“You did quite a number of yourself son,” Michael said as he got a first glance at his eldest son as the kids came running to greet their father. Belle had been the first one to run down and jump into her father’s arms and give him a big fate hug, which Michael took with relish. Elizabeth smiled as she came to greet her father. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” Michael said as he saw Jake wheel himself to the front of the house. Thankfully for him that his father’s return had interrupted any serious discussion his mother wanted to have about Grace.
“Dad!” Jake smiled.
“At least you are in one piece,” Michael commented.
“Barely,” Maria muttered,
just barely she thought to herself. She might have given approval to whatever Jake wanted to explore with Grace but still she didn’t like the idea of it getting so intense and she could see the telltale signs that it was from her own experience with Michael and witnessing Max and Liz first hand and she didn’t like the sense of the emotional toll it was taking on both her son and Grace.
“I just have to adjust, and I am master at that” Jake said confidently. “But hopefully I’ll be on my feet sooner than later.”
“So, what else has happened around here?” Michael asked as they went into the kitchen while Maria finished preparing dinner.
“It’s so long and complicated that it’s better to be left to another time, maybe after dinner” Maria sighed. “Dinner is on the table,” she said. “Jake, can you handle the table?”
“I think I can manage it,” Jake nodded.
“Dinner is served,” Maria said, and Michael wondered why Maria and Jake were brushing off something. They were being too quick to move onto dinner, even if it was done.
As everyone sat down or in the case of Jake wheeled to table Michael took the lay of the land and started to enquire about the kids. The kids spoke of the usual school fun. Elizabeth talked about her band that she had formed the year before and tried to talk around the events of the night before while Jake just sat there and ate and didn’t really talk. Maria was tense Michael could feel. Like something was brewing...
How is Grace?” Michael asked Jake.
Jake eyes went wide and glanced at his mother and Maria just looked down and didn’t talk and Michael could sense something was up. “What?”
“Grace is fine,” Jake said.
“What?” Michael asked again, and this time looked at Elizabeth who just shrugged his shoulders.
“I have no idea. Grace is fine as far as I know. Last night was emotional for her of course but she was back at school today like nothing was wrong.”
“Ah last night so we’re going to have to have a long talk about that after dinner.”
“I can’t wait,” Elizabeth grumbled and continued eating her dinner as Colin and Liam didn’t know what was going on. They only knew that Jake injured himself in an accident that caused both parents to come home and shortened their stay at their grandparents not that they cared as they were happy to be at home. Although they sensed something was up but unlike Elizabeth who tended to be nosy about things that weren’t her business, well, the boys just let it flow off their backs.
****
At the same time, Kyle was arriving home and was greeted by an enthusiastic Isabel and their three kids. Thrilled to be private atmosphere of his own home and away from hotel life even if that had been only been a few days in the end and now he had his wife in his arms and he was hugging his children who were thrilled to see their father.
“Hey,” Kyle said as the kids all went to their rooms to finish up their homework or other activities while Isabel waited for the take out she had called to be delivered. She hadn’t had the time to make dinner and, so she decided to settle on take out and called in the order just before Kyle had called to say he was close to home.
“Hey,” Isabel smiled as they settled in the living room. “I hope you’re in the mood for Chinese.”
“Perfect,” Kyle said.
“So how was the trip?” Isabel asked
“Tiring,” Kyle warily smiled as the walked into the living room. “I don’t know how Michael can do this kind of work every single case, every day of the year. It’s exhausting to even do one.”
“I am sure,” Isabel smiled. “So, you were needed?”
“I was needed,” Kyle muttered as there was a doorbell ring and Isabel went expecting it to be the takeout order for dinner but came back with someone completely different. “Dad, what are you doing her here?”
“Welcome home son,” Jim smiled. “Sorry if I am raining on the welcome party between you two.”
“We only waiting for dinner to be delivered,” Isabel smiled. “You’re not an interruption and welcome anytime.”
“I appreciate that,” Jim said.
“I heard of the commotion last night. I am sorry if it puts you in a dicey place at work,” Kyle asked knowing full well the furor Jim’s actions with Max and Isabel back in high school had put his father in a terrible place before he was able to gain his position back with the department and the town.
“So far, it’s been fine as we’ve been able to keep Grace out it, and most of all Jake. Tommy is the only recognized victim of last night’s mayhem.
“So, Elizabeth’s story is holding?” Isabel asked.
“At this point although I don’t know if the Ellis family will question her story of a branch just happening to fall as they were talking...and she gets missed completely.”
“Do you think her ammunition helps?” Isabel asked.
“What ammunition?” Kyle asked only knowing the bare bones of the story and not all the details of the events of the prior night.
“Tommy had a gun that he had pointed at Jake which is why Grace did what she did although she was working on her mission before she saw the gun, and the actions were motion before she could stop them at witnessing the gun.”
“What on earth” Kyle asked.
“Yeah,” Isabel muttered. “Anyways, after the boys were injured. Elizabeth in her wisdom decided she needed to move Jake and then she took the gun!”
“She took the gun?” Kyle asked. “Is she crazy?”
“She was in family survival mode and worried about her brother if he were to be fingered in the situation given his age and his recent actions with Grace, you know, crossing state lines. She was fearful for her brother and decided to act without really thinking of the consequences she might unleash as a result. She was thinking of it as blackmail material!” Isabel muttered.
“She’s Michael down to a tee, isn’t she?” Kyle asked.
“Unfortunately, she has that tendency these days,” Jim muttered. “Fortunately for now her story it is holding thankfully but we won’t know for sure until Tommy’s prognosis is more defined.”
“He’s a monster,” Isabel muttered.
“I know,” Jim said. “Grace is going to face some tough delicious when it comes to Tommy.”
“Well if Tommy wakes up and says Jake was there. Elizabeth can deny it and there is no evidence to support he was there,” Kyle asked hopefully.
“What happens if he witnessed Grace use her powers?” Isabel asked. “You mean by tough choices is if he does say she was there or did something to him. She can use what he did to her on New Year’s Eve.”
“He’s going to deny it,” Jim said. “It’s her vs. him, and even with the news of the pregnancy...he’s going to say it wasn’t his. That she was with someone else, likely Jake, and tried to pin on it to escape parental disappointment. Or that she went away and got rid of it.”
“And Grace being an alien human hybrid won’t make it any easier,” Isabel sighed. “Even if her human genetics have more of a hold than her alien ones given her human parentage.”
“Nope,” Jim acknowledged. “So, it’s going to cause tough choices... and that could be only the start of her difficulties in the coming days and months.”
“Why?” Isabel asked.
“I also came to talk to Kyle about his trip with Michael,” Jim admitted.
“Do you want me to go?” Isabel asked warily because she knew this was treading on the subject that they have been trying to keep from her for days now. “I can check on the kids while you talk?”
“No, you can stay. Max and Grace both know now?”
“They do?” Kyle asked. “How in the heck did that happen?”
“Your runaway.”
“Alexandra!” Kyle asked as he sighed. “She made it here, didn’t she, and she caused havoc.”
“She did but I did manage to intercede and pick her up at the bus station and took her back to the station and of course even there she managed to make my job difficult.”
“How did that happen?”
“Wait, who is this Alexandra. I am confused. Should I know her,” Isabel asked her husband and father-in-law as she stepped into the conversation.
“No, but you will” Kyle muttered. “She’s one of the daughters of the case I was helping Michael investigate.”
“Who is this Alexandra?” Isabel asked again.
“Alexandra Evans. She lives in Madison, Connecticut and the daughter of a single mother who is also a doctor out of New Haven. The mother’s name is Beth Evans....” Jim said quietly prepared for the monstrous response both of them would get from his daughter-in-law as he wanted to step slowly but also knew he had to rip the band aid off the revelation. “And I am sorry about this sweetheart, but we believe that this Beth Evans really is Liz. Liz is alive.”
“What the h&ll!” Isabel screamed in high pitched wail, high enough for them to hear footsteps running upstairs and see Kylie come running and stay on the stairs as she looked down on her mother, father and grandfather. “Kylie it’s alright. You can go back to your room, and tell the others that everything is fine.” she said up to her daughter. “Your grandfather was telling me some news that shocked me.”
“I guess,” Kylie asked tentatively as she looked at both of her parents and grandfather with a hard second look but then turned and vanished back to her room.
“What the heck,” Isabel said more quietly as she turned to face her husband and father-in-law. “Liz is dead.”
“We don’t think so honey,” Kyle said. “I met this Beth Evans. She looks exactly like who Liz would be today.”
“I don’t get it!” Isabel weakly asked. “She died in a car accident and there was a body that Max had to identify once he was unable to save her with his powers.”
“Only through dental records were we able to make the identification as the remains were too charred,” Jim reminded Isabel. “I wish I didn’t have to lay this on you but it’s the truth.”
“It’s impossible. Someone is playing a trick on you.”
“Isabel,” Kyle said softly, and he took her hand. “It’s true.”
“No..... No....” she said as she looked into his eyes. “I was there when my brother buried the love of his life, and it almost destroyed him so no I can’t believe that this could actually happen,” she cried and ran out of the room and up the stairs while leaving Kyle and his father to look at each other.
“I wish I had better news for her. How did Max take it?” Kyle asked with a deep sigh as he wished he could take his wife in his arms and be there for her as she dealt with this...he hated that he was further along in this grief process, and in processing of the fact Liz didn’t actually die.
“Well, just about as bad as Isabel just then,” Jim admitted.
“I hate this!” Kyle moaned.
“I know son and how I wish it was a hoax, but it just isn’t, and we have to face it because Alexandra is so uncanny to how Liz was as a teenager that it’s scary,” Jim admitted.
“Grace was always a ringer for her mother especially at the age she is now, but the moment I saw Alexandra, I saw Max and Liz and especially Liz,” Kyle admitted. “Her twin sister is pretty damn close that it’s scary to look at them and remember back to us as teenagers.”
“I guess we’ll going to have to face it. Because before I left the office I received word that Beth is flying out tonight to be with her daughter, and she’s bringing her other daughter as well, so this is going to blow up explosively as early as tomorrow.”
“I better go up and discuss this with Isabel!” Kyle sighed as he walked his father to the front door.
“We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Tell Amy hello for me,” Kyle smiled as he saw his father walk to his car as he closed the front door, and took in a deep sigh and walked upstairs and knocked on his bedroom door. “Dad’s left, and I’m coming in.”
There was no silence.
“I am coming in anyways,” Kyle said quietly as he opened the door and walked in and found his wife crying on the bed. “Hey”
“It’s can’t be true, it can’t!”
“It is, sweetheart, because Liz is alive.”
“I don’t get it, but why?” Isabel asked.
“We haven’t reached our final definitive conclusion yet and therefore it could be someone else entirely, but Michael is currently working under the belief that very well could Khivar’s ultimate plan of pain against Max.”
“No... please no....Isabel screamed. “Please don’t tell me that, not that.”
******
“Dad, are you okay?” Grace asked a short time later as she walked into the living room upon walking into the house. She had needed time to think to herself after leaving Jake, and decided to take a drive and knew her father would be anxious to know she was safe, so she came home otherwise she might have stayed away until she came to grips with her new world order, and her feelings for Jake which were so confusing to her...
She worried for her father. She knew how much her mother’s memory stayed with her father and to grapple with the fact she might still be alive had to eat at home. It had only been the two of them for nearly fourteen years. “Dad!” she asked quietly
“Come in Grace,” Max smiled as relief showed on his face. “I was worried.”
“I am fine,” Grace sighed. “I just needed some time. Once I had seen Jake, and left, I felt the need to get some fresh air. I went out by the caves.”
“You did?” Max asked.
“I needed to make sense of a lot of things in my life and the fresh air was a bonus,” Grace admitted. “I am sorry if I worried you.”
“Given recent events I worry.”
“I am sorry again,” Grace said as she walked closer to her father. “I love you Dad. Thank you for being there for me, no matter what I do, and put you through.”
“You’re my daughter. I will always love you, and that has no expiry date.”
“Is it true?”
“About Mom?” Max asked.
“Yes,” Grace asked.
“I really don’t know honey. I would love to tell you that this is all an elaborate hoax by one of my earlier enemies, but I can’t.”
“She’s alive, isn’t she?” Grace asked.
“It’s possible,” Max admitted as he hugged his daughter. “All I can say is its possible.”
******
“We are thirty minutes from touching down,” Beth said as she sat across from Carrie who had jumped on the opportunity to fly in a private plane and rushed her packing if it meant they could get to their destination earlier than expected and they had gotten a personal drive by Serena to the airplane. Serena had cried when saying goodbye because she didn’t know if she would be getting the same woman back when she came back to Connecticut. She had this sense that Beth’s life forever will be changed by going back to Roswell to discover her roots, and past.
Beth was apprehensive as she boarded the flight, but Carrie was jumping for joy. She was determined to see her sister and experience the same experiences her sister was having and that meant finding out who they were, and from where.
“I can’t wait,” Carrie smiled.
“I just want you to be careful with how you set your expectations of this visit. There is no telling what we’ll discover.”
“I know,” Carrie acknowledged. “I just want to see Alexandra, and to know.”
“I wish I had the same sense of expectation as you,” Beth said as she saw the joy in her daughter, the childish wonder what she would experience, and she figure she set this up by keeping the girls so isolated to new experiences during their lives.
“Mom, I know this opens up a whole new world for you and you’re not ready for it. But regardless what we find out, you do know that Alex and I think the world of you and we love you forever and you did the best job you could with us. This isn’t about trying to trade up because you were a lousy parent you aren’t, we love you and you did a wonderful with us it’s just we need to know.”
“I know you do,” Beth smiled as she hugged her daughter. “As much as I fear it, I know I need to know also...”
“Maybe you also have a mother and father who misses you.”
“Maybe,” Beth said as she sighed at the unknown. “I wish I knew.”
******
Jeff Parker was closing up the Crashdown for the night when he was walking to his car to be able to go and pick up his wife at a friend’s home she had gone to visit, and he had promise to stop by at the end of the night’s shift when she saw a person walking across the street and he could swear it was his...
Lizzie.
“Liz,” he whispered and then adjusted his eyes and saw that it was a mere teenager walking along with an older woman.
“God Jeff, you’re losing it.”