Roswell Fanatics

Part 10

Max came to school early that morning since he still had to finish an assignment due that day and he had forgotten the book he needed for it in his locker the day before. Just when he was about to get it out he saw Kyle storming into the building as if the devil himself were after him.

And even though Kyle was not exactly his favourite person at the moment – to put it mildly – he closed his locker again and followed him, wanting to make sure that everything was okay and that he hadn’t missed out on another invasion of evil aliens or something like that.

He followed him to the band room and was about to go inside when he saw Liz inside the room, causing him to but stop in the doorway. She had obviously been waiting for Kyle and his heart broke at the realization of this. They were meeting each other secretly before school started? Did that mean that it was true after all? That she had really slept with him? That maybe they were even back together?

But those questions were quickly forgotten when he noticed the state Liz was in. She looked absolutely horrible and he instantly got worried. She was pale, she was shaking and there were tear tracks on her cheeks. What the hell was wrong with her? He wanted to rush over to her and make sure that she was okay, or rather find out what wasn't okay and fix it, but her words stopped him dead in his tracks.

She was pregnant.

Pregnant.

Liz – his Liz – was pregnant.

From another man.

From Kyle.

Guess he had his answer. She had really slept with him. She’d slept with Kyle. She'd lost her virginity to someone else than him.

He faintly heard Kyle telling Liz that that was impossible, but his mind barely registered it, too caught up in what he had heard only a few seconds before. Seconds? He could have sworn that hours had passed.

She was pregnant. Liz was pregnant.

He stumbled back a few steps, not being able to bear listening to them any longer, or even seeing them.

Bile rose up in his throat and he rushed to the nearest washroom to throw up. He sunk down onto the cold tile floor, frozen into place. It was impossible for him to move, not to mention stand up. His body just wouldn't obey his mind. Even breathing seemed to be an impossible task for him at the moment.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he finally did manage to get up. He stumbled over to one of the basins and splashed cold water into his face, trying desperately to shake off the haze he was in, to wake up from this nightmare he was caught in.
It didn’t help.

He stared into the mirror, looking at his own reflection. It took a few moments before he could actually focus on it. He was pale, ghostly pale, and his eyes were bright with unshed tears. He looked awful.

The door was suddenly opened and someone came inside, making Max realize that school was about to start. He had to get out of there. No way in hell could he ever survive that day if he stayed at school.

He stumbled out of the washroom and rushed towards to glass double doors that he had come in only minutes before. Or at least he thought that it had been minutes. He wasn’t sure.

On his way there he bumped into about half a dozen people, not capable of watching where he was going, not to mention apologizing to them, never noticing the strange looks people were giving him.

He finally reached the doors and hurried outside, practically running over to where the jeep was parked. He sat down behind the steering wheel and then just spaced out, not noticing the people starring at him, or Maria pulling into the parking lot with Alex, Isabel and Tess in the car. They all went into the school except for Tess who spotted him and came over to him.

“Max?” she asked worried. Something was wrong, she could tell. And judging from the state Max was in, it was something pretty horrible.

He didn’t reply, and so she tried again, slight panic rising up in her. “Max, are you okay?”

When he still didn’t respond she climbed into the jeep and touched his arm. What the hell was going on?

Max whirled around to face her. “Tess,” he said, surprised to see her there. “Wh-what are you doing here?”

“I saw you sitting here and wanted to make sure you’re okay,” she told him. “Are you?” she asked studying him carefully, concern clearly lacing her voice. She had never seen Max like this, not even the time she had run into him in the park the night Liz had slept with Kyle.

“No,” Max whispered. His voice was hoarse, almost like he was about to cry, or had been crying, Tess wasn’t sure.

“I have to get out of here,” he said, probably more to himself than to Tess. He hardly even seemed to notice that she was still there.

“I’m coming with you,” Tess told him, determined not to leave him alone now. She didn’t think that that was a good idea considering the state he was in, and he looked like he could need a friend right now.

~*~*~*~

Max and Tess were out in the desert at the cliff near the lake, the place where the gang used to meet last year before Tess came to town.

Tess was sitting next to Max in the jeep, completely numb, his words still ringing in her ears.

Liz is pregnant.

She just sat there, staring into space. She wasn’t angry, wasn’t upset, wasn’t hurt – nothing. She didn’t feel anything. She had no idea how much time had passed when his words slowly started to sink in. Minutes? Hours? She didn’t know.

Tears started gathering in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She had cried over Kyle once, she wasn’t about to do it again. Not now that Liz was pregnant.

She was pregnant. From Kyle. They were having a baby. A baby.

Agonizing pain started spreading through her heart, her whole body, so strong that she almost expected to find a bleeding wound when she looked down.

Dark clouds had pulled up, blocking out the sunlight, but Tess hardly even noticed it. Only when it began to rain did she react.

She turned to Max, wanting to tell him that they should probably be getting back, but the sight of him made her halt for a moment.

The look on his face broke her heart. His eyes were emotionless, lifeless, dead. She could see tears in them, as well as a few tear tracks on his cheeks. She though he’d looked bad when she had found him in the park a few weeks ago, but that was noting compared to the way he looked now.

“Max?” she said gently.

After a moment or two he turned to her, not saying anything, just looking at her.

“It’s raining,” Tess told him, trying hard to keep her voice from breaking. “We should probably get back to town.”

Max only nodded. He used his powers to put the top of the jeep up, not even bothering to look around and make sure that they were alone, before he started the jeep and headed back to town.

Part 11

Max and Tess were in his room, sitting next to each other on the floor beside the bed, both lost in thoughts of their own.

Max turned to look at Tess, only to find her staring at him. Unconsciously their heads started drifting together. Kyle and Liz were together, and they had a destiny to fulfil. What was holding them back? They had a duty, a responsibility towards their planet. Following their destiny was the only right thing to do. Max knew that he had probably lost Liz forever. He had no reason to believe that one day he would get her back. So why not be with Tess? She was his wife after all, his queen.

When their lips where only mere inches apart they both halted, waiting for the other to take the final step. But neither of them did. They couldn’t.

“Fuck!” Tess cursed jumping up. “I can’t believe this! He goes off and knocks up Liz, and I can’t even kiss someone else, the person I’m destined to be no less.”

Max looked at her surprised. She was pacing up and down his room and looked quite pissed of to put it mildly. He had no idea that there had been something going on between Kyle and Tess, not to mention that Tess seemed to genuinely care about him. Why else would she be so upset?

“God, I hate this,” she muttered. "I mean, up to now it was only a one-night-stand, a one-time-thing, a mistake that he made and that I could maybe one day forgive,” Tess continued. “But now that she's pregnant... Having a baby with someone is such a huge, life-altering thing. They'll be glued together by the hip from now on. Cause I know Kyle, and I know that he won't want to miss a single moment in his son's life, or daughter's life, or whatever it is they’re having. And I mean, how can I ever compete with that? Ever since his mom left, Kyle wanted a real family again. And now he's gonna have that. With Liz."

"You really like him a lot, don’t you?" Max asked, still surprised.

"Yeah," Tess replied sighing, staring down at the floor. After a short pause she glanced over at Max. "Do you..." she said before trailing off and averting her gaze again.

"Do I what?" Max asked, not sure of he even wanted to know what she was about to ask.

Tess hesitated. "Do you think...that this...you know..."

"That this what?" Max asked, still not knowing what she was getting at.

"That this has been going on for much longer than we think? I mean, we know about one night, but maybe that was just the first of many. Or not even the first. I mean, maybe this started a long time ago," Tess said.

"I...I think I'm gonna be sick," Max said getting up to pace around the room, while Tess sat down resignedly.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

Max stopped pacing and turned to look at her. He could see his own pain mirrored in her eyes, and for some reason it made everything a little bit more bearable. Knowing that someone else was going through the same thing as he was was somehow comforting. It took the edge of the pain. "No, it's okay. I guess we should face these things. It's just the thought of him touching her..."

"I know," Tess said, her voice cracking.

Max sat down next to her again and put his arm around her shoulder, hugging her, trying to comfort her, even though he knew that he couldn’t really do anything for her.

Tess calmed down a bit. “Do you think that they’re back together now?” she asked. She didn’t really want to talk about any of this, didn’t even want to think about it, but Max was right. They had to face these things. If they didn’t now they would probably be forced to in the near future, which would be a lot harder. This way they were at least somewhat prepared.

“I don’t know,” Max said. “Maybe.” It hurt to admit that. The thought of Liz with another guy was almost more that he could handle. But denying it wouldn’t make any difference. It wouldn’t make the ach in his heart go away, wouldn’t change anything about the situation.

Seeing that Max wasn’t doing any better at dealing with all this than she was, Tess decided to change the subject. “Do you also have the feeling that…” she began, but then trailed off again.

“That…?”

“That this is the way it’s supposed to be? The way we’re supposed to be?”

“What do you mean?” Max asked confused. He knew that she wasn’t gonna start with destiny again. She wasn’t interested in him in that way anymore, the almost-kiss between them had proven it.

“I mean us being friends. Just friends. You know, Nasedo always told me how much in love we were back on Antar, what a perfect couple we were, bla bla bla. And I believed him. Now I’m not sure if that’s even true or not, but back then I always thought that once we met we’d fall back in love again, just like we supposedly did on Antar. But it didn’t happen. Not for you – and not for me.”

“But…” Max began, not sure what to make out of this new piece of information.

“I know. I was pushing you towards our destiny because it was what I thought I wanted. It was what I’d always dreamed about. But you know, when we met – I didn’t have any of the feelings for you I always thought I would. And I just couldn’t accept that. Because the dream of us being together was all I had. And I just wasn’t willing to give that up. And the more you fought destiny, the more I pushed. I know it was wrong of me. All the things I did last spring… I’m really sorry, you know. For mind-warping you into kissing me. For putting those little fantasies in your mind. Generally for breaking you and Liz up. I’m sorry.”

She was crying. For the second time of her life she was actually crying. Over a human. A human who didn't even deserve her tears. She couldn’t believe it. Nasedo had always taught her that any display of emotions was a sign of weakness. That emotions generally were a sign of weakness. And she didn’t want to be weak. But now…she just couldn’t help it. It hurt. It hurt so badly.

“Tess, don’t cry. Please, don’t cry,” Max told her hugging her. “It’s okay, really. I understand. And I’m sorry too. I didn’t treat you the way I should have when you first came to Roswell either. I only saw you as a threat to my relationship with Liz, and not as the part of my family you are like I should have. I’m sorry.”

Tess sniffed and Max pulled back to gently wipe her tears away, causing a small smile to appear on her lips.

“It’s okay,” she told him. “I understand. God, I’m sorry. This is so pathetic.”

“No, it’s not. Not at all,” Max said before pulling her into a hug again, rubbing soothing circles over her back.

~*~*~*~

Liz quickly made her way over the Evan’s front lawn into their back yard and to Max’s window. She didn’t really know what she was doing here, or what she was going to say to Max, but she knew that she needed him right now.

She needed to feel his arms around her, comforting and protecting her from the world outside, to have him tell her that everything would be alright, that they’d get through this together, no matter what. She just needed him, period.

When it had started to rain Kyle had driven her back to town and brought her home. She’d gone to bed, trying to get some sleep, but it was impossible. She was too upset, too confused, too scared - sleep was just not a possibility. And so she had gotten up again and left the apartment, feeling like she was going to suffocate if she didn’t get out of there. She had started walking, not really minding the rain, and had automatically ended up in front of Max’s house. Not that that surprised her very much.

She reached his window and raised her hand to knock when she was suddenly frozen into place. Inside the room she saw Max and Tess. Hugging. Then pulling apart, and Max tenderly wiping the tears from Tess’ face.

Tears of joy? Obviously. They were smiling at each other. And they moved closer again, their faces inching together, Max’s arms on her waist and Tess’ around his neck...

That’s when Liz turned around and ran. She couldn’t bear it. Max and Tess. They were together. They were at this very moment kissing each other in Max’s room. And only God knew what else they would be doing.

Liz tried to hold back the tears, but she couldn’t. A strangled cry escaped from deep in her throat, and she broke down, right there on the street, sobs shaking her small form. She couldn’t bear it. It was all too much. The pregnancy alone was already more than she could stand, and now that too? Max and Tess, together?

After a few minutes she managed to calm down enough to get up again. And she went to the only person she felt she could trust anymore, the only person that would be there for her no matter what. She went to Kyle.

Part 12

Kyle heard the knock on his kitchen door and went to open it. He didn’t expect the sight that presented itself to him. Liz was standing there, completely soaked, shivering and hugging herself, tears streaming down her face.

“Oh my God, Liz, what happened?” he asked.

But Liz was crying too hard to answer, and so Kyle quickly pulled her inside, out of the rain and led her over to the couch so that she could sit down.

“Liz?” he asked after a short moment of studying her. He was seriously getting worried. She had been – to put it mildly – in bad shape that morning, but that was nothing compared to the state she was in now.

“They… they…they’re together,” Liz sobbed out.

Kyle was confused. Were Liz’s hormones were already kicking in? Why else would she be making such a huge thing out of something like that?

“Huh?” he asked. “Who?”

“Max…and Tess…I saw them…they were…they were…” she began, but then she started crying again, not able to finish the sentence.

Kyle just sat there, totally and completely stunned. What Liz had just told him was like a punch in the gut. His worst nightmares coming true.

Ever since he had discovered that he had feelings for Tess he had been afraid that she would choose Max over him, that in her eyes, he wasn’t good enough, that she wouldn’t give up on destiny. And that's exactly what happened.

After a few minutes Kyle came out of his daze, and Liz’s words started to sink in.

Tess was with Max.

“How long?” he asked. It didn’t matter, was totally unimportant, but it was the only thing his mind could come up with. And he wanted to know. He wanted to know how long it had taken Tess to forget the kiss they had shared and go to Max.

"I don't know," Liz replied, crying even harder than before.

Kyle knew that he shouldn’t be surprised about this. Tess had never made a big secret out of wanting Max. But he still was. He’d thought that that had changed. He’d thought that she had changed. He’d thought that she wasn’t the person she’d been when she had first come to Roswell anymore. He’d thought that he was one of the reasons why she’d changed. He’d even thought that maybe one day she could reciprocate the feelings he had for her. But obviously he had been wrong.

He tore his gaze away from the stain on the carpet he’d been staring at for the last ten minutes and looked at Liz. She was still crying, tears falling down her already tearstained cheeks. He wanted to join her, let the tears that were welling up in his eyes fall too, but he knew that he couldn’t do that.

He had to be strong, if not for himself then for Liz. She needed him know, more than ever before, and he’d die before he let her down. He was going to be there for her, be strong for her, and if it killed him.

“Shh,” he whispered while pulling her into his arms. “It’s okay, everything’s gonna be okay,” he promised her.

~*~*~*~

Max and Tess made their way up to the Valenti’s front door.

After their talk about destiny they had discussed what they should do now about Liz and Kyle, and had come to the conclusion that they wouldn’t do anything. They had considered telling them that they knew as well as telling the rest of the gang, but had then decided that telling anyone else about Liz’s pregnancy was not their decision to make, and that it was probably better not to say anything about them knowing yet.

Dealing with other people knowing was probably not something Liz and Kyle were up to yet. It was without a doubt hard enough for them to deal with the pregnancy itself without having to take other people’s feeling and reactions into consideration. And they didn’t want to deal with Liz and Kyle knowing that they knew yet either.

When they reached the door Tess unlocked it and was about to step inside when she froze at the sight in front of her. Liz and Kyle were on the couch, lying in each other’s arms. Kyle was tenderly brushing through Liz’s hair with his fingers while Liz seemed to be sleeping. There was just something about the way they were lying together that seemed incredibly intimate. Like it was the most normal thing in the world to them. Like they had done it a million times before.

Looked like they had their answer. They were back together.

They turned around and left again, not bearing the sight of the people they loved together. Kyle and Liz never knew that they were there.

~*~*~*~

After a few hours Liz began to stir again. She was surprised that she had actually been able to sleep. But she was glad about it. She had really needed that. Now her mind was cleared a bit, it might actually be possible for her to think straight.

“Hey,” Kyle said when he noticed that Liz was awake.

“Hey,” Liz replied.

“Feel better?” Kyle asked.

“A bit,” Liz said, giving Kyle a smile that turned out more forced than she wanted.

“What do you want to do now?” Kyle asked her.

Liz thought about it for a moment before a look of determination crossed her face. “I want to find out how the hell it’s possible that I’m pregnant,” she told Kyle.

“O-kay,” Kyle replied, not really knowing what she meant with that. “How?” he asked after a moment

“I don’t know,” Liz replied. “But there has to be a logical explanation for this. And if there is, then I’ll find it.”

“Okay,” Kyle said. “Where do we start?”

“With a list of possible explanations,” Liz replied.

Kyle rolled his eyes. What was it with Liz and her lists? But he got up to get some paper and a pencil. Anything to occupy Liz's mind.

“Okay, so first we should try to figure out who could be responsible for this,” Liz said.

“Well, I guess our main suspect is Manticore, right?” Kyle said.

“Right. But we shouldn’t forget the aliens.”

“Why should aliens get you pregnant?” Kyle asked.

“I have no idea. Why should Manticore get me pregnant? Aliens are a possibility though. Not very probably, but we still shouldn’t rule it out. It could also be a third party, someone we don’t know about at all. Maybe someone who found out that I’m an X5, or that I was healed by Max,” Liz told Kyle while writing everything down.

Liz seemed to be in her element, the strained, haunted, scared look on her face was almost completely gone, something Kyle was more than just grateful to see. He wasn't used to Liz being scared of anything, it unnerved him a bit.

“What if it’s a genetic thing?” Kyle suddenly asked.

“A genetic thing?”

“Yeah. I mean, maybe Manticore programmed some of their female X5s to get pregnant at a certain time. I mean, they could probably do that, right?”

“I don’t know. But why should they do that in the first place?” Liz asked, thinking about what Kyle had just suggested.

“They’re Manticore!” Kyle replied. “They’re sick! They don’t need a reason to do anything like this!”

“I don’t think that’s very proba…” Liz began before trailing off.

“What?” Kyle asked.

“Maybe they did program the female X5s to get pregnant. But not at a certain time. Maybe some developments or changes in my body triggered the pregnancy. Maybe it’s Manticore’s sick way of making sure that our genes would survive in case we didn’t.”

“Wait a minute,” Kyle said. “That would mean…”

“…that something’s wrong with me,” Liz finished. “That I’m ill.”

“Liz you’re not…” Kyle began. This was not an option.

“You don’t know that,” Liz replied.

“Come on Liz,” Kyle said, unwilling to even consider that option. “That’s ridiculous. You’d have some kinds of symptoms if there was something wrong.”

“I’ve had memory lapses,” Liz reminded him.

“Once,” Kyle said. “Only once. Wait a minute, maybe that has something to do with the pregnancy. Maybe someone kidnapped you and somehow got you pregnant. Maybe someone-” he said before abruptly stopping. He was about to say ‘raped you’, but that wasn’t an option he ever wanted to consider.

“Raped me?” Liz asked, knowing exactly what direction Kyle’s thoughts had taken.

Kyle swallowed. “Yeah.”

“Don’t worry about that. I wasn’t raped. I’m still a virgin,” she told him, trying to ease his mind.

“How do you know that?” Kyle asked confused.

“I checked.”

“You…okay, so maybe I didn’t want to know that after all,” Kyle said.

“Maybe Max healing me triggered the pregnancy. Maybe it did change me, just like Ava said,” Liz suggested, her mind racing with possible explanations. That would make sense.

“But that was more than a year ago,” Kyle reminded her.

“I know,” Liz said. “But maybe the change happened gradually, and so my body didn’t see it as a threat till now.”

Kyle didn’t know what to think of that possibility, but he knew that if it turned out to be true, he’d kill Evans.

Liz seemed to know what Kyle was thinking, and so she quickly changed the subject. “We should get back to the kidnapping theory. It’s still a possibility, just without the rape.”

“You mean a test-tube baby?” Kyle asked.

“Exactly. Only problem is that since I’m on the pill, they would have had to remove one of my eggs and done the fertilization outside of my body to then implant the egg into my womb. But I didn’t have any signs of an operation like that.”

“Maybe it wasn’t your egg they took. Or maybe the wounds healed before you saw them.”

“We’re fast healers, but not that fast. Unless of course someone did the job for me.”

“You mean aliens?” Kyle asked.

“Yes. That would also explain why I didn’t realize that someone was in the backroom with me like I should have, they could have mindwarped me into not noticing them.”

“But why would someone go through all the trouble of kidnapping and impregnating you to only slip you back into your bed? I mean, isn’t that too big a risk? You could decide to get rid of the baby, or something could happen to you and the baby.”

“That’s the big question,” Liz replied, once again taking notes.

“And why would someone get you pregnant in the first place?”

“That’s another big question,” Liz said, still writing.

“Anything we forgot?” Kyle asked.

“Yes,” Liz said, finally looking up. A trace of fear was once again in her eyes, and Kyle became scared. “What’s growing inside of me?”

Part 13

Kyle stared at Liz for a few moments, not understanding what she meant.

“Manticore cooked up some pretty sick things in their labs,” Liz explained. “There were transgenics that looked like dogs, some that looked like reptiles, some that didn’t look quite like anything nature ever came up with. And if aliens are responsible for this…”

“It might come out green and slimy,” Kyle finished for her.

Liz glared at Kyle. She had only known that she was pregnant for less than twenty-four hours, but she was already protective of whatever it was that was growing inside of her. And no one, not even Kyle, insulted her child.

“Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing,” Kyle quickly said when he noticed that Liz was not happy with his last comment.

Liz was about to say something when she decided to let it go. There really were more important things to discuss right now.

Kyle was obviously thinking the same thing. “Look Liz,” he said. “I know that this probably isn’t the best time to discuss this, but we’re gonna have to tell your parents. They need to know.”

Liz sighed. She knew that Kyle was right, but she still didn’t want to do it. Her parents would be so disappointed. They’d always had such great hopes for her, that she’s go to college, that she’d make something out of her life, do something that was important, meaningful.

“We?” she asked when she realized that Kyle had said ‘we’ and not ‘you’.

“Of course we,” Kyle replied. “I told you, we’re in this together. And I guess that you could use a little moral support, right?”

“Yeah, I could. How about we go now, get it over with?” Liz suggested.

“Sure,” Kyle said getting up to go.

“Kyle?” Liz said, stopping him.

He turned around to face her.

“Thanks,” Liz said hugging him. “I’d be lost without you.”

~*~*~*~

Twenty minutes later Liz and Kyle arrived at the Parker’s apartment. It was already relatively late, and so the Crashdown was already closed. Liz and Kyle went inside and found both Nancy and Jeff in the living room watching a documentation on TV.

“Hi Liz,” Jeff said when he noticed his daughter and her best friend. “Kyle, good to see you. You haven’t been around in a while.”

“Yeah, I’ve been pretty busy with school lately,” Kyle replied, a bit uneasy about lying to Jeff, who was almost like a second father to him. And school didn’t have anything to do with Kyle’s absence in the Parker household lately. Rather a nasty rumor about him sleeping with Jeff’s only daughter. And that wasn’t exactly something he wanted to discuss with him.

“Is everything okay?” Nancy asked. Liz was awfully quiet, she hadn’t said anything at all ever since she’d come home. And she looked pale.

“Liz?” Nancy asked again when she didn’t reply.

Jeff and Nancy shared a worried look before Jeff quickly turned off the TV. He was about to get up when Liz spoke.

“No, don’t. It’s better if you’re sitting down.”

She was chewing on her bottom lip, a sure sign that she was nervous. Looking a bit closer Nancy and Jeff noticed that her hands were shaking. They were trembling almost violently.

“Liz, what’s wrong?” Jeff asked, seriously getting worried. Liz’s behavior was starting to scare him.

Liz glanced at Kyle who gave her an encouraging nod.

Liz turned back to her parents. All her anxiety and fear was back full force. Her whole body was starting to shake and her mouth had gone dry – she was sure that she wouldn’t bring out a single word.

“Liz-” Nancy began, but Liz interrupted her.

“I’m pregnant,” she blurred out, scared that the spark of courage that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere would leave her again if she didn’t tell them everything right then and there.

Nancy and Jeff just stared at her. Their faces were emotionless. Not angry, not upset. They only looked surprised, stunned. They certainly hadn’t expected this.

After a few minutes Jeff’s expression turned to one of anger and he jumped up. “I suppose Max is the father,” he said through clenched teeth, barely managing to control his rage. He was going to kill that boy for doing this to his baby girl. “Where is he?” he asked.

“NO!” Liz quickly said. “Max doesn’t have anything to do with this.” The last thing she needed right now was her father going after a completely clueless Max.

“If it isn’t Max then…” Jeff began. His gaze suddenly wandered to Kyle. “You?!” he asked, half surprised, half upset. He had picked up a few rumors in the café from kids that went to school with Liz about her supposedly sleeping with Kyle, but he had of course assumed that there wasn’t anything true about them, that someone had maybe misinterpreted one of Kyle’s late night visits as something more than it was. Now he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“NO!” Liz and Kyle said at the same time, Kyle holding his hands up in defense. Jeff sure was scary at the moment, he really didn’t want to become the target of all that anger. “Nothing ever happened between us,” Kyle continued, wanting to make sure that Jeff knew that his suspicion wasn’t true. “Our relationship is purely platonic, we’re just friends. Hell, Liz is like a sister to me.”

On the one hand Jeff was glad to hear that, on the other he wasn’t. If Max wasn’t the father, and Kyle wasn’t the father, who was? “Who then?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Liz admitted, trying hard to keep her voice from breaking. Telling someone wasn’t getting any easier the more she did it. Quite the opposite actually, it made it all seem so much more real. And at the moment, reality wasn’t t he most pleasant thing for her.

“You don’t know?” Jeff asked infuriated.

“Daddy-” Liz began, but she was interrupted.

“I can’t believe this!” Jeff shouted.

“Daddy, listen to me,” Liz began again, but Jeff just kept on talking. Or rather yelling.

“I thought you were smarter than this! I thought we had raised you-”

“STOP!” Nancy shouted standing up and going between Liz and Jeff. She could understand why her husband was so angry, she was upset too. But there was something off her, and she intended to find out what.

“Everyone sit down NOW,” she ordered. “And Jeff, please try to calm down a bit. Shouting won’t get you anywhere.”

Everyone did as she said and sat down, Jeff and Nancy next to each other on one couch and Liz and Kyle on the other. Kyle reached for Liz’s hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze, wanting to reassure her that he would be there for her through it all, just like he’d promised.

After a moment Nancy turned to her daughter. “Liz, you’re on the pill. How can you be pregnant?” she asked, trying to be rational. When they had discovered that Liz went into heat every few months she had decided to put her on the pill to make sure that nothing happened it Liz got caught up in her hormones and slept with someone, which is apparently what had happened.

“I don’t know,” Liz said. “I don’t know how I got pregnant.”

~*~*~*~

An hour later Liz and Kyle had told her parents everything they knew, which wasn’t much, as well as everything they didn’t know and all their theories, possible explanations and suspects, leaving out the alien part pf course.

Liz parents were shocked to say the least. Liz and Kyle had finished telling them everything a few minutes ago, but they had yet to show any kind of reaction.

After a few more minutes Jeff finally stirred. He looked at Liz, a mixture of pain, sympathy and regret for his initial reaction in his eyes. He opened his arms for Liz quickly went over to him, melting into his arms. It was exactly what she needed right now. Her father always managed to make her feel safe and loved and cherished.

Nancy joined in on the hug, and so the Parker family spent the next fifteen minutes hugging and crying, apologizing and offering support and comfort to their daughter.

Kyle watched them, feeling a bit embarrassed to witness this, but mainly being glad that Jeff and Nancy were being so supportive. This had gone a lot better than he had thought it would.

“What are we gonna do now?” Liz asked.

“I don’t know,” Jeff admitted. “But we’ll find a way to get through this. I promise.”

Part 14

After Jeff and Nancy found out about the pregnancy they insisted that Liz stay home from school for a few days. Liz thought that it was ridiculous since she wasn’t sick, only pregnant, but her parents wouldn’t budge, saying something about her needing time to adjust to the fact that she was pregnant and not being able to concentrate on the lessons anyway.

On her third day home from school, Liz was sitting on her balcony, wrapped up in a blanket to ward off the cold December night. She was a bit annoyed that her staying at home would screw up her perfect attendance, but in a way she was also glad about it. She dreaded going back to school because it would mean that she’d have to eventually face her friends. And she had absolutely no idea what to do when that happened.

She knew she’d have to tell them sooner or later, it wasn’t like she would be able to hide the pregnancy for a very long time, especially considering how small she was. But she simply didn’t know what to tell them.

She only knew that the whole truth was not an option. Now that Max and Tess were together, she just couldn’t risk doing anything to break them up again. As much as it broke her heart, she knew that that’s the way it had to be. And if she told them that Kyle was not the father then she’d have to explain why she was so sure about that and therefore admit that they had never slept with each other which would lead to telling them about Future Max. And she just couldn’t do that. She was relatively sure that there was a part of Max that still loved her, or rather would love her again if he knew the truth. And that meant that he might break up with Tess if he knew the truth. And that would be a catastrophe.

It was strange, she had only known about the pregnancy for a few days, but somehow she had already developed an unbelievably strong sense of love and devotion towards her unborn child, not to mention how protective she felt about it. She’d die before she’d let it come to harm. And the end of the world was definitely something she’d call ‘harm’. So that alone was reason enough not to tell Max anything at all that might put the world – and therefore her child – at risk.

And if she didn’t want Max to know she couldn’t tell anyone else, except maybe Alex and Maria. But the way she knew Maria, she’d meddle, always wanting to do what’s best for her friends, and probably end up causing Max to find out after all. So as long as she wanted to prevent that, telling Maria was definitely not an option.

And while Alex could normally keep his mouth shut, he was bad at hiding that he knew something in the first place, which Maria would without a doubt notice, suspicious as she already was. And if there was one thing Maria was good at, it was getting information out of Alex. Never once had she failed, so telling him was probably a bad idea too if the truth was supposed to remain a secret.

Which left her with nobody else to talk about this. Thank God she had Kyle. He was her rock, always had been.

Kyle...

She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of it earlier, but she had just realized what all of this would mean to him. The whole town thought that they’d slept with each other, and so everybody would of course assume that he was the father.

And in her eyes that was more horrible than anything else.

She could live with whatever the people would say about her, but the mere thought of Kyle going through anything remotely bad because of her was just unbearable. He’d done so much for her in all the years they’d been friends, more than he’d ever know, and she’d already put him through enough with the whole Future Max debacle. But that was nothing compared to what was without a doubt about to come.

Just then her thoughts were interrupted by someone walking down the alley towards her balcony. The person was still pretty far away, but due to her enhanced senses she could already hear him. And she instantly knew who it was – Kyle. He’d come to visit her so often over the past few years, she’d recognize the way he walked in her sleep.

When he reached the top of her balcony he walked over to her, gave her a soft kiss on the forehead and plopped down on the free lawn chair.

“Hard day?” Liz asked, noticing how tired he looked. He should be home and in bed sleeping right now, but of course he was here, without a doubt to make sure that she was okay. As always, Kyle put Liz before himself, and that only helped to increase the guilt she was feeling for dragging him into all of this.

“Yeah, the coach really made us work today. Not to mention the history essay I had to write,” Kyle replied suppressing a yawn.

Liz frowned. “You should have brought it over. I would have helped you with it,” she told him, not liking that he hadn’t come to her for help like he usually did. Kyle was smart, but not exactly very ambitious when it came to school, and so she’d occasionally help him out a bit. It was the least she could do for him after all the things he’d done for her.

“You’re supposed to rest, not do my homework for me cause I’m too lazy” Kyle insisted, not liking that Liz was obviously not taking it easy like she was supposed to. She was pregnant after all.

Liz rolled her eyes. Leave it to Kyle to treat her like she was out of spun glass even though he of all people should know better. “I’m pregnant Kyle, not terminally ill,” she reminded him. “I’m not gonna break because of a little school work, especially…” she said, halting for a moment because she thought that she’d heard foot steps approaching the ladder to her balcony. Deciding it was nothing she continued talking. She really was getting paranoid. “Especially since I didn’t do anything all day but lying around in bed watching TV and reading,” she finished.

“I know,” Kyle said. “But I can’t help worrying about you. With all the things that happened… How are you taking it?” he asked, concern lacing his voice.

“Pretty good actually,” Liz said, a small smile on her lips, her finger tips brushing over her abdomen. She still couldn’t believe that there was actually a new life growing inside her, that there was a baby only a few inches away from her hand.

Kyle couldn’t help but smiled at the tender gesture Liz was offering her unborn child. He’d suspected that once the shock had worn off, Liz would very quickly start to love her baby, despite everything. And he had been right. But then the soft smile vanished from her face, replaced by a look of sadness and… guilt?

“Liz?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

When she looked up after a few seconds he realized that there were tears in her eyes. What the hell? A minute ago she had been smiling, seemingly happy. Or at least as happy as you can be under these circumstances. He quickly got up and went over to her to pull her into a hug. “Shh, it’s okay,” he whispered, asking himself if maybe her hormones were already kicking in and had something to do with her sudden change of mood.

“No it’s not,” Liz sniffed. “God, I mean, do you have any idea what this is gonna mean?” she asked.

“Liz, it’s gonna be okay,” Kyle said once again. “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you. You know that, right?”

“I’m not talking about me,” Liz told him, frustrated that he didn’t seem to realize what kind of affects this would have on his life. “I’m talking about you.”

“Me?” Kyle asked surprised, even though he knew he shouldn’t be. It was just like Liz to put him before herself, even in a situation like this.

“Everybody is gonna think that you’re the father,” Liz told him, almost scared how he would react to that. What if he resented her for that?

“I know,” Kyle replied as if it were the most obvious and at the same time least important thing in the world.

“You know?” Liz asked exasperated. “And you don’t care?!”

“Liz, there are definitely more pressing issues at the moment. It’s not important what the gossipers of Roswell think about me. What I care about is how you’re gonna be affected by this, and the baby of course. You know, stress isn’t good for him,” Kyle told her, genuine care and concern evident in his voice, not only for Liz, but also for her unborn child.

Liz couldn’t help but tear up at Kyle’s words. She’d always known that Kyle was a sweetheart, but this just topped everything. “Him?” she asked through her tears. Kyle assuming that the baby was a boy had not gone unnoticed by her.

“Of course,” Kyle replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Come here,” he said, pulling her into his arms so that her head was resting on his chest, tucked under his chin.

“You know, I have it all planned out,” he told her. “Kyle jr. will be an exceptional kid, just like I was,” he continued, glad to here Liz giggling, even though he pretended not to hear it. And he didn’t even want to know if it was because of the name he had chosen or the ‘exceptional kid’ thing.

“He’ll excel at baseball and be the star of the little league by the time he is four,” Kyle continued. “When he’s in elementary school he’ll start playing basketball as well as soccer, and as the natural talent I know he’ll be he will immediately be asked to join several sports teams by the time he starts junior high. He’ll be the star of all high school sports teams, and of course captain of at least three or four of them. And then he’ll go to Harvard with a full sports scholarship and four years later we can retire because our famous sports-superstar-son is earning more money in a month than we could ever earn in a year.”

“Harvard?” Liz asked raising her eyebrow.

“Something positive has to come from your part of the gene pool,” Kyle told her, ignoring Liz’s mock glare as well as the fact that they had no idea who’s gene pool was actually involved in the pregnancy. But she needed a little bit of normalcy in midst of all this chaos, and so he just closed his eyes to those little details. “I just hope he hasn’t inherited your height. That may put a damper on his basketball career.”

“Look who’s talking,” Liz shot back.

“Parker, you wound me,” Kyle said clutching his chest as in pain, causing Liz to erupt in another giggle fit. Kyle smiled, satisfied that he had managed to cheer Liz up again. She was after all all that mattered.

~*~*~*~

It was already past ten o’clock when Max finally left the UFO center. He’d been working late again, just like the last few days, desperately trying to occupy his mind with something else than the two fateful words he’d heard Liz utter only a few days ago. His mind was incessantly playing them over and over again, and it was slowly driving him crazy.

He sighed as he locked up the UFO center. As if he would ever be able to ban Liz Parker from his mind. He hadn’t succeeded in the past eight years, and he knew he wouldn’t now either, especially not after what he’d found out.

Max turned around and was about to head towards his jeep when he saw a red Mustang pulling up in front of the Crashdown. He instantly that knew it was Kyle – nobody else in Roswell had a car like that. And even though he’d already realized that Liz and Kyle were back together a few days ago, seeing him coming to visit her still hurt, still broke his already beaten and battered heart a bit more.

He knew that he should turn away now, try to forget that he ever saw Kyle there, but the masochistic streak he obviously had wouldn’t let him. He watched Kyle get out of the car, and to his surprise head towards the alley that led to the back of the Crashdown. And the ladder up to Liz’s balcony.

Max didn’t know why it even mattered, but seeing Kyle going to Liz that way stung. The balcony had always been their special place. He was the only one who had always gone to see Liz like that. Or so he thought. Obviously, he'd been wrong.

This was definitely the time to go home and crawl into bed to wallow in self pity for a bit. God knew he deserved that. But his masochistic streak once again reared its ugly head and his feet started moving towards the alley almost on their own account.

He was careful to be quiet – a confrontation between him and Kyle and Liz was the last thing he wanted right now, as he approached Liz’s balcony.

“…but I can’t help worrying about you. With all the things that happened… How are you taking it?” he heard Kyle asking Liz. It was obvious that he was concerned for her and Max was glad that at least Kyle was there for her and hadn’t abandoned her like most teenage guys would have probably done.

“Pretty good actually,” Liz replied, and Max could tell that she was smiling. He heard it in her voice. And the ever-present ach in his heart once again intensified.

As much as he wanted Liz to be happy, it wasn’t easy seeing her with Kyle, even if he seemed to make her happy. She must really love him a lot if she was content despite everything. There were by God easier situations than getting pregnant when you’re sixteen.

And Max couldn’t help but resent Kyle for putting Liz through that. He saw it as the guy’s responsibility to make sure that the girl didn’t get pregnant. If you love someone you protect them from things like that. But Kyle hadn’t done that, or at least whatever he had done hadn’t worked. And that definitely was a strike against him in Max’s book.

But at least was there for Liz know that she needed him most. And that was probably all that mattered. What happened, happened, nothing could change that now. What was important was to do the right thing now, not what had been done wrong in the past, and Kyle was doing that.

It had been quiet up on the balcony for a minute or two and so Kyle’s voice, obviously laced with concern, startled him out of his thoughts. “Liz?” he heard him ask. “What’s wrong?”

Max panicked for a second, ready to rush up onto the balcony, afraid that there was something seriously wrong with Liz. But then he heard her sniffing and Kyle trying to calm her down. Max let out a breath of relief. Liz was ‘only’ crying. Which meant that she was probably okay. Looked like her hormones were starting to kick in.

Max knew that it was stupid and masochistic and actually none of his business – Liz was not his anymore after all – but he hadn’t been able to help reading up on pregnancies on the internet. He still cared for Liz deeply and therefore needed to know that she was safe and that everything about her pregnancy was normal. And to do that he needed to know what normal pregnancies were like in the first place.

Ever since he had found out that Liz was pregnant, Ava’s words kept coming back to him. She had said that by healing Liz he had somehow changed her. And if that was true, how would it affect Liz during her pregnancy and especially her baby? The thought of his alien side somehow hurting Liz was unbearable, but the mere possibility of it affecting her child was just… there weren’t any words to describe it. It was unthinkable.

But it was a possibility, and Max knew that pretending that it wasn’t wouldn’t get him anywhere, even though he wanted nothing more than to do just that. He knew Liz, and he knew that she had probably started to deeply love her child the moment she’d realized that she was pregnant. If something were to happen to her baby… it would kill Liz. And so Max had sworn himself to make sure that no harm – alien or none-alien – ever came to it, no matter what.

“No it’s not,” Max heard Liz telling Kyle as he continued to quietly listen to their conversation. “God, I mean, do you have any idea what this is gonna mean?” she asked.

“Liz, it’s gonna be okay,” Kyle reassured her. “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you. You know that, right?”

“I’m not talking about me,” Liz told him, and Max could tell that she was frustrated because Kyle obviously didn’t realize what she was talking about. Not that Max did. “I’m talking about you,” Liz continued.

“Me?” Kyle asked, seemingly just as surprised as Max was. He was curious to hear what she meant, but at that moment a trucked rattled by and so Liz’s next words were drowned out by the noise.

“…what I care about is how you’re gonna be affected by this, and the baby of course. You know, stress isn’t good for him,” was the next thing Max heard Kyle telling her. Obviously whatever Liz had been worried about, it wasn’t a big deal. Otherwise Kyle wouldn’t have brushed it off like it was nothing. Probably only her hormones, Max thought, dismissing it as unimportant.

“Him?” Liz asked, undoubtedly tearing up once again.

“Of course,” Kyle replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Come here,” he told Liz, and for the first time that night Max was glad that he could only hear and not see them.

“You know, I have it all planned out,” he heard Kyle telling her. “Kyle jr. will be an exceptional kid, just like I was,” he continued and Max could hear Liz giggling at Kyle’s antiques.

“He’ll excel at baseball and be the star of the little league by the time he is four,” Kyle said. “When he’s in elementary school he’ll start playing basketball as well as soccer, and as the natural talent I know he’ll be he will immediately be asked to join several sports teams by the time he starts junior high. He’ll be the star of all high school sports teams, and of course captain of at least three or four of them. And then he’ll go to Harvard with a full sports scholarship and four years later we can retire because our famous sports-superstar-son is earning more money in a month than we could ever earn in a year.”

“Harvard?” Liz asked.

“Something positive has to come from your part of the gene pool. I just hope he hasn’t inherited your height. That may put a damper on his basketball career.”

“Look who’s talking.”

“Parker, you wound me,” Kyle said, but Max didn’t even hear it anymore. He was already out of the ally on his way to his jeep.

When Kyle had started telling Liz about his life plan for their child it had hit home.

Kyle and Liz were having a baby.

They were together.

And they way things looked, they intended to keep it that way for the rest of their lives. Which meant that he had lost Liz. Forever.

Till then, even after he’d found out about the pregnancy, he’d somehow kept telling himself that one day they might be getting back together. That they were soul mates, and that soul mates always ended up together. That that was just the way the universe worked.

But now he realized that those were just distant dreams. Or rather illusions. And if he kept on with it, it would one day kill him. He knew that then and there was the time to let Liz go, to move on with his life, because God knew she had. But he couldn’t. Despite everything that had happened, he couldn’t. He wanted to hate Liz for it, but the mere thought of that was almost funny. As if he could ever hate Liz.

And so he decided that if he couldn’t have Liz in his life the way he wanted her, he’d at least do everything in his power to keep her as his friend.

He knew he hadn’t been fooling anybody – least of all himself – when he’d told Liz a few weeks ago that they couldn’t be friends because he was still hanging on to what they’d had. He needed Liz in his life more than anything else. She was like oxygen to him. And losing her was the one thing he knew he wouldn’t survive.

Sorry for the wait. I know it's been taking me a lot longer to update, but the parts are longer too, so I hope that makes up for it. I got most of my information about pregnancies from a website. The URL is pregnancy.about.com


Part 15

Two days later Kyle once again went to visit Liz. It was Sunday afternoon and the last day Liz would be staying home and so he wanted to make sure that she was okay with going back to school the next day.

He went up to her balcony as he had started doing years ago, but Liz wasn’t out in her lawn chair and so he went over to her window, opened it and crawled inside.

He wasn’t surprised to see Liz at her desk, engrossed in a book, with the computer on. He went up closer and saw that she was on a website about pregnancies.

“Hey,” he said giving her a gentle kiss on the top of her head.

“Hey,” Liz mumbled not looking up.

“What are you reading?” Kyle asked.

Liz held the book up so that Kyle could see the title but never stopped reading. It was – just like Kyle had suspected – a book about pregnancies. He hoped that it was a good sign that Liz was reading up on it, that she was approaching this in a scientific manner like she usually did. It meant that she had everything under control, or at least intended to get it under control.

After a moment or two she stopped reading and looked up to Kyle. She was smiling, looking like an eager little kid unpacking Christmas presents, and Kyle couldn’t help but smile in return. Liz definitely seemed to be in her element finding out everything there was to know about pregnancies. She’d always loved science and learning new thing. Something that Kyle would never quite understand.

“Look at this,” Liz told Kyle pointing at a picture on the website. “This is what the baby looks like right now, assuming that the conception happened during the night I can’t remember, which is exactly two weeks ago.”

Kyle narrowed his eyes at the picture. All he saw was a lot of black and white squiggles and a dark gray spot in the middle. That was supposed to be a baby? Looked like he had one hell of a development ahead of him.

“That’s… interesting,” Kyle said, choosing his words carefully. The last time he had seen Liz he had gotten the distinctive impression that she was having mood swings due to the pregnancy, and upsetting her was the last thing he wanted. Liz could be damn scary when she was upset.

“How are you feeling?” he asked her, partly because he wanted to change the subject, partly because he wanted to make sure that she was okay.

“I’m fine,” Liz told him getting up and turning off the computer. “I’m just pretty tired. And I have to pee constantly,” she continued while going over to her bed and lying down.

“Thanks for sharing that with me,” Kyle replied sarcastically while following her over to her bed and lying down beside her. “Wait a minute, you’re tired?” he asked. “Are you sure that-” he began, but Liz cut him off.

“That’s perfectly normal,” Liz reassured him. “No reason to worry.”

“So up to now everything is normal?” Kyle asked.

“As far as I can tell, yes,” Liz told him. “I have to go pee,” she said after a short pause.

“Overshare, Liz,” Kyle told her causing Liz to roll her eyes. Kyle was so soft sometimes.

Ten minutes later Liz was back on the bed, her head resting on Kyle’s chest, trying hard to stay awake. She hadn’t been kidding when she’d told him that she was pretty tired. “I’ve been thinking,” she told Kyle, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled over them.

“Wow, let’s mark the day on the calendar,” Kyle teased, earning himself a smack on the arm.

“I’m serious,” Liz said. But after that she went quiet, and Kyle became concerned.

“Liz?” he asked after minute.

“I’m gonna have to tell the others,” Liz finally said.

Kyle opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again, not knowing what to say to Liz. She was right, she’d have to tell the gang eventually, and he knew that that would be more than just hard on her. Especially since she couldn’t tell them the truth but would have to lie to them. And Liz hated lying. She’d done it so often, she was just sick of it.

“We,” he told her.

“What?” Liz asked surprised.

“We’re gonna have to tell the others,” Kyle said correcting her. “We’re in this together, remember?”

Liz was about to protest when she realized that that wouldn’t change anything anyway. Kyle had made up his mind, and she knew he could be damn stubborn if he wanted to. He wouldn’t budge no matter what she said or did. And to be honest, she didn’t really want to convince Kyle to stay out of this. She needed him more than ever and Kyle knew that, which meant that he’d be by her side every step of the way no matter what. She felt horrible for pulling him into this, but knew that it wasn’t in her power to change anything about that. And so instead of trying to convince Kyle once again to stay out of this she accepted it, too tired to argue with Kyle right now anyway.

She tilted her head up at Kyle, a smiled on her face, tears glistering in her eyes. Damn hormones.

“Thank you,” she whispered, even though those words seemed awfully insufficient and inadequate. They didn’t express half the things she wanted to say. But from the look on Kyle’s face she guessed that he knew what she meant anyway. She’d always known that Kyle was an amazingly loyal friend who’d always be there for her when she needed him, but this surpassed even her greatest expectations.

“What are we gonna tell them?” she asked after a moment of silence.

“I have no idea,” Kyle replied. “But we don’t have to decide this now, you know. It’s probably better to wait another week or two until we’re really one-hundred percent sure that you are pregnant. And you still need time to adjust to everything. It’s hard enough the way it is, other people knowing would only make it even more complicated, and it would be too much for you and the baby.”

“Kyle, I’m not gonna break because of this,” Liz told him, a bit hurt that he thought so little of her.

“I know you aren’t,” Kyle told her. “But it is a major change. And as I already told you, stress isn’t good for the baby, especially now. The earlier in the pregnancy, the more critical everything is. Plus, we still need to figure out what exactly to tell them,” Kyle said, hoping that it would convince Liz.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Liz replied after considering her options again, glad that she had a legitimate reason for putting it off a bit longer. God knew that that wasn’t something she was looking forward to.

She thought about it for another minute or two and then slowly drifted off into a peaceful slumber, curled up against Kyle’s side. He noticed that she was asleep when her breathing evened out and for a second considered leaving her alone. But then he decided against it and stayed were he was, with Liz wrapped up protectively in his arms.

~*~*~*~

“Hey,” Max said, sitting down beside Tess on ‘their’ park bench. They’d made it a habit to meet there every evening to just hang out, talk, or sometimes just sit together in silence. A strange friendship had started to develop between them, based on mutual pain and heartache, but also understanding and care.

Max would have never thought that he and Tess could get along so well. But they did. Amazingly well actually. And not only because they had a few things in common. No, they genuinely liked each other.

Looking back, Max felt incredibly guilty. He had never given Tess a fair chance, not once. He’d always seen her as the enemy, from day one. Granted, she hadn’t exactly given them a lot of reasons to trust her when she’d first come to Roswell, but she had proven herself countless times afterwards. Somehow he’d just assumed that she wasn’t a good person. But he’d been wrong about that. Tess was caring and funny, she was nice and smart. Opinionated and hardheaded, but also insecure and scared. In other words, human. More than he had ever given her credit for. More than he felt human himself at the moment.

“Hey,” Tess replied, smiling up at Max. Never would she have thought that their relationship would turn out like this. If six months ago, someone would have told her that she and Max would end up being friends and nothing more and that she would be happy with that, she would have laughed in that person’s face. And probably mind-warped them into changing their mind. But now… it was strange knowing that she had wanted more than friendship from him back then. Not only did it feel strange, but also… wrong. Like they weren’t supposed to be more than friends.

Tess suspected that Nasedo had been lying when he had told her that she and Max had been madly in love back on Antar. It seemed more probable to her that their marriage had been arranged, that they had been friends, maybe even lovers due to being married, but certainly not in love.

Tess sighed. If only she’d have realized that earlier. If only she hadn’t been so hell-bent on getting Max. If only she’d have opened her eyes to the world around her. Maybe everything would be different now.

“Don’t do that,” Max told her.

“Do what?”

“Torturing yourself with ‘what if’s and ‘might have been’s. You can’t change the past, and you shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened. It’s not your fault. It was their choice to sleep with each other. Kyle got Liz pregnant all by himself. You don’t have anything to do with that. So stop thinking that.”

Tess opened her mouth to argue, but then closed it again. He was right. It wasn’t her fault that Kyle and Liz were back together. It wasn’t her fault that they’d been stupid enough not to use protection.

She wanted to tell him that he was right, but glancing over at him she realized that that wasn’t necessary. He already knew what she was thinking. Which would have been damn unnerving if it hadn’t felt so right. She wasn’t quite sure why there was suddenly this strange sense of intimacy between them, but it was there. She figured that it probably had something to do with their past lives. Like their souls recognized each other.

And it wasn’t like she minded. For the first time since she had arrived in Roswell – the first time in her life actually – she felt like there was somebody who understood her completely. Who saw her as the person she was. Not as Ava, Queen of Antar as Nasedo had, not as the enemy like Maria and Liz did, not like someone you had to put up with like Michael and Isabel did.

Max was the first real friend she’d ever had. The first person who really appreciated her. The first person who genuinely seemed to like her, who actually cared about her. Till then, Tess hadn’t even realized how lonely she’d been all her life. But that didn’t matter anymore. She had Max now.

Max and Tess sat their in silence for a while, just enjoying each other’s company, a rustling in the bushes around them every now and then was the only sound that interrupted the comfortable silence. When Tess heard a rustling right behind the bench they were sitting on she quickly pulled her knees up to her chest to keep her feet off the ground. There were rats in the park, and if there was one thing Tess hated, it was furry little animals with impossibly long, naked tails.

Max tried to suppress a chuckle when he realized why Tess had removed her feet from the ground, but he didn’t quit succeed. Tess smacked his arm. “Don’t laugh at me,” she said mock-sulking. “Didn’t your mommy teach you any manners?” Max instantly turned serious, or at least tried to, and apologized profoundly for stepping out of line, which Tess gracefully accepted.

“Liz is coming back to school tomorrow,” Max suddenly said. “Michael mentioned it. He heard the Parkers talking about it.”

“Oh,” was all that Tess said. She had suspected that Liz would come back to school the next week, but did it have to be tomorrow? Seeing Kyle was hard enough now that she knew the truth, but seeing him with Liz? She wasn’t sure if she could handle that. Seeing them walking down the halls holding hands, stealing chaste kisses every now and then… Her stomach suddenly felt very queasy.

“You okay?” Max asked concerned.

“Um, yeah. I was just hoping…”

“That we’d have more time to prepare ourselves?” Max finished for her.

“Yeah.”

“We’ll be okay,” Max reassured her, reaching for her hand. “We have each other, remember?”

“Yeah,” Tess replied smiling. “We have each other.”


tbc

Part 16

The next morning Liz’s mom drove her to school, wanting to make sure that Liz was really ready to go back.

“You okay, sweetie?” she asked her daughter once they reached West Roswell High.

“I’m fine, mom,” Liz reassured her, giving her mother a small smile to convince her that she was indeed okay, even though she didn’t feel half as confident as she pretended.

Nancy still wasn’t sure if letting Liz go back to school already was a good idea, but she knew how stubborn her daughter could be and how important her education was to her. Besides, school would probably distract Liz a bit, which would be good for her.

“Just remember that you can call if you don’t want to stay any longer and I’ll come and pick you up again,” Nancy said, concern still evident in her voice.

“I know mom,” Liz said before giving her a kiss on the cheek and leaving the car.

She walked up to the school doors and took a deep breath before pulling the door open and going inside. Everything seemed to be normal. The halls were full of students getting things out of their locker, talking, hurrying to class. Everything was like any other Monday.

But suddenly the people noticed her and the hall went deadly quiet. Liz felt thousands of pairs of eyes on her, starring at her. She looked around confused, and that’s when she noticed the knowing look on their faces.

They knew.

She wasn’t sure how, but she was certain that they did. It was in their eyes. The mixture of curiosity and pity and surprise gave them away.

Liz’s breathing hitched in her throat for a second, panic setting in. They knew. Everybody knew. Which meant that her friends probably knew too. How had it come out? Liz and Kyle had been so careful to not talk about it in public. They hadn’t told anybody except her parents, and she knew that Jeff and Nancy could keep a secret and make sure that no one else found out. They’d done that concerning her status as a transgenic for years after all.

Liz was frozen into place for a few second, but she quickly recovered. This was not the time to dwell on possible explanations or consequences. Holding her head high she walked over to her locker to get her books before she marched off to class. No one was going to see her look ashamed because of her baby.

~*~*~*~

The rest of the day was horrible for Liz. She felt dozens of eyes on her wherever she went, whatever she did. No matter where she was, she heard people whispering, and thanks to her enhanced hearing she heard every word.

‘Perfect little Liz Parker got herself knocked up and Kyle is the father.’

‘I guess she wasn't as goody goody as she liked to act.’

‘It’s always the quiet ones, isn’t it?’

‘I always knew that she played innocent to get the guys. Poor Kyle for falling for that.’

It was unnerving, stupid, and damn annoying. Liz felt more than just relieved when the bell rang, signalizing the end of her last period before lunch. She quickly left the class room and headed over to the gym. Going out into the quad to eat there was not an option. People talking behind her back and starring at her all day was one thing, but them counting every calorie she ate would be too much.

Liz settled down at the top of the bleachers in a corner where she was partly hidden by the shadows. She unpacked her lunch – two sandwiches, chips, some chocolate ship cookies, an apple and some milk – and started eating.

A few minutes later she heard the gym door open and had to suppress a groan. Couldn’t she be left alone at least for half an hour? But a second later Kyle appeared, and Liz let out a sigh of relief. Leave it to him to come and find her when she needed someone to cheer her up.

“Up here,” she called out.

Kyle turned around and headed up to her. “Hiding from the gossip-infected student body?” he asked, slight annoyance coloring his tone.

“You noticed too?” Liz asked.

“Hard not to,” Kyle replied, unpacking his own lunch while making sure that what Liz was eating was enough for a pregnant woman.

Liz suppressed the urge to tell him how sorry she was, knowing that Kyle thought she didn’t have any reason to apologize for anything, even though she disagreed. She wished that she would have found a possibility to keep him out of this whole thing, but he was hardheaded and stubborn and refused to stay out of it.

“Well, at least we don’t have to figure out how to tell them any more,” Kyle said after a moment, referring to their friends.

“Do they know?” Liz asked.

“Guess so. I don’t see how anybody could have missed it. The whole school is talking about nothing else.”

Liz sighed. This was the last thing she’d expected to happen, at least for the moment. She had of course known that she wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret very long, but she had counted on a few weeks time to prepare herself. She wasn’t used to being the center of attention like this, especially not in the negative sense.

“Have you seen any of them?” Liz asked. “The gang, I mean.”

“I saw Isabel,” Kyle told her. “Passed her in the hall. But she had her ice princess mask on, I couldn’t tell if she knew. Didn’t see anybody else though.”

“Me neither,” Liz replied. At least one positive thing this day had. But then, the day wasn’t over yet. And the way Liz knew Maria, she’d come to her and demand to know the truth as soon as she found out. Which should be soon if it hadn’t already happened.

Liz once again sighed. Things were just getting better and better.

~*~*~*~

The rest of the day dragged by much too slowly. People kept on whispering and starring, but Liz chose to ignore it, blocking out what people were saying. She really didn’t need to hear the newest rumors about how she and Kyle had been having a secret affair for a year or about the plans for their wedding next month.

When the final bell rang Liz practically ran out of the classroom and out into the parking lot, the need to get away from all the people becoming overwhelming. She met Kyle at his car and they left the school grounds as quickly as possible.

After Kyle dropped her off at the Crashdown, Liz went upstairs to her room to change into her uniform and then went down to the café to start her shift. Her parents had at first suggested that she stop working, but Liz had insisted on continuing, at least for the next few months. She didn’t see a reason to stop working, and she needed all the money she could get. Her parents had of course offered to support her financially, and she knew that she wouldn’t have a choice than to take them up on their offer, but she didn’t want to take more money from them than absolutely necessary. Plus, working took her mind off things a bit.

About an hour later Liz was taking the order from some of her classmates who were looking at her rather oddly and kept starring at her stomach, obviously trying to figure out if the rumors were true. Liz was trying to hold back a smart-ass remark when the door of the Crashdown was suddenly ripped open and Maria stormed into the café. She wasn’t working that day, and so Liz had hoped that she could put off the confrontation for another day, but obviously she had been wrong.

Maria made a bee-line straight to her, and when she reached her kept right on walking, dragging Liz along with her to the back room. Before Liz could even open her mouth Maria started talking.

“Okay, so I heard the rumors. I mean, duh, everybody’s heard the rumors. Nobody is talking about anything else. Just… tell me it isn’t true,” Maria begged.

Liz didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to lie to her best friend, but she couldn’t tell her the truth either.

“I can’t believe it,” Maria said, taking Liz’s silence as a confirmation. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell my anything. I thought we were friends, Liz,” she continued, the hurt evident in her voice.

“I didn't know what to say,” Liz told her truthfully, avoiding her piercing gaze. There just wasn’t anything she could have said. Not if she didn’t want to lie to her best friend.

“Well, you could have started with telling me that you and Kyle were dating again,” Maria said getting upset. “I just don’t understand how you could go back to him after everything you had with Max. How you could sleep with him. God, I can’t believe he got you pregnant!”

That touched a nerve. Liz didn’t care what Maria said about her, but she wouldn’t stand by and let her put down Kyle, especially for something he hadn’t even done.

“It takes two to get pregnant, Maria,” Liz said, trying hard to stay calm. “Look, I know that you never liked Kyle, that you never gave him a chance. But you don’t know him. Kyle is one of the most amazing persons I have ever met. I care for him, a lot, and he cares for me too, even if you can't see it. If you don’t like that, your problem.” After taking a deep breath to calm down again she added, “I have to go back to work.” And with that she went back out into the café, leaving a very confused and hurt Maria behind.

~*~*~*~

After dropping Liz off Kyle drove back to school since he had football training that day. He was a bit late and so he missed the usual locker room conversation before training. Not that he minded, he had a pretty good idea what it had been about.

Throughout the whole afternoon his teammates starred at him, whispering behind his back. It was damn annoying, but Kyle tried his best to ignore it. Instead he put his whole energy into training, working off all his pent up emotions.

He felt a lot better after training, but that changed once he entered the locker room. The guys started hollering and hooting, slapping him on the back and saying things like "Way to go" and "Well done, Valenti".

"So, tell us," Chris, a typical jock, began. "How did you manage to get into the pants of lil' miss goody-two-shoes?" he asked.

"Shut up," Kyle told him, trying to push back his anger at the way he spoke about Liz. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Well, then tell us. Is she a rocket in bed? The ones who pretend to be all innocent usually are. You know, if I’d have known that she's so easy I would have made a play for her a long time-" But that was as far as he got since Kyle grabbed him and slammed him into the lockers, very effectively cutting him off.

"If you ever talk about Liz that way again you're not gonna have the chance to make a play at any girl ever again, understand me?" he said through gritted teeth.

"Cool it, man," Chris said, obviously not liking the prospect of Kyle's threat. "I was just joking."

"Yeah well, I don't hear anyone laughing," Kyle growled before turning around and leaving the locker room.

Needless to say that he was not in the best mood when he got home. He went inside and collapsed onto the couch, determined to vege out in front of the TV for the rest of the day. But his father obviously didn't agree with that plan since he came into the room, a grave look on his face. "Kyle, we have to talk," he told him.

"Can't it wait?" Kyle asked.

"I'm afraid not," Jim said grimly.

Kyle sighed. "What is it, dad?"

"Is Liz really pregnant?" Jim asked, not beating around the bush, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Where the hell did you hear that?!" Kyle asked, shocked that the news had traveled so far so fast.

"The whole town is talking about nothing else," Jim replied. "So it's true?" he asked raising his voice, even though it was more a statement than a question. "You got Liz pregnant?"

"Dad, let me explain," Kyle began, wanting to tell his father the whole story, but he was interrupted.

"I can't believe it!" Jim shouted. "I thought you of all people were smarter than that! I thought you cared for Liz too much as to take advantage of her like that!"

"Dad!" Kyle tried once again, getting angry himself, but Jim wasn't finished.

"You know, I thought that you'd at least be smarter than to sleep with someone without using protection. God Kyle, do you have any idea what this means? Your life as you know it is over! This will change everything, not only for you but also for Liz! Didn't you even once think about that?!"

"Obviously not," Kyle said sarcastically before he grabbed his car keys and headed out the front door, slamming it behind him.

"Kyle!" his father shouted after him, but he ignored it.

~*~*~*~

Kyle drove around aimlessly for about an hour to cool off before he headed over to the Crashdown to check on Liz and see how she was doing. He hadn't wanted to show up there right after his 'conversation' with his father since Liz would have noticed that he was upset about something, and he didn't want her worrying about him. She had enough to deal with without that.

Kyle pulled up in front of the Crashdown and was about to head over to Liz's balcony when he saw Mr. Parker closing up the café. Deciding to say hello he went inside through the front door.

"We're clo-" Jeff said glancing up. "Oh, it's you Kyle. Kitchen is already closed, but you can have something to drink if you want."

"No thanks," Kyle replied. "I'm only here to check on Liz, see if she's okay."

"She's upstairs doing her homework. She seemed a bit upset, or rather annoyed, when she came home from school, but otherwise she was fine. At least until Maria came around," Jeff told him.

"Maria was here?" Kyle asked, getting worried.

"Yeah. Wanted to know if the rumors were true. She seemed rather upset when Liz confirmed it, and Liz didn't look to good either after Maria left."

"It's hard for her, lying to her best friend," Kyle said.

"Yeah, it is," Jeff agreed, sighing. "But at least she has one friend who knows the truth, one friend she can count on," he continued. "Liz told me how everybody thinks that you're the father, and I really appreciate it that you're willing to play along with that to make things easier for her. It means a lot to Liz, and to me too."

"It's nothing," Kyle replied, uncomfortable with what Jeff had just said. It wasn't a big deal to him, just what every good friend would do in a situation like this. "Um, I think I'll head up and see how Liz is doing," he said before getting up and quickly leaving the café.

*

“Hey,” Kyle said upon walking into Liz’s room, immediately looking Liz over to make sure she was okay. She looked fine.

“Hey,” Liz replied looking up from the paper she was working on, giving Kyle a small smiles. “Give me another minute, I have to finish this up.”

“No problem,” Kyle said lying down on her bed.

A minute later Liz joined him. “How was the rest of your day?” Kyle asked her.

“Well, I found out that we’ve been having a secret affair for about a year and that we’re getting married next month, otherwise uneventful,” Liz told him, grimacing at the idiotic rumors that were going around. Didn’t people have a life of their own?

“Your dad said Maria was here.”

Liz sighed. “Yeah, she was. She wanted to know if the rumors are true.”

“What did you tell her?” Kyle asked.

“Not much,” Liz replied. “It’s not like I can tell her the truth. I just wish I didn’t have to lie to her. God Kyle, you should have seen the look on her face. She looked so disappointed, so hurt because I didn’t tell her. I feel horrible. I don’t want to lose her as a friend.”

“Liz, you won’t lose Maria,” Kyle insisted. “You’ve been friends for so long, she’s not gonna give up on you just because you didn’t tell her something. She’ll get over it.”

“I hope so,” Liz whispered. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost her for good. Things are bad enough the way they are now, but losing her forever…”

“You won’t,” Kyle promised, pulling her into his arms and giving her a light kiss on the forehead.

“So, how did your day go?” Liz asked, immediately relaxing at the feeling of Kyle’s arms around her. Somehow he always managed to make her safe, even though he was only a ‘ordinary’ human.

Kyle tensed up at Liz’s question, something that didn’t go unnoticed to her. “Kyle?” she asked again. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Kyle said sighing. “Just some stupid comments from some guys. No biggie. Oh, and my dad knows,” he added.

“You told him?” Liz asked surprised. They hadn’t talked about telling Jim, and so she was a bit stunned to hear that he had done it without telling her about it beforehand. Not that she minded.

“Didn’t have to,” Kyle replied. “Rumor mill did that for me.”

“Oh,” Liz said. Jim found out through the rumor mill? Did the whole town already know?

“Yup,” Kyle said, anger seeping back into his voice. “He thinks I’m really the father. Wouldn’t even let me explain, started preaching about responsibility and how this would change our lives, not to mention about how disappointed he is in me.”

“Oh my God, Kyle, I’m so sorry,” Liz said, once again feeling awful for putting Kyle into that situation.

“It’s not your fault,” he told her.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean what he said. He was just upset,” Liz said, trying to reason with Kyle. “He loves you, you know. He was worried, and let that get the better of him.”

“I know. But I still can’t believe that he thinks I’d sleep with my best friend.”

“Well, taking into account that your best friend goes into heat every few months and would then be more than willing and quite adamant about sleeping with you, I’d say that’s understandable,” Liz pointed out.

Kyle sighed. “Damn it Liz, do you always have to see everything so rationally? Can’t you just let me hold a grudge for once?” he asked, half serious, half joking.

“Nope,” Liz replied, glad that she had been able to lighten up Kyle’s mood a bit.

“I still don’t feel like going home though,” Kyle said after a short pause.

“So don’t. You know that my parents don’t mind you staying here, at least as long as I’m not in heat. And I wouldn’t mind either. It’s been ages since we last had one of our little slumber parties.”

“You get the popcorn, I get a video?” Kyle asked.

“Deal,” Liz said smiling. At least this whole mess had one advantage: she and Kyle were spending more time together than they had done in years.


tbc

Guys look! It's a new part! Well, actually not that new. I've finally figured out how to open my word documents at the museum I always go online at, so expect more regular updates from now on. I promise you won't have to wait a whole month again. But it's pretty long, so I hope it makes up for the wait a bit.

The first part, Kyle's POV of his friendship with Liz, wasn't actually planned. I was babysitting and watching this really stupid movie called "Susie - Angel in Pink" (don't ask), and it sort of wrote itself. This story seems to be doing that a lot lately, so there might be some surprising twists and turns coming.


Part 17

The next morning Kyle ate breakfast with the Parkers and then headed home for a quick shower and to change clothes. He was glad that Tess as well as his dad were already gone, he wasn’t really in the mood for a run-in with either of them – his dad because he didn’t want to hear more of his accusations, and Tess because he had no idea what to say to her now that she knew. And he was sure that she did know. If the rumors had reached his dad it was impossible that a student at West Roswell High had somehow managed to miss them.

Kyle wasn’t sure if he should be glad about that or not. He knew that Tess thinking that he got Liz pregnant would be the nail in the coffin of their budding relationship. But it was probably better that she knew about the pregnancy. She was with Max now, whatever had been going on between them was clearly over. And this way she would at least not have a reason to feel guilty about being with Max. Because as much as it hurt Kyle, he wanted her to be happy, and if it was with Max, then so be it. At least that was what he was trying to tell himself.

Kyle unconsciously clenched his fists at the thought of them together, touching, kissing, maybe even more. In reality, he was going crazy with jealousy. It was killing him to know that Tess, the one girl he had let into his heart, was with someone else, Max of all people.

Circumstances had pushed them into the roles of archenemies, and even though Kyle knew that there had been no reason to feel that way about Max, at least till now, he hadn’t been able to help it. Max was the only thing that had ever threatened to destroy his friendship with Liz. She'd lied to him, kept secrets from him, locked him out of her life for almost a year. The more time had passed, the more he’d felt like Liz was slowly slipping away from him, like he was losing her forever.

And that was the one thing he couldn’t bear. His whole life, ever since they'd met, Liz had been his rock. After his had mother left, he’d felt so lonely, so lost. Abandoned. But then Liz came along, and suddenly everything was different. She brightened up his life like no one else ever could. She needed him, depended on him, just like he depended on her. Without her…he didn’t know how he would have made it through that time, or the million other tough spots he’d gone through after that.

She was always there for him, always sensed when something was wrong, always knew how to cheer him up. She could read him like an open book, as he could her. Until the day of the shooting. That was when everything changed between them.

Kyle had known from the start that Max Evans was trouble. He'd been scared for Liz, scared that she was getting herself into something dangerous, something that could be a threat not only to her life but also her secret. Because her secret coming out would have meant that Liz would have had to leave. And as egoistic as it sounded, he was almost as scared of that as of Liz putting her life in danger. How would he ever be able to live without her?

Not to mention that he was jealous. Not because he had deeper feelings for Liz that went beyond friendship or anything. No, Liz had always been like a sister to him, nothing more. But she was suddenly spending more time with Max than with him, Max was suddenly her top priority, the person she went to when she needed to talk, the person she shared everything with. She didn't need him anymore, or so he thought. But he needed her. His life suddenly seemed dull, barren, cold without her. Empty.

Nothing had hurt him more than Liz calling Max when her grandmother was at the hospital. Looking back, he knew that that probably had something to do with Max's abilities as a healer, but he hadn't known that then. In what was without a doubt the worst moment of Liz's life, she had turned to Max, not to him. And Liz 'breaking up' with him shortly after that had been the final blow.

He'd thought that she was cutting him out of her life. That there was suddenly no room for him left now that she had Max. And so he became almost obsessed with finding out Max's secret. He was telling himself that it was for Liz, that he was only trying to protect her from the threat that Max Evans was. But that was only half true. He was desperately trying to worm his way back into Liz's life, not realizing that he had never really lost that position in the first place.

And then he'd sprained his ankle, and Liz was suddenly back, looking out for him, showing that she cared. He'd rebuffed her first, wanting to hurt her as much as she had hurt him. But his guilty conscious had quickly made him regret it, and so he'd gone to the Crashdown and offered Liz his friendship once again. A long talk had followed that evening, the first time that they'd been completely honest and open with each other in months.

Liz had told him that there were things she couldn't tell him, that she'd made a promise that she couldn't and wouldn't break. And he accepted it, even though it was hard. He wasn't used to Liz not sharing everything with him. But knowing that he was the only one who knew who, or rather what she really was made it easier. It reassured him that he still had a special place in her life, that there were still things that she could only come to him with, that she still needed him.

And so he told her how scared he'd been of losing her, of how he'd thought that she didn't need or want him in her life anymore. Liz was shocked to say the least, the thought that Kyle could feel that way had never come to her. She of course knew that Kyle's mother leaving him had left behind scars as well as fears of being abandoned again, but she just never though that he would think that about her. Didn't he know that he was her rock? That he was the most important person in her life?

Kyle and Liz spent more time together again after their talk, with the usual late night visits, phone calls and secret meetings under the bleachers or in the gym for lunch, depending on the weather. Their old friendship returned again, even though things weren't quite like before. Liz's, or rather Max's secret was standing between them, and no matter how hard they tried to ignore it, they never quite succeeded in pretending that it wasn't there.

Until that fateful day in May when Kyle too was shot and healed by Max. It turned his world upside down to say the least, and with Liz going to Florida shortly after it was even harder to deal with. And so he'd gone to visit her for a few weeks under the pretence that football camp started earlier than it actually did. Those few weeks in Florida were amazing. They finally didn't have to hide, didn't have to pretend to be nothing more than acquaintances. That time together, out in the open, healed their relationship. They reaffirmed their friendship and after a long talk where Liz told him everything that had happened since she'd gotten shot, agreed put the last year behind them.

Back in Roswell it was a bit strange to go back to hiding how close they were, but they'd agreed to slowly come out into the open with their friendship, and so it wasn't that bad. The whole end-of-the-world-debacle of course put a slight damper on their plan, but that didn't matter anymore. They could be open about their relationship now, even though the circumstances were of course anything but ideal, and even though the whole town misinterpreted their friendship as something more. Not that he really cared about that.

Kyle glanced at his watch and suddenly realized that he was running late. He still had to pick Liz up, and she was probably already waiting for him. He quickly grabbed his car keys and rushed out of the house, letting out a few nice curses, before jumping into his mustang and backing it out of the drive.

~*~*~*~

The whole day at school went by rather uneventful. Neither Liz nor Kyle talked to anyone from their little group of friends, even though they did have a few classes together. They actually didn’t talk to anyone. They had from one day to the next turned into complete outsiders, outcasts even among their friends. They spent their lunch period in the gym again, enjoying a few minutes away from the prying eyes of their class mates who seemed to be watching their every move, even though neither Kyle nor Liz knew exactly what they were expecting to see happen.

A few hours later Liz was hurrying to her last class for the day, glad that she could go home soon. She was sick and tired of everybody staring at her like she’d grown a second head, of people constantly whispering behind her back.

She’d almost reached her classroom when somebody suddenly stepped into her way, causing Liz to groan. That was the last person she wanted to run into at the moment.

“Pam,” she said curtly, trying to get past her, but she was blocking her way.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t our perfect little Lizzie Parker,” Pam said snidely, making it perfectly clear that she though Liz was anything but. “You know, I always suspected that there was a bit of a slut hidden under the geek, but I didn’t expect you to make it so bluntly obvious.”

Liz’s eyes narrowed, a sure sign that she was fuming. If Pam had known what’s good for her she would have made a run for it, but dense as she was she stayed and continued to taunt Liz.

“First Kyle, then Max, then Kyle, then Max, now Kyle again – can’t make up your mind, can you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry Pam, am I narrowing down your assortment too much?” Liz asked, her voice cool and even, not giving away how livid she actually was, which only infuriated Pam even more. “But don’t worry,” she continued. “I’m no threat to your position as the town mattress.”

“Look who’s talking!” Pam snarled. “At least I am smart enough not to get myself knocked up,” she added, making sure she was speaking loud enough so that the entire hallway heard her. Instantly the crowd stopped talking and people started to gather around them, curious to see how the argument ended. It was the first time that someone had publicly addressed Liz about her pregnancy, and they wanted to see how she would react.

Liz looked Pam up and down with a half smirk gracing her lips. “You know, if I were a guy, I’d be really careful not to knock you up too.”

Pam’s jaw hit the floor, she was speechless. After a moment she started to recover, but she still couldn’t think of anything to say. She kept opening and closing her mouth, looking like a fish, with no sounds coming out.

“Cat got your tongue, Pam?” Liz asked haughtily. “Or are you still trying to figure out the underlying message in what I just said?”

Pam finally recovered, and an evil smirk passed over her face. “I’m sorry Liz, I understand you being upset. I guess you didn’t plan your little secret to come out like this. If I’d have known that I of course would have kept that little piece of information to myself. It really is amazing what you find out by spending a few hours at the park at night and listening to what people are talking about…”

If Liz didn’t have so much self control she would have jumped Pam and made her eat her words, but instead she just stood there, speaking in a deadly low voice, so quiet that one had to strain their ears to hear what she was saying.

“What were you doing Pam? Rolling around the bushes with the man of the week – or should I say hour?”

Pam’s face flushed bright red, and Liz could tell that she’d guessed right. She continued in that dangerously low voice, sending goose bumps of the most unpleasant kind down Pam’s spine.

“You know, if you weren’t such a spiteful, nasty little bitch I’d probably feel sorry for you. All you ever do is try to make other people miserable, digging around in their lives until you find some nasty rumor to spread, not caring if it’s the truth or not, not caring what kind of consequences it might have, not caring whose life or reputation you might be ruining. Get yourself a conscience, or a brain, or a life, and stay the hell out of mine.” With that said Liz pushed past Pam and entered her classroom without a backward glance, her head held high, leaving behind an angry and at the same time very unnerved and slightly frightened Pam Troy.

~*~*~*~

Liz had trouble concentrating during the whole lesson, making her very glad that it was her last for the day.

She was still livid because of the things Pam had said, and knowing that it had been her who had spread the rumors in the first place made her even more furious. How dare she interfere in her life in such a fashion? Who the hell did she think she was?

When the final bell rang Liz let out a breath of relief, closing her notebook that didn’t contain any notes of the day’s lesson anyway. She quickly gathered up her things and left the classroom, driven by the need to get out of there as fast as possible.

“Liz!” she heard someone call behind her, and she stopped, resisting the urge to just walk on and pretend she hadn’t heard the person.

A minute later Alex caught up with her, slightly out of breath. “Liz,” he panted. “Are you okay?”

“Um, sure,” Liz said, a bit confused. “Why shouldn’t I be?”

“Well, I overheard your, uh, conversation with Pam, and I just, you know, wanted to make sure that you’re okay and everything.”

Alex looked sincerely concerned for her wellbeing, and Liz couldn’t help but smile. Leave it to Alex to behave like the loyal caring friend he was, even under circumstances like these. “I’m fine,” Liz reassured him.

“Good. That’s good. Really good,” Alex said, trying to think of something else to say. “So… do you need a ride home? My mom let me borrow the car today.”

“Uh, no, actually, Kyle’s giving me a ride,” Liz replied. “But thanks for the offer. I really appreciate it.” She smiled at him, one of her few genuine smiles ever since she’d found out about her pregnancy.

“No problem,” Alex said.

They walked out to the parking lot together, chatting amiably along the way. Alex mentioned something about maybe dropping by at the Crashdown later on before they parted and walked off to their cars.

“Was that Alex?” Kyle asked after she’d climbed into his red Mustang.

“Yeah,” Liz replied.

“What did he want?”

“Nothing much. Just wanted to make sure that I’m okay. I had a little run in with Pam Troy before the last period.”

Kyle shot her a worried look, but Liz was quick to reassure him that she was okay. “As if I’d let anything that Pam Troy says get to me,” she told him.

Kyle wasn’t wholly convinced that she did indeed take whatever it was that Pam had said so lightly, but he didn’t push. Liz would tell him whatever there was to tell in her own time, pressing for information would only result in the exact opposite of what he wanted to achieve.

When they arrived at the Crashdown ten minutes later they went inside, and Kyle cursed under his breath upon seeing his father sitting at the counter. He was about to turn around and leave again, but his father’s voice stopped him. “Kyle.”

Kyle suppressed a groan and turned around. “Dad,” he said as curtly as he could.

The sheriff had his Stetson clutched in his hands, and he was twisting it around nervously. “Could we talk?” he asked, his tone almost pleading.

“Of course!” Liz said, ignoring the glare she received from Kyle. “Why don’t you go into the back room?” She pushed Kyle towards his father. “It’s quiet there, and you won’t be disturbed, I’ll see to that.”

Kyle followed his father grudgingly, sending one last glare in Liz’s direction, but she was smiling at him, seemingly not noticing his glowering.

Twenty minutes later Kyle and the sheriff came back out into the café. The sheriff left, saying he had to get back to the station, and Kyle sat down at the counter beside Liz.

“So, your dad talked to mine,” he began.

“Oh really?” Liz asked innocently.

“Yeah. Told him everything, you know, cleared things up. You wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would you?”

“Me?” asked Liz. “Of course not,” she said shaking her head. “I guess your father just came to his senses and came to my dad to get the whole story, realizing there had to be more to it than what the rumors are saying.”

“Yeah, right,” Kyle replied, not believing a word she was saying.

Jeff brought him a burger, on the house of course, and after eating he told Liz he had to get going, gave her a kiss on the cheek and left.

“Well, that’s something that will take some time to get used to,” Alex said, plopping down on the seat beside Liz.

“Alex,” Liz said surprised. “Hey.” An awkward pause followed. She didn’t know what else she could say to him. They’d always been so at ease around each other before, but not the air was thick with tension.

“Hey,” Alex replied. “So, Kyle off to ruin the life of the next innocent girl?” he asked in a for him unusual sarcastic and almost bitter tone.

“Alex, don’t,” Liz pleaded. “This isn’t Kyle’s fault, so don’t blame him. He’s been really, really great so far, and I don’t know what I’d be doing without him. So please, don’t give him a hard time. He’s already getting enough of that, trust me.”

Alex saw the pleading in her eyes and so he relented. “Okay, okay, got it. No Kyle bashing.”

“Thanks,” Liz replied gratefully. The last thing she wanted people blaming Kyle and giving him hell for it. It was bad enough as it was.

“So, have you talked to Maria recently?” Alex asked, trying to sound casual.

“Um, no.”

“She’s really worried, you know. She cares about you. And she’s upset because you didn’t tell her. You always used to tell each other everything.”

“I know. I know we did. I just… I couldn’t talk to her about it. I knew exactly what she would have said, and I just didn’t want to hear it.”

“I understand that, I do. Maria’s sometimes… well you know, Maria. But at least talk to her now. She’s worried sick, and she really misses you, you know,” Alex told her, always the peace maker. “Promise me you’ll talk to her?”

“Okay, I promise,” Liz replied sighing. This wasn’t something she was looking forward to, but she knew Alex was right, If she didn’t want to lose her best friend she would have to talk to her.


tbc

Hey guys, sorry about the wait, it took me a bit longer to post this than expected. Don't know when the next part will be out, it shouldn't take me too long though. But feedback and bumps definitely make me update quicker...


Part 18

A week later Liz still hadn’t really talked to Maria. On her parents’ insistence she had cut down the number of her shifts and so they hardly worked together anymore, they didn’t have a lot of classes together either, and generally hardly saw each other.

Deep down Liz of course knew that all those reasons were merely excuses – if she wanted to talk to Maria all she had to do was call her, or go over to her house. But at the moment, she just didn’t feel up to that. Maria was, well… Maria. As much as she loved her, she wasn’t exactly the person to go to in a crisis. Dealing with everything was hard enough without Maria making it… not worse. But not exactly better either. And definitely more difficult.

Liz sighed. It was ironic. She had always hated the fact that she couldn’t really spend time with Kyle publicly. Now that seemed to be the only thing she did.

As kids they’d seen each other whenever their parents did something together or whenever the sheriff came to the Crashdown with Kyle, which had been quite often. But when they’d come into the age where you started hanging out with your friends after school they’d been afraid that people would become suspicious if they suddenly made their friendship known. They were in completely different social groups at school, it would have been hard to explain why they were friends in the first place. And so they had decided that it would be the safest to keep it a secret.

And then, a few years later, towards the end of their Freshman year Liz had gone into heat for the first time and almost slept with some guy she hadn’t even known. She’d been seriously freaked out by that incident and so she and Kyle had decided to pretend to go out to provide at least a minimum amount of protection against that sort of thing. Plus, it had finally given them an excuse to publicly spend time together.

At first it had been incredibly weird to pretend to be romantically involved, but once they’d gotten used to it, it had actually been sort of fun. Until Max came into the picture that is. After the shooting it only seemed awkward… and so wrong.

Liz sighed again. Max had been really, really great so far, considering the circumstances. He didn’t treat her any differently. They still talked when they had a class together or when he came to the Crashdown. It had been a bit awkward at first, especially since Liz had expected him to bring up the topic of her pregnancy, but he never did. And so Liz had relaxed and they’d gone back to being friends. On the surface it looked like everything was fine.

But Liz knew exactly that that wasn’t true.

It hadn’t been lost on her that Max hardly ever came to the Crashdown anymore, nor had she missed the fact that he painstakingly avoided Kyle. Or that he was spending more and more time with Tess. It wasn’t like they were all lovey-dovey in public, flaunting their new relationship. But it was hard to miss the smiles the shared, the secret looks when they thought no-one was looking. Liz also knew that Max picked Tess up every morning, a fact that Kyle had accidentally let slip a few days ago. She’d also seen them leave school together dozens of times in the last few weeks.

And as much as she tried to be happy for Max, as much as she tried to tell herself that that’s the way it had to be…she was miserable. She missed Max. She missed talking to him about other things than weather and school. She missed touching him. She missed the way he smelled. She missed hearing him laugh. She missed the way he used to look at her. And most of all, she missed knowing that he loved her. Only her.

Liz was trying to keep busy and not think of it too much, but that wasn’t easy, despite the extra school work she had since she was going to graduate at the end of the school year. For a normal person it would have been a workload almost too much to tackle, but Liz hardly noticed the difference. It certainly didn’t fill the extra time she had ever since she worked less.

Liz sighed, again. It sucked. Alex was the only person she was still really talking to, apart from Kyle of course. She missed her friends.

She knew that it was up to her to take the first step, to try and get things back to normal. But there was something holding her back. If she tried to go back to being friends with everyone she wouldn’t be able to avoid lying to them. And if there was one thing she’d had enough of, it was lying. She felt like her whole life was just one big lie, like there was nothing real, except maybe her friendship with Kyle. But even that had been tainted. By not being honest about their relationship. By letting people believe that they’d been dating. By letting them believe that they’d slept wit each other, that they were back together now.

And if all that weren’t enough, she felt so incredibly guilty for all the chaos she had inflicted upon everyone’s lives – her friends, her parents, and above all Kyle.

Liz had never had a big circle of friends, not that much had changed for her. But Kyle – he’d always had more friends than he could count. Sure, most of those friendships had been casual and rather shallow, but they’d still been friendships. He’d been Mr. Popular, every guy had wanted to be his friend and every girl had wanted to date him. And now… It wasn’t like people avoided him like the plague or anything, the change was much more subtle than that. But it was still there. Liz had noticed, just like she had noticed how much it affected Kyle. He pretended that he didn’t care, but Liz wasn’t fooled. He missed his friends, a lot, and the fact that it was only a few days till Christmas wasn’t exactly making things any easier. And as much as she tried, she couldn’t fill up that void.

The honking of a horn ripped her out of her thoughts. It was Kyle picking her up for another fun-filled day at school. Yippee.

~*~*~*~

Liz walked through the halls of West Roswell High to her first class of the day. She was a bit late – punctuality had never been one of Kyle’s strong points – and so they were almost empty. Liz was glad that there was nobody there to whisper or stare, something that had been annoying her more and more in the past few days. The talking behind her back had died down a bit, but it still hadn’t vanished completely. But at least people were careful to leave her alone after the Pam incident.

When Liz rounded the last corner she saw Chris, the guy from the football team and Pam’s new best friend/boy toy of the week, coming her way. ‘Great’ she thought rolling her eyes, just what she needed.

She didn’t look at Chris even though she knew he was staring at her with an arrogant smirk plastered onto his face.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t little Lizzy Parker and her bastard child,” he muttered under his breath, but Liz heard him all the same.

Chris suddenly found himself grabbed by the collar and slammed into a locker, a strong hand holding him in place and making it difficult for him to breath. It took a few seconds before he registered what had just happened and that it was actually Liz who was standing in front of him, that it was her hand making it impossible for him to budge.

“Don’t you dare talk about my child like that,” Liz hissed, her voice dripping with anger and venom, her eyes blazing. “I couldn’t care less what everybody is saying about me, but insult my baby again and I’ll make sure that you’ll never be able to have any. Have I made myself clear?”

“Yeah,” Chris managed to choke out.

“Good.”

Without another word Liz dropped him and turned around, not even noticing Chris sliding to the floor gasping for breath. Instead of going into her class she walked past it and headed to the bathroom. She was shaking with anger, she needed some time to cool off.

Liz knew that her reaction had been a bit over the top, but she wasn’t able to help it. Her hormones were going crazy – something Kyle normally had to bear the brunt of – and that together with the fierce protectiveness she felt for her baby and the strain of the last few weeks had been more than enough to make her snap.

After a few minutes she began to calm down. She was splashing some cold water into her face when it suddenly hit her how incredibly stupid it was what she’d just done. She had exposed her abilities. In a public high school no less. A normal teenage girl would have never been able to do what she’d just done. What the hell had she been thinking? Anybody could have walked by and seen her.

Liz started to panic. She began pacing up and down, trying to calm down, trying to gather her thoughts. Chris wasn’t really a threat. Revealing what had happened would mean that he would have to admit that he hadn’t been able to hold his own against a girl half his size, his ego would never allow him to do that. But what if someone else had seen her? What could she do?

Nothing, she realized. There wasn’t anything she could do. There was no way to find out if somebody had seen her, even less who. And even if she did know those things, what could she do?

Nothing.

Just like she could do nothing to find out how she had gotten pregnant. Or to change the situation with her friends. Or to give Kyle his normal life back. Or to get her normal life back, as far as it could even be called normal. All she could do was sit back and watch her life fall apart.

A wave of agony suddenly washed over her and the tears started to fall before she could stop them. She felt so helpless.

So weak.

So alone.

As much as Kyle and her parents tried to be there for her, it just wasn’t enough. As close as she was to all of them, they were still on the outside of all this. They might know the truth, but they weren’t a part of it. As understanding as they were, they could never really comprehend what it was like to be her. How much she missed her brothers and sisters. How she still had nightmares, even now, years after she’d escaped from Manticore. How scared she was of being caught and brought back there.

And now…this was a whole new dimension of fear. Not only did the fact that she was pregnant in the first place seriously freak her out, she was terrified that Manticore could find out that she was pregnant, or be behind the whole thing in the first place, and try to get her baby to Manticore, something she had promised her self would never happen. Over her dead body only would Lydecker or some other sick bastard like him get their hands on her child.

The bell signalizing the end of the first period suddenly rang, interrupting Liz’s trail of thoughts. She quickly stood up, not wanting someone to walk in on her and find her sobbing on the bathroom floor. The gossipers would love that one.

She wiped the tears from her cheeks and then splashed some cold water into her face to get rid of the last traces that she had been crying. Pressing her hands over her eyes, she tried to do something against the slight swollenness. A warmth spread through her face, and when she checked a minute later her eyes really did look almost normal. After taking one last deep breath she left the bathroom to head to her next class.

Little did she know that there actually was someone who had seen her and Chris, someone who had been suspicious for quite some time now, and who was determined to find out exactly what Liz Parker was hiding.

~*~*~*~

The rest of the day Liz paid close attention to the people around her to see if there were any signs that someone had seen her earlier that day, but apart from Chris, who was suddenly very careful to stay out of her way, nobody behaved any differently.

At the end of the day Liz was both physically and emotionally exhausted and looking forward to a quiet afternoon and maybe a short nap. But when she got home her dad told her that Agnes had called in sick and asked if she felt up to covering for her. Liz already felt bad about not working her usual amount of shifts, saying no would have made her feel even more guilty. She was so sick of feeling guilty. She already felt guilty about so many things, she didn’t want to add another thing to that list. And so she put on her brightest smile and told her dad that she was of course up to taking over Agnes’ shift. It was, after all, only a few hours. She’d manage that, right?

A few hours later the dinner crowd was filling in, and Liz was starting to get seriously stressed. Normally she had no problems remembering exactly what every customer had ordered, speeding things up quite a bit, but today she just couldn’t concentrate, and she was just so tired. She felt like she could sleep a whole week if only they’d let her. But the more she hurried, the slower she seemed to be. She was constantly mixing up orders, forgetting things, and she’d already dropped three plates.

Liz glanced at the clock again, groaning when she saw that she still had more than an hour to go till she was done. She grabbed her next order to bring it to the already impatient customers, but she never made it. Half way across the room she suddenly started feeling dizzy, her vision turned blurry, and then everything went dark.

~*~*~*~

After football practice, Kyle stayed in the shower longer than normal, longer than necessary. But he wanted to wait till the other guys from the team were gone, not feeling up to facing the awkward silence that always settled over the locker room when he came in, not wanting to be reminded of how much things had changed ever since Liz’s pregnancy had become publicly known. Besides, football practice had been hell, a long, hot shower felt rather nice after that.

When he was sure that everybody had gone he turned off the shower, dried off and headed into the locker room to dress. It was, just like he’d expected, empty. He was alone.

Nothing new there, he though bitterly. As much as he wanted to be there for Liz, he hated the way it had changed his life. Not that he regretted his decision or anything. Everything just…sucked.

Five minutes later he was finished dressing and headed to his car to go to the Crashdown and see Liz. She’d seemed a bit preoccupied at school, he hoped that she had used her afternoon off to relax and maybe take a nap. But when he got there he discovered that she’d done anything but. Liz was rushing around the Crashdown, looking more stressed and tired than ever before. He was about to go over to her and try to persuade her to stop working when she suddenly stopped in mid-stride, swaying slightly. Her eyes became unfocused and she dropped to the floor as Kyle rushed over to her, managing to catch her just before she hit the ground.


tbc

I know I say this everytime I update, but sorry for the delay. I actually had this part finished about a week ago, but I haven't been able to go online this week. To make it up, I can promise you that you won't have to wait that long for the next part. I'm almost half way through with it, so it should be done soon.

Bored to Mundane life, yup it's the stress. Stress and... nah, I can't tell.

cybrwench, yes, Liz will be okay. Hihi, sorry, haven't seen Carmen around lately.

Starlight, glad to hear this fic was missed, and that you liked the chapter.

Zans Angel, so, you wanna know who saw Liz? Well, I can tell you that it was not Maria, and that it was not Isabel. But that's all that I'm gonna say. You'll find out in a few parts anyway.

Dream_walker, nope, people don't learn. That's human nature for you.

pandas2001, yes, Liz is pretty alone at the moment, but that will gradually change. As for who saw her ::in a sing-song voice:: I'll never tell.

akasha15, yup, Chris isn't the smartest. That'll teach him to mess with girls.

behrstars, thanks for the feedback.

Snowdove30, glad you like my fic. Thanks for the fb.

LittleBit, did I tell you that the weather is just amazing here in Paris? And have I mentioned how much fun shopping is? I just bought the cutest skirt today...

Katcin Lee, wow, that's one hell of a long feedback. There will be more Alex in the next part, he'll be in the story quite a bit from now on. Michael will too soon begin to play an important role. As for Maria and Isabel...don't count on them being in the story too much in the near future. I don't like Isabel, and I'm not that big a fan of Maria either. I'm actually not quite sure what I'm gonna do about them.

Cinder, I'm really glad you like my fic. Yup, there's a lot of chaos. It will get even worse soon, but then it will gradually start to get better again. Things starting to get cleared up and all that stuff. As for how Liz got pregnant - I won't tell. About who the father is - I haven't really thought about that. And as for when she's due - the pregnancy will be betweeb 6 and 7 months I think, so it's gonna be end of May/June.

Wow, that's a lot of replies. Thanks everybody, it means a lot to me. Once again, sorry for the wait. But I think you'll like the next part, things get better in it. (at least for now)


Part 19

Kyle was pacing up and down Liz’s bedroom, getting more and more anxious with every passing minute. It was three hours since Liz had fainted and she still hadn’t woken up. She was lying there on the bed, pale as the wall, and hadn’t as much as stirred since he had carried her up to her room. She was so still that he checked her pulse every five minutes, just to be sure.

When Kyle had entered the Crashdown and seen Liz dropping to the floor…there were no words to describe how he’d felt. It was like an ice cold hand was gripping his heart, making it impossible to move, breath, think. Never before in his life had he felt so terrified. Then instincts had taken over and he’d rushed forward, catching her just before she hit the ground. He’d scooped her small form up in his arm and brought her up to her room before quickly telling Jeff and Nancy what had happened. Both worried out of their mind, they’d wanted to stay with their daughter, but Kyle had convinced them that Liz would want them to go back to work, assuring them that he wouldn’t leave her side and that he’d tell them as soon as she woke up.

Kyle finally stopped pacing and just stared at Liz. She looked so small, so weak, so fragile. So different than she normally did. Liz always had this aura of strength surrounding her, like nothing and no-one could ever harm her. Nobody else seemed to see it, as obvious as it was. Kyle never quite understood how everybody could be so ignorant but then, people always only saw what they wanted to see.

Kyle sat down and rubbed his hands over his face, trying to relieve some of his weariness and anxiety. It didn’t help. A moment later he suddenly heard a soft moan coming from Liz’s bed and he quickly glanced up. She was moving. She was rubbing her eyes. She was awake.

Kyle jumped up and rushed over to her bed, crushing Liz against him, relief washing over him. He ignored her groan of protest against the tight grip he had on her, murmuring incomprehensible things into her hair that sound like "You're okay, you're okay, thank God you’re okay..." over and over again.

“What happened?” Liz felt disorientated, confused, not to mention like she’d been hit by a bus. How had she gotten into her bed? What was she doing there? She was supposed to work.

Kyle pulled away slightly, scowling. "You fainted.” His tone sounded almost accusing. “I leave you alone for an hour and look what happens. I thought you weren't gonna work today."

Liz rolled her eyes while gently rubbing her temples, trying to ease some of the pain there. Her head felt like it was about to explode. "I wasn't. But Agnes called in sick, and I couldn't leave Emma all alone with the dinner crowd." Emma was the new waitress her dad had hired after Courtney’s death.

"Yes, you could have. You should have. You have to take better care of yourself Liz. Something like this can't happen again. I doubt it's good for the baby, or you. You need more rest."

"God, Kyle, stop making such a fuss over me, I'm fine. I'm pregnant, not terminally ill." Or at least I think so.

"A fuss? I have every right to make a fuss, you just fainted!"

"God Kyle, when exactly did you get so overbearing?" Liz was already groggy as she was, and Kyle was pushing her buttons, annoying the hell out of her.

"When you got pregnant."

"You know what Kyle? You need a break." Liz’s voice was suddenly firm, making it clear that she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Her aura of strength was back in place. Glancing at her alarm clock she continued. "You're gonna go home now and watch the football match just like you planned to, and-"

Kyle interrupted her. "Are you crazy? You don't really think I'm gonna leave you alone now after everything that happened, do you?"

"Look Kyle, there's nothing you can do for me. I promise I'll take it easy for the rest of the day. No working, no homework. I'll just relax, watch a little TV, maybe read something and sleep some more. And in exchange for that you're gonna go home and enjoy the football match, and I won't take no as an answer. Now go."

Kyle just stared at her.

"What are you waiting for? Go. Shoo."

"Okay, okay, I'm already gone. But if anything happens you're gonna call me immediately, okay?"

"O-kay."

Liz sounded slightly annoyed but Kyle chose to ignore it. "Promise me you'll call me."

Liz sighed. Had she said overbearing? That was the understatement of the year. "I promise I'll call you if anything comes up."

Kyle sighed. "I hate to leave you alone after what happened, but okay. Get some rest. I’ll drop by in a few hours to see how you're doing." He kissed her forehead before reluctantly leaving her room to tell the Parkers that she’d woken up and then go home.

~*~*~*~

Max quietly crept up the stairs to the Parkers’ apartment, not wanting to make any noise. He had to see Liz, make sure that she was really okay. When he’d come to the Crashdown half an hour ago and Michael told him that Liz had fainted his heart just about stopped beating. Ice cold fear took hold of him, taking over his every emotion. Never before in his life had he felt so terrified. And never before had he felt as relieved as when Kyle had come down to tell the Parkers that Liz was awake and well.

Kyle had left shortly after, another thing that Max was quite happy about if he were honest with himself. The Parkers had then gone up to see their daughter and Max had once again been left to impatiently wait. When they finally came down again 15 minutes later he’d forced himself to wait another five minutes before he sneaked up to see her for himself.

Max reached the top of the stairs and let himself into the Parkers apartment. It wasn’t locked. He walked over to the door of Liz’s room that was left slightly ajar and carefully pushed it open. Liz was lying on her bed, a book lying open on her chest. She was sleeping.

Max made his way over to her, careful not to make any noise. When he reached the bed he just stood there for several seconds – okay, maybe minutes – staring down at her, marveling at her beauty. Her face looked so peaceful while she slept, so carefree, like she didn’t have a single worry in the world. He couldn’t stop himself from reaching out and gently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, brushing his fingers over her cheek. He’d almost forgotten how incredibly soft her skin was, how smooth. It took all his willpower to pull his hand away, but the last thing he wanted to do was wake her up. She needed to rest. After another minute or two he turned to leave.

“Max?” Liz’s sleepy voice stopped him in his tracks. He slowly turned around. Liz was awake, sitting up in bed, looking at him with a mixture of surprise and…happiness? No, he was seeing things. “What are you doing here?” She didn’t sound reproachful, only a bit astonished.

“I…I heard about what happened. I just…wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”

Liz smiled. It was one of those special smiles, the ones she reserved just for him. Or at least had to. “I’m fine, really. Just a bit too much stress.” Was Max imagining things or did her voice have a strange catch to it?

He nodded, not saying anything. What could he say? So far he’d always steered clear off any subject that could possible bring up the fact that Liz was pregnant by another man, but now that was sort of impossible. He’d known that he couldn’t avoid it forever, that they would have to talk about it sooner or later, but he would have preferred later rather than sooner.

He took a deep breath. “Are you sure that nothing else is wrong?” He hesitated for a moment, then sighed heavily before continuing. “You know, I’ve been thinking. Ava said that my healing you changed you, that I left a part of me behind in you. What if it’s true? Something could be happening to you, something that might put you in danger. And your baby.” He had to force himself to say those last words, a bitter taste suddenly in his mouth.

Liz glanced up at him, shocked. She hadn’t expected him to address that subject, he never had before. She was at loss of words. What the hell was she supposed to reply to a question like that? Was nothing else wrong? Of course something else was wrong. Everything was wrong.

“I…I don’t know,” she finally stuttered out. That was at least not a complete lie. “I haven’t noticed anything abnormal that could be alien related.” Okay, so that one was a complete lie. But what was she supposed to say. No, nothing except that I’m the first pregnant virgin since Mary?

Max sighed in relief. “Well, that’s good news. Will you promise me to tell me if anything comes up? Anything at all? I don’t want anything to happen to you.” The last words were spoken softly, caringly. Almost lovingly.

“I promise.” Liz’s voice was slightly trembling, fighting against the whirlwind of emotions sweeping through her, bringing tears to her eyes. Damn those hormones. She must not start crying now, not in front of Max. But the way Max was looking at her… If she didn’t know better she could have sworn that she saw love in his eyes.

Max stepped closer to the bed. “And you know, if you need anything else, a friend, someone to talk to…call me. I’ll always be there for you if you need me. I hope you know that.”

Liz could only nod. Tears were clogging up her throat making it impossible for her to speak. How could Max still be so sweet after everything she had done to him?

Max took the last step that was separating him from Liz’s bed. He hesitated for a moment, then reached down taking her hand in his, squeezing it gently. He had no idea how long they stood like this, holding hands, drowning in each others’ eyes.

Liz thought she was dreaming. Was Max really touching her? Willingly? He hadn’t done that in so long, she’d almost forgotten what it was like. A shiver ran up her spine as his fingers brushed over her hand before he took it into his. His grip was gentle yet firm, as if he was afraid he could break her but at the same time never wanted to let her go again. As minimal as the contact was, it was amazing. Liz had always been able to draw strength from Max’s physical presence, especially when they touched, and now that seemed to be stronger than ever before. Their connection seemed to be stronger than ever before. And God knew that she needed all the strength she could get right now.

She had no idea how long the stood like this, holding hands, staring into each other’s eyes. When Max finally let go of her hand she had to keep herself from moaning out loud, the loss of their physical contact seamed almost unbearable to her.

“I’d better get going, let you get some rest. If you don’t come to school tomorrow I’ll bring you my notes to copy, if you want.”

Liz smiled. “I’d love that.” Wait a minute, had she really just used the word love? Oh God, she had to get a grip on herself.

“See you tomorrow then.” Max smiled at her before turning to leave the room.

“Yeah, tomorrow,” Liz whispered. Her eyelids grew heavy and a moment later she fell asleep again, a soft smile on her face.

~*~*~*~

An hour after Kyle had left the Crashdown he was at home, watching the football game Liz had forced him to. Suddenly the front door opened and in walked Tess. Ever since Liz’s pregnancy had become publicly known Tess had always gone out of her way to avoid him. If she came home when he was there she went straight to his – now her – room, anything to prevent being in the same room with him, especially when the were alone. But now she lingered beside the couch, seemingly indecisive about what to do. She cleared her throat. "So, um...are you gonna move out?"

Kyle would have normally been ecstatic to have Tess talking him for another reason than to scold him for leaving the toilet seat up again, but today he was just too exhausted, to fed up with everything. "Why should I move out?" He didn’t even bother to look up.

"Is Liz gonna move in here?" Either Tess didn’t notice his rudeness or she chose to ignore it.

"Why should Liz move in here?"

"You're having a baby?"

Kyle’s eyes suddenly turned into saucers. "Oh! Um...well...no...um...we...uh...we can't afford...an apartment," he stuttered out, satisfied with the excuse he came up with so quickly.

Tess clearly wasn't. "O-kay. But wouldn't you're parents help you out? Your dad seems to be very supportive, as are the Parkers. And you'll always have us, you know. Your friends."

"Coulda fooled me," Kyle mumbled under his breath, but Tess still heard him. For a moment anger flared up inside her, pushing away the guilt she’d been feeling for not being there for him. How dare he reproach her after everything he’d done to her, after all the pain he’d caused her? She wanted to yell and scream at him, telling him exactly how much he had hurt her, how hard it was for her seeing him with Liz. But then she chickened out, too afraid to be left even more vulnerable and hurt than she already was.

Tess remained quiet and Kyle realized that she must have heard him. He suddenly felt horrible. Letting it out on Tess was low, she didn’t deserve that. "Oh god Tess, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I just...I'm really tired, and I'm worried sick about Liz, and I'm in a really bad mood, and I let it out on you. And I'm sorry. I really am."

Tess sat down next to him, her anger gone, the guilt back. "No, you're right.” She sighed. “We haven't been very supportive and I'm sorry for that. We all are. I mean, you and Liz must be scared to death. Having a baby is such a huge responsibility..."

"Yeah, if we're actually having a baby,” Kyle mumbled under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Look Kyle, what I’m trying to say is…I know I haven't been a very good friend lately, and, well, you've given me so much. I mean, you gave me a home and the closest thing I've ever had to a family and...I just wanted to tell you that if you ever need me, you know, a shoulder to lean on, or someone to talk to, I'm there for you."

Her expression was genuine, something that touched Kyle deeply. He knew that it must have hurt her when she found out that Liz was pregnant, and yet here she was, offering her friendship and support. It was more than he would have ever expected, more than he deserved. It took a lot to keep his voice neutral this time. "Thanks. I really appreciate it." She would never know how much.

Before Kyle could stop himself he pulled Tess into a hug. She stiffened for a moment, not sure how to react, before her emotions took over and she melted into his arms. A soft, barely audible sigh escaped from her lips as tears welled up in her eyes. If Kyle wasn’t meant to be with her, why did this feel so right? Why did she feel like she’d finally come home, like this was the place she was supposed to be?

When they pulled apart minutes later she smiled brightly – maybe a bit too brightly – even though she felt like crying. But she was determined not to show Kyle how much she was hurting, how much of an emotional turmoil he was causing inside her. She quickly got up and went to her room, saying something about an English paper that was due the next day, scared that she would do something utterly foolish if she stayed. She had no idea that Kyle was thinking the same thing as she was. If only…


tbc