Tears of the Son (CC ALL,Mature) {complete} 08/05

[Midwest Max]

Part Twenty

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Alyssa whispered, though her eyes were creased at the corners with a smile.

Nate returned her grin and quietly closed the door behind him, grateful she had the room to herself and there was no roommate to rat him out. There was one dim light on above her bed, glowing down on her like a beacon from heaven. In her arms, a bundle of soft blankets and new-born baby.

“I couldn’t stay away,” Nate said in a hushed tone, his footsteps soundless as he approached her bed. Quietly, he pushed his boots from his feet, then slid onto the bed beside her.

Alyssa shifted onto her side, depositing the baby between them. Gently, she pushed the blankets back from the pink face within.

“She’s more beautiful now than the last time I saw her,” Nate whispered to his wife, reaching out to touch the child’s soft skin.

Alyssa nodded eagerly, proud of the newest addition to their family. “I think Emily was right – I think she might have your eyes.”

He turned his head this way and that, considering. “Do you think? Isn’t it too soon to tell?”

“I can see it,” she said.

“Well, let’s just hope she doesn’t get your temper,” he added.

At that, she smacked him playfully on the shoulder.

“See what I mean?” he laughed lightly. Then he settled into the pillow, his eyes fixed on the woman he loved more than life itself, his tone falling serious. “And you get more beautiful every time I see you, too.”

Even in the dim light and even though they’d been married five years and had already gone through the baby thing once, Nate could see a light blush color Alyssa’s cheeks. Reaching out, he cupped her face, caressed her cheek with his thumb.

“You do,” he confirmed. “And I love you more every day, Alyssa.”

Her smile was broad, her eyes a little moist. “I love you more every day, too, Nate.”

Being careful not to squish their new baby girl, he leaned over and kissed his wife, felt like for once everything was clicking into place. True, things had not been so good between them, what with Nate making a stupid time leap in an effort to try to save Liz and Emily from the Skins. Alyssa had felt it a betrayal of who they were, who he was, and more importantly, who their children were to be. She had assumed Nate was going to erase himself or a part of history that would have prevented any of them from being together. In reality, Nate had been so lost he really wasn’t sure what he was going to do. It had taken months to try to win back her trust and it broke his heart to think that perhaps even as they lay together in this hospital bed, she still didn’t trust him entirely.

“You know, she doesn’t have a name yet,” Alyssa said, breaking Nate from his reverie.

“What were you thinking?” he asked.

She shrugged lightly. “I don’t have a preference. It’s not like I want to name her after my mom or anything.” She gave a slight eye-roll and Nate knew she was still upset that Maria hadn’t made it to Boston for the birth. The baby had come suddenly and Maria’s Broadway show was still doing well enough that she simply couldn’t pick up and leave at the last minute.

“She might be here tomorrow,” Nate soothed.

“And she might not.” Alyssa frowned as she waved a hand in the air. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I don’t need to name my daughter after her.”

“Okay.” Inside, Nate felt a little sad that things never seemed to change between Alyssa and Maria, especially with the request he was about to make. “Could we name her after my mom?”

Surprisingly, Alyssa smiled, not seeming to be bitter that Nate’s relationship with his mother was better than hers would ever be. “Emma. I like it.”

“Not for a first name,” Nate corrected, shaking his head. “More like her middle.”

“What about the first?”

“I want to thank Aunt Isabel for all she’s done for me – for us.”

Alyssa’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You want to name her Isabel?”

Nate shook his head again. “No, that doesn’t feel right. What’s Aunt Isabel’s middle name?”

Alyssa thought for a moment. “Amanda.”

Nate grinned. “I like that. I like Amanda.”

She gave him a nod and another smile. “Amanda it is then.”

“Amanda Emma,” he said, stringing the names together. Then he frowned in disappointment. “It doesn’t flow well. It doesn’t fit.”

But Alyssa kissed her baby, then kissed him, lingering at his lips. “I think it fits perfectly.”

Nate would recognize his gait anywhere – self-assured, cocky, definitely a man in control. A man who would pimp his daughter out to be an alien hunter. A man who would torture and maim to get what he wanted. A man who saw Nate as something less than human. Of course, he was also the only man in the crowd not wearing military apparel – oh, no, it was a five-thousand-dollar suit for Agent O’Donnell.

Nate shivered as he watched the agent move among the fallen Skins, stopping long enough to toe one of them with his shoe. If they hadn’t been such a vile race, Nate might have felt sorry for what was about to come the way of the Skins – his immediate elimination by fire had been much more humane than this FBI man would ever be.

Most of the incapacitated Skins had been unceremoniously tossed into the back of the military trucks and now only a few remained on the ground. Nate had to wonder what chemicals the soldiers had used to detain them; it seemed that the government was reaping the benefits of years of experimentation on alien species because the hybrids didn’t have the technology to wipe out a garrison of Skins with a couple of cans of gas.

Nate’s tired eyes followed Annie’s father as he gesticulated toward a couple of soldiers. Still hidden near the boulder, he was too far away to hear the man’s orders, but he got the gist when the two men snapped to attention – they were being left behind to guard whatever the Skins were protecting.

Nate knew that O’Donnell hadn’t found the entrance to the hiding place – he and his men had been searching and poking here and there for the last couple of hours. It had to have been baffling to them why a whole legion of Skins had decided to congregate in the middle of the desert for no apparent reason. The agent wasn’t stupid – he knew there was significance to this place even if he couldn’t figure out why.

A few more orders were barked, then the agent strode over to one of the Hummers and climbed into the passenger side. Nate sat up straight, watched as the army men hoisted the remaining few Skins into the back of one of the trucks. With a rumble, all but one of the trucks lurched forward, their headlights growing fainter into the horizon, the sun starting to come up over the mountains. The final truck had been left behind for the guards.

With a growing sense of anticipation, Nate’s attention went back to the two men who had been left as guard. As soon as the vehicles were out of sight and could no longer be heard, they relaxed, one of them lighting a cigarette. Nate could imagine their conversation – laughing that they’d been stranded in the desert waiting for the alien invasion. If they only knew…

Creeping on sore bones and muscles, Nate descended from the perch he’d held for most of the night. Max had taught him well how to be stealthy – no sand was displaced, no rocks tumbled down the incline. Nate was as silent as fog creeping across the bay in Boston.

At the bottom of the hill, Nate paused behind another cluster of rocks, surveying the scene up close. The men were near the entrance to the hiding place even if they weren’t aware of it. He was only one person and he couldn’t incapacitate one of the soldiers without the other knowing and having time to react. He was going to need help.

Nate’s eyes shifted to the entrance. There was no telling what lay beyond. It could be that the cone was simply inside the doorway. Or it could be that the cone was down an intricate series of tunnels and not easily found. He had no way to tell how long he would need to get the cone and activate it. He found himself in the uncomfortable position of needing to gamble.

Closing his eyes and nearly wincing against the word, he whispered, “Aubrey,” knowing that she would come as soon as he called. In a matter of seconds, his plan would be exposed to the Skin.

True to her vows to protect, Aubrey appeared beside him in a whoosh of air. “Sir.”

Nate grinned, knowing that his protector was still alive, that she’d survived her stint as his replacement. “Are you okay?” he asked. “Did they hurt you?”

She shook her head. “There was a distraction of some kind. They never came for me.”

Inside, he was relieved in knowing that she was unharmed and that his plan had worked.

“We need to get past them,” he explained, pointing to the men in military garb. “I’ll take the one on the left, you take the one on the right.”

“Sir.”

Nate liked that she never argued, never questioned, only did what she was told. At a time like this, having cooperation was key. “Don’t kill them,” he added. “They’re honest men.”

“Yes, sir.”

Silently, Nate counted down using his fingers, then he and Aubrey sprang from the rock. One of the soldiers had time to shout, “What the –” before both of them were on the ground, unconscious.

“Guard the door,” Nate said to Aubrey. “If anyone comes, or anything looks suspicious at all, let me know immediately.”

Aubrey spun on her heel and stood with her back to the entrance of the hiding place. Nate felt a tug of remorse that this would probably be the last time he saw her in this altered lifetime. In all that had happened to him, she had been his only spark of hope.

“Thank you, Aubrey,” he said.

She looked at him curiously, nodded her head and resumed her vigil.

Drawing in a deep breath, Nate waved his hand over the rock. In the breaking light of dawn, a series of glowing purple symbols shined beneath his hand. He could understand none of them, but he recognized one and touched it with his palm. There was a grinding of rock on rock and the entrance slid obediently open.

The doorway wasn’t as large as that of the pod chamber and Nate had to slide through feet-first. He found that he could stand up fully, however, once he was inside. It was dark, so he picked up a rock and held it until it glowed.

Which way to go? The cave branched in two directions, like a Y. He decided on going right, soon found that it was a dead end. Back-tracking, he returned to the entrance and took the left leg. He had to hurry – by now surely the Skin knew Aubrey was gone.

Taking quick steps, he hurried down the left corridor, watching his feet to make sure he didn’t inadvertently run into a drop-off. A sense of panic started to twist in his stomach at what he was about to do. One more trip through time, one more chance to do the right thing.

As he ran, he thought about all that was to come, all that he would have to relive. There was joy – the birth of his baby girl – but there was plenty of pain. Hurt between father and son. Anger and disappointment between husband and wife. The death of a kind old man who had once taken in a half-alien baby without knowing it. Nate had lived through those things and was a stronger man for them, he just wasn’t sure he wanted to live through them again.

But he didn’t have a choice. If he didn’t do this, if he let things stand as they were, then the world was sure to come to darkness. Everyone he loved was dead or soon would be. Even though the FBI had imprisoned most of them, the Skins would dominate the world, he had no doubt. For the greater good, it was Nate’s heart that needed to be sacrificed.

Before he reached the end of the left tunnel, Nate stopped in his tracks. He could feel it as though it was calling to him, begging to be used. Pivoting, he fixed his eyes on the dark wall of the cave, then stepped closer to it. In a recess sat a stone box of sorts. He knew that cone was inside.

Fingers trembling, Nate reached into the alcove and pulled out the box, felt its weight against this arm. Before he could talk himself out of it, he shoved the heavy lid from the box, found the cone inside. Mustering another burst of courage, he snatched the device from the box and let the container fall to the floor with a loud crack of rock on rock.

In mere seconds, he would be back in time, fixing a blatant wrong, setting things back on track. He couldn’t think about the agony of being ripped through time, so he thought about those he’d lost – Liz’s laugh, Emily’s beautiful eyes, Jeremy’s unflappable loyalty, Isabel’s strength, Jesse’s hospitality, Max’s gentle soul. And he thought of his children – the easy-going, always happy Jake and the temperamental, demanding diva that was Amanda. While Jake had adored his father unconditionally, Nate would have to work to gain his daughter’s affections. The pain would be worth it, if he could get all of that back.

His muscles tensing, Nate grasped the cone between his hands, preparing to activate it. One small twist and he would be off to a time not so long ago. Just one small –

“Oh, little Zan.” The voice was sudden, the tone condescending. “I am so disappointed in you.”

Nate’s head whipped up, startled, to find the Skin blocking the tunnel.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Twenty One

The night before, he’d heard his parents whispering when they thought he’d fallen asleep. At the time, he hadn’t understood the concerned tone in their voices; he’d understood the meaning of their words even less. Why were they worried that he was growing up without siblings? Why did they hope his first day of school wouldn’t be traumatic?

Now, he knew. Now, he understood.

Kids at school were mean. One of them had called him a freak. Another had pushed him down on the playground. That was the reason he was now sitting atop the toilet lid, his face streaked with tears, his knee raw and bleeding.

His mother moved before him, clucking apologies as she got the icky stuff from the medicine cabinet – it was going to sting, that was for sure. Once she had a cotton ball and some disinfectant, she knelt on the floor before him and he found it amusing that he was now sitting taller than her. He was used to having to look up to her, not be able to see the top of her head.

“Well, it doesn’t look so bad,” she said as she tipped the bottle and the smelly stuff soaked the cotton ball. “I think you might actually live this time.” Her grin was comforting and almost helped him forget that this was going to hurt like hell.

Almost.

Nate muffled his cry into the collar of his shirt, but tears flowed down his cheeks anyway. His mother apologized again and kissed him on the forehead before blowing on his stinging wound. In time, the burn faded and she retrieved a Band-Aid from the cupboard; happy yellow smilie faces danced across the plastic.

“It’s all better,” she said as she smoothed the bandage over his scrape. “It will be as good as new in no time.”

“I don’t want to go back,” he admitted, his head hung low, his voice a choked whisper.

Emma sat back on her heels, her expression both concerned and understanding. “It was only one day, honey. Things will get better.”

“No one likes me.”

“Oh, I doubt that’s true.”

“They push me and call me a freak.”

She frowned, but the encouragement never left her blue eyes. “Two of them, that’s all, Nathan. Not all of them. I’m sure someone there likes you.”

He didn’t look convinced.

Standing up, Emma picked up her son, then sat down in his place and situated him on her lap. “I’m not going to lie to you and tell you there aren’t bad people in the world, Nate. There are. Some people aren’t very nice at all. The kid who called you a freak and the kid who shoved you aren’t nice. But not everyone is like them. There are good people out there. You just need to find them and become friends with them.”

“But how do I know who’s nice?” he asked, looking up into her face, his blue eyes wide with curiosity.

“Oh, sweetie, you’ll know.” She pushed his head to her shoulder and rocked him. “You’ll know.”

The Skin’s eyes were blazing, her hands balled into tight fists as she glowering at Nate. “Did you seriously think you could outsmart me?”

Nate gulped – her tone was more furious than it ever had been during his captivity. In his hands, the cone practically begged to be used.

“Did you really think you could heal yourself and then teleport here without my knowing it!” she demanded.

She didn’t know about Aubrey! She thought he’d vanished from the pod chamber because he’d teleported. Was she really clueless enough to not notice her henchmen guarding the hiding place had been hauled away? Did she really not notice Aubrey outside? Or had Aubrey simply evaded her? Or had she teleported directly to this spot and not seen the missing guards or Nate’s protector?

Nate’s head swam with all of the questions.

The Skin raised her hand, fury in her eyes. “Give me that cone, little Zan.”

Nate shook his head in defiance.

“I’ll blast you into a million little human chunks,” she threatened.

“You blast me, you blast the cone,” he shot back, clutching the black device to his chest.

Her brow furrowed as she looked at him like he was an idiot. “What do I need the cone for? I only want it so you won’t use it. Once you’re gone, I won’t need it anymore – life will be as I want it.”

She was bluffing. At least Nate hoped so. If she wanted him dead and wanted the cone only so he wouldn’t use it, she could have blasted both him and the cone a long time ago. Still, he couldn’t bank on the accuracy of her blast – she just might be able to kill him without damaging the cone.

Without another thought, he turned on his heel and raced the opposite direction down the corridor. Everything was dark, as he’d dropped his glowing rock once he’d discovered the cone, and he stumbled more than once. Behind him, he heard shouts of anger and suddenly the walls of the cave trembled with a blast. He ducked, but continued to run as stones tumbled around him. She was going to bury them both!

The cave path twisted and turned as Nate continued to run clumsily, his knuckles raw and bleeding as they collided with the rock. He just needed to get far enough ahead of her so that he could stop and use the cone. She seemed to be only a few steps behind him, though and he couldn’t gain on her, blind as he was. He needed help.

“Aubrey!” he shouted.

“How dare you!” screamed the Skin, having realized that Nate wasn’t operating alone.

“Now, Aubrey!” he gasped, stumbling over a fallen rock, regaining his footing and continuing to run. Where was Aubrey? Could she not hear him through rock? Or was the Skin somehow extinguishing his cries?

Nate got his answer when he heard the Skin shout in pain and indignation. Once again the cave walls shuddered and there was a brief, bright light behind him. A momentary smile curved his lips – Aubrey would be faithful and reliable until the end.

All he needed was thirty seconds, tops. A couple more steps and he would be a safe distance away –

The air burst from Nate’s lungs as he lurched forward, falling into pitch darkness. The cave floor had evaporated beneath him and he was tumbling into a crevasse, plummeting to some unknown depth. In the few seconds he was falling, he came to know this much – the fall was a long one and he wasn’t going to survive. Biting back his panic and closing his eyes, he wrapped both hands around the cone and concentrated on activating it.

As the cone hummed to life, Nate realized the folly of his original plan. He’d wanted to go back only a few months, but that wasn’t going to work. The events of the last few months existed only in his memory. He needed Max and Deputy Valenti, and neither of them knew him in this life. He needed to go back much farther, to a time that the Skin had changed.

There was a debilitating pain in his head as the cone took control of him. He only had a brief moment to feel the crunch of his back hitting the rock bottom of the cave before he was whisked away, through time, through memories he didn’t have.

In reverse order, he saw a lifetime he’d never lived, a marriage to someone who didn’t really love him, years full of events of which he had no recollection. In a matter of seconds, he saw a time without aliens and hybrids and the FBI. A time that in retrospect seemed sad and empty.

The flashbacks halted abruptly when he was eighteen, when Annie’s father had given Jonathan the envelope that held the secret to Nate’s origins. As the lawyer/FBI man stepped out of his car with the envelope in his hand, a woman slid in beside him and whispered something into his ear. For a moment, Agent O’Donnell looked hesitant, then nodded and got back into his car.

Nate couldn’t let him leave without delivering that envelope, without starting the whole chain events that would lead him to his birth father. Racing from the store, Nate pulled to a stop by the car window, smiling in at the man and his pretty daughter. The agent looked nabbed, then got out of the car.

“Nate,” he said in greeting. “Is your dad here?”

There was another searing pain in Nate’s temples and this time he saw his life in fast-forward, events that he’d already lived. A cheesy tourist town. Torture at the hands of the FBI. Meeting the famous Maria Deluca in an alien-themed restaurant. Alyssa, young and pretty, dressed in a turquoise waitress uniform. Max and Liz. Isabel and Jesse. Those disturbing twins. Jeremy and his insatiable love for women. Emma’s death. Jake’s birth. His mother sitting alone on a park bench, grieving. A confrontation between father and son, accusations slung like rocks, meant to hurt.

Nate drew in a quick breath, his body jerking with a sudden stop. He gasped a few times as he tried to clear his head. The world was bright, so bright that he had to squint. The air was cool, though, like it was manufactured that way. He smelled something familiar. He’d been in this place before.

“So I told Dad that he should write a book,” someone was saying. “I mean, he’s experienced more alien activity than anyone else I know of. It would give him something to do in his retirement.”

Nate knew that voice. Clearing his vision, he saw the back of the deputy’s head through the cage that separated the front seat from the back. In the passenger seat, Max road shotgun, his shoulders rigid and Nate knew why – he’d struck his only son not twelve hours before. Nate touched his cheek and winced at the pain. For one giddy moment, he felt like George Bailey on the bridge in It’s a Wonderful Life, ecstatic that his mouth was bleeding.

He knew where he was! More importantly, he knew when he was!

They were on their way to the airport, on their way back to Boston. Nate had leapt through time, Max had retrieved him. Things between them were bad at the moment. But Nate couldn’t let that get in the way of doing what he knew needed to be done.

“Wait,” he called from the back seat. “We have to turn around.”

Kyle’s eyes shifted to the rearview mirror. “Well, I guess you can speak, can’t you, dingo bait?”

Nate sat forward in the seat. “We need to go back to the pod chamber.”

Max was looking at him, his expression one of curiosity and wariness.

“What do you need to go back there for?” Kyle asked, glancing at the road then back into the mirror.

“We need to get the cone,” Nate said, looking at Max long enough to see the disappointment in his eyes. “You were right, Kyle – it is dangerous.”

“Nate,” Max said, his voice strained and barely under control. “Do you really think we’re going to get that thing onto a plane with us?”

“I don’t want to take it with us,” Nate objected.

Max’s eyes narrowed and he turned to Kyle, shook his head slightly. Anger and desperation seeped into Nate’s veins. Without another thought, he raised his hand and the car started to jerk. Slapping both hands on the wheel, Kyle struggled to pull the vehicle to the side of the road. Once they’d stopped, Max turned angry eyes to his son.

“Not cool, Nate,” he said, his voice low.

“Look, I know you’re mad at me and you have every right to be,” Nate said in a rush. “But you have to listen to me this time.”

Kyle was still looking at the instruments on the dashboard, not having caught on to the fact that Nate was responsible for their breakdown. “Weird,” he mumbled.

“I know I did something stupid and I don’t have time to explain,” Nate continued, pleading with his father. “Just – please. We have to go there.”

Even though he was angry, Max apparently could still see Nate’s desperation and finally gave a slow nod. With that, Nate dropped his hand and the car jumped back to life. Kyle jerked his hands from the wheel, his blue eyes round as he turned a surprised face to his passengers.

“Is that the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen!” he cried, then his expression fell as he took in first one alien and then the other. “One of you did that, didn’t you?”

Max paused a beat, then asked their friend to drive them to the pod chamber.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Thank you for your patience. If it's any consolation, this part is a little longer than usual


Part Twenty Two

“Look at those little toes! I forgot how little their toes are!”

Nate paused just inside of the entrance to the living room, a smile curving his lips. While he’d been on a trip to the store to get diapers, the great-aunts had arrived and his Aunt Isabel’s words made him grin.

“She even smells different,” Isabel continued and Nate heard Liz and Alyssa laugh. “I mean, seriously – boys smell worse.”

“She looks like you,” Liz commented.

“You think?” Alyssa replied. “I think she’s got Nate’s eyes.”

“Hmm, yeah, you’re right,” Isabel said, then she sighed. “At least you got a girl. Both of you got girls. I never got to have one. Three boys – can you believe it?”

“Well, Aunt Liz never got to have a son,” Alyssa pointed out. “You got all boys, she got a girl, so it looks like I’m the lucky one since I got one of each!”

Hidden around the corner, Nate looked down and found his oldest child staring up at him with big brown eyes. The boy was grinning at him and not making a peep, as though he understood that his father didn’t want to be found out just yet. Returning the smile, Nate stooped and scooped his boy into his arms.

“You’re not the only lucky one,” Liz said. “I got a son, too.”

There was silence in the living room and Nate’s brow furrowed as he could imagine his wife and aunt looking at Liz questioningly. From what he knew, there had been no other children for Liz and Max.

“Of course,” Liz continued, laughing, “he was a man by the time I got him, but I still got a son.”

“Are you saying you’ve been hiding someone all of these years?” Isabel laughed.

“No, silly,” Liz said, a smile in her voice. “I got Nate.”

The air in the pod chamber seemed stifling, a stark contrast to the cool dampness Nate always associated with the place. Usually, the cave had the atmosphere of a leaky basement after a rainstorm, but this day it was nearly impossible to breathe in its depths. Then he realized that nothing about the pod chamber had changed – it was simply the reaction of his body to the stress he was under.

“Where did you put it?” he asked Max after all three men were inside of the cave.

Max’s gaze was steady, but Nate saw a world of hurt behind them. He had to remind himself that not so long ago, he’d said some pretty awful things to his father about not wanting him, about hurting his mother. Even though months had passed for Nate, it had really only been hours for Max.

“Where did I put what?” Max asked levelly, his voice as soft as normal.

“The cone,” Nate said, putting his hands on his hips.

He had an overwhelming case of the jitters. Time was of the essence, he knew this. He had to get the cone before the Skin could somehow find a way to follow him back in time and stop him from the task at hand. Though, Nate knew that the cone was the only means of time travel still left on the planet now that the granilith was gone – the Skin shouldn’t be able to follow him here. Still…

“I don’t know where the cone is,” Max said.

Inside, Nate screamed in frustration as he slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them, they landed on the deputy, who was looking back like a deer in the headlights.

“Don’t look at me,” Kyle said, taking a step back. “I stay away from your alien toys. I’m but a mere mortal – those things might kill me.”

Nate’s gaze shifted back to his father. “Max, I understand that I hurt you. I know that what I said was out of line. And I know that you had every right to hit me. But we really, really don’t have the time to stand here and play this game. What did you do with the cone?”

Max’s eyes narrowed at being accused of playing a game and Nate felt a jab that he’d possibly already overstepped his boundaries.

“I told you, I don’t know where the cone is,” Max repeated, his words deliberately and unmistakably measured.

Almost in reaction, Nate’s cheek throbbed – an alien premonition that he was about to get slugged again?

“After you brought me back here,” he prodded, trying to remain patient. “Where did you put it?”

The underlying hostility in Max’s eyes dissipated and was replaced with something resembling surprise. Almost as quickly, a new emotion appeared there – guilt. He was hiding something.

“I didn’t use the cone,” he admitted quietly.

Nate’s mouth slowly dropped open and he immediately recalled a very short conversation he and Max had had on the original flight back to Boston. He’d been mulling over the fact that the cone hadn’t existed on earth in the year 2000, the time to which he’d jumped back to try to right things. When he’d asked Max how they’d managed to return to the present day, his father’s answer had been short and ambiguous.

“I can’t tell you.”

Disbelief and disappointment washed over Nate. Max was keeping something from him – a secret that he didn’t trust his son with. Perhaps he wasn’t the open book he appeared be.

Nate looked to Kyle, who was avoiding his gaze and kicking at a stone on the floor. The deputy looked like a guilty man. So that meant Kyle knew Max’s secret, but Nate wasn’t allowed to. Some of the anger Nate had felt while talking with his mother in a past lifetime came back to him as he looked to Max. Unlike Kyle, Max was looking at him steadily, unashamed of his secrecy.

“You didn’t use the cone,” Nate finally repeated, his voice flat. “Can I ask you how you did it, then?”

Without even a slight change in his expression, Max slowly shook his head from one side to the other.

Fuck! Nate thought. If Max was capable of moving through time without the cone or the granilith, then it was possible that the Skin was as well. Time was shorter than he’d originally believed.

Pushing back his hurt and anger over having information withheld from him, Nate brushed past Kyle and Max and dropped to all fours before the empty pods. His counterparts were simply in his way now – Kyle was powerless and Max was unwilling to divulge information. He was going to have to do this on his own.

If the cone didn’t exist in 2000, then it must still be where he left it. Wriggling his shoulders, he managed to squeeze through one of the bottom pods and slither through to the other side. All the while, he told himself to keep a cool head – if he let the events of this timeline get to him, he was going to blow the whole thing.

Instead, he concentrated on his wife and children, waiting for him to restore their lives to them. He thought of Alyssa’s dark eyes, her smooth, flawless skin, the sweet smell of her hair. He heard Jake’s giggle and Amanda’s screams of anger when she wasn’t tended to quickly enough for her liking. As he rounded the abyss that had once been the home to the granilith, he imagined his Aunt Isabel, arranging dresses and purses in her shop. He saw Jeremy, young and healthy, running on a beach with Jesse, both of them laughing at something stupid one of them had done. He even saw those freaky twins, staring at the TV like their brains had been sucked out.

And he saw Liz, running in horror, straight into the path of that truck on a busy Boston street. More anger twisted inside of his gut and he replaced that memory with a better one – Liz standing on a ladder and still straining to reach the corner of the ceiling with a paint roller as she’d helped Alyssa decorate Jake’s nursery. In the wake of that memory came a remembrance of Emily, skipping rope on the sidewalk in front of the house in Chautauqua, her dark curls bouncing with the motion.

Nate stopped before the hiding place, his chest rising and falling rapidly with his inner rage. Jaw clenched, he reached into the alcove and pulled out the box containing the cone. Jerking open the lid, he plunged his hand inside and took out the device, its surface feeling repulsive against his skin.

What are you going to do now, little Zan?

The words came to him as a taunt, causing him to look up quickly, his heart jerking in his chest. He quickly scanned the chamber but couldn’t locate his enemy. Then again, the Skins had proven they had the ability to meld into the walls, the trees, whatever they needed to do. It was highly possible that she was here somewhere.

You’re safe, my sweet boy…

Nate stopped, the voice drifting across his brain like a comforting breeze on a hot summer day. She was here somewhere, looking out for him, making sure he got to complete his task. He closed his eyes, thoughts of lost opportunities filling his mind. For only a moment, he indulged himself in them. Nate found it hard to believe that his mother had been all bad. Sure, she was dead, but she still seemed to show enough care for him that she must have loved him in life.

“Nate?” Max’s voice echoed off the walls of the vast chamber.

Nate opened his eyes and found his father on the opposite side of the abyss, his expression worried. Max looked at the hole the granilith had left and Nate mused that he looked a little nauseous. This room held too much history – for both of them.

Wordlessly, Nate held up the cone.

“What are you going to do with that?” Max asked, a hint of worry in his eyes.

Nate looked at the pit. Throw it in? No, with his luck, the Skin possessed the ability to levitate and they’d just float down and get it and ruin them all in the end. He looked back to his father. “We need to destroy it.”

He didn’t wait for Max’s reaction as he started to round the hole. As he approached what was once the entranceway to the granilith chamber, he stole a glance at his father, who was looking a little curious, then crawled through the bottom pod again. Max followed behind shortly.

In the pod chamber, Kyle stood chewing the side of his thumbnail, looking more nervous than a cow at a hamburger festival. His blue eyes landed on the cone. “That’s it?” he spouted incredulously. “That little thing?”

Nate nodded solemnly, then all of his anger came to the fore. He’d seen everyone he loved ruined, beaten, dead. All because of this cone and the advice Max hadn’t take the first time around –

“You know what I think? I think you need to get that cone and destroy it. As long as the temptation is there, something like this is going to happen. I’m serious, dude. That thing is pure evil. What happens if it gets in the wrong hands? What happens if someone decides to go back and save Nazi Germany or something? It’s a serious problem, Max. I think before you catch your flight, you should take a road trip and put an end to this.”

Letting out a primeval scream, Nate drew back and threw the cone against the rock wall of the cave with all of his might. His actions were so abrupt and so violent that Kyle jumped, the palm of his hand feeling his belt for his firearm out of reflex. The cone smacked the wall twenty feet away and Nate waited in anticipation for it to burst into a million pieces.

Only, it didn’t.

Instead, it clanged to the floor and rolled a few feet, undamaged.

Nate righted himself, his breath coming in an uneven gasp. “No,” he said, not believing what he was seeing.

Kyle raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t play much baseball as a kid, eh? No little league?”

Nate’s stomach twisted as he looked at the device, the light glinting off it. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not now that he’d come so far. It was the final step to setting things right. He couldn’t fail now.

The dam was wide open and Nate’s anger bubbled forth. Reaching the cone in a few short strides, he snatched it from the floor and whaled it against the wall again, closer this time.

With the same result.

“No!” he screamed, picking up the cone and hurling it again. Again it fell unharmed. Again he picked it up and threw it. Over and over.

“Nate, stop!” Max finally said, taking Nate’s arms from behind. “Stop it!”

Nate jerked free, tears leaping to his troubled eyes. “This can’t happen!” he said, whirling on his father. “Don’t you get it? We’re all going to die if I can’t destroy this thing. A few months from now, that Christie Carmichael/Susan Moore bitch is going to use this cone to come back and fuck everything up, Max! We have to get rid of it. Now!”

“Calm down,” Max said, his voice soft. “Just take a deep breath and relax.”

“Relax? Relax?! I saw your wife die, Max!”

At that, Max recoiled.

“Do you want to know what he future holds for us? Do you? I’ll tell you. It starts in the past. It begins with the Skin using that fucking cone to make sure I never find you. It ends with me married to Annie O’Donnell, and you lying bleeding to death on the floor of this very cave! It ends with Liz dead, no Emily ever born, no Jake, no Amanda! It ends with Aunt Isabel, Jesse, Jeremy and the twins blasted to death! It ends with me watching all of you being taken from me! And I can’t – I can’t –”

His words cut off in his throat, choked out by his emotions.

“I can’t do that again,” he finished, his eyes locked on Max’s. He saw a world of pain and understanding in their depths. “I can’t.”

There was a long silence in the cave, all three men at a loss for what to say. Finally, Kyle scratched his head.

“Um,” he began. “You didn’t mention me. I’m still alive in the future, right?”

Max and Nate both turned to look at him, their expressions saying it all.

Kyle held up his hands. “Just asking. Cuz, you know, that kind of thing would be of interest to me.” He gave a self-conscious laugh, then walked over to where the cone lay. Contrary to his earlier words, he wasn’t afraid to pick it up. “Maybe throwing it won’t break it,” he ventured. “Maybe you have to destroy it by alien means.”

“Like what?” Max asked.

“Like, alien means.”

“You mean blast it?”

Kyle nodded and Nate deflated even more.

“We can’t blast,” Max reminded his friend.

Kyle shrugged. “I can.”

Nate’s head jerked up quickly. He’d forgotten about that!

“Stand back,” the lawman said, laying the cone on the floor. He took a few steps back himself, then pointed his palm toward it. In a few seconds, a white light erupted from his hand, but it only sent the cone rolling a little.

“Shit,” Nate said under his breath.

“Don’t give up so quickly, dingo bait,” Kyle chided lightly. “I’ll crank it up a notch.”

Nate watched as Kyle focused harder, his face contorted in concentration. This time the cone rolled farther, as if it was trying to elude his powers. Kyle looked to Max.

“I need help,” he said.

“We can’t,” Max replied apologetically.

“I don’t need you to blast. I need you to help boost my powers.”

Max raised a surprised eyebrow, then went to stand behind the deputy. Kyle raised his hand again and Max put his palm over the back of it. Kyle concentrated again, but before he could muster the energy blast, Max motioned to Nate.

“Help us,” he said, nodding toward his and Kyle’s hands.

Doubting he would be of much use, Nate stepped forward and put his hand over Max’s. In that moment, he realized that they had the same hands, the same bone structure. He’d never noticed it before.

“Hold on to your butts,” Kyle said, grimacing a little.

A few seconds later, Nate felt the powers of all three men surge through his body, there was a bright light that spun his world and then everything went black.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Twenty Three

Nate awoke with a start, incoherent, panicked. He was laying face-down, his breath blowing hotly across his face. Quickly, he rolled over and sat up, his world spinning, his vision blurry.

Where was he? What was that smell, those sounds? The scent was homey, the sounds soft and non-threatening, which only added to his confusion. Was this a dream? A hallucination of some kind? What was beneath his hand?

Looking down, he saw something plaid and faded. Beneath his fingers, he felt softness and warmth. A blanket? With a jolt, he realized he recognized that blanket – it was the quilt his mother had stitched for his bed many years ago.

Was he really home? Had it really worked?

Fingers trembling, Nate reached for his face. If he had failed at any point, he should be injured – either from the Skin’s abuse, or from Max’s punch in the granilith chamber. To his astonishment, his face felt smooth, pain-free. Somehow, he was back in his bed and healed.

The question was what time he’d landed in – and the condition of everyone he loved.

Holding his breath, Nate listened for the sounds he’d heard upon waking. There were a couple of soft thumps, then muted voices coming through the floor. A laugh? Shakily, he pushed himself to his feet, lost his balance and fell back to the bed again.

Letting out a groan and putting a hand to his face to stop his head from spinning, Nate tried to remember what had happened before he’d gotten here. He remembered his father’s funeral. He remembered Maria returning to New York and Jesse returning to Boston. And in the midst of that, he remembered a really, really bad dream.

But it wasn’t a dream, was it? He’d really lived that nightmare, had really watched his loved ones die. At the end of that dream, he’d been standing in the pod chamber with Max and Kyle Valenti. Almost as though his body could still recall it, he felt the rush of power through his veins, the explosion of that energy. In his head, he heard the tinkling of thousands of shards of metal…

And then he’d awakened here.

More cautious this time, Nate pushed himself upward, steadied himself against the dresser. Where was everybody? It was sunny outside and strangely enough he appeared to have fallen asleep fully clothed. He took a few tentative steps, then crept soundlessly toward the staircase.

The voice that filtered up from the lower level definitely belonged to a woman. Swallowing back his fear, Nate remembered seeing Annie O’Donnell in the kitchen, giving orders to a home decorator. He hoped beyond all hope that when he reached the bottom of the steps, he wouldn’t find her still there. If he did, he might have to make a run for it.

But the kitchen was empty. When Nate passed the door, he knew where the homey smells were coming from – the aroma of pancakes and syrup still hung in the air. His eyes drifted to the clock – it was only a little past ten, breakfast not so long ago.

The voice was louder now, accompanied by another, coming from down the hallway. Still walking on eggshells, Nate slid stealthily down the hall, toward his parents’ old bedroom.

“So what are they going to do now that they’re graduating?” the first voice said and Nate had to bite back his tears. It was Liz Parker-Evans, alive and well again.

“I don’t know,” the second voice sighed and Nate clenched his eyes in agony. His Aunt Isabel, who had struck him in the side with an energy bolt the last time he’d seen her. “Jesse worries that they’ll waste their brains if the don’t go to college, but I told him maybe they don’t want to go just yet. Jason and Justin have always had their own ideas about things, you know?”

“Yeah, I know,” Liz replied, a hint of a laugh in her voice. Nate understood that laugh – she was thinking that Jason and Justin’s ideas were definitely their own because no one who wasn’t creepy would share them.

Isabel sighed. “I just wish they were a little more social. I wish they had more friends.”

Nate raised an eyebrow. More friends? From what he’d been able to tell, they really didn’t have any friends. He didn’t allow himself time to dwell on that, however – he needed to know the state of things, he needed to know if any of the Skin’s bastardizing of the past had affected anyone he loved.

“Aubrey,” he whispered.

There was a slight whoosh of air and she appeared beside him, sunglasses in place even though they were indoors. “Sir?” she whispered, since he’d whispered.

Nate felt his throat constrict, remembering Aubrey taking his place and fighting valiantly in that horrible nightmare. More than likely, the Skin had killed her then, since she’d had no trouble disposing of Darmon, Max’s protector. To see Aubrey standing there, alive and well and as enigmatic as ever nearly brought Nate to tears.

“Is all well?” he asked, needing an excuse for having summoned her.

“The perimeter is secure,” she confirmed with a nod.

Nate choked a laugh – his perimeter-obsessed protector. “Good, Aubrey. And thank you.”

“It’s my job,” she said.

“I know,” he replied. “But I still thank you for doing it.” He’d never in a billion years make her understand the importance of gratitude. “You can carry on.”

“Sir.” Another whoosh and she was gone.

“Look at this,” Liz was saying in the other room. “Air Force?”

“No, looks Navy to me,” Isabel replied. “We shouldn’t box that up. Nate might want to keep that.”

Taking his cue, Nate stepped into the doorway, the lump in his throat increasing in size as he watched Liz and Isabel folding his father’s clothes and placing them in boxes for the church to pick up for the needy; Liz was holding a military dress uniform. The last time he’d been here, the place had been ransacked with no concern for Jonathan’s possessions or the needs of the poor – Annie looking for something? And the time before that, Isabel had fretted over removing the curtains for cleaning without having asked him. His blue eyes shifted to the windows, which were indeed bare.

Isabel followed his gaze and immediately seemed uncomfortable. “I took down the drapes,” she confessed. “We wanted to get them cleaned. We didn’t throw them out or anything.”

Nate offered her a small smile. “I know. It’s okay.”

“Look what I found,” Liz said, and he was sure she was only trying to ease Isabel’s discomfort. “Was this your dad’s?”

Nate nodded. “He was in the Navy for six years.”

Liz held up the uniform and appraised it. “Do you want us to keep it?”

He nodded.

“We probably should have let you look through the stuff we’re giving away,” Isabel fretted. “What if we boxed up something you wanted to keep?”

“No, I’m sure what you’ve done is fine,” he replied, still a little stunned that they were both here, alive. After all, they mattered more than his father’s possessions ever could.

“Oh, Liz,” Isabel said. “Show Nate what we found in the top of the closet.”

Excitedly, Liz hung the uniform back onto the rack and stood on her tip toes to reach the highest shelf in the closet. Nate watched her curiously, wondering what his parents had hidden away.

“We actually found two things,” Liz announced, turning around with a couple of books in her hands. One was smaller and leather-bound. The other had possibly once been white, but was now yellowed, bulky. “Sit,” she urged, gesturing to the bed.

Nate sat down on the edge of the bed, felt his knees quivering. They were acting so normal, like nothing had ever happened. Then again, maybe they didn’t know anything had ever happened. Isabel sat to his left, her leg brushing his and he felt the lump in his throat become a boulder. Liz took a seat on his right and placed the leather book in his lap first.

“What is this?” he asked, his voice sounding choked. He hoped he sounded first-thing-in-the-morning groggy instead of on the edge of breaking down.

“Open it,” Liz urged gently, her dark eyes soft.

Nate paused a moment, then opened the book, the old binding crackling. The pages were yellow with age, but the writing on them was well-preserved. His mother’s writing. The inevitable tears stung at the back of his eyes as they drifted to the top of the page, which was dated September 18, 1975.

“Your mom kept a journal,” Liz said, affection for a kindred spirit obvious in her tone.

Fingers shaking, Nate touched the page. She’d written this twenty-five years before he’d even been born.

“There are more,” Liz explained. “In that trunk over there. She kept them almost until the day she died, Nate.”

“Did you read this?” he asked, his voice coming out stuffy and there was no hiding the fact that he was on the verge of tears.

Liz shook her head. “Only until I realized what it was. I know it’s weird and I know that it feels like a violation of her privacy, but someday you might want to read them. Keep them for now, okay?”

He nodded mutely.

“Show him the good stuff,” Isabel urged playfully.

“And then we found this,” Liz said, dropping the larger book into this lap with a heavy thud. She flipped open the cover and Nate’s eyes popped wide. “It’s their wedding album.”

Nate scanned the first page, at first humored by the haircuts and clothing styles of the late nineteen-seventies. Then he found himself studying their faces – a couple who had probably been so full of hope on that day, not knowing that they would struggle for years to have the family they always wanted. A man and woman who most likely didn’t believe in aliens, but would end up harboring one for many years unknowingly. A young man and woman who had their whole lives ahead of them but would one day succumb to their separate diseases. Nate saw the beginning of a life together, a life that was now over.

“Oh, Nate, we’re sorry,” Isabel said, putting her arm around his shoulders and kissing his temple.

Until she did that, he had no idea that he’d finally broken down. Lost in his tears, he barely registered Liz removing the photo album from his lap. Isabel enveloped him in her embrace, her soft perfume drifting to his nose.

“It’s too soon,” she said quietly to him. “I know you miss them, Nate. We should have just left the book for another day.”

But it wasn’t the book. Not entirely. It was everything that had happened. The deaths of everyone he loved, the loss of his parents, physical and psychological torture at the hands of the merciless Skin. It was overwhelming to be sitting here in this room like nothing had occurred, looking at pictures and journals, pretending that he hadn’t had his whole world ripped from beneath him.

“Did we kill her?” he choked over Isabel’s shoulder.

There was a moment of silence, then his aunt pushed away from him, her dark eyes wary. “No, we didn’t kill her,” she said.

Nate clenched his eyes tightly shut and screamed internally. She was still alive, waiting to kill them all – again.

“Nate,” Liz said, putting her hand on his arm. “Do you think we killed your mom?”

He shook his head violently. “Not her. The Skin. Did we kill her?”

Liz and Isabel exchanged startled glances, then Liz cleared her throat. “I hear that you did,” she said. “I, um, wasn’t doing so well after Jackson and Aubrey brought me and Emily back. I wasn’t coherent enough to witness it.”

Coherent wasn’t the right word – Liz really hadn’t been alive that night in the woods. It had taken both Max’s and Nate’s powers to revive her.

“So it did happen,” Nate said, unable to believe it.

“I saw it happen,” Isabel said, drawing his attention. “Some firestorm you made there, dear nephew.” Her smile was wide, but he could see the concern in her eyes. “You’re so exhausted, trying to run the store and everything. Why don’t you take Alyssa and the kids away for the weekend or something? Get some rest?”

“Alyssa,” he breathed, a single tear rolling down his cheek. “My kids. Where are my kids?”

Isabel and Liz exchanged another worried glance, then Liz pointed out the window. Before he looked, however, he saw the realization in her eyes – after all, she had known immediately the first time he’d jumped through time. And he knew she knew now, too.

But thoughts of explaining himself to Liz came and went quickly. Because what he saw outside his father’s bedroom window sent him running for the door.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Part Twenty Four

“Go long, Emily!” Alyssa called, taking a few steps backward and planting herself to throw.

Before her, Jake and Emily both ran awkwardly, looking over their shoulders.

“Not you, Jake! You stay back here with me and help tackle her!”

The boy stopped in his tracks, looked confused, stuck two fingers in his mouth. Nate felt his heart lurch – his son always did that when he was concentrating on something. Emily ran, stumbled, giggling the whole way, and finally pulled to a halt. Alyssa reared back like she was going to throw the Nerf ball a hundred yards, and gently lobbed it at the tiny girl.

Nate watched from the porch as Emily caught the ball against her chest with both arms. Victory flashed on her pretty face, was immediately replaced by determination.

“Now we have to tackle her!” Alyssa called to Jake, reaching down to grab his arm and lead him in the right direction.

Jake broke into a grin, finally understanding the rules of the game. He shrieked in laughter and Amanda, plopped nearby in her bouncy seat, shrieked in response.

“We’re coming!” Alyssa warned Emily. “We’re gonna get you!”

“No you’re not!” Emily retorted, hugging the ball to her body and running toward them, her expression very much that of a headstrong Liz Parker. “You won’t get me!”

Nate couldn’t stop the grin that came to his face as he watched his wife running in super slow motion, letting Jake keep up, letting Emily win. Alyssa was wearing one of Nate’s flannel shirts over a black turtle neck, her jeans already fitting comfortably only a few months after having given birth. The wind toyed with her golden hair, which was pulled haphazardly atop her head in a ponytail; the sun glinted off it and Nate nearly wept with the need to touch it.

For a moment, it looked like Emily Evans was going to fail in her attempt at scoring a touchdown. The lead tackle, however, lost her footing and went tumbling to the ground, pulling her fellow guard down with her. Jake giggled, not really understand the rules after all. Emily scooted past, victorious, spiked the ball and started an end-zone dance. Alyssa burst out laughing.

“Who taught you that?” she said from her position on the ground.

“Daddy,” Emily said, wobbling her knees in and out. “He says you should always celebrate when you’ve scored.”

Jake jumped to his feet and joined her.

“And apparently you should celebrate when you’ve let someone else score,” Alyssa noted.

Nate couldn’t wait any longer. He hadn’t wanted to interrupt them – seeing them relaxed, having fun, real, had been worth taking pause. But now he needed to be with them, touch them, just to make sure they really were there.

“I think you can still be tackled in the end zone,” Alyssa was saying to Emily as Nate stepped off the porch. “Dontcha think, Jake?”

Jake nodded in agreement like he always did.

“Well, then let’s get her!”

Alyssa and Jake both made for Emily, who screamed in anticipation, but made no move to get away from them. From her knees, Alyssa toppled the little girl, gently depositing her on the grass.

“Now I’m going to tickle you!” Alyssa announced, making Emily scream louder. “Ut oh – looks like big brother Nate’s here to help out!”

“No!” Emily cried and laughed all at the same time.

But when Nate reached them, he showed no interest in tickling his little sister. Instead, he fell to his knees and pulled Alyssa to him, burying his face in her hair, holding back his latest round of sobs.

“My goodness!” Alyssa laughed, still speaking in her kid voice. “Daddy woke up affectionate today!”

He didn’t want to let her go. Ever. He wanted to stay here, holding her, the dampness of the spring ground seeping through the knees of his jeans. And he would have – but there was more celebrating to be done. He released his wife just enough so that he could sweep his son into their embrace. Always happy, Jake giggled and squirmed against his parents.

“Nate?” Alyssa said, the playful tone gone from her voice.

“I love you so much,” he said against her ear. “If I didn’t have you, I’d die, Al. I mean it.”

Nate released Jake and replaced him with Emily.

“Nate!” Emily protested, not appreciating being squished. “You’re smushing me!”

“I know, sweet pea,” he said, kissing her head.

As she started to squirm, he let her go. Back to business, she picked up the Nerf ball and started tossing it in the air. Jake followed her, pointing and jabbering at the bright orange ball. Nate watched them go, realized his cheeks were wet again.

When he turned to Alyssa, he saw a million questions in her dark eyes. He couldn’t answer them. Not yet.

“Where’s my baby girl?” he asked, wiping his cheeks with the backs of his hands and moving for Amanda’s bouncy seat.

The baby looked up at him with bright blue eyes – his eyes. As he reached for her, she scowled but allowed him to pick her up.

“There’s my baby,” he cooed, bouncing her lightly.

True to her nature, she reached up and grabbed a lock of his hair and yanked it. It hurt, but he laughed in relief. When he kissed her head, she let out a shriek of protest and he felt a warm glow within – she disliked him as much as she ever did.

Things were normal again.

“Nate,” Alyssa said from behind him.

Unable to keep from smiling at his baby girl’s cries of anger, he turned to his wife. She, however, wasn’t smiling.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her tone hushed so Jake and Emily couldn’t hear.

“I’m fine,” he assured her, sniffing back the remainder of his tears. “Now.” He squeezed Amanda to him and rocked her, even though she was now wailing like a fire siren. With his free hand, he pulled Alyssa to him.

“What happened?” she whispered.

He shook his head. “Not now,” he replied gently. “Everything is okay, don’t worry. I’ll tell you later.” He cast his glance toward the children, not far away.

Alyssa was starting to look alarmed, so he leaned in and kissed her, lingering.

“Trust me,” he breathed.

Her dark eyes implored him, but before she could speak, he heard the sound of a car coming up the drive, gravel crunching beneath its tires. He was surprised to see Max driving his son’s truck. In the bed, large, flat cardboard boxes.

Reaching down, Nate took Alyssa’s hand in his and squeezed it. He shifted Amanda to his hip and walked toward the truck as Max was climbing from behind the wheel.

“What’s this?” Nate asked with a smile.

“What’s what?” Max replied playfully, positioning himself at the open tailgate, as though his body would block the boxes.

“That,” Nate laughed, gesturing behind his father with his chin.

Max turned, feigned surprise that the bed of the truck was full. “Oh, that. Huh. Well, that’s our afternoon project, son. Now that you managed to get out of bed.” He winked and started sliding the boxes from the truck.

“Afternoon project?” Nate asked, looking to Alyssa for an explanation, only got a shrug in return.

“Swing set,” Max clarified, dropping the first box to the ground. “I figured since you’re going to be permanent New Yorkers, my grandkids are going to need a swing set here. And I will need your help –they’re a bitch to put together.”

Nate frowned slightly. “I was supposed to work at the store –”

“Piss on that,” Max laughed, reaching for the next box. “Jeremy and Michael have it covered. Are you going to help me unload these boxes?”

With that, Nate handed his daughter to Alyssa and started unloading the truck. It seemed surreal, to be here with people he’d last seen in very different circumstances – Alyssa had been despondent, Max near death. Jake, Amanda and Emily hadn’t existed at all. Now things were so normal they seemed very much the opposite.

“Come play with us!” Emily called to Alyssa. “And don’t let Jake win!”

Alyssa gave Nate one last questioning glance, then went to join the children. From the corner of his eye, he watched her go and felt a stab of remorse that he’d left her so confused. He promised himself that he would answer all of her questions later.

Then Max cut across his line of sight, reaching for another box, and Nate remembered some very odd things he’d found out in his last leap through time. Alyssa wasn’t the only one who had questions.

And perhaps the “afternoon project” would present him with the opportunity to get the answers.

tbc

[Midwest Max]

Well, here it is, the end. Tada! This fic was really draining to write and I'm kind glad it's over Some of you have asked if there are going to be more stories in the series and once you read this last part, you will see that I've left the door open for that. Not that I have any immediate plans, but you never know

Thanks to everyone who has been following this series over the last two years. The fact that you still have interest after all of this time is a tremendous compliment. Thank you!



Part Twenty Five

The chilly April air slid beneath the lacy curtains, blew lightly across Nate’s arm, making him shiver. Outside, a gentle rain was falling from the dark sky; unable to resist the smell of fresh air, he’d cracked open the window just enough to let in the breeze.

“But I wanted to go out and play,” a young Nate said dejectedly.

“Well, it needs to rain sometime, doesn’t it?” his mother had answered cheerfully.

“But I wanted to ride my bike.”

“It will be better tomorrow,” she assured him.

“But I want to go out and ride my bike today.”

The woman lowered herself to a squat before him, her blue eyes sparkling with so much life, so much love for him. “We have to let it rain when it needs to,” she explained, taking him by the arms. “It’s God’s way of keeping everything in balance. Rain today, fresh flowers tomorrow. Sure, today might not be what we want it to be, but I’m willing to be if we’re just patient, tomorrow will bring everything we could ever want.”

Nate gave a small, bittersweet smile at the memory. Emma Spencer had been such a positive force in his life, never judging him or his decisions, right up to the day she’d passed away. Sometimes he wondered how he would have turned out if it hadn’t been for her and her gentle ways.

“So there you are,” a soft voice said behind him.

Nate turned, found Alyssa standing at the bottom of the staircase. The house was dark, save for a nightlight in Amanda’s bedroom. Nate, wearing a pair of plaid flannel pajama bottoms and a T-shirt, was sitting in a rocking chair by the side window in the living room.

“What are you doing up at this hour?” his wife inquired, her voice sleepy.

Nate gestured over his shoulder. On the couch, Jake lay sleeping on his stomach, two fingers stuffed in his mouth. Of late, the boy had been bothered by a touch of the flu and had awakened sweaty and unhappy in the middle of the night. Since he couldn’t sleep anyway, Nate had slid from the bed to tend to his son, leaving Alyssa sleeping peacefully upstairs.

Alyssa walked over to the couch, laid the back of her hand against her son’s forehead. She paused a moment, then withdrew, apparently satisfied with his condition. Then she padded over to Nate’s chair.

“So, how come he fell back asleep and you didn’t?” she asked.

Frowning slightly, he reached out to take her hand, pulled her onto his lap. She slid her arm around him and laid her head against his shoulder. They stayed that way for a long time, just listening to the rain falling outside. Finally, Alyssa drew in a long breath, placed her hand on his chest.

“I can feel all of your turmoil,” she said quietly. “You’re so restless, Nate.”

He looked down at the top of her head. He didn’t feel tense in anyway, didn’t think that he was sitting rigidly or anything like that.

Alyssa tilted her head back so she could see his eyes. “Not outside,” she clarified, then gave his chest a pat. “In here. Inside. You’re running in circles. Like you’re lost.” Her full lips turned downward into a frown. “Open up to me, Nate.”

So he did. He told her about what he’d been through, the torture he’d experienced at the hands of the Skin. He told her about being forced to watch everyone he loved die, only because his birth mother had angered the Skin long before he’d even found out he was an alien.

It took him an hour, all the while Alyssa sat silently in his lap, letting him talk without interruption. Every now and then he’d feel her body tense and he knew that it was hard for her to hear what had happened to him. More than once, he felt her shudder. She was crying.

When he was finished, when he’d explained how it came to be that Kyle Valenti had been the catalyst to destroy the cone, there was silence once again in the Spencer family living room. After a long while, Alyssa sat up, swung her leg over his lap and straddled him, though not in an entirely sexual way. Her dark eyes searched his as she brushed his bangs away from his forehead.

“I can’t imagine what you’ve seen,” she said softly, her words carefully chosen. “Not just this time, but the prior time as well. You’ve seen so much death, so much loss. I can’t even fathom what you’ve been through.”

He looked away from her, out the dark window.

“But I can see it,” she added, drawing his attention back to her. “I can see in you all that you’ve experienced. I still remember the first time I met you, back in Roswell.” One corner of her mouth lifted a smile of remembrance. “You were just this skinny, lost kid, in a strange place. You were really cute, too.” She winked and he gave a little laugh.

But the levity didn’t last for long, as her smile faded and she reached out to cup his cheek. “Even though you had this nervousness about you, you were still kind of wide-eyed and optimistic about the world.” A flash of grief passed through her eyes. “And some of that is now gone. It hurts to see it, Nate. It hurts to know what the world has done to you.”

Unable to come up with a reply to assuage her despair, Nate picked up her hand and brought her palm to his lips, kissed it gently.

“I’m gonna love you no matter what,” she said. “I’ll always love you. And that’s probably why it hurts.”

“I can’t fix it,” he finally said, apology in his tone. “I can’t change what has happened.”

She laid a slim finger against his lips. “I’m not asking you to. Time and life make us who we are. We all change. I just wish that you hadn’t had these experiences to change you. Sometimes I wish that you’d lived your life not knowing what you are.”

He looked at her in surprise.

“You would have been free of all of this,” she explained simply. “You could have had a normal life.”

In denial, Nate shook his head. “No, Al, that wouldn’t be the case. I saw what my life would have been. I would have lived a lie. I would have married Annie and God knows what she would have had up her sleeve. She was digging around in my mom and dad’s room for something. She was spying on me. I would have been trapped. I can’t be upset that I found out. Time and life might make us who we are, but what we are also determines who we become.”

Eyes following his hand, Nate brushed her hair away from her cheek, ran his fingers through its silkiness.

“And I wouldn’t have had you,” he said. “When I saw you sitting in that park, alone, it just broke my heart in two. I knew that you and I were supposed to find one another. If I hadn’t been able to turn back time and erase the damage, but if I had managed to defeat the Skin, I know that somewhere down the line, we would have been together. It was destiny, Al.”

Tears shined in her eyes as Nate pulled her close to him. Crossing his arms over her back, he squeezed her tightly, never able to be close enough.

“I only want the best for you,” she said to explain her saying she’d wished him free of the I Know an Alien Club.

“I have the best,” he replied, tightening his grip on her. “Right here.”

Alyssa struggled free, then took his face between her hands and kissed him. Nate fell into her, into her spirit, into her warmth, into her soul. Opening the gate just a tad, he let her see bits of what he’d experienced. She gasped, but never broke their connection. She was in for the long haul, for better or worse.

While little Jake Spencer slept soundly on the couch, his parents fell quietly to the floor, lost in one another, but finally found.

* * * * *

The next morning, Alyssa moved about the kitchen preparing breakfast as Nate sat at the table staring blearily into his coffee cup. In the highchair, Jake pounded his spoon on the tray, while Amanda kicked playfully in her bouncy seat positioned at the end of the table. Nate’s bloodshot eyes drifted to his son, who was pink-cheeked and healthy again, his grin a mile wide.

“’Eerios,” he spouted.

“Okay,” Nate mumbled, climbing from his seat. “Cheerios.”

“Honey, I can get that,” Alyssa said, beating eggs in a plastic bowl with a wire whisk.

“I got it,” Nate replied, reaching into the cupboard and pulling out the familiar yellow box. At first sight of it, Jake squealed in delight. Dragging, exhausted, Nate moved for the refrigerator; as soon as he opened it, Kiki, the now fully-grown cat Max had bestowed on his son, began swirling around Nate’s feet, making figure-eights. Nate looked down at him tiredly.

“Kiki likes a little milk in the morning,” Alyssa explained, dropping the eggs into the skillet with a sizzle.

Nate got two bowls out of the cupboard – one for Jake, one for Kiki – while the cat meowed loudly. Coupled with Jake’s spoon-pounding, Nate thought his head was going to explode. As quickly as he could to appease the cat, he poured some milk into one of the bowls and put it on the floor. The orange tiger purred his appreciation and began lapping at the milk.

“’Eerios!” Jake demanded cheerfully.

Sliding back into his seat, Nate put a plastic bowl on Jake’s tray, filled it with cereal and milk and watched his son dig in. Unable to resist, he reached out and touched the boy’s head. Jake was too engrossed in his breakfast to care.

Amanda was looking at Nate scornfully.

“Sorry,” Nate sighed. “If I had boobs I’d feed you too.”

Alyssa turned from the stove, her eyebrows raised, then she laughed. “I’ll feed her in a minute,” she said, returning to tend to the eggs.

Nate was still feeling the affects of being up all night. The fact that Alyssa had also been up most of the night and was still cheerful and full of energy boggled him. She truly was amazing.

Alyssa lifted the skillet and dumped the scrambled eggs onto a plate, accompanied by some bacon and toast. Then she placed the plate before Nate and took his coffee cup to refill it. The aroma of breakfast drifted to his nose and he realized how horribly hungry he was. Almost as though he could feel her staring at him, his eyes shifted to his daughter, who was looking at him as if to say one thing –

Oh sure – make sure YOU get something to eat before you take care of me.

He swallowed in guilt, then turned his attention to Alyssa as she put the cup on the table. “She hates me,” he said matter-of-factly.

Alyssa laughed lightly. “No she doesn’t.”

“She likes you better.”

She shrugged. “Maybe. But that’s just for now, while I have these.” She cupped her breasts and gave them a jiggle, at which Nate laughed lightly. “Someday she won’t care about by boobs and then she’ll be daddy’s girl. I know it for a fact.”

Nate had his doubts about that. He dug into his breakfast, watched out of the corner of his eye as Alyssa retrieved the baby to feed her. She was still so young, really, but already the mother of two. A good mother, at that. Nate’s heart swelled with love for her.

“Nate?”

He looked up at his wife, seated across from him. Her dark eyes were mischievous.

“You were astounding last night.”

He chuckled lightly, flushing a little.

“Astounding,” she stressed. “Thank you.”

Lifting his cup, he smiled over the rim. “No need to thank me. It was my pleasure.”

They shared a long look, then he returned to his breakfast and Alyssa returned to feeding her daughter. A few moments later, there was a knock at the front door. Alyssa looked down at her semi-exposed chest, then at Nate.

“I’ll get it,” he said, wiping his mouth on his napkin and rising.

Standing on the front steps, wringing her hands together, was Liz Parker. Nate’s eyebrows rose in surprise as he pushed open the screen door.

“Good morning, Liz,” he said. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said too cheerfully, too quickly.

“You wanna come in?”

She shook her head. “No, I’d rather you came out.”

Nate’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine. I just want to talk in private, okay?”

He blinked in confusion, but then nodded and moved to get his shoes and a jacket. He met Liz outside, looked around for Max and Emily and didn’t find them.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Let’s go for a walk,” she suggested, gesturing toward the swing set Max and Nate had erected the day before.

Nate fell into step behind her and when she took a seat on one of the swings, he grabbed the one beside her, no less confused.

“Max told me what happened yesterday,” she began.

Nate watched her silently.

“Do you know what I’m talking about?” she asked.

“You mean that he keeps things from me?” he stated bluntly.

Liz looked down at the ground. “I can’t speak for Max,” she sighed.

“But he does keep things from me,” Nate clarified.

Meeting his eyes, Liz nodded and Nate felt his heart sink to his toes. The day before, while setting up the swing set, Nate had tried to get Max to talk about a couple of things. First, why was it that Nate could teleport yet no one else could? Second, how did Max manage to travel through time without the aid of the cone or the granilith? Max had changed the subject every time until Nate had bluntly asked him about both subjects. Max had feigned ignorance. And if there was one thing Nate had learned over the last seven years, it was that Max Evans was anything but stupid.

“I think Max is afraid,” Liz finally said with a sigh.

“Afraid of what?” Nate replied, unable to keep the bitterness out of his tone. “That I might find out the truth?”

Liz cocked her head to the side. “Max has never lied to you, Nate.”

“He did yesterday.”

She sighed again and returned her gaze to the ground. “He has a lot of responsibility.”

“He has secrets.”

Liz looked at him and nodded without apology. “Yes, he does. And so do you.”

Nate withdrew slightly.

“And so do I. We all have them, Nate. Some things we’re just better off not knowing. If Max felt like there was a need for you to know he would have answered your questions yesterday.”

“A need to know?” Indignation washed over Nate. “Why is he making these decisions for me?”

“He doesn’t want you to get hurt.”

Nate was about to snap at her again, but something in her eyes stopped him.

“You are more important to him than you realize,” she continued. “He lost you once, had to give you away, then had you taken away by the FBI. Then some Skin abducted you and nearly killed you. Nate, he’s terrified of what might become of you.”

“So he’s keeping me ignorant?”

“He’s keeping you safe.”

Nate shook his head in defiance. “What about Kyle? I know that Kyle knows more than he lets on. Why is it okay for Kyle to know things and yet I’m not allowed? Is it because Max doesn’t trust me?”

Liz shook her head sadly. “No. He trusts you, Nate.”

“Then why?”

She looked into the distance for a moment, then turned a sad smile to him and in that instant he knew that she was going to clam up, just as her husband had. “Max doesn’t know I’m here. I’d appreciate it if we kept it that way.”

Nate watched, stunned, as Liz rose and got into her car. Just like that, she was gone. And he had no more answers that he’d had the day before. Why had she even bothered to visit at all? To try to save face for Max?

And why was Max so reluctant to tell Nate about his time traveling abilities? What harm would there be in Nate knowing? After all, he knew about Isabel and Alyssa’s dreamwalking powers – and he even knew about Liz’s ability to mindwarp. So why was it that Max was so skittish about letting his son know about his abilities?

A shiver suddenly curled down Nate’s spine, dropping into his stomach and forming a tight ball. In an instant it made sense. It made perfect sense why Max would hide something of this magnitude from Nate. There could only be one rational reason for it.

Healing wasn’t the only power Nate shared with his father.

THE END