Simplicity/Beginnings-M/L**[COMPLETE]**

[hoLLyBEHRy]

Hey all,

scarlettlily, thanks for coming from UC board to check out my CC fic. Max and Liz will go on their honeymoon, but it'll just be around spring break, which you guys won't read in detail about because the story's going to end a day or two after the wedding. So, the story's close to being over. I'll add in how the honeymoon went in the epilogue. I've already got that written, I just need to get to that point.

roswellluver, Tess manages to ruin every and any mood. LoL.

SAFIRE, ok, there will definitely be a catfight, but I'm sad to say that I have yet to write it. So, don't expect it sometime this week. I'm hoping that I can get that part and this story finished this weekend and posted next week.

sare, Liz is just being S3 Liz. Remember she didn't want to turn Tess in then either? And I definitely know where I'm going with the sequel. Expect a new location and just...happiness. Well...most of it.

Also...would anyone be interested in beta-ing for another fic that I'm writing? I won't stop writing the TRW series, I know where I'm going with the second and third installments of the series, so don't worry about them not getting written. I just have this idea for an AU fic that I want to write and I've already started, sort of. I've got the summary down and I know where I want to go with this story too. I put in a request at the Roswell Discussion forum. So look there for my more detailed request. PM me if you're interested Thanks!

-hoLLy

Chapter 81

[Kyle]

After going missing again for a good ten minutes, Max and Liz came back to their reception. Once they did, Maria ambushed them as soon as they made it through the back room door. She pushed them towards the end of the counter, near the door, and made them stay put next to their cake. Maria then rushed around the whole restaurant, herding the wedding party, including me. The look on her face was priceless when she couldn’t find Michael and the look on her face when he coolly walked into the diner was golden. Tonight was the best night ever.

Everyone brought their attention to the wedding cake where we, the wedding party, and Max and Liz stood. Before getting to the desert, a server that Mr. Parker had hired rushed out of the kitchen, holding up a bottle of non-alcoholic apple cider. He also whipped out enough glasses for the wedding party and started pouring the cider.

Max had cleared his throat, and it wasn’t very loud but everyone went silent, which he intended to do—silence the crowd. With Liz standing next to him, Max cleared his throat once more, but this time without the intention of grabbing everyone’s attention. He cleared his throat to actually clear his throat.

“First of all,” he had begun nervously, “I just want to thank you all for coming. I know, that for me, this was the most important day of my life. It was the most anticipated day of my life.”

He had looked down and chuckled to himself. “You know,” he sighed, “I had this whole speech planned out because Maria made me, but I’m tossing that speech out the window and saying what’s on my mind and in my heart right now.

“Marrying Liz has always been a dream of mine,” Max said. “She’s my dream girl.” He then looked down at Liz who had been looking down already, hiding her blushing cheeks. “This day always played as a dream—a fantasy in my mind. Today, it came true. I couldn’t believe my dream was becoming my reality.

“Today made me open my eyes once again. No one’s perfect, especially me. I’m the farthest thing from it. However, I can’t condemn my faults, my faults help me to realize that Liz is my wife, my queen. I have to treat her like one.”

Max was staring at the ground as he spoke, thinking of the words in his mind and heart. “Liz deserves the absolute best because she’s the object of my affection. She’s the love of my life, the only thing that matters to me.”

“If I could ask for anything in the world,” Max said, “it would be Liz. I’ve got her now and so now I know that I’ve got everything I need. I don’t need to ask for more. Liz is more than enough. I don’t know if I can even handle her.”

He laughed to himself just like everyone laughed to themselves.

“I just don’t deserve Liz. I’m totally unworthy, but she’s good for me. I consider myself the most fortunate human alive.”

Max went silent and turned to Liz to stare into her eyes. His speech was done and to conclude it, Michael had held up his glass to the ceiling and gave a solid nod. “To Max and Liz.”

Everyone held up their glasses the same way and cheered the same words. Max and Liz entwined their arms. He had to slouch slightly, so that when he brought his glass up to his mouth, he didn’t pull Liz’s arm with him since he was taller than she was.

We all saw how they looked into each other’s eyes as they drank their cider. Whatever was going on earlier in the night, Max and Liz seemed to have dealt with it or looked past it, which was definitely good.

After the cider was downed, Mr. Parker handed Max and Liz a cake cutter. Liz held the knife in her right hand and then Max placed his hand around hers. They rested the knife on the cake for a few seconds for a good photo op. I advise you that 12 bright flashes in a row can blind you. Anyway, Max and Liz then both pressed down, cutting into the cake. They pulled out a wedge for the two of them and placed it on a plate.

Mr. Parker had handed them two forks, but the newlyweds opted to use their hands. So, Max pulled off a bite-size piece of the cake while Liz took a good handful filled with frosting. We all could see what was imminent, even Max looked at Liz with apprehension. She held the plate, so it was too late for him to load up.

“Mr. Parker, where are those forks?” Max had laughed.

“Too late for that now, son,” Liz’s father replied.

The look of happiness on Max's face when he heard his father-in-law call him son was definitely a moment to remember. As he continued to stare at Mr. Parker in happiness, yet disbelief, Liz had shoved the frosting-loaded piece of cake into Max's mouth, which had been hanging open because he was still in shock of being called “son” by his new father-in-law.

Frosting covered his face, making him look like a rabid dog. In the process of Max's feeding, he had dropped the piece of cake he held in his hand. It was ok, though, because Max had enough cake all over his face. Liz had pulled him towards him and ate some of the cake that coated his lips, which ended up in the two of them practically making out, conservatively. Yeah…another dozen or more blinding flashes.

Max and Liz got cleaned up afterwards and the reception went on. Dancing continued but was interrupted for the garter and bouquet toss.

The dance floor was cleared and a single chair was placed in the center. Everyone surrounded the dance floor as Liz took a seat and as Max crouched down in front of her. More and more camera flashes went off when Liz slid her dress up to reveal her garter on her left thigh. An eager and excited Max erotically slipped the article off and spun it around his index finger we he did.

It was time for us single men to gather on the dance floor. Now, I wanted so much to catch the damn thing. Buddha knows I was going through a dry spell. So I took a position in front of the group of men and waited for Max to fling the garter over his head. When he did, several of us jumped to grasp it, but it passed all our fingers, landing on Michael’s shoulder. That exact moment, my eyes searched for Maria where I found the most excited look on her face. I couldn’t say the same for Michael though. He took the garter off his shoulder and stared at it worriedly. It was another priceless moment. Sure wish another dozens flashes went off that time, but they didn’t and I wouldn’t have the chance to blackmail Michael.

After that fiasco, the men cleared the floor and Liz took center stage being followed by a pack of women. With her back to the group of eager bachelorettes, Liz tossed her bouquet of roses over her shoulder. Hands flailed in the air as the women tried to catch the bouquet before someone else could. Eventually, the flowers ended up in the hands of Amy DeLuca.

Maria’s angered face told everyone that she was jealous that her mother caught the bouquet instead of her. Amy seamed to be surprised, the happy kind of surprise. And for some reason, I looked for my father in the crowd. I was frightened at the sight of his contemplative grin. I guess it was inevitable. I wonder how Maria would feel if I started calling her “sis”.

All of the above occurred about an hour ago. It was near one in the morning now. Most of the guests had left, but there were still a few hanging around, mostly members of the Evans family.

I had met the whole big group. There were the Munchkins, the name which I liked better than the name Peanuts. They were cutest little kids you’d ever meet; polite and calm, too.

Then there were the Strawberries, Max and Isabel’s cousins. The whole bunch of them were fun. The oldest berries acted just like the youngest and everyone seemed to get along. Having Maria for a sister wasn’t looking like such a bad idea.

But the best part of the Evans family was Max and Isabel’s grandparents. Grandpa Clark and his wife, Grandma Maddie, were the only ones currently on the dance floor. They had danced the whole night away. It was easy to picture Max and Liz at Grandpa Clark and Grandma Maddie’s age, dancing until the early morning.

“Kyle!”

My head snapped towards the loud whisper and I found that the voice came from Michael. He was sticking his head through the back door.

I looked around the room and noticed that the only people in the dining area were most of Max's cousins, his uncle, his grandparents, a few of his knocked out nieces and nephews, a few of our West Roswell High classmates, caterers, Maria’s mom, and the Parkers.

“Come on!” Michael urged.

I slipped away from people watching and rushed to Michael. “What’s up?”

Michael nervously cleared his throat. “There’s something that’s needed to be discussed.”

[hoLLyBEHRy]

Hi-ya!

roswellluver, you're welcome for writing!

Izzy, I posted the chapters at xanga, I don't know if you knew that, so I'm letting you know here. Still working on that catfight. I wasn't able to write Friday night 'cause I was over at a friends house, but I have a whole Saturday ahead of me and I'm going to go crazy!...or try to anyway. I'll make sure to let you know when the catfight will be. I think maybe Chapter 85 or 86. So get the popcorn ready then. And thank you once again for the great compliments.

scarlettlily, thanks for enjoying the story!

SAFIRE, thank you so much! Thanks for the compliment. I'm glad you liked Max's speech and the cake. And yes...you're right...Kyle's night is going to be ruined.

**There is a small taste of the catfight in this chapter... ...but very small.


Chapter 82

{Liz}

Kyle cautiously stepped into the Crashdown break room where Michael, Max and I waited patiently for him. Max and I sat on the couch while Michael leaned coolly against the wall. Kyle walked in slowly with his eyes wide and his mouth slightly open. The look of nervousness on his face is what I expected, because here we were, just waiting for him with dead serious looks on our faces.

The party was nearly over. Only a few people were still at the reception and my father’s caterers were cleaning up in the dining area. It was time to get to business.

“What’s going on?” Kyle wondered.

Max grabbed my hand and stood up from the couch, forcing me to stand up next to him. “Kyle,” my husband said. “We’re not going to Santa Barbara.”

Kyle remained near the door, standing guarded. “Ok…” he replied. “Um…why?”

“Because we don’t want to,” Max quickly replied. “Not right now anyway.”

Max spoke for himself, not for me. I wanted nothing more than to just make the four hour drive to Albuquerque and jump on a plane for another few hours, but we couldn’t because shit happened…Tess happened.

Kyle slowly bobbed his head. He had lifted his nails up to his lips and chewed on his pinky nail. “Why are you telling me this?” he wondered, shaking his head.

Finally, Michael pushed off the wall. “Because something came up.”

Kyle continued to shake his head in confusion and the three of us—Michael, Max, and I—walked to the back door. All the while we waited for Kyle, I wondered how he would react, how he would feel, seeing Tess for the first time. He and his father gave Tess everything she could want. They gave her a family.

Realizing the anger and betrayal that Kyle was going to feel again, I felt my blood boil. Suddenly, I wasn’t so worried about how Kyle was feeling. I was worried about myself.

It would be the first time I had seen Tess since her departure. Now, I knew that I mirrored Kyle’s expression of fear-filled, widened eyes.

He stepped behind me as Michael opened the door. It was near 1AM and the freezing early morning air rushed into the break room of my father’s diner. Max immediately took his jacket off and draped it around me to protect me from the cold, but even with the jacket on, I shuddered.

“It’ll be ok,” Max smiled down at me.

I gave a little nod and continued to stand behind Max, as if I was hiding. I had bobbed my head up and down, agreeing with Max when he said it was going to be ok, but I knew that it wasn’t. It was never going to be ok now that she was back. Having Tess back was changing our lives.

“What’ll be ok?” Kyle whispered.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and ignored Kyle’s question. I couldn’t seem to focus.

Suddenly, we were out in the alley. I was still standing behind Max, still holding his hand. I really had no reason to be scared of her, but I was.

It was too dark outside and I wondered just how we would be able to see her. The lamp in the alley appeared to be broken, but Michael held up his hand, pointed it at the lamp post and the alley lit up, and it was barren.

“What are we doing out here?” Kyle asked.

Michael and Max looked to each other, telling one another that they were ready. They gave nods and scanned the alley.

“Come out,” Michael ordered.

My heart began to pound as I nervously stared at the dumpster. I didn’t know she was behind the large trashcan, but I looked there anyway. My eyes went into a panic, moving rapidly. I took a step back, unintentionally tugging Max along with me. He had been staring at the dumpster like I had, but when I pulled, Max looked over his shoulder at me and read the fear on my face.

I didn’t want to see her. I wasn’t ready.

But from behind the large, green, filthy dumpster out walked Tess. At first glimpse, I squeezed Max's hand like a reflex. Suddenly, I wasn’t so scared. I was angry and hateful.

I could feel the blood rushing to my face, turning it red. I held onto Max's hand tight and continued to constrict his hand wishing I was holding onto Tess instead. I imagined my fingers around her neck, clutching hard.

It looked as though she had been through enough, though. Her hair was a mess and her cloths were battered. Around her eyes were dark circles and she stood worn and tired.

She stood before us with her head slightly down. Gradually, I stepped out from behind Max and stood beside my husband. I was his wife, not her.

Max and Michael stood firm as they stared her down. I looked up at Max, staring at his face as his jaw muscles bulged out. He breathed in and out heavily, probably feeling just as anger and hateful as I was. Kyle’s eyes jumped wide open, and Michael…

Michael, for some reason, had a smile on his face.



{Michael}

I was so happy to finally see Tess with Max and Liz by my side. I never thought I’d ever say that, that I’d be happy to see the murderous…well, let’s just let your imagination flow and you can fill in whatever word you want.

Like I was saying…I was excited to see Tess, to be in her presence with Max and Liz standing next to me, because now my two best friends, Max and Liz, were married because they loved only each other and because they were soul mates. Now I could gloat about their marriage in front of Tess. Now I would be able to see her hurt and her pain. I would be able to see her suffer emotionally and mentally because I knew how she felt about Max. I knew how she felt about Liz, and I knew how she felt about the two of them together. I was eager to see her face when she finally saw Max and Liz married, with their wedding bands on their left ring fingers. I wanted to show my newly wed friends off.

Tess finally looked up and the expression I was waiting for appeared on her face. For me, it was like Christmas and seeing all the presents under the tree. I was so happy to see the stupefied expression on her face. Her jaw dropped slightly and her eyes widened. She had been hit by an invisible truck. If she had a heart, it was torn from her chest and thrown to the ground.

She examined the apparel worn by my two best friends; Max's tuxedo with gold vest and tie, and the beautiful wedding gown Liz wore. I glanced down at Liz as she proudly stood next to her husband, gloating in her victory of having the love of and marrying Max, because Max loved her, not Tess. Max wanted to be with Liz, not Tess. Max was Liz’s husband, not Tess’s. And Liz was Max's wife, not Tess.

Liz absolutely glowed, despite the vengeful look on her face. And on Tess’s stunned face, grew a small, pitiful smile. It was almost an apologetic smile on Tess’s face, something I didn’t think I’d see from her.

After observing Max and Liz as they held hands, Tess moved her focus onto Kyle who had taken a step back, shocked by her presence. I don’t think I could imagine what he was thinking. I don’t think I wanted to.

He had taken a step back while his mouth hung open, his jaw dragging across the pavement. His mouth didn’t linger on the floor for much longer. Soon Kyle clenched his jaw shut angrily. He stared Tess down while she just lit up at the site of what she believed to be a friend.

“Hi,” she smiled to him.

Kyle gritted his teeth and shook his head. “Don’t talk to me, Tess.”

Tess stepped forward and all of us took a step back. “Kyle…” Tess pleaded.

“DON’T SPEAK TO ME!!!” Kyle shouted at her.

“You won’t even let me explain?” Tess stupidly wondered.

“I WAS THERE, TESS!!!” Kyle continued to yell. “I REMEMBERED!!! WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY HAVE TO EXPLAIN TO ME?! YOU KILLED ALEX!!! I CARRIED HIS BODY!”

Max, Liz, and I turned to Kyle and watched as he expressed his pain. The night Tess had murdered Alex, Kyle was taken advantage of. He was forced to believe he was helping Tess carry a duffel bag, but he wasn’t. Kyle had used his strength to drag Alex’s dead body out of his home, his own room. I could imagine that Kyle must have gone through hell all this time.

“I’m sorry,” Tess apologized.

Kyle kept his eyes glued onto Tess. “What is she doing here?” he wondered.

I looked up at Max as he also stared down Tess. “That’s what we’re here to find out,” he said. “When I was talking to your earlier, Tess. You said you needed me, then you brought up our past lives and feelings.”

Liz dropping her head caught my eye. She stared down at her dress as it danced along the cement. Today, her day was ruined because she had to hear about Max's past life, which involved him married to another woman. Her day was ruined because of the presence of that other woman. I know that she was more hurt than anything else. It’s just common sense that you shouldn’t feel hurt on your wedding day.

Tess was going to pay for all the pain and anger she brought on my family. I didn’t even want to imagine how Maria or Isabel or Valenti would react when they saw Tess.

“You said you needed me,” Max repeated. “Why?”

“Why I said that?” Tess wondered. “Or why do I need you?”

I rolled my eyes in frustration. “He means the latter.”

Tess bobbed her head in understanding and cleared her throat. “Khivar’s been taken down,” she started to explain. “He’s been killed. The aftermath of his rule and conquest has ruined Antar. Max, you are the king and Antar—our home—needs you—”

“No!” Max shouted.

Liz’s head sprang up as her husband screamed. She looked at him with her eyes widened. Kyle looked at Max with nearly the same shocked expression. Max's face went from angry to…to almost frightened.

“Antar is not my home!” Max fumed. “It’s not my home, not Michael’s, nor Isabel’s! We have nothing to do with that—that place and I know that I don’t ever want anything to do with it. Antar’s not my home!” he shouted once again. He got so angry and frustrated in seconds. “MY HOME IS HERE ON EARTH WITH—WITH—WITH LIZ!!!” he stuttered. When he spoke, he held out his hand in front of him like he was about to shake someone else’s and he stared at the empty space. He couldn’t stand to look in Tess’s eyes, or maybe he was just trying to convince himself of his declaration.



[Kyle]

I had never heard Max shout so loud before. There was steam coming out from his ears and you could grill an egg on his burning face. Max was so angry at Tess, he was angry enough for all of us.

“Michael, get the trithium amplification generator,” Max ordered.

“The what?” I wondered.

Michael turned to me. “It’s an alien device that prohibits us from using our powers.”

I had never been so confused in my life. “What the hell are you guys going to use it for?”

“We’re not,” Michael smiled. “You’re going to use it.”

I scoffed incredulously. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Beside me, Liz sighed heavily. “We need it to lock Tess in the pod chamber, so she can’t get out.”

“What?!”

All our heads turned to Tess. As soon as the word left her mouth, she was sent flying against trashcans, forced onto her ass. It looked like it hurt…really bad. I smiled happily. Then we quickly looked to Max as he lowered his arm.

“Sit down,” he ordered. “You will have no say in this. We can’t have you roaming around freely.”

“It’s not like I’m going to do anything wrong,” Tess argued.

She slowly got up only to be thrown against the brick wall, which had to hurt even more. This time, it was Liz lowering her arm back down. Go Liz!

“He said, sit down!” she shouted.

I never thought that seeing the look of fear on someone’s face would cheer me up, but it did. Tess’s dumbstruck face was one benefit of her visit, being able to lock her up was another.

“Liz has come into her powers,” Michael explained to Tess with a smile on his face.

Tess sighed heavily as she tried to get comfortable on the hard concrete. “I see that,” she replied. “Hope you’ve got it all figured it out.”

All our eyes narrowed at her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Max demanded to know.

Tess shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing…”

We all continued to stare at her immensely, causing her to cave.

“Liz didn’t just receive alien powers, I hope you know that.”

Again, all we could was stare at her and wait for a more detailed explanation.

“She’s changed,” Tess said.

Michael laughed. “Well, no shit.”

Leave it up to Michael to turn this imperative conversation into casual talk. The rest of us rolled our eyes, even Tess.

“Changed?” Max asked. “Changed how?”

“Do you mind if I stand up? My—”

“Just get to the point,” I interrupted. I turned to Max, Michael, and Liz. “You know, maybe we should do this somewhere else or deal with it a little later. The others might come out here. I know that you guys aren’t ready to tell them just yet.”

Max sighed heavily and bobbed his head up and down. “You’re right,” he said. “Michael, go get the trithium amplification generator.”

He nodded obediently, turned around, and started walking across the street to the UFO Center. Max then looked to me with a sympathetic look on his face and I instantly knew what he wanted me to do. I rolled my eyes in frustration.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said in response. “There is no way I’m babysitting her.”

Max and Liz must have been working their unique, one-way connection with each other because Liz knew what Max was asking of me too, and she looked at me with the same sympathetic expression.

“Please?” she asked.

Max nodded in agreement. “Now that she knows what we’re going to do with her, we need to make sure she doesn’t run away.”

“You know, she is equipped with alien powers that can mean the end to my existence,” I reminded them all.

“I won’t hurt you, Kyle,” Tess quickly replied.

I scoffed and stared the gerbil down. “Like I should believe you.”

There was no way I would ever believe a word she said. You couldn’t even pay me enough. She had made my 18th birthday one I wanted to forget. For so long my life was hell. I witnessed Alex’s murder. I carried his body out of my room, my home. I helped Tess cover up his murder.

With the tears in my eyes I quickly looked away and swallowed hard, hoping to drain my tears. I felt Liz’s hand grace my shoulder and I looked up with a façade that consisted of a smile. Liz looked into my eyes with her own filled with tears. She knew what I was thinking, and she gave an apologetic smile. I could read it in her eyes, she feels responsible for making me feel this way. She and Maria made me remember the nightmare of a night.

But it wasn’t her fault, or Maria’s. Eventually, I would have remembered those memories, and she and Maria weren’t to blame. Yet, she still took responsibility. I guess, we all had these type of burdens.

Max moved in front of Tess and stared her in the eyes. “Will you hurt, Kyle?”

Tess stared back at him for a while and then shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t hurt him. Not after what he’s done for me.”

“Like helping you cover up Alex’s murder,” I blurted.

I didn’t mean to say that and as soon as I did, I regretted it. I looked to Liz as she quickly shot her head down. Sure, we were thinking about it just moments earlier, but thinking and saying were two completely different things. Even Michael and Max Max looked down at the ground. I followed suit and found a nice spot between my feet.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized.

“I had meant what you and your father did for me,” Tess clarified. “I meant that you had made me a part of your family.”

I laughed. “Yeah, well that was a mistake.”

Tess looked at me in disbelief, but it was a mistake that we took her into our home. It was a mistake that I had treated her like a sister.

The alley went silent for a while, then Max cleared his throat.

“Kyle, you going to do this for us or what?” he asked. “’Cause Liz and I need to get back to the others and Tess is here, unsupervised with the incentive to runaway now.”

I sighed heavily and nodded. “Call it my wedding gift to you guys,” I said, looking at Max and Liz.

*~*

I continued to pace up and down the width of the alley waiting for Michael to return. Until he returned, I was to watch Tess and make sure that she didn’t run away, and she hadn’t. She even stayed on the ground where Max and Liz had literally thrown her.

“You don’t have to be nervous around me,” Tess said.

I stopped and lowered my hand from my mouth where I had been chewing my nails. “Really?” I asked. “Well, how would you feel if you had to baby-sit a cold blooded murderer?”

Tess rolled her eyes. “I really wish you all would stop looking at me that way.”

“Then maybe—just maybe—you shouldn’t have killed Alex!” I snapped.

Tess strained her face. “I didn’t mean to kill him, K—”

“BULL SHIT!!!” I shouted. “If you didn’t mean to kill him, then you shouldn’t have mindwarped him to begin with! You knew damn well what the effects of your mindwarps were.”

“I DID NOT!” Tess shouted back, jumping to her feet.

I tilted my head back and laughed. “Oh come on!!! You knew that messing with our minds was detrimental to them. You’re playing with our thoughts…our memories! It’s common sense, you stupid bit—”

“Hey!” Tess said defensively.

I knew I was ticking her off. I wanted to piss her off. I wanted her to hurt. She had that look in her eye, contemplation, anger.

“What?” I taunted. “What are you going to do?” I said continuing to tempt her. “Are you going to kill me with your mindwarp? Are you going to kill me because I called you on your bull shit, just like Alex did? Why don’t you just do it, Tess?”

Now the contemplation in her eyes died away, and the look of shock took over.

“You made my life hell!” I continued to shout at her. “I’m always going to carry the memory of dragging Alex’s dead body out of my house! I don’t want to live with that! So just go ahead!!! You do, and then my friends—my family, they will kill you.”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Michael shouted as he ran up to us. “What the hell is going on?”

I guess he caught on to the conversation.

I continued to stare down Tess as she looked back at me with the continued shock on her face.

“I was just letting Tess in on how I’ve been doing since she's left.”

[hoLLyBEHRy]

**update on the catfight: i've contacted lovalien (deb), my wonderful beta, and i'm just waiting for her to get back to me so we can start working on the catfight 'cause i'm having some problems. deb's the greatest ( ) and so hopefully we can get that chapter out and done real soon.**


Chapter 83: Part 1

{Liz}

Max told everyone that our honeymoon was being postponed until spring break because he supposedly didn’t want me to miss any of my classes. Everyone seemed to buy it except for Maria and Isabel, of course

“Ok, well at least I won’t suffer alone in Ms. Reyes’s class,” Maria smirked. She still knew that something was up. None of us had told her or my new sister-in-law about the visit of a certain someone.

“Yeah, can’t afford to miss her class,” I lied. “Look,” I sighed, “I never told how great the Crashdown was tonight. It was absolutely beautiful, Maria. Thank you.”

She gave an exhausted smile and wriggled her way out of my embrace. I wanted to tell her. I didn’t like having Maria in the dark. She was my best friend. We talked about everything. She was always there to talk to, but now, she wasn’t, because she didn’t know. The same went for Isabel. I was now a part of her family. I was already hiding a secret from her.

Isabel stepped forward and gave me a hug, resting her chin on my shoulder. “You and Max will eventually have to tell us what’s going on. Until then, enjoy your wedding night.”

She pulled away with the same kind of worn out expression on her face that Maria had. There was probably one on my face too. We were all tired. It had been one long day and night, and the night wasn’t over yet.

“Liz.”

I looked over my shoulder as my husband had one foot in the limo and the other still on the pavement. He stuck his hand out to mine and smiled.

“Come on,” he said.

I genuinely smiled back at him and placed my hand in his. He stepped into the limo and as I did the same, I looked back over my shoulder, this time, at everyone that was sending us off. Isabel leaning into her husband’s chest as he helped her stand up. Maria doing the same with Michael, who looked at us nervously. We would see him later, in a matter of moments. Kyle, too. Valenti had his arm Kyle’s shoulders as they stood and waved us away.

“You coming in?” Max wondered.

I gave a little nod and climbed into the limo, greeting my husband with a kiss as our driver closed the limo door.

I pulled away and Max still had his eyes closed with a smile on his face. I grinned happily. “Hi,” I laughed.

Max slowly opened his starry eyes and sighed. “Hi.”

I sat slouched, looking to Max's eyes, showing my exhausting and eagerness to be with just my husband. “Do we have to take care of this all tonight?”

Max lifted up his hand and held my face in his palm. He caressed my cheek with his thumb and smiled apologetically. “I want to take care of this now. It’ll end now.”

*~*

Dressed casually in jeans, a tee, and a jean jacket—clothes I would have worn on the flight to Santa Barbara—I was back on the road with Max at my side. He wore almost the same outfit I did, but he wore khaki pants instead, and instead of being in the limo, we were in Max's Chevelle, driving out to the desert.

It was near three in the morning, and he and I would have to have our wedding night in the early morning. I sat in the middle of the seat and rested my head on his chest while he wrapped one arm around me and steered the car with one hand.

I sighed heavily and nuzzled into his chest. Max leaned down and kissed the top of my head.

“We’re almost there,” he said.

I nodded, but closed my eyes anyway. In seconds, the car stopped and slid across the dirt. I sat up and looked out the topless car. Near us were a truck and dirt bike. On the dirt bike was Michael and in the truck was Kyle, with Tess sitting next to him.

“Hey,” Michael said, approaching us.

I gave a little smile and sat up straight, taking Max's arm off of me.

“You’ve got it?” Max asked.

Michael, who was still dressed in his tux, tapped his chest and nodded. They must have gone straight from the reception because Kyle was still in his suit also. Michael started to head towards the foot of the large rock hill. The pod chamber still frightened me. The last time I had been there was when Max and I went to the desert the night he came back from La Jolla. Then it scared me too.

From the corner of my eye, as I continued to stare at the rock formation, Kyle emerged from his truck. From the passenger side, Tess stepped out and Max climbed out of the Chevelle.

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” he said.

I stopped staring at the pod chamber and held out my hand to Max. “No,” I replied. “I want to do this as much as you do.”

I slid across the seat and Max helped me out of the Chevelle. I didn’t want to look at her, but from the corner of my eye, I could see Tess watching as Max held my hand. Inside, I smiled happily. However, the look on Tess’s face wasn’t only jealousy. She seemed nervous, like she was hiding a secret, and off course she was, what else would she be doing here?

Michael led the way up to the pod chamber, Tess followed behind him, and then Kyle. Taking the rear, was Max and I. I quickly squeezed hold of his hand and held him back.

He quickly looked over his shoulder at me and shook his head. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“This isn’t right,” I replied. “I think Maria, Isabel, Jesse, and Valenti should be here.”

We were a family that did things together as a family, and right now, not all members were present. It didn’t feel right.

Max nodded and pulled out his phone while he still held my hand. He dialed with his thumb and then held his phone up to his ear. “Hey, Maria,” he said warily. “I know, it’s late…I’m sorry…Look, Michael, Kyle, Liz, and I are at the pod chamber…well, we’ll tell you went you get here…” Max looked to me and rolled his eyes. From where I was standing, I could hear Maria nagging Max's head off. “Would you please just meet us here? Call my sister, tell her to bring Jesse if she wants…Call Valenti and make sure he comes too. Please hurry up.” Then Max snapped his phone shut and stuffed it back into his pocket. “Come on,” he smiled.

We hollered at Michael, Kyle, and Tess at the top of the pod chamber and walked back down to the foot of the hill with the three of them following us. We were going to do this as a group, a family.

I waited the half hour it took for the rest of our family to get there in Max's arms. We sat on a rock that jutted out on a hill and waited patiently. I sat right next to my husband and rested into his chest while he sat with both arms around me. There was no better means of security.

Michael and Kyle stood far in front of us while Tess was off to the side. It was a quiet half hour with none of us speaking. I tried my best to get some sleep and was about to because I had been so comfortable, but the sound of cars in the distance caused Max to stand up, forcing me to stand up also.

“Michael, take Tess and stay out of sight until I say so,” he said. “I don’t want to them to see her yet.”

Michael nodded obediently and looked to Tess. “You heard him,” he said to her.

Tess started walking back up the hill and Michael followed after her. They disappeared behind a large rock as three cars drove up in front of us. Max apprehensively waited by my side. He nervously swallowed the lump in his throat while his mouth hung open.

Jesse and Isabel emerged from one car, Maria from another, and Valenti from a truck. Each one of them stepped out of their vehicles with their eyes on us, and Max, Liz, and Kyle just continued to stand before them, waiting until they were standing before us.

My best friend walked towards me with her arms crossed in front of her and remained her distance from me. Valenti stepped forward with his finger tips to his mouth. Now we all knew where Kyle got the same habit. Jesse walked slightly behind his wife who turned into Isabel, the Ice Princess, intimidating as hell.

“What are we doing here, Max?” she wondered.

I grabbed Max's hand and gave it a loving, reassuring squeeze. He lowered his head slightly and looked at me of the corner of his eyes. He managed a little smile and then lifted his head back up.

“Something happened today,” Max began.

TBC

[hoLLyBEHRy]

Chapter 83: Part 2

{Liz}

Immediately, Maria uncrossed her arms, Jesse continued to grow nervous, Valenti started to actually chew on his nails, and Isabel’s exterior melted away.

“At first,” Max continued, “Michael was the only one that knew. During the reception, Liz found out and that’s when she stormed off and I stormed of after her.”

I looked down in embarrassment. On our wedding day, yesterday, Max and I had walked out on our own reception. Several times in the night we had created a scene. I don’t regret the way I reacted, but I just wish that my timing was better…way better.

As Max spoke, specifically about him and I leaving the reception, Maria had lit up. I remembered her dancing with Max. She had excessively questioned him. I don’t know what she asked him, but I knew that she wanted to know what had happened between he and I during that time.

“Keep on talking,” Isabel ordered her brother.

Max nodded and nervously cleared his throat. “This…um…thing,” he called it, “like I said to Maria, it’s not a danger, as of now. I mean, well, it is dangerous, but right now it’s not.”

“Um, Max, you’re babbling,” Kyle announced.

My husband nodded. “Ok, well…obviously Liz and I worked things out. When we did, we had to confront this…thing, and we did that with Kyle, and of course Michael.”

There was anger and disappointment in Maria and Isabel’s eyes. We had excluded them and now they were feeling betrayed. Valenti was feeling the same way, but not to the extent of what Maria and Isabel were feeling.

Valenti gave a little laugh. “Max, you’re talking in riddles here, son,” he said. “The sun’s about to rise soon and I bet that you and Liz haven’t had a decent moment together.”

Max nodded once again. “Ok,” he said in an obedient manner. He looked down at me and I smirked at him, telling him to go on ahead with the news. He smirked back and looked to everyone else. One deep breath was all he needed to say, “Tess is back.”

In a fraction of a second, Maria, Isabel, and Valenti’s eyes widened, their jaws dropped to the floor, and their skin turned a pale white. They stared at us in disbelief with their widened eyes. Kyle, Max, and I couldn’t stand to look in their hurt eyes. The silence was pure torture. Everyone just stared at us.

“Please say something,” I begged.

Maria nodded. “Ok,” she replied. “I’ll say this: You’re kidding me,” she said. “You’ve got to be, because you,” she said, looking at Kyle, “my soon-to-be-stepbrother-because-it's-the-inevitable; Michael, my boyfriend; and you two,” she said, glaring at Max and I, “my best friends, would have never withheld this from us this WHOLE TIME!!!”

Isabel crossed her arms in front of her chest and shook her head in disappointment. “I can’t believe you guys,” she said, at first calmly, but then she rose her voice. “I can’t believe you would do that to us. You should have told us the second she got here! We deserve that!”

“I—I didn’t want to worry you guys,” Max explained. “It wasn’t the time nor the place.”

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TO DECIDE?!” Isabel continued to shout. “You can’t decide these things on your own! Haven’t you learned that from all the times you hurt Liz?!”

It was a slap across the face for Max, and he reacted that way. He snapped his head away because he couldn’t face what was the truth, once again. I had already hit him with that a few times.

“Isabel,” Jesse said calmly, he had been somewhat calm this whole time. “Calm down…”

“No!” she refused. “DAMN YOU, MAX! Damn you, Kyle, and Michael, wherever the hell he is! And you too, Liz!”

It was something we all deserved. How could she not be angry? I was angry when I had found out. Why would I expect that Isabel wouldn’t feel the same way?

“Where is she?” Valenti asked, grinding his teeth.

While Kyle and I hung our heads low, a result of Isabel’s lashings, Max looked over his shoulder.

“Come out,” he ordered.

Kyle and I lifted our heads and turned them to the same degree Max did so that we looked over our shoulder as Tess and Michael emerged from behind a rock. Once again, Tess was leading the way and Michael was walking close behind her like some bodyguard, or prison security guard.

“I don’t believe this,” Isabel said to herself.

Tess and Michael had reached the foot of the hill where we all stood. Jesse, Valenti, Kyle, Maria, Isabel, Michael, Max, and me. This was the family, and here we were with Tess before us. We were a group and we were going to do everything from here on together.

Tess took a step forward. "Um…hi,” she said softly.

Maria, Isabel, and Valenti stopped glaring at Tess and sent their angry stares our way.

“What are we going to do with her?” Maria asked.

Kyle looked to me, I looked to Max, and Max looked to Michael, who rolled his eyes.

“Fine,” he sighed. “We’re going to lock Tess in the pod chamber.”

Isabel laughed with doubt. “You do know that there’s a flaw in that plan.”

Michael sighed once more. “Can we just go up there? It’s getting cold as hell out here. If we go up to the cave, at least we can hide from the freezing wind.”

Max nodded and we all started scaling up the hill. Once we started our trek, everyone went silent. Michael led the way and Tess was behind him. Kyle was behind her and then Max and I walked up still hand-in-hand. Maria, Isabel, Jesse, and Valenti walked far behind us. Nearly three years ago, this family formed and grew. At the beginning it was a family divided; the aliens and the humans. Now, the group was divided once more; the betrayed and the guilty.

We reached the pod chamber entrance where I let go of Max's hand so that he could open the chamber. He waved his hand over a section of rock wall and a silver, glowing handprint appeared. Max held his hand over the image and was about to open the pod chamber when Tess stepped forward.

“Wait!” she ordered.

“What?” Max snapped.

Tess apprehensively looked into all of our eyes.

“Was there a reason why you stopped him?” Kyle wondered.

She remained silent and nervously looked at us like a deer in headlights.

“Just open it, Maxwell,” Michael advised.

My husband firmly placed his hand on the alien image on the rock. All of our heads turned to the left where a portion of the rock hill moved like a sliding glass door, creating a hole, an opening.

Michael went ahead and climbed in first. Kyle crawled in after him when Tess hadn’t followed. Max and I waited for her to move, but she didn’t.

“Go,” Max growled.

Hesitantly, Tess stepped in. What was she hiding? Why didn’t she want to go into the pod chamber?

We were going to find out soon.

Max climbed into the hole first, and still holding my hand, I followed on his heels. And I was literally on his heels. Max hadn’t stepped that far into the cave, causing me to run into him. Max just gazed around the interior of the pod chamber, gawking. I found myself doing the same.

“What the hell?” I whispered to myself. I looked up at my husband and stared at his puzzled expression. “Max…?”

TBC

\^^^/

I'm sorry, I just had to do it. I just had to leave a cliffhanger, and I have to say that I won't be posting the conclusion until a while. I'm making additions to the conclusion of the chapter, and that catfight's been causing me some problems. I need motivation people. Keep that FB coming. I really need you guys to lift up my spirit.

Oh, and SAFIRE, yup, we're moving back home to California. Can't wait, but I'm sad to leave.

-hoLLy

[hoLLyBEHRy]

Hello all,

spaceboy, it's good to see your FB again. Sorry about that cliffhanger.

sare, you wrote,

what's there?

, it's more like what isn't there. Go ahead read on.

SAFIRE, haha, you crack me up. I love it.

Izzy, LoL, I have no intention of killing you with a heart attack. I love you, girl!

roswellluver, tahnks for reading as always. I notice all the stories you read. You're really busy and you always manage to leave FB. You really are the best feedback.

cherie, I'm sorry for leaving that cliffhanger. I can't really promise that I won't have anymore, but who knows? The story's almost over.

-hoLLy


Chapter 83: Part 3

{Liz}

When the Granolith had morphed into a ship and shot out of the peak of the rock mountain, most of the pod chamber had collapsed. I was surprised that the entrance was even functional. I didn’t think that it could be opened, but we were, after all, talking about an entrance to an alien pod chamber, not an elevator.

Yet, the most surprising thing now wasn’t whether or not the chamber was able to open, it was what was inside, or not inside, whichever way you want to look at it.

I can clearly remember the ceiling coming to the floor as the Granolith transformed into a ship, but there were no signs of cave debris on the floor. In fact, the dirt floor was relatively clean for a dirt floor. The pod chamber had been completely repaired and renovated. I don’t even think this cave qualified as a pod chamber anymore.

The wall where four pods once stood was no more. The huge contraption that held my husband as a fetus, or child or whatever, was gone. In its place was a normal cave wall.

“Are you going to let us in or have you decided that we’re not allowed to?” Maria smartly asked.

Without responding, Max and I stumbled further into the cave. We stood in between Michael and Kyle who were just as stupefied as we were.

“What the hell?” Isabel gasped.

Kyle bobbed his head. “What the hell, indeed.”

“I thought this place was in ruins,” I whispered to Max.

He nodded and continued to stare around. “It’s supposed to be.”

I surveyed the scene enough. I immediately looked to Tess for an explanation. She was the only one of us who didn’t seem to be surprised.

I tugged on Max's jacket and continued to look Tess’s way.

Max quickly caught on. “You did this,” he announced. “You fixed this place up. You’ve been hiding here, Tess.”

Now everyone stared at an obviously guilty Tess.

“Oh my God,” Isabel whispered. “It’s true…How long have you been here?”

Tess slowly glanced up. “Just these past few days.”

There was something about her and what she said that set off flags in my mind.

Michael scoffed. “You’ve—”

“Liar,” I interrupted.

Max looked down at me in confusion, his eyebrows meeting at the bridge of his nose. “What?”

“Yeah,” Michael replied. “What?’”

“She’s lying,” I reiterated. “Tess has been here longer than a few days.”

Everyone looked at me with puzzled glares.

“How do you know?” Valenti wondered.

It was that night when Max came back from La Jolla, when he took me here, to the desert. When we drove up, the shadowy figure that was the pod chamber had frightened me then. I suddenly knew why. It was because she was staying here.

“I just know,” I answered in response to Valenti’s question.

Max didn’t question me. He didn’t doubt me for a second. So he turned to Tess and continued to glare at her. “How long have you been here?” he asked, stressing his words.

Tess stared at the floor.

“Isabel’s wedding,” I answered for her.

“What?” Isabel asked, asking mostly Tess.

It had to be when, because that’s when Khivar showed up. I had had a strange feeling days after the wedding. Khivar must have brought Tess down with him when he came for Isabel. It was all starting to make sense.

And once again, Max was thinking the same. “You and Khivar came down together.”

Tess remained silent. She was guilty.

“Why are you here?” Max started to question. “Why did you lie about being here only for a few days?”

“I didn’t!” Tess snapped. “I went back at the news of Khivar’s death and came back here a few days ago.”

Michael shook his head. “You’re lying. Your stories are messed up,” he said. “Earlier, you said that Khivar sent you down because you didn’t have Max's son. So Khivar can’t be dead.”

Tess sighed and rolled her eyes. “Last fall, when I came down with Khivar, near the time of Isabel’s wedding, he really did shun me away from Antar. He decided that he would personally take me down here. So, I came and I stayed, for months. About three weeks ago, I got the news that Khivar was killed. I went to Antar to find out if it was true. It was and that is the truth.”

If it was a lie, it was damn good lie. It fit together and actually made some sense.

“So basically,” Kyle started, “Max is to rule Antar and you’re here to take him ‘home’.”



{Max}

“It’s not home,” I stressed again. “No one call it that.”

I was being childish, but I didn’t care. Antar was not my home. How could it be my home? I’ve never seen it and I didn’t want to see it. I had no urge to make the trip there.

“I don’t want to have anything to do with Antar. My life is here.” I grabbed Liz’s hand and squeezed tight, reminding her that she was my life. “I’m not going back,” I told Tess. “I don’t care what you say, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Everyone was silent because it was agreed, there was no way in hell I was going back. Tess wasn’t arguing her case, she knew that I couldn’t be persuaded.

“What happens now, Max?’ Maria asked.

I sighed heavily. “I’m tired,” I replied. I gave Liz’s hand a little shake and looked down. “How ‘bout you?”

She heaved just as an exhausted sigh and nodded. “Me too.”

“Ok,” I said, satisfied. “It’s settled, we leave this alone for now. We’ll decide what to do with Tess later.” I glanced at her hatefully and started to walk to the cave entrance, bringing Liz with me.

“Wait, what about Tess?” Valenti asked.

I looked to Michael and glanced at his fist, at the alien object resting in his grip. “Michael, you explain. Teach Kyle, Valenti, and Jesse how to work that thing. Liz and I are going home.”

*~*

It really was a long night, Liz was evidence of that. She fell asleep on the drive back to my apart—our apartment.

So I drove back to the Reino with one arm around a sleeping Liz. She nuzzled against my chest every so often, making a smile break out on my face. We arrived at the apartment complex somewhere around…I’m not really all that sure, but the sun had already woken and was busy at work. I wasn’t thinking of waking Liz, but I don’t think it matter anyway, she was knocked out, there was no waking her. She didn’t even stir when I lifted her out of the Chevelle or when I almost dropped her by accident. After tripping over that curb, the curb that caused me to almost drop my wife, it was smooth sailing, until I got to the door. Luckily, Mr. Eaton, the doorman, was coming to work early. He ran up from behind me and opened the doors before I could wake Liz to ask her if she could stand on her own. Thank goodness Mr. Eaton came, I didn’t want to have to disrupt Liz’s peaceful sleep.

“Thank you, Mr. Eaton,” I told the kind, older man.

In return, the man in the uniform looked at me sternly.

“Sorry,” I apologized. “It’s Charlie. Thanks, Charlie.”

Finally, Charlie bowed his head and even tipped his hat. When I stepped into the building, Charlie lifted his head back up. “Congratulations to you and Mrs. Evans, Max.”

I froze with Liz still asleep in my arms. On my exhausted face, I managed to smile happily. I turned my whole body and nodded to Charlie. “Thank you,” I continued to grin.

To the elevator I went. I crouched down and pushed the “up” button by pointing my index finger out and turning into the button. I waited all of five seconds before the silver doors opened. I wouldn’t mind waiting longer; I wanted to hold Liz in my arms forever, but the doors opened onto my—our floor—and I started walking down the hall.

“I love you, Max,” Liz groaned.

I looked down and couldn’t help but laugh. She was talking in her sleep. I guess I was going to have to get used to that.

When I reached our door, I stood close to the doorknob and used my powers to open the door instead of my keys, which were stuffed into my pocket and inaccessible because of a certain someone in my arms.

Once the door was unlocked, I kicked it open lightly. Immediately, the scent of my cologne blew past me. I stepped in and kicked the door closed with my heel.

I stood still for a moment and looked at the art on my wall and the furniture I purchased when I rented the apartment. For months now, it had been my apartment. I had made it my own, but it wasn’t just mine anymore. It was min and Liz’s. It was our home together.

“I do,” Liz hummed. She was still asleep.

I smiled down at her and sighed. “I do too, Liz.”

I carried her to our bedroom where it smelt like me too. That would have to change.

I lied Liz on our bed, on the side farthest away from the door. I figured that I would sleep on the side closest to the door so that I would be able to protect her. She immediately curled up into a ball.

“Max???” she called…still asleep.

“I’m here,” I whispered to her. “I’m coming.” I walked around the bed to my side…and froze. I had a side. Now I had a side. Suddenly it hit me that I was going to have to share my bed…with my wife. The past 24 hours were so emotional, I wiped the tears from my eyes and climbed into our bed with a smile on my face. I scooted as close to Liz as I could get and wrapped my arms around her. Pulling her against my chest, I slid my left arm under her neck and let her use me as a pillow. My right elbow rested on her hip and I molded my hand to her waist. I spooned Liz and buried me nose in her hair, falling asleep with a smile on my face. “I’m here, Liz…” I whispered. “And you’re here too. You’re really here.”

[hoLLyBEHRy]

Thanks for the FB you guys. Keep it all comin. It's great to see those of you I haven't seen in a while.


Chapter 84

It was that time of the season where Winter leaves and punches its timecard for the year and Spring takes over Winter’s shift. The heavy snow and ice that once coated everything outdoors now begins to thaw and it’s the rebirth for the trees, flowers, and grass. Birds come out from their holes in the trees and squirrels are back to work, preparing for next winter.

The winter had never been so cold before, but thank God for making it a short one. The sun was out and it was busy melting away remnants of the dark winter.

A beautiful New England home begins to appear as the snow transforms into droplets, then pools, of water. One of the brown, wooden double doors opens and Max Evans appears.

“Please,” Liz begs. She’s appeared in the doorway while he leaves it.

Max doesn’t turn back as he walks down the two steps of the porch. “Don’t make this harder, Liz,” he says as he continues to walk away. “We’ve already said goodbye.”

Liz runs down the steps and into Max's path, stopping him from leaving. She cries at the tears in his eyes while he looks away.

“You don’t want to leave.”

“OF COURSE I DON’T!” Max shouts at her. “WHY WOULD I WANT TO LEAVE YOU AND ABBY?! WHY?”

Liz breaks down even more as she sees the struggle that Max is fighting within. “Then don’t leave…”

Max fights and stops the tears in his eyes. He wipes them away and shakes his head. “I have to. I have to, for you and Abby.”

“No, you have to stay. That’s what you have to do.”

Max leans forward and kisses Liz’s lips. Flash after flash is received, just like every time they kiss. They’ve shared a wonderful seven years of marriage. The second year of their marriage, they were blessed with the presence of a beautiful daughter, now four, almost five.

Max pulls away with his eyes still closed, savoring the kiss and registering the flashes of memories. “Goodbye, Liz.”


{Liz}

“MAX!” I screamed. I shot up in bed after having the terrible nightmare and quickly looked from side to side, wondering where I was, where Max was. I realized that I was in Max's bed and in Max's room.

He jogged from out of his bathroom with a towel around his waist and his hair dripping wet. He came to my side where he wiped the tears from my eyes. “What is it?” he asked.

I leaned into his arms, silently asking him to hold me, which he did. “I thought you left. I thought you left me.”

Max laughed and ran his hand over my head. “No, I’m right here. I haven’t gone anywhere.”

The dream felt so real, like it was going to happen, or was happening, or really did happen. I couldn’t explain it. The intensity of it was getting to me. Was it something from the future?

“Will you leave me?” I asked.

Max laughed and pushed me away. “What?” he scoffed. “Liz, look at your left hand.”

I stared at him in confusion but did as I was told. A beautiful band of white gold and a ring with the same metal donning three diamonds were around my ring finger. Max lifted my hand to his lips and placed a kiss on my finger.

“I’m never going to leave you, Liz Evans,” he smiled.

I grinned back and kissed Max. I pressed my forehead against his and closed my eyes, Max did the same.

“Do you promise?”

“Why would I ever want to leave you?” Max asked.

I sighed heavily and remembered the dream. “What if you had to?”

Max pushed me away again and looked into my eyes in confusion. “Liz, what’s going on? Did you have a bad dream?”

I saw the fear and worry in his eyes. It was just a dream…No, not a dream, a nightmare. Dream’s come true, not nightmares. So, it definitely was a nightmare, not a dream.

“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “I just had this nightmare where you left, but that was it. I’m ok.”

Max held my face in his hands and kissed my lips. “Liz, if I had to leave you…I wouldn’t. I would never leave you, ok?”

I nodded as I curled my lips in and licked them, savoring Max's kiss. “I’m sorry…We’ll just forget about it,” I told him. “What time is it?”

“A quarter to noon.”

“What time did we get in?”

Max tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Maybe around 5AM. I’m not really sure.”

“I fell asleep in the car, didn’t I?” I sighed.

I actually remembered it so clearly. Max and I left the pod chamber. We were the only ones to leave at first. The others were waiting for a demonstration from Michael. Max and I walked back to the Chevelle still holding hands, I don’t think that I ever let his hand go after being in the pod chamber. Once in the car, I rested against Max, and that’s the last thing I remember.

Max nodded in reply to my question. “Yeah,” he sighed.

I knew he was trying to hide his disappointment.

“I’m sorry I fell asleep on you,” I told him. “We didn’t get to have our wedding night.”

Max nodded again and played with the ends of my hair. “It’s ok.” He dropped his hand into my lap and kissed my lips. “We’ll have it tonight, and every night,” he grinned.

I just had to roll my eyes, playfully of course.

“Besides,” Max continued, “it’s my fault, because we would have had one if we went on our honeymoon instead of staying here.”

Then I remembered why we didn’t have our honeymoon.

“I know that I shouldn’t bring this up, but…what are we going to do about Tess?” I wondered.

Max sighed and pushed himself away. He walked to his dresser and grabbed a pair of boxers and slid them on underneath the towel. He let the towel dropped to his ankles where he picked it away. He turned around and sighed again. “Liz, I really don’t care about Tess. If I had it my way, she would be in the White Room right now.”

I rolled out of the bed in the clothes I wore this morning. “We can’t do that.” I really hated saying that.

“So what are we going to do?’ Max snapped in frustration. “See? Look, now we have to actually worry about her, we have to worry about what she’s going to do.”

“She said that she’s here to take you back,” I reminded him. “Just tell her to go back without you.”

Max sighed once again and walked towards me. “Do you really think it’s going to be that easy?” he asked, really wondering if it would be that simple.

I looked up into my husband’s eyes and smirked. “I hope so,” I told him.

[hoLLyBEHRy]

Hey,

extingman, it's good to see you again. I'm glad you're enjoying the story. This next chapter will answer the question you have. Well, it kind of answers your question.

SAFIRE, sorry about the beginning of chapter 85, and I'm waiting to send Tess on her way too. Still at that writer's block.

RostheIceprincess, it's good to see you again, too! You'll have to read the sequel to find out if the beginning of chapter 85 was a premonition. I promise you all that Max and Liz will be happy by the end of the story.

ccrswll, don't think I've seen you before. Maybe I have, but I've got a really bad memory...at 17-years-old, LoL. Have I seen your feedback before? I think I might have. Yeah, sorry, my memory really sucks. I'm really going to be kicking myself if I find out you have left me feedback before and I don't remember. Anyway, I'm glad you're liking my story. And I have to agree with you, I have issues with Max too. He's too controlling. I'll take your advice and have Max take Liz far away from Roswell for some time together.

roswellluver, nightmares don't come true, according to Liz. So, let's hope she's right. Thanks for the FB.

cherie, thanks for your FB, and remember it was a nightmare, not a dream.

Continue with the FB, all. I really value your opinion, good or bad. Let me know what you think. Thanks so much!

Chapter 85

{Isabel}

I hung up the phone and marched into the living room where my purse and keys were. I had just hung up with my brother after calling him. I called him with the urgency to deal with Tess. She had to leave. She wasn’t going to stay here.

“Let’s go,” I called out to Jesse.

He jogged out from our bedroom and immediately took the keys from my hand. “I think I should drive.”

“I’m angry, not drunk,” I replied glaring.

Jesse shrugged his shoulders and continued to hold onto the keys. “It can still have the same effects.”

The car ride to the desert was silent and I had no desire to disturb the silence by turning the radio on.

I needed the serenity to collect my thoughts and to get a little bit of rest. I couldn’t sleep when we got back this morning, because I was constantly thinking about Tess, because she was back to take my brother away from me.

She had taken the first man I loved and now she wanted my brother. She was going to have to go back without him, or better yet, she was going to have to go to the White Room.

“We’re here,” Jesse said.

I snapped out of my daze and realized we were at the pod chamber. Michael, Kyle, and Maria were already waiting for us and Max and Liz were just pulling up.

Everyone was tired. Dark circles were around all our eyes. I don’t think that anyone got any sleep, or maybe some did but not a “good night’s rest”.

“Where’s your father?” Max asked Kyle.

“He had to go into work. Things are crazy at the station.”

We all nodded in comprehension and once again, silent crept its way in. Now the silence wasn’t needed.

“We’re getting rid of Tess,” I announced. “That’s why I called everyone. She can’t stay here. I want her to go.”

Max nodded and gave a little laugh. “I think we can all agree, Iz.”

“Ok,” Maria sighed. “What are we standing around here for?”

She was the first to start up the hill. The rest of us followed. At the top of the hill, Max opened the chamber up and climbed in first. Again, the rest of us followed. We found Tess jumping to her feet.

“Hi. You know, now I know how prison feels,” she laughed.

I rolled my eyes at her stupidity, at the fact that she just put herself down.

“Well, what the hell did you do when you were in here before?” Michael asked. He handed her a plastic bag with the Crashdown logo on it.

“I was busy cleaning this place up,” she replied. “Thanks, by the way.” She lifted up the bag slightly and nodded at it.

“Don’t get too excited,” Maria scoffed. “They’re yesterday’s leftovers.”

Tess shrugged and put the bag at her feet.

“It took you weeks to clean this place up?” Kyle wondered.

“It was a lot of work,” she explained. “I used my powers to move and morph debris. I used them so much that I had to rest and so all the time spent moving, morphing, and resting accumulated into weeks.”

“How did you learn of Khivar’s death?” I asked, continuing the interrogation.

Tess laughed. “Think Star Wars and holographic messages.”

“You’re kidding me,” Kyle scoffed to himself.

“You’re a liar.”

All our heads turned to my brother.



{Max}

I used them so much that I had to rest…

Tess always needed to rest after her mindwarps. Now it became so clear and so simple…Tess was the “conscience”. She would mindwarp me on Sunday, take a break for a day and then mindwarp me on Tuesday and Wednesday. She’d need the days leading up to Sunday to rest and gather her energy to mindwarp me again.

“You’ve been mindwarping me,” I said calmly.

“What?!”

I caused an outrage. Everyone started to talk at once, shouting and yelling and arguing, all of which was directed at Tess.

“We can’t trust a thing you say,” I continued on, causing the noise to subside. “You haven’t been here for a few days and you—”

“I haven’t been mindwarping you, Max,” Tess interrupted.

“Bullshit,” I laughed. “Don’t stand here in front of me and my family and lie to our faces. I’m warning you now, don’t disrespect any of us.”

She sighed heavily. “I’m not lying. Look,” she sighed again, “when did the supposed mindwarps start?”

I looked around the room, at the eyes on me. Everyone waited for an answer, even Liz, who had been quiet since stepping into the pod chamber.

“Last fall,” I replied.

It was during homecoming. I remembered it clearly. Mr. Parker was leaving my apartment just after giving me Liz’s hand in marriage, hours later I was in B&A labs.

I lifted my head after hanging it low and noticed that everyone realized that that’s what happened when I showed up to the homecoming dance two hours late.

“And when was the last time it happened?” Tess continued to question.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Two days ago,” I replied. “Friday.”

Maria and Isabel snapped their heads in my direction and glared angrily. The most recent “conscience” attack was something I failed to mention to the two of them.

“I’m telling you,” Tess started, “I got back a few days ago, and I couldn’t have minwarped, Max. It’s not possible.”

“Explain,” Liz ordered.

Tess glanced over at Liz and was surprised at the new assertive persona that my wife took on. “I came to Earth via the portal,” Tess began.

Only Isabel, Michael, and I saw what the portal looked like. We had explained it to the others, but they never really understood the concept, and neither did the three of us.

“Ok…” Michael said. “What the hell does that prove?”

“Nothing,” Isabel scoffed. “She’s a damn liar. We can’t believe anything she says.”

Tess sighed. “I’m being honest,” she continued on. “I’ve been here since Monday. Using the portal requires your own energy. It’s like practically running from place to place. So once I got here, I was wiped out and there was no way I could have mindwarped anyone. Besides, if I were to mindwarp someone, I’d have to be within a certain distance of the person, and I’ve been in the pod chamber the whole week, until yesterday when I showed up at the Crashdown. And if I remember correctly, the pod chamber is a few miles from town. I’m not strong enough for my mindwarp to reach that far.”

We all just stared at Tess.

“There’s no way of us knowing whether or not she’s being honest,” Maria sighed. “She could be telling us the truth or she could be lying through her teeth.”

Maria was right and I knew everyone was thinking that.

“Believe what you want,” Tess said, “but I’m telling you the truth. There is no way I would mindwarp Max, not after knowing what my mindwarp does to people. I need you, Max. I wouldn’t hurt you.”

For some reason, I was believing her. I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Why do you need me so much? Why can’t you just turn Antar into a democracy, elect someone.”

Tess laughed. “It’s not that simple.”

“It’s going to have to be,” Isabel said, agreeing with me.

Everyone else did too, by remaining silent. No objections were made and neither were any other suggestions.

“What happens now, Max?”

I don’t even know who asked it, but I didn’t even care. I was tired of hearing that. What happens now, Max? I had heard it enough in my life. Whenever we were at a dead end, that question would come up, and that’s where we were.

We were stuck at a dead end and we didn’t know how to turn around and go the other way. What does happen now? I didn’t know. Was she telling the truth? Or was she covering her ass? We would never know.

“We’re done for today,” I announced.

“Max!” Isabel objected. “We can’t keep leaving this thing unresolved. We have to do something.”

I turned to my sister and was faced with her anger. “Isabel, I don’t have a solution right now. Do you?”

She looked away not wanting to admit that she didn’t have an answer either.

“Ok,” I said, “then we’ll discuss this later. We need time to figure out where we stand and what we’re going to do. Right now, Tess supposedly has come back to Earth to take me to Antar; I’m to rule the planet I know nothing about because Khivar was killed; I believe that Tess is the ‘conscience’; Tess is denying it; and we can’t find out if she’s telling the truth or not. Did I leave anything out?”

Kyle stared at the floor trying to go over the whole discussion in his head, really wondering if I did leave anything out. Everyone else did the same, but Michael was staring at the wall, Isabel and Jesse were discussing it with each other, Maria was keeping to herself, and Liz was looking to me.

“Well?” I wondered.

Everyone shook their head in reply.

“Ok,” I said satisfied. “Tess stays here and we all go to our respective homes to figure out what our next step is.”

“Max—”

My head shot in her direction. “I don’t want to hear it, Tess. I don’t care what you have to say. It doesn’t matter to me.”

I grabbed Liz’s hand and walked out of the pod chamber.

(Chapter 86, people. The catfight!...Once I get it written. Cross your fingers and hope it'll be soon.) -hoLLy

[hoLLyBEHRy]

Ok, here's part of chapter 86. This is where the "catfight" occurs. Now remember, it isn't so much of them rolling around on the floor, pulling each other's hair. It's more of Liz torturing Tess . There will be retaliation and such from Tess, but not much, not in this part of the chapter anyway.

ccrswll, you're right, little hurt does build up and can explode. I think Liz will explode at Tess. I think she should anyway. But anywho, thanks for coming out of the shadows to comment! Thanks for the comment itself.

SAFIRE, all of the "conscience" stuff comes back to bite everyone on the ass. Just a little warning. I won't tell you when.

Ros, LoL, I think everyone would join in kicking Tess's ass back to Antar. Shoot, I'd like one good kick...jk. Buddha teaches us peace and nonviolence. LoL. Since these characters are fictional (as much as I hate to admit it ), I'll let them kick Tess ass.

cherie, you've got a very good point about the mindwarping thing, but...I can't tell you all what I want to say...that would give too much away.

Izzy, I'll post this chapter at my xanga when I have the chance. I'm at school and I can't sign in.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback everyone! Keep it coming. I think I can get the story done (I've been saying that for a month now... . But hopefully, I can.) I've been on a roll and so let's hope this story's almost done 'cause we all know it's one LONG story.


Chapter 86: Part 1

{Liz}

We left without having gained anything. It was another failed attempt at achieving something and it was beginning to seem like we were never going to get rid of Tess.

She was the perfect villain. She had the ability to manipulate our thoughts and memories. She never had any witness and she was an excellent actress/liar, she always had an alibi or some kind of excuse that actually made sense.

The eight of us—Valenti, Kyle, Jesse, Isabel, Maria, Michael, Max, and I—couldn’t even defeat her. We had her outnumbered, but there was nothing we could do. Not yet anyway.

We had so many questions. Most of them were answered, but truthfully? We wouldn’t know, and we would never know. We had so many accusations against her, but proof? We had none.

I stared at Max as he lay on the couch with his arms behind his bed. He had been in that position since coming home half an hour ago. He was in a deep train of thought, and I was in the same boat. I relaxed in his recliner with my feet pulled up underneath me.

We were pondering the current situation, but if Max was thinking what I was thinking, then he’d probably have nothing going on in his mind either. I was completely lost with the situation with Tess. We didn’t know where we stood or which direction to move in, except one.

I uncurled my legs and stood up. I walked to the counter where the keys to the Chevelle were and picked them up. Max was alerted by the jingling of the keys.

“Where are you going?” he asked as he sat up.

I looked around our apartment and smiled. “I think this place needs a little touch of me,” I replied. “I’m going to go home and start packing up my things to move into here.”

“Oh,” Max said. “Do you want any help?”

I shook my head and walked to him to kiss him on the forehead and then the lips. “I’m fine for now, ‘cause I think my parents wanted to help me pack anyway. Besides, we both know we’ve got a lot to think about. So I’ll leave you to that, and I’ll do some thinking of my own while I pack. I’ll call you if I do need you. I’ll take my cell.”

“Good,” Max smiled. He wanted to keep tabs on me. Not because he didn’t trust me, but because he wanted to protect me, make sure I was alright.

I shoved my phone into my pocket and headed to the parking lot. I was going to use my time of aimlessly sitting around and thinking about Tess to pack up my room in my parents’ apartment instead. I could always think and pack at the same time, or so I let my husband believe.

I climbed into the convertible and maneuvered the large Chevrolet out of the parking lot. On Monday, Max was going to put the car in my name also, and while he was going to do that, I was going to get my name changed. But right now, instead of heading to the center of town where Main Street and the Crashdown were, I was driving farther away from it.

I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to do what I intended to do. I knew how to use my powers, but I didn’t know what I was entitled to.

I skidded to a stop at the foot of the pod chamber, and instead of rushing out of the car and up the hill, I coolly walked while the thoughts of my intentions ran in my mind.

Reaching the top of the pod chamber, I nervously shuddered. There were so many times, during the drive, where I thought of turning the car around and heading back home to Max, but I needed to do this. I needed to face my demons.

At the top of the formation, at a little landing, I found a section of the rock where it was relatively flat. Was I going to be able to do it? I’d soon find out. With apprehension, I waved my hand over the rock like I had seen Max do several times. To my surprise, a glowing handprint appeared. It worked! I thought to myself. It actually worked. But then I stood still and just stared at it. Now would I be able to open the chamber?

I spent minutes contemplating whether or not I should actually do it. Max would kill me if he found out I was here. But I was here, and there was no turning back. I was done turning around and running in the direction I came in. We had done that twice already. It was getting us no where, but now, I was going to take the necessary steps forward.

Placing my hand on the silver handprint, I pressed hard, closing my eyes. The loud sound of rock sliding and grinding against rock erupted beside me. I watched with trepidation and amazement while the pod chamber opened. I took pride in myself at having been able to open the pod chamber, but now, the uneasiness took over.

My heart began to beat in my throat. Tess was now waiting inside for the visitor to come forth. I slowly approached the hole, suddenly realizing how stupid I was to do this. I wished that I had brought someone with me, and I wished that someone was Max. I wished that he was standing in front of me, protecting me.

It was too late now. I had already opened the pod chamber and Tess knew someone, me, was knocking at the door.

“Is someone there?”

I shuddered once more, but not because I was still nervous, but because of sheer irritation. Her voice made me coil up and cringe. It made me want to just run away, but I wasn’t going to.

I climbed into the hole just as Tess stepped forward cautiously.

“Since when have you not been on the defensive?” I greeted her.

You’d think that after the long while it took for me to actually climb into the chamber that Tess would have come to the opening first to see who the visitor was, but she hadn’t.

Tess solidified her insecure stance once she knew it was me and then crossed her arms in front of her chest and stood up tall. Well…as tall as she was going to get, but who am I to talk? I was nearly the same height.

What am I talking about??? That was not at all important.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

She had the nerve to have attitude with me. I rolled my eyes and shrugged it off. I wasn’t going to let her get to me.

“I want to get this all dealt with and send you on your way,” I told her.

“Well, I’m not leaving without Max,” Tess quickly replied.

I scoffed at her request. “Well, you’re going to have to because he’s not going anywhere, not now anyway.”

“And you guys have plans to go somewhere later?” Tess wondered.

I bowed my head and smiled to myself, remembering my acceptance letter to Harvard and how Max and I decided that we were going to move to and buy a house in Cambridge. He was set on a house in Cambridge even though his work was in Boston. Yeah, Cambridge and Boston weren’t that far apart, but Max would rather have me make the five minute drive from anywhere in Cambridge to Harvard than the twenty minute drive from Boston to Harvard.

It was a big argument between us. Max wanted me to be close to school and I wanted Max to be close to work. Obviously, he won, and we were buying a house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to bury our roots in a new town that we’d call home. That’s where we were going to raise a family. That’s where we were going to spend our future together, but I wasn’t going to let Tess know all of that.

I lifted my head proudly and nodded. “Possibly,” I answered her. “But why would I tell you? Why would I possibly want to let you know where my husband and I are going?”

Tess rolled her eyes and laughed. “He was my husband first.”

I puckered out my lips and just bobbed my head up and down. “Keep saying that to yourself,” I told her.

Because no matter how many times she did say it to herself, it still wouldn’t be true. Tess wasn’t Max's wife. Ava was Zan’s wife, and they weren’t those beings, they were only part of those beings, and the part of Zan in Max being very small, miniscule.

“He did love me,” Tess began to say, “and you know it.”

My face dropped. After all the crap she put all of us through, she had the nerve to 1) have attitude with me and 2) attempt to push my buttons.

“You’re a fool to believe that,” I scoffed, “or you’ve deluded yourself into thinking that to give yourself something to keep up your charade.”

“A weak human,” she said scornfully. “I can’t understand how he could prefer you over me.”

Both my eyebrows rose. “I see you’re still the same,” I sighed. She hadn’t changed, still looking down at human beings. “You do know that you are half-human, don’t you?” I laughed. “So you shouldn’t try to understand how he could prefer me over you. What you should be trying understand is what you lack.”

I watched as her eyes flared up with rage.

“You know, Tess,” I continued on. “Out of all the aliens that I’ve met and known, you’re the only one without a soul, or a heart for that matter. I think that’s why no one will wonder where you are if you so happen to disappear.”

Tess shrugged. “Well, you know, Liz,” she said, playing with my words. “He still turned to me. No matter what you two have gone through to get at this point in your lives, the fact still is, he turned to me. He made love to me first, he gave me his first born. Don’t you want to know how he trailed his finger down my skin…or how he moaned my name all night…”

It hurt, I’ll admit that. Thinking about that night they shared, hurt. I can’t lie and say that what she said didn’t get to me. It stung a bit, but it didn’t affect me as much as it would have if she said all that to me a month ago. It didn’t break me, nor did it bring me down like she would have wanted, I’m sure, because after all, it was just one night.

“Just shut up,” I said, rolling my eyes as a way to show her that her words didn’t affect me. “All of that doesn’t matter to me because it was one night, and you know what? I’m going to have every night with him. I’m going to have every morning with him, every day. I have eternity with Max, my husband.”

She just glared at me with her eyes narrowed and still ablaze. I grinned happily and walked deeper into the pod chamber and searched for the trithium amplification generator, spotting it sitting on the floor, leaning, tilted, against one of the cave walls. I leaned down and reached to pick it up.

I winced in pain and immediately dropped the pentagon shaped alien object. I withdrew my hand reflexively, shaking the burning sensation away.

“Ah, so it affects you too,” Tess grinned.

It was only a mild prick, but it hurt like hell. I glared at her angrily and stared down at the object and then her.

“Let me guess,” I started, “you tried to turn the thing off and when you touched it, it burnt the shit out of you like it did me.”

Tess looked away, trying to deny it, but I spelled it all out for her.

“So what does this mean?” I wondered.

I was changed by Max when he healed me, as a result, I received alien powers, but was it as simple as that? The only person who could answer that question would be Tess, and now was the perfect time to ask her.

“Why should I even answer you?” Tess snapped. “What the hell are you doing here anyway?”

“Answers,” I replied. “I want answers and you have them.”

Tess shook her head. “I know nothing.”

I rolled my eyes in disbelief. She could play stupid for however long she wanted, I wasn’t leaving until I got some answers.

“You want my husband to go back with you to your planet, a planet he doesn’t want anything to do with.”

“Eventually, Liz, he will,” Tess claimed. “He’s going to come back running to me and he’s going to want to come back to Antar.”

I stared at her in disbelief, but then the glowing green pentagon caught my eye. I crouched down around it and picked it up. I closed my eyes and held them shut tight, withstanding the pain of the alien object burning my hand, torturing the veins and boiling the blood coursing through my body.

As quickly as I could, I turned the generator-thing off and stood up.

“What did you just do?” Tess asked.

“None of your damn business,” I replied, turning to Tess. “Now getting back to what you just said, do you honestly think that Max would go back with you? You killed our best friend and you manipulated Max into sleeping with you. Why would he want to go back to you when he has me?”

“Shut up!” Tess ordered.

But I wasn’t about to. “You are a curse,” I said to her. “Nothing good comes your way. Hell, your planet’s in shambles most likely because of you. Your son—”

“Don’t you talk about him!” Tess shouted.

She lunged towards me, but before she could get within a foot of me, I sent her flying across the cave and into rock wall. She hit it like a rag doll and fell to the floor. Tess was dazed beyond belief. There should have been a crown of stars and birds circling her head.

“For your information,” I began, “I wasn’t going to talk about your son in a degrading way. I’m not you, Tess. I know that if I had a child with Max, you would talk down to my child. So, I’m not you, Tess, and I won’t do that. I’ve got a heart. I’m not dead inside like.”

“You bitch,” Tess laughed.

My eyes widened as I pretended to act offended. “I’m the bitch?” I asked. “Well, of course I am,” I said sarcastically, “but what does that make you? Because I’m only giving you what you deserve, but you…you were the one that murdered a friend, manipulated someone else’s love into sleeping with you, plotted to get pregnant with his child, and then left the planet with his child. I guess that makes you the devil.”

TBC

[hoLLyBEHRy]

A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to get this out. I'm in the process of moving right now. My family and I fly out in exactly two weeks and we've been busy packing and such. I've been swamped with school and getting my finals done, and I've hit such a major writer's block with this story, but not anymore . If I don't finish this story by the 9th of June, then it'll might be a month before I post the next update. Most likely, it'll be a month until I get the sequel posted. Anywho...

cherie, don't you just love Liz with a spine? I love her taking matters into her own hands.

jason's lover, hey! It's been a while since I've read a comment from you. I'm so happy that you left FB. And I love "Gangsta Liz".

Jadeling, hi! Nice to see a new FB-er. Thanks for your FB and your input. I'll put in a little of their honeymoon in the epilogue since you and others have asked .

Zan's desire, hey, nice to see you again. Liz doesn't let Tess go this time!

On to the story...

Chapter 86: Part 2

{Liz}

I heard my back crack as I slammed into the wall. I opened my eyes to watch Tess lower her hand and I coughed at the cloud of sand that kicked up when I slowly slid down to the floor.

I stood back up while Tess had remained on the ground. I must have thrown her harder against the wall if she was still recuperating on the floor. Maybe I was stronger, because honestly, hitting the wall hurt, but it was nothing big. All she did was push me into the wall while I threw her against one.

Still, Tess got physical with me and I wasn’t going to let her do it again. I was tired of being nice.

So I lifted my arm and Tess rose with it while still being pinned to the wall. I honestly had no idea what I was doing. I just thought about the worst cramps imaginable; the cinching and burning sensation of her insides. With every crackle of the electricity roaming around my hand, she cringed and winced in pain.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” I offered. “We can sit down like adults and you can tell me what I want to know…or…I can leave you hanging against the wall here and interrogate you like the rat you are. It’s your choice.”

Her feet dangled just a few inches off the floor, forcing her to look down at me. “I’m not going to tell you anything.” Her words crawled out from her throat and were barely audible.

I didn’t want to have to resort to violence or force, but Tess was forcing me to do so. I had no other solutions.

“Tess, you’re making me do this,” I told her. “I hope you know that.”

“Just let me know,” Tess requested, “are you going to kill me?”

I stared at her in horror. Did she really believe that we would kill her, that I would kill her? She seemed afraid and maybe she had reason to be because none of us knew what we were going to do with her. She might be sent to the White Room or we might leave her stranded in the middle of no where, but Tess knew for sure that we weren’t letting her stay here and we weren’t letting her go back with Max to Antar, and if she did go back without him, would her people turn on her? Her fate was uncertain.

“Just give me the answers I want,” I began to bargain, “and I’ll see what I can do to keep you alive.”

“Fine,” Tess winced.

I stared down at the floor, trying to figure out just what I wanted to ask first. “When did you first come back after leaving in the Granolith?” was what I decided to go with.

Tess twitched and moaned in pain, keeping her eyes closed. “Last fall around Isabel’s wedding,” she managed to say.

I hesitantly applied more pressure and caused Tess to wince even more. “Are you telling the truth?”

She bobbed her head up and down. “Yes,” she cried out.

I gradually released the pressure I applied against Tess. “When did Khivar die?” I asked next.

“Christmas,” she replied. “Sometime around then.”

“How did he die?”

“Sero, an Antarian ally,” Tess began to explain. “There was a plot to get rid of Khivar. He…Sero…and his…people,” she struggled to speak, but I wasn’t going to ease up anymore. “They…they joined the Antarians and overthrew Khivar.”

You always had to second guess yourself when you spoke to Tess, but this time I wasn’t. This time, I had to believe she was telling the truth, but somewhere inside of me would always doubt her.

“So you went back to Antar?”

Tess did her best to manage a nod. Her skin began to glisten with sweat and her face became more pale red. She hadn’t opened her eyes from the moment I lifted her up. I imagined if she did, her tears would pour out.

“How did you go there and come back, and when did you come back to Earth?” I continued to interrogate.

“The portal, like I said,” Tess replied at an exasperated whisper. “I came back last Monday, maybe Tuesday. I’m not sure.”

I nodded in understanding and continued to watch Tess pinned against the wall. “All the while you’ve been on Earth, you stayed in the pod chamber?” I asked next.

Again Tess nodded. “I had no where else to go,” she said, frustrated. “I had no money, and I knew that none of you would give me a place to stay.”

I could only bob my head in agreement. “How’d you get to the Crashdown yesterday?” I continued to question.

Tess clenched her mouth shut and inhaled through her teeth, taking deep breaths. “Walked,” she groaned.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I scoffed. “That’s at least two hours of walking.”

Tess nodded while still trying to endure the pain I placed upon her. “Well, I needed to talk to Max.”

“Did you have to do it on my wedding day?” I quickly replied. “Did you have to do it minutes before my wedding?”

She continued to twitch and flinch in pain while being suspended in the air. I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but I knew that I didn’t want to kill her. I just wanted to hurt her enough to get her to give me answers. The strain on her face was letting me know that that was being established. I was tormenting her insides to expel the answers she hid from us.

“Well?” I asked.

“I…I didn’t know,” Tess stuttered. “I had no idea.”

What surprised me was that I believed her. I actually believed her. Was she putting some force on me? I don’t think it was possible. I had seen Tess use her mindwarp before, and currently, she wasn’t doing it.

My arm began to tire, prompting me to switch arms. “Why did you need to talk to Max?” I asked her.

She had already told us her reason for being back, but that could have been a lie, and I was here to wrench the truth out of her. I wasn’t going to waste valuable time on her anymore.

“I told you,” Tess began to whine. “I need him to rule the planet.”

“And why can’t you just elect someone else?”

Tess laughed, trying to hide her pain. “It’s not that simple,” she replied. “God, weren’t you listening?” She coughed for air and winced some more. “Liz…it really hurts.”

I don’t know the extent of pain I was bringing upon her or where I was directing the pain or how it felt for that matter, but I sympathized with her. It had to be uncomfortable, being pinned against the wall and tortured in some unearthly way. I didn’t want to ever hurt anyone, but Tess did deserve this. I wanted to hurt her physically, the way she hurt Alex mentally. Yet, I wasn’t going to torture her for much longer.

“We’re almost done,” I told her. “You’re back because you need Max to rule your planet. I’m guessing you care an awful lot about it.”

“It’s the only home I have,” Tess said softly, almost beginning to cry, if she even had that emotion.

I nodded in understanding. “Ok,” I replied. “Well, then tell me: How much do you love your home planet?”

She began to breathe deeper, maybe trying to catch her breath after trying to fight the pain. Or maybe she was just hesitating to speak.

“Tell me,” I ordered.

“I love it…” she began. “I love it as much as you love Max. Are you happy? You found my weakness, I just want to go home.”

I took no pride in breaking her down and I took no pleasure in inflicting pain upon her. Yes, she was getting the punishment she deserved, and yes, I’ve waited for the day to see Tess pay, but I didn’t want to be the one to punish her. Yet, assertive action needed to be taken, and I was taking the steps necessary to do so.

“I’m not happy about this,” I informed Tess. “I just wanted truthful answers. I had no intent on breaking you down. I just want the truth.”

“Well, you’ve got it!” Tess cried.

But I shook my head in disagreement. “Not yet,” I said.

“What else do you want to know?!”

“Do you love him?”

Tess took a few deep breaths and looked my way, but was barely able to open her eyes. She had kept them closed most of the time to shut out the pain and the tears. “Who?” she asked weakly.

“Max; do you love him?” I didn’t just want to know, I needed to know, desperately.

She didn’t answer. I waited patiently, watching her twitch and jerk in different directions as if she had Tourette’s Syndrome. Was I mentally torturing her or physically torturing her? Maybe both? Well, if she would just cooperate with me, then it would all be over.

“Answer me,” I ordered.

“No,” she snapped. Her voice full of anger and hate…towards me. “I wanted to love him!” she shouted. “I wanted him to love me, but he wouldn’t! You were the only one in his heart, and he made no room for anyone else!”

I realized then that Tess had just been a mere pawn in Khivar’s game. To Khivar, Tess and Max being married in their past life was an asset to him. To Tess, it was a possibility of a future with a love, because before moving to Roswell, all she had was Nasedo. She had to do what Khivar wanted. He wanted Max and his child. While she was doing Khivar’s deed, she was hoping to have someone, to have Max.

She believed that Max would fall in love with her and the plot to go back to Antar would be easier, but Max could never love Tess because he loved me. As a result, Tess became the ugly person who eventually killed one of my best friends and slept with Max, using him to get pregnant.

The whole time I had Tess suspended in the air, I had concentrated on twisting her insides and I guess that’s what I had been doing. I released pressure I suppose I placed up her, easing up.

“There’s…um…something else,” I began. “In the alley, yesterday, you said I was changed. We know that I’ve gotten powers, but you made it seem like there was more. You have to explain to me what’s going on.”

Tess sighed a sigh of exhaustion. “Max shocked your brain into working to—”

“Its fullest ability,” I finished for her. “Yeah, I know all of that. Get to the effects of it all.”

She closed her eyes tight and took a deep breath. “Your body…” she started. “Your brain has your body working differently. Your blood is still human and so are all your insides, but your body works more like mine and Isabel’s now.”

I shook my head in confusion, it was one big riddle. “Ok…” I said skeptically. “What does that mean? How does that make me changed? What makes your body so different than—”

Then I figured it out.

Tess’s pregnancy only lasted a month. Is that what she meant?

“Ok, I don’t think I’m comprehending this,” I told Tess. “Explain it.”

The blonde sighed heavily and groaned in pain. “Think of it this way,” she said scruffily, “you’re now one-fourth alien. You’ve…you’ve obtained powers…you’ve obtained part of Max's healing power…and you’ll receive your own unique gift…don’t ask me what that is, I wouldn’t know.” She took a few quick, deep breaths. “If you were to get pregnant…it’d…it’d last two months. Don’t tell me to explain it…just do the math and it’ll give you a good enough explanation.”

Tess dropped to the floor as my arm dropped to my side. This opened a whole new book of questions and I stood in shock and bewilderment, trying to figure it all out.

I began to snap out of my daze. “What about—”

“You made a big mistake, Liz,” Tess said as she got up onto her feet.

I watched in horror as she lifted up her arm and pointed her palm at me.

“NOOOOOOOO!”

It was Max's cry and the last thing I heard.

[hoLLyBEHRy]

I'm back!

Aw, thanks everyone. You guys are the greatest. I've actually moved here to California, and I know that I'll enjoy it, especially since San Diego's about an hour away and there's a certain comic convention being held there where some actor name Jason Behr's going to make an appearance.

Anyway, the story's coming to an end, about seven posts left. Here's the first of the seven. Once my wonderful beta gets back to me, I'll post Parts 2 and 3 soon. Enjoy!


Chapter 87: Part 1

[Maria]

“I—I had this feeling,” he said.

*~*

Music was the only thing going for Alex and me as far as a talent or interest. Alex also had the skills of a computer geek when it came to technology, so he had decided on music production as a major. I, on the other hand, was going to study music in general. Recently, I decided to minor in music production, in honor of my best friend.

So the two of us decided that we’d apply to the same musical schools and only go to the one that accepted us both. We even researched and applied for schools near universities Liz applied for. So most of the colleges lucky enough to receive our applications were in Boston. One specific school, the New England Conservatory of Music, was Alex’s and my top choice, and their letter had arrived.

My mother paced in front of me while I held the letter in my hand. The letter inside the envelope rattled lightly. I held it in my grasp and shook it nervously.

“Do you think they have a community college?” I laughed.

My mother froze and stared me down. “Maria…” she scolded with her eyes wide and glaring.

“Sorry…” I apologized. “Cypress oil?”

My mom lit up. “Great idea, baby,” she replied, turning around to her purse, which she immediately began rummaging through. After pulling out numerous objects from alien keychains to lipstick to a gross old mint out of its wrapper, my mother found a small vial. She quickly spun off its top and began to wave the tiny bottle under her nose.

“Mom!” I exclaimed. “I meant for me!”

Again my mother froze and just stared at me. I wasn’t kidding, I needed to calm down too, you know. My mother realized that and rolled her eyes, shoving the bottle my way. I smirked in thanks and held the vial under my nose and took a deep breath; quite a few deep breaths, actually.

“Easy, Maria,” my mother warned. She took the small container from my head and held the bottle back under her nose, doing what she had just warned me to ease up on.

I rolled my eyes, bringing my attention back onto the later still rattling in my hand. “Ready?” I asked my mom.

She continued to inhale while bobbing her head up and down. “Remember, sweetie,” she said. “When we find out you got accepted, don’t think that we won’t be able to afford it. I’ll work two jobs, live in a trailer park, and eat beans from a can.”

My hand stopped shaking and my nerves took in the cypress oil fumes and calmed down. I smiled up at my mother and jumped into her arms. “I love you, Mom.” I knew that raising me wasn’t the easiest job. Now here was my mother, still making sacrifices for me.

“Or you know…” she continued. “Max and Liz are rich…you could always hit them up for cash.”

I playfully rolled my eyes and stepped back. We still hadn’t gotten to the letter. So, eagerly, I shoved my finger in one corner of the envelope and tore at least an inch off the top when my cell rang and vibrated in my pocket.

“Just ignore it,” my mother suggested.

I just knew that I couldn’t ignore it, though. So I smirked apologetically and pulled out my phone while my mother dumped herself into a chair.

“Hel—”

“Maria, it’s Max.”

“—lo,” I said, finishing a, now, useless greeting. “What’s up, Max?” I went on.

I caught my mother rolling her eyes as Max hurriedly breathed into the phone.

“Listen,” he said huskily. “I need a ride.”

“What happened to you car?”

A few more heavy breaths into the phone. “Liz has it…and I don’t know where she is.”

I whipped around, turning away from my mother. “What?!” I whispered loudly. “Where are you now?”

“Walking to you house,” he panted.

“How close are you?”

The doorbell rang and my mom moved to answer it.

“Max!” she exclaimed in surprise.

I stared at Max sternly while he humbly walked into my house accepting the invitation made by my mother.

“I guess we’ll just find out when you’re not busy,” she said, disappearing into the hall.

“Find out what?” Max sighed out of breath.

I shook my head and gestured for Max to follow me into the kitchen. There, I got him a glass of water and we sat down at the table.

“Ok, so what’s the deal?” I sighed.

He swallowed down the last of his water and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. “Liz said she was going to her parents’ to pack up her things. She took the car and five—maybe ten—minutes after she left, I—I had this feeling.”

And that, definitely didn’t sound like a good thing. Max and Liz had their “feelings”—a special connection they had—and usually, when they decided to let us know about a certain “feeling” they had, it was never a good one.

“Um…ok,” I said worriedly. “Did you call her parents?”

Max nodded and followed it with a small head shake with sullen expression on his face letting me know that he found out Liz wasn’t there.

“Her cell?” I wondered.

“I got a message saying it’s not within reach,” he sighed. He nervously rubbed over his mouth with his palm.

“Where could she be?” I asked.

Max continuously shook his head, staring at the kitchen linoleum floor. “I don’t know,” he sighed. “Why would she lie about going to her parents’? They said that she never showed up. And where the hell could she be if her phone is out of reach?” Suddenly, he jumped to his feet and moved for the door.

“Whoa, Sparky,” I chuckled. “What are you doing?”

“We’ve got to go look for her, Maria!” Max pleaded. “What if she’s hurt?”

He had a point, but where the hell would we look?

“Ok, well, we’ve got to think about this first,” I told him. “What were you guys doing when she left?”

Max sat back down and sighed. “We were just sitting in the living room and we had been since we got home from the pod—”

It hit both of us at the same time and we both knew it. Our wide eyes locked and we jumped to our feet.

“She went to see Tess,” Max said.

I grabbed my mother’s keys off the counter and followed him as he rushed out of my house.

“What the hell was she thinking?” I asked as I sped out of the driveway.

Max sighed heavily and stared dead ahead. “She wanted to deal with Tess. If she’s hurt—”

“Would you shut up?” I told him. “If you think that way, then we’ll end up finding Liz on the floor of the pod chamber. Liz isn’t hurt, and you know what? If she is, she knows how to take care of herself.”

Max bobbed his head up and down. “But she also knows how to get herself into trouble.” He lowered his head and gave a little chuckle. “I guess I’ve rubbed off on her,” he sighed.

TBC