Part 11
Max, Shannon, Michael, Kyle, and Isabel headed for Max and Michael’s apartment. Isabel and Kyle rode in Kyle’s car in silence. Max rode in his convertible alone and tried to pay attention to the road instead of the thousands of thoughts and questions running through his head.
Shannon had begged to ride with Michael on his motorcycle. She was scared of being in a car with Isabel or Max for that far, scared of what she wasn’t sure. With Michael, she enjoyed being able to know her brother was alive. The early morning air in her hair and face helped to soothe her nerves.
With the physical contact of Shannon’s arms around his waist, Michael was trying to search his brain for anything that would confirm or deny what she had told him. He found his answer there but even more strongly in his heart. He had no doubts whatsoever that she was in fact his sister. But why hadn’t he remembered her before now? Why hadn’t she shown up before now? What kind of person was she really? As if hearing his thoughts, she squeezed her arms around him gently in reassurance.
As they all arrived at the apartment and filed inside, the sun was just coming up over the horizon. Michael passed out Snapples to everyone and then passed around the Tabasco sauce. Kyle passed on it, but the others added it to their drinks. They sipped in silence for a few minutes, trying to figure out where to start.
Finally, Michael spoke up. “So you are my sister?” When she nodded a thought occurred to him. “So did you get flashes when I kissed you or was that just me?” he asked. Before she could answer, he realized what he had said. “Oh my god! I kissed my sister!”
Shannon just laughed. “I can just hear Maria now saying how that ought to teach you not to go around kissing anyone but her! Yes, Michael, I was…er, am your sister. My name was Shauna. I don’t know what flashes you saw, but I saw some of my favorite memories of us when we were younger.”
“Why didn’t you say anything about them?” he asked her.
“Because you didn’t say anything so I didn’t think you had seen them. I just thought that I got them because you reminded me of my brother, Rath,” she answered.
“Ok, so why are you here? Why…why…I don’t even know what questions to ask you,” Max said frustrated. He ran his hands over his face.
Sighing, Shannon looked up at the ceiling in thought. “Well, let me ask you guys this: what do you remember about your lives on Antar and Plutark?”
That caught everyone’s attention, and they looked at her in surprise and confusion. Kyle voiced the question that everyone had. “What’s a Plutark?”
It was Shannon’s turn to register surprise. “You mean you don’t…? Oh, boy, I guess we really do need to start at the beginning. Ok, the kingdom of Antar is made up of 5 planets. Each planet has a ruling family, but the ruling family of the planet Antar rules the whole kingdom. Are you with me so far?”
“So there are 5 planets that make up the kingdom of Antar and the main one also has the name Antar?” Max asked to be sure he had it correct.
Shannon nodded. “Yes, over centuries, Antar acquired jurisdiction over the other 4 planets by one way or another…” she tried to continue.
“Wait, wait, wait! Back it up a minute. What are the names of the other planets, and how did they come to be under Antar’s jurisdiction?” Isabel asked.
“The 5 planets, in no particular order, are Antar, Plutark, Winsel, Rodshar, and Cruslan. At first, Antar, Plutark, and Winsel were the only planets that were inhabited. Then Antar became overpopulated and colonized Rodshar, but they became too many for that Antarian ruling family to rule alone, so they asked a family that they were close to from Antar to rule over Rodshar. Then the people of Plutark started experiencing health problems. A plague killed off one-fourth of the population within two years. Antar gave them a cure and formed an alliance with them.
“A planet on the other side of our galaxy was dying years later, and Antarians and the people of Winsel helped to get most of them to the planet that became known as Cruslan and formed alliances with those people. Then through marriage alliances and treaties and elections, Antar became the lead planet or the ruling planet. Xan and Vilandra’s, or Max and Isabel rather, family were the rulers of Antar and therefore the whole kingdom. Rath and my family were the rulers of Plutark. Kivar’s family had at one time been the rulers of Winsel but they were overthrown by the people for their cruelty and insatiable appetite for power,” Shannon explained. The others listened carefully to their history lesson, which awakened vague memories of their past.
“So you and Michael are royalty too?” Kyle asked. When Shannon nodded, he looked at Michael and then asked, “So that makes Michael a king?”
“No, last I knew, our parents were still alive. Even if they weren’t, Michael isn’t the heir,” Shannon answered.
“You mean I have a brother too?” Michael asked incredulously.
Shannon rolled her eyes in exasperation. “No! I’m the heir or heiress rather. I’m the older of the two of us; therefore, I inherit the throne. Max is actually older than Isabel, not the other way around, so he is the king. Unlike Earth, the inheritance doesn’t go automatically to the firstborn son but rather simply the first-born.”
“Ok, so that would make you the queen when your father dies?” Isabel asked.
“Actually, the line is through my mother’s side. For some reason, the past 3 generations of our family had women born first,” Shannon said, winking at her.
“So tell us about ourselves and you and our relationships to each other,” Max demanded. For some reason, that seemed to be the most important part of the discussion.
She took a deep breath and then began anew. “Xan was the oldest of all of us. He was born and then me and then Rath and then Vilandra. Our families had always been close so they took it as a good sign that each couple had had one child of each sex. It further thrilled our parents when we became close friends, the four of us. Rath and I had always been close, and then Vilandra and I became best friends, as did Rath and Xan. The four of us were always playing together whenever possible. It didn’t seem to matter how much time lapsed between each time we saw each other, we never were awkward around each other. That is, until the year of my 21st birthday.
“Our families had decided to get together so our family came to Antar for an extended visit. We all four spent a lot of time together but for some reason, being around Xan was unnerving to me then. When he asked me to go for a walk in the gardens to talk, he revealed that something inside of him had become stronger and he realized that he loved me,” Shannon went on, now seemingly explaining from somewhere far away. “It was then that we declared our love for each other. I had always felt it but now it had a name, love. Xan said that he would do whatever it took to make me his wife. When we went to our parents with the announcement of our feelings, however, they told us that we were already betrothed. We ranted and raved and Xan threatened to abdicate which startled his father. With that threat, however, they couldn’t keep it to themselves that we were betrothed to each other.
“I’ve never been happier in my life than I was at that time. Xan loved me and I loved him and we were to be married. Vilandra and Rath weren’t nearly as excited to find out that they were betrothed, but they accepted it, as they didn’t have anyone else in their lives. When the announcement was made to the entire Antarian kingdom, everyone was happy about it. I can’t tell you how many people told us how perfect a match it was. Two sets of best friends, two sets of siblings, all marrying each other,” she said. Then she stopped and closed her eyes, reliving the memories.
“Wait a minute. I thought that Tess was betrothed to Max,” Kyle stated. The others were just as confused as Kyle was.
Shannon looked at them questioningly. “Tess? I thought Liz was Ava. Is that not true?” she asked.
Max shook his head. “No, Tess was Ava. Liz is human,” he explained. Before Shannon could ask anything else about that, he told her, “We’ll explain everything when you’re finished.”
She nodded. “Well, months went by and our wedding was being planned. It was to be a really big affair with everyone on all 5 planets celebrating with us. Through communication devices, everyone had the opportunity to watch us. Rath and I had moved to Antar until the wedding could take place. Then it happened. I was so happy, and Vilandra and Rath were happy for us, and the King of Antar had to go visit the planet of Cruslan for some matters of state. He took Xan with him as a part of his training. I’ll never forget the day they returned. I was getting another fitting for my wedding dress when Vilandra came running in and gasped out that her father and brother had returned. I quickly changed out of the wedding dress and into my other clothes and ran to see them. I had missed Xan so much.
“I was told they were in the king’s study so I headed there, and after a brief knock, I opened the door and walked in. I found the king glaring out a far window with his arms folded and Xan was watching him with a strange expression on his face. They both turned to me as I entered, and Xan wouldn’t meet my eyes. I ran to him and hugged him but he stood stiff. I didn’t understand, but before I could ask anything, Rath walked in and welcomed them both back. That’s when Xan said we needed to talk. The king looked at me sympathetically, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t want to talk to Xan. I swallowed and nodded, and we went out to the garden,” Shannon’s voice caught in her throat and there were tears in her eyes. “He told me that he cared about me, but he had met someone on Cruslan. He said that he wanted to marry her, and he wanted me to let him go and to understand so that he didn’t have to ruin our friendship too. I searched his eyes and saw that the love for me was no longer there, and then I finally resigned myself to what he had told me. I didn’t meet his eyes as I told him to go and marry her with my blessing.”
“So let me get this straight, Max dumped you for Tess, then he dumped her for Liz, then he dumped Liz for Tess again, then he again dumped Tess for Liz?” Michael asked confused and angry.
Shannon continued her tale, however, as if she hadn’t heard him. “He kissed my forehead and said he hoped we could be friends. Then he was gone, gone to find her and make her his queen. I stayed out in the garden for a long time and hid from Vilandra when she came out to find me, but when Rath came out to find me, I couldn’t hide. He knew where I was and pulled me out of the bushes I was hiding in. I’d never seen him so angry. He threatened to beat Xan until he came to his senses and married me like he was supposed to. That’s when I couldn’t hold myself together anymore and I collapsed against him in tears. I cried for what seemed like an eternity and told him that I had to let Xan go. I loved him too much to force him into a marriage he didn’t want. Rath held me and tried to comfort me. Anyways, to make a long story a little shorter, I stood beside Xan and Ava as they married. Everyone was angry with Xan for breaking off with me to marry a commoner and an unknown one at that.”
“Ava was a commoner? By the way Tess used to talk, you would have thought that she was born to be queen!” Isabel snorted.
Michael had grown more and more upset during the rest of the story. “I don’t believe this! Maxwell, how could you do that to my sister?” he shouted.
Shannon jumped up and moved between them. “No, Michael, what I told you happened years ago. We are not the same people we once were. Max is not Xan, so don’t blame him for what happened on Antar. I can’t blame Xan for falling in love with someone can I? I fell in love with him and for a short period of time, I had his love in return. I treasure those memories.”
Max had felt bad for the girl in the story that he had just heard. His memories were fighting to come out but he only got brief flashes of that time in his past life. He couldn’t blame Michael for being upset, for he would feel the same way for Isabel had the tables been reversed. “Thank you, Shannon, for sticking up for me but I understand why Michael is angry.”
Kyle yawned. “Well, I for one am exhausted. I’ve gotten a total of 6 hours of sleep in the last 48, so can we call it a night and continue this discussion later?” he asked.
Isabel nodded in agreement. “I think we’ve heard enough for our tired minds to handle right now. We need some time to let it all sink in, and then we can continue this later today.”
“Why doesn’t everyone just camp out here? Isabel, you and Shannon can take my bed. Max and Kyle can share Max’s if they want and I can take the couch or one of you can take the floor,” Michael stated, calming down a little.
Isabel borrowed one of Max’s shirts and a pair of boxer shorts to sleep in. Shannon borrowed the same from Michael. Kyle declared he would sleep in his clothes. Before Shannon headed into the room to follow Isabel, Michael pulled her aside. “Listen, is there any way that just you and I could spend some time together in the next week or so? I would like to talk to you about our family, if that’s ok with you.”
She smiled at him. “I’d like that, Ra… I mean Michael. Forgive me if I slip from time to time and call you that. Shauna and her brother Rath were so close and I’d like for us to be that way again.” With that, they all went to sleep.
The Original Royal Four (UC/CC,TEEN) Pt 22 AN 10/19/04 [WIP]
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littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
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- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
part 11
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
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littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Part 12
Shannon awoke around one o’clock in the afternoon. She looked around, disoriented, and found the source of the noise that had awakened her. Isabel was sawing logs like a lumberjack, and Shannon couldn’t help but grin at her friend. How did Jesse sleep with that racket in his ears all night? Then her stomach rumbled and she suddenly realized she was starving. She carefully crawled off the bed, so as not to awaken Isabel, and quietly snuck out of Michael’s room, pulling on a robe as she did so.
She padded in her socks to the kitchen, pulling her long auburn hair into a ponytail and yawned. She eyed the metal box that was supposed to be a toaster warily but decided that toast might be safer made with a little help from her extraterrestrial side. She pulled the bread out of one of the cabinets and immediately through it away, as it was several lovely shades of black and green. She threw a glare at Michael, who was sleeping soundly on the couch. She then proceeded to do an inventory of the kitchen, throwing out anything that had expired more than a year ago, smelled like a sewage plant, or had growths on it, which was quite a lot. When she was done, the only things left in the kitchen were the refrigerator, the eating utensils, the plates, the garbage can, the cabinets, a jar of peanut butter, two large bottles of Tabasco sauce, and several cases of Snapple. Even the questionable toaster was thrown away.
Sighing, she decided to go grocery shopping before everyone woke up and complained about having no food in the house. She went into the bathroom, refreshed her clothes with a little alien juice, took a shower and brushed her teeth, using an unopened toothbrush she found shoved in a drawer beside the sink. Shannon then grabbed the keys to Michael’s bike and quietly left the apartment.
When she got back, all hell had broken loose, and as she opened the door, she was immediately converged upon by everyone she had left sleeping and Maria as well. She almost dropped the bags she was carrying, but caught herself just before the carton of eggs hit the floor.
“Where have you been?” Max demanded.
“We’ve been worried sick!” Isabel added.
“And why did you take my bike?!” Michael yelled.
“Guys, if you’d stop yelling long enough to look at her, you would see that the poor girl just went to the store!” Kyle yelled over the shouting.
Maria had been strangely quiet and calm, which was not like her at all, but no one had noticed. Shannon walked calmly into the kitchen and put the bags down on the counter. That’s when Michael noticed that she had carried them from the store on his bike. Usually, he and Max went shopping together or Max went by himself because trying to deal with groceries on a motorcycle was just too awkward.
“How did you get those groceries here on my bike?” he asked.
“Simple, I bought a basket and attached it to the back to carry groceries in so you don’t have to borrow someone’s car or have someone else go to the store with you,” Shannon answered with a shrug and a smile. “Maria, I’m glad to see you’re feeling better. I can’t believe you allowed Michael to live like what I saw in this kitchen.” She pulled out a new toaster and placed it on the counter where the old one used to be.
“What’s that for? What was wrong with the old toaster?” Michael grumbled.
Shannon rolled her eyes at him and said in a voice very much like Isabel, “It’s for toast, Michael; I thought that would have been obvious. As for the old one, it was a fire hazard.”
“Why buy a new one? I don’t use it anyway,” he whined.
As if to conspire against him with his sister, Isabel reached into a bag and pulled out a plastic bag of bagels. She opened it and, after splitting one in half, dropped it into the new toaster. Michael just rolled his eyes and headed for the bathroom. Isabel and Shannon giggled to each other.
“Please tell me you got something better than bagels!” Kyle said, pulling the bags toward him. He reached in and pulled out a box of Krispy-Kremes and a package of bacon. “Yes! Real food!” he declared.
While everyone was busy fixing breakfast and chatting, Maria was standing quietly on the sidelines, watching the goings-on with growing anger and other mixed feelings. Finally, she couldn’t stop from shouting above all the proceedings in the kitchen. “Shannon, could I talk to you for a minute, please?” she yelled sternly.
Startled, it took Shannon a minute to realize what Maria had said. “Uh, sure. You wanna go into the bedroom?” she asked hesitantly.
They both headed for Michael’s room, Shannon giving Isabel a questioning look on her way. Isabel just shrugged and smiled. Maria entered the room and stood by the door as Shannon came in behind her and then firmly closed the door and locked it. Why she locked it, no one knew, but somehow it made her feel better.
“Ok, I have just heard a story that shocked me out of my socks, and I had thought nothing would ever be able to do that again. I figured you were an alien when you healed me, but another queen-to-be?! How could you not have told us that? How could you…how could you…ok, I admit that I have no idea what I want to ask you, but do you have any idea how angry I am with you right now?” Maria sputtered.
Shannon looked at her sympathetically and then gave her a small smile. “Yes, Maria, I believe I see just how angry you are with me, and I think I understand why,” she said softly.
“Then could you please explain it to me because I don’t have a clue!” Maria yelled, throwing her hands in the air.
“You’re upset because, one, you had thought that my relationship with Michael was a threat to you and now that you know I’m his sister, you know I’m not a threat to you. Two, you are worried that I’m going to start trying to steal your best friend’s boyfriend away, which I’m not. Finally, you’re angry because you almost died and you couldn’t stop it, and that makes you feel helpless. Am I getting warm?” Shannon answered.
Maria thought about it for a minute. “Yeah, but you left out something. I hated Tess right from the start. You, however, I was really liking, until I found out about this whole queen business. Understand that I’m not going to stand by and just watch my best friend get her heart trampled upon by another fiancée out of Max’s past,” she told Shannon, looking her right in the eyes.
Shannon nodded and sighed. “Maria, as I told Michael, we aren’t the same people we were on Antar or Plutark. I am not going to chase after Max. As for this Tess person, I want to hear all about her and what’s been going on with you guys. It got too late for me to hear your stories last night. Please don’t hate me, Maria. I really like you, and if you and Michael do end up together, we’ll be sisters-in-law.”
Maria just opened the door and walked out without saying another word. Shannon followed her to join the others. Everyone avoided looking at them except Michael. He immediately went up to both of them and looked at them in turn, asking, “Are you two all right?”
“We’re fine for now,” Maria assured him.
He looked questioningly at Shannon, who nodded. Then he handed both of them plates with bagels and donuts on them and motioned for them to sit down. They did so and Shannon decided to speak up.
“Ok, I told you a lot about me, now I want to know what’s happened with you guys,” she asked.
Isabel had a mouth full of donut so she looked to Michael and Max to start the story. Max’s leadership qualities took over, and he began to tell her everything from when they had come out of the pods to Liz getting shot to Tess showing up to her killing Alex to her leaving, pregnant with Max’s son, to Liz leaving for Vermont and Maria leaving for New York. When he was done, Shannon had several emotions whirling in her head. She was angry, sad, happy, and confused all at the same time.
“You mean to tell me that your parents don’t know about you guys? Mine knew from day one, and I was so glad they did because I needed their support so much. But there are several things that you’ve told me that don’t make any sense. First of all, why didn’t Michael help you heal those children at the hospital?” she asked.
“I can’t heal anything more than minor cuts and bruises. Max is the one with healing abilities, just like Isabel is the dream walker, and I’m Mister Destructive,” Michael explained.
Shannon shook her head. “No, I know that’s not true because I can do all of those things and so can you. Just because those are your strongest powers doesn’t mean you don’t possess the others. Boy, Tess and Nesedo really messed you guys up. They had you fooled into thinking that you were a lot weaker than you are.”
“You mean that we all have the same abilities?” Isabel asked. “We’ve never been able to mind-warp anyone.”
Instead of answering with words, Shannon pointed to a lamp sitting on the table beside the couch. “See that lamp? Watch this.” She then held up her hand and the lamp crumbled into a million pieces. Then just as suddenly, it rebuilt itself. Then Shannon closed her eyes and suddenly the front door opened, and a dozen or so men in army fatigues entered and demanded they all go with them. Just as suddenly as they had appeared, they disappeared again. Everyone turned to stare at Shannon, who smiled. “See, we all have the same abilities. You guys will just have to work on them to get them all to work.”
“Will you help us?” Michael asked instantly.
“Warn me not to be around when Michael starts blowing things up,” Kyle joked.
“One of the other things I’m confused about is Liz’s developing powers. She shouldn’t have them unless Max gave them to her,” Shannon said, looking at Kyle.
“What do you mean? Her hands crackle and light up every time she starts to feel a strong emotion,” Kyle asked.
“I’m saying that humans don’t get powers just because they are healed by one of us. If that were the case, my brother would have developed something because I healed a badly broken arm on him years ago. The only way Liz could have gotten those is if Max gave them to her; it may have been done subconsciously,” Shannon explained.
Max looked thoughtful. “So if I gave them to her, I should be able to take them away. But I tried already and I couldn’t,” he said shaking his head.
“The only way you could take them back is if you realized that they weren’t something that she had to be cured of, but rather something she had to be willing to give back and something you had to be willing to take back,” she said. “If on any level you or she weren’t sure of taking or giving those powers back, they wouldn’t come back to you,” she answered.
“That means I’m not going to start glowing in the dark! This is great!” Kyle yelled jumping out of his seat in joy.
“Me too!” Maria said. She looked at Shannon sheepishly. “That was another thing I was mad about. I didn’t want to change into a…” but before she could finish, she realized with horror what she was about to say.
“A freak,” Michael finished for her softly, hanging his head. Maria still saw him as some sort of monster. He had thought that they had moved past that but evidently not.
“Michael, that’s not what I meant. You know I love you, no matter what you are,” Maria tried to backpedal.
“So you love me even though I’m a freak!” Michael shouted, hurt and angry. “Like some kind of deformed animal, you feel sorry for me and love me because of it. How big of you!”
Maria was surprised at his words and tried to stop him, getting upset at the same time. “Michael Guerrin, that’s not what I said and you know it!”
“But that’s just it, Maria, you didn’t say it in so many words, but I can tell that’s the way you think of me. You’ve said so yourself many times that if it weren’t for us, none of you would be in this ‘alien abyss’, that Alex would still be alive, and that you could make a decision without having to consult a committee,” Michael yelled.
At those words, Maria couldn’t say anything because she had said those things, and worse still, she had meant them. But none of that changed how she felt about Michael; she loved him with every fiber of her being. How could she explain that to him, convince him that she didn’t think he was a freak even though she didn’t want to develop powers?
When Maria didn’t say anything, Michael waited for a minute. At the look on her face, he walked out of the apartment and slammed the door behind him. Maria started to go after him.
“Michael!” she yelled, racing for the door.
“Maria, I’ll go after him. I know what you meant and I’ll explain it to him,” Shannon said, running out the door.
Shannon awoke around one o’clock in the afternoon. She looked around, disoriented, and found the source of the noise that had awakened her. Isabel was sawing logs like a lumberjack, and Shannon couldn’t help but grin at her friend. How did Jesse sleep with that racket in his ears all night? Then her stomach rumbled and she suddenly realized she was starving. She carefully crawled off the bed, so as not to awaken Isabel, and quietly snuck out of Michael’s room, pulling on a robe as she did so.
She padded in her socks to the kitchen, pulling her long auburn hair into a ponytail and yawned. She eyed the metal box that was supposed to be a toaster warily but decided that toast might be safer made with a little help from her extraterrestrial side. She pulled the bread out of one of the cabinets and immediately through it away, as it was several lovely shades of black and green. She threw a glare at Michael, who was sleeping soundly on the couch. She then proceeded to do an inventory of the kitchen, throwing out anything that had expired more than a year ago, smelled like a sewage plant, or had growths on it, which was quite a lot. When she was done, the only things left in the kitchen were the refrigerator, the eating utensils, the plates, the garbage can, the cabinets, a jar of peanut butter, two large bottles of Tabasco sauce, and several cases of Snapple. Even the questionable toaster was thrown away.
Sighing, she decided to go grocery shopping before everyone woke up and complained about having no food in the house. She went into the bathroom, refreshed her clothes with a little alien juice, took a shower and brushed her teeth, using an unopened toothbrush she found shoved in a drawer beside the sink. Shannon then grabbed the keys to Michael’s bike and quietly left the apartment.
When she got back, all hell had broken loose, and as she opened the door, she was immediately converged upon by everyone she had left sleeping and Maria as well. She almost dropped the bags she was carrying, but caught herself just before the carton of eggs hit the floor.
“Where have you been?” Max demanded.
“We’ve been worried sick!” Isabel added.
“And why did you take my bike?!” Michael yelled.
“Guys, if you’d stop yelling long enough to look at her, you would see that the poor girl just went to the store!” Kyle yelled over the shouting.
Maria had been strangely quiet and calm, which was not like her at all, but no one had noticed. Shannon walked calmly into the kitchen and put the bags down on the counter. That’s when Michael noticed that she had carried them from the store on his bike. Usually, he and Max went shopping together or Max went by himself because trying to deal with groceries on a motorcycle was just too awkward.
“How did you get those groceries here on my bike?” he asked.
“Simple, I bought a basket and attached it to the back to carry groceries in so you don’t have to borrow someone’s car or have someone else go to the store with you,” Shannon answered with a shrug and a smile. “Maria, I’m glad to see you’re feeling better. I can’t believe you allowed Michael to live like what I saw in this kitchen.” She pulled out a new toaster and placed it on the counter where the old one used to be.
“What’s that for? What was wrong with the old toaster?” Michael grumbled.
Shannon rolled her eyes at him and said in a voice very much like Isabel, “It’s for toast, Michael; I thought that would have been obvious. As for the old one, it was a fire hazard.”
“Why buy a new one? I don’t use it anyway,” he whined.
As if to conspire against him with his sister, Isabel reached into a bag and pulled out a plastic bag of bagels. She opened it and, after splitting one in half, dropped it into the new toaster. Michael just rolled his eyes and headed for the bathroom. Isabel and Shannon giggled to each other.
“Please tell me you got something better than bagels!” Kyle said, pulling the bags toward him. He reached in and pulled out a box of Krispy-Kremes and a package of bacon. “Yes! Real food!” he declared.
While everyone was busy fixing breakfast and chatting, Maria was standing quietly on the sidelines, watching the goings-on with growing anger and other mixed feelings. Finally, she couldn’t stop from shouting above all the proceedings in the kitchen. “Shannon, could I talk to you for a minute, please?” she yelled sternly.
Startled, it took Shannon a minute to realize what Maria had said. “Uh, sure. You wanna go into the bedroom?” she asked hesitantly.
They both headed for Michael’s room, Shannon giving Isabel a questioning look on her way. Isabel just shrugged and smiled. Maria entered the room and stood by the door as Shannon came in behind her and then firmly closed the door and locked it. Why she locked it, no one knew, but somehow it made her feel better.
“Ok, I have just heard a story that shocked me out of my socks, and I had thought nothing would ever be able to do that again. I figured you were an alien when you healed me, but another queen-to-be?! How could you not have told us that? How could you…how could you…ok, I admit that I have no idea what I want to ask you, but do you have any idea how angry I am with you right now?” Maria sputtered.
Shannon looked at her sympathetically and then gave her a small smile. “Yes, Maria, I believe I see just how angry you are with me, and I think I understand why,” she said softly.
“Then could you please explain it to me because I don’t have a clue!” Maria yelled, throwing her hands in the air.
“You’re upset because, one, you had thought that my relationship with Michael was a threat to you and now that you know I’m his sister, you know I’m not a threat to you. Two, you are worried that I’m going to start trying to steal your best friend’s boyfriend away, which I’m not. Finally, you’re angry because you almost died and you couldn’t stop it, and that makes you feel helpless. Am I getting warm?” Shannon answered.
Maria thought about it for a minute. “Yeah, but you left out something. I hated Tess right from the start. You, however, I was really liking, until I found out about this whole queen business. Understand that I’m not going to stand by and just watch my best friend get her heart trampled upon by another fiancée out of Max’s past,” she told Shannon, looking her right in the eyes.
Shannon nodded and sighed. “Maria, as I told Michael, we aren’t the same people we were on Antar or Plutark. I am not going to chase after Max. As for this Tess person, I want to hear all about her and what’s been going on with you guys. It got too late for me to hear your stories last night. Please don’t hate me, Maria. I really like you, and if you and Michael do end up together, we’ll be sisters-in-law.”
Maria just opened the door and walked out without saying another word. Shannon followed her to join the others. Everyone avoided looking at them except Michael. He immediately went up to both of them and looked at them in turn, asking, “Are you two all right?”
“We’re fine for now,” Maria assured him.
He looked questioningly at Shannon, who nodded. Then he handed both of them plates with bagels and donuts on them and motioned for them to sit down. They did so and Shannon decided to speak up.
“Ok, I told you a lot about me, now I want to know what’s happened with you guys,” she asked.
Isabel had a mouth full of donut so she looked to Michael and Max to start the story. Max’s leadership qualities took over, and he began to tell her everything from when they had come out of the pods to Liz getting shot to Tess showing up to her killing Alex to her leaving, pregnant with Max’s son, to Liz leaving for Vermont and Maria leaving for New York. When he was done, Shannon had several emotions whirling in her head. She was angry, sad, happy, and confused all at the same time.
“You mean to tell me that your parents don’t know about you guys? Mine knew from day one, and I was so glad they did because I needed their support so much. But there are several things that you’ve told me that don’t make any sense. First of all, why didn’t Michael help you heal those children at the hospital?” she asked.
“I can’t heal anything more than minor cuts and bruises. Max is the one with healing abilities, just like Isabel is the dream walker, and I’m Mister Destructive,” Michael explained.
Shannon shook her head. “No, I know that’s not true because I can do all of those things and so can you. Just because those are your strongest powers doesn’t mean you don’t possess the others. Boy, Tess and Nesedo really messed you guys up. They had you fooled into thinking that you were a lot weaker than you are.”
“You mean that we all have the same abilities?” Isabel asked. “We’ve never been able to mind-warp anyone.”
Instead of answering with words, Shannon pointed to a lamp sitting on the table beside the couch. “See that lamp? Watch this.” She then held up her hand and the lamp crumbled into a million pieces. Then just as suddenly, it rebuilt itself. Then Shannon closed her eyes and suddenly the front door opened, and a dozen or so men in army fatigues entered and demanded they all go with them. Just as suddenly as they had appeared, they disappeared again. Everyone turned to stare at Shannon, who smiled. “See, we all have the same abilities. You guys will just have to work on them to get them all to work.”
“Will you help us?” Michael asked instantly.
“Warn me not to be around when Michael starts blowing things up,” Kyle joked.
“One of the other things I’m confused about is Liz’s developing powers. She shouldn’t have them unless Max gave them to her,” Shannon said, looking at Kyle.
“What do you mean? Her hands crackle and light up every time she starts to feel a strong emotion,” Kyle asked.
“I’m saying that humans don’t get powers just because they are healed by one of us. If that were the case, my brother would have developed something because I healed a badly broken arm on him years ago. The only way Liz could have gotten those is if Max gave them to her; it may have been done subconsciously,” Shannon explained.
Max looked thoughtful. “So if I gave them to her, I should be able to take them away. But I tried already and I couldn’t,” he said shaking his head.
“The only way you could take them back is if you realized that they weren’t something that she had to be cured of, but rather something she had to be willing to give back and something you had to be willing to take back,” she said. “If on any level you or she weren’t sure of taking or giving those powers back, they wouldn’t come back to you,” she answered.
“That means I’m not going to start glowing in the dark! This is great!” Kyle yelled jumping out of his seat in joy.
“Me too!” Maria said. She looked at Shannon sheepishly. “That was another thing I was mad about. I didn’t want to change into a…” but before she could finish, she realized with horror what she was about to say.
“A freak,” Michael finished for her softly, hanging his head. Maria still saw him as some sort of monster. He had thought that they had moved past that but evidently not.
“Michael, that’s not what I meant. You know I love you, no matter what you are,” Maria tried to backpedal.
“So you love me even though I’m a freak!” Michael shouted, hurt and angry. “Like some kind of deformed animal, you feel sorry for me and love me because of it. How big of you!”
Maria was surprised at his words and tried to stop him, getting upset at the same time. “Michael Guerrin, that’s not what I said and you know it!”
“But that’s just it, Maria, you didn’t say it in so many words, but I can tell that’s the way you think of me. You’ve said so yourself many times that if it weren’t for us, none of you would be in this ‘alien abyss’, that Alex would still be alive, and that you could make a decision without having to consult a committee,” Michael yelled.
At those words, Maria couldn’t say anything because she had said those things, and worse still, she had meant them. But none of that changed how she felt about Michael; she loved him with every fiber of her being. How could she explain that to him, convince him that she didn’t think he was a freak even though she didn’t want to develop powers?
When Maria didn’t say anything, Michael waited for a minute. At the look on her face, he walked out of the apartment and slammed the door behind him. Maria started to go after him.
“Michael!” she yelled, racing for the door.
“Maria, I’ll go after him. I know what you meant and I’ll explain it to him,” Shannon said, running out the door.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Part 13
Shannon went down the stairs outside of the apartment and followed the feeling of Michael in the air and found him at the dilapidated playground at the back of the building. He was sitting precariously on a swing that looked like it would hit the ground at any minute and his head was in his hands. Shannon didn’t know whether to approach him noisily so as to alert him to her presence or softly, so as not to startle him. As she stepped on a twig and it snapped, his head snapped up with it and she didn’t have to worry about it.
“Oh, it’s you,” he mumbled, as his head dropped back down. “What do you want?”
“Boy, Maria wasn’t joking when she told me you were a real grouch when you woke up. I might just have to start calling you Oscar,” Shannon teased gently. As Michael stiffened at the mention of Maria, she decided to change tactics. “You know what I find funny?” Michael didn’t respond, but she could feel that he was listening. “How things have kind of switched between the four of us, you, me, Isabel, and Max.”
Michael raised his head slightly. What in the world did that have to do with anything? “What do you mean?” he asked grumpily.
“I mean, Shauna and Rath were so close as brother and sister. We were best friends too. I told Rath everything and visa versa. Vilandra and Xan were not nearly as close as we were. Now Max and Isabel it seems are really close and you and I aren’t. I mean if we were still on Antar or Plutark, you would be telling me just what the hell is bothering you!” Shannon told him, adding a slap upside the back of his head at the last words.
“Really? So our family was close then?” Michael asked, genuinely wanting to know with all his heart. He had a family once, a real family.
His sister noticed how his countenance changed and realized what had caused that change. Her tone softened and she smiled at him. “Oh, yeah. You, me, mom, and dad always were close. We always had time for each other, no matter what else was going on. It’s hard to be that way if you’re ruling 5 planets, I guess. It always seemed that Xan’s father, King Xan the second, never had time for his children. They turned out ok, but you and I always felt that we had it better,” Shannon told him.
He looked down at his hands. “That is funny because I do feel like things are the other way around. I wish I could remember the way things were there,” he added, looking up at the sky.
“You could if you wanted to, Michael. I could help you. For some reason, I think that you guys got cheated out of a lot of stuff, including who you used to be. We can do what’s called a memory sharing. It wouldn’t be the same as having your own memories back, but you would see what memories I have and maybe they would awaken your own,” Shannon suggested.
Michael looked at her in surprise. “You can do that? How?” he asked.
Shannon put her hands up in between them, palms flat and facing Michael. “All you have to do is put your hands against mine, lacing our fingers together, then you just let your mind flow with mine. I would see your memories and you would see mine. It was quite common on Antar, especially between couples who were planning on being joined. It showed trust and openness and gets the marriage off on the right foot. It’s also a really quick way to get to know why someone acts the way they do.”
At her first few instructions, Michael had lifted his hands and almost touched hers, but then she mentioned that she would see his memories also and he dropped his hands heavily. In their story of what had happened over the years, he and Max had purposely left out just how bad it was with Hank. They kind of glossed over that part, as well as any arguments that Michael had constantly started. He didn’t want his sister to know what kind of jerk he had been and a coward. He didn’t meet her eyes now and she noticed. Shannon took it the wrong way and thought that he didn’t want to share his memories with her because he didn’t trust her or care about her.
Sighing, she looked back towards the apartment. “Michael, Maria doesn’t think you are a freak. You know that, and I don’t know why you would say something like that unless that’s the way you feel about yourself. In which case, that would make Max, Isabel, and me all freaks too. In some ways, I guess we are when you look at it from a human perspective. That would also make every other species on this planet that isn’t human a freak too.” Looking back at him, she tried to reach him by almost pleading with him to understand. “Michael, you can’t help what you are any more than a rabbit can help what it is or a skunk or a wolf or anything else. You can’t change the fact that you are an alien. If we were on Antar or Plutark, humans would be the aliens or freaks but we aren’t so we’re the aliens. Accept it, embrace it as a part of you, but don’t forget that we are also part human. You can’t change what makes you who you are, but you can help to shape who you will become. Use your powers for good, not evil, Clark Kent, and you’ll like yourself just fine,” she finished. Then she grinned at him. “Now did that sound like something right off of an inspirational calendar or what?” she asked, laughing.
Michael rolled his eyes at her and grinned back. “Yeah, a little too much. But I get what you’re saying, and I know that I shouldn’t have said all that stuff to Maria. Now she’ll just be pissed off at me for the next 24 hours,” he joked. Then he sobered. “Listen, Shannon, I could feel that you were hurt when I pulled away from the memory sharing. I don’t know how I felt it but I did, and I want you to know that it’s not because of you. I have some things in my past that I don’t let a lot of people see, and some of it only one person has seen it other than me and that’s Maria. It’s just that you are my sister, I know that in my heart, and I have this weird instinct to keep things from you that would hurt you, and believe me when I say that some of the stuff in my memory bank would hurt you and scare you. Maybe we can do that memory thing later.”
Shannon placed a hand over Michael’s. “Michael, you are my brother and I love you. Your pain is already my pain just by default. The past is the past, and I don’t have a problem dealing with it or helping you to. Remember that you’re talking to somebody who lost two families, two boyfriends, a job, and several homes. I’m tougher than I look. I think we’ve both been through enough alone; maybe we should start leaning on each other, and just maybe we’ll discover just how strong we really are together.”
“Ok, we can try that,” he answered with a grin. Then he stood up and held his hand out to her. “Shall we go back inside and join the others?” he asked.
She placed her hand in his and stood too, smiling. “Let’s,” she said and they walked to the apartment, hand in hand.
The moment they both walked in, Maria jumped into Michael’s arms. “Michael, I am so sorry! I really didn’t mean that you were a freak. I love you just the way you are because that’s what makes you my Michael! I don’t…” she was stopped by Michael’s lips crashing down over hers. He kissed her until she was breathless.
“Now that I’ve gotten you to shut up for a minute, let me just say that I’m sorry. I know that you didn’t mean that. See I’m the one who thinks I’m a freak but my sister got it through my hard head that if that was the case, then Max, Isabel, and Shannon would be freaks too, and I don’t see them that way. I’m sorry, Maria. Will you forgive me?” Michael asked, after releasing her.
Maria pretended to debate about it. “Well…” she whined. Then he leaned down and whispered something in her ear. She blushed and swatted him. “Caveman!” she scolded, but she was grinning from ear to ear.
“Shannon, I think you and I should take your things back to my house and then have a nice long chat. Kyle, you are welcome to join us if you’d like. You too, Max; Jesse won’t be back for another day or so. We should leave Michael and Maria so they can make up. We can all meet up again later if you want,” Isabel suggested.
“That’s a good idea. I’d like to start working on our other powers as soon as possible. First, though, I think I’m going to go for a nice long walk. I’ll meet you guys in time for dinner,” Max said. He wanted some time alone to try to digest what Shannon had told them. Something had struck a deep chord within him, but he didn’t really know what it all meant.
“Great! So I get to spend the afternoon with two of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met, alone. I like this plan!” Kyle quipped, draping an arm around Shannon and the other around Isabel.
Michael smirked at Kyle and pulled Maria closer to him. “Yeah, but one of them is married and the other one isn’t interested in you,” he told his friend.
Kyle doubled over, clutching his stomach. “Ouch, that hurt, Guerrin! You didn’t have to point that out.”
Shannon walked over and draped herself all over Kyle. “Maybe I should work on that, Kyle. I mean we’re both single right? Maybe if we try making out a couple of times, I might develop a sudden interest in human high school students.”
“Over my dead body!” Isabel and Max declared at the same time. Then they both looked sheepish as everyone looked surprised, including them. “I mean, no one is going to use Kyle like that. He is a friend, after all,” Isabel backpedaled, not looking at anyone.
“Uh, Isabel, even I knew that Shannon was just flirting and trying to help save my handsome face,” Kyle teased.
They all went their separate ways and Isabel, Kyle, and Shannon went to the Ramirez residence. After putting Shannon’s room back in order, they all went out to the back yard where they had decided to help Isabel work on her powers. Shannon suggested that they start with blowing things up, since that seemed to be the easiest to try to teach. Isabel could do it but it took way too much concentration. They had just started to work out a technique that seemed like it might help out in working on all her powers when Max arrived for dinner, followed shortly by Maria and Michael.
“Oh my goodness! Is it dinner time already? I didn’t realize it had gotten that late already,” Isabel said, rushing inside to see what she had in her kitchen.
“Um, maybe we should help fix dinner. Isabel isn’t exactly the best at that sort of thing,” Shannon said, walking toward the door. The others agreed and followed.
“Well, I found some chicken that I put in the refrigerator to thaw out for yesterday, so it needs to be cooked. I also have some potatoes and some canned green beans in the pantry. How does that sound?” Isabel said from the sink, where she was washing off the pieces of chicken.
“Great! Max, you, Kyle, and Michael, start peeling potatoes. We’ll make barbeque chicken, mashed potatoes and of course, green beans. Is that good for everyone? I’ll even make my special barbeque sauce,” Shannon said.
“As long as I can get mine without Tabasco sauce, that’s fine by me,” Kyle stated. At the look of disappointment on all of his alien friends’ faces, he growled. “Ok, ok, a little Tabasco sauce but not too much. You E.T.’s can add more to your own food.”
“I found the green beans!” Maria called from the pantry, holding up three cans of French style beans.
They all worked together and put together a very decent meal. Isabel even said that she thought she would be able to handle that particular combo on her own. Shannon had a way of making ordinary foods just a little bit different. She attributed it to her Earth mother. She could see that Michael was eating the mashed potatoes slowly and thoughtfully. She grinned and smothered a giggle at the look on his face.
“These mashed potatoes are different. What did you put in them?” he asked a few mouthfuls later.
“Lots of garlic and also a dash of truffle oil,” Shannon answered, pleased that he had asked. “Do you like them?”
“Truffle oil? That’s what that great taste is? I never would have thought of putting that in mashed potatoes,” Michael exclaimed. At everyone else’s snorts and chuckles and looks, he shrugged. “What? So my sister and I share an interest in food. There are a lot of great male chefs in the world.”
“Yeah, but none of them would blow up a casserole that didn’t come out the way he wanted,” Kyle joked.
“Well, I guess they don’t have that luxury,” Michael answered back. Then he took a spoon full of mashed potatoes and flicked it at Kyle. Some of it landed on Isabel who was sitting next to Kyle.
“Michael Guerrin! You just got mashed potatoes in my hair!” she yelled. Then she picked up a piece of chicken and threw it at Michael but he dodged it and it hit Maria, who squealed.
“Food-fight!” Shannon yelled and suddenly everything went crazy. There was chicken, green beans, and mashed potatoes all over everyone and everything.
An hour later, when everyone had collapsed in their seats, gasping for air from laughing and screaming so long, Isabel looked around her kitchen and groaned. “This place is a disaster,” she moaned.
“Yeah, but it won’t take long to clean up with a little alien hoodoo,” Maria panted out, wiggling her fingers and her nose.
“And you have to admit, Isa, that was definitely some much needed fun,” Max said. “I’ll even admit that we needed that.”
“Well, let’s get this place cleaned up before it gets too much later. I’d like to get to bed a little earlier than we did last night, or this morning rather,” Shannon stated, standing up and picking some dishes.
They all loaded the dishwasher and then started to wipe down the counters and table. Then Michael and Max started at one end of the kitchen while Isabel and Shannon started at the other, and they all used their powers to wipe away the evidence of the food fight from the walls and everything else that wasn’t already cleaned. Everyone was so busy cleaning, that they didn’t notice that the front door had opened and Jesse had walked into the home. As the four aliens finished the clean up, all six people stepped back to survey their work.
“This place looks even better than before we had the food fight. You guys do house calls?” Kyle asked.
“Very funny, Valenti. I admit that it does look good. I’m just glad we could get it cleaned up before…” Isabel started but was interrupted by a voice from behind her.
“Before Jesse got home?” Jesse asked. Everyone whipped around and they all looked like deer in headlights.
“Jesse!” Isabel exclaimed nervously, rushing over to him and planting a kiss on his lips. He didn’t return it or move a muscle, except to follow her with his eyes. “How long have you been standing there?” she asked, pretending to tease him.
“Long enough to see that little circus trick you four just performed! What the hell was that and what the hell is everyone doing here?” Jesse roared. He was terrified of what he had just seen, not terrified of the people but terrified of what it might mean.
“Jesse, I think there’s something you need to hear about your wife and her family,” Max said stepping forward. Michael and Shannon stepped right up with him. They were a family and whether Jesse liked it or not, he was now a part of it, aliens, humans, FBI, alien hunters, and all.
Shannon went down the stairs outside of the apartment and followed the feeling of Michael in the air and found him at the dilapidated playground at the back of the building. He was sitting precariously on a swing that looked like it would hit the ground at any minute and his head was in his hands. Shannon didn’t know whether to approach him noisily so as to alert him to her presence or softly, so as not to startle him. As she stepped on a twig and it snapped, his head snapped up with it and she didn’t have to worry about it.
“Oh, it’s you,” he mumbled, as his head dropped back down. “What do you want?”
“Boy, Maria wasn’t joking when she told me you were a real grouch when you woke up. I might just have to start calling you Oscar,” Shannon teased gently. As Michael stiffened at the mention of Maria, she decided to change tactics. “You know what I find funny?” Michael didn’t respond, but she could feel that he was listening. “How things have kind of switched between the four of us, you, me, Isabel, and Max.”
Michael raised his head slightly. What in the world did that have to do with anything? “What do you mean?” he asked grumpily.
“I mean, Shauna and Rath were so close as brother and sister. We were best friends too. I told Rath everything and visa versa. Vilandra and Xan were not nearly as close as we were. Now Max and Isabel it seems are really close and you and I aren’t. I mean if we were still on Antar or Plutark, you would be telling me just what the hell is bothering you!” Shannon told him, adding a slap upside the back of his head at the last words.
“Really? So our family was close then?” Michael asked, genuinely wanting to know with all his heart. He had a family once, a real family.
His sister noticed how his countenance changed and realized what had caused that change. Her tone softened and she smiled at him. “Oh, yeah. You, me, mom, and dad always were close. We always had time for each other, no matter what else was going on. It’s hard to be that way if you’re ruling 5 planets, I guess. It always seemed that Xan’s father, King Xan the second, never had time for his children. They turned out ok, but you and I always felt that we had it better,” Shannon told him.
He looked down at his hands. “That is funny because I do feel like things are the other way around. I wish I could remember the way things were there,” he added, looking up at the sky.
“You could if you wanted to, Michael. I could help you. For some reason, I think that you guys got cheated out of a lot of stuff, including who you used to be. We can do what’s called a memory sharing. It wouldn’t be the same as having your own memories back, but you would see what memories I have and maybe they would awaken your own,” Shannon suggested.
Michael looked at her in surprise. “You can do that? How?” he asked.
Shannon put her hands up in between them, palms flat and facing Michael. “All you have to do is put your hands against mine, lacing our fingers together, then you just let your mind flow with mine. I would see your memories and you would see mine. It was quite common on Antar, especially between couples who were planning on being joined. It showed trust and openness and gets the marriage off on the right foot. It’s also a really quick way to get to know why someone acts the way they do.”
At her first few instructions, Michael had lifted his hands and almost touched hers, but then she mentioned that she would see his memories also and he dropped his hands heavily. In their story of what had happened over the years, he and Max had purposely left out just how bad it was with Hank. They kind of glossed over that part, as well as any arguments that Michael had constantly started. He didn’t want his sister to know what kind of jerk he had been and a coward. He didn’t meet her eyes now and she noticed. Shannon took it the wrong way and thought that he didn’t want to share his memories with her because he didn’t trust her or care about her.
Sighing, she looked back towards the apartment. “Michael, Maria doesn’t think you are a freak. You know that, and I don’t know why you would say something like that unless that’s the way you feel about yourself. In which case, that would make Max, Isabel, and me all freaks too. In some ways, I guess we are when you look at it from a human perspective. That would also make every other species on this planet that isn’t human a freak too.” Looking back at him, she tried to reach him by almost pleading with him to understand. “Michael, you can’t help what you are any more than a rabbit can help what it is or a skunk or a wolf or anything else. You can’t change the fact that you are an alien. If we were on Antar or Plutark, humans would be the aliens or freaks but we aren’t so we’re the aliens. Accept it, embrace it as a part of you, but don’t forget that we are also part human. You can’t change what makes you who you are, but you can help to shape who you will become. Use your powers for good, not evil, Clark Kent, and you’ll like yourself just fine,” she finished. Then she grinned at him. “Now did that sound like something right off of an inspirational calendar or what?” she asked, laughing.
Michael rolled his eyes at her and grinned back. “Yeah, a little too much. But I get what you’re saying, and I know that I shouldn’t have said all that stuff to Maria. Now she’ll just be pissed off at me for the next 24 hours,” he joked. Then he sobered. “Listen, Shannon, I could feel that you were hurt when I pulled away from the memory sharing. I don’t know how I felt it but I did, and I want you to know that it’s not because of you. I have some things in my past that I don’t let a lot of people see, and some of it only one person has seen it other than me and that’s Maria. It’s just that you are my sister, I know that in my heart, and I have this weird instinct to keep things from you that would hurt you, and believe me when I say that some of the stuff in my memory bank would hurt you and scare you. Maybe we can do that memory thing later.”
Shannon placed a hand over Michael’s. “Michael, you are my brother and I love you. Your pain is already my pain just by default. The past is the past, and I don’t have a problem dealing with it or helping you to. Remember that you’re talking to somebody who lost two families, two boyfriends, a job, and several homes. I’m tougher than I look. I think we’ve both been through enough alone; maybe we should start leaning on each other, and just maybe we’ll discover just how strong we really are together.”
“Ok, we can try that,” he answered with a grin. Then he stood up and held his hand out to her. “Shall we go back inside and join the others?” he asked.
She placed her hand in his and stood too, smiling. “Let’s,” she said and they walked to the apartment, hand in hand.
The moment they both walked in, Maria jumped into Michael’s arms. “Michael, I am so sorry! I really didn’t mean that you were a freak. I love you just the way you are because that’s what makes you my Michael! I don’t…” she was stopped by Michael’s lips crashing down over hers. He kissed her until she was breathless.
“Now that I’ve gotten you to shut up for a minute, let me just say that I’m sorry. I know that you didn’t mean that. See I’m the one who thinks I’m a freak but my sister got it through my hard head that if that was the case, then Max, Isabel, and Shannon would be freaks too, and I don’t see them that way. I’m sorry, Maria. Will you forgive me?” Michael asked, after releasing her.
Maria pretended to debate about it. “Well…” she whined. Then he leaned down and whispered something in her ear. She blushed and swatted him. “Caveman!” she scolded, but she was grinning from ear to ear.
“Shannon, I think you and I should take your things back to my house and then have a nice long chat. Kyle, you are welcome to join us if you’d like. You too, Max; Jesse won’t be back for another day or so. We should leave Michael and Maria so they can make up. We can all meet up again later if you want,” Isabel suggested.
“That’s a good idea. I’d like to start working on our other powers as soon as possible. First, though, I think I’m going to go for a nice long walk. I’ll meet you guys in time for dinner,” Max said. He wanted some time alone to try to digest what Shannon had told them. Something had struck a deep chord within him, but he didn’t really know what it all meant.
“Great! So I get to spend the afternoon with two of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met, alone. I like this plan!” Kyle quipped, draping an arm around Shannon and the other around Isabel.
Michael smirked at Kyle and pulled Maria closer to him. “Yeah, but one of them is married and the other one isn’t interested in you,” he told his friend.
Kyle doubled over, clutching his stomach. “Ouch, that hurt, Guerrin! You didn’t have to point that out.”
Shannon walked over and draped herself all over Kyle. “Maybe I should work on that, Kyle. I mean we’re both single right? Maybe if we try making out a couple of times, I might develop a sudden interest in human high school students.”
“Over my dead body!” Isabel and Max declared at the same time. Then they both looked sheepish as everyone looked surprised, including them. “I mean, no one is going to use Kyle like that. He is a friend, after all,” Isabel backpedaled, not looking at anyone.
“Uh, Isabel, even I knew that Shannon was just flirting and trying to help save my handsome face,” Kyle teased.
They all went their separate ways and Isabel, Kyle, and Shannon went to the Ramirez residence. After putting Shannon’s room back in order, they all went out to the back yard where they had decided to help Isabel work on her powers. Shannon suggested that they start with blowing things up, since that seemed to be the easiest to try to teach. Isabel could do it but it took way too much concentration. They had just started to work out a technique that seemed like it might help out in working on all her powers when Max arrived for dinner, followed shortly by Maria and Michael.
“Oh my goodness! Is it dinner time already? I didn’t realize it had gotten that late already,” Isabel said, rushing inside to see what she had in her kitchen.
“Um, maybe we should help fix dinner. Isabel isn’t exactly the best at that sort of thing,” Shannon said, walking toward the door. The others agreed and followed.
“Well, I found some chicken that I put in the refrigerator to thaw out for yesterday, so it needs to be cooked. I also have some potatoes and some canned green beans in the pantry. How does that sound?” Isabel said from the sink, where she was washing off the pieces of chicken.
“Great! Max, you, Kyle, and Michael, start peeling potatoes. We’ll make barbeque chicken, mashed potatoes and of course, green beans. Is that good for everyone? I’ll even make my special barbeque sauce,” Shannon said.
“As long as I can get mine without Tabasco sauce, that’s fine by me,” Kyle stated. At the look of disappointment on all of his alien friends’ faces, he growled. “Ok, ok, a little Tabasco sauce but not too much. You E.T.’s can add more to your own food.”
“I found the green beans!” Maria called from the pantry, holding up three cans of French style beans.
They all worked together and put together a very decent meal. Isabel even said that she thought she would be able to handle that particular combo on her own. Shannon had a way of making ordinary foods just a little bit different. She attributed it to her Earth mother. She could see that Michael was eating the mashed potatoes slowly and thoughtfully. She grinned and smothered a giggle at the look on his face.
“These mashed potatoes are different. What did you put in them?” he asked a few mouthfuls later.
“Lots of garlic and also a dash of truffle oil,” Shannon answered, pleased that he had asked. “Do you like them?”
“Truffle oil? That’s what that great taste is? I never would have thought of putting that in mashed potatoes,” Michael exclaimed. At everyone else’s snorts and chuckles and looks, he shrugged. “What? So my sister and I share an interest in food. There are a lot of great male chefs in the world.”
“Yeah, but none of them would blow up a casserole that didn’t come out the way he wanted,” Kyle joked.
“Well, I guess they don’t have that luxury,” Michael answered back. Then he took a spoon full of mashed potatoes and flicked it at Kyle. Some of it landed on Isabel who was sitting next to Kyle.
“Michael Guerrin! You just got mashed potatoes in my hair!” she yelled. Then she picked up a piece of chicken and threw it at Michael but he dodged it and it hit Maria, who squealed.
“Food-fight!” Shannon yelled and suddenly everything went crazy. There was chicken, green beans, and mashed potatoes all over everyone and everything.
An hour later, when everyone had collapsed in their seats, gasping for air from laughing and screaming so long, Isabel looked around her kitchen and groaned. “This place is a disaster,” she moaned.
“Yeah, but it won’t take long to clean up with a little alien hoodoo,” Maria panted out, wiggling her fingers and her nose.
“And you have to admit, Isa, that was definitely some much needed fun,” Max said. “I’ll even admit that we needed that.”
“Well, let’s get this place cleaned up before it gets too much later. I’d like to get to bed a little earlier than we did last night, or this morning rather,” Shannon stated, standing up and picking some dishes.
They all loaded the dishwasher and then started to wipe down the counters and table. Then Michael and Max started at one end of the kitchen while Isabel and Shannon started at the other, and they all used their powers to wipe away the evidence of the food fight from the walls and everything else that wasn’t already cleaned. Everyone was so busy cleaning, that they didn’t notice that the front door had opened and Jesse had walked into the home. As the four aliens finished the clean up, all six people stepped back to survey their work.
“This place looks even better than before we had the food fight. You guys do house calls?” Kyle asked.
“Very funny, Valenti. I admit that it does look good. I’m just glad we could get it cleaned up before…” Isabel started but was interrupted by a voice from behind her.
“Before Jesse got home?” Jesse asked. Everyone whipped around and they all looked like deer in headlights.
“Jesse!” Isabel exclaimed nervously, rushing over to him and planting a kiss on his lips. He didn’t return it or move a muscle, except to follow her with his eyes. “How long have you been standing there?” she asked, pretending to tease him.
“Long enough to see that little circus trick you four just performed! What the hell was that and what the hell is everyone doing here?” Jesse roared. He was terrified of what he had just seen, not terrified of the people but terrified of what it might mean.
“Jesse, I think there’s something you need to hear about your wife and her family,” Max said stepping forward. Michael and Shannon stepped right up with him. They were a family and whether Jesse liked it or not, he was now a part of it, aliens, humans, FBI, alien hunters, and all.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
I'm sorry if this story upsets anyone with the whole Jesse situation. However, I should probably let you know that I never liked him, at least not with Isabel. Anyway, here is the next part!
Beth
Part 14
Jesse sat in his own living room with his wife and “family” completely stunned by the story that had just been told to him. Like with Shannon, the group had only given the outline of their story. There were many details that didn’t seem to be told in the first edition. Hearing the story for the second time, Shannon realized this and was tempted to ask about certain things. For example, why would the podsters leave Earth? What happened with Tess to make them want to go with her? Some things just didn’t add up. She remained quiet, however, because she knew that it was Jesse’s time to let the fact that his wife was “not of this Earth” sink into his very human brain.
“Jesse, please say something,” Isabel pleaded with him. He had been sitting in shock for the past 15 minutes, completely still and quiet.
“Would it help if I demonstrated our powers again?” Michael asked, trying to help her out. He knew that she was worried. They all were worried – worried about what he would say, what he would do, who he would call.
Shannon placed a restraining hand on Michael’s shoulder and Max held up his hand to indicate that he wanted to wait. Shannon, Max, and Michael could feel Isabel’s fear of her husband’s reaction coming off of her in waves. They each said a silent prayer that things would work out.
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Isabel,” Jesse answered finally, deadly calm. “I’m kind of waiting for the punch line or the alarm clock to go off and end this nightmare.”
They had all heard the words he used. “Punch line” and “nightmare” were not good signs. Isabel’s shoulders sagged and her eyes filled with tears. Maria and Shannon moved to comfort her. She shook her head at them. She had been the one to bring him into this; she had to take whatever he handed out. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Jesse,” she told him quietly.
“What did you expect, Isabel? Any of you? I get told this outlandish story about royalty, other planets, civil wars, deaths and resurrections, that my wife and her brother and friends are aliens and I’m just supposed to say, ‘Great, Isabel! What’s for dinner?’ I’m sorry but it might take a little longer than twenty minutes to figure out how to react or what to say,” Jesse yelled, pacing the floor now. Then he stopped to look at her. Seeing that her head was hung in her feelings of embarrassment, pain, and shame, he looked at everyone else in the room. “Can we have a few minutes please?” he asked them.
“Um, sure we’ll just be heading home now,” Max told him. Then he looked at his sister and purposely said aloud, “Isabel, if you need anything, let us know.” She didn’t answer but nodded her head.
As everyone started to filter out the door to head for their respective homes, Shannon looked uncomfortable and asked Michael to wait a second. She looked over at Jesse and Isabel, neither of whom had moved. “Um, should I spend the night at Michael’s tonight or Maria’s? I don’t want to be in the way, but you might want someone else in the house to keep you from doing anything stupid too,” she asked gently. She really didn’t want to leave Isabel in the house alone when they didn’t know what Jesse would do, but if Isabel said to go, she would.
Surprisingly, it was Jesse that answered her. “No, Shannon, it’s ok. You can stay here tonight. I know Isabel will want a friend to talk to. I know I do but I don’t have anyone I can go to and talk about it. You can just wait in the other room.”
Shannon nodded and then walked the rest of the gang out the door. She promised them all that she would let them know what happened as soon as she knew. Then she went back inside and through the home to her room. As soon as she closed the door, she put on some music to try to distract her from her friend outside in the living room.
“Isabel, look at me,” Jesse told her. When she finally was able to lift her head to look at him, her eyes were swimming in tears and she was sniffling. “Isabel, first and foremost, you need to know that I married you because I love you,” he told her. “Now, I find out that I don’t know you at all.” He started pacing again. “Well? Do you want to tell me why you waited so long to tell me about all this?”
“Jesse, all I’ve ever wanted to be was normal, human, and I married you hoping that I could be that average all-American housewife. Telling you what I am would only make it that much more real,” Isabel tried to explain. She could never explain the fear that ran through your very core that someone that you cared about so much would betray you simply because of what you were.
“Isabel, that’s ridiculous. You aren’t normal, never have been. That’s a weak excuse and you know it. How could you keep from your husband that you’re from another planet?! A good marriage is made up of several essential elements,” he said, the lawyer in him coming to the forefront. “You must have love, trust, communication, and honesty…” he listed off, stopping to look at her again. “A lot of those elements were not there when we got married, Isabel.” He took a deep breath and asked her quietly, “What else have you been keeping from me, Isabel?”
“Nothing, Jesse, I swear! I have no other secrets that aren’t related to what I am,” Isabel told him, pleading in her voice.
“Yeah, but that’s just it, Isabel! That is one big secret that led to a lot of little ones and you’ve been lying to me!” he said. Then he looked down at the floor and hurt filled his next words. “What hurts the most is the fact that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me that secret. What does that say about your true feelings about me?”
Those words made Isabel stop and think for a moment. She had never looked at it from that angle. Was that what it all came down to in reality? Was it not that she was trying to protect him or to make herself normal but that she really didn’t trust him enough to tell him the truth? She didn’t want to think so but it would take some time to get an honest answer to that question.
Her thoughts were broken when he came over and made her look at him. “Isabel, I need you to understand my next words. I can’t stay here right now. I need some time to think all this out and I can’t do it here. I’m supposed to leave with your father to go on an important case in Albuquerque in three days. I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone but when I get back, we’ll talk more about this.”
“Jesse, please don’t go,” she whispered, knowing it would do no good. The tears streamed down her face. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
He didn’t answer but went to their bedroom. He emerged a few minutes later with a suitcase in his hands. As he started for the front door, Isabel rushed over to him and collapsed at his feet. “Jesse, please don’t leave me. Stay tonight, make love to me one more time, and you can leave tomorrow. I just know that if you leave now, I won’t be able to take it,” she sobbed.
“Isabel, I can’t stay. Go to your friends and let them hold you together tonight. They’ve had a lot longer to deal with this,” he said. Then he skirted around her and opened the door. Just before he disappeared into the night, Isabel called once more to him.
“I love you, Jesse Ramirez,” she called. Jesse paused but didn’t turn around and he didn’t answer her. He quietly closed the door behind him.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Shannon heard a car start up outside and she looked out of her window to see who it was. She looked just in time to see Jesse’s car peal out of the driveway and speed down the street. Moving to the door to her bedroom, she waved her hand at the stereo and it shut off. Opening the door slowly, she heard a crash come from the kitchen. Someone was still home and someone had left; she could only guess which was which.
She debated on leaving Isabel alone, but when she heard a second crash and breaking of whatever had hit the floor, she thought better of it. She quickly pushed the door open the rest of the way and made her way to the kitchen, keeping her shield ready in case Isabel was throwing things. As Shannon reached the kitchen, she saw her friend with a bottle in her left hand, guzzling the contents every couple of seconds, a stack of plates sitting on the counter, and Isabel’s right hand grabbing one of the plates in between swigs of drink and throwing the plate to the floor with a loud crash.
“Isabel?” Shannon asked quietly.
Her friend looked up and smiled; that’s when Shannon saw what was in the bottle, Vodka. “Shannon, why are you shouting at me?” Isabel asked loudly. “And don’t stand there, lurking in the doorway; it’s rude,” she said. Then she laughed hysterically. “I love that line from The Little Mermaid. You know when the sea witch…”
“Yeah, I know the movie, Isabel. Are you ok?” Shannon asked trying to talk softly since Isabel’s senses were enhanced due to the alcohol.
“I’m great! Never better!” Isabel declared, smashing another plate onto the floor. “You know, Vodka’s pretty good. I don’t know why I haven’t drunk any before. Oh, that’s right…I’m not normal.”
“How much of that have you had?” Shannon asked, concerned.
“Not nearly as much as I’m going to have,” Isabel answered flatly. Then she giggled again. “You should have seen Michael when he had too much to drink, he started floating, and he was in so much pain. Me? I feel light as a feather and much better, getting better as we speak.”
“Where’s Jesse?” Shannon all but whispered.
Isabel broke another two plates before answering. “He left.”
“Is he coming back?”
She reached for another plate but realized she had broken them all. “Damn, out of plates. Oh well, I’ve got plenty of glasses.” Isabel reached up into the cabinet and pulled out a drinking glass and dashed it to the floor.
“Isabel, is Jesse coming back?” Shannon asked again.
Shattering glass accompanied her answer. “I have no idea. He said he would. I hope he will, but I really don’t have a clue,” she said, smashing three more glasses. Then she gulped down another huge swallow of the Vodka.
Shannon was at a loss. What did you tell your best friend to comfort her after her husband just left because she’s an alien? Maybe Max or Michael would know better than she would. “Isabel, do you want me to call Michael or Max? I’m sure they’ll want to be here for you.”
“No, don’t call them just yet. Michael will just panic and want to go after Jesse. Max will call my drinking childish and say it doesn’t solve anything. He’s right of course but for now, that’s how I’m handling it,” Isabel answered, as if Max had already said the words. Then her eyes filled with fresh tears. “God, Shannon! He left, he really left. Why didn’t I tell him? Why?” she cried.
Shannon braced herself for walking over the broken plates and glasses in her bare feet and went over to her friend, pulling her into a hug. “I don’t know, Isabel. I’m sure you had your reasons, though.”
“Yeah, but were they the right ones? Were the reasons I told myself I wasn’t telling him the truth the real reasons? I love him and I don’t want to lose him,” she hiccupped and then pulled out of Shannon’s arms to drink the rest of the contents of the bottle. “Damn, that was the last of the alcohol in the house.”
“It’s just as well, Isa. You really are going to regret having that much but if that’s what you need, I’m not going to say anything else about it,” Shannon said.
“But Max didn’t get sick when he got drunk. I’m not sure about Michael, he didn’t say. I’m so glad you stayed, Shannon,” Isabel told her.
Shannon pushed the pain in her feet and the smell of the alcohol to the back of her mind and smiled at Isabel. “Me too, Isa.” They both knew that she didn’t mean just that night, but they were talking about staying in Roswell.
“You’re like a sister to me. I always was jealous of Liz and Maria’s relationship because I didn’t have a friend like that I could talk to. Then Tess came along and I thought that she was the answer to my prayers for another girl to talk to. Humph, I found out differently really quick when we found out she was an alien. All she talked about after that was how we were a complete unit and that she was supposed to be with Max and we had to find a way home. She didn’t understand that we were home,” Isabel babbled, slurring her words as the alcohol caught up with her brain. “Then you came along and I was so scared to trust you. You’ve been a better friend to me than anybody I’ve ever known. I really feel like we’re sisters.”
“We almost were, Isabel, in another life. I’m flattered that you feel that way, though. I feel the same way. As your sister, however, I think it’s time that you go to bed now,” Shannon answered with a smile.
“I’m not tired,” Isabel protested, yawning. Her eyelids were already beginning to droop. “Ok, maybe I am but I can just sleep right here.”
“Oh no, you don’t want to do that. Your senses are about to double in intensity and if you hit those pieces of plates and glasses, you’re really gonna be in pain. Now, come on, let’s get you to bed,” Shannon told her. She waved her hand to clear a path in the mess, berating herself for not thinking of that when she walked into the kitchen. She put an arm under Isabel’s and hoisted her higher into the air as she had started to sink to the floor. “Just out of curiosity, how many plates and glasses did you break?” she asked.
Isabel had already started to doze off standing up, but she woke a little to answer the question. “Ten plates, six glasses. Ten plates because ‘eight is too many, twelve too few’.” Isabel giggled, trying to quote another of her favorite movies.
“I think you mean, twelve is too many and eight is too few,” Shannon corrected gently. “Sleepless in Seattle is one of my favorites too.”
However, Isabel was already snoring, having fallen asleep walking toward the bedroom. Shannon deposited her friend gently on the bed, ran her hand over the sheets to make them as soft as possible and fresh, and wrapped the covers around Isabel. She gave her sleeping friend a sympathetic look and turned off the light.
Making her way back to the kitchen, she repeated to herself that there had been ten plates and six glasses. She concentrated really hard, trying to remember exactly what the plates looked like. The glasses would be easier because there were still a few in the cabinet. She decided to start with the glasses. Waving her hands over the mess on the floor, she put the glasses back together and they floated to their places on the shelf. As they did so, she looked up at the other shelf and saw the dessert plates that matched the dinner plates Isabel had broken.
Now reminded of the pattern, Shannon waved her hands over the remaining pieces on the floor and the ten plates started to put themselves back together. A couple of the pieces she had to remove from her feet. She loaded the plates into the dishwasher and ran it as it was full. Then she walked over to the bottle that Isabel had dropped and threw it in the trash. Picking up the phone, she dialed Max’s cell phone.
“Isabel?” came Max’s voice, recognizing the number on the caller ID.
“No, it’s Shannon,” she answered. “We’ve got a problem.”
Beth
Part 14
Jesse sat in his own living room with his wife and “family” completely stunned by the story that had just been told to him. Like with Shannon, the group had only given the outline of their story. There were many details that didn’t seem to be told in the first edition. Hearing the story for the second time, Shannon realized this and was tempted to ask about certain things. For example, why would the podsters leave Earth? What happened with Tess to make them want to go with her? Some things just didn’t add up. She remained quiet, however, because she knew that it was Jesse’s time to let the fact that his wife was “not of this Earth” sink into his very human brain.
“Jesse, please say something,” Isabel pleaded with him. He had been sitting in shock for the past 15 minutes, completely still and quiet.
“Would it help if I demonstrated our powers again?” Michael asked, trying to help her out. He knew that she was worried. They all were worried – worried about what he would say, what he would do, who he would call.
Shannon placed a restraining hand on Michael’s shoulder and Max held up his hand to indicate that he wanted to wait. Shannon, Max, and Michael could feel Isabel’s fear of her husband’s reaction coming off of her in waves. They each said a silent prayer that things would work out.
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Isabel,” Jesse answered finally, deadly calm. “I’m kind of waiting for the punch line or the alarm clock to go off and end this nightmare.”
They had all heard the words he used. “Punch line” and “nightmare” were not good signs. Isabel’s shoulders sagged and her eyes filled with tears. Maria and Shannon moved to comfort her. She shook her head at them. She had been the one to bring him into this; she had to take whatever he handed out. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Jesse,” she told him quietly.
“What did you expect, Isabel? Any of you? I get told this outlandish story about royalty, other planets, civil wars, deaths and resurrections, that my wife and her brother and friends are aliens and I’m just supposed to say, ‘Great, Isabel! What’s for dinner?’ I’m sorry but it might take a little longer than twenty minutes to figure out how to react or what to say,” Jesse yelled, pacing the floor now. Then he stopped to look at her. Seeing that her head was hung in her feelings of embarrassment, pain, and shame, he looked at everyone else in the room. “Can we have a few minutes please?” he asked them.
“Um, sure we’ll just be heading home now,” Max told him. Then he looked at his sister and purposely said aloud, “Isabel, if you need anything, let us know.” She didn’t answer but nodded her head.
As everyone started to filter out the door to head for their respective homes, Shannon looked uncomfortable and asked Michael to wait a second. She looked over at Jesse and Isabel, neither of whom had moved. “Um, should I spend the night at Michael’s tonight or Maria’s? I don’t want to be in the way, but you might want someone else in the house to keep you from doing anything stupid too,” she asked gently. She really didn’t want to leave Isabel in the house alone when they didn’t know what Jesse would do, but if Isabel said to go, she would.
Surprisingly, it was Jesse that answered her. “No, Shannon, it’s ok. You can stay here tonight. I know Isabel will want a friend to talk to. I know I do but I don’t have anyone I can go to and talk about it. You can just wait in the other room.”
Shannon nodded and then walked the rest of the gang out the door. She promised them all that she would let them know what happened as soon as she knew. Then she went back inside and through the home to her room. As soon as she closed the door, she put on some music to try to distract her from her friend outside in the living room.
“Isabel, look at me,” Jesse told her. When she finally was able to lift her head to look at him, her eyes were swimming in tears and she was sniffling. “Isabel, first and foremost, you need to know that I married you because I love you,” he told her. “Now, I find out that I don’t know you at all.” He started pacing again. “Well? Do you want to tell me why you waited so long to tell me about all this?”
“Jesse, all I’ve ever wanted to be was normal, human, and I married you hoping that I could be that average all-American housewife. Telling you what I am would only make it that much more real,” Isabel tried to explain. She could never explain the fear that ran through your very core that someone that you cared about so much would betray you simply because of what you were.
“Isabel, that’s ridiculous. You aren’t normal, never have been. That’s a weak excuse and you know it. How could you keep from your husband that you’re from another planet?! A good marriage is made up of several essential elements,” he said, the lawyer in him coming to the forefront. “You must have love, trust, communication, and honesty…” he listed off, stopping to look at her again. “A lot of those elements were not there when we got married, Isabel.” He took a deep breath and asked her quietly, “What else have you been keeping from me, Isabel?”
“Nothing, Jesse, I swear! I have no other secrets that aren’t related to what I am,” Isabel told him, pleading in her voice.
“Yeah, but that’s just it, Isabel! That is one big secret that led to a lot of little ones and you’ve been lying to me!” he said. Then he looked down at the floor and hurt filled his next words. “What hurts the most is the fact that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me that secret. What does that say about your true feelings about me?”
Those words made Isabel stop and think for a moment. She had never looked at it from that angle. Was that what it all came down to in reality? Was it not that she was trying to protect him or to make herself normal but that she really didn’t trust him enough to tell him the truth? She didn’t want to think so but it would take some time to get an honest answer to that question.
Her thoughts were broken when he came over and made her look at him. “Isabel, I need you to understand my next words. I can’t stay here right now. I need some time to think all this out and I can’t do it here. I’m supposed to leave with your father to go on an important case in Albuquerque in three days. I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone but when I get back, we’ll talk more about this.”
“Jesse, please don’t go,” she whispered, knowing it would do no good. The tears streamed down her face. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
He didn’t answer but went to their bedroom. He emerged a few minutes later with a suitcase in his hands. As he started for the front door, Isabel rushed over to him and collapsed at his feet. “Jesse, please don’t leave me. Stay tonight, make love to me one more time, and you can leave tomorrow. I just know that if you leave now, I won’t be able to take it,” she sobbed.
“Isabel, I can’t stay. Go to your friends and let them hold you together tonight. They’ve had a lot longer to deal with this,” he said. Then he skirted around her and opened the door. Just before he disappeared into the night, Isabel called once more to him.
“I love you, Jesse Ramirez,” she called. Jesse paused but didn’t turn around and he didn’t answer her. He quietly closed the door behind him.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Shannon heard a car start up outside and she looked out of her window to see who it was. She looked just in time to see Jesse’s car peal out of the driveway and speed down the street. Moving to the door to her bedroom, she waved her hand at the stereo and it shut off. Opening the door slowly, she heard a crash come from the kitchen. Someone was still home and someone had left; she could only guess which was which.
She debated on leaving Isabel alone, but when she heard a second crash and breaking of whatever had hit the floor, she thought better of it. She quickly pushed the door open the rest of the way and made her way to the kitchen, keeping her shield ready in case Isabel was throwing things. As Shannon reached the kitchen, she saw her friend with a bottle in her left hand, guzzling the contents every couple of seconds, a stack of plates sitting on the counter, and Isabel’s right hand grabbing one of the plates in between swigs of drink and throwing the plate to the floor with a loud crash.
“Isabel?” Shannon asked quietly.
Her friend looked up and smiled; that’s when Shannon saw what was in the bottle, Vodka. “Shannon, why are you shouting at me?” Isabel asked loudly. “And don’t stand there, lurking in the doorway; it’s rude,” she said. Then she laughed hysterically. “I love that line from The Little Mermaid. You know when the sea witch…”
“Yeah, I know the movie, Isabel. Are you ok?” Shannon asked trying to talk softly since Isabel’s senses were enhanced due to the alcohol.
“I’m great! Never better!” Isabel declared, smashing another plate onto the floor. “You know, Vodka’s pretty good. I don’t know why I haven’t drunk any before. Oh, that’s right…I’m not normal.”
“How much of that have you had?” Shannon asked, concerned.
“Not nearly as much as I’m going to have,” Isabel answered flatly. Then she giggled again. “You should have seen Michael when he had too much to drink, he started floating, and he was in so much pain. Me? I feel light as a feather and much better, getting better as we speak.”
“Where’s Jesse?” Shannon all but whispered.
Isabel broke another two plates before answering. “He left.”
“Is he coming back?”
She reached for another plate but realized she had broken them all. “Damn, out of plates. Oh well, I’ve got plenty of glasses.” Isabel reached up into the cabinet and pulled out a drinking glass and dashed it to the floor.
“Isabel, is Jesse coming back?” Shannon asked again.
Shattering glass accompanied her answer. “I have no idea. He said he would. I hope he will, but I really don’t have a clue,” she said, smashing three more glasses. Then she gulped down another huge swallow of the Vodka.
Shannon was at a loss. What did you tell your best friend to comfort her after her husband just left because she’s an alien? Maybe Max or Michael would know better than she would. “Isabel, do you want me to call Michael or Max? I’m sure they’ll want to be here for you.”
“No, don’t call them just yet. Michael will just panic and want to go after Jesse. Max will call my drinking childish and say it doesn’t solve anything. He’s right of course but for now, that’s how I’m handling it,” Isabel answered, as if Max had already said the words. Then her eyes filled with fresh tears. “God, Shannon! He left, he really left. Why didn’t I tell him? Why?” she cried.
Shannon braced herself for walking over the broken plates and glasses in her bare feet and went over to her friend, pulling her into a hug. “I don’t know, Isabel. I’m sure you had your reasons, though.”
“Yeah, but were they the right ones? Were the reasons I told myself I wasn’t telling him the truth the real reasons? I love him and I don’t want to lose him,” she hiccupped and then pulled out of Shannon’s arms to drink the rest of the contents of the bottle. “Damn, that was the last of the alcohol in the house.”
“It’s just as well, Isa. You really are going to regret having that much but if that’s what you need, I’m not going to say anything else about it,” Shannon said.
“But Max didn’t get sick when he got drunk. I’m not sure about Michael, he didn’t say. I’m so glad you stayed, Shannon,” Isabel told her.
Shannon pushed the pain in her feet and the smell of the alcohol to the back of her mind and smiled at Isabel. “Me too, Isa.” They both knew that she didn’t mean just that night, but they were talking about staying in Roswell.
“You’re like a sister to me. I always was jealous of Liz and Maria’s relationship because I didn’t have a friend like that I could talk to. Then Tess came along and I thought that she was the answer to my prayers for another girl to talk to. Humph, I found out differently really quick when we found out she was an alien. All she talked about after that was how we were a complete unit and that she was supposed to be with Max and we had to find a way home. She didn’t understand that we were home,” Isabel babbled, slurring her words as the alcohol caught up with her brain. “Then you came along and I was so scared to trust you. You’ve been a better friend to me than anybody I’ve ever known. I really feel like we’re sisters.”
“We almost were, Isabel, in another life. I’m flattered that you feel that way, though. I feel the same way. As your sister, however, I think it’s time that you go to bed now,” Shannon answered with a smile.
“I’m not tired,” Isabel protested, yawning. Her eyelids were already beginning to droop. “Ok, maybe I am but I can just sleep right here.”
“Oh no, you don’t want to do that. Your senses are about to double in intensity and if you hit those pieces of plates and glasses, you’re really gonna be in pain. Now, come on, let’s get you to bed,” Shannon told her. She waved her hand to clear a path in the mess, berating herself for not thinking of that when she walked into the kitchen. She put an arm under Isabel’s and hoisted her higher into the air as she had started to sink to the floor. “Just out of curiosity, how many plates and glasses did you break?” she asked.
Isabel had already started to doze off standing up, but she woke a little to answer the question. “Ten plates, six glasses. Ten plates because ‘eight is too many, twelve too few’.” Isabel giggled, trying to quote another of her favorite movies.
“I think you mean, twelve is too many and eight is too few,” Shannon corrected gently. “Sleepless in Seattle is one of my favorites too.”
However, Isabel was already snoring, having fallen asleep walking toward the bedroom. Shannon deposited her friend gently on the bed, ran her hand over the sheets to make them as soft as possible and fresh, and wrapped the covers around Isabel. She gave her sleeping friend a sympathetic look and turned off the light.
Making her way back to the kitchen, she repeated to herself that there had been ten plates and six glasses. She concentrated really hard, trying to remember exactly what the plates looked like. The glasses would be easier because there were still a few in the cabinet. She decided to start with the glasses. Waving her hands over the mess on the floor, she put the glasses back together and they floated to their places on the shelf. As they did so, she looked up at the other shelf and saw the dessert plates that matched the dinner plates Isabel had broken.
Now reminded of the pattern, Shannon waved her hands over the remaining pieces on the floor and the ten plates started to put themselves back together. A couple of the pieces she had to remove from her feet. She loaded the plates into the dishwasher and ran it as it was full. Then she walked over to the bottle that Isabel had dropped and threw it in the trash. Picking up the phone, she dialed Max’s cell phone.
“Isabel?” came Max’s voice, recognizing the number on the caller ID.
“No, it’s Shannon,” she answered. “We’ve got a problem.”
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Part 15
When Isabel awoke, every part of her body hurt, including parts she didn’t know she had. It was so bright in the room, even with the lights off! As soon as that registered, then she felt her stomach turn over and she tried to get up to rush to the bathroom, every movement hurting like nothing had ever hurt before. She had made it to a crawling position onto the floor and tried to start moving toward the bathroom when her stomach betrayed her. She threw up for the first time in her life on her bedroom floor; it wouldn’t be her last.
As her stomach settled for a moment, she heard the voices coming from outside her door. What struck her was how well she heard them. She heard not only who was talking but she heard every word they said. It seemed that Kyle, Max, and Michael had come back. She wondered when they had and if Shannon had been the one to call them. She heard their conversation and realized that they were talking about what had happened between her and Jesse last night. Their conversation was soon forgotten as her stomach turned yet again. She reached for the trash can that was close by but it was just out of her reach. Isabel tried to use her powers to draw it closer to her, but instead it vaporized into a pile of dust with a loud “pop”.
Horrified, Isabel could do nothing but vomit all over her carpet again. She heard what sounded like a herd of elephants racing down her hallway towards the bedroom. The door was thrown open and she groaned as she vomited yet again. Just as Max and Michael rushed towards her with Kyle right behind them, Shannon grabbed them both by their sleeves. “Remember to whisper, don’t touch her, and whatever you do don’t let her use her powers,” Shannon whispered to them.
“Why are you shouting at them to whisper?” Isabel moaned, holding her stomach with one hand and trying to hold herself up off the floor with the other. Then she realized what color the vomit was. Everything that had come up was green. She groaned again. “Oh my god! What did I eat?” she asked, closing her eyes.
“Isabel, you have one whopper of an alien hangover,” Michael told her as quietly as he could. It seemed to her that he was screaming right in her ears.
“Hon, you’re senses are magnified with that hangover to astronomical proportions,” Shannon tried to explain. “That’s why it seems that we’re yelling when we’re really whispering. What was that pop that we heard?”
“I tried to use my powers to pull it closer but for some reason it blew up instead,” Isabel answered, sitting back on against the bed and holding her head in her hands.
Kyle came over and sat on the floor beside her. “Um, from what I understand from Shannon, it probably isn’t a good idea to use your powers for a while. You had quite a bit to drink last night and alcohol can make your powers a little…unpredictable,” he told her gently, putting his arm around her. He looked over at the pile of the contents of Isabel’s stomach and wrinkled his nose. “Uh, guys, could we do something with the pile on the floor?”
“Yeah,” Max agreed, coming over and waving his hand over the floor and cleaning it with his powers. Just as he finished, Isabel felt another wave of nausea hit her.
“Guys, I appreciate the concern but right now I have one really big problem. I need to get to the bathroom and I’d like Shannon to help me. Please don’t say anything else right now; my head is killing me!” Isabel groaned.
Shannon gently pulled Isabel to her feet, knowing that it would seem painful to her friend. She escorted Isabel to the bathroom and closed the door behind them. The three guys heard heaving seconds later. They all quickly exited the room and went outside to discuss the situation.
“I say we go after Jesse and drag him back here on his rear end!” Michael said roughly, pacing.
“Calm down, Michael. We can’t just go grab him up off the streets. He’s out of town on business. He said that he’d be back, and he and Isabel would talk then. We just have to wait until he comes back to figure out what to do,” Max stated in his usual tone.
“Calm down? Wait? Maxwell, there is a man out there that knows what we are and what his wife is and he ran from it! What do you think he’s going to do? At the very least, he might not come back and that would break Isabel’s heart. At worst, he’ll come back with the military. I, for one, don’t want to sit on my butt waiting for the government to come and drag us off to do God knows what to us!” Michael panicked.
“I hate to say it, Max, but I think I’m with Michael on this one. I mean, Jesse’s leaving wasn’t exactly a good sign,” Kyle said, scratching the back of his head.
“Jesse was going on this business trip before he ever found out about us. He just decided to go a little early to think about this. We can’t begrudge him that. I just wish that we had told him earlier than he find out this way,” Max argued.
Shannon came out into the backyard to join them. “Isabel went back to bed for a while. I think that’s the only way to keep her from throwing up again. I made her lay on her side just in case. I heard the tail end of that conversation and I have to agree with Max. We can’t just go snatch Jesse up and make him come back here. Isabel told me in the bathroom that she doesn’t want to make him stay if he doesn’t want to. He still has a choice at this point. He won’t forever, but let’s give him a chance. Jesse is a good guy,” she said.
“Hey, you’re my sister; you’re supposed to back me up,” Michael grumbled, jamming his hands into his pockets.
“I’m your sister so I’m supposed to tell you when you’re wrong,” Shannon countered. “Meanwhile, I think that we should work on your powers. Who wants to go first?”
“I’ll stay here with Isabel; she’ll probably need a friend when she wakes up,” Kyle volunteered.
“Maybe Michael should go first. It will help him take his mind off of Jesse,” Max suggested. “I’ve got to go to work. We’ll all meet back here later. Michael, do you or Maria have to work tonight?”
“I don’t and I don’t think Maria does, but Shannon does,” Michael answered.
“Yeah, I have to be at the Crashdown at 4 and I’m closing. I can work with Michael on his powers until then. We can work on yours later. If Isabel or Michael want to later, they can probably help you too, Max,” Shannon said. Then she turned to her brother who was still pouting. “So do you want to go back to your apartment and work on your powers or do you want to stay here and pout?”
He rolled his eyes at her. “I guess; lead the way, Your Highness,” he drawled with a mocking bow.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“Michael, you have blown up every lamp, small appliance, and glass in this apartment and have yet to put any of them back together!” Shannon declared a couple of hours later, completely amazed.
“I told you I’m not good at much other than that!” he snapped at her, thoroughly frustrated.
“Dear brother, it is that attitude that is keeping you from achieving your goal. I can see that the techniques I used with Isabel aren’t going to work for you. She didn’t have all this self doubt to overcome,” Shannon said, not even a little bit phased by his words or their delivery. She thought hard for a minute.
“Well, describe how you use your other powers and I’ll try that,” Michael suggested. He really wasn’t sure that he could do this, but he was willing to give it all he had for her sake.
“I use all my powers the same way, Michael. It just comes naturally; it’s instinct, almost like breathing. You can’t think about it too much or it doesn’t work,” Shannon wracked her brain. “Ok, let’s try this. Maybe we just need to find your go word.”
“My ‘go word’?” Michael questioned. What did that mean?
“Yeah, a special word that allows you to clear your mind instantly. First of all, let’s look at this lamp that you destroyed,” she said, walking back over to the end table. She waved her hand over it and it put itself together. “Look at it really carefully. Remember just what it looks like. Now blast it again and this time, picture it together again after that.”
Michael nodded through her instructions. He held up his hand and sent a wave of power at the lamp, and it collapsed into a neat pile of pieces. Then he pictured the lamp as it was, but other pictures kept popping up in his mind. Isabel was one of those pictures, along with Jesse, Shannon, and others. The lamp remained as it was.
Shannon growled at him in frustration. “Your self-doubt is clouding your mind and making you unable to concentrate. You have to be able to completely clear your mind for those milliseconds that you have to use your powers. Like Max told Liz when he showed her how our connection works, ‘Just let your mind kind of blank out.’”
“But you told me not to concentrate too hard or it wouldn’t work. Would you make up your mind please?” Michael argued.
“Argh! Ok, what comes to your mind when I say ‘white’?” she asked.
“Um, the first thing that comes to my mind?” At her nod, he answered, “Clouds.”
“How about ‘black’?”
“Maria’s lacy bra that she bought the other week,” he answered immediately and then turned red. He had never been embarrassed over something he had said before, but his sister hearing about his girlfriend’s underwear embarrassed him now.
They went through several more words that Shannon hoped would make Michael stumble. However, all of them made him picture something. Finally, she tried, “How about the word ‘blank’? How about that?”
“Uh…um…I don’t picture anything,” he shrugged.
“Finally! That’s gonna be your go word. Now I want you to look at those pieces again. Put your hand up and gather some power together. Picture the lamp all put together. You got it?” she instructed. At his nod, she waited a moment before shouting, “Blank!”
A blast of energy left Michael’s hand and suddenly the lamp put itself together. “I did it! I put it together,” he exclaimed. “How did that happen?”
“That word is one that, when you hear it, your mind clears and you think of nothing at all. In that brief moment, your instincts take over and you were able to use your other powers. Your self-doubt wasn’t allowed to rear its ugly head. Let’s keep practicing,” Shannon explained.
“Should we try something else, maybe healing?” he asked, truly impressed with his sister’s persistence and accomplishment in getting him to “work” as it were.
“Not yet. We should keep working on this until you get it down cold. Then we can move on to something else. I still can’t believe that Tess and Ed told you that you were human! They really messed with you guys. Yeah, our DNA was mixed with human DNA but that doesn’t mean that we’re human. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but somewhere in the back of your minds, you guys knew that wasn’t right and that translated into weaknesses for all of you. You had this mentality that you couldn’t do certain things,” Shannon ranted.
“You mean that humans are actually a lot weaker than we are? We’re supposed to be superior or something?” Michael asked. This didn’t sound like the Shannon he was used to.
“No, I’m not saying that. From what was learned from studying humans on Antar, they are a relatively young species. They haven’t reached their full potential yet. No one on any planet was able to discover, so far, just what humans were capable of. Think about all the advancements that the human race has made in the last 100 years, or even in the last 50. They are an amazing species but they still have a long way to go before they’re even using half of their brain capacity. The reality is that we aren’t human and we aren’t Antarian; we are pretty much a new species. We’re a combination of human, Antarian, and gandarium,” she told him. That sent Michael’s brain reeling. “Let’s get back to your practicing.”
They practiced for a couple more hours with Shannon shouting the word “blank” every time for the first little bit, but then, as Michael began to see how that was working, he could put the things he blasted back together again without her even saying “blank”. Finally, she looked at the clock and declared their practice session over. They had had one break for something to eat at around 1 and it was now 3:30.
“But I haven’t tried using any of my other powers yet,” Michael protested.
“Michael, it is 3:30 and I have to get to the Crashdown and change into my uniform. Once you get the hang of using this power, your self-doubt will, hopefully, disappear and you’ll be able to use all of your powers. Besides, we both could use a break. Would you mind giving me a lift to the café?” she asked.
“I can give you a lift,” a voice said from the kitchen doorway.
“Jeez, Maxwell, give us a heart attack why don’t you?” Michael scolded.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt. You’re getting really good, Michael,” Max told him.
“Yeah, well I’ve had a great tutor,” Michael said genuinely. He smiled at his sister who smiled back. Then he turned back to Max. “You don’t have to take her over to the Crashdown; I don’t mind doing it.”
“Maria has already left to go over to Isabel’s, and I know you want to see how she’s doing. I really don’t mind,” Max answered.
“Well, somebody take me over there soon, so I can start working and make some money,” Shannon said, heading for the front door.
Max started to follow her but Michael held him back for a minute. “Maxwell, you’re like a brother to me, but if you hurt Shannon…well, let me put it this way: If I were you, I would hide if something happens to her,” he told him. “Her feelings for you run deep, and I don’t want you to hurt her like you did in our previous life.”
“Michael, I’m not Xan. I’m Max and I don’t want anyone to hurt Shannon anymore than you do,” Max answered. At Michael’s nod, he turned and went to take Shannon to work.
When Isabel awoke, every part of her body hurt, including parts she didn’t know she had. It was so bright in the room, even with the lights off! As soon as that registered, then she felt her stomach turn over and she tried to get up to rush to the bathroom, every movement hurting like nothing had ever hurt before. She had made it to a crawling position onto the floor and tried to start moving toward the bathroom when her stomach betrayed her. She threw up for the first time in her life on her bedroom floor; it wouldn’t be her last.
As her stomach settled for a moment, she heard the voices coming from outside her door. What struck her was how well she heard them. She heard not only who was talking but she heard every word they said. It seemed that Kyle, Max, and Michael had come back. She wondered when they had and if Shannon had been the one to call them. She heard their conversation and realized that they were talking about what had happened between her and Jesse last night. Their conversation was soon forgotten as her stomach turned yet again. She reached for the trash can that was close by but it was just out of her reach. Isabel tried to use her powers to draw it closer to her, but instead it vaporized into a pile of dust with a loud “pop”.
Horrified, Isabel could do nothing but vomit all over her carpet again. She heard what sounded like a herd of elephants racing down her hallway towards the bedroom. The door was thrown open and she groaned as she vomited yet again. Just as Max and Michael rushed towards her with Kyle right behind them, Shannon grabbed them both by their sleeves. “Remember to whisper, don’t touch her, and whatever you do don’t let her use her powers,” Shannon whispered to them.
“Why are you shouting at them to whisper?” Isabel moaned, holding her stomach with one hand and trying to hold herself up off the floor with the other. Then she realized what color the vomit was. Everything that had come up was green. She groaned again. “Oh my god! What did I eat?” she asked, closing her eyes.
“Isabel, you have one whopper of an alien hangover,” Michael told her as quietly as he could. It seemed to her that he was screaming right in her ears.
“Hon, you’re senses are magnified with that hangover to astronomical proportions,” Shannon tried to explain. “That’s why it seems that we’re yelling when we’re really whispering. What was that pop that we heard?”
“I tried to use my powers to pull it closer but for some reason it blew up instead,” Isabel answered, sitting back on against the bed and holding her head in her hands.
Kyle came over and sat on the floor beside her. “Um, from what I understand from Shannon, it probably isn’t a good idea to use your powers for a while. You had quite a bit to drink last night and alcohol can make your powers a little…unpredictable,” he told her gently, putting his arm around her. He looked over at the pile of the contents of Isabel’s stomach and wrinkled his nose. “Uh, guys, could we do something with the pile on the floor?”
“Yeah,” Max agreed, coming over and waving his hand over the floor and cleaning it with his powers. Just as he finished, Isabel felt another wave of nausea hit her.
“Guys, I appreciate the concern but right now I have one really big problem. I need to get to the bathroom and I’d like Shannon to help me. Please don’t say anything else right now; my head is killing me!” Isabel groaned.
Shannon gently pulled Isabel to her feet, knowing that it would seem painful to her friend. She escorted Isabel to the bathroom and closed the door behind them. The three guys heard heaving seconds later. They all quickly exited the room and went outside to discuss the situation.
“I say we go after Jesse and drag him back here on his rear end!” Michael said roughly, pacing.
“Calm down, Michael. We can’t just go grab him up off the streets. He’s out of town on business. He said that he’d be back, and he and Isabel would talk then. We just have to wait until he comes back to figure out what to do,” Max stated in his usual tone.
“Calm down? Wait? Maxwell, there is a man out there that knows what we are and what his wife is and he ran from it! What do you think he’s going to do? At the very least, he might not come back and that would break Isabel’s heart. At worst, he’ll come back with the military. I, for one, don’t want to sit on my butt waiting for the government to come and drag us off to do God knows what to us!” Michael panicked.
“I hate to say it, Max, but I think I’m with Michael on this one. I mean, Jesse’s leaving wasn’t exactly a good sign,” Kyle said, scratching the back of his head.
“Jesse was going on this business trip before he ever found out about us. He just decided to go a little early to think about this. We can’t begrudge him that. I just wish that we had told him earlier than he find out this way,” Max argued.
Shannon came out into the backyard to join them. “Isabel went back to bed for a while. I think that’s the only way to keep her from throwing up again. I made her lay on her side just in case. I heard the tail end of that conversation and I have to agree with Max. We can’t just go snatch Jesse up and make him come back here. Isabel told me in the bathroom that she doesn’t want to make him stay if he doesn’t want to. He still has a choice at this point. He won’t forever, but let’s give him a chance. Jesse is a good guy,” she said.
“Hey, you’re my sister; you’re supposed to back me up,” Michael grumbled, jamming his hands into his pockets.
“I’m your sister so I’m supposed to tell you when you’re wrong,” Shannon countered. “Meanwhile, I think that we should work on your powers. Who wants to go first?”
“I’ll stay here with Isabel; she’ll probably need a friend when she wakes up,” Kyle volunteered.
“Maybe Michael should go first. It will help him take his mind off of Jesse,” Max suggested. “I’ve got to go to work. We’ll all meet back here later. Michael, do you or Maria have to work tonight?”
“I don’t and I don’t think Maria does, but Shannon does,” Michael answered.
“Yeah, I have to be at the Crashdown at 4 and I’m closing. I can work with Michael on his powers until then. We can work on yours later. If Isabel or Michael want to later, they can probably help you too, Max,” Shannon said. Then she turned to her brother who was still pouting. “So do you want to go back to your apartment and work on your powers or do you want to stay here and pout?”
He rolled his eyes at her. “I guess; lead the way, Your Highness,” he drawled with a mocking bow.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“Michael, you have blown up every lamp, small appliance, and glass in this apartment and have yet to put any of them back together!” Shannon declared a couple of hours later, completely amazed.
“I told you I’m not good at much other than that!” he snapped at her, thoroughly frustrated.
“Dear brother, it is that attitude that is keeping you from achieving your goal. I can see that the techniques I used with Isabel aren’t going to work for you. She didn’t have all this self doubt to overcome,” Shannon said, not even a little bit phased by his words or their delivery. She thought hard for a minute.
“Well, describe how you use your other powers and I’ll try that,” Michael suggested. He really wasn’t sure that he could do this, but he was willing to give it all he had for her sake.
“I use all my powers the same way, Michael. It just comes naturally; it’s instinct, almost like breathing. You can’t think about it too much or it doesn’t work,” Shannon wracked her brain. “Ok, let’s try this. Maybe we just need to find your go word.”
“My ‘go word’?” Michael questioned. What did that mean?
“Yeah, a special word that allows you to clear your mind instantly. First of all, let’s look at this lamp that you destroyed,” she said, walking back over to the end table. She waved her hand over it and it put itself together. “Look at it really carefully. Remember just what it looks like. Now blast it again and this time, picture it together again after that.”
Michael nodded through her instructions. He held up his hand and sent a wave of power at the lamp, and it collapsed into a neat pile of pieces. Then he pictured the lamp as it was, but other pictures kept popping up in his mind. Isabel was one of those pictures, along with Jesse, Shannon, and others. The lamp remained as it was.
Shannon growled at him in frustration. “Your self-doubt is clouding your mind and making you unable to concentrate. You have to be able to completely clear your mind for those milliseconds that you have to use your powers. Like Max told Liz when he showed her how our connection works, ‘Just let your mind kind of blank out.’”
“But you told me not to concentrate too hard or it wouldn’t work. Would you make up your mind please?” Michael argued.
“Argh! Ok, what comes to your mind when I say ‘white’?” she asked.
“Um, the first thing that comes to my mind?” At her nod, he answered, “Clouds.”
“How about ‘black’?”
“Maria’s lacy bra that she bought the other week,” he answered immediately and then turned red. He had never been embarrassed over something he had said before, but his sister hearing about his girlfriend’s underwear embarrassed him now.
They went through several more words that Shannon hoped would make Michael stumble. However, all of them made him picture something. Finally, she tried, “How about the word ‘blank’? How about that?”
“Uh…um…I don’t picture anything,” he shrugged.
“Finally! That’s gonna be your go word. Now I want you to look at those pieces again. Put your hand up and gather some power together. Picture the lamp all put together. You got it?” she instructed. At his nod, she waited a moment before shouting, “Blank!”
A blast of energy left Michael’s hand and suddenly the lamp put itself together. “I did it! I put it together,” he exclaimed. “How did that happen?”
“That word is one that, when you hear it, your mind clears and you think of nothing at all. In that brief moment, your instincts take over and you were able to use your other powers. Your self-doubt wasn’t allowed to rear its ugly head. Let’s keep practicing,” Shannon explained.
“Should we try something else, maybe healing?” he asked, truly impressed with his sister’s persistence and accomplishment in getting him to “work” as it were.
“Not yet. We should keep working on this until you get it down cold. Then we can move on to something else. I still can’t believe that Tess and Ed told you that you were human! They really messed with you guys. Yeah, our DNA was mixed with human DNA but that doesn’t mean that we’re human. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but somewhere in the back of your minds, you guys knew that wasn’t right and that translated into weaknesses for all of you. You had this mentality that you couldn’t do certain things,” Shannon ranted.
“You mean that humans are actually a lot weaker than we are? We’re supposed to be superior or something?” Michael asked. This didn’t sound like the Shannon he was used to.
“No, I’m not saying that. From what was learned from studying humans on Antar, they are a relatively young species. They haven’t reached their full potential yet. No one on any planet was able to discover, so far, just what humans were capable of. Think about all the advancements that the human race has made in the last 100 years, or even in the last 50. They are an amazing species but they still have a long way to go before they’re even using half of their brain capacity. The reality is that we aren’t human and we aren’t Antarian; we are pretty much a new species. We’re a combination of human, Antarian, and gandarium,” she told him. That sent Michael’s brain reeling. “Let’s get back to your practicing.”
They practiced for a couple more hours with Shannon shouting the word “blank” every time for the first little bit, but then, as Michael began to see how that was working, he could put the things he blasted back together again without her even saying “blank”. Finally, she looked at the clock and declared their practice session over. They had had one break for something to eat at around 1 and it was now 3:30.
“But I haven’t tried using any of my other powers yet,” Michael protested.
“Michael, it is 3:30 and I have to get to the Crashdown and change into my uniform. Once you get the hang of using this power, your self-doubt will, hopefully, disappear and you’ll be able to use all of your powers. Besides, we both could use a break. Would you mind giving me a lift to the café?” she asked.
“I can give you a lift,” a voice said from the kitchen doorway.
“Jeez, Maxwell, give us a heart attack why don’t you?” Michael scolded.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt. You’re getting really good, Michael,” Max told him.
“Yeah, well I’ve had a great tutor,” Michael said genuinely. He smiled at his sister who smiled back. Then he turned back to Max. “You don’t have to take her over to the Crashdown; I don’t mind doing it.”
“Maria has already left to go over to Isabel’s, and I know you want to see how she’s doing. I really don’t mind,” Max answered.
“Well, somebody take me over there soon, so I can start working and make some money,” Shannon said, heading for the front door.
Max started to follow her but Michael held him back for a minute. “Maxwell, you’re like a brother to me, but if you hurt Shannon…well, let me put it this way: If I were you, I would hide if something happens to her,” he told him. “Her feelings for you run deep, and I don’t want you to hurt her like you did in our previous life.”
“Michael, I’m not Xan. I’m Max and I don’t want anyone to hurt Shannon anymore than you do,” Max answered. At Michael’s nod, he turned and went to take Shannon to work.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Part 16
Max pulled into one of the parking spaces in front of the Crashdown and turned off the motor. Shannon started to climb out of the car, pulling her hair up into a ponytail at the same time. Max watched her movements appreciatively. She was so graceful and genuinely beautiful. Instead of letting her walk away to go work, he leapt from the car and called to her.
“Shannon, wait a minute,” he called. She stopped and turned, looking at him questioningly. He jogged over to her and took her arm, leading her toward the side of the building. Then he looked kind of sheepish.
“What is it, Max?” she asked. She studied his face, her memories of how Zan once loved her unexpectedly rising to the forefront of her mind. Forcing the memories down again, she tried to focus on the moment.
“Look, I just wanted to let you know that Michael told me about the memory sharing thing. I think it might be a good idea. I know that I’d like to know more about our past…my past,” Max said, finding himself drawn to her soul revealing eyes. He looked deeper into them and took her hands, as if he couldn’t help it. “Shannon, can we spend some time together soon? I’d like to hear more about Antar and you and everything. Please?”
Shannon stared back at him for several minutes, on the verge of tears. When would he stop tormenting her? Finally, she looked down at her feet, unable to meet his face anymore. “Um, yeah, I guess. We can talk about Antar and I’ll tell you more about what it’s like there and about your family and everything. How about day after tomorrow?” she said, her voice a little shaky at first.
He smiled at her. “Sounds great,” he said softly. He cupped her chin and pulled her face up to meet his, brushing his lips lightly over hers. It was enough for him to get flashes from her. He saw them both on Antar talking and he felt the love between them. He saw Shauna and she was beautiful, just like Shannon. Then he saw her reaction to his telling her that he didn’t love her anymore, that he wasn’t sure he had ever loved her. Zan had shattered Shauna’s heart.
Max wasn’t the only one to get flashes. Shannon saw the day that Liz got shot. She saw different moments in their relationship, including when Alex died and Liz and Max fought about it. She saw Liz show him her glowing hands and felt both of their fear. Finally, she felt Max’s pain at finding out that Liz had left for boarding school.
As they both pulled away, they each felt different things. Shannon knew that going out with Max, for any reason, was a mistake. He was still unsure of where he stood with Liz and they had been through too much for it to be over that easily. She also knew that she might be setting herself up for heartache all over again.
Max was floored by the overwhelming feelings that the flashes he received had brought up inside him. He didn’t know what it all meant, but he did know that he wanted to explore those feelings more. How to do that was the question. What if it turned out that he really did still love Liz and it broke Shannon’s heart? He would lose her friendship, her trust, and Michael as well.
“Well, I guess I’ll let you get to work,” he said, stepping back.
Shannon couldn’t speak so she only nodded. Then she walked away from him, calling to him over her shoulder. “Let me know if you need any help with either Michael or Isabel later,” she told him.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Brody Davis walked into the Crashdown and looked around. Not seeing Maria, he sat at the counter on a stool and waited, hoping she was just in the back or in the kitchen. He picked up a menu and began scanning it even though he would probably just get the usual.
“Hi, my name is Shannon and I’ll be waiting on you tonight. Can I start you off with something to drink?” she asked, coming over to Brody.
“Actually, I’m looking for Maria. Is she here? She usually waits on me,” Brody said nervously. He knew that Maria had left town but he had heard she was back and he needed to talk to a friend.
“Oh, I’m sorry but Maria is off tonight. She worked the day shift. Can I get you anything or can I give her a message?” Shannon asked him.
Brody’s face fell; he had been hoping to talk to her. “Yeah, can I get a Galaxy Sub with Pepper jack cheese to go please?” he asked quietly.
“Sure,” she told him. After placing the order with Jose, she walked back over to him and studied him carefully. “Are you ok?”
His head snapped up and he gave her a small smile. “Yeah, I’ll survive,” he answered. Then under his breath he added, “I always do.”
Shannon went to wait on a couple that had just walked in, keeping an eye on Brody. He seemed like a nice guy but she hadn’t seen him before. She wondered if he was a friend of Maria’s from New York. Seeing that his order was ready, she went to get it out of the window and brought it over to him.
“Here ya go. One Galaxy Sub with Pepper jack cheese to go. Did you want something to drink with that?” she asked, packing it into a bag with a piece of Men in Blackberry Pie.
Brody shook his head. “No thanks. Can you just give Maria a message for me? Can you tell her that Brody said that it’s happening again and I would really like to talk to her about it? She said that I could talk to her any time about what’s happening to me,” he asked.
“Um, sure. Will she know what you’re talking about?” she asked him. He nodded. “Ok, then, you are good to go, and I threw in a piece of pie on the house.”
He paid for his dinner and left, thanking her for the pie. Shannon watched him walk out, still curious about him. What made him walk like he had only hours to live? Who was he? How did he know Maria? What did he mean this had happened before? Shannon was just about to call over at Michael’s or Isabel’s to try and find Maria, but before she could, they were suddenly swamped with people.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Shannon took a deep breath and blew it out. It was 10 o’clock and she was beat. The crowd hadn’t let up until just a few minutes ago when the last two couples had finally left. She was now refilling all the condiment containers and she was the only one left closing with Jeff who was currently cleaning the grill.
“All right, Shannon, I’m finished in the kitchen. Do you need any help up here?” Jeff asked, coming out of the back.
“No, I’m almost done and then I’m headed home. You can go on up to Nancy, Jeff,” Shannon told him with a smile.
Jeff looked around the café. “No one is here to give you a ride home?” he asked surprised. Usually, Shannon got a ride home from Maria, Michael, Max, or Isabel. Even Kyle and Jim had given her rides from time to time.
“Um, actually, I was going to walk home,” she answered. She had forgotten all about calling someone for a ride and she didn’t want to disturb anyone now.
“That’s not a good idea, Shannon. It’s really dark and it’s a long way to where you’re staying,” Jeff said concerned. Shannon had become like a second daughter to him and ever since the stabbing behind the café, he worried about his employees. “Let me grab a jacket and I’ll drive you home,” he told her, heading for the back room.
“Oh, Jeff, that’s really not necessary…” Shannon started to protest. But she didn’t get to finish because she was interrupted by a tapping on the front door.
All the shades were pulled down over the glass in the front so Jeff went over to see who was at the door. Opening the door, he ushered the person on the other side of the door inside. Max stepped inside. “Uh, I’m here to pick up Shannon,” he mumbled uncomfortably. He gave her a small smile.
Shannon smiled back at him and then smiled bigger at Jeff. “See, I told you that wouldn’t be necessary. One of them would have remembered to come after me. I would have thought it would be Michael, though. Thanks for coming to get me, Max,” she said.
Jeff studied her for a moment. “You know, you and Michael have gotten awfully close lately. He isn’t fooling around on Maria with you is he?” he asked.
“What?! No, that’s gross!” Shannon said, wrinkling her nose and sticking her tongue out in disgust.
Jeff laughed at her expression. “Good, because as much as I like you, Maria is like a daughter to me. I’d hate to see her hurt. So what exactly is going on between you and Michael?” he asked, curious. Max squirmed like a little kid. If Jeff would be upset at Maria’s heart getting broken, how must he feel about Liz’s heart being broken?
Shannon shrugged and smiled mischievously. “He’s my brother, Jeff,” she answered simply. She grabbed the last two sugar containers and placed them on the tables, leaving a stunned Jeff to head upstairs.
As she started stacking the chairs on the table, Max picked up a chair to help. “What are you doing here, Max?” she sighed.
“I’m here to give you a ride home,” he answered confused. He picked up another chair and placed it on a table.
Shannon snorted softly. “Right, give me a ride home. Ok, I give,” she muttered. Then she took a deep breath and looked at him. “Do you know anyone named Brody Davis?”
Max nodded at her. “Yeah, he bought the UFO center from Milton a little while after Tess arrived. Why?”
“He was in here asking to speak to Maria. He bought a Galaxy Sub with Pepper Jack cheese and gave me a message to give Maria,” Shannon recounted.
Max chuckled at that. “Yeah, he developed a little bit of a crush on Maria. He’s a good guy, if a bit strange. Did we tell you that one of the aliens at the summit meeting in New York used his body?”
Shannon’s head shot over to his direction. “What?!” she asked sharply. When Max repeated his words, she quickly put the last chair up on the table, grabbed her purse and started dragging Max out the door. “We have to go. We have to find Brody!” she insisted.
“Why?” Max asked confused.
They headed for his car and Shannon glared at him. “You are going to tell me everything that has happened since you four hatched and soon. I don’t know if you left out a lot of details for time’s sake, because you didn’t think they were important, or because you didn’t trust me. The bottom line, Max, is that I want to know everything, to protect myself, to protect you, to protect my best friend, to protect my brother, and finally to protect my people,” she ground out between clenched teeth. She jumped into the passenger seat, took off the antennae headband and threw it in the back seat angrily.
Max stood there staring at her in shock. Then he shook his head and jumped into the driver’s seat, starting the car. “What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly so angry with us?” he asked.
“Because you haven’t told me everything and I’ve held nothing back from you so far. I know that I haven’t had time to tell you everything that happened a lifetime ago, but you all had plenty of time to tell me everything that happened in the past few years since you saved Liz’s life. Who is the alien that takes control of Brody? How many times has he done it?” Shannon asked, switching back to the problem at hand.
“Um, Larek…Larek is the alien that uses Brody’s body. As for how many times he’s done it, I couldn’t say for sure. The last time we were trying to establish contact with home and tried to use him to do it, but we didn’t know what we were doing and almost caused his heart to stop,” Max answered. “Shannon, I’m sorry that we left things out in what we told you, but we only told you what we thought were the important things. If we do the memory sharing, you’ll know everything anyway.”
But Shannon hadn’t heard a word past the name Larek. He was alive and well! She closed her eyes against the tears of happiness at the news. She was so afraid that he would do something rash. “Larek is alive,” she said happily and aloud to reassure herself.
At the tone in her voice, Max looked at her sharply. What did Larek mean to her? Why did his chest tighten in fear at the thought that she might care about him? “You know Larek?” he asked.
“You knew him too, once upon a time. I’m glad he’s ok,” she said quietly. “I’m also glad to know that it’s him that is using Brody. He won’t overdo it and we can definitely trust him.”
Max wanted to believe her but this overwhelming sense of jealousy was clouding his judgment. For the first time since he had met Larek, he wondered just where his loyalties lay. Clearing his throat, he decided to change the subject. “Isabel wants to talk to you when you get home,” he told her.
“Is she feeling better?” Shannon asked, concern for her best friend rising to the front of her thoughts.
“Physically, yeah, but Jesse called earlier this evening, and she locked herself in her room for an hour afterwards, saying that she didn’t want to talk about it. Then she came out and refused to discuss it, claiming that she only wanted to talk to her sister. She said you would understand better than Michael or I would, which is probably true,” he told her.
“Well, I hope she won’t mind waiting to talk until after I get a shower to wash off all the food spills and smell,” Shannon said. “I feel disgusting when I get done working.”
Max looked over at her and looked her up and down. “I think you look beautiful,” he told her truthfully.
Shannon turned her neck to crack it a couple of times and then looked into Max’s eyes. He seemed really sincere. Rolling her eyes at him and grinning, she told him, “Then you have some strange tastes, Max Evans.” Before he could say anything else, she added softly and almost pleadingly, “Just take me home, Max.”
Max pulled into one of the parking spaces in front of the Crashdown and turned off the motor. Shannon started to climb out of the car, pulling her hair up into a ponytail at the same time. Max watched her movements appreciatively. She was so graceful and genuinely beautiful. Instead of letting her walk away to go work, he leapt from the car and called to her.
“Shannon, wait a minute,” he called. She stopped and turned, looking at him questioningly. He jogged over to her and took her arm, leading her toward the side of the building. Then he looked kind of sheepish.
“What is it, Max?” she asked. She studied his face, her memories of how Zan once loved her unexpectedly rising to the forefront of her mind. Forcing the memories down again, she tried to focus on the moment.
“Look, I just wanted to let you know that Michael told me about the memory sharing thing. I think it might be a good idea. I know that I’d like to know more about our past…my past,” Max said, finding himself drawn to her soul revealing eyes. He looked deeper into them and took her hands, as if he couldn’t help it. “Shannon, can we spend some time together soon? I’d like to hear more about Antar and you and everything. Please?”
Shannon stared back at him for several minutes, on the verge of tears. When would he stop tormenting her? Finally, she looked down at her feet, unable to meet his face anymore. “Um, yeah, I guess. We can talk about Antar and I’ll tell you more about what it’s like there and about your family and everything. How about day after tomorrow?” she said, her voice a little shaky at first.
He smiled at her. “Sounds great,” he said softly. He cupped her chin and pulled her face up to meet his, brushing his lips lightly over hers. It was enough for him to get flashes from her. He saw them both on Antar talking and he felt the love between them. He saw Shauna and she was beautiful, just like Shannon. Then he saw her reaction to his telling her that he didn’t love her anymore, that he wasn’t sure he had ever loved her. Zan had shattered Shauna’s heart.
Max wasn’t the only one to get flashes. Shannon saw the day that Liz got shot. She saw different moments in their relationship, including when Alex died and Liz and Max fought about it. She saw Liz show him her glowing hands and felt both of their fear. Finally, she felt Max’s pain at finding out that Liz had left for boarding school.
As they both pulled away, they each felt different things. Shannon knew that going out with Max, for any reason, was a mistake. He was still unsure of where he stood with Liz and they had been through too much for it to be over that easily. She also knew that she might be setting herself up for heartache all over again.
Max was floored by the overwhelming feelings that the flashes he received had brought up inside him. He didn’t know what it all meant, but he did know that he wanted to explore those feelings more. How to do that was the question. What if it turned out that he really did still love Liz and it broke Shannon’s heart? He would lose her friendship, her trust, and Michael as well.
“Well, I guess I’ll let you get to work,” he said, stepping back.
Shannon couldn’t speak so she only nodded. Then she walked away from him, calling to him over her shoulder. “Let me know if you need any help with either Michael or Isabel later,” she told him.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Brody Davis walked into the Crashdown and looked around. Not seeing Maria, he sat at the counter on a stool and waited, hoping she was just in the back or in the kitchen. He picked up a menu and began scanning it even though he would probably just get the usual.
“Hi, my name is Shannon and I’ll be waiting on you tonight. Can I start you off with something to drink?” she asked, coming over to Brody.
“Actually, I’m looking for Maria. Is she here? She usually waits on me,” Brody said nervously. He knew that Maria had left town but he had heard she was back and he needed to talk to a friend.
“Oh, I’m sorry but Maria is off tonight. She worked the day shift. Can I get you anything or can I give her a message?” Shannon asked him.
Brody’s face fell; he had been hoping to talk to her. “Yeah, can I get a Galaxy Sub with Pepper jack cheese to go please?” he asked quietly.
“Sure,” she told him. After placing the order with Jose, she walked back over to him and studied him carefully. “Are you ok?”
His head snapped up and he gave her a small smile. “Yeah, I’ll survive,” he answered. Then under his breath he added, “I always do.”
Shannon went to wait on a couple that had just walked in, keeping an eye on Brody. He seemed like a nice guy but she hadn’t seen him before. She wondered if he was a friend of Maria’s from New York. Seeing that his order was ready, she went to get it out of the window and brought it over to him.
“Here ya go. One Galaxy Sub with Pepper jack cheese to go. Did you want something to drink with that?” she asked, packing it into a bag with a piece of Men in Blackberry Pie.
Brody shook his head. “No thanks. Can you just give Maria a message for me? Can you tell her that Brody said that it’s happening again and I would really like to talk to her about it? She said that I could talk to her any time about what’s happening to me,” he asked.
“Um, sure. Will she know what you’re talking about?” she asked him. He nodded. “Ok, then, you are good to go, and I threw in a piece of pie on the house.”
He paid for his dinner and left, thanking her for the pie. Shannon watched him walk out, still curious about him. What made him walk like he had only hours to live? Who was he? How did he know Maria? What did he mean this had happened before? Shannon was just about to call over at Michael’s or Isabel’s to try and find Maria, but before she could, they were suddenly swamped with people.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Shannon took a deep breath and blew it out. It was 10 o’clock and she was beat. The crowd hadn’t let up until just a few minutes ago when the last two couples had finally left. She was now refilling all the condiment containers and she was the only one left closing with Jeff who was currently cleaning the grill.
“All right, Shannon, I’m finished in the kitchen. Do you need any help up here?” Jeff asked, coming out of the back.
“No, I’m almost done and then I’m headed home. You can go on up to Nancy, Jeff,” Shannon told him with a smile.
Jeff looked around the café. “No one is here to give you a ride home?” he asked surprised. Usually, Shannon got a ride home from Maria, Michael, Max, or Isabel. Even Kyle and Jim had given her rides from time to time.
“Um, actually, I was going to walk home,” she answered. She had forgotten all about calling someone for a ride and she didn’t want to disturb anyone now.
“That’s not a good idea, Shannon. It’s really dark and it’s a long way to where you’re staying,” Jeff said concerned. Shannon had become like a second daughter to him and ever since the stabbing behind the café, he worried about his employees. “Let me grab a jacket and I’ll drive you home,” he told her, heading for the back room.
“Oh, Jeff, that’s really not necessary…” Shannon started to protest. But she didn’t get to finish because she was interrupted by a tapping on the front door.
All the shades were pulled down over the glass in the front so Jeff went over to see who was at the door. Opening the door, he ushered the person on the other side of the door inside. Max stepped inside. “Uh, I’m here to pick up Shannon,” he mumbled uncomfortably. He gave her a small smile.
Shannon smiled back at him and then smiled bigger at Jeff. “See, I told you that wouldn’t be necessary. One of them would have remembered to come after me. I would have thought it would be Michael, though. Thanks for coming to get me, Max,” she said.
Jeff studied her for a moment. “You know, you and Michael have gotten awfully close lately. He isn’t fooling around on Maria with you is he?” he asked.
“What?! No, that’s gross!” Shannon said, wrinkling her nose and sticking her tongue out in disgust.
Jeff laughed at her expression. “Good, because as much as I like you, Maria is like a daughter to me. I’d hate to see her hurt. So what exactly is going on between you and Michael?” he asked, curious. Max squirmed like a little kid. If Jeff would be upset at Maria’s heart getting broken, how must he feel about Liz’s heart being broken?
Shannon shrugged and smiled mischievously. “He’s my brother, Jeff,” she answered simply. She grabbed the last two sugar containers and placed them on the tables, leaving a stunned Jeff to head upstairs.
As she started stacking the chairs on the table, Max picked up a chair to help. “What are you doing here, Max?” she sighed.
“I’m here to give you a ride home,” he answered confused. He picked up another chair and placed it on a table.
Shannon snorted softly. “Right, give me a ride home. Ok, I give,” she muttered. Then she took a deep breath and looked at him. “Do you know anyone named Brody Davis?”
Max nodded at her. “Yeah, he bought the UFO center from Milton a little while after Tess arrived. Why?”
“He was in here asking to speak to Maria. He bought a Galaxy Sub with Pepper Jack cheese and gave me a message to give Maria,” Shannon recounted.
Max chuckled at that. “Yeah, he developed a little bit of a crush on Maria. He’s a good guy, if a bit strange. Did we tell you that one of the aliens at the summit meeting in New York used his body?”
Shannon’s head shot over to his direction. “What?!” she asked sharply. When Max repeated his words, she quickly put the last chair up on the table, grabbed her purse and started dragging Max out the door. “We have to go. We have to find Brody!” she insisted.
“Why?” Max asked confused.
They headed for his car and Shannon glared at him. “You are going to tell me everything that has happened since you four hatched and soon. I don’t know if you left out a lot of details for time’s sake, because you didn’t think they were important, or because you didn’t trust me. The bottom line, Max, is that I want to know everything, to protect myself, to protect you, to protect my best friend, to protect my brother, and finally to protect my people,” she ground out between clenched teeth. She jumped into the passenger seat, took off the antennae headband and threw it in the back seat angrily.
Max stood there staring at her in shock. Then he shook his head and jumped into the driver’s seat, starting the car. “What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly so angry with us?” he asked.
“Because you haven’t told me everything and I’ve held nothing back from you so far. I know that I haven’t had time to tell you everything that happened a lifetime ago, but you all had plenty of time to tell me everything that happened in the past few years since you saved Liz’s life. Who is the alien that takes control of Brody? How many times has he done it?” Shannon asked, switching back to the problem at hand.
“Um, Larek…Larek is the alien that uses Brody’s body. As for how many times he’s done it, I couldn’t say for sure. The last time we were trying to establish contact with home and tried to use him to do it, but we didn’t know what we were doing and almost caused his heart to stop,” Max answered. “Shannon, I’m sorry that we left things out in what we told you, but we only told you what we thought were the important things. If we do the memory sharing, you’ll know everything anyway.”
But Shannon hadn’t heard a word past the name Larek. He was alive and well! She closed her eyes against the tears of happiness at the news. She was so afraid that he would do something rash. “Larek is alive,” she said happily and aloud to reassure herself.
At the tone in her voice, Max looked at her sharply. What did Larek mean to her? Why did his chest tighten in fear at the thought that she might care about him? “You know Larek?” he asked.
“You knew him too, once upon a time. I’m glad he’s ok,” she said quietly. “I’m also glad to know that it’s him that is using Brody. He won’t overdo it and we can definitely trust him.”
Max wanted to believe her but this overwhelming sense of jealousy was clouding his judgment. For the first time since he had met Larek, he wondered just where his loyalties lay. Clearing his throat, he decided to change the subject. “Isabel wants to talk to you when you get home,” he told her.
“Is she feeling better?” Shannon asked, concern for her best friend rising to the front of her thoughts.
“Physically, yeah, but Jesse called earlier this evening, and she locked herself in her room for an hour afterwards, saying that she didn’t want to talk about it. Then she came out and refused to discuss it, claiming that she only wanted to talk to her sister. She said you would understand better than Michael or I would, which is probably true,” he told her.
“Well, I hope she won’t mind waiting to talk until after I get a shower to wash off all the food spills and smell,” Shannon said. “I feel disgusting when I get done working.”
Max looked over at her and looked her up and down. “I think you look beautiful,” he told her truthfully.
Shannon turned her neck to crack it a couple of times and then looked into Max’s eyes. He seemed really sincere. Rolling her eyes at him and grinning, she told him, “Then you have some strange tastes, Max Evans.” Before he could say anything else, she added softly and almost pleadingly, “Just take me home, Max.”
Last edited by littleroswell on Wed Jul 30, 2003 9:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Ok, here is part 17. Enjoy!
Beth
Part 17
“Isabel?” Shannon called as she walked into the house as Max drove away. He had offered to come inside to help talk with Isabel, but Shannon had sent him on his way, sure that Isabel wouldn’t open up with her brother around. “Isabel, are you home?” she called again.
“Shannon, I’m so glad you’re here!” Kyle said, coming from the kitchen. “Isabel won’t talk to me but she didn’t want to be alone and I ran out of quotes about Buddha on my pocket card. Maybe she’ll talk to you.”
“Where is she?” Shannon asked him quietly. She sat her sweater, purse, and headband in a nearby chair and kicked her shoes off.
“She just went back to the bathroom, or so she said,” Kyle answered. “I’ve got to go home to get some sleep! I want the first shot at Jesse when he comes back,” he grumbled as he grabbed his jacket.
“See ya later, Kyle,” Shannon told him, patting his shoulder as he moved past her.
“Yeah,” he sighed as he opened the front door. Then he turned back. “I really wish she would have opened up to me. Isabel and I have become close ever since Alex died.”
Shannon smiled at him. “She’ll come around, Kyle. Sometimes a woman just needs another woman to talk to,” she said softly.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Maria and Liz always had each other. I’m glad that Isabel has you,” he shrugged. Then he said goodnight and left.
Shannon sighed and walked towards her bedroom. She thought about getting a shower but as she heard the toilet flush in Isabel’s own bathroom, she knew that her friend would want to talk. “Well, at least I can change out of this uniform,” she muttered. Throwing on some comfy sweat pants and a large t-shirt, she exited her room and headed for the kitchen again.
By the time she had two pieces of cheesecake sliced and sat on the table, Isabel had made her way to the kitchen. “Kyle?” she called as she opened the door. “Oh, Shannon, I didn’t hear you come in. Where did Kyle go?” her friend asked, as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
“He went home to get some sleep. I cut us some cheesecake. The Tabasco is on the table,” Shannon answered, handing Isabel one of the plates with the pie on it. Isabel thanked her for the cake and sat down at the table to eat it. “So I heard Jesse called earlier; do you want to talk about it?”
Automatically stiffening up, Isabel was silent for a minute. “I don’t know if I do or not. I mean, it really wasn’t anything that we didn’t talk about earlier. He simply called to let me know that he might not be back for a couple of weeks but that I could reach him on his cell phone if it was an emergency, but only if it was an emergency because he wanted this time to think. We argued again a bit but it was over the same stuff we talked about before he left,” Isabel said.
Shannon took the seat across from her friend and studied her for a minute, working on her own piece of cheesecake. “There’s something else that is bothering you about this isn’t there?” she asked knowingly. “I see through you, Isabel; you never could hide much from me, even on Antar.”
Isabel sighed. “Yes, there is another part to this that is bothering me. This is going to sound terrible but ever since Jesse and I got married, I’ve questioned why I was rushing into it. I loved Alex but didn’t acknowledge it, even to myself, until after he was dead. Then he was haunting me. I saw him everywhere…carried on long conversations with him, even when I dated Jesse. The only time he disappeared was when I accepted Jesse’s marriage proposal. I just wonder if I really loved Jesse when I married him or if I loved the idea of having someone to love and having a normal human life.”
Jumping up, Isabel started pacing in her frustration. “Then there’s another voice inside me that says that I’m being ridiculous…that of course I love Jesse. I know that I’m scared of losing him. But why am I scared of that? Is it because I love him? Is it fear over him turning us into the authorities? Or is it fear over being rejected because I’m an alien? I just don’t know,” she said.
“Isabel, you’re the only one who can answer those questions. I do think that Jesse should have had all the facts before making a life altering decision, but I have no doubt that my brother and yours bullied you into keeping quiet. Then again, you’ve always had your own mind so that wouldn’t stop you unless you believed their arguments or had your own reasons for not telling him. You are the only one that can answer these questions, Isa. However, I will make one suggestion. I think that you will be fine no matter what Jesse decides, but I do believe that his decision will help you answer your questions. I suggest that you wait to find out what he decides about all this before you jump to any rash decisions or conclusions,” Shannon told her friend seriously.
Throughout Shannon’s words, Isabel had listened intently and nodded. Her friend did know her well. “That’s probably the best thing right now. I just know that no matter what my reasons were, I don’t want to feel like I’m being rejected because I’m an alien.”
Shannon stood up and hugged her friend. “You’re going to be ok, Isabel, I promise. If I have anything to say about it, you’ll be just fine. Now, I’m going to take a shower and go to bed. I’m so tired! Oh, and tomorrow you, Max, Michael, and Maria are going to go back over your story and leave in all the details. Larek may be paying us a visit soon and I’d like to have all the facts before we hear from him.”
“Larek? How do you know Larek? He’s coming here?” Isabel asked, thrown for a loop.
“Of course I know Larek. We’ve known him almost as long as we’ve known each other. No, he’s not really coming here. I just meant that Brody said that ‘it was happening again’ and Max told me that Larek uses his body to talk to us, so I can only assume that that’s what he meant,” Shannon said. Then she explained about Brody coming into the Crashdown.
“I wonder what he has to say to us,” Isabel wondered aloud as they headed to their separate rooms for the night. “Thanks for talking with me, Shannon, about Jesse, I mean.”
“That’s what friends are for, Isabel,” Shannon said and shrugged. “Good night.”
* * * * * * * * * *
The next morning, everyone was gathered in Isabel’s living room, going back over the story of Max, Isabel, Michael, and eventually Tess. This time, they didn’t leave anything out that they could think of. By the time they finished, Shannon’s head was spinning. She was holding her head in her hands and shaking it back and forth.
“There are so many things wrong with that story that I don’t know where to begin,” she muttered, massaging her temples. “Ok, first of all, I don’t understand why they told you that you were a traitor, Isabel. Nothing could be further from the truth. You hated Kivar just as much as the rest of us and fought right along with the others against his forces. For some reason, I think that there is something to what they are saying, though, and that it has something to do with how we all died. Unfortunately, those memories are a little fuzzy. Most of my memories are focusing just fine but the week before our deaths and our deaths themselves are still blurry.
“Then there’s the whole story about Ava…Tess being pregnant with Max’s son. I don’t know what to say about that. The fact that she killed someone is really shocking; I never really liked Ava, but I wouldn’t have thought her a traitor. I can’t believe that you and Liz held up a convenience store to find that ship. You found one protector that you knew as Nesedo and Ed Harding that betrayed you to the skins and another protector who is the Hollywood producer Kal Langley that now hates you. There’s another set of you four out there somewhere. Does that mean that there’s another clone of me too?” Shannon rattled. “There’s just so much that is hard to sort through.”
“Well, it may take some time to let it all soak in. I can’t believe that you have your memories at all. Why weren’t you sent to the same area that we were? Where did your ship end up? Why do you have your memories and we don’t?” Max asked aloud.
“I never found my ship, but since your ship crashed, I can only think that one of two things happened. I either was on that ship and my pod was ejected before the ship crashed and I ended up in Arizona, or I had my own ship and it was sent where you were supposed to end up. I don’t know but maybe we can ask Larek when he contacts us,” Shannon speculated. “I still can’t believe everything that you guys went through. I can’t believe how much you held back about Hank, Michael. Did you think I wouldn’t understand? I always felt your pain, even though I didn’t know what it was, when I was small.”
“I only wanted to keep that pain from you as my sister. It’s in the past and I wanted to keep it that way. I’m still dealing with the repercussions of living with that monster and I’ve come a long way but I don’t want people’s pity over it,” Michael said, hugging his sister. “It’s still hard to really know that I have a sister…family that I can lean on. I’ve always thought of Max and Isabel as my family but with you it’s different because you really are my family and you don’t seem like a screw up so maybe there’s hope for me after all.” He smirked at his words.
“You aren’t a screw up, Michael,” Maria corrected him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
“Max, can we go back over everything that happened at the summit meeting in New York? I can’t believe that Larek would side with the others against you!” Shannon requested.
Max obliged by going over everything that had happened word for word. Shannon listened thoughtfully; she especially paid attention to who was representing each of the other planets. Larek was obviously representing her home planet of Plutark. Kathana was from the planet Cruslar, Shannon remembered. Max was there as representative of Antar obviously. Sero was a Rodsharian name, and Hanar must have been representing Winsel and the new royal family there. It was not surprising that Nicholas had claimed that Kivar represented Antar since he was the one trying to overtake the throne of the whole kingdom.
“Hanar’s responses would indicate that he was on Kivar’s side of the issue, unless he was just trying to really gain peace. I can’t believe that anyone would believe that Kivar might have the people’s best interests at heart with the way he’s treated everyone. Threats, imprisonment, executions, destroying millions of innocent people, all of that is just the nice stuff he’s done. The fact that he kept the location of the granolith a secret could be a big point in our favor. That means he can’t be trusted. If what Hanar said was true that Kathana has initiated attacks on Kivar, she could be on our side. I wish I had been there!” Shannon thought aloud.
“I wish you had too. Then maybe I would have known what was going on better,” Max sighed.
“I don’t understand why Ava…I mean Tess would be so supportive of you and your decisions if she was on their side? That doesn’t make much sense, unless she was trying to win your trust or use some kind of reverse psychology. I also don’t understand how Larek could treat you like he did. He was representing my planet and our family has always backed the Antarian throne. He seemed to be nicer about it than the others but he still didn’t back you up. I’ll have to reprimand him for that,” she commented.
“Was the other stuff he said true? I mean about being Max’s, or Zan’s rather, friend and being there through all that stuff? Was Zan really trying to change too much? Was he a bad king?” Isabel asked.
“Yes, Larek and Zan were good friends. As Larek was one of our most trusted servants, our family often sent him to work with Zan. Yes, he was there for the coronation, the marriage of Zan and Ava, and he was there through Zan’s bad decisions as well as the good. Zan seemed to change after he was married. He had always had some good ideas but like Larek said, change takes time. Some people weren’t willing to wait for time and others couldn’t handle the pace that Zan wanted to make the changes. Kivar thought it was his chance. That doesn’t mean that he had the right or that you were a bad king,” Shannon reassured them.
The front door opened and Brody walked into the living room. “Brody?” Maria questioned, standing up with the others.
“Actually, it’s Larek. I have some important matters to discuss with all of you,” Larek said as he closed the front door again and took a seat.
“Yeah, I for one have a few issues to discuss with you as well, Larek,” Max said stepping forward.
Shannon moved to Max’s side and placed a hand on his arm. “Zan…I’m sorry, Max, that’s not going to help anyone or anything.”
“Who is she? I don’t remember seeing her with you before,” Larek asked warily.
“You can’t tell?” Michael asked, enjoying that he knew something that this alien being didn’t. “She’s my sister.”
Larek’s eyes widened as much as was possible and a look of awe was on his face. “Shauna?” he whispered. He rose and crossed over to her. “Is it really you?”
“Hello, Larek. It’s been a long time, my friend,” Shannon answered with a beautiful smile.
“Praise the creator! We had given up all hope,” Larek said, dropping to his knees in front of Shannon and kissing her hands. “Words can’t express my happiness at seeing you alive, your majesty.”
Beth
Part 17
“Isabel?” Shannon called as she walked into the house as Max drove away. He had offered to come inside to help talk with Isabel, but Shannon had sent him on his way, sure that Isabel wouldn’t open up with her brother around. “Isabel, are you home?” she called again.
“Shannon, I’m so glad you’re here!” Kyle said, coming from the kitchen. “Isabel won’t talk to me but she didn’t want to be alone and I ran out of quotes about Buddha on my pocket card. Maybe she’ll talk to you.”
“Where is she?” Shannon asked him quietly. She sat her sweater, purse, and headband in a nearby chair and kicked her shoes off.
“She just went back to the bathroom, or so she said,” Kyle answered. “I’ve got to go home to get some sleep! I want the first shot at Jesse when he comes back,” he grumbled as he grabbed his jacket.
“See ya later, Kyle,” Shannon told him, patting his shoulder as he moved past her.
“Yeah,” he sighed as he opened the front door. Then he turned back. “I really wish she would have opened up to me. Isabel and I have become close ever since Alex died.”
Shannon smiled at him. “She’ll come around, Kyle. Sometimes a woman just needs another woman to talk to,” she said softly.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Maria and Liz always had each other. I’m glad that Isabel has you,” he shrugged. Then he said goodnight and left.
Shannon sighed and walked towards her bedroom. She thought about getting a shower but as she heard the toilet flush in Isabel’s own bathroom, she knew that her friend would want to talk. “Well, at least I can change out of this uniform,” she muttered. Throwing on some comfy sweat pants and a large t-shirt, she exited her room and headed for the kitchen again.
By the time she had two pieces of cheesecake sliced and sat on the table, Isabel had made her way to the kitchen. “Kyle?” she called as she opened the door. “Oh, Shannon, I didn’t hear you come in. Where did Kyle go?” her friend asked, as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
“He went home to get some sleep. I cut us some cheesecake. The Tabasco is on the table,” Shannon answered, handing Isabel one of the plates with the pie on it. Isabel thanked her for the cake and sat down at the table to eat it. “So I heard Jesse called earlier; do you want to talk about it?”
Automatically stiffening up, Isabel was silent for a minute. “I don’t know if I do or not. I mean, it really wasn’t anything that we didn’t talk about earlier. He simply called to let me know that he might not be back for a couple of weeks but that I could reach him on his cell phone if it was an emergency, but only if it was an emergency because he wanted this time to think. We argued again a bit but it was over the same stuff we talked about before he left,” Isabel said.
Shannon took the seat across from her friend and studied her for a minute, working on her own piece of cheesecake. “There’s something else that is bothering you about this isn’t there?” she asked knowingly. “I see through you, Isabel; you never could hide much from me, even on Antar.”
Isabel sighed. “Yes, there is another part to this that is bothering me. This is going to sound terrible but ever since Jesse and I got married, I’ve questioned why I was rushing into it. I loved Alex but didn’t acknowledge it, even to myself, until after he was dead. Then he was haunting me. I saw him everywhere…carried on long conversations with him, even when I dated Jesse. The only time he disappeared was when I accepted Jesse’s marriage proposal. I just wonder if I really loved Jesse when I married him or if I loved the idea of having someone to love and having a normal human life.”
Jumping up, Isabel started pacing in her frustration. “Then there’s another voice inside me that says that I’m being ridiculous…that of course I love Jesse. I know that I’m scared of losing him. But why am I scared of that? Is it because I love him? Is it fear over him turning us into the authorities? Or is it fear over being rejected because I’m an alien? I just don’t know,” she said.
“Isabel, you’re the only one who can answer those questions. I do think that Jesse should have had all the facts before making a life altering decision, but I have no doubt that my brother and yours bullied you into keeping quiet. Then again, you’ve always had your own mind so that wouldn’t stop you unless you believed their arguments or had your own reasons for not telling him. You are the only one that can answer these questions, Isa. However, I will make one suggestion. I think that you will be fine no matter what Jesse decides, but I do believe that his decision will help you answer your questions. I suggest that you wait to find out what he decides about all this before you jump to any rash decisions or conclusions,” Shannon told her friend seriously.
Throughout Shannon’s words, Isabel had listened intently and nodded. Her friend did know her well. “That’s probably the best thing right now. I just know that no matter what my reasons were, I don’t want to feel like I’m being rejected because I’m an alien.”
Shannon stood up and hugged her friend. “You’re going to be ok, Isabel, I promise. If I have anything to say about it, you’ll be just fine. Now, I’m going to take a shower and go to bed. I’m so tired! Oh, and tomorrow you, Max, Michael, and Maria are going to go back over your story and leave in all the details. Larek may be paying us a visit soon and I’d like to have all the facts before we hear from him.”
“Larek? How do you know Larek? He’s coming here?” Isabel asked, thrown for a loop.
“Of course I know Larek. We’ve known him almost as long as we’ve known each other. No, he’s not really coming here. I just meant that Brody said that ‘it was happening again’ and Max told me that Larek uses his body to talk to us, so I can only assume that that’s what he meant,” Shannon said. Then she explained about Brody coming into the Crashdown.
“I wonder what he has to say to us,” Isabel wondered aloud as they headed to their separate rooms for the night. “Thanks for talking with me, Shannon, about Jesse, I mean.”
“That’s what friends are for, Isabel,” Shannon said and shrugged. “Good night.”
* * * * * * * * * *
The next morning, everyone was gathered in Isabel’s living room, going back over the story of Max, Isabel, Michael, and eventually Tess. This time, they didn’t leave anything out that they could think of. By the time they finished, Shannon’s head was spinning. She was holding her head in her hands and shaking it back and forth.
“There are so many things wrong with that story that I don’t know where to begin,” she muttered, massaging her temples. “Ok, first of all, I don’t understand why they told you that you were a traitor, Isabel. Nothing could be further from the truth. You hated Kivar just as much as the rest of us and fought right along with the others against his forces. For some reason, I think that there is something to what they are saying, though, and that it has something to do with how we all died. Unfortunately, those memories are a little fuzzy. Most of my memories are focusing just fine but the week before our deaths and our deaths themselves are still blurry.
“Then there’s the whole story about Ava…Tess being pregnant with Max’s son. I don’t know what to say about that. The fact that she killed someone is really shocking; I never really liked Ava, but I wouldn’t have thought her a traitor. I can’t believe that you and Liz held up a convenience store to find that ship. You found one protector that you knew as Nesedo and Ed Harding that betrayed you to the skins and another protector who is the Hollywood producer Kal Langley that now hates you. There’s another set of you four out there somewhere. Does that mean that there’s another clone of me too?” Shannon rattled. “There’s just so much that is hard to sort through.”
“Well, it may take some time to let it all soak in. I can’t believe that you have your memories at all. Why weren’t you sent to the same area that we were? Where did your ship end up? Why do you have your memories and we don’t?” Max asked aloud.
“I never found my ship, but since your ship crashed, I can only think that one of two things happened. I either was on that ship and my pod was ejected before the ship crashed and I ended up in Arizona, or I had my own ship and it was sent where you were supposed to end up. I don’t know but maybe we can ask Larek when he contacts us,” Shannon speculated. “I still can’t believe everything that you guys went through. I can’t believe how much you held back about Hank, Michael. Did you think I wouldn’t understand? I always felt your pain, even though I didn’t know what it was, when I was small.”
“I only wanted to keep that pain from you as my sister. It’s in the past and I wanted to keep it that way. I’m still dealing with the repercussions of living with that monster and I’ve come a long way but I don’t want people’s pity over it,” Michael said, hugging his sister. “It’s still hard to really know that I have a sister…family that I can lean on. I’ve always thought of Max and Isabel as my family but with you it’s different because you really are my family and you don’t seem like a screw up so maybe there’s hope for me after all.” He smirked at his words.
“You aren’t a screw up, Michael,” Maria corrected him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
“Max, can we go back over everything that happened at the summit meeting in New York? I can’t believe that Larek would side with the others against you!” Shannon requested.
Max obliged by going over everything that had happened word for word. Shannon listened thoughtfully; she especially paid attention to who was representing each of the other planets. Larek was obviously representing her home planet of Plutark. Kathana was from the planet Cruslar, Shannon remembered. Max was there as representative of Antar obviously. Sero was a Rodsharian name, and Hanar must have been representing Winsel and the new royal family there. It was not surprising that Nicholas had claimed that Kivar represented Antar since he was the one trying to overtake the throne of the whole kingdom.
“Hanar’s responses would indicate that he was on Kivar’s side of the issue, unless he was just trying to really gain peace. I can’t believe that anyone would believe that Kivar might have the people’s best interests at heart with the way he’s treated everyone. Threats, imprisonment, executions, destroying millions of innocent people, all of that is just the nice stuff he’s done. The fact that he kept the location of the granolith a secret could be a big point in our favor. That means he can’t be trusted. If what Hanar said was true that Kathana has initiated attacks on Kivar, she could be on our side. I wish I had been there!” Shannon thought aloud.
“I wish you had too. Then maybe I would have known what was going on better,” Max sighed.
“I don’t understand why Ava…I mean Tess would be so supportive of you and your decisions if she was on their side? That doesn’t make much sense, unless she was trying to win your trust or use some kind of reverse psychology. I also don’t understand how Larek could treat you like he did. He was representing my planet and our family has always backed the Antarian throne. He seemed to be nicer about it than the others but he still didn’t back you up. I’ll have to reprimand him for that,” she commented.
“Was the other stuff he said true? I mean about being Max’s, or Zan’s rather, friend and being there through all that stuff? Was Zan really trying to change too much? Was he a bad king?” Isabel asked.
“Yes, Larek and Zan were good friends. As Larek was one of our most trusted servants, our family often sent him to work with Zan. Yes, he was there for the coronation, the marriage of Zan and Ava, and he was there through Zan’s bad decisions as well as the good. Zan seemed to change after he was married. He had always had some good ideas but like Larek said, change takes time. Some people weren’t willing to wait for time and others couldn’t handle the pace that Zan wanted to make the changes. Kivar thought it was his chance. That doesn’t mean that he had the right or that you were a bad king,” Shannon reassured them.
The front door opened and Brody walked into the living room. “Brody?” Maria questioned, standing up with the others.
“Actually, it’s Larek. I have some important matters to discuss with all of you,” Larek said as he closed the front door again and took a seat.
“Yeah, I for one have a few issues to discuss with you as well, Larek,” Max said stepping forward.
Shannon moved to Max’s side and placed a hand on his arm. “Zan…I’m sorry, Max, that’s not going to help anyone or anything.”
“Who is she? I don’t remember seeing her with you before,” Larek asked warily.
“You can’t tell?” Michael asked, enjoying that he knew something that this alien being didn’t. “She’s my sister.”
Larek’s eyes widened as much as was possible and a look of awe was on his face. “Shauna?” he whispered. He rose and crossed over to her. “Is it really you?”
“Hello, Larek. It’s been a long time, my friend,” Shannon answered with a beautiful smile.
“Praise the creator! We had given up all hope,” Larek said, dropping to his knees in front of Shannon and kissing her hands. “Words can’t express my happiness at seeing you alive, your majesty.”
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
You guys have been so patient with me and I can't thank you enough! Thank you for continuing to check in to see if I've updated and thank you for the bumps, especially Shama! You rock, girl! This part is about 7 Word typed pages and has a lot of talking in it but hopefully, it will help to clear up some holes and also show you where I'm going with this story a bit. Please remember to let me know what you think. Feedback is the only thing that keeps me writing sometimes...so if you want more, ask!
Beth
Part 18
“Larek, get up…you’re embarrassing me,” Shannon chuckled. “But it is good to see you…or at least talk to you. Brody’s body rather suits you.”
Someone cleared their throat and Shannon realized that the others were waiting for some explanations from Larek. He rose from his knees and it was then that Michael realized what he had just called Shannon. “Wait a minute! Did you just call Shannon ‘Your Majesty’?” he asked.
Shannon’s head jerked to Larek’s face in fear, and he hung his head. “I didn’t mean to inform you that way, Shauna. Forgive me, but I did call you by that title.”
“Why? Larek, why did you use that title?” Shannon asked already upset. In her heart she knew why he had. When he only answered with a look of pain, she paled and dropped onto the nearest chair. “Moshere?” she asked. Larek nodded slowly and still wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Larek, please tell me not Peardre too!” Larek nodded again and Shannon burst into tears.
“What? What’s going on? What are they talking about?” Maria asked in a panic.
“No!” Michael roared. “You are not telling me that the only parents I’ve ever had…the ones I’ve dreamed of ever since I emerged from that pod, the ones that I was told I had, have been snatched away from me before I could even meet them!”
Realization dawned on Maria and she ran over to Michael who held onto her for dear life. Kyle and Max looked uncomfortable, Larek looked like he wanted to comfort Shannon, but Isabel was already hugging her friend. “What was that that she called them?” Kyle asked.
“Those were the antarian words for mother and father,” Larek answered. “I am sorry to have brought that sad news with me but it has been some time since they passed and I didn’t think about it when I saw Shauna. I am so sorry, Rath, Shauna.”
Shannon tried to pull herself together. “I’ll have to grieve on my own time. For now, there are important matters to discuss and not much time to do it in. Larek, I want to know why you didn’t support Zan…er, Max at the summit meeting. I thought you of all people would know better about representing Plutark.” She wiped her face a couple of times with her hand and Isabel handed her the tissue box that sat on the coffee table.
Maria and Kyle exchanged a look and suddenly everyone with the exception of Michael, Larek, and Shannon all seemed to be thinking the same thing. This was why the people of Shannon’s line, and Shannon in particular, were rulers. How many people could push the news of the death of both of their parents to the side for the good of their people? Michael tried to follow his sister’s example; if she could push her grief until later, remembering those great parents, then so could he.
Larek looked appalled and surprised. “I thought he would know what I was doing! Kathana and I have been together in support of the throne from the beginning and Sero’s family has been supporting the rightful line of Antar with us as well. Hanar is a fairly new ruler and we wanted to see where his loyalties lie. Kathana, Sero, and I all knew that the summit as an attempt for peace was a joke, a farce. I am sorry that Zan didn’t see through our acting. I assure you, Shauna, my loyalties are still completely intact and I’ve been handling things in the way that your family would.”
“So all of that bickering and placing blame was a part of an acted scene to test the loyalties of Hanar?” Max asked. “What about that speech after everyone except Tess and I had left the room? What about Kathana telling me that I had made a lot of enemies by turning down Khivar’s offer?”
“Kathana had to make it look like she was there only for the sake of peace. I was known as a friend to your family and so if I had completely sided with you or against you, I know that it would be suspicious. However, if I seemed disappointed in you, then maybe Khivar would leave well enough alone for the time being. If anyone was watching they were suppose to think that I was thinking of siding with Khivar for peace. I promise you that nothing could be further from the truth. There are still three planets’ rulers that are behind you completely,” Larek explained.
“Why would anyone be supporting Khivar anyway? I thought everyone knew what kind of a person he really was,” Shannon asked.
“For one thing, you know how easily he twisted things, words, actions…whatever he could to make someone else look bad. Then too many of the things that we found out he was doing was hidden from a lot of people. He always turned things that Zan tried to do around to make him look bad. But one of the biggest things was that he was the one that insisted on recreating the royal four,” Larek recounted.
“Khivar was the one who wanted the royal four cloned?!” Shannon cried.
“Wait! I thought he was the one who was trying to get the throne from Max. Why would he want to recreate his enemies?” Kyle asked for everyone.
“I’ve never understood it. That was before we were in an all out war but even then we were at war, since he had challenged Zan’s rulership,” Larek shook his head.
“So why make two sets? Was one set not right?” Michael asked.
“I don’t follow. What do you mean ‘two sets’?” Larek asked.
Everyone looked at each other with questioning expressions on their faces. Didn’t Larek know about the duplicates? After all, Lonnie and Rath were the ones at the summit meeting, not Isabel and Michael. Larek looked around at each of them for an answer, stopping a little longer on Shannon, Michael and Isabel.
“There were two sets of us sent here…well to earth anyway. One set was in New York and the other is us. That’s how we found out about the summit. Tess and I went with Lonnie and Rath to the summit but I had thought that Michael and Isabel knew about it. It turns out that Lonnie and Rath posed as Michael and Isabel and Ava stayed here with Liz and the others,” Max told him. He told them everything he knew about the duplicates and Larek looked more and more confused.
“Well, that explains why you two looked so different that time from the other times I had seen you,” he said, nodding at Michael and Isabel. “But Khivar never said anything about a second set. He announced when the pods were ready and said that to show impartiality to any of the planets and to show that he could be trusted to allow the beloved rulers to grow again, he said he would send them to earth. However, the queen mother wasn’t sure she trusted him so she had several of her most trusted guards load the granolith on the ship while everyone slept and hide it. She also sent two of those guards as protectors. Khivar sent two others of his own men, and it was only after the ship was sent and it was reported that you were safe did the queen mother admit to sending the granolith with you. Khivar was furious and the people weren’t sure that it was a wise idea but there was nothing to be done by then because we got news about the crash. Everyone started blaming each other for the crash. Many thought that Khivar had set it up to crash on purpose. So where are the others?”
“They ended up in New York and they have their memories of our life on Antar. But Lonnie and Rath killed their Zan and they tried to kill Max,” Isabel answered. “Why would they have their memories and we don’t? Why would they want to betray Max…or Zan?”
Larek shook his head in confusion. “I don’t know. Maybe the men that worked on recreating you weren’t sure which set would survive.”
Shannon looked thoughtful. “Or maybe Khivar tried to have them manipulated,” she commented. At everyone’s questioning expressions, she continued. “Think about it. He had two sets created, one without any memory of who they are and the other who are completely callous and selfish enough to kill one of their own. Maybe he had all of you created that way on purpose so that he could get the throne with the approval of all the people. If one Zan didn’t remember anything about it, he wouldn’t even know how to be a king, and as for the other ones, if they are willing to even betray one of their own group, they would be too violent to be rulers of 5 planets.”
“That would make sense. I’ll have a couple of our men on it and see what we can find out,” Larek nodded.
“So what about me? Did he have me recreated as well? Are there two of me in this world?” Shannon asked.
Larek shook his head. “No, your parents and I had you recreated. You had supposedly gone to Antar to visit with Vilondra and disappeared. We found you in a secret passageway after the funerals. When you didn’t show for them, we knew something was wrong. That’s why you were sent in a separate ship. Until you were found, Khivar tried to pin the deaths of the other four on you. No one really believed it but he kept insisting.”
“Where were Zan, Vilondra, and the others found? How were they killed?” Kyle asked.
“They were all found in a small conference room, in various positions. Why you were all there together is anyone’s guess. The strange thing is that the passageway where Shauna was found is connected to that room and her body was in such a position that she was running away from that conference room,” Larek explained.
Shannon had her eyes closed at that, trying to picture what might have happened. “That passageway was secret; only royalty and certain servants were even given the knowledge of its existence. Maybe that would eliminate who actually killed you four…or at least just me. I wish I could remember that as well as I remember other things about our past.”
“Maybe you witnessed the others being killed and tried to run away to tell someone and whoever did it followed you and killed you in that passageway,” Maria speculated.
Max nodded. “That would make sense. Just see what you can find out, Larek.”
“How much longer do you have before you have to get Brody back to where you found him and leave him?” Shannon asked.
“Not long. I’d better tell you what I came to tell you in the first place. Ava has vanished with your son,” Larek announced.
Everyone gasped and Max looked a little pale. Shannon reached out to take his hand in hers and squeezed it in reassurance. “What do you mean?” he asked, his voice tight.
“We have several spies among Khivar’s men that had reported that Ava was on her way home with your heir. It is a long flight home and Khivar was very impatient to get his hands on them and to see if she had delivered the rest of you as she promised. When he found out that she hadn’t been able to bring you with her, he debated between two ways to go. Either he would kill your heir and have his forces destroy you here or he would raise your son himself to curse the names of Zan, Rath, and Vilondra till the day that he died. Apparently, the voyage home was long enough for Ava to realize that either way, Khivar had no use for her anymore and she was suddenly disposable. Either she didn’t like that particular prospect or she really did have a change of heart. She changed the coordinates of the landing of her ship and she disappeared with her son and the granolith. She’s been on the run ever since. Khivar was furious at her betrayal and has been hunting her relentlessly. He’s gotten close several times but she always manages to stay one step ahead of him,” Larek told them. “What I want to know is, what do you want us to do about it? Do you want us to try to find her first and get her into protection or what?”
Everyone looked to Max. It was really his decision since it was his son that was in danger as much as Tess. He had collapsed onto the nearest chair as Larek had told them about what was happening, still holding on to Shannon’s hand as if it were a lifeline. Michael stepped forward. “I know you want to do what’s best for your son but you might want to consider that this might be a trap. Khivar might suspect some of the men around him might be spies and know that this news could draw them out. Whatever you decide, I’ll back you up, man, but be careful,” he warned his friend.
Max nodded at Michael. “I know. Thanks for the reminder, Michael. Larek, see if you can’t find her first but set up a separate location to keep her if you do find her. You don’t want to lead Khivar’s men straight to your base of operations. Let me know when you get her and my son. I would like to know how he is and what her motives actually are in disappearing with him and the granolith. See if you can’t get that too while you’re at it,” he told Larek.
The others in the room looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. This wasn’t the quiet, shy, unsure Max that they knew. This was a leader who wanted to do what was best for everyone. Michael wasn’t the only one to notice that Shannon and Larek didn’t seem surprised by Max’s capableness; to the contrary, they looked like they expected it. Michael also noticed that Shannon and Max were still holding hands.
Larek bowed to him. “As you wish. I’ll also spread the news far and wide that the queen of Plutark lives. It will lift the people’s spirits. Hopefully, it will strike fear into Khivar. Perhaps we can have a coronation ceremony soon,” he said as he glanced at Shannon.
“I don’t know about the rest of you but my head is spinning. I need something to eat to reenergize my brain. How about pizza?” Kyle suggested.
Everyone said that it sounded like a good idea and Isabel went to place the order. Michael and Maria stepped aside to talk and Kyle went to the restroom. Larek declared that he had to return Brody’s body to where it had been. Shannon followed him to the door and Max watched them.
“It was good to see you, Larek, and I’m so glad you’re safe and taking such good care of things. I hope we’ll be hearing from you often,” Shannon said, opening the door for him.
Larek leaned in and kissed her cheek. “I can’t begin to tell you how my heart soars to see you so alive and well. I didn’t tell the others because I’m not sure if it will work but we’re working on a way to transport all of you home without using a ship. If we find the granolith, it will make it easier but we might not need it. We will have to test it before we use it on all of you, but I wanted you to know that we are working on it. I hope to be able to talk to you again soon. Shauna, I…I think you are even more beautiful than before,” he told her.
Shannon looked down at the floor. “Thank you, Larek, but you’d better go now. We have lots of things to talk about among ourselves. Take care of yourself,” she told him. She knew what he was trying to say and she wasn’t at all sure she wanted him to say it.
After closing the door as Larek left, Shannon rested her forehead on it wearily and sighed. She turned around to find Max watching her curiously. She pushed off the door and walked toward him. “What is it, Max? Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked him.
“I can see why people thought we should be together in our past lives. We made a good team today,” Max began slowly. Shannon waited for him to continue. “But I can’t help but wonder if Larek and Shauna weren’t more than friends. He certainly seemed to care about you,” he finished.
Shannon sighed again and closed her eyes, rubbing her temples with her hands. “Max, first of all, today has been more than just a little stressful for me so if we could save the suspicions for another time, that would be great. Second of all, Larek and Shauna were only friends. I have never loved anyone but Zan. Even that fiancé that ditched me was no comparison. My heart belonged to you and you crushed it so you don’t get the right to be jealous ok?” she told him. “Maybe it would have been better if you had left me in LA. If you’ll excuse me, I need to be alone for a while.” She left a stunned Max standing in the living room as she went to her bedroom and slammed the door. Collapsing on the bed, she cried her heart out. She cried for her past, she cried for her parents’ deaths, and she cried because it looked like history was going to repeat itself on one very hard item…Shannon was falling in love with Max all over again.
Beth
Part 18
“Larek, get up…you’re embarrassing me,” Shannon chuckled. “But it is good to see you…or at least talk to you. Brody’s body rather suits you.”
Someone cleared their throat and Shannon realized that the others were waiting for some explanations from Larek. He rose from his knees and it was then that Michael realized what he had just called Shannon. “Wait a minute! Did you just call Shannon ‘Your Majesty’?” he asked.
Shannon’s head jerked to Larek’s face in fear, and he hung his head. “I didn’t mean to inform you that way, Shauna. Forgive me, but I did call you by that title.”
“Why? Larek, why did you use that title?” Shannon asked already upset. In her heart she knew why he had. When he only answered with a look of pain, she paled and dropped onto the nearest chair. “Moshere?” she asked. Larek nodded slowly and still wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Larek, please tell me not Peardre too!” Larek nodded again and Shannon burst into tears.
“What? What’s going on? What are they talking about?” Maria asked in a panic.
“No!” Michael roared. “You are not telling me that the only parents I’ve ever had…the ones I’ve dreamed of ever since I emerged from that pod, the ones that I was told I had, have been snatched away from me before I could even meet them!”
Realization dawned on Maria and she ran over to Michael who held onto her for dear life. Kyle and Max looked uncomfortable, Larek looked like he wanted to comfort Shannon, but Isabel was already hugging her friend. “What was that that she called them?” Kyle asked.
“Those were the antarian words for mother and father,” Larek answered. “I am sorry to have brought that sad news with me but it has been some time since they passed and I didn’t think about it when I saw Shauna. I am so sorry, Rath, Shauna.”
Shannon tried to pull herself together. “I’ll have to grieve on my own time. For now, there are important matters to discuss and not much time to do it in. Larek, I want to know why you didn’t support Zan…er, Max at the summit meeting. I thought you of all people would know better about representing Plutark.” She wiped her face a couple of times with her hand and Isabel handed her the tissue box that sat on the coffee table.
Maria and Kyle exchanged a look and suddenly everyone with the exception of Michael, Larek, and Shannon all seemed to be thinking the same thing. This was why the people of Shannon’s line, and Shannon in particular, were rulers. How many people could push the news of the death of both of their parents to the side for the good of their people? Michael tried to follow his sister’s example; if she could push her grief until later, remembering those great parents, then so could he.
Larek looked appalled and surprised. “I thought he would know what I was doing! Kathana and I have been together in support of the throne from the beginning and Sero’s family has been supporting the rightful line of Antar with us as well. Hanar is a fairly new ruler and we wanted to see where his loyalties lie. Kathana, Sero, and I all knew that the summit as an attempt for peace was a joke, a farce. I am sorry that Zan didn’t see through our acting. I assure you, Shauna, my loyalties are still completely intact and I’ve been handling things in the way that your family would.”
“So all of that bickering and placing blame was a part of an acted scene to test the loyalties of Hanar?” Max asked. “What about that speech after everyone except Tess and I had left the room? What about Kathana telling me that I had made a lot of enemies by turning down Khivar’s offer?”
“Kathana had to make it look like she was there only for the sake of peace. I was known as a friend to your family and so if I had completely sided with you or against you, I know that it would be suspicious. However, if I seemed disappointed in you, then maybe Khivar would leave well enough alone for the time being. If anyone was watching they were suppose to think that I was thinking of siding with Khivar for peace. I promise you that nothing could be further from the truth. There are still three planets’ rulers that are behind you completely,” Larek explained.
“Why would anyone be supporting Khivar anyway? I thought everyone knew what kind of a person he really was,” Shannon asked.
“For one thing, you know how easily he twisted things, words, actions…whatever he could to make someone else look bad. Then too many of the things that we found out he was doing was hidden from a lot of people. He always turned things that Zan tried to do around to make him look bad. But one of the biggest things was that he was the one that insisted on recreating the royal four,” Larek recounted.
“Khivar was the one who wanted the royal four cloned?!” Shannon cried.
“Wait! I thought he was the one who was trying to get the throne from Max. Why would he want to recreate his enemies?” Kyle asked for everyone.
“I’ve never understood it. That was before we were in an all out war but even then we were at war, since he had challenged Zan’s rulership,” Larek shook his head.
“So why make two sets? Was one set not right?” Michael asked.
“I don’t follow. What do you mean ‘two sets’?” Larek asked.
Everyone looked at each other with questioning expressions on their faces. Didn’t Larek know about the duplicates? After all, Lonnie and Rath were the ones at the summit meeting, not Isabel and Michael. Larek looked around at each of them for an answer, stopping a little longer on Shannon, Michael and Isabel.
“There were two sets of us sent here…well to earth anyway. One set was in New York and the other is us. That’s how we found out about the summit. Tess and I went with Lonnie and Rath to the summit but I had thought that Michael and Isabel knew about it. It turns out that Lonnie and Rath posed as Michael and Isabel and Ava stayed here with Liz and the others,” Max told him. He told them everything he knew about the duplicates and Larek looked more and more confused.
“Well, that explains why you two looked so different that time from the other times I had seen you,” he said, nodding at Michael and Isabel. “But Khivar never said anything about a second set. He announced when the pods were ready and said that to show impartiality to any of the planets and to show that he could be trusted to allow the beloved rulers to grow again, he said he would send them to earth. However, the queen mother wasn’t sure she trusted him so she had several of her most trusted guards load the granolith on the ship while everyone slept and hide it. She also sent two of those guards as protectors. Khivar sent two others of his own men, and it was only after the ship was sent and it was reported that you were safe did the queen mother admit to sending the granolith with you. Khivar was furious and the people weren’t sure that it was a wise idea but there was nothing to be done by then because we got news about the crash. Everyone started blaming each other for the crash. Many thought that Khivar had set it up to crash on purpose. So where are the others?”
“They ended up in New York and they have their memories of our life on Antar. But Lonnie and Rath killed their Zan and they tried to kill Max,” Isabel answered. “Why would they have their memories and we don’t? Why would they want to betray Max…or Zan?”
Larek shook his head in confusion. “I don’t know. Maybe the men that worked on recreating you weren’t sure which set would survive.”
Shannon looked thoughtful. “Or maybe Khivar tried to have them manipulated,” she commented. At everyone’s questioning expressions, she continued. “Think about it. He had two sets created, one without any memory of who they are and the other who are completely callous and selfish enough to kill one of their own. Maybe he had all of you created that way on purpose so that he could get the throne with the approval of all the people. If one Zan didn’t remember anything about it, he wouldn’t even know how to be a king, and as for the other ones, if they are willing to even betray one of their own group, they would be too violent to be rulers of 5 planets.”
“That would make sense. I’ll have a couple of our men on it and see what we can find out,” Larek nodded.
“So what about me? Did he have me recreated as well? Are there two of me in this world?” Shannon asked.
Larek shook his head. “No, your parents and I had you recreated. You had supposedly gone to Antar to visit with Vilondra and disappeared. We found you in a secret passageway after the funerals. When you didn’t show for them, we knew something was wrong. That’s why you were sent in a separate ship. Until you were found, Khivar tried to pin the deaths of the other four on you. No one really believed it but he kept insisting.”
“Where were Zan, Vilondra, and the others found? How were they killed?” Kyle asked.
“They were all found in a small conference room, in various positions. Why you were all there together is anyone’s guess. The strange thing is that the passageway where Shauna was found is connected to that room and her body was in such a position that she was running away from that conference room,” Larek explained.
Shannon had her eyes closed at that, trying to picture what might have happened. “That passageway was secret; only royalty and certain servants were even given the knowledge of its existence. Maybe that would eliminate who actually killed you four…or at least just me. I wish I could remember that as well as I remember other things about our past.”
“Maybe you witnessed the others being killed and tried to run away to tell someone and whoever did it followed you and killed you in that passageway,” Maria speculated.
Max nodded. “That would make sense. Just see what you can find out, Larek.”
“How much longer do you have before you have to get Brody back to where you found him and leave him?” Shannon asked.
“Not long. I’d better tell you what I came to tell you in the first place. Ava has vanished with your son,” Larek announced.
Everyone gasped and Max looked a little pale. Shannon reached out to take his hand in hers and squeezed it in reassurance. “What do you mean?” he asked, his voice tight.
“We have several spies among Khivar’s men that had reported that Ava was on her way home with your heir. It is a long flight home and Khivar was very impatient to get his hands on them and to see if she had delivered the rest of you as she promised. When he found out that she hadn’t been able to bring you with her, he debated between two ways to go. Either he would kill your heir and have his forces destroy you here or he would raise your son himself to curse the names of Zan, Rath, and Vilondra till the day that he died. Apparently, the voyage home was long enough for Ava to realize that either way, Khivar had no use for her anymore and she was suddenly disposable. Either she didn’t like that particular prospect or she really did have a change of heart. She changed the coordinates of the landing of her ship and she disappeared with her son and the granolith. She’s been on the run ever since. Khivar was furious at her betrayal and has been hunting her relentlessly. He’s gotten close several times but she always manages to stay one step ahead of him,” Larek told them. “What I want to know is, what do you want us to do about it? Do you want us to try to find her first and get her into protection or what?”
Everyone looked to Max. It was really his decision since it was his son that was in danger as much as Tess. He had collapsed onto the nearest chair as Larek had told them about what was happening, still holding on to Shannon’s hand as if it were a lifeline. Michael stepped forward. “I know you want to do what’s best for your son but you might want to consider that this might be a trap. Khivar might suspect some of the men around him might be spies and know that this news could draw them out. Whatever you decide, I’ll back you up, man, but be careful,” he warned his friend.
Max nodded at Michael. “I know. Thanks for the reminder, Michael. Larek, see if you can’t find her first but set up a separate location to keep her if you do find her. You don’t want to lead Khivar’s men straight to your base of operations. Let me know when you get her and my son. I would like to know how he is and what her motives actually are in disappearing with him and the granolith. See if you can’t get that too while you’re at it,” he told Larek.
The others in the room looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. This wasn’t the quiet, shy, unsure Max that they knew. This was a leader who wanted to do what was best for everyone. Michael wasn’t the only one to notice that Shannon and Larek didn’t seem surprised by Max’s capableness; to the contrary, they looked like they expected it. Michael also noticed that Shannon and Max were still holding hands.
Larek bowed to him. “As you wish. I’ll also spread the news far and wide that the queen of Plutark lives. It will lift the people’s spirits. Hopefully, it will strike fear into Khivar. Perhaps we can have a coronation ceremony soon,” he said as he glanced at Shannon.
“I don’t know about the rest of you but my head is spinning. I need something to eat to reenergize my brain. How about pizza?” Kyle suggested.
Everyone said that it sounded like a good idea and Isabel went to place the order. Michael and Maria stepped aside to talk and Kyle went to the restroom. Larek declared that he had to return Brody’s body to where it had been. Shannon followed him to the door and Max watched them.
“It was good to see you, Larek, and I’m so glad you’re safe and taking such good care of things. I hope we’ll be hearing from you often,” Shannon said, opening the door for him.
Larek leaned in and kissed her cheek. “I can’t begin to tell you how my heart soars to see you so alive and well. I didn’t tell the others because I’m not sure if it will work but we’re working on a way to transport all of you home without using a ship. If we find the granolith, it will make it easier but we might not need it. We will have to test it before we use it on all of you, but I wanted you to know that we are working on it. I hope to be able to talk to you again soon. Shauna, I…I think you are even more beautiful than before,” he told her.
Shannon looked down at the floor. “Thank you, Larek, but you’d better go now. We have lots of things to talk about among ourselves. Take care of yourself,” she told him. She knew what he was trying to say and she wasn’t at all sure she wanted him to say it.
After closing the door as Larek left, Shannon rested her forehead on it wearily and sighed. She turned around to find Max watching her curiously. She pushed off the door and walked toward him. “What is it, Max? Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked him.
“I can see why people thought we should be together in our past lives. We made a good team today,” Max began slowly. Shannon waited for him to continue. “But I can’t help but wonder if Larek and Shauna weren’t more than friends. He certainly seemed to care about you,” he finished.
Shannon sighed again and closed her eyes, rubbing her temples with her hands. “Max, first of all, today has been more than just a little stressful for me so if we could save the suspicions for another time, that would be great. Second of all, Larek and Shauna were only friends. I have never loved anyone but Zan. Even that fiancé that ditched me was no comparison. My heart belonged to you and you crushed it so you don’t get the right to be jealous ok?” she told him. “Maybe it would have been better if you had left me in LA. If you’ll excuse me, I need to be alone for a while.” She left a stunned Max standing in the living room as she went to her bedroom and slammed the door. Collapsing on the bed, she cried her heart out. She cried for her past, she cried for her parents’ deaths, and she cried because it looked like history was going to repeat itself on one very hard item…Shannon was falling in love with Max all over again.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Part 19
Shannon stared at herself critically in the mirror. The complete contents of her closet were scattered about the room and she was currently wearing the outfit that she had first pulled out of her closet and tried on. She and Max were going out tonight and she wanted to look good. She had on a simple black dress with short sleeves and an empire waist. The sterling silver and black earrings and necklace she wore with the black sandals completed the outfit. She was just about to change again to another outfit when there was a knock on her door.
“Come in,” she called.
Isabel opened the door and came into the room. “What happened in here? Hurricane Shannon breeze through?” she joked. Then she looked at her friend. “That looks really good on you, especially with that auburn hair and your green eyes. You should definitely stick with that one.”
Shannon whipped around and hugged her friend. “Thanks, Isabel, I was going out of my mind trying to decide if this would work or if I should wear the leopard print dress. Would you mind helping me with my hair?” she asked, moving to the dresser and sitting on the edge of the bed.
Isabel moved behind her and started trying different styles to see which would look best. “You got a lot of hair cut off today. How do you like it?”
It had been a lot of hair. Shannon’s hair had reached to her waist but she had gotten it cut to the length of the middle of her back, losing about a foot of hair. “I really like it. I’ve been meaning to do it earlier but I just couldn’t find the time or the money. I thought about using a little alien juice but I love going to get my hair done at a salon, and I didn’t want to shortchange myself of that bit of fun. It sure is lighter.”
“So what did you and Michael do today?” Isabel asked. Shannon and Michael had spent the day together and Isabel was curious about what they had talked about.
“We watched a movie, talked about the past and the future, hung out, all kinds of stuff. You know brother and sister stuff,” Shannon shrugged. Isabel nodded and they were quiet for a minute. “Isabel, how do you feel about me going out with Max? Please be honest. I don’t want you to ever have to lie to me.”
Isabel stopped in her hair fixing to meet Shannon’s eyes in the mirror. “Shannon, I really don’t want this to sound like I have anything against Liz, but I can’t help but love the idea. You two would be really cute together and as much as I liked Liz, for some reason they never seemed happy when they were together. Max was always drawn to her and stared at her but he wasn’t happy pining for her, he wasn’t happy when they were together and then neither was she. It was almost like, he wasn’t sure he had found what he had been looking for. When he talks about you, his eyes light up and he smiles, even unconsciously, and he really looks happy. I just hope that Maria doesn’t find out and go ballistic on you two.”
Shannon turned around slightly so that she could really look Isabel in the face. “Isabel, I’m terrified of this. I loved Xan so much in our past life and I can’t help but feel things for Max too but he’s still confused about Liz and I don’t want to be hurt like that again. I’m not trying to judge him or anything like that but when you’ve been hurt that badly, it’s hard to trust your heart to someone again. This is the first day of spring break and if Liz comes back…” she said, closing her eyes.
Her friend pulled her into a hug. “If Liz comes back, then he’ll have to choose. I’d like to say that you and he haven’t really become close enough for it to hurt that bad this time around but seeing you now, I’m not so sure. I’ll be hoping for the best, Shannon, for both of you. I want you both to be happy…whatever it takes.”
Shannon wiped the couple of tears from her eyes and pulled back from Isabel. “Thanks, Isa. That means a lot to me. As for Maria, I told her about tonight. I didn’t want to hide it and have her mad at me later. She told me that it really wasn’t any of her business anyway,” she told Isabel.
Isabel almost fell off the bed. “Maria DeLuca said that?! Is she sick?” she exclaimed.
Laughing, Shannon answered her friend. “No, she’s not sick. She told me that she really likes me and she cares about Max and Liz too. She wants all of us to be happy but she’s not sure how it would work out so instead of giving herself a headache, she’s just going to stay out of it. I’m glad she feels that way because I would really hate to have her against me for any reason.”
“Well, I’m glad that she’s ok with it too. If for no other reason than that she’ll let you live,” Isabel commented laughing. “Voila! All done! Do you like it?”
Shannon looked at the beautiful up style that Isabel had put her hair in and smiled appreciatively. “I knew it was a good idea to ask for your help. It looks great, Isa,” she said. Then she turned around and grew serious. “Any news from Jesse?”
Isabel sighed and got off the bed. “He’s coming home at the end of the week and he wants to talk. That’s all I know. I hate the waiting. If it’s over, I wish he’d just tell me. The only thing is, I know that Max and Michael are worried that if Jesse wants out, he knows too much about us. If he decides it’s over, I want him to be able to go on with his life and be happy.”
“I’ve got an idea about that and I already ran it by Michael, who agrees with it. I just thought of it today,” Shannon began, getting up and facing her best friend. Just then, the doorbell rang and they both jumped. Isabel moved towards the door but Shannon called to her. “Isabel, maybe we can talk about my idea when I get home if that’s ok.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Let me go let Max in. You put your lipstick on and grab your purse,” Isabel answered, opening the bedroom door and going out.
Two minutes later, Shannon came into the living room to find Max in a green button-up long sleeve shirt and khaki pants. He looked good enough to eat. “Hi,” he said, his eyes lighting up at seeing her. Isabel noticed and smiled. “Uh, these are for you,” he said, holding out a bouquet of various flowers. “I didn’t know what kind were your favorites so…”
Taking them from him, Shannon smiled and buried her nose into one of the red roses. “They’re beautiful, Max. Thank you. I love all flowers but I think that roses are my favorite…doesn’t matter what color. They’re all beautiful.”
As they got ready to leave, Isabel was suddenly reminded of something she had learned in one of her earliest art classes in school. “White is the combination of all colors whereas black is the absence of color,” her teacher’s words echoed in her mind. Thinking about why those particular words would have come back to mind now, she said goodbye to her brother and her best friend.
After closing the front door after them and turning towards the kitchen to find something to eat, the answer came to Isabel like a lightening bolt. “Oh my god! Liz’s favorite flower is the white rose and Shannon’s is all roses…every color! That can’t be a coincidence,” she said aloud. She switched on the TV and went to the kitchen shaking her head in confusion and laughing at herself for over analyzing everything.
* * * * * * * * * *
Max held the chair out for Shannon to sit down and she smiled as she did so. As he took the seat across from her, he smiled and picked up the menu, his eyes never leaving her. “You look really great,” he said.
She smiled at that and thanked him. “So what’s good here?” she asked. As he started to recommend a couple of things, she suddenly got flashes of him sitting at this very table with Liz. This was where they had come on their first date. She tried to fight back the tears that rose in her eyes. After he stopped listing the few things he recommended, she closed the menu and looked him directly in the eyes. “Is that what you had on your date here with Liz?” she asked.
Max’s eyes flew open wide and he looked confused for a minute, but then the recognition reached his face. “Shannon, I didn’t even think about that when I brought you here. I just didn’t want to go to the Crashdown and I knew you loved the Chinese food I had brought over to Michael’s that night. I swear I had forgotten that this was where Liz and I had our first date,” he quickly explained.
After reading his eyes and face for a minute, she nodded. “I believe you,” she said softly. “And I’m sorry that I jumped to conclusions. I guess I’m just still very insecure about a lot of things.”
He reached across the table and took her hand in his. “Shannon, I promise you that I won’t do anything to ever hurt you on purpose. I can’t explain it exactly, but when I’m with you, I’m calm and excited all at the same time and I’m completely drawn to you. I would really like to get closer to you if you’ll let me.”
Shannon withdrew her hand and looked down at her lap. “I’d like that too, Max, but we’ll have to take things slow. And what happens when Liz comes home? Because she will eventually come home,” she said.
“I don’t know. I just know that being with you feels right…it feels more right than anything else ever has,” Max responded truthfully. It was enough to make Shannon look up in surprise and happiness.
They spent the rest of the night talking about everything and nothing. They talked about what it was like growing up, about school, about their powers, about everything. She told him about her idea for what to do if Jesse decided that he wanted out of the “alien abyss” and he agreed that it was a good idea. She told him a little about their lives on Antar and Plutark. Finally, the waiter brought the check and their fortune cookies. They each broke theirs open and looked at each other with a grin.
“What does yours say?” Max asked.
Shannon looked down at the message and smiled. “Winds of change are blowing,” she read.
Max smiled at that. “Maybe it means between us. Things are definitely getting better in my book,” he said.
She blushed and smiled. “I think so too. What does yours say?”
He looked down at his and almost frowned. The note actually read, “A hard and painful decision awaits you.” Unhappy with that fortune, Max used his powers to change what it said without Shannon noticing. “It says, ‘A beautiful girl will continue to change your life,’” he said.
“Really?” she asked. He showed her the paper but he couldn’t shake the chills that were running up and down his spine at what it had originally said. It was just a fortune from a cookie but he knew that Shannon had been right when she said that Liz would eventually come home.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“That was great, Max, thank you so much for the wonderful time,” Shannon said as they rode down the street.
“It doesn’t have to be over yet. I’d like to take you to show you where our pods were if you want to see it,” Max told her.
Shannon debated it for a full five minutes before she nodded. “Ok, let’s go,” she answered.
They drove out into the desert listening to the radio and admiring the view. When they got to their destination and emerged from the car, Shannon looked around until her eyes landed on a peculiar rock formation and part of it seemed to have caved in. “Is that it?” she asked. “What happened to it?”
“It caved in when Tess left with the granolith,” he answered shortly.
Shannon heard the tone in his voice and looked at him sharply. “You’re worried about your son, aren’t you?” she asked. He nodded and hung his head. “Max, it’s ok to be worried about him. I can promise you that Larek will do everything he can to make sure that he’s ok.”
“I know, but I’ve messed up so many times, Shannon, and I don’t want him to be the one that has to pay for my mistakes. I’ve already hurt enough people,” he said quietly.
Uncertainly, Shannon moved to his side and put her hand on his arm. He covered it with his other hand and used it to pull her into his arms. Shannon was overwhelmed at being in his arms again. Then she felt him shake against her and she realized with surprise that he was crying. She held him closer and he almost crushed her in his attempt to pull her tighter to him. They stayed that way for several minutes before he pulled back.
“I’m sorry,” he said, wiping his face. “I’ve only cried like that in front of two other people…Isabel and my mom.”
“Max, you don’t ever have to apologize for expressing your feelings like that. You have just as much a right to break down and cry if you need to as anyone else. I hope you’ll always feel you can come to me and if you need to, cry on my shoulder,” Shannon told him, putting the palm of her hand to the side of his face.
He closed his eyes and let her caress his face for a minute before covering her hand with his. Opening his eyes and meeting hers, he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. Then he slowly bent his head to kiss her lips and they quickly lost themselves in each other. When they finally came up for air, he rested his forehead against hers and tried to catch his breath.
“I’d really like to do that memory sharing thing with you, if you’ll let me,” he whispered. “I want to remember just how much I loved you, because right now I understand every reason why.”
Shannon swallowed and simply scrunched her eyes tighter. “I think you should take me home right now,” she answered. When she felt his surprise and opened her eyes to see that same surprise written on his face, she explained with a grin. “Max, we just said earlier that we were going to take things slow. I don’t think that making out all night in the desert and showing you all of my memories is really that slow,” she joked.
He smiled at that and nodded. “You’re absolutely right. Why rush? We have lots of time to explore your memories. In the meantime, can I get one more kiss before I take you home?”
“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t kiss me again,” she answered truthfully, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning in to capture his lips with hers.
Shannon stared at herself critically in the mirror. The complete contents of her closet were scattered about the room and she was currently wearing the outfit that she had first pulled out of her closet and tried on. She and Max were going out tonight and she wanted to look good. She had on a simple black dress with short sleeves and an empire waist. The sterling silver and black earrings and necklace she wore with the black sandals completed the outfit. She was just about to change again to another outfit when there was a knock on her door.
“Come in,” she called.
Isabel opened the door and came into the room. “What happened in here? Hurricane Shannon breeze through?” she joked. Then she looked at her friend. “That looks really good on you, especially with that auburn hair and your green eyes. You should definitely stick with that one.”
Shannon whipped around and hugged her friend. “Thanks, Isabel, I was going out of my mind trying to decide if this would work or if I should wear the leopard print dress. Would you mind helping me with my hair?” she asked, moving to the dresser and sitting on the edge of the bed.
Isabel moved behind her and started trying different styles to see which would look best. “You got a lot of hair cut off today. How do you like it?”
It had been a lot of hair. Shannon’s hair had reached to her waist but she had gotten it cut to the length of the middle of her back, losing about a foot of hair. “I really like it. I’ve been meaning to do it earlier but I just couldn’t find the time or the money. I thought about using a little alien juice but I love going to get my hair done at a salon, and I didn’t want to shortchange myself of that bit of fun. It sure is lighter.”
“So what did you and Michael do today?” Isabel asked. Shannon and Michael had spent the day together and Isabel was curious about what they had talked about.
“We watched a movie, talked about the past and the future, hung out, all kinds of stuff. You know brother and sister stuff,” Shannon shrugged. Isabel nodded and they were quiet for a minute. “Isabel, how do you feel about me going out with Max? Please be honest. I don’t want you to ever have to lie to me.”
Isabel stopped in her hair fixing to meet Shannon’s eyes in the mirror. “Shannon, I really don’t want this to sound like I have anything against Liz, but I can’t help but love the idea. You two would be really cute together and as much as I liked Liz, for some reason they never seemed happy when they were together. Max was always drawn to her and stared at her but he wasn’t happy pining for her, he wasn’t happy when they were together and then neither was she. It was almost like, he wasn’t sure he had found what he had been looking for. When he talks about you, his eyes light up and he smiles, even unconsciously, and he really looks happy. I just hope that Maria doesn’t find out and go ballistic on you two.”
Shannon turned around slightly so that she could really look Isabel in the face. “Isabel, I’m terrified of this. I loved Xan so much in our past life and I can’t help but feel things for Max too but he’s still confused about Liz and I don’t want to be hurt like that again. I’m not trying to judge him or anything like that but when you’ve been hurt that badly, it’s hard to trust your heart to someone again. This is the first day of spring break and if Liz comes back…” she said, closing her eyes.
Her friend pulled her into a hug. “If Liz comes back, then he’ll have to choose. I’d like to say that you and he haven’t really become close enough for it to hurt that bad this time around but seeing you now, I’m not so sure. I’ll be hoping for the best, Shannon, for both of you. I want you both to be happy…whatever it takes.”
Shannon wiped the couple of tears from her eyes and pulled back from Isabel. “Thanks, Isa. That means a lot to me. As for Maria, I told her about tonight. I didn’t want to hide it and have her mad at me later. She told me that it really wasn’t any of her business anyway,” she told Isabel.
Isabel almost fell off the bed. “Maria DeLuca said that?! Is she sick?” she exclaimed.
Laughing, Shannon answered her friend. “No, she’s not sick. She told me that she really likes me and she cares about Max and Liz too. She wants all of us to be happy but she’s not sure how it would work out so instead of giving herself a headache, she’s just going to stay out of it. I’m glad she feels that way because I would really hate to have her against me for any reason.”
“Well, I’m glad that she’s ok with it too. If for no other reason than that she’ll let you live,” Isabel commented laughing. “Voila! All done! Do you like it?”
Shannon looked at the beautiful up style that Isabel had put her hair in and smiled appreciatively. “I knew it was a good idea to ask for your help. It looks great, Isa,” she said. Then she turned around and grew serious. “Any news from Jesse?”
Isabel sighed and got off the bed. “He’s coming home at the end of the week and he wants to talk. That’s all I know. I hate the waiting. If it’s over, I wish he’d just tell me. The only thing is, I know that Max and Michael are worried that if Jesse wants out, he knows too much about us. If he decides it’s over, I want him to be able to go on with his life and be happy.”
“I’ve got an idea about that and I already ran it by Michael, who agrees with it. I just thought of it today,” Shannon began, getting up and facing her best friend. Just then, the doorbell rang and they both jumped. Isabel moved towards the door but Shannon called to her. “Isabel, maybe we can talk about my idea when I get home if that’s ok.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Let me go let Max in. You put your lipstick on and grab your purse,” Isabel answered, opening the bedroom door and going out.
Two minutes later, Shannon came into the living room to find Max in a green button-up long sleeve shirt and khaki pants. He looked good enough to eat. “Hi,” he said, his eyes lighting up at seeing her. Isabel noticed and smiled. “Uh, these are for you,” he said, holding out a bouquet of various flowers. “I didn’t know what kind were your favorites so…”
Taking them from him, Shannon smiled and buried her nose into one of the red roses. “They’re beautiful, Max. Thank you. I love all flowers but I think that roses are my favorite…doesn’t matter what color. They’re all beautiful.”
As they got ready to leave, Isabel was suddenly reminded of something she had learned in one of her earliest art classes in school. “White is the combination of all colors whereas black is the absence of color,” her teacher’s words echoed in her mind. Thinking about why those particular words would have come back to mind now, she said goodbye to her brother and her best friend.
After closing the front door after them and turning towards the kitchen to find something to eat, the answer came to Isabel like a lightening bolt. “Oh my god! Liz’s favorite flower is the white rose and Shannon’s is all roses…every color! That can’t be a coincidence,” she said aloud. She switched on the TV and went to the kitchen shaking her head in confusion and laughing at herself for over analyzing everything.
* * * * * * * * * *
Max held the chair out for Shannon to sit down and she smiled as she did so. As he took the seat across from her, he smiled and picked up the menu, his eyes never leaving her. “You look really great,” he said.
She smiled at that and thanked him. “So what’s good here?” she asked. As he started to recommend a couple of things, she suddenly got flashes of him sitting at this very table with Liz. This was where they had come on their first date. She tried to fight back the tears that rose in her eyes. After he stopped listing the few things he recommended, she closed the menu and looked him directly in the eyes. “Is that what you had on your date here with Liz?” she asked.
Max’s eyes flew open wide and he looked confused for a minute, but then the recognition reached his face. “Shannon, I didn’t even think about that when I brought you here. I just didn’t want to go to the Crashdown and I knew you loved the Chinese food I had brought over to Michael’s that night. I swear I had forgotten that this was where Liz and I had our first date,” he quickly explained.
After reading his eyes and face for a minute, she nodded. “I believe you,” she said softly. “And I’m sorry that I jumped to conclusions. I guess I’m just still very insecure about a lot of things.”
He reached across the table and took her hand in his. “Shannon, I promise you that I won’t do anything to ever hurt you on purpose. I can’t explain it exactly, but when I’m with you, I’m calm and excited all at the same time and I’m completely drawn to you. I would really like to get closer to you if you’ll let me.”
Shannon withdrew her hand and looked down at her lap. “I’d like that too, Max, but we’ll have to take things slow. And what happens when Liz comes home? Because she will eventually come home,” she said.
“I don’t know. I just know that being with you feels right…it feels more right than anything else ever has,” Max responded truthfully. It was enough to make Shannon look up in surprise and happiness.
They spent the rest of the night talking about everything and nothing. They talked about what it was like growing up, about school, about their powers, about everything. She told him about her idea for what to do if Jesse decided that he wanted out of the “alien abyss” and he agreed that it was a good idea. She told him a little about their lives on Antar and Plutark. Finally, the waiter brought the check and their fortune cookies. They each broke theirs open and looked at each other with a grin.
“What does yours say?” Max asked.
Shannon looked down at the message and smiled. “Winds of change are blowing,” she read.
Max smiled at that. “Maybe it means between us. Things are definitely getting better in my book,” he said.
She blushed and smiled. “I think so too. What does yours say?”
He looked down at his and almost frowned. The note actually read, “A hard and painful decision awaits you.” Unhappy with that fortune, Max used his powers to change what it said without Shannon noticing. “It says, ‘A beautiful girl will continue to change your life,’” he said.
“Really?” she asked. He showed her the paper but he couldn’t shake the chills that were running up and down his spine at what it had originally said. It was just a fortune from a cookie but he knew that Shannon had been right when she said that Liz would eventually come home.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“That was great, Max, thank you so much for the wonderful time,” Shannon said as they rode down the street.
“It doesn’t have to be over yet. I’d like to take you to show you where our pods were if you want to see it,” Max told her.
Shannon debated it for a full five minutes before she nodded. “Ok, let’s go,” she answered.
They drove out into the desert listening to the radio and admiring the view. When they got to their destination and emerged from the car, Shannon looked around until her eyes landed on a peculiar rock formation and part of it seemed to have caved in. “Is that it?” she asked. “What happened to it?”
“It caved in when Tess left with the granolith,” he answered shortly.
Shannon heard the tone in his voice and looked at him sharply. “You’re worried about your son, aren’t you?” she asked. He nodded and hung his head. “Max, it’s ok to be worried about him. I can promise you that Larek will do everything he can to make sure that he’s ok.”
“I know, but I’ve messed up so many times, Shannon, and I don’t want him to be the one that has to pay for my mistakes. I’ve already hurt enough people,” he said quietly.
Uncertainly, Shannon moved to his side and put her hand on his arm. He covered it with his other hand and used it to pull her into his arms. Shannon was overwhelmed at being in his arms again. Then she felt him shake against her and she realized with surprise that he was crying. She held him closer and he almost crushed her in his attempt to pull her tighter to him. They stayed that way for several minutes before he pulled back.
“I’m sorry,” he said, wiping his face. “I’ve only cried like that in front of two other people…Isabel and my mom.”
“Max, you don’t ever have to apologize for expressing your feelings like that. You have just as much a right to break down and cry if you need to as anyone else. I hope you’ll always feel you can come to me and if you need to, cry on my shoulder,” Shannon told him, putting the palm of her hand to the side of his face.
He closed his eyes and let her caress his face for a minute before covering her hand with his. Opening his eyes and meeting hers, he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. Then he slowly bent his head to kiss her lips and they quickly lost themselves in each other. When they finally came up for air, he rested his forehead against hers and tried to catch his breath.
“I’d really like to do that memory sharing thing with you, if you’ll let me,” he whispered. “I want to remember just how much I loved you, because right now I understand every reason why.”
Shannon swallowed and simply scrunched her eyes tighter. “I think you should take me home right now,” she answered. When she felt his surprise and opened her eyes to see that same surprise written on his face, she explained with a grin. “Max, we just said earlier that we were going to take things slow. I don’t think that making out all night in the desert and showing you all of my memories is really that slow,” she joked.
He smiled at that and nodded. “You’re absolutely right. Why rush? We have lots of time to explore your memories. In the meantime, can I get one more kiss before I take you home?”
“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t kiss me again,” she answered truthfully, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning in to capture his lips with hers.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
You guys have been so great! I'm so appreciative of your patience in not giving up on me. I have the part back from my beta and will post it below. Please let me know what you think! Thanks again!
Beth
Part 20
The next five days were a blur for Shannon. Max was constantly around, bringing her flowers or just showing up and smiling. Isabel couldn’t have been more pleased with how things were going. Maria was completely torn; she had seen this same attention from Max towards Liz and both had wound up hurt. Maria really liked Shannon and she wanted her to be happy but she didn’t want her to be hurt like Liz had, and if things had been as she had described on Antar, Shannon might be setting herself up for heartache again. Michael scowled every time he saw Shannon and Max together, and he made the mistake of saying something to Shannon about it once.
“Shannon, Max was the exact same way with Liz that he is with you now. You’re just setting yourself up for another heartbreak from the same guy!” he practically yelled at her.
Somehow, he had forgotten that she was his sister and could be just as stubborn as he was. “Michael, as much as I love you, you have no say so in this matter. If I want to continue this relationship, it’s my decision and mine alone!” she threw back at him. “Now, if that is all you wanted to discuss with me, then you might as well leave because the discussion is closed!” His mouth had dropped open and then snapped closed because she was absolutely right; he had no say whatsoever in whom she or Max dated. His job was just to be there to pick up the pieces of Shannon’s broken heart if Max hurt her and then to knock his best friend flat on his rear.
Jeff also noticed Max and Shannon’s budding relationship and felt it his duty to at least warn Shannon to be careful. He always had a scowl for Max, and Max couldn’t help but feel a stab of guilt every time he met Jeff Parker’s face. He knew how it must look but for the first time in his entire life, he didn’t feel like he should hide behind a tree. He was quickly starting to care for Shannon deeply and he didn’t care who knew it.
On Thursday night, Shannon and Maria were both working as well as Michael at the grill. Max was sitting at the counter and watching Shannon running around the café serving the customers and grinning like the Cheshire cat anytime he caught her eyes. She couldn’t help but grin back at him and occasionally he would even blow her a kiss when he thought no one was looking. He knew he was acting like a little kid but he didn’t care.
Maria went over to the window to pick up an order just as Michael was setting one down. She watched as Shannon and Max’s eyes met for the zillionth time that night and he winked at her. Shannon grinned and turned away quickly. “Would you look at those two! I swear they can’t keep their eyes off each other,” she commented with a smile. She couldn’t help it; Max and Shannon genuinely looked happy and right together.
Maria just hoped that Liz would be ok with this. Every time Maria thought about telling Liz, she would pick up the phone quickly, dial the number quickly, ask for Liz quickly, and dawdle with Liz on the phone until Liz finally asked if there was a real point for the call or was it just to chat, and then she would chicken out. Maria didn’t want to be the one that broke Liz’s heart. Although, she wasn’t sure that Liz hadn’t already decided that Max and her were past tense.
Michael harrumphed and studied his sister and his best friend. “Yeah, let’s just hope that’s all that Max puts on my sister,” he declared. Maria rolled her eyes and started to walk away when he stopped her. “Maria, have you spoken to Liz lately?” he asked her.
“I talked with her a couple of days ago. Why?” she asked. She knew what Michael would ask but she didn’t really want to discuss it. It wasn’t her place, even as Liz’s best friend to discuss Max’s love life unless Liz brought it up first. After all, wasn’t Max the reason Liz had left Roswell in the first place?
“Has she said anything about coming back here?” Michael demanded as he watched his sister and Max flirt across the room from each other. It was probably a good thing that Nancy and Jeff had gone out of town for a couple of days.
Maria shuffled her feet a minute before answering. “No, she hasn’t brought it up.” She wouldn’t meet his eyes but felt him burning holes into her head, wanting her to finish her thought. Finally, she caved and shrugged. “But then, I haven’t brought it up either so who knows.”
“I want to know the minute you do when she decides that she’s going to come home,” Michael stated. Maria started to protest that she was his girlfriend, not his slave that he could order around when her customers started calling for her.
“You are so lucky that my customers need me right now,” she threw at him before stalking off.
The chimes above the door rang and Michael groaned aloud. The café was already hopping. The last thing he needed was more customers distracting him from keeping an eye on his sister and best friend. Isabel breezed through the door, followed by Kyle. They walked over to a booth and sat down, laughing at something the two of them must have shared before walking in. Shannon made her way over to their table and smiled at them. “Hey, guys, what’s up?”
“Dad had to work and Isabel called saying that she didn’t want to be home alone so we decided to come here,” Kyle explained. He grinned at Isabel and she smiled back.
“So did you guys just meet here or did you come together?” Shannon asked knowingly. She had seen the way Kyle was around her best friend and she was kind of worried. Kyle was totally smitten but Isabel…well, usually she could read Isabel like a large print book but right now, it was hard to tell. She knew Jesse was the main cause for Isabel’s walls but it was still hard to watch her slowly draw her feelings and real self back inside herself when it was obvious that she had been trying to open up to the world.
Isabel blushed and studied the menu and Kyle just kind of cleared his throat a couple of times and finally answered her. “Um, actually, Isabel didn’t feel like driving and we really couldn’t decide where to go so I picked her up. Can I get a coke?”
Shannon smiled, took their drink orders and walked away. She knew Kyle was a good guy and would never try anything with Isabel as long as Jesse was still in the picture but she couldn’t help but worry a bit. She didn’t want to see either of her friends hurt. Then too, that made her feel a little bit like a hypocrite because wasn’t that what her friends were worried about with her and Max?
The next few hours were busy with customers and running around the café to fulfill duties. As the dinner crowd thinned out, Shannon finally decided to take her break. “Maria, I’m going on break if that’s ok with you,” she called to her friend. Maria said it was no problem and she could handle things until Shannon was back.
As Shannon walked into the back room and stretched her aching muscles, Max noticed that she was disappearing into the room and quickly stood to follow her. He made sure that Michael was busy with the grill and Maria was with a customer to follow Shannon’s path. He quietly opened and closed the swinging door and stealthily made his way behind her at her locker. However, he wasn’t really able to sneak up on her for she felt his presence the moment he walked through the door.
Placing his arms on either side of her body against the lockers, Shannon suddenly spun around in them and faced him with a grin. “You can’t sneak up on me, Maxwell Evans. I can feel you a mile away,” she told him. She leaned against the locker and felt her breath catch as Max moved closer to her.
“Funny, I was just thinking about feeling you,” he said quietly. Swooping down, he captured her lips in his and gently fused them together. As they stood their, Shannon’s arms snaked around his neck and his around her waist. He deepened the kiss when he gently parted her lips with his tongue and she gladly opened for him. Exploring each other was becoming a regular part of their time together. Neither seemed able to help themselves and neither wanted to.
Finally, the need for air interrupted them and they parted. Resting his forehead to hers, Max looked deep into her eyes and saw something he had only thought he had seen in Liz, his soul reflected back at him. It unnerved him and gave him peace at the same time. Shannon felt the change in his mood but decided not to bring it up. They spent the rest of her break talking and joking around, flirting and kissing.
Just as they were getting up from the couch to head back up front, Michael came busting through the doorway. “I’ll ask you two what you’ve been doing for the past half hour later. Right now we have potential trouble up front. You both might want to get up there,” he stated abruptly.
Shannon and Max wasted no time with questions. Rushing through the swinging door, they were startled to see who was in the café, neither expecting that person for some time. Many of the customers had cleared out during Shannon’s break and now only a handful of people were left, including Isabel and Kyle. Maria slowly made her way over to where Michael, Max, and Shannon were standing.
“I can’t believe he’s here now. What do you think that means?” she whispered to them.
“I don’t know but I’m going to find out,” Michael said, about to brush past the rest of them and head toward the front door. Max was hot on his heels.
“No, guys, this isn’t any of our business,” Shannon said, holding her hands up in front of them both.
“Like hell it isn’t! It’s an alien thing and that makes it our business,” Michael argued.
“Besides, she’s my sister,” Max added.
“This really has nothing to do with aliens! It’s about trust and how it was broken or maybe not even really there in the first place. I’m not about to let you two mess this up before it has a chance to mend,” Shannon argued right back, with Maria nodding her support behind her. Both guys looked like they wanted to protest but couldn’t think of any more or better arguments to make. “Now, Michael, I want you to go back to the grill. Maria and I will continue our duties out here and Max, you go back to your booth or go home.”
They all mindlessly obeyed Shannon but still watched the two people that had caused the stir. Jesse had walked into the café, his eyes immediately searching out Isabel’s and quickly finding them. They both were frozen for a full 10 minutes before Jesse began to slowly make his way to the table she shared with Kyle. When he reached it, he didn’t even acknowledge Kyle’s presence and Kyle was afraid to move and start a scene he felt was coming.
“Hello, Isabel,” Jesse said quietly but without any tone.
Isabel put on a half smile for her husband. “Jesse, you’re back. When did you get back into town?” she asked pleasantly.
That seemed to get the ball rolling and Jesse looked down at his hands. “Just a couple of minutes ago actually,” he answered. He quickly hurried on so she wouldn’t have a chance to say anything else. “Can we go somewhere and talk?” he asked. Then he seemed to notice Kyle for the first time. “Alone?” he added.
Isabel was torn. This was her husband and yet she was afraid to be alone with him at this minute. She wanted her friends and her brothers with her when she found out if Jesse was home to stay or not. At the same time, she didn’t want to discuss serious matters around a crowd. “Sure, do you want to go outside or maybe upstairs to the Parker’s place?” she asked.
“Let’s go outside and sit on the bench and talk,” Jesse answered.
Isabel’s heart fell. He didn’t want to go home with her. Was that a sign of what was to come from this discussion? She had hoped that his coming home early was a good sign, but now she wasn’t sure. Slowly she rose and started to pull out some money for her part of the bill but Kyle held up his hand. “It’s on the house, remember?” he asked. He knew she would understand and she nodded in appreciation.
As Jesse and Isabel walked out the front door, Kyle stood and made his way to where Maria and Shannon were standing at the window, talking with Michael and Max. “Well, I don’t know what his decision will be but I think he has made it. I just hope it will work out alright either way,” he told them.
Shannon studied the door and then turned to study Kyle. “I think it will. We just have to be prepared to be there for them no matter what Jesse’s decision is. You guys ready with the plan if this goes sour?” she asked Michael and Max. They both nodded and said they were ready. “Good. I’d like to think Jesse will want to work through all of this but if he wants to leave, we have to be ready to let him.”
Beth
Part 20
The next five days were a blur for Shannon. Max was constantly around, bringing her flowers or just showing up and smiling. Isabel couldn’t have been more pleased with how things were going. Maria was completely torn; she had seen this same attention from Max towards Liz and both had wound up hurt. Maria really liked Shannon and she wanted her to be happy but she didn’t want her to be hurt like Liz had, and if things had been as she had described on Antar, Shannon might be setting herself up for heartache again. Michael scowled every time he saw Shannon and Max together, and he made the mistake of saying something to Shannon about it once.
“Shannon, Max was the exact same way with Liz that he is with you now. You’re just setting yourself up for another heartbreak from the same guy!” he practically yelled at her.
Somehow, he had forgotten that she was his sister and could be just as stubborn as he was. “Michael, as much as I love you, you have no say so in this matter. If I want to continue this relationship, it’s my decision and mine alone!” she threw back at him. “Now, if that is all you wanted to discuss with me, then you might as well leave because the discussion is closed!” His mouth had dropped open and then snapped closed because she was absolutely right; he had no say whatsoever in whom she or Max dated. His job was just to be there to pick up the pieces of Shannon’s broken heart if Max hurt her and then to knock his best friend flat on his rear.
Jeff also noticed Max and Shannon’s budding relationship and felt it his duty to at least warn Shannon to be careful. He always had a scowl for Max, and Max couldn’t help but feel a stab of guilt every time he met Jeff Parker’s face. He knew how it must look but for the first time in his entire life, he didn’t feel like he should hide behind a tree. He was quickly starting to care for Shannon deeply and he didn’t care who knew it.
On Thursday night, Shannon and Maria were both working as well as Michael at the grill. Max was sitting at the counter and watching Shannon running around the café serving the customers and grinning like the Cheshire cat anytime he caught her eyes. She couldn’t help but grin back at him and occasionally he would even blow her a kiss when he thought no one was looking. He knew he was acting like a little kid but he didn’t care.
Maria went over to the window to pick up an order just as Michael was setting one down. She watched as Shannon and Max’s eyes met for the zillionth time that night and he winked at her. Shannon grinned and turned away quickly. “Would you look at those two! I swear they can’t keep their eyes off each other,” she commented with a smile. She couldn’t help it; Max and Shannon genuinely looked happy and right together.
Maria just hoped that Liz would be ok with this. Every time Maria thought about telling Liz, she would pick up the phone quickly, dial the number quickly, ask for Liz quickly, and dawdle with Liz on the phone until Liz finally asked if there was a real point for the call or was it just to chat, and then she would chicken out. Maria didn’t want to be the one that broke Liz’s heart. Although, she wasn’t sure that Liz hadn’t already decided that Max and her were past tense.
Michael harrumphed and studied his sister and his best friend. “Yeah, let’s just hope that’s all that Max puts on my sister,” he declared. Maria rolled her eyes and started to walk away when he stopped her. “Maria, have you spoken to Liz lately?” he asked her.
“I talked with her a couple of days ago. Why?” she asked. She knew what Michael would ask but she didn’t really want to discuss it. It wasn’t her place, even as Liz’s best friend to discuss Max’s love life unless Liz brought it up first. After all, wasn’t Max the reason Liz had left Roswell in the first place?
“Has she said anything about coming back here?” Michael demanded as he watched his sister and Max flirt across the room from each other. It was probably a good thing that Nancy and Jeff had gone out of town for a couple of days.
Maria shuffled her feet a minute before answering. “No, she hasn’t brought it up.” She wouldn’t meet his eyes but felt him burning holes into her head, wanting her to finish her thought. Finally, she caved and shrugged. “But then, I haven’t brought it up either so who knows.”
“I want to know the minute you do when she decides that she’s going to come home,” Michael stated. Maria started to protest that she was his girlfriend, not his slave that he could order around when her customers started calling for her.
“You are so lucky that my customers need me right now,” she threw at him before stalking off.
The chimes above the door rang and Michael groaned aloud. The café was already hopping. The last thing he needed was more customers distracting him from keeping an eye on his sister and best friend. Isabel breezed through the door, followed by Kyle. They walked over to a booth and sat down, laughing at something the two of them must have shared before walking in. Shannon made her way over to their table and smiled at them. “Hey, guys, what’s up?”
“Dad had to work and Isabel called saying that she didn’t want to be home alone so we decided to come here,” Kyle explained. He grinned at Isabel and she smiled back.
“So did you guys just meet here or did you come together?” Shannon asked knowingly. She had seen the way Kyle was around her best friend and she was kind of worried. Kyle was totally smitten but Isabel…well, usually she could read Isabel like a large print book but right now, it was hard to tell. She knew Jesse was the main cause for Isabel’s walls but it was still hard to watch her slowly draw her feelings and real self back inside herself when it was obvious that she had been trying to open up to the world.
Isabel blushed and studied the menu and Kyle just kind of cleared his throat a couple of times and finally answered her. “Um, actually, Isabel didn’t feel like driving and we really couldn’t decide where to go so I picked her up. Can I get a coke?”
Shannon smiled, took their drink orders and walked away. She knew Kyle was a good guy and would never try anything with Isabel as long as Jesse was still in the picture but she couldn’t help but worry a bit. She didn’t want to see either of her friends hurt. Then too, that made her feel a little bit like a hypocrite because wasn’t that what her friends were worried about with her and Max?
The next few hours were busy with customers and running around the café to fulfill duties. As the dinner crowd thinned out, Shannon finally decided to take her break. “Maria, I’m going on break if that’s ok with you,” she called to her friend. Maria said it was no problem and she could handle things until Shannon was back.
As Shannon walked into the back room and stretched her aching muscles, Max noticed that she was disappearing into the room and quickly stood to follow her. He made sure that Michael was busy with the grill and Maria was with a customer to follow Shannon’s path. He quietly opened and closed the swinging door and stealthily made his way behind her at her locker. However, he wasn’t really able to sneak up on her for she felt his presence the moment he walked through the door.
Placing his arms on either side of her body against the lockers, Shannon suddenly spun around in them and faced him with a grin. “You can’t sneak up on me, Maxwell Evans. I can feel you a mile away,” she told him. She leaned against the locker and felt her breath catch as Max moved closer to her.
“Funny, I was just thinking about feeling you,” he said quietly. Swooping down, he captured her lips in his and gently fused them together. As they stood their, Shannon’s arms snaked around his neck and his around her waist. He deepened the kiss when he gently parted her lips with his tongue and she gladly opened for him. Exploring each other was becoming a regular part of their time together. Neither seemed able to help themselves and neither wanted to.
Finally, the need for air interrupted them and they parted. Resting his forehead to hers, Max looked deep into her eyes and saw something he had only thought he had seen in Liz, his soul reflected back at him. It unnerved him and gave him peace at the same time. Shannon felt the change in his mood but decided not to bring it up. They spent the rest of her break talking and joking around, flirting and kissing.
Just as they were getting up from the couch to head back up front, Michael came busting through the doorway. “I’ll ask you two what you’ve been doing for the past half hour later. Right now we have potential trouble up front. You both might want to get up there,” he stated abruptly.
Shannon and Max wasted no time with questions. Rushing through the swinging door, they were startled to see who was in the café, neither expecting that person for some time. Many of the customers had cleared out during Shannon’s break and now only a handful of people were left, including Isabel and Kyle. Maria slowly made her way over to where Michael, Max, and Shannon were standing.
“I can’t believe he’s here now. What do you think that means?” she whispered to them.
“I don’t know but I’m going to find out,” Michael said, about to brush past the rest of them and head toward the front door. Max was hot on his heels.
“No, guys, this isn’t any of our business,” Shannon said, holding her hands up in front of them both.
“Like hell it isn’t! It’s an alien thing and that makes it our business,” Michael argued.
“Besides, she’s my sister,” Max added.
“This really has nothing to do with aliens! It’s about trust and how it was broken or maybe not even really there in the first place. I’m not about to let you two mess this up before it has a chance to mend,” Shannon argued right back, with Maria nodding her support behind her. Both guys looked like they wanted to protest but couldn’t think of any more or better arguments to make. “Now, Michael, I want you to go back to the grill. Maria and I will continue our duties out here and Max, you go back to your booth or go home.”
They all mindlessly obeyed Shannon but still watched the two people that had caused the stir. Jesse had walked into the café, his eyes immediately searching out Isabel’s and quickly finding them. They both were frozen for a full 10 minutes before Jesse began to slowly make his way to the table she shared with Kyle. When he reached it, he didn’t even acknowledge Kyle’s presence and Kyle was afraid to move and start a scene he felt was coming.
“Hello, Isabel,” Jesse said quietly but without any tone.
Isabel put on a half smile for her husband. “Jesse, you’re back. When did you get back into town?” she asked pleasantly.
That seemed to get the ball rolling and Jesse looked down at his hands. “Just a couple of minutes ago actually,” he answered. He quickly hurried on so she wouldn’t have a chance to say anything else. “Can we go somewhere and talk?” he asked. Then he seemed to notice Kyle for the first time. “Alone?” he added.
Isabel was torn. This was her husband and yet she was afraid to be alone with him at this minute. She wanted her friends and her brothers with her when she found out if Jesse was home to stay or not. At the same time, she didn’t want to discuss serious matters around a crowd. “Sure, do you want to go outside or maybe upstairs to the Parker’s place?” she asked.
“Let’s go outside and sit on the bench and talk,” Jesse answered.
Isabel’s heart fell. He didn’t want to go home with her. Was that a sign of what was to come from this discussion? She had hoped that his coming home early was a good sign, but now she wasn’t sure. Slowly she rose and started to pull out some money for her part of the bill but Kyle held up his hand. “It’s on the house, remember?” he asked. He knew she would understand and she nodded in appreciation.
As Jesse and Isabel walked out the front door, Kyle stood and made his way to where Maria and Shannon were standing at the window, talking with Michael and Max. “Well, I don’t know what his decision will be but I think he has made it. I just hope it will work out alright either way,” he told them.
Shannon studied the door and then turned to study Kyle. “I think it will. We just have to be prepared to be there for them no matter what Jesse’s decision is. You guys ready with the plan if this goes sour?” she asked Michael and Max. They both nodded and said they were ready. “Good. I’d like to think Jesse will want to work through all of this but if he wants to leave, we have to be ready to let him.”
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!