleep.
Redrumm-I'm glad I have candy fan who liked my scene with Maria and Michael. I find them a bit hard to write. I'm also glad you liked the Kyle/Tess scene. That one was fun.
rar1942-Thanks for the advice for Germany. I wish I had known about the orchid house in Frankfurt when I visited a couple of years ago. Frankfurt was a bit of a let down after the other cities. I do speak German btw, (see my comment to Sternbetrachter in the last chapter). I'll have to make sure to save your comment before it gets pruned so that I can actually take advantage of it all.
izzyandkyle-I'm glad you were intrigued by the banner. I think Tanya did a great job, it was better than I could have hoped for, and I'm glad you're enjoying the Kyle and Tess stuff. I always wanted them to get together on the show too. Oh and thanks for letting me know how you found the fic. Like I said in the poll, I'm a bit of a geek like that.
Lorastar-yep there is obviously going to be problems with the way Max feels towards his child. To be honest, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to resolve the feelings. I'm not much for angst, so I'll prolly try to make it as minimal as possible. But we'll see.
Roswelllostcause-I wanted to update two days ago, but I had a hard time getting out my most recent chapter, which is funny, cause it's one I've been waiting for, but I just couldn't get going.
Anyway, here's the update.
Chapter 14
The entire ship was silent in fear. They had been traveling for a month now, and Khivar seemed to always be angry. No one wanted to approach him, and while that was a pretty normal thing at the palace, Nikolas had always told Khivar what needed to be revealed. Now though, even Nikolas feared for his life, and so no one had told Khivar one tiny bit of information that he might have wanted.
*****
Thehlec was starting to notice something different. He didn't know what it was, and he was almost worried that he might need to see a physician, but in their haste to leave Antar, Khivar had not taken into account that someone might get sick. So the only people on board the ship were Khivar, Nikolas, the ten soldiers Khivar had called for, Soirafen, and Thehlec. Soirafen had had a little bit of medical training, and it was rumored that Khivar had once dabbled in medicine, but no one was really qualified to monitor bigger problems, and that greatly worried Thehlec.
Thehlec himself had taken a few classes in school related to biology, and he knew that something was wrong, he just didn't know what. He had been feeling steadily warmer since they had left Antar. It wasn't that it was literally warmer in the ship than it was on Antar, it was more that Thehlec suddenly realized that he wasn't constantly getting cold, and now it was to the point where he was almost always hot. But he didn't really feel feverish. It was more like there was just a ton of extra energy coursing through his body.
Then there was the fact that he didn't seem be getting as tired as he had been. He had always needed a good eight hours of sleep a night, and now he found he couldn't sleep past six hours. As soon as he finished his six hours, he would suddenly wake up with tons of energy. So again it was as if there were extra energy in his body.
The whole thing actually didn't sound that bad, but that was the very thing that worried Thehlec. It seemed that too much was different, and since he couldn't possibly think of what the change could be, Thehlec's only guess was that it must be something that was so bad, that you actually had to be a physician to understand what it was.
*****
Nikolas tentatively opened the door and inwardly cringed at the thought of what he was going to have to inform Khivar. Khivar had summoned Nikolas to his chambers earlier in the day and told him to have as much information ready about the planet Earth and their journey to said planet as possible. Nikolas knew that the length of the voyage would greatly anger Khivar, but that wasn't the only bad news that Nikolas would have to deliver, and he knew that the second would by far be the worse.
Khivar heard the door slowly open and knew that it must be Nikolas and he must be worried about something, which greatly disturbed Khivar. Nikolas usually only got worried when he knew that he was going to have to tell Khivar something that he knew would make Khivar angry, and Khivar knew that his early sign of trepidation was not good for his own mood. "Nikolas!" Khivar commandingly called out, "Come in already and tell me what information you found."
Nikolas swallowed and shut the door; then he headed over to the table where he could sit and lay down the file that he had brought to make the information he brought look more official. "Lord Khivar, I have gathered all information possible at this point. What would you like to know?"
That was a delaying tactic if ever Khivar saw one, and he narrowed his eyes in suspicion, then asked, "We have been enroute to earth for over a month already, yet I have seen no signs of the planet. How long do the scientists say that it will take for us to arrive?"
Here's where Nikolas knew he had to deliver his first bad piece of news, and he really didn't want to do it, but he guessed he might as well get it over and done with. "Yes Lord Khivar, we have been traveling for some time now, and unfortunately the journey is calculated to take us about six more months, which will be about the middle of June according to earth's calendar." Nikolas saw the anger in Khivar's eyes and quickly tried to offer any information that would slightly placate the King. "At least it's a lot better than the ten year journey the pods had to go through to reach the planet." Khivar didn't seem to be relenting at all, and Nikolas felt his heart begin to beat about three times its normal pace. "Plus we should still get there before the heir is born. According to the old research of the planet, a human's pregnancy lasts for nine months, so we should be arriving before the birth."
Khivar sat and studied Nikolas for a minutes with a calculating stare, while Nikolas fought the strong urge to squirm. Khivar felt somewhat pacified with the news that at least the heir and the queen would be left rather vulnerable when he arrived. He doubted that if human pregnancies were anything like antarian pregnancies, that the queen would be able to move around too well. After several minutes, Khivar relented and moved on to the next line of questioning. "Fine. If we have so much time until we reach earth, we should do something in the meant time. I assume that we have not been in contact with our group there." Khivar raised his eyebrow, and when Nikolas shook his head, he continued, "Then we can at least start preparing as much as we can for the assassination. I want you to learn as much as you can about earth and inform me about the most important aspects. I also want you to inform the scientists that they must find a way to get the power suppressors set up properly on earth. They need to be able to immediately be able to wipe out the powers of everybody on the planet, with the exception of me of course, so they may need to get started on that, but they have plenty of time." Khivar noted the fearful look on Nikolas's face and shrewdly asked, "What do you need to tell me Nikolas?"
Nikolas gulped as he looked back up into Khivar's eyes. This was the knowledge that he had been dreading to impart. "Lord Khivar, in the haste to leave antar, the power suppressors could not be effectively dismantled enough to be brought on board, and still control the people of antar in your absence."
Khivar felt rage boil through him. "DO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT WE HAVE NO WAY OF SUPPRESSING ZAN'S POWERS?"
Nikolas tried to push himself into the back of his seat as much as possible, and sputter out his explanation, but before he could, Khivar became deathly quiet again, and said, "Make sure that the scientists know that they have until the time that we arrive on earth to recreate the power suppressors. If they don't, they know what they're punishment will be, and make sure that no one knows about the absence of the repressors. I don't want them to suddenly think that they can use they're powers against me. Understand?" Nikolas quickly nodded and rose from his chair. "Then get out." Nikolas headed for the door, and as he reached the door, Khivar called out. "Oh and Nikolas?" Nikolas stopped and turned to Khivar. "Here's an added warning that it would be in their best interest to follow my orders efficiently."
Khivar raised his hand and sent a concentrated beam of energy to Nikolas's left arm. Nikolas felt fire shoot through his arm and burn all his nerves. His eyes teared up, but he refused to show any pain, and after a few seconds, he couldn't feel his arm at all. It just hung limply from his shoulder. Khivar's voice drifted to him as he turned to walk through the door. "If the scientists don't succeed, if will also be your life on the line, so I suggest that you make it your mission that they don't mess up."
*****
Thehlec was in shock. He hadn't meant to listen in on Nikolas and Khivar's entire conversation, but he had been sent to the supply room right next to the King's chambers for some more silicon filament, and he had quickly discovered that he could hear they're voices through the air duct.
Thehlec didn't know how he felt about the whole thing. He always knew that Khivar was ruthless, but Thehlec didn't think that he was quite as crazy as everyone said he was. Now he wasn't sure. There was definitely something maniacal about him.
Thehlec also wondered at the bit about the power suppressors. If it meant what he thought it meant, then there had been something back on antar designed to inhibit the powers of the citizens of antar, and Khivar had been planning on using it to incapacitate Zan, whoever that was. But the power suppressors had been left behind. That might be the explanations for what he thought was a sudden illness. Thehlec knew that he had felt different since leaving the planet, and since most of his symptoms seemed to be about an excess of energy...was it possible that really all of the weird things in his body were just his powers returning to him? He'd have to check that out later somehow. But right now he had to get back to the lab. He didn't want to get caught snooping, especially with how angry Khivar had sounded at the end. Thehlec didn't even want to contemplate what Khivar had probably done to Nikolas during that little interchange.
*****
Isabel looked all around her, but she didn't recognize anything. Everything looked gray and misty. She didn't know where she was, and she was a little anxious as to how she had gotten here. She didn't remember a thing. Suddenly she got the feeling that she wasn't even standing on solid ground anymore. She was just floating through space. In her mind's eye she saw all kinds of different looking planets and stars, but if she looked around with her literal eyes, she saw nothing. After a little bit, she got the feeling that she was was standing on solid ground again, and felt the urge to sit cross-legged. She needed to wait for someone, but she didn't know who. She closed her eyes and just waited for something to feel different.
When Isabel opened her eyes again, she saw Liz and Tess sitting in the same position as her and forming a tight triangle with her. She touched both of their shoulders and their eyes startled open. They sat there just staring into one another's eyes for a bit, when they all started shivering. Isabel suddenly felt very cold, and the once foggy looking lanscape was now completely clear, but there was a large shadow falling over the triangle formed between her, Tess, and Liz, and Isabel realized that part of her chill was actually the result of being paralyzed with fear. She didn't know what she was afraid of, but that scared her even more. She couldn't handle this fear.
Isabel abruptly opened her eyes and swiftly sat up in bed, then let out a small cry. She couldn't remember what her dream was, but it terrified her. She very uncharacteristically wanted to go to her brother and let him make everything alright. But she hadn't done that since the few months after she was adopted, and she refused to do it now. Besides, with Max's current emotional state, he probably wouldn't be able to help her anyway. So Isabel laid back down on her side, and tried to push the residual terror from the dream out of her mind. She would deal with it later.
*****
Tess screamed and shot up in bed. She couldn't remember what she dreamed, but it filled her with terror, and for the first time ever, she didn't feel like she could deal with it by herself. She crawled out of bed and crept down the hall to the living room where Kyle was sleeping on the couch. They had been together now for a total of nearly two weeks, and while that really wasn't enough to be sharing a bed with him, she knew, she couldn't resist the feeling that he could make everything alright. She had never had anyone to go to with bad dreams when she was little, and now that she might have that, she refused to discount it.
Tess gingerly walked over to the couch and gently shook Kyle awake. Kyle opened his eyes to see Tess looking at him with an expression he had never seen on her face before. If he didn't know better, he might call it fear, but he knew he had to do something, so he silently lifted up his blanket and pulled her down on the couch with him, where he held her to his body till they both fell asleep.
*****
Liz woke up abruptly, and looked around her room. She hadn't had a nightmare since, she was nine, but she was petrified from her most current dream. She wished that she had woken up in her own room at home, and that she was little again, and she could run to her mommy and tell her she had a bad dream. But Liz wasn't at home, she was alone and boarding school. Liz couldn't even remember what her dream was, but she was so emotionally overwhelmed that all she could do was turn over and sob into her pillow until she cried herself to sleep.
-
ultimatepickupline
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:29 am
- Location: USA
Chapter 15
Hey everybody, I was getting a little worried that I was I wasn't going to get any feedback, but I'm thankful that a few of you pulled through. I just wanted everybody to know that I might not get out parts as soon as I would like for the next week or two because I signed up for a challenge and I have to write my fic for that, but I will be updating at least once a week still, so you don't have to worry too much.
bluebballjumper-hmmm... I know what's going on with the girls, but I'm not sure exactly when you all will find out, so all I can say is just wait and see. That's all I can say for the power suppressors too.
RiaRath101-I feel honored that you read my story, especially when it wasn't a UC, so thankyou. As for Tess and Kyle, it actually wasn't my intention for them to have slept together already, but after I wrote the part and posted it, I realized that it really did sound like they did. So I decided that you readers could take it any way you wanted, and it really doesn't affect my fic. As far as Tess being connected to what is going to happen to Liz, all I'll say is that the reason will be revealed eventually, or at least hypothesized.
Jennifer24-I'm glad that you're glad you read my story, that makes me happy. As to what is happening with the dream? That will be revealed, eventually. I think. I'm glad Liz is getting powers and practicing them too, because you're right. When Khivar gets to earth, she's going to need all the help she can get.
Thanks to all my lurkers out there too.
And back to the story...
Chapter 15
Liz woke up the next morning not remembering any of what had happened during the previous night. She noted that her pillow was wet, but before she could think about it too much, she felt her morning sickness acting up. Liz hurriedly got out of bed and raced for the bathroom. She had quickly found out when she moved to Winnaman, that she had to act quickly to be able to get to the toilet in time. It had been much easier when the bathroom was connected to her room. Now she had to go down the hall, and it was hard to make it on wobbly legs that hadn't been used all night.
When Liz reached the bathroom, she noted that Serena was already in there brushing her teeth, and she was a little anxious about that, because she had a feeling that Serena was already suspecting something. Serena had already caught her throwing up in the morning a few times, but luckily before, when Serena had caught her, Liz had been a party the night before, and she blamed it on a hangover, so that was easy to explain away. Unfortunately, Liz knew that Serena also knew about a few times when Liz ended up sick in the middle of the day, but didn't do anything about it, and Liz wasn't sure what else Serena might know. She had been acting like she knew something for the past couple of weeks, but wouldn't come out and say something.
Serena was sleepily brushing her teeth when she saw a blur run past her to the toilet and then heard puking noises. She was a little out of it, so she hadn't noticed who it was, but she felt sorry for them, because as she was finishing up, the girl was still at least dry heaving. Serena started to wash her face and wait for the girl to get done. Serena was nothing if not kind-hearted, and she fully intended to help the girl out when she ended her encounter with the toilet bowl. So when Serena was finished washing her face, she picked up her clean wash cloth and soaked it with cold water for the girl.
Serena was just ringing the washcloth out when she heard the door behind her open, and she looked up to see Liz standing behind her in the mirror. Seeing that Liz was yet again in the bathroom at the beginning of the day throwing up, Serena knew that it was time to talk to Liz. She held out the washcloth to Liz and gave her a questioning look. Liz took the washcloth, mumbled her appreciation, and wiped her face and neck off. Then ran the washcloth under the tap again, and handed it back to Serena. Liz knew by the look on Serena's face, that Serena was not going to let this little occurrence go by without talking about it, so when Serena asked Liz to follow her to her room, Liz just silently nodded and followed.
Serena's roommate was a health nut that got up at the crack of dawn to go exercise in the gym, so she wasn't there, when Serena and Liz walked into the room. Serena sat down on her unmade bed and motioned for Liz to sit on her desk chair, then she softly asked, "Liz, are you ok? That didn't sound too good in there, and I've heard someone in the bathroom throwing up everyday for the past couple of weeks now. Was that you?"
Liz swallowed, slowly nodded, and then hung her head down. "Yeah. That's been me. I didn't realize anyone would be able to hear me, I hope I didn't wake you."
"You didn't wake me. My roommate wakes me when she's getting ready to go exercise. So what's up with you? I don't know whether you're sick or have some type of eating disorder, but it sounds like you need to get some help."
Liz smiled a bit, "No, I definitely don't have an eating disorder. In fact, I think I've gained a few pounds since I came here." Liz thought she looked a lot rounder now with her pregnancy, but maybe she just thought that because she knew she was pregnant. Maybe it wasn't so noticeable to other people, especially since she normally didn't see the difference unless she was naked or wearing something extremely form fitting, and she didn't do that very often.
Serena was relieved to hear that Liz didn't have an eating disorder; Serena had had a friend once with an eating disorder, and they ended up ending their friendship because the friend refused to get help. It wasn't a very pleasant time for Serena to say the least. "Well then are you sick? Because seeing as I've been hearing you for the past couple of weeks, you should probably do something to take care of that."
Liz decided that she might as well tell Serena the truth. She knew that she wanted to complete her year at Winnaman, and if she did, then everyone would find out eventually anyway, because she would be showing. Besides, by now, it was only a week till Christmas break, and Liz was fairly sure that people would believe that she had gotten pregnant at Winnaman. "Well, I'm not exactly sick, and it'll pass pretty soon." Serena looked at Liz quizzically, and Liz continued, "I'm pregnant Serena."
Serena felt her face drain. That was something that she hadn't really expected. Sure she saw Liz go off with ramdom guys at all the parties, but she didn't think that Liz would be the kind of girl to actually sleep with a guy she hardly knew. Maybe Liz had only slept with one guy, or maybe Liz had been raped! Oh no! Serena tried to calm herself down for her next question. "Do you know who the father is?"
Liz had to look down at her hands, because she couldn't stand to lie to Serena's face. She knew it was necessary, but that didn't make it any easier. Serena had become Liz's best friend at Winnaman, and Liz really, really wished that she could tell Serena the truth. But of course, Liz's life was nothing but a lie anymore, and that would be true the rest of her life, she was sure. "No, I don't know who the father is. It could have been any one of the guys I went off with at the parties."
"Are you sure Liz? You're not covering up for some guy who raped you or anything are you?" Serena had to be sure that something so terrible hadn't happened to her friend.
At Serena's question, Liz's head popped up and she looked Serena straight in the eyes. Serena looked to be really concerned. Maybe Serena knew that Liz was lying, but thought it was about something else. Liz emphatically shook her said and said, "No Serena, I'm just a little ashamed that I let myself get into this mess. I knew what the consequences might be, but I did it anyway. I never thought that I would be the girl to get pregnant as a teenager."
Liz sounded really sincere to Serena, and Serena felt a little relieved that at least it hadn't been as bad as she had thought it might be. Then Serena started feeling guilty anyway. What if Liz had just gone out to the parties to make friends with Serena and Eilleen? This was all Serena's fault! She should have looked out for Liz better, Liz had been new to the whole thing Serena was sure, and now Liz was paying the consequences of some bad judgment calls on all of their parts. They really shouldn't have gone in the fist place. "Oh Liz. I'm so sorry this happened. I'm so sorry we pressured you into going to those parties."
"Serena, don't apologize. I knew before I got here that I wanted to try something new, and I knew that I was going to try to go to a few parties. I may not have known that I was going to go to one every weekend, but I knew what I was getting myself into."
Serena felt a little better, but still felt some trepidation for Liz. "So have you told your parents yet?"
Liz shook her head. "No, I plan on telling them when I'm home for Christmas break, and I plan on asking to finish out my year here. I don't want to transfer again."
Serena smiled. "Then I'm guessing you don't want me to let anyone else know about this?" At Liz's head shake, Serena continued. "Okay, you can trust me to keep your secret, but you might not be able to finish out your year here anyway. There was a rumor last year that a girl got kicked out of Winnaman for getting pregnant." Serena bit her lip, she didn't want Liz to have any undue stress, but at the same time, she wanted Liz to be prepared.
Liz felt herself grow cold. She had never considered that she might be kicked out of Winnaman, and while she was sure that she could still adjust her plan, the idea terrified her. School had always been her thing, and while her grades had suffered slightly with all the alien business last year, she had still managed to only get one B. And this year, even with all the added stress, and the fact that she was going to a harder school, Liz was getting all A's. It made her feel good, and it was the one thing in her life that she had complete control over anymore.
*****
The week before Christmas break passed quickly for Liz. She completely emersed herself into her school work and her power practice. She practically ran herself into the ground, with everything she tried to get done. Every morning she would wake up early to get some last minute studying in for her classes that day after she had her daily visit with porcelin buddy. Then she would be in classes until early afternoon. After her classes, she would spend as much time in her room as possible working on her powers until Eileen came in. Then she would work on homework till dinner. After dinner she would spend a little time with Serena and Eileen, which tended to drive her a little crazy because Serena had a habit of watching her every move. After socializing for an hour or two, Liz would quickly finish her remaning homework and then get in bed early.
Liz had learned that with her body changing with the pregnancy, she was able to use just her internal clock to wake her up at whatever time she wanted, give or take half an hour, which was really convenient, because every night at midnight, Liz would wake up and work on her powers some more. She mostly worked on dreamwalking at this time of night, and she discovered that if she put herself into an almost hypnotic state, she would find herself in the place where all these different colored bubbles surrounded her with beautiful music. She quickly learned that if she hummed the tune of the individual bubble, that it would float over to her, and she could play with it. After a couple of nights, Liz realized that each bubble represented someone's dream, and she was able to get into the dreams of her various classmates and teachers relatively easy now. She knew that she must not have much of a range though, because she seemed to only see and hear the dream orbs from the people on her floor. But she thought that maybe as her powers grew, she would be able to see more orbs at a time.
It was also during her midnight training sessions, that Liz discovered that she could connect with her baby. Liz had absent-mindedly put her hand on her bare stomach one night while thinking about what she could try out for the night, and suddenly, she was connected to her baby. It was during one of these connections that Liz found out she was having a girl. Liz couldn't wait to get back to Roswell and discuss a name for her daughter with Maria and Alex.
Liz was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a door slam down the hall. Everybody was frantically packing the belongings they would need to take with them on Christmas break, but Liz was already packed. So she was watching a Christmas movie on TV and waiting for the time that she had to leave for the bus station. She was going to leave in just five hours, and Liz couldn't wait to be home in a few days.
bluebballjumper-hmmm... I know what's going on with the girls, but I'm not sure exactly when you all will find out, so all I can say is just wait and see. That's all I can say for the power suppressors too.
RiaRath101-I feel honored that you read my story, especially when it wasn't a UC, so thankyou. As for Tess and Kyle, it actually wasn't my intention for them to have slept together already, but after I wrote the part and posted it, I realized that it really did sound like they did. So I decided that you readers could take it any way you wanted, and it really doesn't affect my fic. As far as Tess being connected to what is going to happen to Liz, all I'll say is that the reason will be revealed eventually, or at least hypothesized.
Jennifer24-I'm glad that you're glad you read my story, that makes me happy. As to what is happening with the dream? That will be revealed, eventually. I think. I'm glad Liz is getting powers and practicing them too, because you're right. When Khivar gets to earth, she's going to need all the help she can get.
Thanks to all my lurkers out there too.
And back to the story...
Chapter 15
Liz woke up the next morning not remembering any of what had happened during the previous night. She noted that her pillow was wet, but before she could think about it too much, she felt her morning sickness acting up. Liz hurriedly got out of bed and raced for the bathroom. She had quickly found out when she moved to Winnaman, that she had to act quickly to be able to get to the toilet in time. It had been much easier when the bathroom was connected to her room. Now she had to go down the hall, and it was hard to make it on wobbly legs that hadn't been used all night.
When Liz reached the bathroom, she noted that Serena was already in there brushing her teeth, and she was a little anxious about that, because she had a feeling that Serena was already suspecting something. Serena had already caught her throwing up in the morning a few times, but luckily before, when Serena had caught her, Liz had been a party the night before, and she blamed it on a hangover, so that was easy to explain away. Unfortunately, Liz knew that Serena also knew about a few times when Liz ended up sick in the middle of the day, but didn't do anything about it, and Liz wasn't sure what else Serena might know. She had been acting like she knew something for the past couple of weeks, but wouldn't come out and say something.
Serena was sleepily brushing her teeth when she saw a blur run past her to the toilet and then heard puking noises. She was a little out of it, so she hadn't noticed who it was, but she felt sorry for them, because as she was finishing up, the girl was still at least dry heaving. Serena started to wash her face and wait for the girl to get done. Serena was nothing if not kind-hearted, and she fully intended to help the girl out when she ended her encounter with the toilet bowl. So when Serena was finished washing her face, she picked up her clean wash cloth and soaked it with cold water for the girl.
Serena was just ringing the washcloth out when she heard the door behind her open, and she looked up to see Liz standing behind her in the mirror. Seeing that Liz was yet again in the bathroom at the beginning of the day throwing up, Serena knew that it was time to talk to Liz. She held out the washcloth to Liz and gave her a questioning look. Liz took the washcloth, mumbled her appreciation, and wiped her face and neck off. Then ran the washcloth under the tap again, and handed it back to Serena. Liz knew by the look on Serena's face, that Serena was not going to let this little occurrence go by without talking about it, so when Serena asked Liz to follow her to her room, Liz just silently nodded and followed.
Serena's roommate was a health nut that got up at the crack of dawn to go exercise in the gym, so she wasn't there, when Serena and Liz walked into the room. Serena sat down on her unmade bed and motioned for Liz to sit on her desk chair, then she softly asked, "Liz, are you ok? That didn't sound too good in there, and I've heard someone in the bathroom throwing up everyday for the past couple of weeks now. Was that you?"
Liz swallowed, slowly nodded, and then hung her head down. "Yeah. That's been me. I didn't realize anyone would be able to hear me, I hope I didn't wake you."
"You didn't wake me. My roommate wakes me when she's getting ready to go exercise. So what's up with you? I don't know whether you're sick or have some type of eating disorder, but it sounds like you need to get some help."
Liz smiled a bit, "No, I definitely don't have an eating disorder. In fact, I think I've gained a few pounds since I came here." Liz thought she looked a lot rounder now with her pregnancy, but maybe she just thought that because she knew she was pregnant. Maybe it wasn't so noticeable to other people, especially since she normally didn't see the difference unless she was naked or wearing something extremely form fitting, and she didn't do that very often.
Serena was relieved to hear that Liz didn't have an eating disorder; Serena had had a friend once with an eating disorder, and they ended up ending their friendship because the friend refused to get help. It wasn't a very pleasant time for Serena to say the least. "Well then are you sick? Because seeing as I've been hearing you for the past couple of weeks, you should probably do something to take care of that."
Liz decided that she might as well tell Serena the truth. She knew that she wanted to complete her year at Winnaman, and if she did, then everyone would find out eventually anyway, because she would be showing. Besides, by now, it was only a week till Christmas break, and Liz was fairly sure that people would believe that she had gotten pregnant at Winnaman. "Well, I'm not exactly sick, and it'll pass pretty soon." Serena looked at Liz quizzically, and Liz continued, "I'm pregnant Serena."
Serena felt her face drain. That was something that she hadn't really expected. Sure she saw Liz go off with ramdom guys at all the parties, but she didn't think that Liz would be the kind of girl to actually sleep with a guy she hardly knew. Maybe Liz had only slept with one guy, or maybe Liz had been raped! Oh no! Serena tried to calm herself down for her next question. "Do you know who the father is?"
Liz had to look down at her hands, because she couldn't stand to lie to Serena's face. She knew it was necessary, but that didn't make it any easier. Serena had become Liz's best friend at Winnaman, and Liz really, really wished that she could tell Serena the truth. But of course, Liz's life was nothing but a lie anymore, and that would be true the rest of her life, she was sure. "No, I don't know who the father is. It could have been any one of the guys I went off with at the parties."
"Are you sure Liz? You're not covering up for some guy who raped you or anything are you?" Serena had to be sure that something so terrible hadn't happened to her friend.
At Serena's question, Liz's head popped up and she looked Serena straight in the eyes. Serena looked to be really concerned. Maybe Serena knew that Liz was lying, but thought it was about something else. Liz emphatically shook her said and said, "No Serena, I'm just a little ashamed that I let myself get into this mess. I knew what the consequences might be, but I did it anyway. I never thought that I would be the girl to get pregnant as a teenager."
Liz sounded really sincere to Serena, and Serena felt a little relieved that at least it hadn't been as bad as she had thought it might be. Then Serena started feeling guilty anyway. What if Liz had just gone out to the parties to make friends with Serena and Eilleen? This was all Serena's fault! She should have looked out for Liz better, Liz had been new to the whole thing Serena was sure, and now Liz was paying the consequences of some bad judgment calls on all of their parts. They really shouldn't have gone in the fist place. "Oh Liz. I'm so sorry this happened. I'm so sorry we pressured you into going to those parties."
"Serena, don't apologize. I knew before I got here that I wanted to try something new, and I knew that I was going to try to go to a few parties. I may not have known that I was going to go to one every weekend, but I knew what I was getting myself into."
Serena felt a little better, but still felt some trepidation for Liz. "So have you told your parents yet?"
Liz shook her head. "No, I plan on telling them when I'm home for Christmas break, and I plan on asking to finish out my year here. I don't want to transfer again."
Serena smiled. "Then I'm guessing you don't want me to let anyone else know about this?" At Liz's head shake, Serena continued. "Okay, you can trust me to keep your secret, but you might not be able to finish out your year here anyway. There was a rumor last year that a girl got kicked out of Winnaman for getting pregnant." Serena bit her lip, she didn't want Liz to have any undue stress, but at the same time, she wanted Liz to be prepared.
Liz felt herself grow cold. She had never considered that she might be kicked out of Winnaman, and while she was sure that she could still adjust her plan, the idea terrified her. School had always been her thing, and while her grades had suffered slightly with all the alien business last year, she had still managed to only get one B. And this year, even with all the added stress, and the fact that she was going to a harder school, Liz was getting all A's. It made her feel good, and it was the one thing in her life that she had complete control over anymore.
*****
The week before Christmas break passed quickly for Liz. She completely emersed herself into her school work and her power practice. She practically ran herself into the ground, with everything she tried to get done. Every morning she would wake up early to get some last minute studying in for her classes that day after she had her daily visit with porcelin buddy. Then she would be in classes until early afternoon. After her classes, she would spend as much time in her room as possible working on her powers until Eileen came in. Then she would work on homework till dinner. After dinner she would spend a little time with Serena and Eileen, which tended to drive her a little crazy because Serena had a habit of watching her every move. After socializing for an hour or two, Liz would quickly finish her remaning homework and then get in bed early.
Liz had learned that with her body changing with the pregnancy, she was able to use just her internal clock to wake her up at whatever time she wanted, give or take half an hour, which was really convenient, because every night at midnight, Liz would wake up and work on her powers some more. She mostly worked on dreamwalking at this time of night, and she discovered that if she put herself into an almost hypnotic state, she would find herself in the place where all these different colored bubbles surrounded her with beautiful music. She quickly learned that if she hummed the tune of the individual bubble, that it would float over to her, and she could play with it. After a couple of nights, Liz realized that each bubble represented someone's dream, and she was able to get into the dreams of her various classmates and teachers relatively easy now. She knew that she must not have much of a range though, because she seemed to only see and hear the dream orbs from the people on her floor. But she thought that maybe as her powers grew, she would be able to see more orbs at a time.
It was also during her midnight training sessions, that Liz discovered that she could connect with her baby. Liz had absent-mindedly put her hand on her bare stomach one night while thinking about what she could try out for the night, and suddenly, she was connected to her baby. It was during one of these connections that Liz found out she was having a girl. Liz couldn't wait to get back to Roswell and discuss a name for her daughter with Maria and Alex.
Liz was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a door slam down the hall. Everybody was frantically packing the belongings they would need to take with them on Christmas break, but Liz was already packed. So she was watching a Christmas movie on TV and waiting for the time that she had to leave for the bus station. She was going to leave in just five hours, and Liz couldn't wait to be home in a few days.
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ultimatepickupline
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:29 am
- Location: USA
Chapter 16
Hey everybody, thanks for all the feedback, it made me feel loved. This chapter is a little short, as is the next one, but chapter 18 is longer than any other previous chapter, and I'm going to try to make chapter 19 long too to make up for it.
Tanya7496-I'm glad you've been enjoying the fic, although knowing that you are a mother, makes me somewhat nervous. I'm not a mom, so I hope I'm doing Liz's pregnancy justice right now, and later on I hope I do her parenthood justice.
Flamehair- Yeah, I liked the idea of Tess actually getting together with Kyle and stopping her Max chase. I'm glad you like it too.
Redrumm-Hate to disappoint you, but nobody is going to find out Liz is pregnant just yet.
RiaRath101-Hehe, I have the name pick out, and you will find out what it is in Chapter 18. As for Michael and Maria, you'll have to wait a bit...sorry.
Jennifer24-You'll have to wait for Liz's main power (mainly because I haven't completely decided what it'll be yet), and as for Liz's weight gain, she hasn't gained enough for other people to really notice yet, just she notices it about herself.
star_chaser65-Your comment completely made my day when I got it. I'm honored that you joined the site to comment on my story. As for more of Max, he's a little hard to get in because of the fact that he's not spending a whole lot of time with anyone in the group. However, the next two parts will feature him more.
L-J-L 76-I went into my cushion to make sure I didn't go a week without posting here, so rest assured that updates will be coming in a timely fashion until the end.
katydid-I can understand why you put off reading it. I use to only read completed fics, and when I started reading WIPs I only read one that had several chapters posted, so I can understand the same sentiment. I plan on updating this story no less than once a week, so you won't have to wait long, for the next part. As for your theory about Isabel, I'm not telling you if you're right or not, but I will say that no one will find out for a while.
Thanks everybody again, and please come to support me in my author's chat this Tuesday the 22nd at Roswell Heaven. There's a link for the site in my signature, and for those of you who come, I might let you know some of the stuff I have planned for this fic. If you're not sure how the whole chat thing works, just pm me, and I'll get back to you to let you know.
Now back to the show...
Chapter 16
Max grabbed his jacket and headed for the door. He had felt it this morning and he couldn't wait to find out if it was indeed true. Max quickly said bye to his mom while she was making Christmas cookies, and thanked his lucky stars that he hadn't been home long enough to get roped into helping. Usually every year his mom made Christmas cookies the last Sunday before Christmas Eve, and Isabel helped. They would spend all day making all kinds of iced sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies with the Hershey's kiss in the middle, snowballs, and pretty much anything else they thought they may try that year. Consequently, Max spent the whole day trying to sneak cookies out of the kitchen along with his dad without incurring the infamous wrath of a ticked off Isabel. This year though was different.
Since early November when Liz had left for boarding school, things had really changed. Max lost himself in schoolwork, work at the UFO Center, and chores around the house, and Isabel started hanging out with Alex more than she stayed at home. So Max was sure that when his mom's annual bake day came around, he would be coerced into helping in the kitchen. Isabel had been running all around this Christmas organizing the Christmas pageant and a few other holiday activities with Alex and that meant that there was no one else to help Mrs. Evans in the kitchen, and Max hadn't really had a problem with the idea of helping his mom. He figured that at least by helping his mom, his mind would be preoccupied and he wouldn't have to think about how he wanted to get out of this town, or what he would do if he ever saw Liz again.
But Max had felt something this morning. He had been woken up by feeling his connection to Liz snap back in place. It was pretty sudden for him, because he had thought that maybe their connection was severed forever, but when the reconnection jolted him out of his deep sleep, Max was suddenly elated. Maybe there was hope after all!
So as soon as Max had gotten back from running an errand for his mom like he had already promised he would, Max took a shower, changed his clothes, double checked to make sure that he looked good, and ran out the front door, leaving Mrs Evans bewildered as to what had happened to her son and hopeful that it might mean Max was going to start being more how he used to be.
*****
Liz felt it as soon as Max reached the Crashdown. She realized that she was definitely more aware of her power because as soon as she got on the bus and started heading for Roswell, she had felt herself getting closer and closer to Max. She had felt the absence of her connection to Max somewhat before, but she supposed that with her growing powers that she was even more aware of it. Liz wondered if her daughter knew her daddy was here too, since part of the reason why Liz was aware of Max's entrance regardless of the fact that she couldn't see the door, was because Liz felt her power spike. In fact, the spike was so sudden and so overwhelming at first, that Liz was a little worried that she would suddenly blow up everything with in a ten foot radius.
Liz squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on evening out her power level, and when she looked back down to her order pad, she saw that it had burn marks on it, and that her hands had green crackling energy running all through them. Liz quickly brought her hands down and hid them behind her back before smiling at her customers and asking them to give her a minute to get their drinks.
Liz swiftly walked to the backroom to calm her self down, and willed the green energy away from her hands. She imagined that all of her energy resided in a ball in her stomach and pulled the errant green sparks in her hands back to the ball. When she felt that she might have been successful, she opened her eyes and looked down at her hands to discover that while there were no more green sparks on her hands, the silver handprint on her stomach was shining so brightly that she could see it through her uniform. Maybe putting all her energy in a ball in her stomach, where it was easily accessible to her playful daughter wasn't exactly the best idea. So Liz closed her eyes once again and imagined that all her energy was running through the very center of her bones along with her bone marrow. She imagined that is was running evenly and smoothly, and Liz was suddenly shocked by how alive and awake she felt. It was like she had just had an entire pot of coffee running through her veins. Maybe she should have tried this before. She might not have been so tired all the time.
Liz quickly exited the backroom after grabbing a new order form and made her way behind the counter to make the drinks for her customers. Then she delivered them, double checked their order, and headed over to the booth where Max was sitting. He looked so lonely and beaten, and Liz's heart went out to him. Then he turned and tentatively smiled at her, and Liz felt her heart skip a beat. But she knew she couldn't allow that. So she squared her shoulders and grimly asked him what he would like to eat.
"Liz?" Max didn't know what was wrong with Liz. She didn't seem to even acknowledge him when he walked in to the diner, and when she finally had come over to take his order, she seemed to want to be anywhere than with him. When Liz just stared at Max after he said her name, he decided to try to lighten the tension by teasing her a bit. "So you've barely been home a few hours, and you're parents already have you working?"
Liz looked at Max startled. "How did you know I've only been home a few hours?"
Max looked down at the table in front of him and softly said "I felt you come into Roswell. I felt it in our connection." Then he plaintively looked up at Liz and begged her to say that she still felt it too, but Liz dashed his hopes to pieces instead.
"Max, you can't do this. You belong with Tess. You can't just use our once existant connection as a way to keep me in your life. I don't want to feel it anymore." How could Liz have thought that Max being a full blood alien wouldn't feel the connection too? She just didn't think that Max would be paying attention to it, but she had to get him off of her back somehow, so Liz had said that she didn't even want the connection anymore. Liz hated to lie to Max. Of course she wanted to feel the connection. It was one of her only true links to Max left. She had her baby of course, but that was more of a link to Future Max, and it was a link through another person, instead of the direct one that existed now. But Liz had to make Max see that he needed to be with Tess. She refused to let everything she had been through be for nothing.
Max felt the pain go shooting through his heart at Liz's words. How could he have thought that he could just forgive Liz and everything would be okay? There was a reason that he had found Liz in bed with Kyle in October. She hadn't wanted a relationship with him. Hadn't she been telling him that constantly prior to the incident. And she obviously didn't want a relationship with him now. "Fine. Just give me a Will Smith Burger with a side of fries and a cherry coke to go." Max watched as Liz nodded and then turned and started to walk away to put in his order. He refused to let Liz hurt him anymore, so he slammed their connection shut and was acutely aware of the empty space it left in him.
Liz nearly stumbled while she was walking to put in Max's order. It took everything she had in her not to let herself be physically affected by Max's abrupt slamming in their connection, but she pulled through and calmly placed the order. Then she announced that she was taking her break and raced toward her bedroom, where she threw herself on the bed and cried. She was definitely in for a very stressful and emotional Christmas break.
Tanya7496-I'm glad you've been enjoying the fic, although knowing that you are a mother, makes me somewhat nervous. I'm not a mom, so I hope I'm doing Liz's pregnancy justice right now, and later on I hope I do her parenthood justice.
Flamehair- Yeah, I liked the idea of Tess actually getting together with Kyle and stopping her Max chase. I'm glad you like it too.
Redrumm-Hate to disappoint you, but nobody is going to find out Liz is pregnant just yet.
RiaRath101-Hehe, I have the name pick out, and you will find out what it is in Chapter 18. As for Michael and Maria, you'll have to wait a bit...sorry.
Jennifer24-You'll have to wait for Liz's main power (mainly because I haven't completely decided what it'll be yet), and as for Liz's weight gain, she hasn't gained enough for other people to really notice yet, just she notices it about herself.
star_chaser65-Your comment completely made my day when I got it. I'm honored that you joined the site to comment on my story. As for more of Max, he's a little hard to get in because of the fact that he's not spending a whole lot of time with anyone in the group. However, the next two parts will feature him more.
L-J-L 76-I went into my cushion to make sure I didn't go a week without posting here, so rest assured that updates will be coming in a timely fashion until the end.
katydid-I can understand why you put off reading it. I use to only read completed fics, and when I started reading WIPs I only read one that had several chapters posted, so I can understand the same sentiment. I plan on updating this story no less than once a week, so you won't have to wait long, for the next part. As for your theory about Isabel, I'm not telling you if you're right or not, but I will say that no one will find out for a while.
Thanks everybody again, and please come to support me in my author's chat this Tuesday the 22nd at Roswell Heaven. There's a link for the site in my signature, and for those of you who come, I might let you know some of the stuff I have planned for this fic. If you're not sure how the whole chat thing works, just pm me, and I'll get back to you to let you know.
Now back to the show...
Chapter 16
Max grabbed his jacket and headed for the door. He had felt it this morning and he couldn't wait to find out if it was indeed true. Max quickly said bye to his mom while she was making Christmas cookies, and thanked his lucky stars that he hadn't been home long enough to get roped into helping. Usually every year his mom made Christmas cookies the last Sunday before Christmas Eve, and Isabel helped. They would spend all day making all kinds of iced sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies with the Hershey's kiss in the middle, snowballs, and pretty much anything else they thought they may try that year. Consequently, Max spent the whole day trying to sneak cookies out of the kitchen along with his dad without incurring the infamous wrath of a ticked off Isabel. This year though was different.
Since early November when Liz had left for boarding school, things had really changed. Max lost himself in schoolwork, work at the UFO Center, and chores around the house, and Isabel started hanging out with Alex more than she stayed at home. So Max was sure that when his mom's annual bake day came around, he would be coerced into helping in the kitchen. Isabel had been running all around this Christmas organizing the Christmas pageant and a few other holiday activities with Alex and that meant that there was no one else to help Mrs. Evans in the kitchen, and Max hadn't really had a problem with the idea of helping his mom. He figured that at least by helping his mom, his mind would be preoccupied and he wouldn't have to think about how he wanted to get out of this town, or what he would do if he ever saw Liz again.
But Max had felt something this morning. He had been woken up by feeling his connection to Liz snap back in place. It was pretty sudden for him, because he had thought that maybe their connection was severed forever, but when the reconnection jolted him out of his deep sleep, Max was suddenly elated. Maybe there was hope after all!
So as soon as Max had gotten back from running an errand for his mom like he had already promised he would, Max took a shower, changed his clothes, double checked to make sure that he looked good, and ran out the front door, leaving Mrs Evans bewildered as to what had happened to her son and hopeful that it might mean Max was going to start being more how he used to be.
*****
Liz felt it as soon as Max reached the Crashdown. She realized that she was definitely more aware of her power because as soon as she got on the bus and started heading for Roswell, she had felt herself getting closer and closer to Max. She had felt the absence of her connection to Max somewhat before, but she supposed that with her growing powers that she was even more aware of it. Liz wondered if her daughter knew her daddy was here too, since part of the reason why Liz was aware of Max's entrance regardless of the fact that she couldn't see the door, was because Liz felt her power spike. In fact, the spike was so sudden and so overwhelming at first, that Liz was a little worried that she would suddenly blow up everything with in a ten foot radius.
Liz squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on evening out her power level, and when she looked back down to her order pad, she saw that it had burn marks on it, and that her hands had green crackling energy running all through them. Liz quickly brought her hands down and hid them behind her back before smiling at her customers and asking them to give her a minute to get their drinks.
Liz swiftly walked to the backroom to calm her self down, and willed the green energy away from her hands. She imagined that all of her energy resided in a ball in her stomach and pulled the errant green sparks in her hands back to the ball. When she felt that she might have been successful, she opened her eyes and looked down at her hands to discover that while there were no more green sparks on her hands, the silver handprint on her stomach was shining so brightly that she could see it through her uniform. Maybe putting all her energy in a ball in her stomach, where it was easily accessible to her playful daughter wasn't exactly the best idea. So Liz closed her eyes once again and imagined that all her energy was running through the very center of her bones along with her bone marrow. She imagined that is was running evenly and smoothly, and Liz was suddenly shocked by how alive and awake she felt. It was like she had just had an entire pot of coffee running through her veins. Maybe she should have tried this before. She might not have been so tired all the time.
Liz quickly exited the backroom after grabbing a new order form and made her way behind the counter to make the drinks for her customers. Then she delivered them, double checked their order, and headed over to the booth where Max was sitting. He looked so lonely and beaten, and Liz's heart went out to him. Then he turned and tentatively smiled at her, and Liz felt her heart skip a beat. But she knew she couldn't allow that. So she squared her shoulders and grimly asked him what he would like to eat.
"Liz?" Max didn't know what was wrong with Liz. She didn't seem to even acknowledge him when he walked in to the diner, and when she finally had come over to take his order, she seemed to want to be anywhere than with him. When Liz just stared at Max after he said her name, he decided to try to lighten the tension by teasing her a bit. "So you've barely been home a few hours, and you're parents already have you working?"
Liz looked at Max startled. "How did you know I've only been home a few hours?"
Max looked down at the table in front of him and softly said "I felt you come into Roswell. I felt it in our connection." Then he plaintively looked up at Liz and begged her to say that she still felt it too, but Liz dashed his hopes to pieces instead.
"Max, you can't do this. You belong with Tess. You can't just use our once existant connection as a way to keep me in your life. I don't want to feel it anymore." How could Liz have thought that Max being a full blood alien wouldn't feel the connection too? She just didn't think that Max would be paying attention to it, but she had to get him off of her back somehow, so Liz had said that she didn't even want the connection anymore. Liz hated to lie to Max. Of course she wanted to feel the connection. It was one of her only true links to Max left. She had her baby of course, but that was more of a link to Future Max, and it was a link through another person, instead of the direct one that existed now. But Liz had to make Max see that he needed to be with Tess. She refused to let everything she had been through be for nothing.
Max felt the pain go shooting through his heart at Liz's words. How could he have thought that he could just forgive Liz and everything would be okay? There was a reason that he had found Liz in bed with Kyle in October. She hadn't wanted a relationship with him. Hadn't she been telling him that constantly prior to the incident. And she obviously didn't want a relationship with him now. "Fine. Just give me a Will Smith Burger with a side of fries and a cherry coke to go." Max watched as Liz nodded and then turned and started to walk away to put in his order. He refused to let Liz hurt him anymore, so he slammed their connection shut and was acutely aware of the empty space it left in him.
Liz nearly stumbled while she was walking to put in Max's order. It took everything she had in her not to let herself be physically affected by Max's abrupt slamming in their connection, but she pulled through and calmly placed the order. Then she announced that she was taking her break and raced toward her bedroom, where she threw herself on the bed and cried. She was definitely in for a very stressful and emotional Christmas break.
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ultimatepickupline
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:29 am
- Location: USA
Chapter 17
Hey everybody, thanks for all the feedback, I'm feeling loved here. Also a big thanks for supporting me in my author's chat for those of you who came. Just so everybody knows, I have a short AU w/ aliens five parter that I will be posting either later tonight or tomorrow. It's called "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" and I'll be updating it once a week, so check it out if you're interested. As for this fic, the chapter I'm posting now, is short again, but both chapters 18 and 19 are longer than any other chapter I've posted before, so I figure it all evens out. I hope you guys think so too.
Tanya7496-So you really don't have to leave fb on both here and RH if you don't want to. Unless, of course, you just want me to comment back to you twice (which I will totally do), then go right on ahead and leave fb twice. I'm glad you understand where Liz is coming from, and yes, this part was heart breaking, as is the next part I'm afraid, and possibly ch. 19 too. This fic ended up being a bit more angsty than I had planned. Oh well. Hope you enjoy! And thanks for coming to my chat last night!
Redrumm-I have always thought of Alex as a great guy, so that's the way he behaves here. As for Michael and Maria, you'll get about a paragraph update in chapter 19, but after that, I'm not sure. I haven't written that far yet. I will tell you that the name revealing will in chapter 19 too. Too bad you weren't at my author's chat last night, you would have found out the name then *teasing tone*.
thetvgeneral-Yep I can't wait either. hehehe
Roswelllostcause-don't really want to dash your hopes, but I'll tell you that Serena doesn't know more than she's letting on right now. Sorry. I do like your username tho! (Like that makes a difference to dashing your hopes for Serena).
Flamehair-Yeah I think Max and Liz would still have the connection right now, but Max has completely shut his end now. Liz is getting to the end of her first trimester now, so the morning sickness is dying down, but still present, just for your information. Other than that, I will say no more.
orphyfets-I don't know. How does Liz handle it all?
Buffsteraddict-Of course I updated, even though I had to go into my cushion to do so, and I'm still trying to make that up. But I absolutely refuse to go over 7 days without updating. Ideally I'll update every third day.
Jennifer24-Yeah it really is a sad Christmas. At least for Max and Liz it is; for everybody else, it's not that bad.
Please, no talking during the feature presentation...
Chapter 17
It was Christmas Eve and Max was sitting in the middle of an outdoor theater where the community held its yearly Christmas pageant. Earlier today Isabel had run the pageant along with Alex, and now Max and his family was sitting outside for the town's Christmas Eve service. It was usually something that Max looked forward to because it was a chance to see Liz. In his early years, he used the time to see how Liz doing over the Christmas break, and last year it had taken on new meaning when Max and Liz had sat together for the service and then exchanged gifts afterward. But this year was painful for Max. He was hurt beyond belief by his meeting with Liz a few days ago, and it was made worse by the fact that he had just started to think that things between the two of them could be reconcilable. Max didn't think that he could quite give up hope altogether, but he didn't see anything happening in the near future, and that depressed him.
Max looked around at the people surrounding him. It seemed like pretty much the whole town had come, and he had already found Michael, Maria, and Ms. Deluca sitting on the other side, Kyle, Tess, and the Sheriff sitting in the front, and he saw Liz sitting with her parents in the back. He didn't want to be caught looking at her, so he couldn't really look long, but he had to admit that Liz looked beautiful in the candlelight.
Max waited for the service to end and then stood with his parents as they talked with the Whitmans afterward. The Evans and the Whitmans had been sitting together because Alex and Isabel had still needed to wrap up a few things after the pageant today, and they wanted to use the extra time before the service started to talk about it.
Max quickly lost track of the conversation and just looked around. When he saw Tess heading his way, he quickly told his parents that he would just walk home, then turned and left. He didn't have the energy or the will to deal with Tess right now. She had been leaving him alone for a while now, and although he didn't really know why that was, he was extremely thankful for it. He just hoped that she wouldn't pursue him after he left. Unfortunately, Tess didn't know about Max's hopes.
Tess was happy. She and Kyle had been together for almost a month now, and she was happier than she had ever been. However, she still felt that she had one more thing to do, and she couldn't feel completely relaxed about the whole situation until she tied up the loose ends so to speak. So when Tess saw Max standing with his parents, she decided to go ahead and get it out of the way. Besides, it would be a good Christmas present to herself. When she saw Max start walking away, she sped up and tried to catch up with him. "Max! Max!"
Max decided that he couldn't very well ignore Tess so he slowed down and then turned to face her. Tess was breathing a little harder as she approached him, but smiled anyway.
Tess looked up into Max's eyes when she was just a couple of feet away from him, and was surprised to note the amount of trepidation she saw reflected back at her. Then she looked at him closer and realized that he didn't look good. He had dark circles under his eyes and he looked completely worn out. She felt a little guilty that she hadn't noticed it all before. "Are you okay Max? You don't look well."
Max was a little anxious being around Tess. He was sure she had some kind of ulterior motive, and he really wasn't in the mood to deal with it just now. "Tess I'm fine. What do you want?" He knew he was reacting a bit harshly, but he just wanted to get home and be by himself.
Tess recognized that her concern was not wanted so she decided to get on with her mission. She lowered her head for a brief second then slowly brought it up to meet Max's eyes. "I wanted to apologize Max." Tess was a little nervous, she had never apologized to anyone before, at least not genuinely. But she really meant this. "I'm sorry, that I tried to pursue you so much and ruined your relationship with Liz. I'm with Kyle now, and I'm the happiest I've ever been. I know that I definitely wouldn't want someone to come and suddenly say that I belonged with someone else. I can't imagine how you felt when I came, it must have been even worse since you had loved Liz your whole life." Tess paused and when Max just stared at her, she thought she should probably wrap it up, "Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for pushing Liz away, and I hope that everything works out between the two of you eventually. Merry Christmas Max." With that Tess looked into Max's eyes one last time and then turned to walk back to where the Valentis should be waiting for her.
Max was a little shocked at Tess's speech. That was definitely not what he had thought he was going to hear from her tonight. He looked over and realized that he and Tess had been standing in front of the crashdown, and he felt the familiar empty numb feeling spread through his body. "It's a little too late Tess," Max mumbled softly, then he headed down the street with his head hung low, and his feet scuffing the ground.
*****
Isabel saw her brother and Tess talking and saw him walk away dejectedly. She felt terrible. She had resolved to get to the bottom of the reason why Max was moping so much, and her one effort, had resulted in no answers. Instead she had been drawn to Alex himself, and she had completely neglected her mission to help Max out of his slump. Well no more. She would get to the bottom of this. There would be no more slacking.
Isabel looked around to see if she could see Tess. If Isabel could ask Tess about her and Max's conversation, maybe she could get some insight into her brother. But Tess seemed to be nowhere in sight. Well Isabel would just have to get to talk to Tess later, but hopefully not too much later.
*****
Liz saw Max and Tess talking in front of the crashdown and her heart clenched. She knew that she had no right to Max anymore, but he was still her soulmate, how could she just let go of him? But she had no choice. She did what she had to do, and this is the way it was suppose to be. Max and Tess were suppose to get together so that Tess wouldn't leave Roswell and leave them all vulnerable. It may hurt Liz like crazy to have to give up so much, but if it would save so many people, then who was she to stand in the way? The fate of the world rested on her shoulders and she couldn't turn her back on it no matter how much she wanted to.
Liz looked down at her stomach and gently laid her hand on her tummy. Liz looked up and looked around to make sure that no one was watching and she lifted up her shirt and placed her hand on her bare stomach. She always felt closer to her daughter when she did this, regardless of if she connected the two of them or not. Tonight Liz didn't really have the energy for the connection. She was still worn out from her last week at Winnaman, and she was making an effort to get caught up on sleep over her break.
Liz decided that she needed to get in bed and push thoughts of Max out of her mind completely. So she went to her room, changed into her pajamas, brushed her teeth and crawled in bed. After calling to her parents, and waiting for a few minutes while she heard them getting read for bed, Liz lifted up her night shirt and put her hand back on her stomach. She really needed to feel her baby, and if she didn't have the energy to actually connect, then she would just have to settle for the normal human contact.
As soon as Liz relaxed, she felt comfort curl through her body starting at her stomach, and she quickly fell into a pleasant sleep without any dreams or regrets about her past actions.
Tanya7496-So you really don't have to leave fb on both here and RH if you don't want to. Unless, of course, you just want me to comment back to you twice (which I will totally do), then go right on ahead and leave fb twice. I'm glad you understand where Liz is coming from, and yes, this part was heart breaking, as is the next part I'm afraid, and possibly ch. 19 too. This fic ended up being a bit more angsty than I had planned. Oh well. Hope you enjoy! And thanks for coming to my chat last night!
Redrumm-I have always thought of Alex as a great guy, so that's the way he behaves here. As for Michael and Maria, you'll get about a paragraph update in chapter 19, but after that, I'm not sure. I haven't written that far yet. I will tell you that the name revealing will in chapter 19 too. Too bad you weren't at my author's chat last night, you would have found out the name then *teasing tone*.
thetvgeneral-Yep I can't wait either. hehehe
Roswelllostcause-don't really want to dash your hopes, but I'll tell you that Serena doesn't know more than she's letting on right now. Sorry. I do like your username tho! (Like that makes a difference to dashing your hopes for Serena).
Flamehair-Yeah I think Max and Liz would still have the connection right now, but Max has completely shut his end now. Liz is getting to the end of her first trimester now, so the morning sickness is dying down, but still present, just for your information. Other than that, I will say no more.
orphyfets-I don't know. How does Liz handle it all?
Buffsteraddict-Of course I updated, even though I had to go into my cushion to do so, and I'm still trying to make that up. But I absolutely refuse to go over 7 days without updating. Ideally I'll update every third day.
Jennifer24-Yeah it really is a sad Christmas. At least for Max and Liz it is; for everybody else, it's not that bad.
Please, no talking during the feature presentation...
Chapter 17
It was Christmas Eve and Max was sitting in the middle of an outdoor theater where the community held its yearly Christmas pageant. Earlier today Isabel had run the pageant along with Alex, and now Max and his family was sitting outside for the town's Christmas Eve service. It was usually something that Max looked forward to because it was a chance to see Liz. In his early years, he used the time to see how Liz doing over the Christmas break, and last year it had taken on new meaning when Max and Liz had sat together for the service and then exchanged gifts afterward. But this year was painful for Max. He was hurt beyond belief by his meeting with Liz a few days ago, and it was made worse by the fact that he had just started to think that things between the two of them could be reconcilable. Max didn't think that he could quite give up hope altogether, but he didn't see anything happening in the near future, and that depressed him.
Max looked around at the people surrounding him. It seemed like pretty much the whole town had come, and he had already found Michael, Maria, and Ms. Deluca sitting on the other side, Kyle, Tess, and the Sheriff sitting in the front, and he saw Liz sitting with her parents in the back. He didn't want to be caught looking at her, so he couldn't really look long, but he had to admit that Liz looked beautiful in the candlelight.
Max waited for the service to end and then stood with his parents as they talked with the Whitmans afterward. The Evans and the Whitmans had been sitting together because Alex and Isabel had still needed to wrap up a few things after the pageant today, and they wanted to use the extra time before the service started to talk about it.
Max quickly lost track of the conversation and just looked around. When he saw Tess heading his way, he quickly told his parents that he would just walk home, then turned and left. He didn't have the energy or the will to deal with Tess right now. She had been leaving him alone for a while now, and although he didn't really know why that was, he was extremely thankful for it. He just hoped that she wouldn't pursue him after he left. Unfortunately, Tess didn't know about Max's hopes.
Tess was happy. She and Kyle had been together for almost a month now, and she was happier than she had ever been. However, she still felt that she had one more thing to do, and she couldn't feel completely relaxed about the whole situation until she tied up the loose ends so to speak. So when Tess saw Max standing with his parents, she decided to go ahead and get it out of the way. Besides, it would be a good Christmas present to herself. When she saw Max start walking away, she sped up and tried to catch up with him. "Max! Max!"
Max decided that he couldn't very well ignore Tess so he slowed down and then turned to face her. Tess was breathing a little harder as she approached him, but smiled anyway.
Tess looked up into Max's eyes when she was just a couple of feet away from him, and was surprised to note the amount of trepidation she saw reflected back at her. Then she looked at him closer and realized that he didn't look good. He had dark circles under his eyes and he looked completely worn out. She felt a little guilty that she hadn't noticed it all before. "Are you okay Max? You don't look well."
Max was a little anxious being around Tess. He was sure she had some kind of ulterior motive, and he really wasn't in the mood to deal with it just now. "Tess I'm fine. What do you want?" He knew he was reacting a bit harshly, but he just wanted to get home and be by himself.
Tess recognized that her concern was not wanted so she decided to get on with her mission. She lowered her head for a brief second then slowly brought it up to meet Max's eyes. "I wanted to apologize Max." Tess was a little nervous, she had never apologized to anyone before, at least not genuinely. But she really meant this. "I'm sorry, that I tried to pursue you so much and ruined your relationship with Liz. I'm with Kyle now, and I'm the happiest I've ever been. I know that I definitely wouldn't want someone to come and suddenly say that I belonged with someone else. I can't imagine how you felt when I came, it must have been even worse since you had loved Liz your whole life." Tess paused and when Max just stared at her, she thought she should probably wrap it up, "Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for pushing Liz away, and I hope that everything works out between the two of you eventually. Merry Christmas Max." With that Tess looked into Max's eyes one last time and then turned to walk back to where the Valentis should be waiting for her.
Max was a little shocked at Tess's speech. That was definitely not what he had thought he was going to hear from her tonight. He looked over and realized that he and Tess had been standing in front of the crashdown, and he felt the familiar empty numb feeling spread through his body. "It's a little too late Tess," Max mumbled softly, then he headed down the street with his head hung low, and his feet scuffing the ground.
*****
Isabel saw her brother and Tess talking and saw him walk away dejectedly. She felt terrible. She had resolved to get to the bottom of the reason why Max was moping so much, and her one effort, had resulted in no answers. Instead she had been drawn to Alex himself, and she had completely neglected her mission to help Max out of his slump. Well no more. She would get to the bottom of this. There would be no more slacking.
Isabel looked around to see if she could see Tess. If Isabel could ask Tess about her and Max's conversation, maybe she could get some insight into her brother. But Tess seemed to be nowhere in sight. Well Isabel would just have to get to talk to Tess later, but hopefully not too much later.
*****
Liz saw Max and Tess talking in front of the crashdown and her heart clenched. She knew that she had no right to Max anymore, but he was still her soulmate, how could she just let go of him? But she had no choice. She did what she had to do, and this is the way it was suppose to be. Max and Tess were suppose to get together so that Tess wouldn't leave Roswell and leave them all vulnerable. It may hurt Liz like crazy to have to give up so much, but if it would save so many people, then who was she to stand in the way? The fate of the world rested on her shoulders and she couldn't turn her back on it no matter how much she wanted to.
Liz looked down at her stomach and gently laid her hand on her tummy. Liz looked up and looked around to make sure that no one was watching and she lifted up her shirt and placed her hand on her bare stomach. She always felt closer to her daughter when she did this, regardless of if she connected the two of them or not. Tonight Liz didn't really have the energy for the connection. She was still worn out from her last week at Winnaman, and she was making an effort to get caught up on sleep over her break.
Liz decided that she needed to get in bed and push thoughts of Max out of her mind completely. So she went to her room, changed into her pajamas, brushed her teeth and crawled in bed. After calling to her parents, and waiting for a few minutes while she heard them getting read for bed, Liz lifted up her night shirt and put her hand back on her stomach. She really needed to feel her baby, and if she didn't have the energy to actually connect, then she would just have to settle for the normal human contact.
As soon as Liz relaxed, she felt comfort curl through her body starting at her stomach, and she quickly fell into a pleasant sleep without any dreams or regrets about her past actions.
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ultimatepickupline
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:29 am
- Location: USA
Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. It seems that you guys liked Tess's apology, which is encouraging for me, because I was really not having an easy time getting that out, even though I knew exactly what I wanted to happen. This coming chapter is the longest that's ever been posted for you guys, and the next chapter is long too, so I hope it makes up for the couple of short chapters recently.
orphyfets- Yeah Max's situations is pretty heartbreaking. Tess apoligizes to him, just in time for him to do nothing with it, 'cause Liz already broke his heart.
RiaRath101-Yes it does seem that all the heart ache was for nothing, since Tess is with Kyle now anyway, but if Max hadn't pulled away from the group so dramatically, maybe Tess would have still pursued him. You never know. I'm glad you liked Tess's speech.
Flamehair-Unfortunately for most readers, you are correct in your prediction that the problems between Liz and Max will not be solved soon. Sorry everybody! But I think that the journey should still be worthwhile (at least for the reader, not necessarily for the character).
thetvgeneral-I don't know how long will it take Liz to realize she can be with Max? Actually, I do know, but I'm not telling. Thanks for the encouragement.
L-J-L 76-Well I will promise that Max and Liz will get together at some part. I mean I figure it kind of has to be dreamer insured, otherwise, I'd have to put in the alien abyss. However, I make no guarantees as to how long it'll be before they get together.
Roswelllostcause-Are you a stargzer fan? Well I try to keep the couple stuff pretty well balanced out, but you might have to wait for a bit for the next stuff with the stargarzers. This fic is turning out to be pretty much centered around Liz. However, I like to try to get all the couples in at least every six chapters, so that might not be that long. Might only be three weeks or less for you.
Kitten- Okay, I'm back. How's that?
And now, sit back, relax, and enjoy...
Chapter 18
Christmas passed without anything special happening. The group spent the holiday with their respective families. Tess and Kyle tried to sneak kisses in between opening their gifts without being too obvious about it. They still hadn't told Kyle's dad about their relationship, and while they were sure that he would be okay with it, they didn't want anything to come between them just yet, so they had been waiting. Little did they know that the Sheriff had already figured out their newfound relationship status. He had seen them both sleeping together on the couch the morning after Tess's nightmare, and although he was a little worried about what might be going on under his roof, he was happy for both of them. He had never seen Kyle be so comfortable with himself before, and he definitely saw a change in Tess.
Michael had spent a holiday with the Deluca's yet again. He had been worried about what to get for the two of them, and talking to Isabel for gift ideas hadn't really helped. He ended up getting a bumper for Ms. Deluca for her car and followed it up with an apology about being the reason why the car had been destroyed so much. Amy was amlittle surprised that Michael had gotten her a gift at all, so she didn't really care what it was. Although she was a little disturbed to learn that he had been the reason for the damage to her car. It worried her that Maria might be put into so much danger with this boy driving.
Michael had agonized even more about Maria's gift and in the end had just given her a framed sketch of herself singing. Maria seemed to appreciate it, so he was happy, and it hadn't cost very much to make at all, so Michael was happy. He had also received gifts from Maria and Amy, and while he didn't know if he would ever use the cologne Maria had given him, he was extremely thankful for the grocery gift card Ms. Deluca had given him.
Alex's Christmas was one of the most remarkable he had ever had. It wasn't that special with his family, it was just like every other ordinary Christmas, but it was the first Christmas that he exchanged gifts with Isabel Evans, and while they didn't get each other anything big or meaningful, it was the thought that counted, and Alex considered himself extremely lucky that he could call Isabel one of his best friends. Sure he wished it could be something a little more, but he didn't think he would ever be that lucky.
Isabel had definitely enjoyed her Christmas. Her private exchange of gifts with Alex was one of the sweetest things she had ever witnessed from a guy, and she couldn't deny the fact that Alex brightened her world whenever he was around. She almost wished for more, but felt a little guilty wishing for that after the way she had treated him and the fact that she had originally sought him out just to get information.
The only thing that marred Isabel's happiness over her Christmas was the fact that Max was so depressed. He seemed to present an air of happiness for his parents, but Isabel knew her brother better than she knew anyone else, and she knew that it was all an act. He was just going through the motions, and that was almost worse than it was when he was just blatantly depressed. She knew that she would have to ask Tess what was going on in the next few days.
For Max, Christmas was just another reminder of things that would never be the same. He longed for last Christmas when he was with Liz and they had exchanged gifts that promised of many more Christmases to come. He wished that nothing had changed. He wished Tess had never showed up in Roswell, but he couldn't completely hate her either after she had apologized to him the night before. He knew that Tess was put into a hard place between what she had been told growing up and the way things actually existed between them all. So Max resolved to at least make an effort to look like he was having a good time. Maybe if he smiled and acted enough, he would start to believe it.
Christmas was hard on Liz too. She had fun, but she spent the entire day thinking about how different her life would be this time next year, and she felt so guilty. Here she was just acting like she didn't have a care in the world and everything was fine and dandy, and it was all a lie. She was pregnant, and her parents didn't know. Her parents thought she was still the model child. Little did they know that Liz planned on shattering their world on New Year's Day. She knew that she should do it sooner, but Liz wanted to wait till after all the celebrations. What a great way for her parents to start the New Year, by finding out they're going to be grandparents in about seven months. Of course they would have to think it would be eight or nine months in order for the math to work, but whatever.
Now it was two days after Christmas, and Liz was looking forward to seeing Maria and Alex. She had seen them briefly at the Christmas Eve service and she had already worked a shift with Maria in the diner, but that didn't really give her time to talk to them about everything that was going on, and Liz really needed to be able to talk to her friends. She wanted to tell somebody everything that had been going on with her. And she wanted to know what everyone was doing without her.
As soon as Liz saw Maria and Alex come in the doors of the diner, she rushed over and gave them both big hugs.
Maria couldn't help but make a comment as she felt her best friend squeeze the life out of her. "Geez girl, the pregnancy hormones are really affecting you aren't they?"
"Maria!" Liz backed up and slapped Maria's arm. "Don't say that where anyone can hear you!"
Alex's eyes widened at Liz's comment and he lowered his voice to ask, "Liz, who knows that you're pregnant?"
Liz lowered her head and admitted that she hadn't told her parents yet. "I'm going to tell them you guys. I just can't bear to tell them 'till after the holidays, and I don't really want anyone else in Roswell to know until I come back from school and they figure it out. But I have to talk about it. That's why I'm so glad you guys are here!" Liz looked back up at Maria and Alex then and smiled before asking to go to the desert. So the trio got in the car and headed out to the desert to talk.
On the way to their destination, Liz told Maria and Alex all about what she had been doing at Winnaman. She told them about Eileen and Serena and going to parties with them. Maria and Alex were a little surprised to find out that she had met Serena and that Liz was able to actually present herself as a partier. She told them about her power practicing sessions and her apprehension that she was forgetting something important so she was trying to prepare. Maria and Alex were a little worried for her, but they let it pass. Instead they proceded to tell Liz about what was going on in Roswell, and how it seemed the group had completely fallen apart without Liz and Max.
After they arrived at the pod chamber, the trio got out of the car and looked around. "Maria, why did you drive us here?" Alex asked.
"Well I was thinking, and since you're developing powers Liz, I wondered if you would be able to open the pod chamber yourself." When Liz and Alex both stared at Maria for a second, she glared back and shouted "What?!"
"Nothing Maria." Liz calmly said, "I'm just surprised that you would have come up with something like that."
"Yeah," Alex joined in, "You usually leave all that scientific thinking to Liz."
Maria rolled her eyes, "You guys! I have some good ideas sometimes!" Then the three started to laugh as they all headed up to the pod chamber. They bantered back an forth and traded insults all the way up the hill, but as soon as they were standing in front of the entrance of the pod chamber, they all fell silent. For some reason this seemed like a really big thing.
Liz took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she waved a shaky hand over the rock formation. When nothing happened, she exhaled the rest of her breath in a rush.
"Well maybe it doesn't recognize me because I'm not an actual alien?" Liz glanced at Maria on her left before turning her head to look at Alex.
Alex stared at the rock. He knew that it was a long shot, but it seemed to him, that Liz should still be able to get into the pod chamber. After all, she was carrying Max's baby, and the baby at least would have alien DNA. Besides, Liz was obviously working on her powers. "Are you sure that you have the right spot? Or maybe you have to actually concentrate on making the hand print come up?"
Liz just looked at Alex for a moment before she conceded and nodded her head. Liz then took another deep breath and held it while she closed her eyes and slowly and systematically waved her hand all over the face of the rock. While she moved her hand, she searched for any difference in the feeling of the air above the rock. When she felt a flicker of recognition run through her, she paused and concentrated on imagining a silver handprint. Liz heard a gasp to her left, and when she opened her eyes she saw the handprint there clear as day. Liz was elated that she was able to do that, and it hadn't even taken that much energy, just a little concentration. It seemed that she was definitely getting stronger. Liz quickly glanced at both her friends and when she saw them both nod, she placed her hand on the handprint, and without even thinking about anything, the entrance started sliding open. It was like the handprint recognized her immediately.
"That is so cool!" Maria exclaimed as the three friends climbed inside the entrance. It was Alex's first time to actually see the inside of the pod chamber, and he was mesmerized by it all. "Wow, I can't believe it! I never really thought about what Isabel's pod would look like, and to see that this is where one of my best friends was born! This is just amazing!"
Maria and Liz quickly picked up on the opportunity to tease Alex, and they took full advantage of it. "So Alex, you've really gotten close to Isabel lately haven't you?" Liz asked in a teasing tone.
Alex turned around to face Liz and Maria then ducked his head quickly, only to look up and blush profusely when he heard Maria say, "Oh yeah. Alex and Isabel have gotten really cozy lately. They even organized Christmas events together. I think they may be a couple before we know it!"
"We're just friends! Like you both are my best friends!"
"Yeah sure you are Alex. We'll see if that's still what you're saying by the time Valentine's Day rolls around." Maria teased.
Liz felt that she should cut Alex a little break so she decided to change the subject. "Anyway, Alex, you're right. To think that my daughter's father was born here, or rather hatched here, is kind of mind boggling."
"Daughter?!" Both Alex and Maria said together. They didn't think that it would be possible for Liz to know the sex of her baby so soon, but hey, it was an alien pregnancy, no one knew what could happen with that.
Liz had been looking at the pods when she started talking about them, and when she heard the shock in her friends' voices, she turned to look at them and grinned. "Yeah, I accidentally connected to her one night, and found out she was a girl. Isn't that cool?! I'm going to have a girl!"
Maria smiled back at Liz and asked, "Do you know what you're going to name her?"
"Yeah, I think I do." Liz paused a second for dramatic effect then continued, "Alexa Marie Parker." Originally, Liz had thought that she would end up discussing name options with Maria and Alex, but when she got home for break, she realized that she really wanted to name her daughter after her two best friends. Liz knew the second Alex and Maria both figured out that she was naming her daughter after them, because Alex immediately had the biggest grin on his face, and Maria rushed over to Liz to hug her.
"Oh chica! I can't believe you're naming your daughter after us!"
"How could I not after all the help you two have given me? I couldn't do this without both of you." Liz opened up both her arms so that they could all have a group hug and when they had hugged for several minutes, Liz asked if they would be willing to try something with her.
Maria agreed right away and Liz thanked her. Then Liz sat down on the floor, motioned for Alex and Maria to do the same, and held out her hands to Maria. "Okay Maria, I'm going to put one of your hands on my stomach and then I want you to just relax and breath evenly okay?" Maria was silent with anticipation and just nodded quickly. So Liz lifted her shirt a little bit so that the silver handprint was showing and put Maria's hand on the handprint, then Liz looked into Maria's eyes and concentrated on connecting with her. Liz had never tried to do this on her own, and was a little worried that it would leave her drained, but she quickly discovered that it wasn't really hard at all. It was a little like the way she got into Serena's mind when she had tried to mindwarp her.
Liz saw a few quick flashes of Maria's life run through her head, and when she felt that she was completely into Maria's head, Liz concentrated on connecting to her daughter as well. Liz knew that it worked immediately because she started to hear a whooshing sound in her ears, and she felt Maria's sudden jump in excitement level.
Maria was amazed, she had never really understood what Liz meant by seeing flashes, but as soon as Liz looked into her eyes, she started seeing little snippets of Liz's life. She saw her and Liz playing dress-up as little girls, she saw Liz connecting with Max for the first time, she saw Liz arriving at boarding school and seeing Serena for the first time, and finally Maria saw Liz's daughter. There she was all safe and secure and thriving in her mother's stomach. There was no mistake that the baby was in fact a girl, and even Maria could feel the baby's power. When Maria had finally felt that she had spent enough time connected to Liz's baby, she pulled her hand off of Liz's stomach and quickly felt the connection fade to nothing.
"Wow Liz! That was amazing! I can't believe you have this tiny little baby growing in you!"
Liz looked down at her stomach and smiled a small secret smile and said, "I know."
Alex looked back and forth between his two best friends. He wasn't completely sure what just happened, but he was pretty sure that he wanted to experience it too. If Maria could handle it, then he knew that he definitely could, so he spoke up to see if Liz would be willing to do whatever it was that she did with Maria with him too. "Liz? Are you up for doing that with me?"
Liz looked back at Alex and smiled. "Of course I am." Then she took Alex's hands and placed them in the same placed she had put Maria's and concentrated on making the connections again. When they were done, Alex couldn't stop smiling. There was no doubt that Alex would be spoiling Alexa rotten. She was just the most perfect baby ever!
orphyfets- Yeah Max's situations is pretty heartbreaking. Tess apoligizes to him, just in time for him to do nothing with it, 'cause Liz already broke his heart.
RiaRath101-Yes it does seem that all the heart ache was for nothing, since Tess is with Kyle now anyway, but if Max hadn't pulled away from the group so dramatically, maybe Tess would have still pursued him. You never know. I'm glad you liked Tess's speech.
Flamehair-Unfortunately for most readers, you are correct in your prediction that the problems between Liz and Max will not be solved soon. Sorry everybody! But I think that the journey should still be worthwhile (at least for the reader, not necessarily for the character).
thetvgeneral-I don't know how long will it take Liz to realize she can be with Max? Actually, I do know, but I'm not telling. Thanks for the encouragement.
L-J-L 76-Well I will promise that Max and Liz will get together at some part. I mean I figure it kind of has to be dreamer insured, otherwise, I'd have to put in the alien abyss. However, I make no guarantees as to how long it'll be before they get together.
Roswelllostcause-Are you a stargzer fan? Well I try to keep the couple stuff pretty well balanced out, but you might have to wait for a bit for the next stuff with the stargarzers. This fic is turning out to be pretty much centered around Liz. However, I like to try to get all the couples in at least every six chapters, so that might not be that long. Might only be three weeks or less for you.
Kitten- Okay, I'm back. How's that?
And now, sit back, relax, and enjoy...
Chapter 18
Christmas passed without anything special happening. The group spent the holiday with their respective families. Tess and Kyle tried to sneak kisses in between opening their gifts without being too obvious about it. They still hadn't told Kyle's dad about their relationship, and while they were sure that he would be okay with it, they didn't want anything to come between them just yet, so they had been waiting. Little did they know that the Sheriff had already figured out their newfound relationship status. He had seen them both sleeping together on the couch the morning after Tess's nightmare, and although he was a little worried about what might be going on under his roof, he was happy for both of them. He had never seen Kyle be so comfortable with himself before, and he definitely saw a change in Tess.
Michael had spent a holiday with the Deluca's yet again. He had been worried about what to get for the two of them, and talking to Isabel for gift ideas hadn't really helped. He ended up getting a bumper for Ms. Deluca for her car and followed it up with an apology about being the reason why the car had been destroyed so much. Amy was amlittle surprised that Michael had gotten her a gift at all, so she didn't really care what it was. Although she was a little disturbed to learn that he had been the reason for the damage to her car. It worried her that Maria might be put into so much danger with this boy driving.
Michael had agonized even more about Maria's gift and in the end had just given her a framed sketch of herself singing. Maria seemed to appreciate it, so he was happy, and it hadn't cost very much to make at all, so Michael was happy. He had also received gifts from Maria and Amy, and while he didn't know if he would ever use the cologne Maria had given him, he was extremely thankful for the grocery gift card Ms. Deluca had given him.
Alex's Christmas was one of the most remarkable he had ever had. It wasn't that special with his family, it was just like every other ordinary Christmas, but it was the first Christmas that he exchanged gifts with Isabel Evans, and while they didn't get each other anything big or meaningful, it was the thought that counted, and Alex considered himself extremely lucky that he could call Isabel one of his best friends. Sure he wished it could be something a little more, but he didn't think he would ever be that lucky.
Isabel had definitely enjoyed her Christmas. Her private exchange of gifts with Alex was one of the sweetest things she had ever witnessed from a guy, and she couldn't deny the fact that Alex brightened her world whenever he was around. She almost wished for more, but felt a little guilty wishing for that after the way she had treated him and the fact that she had originally sought him out just to get information.
The only thing that marred Isabel's happiness over her Christmas was the fact that Max was so depressed. He seemed to present an air of happiness for his parents, but Isabel knew her brother better than she knew anyone else, and she knew that it was all an act. He was just going through the motions, and that was almost worse than it was when he was just blatantly depressed. She knew that she would have to ask Tess what was going on in the next few days.
For Max, Christmas was just another reminder of things that would never be the same. He longed for last Christmas when he was with Liz and they had exchanged gifts that promised of many more Christmases to come. He wished that nothing had changed. He wished Tess had never showed up in Roswell, but he couldn't completely hate her either after she had apologized to him the night before. He knew that Tess was put into a hard place between what she had been told growing up and the way things actually existed between them all. So Max resolved to at least make an effort to look like he was having a good time. Maybe if he smiled and acted enough, he would start to believe it.
Christmas was hard on Liz too. She had fun, but she spent the entire day thinking about how different her life would be this time next year, and she felt so guilty. Here she was just acting like she didn't have a care in the world and everything was fine and dandy, and it was all a lie. She was pregnant, and her parents didn't know. Her parents thought she was still the model child. Little did they know that Liz planned on shattering their world on New Year's Day. She knew that she should do it sooner, but Liz wanted to wait till after all the celebrations. What a great way for her parents to start the New Year, by finding out they're going to be grandparents in about seven months. Of course they would have to think it would be eight or nine months in order for the math to work, but whatever.
Now it was two days after Christmas, and Liz was looking forward to seeing Maria and Alex. She had seen them briefly at the Christmas Eve service and she had already worked a shift with Maria in the diner, but that didn't really give her time to talk to them about everything that was going on, and Liz really needed to be able to talk to her friends. She wanted to tell somebody everything that had been going on with her. And she wanted to know what everyone was doing without her.
As soon as Liz saw Maria and Alex come in the doors of the diner, she rushed over and gave them both big hugs.
Maria couldn't help but make a comment as she felt her best friend squeeze the life out of her. "Geez girl, the pregnancy hormones are really affecting you aren't they?"
"Maria!" Liz backed up and slapped Maria's arm. "Don't say that where anyone can hear you!"
Alex's eyes widened at Liz's comment and he lowered his voice to ask, "Liz, who knows that you're pregnant?"
Liz lowered her head and admitted that she hadn't told her parents yet. "I'm going to tell them you guys. I just can't bear to tell them 'till after the holidays, and I don't really want anyone else in Roswell to know until I come back from school and they figure it out. But I have to talk about it. That's why I'm so glad you guys are here!" Liz looked back up at Maria and Alex then and smiled before asking to go to the desert. So the trio got in the car and headed out to the desert to talk.
On the way to their destination, Liz told Maria and Alex all about what she had been doing at Winnaman. She told them about Eileen and Serena and going to parties with them. Maria and Alex were a little surprised to find out that she had met Serena and that Liz was able to actually present herself as a partier. She told them about her power practicing sessions and her apprehension that she was forgetting something important so she was trying to prepare. Maria and Alex were a little worried for her, but they let it pass. Instead they proceded to tell Liz about what was going on in Roswell, and how it seemed the group had completely fallen apart without Liz and Max.
After they arrived at the pod chamber, the trio got out of the car and looked around. "Maria, why did you drive us here?" Alex asked.
"Well I was thinking, and since you're developing powers Liz, I wondered if you would be able to open the pod chamber yourself." When Liz and Alex both stared at Maria for a second, she glared back and shouted "What?!"
"Nothing Maria." Liz calmly said, "I'm just surprised that you would have come up with something like that."
"Yeah," Alex joined in, "You usually leave all that scientific thinking to Liz."
Maria rolled her eyes, "You guys! I have some good ideas sometimes!" Then the three started to laugh as they all headed up to the pod chamber. They bantered back an forth and traded insults all the way up the hill, but as soon as they were standing in front of the entrance of the pod chamber, they all fell silent. For some reason this seemed like a really big thing.
Liz took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she waved a shaky hand over the rock formation. When nothing happened, she exhaled the rest of her breath in a rush.
"Well maybe it doesn't recognize me because I'm not an actual alien?" Liz glanced at Maria on her left before turning her head to look at Alex.
Alex stared at the rock. He knew that it was a long shot, but it seemed to him, that Liz should still be able to get into the pod chamber. After all, she was carrying Max's baby, and the baby at least would have alien DNA. Besides, Liz was obviously working on her powers. "Are you sure that you have the right spot? Or maybe you have to actually concentrate on making the hand print come up?"
Liz just looked at Alex for a moment before she conceded and nodded her head. Liz then took another deep breath and held it while she closed her eyes and slowly and systematically waved her hand all over the face of the rock. While she moved her hand, she searched for any difference in the feeling of the air above the rock. When she felt a flicker of recognition run through her, she paused and concentrated on imagining a silver handprint. Liz heard a gasp to her left, and when she opened her eyes she saw the handprint there clear as day. Liz was elated that she was able to do that, and it hadn't even taken that much energy, just a little concentration. It seemed that she was definitely getting stronger. Liz quickly glanced at both her friends and when she saw them both nod, she placed her hand on the handprint, and without even thinking about anything, the entrance started sliding open. It was like the handprint recognized her immediately.
"That is so cool!" Maria exclaimed as the three friends climbed inside the entrance. It was Alex's first time to actually see the inside of the pod chamber, and he was mesmerized by it all. "Wow, I can't believe it! I never really thought about what Isabel's pod would look like, and to see that this is where one of my best friends was born! This is just amazing!"
Maria and Liz quickly picked up on the opportunity to tease Alex, and they took full advantage of it. "So Alex, you've really gotten close to Isabel lately haven't you?" Liz asked in a teasing tone.
Alex turned around to face Liz and Maria then ducked his head quickly, only to look up and blush profusely when he heard Maria say, "Oh yeah. Alex and Isabel have gotten really cozy lately. They even organized Christmas events together. I think they may be a couple before we know it!"
"We're just friends! Like you both are my best friends!"
"Yeah sure you are Alex. We'll see if that's still what you're saying by the time Valentine's Day rolls around." Maria teased.
Liz felt that she should cut Alex a little break so she decided to change the subject. "Anyway, Alex, you're right. To think that my daughter's father was born here, or rather hatched here, is kind of mind boggling."
"Daughter?!" Both Alex and Maria said together. They didn't think that it would be possible for Liz to know the sex of her baby so soon, but hey, it was an alien pregnancy, no one knew what could happen with that.
Liz had been looking at the pods when she started talking about them, and when she heard the shock in her friends' voices, she turned to look at them and grinned. "Yeah, I accidentally connected to her one night, and found out she was a girl. Isn't that cool?! I'm going to have a girl!"
Maria smiled back at Liz and asked, "Do you know what you're going to name her?"
"Yeah, I think I do." Liz paused a second for dramatic effect then continued, "Alexa Marie Parker." Originally, Liz had thought that she would end up discussing name options with Maria and Alex, but when she got home for break, she realized that she really wanted to name her daughter after her two best friends. Liz knew the second Alex and Maria both figured out that she was naming her daughter after them, because Alex immediately had the biggest grin on his face, and Maria rushed over to Liz to hug her.
"Oh chica! I can't believe you're naming your daughter after us!"
"How could I not after all the help you two have given me? I couldn't do this without both of you." Liz opened up both her arms so that they could all have a group hug and when they had hugged for several minutes, Liz asked if they would be willing to try something with her.
Maria agreed right away and Liz thanked her. Then Liz sat down on the floor, motioned for Alex and Maria to do the same, and held out her hands to Maria. "Okay Maria, I'm going to put one of your hands on my stomach and then I want you to just relax and breath evenly okay?" Maria was silent with anticipation and just nodded quickly. So Liz lifted her shirt a little bit so that the silver handprint was showing and put Maria's hand on the handprint, then Liz looked into Maria's eyes and concentrated on connecting with her. Liz had never tried to do this on her own, and was a little worried that it would leave her drained, but she quickly discovered that it wasn't really hard at all. It was a little like the way she got into Serena's mind when she had tried to mindwarp her.
Liz saw a few quick flashes of Maria's life run through her head, and when she felt that she was completely into Maria's head, Liz concentrated on connecting to her daughter as well. Liz knew that it worked immediately because she started to hear a whooshing sound in her ears, and she felt Maria's sudden jump in excitement level.
Maria was amazed, she had never really understood what Liz meant by seeing flashes, but as soon as Liz looked into her eyes, she started seeing little snippets of Liz's life. She saw her and Liz playing dress-up as little girls, she saw Liz connecting with Max for the first time, she saw Liz arriving at boarding school and seeing Serena for the first time, and finally Maria saw Liz's daughter. There she was all safe and secure and thriving in her mother's stomach. There was no mistake that the baby was in fact a girl, and even Maria could feel the baby's power. When Maria had finally felt that she had spent enough time connected to Liz's baby, she pulled her hand off of Liz's stomach and quickly felt the connection fade to nothing.
"Wow Liz! That was amazing! I can't believe you have this tiny little baby growing in you!"
Liz looked down at her stomach and smiled a small secret smile and said, "I know."
Alex looked back and forth between his two best friends. He wasn't completely sure what just happened, but he was pretty sure that he wanted to experience it too. If Maria could handle it, then he knew that he definitely could, so he spoke up to see if Liz would be willing to do whatever it was that she did with Maria with him too. "Liz? Are you up for doing that with me?"
Liz looked back at Alex and smiled. "Of course I am." Then she took Alex's hands and placed them in the same placed she had put Maria's and concentrated on making the connections again. When they were done, Alex couldn't stop smiling. There was no doubt that Alex would be spoiling Alexa rotten. She was just the most perfect baby ever!
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ultimatepickupline
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:29 am
- Location: USA
Chapter 19
Hey all! I am happy to announce that I am updating in just six days this time! I'm hoping to be getting back to the days when I updated every three or four days, and when I looked at my calendar this week and realized that I fly out in six and a half weeks, I realized that I really need to start busting my buns in order to make this happen, so we'll see.
Flamehair- I'm glad you liked all the different points of view. I definitely wanted to get them all in, but I didn't really want to write all the scenes out, so I'm glad that it went over well. Yep I feel sorry for the Parkers too, and that revelation will be this chapter.
Kitten- Glad you liked it, but I'm not telling when the pod squad will find out.
Mwuhahahaha Okay I can't really pull that whole evil thing off. Oh well.
RiaRath101- I thought Kyle and Tess would be cute too, so I'm glad to see someone agrees, and I also thought the bumper might be kind of funny, so I'm glad to see that it hit the mark with someone. Yep, Isabel's intents in spending time with Alex have now totally changed, but that doesn't mean that she will completely abandon her mission, at least not now that she has remembered it again.
Redrumm-I know, I feel really sorry for Max too. When I orginally started this, it was suppose to be somewhat light, but when I actually started writing out Max's feelings, I realized that it would end up being a lot angstier than I had intended, at least on Max's end. There was just no other way around it! But poor Max! I still haven't figured out quite how Max is going to react to the news.
Jennifer24-Yep there will be drama, but I think you will see that pretty soon, seeing as, that's the part that coming right now!
orphyfets- thanks
thetvgeneral- Thanks for saying it was awesome! you're welcome.
And without further ado...
Chapter 19
Liz woke up of the first day of the year and immediately felt butterflies in her stomach. Today was the day she would confront her parents, and while she had known that she would eventually have to tell them, she hadn't really thought that she would be as nervous as she felt right now. Yesterday was the last day that she would just be her parents' little girl. Today she would destroy the world they had planned for her, and she wasn't really inclined to make that come any sooner, but she really couldn't put it off any more either. They deserved to know before she left to go back to school, and she would be leaving in a couple of days. So today was the day she had to tell them.
Liz whipped the covers off her body only to continue laying in bed for a few more minutes. She turned her head to look out the window, and prayed for today to just be over with. Everything would be better in the morning when it was all out in the open, and she could just deal with what already happened. She hoped.
Liz dragged herself out of bed and into the shower. Then she dressed into something comfortable, and went to the family kitchen for breakfast. At her parents' cheerful good morning, Liz felt guilt rush through her body. She didn't think she could deal with the anticipation of waiting anymore, so she decided to go ahead and try to get it over with. "Mom. Dad. I need to talk to you both."
Nancy was worried by her daughter's serious tone, and whirled around from making pancakes to look her in the face. "Liz, sweetie. What's going on? Are you okay?" Nancy cradled Liz's face in her hands and looked into her eyes. She noted that Liz was having trouble meeting her gaze, and Nancy knew that that could only mean that Liz was ashamed about something, which meant that this talk would be important.
"Why don't you just sit down Mom?" Nancy looked into her daughter's eyes for a second longer before she nodded and moved over to the stove to take remove the food and turn off the stove. Then she made her way back to the table and sat down next to Jeff.
As soon as Liz had made her announcement, Jeff had felt the dread course through his body. He had a bad feeling about whatever it was that Liz wanted to talk to them about.
Liz waited for a few moments after her mom sat down and both her parents were staring at her. Then she took a deep breath and began her explanation. "Well you know how I told you that I was making a lot of new friends at school?" Liz didn't even give her parents a chance to respond before she ploughed on with her story. "Well, they ended up being a partying group, and we started going to all of these parties. I don't know why I did what I did, but I've never really been outside of Roswell before, for any extended time at least, and I really just wanted to fit it. It made me nervous when I found out that everyone had been attended Winnaman for a few years, and they all already had their groups put together. My roommate was really nice to me in the beginning, so she got me involved in the party scene, and soon we were going to parties every weekend." Liz had been looking down at her hands playing with her fingers, the entire time she was telling her story, and when she got to this part, she looked up to see the shock on her parents' faces. They had had no idea that she was going to so many parties.
Liz ducked her head again, and continued on with her story, while she picked at the top of the table. "Anyway, I started drinking at the parties, relatively early, and I ended up getting drunk easily. After a few weeks, I ended up waking up next to a random guy the day after the party, and after I realized what I had done, I kind of gave up any semblance of control. So I started going to every party with the intent to just have as much fun as possible, and most of the time that meant that I ended up with a guy. I'm telling you all of this, because I've come to realize that my actions definitely had consequences." Liz took one last breath before she said the two words that would make all of this an even bigger nightmare. But Liz wanted to face this more head on so she raised her head to look both of her parents in the eyes and then steadily but quietly said, "I'm pregnant."
Liz had to wait a few minutes before she got any reaction at all, but as soon as Nancy and Jeff processed the information, she got a huge reaction, one that she wasn't even fully prepared to handle. "What?! You're pregnant?" Jeff stood up and yelled, as Nancy quieter but no less intently said, "Are you sure?"
Liz could do nothing but look from one parent to the other and back as she nodded. Then the chaos really started. Jeff started yelling that this wasn't suppose to happen, and this boarding school was suppose to be the best thing that ever happened to Liz, and how dare she gamble with her future like she did. Meanwhile, Nancy started crying and lamenting about how her baby girl had made such terrible decisions, and how could she have brought her daughter up so poorly? She never thought that her daughter could end up with such a tragedy.
Liz just sat at the table and watched her parents as they dealt with the new separately. She didn't know what to do. She had always just taken it for granted that her parents would support her, and kind of figured that they would in this too. She knew that they would be upset at first, but she wasn't exactly prepared for such a dramatic reaction, and she wasn't entirely sure that everything would work out the way she thought it would.
After a few moments, her parents had calmed down enough to talk to her about it again. Nancy was more calm than Jeff and she took over the questioning, because it was all Jeff could do to just rein his temper in enough to stop from blowing up, which was obvious by the look on his face.
"Liz, are you sure you're pregnant?"
Liz hated to be asked this question, because she would just have to dash all her parents' hopes again, when she confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. "Yeah Mom, I'm sure. I took three pregnancy tests, and I've missed a couple of periods."
Nancy was silent for a moment as she processed that her daughter was really pregnant, and had probably kept it from her for a while. Jeff on the other hand couldn't keep his anger reined in and burst out. "How could you let this happen Liz? You had everything going for you! And now it's all ruined!"
Liz cringed at her father's yelling. She knew that everything was ruined for her. Wasn't that exactly what one of her first thoughts had been about when she found out that she was pregnant? But she realized now that she had never really dealt with everything. Sure she knew she was pregnant. How could she not? She had even connected with her daughter for crying out loud! But before only Alex and Maria had known about it, and then recently Serena had found out, but none of that made it seem as real as telling her parents. Previously, she had just been dealing with everything by herself for the most part. Everything she did was according to her plan, and what she saw as needing to get done. Now she would actually have to deal with her parents' disappointment, and she would have to deal with having her parents tell her what to do about her baby. Then she would have to figure out ways to get around some of what her parents said was for the best.
"Jeff! Sit down, and calm down. Yelling isn't going to do her any good. So how far along do you think you are Liz?"
"About two months?" Liz questioned while looking at her hands. Here came the blatant lying. There was no way she could tell them exactly how far along she was, nor could she tell them exactly when she thought her baby would be due.
"How are you feeling? Have you been having morning sickness or any other pregnancy symptoms?"
"Yeah, some morning sickness, cravings, fatigue..." Liz trailed off, and then preceded to list off the powers she had developed in her head. Those were a few pregnancy symptoms that she definitely wouldn't be able to tell her parents about.
"Do you know who the father is? Have you told him that you're pregnant yet?" Nancy asked after she was sure that her daughter was fine at least physically.
"No, I'm not sure who the father is. It could have been any number of guys, and how could I tell the father that I'm pregnant, when he's obviously not in my life?" At least the part about the father of her baby not being in her life was the truth. Liz wanted to tell as much of the truth as possible. She would rather not have to lie about everything.
Nancy nodded to Liz's answer and fell silent. She was really blind-sided with all of this, and she couldn't think of any other questions to ask her. Jeff, however, was sick of listening to all of this. He couldn't believe what had happened to his little girl and that she was ruining her life. "Then you should get an abortion Liz," Jeff said tightly, "at least then you could continue with your life the way it was suppose to be, and we can forget about this all. I don't think you should go back to Winnaman though."
Liz jerked her head up quickly. There was no way she was going to let her dad try to make her get rid of her baby. "No! This is my baby, and I will have it. What happened to you always being against abortion?! You said that if a girl could make the choice to have sex, then she should have to deal with the consequences! Well guess what?! I made the choice, and I had sex. I will deal with the consequences, but that does not include me killing my baby before it even has a chance to live! Nor does it include me giving it up to someone else after it is born. I know it will be tough, but I will do this!"
Nancy was shocked at Liz's vehement declaration and could only stare at Liz as she stood up to get her point across even more. But Jeff was already riled, and Liz's outburst just made him reply again in anger. "No you won't! You don't have a clue as to how to raise a child! You are just a child yourself and have your whole life ahead of you! You have no money, and no means of getting a job good enough to support you and your baby. Because make no mistake about it Liz, if you have this baby, I will not support you. I will only let you to continue to live here if you promise to give the baby up for adoption, but I will not stand by and just let you give up your future!"
After Jeff's ultimatum, two things happened simultaneously. Jeff decided that he didn't have the heart to even look at his daughters face, and strode out of the apartment, slamming the door as he went, and Liz started sobbing and ran to her room and slammed the door in tandem to Jeff's slamming. That left Nancy sitting at the breakfast table with their untouched pancakes, eggs, and bacon surrounding her. She had never imagined that this would happen, and she couldn't help but just feel numb. Her family was falling apart, and she knew that with how stubborn Liz and Jeff both were, that it might be awhile before things were reconciled. Nancy wasn't sure at all if she could deal with this.
*****
Jeff drove the few streets that were in Roswell for a while before he headed over to the high school. This was where he had gone to school, and for some reason he found himself returning to the place that he had always come to as a teenager when he needed to think. He quickly parked in a random parking spot and then got out of the car to walk to "his" lightpost. When he was in high school, the parking lot had gotten too small, so they had added on, and he came by one night when they had just poured the cement for the base and carved his initials along with his girlfriend's in it with a heart surrounding it. After his girlfriend had died, he had spent a lot of hours just sitting with his back to the heart, and for some reason now, it was the place he came to think about Liz.
He had wanted Liz to have everything that he didn't get to have because he had screwed up his own life. And it always looked like Liz was the model child. But now he sent her off to boarding school, for what was suppose to be the opportunity of a lifetime, and she came back pregnant. How could he have failed her so much that she ended up screwing up her own life almost as much as he had? Because Liz having a baby would affect her for the rest of her life, if she kept it like she wanted to.
That was another thing. Liz wanted to keep this baby, but she had no idea what being a parent entailed. It was hard enough to raise Liz as a baby, and he and Nancy had been doing it together, and they had both been out of school and working. Now Liz would be having a baby while she was still in high school, and even with help, it would be almost impossible, for her to make the life for herself that she had wanted.But Jeff couldn't just turn his back on his daughter. He still wanted the best for her, regardless of the fact that she was making him a grandfather entirely too early in life.
Jeff sat by his light post for an hour before he felt he was ready to go back home, and then he had to work in the Crashdown all day. He refused to let Liz work today though, and while Liz may have thought that it was because Jeff was still angry at her, in reality, Jeff didn't want his pregnant daughter on her feet for so long. So Jeff didn't see Liz all day until he locked up the Crashdown, and went up the stairs to the apartment, where he learned that Liz had already gone to bed.
*****
Liz knew that her father was angry with her life decisions, and she didn't want to deal with another blow-out with him, so she went to bed early in hopes that she could avoid him when he came in from closing up the Crashdown. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get to sleep. All she could think about all day was that she had ruined everything that was good in her life.
The only thing that even remotely gave her comfort was connecting with Alexa. For some reason, just knowing that her daughter was real comforted Liz more than she would have even thought possible right then.
Liz was just finishing one of her connections with her daughter when she heard her door open. She had her back to the door, so she quickly feigned sleep in hopes that whoever it was would just leave her alone. But she had no such luck because a few moments later she felt her father shake her awake.
"Liz. Liz." Jeff whispered. "I need to talk to you." When Liz opened her eyes and Jeff saw the look of wariness in them, his heart squeezed. How was it that he had been able to hurt his daughter so badly? "Liz, I wanted to apologize to you. When I left, I really thought about everything, and I'm not ready to loose my daughter because she made a mistake. You're right, we did always say that abortion shouldn't be used as a means of birth control, and I don't want you to go through that now. I know that you know that this will be hard, but your mother and I will support you in what you decide."
Jeff searched his daughters eyes for forgiveness, and before he could even determine what exactly the look in Liz's eyes meant, Liz wrapped her arms around his neck and started sobbing into his neck. Liz hadn't really expected that her dad would go through such a quick turn around, and she couldn't help but be relieved.
"I'm sorry Dad. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen." Liz kept mumbling into Jeff's neck while he held her and rocked her. They both stayed in that position until Liz cried herself to sleep, and then Jeff gently laid her down, and tucked his little girl into bed.
Flamehair- I'm glad you liked all the different points of view. I definitely wanted to get them all in, but I didn't really want to write all the scenes out, so I'm glad that it went over well. Yep I feel sorry for the Parkers too, and that revelation will be this chapter.
Kitten- Glad you liked it, but I'm not telling when the pod squad will find out.
Mwuhahahaha Okay I can't really pull that whole evil thing off. Oh well.RiaRath101- I thought Kyle and Tess would be cute too, so I'm glad to see someone agrees, and I also thought the bumper might be kind of funny, so I'm glad to see that it hit the mark with someone. Yep, Isabel's intents in spending time with Alex have now totally changed, but that doesn't mean that she will completely abandon her mission, at least not now that she has remembered it again.
Redrumm-I know, I feel really sorry for Max too. When I orginally started this, it was suppose to be somewhat light, but when I actually started writing out Max's feelings, I realized that it would end up being a lot angstier than I had intended, at least on Max's end. There was just no other way around it! But poor Max! I still haven't figured out quite how Max is going to react to the news.
Jennifer24-Yep there will be drama, but I think you will see that pretty soon, seeing as, that's the part that coming right now!
orphyfets- thanks
thetvgeneral- Thanks for saying it was awesome! you're welcome.
And without further ado...
Chapter 19
Liz woke up of the first day of the year and immediately felt butterflies in her stomach. Today was the day she would confront her parents, and while she had known that she would eventually have to tell them, she hadn't really thought that she would be as nervous as she felt right now. Yesterday was the last day that she would just be her parents' little girl. Today she would destroy the world they had planned for her, and she wasn't really inclined to make that come any sooner, but she really couldn't put it off any more either. They deserved to know before she left to go back to school, and she would be leaving in a couple of days. So today was the day she had to tell them.
Liz whipped the covers off her body only to continue laying in bed for a few more minutes. She turned her head to look out the window, and prayed for today to just be over with. Everything would be better in the morning when it was all out in the open, and she could just deal with what already happened. She hoped.
Liz dragged herself out of bed and into the shower. Then she dressed into something comfortable, and went to the family kitchen for breakfast. At her parents' cheerful good morning, Liz felt guilt rush through her body. She didn't think she could deal with the anticipation of waiting anymore, so she decided to go ahead and try to get it over with. "Mom. Dad. I need to talk to you both."
Nancy was worried by her daughter's serious tone, and whirled around from making pancakes to look her in the face. "Liz, sweetie. What's going on? Are you okay?" Nancy cradled Liz's face in her hands and looked into her eyes. She noted that Liz was having trouble meeting her gaze, and Nancy knew that that could only mean that Liz was ashamed about something, which meant that this talk would be important.
"Why don't you just sit down Mom?" Nancy looked into her daughter's eyes for a second longer before she nodded and moved over to the stove to take remove the food and turn off the stove. Then she made her way back to the table and sat down next to Jeff.
As soon as Liz had made her announcement, Jeff had felt the dread course through his body. He had a bad feeling about whatever it was that Liz wanted to talk to them about.
Liz waited for a few moments after her mom sat down and both her parents were staring at her. Then she took a deep breath and began her explanation. "Well you know how I told you that I was making a lot of new friends at school?" Liz didn't even give her parents a chance to respond before she ploughed on with her story. "Well, they ended up being a partying group, and we started going to all of these parties. I don't know why I did what I did, but I've never really been outside of Roswell before, for any extended time at least, and I really just wanted to fit it. It made me nervous when I found out that everyone had been attended Winnaman for a few years, and they all already had their groups put together. My roommate was really nice to me in the beginning, so she got me involved in the party scene, and soon we were going to parties every weekend." Liz had been looking down at her hands playing with her fingers, the entire time she was telling her story, and when she got to this part, she looked up to see the shock on her parents' faces. They had had no idea that she was going to so many parties.
Liz ducked her head again, and continued on with her story, while she picked at the top of the table. "Anyway, I started drinking at the parties, relatively early, and I ended up getting drunk easily. After a few weeks, I ended up waking up next to a random guy the day after the party, and after I realized what I had done, I kind of gave up any semblance of control. So I started going to every party with the intent to just have as much fun as possible, and most of the time that meant that I ended up with a guy. I'm telling you all of this, because I've come to realize that my actions definitely had consequences." Liz took one last breath before she said the two words that would make all of this an even bigger nightmare. But Liz wanted to face this more head on so she raised her head to look both of her parents in the eyes and then steadily but quietly said, "I'm pregnant."
Liz had to wait a few minutes before she got any reaction at all, but as soon as Nancy and Jeff processed the information, she got a huge reaction, one that she wasn't even fully prepared to handle. "What?! You're pregnant?" Jeff stood up and yelled, as Nancy quieter but no less intently said, "Are you sure?"
Liz could do nothing but look from one parent to the other and back as she nodded. Then the chaos really started. Jeff started yelling that this wasn't suppose to happen, and this boarding school was suppose to be the best thing that ever happened to Liz, and how dare she gamble with her future like she did. Meanwhile, Nancy started crying and lamenting about how her baby girl had made such terrible decisions, and how could she have brought her daughter up so poorly? She never thought that her daughter could end up with such a tragedy.
Liz just sat at the table and watched her parents as they dealt with the new separately. She didn't know what to do. She had always just taken it for granted that her parents would support her, and kind of figured that they would in this too. She knew that they would be upset at first, but she wasn't exactly prepared for such a dramatic reaction, and she wasn't entirely sure that everything would work out the way she thought it would.
After a few moments, her parents had calmed down enough to talk to her about it again. Nancy was more calm than Jeff and she took over the questioning, because it was all Jeff could do to just rein his temper in enough to stop from blowing up, which was obvious by the look on his face.
"Liz, are you sure you're pregnant?"
Liz hated to be asked this question, because she would just have to dash all her parents' hopes again, when she confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. "Yeah Mom, I'm sure. I took three pregnancy tests, and I've missed a couple of periods."
Nancy was silent for a moment as she processed that her daughter was really pregnant, and had probably kept it from her for a while. Jeff on the other hand couldn't keep his anger reined in and burst out. "How could you let this happen Liz? You had everything going for you! And now it's all ruined!"
Liz cringed at her father's yelling. She knew that everything was ruined for her. Wasn't that exactly what one of her first thoughts had been about when she found out that she was pregnant? But she realized now that she had never really dealt with everything. Sure she knew she was pregnant. How could she not? She had even connected with her daughter for crying out loud! But before only Alex and Maria had known about it, and then recently Serena had found out, but none of that made it seem as real as telling her parents. Previously, she had just been dealing with everything by herself for the most part. Everything she did was according to her plan, and what she saw as needing to get done. Now she would actually have to deal with her parents' disappointment, and she would have to deal with having her parents tell her what to do about her baby. Then she would have to figure out ways to get around some of what her parents said was for the best.
"Jeff! Sit down, and calm down. Yelling isn't going to do her any good. So how far along do you think you are Liz?"
"About two months?" Liz questioned while looking at her hands. Here came the blatant lying. There was no way she could tell them exactly how far along she was, nor could she tell them exactly when she thought her baby would be due.
"How are you feeling? Have you been having morning sickness or any other pregnancy symptoms?"
"Yeah, some morning sickness, cravings, fatigue..." Liz trailed off, and then preceded to list off the powers she had developed in her head. Those were a few pregnancy symptoms that she definitely wouldn't be able to tell her parents about.
"Do you know who the father is? Have you told him that you're pregnant yet?" Nancy asked after she was sure that her daughter was fine at least physically.
"No, I'm not sure who the father is. It could have been any number of guys, and how could I tell the father that I'm pregnant, when he's obviously not in my life?" At least the part about the father of her baby not being in her life was the truth. Liz wanted to tell as much of the truth as possible. She would rather not have to lie about everything.
Nancy nodded to Liz's answer and fell silent. She was really blind-sided with all of this, and she couldn't think of any other questions to ask her. Jeff, however, was sick of listening to all of this. He couldn't believe what had happened to his little girl and that she was ruining her life. "Then you should get an abortion Liz," Jeff said tightly, "at least then you could continue with your life the way it was suppose to be, and we can forget about this all. I don't think you should go back to Winnaman though."
Liz jerked her head up quickly. There was no way she was going to let her dad try to make her get rid of her baby. "No! This is my baby, and I will have it. What happened to you always being against abortion?! You said that if a girl could make the choice to have sex, then she should have to deal with the consequences! Well guess what?! I made the choice, and I had sex. I will deal with the consequences, but that does not include me killing my baby before it even has a chance to live! Nor does it include me giving it up to someone else after it is born. I know it will be tough, but I will do this!"
Nancy was shocked at Liz's vehement declaration and could only stare at Liz as she stood up to get her point across even more. But Jeff was already riled, and Liz's outburst just made him reply again in anger. "No you won't! You don't have a clue as to how to raise a child! You are just a child yourself and have your whole life ahead of you! You have no money, and no means of getting a job good enough to support you and your baby. Because make no mistake about it Liz, if you have this baby, I will not support you. I will only let you to continue to live here if you promise to give the baby up for adoption, but I will not stand by and just let you give up your future!"
After Jeff's ultimatum, two things happened simultaneously. Jeff decided that he didn't have the heart to even look at his daughters face, and strode out of the apartment, slamming the door as he went, and Liz started sobbing and ran to her room and slammed the door in tandem to Jeff's slamming. That left Nancy sitting at the breakfast table with their untouched pancakes, eggs, and bacon surrounding her. She had never imagined that this would happen, and she couldn't help but just feel numb. Her family was falling apart, and she knew that with how stubborn Liz and Jeff both were, that it might be awhile before things were reconciled. Nancy wasn't sure at all if she could deal with this.
*****
Jeff drove the few streets that were in Roswell for a while before he headed over to the high school. This was where he had gone to school, and for some reason he found himself returning to the place that he had always come to as a teenager when he needed to think. He quickly parked in a random parking spot and then got out of the car to walk to "his" lightpost. When he was in high school, the parking lot had gotten too small, so they had added on, and he came by one night when they had just poured the cement for the base and carved his initials along with his girlfriend's in it with a heart surrounding it. After his girlfriend had died, he had spent a lot of hours just sitting with his back to the heart, and for some reason now, it was the place he came to think about Liz.
He had wanted Liz to have everything that he didn't get to have because he had screwed up his own life. And it always looked like Liz was the model child. But now he sent her off to boarding school, for what was suppose to be the opportunity of a lifetime, and she came back pregnant. How could he have failed her so much that she ended up screwing up her own life almost as much as he had? Because Liz having a baby would affect her for the rest of her life, if she kept it like she wanted to.
That was another thing. Liz wanted to keep this baby, but she had no idea what being a parent entailed. It was hard enough to raise Liz as a baby, and he and Nancy had been doing it together, and they had both been out of school and working. Now Liz would be having a baby while she was still in high school, and even with help, it would be almost impossible, for her to make the life for herself that she had wanted.But Jeff couldn't just turn his back on his daughter. He still wanted the best for her, regardless of the fact that she was making him a grandfather entirely too early in life.
Jeff sat by his light post for an hour before he felt he was ready to go back home, and then he had to work in the Crashdown all day. He refused to let Liz work today though, and while Liz may have thought that it was because Jeff was still angry at her, in reality, Jeff didn't want his pregnant daughter on her feet for so long. So Jeff didn't see Liz all day until he locked up the Crashdown, and went up the stairs to the apartment, where he learned that Liz had already gone to bed.
*****
Liz knew that her father was angry with her life decisions, and she didn't want to deal with another blow-out with him, so she went to bed early in hopes that she could avoid him when he came in from closing up the Crashdown. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get to sleep. All she could think about all day was that she had ruined everything that was good in her life.
The only thing that even remotely gave her comfort was connecting with Alexa. For some reason, just knowing that her daughter was real comforted Liz more than she would have even thought possible right then.
Liz was just finishing one of her connections with her daughter when she heard her door open. She had her back to the door, so she quickly feigned sleep in hopes that whoever it was would just leave her alone. But she had no such luck because a few moments later she felt her father shake her awake.
"Liz. Liz." Jeff whispered. "I need to talk to you." When Liz opened her eyes and Jeff saw the look of wariness in them, his heart squeezed. How was it that he had been able to hurt his daughter so badly? "Liz, I wanted to apologize to you. When I left, I really thought about everything, and I'm not ready to loose my daughter because she made a mistake. You're right, we did always say that abortion shouldn't be used as a means of birth control, and I don't want you to go through that now. I know that you know that this will be hard, but your mother and I will support you in what you decide."
Jeff searched his daughters eyes for forgiveness, and before he could even determine what exactly the look in Liz's eyes meant, Liz wrapped her arms around his neck and started sobbing into his neck. Liz hadn't really expected that her dad would go through such a quick turn around, and she couldn't help but be relieved.
"I'm sorry Dad. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen." Liz kept mumbling into Jeff's neck while he held her and rocked her. They both stayed in that position until Liz cried herself to sleep, and then Jeff gently laid her down, and tucked his little girl into bed.
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ultimatepickupline
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:29 am
- Location: USA
Chapter 20
Hey everyone, I am completely touched and moved by the amount of feedback I received for this chapter. I'm glad everyone thought so highly of it.
Tany7496-Thank you so much. I think you described the interaction between Jeff and Liz perfectly. At least that's exactly how I wanted it to come across, so I'm glad it did.
pandas2001-thanks, I'm glad you liked the parents
RiaRath101-thank you, I'm glad you think that the parents' reactions were believable. As for the other people who don't know yet, it might be a while yet.
Jennifer24-Glad you liked the drama, I never thought my fic would end up quite so dramatic as it did, but I guess sometimes your writing takes you place you didn't think you'd go. hmm...that sounds familiar. Anyway, Liz will be going back to boarding school, but you won't get to see that till chapter 21.
Redrumm-Yeah I felt bad for Liz too. Unfortunately, you won't see the rest of the reactions for a bit yet.
Tinkerbell_Luvs_Roswell- thanks, but you'll have to wait a bit.
Roswelllostcause-yes, yes of course, I think we all want to see Liz and Max get together. I can tell you now when the next stargazer part is though, so I'll do that. You can look forward to some stargazer in chapter 22, which will hopefully be posted in a week if all goes well. If all does not go well the latest it'll be up will be two weeks. So you'll at least be thrown a bone soone.
izzyandkyle-Ah, but the question is...will Liz even end up opting to tell Max the truth after she realizes that Tess will stay, or will something else prevent her? *evil laugh*
orphyfets-thanks, I just couldn't bring myself to leave you guys without knowing that Liz's parents came around, particularly her dad.
carter13-how will Max react to which part? The fact that she's pregnant? Or the fact that the baby is biologically his?
Shiesty23-I didn't think you'd get around to reading my fic so quickly, but I'm happy that you did. So like I said I refuse to go more than seven days without updating, so you will never have to wait that long to get the next chapter. Was this one fast enough for you?
83 AlienAngel-thanks for letting me know, that was sweet of you. I just hope that you don't skip over this message to you, but you left feedback, so I will reply!
GLCW2-I'm glad you obviously enjoyed what I've written so far, I hope that continues.
And now sit back, relax, and enjoy....
Chapter 20
Thehlec was in the storage room once again. Ever since he had seen Nikolas with a completely lame arm the day after he overheard the conversation between Nikolas and Khivar, Thehlec had spent a considerable about of time in the supply closet trying to figure out what was real and what wasn't. It seemed that what he had believed the majority of his life about what was true and real, was all really a bunch of propaganda spread by Khivar and his followers.
Thehlec quickly learned that apparently all those years ago when King Zan had suddenly died, followed by his sister, second-in-command, and intended bride, it had not been as accidental as it had appeared. Everybody had been told that King Zan had died of an aneurism that would have been impossible to heal even with the Kings own gift of healing, so there was nothing that could have been done. But the truth was the Khivar had orchestrated the whole thing. He had been studying some of the ancient texts about biology that no one really knew any more, and he figured out that there was a way for him to make it look like a sudden but natural death, when in reality it was all his doing. So Khivar had set up a meeting with his cousin and then showed up early. Upon his arrival, he had given King Zan a hug, and because they had grown up together, it was comfortable for him to do so. When he hugged King Zan, Khivar raised his hand to the back of the King's head and quickly connected just enough to find the precise blood vessel that he needed. He then ruptured it, causing King Zan's immediate death.
Khivar's plot should have been figured out by the King's security, but that problem was was Khivar's most gifted area was the area of telepathy, and because of his gift, he was also gifted in being able to block his thoughts, or providing a layer that would allow the security to think he was thinking about one thing, when he was really plotting an assassination.
Over the next couple of months following King Zan's death, Khivar also killed off Princess Vilandra, Commander Rath, and Future Queen Ava. Apparently the King and Princess's mother had gotten together a few well renown scientists who were working on a cloning project and had them mesh the essences of the Royal Four together with human DNA to be sent to earth.
The Queen mother had always been a little suspicious of Khivar, and while she wasn't sure if Antar would end up in an all out war, she was sure that Khivar would run Antar into the ground. So she wanted to make sure that there was a way to over throw him that wouldn't put the people of Antar at unrest. She knew that if the person who ended up overthrowing him had even more legitimate ties to the thrown than Khivar himself, then the people would have no problem. There shouldn't have been a problem with someone just outing Khivar and getting rid of him, but then there would have been no male from the royal line available to take the throne, and some of the people of Antar were ignorant enough to believe the old folklore that said that King's line had been specially chosen because it was the line with the strongest powers.
Later Khivar had built onto that old folklore and added that the rest of the powers of Antar were hinged on the fact that somebody from the royal line reigned. If the royal line was not on the throne, then the powers of the people would die out. That way, when Khivar set up his power suppressors, he was able to take away the power of the people gradually, saying that with the death of the previous King, the people's powers were diminishing. In reality, Khivar was stealing their power altogether. Well if it was possible he would be stealing their powers. All he could really do was suppress everybody else's powers while enhancing his own through meticulous practice.
After the pods of the Royal Four were sent to earth, Khivar found out quickly and was furious. He hastily sent a team to destroy the pods at any cost, and they left assuring him that they would accomplish their mission. Later he got word from a dying informant that the team he had sent was able to take on the ship containing the pods and make it crash. The informant seemed to think that the crash was too bad for anyone to survive let alone, the delicate pods of the Royal Four. But apparently the pods were more durable than anyone thought, and they did survive, because the granolith was now registering an heir to the throne, and there could be no heir without the King and Queen.
The ship that they were on, was now just six months away from landing on earth, and Khivar was currently talking to Nicolas about when they would have contact with his followers there. It seemed that roughly fifty human years ago, a group of people had wanted to visit earth, and Khivar had given them permission as long as they swore allegiance to him, and promised to follow any commands given by him on a moment's notice. They were also to raise their children in the ways of Khivar, so that Khivar would have an ever-growing population that was completely devoted to him. Khivar's plan it seemed had been to slowly colonize the earth and then take over it completely once Khivar had total control over the rest of his own solar system already.
"When have the scientist said that we would be able to contact the skins on earth?" Khivar was sitting at the head of a long table, with Nicolas at the other end.
"They said that we might be able to contact them as early as today Lord Khivar."
"Good. Then I want them to start looking for the Royal Four now. Send a message to them immediately to use any means necessary to find them and detain them. They have my permission to kill Rath and Vilondra, but I want the pleasure of killing the heir, the Queen, and the King myself."
"Yes Lord Khivar. Is there anything else that we should tell them?"
"No. Just that it would be in their best interest to succeed in their mission as soon as possible, which I am sure you are well aware of." Khivar stared Nicolas down, and Nicolas swallowed so loudly that even Thehlec could almost imagine that he heard it in the next room.
"Yes Lord Khivar. I'll tell them"
"Good. Then you are dismissed." Nicolas speedily made his way to the door, and made sure to avoid eye contact with Khivar.
Thehlec waited in the storage room for a few more moments before he made a any move and he was glad that he did, because it was then that he heard Khivar say, "Zan, I will kill you just as I did before, but this time I will not be so merciful. First, I will kill your child and then your queen and make you suffer before I allow you to go into death. I worked hard for this power, and I will keep it." It was this little mini speech of Khivar's that gave Thehlec the resolve to do something. He had been wondering whether he should do anything to stop Khivar, but the rule of Khivar was all he had known in his life, and he wasn't sure if his planet could really get out of the dire devastation it was in with a change of leaders. However, Khivar's statement made Thehlec realize that Khivar was in no way fit to be a leader of a planet, and if he really wanted to do the right thing he would have to do something about. So Thehlec resolved to make and effort to help Zan even if Zan didn't know about it.
Thehlec carefully walked over to the doorway of the supply closet and put his ear to the door. He did this every time he left the supply closet, because more often than not, he heard important information during his visit, and he was a little worried that if anyone ever saw him come out of the closet, that they would realize that he had been spying on the reigning ruler, and he definitely didn't want to risk himself with what he had heard happen to Nicolas.
After listening for a minute or two without hearing anything, Thehlec slowly opened the door and tiptoed out of the closet. Then he furtively looked around while trying to quickly get to the communication center. He had to get there to do something about the message being sent, and he had to think of something to prevent it pronto. Thehlec remembered his fledgling powers and decided that it might save time to try to go through a few walls. He had had a little success with reaching through things, and if he could get his powers to cooperate for a little longer than normal, then he might be able to get to the communication center before Nicolas, and actually be able to prevent the message from being sent at all!
Thehlec looked around one last time, then concentrated as hard as he could to go through the wall on his left. He knew that if he could just get through a few walls, he would be able to get to the lab in time. Unfortunately, Thehlec could only get through the first wall before his energy was completely sapped. It seemed that powers might be a little like muscles, the more you worked at it, the stronger you got. It was all Thehlec could do not to get stuck in the wall, which would have been a hard thing to explain. Luckily the adrenaline that was running through his body gave him enough energy to still run out of the next room's door, and down the hall to the lab in record time. Thehlec was also lucky enough not to encounter anyone in the hallway, so he had no need to explain himself.
Thehlec was just sitting down at his work station and trying to slow his breathing when Nicolas opened the door to the lab. It appeared that Nicolas had gotten caught by Thehlec's supervisor Soirafen, which was probably the only reason Thehlec had been able to get back to the lab in time.
"...yes I believe we should be able to reach the inhabitants of earth by now, if we really wanted to, although I am not quite sure. We've never done it before." Soirafen was saying as the door opened.
"Well, Lord Khivar wants you to try immediately, and keep trying every day until you can reach our contacts. We need to get an affirmative answer back to Lord Khivar as soon as possible." Nicolas grimaced as he thought about what the punishment for not responding to Khivar soon enough might be. He really couldn't afford to lose the use of another limb.
"Certainly Captain Nicolas. If need be, we'll try to contact our people every hour." It didn't seem that anyone really knew what happened to Nicolas's arm, but the rumor was that it was the result of getting on Khivar's bad side, and no one wanted to push their luck to see if that was true, so if at all possible, Soirafen would absolutely make sure to get this message out in a timely manner. "Thehlec, I want you to start sending this message immediately, and try again every other hour. I don't care in you have to wake up out of a deep sleep to do it, we will get ahold of these 'skins' as quick as antarianly possible! I will personally see to it that the message gets sent on the hours you are not assigned."
Thehlec just nodded his head and quietly asked, what the message was to say, but inside, he was jumping for joy that he would be the first person to try to send it. That meant that he could rework it so that it would be impossible to reach earth for a while, then he could work out an appropriate fake reply. This was going to work out better than he had even planned!
So Thehlec started working right away to make it appear that he was actually actively trying to get the message out, and as soon as Soirafen and Nicolas left the room, Thehlec engineered the computer to immediately block any outgoing message with the destination of earth with a signal saying that the location was out of range. Thehlec then arranged it so that on the twentieth attempt to reach earth, a false message would be returned saying that the skins would be working on finding the Royal Four, and would wait for further instructions from Khivar.
Thehlec was very proud of himself after he got the whole thing set up. He felt that he was actually doing something that would benefit his planet in the long run, and that would benefit his family which was what he was trying to do in the first place when he applied to be a scientist in the palace. And the best thing about this whole ruse with the message and false return message was that, the returned message wouldn't even be received directly after his own signal. Because the message would be received on an even signal, Soirafen would be the first one in the spotlight later. Yep, Thehlec definitely had a good feeling about what he was doing, and what would take place in the future.
Tany7496-Thank you so much. I think you described the interaction between Jeff and Liz perfectly. At least that's exactly how I wanted it to come across, so I'm glad it did.
pandas2001-thanks, I'm glad you liked the parents
RiaRath101-thank you, I'm glad you think that the parents' reactions were believable. As for the other people who don't know yet, it might be a while yet.
Jennifer24-Glad you liked the drama, I never thought my fic would end up quite so dramatic as it did, but I guess sometimes your writing takes you place you didn't think you'd go. hmm...that sounds familiar. Anyway, Liz will be going back to boarding school, but you won't get to see that till chapter 21.
Redrumm-Yeah I felt bad for Liz too. Unfortunately, you won't see the rest of the reactions for a bit yet.
Tinkerbell_Luvs_Roswell- thanks, but you'll have to wait a bit.
Roswelllostcause-yes, yes of course, I think we all want to see Liz and Max get together. I can tell you now when the next stargazer part is though, so I'll do that. You can look forward to some stargazer in chapter 22, which will hopefully be posted in a week if all goes well. If all does not go well the latest it'll be up will be two weeks. So you'll at least be thrown a bone soone.
izzyandkyle-Ah, but the question is...will Liz even end up opting to tell Max the truth after she realizes that Tess will stay, or will something else prevent her?
*evil laugh* orphyfets-thanks, I just couldn't bring myself to leave you guys without knowing that Liz's parents came around, particularly her dad.
carter13-how will Max react to which part? The fact that she's pregnant? Or the fact that the baby is biologically his?
Shiesty23-I didn't think you'd get around to reading my fic so quickly, but I'm happy that you did. So like I said I refuse to go more than seven days without updating, so you will never have to wait that long to get the next chapter. Was this one fast enough for you?
83 AlienAngel-thanks for letting me know, that was sweet of you. I just hope that you don't skip over this message to you, but you left feedback, so I will reply!
GLCW2-I'm glad you obviously enjoyed what I've written so far, I hope that continues.
And now sit back, relax, and enjoy....
Chapter 20
Thehlec was in the storage room once again. Ever since he had seen Nikolas with a completely lame arm the day after he overheard the conversation between Nikolas and Khivar, Thehlec had spent a considerable about of time in the supply closet trying to figure out what was real and what wasn't. It seemed that what he had believed the majority of his life about what was true and real, was all really a bunch of propaganda spread by Khivar and his followers.
Thehlec quickly learned that apparently all those years ago when King Zan had suddenly died, followed by his sister, second-in-command, and intended bride, it had not been as accidental as it had appeared. Everybody had been told that King Zan had died of an aneurism that would have been impossible to heal even with the Kings own gift of healing, so there was nothing that could have been done. But the truth was the Khivar had orchestrated the whole thing. He had been studying some of the ancient texts about biology that no one really knew any more, and he figured out that there was a way for him to make it look like a sudden but natural death, when in reality it was all his doing. So Khivar had set up a meeting with his cousin and then showed up early. Upon his arrival, he had given King Zan a hug, and because they had grown up together, it was comfortable for him to do so. When he hugged King Zan, Khivar raised his hand to the back of the King's head and quickly connected just enough to find the precise blood vessel that he needed. He then ruptured it, causing King Zan's immediate death.
Khivar's plot should have been figured out by the King's security, but that problem was was Khivar's most gifted area was the area of telepathy, and because of his gift, he was also gifted in being able to block his thoughts, or providing a layer that would allow the security to think he was thinking about one thing, when he was really plotting an assassination.
Over the next couple of months following King Zan's death, Khivar also killed off Princess Vilandra, Commander Rath, and Future Queen Ava. Apparently the King and Princess's mother had gotten together a few well renown scientists who were working on a cloning project and had them mesh the essences of the Royal Four together with human DNA to be sent to earth.
The Queen mother had always been a little suspicious of Khivar, and while she wasn't sure if Antar would end up in an all out war, she was sure that Khivar would run Antar into the ground. So she wanted to make sure that there was a way to over throw him that wouldn't put the people of Antar at unrest. She knew that if the person who ended up overthrowing him had even more legitimate ties to the thrown than Khivar himself, then the people would have no problem. There shouldn't have been a problem with someone just outing Khivar and getting rid of him, but then there would have been no male from the royal line available to take the throne, and some of the people of Antar were ignorant enough to believe the old folklore that said that King's line had been specially chosen because it was the line with the strongest powers.
Later Khivar had built onto that old folklore and added that the rest of the powers of Antar were hinged on the fact that somebody from the royal line reigned. If the royal line was not on the throne, then the powers of the people would die out. That way, when Khivar set up his power suppressors, he was able to take away the power of the people gradually, saying that with the death of the previous King, the people's powers were diminishing. In reality, Khivar was stealing their power altogether. Well if it was possible he would be stealing their powers. All he could really do was suppress everybody else's powers while enhancing his own through meticulous practice.
After the pods of the Royal Four were sent to earth, Khivar found out quickly and was furious. He hastily sent a team to destroy the pods at any cost, and they left assuring him that they would accomplish their mission. Later he got word from a dying informant that the team he had sent was able to take on the ship containing the pods and make it crash. The informant seemed to think that the crash was too bad for anyone to survive let alone, the delicate pods of the Royal Four. But apparently the pods were more durable than anyone thought, and they did survive, because the granolith was now registering an heir to the throne, and there could be no heir without the King and Queen.
The ship that they were on, was now just six months away from landing on earth, and Khivar was currently talking to Nicolas about when they would have contact with his followers there. It seemed that roughly fifty human years ago, a group of people had wanted to visit earth, and Khivar had given them permission as long as they swore allegiance to him, and promised to follow any commands given by him on a moment's notice. They were also to raise their children in the ways of Khivar, so that Khivar would have an ever-growing population that was completely devoted to him. Khivar's plan it seemed had been to slowly colonize the earth and then take over it completely once Khivar had total control over the rest of his own solar system already.
"When have the scientist said that we would be able to contact the skins on earth?" Khivar was sitting at the head of a long table, with Nicolas at the other end.
"They said that we might be able to contact them as early as today Lord Khivar."
"Good. Then I want them to start looking for the Royal Four now. Send a message to them immediately to use any means necessary to find them and detain them. They have my permission to kill Rath and Vilondra, but I want the pleasure of killing the heir, the Queen, and the King myself."
"Yes Lord Khivar. Is there anything else that we should tell them?"
"No. Just that it would be in their best interest to succeed in their mission as soon as possible, which I am sure you are well aware of." Khivar stared Nicolas down, and Nicolas swallowed so loudly that even Thehlec could almost imagine that he heard it in the next room.
"Yes Lord Khivar. I'll tell them"
"Good. Then you are dismissed." Nicolas speedily made his way to the door, and made sure to avoid eye contact with Khivar.
Thehlec waited in the storage room for a few more moments before he made a any move and he was glad that he did, because it was then that he heard Khivar say, "Zan, I will kill you just as I did before, but this time I will not be so merciful. First, I will kill your child and then your queen and make you suffer before I allow you to go into death. I worked hard for this power, and I will keep it." It was this little mini speech of Khivar's that gave Thehlec the resolve to do something. He had been wondering whether he should do anything to stop Khivar, but the rule of Khivar was all he had known in his life, and he wasn't sure if his planet could really get out of the dire devastation it was in with a change of leaders. However, Khivar's statement made Thehlec realize that Khivar was in no way fit to be a leader of a planet, and if he really wanted to do the right thing he would have to do something about. So Thehlec resolved to make and effort to help Zan even if Zan didn't know about it.
Thehlec carefully walked over to the doorway of the supply closet and put his ear to the door. He did this every time he left the supply closet, because more often than not, he heard important information during his visit, and he was a little worried that if anyone ever saw him come out of the closet, that they would realize that he had been spying on the reigning ruler, and he definitely didn't want to risk himself with what he had heard happen to Nicolas.
After listening for a minute or two without hearing anything, Thehlec slowly opened the door and tiptoed out of the closet. Then he furtively looked around while trying to quickly get to the communication center. He had to get there to do something about the message being sent, and he had to think of something to prevent it pronto. Thehlec remembered his fledgling powers and decided that it might save time to try to go through a few walls. He had had a little success with reaching through things, and if he could get his powers to cooperate for a little longer than normal, then he might be able to get to the communication center before Nicolas, and actually be able to prevent the message from being sent at all!
Thehlec looked around one last time, then concentrated as hard as he could to go through the wall on his left. He knew that if he could just get through a few walls, he would be able to get to the lab in time. Unfortunately, Thehlec could only get through the first wall before his energy was completely sapped. It seemed that powers might be a little like muscles, the more you worked at it, the stronger you got. It was all Thehlec could do not to get stuck in the wall, which would have been a hard thing to explain. Luckily the adrenaline that was running through his body gave him enough energy to still run out of the next room's door, and down the hall to the lab in record time. Thehlec was also lucky enough not to encounter anyone in the hallway, so he had no need to explain himself.
Thehlec was just sitting down at his work station and trying to slow his breathing when Nicolas opened the door to the lab. It appeared that Nicolas had gotten caught by Thehlec's supervisor Soirafen, which was probably the only reason Thehlec had been able to get back to the lab in time.
"...yes I believe we should be able to reach the inhabitants of earth by now, if we really wanted to, although I am not quite sure. We've never done it before." Soirafen was saying as the door opened.
"Well, Lord Khivar wants you to try immediately, and keep trying every day until you can reach our contacts. We need to get an affirmative answer back to Lord Khivar as soon as possible." Nicolas grimaced as he thought about what the punishment for not responding to Khivar soon enough might be. He really couldn't afford to lose the use of another limb.
"Certainly Captain Nicolas. If need be, we'll try to contact our people every hour." It didn't seem that anyone really knew what happened to Nicolas's arm, but the rumor was that it was the result of getting on Khivar's bad side, and no one wanted to push their luck to see if that was true, so if at all possible, Soirafen would absolutely make sure to get this message out in a timely manner. "Thehlec, I want you to start sending this message immediately, and try again every other hour. I don't care in you have to wake up out of a deep sleep to do it, we will get ahold of these 'skins' as quick as antarianly possible! I will personally see to it that the message gets sent on the hours you are not assigned."
Thehlec just nodded his head and quietly asked, what the message was to say, but inside, he was jumping for joy that he would be the first person to try to send it. That meant that he could rework it so that it would be impossible to reach earth for a while, then he could work out an appropriate fake reply. This was going to work out better than he had even planned!
So Thehlec started working right away to make it appear that he was actually actively trying to get the message out, and as soon as Soirafen and Nicolas left the room, Thehlec engineered the computer to immediately block any outgoing message with the destination of earth with a signal saying that the location was out of range. Thehlec then arranged it so that on the twentieth attempt to reach earth, a false message would be returned saying that the skins would be working on finding the Royal Four, and would wait for further instructions from Khivar.
Thehlec was very proud of himself after he got the whole thing set up. He felt that he was actually doing something that would benefit his planet in the long run, and that would benefit his family which was what he was trying to do in the first place when he applied to be a scientist in the palace. And the best thing about this whole ruse with the message and false return message was that, the returned message wouldn't even be received directly after his own signal. Because the message would be received on an even signal, Soirafen would be the first one in the spotlight later. Yep, Thehlec definitely had a good feeling about what he was doing, and what would take place in the future.