Roswell Fanatics

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 5a: "Weak in the knees" 1/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'

Section 5: The orchestral

(January 3 2001.)

"Hey there sleepyhead," Isabel said as Max dragged his feet into the kitchen, his hair uncombed, wearing a dressing gown over the t-shirt and sweat pants he had slept in. "Up late last night?"

"Hmm?" Diane Evans said, popping her head back around the corner from the area that served her as pantry and workroom. "I thought you stayed in and read last night, Max." She stirred her cup of coffee and inhaled the vapors with obvious satisfaction.

"Yeah, I did. Just couldn't stop midway through the Imperial war," Max assured his mother. Once she had turned away, he mouthed 'shut up!' at his sister... who had known about his secret rendezvous with Liz last night, and had assured him that she wouldn't blab to the parents.

"Oats??" She pushed the glass bowl of microwaved oatmeal across the table to where Max had taken his seat, and he accepted it with slightly poor grace, dolloping out a fairly generous helping, (still pretty warm at least,) and adding a splash and a half of cold milk. When Isabel passed the tabasco sauce across to him before he even asked, he was prepared to consider it a peace offering. Max added some white table sugar to make his porridge complete, (unlike Isabel, who liked honey... and at least twice as much milk.)

"Are you guys looking forward to your new-semester classes??" Mom asked once she came back and claimed her two slices of multigrain from the toaster.

"I dunno, not that much is changing for me," Max explained. "Art instead of geography, afternoon study hall. Not exactly earth-shattering stuff." At least not much in my school schedule is changing, he qualified to himself. The parts of his life that he couldn't tell his mother were changing in some very exciting, and frightening ways.

Yeah, I can just picture that conversation, Max decided. Mom, we're aliens. While we were in Mexico, we broke into the home of a retired FBI Special agent. We got held hostage and accidentally got the guy shot. Right now, a big hunk of his memories are sitting in my brain and Isabel isn't quite sure how she's supposed to get them out... but we need to have that information to figure out some way of getting back to our home world before a challenge that would decide the fate of the planet runs out...

"Max??" Mom was actually waving a hand in front of his face -- never a good sign.

"Sorry, I guess I kind of zoned out there a little."

"I suppose," she said, calmly collected. "What were you thinking of?"

For an instant, Max panicked inside. Don't drive yourself crazy, a little voice inside himself ordered. She isn't suspicious... not of what's really going on. Best case, she was curious. Worst case, she wants to make sure you really were lost in though and not spaced out on drugs or something like that. At least that worry was seriously misplaced - considering Max's reaction to a little sip of whiskey, neither he nor any of the other hybrids could afford to experiment with recreational narcotics or the like. The results could be deadly.

Um, he DID have to say something to his mother, though. "Ehh, yeah, I was thinking about..." he couldn't exactly say art or study hall, and would have blamed it on Liz except that he was still a little uncomfortable bringing her up around his mother. "Mexico," he finished lamely.

"I'm glad that the two of you enjoyed your trip so much," Mom replied. "You know, your father ran into Jim Valenti last night, and asked him what it was like chaperoning eight teenagers for a week. But the sheriff didn't seem to want to talk about it."

"Well, we were kind of a handful for him," Isabel blurted out, then immediately tried to cover. "You know, running around all over the place, full of youthful energy." She took a breath and tried to compose herself. "Don't worry, mom, he was TOTALLY strict with us."

"Oh-kay," Mom said, shaking her head slightly and returning her attention to toast.

"You know that... that thing, Max??" Isabel blurted out. "That, that we were going to do, with Michael? I think I've studied the textbook enough that we can try it tonight." Ahhh... the memory transfer procedure. Max opened his mouth to reply.

"Oh, I don't think tonight will work dear," Mom replied. Both of her children turned to stare. "Well, you both promised your father that you'd be there for the firm party."

"Ohh," Isabel groaned. "Why the heck do they have to throw an office party like three days after new year's? It's like the stupidest thing ever!!"

"Come on," Max said to her. "A 'new beginnings' party. Personally, I think it's a minorly cool idea."

"There's only ever a few kids our age at these parties for the company," Isabel continued, a probing tone in her voice. "And we never have anything in common with them." She glanced sidelong at Mom. "It sure would be easier if there would be people that we know there..."

Max had to give his sister some credit for subtlety this time... last time there'd been an office party that they'd had to go to she'd demanded to be able to invite friends much more forcefully. Max hoped the soft sell would work himself, too.

"Well, I'm afraid I can't promise anything in that respect," Mom replied. "Philip?" Max turned around to see his father standing at the kitchen door, pouring a coffee.

"What?" Max knew that his dad had probably been in earshot for long enough to hear Isabel's pitch... he was probably asking for a further opinion from Mom in the guise of a recap.

"Your daughter was hinting that she'd like to invite a few friends to the party," she said with a small, approving smile.

"Hmm." Dad nodded at Max. "What about you, would you like to ask anyone to come?"

"Umm... uh, yeah, that'd be cool," Max said.

"Hmm..." Dad weighed the idea. "Are we talking about bringing dates?"

"Um..." Isabel flicked a glance at Max. "Dates, and one or two other people?"

Now Dad shot a pensive look at Mom. "Agreed. But... well, you know I love him like a son, not to mention my favorite client, but I'd rather none of the 'other people' were Michael Guerin. He... I'm not sure if he'd give the right impression."

Max thought about that, looked over at Isabel, and she nodded. "Yeah, alright."

Isabel finished her oatmeal. "Wait a second." She turned to look at Dad. "The way you phrased that... were you trying to say that if I wanted to bring Michael as my date, he'd no longer be 'unacceptable'?"

Dad blinked in surprise. "Hadn't even thought about the possibility, actually... but I like to think I'm not the type of father to tell my children who they are and are not allowed to date."

"Oh, whoops," Isabel muttered, realizing that she'd jumped to a conclusion. "Never mind - hypothetical question. VERY hypothetical."

Dad nodded very slightly and said, absently, to Max, "Are you going to find out when the next debate team practice is today??"

Max sighed silently... his father was so proud of him for that fool team. "Yeah, I'll check in." He was trying not to put on any pressure, Max knew, but he didn't want to disappoint his dad over the whole thing.

"What's the dress code for the party, anyway?" Isabel asked.

"Umm... I'm not sure," Dad replied. "Semi-formal, I think."

"No, cocktail attire," Mom chimed in.

"What’s the difference??" Dad mumbled to himself, and didn't get any reply.

"So..." Max said before starting on the last few bites of his porridge. "What did the two of you do while we were down in Mexico??"

"Oh, nothing much," Mom replied. "Took a two-day trip down to Carlsbad. Oh, and Amy DeLuca invited us to a new year's eve party, which was nice of her, wasn't it? Hi, Alex!!"

"Alex?" Dad repeated, spotting the lanky young man standing at the back door. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd walk over, spare anyone the trouble of picking me up," Alex said.

"I suspect Isabel has something to ask you, Alex," Dad commented. She shot him an angry glare. "But I guess she'll bring that up in her own good time."

"Uh, okay," Alex agreed uncertainly. "Are we ready to motor?"

"Uh... yep," Max insisted, swallowing the last bit of breakfast quickly. At Alex's skeptical look, he looked down and realized that he wasn't dressed in school clothes yet. "Gonna need a few minutes," he blurted out, taking off for his bedroom at a run.

* * * *

"So, do you have any idea what 'cocktail attire' is??" Max asked as they turned off towards the school, after picking Liz Parker up outside the Crashdown.

"Umm... I'm not sure," Liz admitted. "Pretty fancy."

"Dark suits for guys, short elegant dresses for girls," Isabel explained.

"Hmmm..." Liz considered that for a while. "Guess I could wear that outfit I got for the New Year's party in Mexico... the one I ended up not wearing for the New Year's party *not* in Mexico."

Max smiled at the thought... he had really liked that white clingy pantsuit that she had ended up wearing for the festivities... she had gone clothes shopping with Isabel on New Year's eve, when they had been stuck in a small town not far from Tucson in Arizona. But he never had any objections to seeing a new side of Liz Parker. "I was thinking about who else to invite... asking Maria seems like not a good idea, if Michael isn't exactly welcome." He frowned slightly. "But I was thinking it might be nice to invite Tess... if you don't have a problem with that."

Liz smiled. "I think it might be a really nice idea to include her. The two of us kinda bonded over the holidays, as you might have noticed."

"Yeah, I think it occured to all of us," Alex told her. Liz smiled slightly but didn't say anything.

So Alex changed the subject completely. "Um... did you guys do anything with, you know -- the air sled yesterday?"

"Not really," Max told him. "Just locked the thing up tight in the pod chamber where no-one else can get at it for now. There'll be time."

"It might be a good idea for you guys to learn how to use it well BEFORE the next crisis hits us," Liz put in. "Of course, that same argument does work for an awful lot... practicing and developing better ways of using your powers... translating more of the book."

"Oh, that reminds me," Alex put in. "Michael and I did a little work yesterday... cross-referencing some stuff between the washer, the book, and Nasedo's memory journal."

"Really?" Isabel put in. "What did you find out?"

"Something that might be important... Nasedo referred to it as an electromagnetic singularity. Looks like a little gem stone, a little smaller than a ping-pong ball, but made entirely out of metal -- a silver alloy or something."

"Hmmm," Max reflected. "What about it?"

"It's a huge source of power that you guys can use," Alex related. "Possibly enough to get you home in one of several different ways. Nasedo believed that it was taken by the millitary after the crash."

"Which means that, hopefully, there's something about it in the information from the Doctor, locked up in your brain, Max," Liz said, tapping his temple affectionately.

"Any idea when you'll be able to try transferring all of that back out?" Alex asked Isabel.

"I dunno." Isabel groaned. "Maybe tomorrow night."

"Anything wrong?" Max asked, looking back at her. "I mean, you seemed psyched about giving it a try. I admit, having to push the proceedings back a day because of Dad's party isn't ideal, but I'm not sure if I see where the groan comes in."

Isabel shook her head at him. "I dunno, okay? Just something about it puts me in a bad mood now, and I don't know why. Can we drop the subject?"

"We'd better," Liz agreed, pointing out the school buildings just ahead.

* * * *

"Oohhhhhhhh..." Maria pulled away for a second, got herself arranged so that she could lean against the wall instead of the old shelves in the eraser room, and guided Michael's lips back to hers. Mmmmmmmm, yeaaahh, that was it.

"Aaaaaaahh," Michael replied in the middle of the french kiss. A little while leter Maria realized that Michael was undoing the top few buttons of her shirt. She didn't object to begin with, not while he was kissing her neck like that, but when she realized that he must be down to the last two or three buttons, she mumbled "No, c'mon Michael."

"Why..." he paused to kiss, nuzzle, and lick her ear. "Why not??"

"I..." She backed away again, checking her shirt, (yep, down to the bottom two buttons,) and started to do it up again. "You know I want to," she told him throatily. "But remember where we are. There's a history of couples getting discovered here in the eraser room." Since it was common knowledge that there wasn't a lock on the door that could be turned from the inside, sealing the entrace was considered too dangerous... especially since if a crowd gathered outside, they'd have to come out one way or another. "How would you react if I wanted to... to open up your pants and take your dick out, knowing that someone could walk in and see??"

"Hey, you wanna play that way, I got no problems with it, babe," Michael shot back, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"Well -- that's because you're a freak, and there's such a thing as a double standard," Maria shot back. "You probably don't think it'd be so bad for *that* story to get around." She signed. "C'mon, I didn't really mean to spoil the mood, but we'd probably better get put back together and show up for class."

Michael shrugged, as easy-going as he ever was, and started looking for a reflective surface to check his hair with.

"Oh, in the 'other news' category, my mom's been bugging me to go out to dinner with my father ever since we got back from Mexico," Maria reported as she tried to make sure that her clothes were straight and orderly. "She thinks I've been ducking him."

"Aren't you entitled?" Michael asked. "I mean, jeez, the guy abandoned both of you. Why does she want you to have anything to do with the guy??"

"She still kinda loves him and likes that he's making an effort with me," Maria said. "Plus, I have to admit, I haven't been avoiding him because I resent him or hate him or anything. It's just been that everything's been so crazy lately, you know??" She took a deep breath. "Would you maybe come with me, Michael??"

"Dinner with your dad?" Michael was quiet a moment. "There's one painful experience I thought I wouldn't ever have to face." Maria rolled her eyes. "Kidding, kidding... kinda. If you want me to come -- of course I'll be there."

"Thank you, spaceboy." She leaned up on the tips of her toes to kiss him on the cheek, and then they snuck quietly out of the room.

* * * *

"Yeah, yeah, that sounds like... I'd like to come," Tess agreed. "If -- if that's really okay with everyone, that is," She looked at Liz pointedly.

"We'd love to have you," Liz assured her. As it happened, Michael and Maria hadn't shown up to join the others for lunch, which made it possible to bring up the party without much awkwardness. Alex and Isabel, Max and Liz, Tess, and Kyle were all gathered at their usual spot, a lunch table way off in the field behind West Roswell High, next to the baseball diamond.

"Do you have something to wear for it?" Isabel asked.

"Nah, but I've been meaning to splurge on something pretty," Tess laughed. She turned to Max and Liz. "Thank you... for inviting me. It really means a lot."

"Here's hoping we can all forget about the... unpleasantness, and become friends," Liz decided.

"Plus, the more of us that I can invite, the less mind-numbingly boring it should be," Max joked. Kyle looked up at that. "Ummm..." Max mumbled awkwardly.

"Hey, it's alright," Kyle laughed. "I think Courtney and I are doing something this evening anyway... much as I'd like to help you out." He grinned that trademark Kyle Valenti grin.

"You know, I really like Courtney," Isabel put in. "I'm not quite sure why, but I do." She smiled herself. "I'm glad you've found someone like her, Kyle."

"Thanks," Kyle said softly. "It was kinda weird her coming to Arizona looking for me, but cool, right?"

"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself, Kyle," Alex teased him.

"Maybe just a little. Probably just comes from watching 'fatal attraction' too many times, and such."

"But Kyle, the difference is," Liz pointed out, "you're not married."

"That's not the point. Horror stories about the psycho girlfriend don't have to be about a secret mistress. But I get the point. Courtney isn't a psycho, she was just a little impulsive around the holidays." He grinned a wide grin again. "I can live with that."

"Ohh... we've got a new music night coming up, right Alex??" Liz blurted out, and Alex nodded. "This friday, so you had all better come out and help pack the house."

"And eat a lot of greasy food," Alex chimed in.

"Got no problem with that," Kyle answered, and everyone laughed.

* * * *

"Hmmm." Liz frowned as she looked at herself in the long dressing mirror. She looked alright... it was a *gorgeous* dress, red silk, with the waving hem stopping short of her knees, short sleeves, and fairly deep scoops on the front and back, (nothing too daring, of course.) She was wearing her hair down, loose and straight, because that was how Max said he liked it best, except that she'd run a single braid straight back down the middle for a little variety.

A few tasteful rings, the little diamond earrings that Grandma Claudia had sent her for her sweet sixteen, a simple gold bracelet, and... of course!! She quickly took out the pendant that Max had given her for christmas and fastened the chain about her neck. The little glint of the faceted garnet was exactly the same shade as her dress.

That was pretty much it... she shouldn't need a wrap or shawl. Liz slipped her bare feet into the red leather three-inch heels and checked her reflection in the mirror one last time. Hair and makeup looked fine... for a fleeting instant she wondered why Max loved her so much. She wasn't the prettiest girl in town... by any objective standard, for instance, she judged that Tess was considerably more beautiful.

But that wasn't really the point, was it? She didn't love Max because he was handsome... though he definitely qualified as a five-alarm hottie. On the other hand, Liz wasn't exactly objective herself when it came to him. "In his eyes, I was beautiful," she repeated out loud, cherishing the tender memory. And then she headed down the stairs and out the kitchen entrance of the Crashdown.

It wasn't too long before the familiar shape of the Jeep pulled up, and Max hopped out of it quickly... and stared. "God, Liz... you look amazing," he said, and kissed her hello gently on the lips. "Love the dress."

"Why thank you, sah," Liz drawled in a pretty horrible southern accent, and stepped away so that she could twirl around and let him take in the view from every angle. "You're looking pretty damn dashing yourself!!"

Max smiled. He was wearing a charcoal gray suit jacket and matching pants, with a shite dress shirt and a soft green tie. "Just trying to keep up. It isn't as hard for us guys to figure out what to wear."

Liz grinned back at that. "Okay, what's the plan??"

"We're picking up Tess and then heading over to the party... I hope that's okay. Alex is driving Isabel." Liz nodded, that was about what she was figuring, except...

"No offense," she said as she started to carefully climb into Max's car, "but it's getting a little annoying that you're constantly double-checking with me as long as it's a question of spending time with Tess Harding! I'm trying to be her friend now, and if I start having problems with that, rest assured I will be letting you know."

Max did a bit of a double-take, and then smiled as he pulled the Jeep out. "'Trying to be her friend'?" He repeated. "I think I'm happy to hear that -- but when did it start? Did I miss something?"

Liz laughed softly. "Well, we agreed on new year's eve. But I guess it started..." she sighed. "In the forest in Mexico. She saved my life, and I saved hers. After that -- well, I guess it didn't make sense to either of us to keep holding on to old resentments at that point."

"Really?" Max considered a bit. "Neither of you really said anything about what happened in those woods... not until now."

"I hinted at some of it to Isabel," Liz mentioned. "What Tess did for me, not I for her. I guess..." she paused, and shrugged. "I wasn't sure what to say about it, really -- but I'm glad that I've told you."

"I'm glad too," Max agreed. "You know that I wouldn't have wanted to lose either of you down in Mexico... and a final end to all of the melodrama is always appreciated, of course." Liz had to laugh at that.

In just another minute more they were pulling up in front of Valenti's house to pick up Tess. She was waiting out on the sidewalk, dressed up in pink, her blonde hair falling free and somehow looking even curlier than usual, and...

"Umm, Tess?" Max said uncertainly once he was done parking. "Dress is a little short."

"What??" Tess looked down to check her hemline, which was about five, maybe five and a half inches short of the knee. "Isabel said elegant short dresses!!"

"That's short in comparison to full-length evening gowns," Max replied.

The look on Tess' face of disappointment and frustration was so much that Liz couldn't bear it. "Come on," she said, "it isn't that bad. If some of the stuffy types at the party think that it's too short well... who cares about them! Right Max??" It was a very pretty dress, going all the way up to her neck, with those little decorative things at her shoulders instead of real sleeves, kind of a crepe fabric or whatever it was called.

Tess looked from Liz to Max. "Yeah, uh... I guess so," Max mumbled uncertainly.

Tess climbed into the back seat, having less trouble than Liz had for all of the shorter hem, because her shoes had less heel. (Which meant that Liz should have a height advantage over Tess tonight... not that such things really mattered to her of course.) She reached forwards and brushed Liz's arm momentarily with her fingers. "Thanks, Liz." Liz turned around and smiled back at her.

"By the way, guys," Max said as they got underway again. "... or girls, whatever: Thanks for coming with me. This party really isn't going to be as much fun as you might imagine, but it means a lot to me that you're coming with."

"You're welcome, Max," Tess said softly.

"Yeah," Liz agreed. "I'm not sure that I'm under any illusions about fun. But... you know that I always enjoy being around you, right? No matter what the occasion."

Max nodded, and Liz noticed Tess' expression in the rear view mirror. She was still embarrassed, and maybe just a tiny bit resentful, to hear Liz refer to how much she loved Max like that. Their fledgling friendship wasn't strong enough yet to entirely smooth over all of those hurt feelings.

TBC...

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 5a: "Weak in the knees" 2/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'

"Young Mister Evans!" a voice rang out. Max turned and made sure that his party face smile was as perfect as possible. The speaker was a man with thinning gray/white hair and glasses, about sixty years old. He looked a little familiar to Max. "It's been, what... two years? You've gotten so tall!"

Max nodded agreeably. "Nice to see you too, mister... uhhh..." He'd been hoping that the pressure of necessity would provide the right name at the last instant. So much for hope.

"Doctor Williamson," the older man said with an even smile. "So, you'd be, what, in your junior year of secondary school now?" Max nodded. "Are you doing well in your studies??"

"Pretty well," Max answered. "I've always been pretty good at keeping up in school."

"And in not too long, you'll have graduated and will have the first of your big decisions to make," the doctor continued. "Any idea where you see yourself in two years??"

For a long moment, Max was incredibly tempted to blurt out an honest answer. 'Well, hopefully I'll have returned in some sort of spaceship to my true home planet hundreds of light years away and vanquished the enemies of my family, and then I'll have to learn how to be a good king, which I expect will take many years.' "Ummm... hopefully I'll get into a good state school," he spun off instead, "maybe UNM. I've been thinking about pre-med studies actually... or possibly pre-law."

"Ahh. And who is this lovely young lady who has just stepped up to stand beside you?" Max smelled the perfume that had just come back into the vicinity, and smiled to himself.

"Doctor Williamson, this is Liz Parker, my girlfriend." He looked at Liz and beamed as they shook hands - he couldn't help it. "Liz, Doctor Williamson."

"Hello there," Liz said. "How do you know Max??"

"Old friend of their parents," he explained. "And a client of the firm, although Philip doesn't work with me directly. I'm not his specialty."

"Oh?" Liz raised an eyebrow. "What kind of 'specialty' *are* you, then??"

Williamson smiled. "Medical law, of course. Some malpractice, not that I've been sued for it more than once or twice -- and always cleared, let me hasten to add. But in this day and age, it's very important to have legal advice on such things."

"Oh," Liz said, a little blankly.

"I'm boring you already, I see," Williamson said quickly, catching the signs instantly.

"No, you're not," Liz insisted. "Well, maybe a little." She laughed softly. "So... you're a medical doctor? What kind??"

"Ummm... my specialties involve viral reduction therapy and genetic disorders, and I simply refuse to speak of them any more at this point," he shot back, a twinkle in his eyes. "For fear the dullness would make you pass out. What of yourself? I'm sure that such a bright and engaging young woman as yourself can find something interesting to tell me about."

"Ummmm..." Liz mumbled, freezing in panic. Max hesitated only a moment before stepping in to rescue her.

"I'm really sorry, doctor -- I think my dad's looking for us. We'll come back and find you when we can, okay??" He smiled and led Liz away.

"How many times are you going to use your dad as an excuse this evening??" Liz whispered into my ear.

"As few times and as many as I need to," he muttered back.

* * * *

"Hey," Alex told Isabel, handing her a small plastic plate full of vegetable tidbits. "You sure you want to stay here, not go back and mingle a little more?" They were hanging back next to a wall in an unobtrusive part of the room.

"You've seen how it goes by now, Alex," Isabel whispered, sighing. "Everyone asks what I've been doing for the past year or so. I cannot tell *any* of these people what I've been doing for the past year or so!!"

"Well... not the stuff that we can't tell them, I admit," Alex argued softly. "But that isn't all that there's been to your life recently."

"It's been far too much," Isabel groaned.

"Iz is right," Tess piped up softly from nearby. "Mingling only leads to badness."

And so they sat and watched the party going on for several minutes. Tess had come up and found them not long after she'd arrived, and Alex had had no objections with that. She couldn't exactly wander the party without anyone else she knew... (at least, Alex wouldn't have liked to do the same himself,) and being around Liz and Max as a couple still apparently made her feel awkward.

"Hey, Evans!!" A tall, sinewy guy with a shaggy haircut and wearing a peach suit was coming up to them. He seemed a little older than Alex, maybe a freshman in college, and he was staring Isabel up and down. "Ya made it! Gotta say, sweet thing, you get sexier every time I see you! I mean..." He was standing only a few feet away from her, and with elaborate care pantomimed touching one finger against her arm and jerking it away suddenly. "SCORCHING!!"

"Get lost, Brunon," Isabel snapped, rolling her eyes.

"Now, is that any way to talk to such a dear old friend??" He leered at Isabel again, and Alex's level of annoyance went up another two notches. Not that he didn't understand the sentiment... Isabel was indeed looking ravishing tonight, in a blue sating halter dress without any sleeves, her hair bound up in a classy twist. But the guy seemed to be a world-class creep, and for him to fixate on Isabel left Alex very nervous, as well as the inevitable jealous ticked-off feeling.

"Fine," Isabel sighed. "Hi, Bruno. It's so... 'unexpected' to see you again. Are you going to college here in town?"

"Naw, I keep forgetting to send my applications in on time," he said. "But Dad got me a job in the mail room, and I've got my own pad. Wanna come over some time and get the grand tour??" He leaned in, putting his right hand on Isabel's left hip and bringing his face close to hers, their mouths only inches away.

Rage filled Isabel's face, but she kept her voice low and even. "Please take your hand off me and back out of my space."

"Why? You feel so good, baby." He moved the hand around slightly, rubbing her, and Isabel shuddered. "Smell good, too."

"The lady asked you to step aside," Alex said, taking the larger guy by the shoulder and shoving him back. He didn't move Brunon much, but enough to force the older guy's hand away from Isabel.

He refocused, noticing Alex for the first time, and laughed softly. "You looking to make a point out of it, string bean??"

"If that means what I think it does, then yes," Alex replied quietly.

He laughed again. "What, you trying to impress the lady?"

"I don't need to impress her... I think I've already done that."

Brunon blinked, shock evidence on his face. "What... are you the *boyfriend*??"

"That's what she calls me," Alex shot back flatly.

"Well, well, well..." He shook his head and seemed to have to think a bit before coming up with the next reply. "I don't think you're worthy of a woman like Evans."

"What, and YOU are??"

"I like to think so." He barked aggressively. "So how about we get back to your little challenge? Loser gets to leave with her."

"No, come on," Isabel said, finding her voice for the first time in this entire odd exchange. "Nobody's fighting."

"I'm not backing down," Alex told her calmly. "I can't speak for you, of course, but after all the insulting things he's said about you and to you, over the past three minutes, I am going to smash his face in unless he apologizes to you."

"Alex!!"

"Those are pretty bold words," Brunon put in. "You realize, I assume, that if you jump on me and start beating the tar out of my face, it won't exactly leave a good impression when her mom and dad find out. Little wimps like you care about that sort of thing, don't ya??"

"I think her father would understand when I tell him why," Alex said. "With his help, Mrs Evans will calm down in due time."

"And that's assuming that things don't go the other way," Brunon continued. "What makes you think it isn't your face that's going to get turned into mush??"

"Simple." Alex grinned his best maniac grin. "I fight dirty. REALLY dirty."

Brunon considered that for a moment, and then groaned. "Fine, whatever, ya little geek. If she's got bad enough taste to pick a guy like you, then who needs her? I'm sorry I tried," he said to Isabel, and then turned back to Alex. "That's the only apology she's gonna get."

Alex snarled for a second, and then shook his head, pointing to the party. "Get outta here." And in a few seconds, he was gone.

"I... I can't believe you did that!!" Isabel exclaimed once he was gone.

"Neither can I," added Tess, who had watched the entire scene without saying a word. "That was pretty good!!"

Isabel looked from one to the other of them for a second, then sighed loudly and kissed Alex on the cheek. "Thank you for wanting to be my knight in shining armor," she told him. "Even a psycho lunatic knight in shining armor."

* * * *

"Hi, guys." Max turned around and blinked in surprise.

"Wha... what the heck are you doing here, Kyle??" Max stared at Kyle for a second, who was standing there in a black suit with a teasing grin on his face, and then clued in to the identity of the blonde girl in the black dress standing next to him. "Courtney??"

"Funny thing, Evans," Kyle told him. "I went to meet Court this afternoon, told her how you guys had been talking about this party, and she said that this was where she had to go tonight, and she'd been wanting me to come with."

"Really," Tess said, smiling at them. "How did you get invited, Courtney??"

"Oh, uh--" Courtney smiled. "Mister Bannerton has been helping me out with the, um... the legal ramifications of my brother's unexplained disappearance."

"Ahh, interesting," Tess said, getting a pensive look on her face.

"C'mon, Courtney," Liz told her, a bit of a mischievous expression in her eyes that only Max knew how to read. "There's someone I have to introduce you to."

* * * *

"Hello, hello, may I have your attention please??" someone was asking. It was several hours later now, and Isabel was heartily tired of the restrained festivities. She was looking forward to going home fairly soon. But first, by tradition, came the toast.

"It's been a good year since I last stood here and tried to remember what I was supposed to say," the man making the speech, Dylan Ryan or something like that, said, and everybody laughed politely. "A good year for the firm, hopefully a good year for the people we know and the community that we're a part of. I see a lot more faces out there than I'm used to."

"But this is not a day for looking back, especially. A new year is stretching out before us -- 2001. We've given it a few days to get its bearings," quiet laughter again. "This is a night for moving forward, for making new plans..."

All of a sudden, a wave of dizziness hit Isabel. She screwed her eyes shut and tried to move towards the nearest empty chair without spilling the mix of apple juice and soda water in her glass. "...We're counting on all of you, to make 2001 the best year that it..."

And that was all she remembered.

* * * *

"Isabel!!" Alex called out. He had noticed her stepping slowly away from him, and hadn't attached any particular importance to it. But there was no mistaking the sound of a person's body collapsing suddenly to the floor. And there she was, looking kind of crumpled, her plastic champagne glass lying sideways near her hand, the carbonated liquid spreading out over the floor.

He rushed over and tried to do three things at once... check her pulse, her breathing, and carefully examine her head for any sign of an injury sustained as she had crumpled to the floor. It didn't work well to try to do all that at the same time, but once he established a sensible order, all of the individual results were good.

But why had she fainted, or blacked out, or whatever had happened? Was it some kind of strange alien attack... or what?

She didn't get sick. For some reason, that phrase kept ringing through Alex's head. It was something she had said several times, in reference to how she knew that she was different, to what it was like being a hybrid. She had said it, with relief, when he'd told her about having the mumps when he was seven and had been afraid that he would die. Liz had told Alex that she had said it, or words to that effect, after the car crash that had brought Max into the hospital, while they were trying to find some way to keep his blood tests from blowing the secret of his alien origin. Just before Liz had called him in, to have his blood exchanged for Max's.

"What... what happened??" It was Max, crouching down beside Isabel's body next to him.

"I... I don't know," Alex blurted out. "She was all right, as far as I could tell, and then she just -- collapsed."

"Well, let's not leave her just lying here like this," Max said. "They've got a... a small room with a couch, can't remember exactly what it is, but..."

"I'll take her head," Alex said quickly.

"No, you take the middle," Kyle suggested, hurrying up himself. "I'll take the head, Max the legs. Sound good??"

As quickly and as smoothly as they could, they picked up Isabel's unconscious body and hurried her off. Liz, Tess, and Courtney were doing crowd control by now and making sure that the doors were open ahead of them. Two thirds of the way there, Isabel groaned, and Alex looked into her face, but her eyes didn't open and she didn't speak.

Until they had her set up on the couch, that was. "What... what happened??" she mumbled, eyes only half open. Max quickly turned off the overhead lights, leaving only one shaded lamp on across the room.

"We were kinda hoping that you could tell us," Alex said. kneeling next to the couch and taking her hand.

"I... I don't really remember much," Iz admitted. "That... that Ryan guy was starting a really boring speech, and all of a sudden -- it was like I was hit with a wave of vertigo. Everything was swimming in front of my eyes, I had to close them... I just had to. I was feeling dizzy, my sense of balance was acting up, so I headed towards where the chair was, hoping that I could find my way there and sit down without needing to look. But... but that's all I can tell you."

"You fainted, you collapsed on the floor," Alex said softly. "Do you remember that at all?"

"Nope." Isabel shook her head, and groaned. "Not to self - do not move head."

Alex looked around quickly. The door to the room was closed, and Courtney wasn't there. It was just Isabel, himself, Max, and Tess. (He wondered whether Liz was guarding the other side of the door or where she was.) He lowered his voice and leaned close to Isabel regardless. "Do you think it might have been some kind of alien attack??"

Isabel frowned in concentration, and grunted in mild pain again. "I... I'm not sure, Alex. It hurts to think, okay??"

"Okay. Is there anything I can do to help? Any of us??"

"Umm..." Isabel sighed. "Max, any chance you can, you know? Look me over?"

Max considered that. "Too risky to do it here, unless it's absolutely critical. We'll find some way for me to do a check when we get home. Especially if," he looked over at Alex, "somebody can distract the parental units??"

"Okay, I can wait 'til then." Isabel sighed. "Could someone get me some juice to drink, then? And something easy to get down with plenty of calories in it? I haven't had that much to eat today, maybe that's part of the problem." She pouted.

"Isabel!!" Max scolded.

"I'm on it," Alex said, and hurried to the door. As he opened it, he was Liz on the other side - reaching out towards where the doorknob would have been while the door was in a closed position.

"The toast has been finished, and people are starting to leave," she reported. "Figure we start to clear out once the crowd has thinned?"

"Sounds good to me," Alex reported. "Tell your boyfriend." He gestured over his shoulder and hurried past her.

* * * *

"So, how is she?" Mister Evans asked as Max climbed down the stairs.

"She's going to be fine, I think," Max said. "She's asleep, and I don't think anybody should bother her." Diane Evans seemed to think it was odd that her son was telling her this, but nodded in agreement.

"Okay... we'll be going to bed too. Say goodnight to your friends, Max," she said pointedly, and the two parentals climbed up the stairs. Max, Alex, Liz, and Tess gathered on the couch, (and the armchair, which Alex brought over,) to discuss the situation.

"Well??" Alex asked.

"She... I didn't see anything wrong," Max said. "Although... I dunno, there was something kinda weird, like my talent was being blocked or... no, never mind. I was probably imagining it."

Liz didn't seem that ready to let it go. "Have you ever used your healing powers on... on another hybrid?"

"Yes, many times," Max admitted. "On the other hand, we've all changed lately." He sighed. "Anyways, there doesn't seem anything to do but wait and see how she feels in the morning."

"Okay," Alex agreed. "Why don't I ferry everybody else home, and you can stay put Max??"

He considered that for a moment. "Alright. Goodnight." He kissed Liz quickly and got up. Everyone else filed out, and Max waved goodbye and closed the front door.

They dropped Tess off first - she seemed unusually quiet, but wished Liz goodbye enthusiastically enough. Alex pulled out and started to head back towards the Crashdown.

"It's starting again, isn't it??" Liz asked in a dull voice.

"What?" Alex looked over at her for an instant. "Don't get your braid in a twist. She didn't eat enough and fainted at a party."

She shook her head. "No, that isn't all of it. I can't say how, but this is the beginning of another crisis."

Alex frowned. "So, what, you figure an alien mental assault??"

"Don't ask me, Alex, I already said I don't know how, I just..."

"It's okay, I believe you," Alex assured her. "Well, if you get any better notion, let me know."

"You'll be... well, you'll be second or third to know," she assured him.

* * * *

(Next morning, January 4th 2001)

"I'm *fine*," Isabel insisted over the cordless phone. "It was... I dunno, it was just low blood sugar or whatever. Can you let it go?"

"I'm glad you're feeling better," Alex said, deciding not to mention Liz's intuition. "And if it was low blood sugar, make sure to eat a good breakfast and I'll be taking you out to lunch today."

"Hehehehe," she drawled. "I had breakfast yesterday, actually, and I've already had it today. You sure you don't want us to pick you up?"

"Nah, I'm good," he insisted. "And I love you."

"I love you too, Alex Charles Whitman, even when you drive me crazy." The line clicked off, and Alex put the handset down and started picking out clothes.

School went smoothly enough, even though at second day of classes things were starting to get difficult already. Alex did indeed take Isabel out for lunch... to the hamburger joint down the street from the school, and watched as she chowed through a double jumbo cheeseburger and fries.

In the afternoon, news started spreading of a giant prank... it turned out that apparently a group of students who had graduated in December, (well, reached enough credits in December to graduate in the spring and who weren't continuing to take courses at the high school until then,) had managed to sneak into the pool room as the lunch hour started, shut down the water circulation pump, and dumped a large quantity of quick-set strawberry jello powder in.

By the time the sixth period gym class had changed and showered, the pool was mostly solid and entirely a vibrant red. Just about everyone ended up sneaking out of class at some point to take a look. The phys ed coaches ended up turning the drains on and spraying hot water from the shower in until the gelatin began to dissolve. (Signs were posted up by the end of seventh period that the pool would not be available until Friday morning.)

* * * *

"Hey," Isabel said, sitting down in the nearly empty gymnasium beside Liz Parker.

"Uhh... hi!!" Liz replied, looking up in surprise from the various guys and girls milling around in organized confusion on the stage. "Were you looking for me? How'd you know I'd be here??"

"No and I didn't, not really," Isabel explained, "though I'm not too surprised to see you. I promised Max that I'd keep watch out for our dad and shoo him away if he drops in."

"Ahh." Liz agreed, and they were silent as Mister Miller, the junior english teacher, stepped up and went through his spiel about moderating the practice debate. "He really is fixated on this debate team stuff, isn't he? Your dad - I've heard Max talk about it."

"Yeah, kinda. He's just glad that Max is following in his footsteps in this. Tries not to let himself go too far." She looked around carefully, and then returned her attention to the proceedings.

"You're worried about me," Isabel said, after the opening argument was made while the opposition was conferring before beginning their first rebuttal. "About the collapse."

"Yeah, I'm worried," Liz agreed. "I'm glad that you seem to be better right now, but I'm sure that that was more than a one-time thing. I just wish I knew what it meant."

The opposition began at that point, and after that Max was up, not needing a consultation before he began an impassioned oratory on... on whatever was being debated. Liz hadn't quite caught it, and wasn't really that interested in following. She just enjoyed watching him talk.

Until he stumbled verbally, umming and erring until someone from his team had to give him a prompt. Even then, he lost the thread about thirty seconds later.

"I... I..." He turned towards the general vicinity of the moderator. "I'm sorry, I'm feeling very dizzy. I need to -- I need to sit down." He spun around once, and then carefully lowered himself to the floor of the stage, sitting with his legs straight out.

A horrible feeling settling over her, Liz hurried forward so that she could help Max down the steps from the stage and to a seat in the audience. Isabel was right behind her.

TO BE CONTINUED...

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 5b: "Infected" 1/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'

(Afternoon of thursday, January 4 2001.)

Liz shifted her weight reslessly in the front seat of Max's jeep as he drove through the relatively quiet afternoon streets of Roswell. Was it her imagination or was the wind blowing a little harshly today??

"You're worried," Max observed, shooting her a sideways glance.

Liz shrugged awkwardly and nodded her head a little. "I guess I am." She kept her mouth open as if expecting to elaborate, but nothing came. So after a long moment, she set her lips back together.

"I'm fine, now," Max assured her. "I probably just psyched myself into it because I was worried about Izzy. But she just fainted because she didn't have enough to eat yesterday. She's fine, and so am I."

Liz, deep inside herself, was far from convinced, and Max's reassurances were starting to seem like rationalizations. First, Isabel had fainted right in the middle of the big toast at her father's office party last night. Today after school, Max had been hit with an intense spell of dizziness during debate team practice, so bad that he'd had to sit down on the auditorium stage right in the middle of his turn to speak. (Luckily, Isabel and Liz had happened to be there, watching the practice, and had helped him into a seat near the back of the audience section. Max hadn't blacked out like Isabel had, but it seemed too close to her experience for Liz to put her suspicions to rest -- not that she'd been complacent about the situation when it was just Isabel who had had an odd fainting spell.

Perhaps somehow Max could tell how silentl skeptical his girlfriend was at that moment. "Okay, worst case," he sighed, changing tactics. "If something really is wrong, it makes more sense to do this thing right away. We'll be stronger once Isabel's reversed once she did to my brain in Mexico, and have a whole lot more information available to us. Who knows, maybe it's the fact that I've got a lockbox stuck in my head and Isabel has he key that's messing us both up. Some side effect she didn't research intensively enough to find out."

"That makes sense on the face of it, I guess," Liz admitted. "I just have... I dunno, a feeling about all this."

Max shot a look at her, almost cut someone off that he didn't see, and focused on getting the Jeep parked. They were a short fraction of a block away from Michael's building. "A feeling? Any connection with your dreams??" Liz had had two 'spooky' dreams that had saved the entire gang by now, dreams that were, as she described it one time, 'prophetic in a kinesthetic way.' They seemed to bear on the future -- on dangerous situations that Liz and her friends would get into, and even point the way towards a solution, but only in feelings and sensations of bodily position - no visual or audio component. It was more than a little frustrating to her.

"No," she shot back. "Haven't been having any spooky dreams lately. Do I have to have one for you to take me seriously??"

"Maybe you did and just didn't remember it," Max continued, off on his own track. "Because the last two times you woke up afterwards. Nobody remembers many of their dreams because they don't wake up after them, they just sink back into the subconscious and..." He broke off, because he just noticed that Liz was giving him a look. "Sorry."

Liz decided to put the entire dream thing to one side. "I just... I have this seriously clear feeling that..." She tried to put it as precisely and evenly as possible. "While you might find out something by doing this, now, it won't be worth what you lose."

Max leaned over and kissed her. "Well, after today, I guess we'll know how much trust to put in your 'feelings.'"

Liz smiled at that, and then, as Max got out of the Jeep, did a double-take. "Hey!!" The only way that they would put her feeling to the test - was to go ahead in spite of it and see how much, if any, trouble ensued.

==========

It was seven of them gathered in Michael's place this time... Max and Isabel, as the primary participants. Michael and Tess, who each had a sizeable interest in the information Isabel might retrieve here. Alex and Liz, each worried about their respective sweeties. And Maria, who was not about to let herself be left out at this point, especially not since it was *her* boyfriend who was hosting the proceedings.

Alex, Maria, and Liz were talking amongst themselves in low voices as Michael, Max, and Isabel were making the preparations and Tess hovered around nearby.

"No, I couldn't talk Isabel out of it either," Alex whispered with a resigned tone. "Guess we'll just have to have faith for the best."

"What about this idea that it's actually the professors' memories being inside Max that's messing them both up??" Maria asked. "Is that even possible?"

"Considering how weird some of this Czechoslovakian stuff is, I wouldn't like to rule everything out." Liz sighed.

"Saint Camber," Tess put in, stepping closer to the three of them. "After death-reading the memories of Allister Cullen, Camber MacRorie is nearly driven mad until he can safely complete the ritual to integrate those memories into his own mind."

Maria stared at the hybrid girl. Alex blinked several times in a row. Liz hazarded "Another one of your wacky sci-fi books, Tess?"

"More like fantasy... alternate historical," Tess explained, sitting down opposite Liz. "But the Deryni books resonate with me for a different reason... the running theme of a people who are born with magical powers, or at least the potential to develop them -- and how much they are feared and persecuted by those who don't have their gifts, the ones who reseve for themselves the title of 'normal human.'"

"Ahh, yeah, sounds familiar," Liz agreed, smiling slightly at Tess. She was trying to think of something else to say when it became clear that the main event was about to begin.

Max was sitting down on a chair, hands by his side near the outside of his upper thighs, his face the very picture of calm repose, eyes closed. Isabel walked around him, clearly feeling very nervous, and stepped up behind him, laying one hand across his temple and the other across the opposite ear.

Alex watched Isabel's face very carefully, moving quietly so that he could look at her directly on, and could see a number of different reactions pass across her face in the silence. First, frustration... something wasn't working as she had expected it to, right at the start. Then, some mild relief. Puzzlement shaded into alarm, and quickly to fear. "No, no..." she whispered, her voice cracking and hardly audible. "The link... we're not alone!! Help -- help mee!"

What was going on? Not alone in the link. Alex rushed forward, but Isabel didn't seem to be able to let go of Max, and he knew enough about what was going on to know that attempting to drag her away bodily could be catastrophic by both of them. Max's face was now also reading the terror of some dreaded realization, though his eyes were still calmly closed and the set of his mouth remained oddly serene.

Michael whirled into action, literally -- turning on his heel three eights of a full circle, he gestured and a sparkly purple field appeared in the air at the border of the room. Tess smiled and pointed to the side, and Michael oriented in that direction, moving the field with him as he turned his body. Finally, growning in confidence, he began to spin around and around, fast enough that Alex was dizzy just looking at him. The purple sparkles assumed the unmistakeable of an strobotronic sphere surrounding them all, enclosing them above and below most likely, though none of them could see it extend beyond the ceiling or the floor -- not complete at any one instant, but not leaving a gap open at a particular spot for more than a fraction of a second.

After an interminable minute, Isabel suddenly wrenched her hands away from Max's head and staggered off to the couch. "It -- it's okay," she announced to no-one in particular. "He won't be able to get in again now." Michael puzzled over that for a few seconds, and then let his makeshift barrier collapse.

"What HAPPENED??" Liz asked, running forward to Max. Max opened his eyes, looked around for Isabel, who was also seeming more aware of her surroundings now, and she caught his glance as Alex sat down next to her.

"I'll go first," she volunteered. "It took a long time to establish any kind of connection at all with Max... my powers seemed so weak. Once I started opening up the professor's memories, I realized that there was -- another telepathic presence, inside the link with us. A powerful mind, tunneling into our connection from, from a long way away. I can't pin down its... his location, any more than that."

"A skin, maybe??" Tess asked. "One of Steve Banks' cronies?? He would have been able to recruit two more into the 'field of play,' after we were forced to kill Grant Sorenson and frat-boy on hostage night. That's in the rules of the challenge."

Isabel frowned, remembering what they'd heard about the strange bet that was being wagered over whether they could return to their home planet. "Maybe -- I don't know how to tell. But he was definitely not friendly... when he realized what I was doing, he tried to grab the Professor's memories for himself."

"Oh, no," Michael breathed. Maria shot him a look. "Sorry, but after everything we went through to get those brain files, not to mention what happened to the professor himself..."

"I understand," Liz put in. "Isabel??" she prompted as gently as she could.

"I don't know how much he got," Isabel muttered. "There was some kind of interference..."

"You can thank Michael for that," Alex admitted. "I think."

"Okay," Isabel smiled nervously up at him. "And I was able to keep him from deleting anything, I think. But... how was he able to get in in the first place?? The instructions in the book explained the basics of mentalic defense, and I was using the appropriate precautions. Unless..."

"You said your powers were weak," Max put in. "I don't think it was your imagination, and that's why your precautions didn't work." He had everyone's attention. "While that was happening, I couldn't sense what was going on with you and this other telepathic mind, but for a moment my healing powers came on, in diagnostic mode. I was aware of what's going on in your body, and mine, Isabel."

He broke off there, breathing heavily, and Liz, sitting down on the floor next to and beneath him, rubbed his hand and arm, her eyes suddenly alive with fear. Michael waited a few minutes, then prompted. "Well? Not to sound rude, Maxwell, but you've got us all on the edge of our seats here, especially Isabel... and Liz, ane Alex, and Tess."

Max laughed hollowly. "We're infected. Couldn't quite tell with what -- I don't think it's communicable, but some kind of virus or single-celled organism. That's what's been affecting our powers, and giving us those dizzy spells, Isabel. The reason I didn't see the signs in you yesterday was that my own powers weren't working -- I didn't see anything wrong, so I didn't realize that the fault was mine."

There was a long, stunned silence, which was finally broken by Maria. "So -- what the heck do we do *now*??"

============

(Later that evening.)

"So, he's just going to sit tight and wait??" Kyle asked incredulously. "Knowing that he and Isbael are *infected*??"

"It's not quite as stupid as it sounds, Kyle," Tess told him. They were hanging out in the living room of the Valenti house, now once again Kyle's de-facto bedroom. (He had been crashing at Michael's apartment before the holidays, but come back for christmas with his father, and the girl he was coming to think of as a foster sister.) "For one thing, the fact that Steve Banks had someone ready to drill into Isabel's mind long-distance does seem to suggest that the infection was just a ploy to weaken her, or Max, or both of them. Which suggests that maybe it's not fatal, something that they'll recover from, given time."

"And... and what if it isn't??" Kyle asked, wondering why he cared so much. He still tended to think of Max Evans as a foil or a rival, but... but, well, he'd never really held much personally against Isabel, and for a girl that hot to die at seventeen was certainly a tragedy. Heck, even Max dying of a mysterious infection was something that he had a hard time thinking of. "What if this thing is terminal??"

"Then... I don't know, Kyle!!" Tess exploded. "No-one really has any better ideas just now. If they don't get better, we'll just have to bloody well think of something, huh?!" She let out a sound that was somewhere between a squeak of fury and a shout of frustration.

Kyle fixed Tess with a look... and then waited until she noticed that he was staring at her and returned eye contact. "It's really hard for you, being worried about Max in particular, isn't it?? You're doing your best to back off and give Liz and Max their space, but you can't really fool yourself, now can you?"

She half-smiled at him. "I... I wish there was some way to let them know that -- that what I feel isn't the point. Max loves *her*, and so I am damned well going to do my best to protect both of them... for each others' sake!! If... if I do still have feelings for him, can I do anything less??"

Kyle smiled. "I think that'd be cool."

============

(Friday night. January 5th 2001)

"So, Michael..." the man sitting at the head of the table asks me. "How are your classes so far this term??"

"Ummm..." Michael let that sound fade out, playing idly at the mixed vegetables on his plate as he stared at them, until he realized that somebody was waiting for more of a reply than that. "Uhh... I'm really sorry, I wasn't -- er, that is, I didn't quite hear you."

He didn't want to be there. Considering everything that had been going on, he wanted to be anyplace other than here in a small but reasonably affluent apartment four flights above East Hobbs street, having dinner with the man who had run out on Maria and broke her heart when she was just seven years old.

"Maria said that you did pretty well in school in the fall," the man continued, probing for some sort of reply. Yes... what with the mysterious challenge, Max, Isabel and Maria had finally been able to convince him that being behind on schoolwork was just a distraction when more important issues came along. Since the autumn and early winter had been pretty quiet, alien drama-wise, Michael had been able to put some time in getting tutored by the brainier members of the 'I know an alien' club and pulled up his GPA to waist level, as it were.

He shook his head, climbing out of the funk as best he could and focusing on the scene around him. Maria's father, Ryan Galdamez, who had returned after almost a ten year absence, hoping to repair the gulf that seperated him from his daughter and ex-lover. Who Maria had finally agreed to visit for dinner, and asked Michael to come along for moral support. It suddenly occured to him that he'd been acting whatever the opposite of supportive was.

"Uh yeah, that's a good feeling," he mumbled, still feeling it a little hard to concentrate all of his attention on the conversation. "As far as the new semester... well, there's econ, which looks like it's gonna be pretty tough, and Bio 2. My lit teacher seems pretty cool though."

The three of them continued to eat in silence for a little while after that. Maria tried to start things up again, asking her father a question. "So, what did you..." She broke off at that point, and Michael realized that she had decided 'what did you do after you abandoned us' might be a little too inflammatory. "What were you doing just before you came back to Roswell? A year, two years before, say."

"Umm... I was working in San Diego for about three years," Mister Galdamez said after an instant's pause. "Working in Human Resources at a mid-size pharmaceutical company." Michael thought he remembered hearing that Maria's dad had been working as the office manager of some tourism agency thing since he had come to Roswell in the late fall.

"Did you leave a family behind in San Diego too?" Maria muttered under her breath, then looked up and blushed when she realized that both of the men at the table had been able to hear what she was saying.

There was an awkward pause, and then her father sighed, "No. This is the only place that I have family, 'Ria. There were..." he paused, then carefully continued on. "There were a few women that I've seen socially since I left Roswell. No-one who I've truly been intimate with." While the two teenagers were wondering how to take this, he contiuned after several seconds.

"I realize that this is an uncomfortable situation, and that you have a lot of reason to be angry with me. But despite all the regrets I have and all the mistakes I've made, I'm still your father. I didn't have a chance to know my own father very well, and I think you'll regret it if you let out second chance slip away." He took a deep, unsteady breath. "So I hope that you won't give up just because this evening had been awkward or painful. What do you say, 'Ria??"

For a second she froze, pinned to her chair by the intensity of his stare. Then, softly, she muttered. "'Ria... you used to call me that when I was, what, four?" She was trying to make the words a complaint, but Michael could tell that she was about ten seconds from melting into a figurative puddle of syrupy mush, no matter how embarassed she would be about it.

So Michael leapt in with the diversion. **Time to justify your presence here, supporter boy.** "Mister Galdamez... do you follow soccer??"

============

Halfway across town, an almost staggering number of teenagers were crowded into the Evans upstairs den. Liz, Alex, and Tess had each pretty much 'invited themselves' over, worried about Max and Isabel, and Tess had asked Kyle and Courtney Banks to come along.

Most of the company was gathered around the computer playing a game: Liz and Kyle at the controls, with Alex, Tess, and Max sitting a little further back and offering suggestions. Isabel and Courtney were across the room, listening to some music through headphones.

"Okay, the corvette hypership is sending us a message, audio only."

"Put it on," Alex suggested, and Kyle tapped a key. The speakers crackled to life with a digitally recorded voice.

"The Minaltan dissidents are holding your ambassador hostage at the edge of their camp. Our vessel is too large to attempt a discreet landing and we have no suitable support craft, but if you wish to send down a rescue team in a landing shuttle, we will assist to the best of our ability."

"They're lying to us - we should attack THEM," Kyle suggested. Several of the others groaned -- this was becoming a recurrent theme for him.

"Scanning the corvette," Liz announced, clicking away with the mouse. "Only Terellan lifeforms, no sign of a struggle inside. I think they're who they say they are."

"Before we pick a landing party, is there anyone on the planet below we can talk to on the ship's communicator??" Max asked.

After a particularly energetic track ended, Isabel caught Courtney's eye and moved her hand towards the 'next album' button, but Court shook her head and took off the large, stereo-quality earphones that had been leant her instead, and Iz followed suit.

"Just wanted to make sure to thank you for having us over," Courtney explained after a couple seconds. "I realize that I'm the new kid, kinda unfamiliar to most of Kyle's friends, even though you saw me around the Crash this summer. It means a lot that you've let me in like this."

"Hey, it's no big," Isabel protested somewhat awkwardly.

"Maybe not, but I still wanted to mention how cool I think it is," Courtney maintained with a tiny flip of some of the hair that was trying to fall down across her face. "I realize that you guys don't exactly want to talk about my brother and all of that stuff that happened with him."

Talk about a leading statement!! "No, not for preference. I imagine you still have a lot of unanswered questions."

"Yeah, but that's okay. They can wait until you trust me enough."

Isabel was still thinking about that as Courtney put the headphones back on and began switching out a CD on the stereo.

TO BE CONTINUED...

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 5b: "Infected" 2/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'


"I wish you wouldn't worry so much," Max murmurred to Liz, pretty much through a tender kiss, as they said goodbye at his door that night.

"Max, you tell me you've been infected by *something,* probably as a form of deliberate attack by your enemies, but I'm not supposed to worry?" Liz pointed out, drawing away. "Nuh-uh. Isn't gonna happen!"

"Well... but what can you DO about it??" Max realized he didn't exactly like the pensive look that crossed his girlfriend's face when he said that. "Come on... if we're still having symptoms after a few days, we'll gather the gang and come up with a plan. As it is -- I've been taking it easy ever since yesterday afternoon and I haven't had so much as a dizzy spell."

Liz smiled at that point and hugged Max tightly. "Just don't you dare try to hide it from me if things start getting worse again," she warned. "No matter how bad this might be, we'll face it together. Promise??"

"I swear it," he assured her. "Gonna rest up and take plenty of fluids this weekend.... just in case that helps."

Liz shook her head at that, kissed him goodbye one last time, and headed off down to her car -- at least, she meant to. A few steps out of the doorway she nearly collided into Michael, with Maria just three feet behind him.

"Hey -- did we miss the whole party??" Michael joked.

==========

(Early afternoon of Saturday, January 6th.)

"Hey, Max!!" Alex said as he walked up to the booth in the Crashdown. "You've come out again?? I didn't really need your moral support THAT much."

"Ha, ha," Max announced. "No, Tess asked if both Liz and I could come. She's singing a number with the band tonight." Apparently, Tess had been oddly intent about both of them witnessing her debut, which had made several people very curious. Maria, who apparently knew something about what song Tess would be singing and why, had been oddly mum about the whole thing.

"Oh, she is??"

Max fixed the bass guitarist with a penetrating stare. "Didn't you know??"

"Missed the last rehearsal, so that's probably when she set it up," Alex replied with a shrug. "Gotta go -- say hi to Liz for me?" Max nodded, and Alex made his getaway. Soon enough, Liz came back to the booth - along with Isabel and Michael.

"Hey, where did my boy go??" Isabel quipped with a mock pout as she slid into the seat. "Without even a hello!!"

"Had to go get set up, and I don't think he saw you," Max explained. "Asked me to pass along his greetings... but frankly, I don't want to say hello to you the way he would have -- because you're my sister and it'd be really weird."

"Ha ha," Princess Isabel pronounced in her best 'we are not amused' tone of voice.

"Speaking of which..." Max paused to kiss Liz hello, since she'd been sitting next to him for a moment or so without a visible display of affection, "Michael, have you been keeping young sir Whitman from his other responsibilities?? Like research into the book and such?"

Michael's face turned down and sharp slightly. "We lost track of time - ONCE."

"Well, if that was the occasion I think it was, if he'd made it to practice he'd have been able to tell us what this whole thing with Tess' song is about... since Maria isn't making with the gossip for once."

Michael just shook his head at Max, and they started in on the finger foods. Soon the band came up again, and Tess' number was on second. Since the first music session had gone pretty well, Jeff Parker had been encouraging the 'open mike' idea... that good regular customers could attend part of a rehearsal session with the band if they wanted to sing a song in public, stuff like that.

Jeff Parker had moved aside from the small stand-up piano for this number, and Max suddenly realized why, as he led off the instruments with an opening melody that sounded remarkably like a small fragment of a hymnal on a church pipe organ. The other instruments joined in for a measure, and then, nervously, Tess began to sing her part.

"I thought that this was supposed to feel good,
And if you were really mine I guess it would.
I didn't fall in love 'cause it was the right thing to do.
I just went ahead and fell for you."

Her singing was untrained, and she certainly didn't have one of the naturally prettiest voices that Max had ever heard. But Tess was giving the piece her all, and deep feeling and a slight trace of vulnerability made it powerful as she led into the chorus, and Maria and the guitarist backed up her vocals softly but steadily.

"Somewhere down along the line,
I guess that love became a crime.
The contradiction makes no sense:
This is punishment.
I feel like this is judgement day,
I'll raise my hand, stand up and say,
'I don't believe I'm innocent.'
This is punishment."

Getting into it, Tess even let out a whoop in harmony during the short instrumental break, and waved a vague, but somehow meaningful gesture to Max and Liz. This was why she wanted them here. It was something she wanted to tell both of them, he realized.

"Truth is, your heart was never mine to take,
Now I'm stuck in a feeling that I'll never shake.
I prayed for it to go, god knows I want it to stay,
But here I am, loving you either way.

Somewhere down along the line..."

As she repeated the chorus, Max thought about that message that Tess was trying to send. It was an apology... and maybe a surrender. There were still intense feelings about Tess' obsession with their past marriage, and what she had done about it when she first got to Roswell... traces that their confrontation the morning after Hostage night had not cleared away entirely. Now, Tess had taken the initiative to tell them, 'mea culpa' once and for all. She was admitting that she'd done wrong.

The bridge caught him by surprise.

"You'll never feel
All the things I can't say. (the things that I can't say.)
And I'll never know
If it's... better this way-ay-ay.

Somewhere down along the line,
I guess that love became a crime.
The contradiction makes no sense:
This is punishment."

And then, there was the other side of what the lyrics said... the punishment. Clearly they were written to imply that to remain in love with someone who didn't love you back, not in the same way, was quite a harsh sentence. Max couldn't disagree. But he felt awkward about the notion of Tess' feelings for *him* being her own prison... and he could guess, by the look on Liz's face, that she might be feeling the same way...

"I feel like this is judgement day.
I'll raise my hand, stand up and say:
'I don't believe I'm innocent!'
This is punishment...

I guess that love became a crime, (this is punishment...)
I'll raise my hand, stand up and say, (this is punishment...)

This is punishment..."

When the song came to an end, Tess got a standing ovation, and she put the mike back on the stand and ran for the kitchen door.

==========

(Sunday afternoon, January 7th 2001)

"Okay, the path gets a little narrow here, so step careful." Maria groaned a little as she turned towards the rock face and strode sideways, keeping her weight on the tips of her feet, away from the heels.

A few minutes later, as they turned carefully around an outcropping and the sun shone suddenly right into her eyes, Liz turned to Kyle and asked, "So, what's Tess doing today, anyway??"

"Think she's up with River dog again," Kyle said with a small sigh. "Whatever."

Max and Isabel both seemed to be feeling less than in high spirits today, and were spending some quality time with their parents, so the rest of the group had decided to do something together to try to take their minds off of the 'infection' situation.

"Have to admit, it's quite a view," Alex said as they came up to a scenic lookout plateau. In front of and beneath them, the desert and mountains rolled away, until far in the distance a few ranch fences and small farmhouses could be seen.

All of a sudden... BAMFF!! A cloud of dust and shatter of loose rocks emerged from another rocky peak nearby. Michael almost ducked for cover, until he saw that Liz was holding the small, polished irregularity of the Skins' raygun in her hand, aiming at exactly where the small explosion had been. "For jeez' sake, Parker!! Forget about a little thing like subtlety??"

"I bet no-one else would have even heard it," she countered. "Listen."

And, as the five of them stood there and the sound of falling gravel faded away to nothingness, the silence was indeed eerie. In a place like this, Michael knew, shouts of 'hey, what the hell was that?' would carry several miles at least. Presumably, then, there was nobody to shout.

"Alright," Maria said after a few minutes, "where to from here?? Do we turn around and head back again??" The path did not continue on up the mountain very obviously from this plateau.

"Umm, well, usually I go through here, but it's a little tricky," Michael mentioned, leading the way to a corner of the lookout, where a second steep and somewhat irregular footpath continued down the hill and around it in the same direction, more or less, as they had been climbing up.

"Now just *why*," Maria complained as she tried to navigate the first tricky footing, "did we have to go hiking through the desert hills today, Michael??"

"I never said we had to," her boyfriend shot back insouciantly. "*You* were asking for ideas as to what we could do, and I said we could go out and do this, because we could. I think it was Alex and Kyle who really wanted to come."

"I think I've changed my mind," Alex joked from further back in the line. "But maybe not... it's good exercise at least, and not like much else I've been doing lately."

"So," Maria muttered, leaving the topic of hiking behind, "seen much of Court lately, Michael??"

"Umm..." Kyle apparently had to think about that one for a minute, maybe because his attention was on his footing. "Yeah, we went out starwatching last night... nothing special, but it was fun."

"By the way," Alex asked, "how did things go with the two of you and Maria's dad, Michael??"

"Ehhh, not too bad," Michael said after a moment. "He's a nice guy, but I don't think he knows how to act around us, or we around him for that matter. I know he feels bad for booting it all those years ago..." Michael sighed. He could understand a guy freaking out about the responsibility of having to take care of a wife and a kid, but he also knew how much it had hurt Maria and her mother to have to go through all of those years alone.

Conversation had mostly drifted off to a halt by the time they made it down the rough trail to the desert floor again. "Okay, so what now??" Liz asked.

"Well, it's just a short trek over to that rock over there," Michael pointed, "and it's got a really nice, wide corkscrew trail nearly all the way to the top."

More than one person groaned at the thought, but when Michael started to lead the way over the desert sands, the rest of the teenagers looked at each other for a long moment and then followed.

"So, how've things been with Tess, and the whole 'no room at the inn' thing??" Maria asked, earning her a surprised look from Kyle. "What, I can care a little, can't I??"

Kyle shrugged. "I've kinda gotten used to bunking down in the living room, but I think Tess is feeling guilty about it," Kyle admitted. "She keeps saying that she wants to get her own place."

"Really?" Alex asked.

"Well, I don't object to the idea in theory, of course," Michael said, turning around to face them and pacing slowly backward, "but I have to say I'm not sure if it's the right time. Maybe after we know what the score is with Max and Isabel... and maybe found something out about what Steve Banks is up to *next*."

==========

(Evening.)

When Tess pulled her car into the driveway, all the lights were out in Jim Valenti's house, and not many people were around on the street. She unlocked the door and made her way through the dark hallway without turning any lights on or making any noises that she could help.

She had changed for bed, in the dark, before she really realized the meaning of the blinking red light on the nightstand... up to that point it had just been vaguely convenient. A message on the private line into the room... the phone line she had kind of co-opted along with the bed and everything else.

She sat down on the mattress and considered a moment. Kyle's friends still sometimes called him on that line... but either he hadn't gotten the message or he'd not wanted to check for messages because he thought it was for HER. So she would call in. It made more sense than waiting for morning to argue with him about who would check it, which would still probably be herself.

It didn't take her long to tap into the voice mail service and enter the password. "You have one message waiting, from seven thirty-six," the synthesized voice told her, and she tapped on the one button to play it.

"Hey Tess, umm... this is Max. Just thought I'd give you a call, but I guess that you're... well, you're not there. Or maybe you're there but you're not answering the phone. Well, anyway, I guess what I wanted to say was thank you. About, well, about yesterday, saturday afternoon, at the crashdown, and what you sang. What you did, I mean."

There was a pause. "I know it probably wasn't easy for you to send that message... with Liz and I sitting right there, and everyone -- but I appreciated it, and Liz did too I think. We --" He took a deep breath in the phone. "I know it isn't completely up to me, but I'd really rather you didn't stay locked up, as it were. I guess that's what I wanted to say."

Tess smiled as she deleted the message and hung up the phone.

==========

(Monday morning. January 8th 2001.)

"Does anybody remember if Mister Simpson announced a quiz for today??" Maria asked as she pulled out into the street.

"Ummm... he didn't announce, but then he never 'announces,'" Alex decided. "He hinted. By the way guys, thanks for the lift."

"No problem," Michael said from the front passenger seat. "But then it isn't really my car or my driving, so maybe I'd better not..." He was cut off by a ringing sound.

"Can you get that hon?" Maria asked Michael. She was in the middle of a turn.

"Um, sure," He grabbed the cell phone, which was in the little console between the front seats, and answered it. "Hello, Genie the jetta... umm, yeah, we're already heading... all right, all right man. We'll be there as soon as we... Hurry, Maria. The Evanses ASAP."

"Umm, what??" Maria asked, frowning a little.

"I said get us there as soon as you can!!" Michael repeated. "It... it's Max, he's freaking out."

Alex stiffened. "Did something happen to Isabel??"

"I'm driving!!" Maria announced needlessly... they could all feel the car speeding up and the verve with which she negotiated the turn onto Murray lane... nearly missing an oncoming minivan.

From there, it didn't take long until they screeched into a parking spot right in front of Max and Isabel's house and piled out of the Jetta. Michael was still on the phone, but he told Max, "We're here, see you in a moment," and cut the connection.

Once they got inside the house, it didn't take long to see what Max was so freaked out about. Isabel was lying on the sofa in the living room, dressed in her school clothes. Her body was slightly askew, eyes closed but her limbs, head, and lips making jerky movements. Mister Evans was kneeling down next to her, while Max stood across the room, cordless phone still in his hands, and his mother standing next to him, her eyes wide.

Quickly they flew into action. Maria went over to Max, making a signal, and Max, catching it, called out "Dad!" and distracted his father away from the couch. Alex and Michael hurried over to Isabel. Alex frowned, not really knowing what to do, but he sat down next to her head, stroking her neck, her hair affectionately and with concern.

Michael bent down over Isabel's body, taking one of her hands in his, and pressed his other hand above her forehead, muttering under his breath. Isabel's eyes opened slowly, and Michael started to breathe hard. (Maria and Max were doing their best to create a diversion for Max and Isabel's parents at this point.)

And, in only a few seconds, it was over. Isabel groaned and sat up, Alex and Michael quickly sitting down on the couch on each side of her, and the parental units rushed over and started asking her breathless questions.

On a corner of the school grounds that morning, Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, Alex and Tess stood in a rough circle and conferred, just about the time that first period was getting under way.

"We had to do some fast talking to keep my mom from making an appointment with her family doctor right away," Max muttered. "They don't realize anything's up with me, haven't heard about the debate practice incident I suppose, but if anything more in this vein starts to happen to either of us, they might just head straight for the emergency room next time." He groaned. "And that would be disaster."

Alex nodded. "Well, for now all they've done is insisted that Izzie stay home from school today, and the rest may do her some good."

"They've been resting all weekend, pretty much," Michael pointed out. "And then *this* happened."

"I think Michael has a point," Liz said softly. "Max, you said you wanted to take it easy for a little while and see what happened. Well, it happened. More than two days from when you found out without an incident, which probably suggests that conserving your strength helps, but it sounds like this attack was the worst so far. We have to assume that Isabel will continue to get worse, and that you may start showing symptoms again too. Which means that we have two problems now -- finding a cure, and keeping your parents from accidentally 'outing' you guys as they try to get their own medical diagnosis."

"I know this is way out there," Maria whispered, "but I just wanted to put it on the table. Are you sure you can't just tell them??"

Max thought about it for a long moment. "I've been thinking about it more and more. I'd like to... and I think there's a certain chance that they'd be able to handle the news." He sighed. "But if they can't... the disaster would be too horrible to contemplate, especially in the middle of a crisis like this. We CANNOT take the risk."

"But maybe expanding the conspiracy in another direction could be the solution," Alex suggested. "If we can find a doctor, someone who might be able to help, someone who could be counted on to honor doctor patient confidentiality even in the case of non-human patients, that might help kill two birds at a stroke. Not only could he help find the cure, but he'd be able to reassure your parents that you're seeking medical help."

"Are you thinking of who I'm thinking of, Alex??" Liz asked softly.

"Maybe... we'd need to check him out a lot more closely," Alex muttered. "Valenti could help with that. And... there's someone else who I'd like to tell."

"Who??" Tess burst out.

"*My* father," Alex said. He got several stares. "He's not a medical doctor, but I'm pretty sure we could all trust him, and he's a brilliant biologist. Done extensive work in immunology and virology."

"We'll think about it," Michael muttered, a little dismissively. "Personally, I think that there's only so far that a human doctor might be able to help. How about an alien doctor??"

"And just where do you expect to find one?" Liz asked.

"Let my orbs do the walking," Michael shot back. "We know how to use them, and the pod chamber, as an interstellar communicator, right?? See if we can talk to an Aztan specialist that way."

Max frowned in thought. "There are restrictions on our use of the communicator, by the terms of the challenge. We'd have to call one of the agreed groups at random and see if they can reccommend a doctor by name. But it's a good idea."

Michael nodded. "Worst comes to worst, if you and Isabel are getting pretty bad, we can chuck the rules of the challenge out the window anyway. We can't win it anyway if you die, so it's worth giving up the challenge to save your lives."

"Except that if we give up on the challenge, there's nothing to keep Kivar from using as many agents as he likes to kill us," Tess pointed out.

"Well," Maria sighed. "We've got enough to think about, and enough to do. Maybe we should adjourn for now... either show up for class, or ditch entirely if there's something productive that can be accomplished right now."

There was a short silence, and then nods of agreement. "I'll go see Valenti this evening, talk about trying to find a doctor," Alex volunteered.

"I'll research our communicator options again," Michael said. "Tess, I guess it'll be you and I manning the orbs, since Max and Isabel's powers aren't working right at the moment."

She nodded agreement, and they all drifted dispiritedly in towards the school building.

TO BE CONTINUED...