Roswell Fanatics

Max left Liz’s room and went down one flight of stairs to the floor below. At the end of the hall he found room 329 – and put his key in the door. He already knew who his roommates were – they’d all gotten their keys at the same time.

Doug Hanover had already taken the left bunk – Jimmy Drevins the right. That obviously put him in the middle. He looked around briefly for a third closet – there wasn’t one.

Doug Hanover looked up as Max Evans entered the dorm room. Mr. Raff had taken him aside after Max left with Liz and asked him to sort of look after the kid. He’d assured him Max wouldn’t be much trouble – said he was the kind of kid who tended to put out the fires other kids caused in lab – sometimes even before they knew they’d caused it – that for all his lack of social skills, he was a pretty damn good kid. That, he decided, would be a welcome change from Jimmy Drevins.

It didn’t take Doug more than a second to understand Max’s confused look. “The rooms were only designed for two and only have two closets – we can share this one. There’s a little locker in it that you can use to secure your computer or any other valuables too – here I’ll give you one of the keys. You want to actually unpack, you can use the bureau – other than the outfits I’m hanging up I’ll just live out of the carry-on for two days.”

“Thanks,” said Max, putting his carry-on down on the middle bunk and starting to unload the contents into the bureau – then hanging up the clothes he intended to wear for the presentation.

Doug Hanover busily changed into a sweatsuit.

"You can't be going jogging," said Drevins, "It must be 20 degrees outside. You'll freeze your ass off."

Doug looked at Drevins with thinly disguised distaste. "I'm sure they have an exercise room with treadmills and weights somewhere in the dorm."

"The basement floor near the laundry," said Max, "I saw the sign when we came through the lobby."

"Thanks Max," said Doug. Within a few seconds he had his running shoes on and was out the door toward the stairwell.

"So Evans," said Drevins, "...you snaking that Parker chick or what? I noticed that you cut me right off when I went to sit by her...."

Max started to turn red - part in embarrassment - mostly in anger. He'd been berating himself for doing that and still didn't exactly understand why he'd done it. He'd come up here with every intention of letting Liz have a new start - to socialize by guys that wouldn't be intimidated by his history with Liz - guys.... well not unlike Jimmy Drevins really. except right now Max didn't like the assumptions he was making about Liz.

"Liz isn't like that - she's a nice girl. Around Roswell they call her Perfect Miss Parker - and no, I don't have anything going with her. We're just in a few of the same classes, that's all."

Jimmy Drevins smiled. He'd heard Mr. Raff talk to Hanover about Max in the lobby when they were checking in - after Max had gone off carrying Parker's display stuff. The kid was pussy-whipped and he apparently wasn't even getting any pussy. Apparently the kid was some sort of a social retard or something.

While Hanover and the Raff's had been talking on the bus he'd been looking at the Parker girls reflection in the windows. There was no doubt that the girl was grooving on being pushed up against old Max here, and if she was having moist thoughts about a social misfit like Max, there wasn't any doubt in Drevins mind that she was horny as well as hot. It seemed only reasonable to him that someone take advantage of the lady's obvious need to press against man-flesh. It might just as well be Jimmy Drevins.

"Well, that's good. I was thinking maybe about dancing with her tomorrow night. Just didn't want to move in on you if you had anything going there - Max."

Max grabbed his pajamas and headed for the bathroom. No, he had nothing going with Liz. Nothing but the guilty pleasure of that bus ride. But he had to give her up - he kept telling himself that. Somehow his heart just wasn't listening.


Jimmy Drevins went to his suitcase and found the spare battery for his notebook computer. He took the computer and pulled the CD reader out of the left bay - and replaced it with battery. He hadn't used that CD player in a long time - not since he'd gotten his iPod. At least, he hadn't used it to play any CDs. He used it quite frequently to get things through airport security.

He took the small Phillips head screwdriver and opened the CD drive - recovering the 10 glassine envelopes he'd placed within. Eight of them went in the pocket of his jacket - two he locked in his locker. Jimmy was an arrogant young man - but even he didn't think that he'd actually be able to get into Liz Parker's pants in the short two days they'd both be in Boulder. Not without a little help at least. But that was OK with Jimmy - the white powder in the glassine envelopes was the secret to his success with women. Better living through chemistry, he called it. Oh, being rich and good looking helped and he had little doubt that given time he could win over any girl - he'd just never wanted to wait that long. That's why he'd always used the GHBA.

One of the main neurotransmitters in the human brain is gamma amino butyric acid. It's a short chain organic acid with an attached nitrogen containing ammonia group. Like acetylcholine - the short chain acid ester with a nitrogen containing ammonium group that provides signals to the muscles of the body, GABA provides signals between different parts of the brain. gamma HYDROXY butyric acid, on the other hand, has a hydroxy or alcohol group where the GABA has the nitrogen. It was an analog that worked well enough to find its way into the brain - but then distorted the signals between the cells.

GHBA was a depressant, but it was also a euphoric and an aphrodisiac. It was also used for date-rape. It was illegal in many countries and highly regulated in most of the rest. But it was nothing that Jimmy Drevins couldn't make in the chem lab his daddy had provided him with. It worked better with alcohol and he'd need to get some - the drug had a salty taste. 'Tequila,' he thought. It seemed appropriate - the girl was from New Mexico after all.

It would be a simple matter to find someone who sold drugs around a college campus. It was always easy to trade a few bags of his GHBA for some dope peddler to go buy booze for him - it wasn't like anyone selling drugs would be worried about a furnishing liquor to minors charge.

With a smile at the closed bathroom door, Jimmy Drevins put on his coat and left the room.

Lexie lay on the bed - a soft smile on her face as she re-read the emails stored in the encrypted file. The encryption was her own - she was extremely talented at math - although the prime number on which it was based had been given to her by Doug. She had recently shared many of these emails with someone else - not entirely willingly - but that had actually worked out OK, much to her surprise. Of course, if her father had ever seen them - 'Then the Lithium deuteride would have hit the neutron flux,' she thought to herself. Of course she wouldn't have HAD to have decrypted these messages - she could have just let them try to do it themselves. Oh, they had the computer power to do it - she didn't doubt that - she'd briefly had access on one of those supercomputers herself once - a 'take your daughter to work' day but the odds would have been a million to one that they could have cracked the code in the three tries allowed before it triggered the worm that would have destroyed the whole folder. That actually was the main reason WHY she'd opened it for them - because she loved these little emails - and she'd have hated to lose them. She closed the file lovingly and put in the involved code to open the second file.

As she read the first one she started to blush. These she REALLY would have been embarrassed to have anyone else read. She'd flat out refused to open the file - not sure exactly what the outcome of her refusal was going to be. These were for her and her alone - or rather for her and Doug alone, since she suspected that Doug had his copies safely encrypted on his notebook as well. Her grin became a mre serious smile as she read through the second one - but as she heard the knock on the door, the smile became agrin of anticipation. She closed the file and sealed it and pulled herself off the bed.

Lexie practically bounced to the door and opened it.

"Anyone want to go down to the exercise room and run on the treadmills for awhile?" asked Doug Hanover with a grin almost the equal of Lexie's. Her hand went to his collar and dragged him into the room pulling his lips to hers as she slammed the door to the hall.

Lexie felt his body against hers pinning her to the wall as her arms went around his. She put her arms around his neck and for a moment just clung to him - deepening the kiss - feeling her body trying to wrap itself around his - three months was such a DAMN LONG TIME to be without this, she didn't care how many emails they exchanged every day. Finally she remembered that she had to breathe - and as she did so he pulled away and broke the kiss.

"Uh - not interested in the exercise room I take it?" he asked. He seemed to be a little out of breath himself.

"Shut up, Doug - I wasn't done." she said pressing against him and kissing him again. "In fact," she said, the words somewhat slurred by her lips pressing against his, "... I was just getting started."

She kept her arms around his waist as he put his around her shoulders and pulled him gently backward until her calves pressed against the bed. Leverage, as her Aikido sensei had once told her, was everything. She pulled him at the waist and he toppled forward releasing her shoulders breaking the kiss as he fell to keep his full weight from driving her into the mattress - not that she would have much minded. He looked at her briefly - apparently to assure himself she hadn't been injured - then seeing her grin went right back to kissing her.

Lexie remembered hearing some moans and some whimpering over the next several minutes - she couldn't have honestly said if they were coming from her or Doug - she was way occupied at the time. Eventually - it might have been minutes or hours - she really couldn't have told which, they were laying on their sides next to each other. His left hand was cupping her head - periodically pulling their lips together for more gentle kisses. It was probably just as well that the kisses had become less passionate- her lips were a little chapped by then - not that she noticed. She did notice it though when his right hand started in the small of her back - sending warm flutters all the way into her abdomen - and started slowly working its way up her back toward her sports bra. THAT was going to be trouble.

Like most couples she and Doug had gone through a time early in their relationship where there had been - well ambiguity for want of a better word - in what the other needed to respect with regard to the physical privacy of another. They hadn't read any books or had any discussions and certainly hadn't had any written contracts. They had worked the issues out in person as to just what sort of kissing and touching and affection was permissible. It hadn't been done by email. It had been awkwardly - tentatively - nervously handled by two sophomores in high school who saw each other rarely - for all they communicated by email. But those issues had been resolved two years ago and even if they hadn't - the events of three months ago would have trumped any concerns anyway.

The plain fact was that - brilliant as he was in so many ways - Doug never had figured out the three dimensional mechanics of a bra clasp, and the sports brra didn't even have one of those. In this particular field Doug was a klutz - but if her fiance' wanted to get to second base, he was damn sure going to get there.

Lexie gave him an endearing look as she pushed him back flat on the bed and straddled him. She smiled as she looked down at him - then reached with both hands behind her and stripped the t-shirt off in one smooth motion. His eyes widened and he smiled as she reached under her bra and stripped it from her as well. As she picked up his hands and cupped them to her breasts there was a tiny voice in Lexie's mind that was trying to tell her she was forgetting something but it was drowned out by the beating of her heart and the sound of her and Doug's breathing.

Doug gazed up at her with loving eyes and his fingers gently and tenderly kneaded her breasts and a moan escaped her lips. It was like time stood still - like there were only the two of them in the whole world. Suddenly she had doubts - not about Doug - about their stupid decision to not have sex until they were married in five months. She could feel his desire grow - she could scarcely help that straddling him - and she wasn't at all sure that mere foreplay was going to be enough tonight for either of them. She closed her eyes reveling in the feel of him against her - and felt him wilt beneath her. That had certainly never happened before. She wondered briefly if he he had an accident - particularly when she opened her eyes and saw his face full of shocked embarrassment.

But Douglas's eyes were no longer on her breasts - they were staring at a spot about ten feet behind her.
Reality intruded immediately on Miss Alexis Rudman.

Liz had been tense at the start of the shower - the Alexis girl had irritated her - but as she let the warm water gush over her body she remembered the bus ride and the feel of Max by her side - his body bumping hers with every jostle of the bus. OK, it wasn't like he was hugging her or kissing her or anything but it was a start - at least she could hope so.

She'd shampooed and conditioned her hair - then blown it dry - managing to tangle it again in the process. She'd combed it out - laboriously - wondering why she still kept it this long. She thought she remembered Max once saying he liked her long hair - back in fourth grade. She wasn't sure, but it didn't seem like anything she was going to change tonight, so she had just stopped worrying about it and combed the tangles out. But as she combed it out she started thinking about Lexie - no, that would be wrong, ALEXIS Rudman.

The nerve of the girl to treat her like a child - and an unwanted one at that. She had worked her butt off to get here - almost blown her butt off with that pressure cooker - granted - but had done a lot of research and innovative science and - whatever that supercilious, patronizing, and contemptuous girl had to say, she had gotten here fairly and had every bit as much right to be here as Miss ALEXIS Rudman had. Liz flossed her teeth and then brushed them - seething at the shabby way that uppity girl had treated her. Maybe it was unfair - her real frustration was that Max wasn't showing more interest - but the girls behavior had been the final straw. As she finished brushing her teeth she got her overnight kit repacked and decided she'd go get in bed and if that girl said one thing - just one - she'd unload on her.

After all, Liz told herself. 'She's a regional finalist.... I'm a regional finalist. There's nothing she can do that I can't do just as well, if I put my mind to it. With that thought, Liz opened the door and took three quick steps into the room....before she stopped in shock. Alexis Rudman was in the middle of the double bed - naked to the waist - her breasts being tenderly caressed by Douglas Hanover

'Well,' thought Liz suddenly, ... her romantic life definitely has a slight edge over mine.

It was obvious Miss Rudman had become so involved in her current activity that she had altogether forgotten her room-mate. Liz fought back a sudden case of the giggles - this was too good an opportunity to pass up...

"Her name is Alexis, Doug, in case she forgot to tell you.... although I imagine she'd let YOU call her Lexie."

Lexie didn't even turn around - but she was rapidly becoming the color of a boiled lobster. She grabbed her bra and struggled in to it - wide eyed and unable to find words. Doug handled it a little better - at least once the bra was back on.

"Uh ... thanks, Liz," said Doug, ".... I knew that."

As Lexie's eyes opened even wider he shrugged his shoulders - fighting back his own urge to laugh. "We met on the bus..."

"Well OK then," said Liz, "... I think I'm going to go back in the bathroom and brush my teeth for about ten more minutes. By the end of that time I'd appreciate it if the two of you have finished up any ... business ... you still have to finish up and if Doug leaves the room. It's been kind of a long day and I'd like to get to sleep."

The last wasn't entirely true. Watching Doug's obvious passion for Lexie had sort of rubbed her nose in the fact that Max wasn't the least bit passionate about her. That would no doubt cause yet another night of fitful sleeping and depression. Maybe there WAS something the Albuquerque girl could do that the small town girl couldn't - make a nice guy seriously notice her.

"I am SOOO sorry..." said Lexie to Doug, covering her hands with her face. "I cannot believe that I got so excited about seeing you that I forgot the girl altogether."

"Well, that's a compliment of sort I guess," Doug said, fighting hard not to chuckle at Lexie's obvious embarrassment. "But it's probably just as well. As lovely as it might have been if Liz hadn't shown up - you deserve a little better circumstances for the big event than a dorm room in Colorado - come to think of it, we both do. It's only going to be five more months - I know we've waited a long time, but when school starts - well it's forever, Lex."

Lexie smiled and kissed Doug. It was already forever with him - she knew that.

"What I'm really worried about," said Lexie, "...is that she'll go tell Mrs. Armbrust. I would then have to explain how I let a guy I hardly knew into my room - and my bed - or tell her the whole truth. And if that were to get back to daddy...."

"Liz seemed like a nice enough young lady on the bus - just talk to her. I think if she were the vindictive type she uh - wouldn't have given us the ten minutes - which we seem to be wasting with worry."

Lexis smiled and covered his mouth with soft kisses. He was right - the clock was ticking - she just wished she'd treated the Parker girl a little better. Wished she hadn't forgotten her either. Best thing was probably to just tell her the truth and hope for the best.

But for the next five minutes, Lexie was once again lost in the moment.

Base-Mar shopping center, Baseline Rd, Boulder Colorado.

Jimmy Drevins was walking back to the campus - a brown bag under his arm. The drug dealer - a guy with the unlikely name of Bugs Quigley was already a block away - no doubt looking for someone to sell the gamma hydroxy butyric acid to - the guy had been overjoyed when he'd tasted it and realized it was genuine. Bugs had gotten him a liter of the most expensive tequila in the liquor store in exchange for those eight samples not - Jimmy was sure - that Liz Parker would know good tequila from cheap stuff. But he'd also made a contact. He would be mailing 200 glassine envelopes to Bugs shortly after returning home. Jimmy would monitor the Barbados numbered bank account on line. If Quigley delivered - $4000 within the next week, he'd get another shipment. Since his cost - including postage - was less than three hundred dollars, it was worth the risk to Jimmy that he'd be stiffed. Not likely though - Quigley had no other supplier for GHB.

Jimmy thought about the Barbados bank account with some satisfaction - it was growing considerable these days. Quigley would be his seventeenth distributor and the man didn't even know his name or address. He'd get his shipments - 200 doses at a time -in a small unmarked package with no return address, and drop his money into the blind bank account to pay for them. If Quigley got caught - and in time ALL distributors got caught - there would be no direct link back to Jimmy. The system worked perfectly.

Yes, this trip would be quite worthwhile - even without the upcoming diversion with the Parker girl. It was well worth the money he'd paid to arrange it. The actual idea for his project had been borrowed from a master's thesis he'd seen in the library of a small liberal arts college in Vermont on a trip with his father. OK, it had been more than borrowed - he'd copied the thesis which had never been published in any journal - then hired several graduate students to recreate the apparatus while an optical character reader had scanned his copy of the thesis and allowed him to cut and paste 95% of the academic work. It had gotten him here - made his parents happy - made him some money and - he thought as he felt the weight of the tequila bottle within the brown paper bag - was all but certain to give him a nice fresh diversion tomorrow night.

For Jimmy Drevins, life was good.


Liz wasn't sure what to expect as she came out of the bathroom for the second time. Obviously she and Alexis Rudman had not gotten off to a particularly good start even before she'd walked in on the girl losing herself in the throes of passion in Doug Hanover's arms - well, hands anyway. She could only imagine how she'd have felt if someone had walked in on her and Max doing something like that. She sighed deeply, 'That's likely to be ONLY something you imagine,' she told herself, ...at least the way things are going so far.

Liz's eyes quickly saw Alexis straddling the chair in front of the desk, her eyes looking at Liz with something that bordered apprehension.

"Look Liz," she said, "... I know we didn't get off to the best start and I admit that's my fault. I understand if you're upset about what you just saw and want to go tell Mrs. Armbrust, and I know you don't owe me any favors but nonetheless I'm asking you as a personal favor to leave Doug's name out of it, OK? My dad will be pissed enough at me but - I don't want him taking it out on Doug."

It wasn't quite the sort of statement that Liz would expect to come from a self-centered arrogant bitch and her opinion of Alexis went up a few notches.

"Look Alexis, I'm not a child. I wasn't all that shocked - except for the fact that you apparently TOTALLY forgot you even had a room-mate. Or at least you forgot that you had the room-mate you had when you saw the room-mate that you wished you had."

"Parker, if you only understood...,"

Liz held up her hand. "It's obvious that even though he just got off the bus Douglas isn't exactly some stranger - I shouldn't have made that crack about him not even knowing your name, Alexis. Even if I was mad at you, I shouldn't have used him to get back at you. I'm sorry. I don't really think you are some sort of a skank, Alexis. Besides, I'm a sucker for romance - even if I suck at it personally. I'm sure we can schedule some time for you and Doug to have the room to yourselves - just don't surprise me like that, OK?"

Alexis smiled at the seventh grader. "I got off to a bad start with you. Could we hit reboot and start over?"

Before Liz could reply Alexis stuck out her hand. "Hi Elizabeth, I'm your room-mate for the weekend. My name is Lexie and I'm from Albuquerque. It's nice to meet you."

Liz smiled and shook the hand. "I'm Liz - from Roswell. Nice to meet you, Lexie."

It was less than fifteen minutes later when the discussion started - both girls seated at the table in their sleeping apparel sharing a bag of microwave popcorn and each sipping on a diet cola.

"I need to tell you the facts about myself and Doug."

"I already told you, Lexie. It doesn't matter. I was just teasing you to get even for how you treated me at first. You don't owe me any explanations."

"I need to explain how my love life is so fouled up that I could forget my own room-mate completely in the time it took her to take a shower and dry her hair. The only excuse I have is the situation is pretty bizarre."

Liz shrugged her shoulders. It didn't really matter. At least Lexie HAD a love life - unlike certain seventh grade girls whose would-be soul-mate seemed almost totally oblivious to their need for their affection to be reciprocated - if only slightly.

"Really, it's OK," said Liz. On the other hand, thought Liz, she could probably use all the pointers she could get."But if you think you need to explain.....go ahead.'

"I used to live in California - a place called Livermore about fifty miles from San Francisco. When I was in fifth grade all the elementary schools in Livermore California went on a field trip to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The California Academy of Sciences is one of the largest natural history museums in the world and also houses the Steinhart Aquarium and the Morrison Planetarium. We went there for science day. On the field trip we had to have partners and - well there were an odd number of kids in my class - so I wound up partnering with a fifth grader from another school."

"Doug?"

"Doug," Lexie nodded. "I mean we were only in the fifth grade - not yet getting over boys having cooties - but we wandered through the Academy of Sciences together for most of the day.
we both had the same interests and he was just fun to be with. It wasn't a boy-girl thing at all - we mostly just talked science. I never even learned his last name, but somehow I just couldn't get him out of my mind. When we started seventh grade we wound up going to the same school. That's when I found out about ... the problem."

"The problem?"

"Yeah, the problem. What do you know about the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory?"

""The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory? Run by the University of California - for the Department of Energy I think. They do a lot of advanced physics stuff?"

"Right on all counts. One of the things they have been trying to do for a long time is to get controlled nuclear fusion for power generation. My father - Doctor Marcus Rudman - at the time was involved in that project. I don't suppose your dad is a nuclear physicist?"

"Uh -no. He owns a restaurant. He does make a great milkshake though."

"You probably don't realize how lucky you have it. In addition to really being an absent-minded professor - although after forgetting you were in the bathroom I can hardly be the one to talk - my dad is probably one of the two most brilliant men in the country when it comes to nuclear fusion."

"I have to admit that having a father who can make milkshakes is probably a better deal for a seventh grader - I don't have that much need for an H-bomb personally."

"Well, it wasn't supposed to be H-bombs - although that's what he's working on now. He had a difference of opinion over the fusion power program with the other most brilliant man in the field who also happened to work at Lawrence Livermore. His name was Doctor Peter Hanover."

"Oh my... Hanover," said Liz,"... the plot thickens."

"You," said Lexie, "... have no idea. Daddy and Doug's father were kind of physics wunderkind. When they got hired at Lawrence Livermore - well, they were the team that was supposed to perfect hydrogen fusion for peaceful power - until they had a falling out. Both of them thought the pathway to successful development was through inertial confinement. That means....well without getting too technical..."

"Zapping some deuterium or tritium with lasers or x-rays to heat it so fast it hits fusion temperatures before the plasma has time to come apart," said Liz. "Max is really the physics and chemistry guy from Roswell, I'm more into biochemistry - but I'm not completely ignorant of the subject."

"I think I REALLY underestimated you, Liz. I'm sorry. Anyway, Doug's dad pushed for a LASER mechanism - My Dad pushed for X-ray. Eventually Doug's dad won. Something about the process really got them upset with that. I mean - I guess when they were junior professors they were pretty close friends but by the time I was in seventh grade the fight had been going on for years. Brilliant guys, I have discovered, can really be children about some things. Both of them watch what the other does - every paper they write - so they can critique it."

"That's not necessarily bad - that's what science is all about."

"Not like this. They apparently take some childish delight in catching the smallest flaw in one another's argument and writing letters to the journal editor castigating one another. By the time Doug and I met up in seventh grade this had been going on for years. I'm not sure how many times when I was younger I'd heard dad talking about 'that stupid Hanover' to my mom around the dining room table. It didn't even occur to me that Douglas - even when I learned his name was Hanover - might be related to THAT Hanover."

"So when did you find out?"

"We'd been lab partners for most of seventh grade - and dropping by the malt shop together once a week or so - when we had a parents night at school. Doug and I had made a display of our current project - the science teacher wanted to show it off. My folks came - his folks came - they each wandered up to the display separately during the session and were nice as could be - Daddy even seemed to like Douglas and his folks seemed to like me. Unfortunately when the night was over, both sets of parents wandered back to collect their kids and Daddy and Doctor Douglas saw each other - that's when the neutron flux hit the lithium deuteride..."

It was as much the expression of horror on Lexie's face as the expression - the laugh coming up hit the diet cola on the way down. Almost instantly Liz was coughing and sneezing diet coke out of her nose.

Lexie shook her head. "Another geek, obviously. There isn't one person in a million that gets that expression...."

Liz daubed at her nose with a tissue. "What happened then?"

"Then? My father nad his instantly started talking about some esoteric point that they had been fighting out in letters to the editor in some science journal for months. I thought they were going to come to blows. Eventually Mom dragged Daddy away, Doug's mom dragged his father away ... and we both got told to stay away from the other one."

"That doesn't seem fair.."

"Right again .. and you know, there hadn't been anything romantic involved - not a bit. We were just friends then... and we did go our separate ways for about a year ... but I guess it was like the Montagues and the Capulets - you know... Romeo and Juliet...? By late eighth grade we'd both go to the school dances solo - but pretty soon we'd be dancing with each other. We still went to the malt shop - just made sure no one saw. By ninth grade we had decided to take our folks on - tell them we were going to start going to dances as a couple - regular dates. Before we could do that Daddy announced we were moving to Albuquerque - he'd been made head of the fusion program at Sandia labs, where he could pursue his x-ray fusion method."

"So you and Doug got separated?"

Lexie nodded.

"Well, apparently you two somehow got back together."

"We never really accepted being apart so we just didn't let it happen. We were separated - but we kept in touch. Anything worth having is worth working for. We didn't give up - we just worked harder. In the end, I think it made our love stronger than it would have been if we hadn't had the obstacles to overcome."

Liz nodded - thinking back to an exploding pressure cooker. She hadn't given up on getting a stupid 'A'. She damn sure wasn't giving up on Max.

"Tell me about it, would you?" asked Liz.

"Well," said Lexie, "... we'd already been discussing what we were each going to do for the science fair before we left. We'd each take a process and I'd do part for my project and he'd do the other part. Anyway, my father seemed relieved that I sort of lost myself in doing a science fair project when I got to Albuquerque rather than pining over Doug. Don't get me wrong, I love Daddy and he loves me but - well, sometimes he's not the most perceptive guy."

Liz nodded soberly. She could certainly understand that.

"That was three years ago," continued Lexie. "If you won your local science fair that year the regional for both the Livermore area and the Albuquerque area were at Pepperdine University. Three glorious days and two glorious nights of being able to walk along Malibu beach with Doug - just holding hands and planning for our future get-togethers - well, a little more than that I guess, but we were still a little uncertain about this whole boy-girl thing back then.

Two months later was the Model UN convention at Arizona State University in Tempe. I was representing Bolivia. He was representing Columbia. That was good for three more days.

That summer I got Daddy to let me go back to stay with a girl friend from Livermore for a week. That's when we REALLY got our system set up. Doug had been allowed to use one of the computers at the lab - some bring your kid to work day - and he'd programmed it to come up with the biggest prime number anyone had ever discovered." Lexie's eyes seemed to sparkle and she took a deep breath as she continued, "... he said he loved me THAT much...."

Liz giggled. "Gee, Maria said that Max and I were being geeky having are name on a fossil together..."

Lexie pointed her finger at Liz. "Oreodontus Parkerevanseus? I saw that at the museum in Albuquerque. That is so cool. I really did underestimate your science background. But it wasn't just about a big number, Liz. Large prime numbers are important in cyptology. Codes based on large prime numbers are more difficult to break, and this one was the largest. We spent two whole days in Tempe coming up with a code that was almost unbreakable.

Even if they do behave like spoiled children sometimes, his dad and mine both have fairly formidable backgrounds in math and science. Our relationship was growing and we needed a way to be able to talk with one another privately more than every two or three months. Now we could email - even send video files - and not worry about being caught."

"So you carried on an email romance?"

"At least three times a day, every day. We'd share the work - one researching new events - anything from academic olympics to science camps - while the other was checking how to use the events we were going to to help us get into the college we wanted. We'd also come up with other ideas. Doug got the Livermore ski club to plan a ski trip to Taos New Mexico which - coincidentally of course - just happened to fall on the same week that the North Albuquerque High ski club was there.

We both got to Alabama together once for a Space Camp - that was actually somewhat disappointing - we spent 48 hours in the same simulated space capsule - in pressure suits. I don't think NASA will ever get the damn toilet to work right.

But in the mean time we were both accumulating various honors and getting to see each other in the flesh..." Liz noticed Lexie blush as she realized the double meaning of that expression, "... and over the last three years we've decided we want to spend our lives together. Three months ago Doug proposed to me - and I accepted. In five months we are going to be married."

"How did your parents take that?" asked Liz.

"They don't EXACTLY know." said Lexie, somewhat wincing as she did so. "I rather expect there are going to be some fireworks when they find out."

"But how can you keep it from them?"

"Oh, easy, just like we have been doing. A week before graduation the senior class of North Albuquerque High School takes its senior trip to Las Vegas, Nevada - five days of fun in the sun. At the same time, the senior class of Livermore Union High School has its senior trip - to Las Vegas, Nevada. The wedding time is already reserved in the Elvis chapel. The first day we ditch the chaperones - get married - enjoy a carefree honeymoon week - and then go to CalTech for summer semester. We already have our apartment reserved in married student housing. By the time our fathers even know about it it will be a fait very much accompli."

"It's amazing to me that you actually were able to carry on a three year courtship - with no one finding out."

"Well - that was the case - up until three weeks ago anyway."

"What happened then?"

"I made a stupid mistake. Normally when I meet Daddy at his work for lunch I'll wait in the coffee shop they have in the lobby there. Three weeks ago I was there - and I had my notebook and decided to email Doug. The wi-fi network they have in the coffee shop was down - so I Bogarted on a wi-fi network that my notebook picked up. Unfortunately it came from the inside of the laboratory. "

"Someone detected it and cracked your code?"

"No - only half right. Security detected it and couldn't crack the code. If they'd cracked it, there wouldn't have been any trouble. It was just a message about my science project - well, OK, I said Love, Lexie - but if they'd cracked it they probably would have just ignored it. Because they couldn't it got elevated quickly. Security waited until Daddy went back to his work, then picked me up as I was leaving. After interrogating me they took me to see the Lab Director. We - uh - negotiated."

"Negotiated?"

"Yeah, I told him some of the truth - that the messages were messages to my boyfriend, and that I'd open the ones that wouldn't embarrass me or him, but that was it. I also told him that if they entered a wrong code three times in a row it'd trigger a worm that would destroy all the messages. They told me I was bluffing - I told them I wasn't. The cryptologists made two attempts and I just sat there smiling. Finally the Lab Director caved and I showed him my messages to and from Doug - at least the ones that weren't any worse than a parental guidance rating."

"And he didn't tell your dad?"

"No, Dr. Pennington is an old Pooh-bear, but he's also devious. He saw who I was involved with and called up Dr. Arthrop, the Lab Director for Lawrence Livermore."

"And he told Doug's dad?"

"No, they both had a good laugh, then called the dean of students at CalTech. Next thing we knew our one-year scholarships were four-year scholarships.

They said that they had been trying to get my dad and Doug's dad to talk civilly to each other for about a decade. Maybe if they were in the same family they'd have to behave. Dr. Arthrop even made a comment that maybe by the time Dad and Doctor Hanover shared a grandchild or two there'd be a breakthrough in fusion research. I think I turned beet-red blushing.
But then they let me go with a warning - I was never to let Daddy know that they'd found out ahead of time about the elopement. I think they were a little worried that the lithium deuteride would hit the neutron flux and the fireball would engulf them before it dissipated."

"That is so funny..."

"I guess maybe six months from now it'll all be humorous. Right now it's just sort of a pain in the butt. I could have done with a more conventional romance - although since I'm getting Doug in the end anyway, I guess I can't complain."

"Yeah, well count your blessings. At least you HAVE a little romance in your life - unlike some of us..."

"Uh-oh," said Lexie. "I sense a story here. Does it perhaps involve that young man that was carrying your bags? I take it that was the other half of the oreodontus discovery team?"

"Yeah," sighed Liz. "That was him....."

"Lexie," asked Liz, "...at what point in your relationship did Doug get - well physically affectionate?"

Lexie looked at Liz and saw the concern in her face. Instantly the talk with Mrs. Armbrust came back. Liz had once been abducted by a kidnapper - a pedophile - and even though he'd been stopped before , that experience had to have been absolutely terrifying.

She doubted that Liz would feel about Max as she actually did if he were too insensitive, but the kid was only in the seventh grade. He'd probably made a ham-handed effort to get to second base on their fourth kiss or something and terrified the young girl. That didn't necessarily make Max bad - they just needed to work out the limits of their relationship until they were both comfortable with it.

"Liz ... sometimes during romance - particularly when you're new at it - guys get carried away and do things without thinking. Certainly you don't want them to do things that you aren't yet comfortable with. Max might not really realize the trauma you went through that day you were kidnapped ... or that you might need for him to take it slower - not unless you explain it to him. Getting to second base may seem like a milestone of some sorts to them - defining the relationship as more than just a casual thing. Certainly Max has no business pushing you somewhere you aren't ready to go, but the two of you need to communicate enough to both be on the same page in your relationship. That's what some of those messages I didn't decode were all about. On the other hand - if Max can't take no for an answer - you need to find someone else."

Lexie took a sip of diet cola - studying her new friend's face intently - suddenly worried about just how insensitive Max may have been with her at to what lengths the young man might have pushed the traumatized girl.

"Lexie - I'm NOT phobic about Max touching my boobs or something. Technically I guess he got to second base a few years ago I guess." Liz's face took on a wistful smile as she remembered that day. "If it hadn't been for the scorpions stinging both of us I think that day would have been the high point of my romantic life, actually."

The cola going down hit the shocked laugh coming up - and again diet cola filled a nasal cavity. It took a few minutes to get that straightened out before the talking resumed.

"I was digging for a fossil above my head," said Liz. "My hammer dislodged it but there was a scorpion nest behind it. It fell down the neck of my t-shirt and was stopped by my trainer bra. It was like being on fire. Next thing I know Max has his hands in my bra pulling out scorpions and flinging them away. He must have been getting stung too, but he kept doing it until he got the last one out. I'd been incapacitated by the pain but somehow the feel of his hands was strangely - soothing," said Liz.

"I've had the experience," said Lexie, smiling and shaking her head. Of course Liz knew that. The girl had after all caught her and Doug in that very process. It was probably very fortunate that Liz hadn't shown up five minutes later. "You know, Liz, I need to recalibrate my whole attitude about you. You are definitely NOT the little girl Mrs. Armbrust thinks you are."

"Yeah, well unfortunately, that was about the last time that Max showed much interest in my boobs. I'd settle for just getting to first base with him actually."

"Obviously I need to recalibrate my opinion about Max too, Liz. You haven't even had a romantic kiss? But even so - I could tell from the way he acted around you that he really likes you."

"That was just Max being polite. He's like that with everyone. But I think he does like me - in fact I think he loves me. I know I love him. It's just that - he won't ever show it and if I try to get too close he just pushes me away."

"Most guys just aren't ready for relationships in the seventh grade , Liz. Sometimes they are just too self-centered when they are that young - sometimes they are afraid of the responsibility that being in a relationship implies."

"Uh-uh. That's not it. You don't know Max. Max is Mr. Responsibility - and he's not self-centered. He's been looking out for me since the day we met.
You know Lexie, you talked about when I was kidnapped - you thought I might be phobic about a guy touching me because of that ? I think I was for awhile. I was just a kid and didn't really know that guys like that even existed. He'd already raped a couple of other little girls and he told me what he'd done to them - how he'd done it - how much he enjoyed it. I worked out my fears about sex eventually, but the guy said some terrible things - told me what he intended to do to me - exposed himself to me and made me touch him..." Liz winced as she said it and Lexie cringed internally as she thought what the girl had been through.

"That must have been horrible...," said Lexie.

Liz nodded her head ... then continued.
"But I could never be afraid of Max. Max is so unlike that guy that they are like a separate species."

"Even so, it would be only normal if there was a little spillover - if what you went through made you anxious about all guys - even Max."

Liz shook her head. "No - that was the worst day of my life - but it wasn't because of what the guy said - or even what he did. He'd grabbed me in the parking lot while I was on a school trip with my class - right in front of my mother. He drove down the hill - with me trapped in the passenger seat - telling me what he intended to do...."

Lexie wanted to tell her to stop - Liz was staring at the wall with an expression of shock, the tears already starting to come down her eyes, but Liz just kept talking and Lexie found herself mesmerized by the story.

"... I'd never been so frightened in my life. When we got to the bottom of the hill he pulled me out and took me to the trunk of the car - still telling me what he intended to do. He taped my wrists together and told me I was going in the trunk - that the 'fun' would start when he opened the trunk across the border in Mexico. I found out later that there were no police cars that could have stopped us. The guy thought he was home free - and he almost was... That's when I heard the rattle of rocks from upslope on the hill. I looked up and saw him - Max. He'd grabbed somebody's mountain bike and ridden for probably half a mile down the mountain - straight down - no brakes - when they recovered the bike it was in high gear and it was a ten-speed."

Liz's face took on a haunted look then - a look of such pain it was frightening ... but the girl's story went on.

"Max's eyes met mine - just for a moment - and it was like somehow we connected. It was like he was trying to send reassurance - you know - to tell me that everything would be alright - but he was wrong. I knew it would never be alright again, because I knew what he intended to do. The kidnapper didn't know - but I did. The kidnapper was a big guy - twice Max's size - and Max was exhausted from the ride. But I could tell from that one look in his eyes - like our minds shared the same thoughts for that moment - that he didn't intend to fight him." Liz seemed to sob once and then caught her breath. "... Max leaped at the guy from the bike - grabbing him around the neck. There was a guardrail next to him and an arroyo below. I watched Max take the guy over the guardrail. I knew that Max intended to kill the man - it was the only way he could stop him - and I knew he thought he'd die doing it - and I knew that didn't bother Max at all."

The tears were rolling down the cheeks now, and the sobs were interrupting the words. "...but Lexie, I didn't want that - I never wanted that. I would have rather died myself - I'd have rather let that man do what he was threatening to do than to lose Max. I tried to tell him that before he went over the embankment - but I just didn't have time."

Lexie hugged Liz. The girl was shaking like a leaf and sobbing. "Max landed on top of the guy - the guy's skull was smashed and his body broke Max's fall, but I think I died a thousand deaths in the ten minutes I lay there tied up with tape and unable to move. When I think of that day - it's the horror of thinking I'd lost Max for those ten minutes that still bothers me, Lexie. Not anything that man did or said. I think I've loved him since third grade and I think he's loved me ... but somehow I suck at getting the romance thing going."

Lexie held Liz and rocked her back and forth comforting her. What could you say after a story like that? Finally it came to her.
"Well, you are right about Max. You sure can't call him irresponsible. Maybe all you need is a second opinion - a big sister who can help you convert his responsibility and friendship into something a little more romantic. We'll give it a try, anyway. I thought Doug and I had had it rough but you two," Lexis shook her head smiling at Liz, "... you deserve a little quality time in your relationship."

BRRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

The sound of the fire alarm buzzer was bad enough but the incessant blinking of the strobe fixture on the wall gave the crowded room a surreal look as Max's brain became suddenly conscious. It was 1AM.
Max looked at Doug who was already struggling to his feet and then at Jimmy Drevins who had pulled a pillow over his head and squinched his eyes shut against the flashing strobe.

Max looked at Doug and asked, "I don't smell any smoke - is it a fire drill?"

Doug shook his head. "More likely a false alarm - 1AM Saturday morning in a freshman dorm - odds that someone was drinking last night approach 100%. This is no doubt somebody's idea of humor - but we still need to take it seriously nonetheless." Doug shook Drevins' shoulder and the boy looked at him, in annoyance - before finally sitting up on the side of his bed.

"You guys go ahead, I'm right behind you," said Drevins - fumbling for a robe. "I'll bet it's below 20 degrees out there. Max and Doug grabbed their coats and went out - Drevins closed the door behind them and got back in his warm bed.

"Losers..." he said, as he pulled the pillow over his head to blot out the noise and the flashes from the strobe.


BRRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! went the buzzer on the strobe and Lexie flipped on the lights in the room to lessen the disorientation caused by the flashing strobe light.

"Is it a fire?" asked Liz, going to the closet and grabbing her coat. They'd only stopped talking and turned the lights out about five minutes ago and she was pretty sure Lexie had still been awake even before the alarm.

"Maybe, but I doubt it. This is a freshman dorm and last night was Friday night. My guess is that some drunk idiot thinks it's funny - or maybe just likes the blinky lights - but it doesn't matter. We have to treat it like it's real. Besides, even if we wanted to ignore it, the University safety people and the resident advisers will be doing a sweep of every room to make sure everyone - drunks and all -made it out alright. We'll just get yelled at and escorted out if we stay - might as well pretend like it's a fire drill. Dress warm though, it looks cold, and we'll probably be out there fifteen or twenty minutes while they check out the false alarm. That reminds me," she said grabbing a couple of extra blankets, "All the main men in my life are absent minded. I'll be lucky if Doug remembers his coat and even if he does it's a San Francisco coat. I better take along a blanket for him ... we'll take one for Max too, just in case."

The false fire alarm was not necessarily a bad thing, thought Lexie. She wanted to talk to Doug anyway and wrapping up in a blanket with him was one way to do it. Liz and Max could probably use a little snuggling together time as well.

The parking lot was half full of cars and had a light dusting of snow as the two girls looked out from the lobby. There were Doug and Max standing halfway across the parking lot.

"Give me your jacket," said Lexie to Liz.

Liz looked puzzled but complied. She looked even more puzzled as Lexis stuffed the jacket behind a couch in the lobby and gave her the blanket. But 60 seconds later they were out by the guys.

"Liz forgot her jacket, Max," said Lexie.

"Oh, here - she can have mine," was the immediate reply.

"Then you'll both get pneumonia," objected Lexie. "Here - open up your jacket - Liz can cuddle up to you to keep warm and I'll drape the blanket around both of you," said Lexie. "I have another one here for the two of us," said Lexie, "since you insist on wearing your thin California rags here."

Within seconds both couples were cuddled up to each other - sharing body heat under their individual blankets.

Lexie felt Doug's hand slip into the small of her back and pull her close against him. The sensation was wonderful. She fought back the urge to whimper.

"What's this all about - besides the obvious?" Doug asked quietly.

"You can be so distracting - not that I'm complaining," said Lexie. "But I needed to talk to you about Max without Liz or Max hearing."

Doug looked at Liz and Max who were apparently going through the same sort of wide-eyed excitement while trying to appear blase that they had on the bus. The two seemed almost catatonic grooving on the closeness while trying to pretend there was nothing going on between them.

"Well, I think you've got your chance," he replied.

"What I need to ask you about your room-mate there," said Lexi, moving softly closer as she felt Doug's hand slip from the small of her back under the waistband of her jogging shorts to begin a gentle massage of her left buttock. It was nice to be close to him again. Like most well-established couples they had gone fumbling there way through the usual first base - second base stuff - sometimes quite literally but always emotionally. That had stopped for Lexie almost a year ago. She had come to the decision that Doug was her mate - and the guilty pleasure of the gentle caresses and subsequent explorations of each others bodies that often seemed a whole lot more like foreplay than simple affection had ceased to be guilty and had become simply pleasures. And she was his mate - the fact that the foreplay had never - quite - gotten to the play - notwithstanding. His proposal three months ago had only formalized something both had known intuitively for some time now.

That Doug liked to touch her - and that she liked it when he did - was no secret to either of them - nor was the converse. She'd been on the Pill for almost six months - something that she'd discussed with him - not in an attempt to make something happen - she had no doubt that something was GOING to happen - they'd discussed it in some of their emails - the emails she had NOT chosen to share with the Lab Directors or the Security Chief. But it was going to happen when they decided it was - or at least when they were sufficiently overtaken by events that Doug's assessment that it might be better in their confrontations with their two formidable fathers if they could say that they'd done the traditional thing - even if she admitted to herself that it was probably more logistics than traditional morality that had kept them from going that last step.

But whatever the case, Lexie was supremely comfortable with Doug having his hand on her buttock - more than that - it was pleasant. Doug was hers and she was his and there was a 'rightness' to it. This wasn't about some adolescent counting coup - even though technically it really was 'getting in to her pants'. Exactly why this felt OK was something complex and included the fact that they had enough privacy under the blanket that neither would be embarrassed by the action but exactly WHY this action was not only acceptable - but enjoyable to both Lexie and Doug - perhaps neither of then actually knew.

The answer had to do with the human midbrain and the subconscious mind. The midbrain is part of what's called the archencephalon - literally the 'old brain' - of vertebrates. For some animals - it's practically all they have. Humans have cerebral hemispheres that provide the capability to do many of the so-called higher functions of the human brain. Things like Science Fair projects. The midbrain is a little more primitive than that. No, actually it's a LOT more primitive than that.

It has been said that the primary functions of life are to survive and to reproduce. The guy who said that was talking through his cerebral hemispheres. Midbrains don't actually recognize a difference between the two functions.

To a midbrain survival means survival of the DNA - not the individual. Individuals come and go and always will - tough luck there - but the DNA of that individual has the potential to be eternal - and it's the midbrain's job to make that happen, and in lots of animals it requires scant help from their primitive cerebral hemispheres to make that happen.

The subconscious mind and the midbrain are firmly bound together. What was REALLY going on was that the midbrain was wanting to get on with the whole insure the survival of the DNA in future generations bit. The subconscious mind didn't think that was a bad idea either - although the exact timing just wasn't right. But since that was what the conscious mind was planning - all in good time - the subconscious mind was just cutting the conscious mind a little slack here. The hand slowly massaging that left buttock wasn't an actual attempt to initiate mating. It was more just a reassurance to both Doug's midbrain and hers that they were indeed mates - notwithstanding their hitherto unmated status. The butt rub was sort of like comfort food - sending a small supply of endorphins from their midbrains into the rest of them - just making Doug and Lexie happy to be alive and reasonably comfortable while they were waiting to consumate their union - while also keeping them aware of exactly how special they were to each other.

Inside the other blanket the midbrains and subconscious minds were also active, although things were not quite so comfortable there.

The icy wind had Liz shivering within seconds of leaving the dorm - she hadn't really counted on this. The pair of pajamas had been intended for the warm dorm room and to provide basic privacy from a female room mate. They were fairly thin flannel and underneath was only her underwear. She had been a little shy about being seen by Doug when she'd first stepped out of the bathroom - although it became readily apparent that his eyes - and hands - hadn't been on her at all. Nonetheless, as she'd retreated back to the bathroom it had been with her hands crossed across her breasts which had not even a sports bra to conceal their shape beneath the thin material. The idea that she was going to be in a coed environment simply hadn't occurred to her.

She'd had her arms crossed across her chest from the moment that Lexie had taken her jacket from her too. That had concealed her braless status - but the cold air had given her goose bumps - she knew with absolute certainty that it was affecting her areolae as well - but there was Max holding his coat open and it wasn't like she could reach around him and get any bodily warmth with her arms crossed, now was it? Had it been anyone but Max - anyone at all - she probably wouldn't have done it. But it was Max and - if nothing else she was always safe with Max around - so she put her arms around him underneath his coat while he folded it around her sides and Lexie wrapped the blanket around her back and over Max's shoulders. Max had worn that jacket for many months. It had a musky smell of leather - and Max Evans' pheromones. Her midbrain damn near exploded.

In fairness, Liz's subconscious and midbrain didn't have any real gripes with her cerebrum - they were just sort of frustrated. It wasn't like she hadn't been trying to attract Max's attention in a boy-girl sort of way - it was just that she wasn't very good at it for some reason. Her subconscious had sent her the dream - child and loving husband - and she'd tried to talk Max into dating. That had led to the disaster last Spring that had ruined her summer and most of this semester. And her subconscious mind would have probably even been willing to admit that she'd made a good effort to get closer to Max for someone with no particular romantic experience. The midbrain, however, was having none of it.

Midbrains are called midbrains precisely because they aren't very cerebral - they are sort of down-to-Earth types. In fact, 'earthy' might be closer to the fact. As far as the midbrain was concerned, survival of the DNA was paramount and Liz's DNA was obviously some sort of disaster magnet. She was sort of a Joe Btfsplk sort of individual who attracted one disaster after another. In fact Liz's midbrain was actually somewhat surprised the young lady had ever made it to reproductive age at all if the truth be known, and rightly assumed the only reason she did was Max Evans - which brought the midbrain to its current mindset.

Now certainly, the survival of Liz Parker's DNA was going to require the survival of Liz Parker - a least long enough to produce offspring. But the offspring too would have her DNA and - for all the midbrain knew (midbrains not being terribly bright about such things) would likely have the same proclivity for disaster that the girl herself did. The reasonable thing to the midbrain - midbrains as I said being earthy things - was to make sure Max's DNA was right there - chromosome by chromosome - side by side within any future progeny Liz might have.

Now had her midbrain actually gotten any real reassurance from Liz's subconscious - or even her conscious mind - that this was likely to happen, what it would have done would have likely been different. Heck, if Max had just let one hand fall down under the enclosing blanket and given Liz's tush a slow affectionate massage - akin to what was happening under the other blanket - Liz's midbrain would have likely just pumped out warm cozy endorphins - been as happy as a Cocker Spaniel puppy whose belly was being scratched - and been content to wait a few years for the inevitable to happen in its own good time.

But Liz's midbrain got no such reassurance. What it got was a blast of Max's pheromones through the olfactory nerve and had it's long repressed desire to have something - anything - happen, severely stimulated. OK, so it wasn't real smart. Some things don't actually require smarts - they merely require adequate desire. The midbrain - despite not being at all bright compared to the cerebrum - had some tricks it could play that it could at least hope might move this stalled romance along. Of course the midbrain didn't think of it as a romance, exactly. It was a little too 'earthy' to think about it quite that way.

Intellectually Liz was suddenly becoming aware of the thinness of her pajamas - her breasts rubbing through them against Max's chest was doing that. Of course the fact that her midbrain had manipulated her sympathetic nervous system to have the blood flow into her nipples while not being able to flow out of her nipples had increased their sensitivity markedly. Her midbrain really wanted Liz to take notice. Her heart was suddenly racing - more sympathetic stimulation - and the blood flow to her groin was markedly increased as well. Things were starting to engorge down there as well. Her body was starting to shake - not shivering - this time, although it appeared to be, but just the high levels of circulating sympathetic amines that her midbrain was causing to be released from her adrenal gland. Suddenly she burst out in a fine sheen of sweat - plastering her pajamas even more tightly to her body. Normally the adrenal gland produced a fight or flight response but not this time - not with her parasympathetic system fully engaged - taking advantage of the increased vaginal blood flow to start producing secretions. These secretions contained pheromones that were sending out signals to the intended target next to her. Of course that was a secondary function. Their primary function was as a lubricant.

Even in the dream about him - watching their future selves in flagrant delecto - Liz had never felt the need for him this much. Shivering from the epinephrine released by her adrenal gland, her mind befuddled by endorphins her midbrain was releasing, every tactile sensor in her body reveling in its closeness to Max, and too weak from forgetting to breathe to do much else, Liz had little choice but to cling to Max and hope that somehow he didn't notice how aroused she had become. Knowing Max's rather socially delayed cerebral hemispheres it was actually a pretty good possibility that they wouldn't have figured out what was going on. His midbrain, however, was not THAT dumb.

BRRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

In room 329, the buzzer was still sounding – somewhat muffled of course by the pillow Jimmy Drevins was holding over his head. ‘But at least I’m warm and comfortable in here,’ thought Drevins, ‘…. Not like my two idiot room mates who are freezing to death out in the parking lot’ Of course that was when the buzzer got a whole lot louder as the University of Colorado police officer who had entered the room to make sure it had been vacated pulled the pillow off of Drevins’ head.

BRRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

“Get up son and get your butt outside – and don’t even look like you are going to tell me you didn’t hear the fire alarm,” said the officer.

Jimmy thought briefly about telling the cop to take a hike – but considering there was a bottle of tequila and two glassine envelopes full of GHBA in the locker next to him – and that the cop was armed and looked in no mood for a discussion – Jimmy thought better of it.

“I figured it was just a false alarm,” he protested.

“And most likely, son, it is. But it doesn’t matter – if the alarm goes off everybody evacuates and they stay out until the Fire Department checks out the building and sounds the all-clear. You were briefed on that at the start of the semester.”

“I wasn’t here then,” said Drevins, putting on his jacket and shoes, “…I just got here today – with the science fair program.”

“In that case, it was in the handouts that you were supposed to read. We take a dim view of our guests being involved in human combustion experiments in the dorm. What’s your name, anyway?” asked the officer, getting out his notebook and a mechanical pencil.

“Uh… Maxwell,” said Jimmy, “… Maxwell Evans.”

Drevins followed the officer down the stairs until he got to the ground floor. He watched another officer roust two bleary-eyed students from a room there as well. They looked a little bit intoxicated.

"Have a heart, ossifer," slurred the taller of the two, "... we need the sleep. We're going skiing this weekend and have a six hour drive ahead of us in the morning."

"I still need your names and I'll warn you right now - you damn well better get a good night's sleep before either of you gets behind the wheel and a couple of cups of black coffee before you do so wouldn't be a bad idea either. But for now, I'm still writing you up for not responding to the fire alarm and you still have to wait outside until the all clear is signaled. Your damned lucky I'm not writing you up for illegal use of alcohol by a minor. So get your butts downstairs .... pronto!"

Within a few minutes Jimmy found himself escorted out of the building on the side away from the parking lot with the other people who had failed to respond to the fire alarm. One kid was sufficiently drunk he was taken to the Emergency Room by ambulance. The rest just milled and bunched - waiting for the all-clear.