Roswell Fanatics

Hey guys, sorry for the delay. I've been sort of busy with things, and I haven't gotten a lot of writing done. This part is dedicated to Bored to Mundane life, you know why. It's a bit short, but the next one will make up for that, it's really long.


Part 21

Liz was sitting behind Alec on his bike, her arms wrapped tightly around his waist as to not fall off. She had the distinctive feeling that Alec was going a lot faster than was allowed, but she didn’t really mind. Why she was suddenly so into speeding she would never understand.

She could very clearly make out the hard muscles of his abs beneath her fingers, and it took all her will power to keep her hands from wandering. She longed to find out how it would feel to brush over his chest, how he would react to that. But that was a line she wasn’t willing to cross, at least not yet, and so she shook her head, trying to rid herself of those traitorous thoughts. What had gotten into her lately?

The were quickly approaching the city limit, and even though Liz knew that this was a potentially dangerous situation – going somewhere alone with a more or less complete stranger in the middle of the night probably wasn’t a smart move if you looked at it rationally – she felt surprisingly safe. For some reason she trusted Alec, knew that he would never hurt her, knew that he wasn’t a threat to her safety.

Alec left the street they had been traveling on for the last twenty minutes, one of the bigger roads that led out of town, and started driving up a small hill on something that was more a dirt path than a real road. Another five minutes later the reached the top and Alec parked the bike before the both got off.

Their eyes met, and for a few seconds they just stared at each other. Liz finally tore her gaze away from Alec. Looking him in the eyes for too long was dangerous – just look what had happened last time.

Alec turned around and started walking away from Liz, surprised that that was actually a hard thing to do. “Come on, I want to show you something,” he told her, turning back to make sure that she was following him. “This is my favorite spot in the whole city, I like it even more than the beach.”

He walked over to the edge of the cliff they were on. When they reached it, Liz gasped. You could see he whole city from up there. It was beautiful, absolutely breathtaking. “Oh my God,” was all she could say.

“It’s even nicer when the sun is setting, or rising,” Alec told her sitting down. Liz followed suit, careful not to sit too close to him so that he wouldn’t get the wrong ideas. She still hadn’t decided what to do about him and so she didn’t want to give him misleading signals. She had done that once not too long ago, and she still felt guilty about that.

“You come up here a lot?” Liz chose her words carefully, wanting to stay on neutral subjects.

“Yeah, I do.” Alec scratched his eyebrow. “I don’t know, I guess I just have a thing for high places. Back in Seattle I used to go up on the Space Needle all the time. Being up so high brings things into perspective. It’s a good place to go to get away from everything to just think about… things.”

“I know what you mean,” Liz said. “Anything you want to talk about?” she asked after a short moment, the feeling that Alec had been through his share of rough spots once again intensifying.

“Not really,” Alec replied staring down at his hands. Talking about Rachel wasn’t something he felt ready for. He could hardly stand thinking about her. He doubted that he’d ever be ready to tell someone about that. And Manticore wasn’t exactly his favorite subject either.

“Okay,” Liz simply said.

Alec looked up at her surprised. He’d expected a different reply from her. All the other women he’d known till then had always tried to push him towards talking about everything, expecting him to bare his soul to them – conquests for a night, barkeepers, waitresses, Max. But Liz just accepted that he didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t push, didn’t try to change his mind, she wasn’t even sulking. He liked that. He liked her,

“What about you?” Alec asked.

“Me?” Liz asked surprised.

“You seem to have a lot on your mind. Want to talk about any of it?” Alec asked.

Liz shook her head. She just wasn’t ready to talk about all the things that were plaguing her. “But thanks for the offer,” she said giving Alec a soft smile.

“Likewise,” Alec said, returning the smile.

The sat in silence for a few minutes just enjoying the view before Liz spoke up. “Is that an amusement park?” she asked.

“Where?”

“Down at the beach,” Liz said pointing in the direction.

“Looks like one.”

“I used to love amusement parks,” Liz told him. “My Grandma Claudia always used to take me to them.”

Alec was surprised when Liz told him that she had a grandma. Apparently she was one of the escapees and had been taken in by a family.

He envied her for that, having had a somewhat normal youth. He hadn’t wanted any of that while at Manticore simply because he hadn’t known what he was missing. But ever since he was out in the real world and saw what it was like tobe normal, he regretted not having that. Not having a family, not having happy childhood memories to look back on.

He’d started realizing that there were things that Manticore just couldn’t and wouldn’t give them, things that were more important than anything else, when he’d seen the relationship between Rachel and her father. And now that he remembered that again after Manticore had made him forget it, it stung all the more. Not only did he not have that, he was also the reason why Rachel was no longer with her father.

He suddenly realized that he had yet to say something in return. “Used to?” he asked. “Does that mean you don’t like them anymore?”

It was Liz’s turn to stare at her hands. “About a year ago something pretty bad happened at one. One of us, a guy from our group, was taken by the special unit,” she explained, careful not to mention that it had actually been her boyfriend, the guy she used to think of as her soul mate, that was taken. “They did horrible things to him, tortured him, almost killed him. We could save him in the last minute.”

Special unit? Alec asked himself. Probably a division of Manticore that was responsible for tracking down the rouges, he figured.

“I’m sorry,” Alec said. He hadn’t wanted to bring up bad memories.

“It’s okay,” Liz said. “It’s not like it ended badly. It just…changed a lot of things,” she added, thinking of the constant fear they were in afterwards, thinking of destiny, thinking of the chaos that followed.

“So, wanna go?” Alec asked.

“Go?”

“To the amusement park.”

“I…I’m not sure that that’s a good idea,” Liz told him looking down.

“Why? Because it would bring up bad memories?” Alec asked

“Yeah.”

“You shouldn’t let your past control your life,” Alec told her. “We should go, replace the old memories with better ones,” he suggested, ignoring the little voice in his head that told him that maybe he should take his own advice before he told others how to live their lives.

Liz hesitated a moment. “Okay,” she finally said, not being able to resist Alec’s smile. And he was right, it was time to regain control over her life, over herself. She was sick of being guided by her fears. She only hoped she wouldn’t regret it.

~*~*~*~

An hour later Liz and Alec were back in town, walking up the lane to the front door of Mandy’s house.

“You don’t work tomorrow, right?” Alec asked.

“No, I don’t,” Liz replied. “How d’you know that?”

“Jondy mentioned it,” Alec told her, making a small smile appear on Liz’s face, even though she was desperately trying to ignore how pleased she was that he actually remembered that.

“How ‘bout I pick you up at eight?” Alec asked.

“Sounds good,” Liz replied.

“Okay,” Alec said as he backed away, wishing that it were already tomorrow.

~*~*~*~

Later that night Alec was lying in his bed, but sleep wouldn’t come to him.

When he had said goodbye to Liz earlier that night he had contemplated kissing her. And with every other girl he would have done just that. But with Liz… it just didn’t seem right. And that was something he just couldn’t let go of.

He knew why he hadn’t kissed Liz. He simply didn’t want her to think that that was all he was after. But why? If he didn’t want her to think that, did that mean that it was actually true?

That thought was as strange as it was disturbing. Did he really want more from Liz than something physical? Did he actually have feelings for her?

No. That wasn’t possible. After Rachel he had sworn to himself that he would never care for another person as much as he had cared for her. It hurt too much.

But then why did he feel such a fierce protectiveness when it came to Liz? Why was her being hurt the last thing he wanted to see happen? Why did he think that her smile was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his whole life?

Was it because they were both transgenics? Was it because she was younger than he was? He knew that Liz had told Matt that she was already twenty-one, and he knew that her ID said that too, but he also knew that it wasn’t true. She had called herself a teenager several times, and he had noticed the brief moment of hesitation when Matt had asked her about her age – both sure signs that she was lying. Plus, she didn’t look like twenty-one. Not that she looked young. He would have believed nineteen, maybe even twenty, even though he suspected that she was even younger.

Not that he minded. Liz seemed wise beyond her years. Probably something that came from living in fear all her life, always hiding, looking over her shoulder, ready to run if it became necessary. And from the little bits she had told him and from what he had picked up from her conversations with Kyle, life hadn’t been easy for her in the last few years.

His heart went out to her, and once again he asked himself why. What was it about Liz Parker that stirred up all those emotions he’d thought he’d left behind for good?

He didn’t know, and if he was honest, he wasn’t sure if he actually wanted to find out in the first place. Deciding that he had done enough brooding for one night he rolled over and after a few minutes fell into a restless sleep.


tbc

Hey guys, thanks for all the well-wishes. It really means a lot to me. Here's the next part. It's quite long, the longest yet I think. I hope you like it. It has lots of A/L interaction. That's actually all the part is about. I really hope I'll be able to get a new part out soon, but I'm afraid I can't make any promises.


Part 22

The next day Liz was anxiously waiting for Alec to pick her up. It was exactly five minutes to eight and she was getting nervous. Her palms were sweaty and her hands were shaking slightly.

She told herself that she was only nervous because she would be going back to an amusement park for the first time after the FBI had captured Max there and that it had nothing to do with spending the evening with Alec, but deep down she knew that that was only partly true.

She wasn’t quite sure why, but the thought of spending the whole evening alone with Alec somehow unnerved her. Which was of course ridiculous. She’d spent time with him before with nobody else around, and it wasn’t like they were going out on a date. So there was no reason to be nervous, right?

Liz almost jumped out of her skin when the doorbell rang. She took a deep breath before going to open it, but Kyle beat her to it.

“Alec,” he said, his tone not rude but not exactly very friendly either.

“Kyle,” Alec replied, slightly amused by the frown on Kyle’s face. Liz hadn’t been kidding when she said that he was a bit over-protective.

“Hey,” Liz said coming up behind Kyle, flashing Alec a smile, and giving Kyle a decent jab in the ribs as to tell him to knock it off.

“He…” Alec began, trailing off when he looked at Liz for the first time. She was wearing hip-hugging jeans that accentuated her soft curves and a red top that left part of her mid-drift bare. Her hair was braided and pinned up on the top of her head, giving her a touch of innocence. She looked amazing.

Liz blushed under Alec’s gaze, and Kyle scowled.

“Liz, are you sure that this is a good idea?” he asked, trying to break up their little moment and at the same time fighting to suppress the urge to go with them and play chaperon. He doubted that Liz would be happy about that.

“Hmm?” Liz said absentmindedly, still caught up in a starring match with Alec.

Kyle rolled his eyes. What was it with Liz always getting caught up in staring matches with guys? And he’d thought she and Max had been bad.

“The amusement park,” he said, his annoyance fading away when concern for Liz took over. Was she really ready for this? Or would it only bring up even more bad memories that she wasn’t ready to deal with?

“Kyle, I’ll be fine,” Liz told him for the hundredth time that evening, finally tearing her gaze away from Alec. She would have been annoyed had she not known that Kyle was only worried about her and trying to look out for her. It was still a bit annoying, but somehow cute and very endearing at the same time.

And in a way he was right, going to the amusement park might really bring up horrible memories of things she had tried hard to forget. Normally she would have been a bit anxious to say the least at the mere thought of going back there.

But knowing that Alec was going with her and would be there the whole time somehow soothed her fears. She felt safe with him, and so she wasn’t overly worried about what this evening could mean. At least not when it came to bad memories.

“You ready to go?” Alec asked.

“Sure,” Liz replied grabbing her jacket, even though it was pretty warm, since she assumed that they would be taking Alec’s bike.

“Bye,” she said to Kyle, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Take care of yourself,” he told her, still worried. He knew that that feeling wouldn’t go away till she was back home and still okay. Looked like he had a long evening ahead of him.

“My bike’s parked over there,” Alec told Liz. “Do you mind it?” he asked after a short pause, suddenly concerned that she might prefer a car.

“Not at all,” Liz said smiling. Sitting on Alec’s bike behind him, her body pressed against his with her arms wrapped around his waist wasn’t something she would ever complain about.

When they reached his bike, Alec gave her the spare helmet he kept in the compartment under the seat and they took off.

Liz was enjoying sitting behind him, her chest pressed against his back, her cheek resting on the soft leather of his jacket. Her hands were wrapped tightly around his waist – probably a bit tighter than necessary – and she could once again feel his six-pack through the thin material of his shirt. This was heaven.

Alec was having similar thoughts. He could feel Liz breasts pressing against his back, and it was driving him crazy. On the one hand he wanted the ride to never end, on the other hand he knew that it was better if they reached their destination soon.

Ten minutes later they finally arrived at the amusement park. Or was it much too soon?

Liz climbed off the bike, immediately missing the feeling of being pressed against Alec’s strong, muscular back. Alec got off too, wishing that he hadn’t lost the close contact to Liz’s oh-so tempting body.

He knew that he’d promised himself not to push Liz towards anything, but seeing her like this… It just made it damn hard to stick to his resolve.

“So, what do you want to do first?” Alec asked Liz.

“The roller coaster!” Liz said, her eyes lightening up when she saw it. It looked like it would be one hell of a ride. “Grandma Claudia and I always used to go on the roller coasters first. She got me addicted to them,” Liz told Alec while they walked over to it.

“You’re grandma went on roller coasters?” Alec asked surprised. He’d always thought that grandmothers knitted and made homemade marmalade. Roller coaster rides wasn’t something he would have suspected in their répertoire.

“Grandma Claudia wasn’t quite like other grandmothers,” Liz explained, a sad smile touching her face. It was almost two years since she died, but thinking of her still hurt.

“I’m sure she was an amazing woman,” Alec said softly, wishing he could make the pain he saw lingering in Liz’s eyes go away. That seemed to be a recurring sentiment, but before he had time to dwell on that realization it was there turn to go on the roller coaster.

Once they were seated – in the first cart of course – Liz inspected the roller coaster. It was pretty high, but there were no loops. Not that she minded that. It was the speed she liked so much about roller coasters, the feeling of falling – almost like she was flying. Loops were okay, but she could do without them.

They started moving, climbing up to the first and tallest peak.

“This is the best part about roller coasters,” Liz told Alec, giddy like a little kid. “The anticipation mixed with a little bit of fear at the beginning of the ride before things speed up – it’s all about adrenaline.”

“Yeah, it is,” Alec replied smirking, even though he wasn’t necessarily thinking about roller coaster rides. “You know, you didn’t exactly strike me as the adrenaline-junkie-type,” he said.

“What can I say, I’m just full of surprises,” Liz replied, an impish smile on her face, causing Alec to chuckle. Liz probably didn’t even know how true that was.

Liz glanced over at Alec, not able to ignore how damn sexy he looked with that trademark half-smile of his. That was her last thought before the ground dropped away from beneath her feet and she began to fall… in more than just the literal sense.

~*~*~*~

Five minutes later Liz and Alec left the roller coaster, Liz totally high from the adrenaline rush. She knew why Grandma Claudia had always insisted they go on a roller coaster first – it set the right mood for the rest of the day, or in this case evening. The heightened adrenalin-level enhanced your senses, making everything seem better, faster, louder. It made all the difference in the world.

“Come on,” Liz said, grabbing Alec’s hand to drag him along, suddenly not caring if he could take it the wrong way, if she was stumbling into something she wasn’t ready for, not thinking about what this could lead to. “I need some sugar,” she told him.

Liz lead Alec over to one of the many vendors where Alec insisted on buying Liz her pink cotton candy. Liz protested a bit, but Alec wouldn’t budge, and so she accepted the sweet from him, thanking him with a soft smile on her face.

They strolled around the amusement park to see what other rides there were, chatting about everything and nothing all at once.

Alec watched Liz eat, and the sight of it almost undid him. She’d pluck off a bit of the cotton candy and bring it up to her lips only to have her pink tongue snake out and pull it into the warm cavern of her mouth, reminding him of the time her tongue had snaked out for other, more carnal, reasons. And he couldn’t help but wonder if she tasted even sweeter now than she had then.

“Want some?” Liz asked, a tempting smile on her lips.

“Sure,” Alec said, not being able to resist that smile. She could have asked him if he felt like jumping off the Empire State Building and he would have said yes.

Liz plucked off another piece of the candy, but instead of handing it to him she brought it up to his mouth to feed him. Alec’s eyes locked with Liz’s as he opened his mouth to accept the pink sweet. His lips brushed over her fingers, and her eyes darkened, a small shiver going down her spine.

The obvious desire Alec saw in Liz’s dark brown pools of chocolate she passed off as eyes made him a bit braver. He grasped her hand to keep it where it was and then slowly took the tip of Liz’s finger in his mouth, sucking off the remainders of the candy. Her breathing hitched in her throat, and her eyes darkened even more, giving Alec the satisfaction of knowing that it had the desired effect on her. He did the same with the rest of her fingers, smiling in satisfaction when her eyes drifted shut and she tilted her head to the side ever so slightly.

When he was finished he released Liz’s hand and his eyes once again met hers. He didn’t know how long they stood there like that, just staring at each other, but their moment was broken up when someone bumped into Liz. Suddenly embarrassed her cheeks flushed and she averted her gaze. Looking anywhere but Alec she discovered the Ferris wheel only a few yards away from them. It was at the edge of the amusement park, right beside the beach, and it was huge.

Alec saw her eyes light up and followed her gaze to see what the cause of that was. “Wanna go for a ride?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

~*~*~*~

Ten minutes later Liz and Alec were seated next to each other on the Ferris wheel, waiting impatiently for it the ride to begin. Or at least Liz was impatient. Alec seemed to be quite content, whether the Ferris wheel was moving or not. There wasn’t a lot of room and so they were sitting quite closely together, so close that their bodies had to touch in one spot or another, so close that Alec could smell Liz’s captivating scent. She smelled wonderful, a mixture of sun and strawberries and Liz.

A gleeful giggle escaped Liz when the ride finally began, and Alec couldn’t help but smile at her obvious delight. Her smile light her whole face up, and Alec could have sworn that an angel was sitting beside him and not a mere mortal.

They were brought up higher and higher until they were at the very top, and Liz couldn’t help but gasp. The view over the city as well as the ocean they had from there was simply amazing. The sun had already set, but the sky was still tinted with pink and purple as were the clouds. It was beautiful. And so romantic. Liz sighed and rested her head on Alec’s shoulder, enjoying the view as well as Alec’s company.

Alec was a bit surprised at first but quickly recovered and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her even closer.

The wheel continued its journey downward only to bring them back up again. After a few more rounds the wheel stopped right when they were at the top.

“It’s nice up here,” Liz said softly as to not disturb the tranquility of the atmosphere. Everything seemed so calm and peaceful, almost as if they’d left all their problems and worries down on the ground so that they couldn’t affect them up here.

“Yeah, it is,” Alec said, agreeing with her, even though the scenery wasn’t exactly what he was enjoying so much.

Liz turned her head to look at him and found herself only inches away from his face. Her gaze drifted lower until it reached his lips, and before she knew what she was doing she leaned in and kissed him. Later she would ask herself what exactly had driven her to do that, the adrenaline, the romantic atmosphere, or maybe just Alec, but for the moment she couldn’t care less. This is what she had been thinking about 24/7 ever since their first kiss, even though she had been trying hard to deny it. But there was no denying it now. She wanted Alec. Bad.

Her lips brushed over his softly, hesitantly, and for a moment she was almost afraid that he would pull back, that he didn’t want this after all. But her worries quickly vanished when he kissed her back.

His lips were even softer, smoother than she remembered, and so much more tempting. She couldn’t get enough of them, of his kisses, his taste. For a brief moment she wondered how she had actually managed to go without this for two whole days, but those thoughts were quickly forgotten when she felt Alec’s hand snake up her back, sending another shiver down her spine and causing goose bumps to rise where he’d touched her.

He buried his other hand in Liz’s soft, silky hair, causing Liz to wrap her arms around his neck, trying to pull him closer. Alec was slowly driving her crazy. The moment their lips had touched, a wave of desire had washed over her, drowning out all reason. And the longer Alec teased her with these soft, barely-there kisses, the more urgent Liz became. She wanted more, needed more. Now.

Alec seemed to read her mind, and she sighed contently as his kisses grew more fervent, more passionate, more demanding, until he finally deepened it, dipping his tongue into her mouth, exploring every inch of her. Their tongues danced together, teased each other, fueled the need and longing even more. If that was even possible.

Alec abandoned her mouth in favor of her neck, tracing a path of soft butterfly-kisses down to her collar bone. Liz trembled under his touch, causing Alec to smile against her skin. He wasn’t sure why, but these little signs of pleasure he received from Liz brought him more satisfaction than anything else ever could.

Alec let the hand on Liz’s back drift lower to then wander upwards again, this time under her top. He brushed over her back ever so softly, hesitant to be too demanding, not wanting to go too far too quickly. He wasn’t really sure why, but he knew that Liz wasn’t the type of girl who took things like this lightly. She didn’t seem like someone who dated a lot or constantly switched boyfriend, and definitely not like someone who slept around. And the last thing he wanted was to push her away by asking for more than she was willing to give him.

Alec’s mouth was in the mean time sucking on Liz’s pulse-point, causing little whimpers to escape her lips. His mouth along with his hands almost made her come undone right then and there.

His hands were so soft, his touch so gentle, he treated her almost like she was made out of spun glass. Like she was gonna break any minute if he was too rough. It was as frustrating as it was sweet, and Liz just couldn’t decide what sentiment was stronger.

Alec’s mouth wandered upwards to nibble on her earlobe for a second before sucking it into his mouth and then returning to her lips. He kissed her hungrily, not holding back anymore, showing Liz exactly how much he wanted her. Liz returned his kisses with equal abandonment, loving the way Alec made her feel. Desirable. Attractive. Wanted. The exact opposite of how Max had made her feel in the past few weeks, months actually.

The sound of someone clearing his throat caused Liz and Alec to pull apart. That’s when they noticed that their ride was over and that the operator of the Ferris wheel was waiting for them to get off. Liz blushed furiously, clearly embarrassed at being caught in such a compromising position, while she scrambled to get up. Alec followed her, a hint of a smirk on his face. He clearly didn’t see any reason to be embarrassed.

“So, what do you want to do now?” Alec asked, smiling down at Liz. Her cheeks were still flushed, partly from their make-out session, partly from embarrassment, and her eyes were still sparkling from the rush his kisses had brought – she looked amazing.

The flush on Liz’s cheeks intensified as she thought of what she would really like to do now, but she quickly shook off those thoughts. Hadn’t she decided that nothing was going to happen between her and Alec, at least for now?

“I’m actually hungry,” Liz admitted. Making out had always made her hungry, just like it did now. “How about some pizza?”

“Sounds good,” Alec replied. Ever since he had gotten out of Manticore he had gotten hopelessly addicted to all kinds of junk food, and pizza was at the very top of his list of all-time favorites.

~*~*~*~

Alec watched in fascination as Liz ate a huge slice of pizza. He would have never thought that someone that small could eat that much, especially since she had some cotton candy not even twenty minutes ago.

“How the hell do you keep that cute little figure of yours if you eat so much?” Alec asked her.

“I work it off,” Liz replied. Alec had no idea how much energy it cost to run from the FBI and prevent the end of the world.

“Kyle work it off for you?” Alec asked.

“NO!” Liz practically shouted before she realized that Alec was only teasing her. Alec laughed at the shocked look on Liz’s face, earning himself a smack on the arm. “Not funny,” Liz told him sternly. “But I think I’ll forgive you if you win me one of those stuffed animals over there,” Liz told him pointing at a nearby booth, a sly grin on her face.

Alec smirked as he led Liz over to the booth. It was one of those were you had to knock down wooden pins that were moving at different speeds. “Come on Liz, this is too easy,” Alec said. As if something like this could ever be any kind of challenge to a transgenic.

Liz rolled her eyes at his cockiness. “Just win me a stuffed animal, okay?”

Alec chuckled. He got some balls and aimed them all at the pins that were moving the fastest, succeeding in knocking them all down.

The owner of the booth handed him a big stuffed animal – a gray elephant, which he passed on to Liz.

“Thank you,” she said smiling, a faint blush spreading over her cheeks. She didn’t know why, but watching Alec knock down those stupid pins had in a way turned her on.

“That’s all I get?” Alec asked pouting. “A mere 'thank you'?”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Men,” she muttered before cupping Alec’s face in her hands and giving him a mind-blowing kiss. It ended as quickly as it had started, and left Alec a bit dazed when Liz abruptly pulled away again.

“So, you want another stuffed animal?” he asked once he had recovered, causing Liz to laugh.

The spent an hour or two more at the amusement park, going on a few more rides and eating some ice cream – followed by Alec winking at Liz and offering to work it off for her – before they headed home.

“I had a great time tonight,” Liz told him when they reached Mandy’s house.

“Me too,” Alec replied, staring into her eyes intently.

Liz’s breath once again hitched in her throat as Alec bent down to kiss her. His kiss was soft and sweet since he didn’t want to get too worked up before leaving her. It was hard enough as it was.

When they finally broke apart they were both breathing heavily – the kiss hadn’t stayed as innocent as planned.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at the bar,” Alec said.

“Yeah, Liz replied smiling, already looking forward to it.

“Bye,” Alec said after giving her one last quick kiss.

“Bye,” Liz replied before she went inside, a dreamy smile on her lips.


tbc

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


Disclaimer: The song “One Sweet Day” is by Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men


Since it's been so long, here's the end of part 22:

Part 22

...The spent an hour or two more at the amusement park, going on a few more rides and eating some ice cream – followed by Alec winking at Liz and offering to work it of for her – before they headed home.

“I had a great time tonight,” Liz told him when they reached Mandy’s house.

“Me too,” Alec replied, staring into her eyes intently.

Liz’s breath once again hitched in her throat as Alec bent down to kiss her. His kiss was soft and sweet since he didn’t want to get too worked up before leaving her. It was hard enough as it was.

When they finally broke apart they were both breathing heavily – the kiss hadn’t stayed as innocent as planned.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at the bar,” Alec said.

“Yeah, Liz replied smiling, already looking forward to it.

“Bye,” Alec said after giving her one last quick kiss.

“Bye,” Liz replied before she went inside, a dreamy smile on her lips.


tbc


Part 23

Liz made her way inside and found Kyle in front of the TV.

“Hey,” she said upon entering the room.

“Hey,” Kyle replied, quickly turning off the TV. He’d worried himself sick the whole evening and so he studied Liz carefully. He was – to put it mild – astonished to see that she was practically glowing. She looked genuinely happy. “What the hell were you up to, Parker?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” Liz asked confused. What was Kyle talking about? He knew exactly where she’d been and what she’d been doing. Well, not quite, she thought blushing.

Liz’s reddening cheeks didn’t go unnoticed to Kyle. “If I didn’t know better I’d say it’s the post-coital glow.”

“KYLE!” Liz shouted, shocked that he had actually suggested that that could be as much as a remote possibility.

“Just kidding,” Kyle said holding his hands up in defense. “So, had a nice evening?” he asked, not that he really needed to. He could very plainly see that she did indeed have a nice evening. And the hickey on her neck confirmed the obvious. For a brief moment he wondered how ‘nice’ her evening had actually been, but he quickly dismissed that thought again, deciding that he didn’t really want to know.

“Yeah, I did,” Liz replied smiling. “You know, I was really worried that going to an amusement park would bring up bad memories at first, but it didn’t. I didn’t think of what happened last year once.”

“Really?” Kyle asked surprised. He hadn’t expected that – Liz getting through the night with a complete lack of negative emotions. Not that he wasn’t glad about it.

“Yeah,” Liz said, chewing on her bottom lip as she always did when she was trying to figure something out. “It surprises me too. I don’t know, there’s just something about Alec that makes me feel safe. I trust him,” Liz explained.

“Plus, we went on the roller coaster first, and you know what kind of effect the adrenaline rush has on me,” she added.

“Oh yes,” Kyle said, thinking back to the time they’d gone to an amusement park back when they’d been dating. They’d also gone on the roller coaster first, and Liz had seemed like another person afterwards. Not that Kyle had minded. That had been the day they’d gotten to second base, and that wasn’t something Kyle would ever complain about, even though it seemed a bit strange now thinking back to it.

“Kyle!” Liz said slapping his arm, knowing exactly what he was thinking about.

“What?” Kyle asked. “We both know that the adrenaline rush makes you horny as hell, and even though I know you won’t admit it, you don’t have to. The hickey on your neck says it all.”

“I have a hickey?” Liz asked shocked. She rushed over to the mirror to take a look at her neck. Kyle was right. There was a dark red bruise right on her pulse point. She brushed her finger over it lightly, thinking back at how it had gotten there, shivering at the memory. For a moment she considered getting rid of it, but then she changed her mind. She sort of liked it, liked what it represented, what it reminded her of. She’d just cover it up tomorrow.

Kyle watched Liz closely, and for the first time asked himself what kind of relationship Liz and Alec had exactly. He knew that Liz didn’t have any deep feelings for Alec, it was simply to early after Max for that kind of thing. But he was starting to suspect that it was more than just physical attraction. Not that he thought that Liz was actually aware of that.

Liz tried to stifle a yawn, but Kyle noticed anyway. “Tired?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Liz said, yawning again.

“Wanna go to bed?” Kyle asked.

Liz nodded, suddenly realizing how tired she was, and they went upstairs to get ready for bed.

Kyle complained a bit at first when Liz told him that the elephant was sleeping with them since he thought that he was too much a man to sleep with something so girlish in his bed, but Liz was quick to let him know that it was either sleeping alone or sharing his bed with her and the elephant. And so Kyle grudgingly agreed to let him stay with them after Liz reassured her that the elephant didn’t snore, at least not more than Kyle.

“I do not snore,” Kyle muttered when they got into bed, causing Liz to giggle. Tired as they were, they drifted off to sleep quickly, falling into a peaceful slumber.

~*~*~*~

A few hours later, Liz was still fast asleep…

Liz was down at the beach, walking towards a figure sitting on a blanket at her usual spot.

“About time you got here, Parker,” the person said smiling up at her. “You almost missed the sunset.”

“And I always thought that you were more into stargazing than sunsets,” Liz told him after she’d sat down next to him.

“Yeah, I know, I’m way too manly to like something as girly as this. Guess you and Maria finally rubbed off on me a bit with all that mushy, romantic stuff,” Alex replied rolling his eyes, electing a giggle from Liz. “And now be quiet, you’re gonna miss the best part,” he told her.

“Wait as minute,” Liz said after a moment of silence. “How is it possible that we’re watching a sunset?” she asked, ever the scientist. “We’re facing east. The sun sets in the west!”

“Liz,” Alec said rolling his eyes. “This is a dream. Not everything has to be logical.”

“Yes, it does,” Liz replied stubbornly. “This is my dream, I want things to make sense.”

Alec started laughing, so hard that he couldn’t sit upright any longer. He was rolling around on the blanket clutching his stomach.

“Stop laughing!” Liz demanded, but there was a smile tugging at her own lips. “I see you haven’t changed much,” she said after a moment, faking disappointment.

“Not even death could make that happen,” Alex replied. “I might not have these nifty little things like a body or a heartbeat anymore, but the rest is still the same. Alex, the stud, every girls wet dream and every guys greatest enemy,” he said cockily, flexing his muscles.

Now it was Liz’s turn to laugh. Alex glared at her, pretending to be angry, but it didn’t last long. No guy could resist the smile of Liz Parker, and he was no exception, dead or alive.

“You have it nice here,” Alex told Liz, looking around. “I can imagine that Kyle is having the time of his life, yapping after all the beach bunnies.”

Liz giggled at his accurate description of Kyle’s dating habits. “You’d be surprised actually,” she told Alex. “So far there’s only been one girl.”

“Yeah well, you’ve only been here a few days,” Alex replied. “Give him time. I’m sure he’ll live up to his reputation.”

“True,” Liz giggled.

“And you?” Alex asked after a short pause, growing serious. “How are you doing?”

“I don’t really know how to answer that,” Liz replied sighing. “Before we left Roswell… it was like I was losing it. It was all just too much… I couldn’t handle it anymore,” she told Alex, knowing that she could be honest with him, that she didn’t have to hold anything back. Hell, she doubted that she could do that in the first place. He seemed to know everything.

“But here… everything’s so far away. It’s almost like it was only a bad dream. It doesn’t seem real. It’s just easier,” Liz explained.

“I hear a ‘but’ coming,” Alex told her.

“I feel like I’m running away,” Liz admitted. “And that’s just something I normally don’t do. I don’t run away from my problems. I deal with them, try to solve them. I don’t usually take the coward’s way out.”

“You’re not a coward, Liz,” Alex told her. “You just need a little time away from Roswell, to figure a few things out, to deal with some stuff on your own. Florida is good for you right now, it’s what you need. Don’t feel bad for putting yourself first for once. You’re not running away from anything, you just needed a change of scenery.”

Liz smiled gratefully at Alex. He had this unique talent of making you feel so much better with a few, chosen words. He always knew exactly what to say.

Liz smiled at him. “I miss you,” she said, her lips starting to tremble, tears gathering in her eyes.

“I miss you too,” Alex replied. “Oh, don’t cry Liz,” he begged. “You know I can’t watch a girl cry without starting myself.”

He pulled her into a hug, rocking her gently as to calm her down. “I’ll always be there with you Liz, watching over you,” he told her. “I have been from the moment I died, and that won’t ever change. You won’t ever be alone,” Alex said, knowing that that was one of her greatest fear. “Never. I promise.”

~*~*~*~

When Liz woke up the next morning, she felt anything but rested. Physically she was fine, but emotionally she was drained. She knew that Kyle noticed that something was up, but he didn’t push, knowing that Liz would come to him if she wanted to talk about it, something Liz would be eternally grateful for.

They spent a quiet day at home, Kyle was watching TV, Liz was reading. Or at least pretending to. She couldn’t concentrate on the book, her thoughts kept wandering back to the dream she’d had last night.

It had felt so real. Like Alex had really been there. But she knew that that wasn’t possible. Alex was dead. Dead people didn’t go and visit old friends in their dreams. He was just a fragment of her imagination, a memory. He wasn’t real.

And that hurt. It hurt so much. It brought up all the guilt and pain she’d felt over her best friend’s death, feelings she wasn’t able to deal with. She wasn’t strong enough for that.

Hours later it was time for them to go to work. They drove to the bar in silence, Liz lost in thoughts of her own. Once the reached the bar Liz went straight to the back room to prepare herself for her night of singing, barely even saying hello to Jondy.

“Is everything okay with Liz?” Jondy asked concerned. Alec hadn’t done anything stupid, had he?

“Yeah, she’s fine,” Kyle said, trying to convince himself as much as Jondy.

~*~*~*~

A few hours later Liz was up on stage with her guitar resting in her lap. She’d tried hard to keep her mind off Alex while she was singing, but it didn’t work. Her thoughts kept wandering back to him, and so it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to start playing a song that fit her mood, that reflected her feelings. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice Alec coming into the bar.

Sorry I never told you
All I wanted to say
And now it's too late to hold you
'Cause you've flown away
So far away

Liz still regretted not telling Alex how much he and his friendship meant to her before he died. Her last words to him had been about staying strong and not falling back into the role of Isabel’s puppy in heat.

It seemed so ridiculous now that she had wasted precious time to tell him something so utterly unimportant. There were so many other things she could have said to him, so many things she still wanted to say. She’d give anything to turn back time and change that. To tell him she loved him. To tell him that no matter how bad things had been for her, he’d always managed to make her feel better. To tell him that she too thought the world of him.

Never had I imagined
Living without your smile
Feeling and knowing you hear me
It keeps me alive

And I know you're shining down on me from Heaven
Like so many friends we've lost along the way
And I know eventually we'll be together
one sweet day

Alex’s death still hadn’t manifested itself as a fact in Liz’s heart, or mind. A small part of her still expected it to be him when her cell phone rang, expected him to show up one day, telling them that it had all been a huge mistake, that of course he wasn’t dead. And then he’d laugh at them for falling for it, joking about how gullible they were.

But she knew that that wouldn’t happen. Alex was gone, for good. He was dead. He wasn’t coming back to her. She’d lost him. All she had left was the memory of him.

Tears were pricking at her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She couldn’t cry. Not now. Not here. She was working for God’s sake.

Taking a deep breath to keep her voice from breaking, she continued with the next verse.

Darling, I never showed you
Assumed you'd always be there
I took your presence for granted
But I always cared
And I miss the love we shared

And I know you're shining down on me from Heaven
Like so many friends we've lost along the way
And I know eventually we'll be together
One sweet day

Liz had taken Alex for granted. He’d always been there. Even when she wouldn’t tell him the truth about the pod-squad, even when she was keeping secrets from him, lying to him, he was there for her when she needed him.

Had she ever really apologized for that? For keeping him in the dark? Or maybe she should have apologized for telling him the truth. If she hadn’t told him, would he still be alive right now? She would have probably lost his friendship, but he would be alive. And Alex’s life was definitely worth the sacrifice of their friendship. It would have hurt like hell, but at least he’d have been safe, and that was all that mattered to Liz.

Although the sun will never shine the same
I'll always look to a brighter day
Lord I know when I lay me down to sleep
You will always listen as I pray

And I know you're shining down on me from Heaven
Like so many friends we've lost along the way
And I know eventually we'll be together
One sweet day

And I know you're shining down on me from Heaven
Like so many friends we've lost along the way
And I know eventually we'll be together
One sweet day

Sorry I never told you
All I wanted to say

Liz somehow managed to finish the song, not sure how, but she did. A lone tear had rolled down her cheek, and she quickly wiped it away, not wanting anybody to see it, not knowing that a certain male transgenic had already noticed it, thanks to his enhanced sight.

Liz glanced over at the clock and realized that her shift was over. ‘Thank God,’ she though. She doubted that she would have made it through another song.

“Thank you,” she mumbled into the microphone before quickly leaving the stage.

She went into the back room, needing a minute to compose herself. Taking a few deep breaths she tried to chase away the thoughts that had been haunting her all day, not quite succeeding though.

The door was suddenly opened and Kyle came into the room. “You okay?” he asked worriedly. He had noticed that something was up with Liz all day, and he had suspected that it had something to do with Alex, but now his fears had been confirmed. Every idiot would have seen that the last song had come straight from Liz’s heart, making Kyle’s ache for her. He felt so helpless. He wanted to take the pain over everything that had happened in the last few months away from her, make it all better somehow, but he couldn’t. There was nothing he could do, except maybe be there for her.

“I’m fine,” Liz told him, not ready to talk about it. “Could I have your car?” she asked after a short pause. “I really want to go home.”

“Sure,” Kyle said, handing over the keys. “Drive carefully,” Kyle told her, giving her a small kiss on her forehead, not knowing what else he could do for her.

“I will,” Liz said, giving him a rather forced smile to keep him from worrying too much, before she left through the back door.

Kyle watched her leave with a heavy heart, not sure if leaving her alone was such a good idea right now, before he returned to his place behind the bar.

“Where’s Liz?” Alec asked him concerned.

“She went home,” Kyle told him.

“Everything okay?” Alec asked, even though it was a stupid question. He’d seen her tears. It didn’t exactly look like everything was really okay.

“Yeah,” Kyle replied shortly.

“Uh, I think I’ll go too,” Alec said standing up. He needed to go to Liz. Make sure she was okay.

Alec drove to Liz’s aunt’s house, but the car wasn’t there. After pondering the possibilities of where she could be for a moment he got back on his bike, driving to the place he was sure he’d find Liz.

Liz already heard Alec’s bike approaching a few minutes before he got there. She was surprised to say the least that he’d found her so quickly, that he had even been looking for her. Or maybe he wasn’t looking for her after all, she thought. This was his spot after all. What if he didn’t want her here? What if he was coming with someone else?

Liz was surprised how painful the thought of Alec being with another girl was. Not wanting to think about that now she was about to get up, get away, but Alec was already here. Leaving before he saw her wasn’t possible anymore. She glanced over her shoulder and was more than just relieved to see that he was alone.

She quickly wiped away the tears from her cheeks when she heard him cut the engine, not wanting him to know that she’d been crying.

“Hey,” Alec said softly, sitting down beside her. “I thought I’d find you here,” he told her, studying her face carefully for any hint of sadness. He found plenty. Her eyes were red, and there were tear tracks on her cheeks. She’d been crying again.

Liz couldn’t help but smile. So he had been looking for her.

“Are you okay?” Alec asked, his concern evident in his voice.

“I...” Liz began, fully planning on lying to him too, telling him that everything was fine. But she couldn’t. The tears she’d been trying to suppress since she’d made out the sound of his bike in the distance for the first time were fighting to break free again, and she just wasn’t strong enough to hold them back any longer. She didn’t want to hold them back. She didn’t want to lie to Alec. She didn’t want to close herself off from him. She was scared that if she did that again, go numb like she’d done after Alex’s death, that she wouldn’t find her way back. That it would become a permanent condition. And as much as it scared her to open up to Alec, not doing that scared her even more.

Alec saw the tears gathering in her eyes, and his heart broke when they started to fall. He quickly gathered Liz’s small form in his arms, her legs draped over his lap, her head buried in his chest. He held her while she cried, muffled sobs escaping from her lips, her whole body trembling.

Seeing Liz like that…it affected Alec more than he wanted to admit. Liz had effortlessly managed to slip through the barriers he’d worked so hard to build up. How she’d done that was not something he wanted to analyze right now. And to be honest, he didn’t even care. At least for the moment. All he cared about right now was Liz.

Alec wasn’t sure what else to do besides letting her cry on his shoulder. He’d never been in a situation like this. He’d never had to comfort a crying girl. Hell, whenever he’d seen girls cry he’d usually been the reason for that in the first place.

And so he didn’t do anything except hold Liz, hoping that it would be enough.

~*~*~*~

After what seemed like hours Liz started to calm down again. Alec didn’t release her though, even after she stopped crying. It felt so nice having her in his arms, so right, even despite the circumstances that lead to it. And she didn’t seem to mind.

Liz had absolutely no intention of removing herself from Alec’s arms. She felt safe there, felt protected. Nothing seemed quite as bad now that he was here with her.

But there was another reason for her unwillingness to move. She was afraid that that would lead to questions, questions she wasn’t sure she was ready to answer. She wanted to talk about Alex, even with Alec who hadn’t even known him, but she needed some time. She’d barely even begun trying to deal with her best friend’s death, she wasn’t ready to talk about it. Not now that the wounds felt so fresh after the dream she’d had last night. Not now that she’d only yet begun to realize how much she really missed Alex, to realize what a gapping hole he’d left behind in her heart, her life.

Minutes past, and Alec still didn’t say anything, nor did he move. Liz began to relax. Somehow Alec knew how she felt, knew that she wasn’t ready to talk about whatever it was that was bothering her. He just continued to hold her, rubbing comforting circles over her back. And that was exactly what Liz needed right now. He was exactly what Liz needed right now.


tbc

Disclaimer: Song is "Find another Fool" by Marcia Ball

Author's Note: Sorry it took so long guys, I wanted to update from my house but there was a problem with the internet, so I had to wait till I was back here at the museum. This part is actually kind of boring, so sorry about that too. Promise the next one will be more interesting again.


Part 24


Liz got up the next morning after tossing and turning for over an hour, trying to go back to sleep. She had a restless night behind her, strange dreams had come and gone, leaving her confused and disturbed even in her sleep. But nevertheless she was wide awake and it wasn’t even 9am yet. Kyle however was still asleep and so she crept out of the room quietly, not wanting to wake him up. She went downstairs to the kitchen, craving some coffee, and was surprised to see that it was already made.

“Hi sweetie,” her aunt said coming into the kitchen behind her, the morning paper in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

“Hey,” Liz said surprised. “When did you come home? I thought you’d be gone another day or two.”

“I managed to wrap things up a bit quicker than I initially thought and so I could catch an earlier plane. Just arrived here ten minutes ago. Want some coffee?” she asked gesturing to the full pot.

“Sure.” Liz was happier than she knew a normal person should be due to the fact that she didn’t have to make coffee herself and wait till it was finished. Her morning didn’t start till she got some caffeine.

“How’s the new job been?” Mandy asked, handing her niece a cup of the hot black liquid she knew she was hopelessly addicted to. Liz had told her about their new jobs on the phone a few days ago, not leaving out the fact that they used fake IDs to get them, knowing that her aunt wouldn’t really care about that. Mandy hadn’t exactly been sweet lil’ miss innocent in her youth either.

“Good actually. I almost died of fear the first time I got up on that stage,” Liz admitted. “But it’s gotten better, I’m really enjoying it now. It’s fun.”

“Glad to hear that.” Mandy smiled, happy to see that Liz was happy, or at least a lot happier than last summer. She’d hated seeing her niece so depressed the year before. Liz had hardly ever left the house, except at night to go down to the beach. And even though there was always at least a hint of sadness in Liz’s eyes now due to the death of her best friend, she wasn’t depressed. Not like she’d been last summer. She didn’t act like it was the end of the world, or at least the end of her world like she had done then.

“You know, we still have to go out and celebrate your new jobs. When do you two have a night off?” Mandy asked getting up to search the kitchen for some pop tarts. She was addicted to them as much as much as Liz was addicted to coffee. A day without pop tarts was a lost day in her book, and she hadn’t had any ever since she’d left a few days ago. Which meant she had some serious catching up to do.

“Well, I only work Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, but Kyle works five days a week. I think he has Monday and Wednesday off next week,” she said before taking a sip of her coffee, wincing when she burned her tongue.

Mandy found the pop tarts and plopped two of them into the toaster, one for herself and one for Liz, knowing that her niece liked them almost as much as she did. “How about Wednesday then? I have a business dinner Monday evening.”

“Sounds good.”

Mandy studied her niece for a minute, trying to figure out what else was going on with Liz. “So, what’s his name?” she finally asked.

“What?!” Liz asked surprised, almost chocking on her coffee. How the hell did she figure that one out so quickly?

“Liz, it’s written all over your face. You met someone.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

“Why do you think that?” Liz was starting to squirm around on her bar stool. It was unnerving how well her aunt could read her.

“Call it instinct.”

“Last year your instinct first told you that I was sleeping with Matt, the postman, and then that I had an affair with Paul, the lifeguard,” Liz reminded her.

“Okay, so my instincts failed me then, but only because I was misreading the signs. I know they aren’t failing me now. So what’s his name?”

Liz hesitated for a moment. “Alec,” she finally said, not being able to help the soft smile playing over her lips. Thinking of him… she just had to smile.

“Where did you meet him?” Mandy asked excitedly while sitting down beside Liz, dead set on digging for information until she knew everything. Lately her job had hardly left her any time for her private life, and so she at least wanted to hear every detail of her niece’s love life if she couldn’t have one of her own at the moment.

“At the bar. He’s a friend of Jondy’s.” Liz kept her answer short on purpose. She knew only too well what freely giving away too much information would lead to. Mandy could be damn persuasive, almost ruthless, when it came to getting Liz to reveal facts that she would have preferred to keep secret, so she didn’t want to encourage her aunt.

“Jondy… that’s the girl working behind the bar with Kyle, right? One of his conquests.”

“How do you know that?” Liz asked exasperated. She hadn’t breathed a word about what had happened between Kyle and Jondy to Mandy. How did she do that? Mandy was practically reading her mind.

“I didn’t. Not till you confirmed it just now.”

Liz was speechless.

“Instinct,” her aunt once again told her. Then she frowned. “We’re getting off topic here. So… Alec. What does he look like?”

“Tall, short, dark blond hair, green eyes.” Liz returned to her short answers after being reminded of just how sneaky her aunt could be when she was trying to get information out of Liz.

“He’s handsome, isn’t he?” Mandy wasn’t fooled by Liz’s nonchalant attitude. She’d seen the glint in her eyes when she’d described him. He was a hottie, no doubt about it.

“Um, well, I guess. If you like light hair that is. Personally, I prefer the darker type.” Liz was lying through her teeth. For the life of her, she couldn’t remember a single reason why she’d liked Max’s dark hair so much. Alec’s light locks were so much more appealing. Especially if you buried your hands in them to… she felt a blush creeping into her cheeks and mentally shook her head, trying to rid herself of those thoughts. But when she glanced over to Mandy she knew it was too late. Her aunt was smirking, and had a knowing look on her face. Too knowing for Liz’s taste. Oh no.

~*~*~*~

Just like Liz had thought, or rather feared, Mandy wasn’t satisfied until she knew every last detail about her and Alec, leaving out the alien part of course. Liz was saved by Kyle coming into the kitchen an hour later. Mandy literally pounced him, deciding that she knew enough about Liz’s love life, not it was Kyle’s turn.

Liz fled out of the room, only too happy to get away from her aunt. As much as she loved Mandy, sometimes she was worse than Maria. An hour later Kyle came up to her room, and she couldn’t help but laugh at him. His face was burning red, and he looked thoroughly embarrassed. Whatever Mandy had talked to him about, it must have been bad, because Kyle normally wasn’t one to get flustered easily.

“Damn it Liz, stop laughing,” he growled, his face slowly returning to its normal color.

Liz giggled, not being able to help it, before quickly putting a serious expression on when Kyle glared at her. He didn’t look amused.

“You know, you could have warned me that Mandy was worse than Ricky Lake when it comes to dragging intimate details out of a person.”

“Sorry.” Liz was still fighting the laughter that was threatening to erupt. “Guess it slipped my mind.”

“It slipped your mind?” Kyle asked exasperatedly. “It slipped your mind? I can’t believe it,” he muttered. “It slipped her mind. How can something like that slip her mind?!”

“Oh come on Kyle, don’t be such a wussy,” Liz said hitting him with a pillow.

“Did you just call me a wussy?”

Liz pretended to think about it. “I did, didn’t I?”

“Okay Parker, you’re asking for it.” Kyle grabbed a pillow of his own and delivered a blow that made Liz tumble onto the bed. Not because he’d hit her so hard, but because she was laughing too hard to keep her balance.

Kyle threw his pillow away and decided to change tactics. He jumped onto the bed beside Liz and started tickling her ribs, knowing exactly that that was her one weak spot. Downstairs Mandy could hear them laughing and a smile crossed her lips. Kyle was certainly good for her niece, and she had the distinctive impression that Alec played a part in that too. She only hoped that the boy wouldn’t break her heart. She’d have to meet him, make sure herself that he was good for Liz. A plan started forming in her mind, and she sat down to plot the details.

~*~*~*~

Liz didn’t go to the bar that day or the next. She told herself that it had nothing to do with Alec, that she wasn’t avoiding him, that she wasn’t staying home because she was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to look him in the eye if she ran into him. But deep down she knew that he did actually play quite a big part in her reasons for staying away.

She knew it was ridiculous, but she felt almost ashamed for crying in his arms like she’d done. She’d let down her walls, walls she hadn’t even realized she had in the first place, not until now that is. And looking back she wasn’t sure if that was such a good idea.

She wasn’t even sure what she was so afraid of. Alec wasn’t the type to push, he wouldn’t try to get her to talk about anything she didn’t want to talk about. But somehow… she felt like this would change everything. Till now their relationship or whatever you wanted to call it had been absolutely carefree. They had fun together. They laughed together. They did… other things together. And she liked it like that. She didn’t want anything to change. Kyle was right, a meaningless summer fling was exactly what she needed right now. Alec made her feel beautiful. He made her feel special. Wanted. He helped heal wounds inflicted on her heart by Max.

In the last few weeks in Roswell Max had made her feel unimportant and insignificant, not to mention plain. Like she was nothing to him. Like she wasn’t anything special. He’d gone to the one person he’d promised Liz countless times he would never go to. And that had only helped to bring back old insecurities.

Before Liz had started to date Kyle she always thought of herself as… well, not ugly. But not pretty either. She’d believed herself to be plain. A bit geeky. Nerdy. And then Kyle had come along, and for the first time in her life she had felt pretty. Maybe even beautiful.

But Max… Max had made her feel like a goddess. Until Tess came to town, that is. Besides Tess she’d felt like a wallflower. Max had however continued to purse her, telling her he loved her, that he wanted her. Only her. Never Tess. And she’d believed him, had fallen in love with him all over again, once again feeling like she was the most beautiful person in the world, at least in Max’s eyes.

But then Alex had died, and things had started to fall apart. Max had turned away from her and gone to Tess, the one time she’d really needed him. That had stung. Hell, stung wasn’t even a word for it. It had ripped her heart out. And it had made all the old insecurities come rushing back to her. Tess was blond, blue-eyed and busty, everything Liz was not.

But Alec…Alec made her forget them all by just looking at her. And he made her smile, made her laugh. She was happy, and as much as the independent streak in her didn’t want to admit it, Alec did play quite a big part in that. It was exactly what she needed right now. He was exactly what she needed right now. She didn’t want to lose that. But if her relationship with Alec changed, if serious issues were suddenly a constant topic between them...she wasn’t sure how that would change things, but she doubted that it would be for the better.

~*~*~*~

On late Sunday afternoon Liz was home alone since Kyle and Mandy had gone grocery shopping. She called her parents like she did every Sunday, and after talking to them for half an hour she decided to check her emails. She hadn’t done that since she’d come to Florida, and she didn’t really want to do it now, but she wanted to make sure she wasn’t missing anything important.

She logged on to her email account and wasn’t surprised to find about a dozen emails from Maria. She’d been called by her just as often, but she’d never picked up. She just couldn’t talk to Maria, not yet at least. And so she ignored the emails too and scrolled down to see if anybody else had written her.

The next name that popped up on the screen made her pulse go up a notch, but not in the good way. Definitely not in the good way. It was an email from Max. Glancing at the size of it, she guessed that he had a lot to say.

She hesitated a moment before quickly deleting it. Whatever it was that Max wanted to tell her, she didn’t want to hear it. The wounds were too fresh as that she felt like she could deal with him, with everything that had happened. Not right now. There were a few more, equally long ones from him, but she deleted those too.

Nobody else had written her, and so she logged off again. A glance at the clock told her that it was time to get ready for work anyway.

~*~*~*~

A few hours later she was at work and already half way through her set. But Alec wasn’t there. She wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or disappointed, but she was afraid the disappointment won over. As scared as she had been of seeing him again, she’d been looking forward to it too. She hadn’t realized just how much until now that he wasn’t here.

Besides the lack of Alec’s presence, there was something else bothering her. All evening her thoughts had wandered back to the emails she’d gotten from Max. It wasn’t that she regretted deleting them, but she couldn’t help but wonder what they’d been about. Assurance of his utter love and devotion? Apologies? Explanations? Or maybe all three?

Liz sighed. This was supposed to be her happy summer. Her Max-free time, at least for now. It wasn’t fair that he could so easily worm his way back into her thoughts and occupy her mind like he was doing when it had been so easy for him to forget her a few weeks ago.

She sighed again.

And started playing…

Now we’re down to sayin’ our goodbyes
And you still don’t see the truth
All I did was try
To make life better for you
But a woman just gets tired of being used

Go find another fool to love you
The world is full of girls like me
Find a fool to take care of you
That’s the girl I’d like to see

Who’ll be the one
When all this is done
Cause I know you
You’ll find another fool

Just when she finished the first few lines the door opened, and in walked Alec. He immediately sought her out, and when their eyes met a rush of warmth filled her body, chasing away all even remotely negative thoughts. Liz almost forgot the words of the next verse. She certainly had forgotten why she was singing this song in the first place.

Now you say you wanna talk it over
Maybe I would change my mind
But you never heard
A word I ever told you
And it’s not my mind
That needs to change this time

Go find another fool to love you
The world is full of girls like me
Find a fool to take care of you
That’s the girl I’d like to see

You’ll be fine
But you won’t know what she needs
And I know you
You’ll find another fool

Liz suddenly realized how obvious she was being with this song, and now that Alec was here it made her even more uncomfortable. She felt naked enough as it was after her crying episode a few days ago. She didn’t need to bare another piece of her soul to him. And so she quickly averted her gaze, careful not to look at him for the rest of the song.

You think hearts
Are made to be broken
Like your promises
So easily spoken

Too many good things
Have fallen at your feet
I wonder who’ll
Be the fool after me

Go find another fool to love you
The world is full of girls like me
Find a fool to take care of you
That’s the girl I’d like to see

I hope she doesn’t mind
When you don’t come home at night
Not all the time
Maybe once in a while
Tell her that you tried
But you can’t look her in the eye

And I know you
You’ll find another fool
Find another fool
Find another fool

Liz was more than just relieved when the song was over. It seemed to take an eternity to get it done. Why again had she decided to sing it?

But a second later, when she glanced over to Alec’s usual place at the bar, all the relief was knocked out of her. What she saw was like a cold shower. Alec was sitting there, but he wasn’t alone.


tbc

Hey guys, here it is, finally. This part doesn't exactly have a lot of plot, but I doubt that you mind that. Enjoy!


Part 25

Liz’s mouth went dry. She couldn’t believe it. There was Alec, sitting at his usual place at the bar, chatting amicably with the woman sitting beside him. Mandy. What the hell was she doing here? And what the hell was she doing talking to Alec?

Okay, so maybe Liz had a pretty good idea what she was doing here. She was here to check out Alec because a) she was just about dying of curiosity and b) to make sure he was a nice enough guy for her niece. As if Liz weren’t old enough to make a decision like that herself. She wasn’t a naïve 14-year-old anymore for crying out loud.

Liz groaned. This was the last thing she needed right now. She knew that things were going to be awkward enough between her and Alec after her crying episode a few days ago, she didn’t need Mandy making it even worse by bringing up subjects that Liz had no intention of discussing with Alec or by asking questions that Liz didn’t want to know the answer to. Not to mention that there were certain things Liz didn’t want him to know, at least for the moment. Like the whole Max-thing. That was definitely a no-no subject between them. She just hoped that Mandy realized that.

Liz started her next song, never taking her eyes off Alec and her aunt. When she started singing again, Mandy glanced up at her, smiling and beaming with pride, while Liz in return sent a glare in her direction, wanting to make it clear that she was not at all happy about her being here and interrogating Alec. Mandy pretended not to notice, waved at her and then turned back to her conversation with Alec.

The more time passed the more nervous Liz got. What the hell where Mandy and Alec talking about? The conversation had been going on for more than an hour, and in Liz eye’s that was definitely not a good sign. You couldn’t spend an hour talking about the weather, meaning that they must have long since left idle chitchat behind them. So if they weren’t small-talking, what were they talking about?

When Liz was finally finished with her set she rushed off the stage and practically ran to the back room to stash her guitar there before hurrying back out front and over to the bar, only to find that Mandy was getting ready to leave.

“And don’t forget, Wednesday, eight o’clock, at the Shapiro Club.” Mandy was talking to Alec and Liz could only hope that it wasn’t what she thought it was. “You too Jondy,” Mandy called.

Upon hearing her name being called Jondy turned around smiling. “I’ll be there.”

“Alec?” Mandy’s left eyebrow was raised and her tone made it quite obvious that she wouldn’t take no as an answer.

“I never say no to free food.” Alec looked slightly amused, his trade-mark half smile was on his lips and there was laughter in his eyes.

“Liz sweetie, you were amazing.” Mandy finally turned her attention to her niece, ignoring the exasperated expression on Liz’s face. “I’d love to stay a bit longer, but I have an early meeting tomorrow morning. Have a nice evening.” With that said she gave Liz a kiss on the cheek, said goodbye to Kyle and Jondy and then she was gone.

Liz wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or upset about that. On the one hand she was glad that Mandy’s conversation with Alec was over, on the other hand she was wondering why Mandy found it necessary to leave just when she was finished working. Maybe because she knew that she would not be happy when she found out what she’d been talking about with Alec? Or because she thought it was useless to stay any longer since she could no longer cross-examine Alec?

Liz suddenly noticed that Alec was starring at her. “You know, you really look hot when you’re chewing on your lip like that.” There was something in his tone, in his gaze, that sent a shiver of anticipation down her spine. Liz quickly released her lower lip, she hadn’t even realized she’d been chewing on it. She blushed under his intense gaze, then smiled, glad that there was no awkwardness between them. She slipped into the now vacant seat beside him.

“So, what were you and Mandy talking about?” Liz was trying to sound casual, but she doubted that Alec couldn’t see right through her. One way or another, she didn’t really care. She just wanted to know what their conversation had been about.

“Nothing special.” Alec was using the same casual tone as Liz and she had the slight suspicion that he was teasing her. Liz raised an eyebrow at him. What kind of answer was that?

“She just wanted to check us out, make sure her favorite niece isn’t falling in with the wrong crowd.” The way Alec said it make it seem like it wasn’t a big thing to him, but Liz wasn’t sure what to think about it.

“Her only niece,” she muttered, starring at the still untouched orange juice Kyle had brought her a few minutes ago. To Alec it must look like she’d told Mandy about him, like she saw their relationship as more than it was, which she didn’t. And she didn’t want Alec to think that. She liked him, he was funny, witty, sarcastic, not to mention drop-dead gorgeous. He made her smile and laugh more in a day than she’d done in the past year. And he was a damn good kisser. But that was it. She had absolutely no interest in any kind of commitment at the moment, in any kind of relationship that could actually be called a relationship. She wanted to enjoy herself, to have fun. She didn’t want to hear whispered words of love, promises of a future together, of forever. She’d had that, and just look where it had led to.

When Liz glanced up again and into Alec’s eyes, a shiver once again ran down her spine. She immediately forgot what she’d been thinking about, her worries were suddenly nothing more than a faint memory. There was so much desire in his eyes, so much need. His thoughts obviously hadn’t taken the same direction as Liz’s, and so she decided to dismiss them too.

"You tired?" Alec had obviously misinterpreted her long silence. "If you want, I could take you home."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Liz actually wasn’t tired at all. Only desperate to get the hell out of there and be alone with Alec. They quickly said good-bye to Kyle and Jondy and left the bar, Liz practically running towards the exit. Alec must be thinking that she’d lost it.

But as soon as they were outside he pulled Liz to him, obviously having been thinking the same thing as Liz. Their lips met in an urgent, almost frantic kiss. Liz wrapped her arms around Alec's neck, burying her fingers in his hair, moaning in satisfaction of finally being back where she belonged. Alec's arms slid around her waist holding her tightly against him. He didn’t seem to have the intention of letting go anytime soon.

Liz pressed her body against Alec’s hard chest, trying to get even closer to him. His kisses were intoxicating, and she was quickly losing her grip on sanity. The world around them seemed to be falling away slowly, leaving only the two of them behind. It had been four days since they’d last been together like this, much too long in her opinion. In Alec’s too, probably. How had she managed to go so long without?

Their lips met again and again in hot, wet, open-mouthed kisses. Liz felt a tingle go through her whole body, a warmth settle into her stomach…and other places. She couldn’t get enough of his lips, his taste. He was driving her insane with want, and the fact that his hand had slipped underneath her shirt and was running up her bare back leaving behind a trail of goose bumps didn’t exactly help matters.

Too preoccupied to try and analyze the meaning of that now she instead concentrated on the feelings, the desire Alec stirred up inside of her. The intensity of her emotions should have probably scared her, but since her sanity had left her the moment their lips had met it seemed so natural to her. She was too caught up in the moment to ask herself where they came from one way or another.

Liz didn’t know how much time had passed when she heard someone mutter “Get a room”, causing her and Alec to jump apart. They looked at each other for a moment and then started giggling.

“You want me to bring you home?” Alec was smiling, boyish mirth dancing in his eyes.

“No, I’m not really tired.” Liz kept her tone nonchalant but there was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

Alec raised an eyebrow at her, Liz just smiled.

“How about going for a walk then?” Alec stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, trying to keep himself from grabbing Liz again and continuing where they’d left off.

Liz agreed and they started walking. After a few minutes Liz broke the silence, not being able to keep her curiosity at bay. “What did Mandy mean about Wednesday?”

“She invited me and Jondy to come along to celebrate your new jobs.” Alec’s voice was so neutral, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

“So, what did you say?” Liz once again tried to sound casual, once again doubting that she succeeded.

“Well, I didn’t exactly have the impression that we actually had a choice.” Alec’s voice had taken on a teasing tone, causing Liz to sigh in relief. He obviously wasn’t taking this whole thing too serious.

“Sounds like Mandy,” she muttered.

Alec chuckled.

“You know, you don’t have to come along if you don’t want to.” Liz tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, a nervous habit she just couldn’t shake off.

“Is that your way of telling me that you’d prefer us not to come along?”

“No! I just don’t want you to feel obligated to come if you don’t want to.” Liz hoped that she was making it clear that she didn’t expect that – or anything else – from him.

“Like I said, I never say no to free food.” A lazy smile playing over his lips and Liz couldn’t help but notice how damn sexy that made him look.

“And that’s the only reason why you’re coming along?” She lowered her tone, speaking softly, slowly, causing Alec to glance over at her.

“Of course not.” His voice was suddenly also low, soft, husky. “I’d never pass up the chance to see you dress up again.”

Liz’s breath caught. “You know, the Shapiro Club isn’t exactly the place you go dressed in low-cut leather pants.” Her voice sounded raspy, breathless, even to her own ears. They’d stopped walking and were staring into each other’s eyes, once again forgetting the world around them.

“That’s true. But I’m sure you’ll find a suitable alternative that meets the black-tie requirements.” His voice was barely audible, no more than a whisper.

Their lips met again, but this time the kiss was soft, slow, almost hesitant. They took their time exploring each other’s lips, teasing each other until they could take no more and simply had to give in to the temptation of deepening the kiss. Tongues met, tangling together, before withdrawing only to seek each other out again a moment later. This dance continued for minutes, hours, they didn’t know. Time had lost all meaning.

Alec’s hand was cupping Liz’s cheek, his thumb caressing her soft skin, making her tremble. His lips finally left hers to trail a path of soft, openmouthed kisses over to her ear, lingering there for a second to softly nibble on it before continuing his journey downward. He found her pulse point and sucked, making Liz moan in delight, before dipping down to nip at the junction of her neck.

In the mean time Liz’s hands had found there way beneath Alec’s shirt. Her fingers ran up his bare back, scarcely touching him, exploring every inch of his hot skin. She was driving him crazy without even knowing it.

Alec’s mouth made his way back to hers, leaving behind a trail of butterfly-kisses up the other side of her neck. He kissed her again, more urgently and passionately than before.

Liz parted her lips instantly while digging her nails into the hard flesh of his back, seeking some kind of outlet for the passion that had been building up inside her, frustrated to find that it didn’t help one bit. She was slowly going insane with need for something that Alec’s kisses alone couldn’t satisfy – quite the opposite actually. For a moment the question of what could satisfy that need popped up in her head, but Alec’s hand trailing along the seam of her low-riding jeans distracted her from thinking rather quickly.

His hand continued its journey underneath Liz’s top brushing over the side of her stomach before reaching the skin just below her bra. Alec let it linger there for a second before dipping down again, sensing that it was too soon for anything else.

Liz wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or disappointed. On the one hand she was aching for Alec to touch her, on the other she didn’t think that it would be a good idea for their relationship to progress any more right now. One way or another, she was glad that Alec wasn’t pushing her to go too far too fast, that he seemed to know that she wasn’t ready for more than their more or less harmless make-out sessions, maybe never would be.

When they finally did break apart they were both breathing heavily, their lips red and swollen. Liz’s face was flushed, her eyes sparkling. Alec had to restrain himself from reaching out and grabbing her yet again. But he knew he had to. Restrain himself, that is. He wasn’t sure if he could take anymore of this. He was already painfully aroused, having Liz’s body pressed to his again, if only for one more second, would without a doubt be the end of him.

Liz glanced at her watch. She couldn’t believe that it had been more than an hour since they’d left the bar. Especially considering what they’d been doing for the better part of the hour. Her cheeks flushed and she glanced down, not understanding why a giddy smile was fighting to break free over her lips.

“Still not tired?” Liz glanced up to see Alec studying her, a soft smile playing over his lips.

“No, not really.”

“Wanna continue our walk?”

“If you can call it that.” They’d just made it down the street and around the corner before they’d started mauling each other again.

Alec chuckled. “We haven’t exactly gotten very far, have we?”

“No, not really,” Liz giggled.

They walked in companionable silence for a few minutes heading in the direction of the beach before Liz spoke. “How long have you lived in Florida?”

“A few months. I came here in January.” Alec kept his answer short on purpose. He didn’t want to think about the time he’d come to Florida, even less about the reasons for leaving Seattle in the first place, and he didn’t want to encourage Liz to start digging.

“Why Florida?” Something in Alec’s tone told Liz that she’d struck a nerve, but she couldn’t help but ask.

“Guess I was just sick of the bad weather and the cold. It’s no coincidence that there are more suicides in Seattle than anywhere else.” Alec was lying through his teeth, and for the first time he actually felt bad about it. He didn’t want to lie to Liz, but he wanted to talk about what had really happened even less, hence he wasn’t left with a lot of options.

Liz had noticed the bitterness creeping into his tone, the casual answer that was actually anything but. He reminded her of herself. She decided to drop the subject.

They’d reached the beach and Liz slipped off her sandals, enjoying the feeling of the cool sand on her feet.

“Wanna go for a swim?”

Liz laughed. Alec’s tone was warm and teasing, it was obvious that he wasn’t really serious. Not that Liz doubted that he wouldn’t hesitate to go for it if she actually agreed. But the tension that had settled around them when she’d asked him about his arrival in Florida was broken, and Liz was glad about that.

“Dream on,” she muttered suddenly feeling very playful again, causing Alec to laugh in return.

That he would.


tbc

Hey guys, as promised, the new part. I hope that it didn't go unnoticed that it only took me two weeks to update, that's a new record, at least for the time that I've been in Paris. And yes, I know that I used to update like three times a week, but I just don't have the time to do that anymore. Sorry. But the parts are longer than they used to be, and there's more Alec, so I hope that that makes up for the waiting.


Part 26

“I think you should wear some pants. Yeah, pants, that’s a good idea.” Kyle was nodding to himself, obviously very pleased with his idea. “And that black sleeveless top you have, the one with the turtle neck. You know, it makes you look really…uh…sophisticated.” He was sitting on Liz’s bed, helping her decide what to wear that night. Or rather not helping. It was Wednesday evening, and they had just one more hour until they were supposed to meet Alec and Jondy in front of the Shapiro Club. And Liz still had to finish her make up and pin up her hair.

Liz rolled her eyes. “Kyle, I hate to break it to you, but sophisticated is not exactly what I’m aiming at tonight.” She then turned away to hide the smile that spread over her face as Alec’s words once again echoed through her mind. I’d never pass up the chance to see you dress up again.

“How about this?” Liz was holding up a black silky dress with a flowing skirt that ended a few inches above her knees. It had spaghetti straps and showed a bit of cleavage, not to mention that it left the bigger part of her back bare.

Kyle scowled. “No. It’s too revealing.”

Liz smiled. “It’s perfect.”

~*~*~*~

An hour later Kyle, Liz and Mandy arrived at the Shapiro Club. Mandy was wearing an ice blue, knee-long dress, Kyle black pants and a white button down shirt. Walking towards the entrance of the club Liz suddenly got nervous. A swarm of butterflies exploded in her stomach, her palms got sweaty and her hands started trembling. What the hell was wrong with her all of a sudden?

Then her eyes fell upon Alec standing at the entrance, and her breath was knocked out of her, her nervousness instantly forgotten. He was wearing a black suit with a dark red dress shirt that was left unbuttoned at the collar. He looked absolutely gorgeous. It took a few moments before regaining her composure, but Alec didn’t seem to notice. He too was actually staring at her, a queer expression on his face. But as quickly as it came it was gone again, leaving Liz to ask herself if maybe she had seeing things. She was however sure that she saw Kyle laughing to himself and sent him a glare.

Alec stepped forward and gave Liz a kiss on the cheek. “You look amazing.”

Liz blushed. “You don’t look all that bad yourself.”

Alec grinned, then greeted Mandy and Kyle while Liz said hello to Jondy. She hadn’t even seen her standing beside Alec when they’d arrived. Jondy was wearing black satin pants and a deep red blouse that showed off quite a bit of her cleavage. Kyle seemed to like it, judging by the way he was staring at her. It was Liz’s turn to laugh at herself, but Kyle didn’t even notice.

Fifteen minutes later they were all seated at their table – the best table in the whole restaurant as their waiter had assured them – sipping champagne. Kyle and Liz had however declined and instead ordered some orange juice, causing everybody at the table – including Mandy – to laugh.

Another fifteen minutes later their food arrived and all through the meal they chatted amicably. Mandy talked about her real estate agency and the crazy things her clients had asked for, Alec told them about his job at a security company where he worked as a system advisor and Jondy and Kyle shared some anecdotes about their work at the bar. Only Liz kept quiet for most of the meal, leaning back and enjoying watching the others. It had been so long since she had been out with a circle of friends like this, just to enjoy herself, to have fun. Not to discuss the latest alien invasion or how to best evade the most recent team of FBI agents that was chasing them.

When dessert was served Alec turned to Liz. “You’ve been awfully quiet tonight. You ok?”

Liz smiled. “I’m fine. Great actually.”

Alec smiled in return, not pursing the subject. It was obvious that Liz really was happy. She seemed to be more relaxed than ever before. He’d never seen her look so carefree.

She glanced over at him, a sly grin on her lips. “You might believe you’re being really devious about it, but don’t think I don’t see you eying my dessert.”

Alec grinned, and Liz was sure she was going to melt into a puddle of mush any second now.

“Well, it does look quite tempting. You can hardly blame me for wanting it.” His voice was low and Liz suddenly wasn’t sure if he was actually talking about her homemade vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries.

“You want to try some?” Unconsciously she also lowered her voice. She dragged her lip over her bottom lip to wet it, waiting for his answer.

Alec could only nod, his eyes glued to Liz’s mouth. God, he wanted to kiss her.

Liz carefully scooped up some ice cream along with a big, juicy strawberry and fed it to Alec. “Mmm. This is good. Want some chocolate cake in return?”

Liz nodded. Alec loaded some chocolate cake with lots of fudge onto his fork and fed it to Liz. She closed her eyes, not able to help the moan of delight that escaped her lips. Never in her life had she tasted anything like this before. The cake was so soft and at the same time rich, it practically melted on her tongue.

When she opened her eyes again Alec was staring at her, a fire burning in his eyes that she knew only all too well. He brought another piece of cake to her lips, no bothering to ask if she wanted some more. She obediently opened her mouth and her eyes once again drifted shut as the sweet dessert met her tongue. In return she scooped up some more ice cream with strawberries and fed it to Alec. Five minutes later their plates were both empty, much to their disappointment. Then Liz noticed Jondy, Kyle and Mandy staring at them. “What?!”

~*~*~*~

Liz’s body was pressed against Alec’s, his strong arms wrapped around her holding her tightly into place, making sure that she stayed there. Not that she had even the slightest intention of leaving. This was heaven.

After finding Jondy, Kyle and Mandy staring at them Alec and Liz had decided to go dancing in order to escape their watchful eyes and have some privacy. At least as much privacy as you could have on a crowded dance floor.

Liz had been surprised how good a dancer Alec was. He had a great sense of rhythm – something most guys lacked completely – and absolutely no problem leading her around the packed dance floor without bumping into somebody every two seconds. The last time she had danced with anybody had been at her prom and that was…well, not exactly the best memory. But now she was really enjoying herself. She’d almost forgotten how much she liked dancing.

Liz looked over her shoulder and found Kyle staring at them, an unreadable expression on his face. Jondy and Mandy were engrossed in a conversation.

“I see we’re still being watched.” Alec had also noticed Kyle looking at them.

“Yeah.” Liz sighed. “You know, I realize that Kyle is just trying to look out for me, but slowly he’s really starting to annoy me.”

Alec chuckled. “I can relate to that. How about we really give him something to watch?” His tone was suggestive, leaving no doubt of what exactly he meant.

Liz grinned slyly. She snuck a glance at Mandy and Jondy, making sure that they were still busy talking, before she rose up on her tiptoes to kiss Alec. Lips met, tongues meshed. Within seconds they forgot everything around them, forgot that they were on a crowded dance floor and making out for the whole world to see. They only broke apart when someone bumped into them, pulling them back into reality rather harshly.

Liz glanced over to their table. Kyle was no longer looking at them, he’d joined in on the conversation of Mandy and Jondy.

~*~*~*~

Kyle was sitting at their table, listening to Mandy and Jondy talking with half an ear while watching Alec and Liz. They were dancing, wrapped up in each other’s arms so tightly that it should probably be called foreplay instead, a content expression on Liz’s face. Then Liz glanced over at him, frowned and turned back to Alec. A minute later they were sucking faces and Kyle decided that it was time to avert his attention. There was only so much kissing and groping he could stand to see when it came to Liz.

It took ten minutes till he dared to glance over to them again. Thank Buddha that they’d stopped kissing. The music was faster, Alec was now twirling Liz around the dance floor. She was laughing so hard that Kyle was surprised that she could still stand up straight, not to mention dance. She was obviously enjoying herself a lot. Maybe more than ever before since they’d come to Florida. And definitely more than she had in Roswell.

As much as he wanted to ignore the fact that Alec was probably the main reason why she was so happy, he couldn’t. Not seeing what he was seeing. It was too obvious. And as much as he disliked the idea of Liz getting involved with someone so shortly after Max – or at all if he were honest – he knew that Alec was good for her. And it wasn’t like he could actually do anything to change the situation. He knew how stubborn Liz could be, and he also knew exactly how she’d react if he tried to get her to stop seeing Alec. And hadn’t it been him who had encouraged her to go for it in the first place in order to forget Max? Sure, his main motive had been to prevent her mooning over Evans the whole summer, but he hadn’t realized that this might not be all that much better an idea either. At least from his point of view.

Liz was happy now, but would it stay that way? What if she fell for Alec and he took advantage of that? What if he too broke her heart? Max’s betrayal had almost killed her, but going through something similar again, so shortly after the first time, would be the end of her, Kyle was sure of it. And as her friend, wasn’t it his duty to try and prevent that?

No. It wasn’t.

He was her friend, not her keeper. Liz wasn’t stupid, she knew what she was doing. She was old enough to make decision like that herself. Trying to convince her that she was making a mistake would only make her all the more determined to go through with it and probably end up driving a wedge between them. And was he willing to risk their friendship because of something like that? No. Definitely not.

~*~*~*~

Later that evening Kyle found himself alone at the table with Alec. “Hurt her and I’ll hunt you down and kill you.”

Alec looked up startled. Had Kyle just threatened him? Out of the blue, just like that? At first he wasn’t sure if he should be angry or amused, but the amusement won out. “Is this your idea of making small talk?”

“I’m serious,” Kyle growled. “The last thing Liz needs right now is someone trampling all over her heart. She’s had enough of that in Roswell.” The last sentence was mumbled under his breath, but thanks to his enhanced senses Alec heard him all the same. He stared at Kyle long and hard as if searching for the answer to what exactly he’d meant with that last comment. Kyle however didn’t notice as the conversation was obviously over for him. Having said everything he needed to say he was now looking around the club trying to spot the girls.

But for Alec it was anything but. He’d suspected that some pretty horrible things must have happened in Roswell, Liz’s heart having been broken probably one of them, but now it was confirmed. It explained a lot. Liz’s sporadic reluctance when it came to whatever it was that was going on between them. The haunted, hurt look that sometimes popped up in her eyes without warning. Some of the questions Mandy had asked him when she’d come to the bar. Kyle’s very apparent dislike for his relationship with Liz – it all made sense now.

Why hadn’t he realized it before? It was so obvious. Was it maybe because he couldn’t stand the thought of anybody ever hurting Liz? Or was it because he didn’t want to have to ask himself why he was suddenly torn between the urge to gather Liz up in her arms, making all her sorrow and pain go away, and finding whoever it was that had done that to her and beating him to pulp?

He glanced up and saw Liz walking towards him, her hips swaying slightly, looking more stunning than ever before. There were quite a few guys throwing casual glances in her direction, not to mention a handful that were openly starring at her. But Liz didn’t notice, once again oblivious to all the male attention she got.

Alec felt a tang of jealousy in the back of his mind that was as surprising as it was unwelcome. He would have never called it that out loud, but a spade was a spade. When Liz reached the table he leaned in to claim a kiss, half to reassure himself that he had the right to do that, half to make it clear that no one else did.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Kyle rolling his eyes before getting up to join Mandy and Jondy at the bar, leaving Liz and Alec alone at the table.

Liz looked after him before turning her attention back to Alec. “What were you guys talking about?”

Alec took a sip of his drink. “We weren’t exactly talking.”

Liz frowned. “What did he say to you?”

“Something along the line of hurt her and I’ll hurt you.”

Liz gasped. “He didn’t!”

Alec cracked a smile. “Don’t worry about it, it’s no biggie. I think that was actually his way of telling me that he was backing off, even though he doesn’t approve. You know, one last warning before he lets it go.”

“You think?” Liz’s voice was torn between hopeful and doubting.

Alec nodded. “Yup. Looks like he’s gonna stop butting into our relationship.”

“Relationship?”

“I guess that’s not the right word for it.”

“What is the right word for it?”

“I don’t know. It’s just two people who happen to be attracted to each other.”

“And act on it.”

“Yeah.”

“No strings, no promises, no commitment?”

“Exactly.”

“Sounds good.”

Their lips met in a slow, languid kiss that within seconds became passionate, hungry.

Liz wasn’t sure why, but for some reason this kiss was different. Better. Maybe because there was no doubt left about what exactly it was that was going on between them. Maybe because she’d made her decision about what she was going to do about her attraction to Alec. Act on it.


tbc

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Part 27

“It’s a sun rise this time. You know, so that everything is logical and all that.” Alex was grinning at Liz, and she couldn’t help but smile back, even though he was teasing her. But Alex just wasn’t the kind of person you could ever be mad at, even for a second.

“Are you making fun of me?” she demanded mock-glaring at him.

“Me? Making fun of you? Never!” They were sitting on a blanket down at the beach, staring out over the ocean, watching the rising sun. The first sliver of blazing gold had just appeared in the distance, bathing the beach in a soft, warm glow.

They remained silent for a few minutes, just enjoying each other’s presence, watching the gleaming slice of gold slowly becoming bigger. It was Liz who broke the silence. “I’ve never been down here at sunrise before. It’s beautiful.”

“Yeah well, you’re normally asleep at this time of day, with working late and all.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“You really seem to be enjoying it though. Singing at the bar I mean. You’re good by the way.”

Liz glanced over at him surprised. “You’ve heard me sing? I mean, you’ve been there when I worked?”

“Of course.” Alex was taken aback by her question, as if he were astonished that she even had to ask. “I’m always there with you. I thought you knew that.”

“But…but what about the others? Maria? Isabel?”

“I’m with them as well.”

Liz gave him a what-the-hell-look, and so Alex elaborated. “For me, time doesn’t exist anymore, at least not in the way you know it. I can be at two, three, four places at once. It’s sort of like watching three sets of TV at the same time.”

“Isn’t that confusing?”

“Not really. It’s sort of like I can pause two worlds if something is going on in the third one, jump ahead when nothing special is happening, slow it down if something is happening at two places at the same time. It’s sort of hard to explain if you haven’t experienced it yourself.”

Liz nodded even though she obviously had problems grasping the concept behind what Alex had just told her. She stayed quiet for a few minutes, trying to take it all in. “Do you visit the others too, like this I mean?”

“I visited Isabel right after I died. She needed me then. I stopped doing it though after she almost left the planet. She doesn’t need me anymore, not the way she used to at least, and she can’t heal and move on if I keep popping up in her dreams. She needs to let go.”

“And I don’t?”

Alex paused, contemplating how to best answer that. “You’re hurting differently. My presence won’t prevent you from healing. Not now at least.”

“So there will come a time when you’re going to leave me too?”

“Liz, I already told you, I’m never going to leave you. I’ll always be there with you.”

“But I won’t be able to see you, to talk to you.”

“No.”

Liz remained silent for a few minutes. “How do I even know that you’re real?” she finally asked in a small voice.

“You don’t,” Alex simply replied. “There is no way to prove that. You either believe that it’s really me, or you don’t. It’s up to you.”

Liz didn’t know what to say. She wanted to believe that it was really Alex. She wanted to so badly. But she didn’t know if she could. There was just a part of her telling her that it was nonsense, that it was impossible, wishful thinking. Her mind was playing tricks on her, nothing more.

“Was it very bad?” Liz asked out of the blue.

“What?”

“Dying.” Liz’s voice was so quiet that Alex had barely understood what she’d said. She was staring at her hands that were tightly clasped in her lap, refusing to look up.

Alex looked at her long and hard, Liz’s eyes still glued to her hands. “You feel guilty.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

Liz didn’t say anything. What could she say after all? Sorry that I got you killed, I didn’t mean to? It was her fault that he was dead. It was all her fault. Everything that had happened.

“It’s not your fault,” Alex told her. Was he reading her mind? “Not that I died, not what Tess did, nothing. None of that is your fault.”

Liz still didn’t say anything. Of course Alex thought that it wasn’t her fault. He didn’t know what had happened. He didn’t know what she had done.

“I know about the Max that came back from the future.”

Liz was so surprised that she forgot that she wasn’t looking at Alex. “But…how?!”

Alex shrugged. “I just know. And that doesn’t change anything. It’s still all not your fault. Tess mindwarped me, not you. Tess killed me, not you. Tess had been working against us for God knows how long, not you. None of that is your fault.”

Liz sighed heavily. She wanted to believe that. She wanted to believe that so badly. She was just having a hard time convincing herself.

Alex reached out and tenderly touched her cheek, turning her face towards him, forcing her to look him in the eyes. “Liz, I swear that I never for one second blamed you. That idea would have never come to me. You did what you did because you thought it was the right thing to do, because someone you trusted told you that it was the right thing to do. And I respect you for that. I admire you for that. You proved to be stronger than anybody would have ever given you credit for. You gave up everything for the people you love, to make sure that they are safe, that the world is safe. You can’t blame yourself if things didn’t quite go the way you had anticipated. Shit happens. That’s just the way life is.” He smiled. “I love you Liz. Nothing could ever change that. Never forget that.”

Liz woke up with a start. She could still feel the warmth of Alex’s hand on her cheek, the first rays of sunlight caressing her skin, the light breeze ruffling her hair. It took a minute before she realized that she was in her bed and not down on the beach, that Alex wasn’t at her side but Kyle, who was sleeping peacefully. She was glad that she hadn’t woken him up. But then, Kyle wouldn’t wake up if a fourteen-wheeler drove through her bedroom.

Liz slowly sat up in bed rubbing he eyes before glancing at the alarm clock. It wasn’t even 6am yet. Still, she knew that there would be no more sleep for her that night. As quietly as she could she got up, grabbed a sweater and the stuffed elephant Alec had won her and that – despite Kyle’s protests – had slept in her bed ever since and crept out of the room. She needed to get out into the fresh air and think.

Down at the beach she spread out a blanket and sat down, her elephant in her lap. The sun, although it had not yet begun to rise, was already lightening up the sky in the distance. Liz didn’t know how long she sat there, watching the sun appear at the horizon and slowly sliding up the pinkish sky. The dream had left her restless, her mind kept jumping from one thing to another – Alex, the dream, the last weeks in Roswell, Max, Maria, her leaving, her time in Florida. She found it impossible to collect her thoughts, to really think anything through. It was like her brain was on overload.

“How come every time I come down to the beach you’re already here?” Alec suddenly plopped down on the blanket beside her, making Liz jump. “Couldn’t sleep?”

It took a moment for Liz to recover. She shook her head. “Nah.” She didn’t elaborate and Alec didn’t probe. He instead turned his attention to the elephant in Liz’s arms.

“Fella got a name?”

Liz looked down at the stuffed animal, a sad smile on her face. “Alex.”

“And here I was thinking all girls named their stuffed animals something like Pookie-Wookie.”

Despite herself, Liz laughed. “He’s named after…someone.”

Alec raised an eyebrow, not liking the hint of jealousy that suddenly came out of nowhere any more than the fact that she didn’t elaborate who exactly had given the elephant his name.

Liz saw his questioning look. “He was a friend.”

“Was?”

Liz hesitated for a second. Saying it out loud still hurt. Her voice trembled slightly when she finally did reply. “He died a few months ago.”

Something flamed up in Alec’s eyes for a second, but it was gone again too quickly as that Liz would have been able to put her finger on it. Was it
recognition? Pain? Regret?

“I’m sorry,” Alec said after a moment of silence.

“Yeah, me too. We’ve been friends for years. It was always Alex, Maria and I. We were inseparable. Or at least we used to be, back before...” Liz trailed off. She didn’t want to talk about this. It was too painful. Thinking of how things had been before the aliens, before Max had healed her and very thoroughly turned her world upside down, changing everything. Nothing had ever been the same again afterwards, least of all her friendship with Maria and Alex. She regretted all the things that she’d let come between them – secrets, lies, deception. Aliens. If only she could change things. If only she could turn back time, she’d do everything differently.

Liz mentally shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts. She knew that she shouldn’t do this. Tormenting herself with if-onlys and what-ifs wouldn’t change anything, no matter how much she wanted that.

“So, what are you doing here?” she asked, changing the subject quite abruptly. It was quite obvious that she no longer wanted to talk about Alex and so Alec left it at that.

~*~*~*~

Alec and Liz spent the next two hours talking about everything and nothing, both careful to avoid any subjects that could be painful. Around 8:30 Liz’s stomach started growling, reminding her that she had yet to eat some breakfast. Ten minutes later she and Alec were sitting in Mandy’s kitchen sipping coffee and eating pop tarts when Mandy came into the room.

She didn’t seem to be surprised to see Alec there. “Hey Alec, nice to see you. Have you been here all night?”

Liz almost spit out her coffee. She started choking and coughing so badly that a quite flabbergasted Alec had to whack her on the back several times.

“I take that as a no,” Mandy said dryly.

When Liz had recovered she merely rolled her eyes, not even bothering to comment on her aunt’s bad habit of accusing her of sleeping with every man she met.

“Come on,” she said to Alec. “I have to get dressed.”

“And I get invited along?” Alec teased her as soon as they’d left the room.

“Dream on,” Liz shot back. “I’m just not stupid enough to leave you alone in the same room as Mandy. She turns into a barracuda when she’s digging for information in case you haven’t noticed.”

“I have noticed.”

“Thought so.”

Outside Liz’s room there was a den with a couch and a TV. “Wait here,” Liz told Alec. “You can watch TV if you want. I’ll be back in five minutes.”

Alec glanced after her as she disappeared behind one of the doors. He caught a glimpse of her bed and for a moment he could have sworn that he saw somebody lying there. Somebody that looked awfully like Kyle. But that couldn’t be, right? Liz had told him half a dozen times that she and Kyle were only friends, that there relationship was purely platonic, that there was nothing more going on between them. But if that was true, what the hell was he doing in her bed?

When Liz came out again a few minutes later Alec deliberately looked past her and at her bed, trying to see if Kyle was really there or if his eyes had been playing tricks on him. Sure enough, he was there.

“Is that Kyle?” It took a lot to keep his voice neutral, to not give away the mixture of emotions he was trying hard to suppress.

“Yeah,” Liz replied casually. After a second she froze, realizing what it must look like and her eyes grew round. “It’s not what it looks like!” she blurred out. “We’re not…I mean…nothing happened…we’re just-“

“Friends,” Alec finished for her, slightly amused at how flustered Liz suddenly was, already having forgotten his suspicions.

Liz was about to say something when Mandy interrupted. “Liz, phone for you!” she called from downstairs.

Liz frowned. Who the hell would call her that early on a Saturday? “Who is it?” she yelled back.

“A Michael.”

Ice cold fear gripped at Liz’s heart as a feeling of dread shot up inside her. She rushed down the stairs, obviously close to panic. Alec went after her, not wanting to leave her alone in case it was bad news, as Liz seemed to be thinking.

Liz grabbed the receiver Mandy had placed on the kitchen counter. “Michael? What happened? Is everything okay? Is it Maria? Tell me it’s not Maria.”

“Woah there Parker, calm down. Everything’s fine.”

Liz let out a sigh of relief before sinking down onto one of the bar chairs. “Damn it Michael, you scared the hell out of me. What are you calling me so early on a Saturday morning for if nothing happened? Why are you up already anyway? You’re not exactly known to be a morning person as far as I can remember.”

“Hello to you too. For your information, I have to work, that’s why I’m already up. And as for why I’m calling, Maria has been whining for days, scratch that, weeks since you won’t talk to her. She’s going crazy and therefore driving everybody around her crazy, most of all me of course. So I told her I’d call you to make sure you’re fine, since I seem to be the only person you’re still talking to.”

“So that you’ll have some peace and quiet.”

“Mainly. So, wanna tell me why you won’t talk to Maria?”

Liz sighed. “I just…can’t. Not right now. Not yet. I don’t know. I’m just not ready.”

“Because of what went down between you before you left Roswell?”

“Mostly.”

“She’s worried about you, you know. And she’s sorry about what happened, that she didn’t believe you from the start. It was just hard for her. Considering that her best friend had been murdered. Alex’s death was hard enough to cope with without the possibility of it having been murder and not an accident.”

“I know.”

For a moment nobody spoke. It was Michael who broke the silence. “You know, Maria’s been giving Max hell for everything he did. It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for the guy. He’s been wanting to call you but Maria threatened to separate him from his genitals if he didn’t give you some space and so he doesn’t dare. At least not yet. Not sure how much longer she can keep him from it though, he’s desperate to talk to you. Just a friendly warning. Well I gotta go, the café is getting busy. Bye.”

“Michael, wait! Liz suddenly yelled, thinking of something. “Thanks for helping clearing Alex’s name. It means a lot to me.”

“It was the least we could do. Bye.”

“Bye.” Liz slowly replaced the receiver, letting what Michael had said about Maria sink in. She didn’t know why she was so surprised to hear that Maria had been giving Max a hard time. She’d always been a loyal friend, always been quick to jump down a guy’s throat if she thought he was being disrespectful to Liz or that he wasn’t treating her good enough. Like the time in 7th grade when she’d beaten up Tommy Holden because he’d been making fun of Liz because she’d joined the science club. She should have realized that that hadn’t really changed, despite everything.

“You okay?” Alec asked worried. Liz glanced up abruptly. She’d almost forgotten that he was in the room.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said absentmindedly while trying to figure out what to do about Maria. She’d told Michael that she wasn’t ready to talk to her, and that was true. She wasn’t. Not yet. But at the same time she didn’t want them to have absolutely no contact at all during the whole summer. What Michael had told her had proven that Maria was still on her side, that as far as Maria was concerned they were still friends. She didn’t want her to think otherwise. She didn’t want to lose another friend.

~*~*~*~

Two hours later Liz was sitting in her room in front of Mandy’s laptop, reading through the email she’d just written. Alec had left an hour ago after finishing their breakfast and having a little make-out session on the Veranda. Shortly after that she’d come up with the idea of writing to Maria instead of talking to her. That way they could stay in touch but at the same time it would be easy to avoid subjects she had no desire to address, at least for the moment. Maria always could tell when she was keeping something from her, she heard it in her voice. But that wouldn’t work with a letter. Which meant that she would be able to keep things she didn’t want her to know about – Alec for example, or the fact that she and Kyle had developed some nifty little alien powers – to herself.

Liz read through the email one last time. She’d tried to make it clear that she wanted to stay in touch with Maria but that she wasn’t ready to talk to her just yet without really saying so. She just hoped Maria caught on to that. As for the rest of the email, she’d written about the most unimportant things she could come up with, like the weather, her trip to the amusement park (of course leaving out who she’d gone there with) or the nice little boutique she’d discovered the other day that had instantly reminded her of Maria. Without thinking twice she hit the send button, scared that she would chicken out if she thought about it too much.

Getting up she went over to the bed where Kyle was still sleeping, trying to wake him up. It was time for another practice session, they’d really been neglecting working on their powers.


tbc

Hey guys, once again sorry for the wait. Poor little me was forced to go on vacation to the South of France. I was in the Provence for a week in a place that can only be called a mansion with a really nice pool and then they sent me to a town close to Bordeaux and draged me the beach every afternoon, forcing me to build sandcastles, go swimming and get a tan and all that. Life as an Au Pair is tough.


Part 28

Liz walked out of the library, a stack of books under her arm. She and Kyle had spent the bigger part of the last week working on their powers, both making vast improvements, especially Kyle. And so now Liz had decided that it was time to look into the theoretical background. She’d gotten all the books she could find on genetics and molecular biology, hoping to come across some kind of information on cell-manipulation or gene-transformation. There had to be some knowledge on this subject, or at least a few theories. Something that would at least give Liz an idea of what had happened to her and Kyle when Max had healed them.

A pair of strong arms suddenly wrapped themselves around her from behind. “Hey gorgeous,” a deep voice murmured into her ear before starting to nuzzle her neck.

“Hey yourself,” she said, a smile spreading over her lips while she tilted her head to the side as to give him better access. She sighed softly, letting her eyes drift shut for a minute.

“When did you get back?” she asked. Alec had been on a business trip the whole week and so they hadn’t seen each other ever since last weekend. The only kind of contact they’d had were a few phone calls, but that hadn’t been nearly enough. Liz had missed him, a lot. More than she wanted to admit to herself.

Alec tore his mouth away from her neck and rested his chin on her shoulder, his arms still wrapped around her waist. “Ten minutes ago. I was just on my way to the supermarket to fill up my fridge, the only thing currently in it is an empty carton of milk, a pineapple and some mustard.”

Liz snorted. “Sounds tempting.” Alec was such a guy sometimes. “You live around here?” she asked. Even though they’d known each other almost three weeks now, Liz had never been to his apartment. She didn’t even know where it was.

“Yeah, just two blocks down the road.” Alec suddenly noticed the books Liz had pressed against her chest, carefully turned so that he couldn’t read the titles. “What d’you got there?” he asked nodding in the direction of the books.

“Oh, nothing. Just some books for some…light reading before I go to bed.” Yeah, right.

Alec let go of her and grabbed one of the books out of her hand before she could stop him. “Advanced Genetic Theory,” he read. “Yeah, looks like a real page-turner.”

Liz quickly took the book back, waiting for Alec to ask what the hell she was doing with something like that. When he didn’t say anything she looked up at him. The way he was looking at her didn’t indicate that he found it in any way unusual that she had books like that. Actually, the books in her arms seemed to be the farthest thing from his mind. Too relieved that he wasn’t probing, it didn’t even come to her mind to ask herself why exactly he found that so normal. And the fact that Alec was staring at her like she was the only person in the world didn’t exactly help matters.

Liz tilted her head up, closing the distance between them, pressing a sweet, gentle kiss against his lips. It didn’t stay sweet and gentle for long though. As a matter of fact, she got so absorbed in the kiss that she completely forgot about the books in her arms and almost dropped them when she reached up to wrap her arms around Alec’s neck. Alec deepened the kiss and passion sparked up between them. Having been apart for almost a week was affecting them, the anticipation and hunger that had built up over the last few days took over and their kisses became more fervent, more demanding, more passionate.

Liz didn’t notice the drop in temperature as dark clouds drew up, blocking out the sun. She was actually getting hotter with every passing minute, despite the fact that the wind had picked up. Only as the first raindrops began to fall did they pull apart. They both looked up at the sky, equally surprised to find the sun was no longer shining but instead dark clouds covering the sky. There was a crack of thunder in the distance and the sky opened up, letting water pour down on them. Too surprised to react at first, Alec quickly grabbed Liz’s hand and started running, pulling her along with him.

Five minutes later they had reached the apartment complex where Alec lived and were standing in front of door number 4B. Alec fumbled with the key for a second before unlocking the door and letting them in. Liz was soaked down to the bone. It had been raining so hard that she’d been drenched within seconds, and now she was so cold that she was shivering, but that didn’t keep her from looking around.

The apartment wasn’t messy, just untidy enough to make it feel homey. They were standing in what was obviously the living room/kitchen/dining room. In the middle of the room there was a sofa with a matching love seat and a couch table with a few magazines strewn across it. The TV was across from the sofa, set against the wall next to the apartment door. On the opposite wall there was a bookshelf with a few books and a stereo system along with a few dozen CDs. The kitchen was on her right, separated from the room only by a counter. A few bar stools were lined up along it. On her left there were two doors, leading to, as Liz assumed, the bathroom and the bedroom. There was a large window on the wall across from the entry as well as a glass door that probably lead out to a balcony. The decoration was kept to a minimum, yet the apartment didn’t seem cold. The only thing that was missing were some personal artifacts, like pictures or the little knickknack you unwillingly collected over the years.

“You’re shivering,” Alec stated frowning down at her. He had come up beside her, seemingly not at all uncomfortable with the way she was screening his apartment. “You have to get out of those wet cloths. A hot shower would probably also be a good idea. Wait, let me get you a towel.” He disappeared behind the door closer to them and Liz could hear him rummaging around. A minute later he came back out. “I laid out a towel for you as well as one of my t-shirts so that you have something to wear while your clothes dry.”

“Thanks,” Liz said before discarding her books as well as her hand bag onto the love seat and disappearing behind the bathroom door. After taking of her pants she suddenly heard her cell phone ring. “Alec, can you check who it is?” Liz called.

“Sure.” A second later he said, “It says ‘Max cell’.” Liz didn’t say anything for a moment, but Alec could hear a bang, as if Liz had just dropped whatever it was that she’d been holding. “Liz?”

“Reject the call.”

“You want me to hang up?” Alec asked surprised. The bathroom door suddenly opened and Liz came rushing out, not caring that she was half-naked, wearing only her top and her black lacy panties. She snatched her cell from Alec’s hands and did it herself before turning off the phone and carelessly throwing it back onto the loveseat. Then she turned around and disappeared into the bathroom again, leaving a rather baffled Alec behind.

~*~*~*~

When Liz came out again fifteen minutes later she was wearing nothing but her dried-by-alien-magic underwear and Alec’s t-shirt. The shirt however was large enough to reach down almost to mid-thigh and so she didn’t really feel all that undressed.

Alec was in the kitchen and so Liz went over to him and sat down on one of the barstools. When Alec noticed her he placed a cup of hot tea in front of her and Liz began to sip. She avoided looking directly at him, scared that he would star questioning her about Max. When he didn’t say anything the next few minutes Liz dared to look up at him. He was studying her, obviously wanting to ask her about Max. But he kept quiet, not saying anything until Liz was finished with her tea, and even then it had nothing to do with Max. “You hungry? If you want to eat I might find something edible in the freezer.” Liz shook her head and Alec walked around the counter to stand in front of her. He brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “You okay?”

Liz nodded. “I’m fine,” she said, giving him a small smile.

“Okay,” Alec said, pressing a soft kiss against her forehead. “So, what do you want to do till the rain stops?”

Liz thought about it for a moment. “Got any board games?”

~*~*~*~

Half an hour later Liz was stretched out on her tummy on Alec’s couch studying the letters on their little plastic holder in front of her. They were playing Scrabble, a game Liz normally always won. And she had absolutely no intention of that being any different this time.

Liz looked over her letters again. She had two ‘b’s, an ‘e’, two ‘l’, an ‘o’, an ‘s’ and a ‘w’. What kind of word could she make with those letters? Looking at the board she suddenly had an idea and a sly grin appeared on her lips. The word ‘job’ was already there, and so Liz simply added the letters ‘b’, ‘l’, ‘o’ and ‘w’ in front of it.

“Blowjob?” Alec raised an eyebrow at her.

Liz just grinned while counting together the points that word brought her. “Forty-seven. Not bad if you ask me.”

Alec just shook his head before spelling out his own word, an equally mischievous grin having appeared on his lips.

“Lick,” Liz read. She raised an eyebrow but withheld any further comment. Instead she drew four new letters to replace the ones she had used to spell ‘blow’. She got an ‘u’ and three ‘c’s. This time she didn’t have to think for long. She simply spelled out the word ‘suck’, using the ‘k’ of Alec’s ‘lick’.

Alec added ‘ing’ to the end of it, so it now read ‘sucking’.

Liz drew the letters ‘d’, ‘o’ and ‘k’. She put the word ‘cock’ in front of ‘sucking’.

“A little fixated, are we?” Alec mumbled, not even bothering to look up.

Liz snorted. “You wish.”

Alec chuckled before spelling out the word ‘orgasm’.

Liz added the word ‘double’ in front of that.

“That a challenge?” Alec murmured. Liz blushed and he laughed. Since they had long since stopped monitoring their scores Alec decided to abandon the last rule they were still following and started rummaging around in the sack with the letters to find the ones he needed. When he was finished he spelled out ‘panting’. Liz did the same for the word ‘nookie’.

Ten minute later the board was full. Alec and Liz started at each other for a moment before they both started moving at the same time. A second later they were wrapped up in each other’s arms kissing passionately. Alec lifted her up, one of his hands on her butt, the other on her back. Liz automatically wrapped her legs around him, groaning when she felt his erection pressing against her hot core. Alec started moving in the direction of his bedroom, walking slowly since he could obviously not see where he was going, and of course because he was a bit distracted.

Liz had somehow managed to hold onto a last shred of common sense, which now set off the alarm in her head. What exactly would Alec expect of her if they moved this to the bedroom? How far did he think this would go? “Alec,” she panted, having problems getting the word out due to the fact that he was busy driving her crazy with his mouth on her neck.

“Hmm,” he murmured in between gentle bites.

“I can’t…I mean, we won’t-” Liz broke off. How exactly was she supposed to tell Alec that this would not be going any further? That their physical relationship would not go very much beyond what they had at the moment?

But Alec didn’t need an explanation. “I know,” he said softly. “Don’t worry.” He pressed a soft kiss against her forehead. “It’s just that this couch is too damn small for the two of us,” he added while trailing a path if butterfly kisses along her temple and check before finally returning to her lips. Liz felt like she was about to melt. She hadn’t expected Alec to be so understanding, so sweet about that issue. But he didn’t really seem to mind, or think it was a big deal, or at least he wasn’t showing it.

A minute later he gently lowered her onto his bed before following, never breaking the kiss. He instantly rolled them over so that she was on top – and therefore in control.

The storm was still raging outside. Liz could hear the rain pelting against the window, the cracks of thunder in the distance. Bolts of lightening illuminated the otherwise almost dark room every now and then. The weather had a strange effect on the atmosphere. It was like it charged it up and calmed it down at the same time.

Liz knew that the rain wasn’t stopping any time soon and that they therefore had no other option than to stay at the apartment for at least a few more hours. Thus she took her time exploring Alec’s soft, full lips, liking and nibbling her way around, before she gently dipped her tongue into his mouth to continue her exploration there.

Alex’s hand that had been resting on Liz’s lower back dipped down a bit so that his fingers were just grazing the top of her butt. Liz moaned and Alec took that as an invitation to let his hand slip down a bit further, giving her buttock a squeeze, before traveling upward again, his hand underneath her t-shirt this time.

His touch was just rough enough to excite Liz. She loved the way Alec didn’t treat her like she would break any second, like she couldn’t take it. So far every guy she’d been with had done that, most of all Max. Maybe that was the reason why she liked being with Alec so much, because it was so unlike anything Max would have ever done. Not that she hadn’t enjoyed being with Max, she just didn’t want to be reminded of anything regarding him.

Sometime during the last few minutes – Liz wasn’t quite sure when – they had changed position so that they were now lying next to each other, legs tangled, their lower bodies pressed against each other, mouths still locked in a soul-searing kiss. Liz hands were under Alec’s shirt, her fingers digging into his hard muscles. Alec’s hand was traveling up her side underneath her t-shirt and Liz held her breath in anticipation. She was surprised at how disappointed she was when he once again stopped right beneath her breast, seemingly not having the intention to cross that line. But Liz wanted that line to be crossed. Badly.

Without thinking she arched her back so that his hand unwillingly grazed the flesh she ached to have touched. If Alec was surprised he didn’t show it. Instead he cupped her breast a bit more firmly and brushed his thumb over Liz’s nipple, eliciting a moan from her lips. She grinded her groin against Alec’s, trying to somehow relieve the ache that was starting to build up there, frustrated to find that it only made matters worse.

In the mean time Alec was gently rolling her taut nipple between his fingers, making Liz think that she was about to lose it. Bolts of fire shot through her body, making her shiver and writhe against him. She dug her fingernails into Alec’s back, only have aware of what she was doing. Never would she have thought that a touch like that would affect her so much. She pulled Alec’s mouth that had been busy nibbling on her earlobe back to hers and latched her lips onto his in a mind-blowing kiss, wanting to show him just how much he was turning her on. He obviously got the message since he intensified his ministration. Liz groaned. God, this felt good.

~*~*~*~

Hours later their kisses began to become gentler again, turning into soft pecks before stopping all together. Alec, who had ended up on top, rolled over, pulling Liz with him so that her head was resting on his chest, pressed against his still rapidly beating heart. It slowed down rather quickly, showing in what good form Alec was. Not that Liz didn’t already know that – her hands had spent the better part of the last two hours exploring ever inch of his sculptured chest, and that was indicator enough.

“Who’s Max?” Alec suddenly asked, taking Liz completely by surprise. She froze, her hand that had been drawing lazy circles over Alec’s stomach stopping in mid-movement.

Liz’s reaction didn’t go unnoticed by Alec. He hadn’t wanted to ask about him since it was none of his business, but curiosity won out. Plus, he couldn’t help but wonder if the phone call of this Max-guy had anything to do with the progress in their relationship today.

Liz continued to stay silent. She didn’t know how she should answer that. Saying they were friends would be the easiest option, but at the same time the one the farthest away from the truth. Saying he was her ex-boyfriend sounded far too trivial. Whatever Max was going to be to her in the future, that was not something she would ever see him as, even though it was technically the correct term.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to answer,” Alec told her, misinterpreting her silence.

“No, it’s just that…it’s complicated. Not something you can explain in a sentence or two.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Liz sighed. “Max and I have known each other for years, even though we were never really what you would call friends. We went to the same school, had a few classes together, were lab partners in Biology. Then, two years ago, something happened and fate just sort of threw us into each other’s lives. We danced around each other for months after that before we finally gave in to our feelings and started dating. We were together for a few weeks before again something happened, causing us to break up again. That was a few weeks before the summer vacation started. As soon as they did I came here to stay with my aunt. When I came back to Roswell we seemed to be on the way of working things out and getting back together when once again something happened that caused quite a rift between us. It took a long time until we got back to being something even close to friends.”

She paused for a moment. It still wasn’t easy talking about this. She took a deep breath before continuing, and when she did there was a strange catch in her voice. “Then Alex died. And everything went downhill from there. Max and I had a huge fight, things got pretty nasty. He ended up sleeping with another girl and got her pregnant. A week later Kyle and I came here.”

“Ouch,” was all Alec said.

Liz snorted. “That’s one way of putting it.”

“So why is he calling?”

“Trying to patch things up no doubt.”

“He wants to get back together with you? After that?”

“Yup.”

“And you’re thinking about it?”

“Yes…no…I don’t know. I haven’t yet figured out if I’m really considering that option or if I’m just not ready to accept the thought of us never being together again. He’s been such an integral part of my life for so long – ‘til now, I was always convinced that things would turn out alright, that we’d be together in the end, not matter how many curve balls life threw at us. No I’m not so sure anymore.”

“What about the girl he knocked up?”

“Left with his unborn child. Last thing I heard he’s been looking for her. Wants his son back.”

“And if he finds her?”

“Well, then I guess he has a hell of a lot of explaining to do to his parents.”

Alec stayed silent for a minute. “So, is this your way of getting back at him?”

“No!” Liz lifted her head to look Alec in the face. “Of course not,” she added. She searched his eyes to see if he believed her, but they gave away nothing. “To be honest, I’ve been trying to avoid asking myself what exactly my motives are for…this.” She waved her hand around as if to indicate what she meant.

Alec shrugged as if to say that it was no big deal, nudging her to lie down again. “I was just asking.”

~*~*~*~

Liz and Alec stayed like that until long after darkness began to fall, just lying together in silence. Liz then got up and walked over to the window to look out onto the dimly lit street. It was still pouring, the rain hadn’t stopped once ever since that afternoon.

“You got any way to get home?” Alec asked.

“I’ve just been asking myself the same question. Mandy is out of town until tomorrow, and Kyle’s out with Jondy. No idea where they are though. I didn’t bother to ask. The last time I did Kyle stuttered something about charity work.” Liz sniggered. As if.

Alec snorted. “Yeah, right.” After a moment he added, “You know, I’d offer you a ride home, but-”

“A motorcycle isn’t exactly the ideal means of transportation in this kind of weather,” Liz finished for him.

“Exactly. But you know, you could just stay here for the night.”

Liz gave him a surprised look, but before she could say anything he reassured her that she could have his bed and that he would of course be sleeping on the couch. Liz started to protest, but Alec cut her off. He would be the one sleeping on the couch and there would be no further discussion about that. Then he went out into the kitchen to see if he could hunt down something to eat. Fifteen minutes later he came back with a pizza that had without a doubt come out of the freezer and some pineapples.

Realizing how hungry she was Liz dug in, piling up pineapple pieces onto her pizza. Alec watched her eat with a look of obvious disgust on his face. “What?” Liz asked after polishing off half the pizza. “Never heard of Pizza Hawaii before?”

“Heard of, yes. Tried, no.”

“Well, you should try it. It’s really good. I love the mixture of sweet and spicy.”

Alec mock-shuddered and Liz hit him on the head with a pillow. Alec looked at her for a second before pouncing and attacking her ribs.

“Stop!” Liz shrieked, laughing and squirming around underneath him, trying to get away from him.

Alec stopped. “What do I get for it?”

Liz thought about it for a second. “Some pineapple?” she suggested before reaching over to the bowl, fishing out one of the pieces and feeding it to Alec. She then lifted up her head to slowly lick off the remaining juice from his lips.

Alec’s eyes darkened. He too picked up a piece and brought it to Liz’s lips, pulling away a bit when she opened up her mouth to take it in, before feeding it to her. He bent down to kiss away the juice from her lips but quickly forgot about his ulterior motive as he got lost in the moment. Tongues dueled and teeth clashed as Alec lowered himself onto Liz. Her legs had wrapped themselves around Alec’s hips before she even realized what she was doing.

Fifteen minutes later Alec tore his lips away from hers. As much as he was enjoying this, he knew that it was better to stop while he still could.

“It’s late,” he said, panting slightly. “I should let you sleep.”

He started to get up, intending to go and sleep on the couch as he had promised, but Liz stopped him. “Wait. Don’t go. I mean, this bed is big enough for two. There’s no reason why we can’t both sleep here.”

Alec studied her for a long moment. “You sure?” he finally asked.

Liz nodded, and so Alec quickly took off his pants so that he was left wearing boxers and a t-shirt and lowered himself back onto the bed, slipping under the covers and holding them open for Liz to join him. She did, cuddling up beside him, her head resting on his chest.

“Goodnight,” Alec whispered, leaning down to give her a quick peck on the lips.

“Goodnight,” Liz replied, already drifting of to sleep. It had been one hell of an exhausting afternoon.


tbc

Hey there, sorry for the wait. My parents came to visit me last week, they didn't leave until this morning, so I didn't exactly have a lot of time to work on my stories. Meaning it could take a bit 'til the next part is up.


Part 29

“So, how long have you known Alec?” Liz asked Jondy while glancing at her watch. She still had more than half an hour until she started working and so she was sitting at the bar, sipping her usual glass of orange juice, waiting for her shift to start. The bar was still more or less empty and so Jondy was pretty unoccupied, to her obvious annoyance. Kyle didn’t work that night, giving the girls had the opportunity to talk a bit.

Jondy thought about it for a moment. “Hmm, about six months now I guess. Maybe five. He came to Florida in January I think, and we met shortly after.”

“Do you know why he left Seattle?” Liz asked nonchalantly while playing with her straw. Alec had been very vague about that issue, making Liz all the more curious. Maybe Jondy knew something.

“No, I never bothered to ask,” Jondy replied. Then she scrunched up her nose and tilted her head to the side. “Actually, thinking about it, I did ask. He just didn’t answer.”

“Yeah, same here,” Liz said slightly disappointed. “Guess he doesn’t like talking about it.”

“Nah, he doesn’t. That’s the one subject he’s still pretty closed off about, even though he’s changed a lot ever since he first came here,” Jondy said while wiping the counter for the millionth time, just to give her something to do. Work was so boring when the bar was empty like this.

Liz raised her eyebrows. “Changed? How so?”

Jondy was still mindlessly wiping the counter. “He was really withdrawn back then. Seemed pretty mad at the world, almost bitter.”

“About what?” Liz asked surprised. That sounded so unlike the cocky, easy-going Alec she knew, she couldn’t imagine him all angry and bitter.

Jondy finally stopped wiping the counter. Instead she started playing around with the glasses that were on it, studying each and ever one to make sure that it was spotless and then arranging them in perfect lines. “Don’t know. But I guess it has something to do with why he left Seattle.”

Liz stayed quiet after that. So Alec too had some dark secrets in his past. She wasn’t exactly surprised. She’d pretty much already guessed that, even though she had yet to figure out what exactly had happened. But then, was it even her place to figure it out? It wasn’t like she and Alec were dating or anything. They were friends, in a way, and something more that Liz didn’t quite know what to call. But if he didn’t want to tell her about it, that was his decision. Liz didn’t have the right to push, and she doubted that he would appreciate it one way or another.

“So, what’s going on between you and Kyle?” she asked changing the subject.

“Nothing,” Jondy replied innocently.

“Besides the obvious you mean,” Liz said smirking.

A naughty grin appeared on Jondy’s face for a second and Liz could hear her snigger quietly.

“What’s going on between you and Alec?” she shot back.

“Nothing,” Liz said in an equally innocent tone.

“Besides the obvious you mean.” Jondy was also smirking.

Liz smiled and blushed, Jondy laughed. “Kyle told me that you practically spent the whole weekend at his place. Well, to be exact, he was ranting about it the whole weekend. You know the way he gets,” she said rolling her eyes.

Liz snorted. She sure as hell did.

“It took a lot of effort on my part to get him to finally shut up,” Jondy said, the naughty grin back on her face.

“Um, yeah, don’t elaborate on that, okay?” Liz said, looking only slightly repulsed.

“So, you were at Alec’s all weekend,” Jondy said getting back to the topic.

“Yeah,” Liz said softly, a small smile appearing on her face. She’d only gone home to get some clean clothes and nick some food so that she and Alec wouldn’t have to go out shopping, the rest of the time she’d been at Alec’s apartment. Not that they’d actually ended up eating anything. They’d spent most of the time in bed, talking or just lying together in silence…or doing other things.

“So, you two been getting it on?” Jondy asked still smirking.

“No!” Liz practically shouted while turning beet-red. “I mean, we’ve been…we don’t…we haven’t-”

Jondy laughed. Liz was just too easy. “It was just a question.”

Liz took a sip of her orange juice, hoping that Jondy would drop it. No such luck.

“So, why not?” Jondy asked her with no intention of changing the subject. Not now that things were getting interesting.

Liz looked up at her. “What do you mean, why not?”

“Well, Alec would want to, that’s pretty much obvious with him being a guy and breathing and all that, so I guess it’s you who doesn’t want to.”

Liz sighed. “I just…I can’t sleep with someone I’m not in love with,” she said quietly while staring at the glass in front of her, suddenly feeling like a stupid twelve-year-old.

When Jondy didn’t say something right away she looked back up and she noticed her studying her intently. “You know, sometimes I wished that I’d adopted some sort of moral codex like that, that I’d saved myself for someone I really cared about,” Jondy began, sounding almost…regretful. “I lost my virginity with fourteen. Don’t even remember the guy’s name. Ever since then there’s always been someone in my life that I had a physical relationship with. It’s not like I slept around a lot, or like I can’t even remember all the guys I had sex with. But I’ve had my share of lovers.”

“What about Kyle?” Liz asked. “Is it the same with him? Is he just another guy you’re sleeping with, just someone to satisfy your physical needs? Or could it become more?”

Jondy shrugged. “I like Kyle. He’s great. Funny, witty, amazing hands…”

Liz scrunched up her face. That was a piece of information she wouldn’t have needed to know.

“That’s all that matters,” Jondy continued still playing with the glasses in front of her. “As for what the future holds, you never know. I wouldn’t bet on it though. I’m not big on falling in love and all that shit.”

“Do you think it’s stupid to not want to make love unless you’re in love?” Liz asked. Maybe she was just being silly, not to mention old-fashioned and prude. They were in the twenty-first century after all. Everybody did it. Why not her too?

“Nah,” Jondy said. “It might not work for others, but I have the feeling it’s the right way for you to go. Don’t let anybody tell you any different. And for God’s sake don’t let Alec convince you of the opposite. He can be very persuasive if he wants.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” Liz said smiling.

“Has he tried anything?” Jondy asked sounding concerned, almost like parents did when they thought their kids had done something bad.

“No. Not at all. He’s been the perfect gentleman so far. More or less.”

“Alec, a gentleman?” Jondy asked skeptically. “Didn’t think I’d live to see that happen.”

~*~*~*~

Ten minutes later Liz was sitting alone at the bar. Jondy had had to leave her since the place was starting to fill up, finally giving her something to do. Liz had gone back to playing with her straw, thinking about what Jondy had told her, trying to ignore the small object that seemed to be burning a hole into her jean pocket.

She sighed and reached into it, pulling out her cell phone. She placed it on the counter in front of her and simply started at it. She hadn’t as much as looked at it ever since she’d turned it off two days ago after Max had called, and so it had stayed turned off. She was too scared of finding a million messages from Max on her voice mail to turn it back on again, or even worse, to be bombarded with calls from him.

A small part of her wanted to just leave it turned off, but that was of course ridiculous. Not having a cell phone was just too damn impractical. Besides, did she really want Max to continue ruling over a part of her life, no matter how small and insignificant? Definitely not.

“Hey Liz, your shift is about to start,” Jondy called over to her from her spot behind the bar where she was busy mixing a cocktail. Liz frowned. How did Jondy know that? She knew that she wasn’t wearing a watch so how did she know what time it was? There wasn’t a clock in sight, the one that used to hang on the wall behind the counter was smashed into a billion pieces after falling of its hook. Or at least that was Jondy’s version of what had happened. Liz had the slight suspicion that one of her and Kyle’s afterhour-activities might have something to do with it, but she kept that to herself. It’s not like she actually wanted her theory confirmed. Sometimes ignorance was bliss. Liz shook her head, trying to rid herself of those thoughts as well as her paranoia concerning Jondy. She’d probably seen the time on the watch of one of the customers, or simply guessed it.

Sighing got up to fetch her guitar from the back, shoving her cell phone back into her pocket, already knowing that the damn thing would be on her mind the whole night.

~*~*~*~

An hour later Liz was up on stage, obsessing over what to do about her phone just like she’d known she would. She went through the routine of singing almost mechanically, making her ask herself why there were actually still people in the bar. She was horrible that night.

Then she suddenly discovered Alec making his way through the crowd over to the bar. He glanced up at her and their eyes met for a moment and Liz instantly forgot about the damn phone. He smiled at her and she smiled back, suddenly feeling almost light-headed and bubbly.

It was then and there that Liz made her decision. She would be damned if she let Max influence anything she did, even something as trivial as turning on her cell phone. Meaning that as soon as she got off this stage she would turn the stupid thing on. And if he really had left a million messages on her voice mail she would simply delete them without listening to them. And if he called, well, let him call. She would simply ignore it.

Liz couldn’t help but smile. She had mentally freed herself from Max Evans. Now all it needed was a grand gesture to show it to the world. Her smile widened as she began to sing...

At first I was afraid, I was petrified
Kept thinkin' I could never live without you by my side
But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong
And I grew strong, and I learned how to get along

And so you're back from outer space
I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face
I should have changed that stupid lock, I should have made you leave your key
If I had known for just one second you'd be back to bother me

Go on now, go walk out the door
Just turn around now 'coz you're not welcome anymore
Weren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbye?
Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and die?

Oh no not I, I will survive
For as long as I know how to love I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my life to live and I've got all my love to give
I'll survive, I will survive

It took all the strength I had not to fall apart
Just trying hard to mend the pieces of my broken heart
And I spent oh so many nights just feeling sorry for myself
I used to cry, but now I hold my head up high

And you see me, somebody new
I'm not that chained up little person still in love with you
And so you felt like dropping in and just expect me to be free
But now I'm savin' all my lovin' for someone who's lovin' me

Go on now, go walk out the door
Just turn around now, you're not welcome anymore
Weren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbye?
Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and die?

Oh no not I I will survive
Oh as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my life to live and I've got all my love to give
I'll survive, I will survive

Go now, go walk out the door
Just turn around now 'coz you're not welcome anymore
Weren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbye?
Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and die?

Oh no not I, I will survive
Oh as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my life to live and I've got all my love to give
I'll survive, I will survive
I will survive

~*~*~*~

Liz was in her room, lying on her bed, reading through one of the books she’d gotten from the library liked she’d done most of the day. It had just been too hot to go outside, and even now in the early evening that had yet to change. She’d turned her cell phone on the night before right after her shift, just like she’d promised herself, and had been, to put it mildly, astonished to see that there wasn’t a single message from Max. He hadn’t called again either, at least not yet.

Liz was torn between relief and the feeling that something wasn’t right, but in the end just decided to be happy about it. It’s not like she actually understood how that mind of his worked. The last few weeks in Roswell had made that painfully obvious. Who knows, maybe the next blond slut had once again diverted his attention, she thought bitterly.

Liz scowled at the direction her thoughts had taken, trying to chase them away again. She went back to her book. After five minutes she gave it up, not being able to concentrate on what she was reading. Her gaze involuntarily drifted to Mandy’s laptop resting on her desk. She hadn’t checked her emails once ever since she’d written to Maria. She was dreading the response, scared that Maria being Maria had completely failed to notice the quite obvious hints Liz had dropped ever so often to make it clear that certain subjects were not to be brought up. She sighed. What had she been thinking? Subtlety had never exactly been Maria’s strongest suit. And the last thing she wanted right now was reading an email chocked full with subjects she didn’t want to talk about, like Max, or Alex, or anything that had happened during the last month she had spent in Roswell.

Liz was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice the door opening and someone coming into her room. She only turned around when the bed sank down under the person’s weight. By that time he was already beside her, his mouth hovering an inch away from hers.

“Hey.” His voice was low, hoarse, a tone Liz knew all too well.

“Hey,” she replied, her voice suddenly equally raspy, before rolling onto her side and leaning in for a kiss. It was slow, sensual, torturous, the kind that promised more, a lot more. Their legs intertwined almost on their own accord. Hands were buried in soft hair, bodies pressed against each other, tongues left to tangle.

“Who let you in?” Liz asked, or rather gasped between kisses.

“Mandy.”

“Didn’t know she was home.”

“She left again.”

“So we have the house to ourselves?”

“No Kyle?”

“No Kyle.”

“Good.” Alec rolled Liz over so that he was on top before deepening the kiss, and no more words were spoken.

~*~*~*~

Later on – much later on actually – Liz and Alec were lying on her bed, legs still entwined, facing each other. It wasn’t till then that Liz noticed that Alec was wearing a white dress shirt and nice grey pants, and that there was a suit jacket draped over the back of the chair in front of her desk.

“What’s with the outfit?” she asked raking her eyes up and down his body. Damn, he looked hot dressed like that.

“Just got off from work.”

“You always wear suits to work?” she asked licking her lips.

“Yeah,” Alec said, not sure why she was asking. He did however notice her staring at him, her eyes dark with want and need. Normally he would have acted on those tell-tale signals then and there, but today he had other plans. Not that that would keep him from teasing her a bit.

He leaned in a bit so that their lips were closer together, so close that he could feel her hot breath on his skin, making it very hard to resist temptation and not kiss her.

“I’m actually here to pick you up,” he told her, his voice low and coarse.

“Oh really?” Liz asked, only half listening to what he was saying.

“Yeah. I hope you don’t have any plans,” Alec continued, leaning in a bit more so that his lips almost brushed over hers.

Liz could only shake her head, her voice suddenly having deserted her.

“Good,” Alec said before pulling back abruptly and standing up.

“Let’s go.” He stretched out his hand to a rather dazed-looking Liz, a twinkle in his eyes that was a bit too smug as that it would have gone unnoticed by Liz.

He did that on purpose, she realized. Oh, just wait. I’ll get back at you for that.

~*~*~*~

Half an hour later Liz climbed off Alec’s bike, trying hard not to look too pleased with herself. The whole ride she’d held on tightly – a lot tighter than necessary – making sure that her body was firmly pressed against his, not stopping to squirm around, rubbing up against him. Her hand had “accidentally” dipped lower a few times, brushing over the hem of his pants, his thighs, coming dangerously close to certain other body parts in that region. It had only been a matter of minutes before Alec’s posture had become stiffer – along with other things as Liz suspected – and he’d stepped on the gas a bit more, suddenly in a hurry to get to wherever it was they were going. Not that she knew where that was. He’d refused to tell her where they were going, only that it was a surprise and that she would see once they got there.

Liz looked around. They were in a small, rather unspectacular street miles away from the beach, probably in one of the residential areas since there wasn’t a bar, club, movie center or anything else in sight. “Alec, I hate to break it to you, but so far this doesn’t exactly look like a great surprise,” Liz told him. She was growing impatient. She hated surprises.

Alec rolled his eyes. “That’s because you’re looking in the wrong direction.” He turned her around and Liz suddenly noticed a sign saying “Anderson Mill Swimming Pool”.

“Alec, the pool’s closed.”

“Of course it is. You can’t go skinny dipping when other people are around.” Then he leaned in closer, his mouth right beside her ear, his hot breath burning her skin. “Happy anniversary,” he murmured.


tbc

NewYorker18, I'm really glad you like the banner, it was a lot of work.

Here's the next part, sorry for the wait.

I just realized that this is probably the last time for me to update this story here in France, I'm going home in 10 days. Wow. I can't believe the six months are almost over.


Part 30

“So, how do we get in?” Alec mumbled scratching his eyebrow. He was turned to the fence, obviously talking more to himself than to Liz. She just stared at him, still trying to figure out what the hell he’d been talking about. Anniversary? What anniversary?

Then it came to her. It had been exactly one month since their first kiss. And since the first time they’d gone skinny dipping. Heat crept into her cheeks at the thought of that night at the beach…and of what was probably to come.

“We could just climb over the fence. That should be easy enough, for us at least.” Alec was still muttering to himself. Liz merely rolled her eyes. She went over to the gate, laid her hand over the lock and, after looking around to make sure that there wouldn’t be any witnesses, a soft glow emerged from her hand and a click could be heard. The gate swung open and upon Liz clearing her throat, Alec turned around.

“That, of course, also works,” he said, asking himself why he hadn’t thought of picking the lock. Was it because he’d been looking forward to the nice view he would have had of Liz climbing the fence?

Alec quickly followed her inside before closing the gate behind them, again making sure that nobody had seen them. Then he took Liz’s hand to lead – or rather drag – her over to one of the pools. Liz stumbled along behind him, not seeing anything in the complete darkness, but she barely even noticed, too eager to get there to really mind. She knew that Alec wouldn’t let her run into anything, or even worse, fall into the water.

Alec suddenly stopped and whirled around, his lips attacking hers in an almost desperate kiss. He didn’t even consider the option of continuing to tease her, knowing that she’d just make him suffer twice as much. The ride there had been indication enough.

Liz felt an explosion of burning heat deep down in her groin, almost making her kneel over. That, and the surprise at his sudden assault. But Alec’s one hand was cupping her face, the other was at her waist, holding her firmly into place, keeping her on her feet. After a minute his hands slipped under the soft material of her t-shirt and started tugging it upwards. Liz lifted her hands above her head, allowing Alec to remove it, before grabbing his shirt and getting rid of it too.

Then Alec reached for her jeans. Liz sucked in her breath and her heartbeat sped up as Alec fumbled with the buttons. His hands had never come so close to that part of her body, and even though he wasn’t really touching her it was enough to almost undo her.

After a moment of hesitation Liz also reached for his pants. Her hands were shaking slightly, either from being nervous or turned on, she wasn’t quite sure. Maybe both. A minute later their pants were lying on a crumpled heap on the floor, along with their shirts, shoes and socks.

Alec’s lips swept down for a bruising kiss, sending bolts of electricity through her body. Liz wouldn’t have been surprised to see sparks flying around them. It sure as hell felt like that. Tongues dueled and teeth clashed, their kisses growing hungrier with ever passing moment. Liz thought that they’d never make it into the water at this pace, but then Alec abandoned her lips in favor of her neck and she stopped caring. The world around them has long since started to melt away by the time Alec returned to her lips.

Liz shifted her weight slightly and suddenly she felt herself falling. The next thing she knew she was in the water. Coming up to the surface gasping for air she noticed that Alec too had lost his balance, if on his own accord or because of her she could not tell. She hadn't even noticed that the were so close to the edge of the pool. Well, so much to him not letting her fall into the water. But then, maybe she shouldn’t be talking.

Alec and Liz looked at each other and then burst out laughing. “Needed to cool off?” Alec teased.

“Me?” Liz shot back. “You’re the one who made us fall into the water!”

Alec half snorted, half laughed. “Yeah, right!”

Liz shook her head in mock-disappointment. “And here I was thinking you’d be a man and stand up for your mistakes.”

Alec came closer, the smile having vanished from his face. “Did you just question my masculinity?” His tone was dangerously low, sending shivers up and down Liz’s spine.

Liz bit her lip, pretending to think about it. “I did, didn’t I?” she asked as innocently as she could, which was hard, considering that innocent was pretty much the last thing felt like right now.

“I think someone here needs their memory refreshed,” Alec whispered before leaning in for a slow, sensual kiss. He was holding back, but Liz could feel the passion simmering just underneath the surface, fighting to break free. It soon took over again and his kisses became more demanding, more intense.

Alec suddenly dipped under water and latched his mouth onto Liz’s stomach. "Oh God," she groaned out, convinced that she was going to die from pleasure. She wasn’t even sure what exactly he was doing, she only knew that it was driving her crazy. Too caught up in the moment to hold herself over water, or to actually care, she went under. Alec let go of her stomach and the next thing Liz knew they were kissing. She’d never kissed anybody underwater before. Why she didn’t know because it was one hell of an amazing feeling. If she’d known that earlier she would have done it a long time ago. But then, maybe that was only so incredible because it was Alec.

They came back up to the surface never breaking the kiss. Liz wasn’t sure why they didn’t go under again since she sure as hell wasn’t doing anything to prevent that, but she guessed that Alec was making sure they stayed above the surface.

Liz wasn’t sure why but she found that incredibly sweet. She couldn’t keep a small smile from tugged at the corners of her lips, making kissing sort of difficult.

Alec pulled away. “What?” he asked, smiling himself. He didn't even know why, but looking at Liz he couldn’t not smile right at that moment.

Liz shook her head. “Nothing,” she said while wrapping her legs around his waist, taking in a sharp breath of air when her center came into contact with his very obviously arousal. She let go with her arms, her body drifting slightly backwards, away from him. “Why did you bring me here tonight?” she asked cocking an eyebrow. “Just looking for an excuse to rip my clothes off?”

Her voice, the expression on her face, her body language – it all screamed vixen. Who would have ever thought she had it in her? Alec felt himself hardening even more, and he couldn’t keep the smug grin from appearing on his lips. “Pretty much. What did you think?”

“I don’t know,” Liz said licking her lips. “Seems like an awful lot of trouble just to get me undressed.”

Alec almost groaned at the sight of her pink tongue snaking out to wet her passion-bruised lips. “You mean I could have achieved that with a lot less effort?” he said trying to sound exasperated. “Damn it.”

Liz laughed. “I’ll say…”

Her upper body drifted closer to his again. “So, you think I have an ulterior motive?” Alec asked, his lips suddenly dangerously close to hers.

Liz breath caught in her throat. “I don’t know. Do you?” she managed to rasp out.

The cocky smile reappeared on Alec’s lips. “Of course I do,” he said, his voice equally hoarse, before his lips descended onto hers once again.

Liz quickly got lost in the kiss, in Alec, so much that she barely felt her back hitting the side of the swimming pool. Alec’s lips left her mouth and trailed a path of kisses down her neck, hovering over her pulse point a bit longer than anywhere else, knowing exactly how crazy focusing on that particular spot drove Liz. His hand crept up her side leaving behind a scorching trail of goose bumps, before cupping her breast and letting his thumb brush over her already hardened nipple. If that was because of the cold water or because of what Alec was doing to her Liz could not tell. Was the water even cold? She wasn’t quite sure anymore. But she was awfully hot all of a sudden…

Liz’s mind seemed to slip away as she lost herself in what Alec was doing to her body. She could no longer tell where exactly Alec’s hands and lips were, it all seemed to melt together, touching her everywhere, touching her soul.

She hardly even noticed the straps of her bra slipping off her shoulders, never knowing if that happened accidentally in the heat of passion or if Alec had done it intentionally. The only thing she knew was that his mouth was suddenly on the bare flesh of the valley between her breasts.

He was barely even touching her, leaving behind only the slightest hint of soft butterfly kisses, probably to give her the possibility to pull away. But pulling away was the last thing on Liz’s mind. Instead she buried her hands in his hair to make sure his clever lips stayed were they were, encouraging him to continue. He took the hint, his mouth moving upwards to trace the curve of her breast, causing Liz to arch into him. Her back was bent over the side of the pool, her head thrown back in ecstasy – all in all not the most comfortable position in the world, but Liz couldn’t care less, mainly because she didn’t even notice. Physical discomfort was lost on her due to the carnal pleasure bestowed by Alec.

Cool air hit her chest and she noticed that the fabric of her bra was suddenly gone. Her brain barely registered the fact that she was now completely naked from the waist upwards, that this was the first time that a guy saw her like this. If she hadn’t already been so far gone she might have felt embarrassed or insecure, or both probably, but right now those possibilities didn’t even cross her mind.

Alec’s hot mouth closed over her taught nipple, and Liz let out a hiss. He lightly scraped his teeth over the rough yet soft flesh, eliciting a moan and a breathy “Oh God” from Liz. While his mouth concentrated on giving the other breast the same treatment his hands started wandering over her flesh. They were on her stomach, her back, arms, breasts – everywhere, seemingly at the same time. How the hell did he do that? Or was she just so far gone that her senses had gone haywire?

A shiver ran down her back and Alec pulled away. “You cold?” he asked.

Liz shook her head, but that didn’t seem to convince Alec since he was all of a sudden scowling and moving over to the ladder. “You’re lips are completely blue,” he told her, almost sounding worried.

“I’m fine,” Liz protested, but in vain, it fell on deaf ears.

“Yeah, right,” was all Alec had to say to that. He climbed out of the pool still holding Liz, her legs still wrapped around his hips.

Once out of the water Liz was cold. “We don’t have any towels,” she suddenly realized.

Alec smirked. “Of course we do.” He started walking towards…Liz wasn’t quite sure what. She couldn’t see anything in the complete darkness. Why could Alec? But that thought was quickly forgotten when Alec gently set her down onto the grass and wrapped a big, fuzzy towel around her slightly shivering form. He then dried himself off before spreading his towel out on the ground and sitting down. Liz also spread her towel out next to Alec’s, no longer cold once she was dry, and lied down beside him.

"So, when did you bring the towels here?" Liz asked.

"Earlier today," Alec said off-handedly.

"You really put a lot of thought in this, huh?" Liz asked smiling. It had been so long since anybody had done something like this for her.

Alec shrugged, seemingly uncomfortable with the direction their conversation had taken. Liz decided to drop it so she simply said "Thank you" and gave him a soft kiss. Then she lied down on her back, staring up at the stars, Alec stretched out on his side beside her, his arm lightly draped over her stomach.

“Got something on your mind?” Alec asked after a few minutes.

Liz turned her head towards him. “Why do you ask?”

“Don’t know. You seem sorta far away.”

Liz stared at Alec for a moment, surprised at how easily, how effortlessly he could read her. How the hell did he do that? Not even Max had been capable of that. But then, maybe he just hadn’t cared as much. Liz mentally shook her head. As much? Yeah, right. What the hell was she saying?

Plus, Max was the last thing she wanted to think about right now. This was their evening, night, anniversary. There was no place for him here.

She sighed before she started talking. “I wrote Maria an email, about a week ago, but now…I’m just not sure anymore if that was such a good idea,” Liz admitted.

“Why not?”

“Maria and I…our friendship sort of went through a rocky period before I came to Florida. I didn’t even tell her that I was leaving. And now…it’s like our relationship is hanging on a thread and one wrong move could be the end of it, for good.”

“Well, writing an email sounds simple enough. Where’s the problem?”

“I sort of told Maria that I didn’t want to talk about certain subjects, at least not yet, or rather hinted at it. And Maria normally isn’t one to catch onto these kinds of things.”

“So you’re scared that she’ll bring those things up, causing you not to write back, causing your friendship to go down the dumps for good?”

“Pretty much.”

“Well, you’ll never know ‘til you read it.”

Liz sighed. “I know. But sometimes…it’s just nicer not knowing.”

“Yeah, but if you keep that up you’ll end up not writing back no matter what she wrote in that mail, thus your friendship will end up in the dumps one way or another.”

Liz almost growled. It’s not like she didn’t already know that. But that didn’t make her hesitation to check her emails just disappear. Sometimes ignorance was bliss, and bliss just sounded too damn good to give it up so quickly.

“Can we talk about something else?” she asked.

“Sure,” Alec said shrugging, never one to push.

A naughty grin appeared on her lips. “Or maybe not talk at all?” she suggested before rolling over onto her side to face Alec. Their legs tangled, lips met, tongues dueled, and very quickly everything else was forgotten, including unwelcome emails and alien ex-soulmates.

~*~*~*~

Later that night Liz was back at home in her room, waiting for the laptop to boot. Kyle was passed out on her bed and, knowing that she probably couldn’t even wake him up if she tried, she wasn’t worried about disturbing him.

Her gaze drifted around the room, landing on her wet underwear drying by the window. Her face grew hot thinking about what she had been doing only an hour ago. She and Alec had gone back into the water twice. Making out in the cool wet was somehow so much more appealing than rolling around in the grass, maybe because kissing under water was a bit difficult on land.

When they’d finally gotten ready to go Liz had realized that her bra was somewhere in the depth of the huge swimming pool, probably gone forever. But Alec had insisted that he’d get it for her, something that only earned him a dry chuckle from Liz. The pool was huge, not to mention deep, plus it was dark. Alec would never find her bra.

Alec seemed almost offended by Liz’s lack in conviction that he’d locate the missing garment for her. Without another word he dived into the pool to look for it, despite Liz’s insistence that it wasn’t necessary.

After what seemed about a minute, maybe a bit more, Liz started getting worried since he had yet to come up for air again. When he still hadn’t come up for air after another minute Liz was on the verge of panic, about to jump into the pool herself to look for him.

But suddenly he practically shot out of the water, right at Liz’s feel, scaring the shit out of Liz, so much that she jumped back a few feet. Alec laughed as he climbed out of the water before handing Liz her bra. She immediately used it to swat him. “You just scared the hell out of me!” she scolded, torn between being upset and relieved.

“Sorry, that wasn’t my intention,” he said, sounding like he actually meant it.

Liz waved it off, her way of telling him that it was okay. Then she turned her attention to the lacy garment she was holding in her hand. “How the hell did you do that?” she asked baffled, and not just a bit impressed.

Alec shrugged his shoulders. “Wasn’t hard.”

Liz raised an eyebrow at him. Since when was Alec so humble? What happened to Mr. Cocky?

Before she had time to voice her surprise he stepped closer, taking her breath away and her mind off her bewilderment. “But since I saved you from the trouble of having to look for it yourself, doesn’t that earn me some kind of…reward?” he asked suggestively.

And impish grin crept over Liz’s features. “A reward? What exactly do you have in mind?”

“Don’t know,” he replied, the cockiness back in his voice and smile. Thank God. Liz had actually started to miss it. “But I did kind of like the one I got for wining you that stuffed animal.”

Liz thought back to the day they’d gone to the amusement park, and of the reward Alec was talking about. The corners of her lips tugged upwards a bit more. “I think that can be arranged…”

A grunt coming from her bed ripped Liz out of her thoughts. She noticed that the laptop was done booting and so she quickly connected to the internet and went to yahoo.com to check her emails. “Here goes nothing,” she muttered to herself.

~*~*~*~

And this was what I’ve been making such a huge deal out of?

That’s all that came to Liz’s mind after having finished reading the email. There was absolutely nothing in it that even came close to being a sensitive subject. Maria had told her a bit about what was going on between her and Michael, probably holding back as to not remind her of what she, Maria, had and Liz didn’t. There were tidbits about her work at the Crashdown and helping her mom out at the shop, complaints about the hot weather, a mention of Isabel taking some summer classes to get an early start with her college credits. Max’s name didn’t appear once and neither did Alex’s. She hadn’t even mentioned anything alien-related. Wow. Liz was impressed to say the least.

Then she noticed a PS she hadn’t seen before.


PS: In case you’re wondering, I sort of got that there was an underlying message somewhere hidden in your email, but I wasn’t sure what it was and so I showed it to Michael. Hope you don’t mind. Spaceboy actually figured it out – wonders never cease to happen – and I got it. Painful subjects are to be avoided, at least for now. And I can live with that, especially if it means salvaging our friendship. But just in case – if you ever do need to talk to someone, I’ll always be there for you Despite what most people think, I am a pretty good listener, or at least can be when I want to. But you know that, right? Love ya, Maria


A sad smile touched Liz’s lips after she finished reading the post script. It was just so…Maria. She hadn’t realized how much she missed her best friend until that moment. Kyle was great…except for the whole overprotective brother bullshit…but he wasn’t Maria. Too much testosterone to even come close.

Kyle grunted again, almost as if to agree, and Liz couldn’t help but chuckle. She didn’t even want to know what he was dreaming about.

She quickly got ready for bed before slipping under the covers beside Kyle, promising herself that she’d write back tomorrow. Now that she’d gotten over her initial trepidation she was actually looking forward to writing emails back and forth with Maria. Cause if Maria’s emails were one thing, they were entertaining.


tbc