Title: The
Tempest
Author:
Melpomene
Email:
melpomene@stories.com or melpomene@addlebrain.com
Archive: (I
always forget this one) I don't really care as long as everything stays intact
and I know where it is.
Disclaimer:
Nope, still don't own 'em, just 'borrowing' them for a bit.
Author's
Note: Here's something completely different. Okay, for those who have read my previous fics, this isn't anything like
'em. But do keep in mind that my pen
name is derived from the ancient Greek muse of tragedy…
Have you
ever felt like an outsider? That you
were so vastly different from those around you that they would never understand
the real you? I figure that's how the
pod squad would feel. It's also how one
feels when they're raised to be Native American in an overwhelmingly white
society.
Thanks goes
out to my "little" cousins (maybe 13 and 18 isn't so little but when you're at
least a decade older…) for assisting me with the details of teen life and high
school terminology and for convincing me to tape the show to begin with.
Without
further ado:
~~~A life
lived in fear is a life half lived~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strangers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Look,
just tell me if you've seen this place anywhere near here, I don't want a
history lesson of Roswell, New Mexico, I don't want to hear about how your
great-aunt Susie won the blue ribbon at the state fair for her peyote pie, and
I don't want to hear all that crap about little green men from outer
space. Just look at the picture and
tell me if it seems familiar. You can
do that, can't you? Or have those
little interstellar critters out there already fried what you had of a
brain?"
Liz and
Maria looked up at the sudden outburst. It was the first truly hot day of the season and they had opted to forgo
their term papers and their planned trip to the library and were instead
working on their tans on Liz's balcony, listening to music and relaxing until
the woman's voice had jarred them from their reverie.
Looking down
into the street below, they saw a dark headed woman standing in front of one of
the UFO center's tour guides. They
couldn't hear the startled man's reply but he looked as though he would rather
be anywhere but where he was. Nervously, he shifted from foot to foot and kept glancing over his shoulder.
"Forget
it! Just forget it!" She threw up her hands in disgust and shoved
what appeared to be a photograph into the pocket of her jeans. "I'll just drive around in the desert
myself and look. I love the desert,
that's why I live in Georgia!" She
strode purposefully to her jeep, threw a jacket into the seat, and stormed off
down the sidewalk.
"That
was weird," Maria said, reclaiming her position in the warm sunshine.
"I
wonder what she's looking for?"
"Okay,
I am so not interested in the quirky goings-on of the Roswellian neo-tourist
nazi. I need a day off."
"Liz? Maria? Girls?" Jeff Parker walked
into his daughter's bedroom. "Hey,
you two. Want to help the old man
out?"
"It's
our day off!" Maria exclaimed to no one in particular, already gathering
up the things they'd taken out to the balcony. That's what they got for blowing off their homework and thereby being
easily accessible.
"Who
called in?" Liz wanted to know,
waiting to see whose name would be on her list of least liked people of the
week.
"A lot
of people actually. I've already asked
Michael if he wouldn't mind coming in, all I need now are two
waitresses... I guess I could let your
mom know that we won't be able to make that dinner theater thing we were going
to do tonight, we can wait tables instead."
"No,"
Liz sighed, "you made reservations ages ago. Have fun. Maria and I
will be down as soon as we get changed."
"Hey
now, I never said I-"
"Just
give it up and come on, you know you can't say no to my dad. Lunch rush is coming up soon." Liz threw a bag of chips at her friend and
ducked through the window before Maria could reciprocate.
~~~
Maria
grumbled her way through the rush, bantering with Michael through the window
while she waited for her orders.
"Come on,
Mikey, get a move on it back there. I
think table five's gonna start up a coup pretty soon if they don't get
something to eat.
"Don't
call me that!" He thunked two
plates down, narrowly missing her drumming fingers. "Here's your Eclipse burger and an Alien Blast. If you hadn't noticed, Maria, I'm kind of
working by myself back here."
"My
point exactly. Just wave your hand or
wiggle you nose or something and get me my orders!"
Michael
shook his head and glared at her as she sashayed back across the dining
room. She did have a point though.
~~~
Liz
approached the first booth and smiled at the pair who had claimed it. "Hi, welcome to the Crashown," she
bubbled. "What can I get you to
drink?"
"We're
waiting for someone." One of the
men looked up at her.
"Oh,
okay. Would you like something while
you wait?"
"Do you
have scotch?" he sneered.
"No." Liz glanced over her shoulder toward
Maria. What was it with psychotics
invading Roswell today?
"Then
we'll just wait until our friend gets here," he growled.
"Okay
then."
The two men
watched Liz as she beat a hasty retreat.
"Stop
intimidating the locals, Sayer. You're
getting to be as bad as Renata. At
least the attitude just helps her image, it'll get you thrown out on your
ass."
"I
didn't ask for an opinion from you, o sniveling hound. Renata could nuke the entire east coast and
you would still find some damned way that it wasn't a bad thing. She's got you so taken in by that 'bad girl
exterior hiding pain and vulnerability' crap that you don't know which way is
up."
"Leave
him alone, Sayer."
The man
looked up into eyes as black as coal. "I'm so glad you could find the time to join us, Renata."
"Shut
up," she snarled, baring her teeth to him.
"Touched
a nerve, did I? What is it with the two
of you anyway? Is Jordan your own
personal dose of Prozac? Is he the
music that calms your savage breast?"
"Give
it a rest already, Sayer. I don't want
to have to get a new performer on such short notice, plus I'm too tired right
now to hide your body properly." She slid onto the bench across from him and turned to their
companion. "How'd it go,
Jordan? Were you able to find out
anything?"
"No,
but I did hear your lovely voice as you tried to pound the information out of
one or two people." He shook his
head and took one of her hands in his own. "Have you ever heard the expression 'you attract more flies with
honey than with vinegar'?"
"Yes, I
have. But I'm not looking to attract
flies, Jordan, I want to find the place in the picture."
Liz
approached again, slightly less enthusiastically. If she could just get their order taken and be done with them,
she'd be one very happy waitress. "Would you like something to drink?"
"Cherry
cola?" Jordan met Renata's eyes.
"Sure,
whatever."
"Make
it three." Jordan smiled up at the
young woman who eyed them nervously.
"Okay,
great. Coming right up then."
"Civility,
my dear, will get you farther in your quest than your usual outwardly volatile
behavior."
"Jordan?"
"Yes?"
"Shut
up." Renata looked sidelong at him
and turned her attention to the cola that was placed on the table in front of
her, picking up a menu in a listless hand.
~~~
"Maria."
"What?" Maria was still glaring daggers into the
kitchen, tapping her foot in impatience.
"You
want to trade tables?"
"No. I saw her come in. They went to your section. Like I said before I don't want anything to do with the Tourist
Nazi." She snatched the plates out
of Michael's hand before he could set them down.
"I
wouldn't let Isabel hear you say that. She wasn't all that thrilled with the family joke. She might just decide to dreamwalk you right
into a nightmare," Liz warned, smiling at Maria's retreating back.
"As
if."
Liz laughed
before turning on Michael. "Hey,
where's that Tommy Lee Jones I put in ten minutes ago?"
"Do you
really want to rush one of the men in black?" Michael shot back, attacking the grill with a vengeance as flames
shot up from it... again.
"No,
but table ten wants to eat one… now."
~~~
"She does
look kind of familiar, in an warped, psycho-Picasso sort of way."
The rush had
calmed down enough for Maria and Liz to collapse in a couple of chairs for a
moment. Liz looked back across the room
at the woman she'd been diligently avoiding as much as she could, given that
she was, in fact, their waitress. She
hadn't paid much attention to how she looked, but she studied her for a quick
moment.
"How so?"
Maria
wrinkled her nose. "I don't know
exactly. It just seems to me that I've
seen her face somewhere before."
"Yeah," Liz
remarked, "on the wanted posters at the post office."
"Hey!"
Michael's voice drew them from their conversation. "Food! Customers!" He brandished a spatula over a half dozen
plates that lined the window.
"I'll figure
out where I've seen her eventually." Maria rose and returned to her duties while Liz lagged behind, realizing
that she too felt a dim familiarity toward the woman.
~~~
Renata
picked at her salad; it had been the least offensively named item on the
diner's menu. It didn't matter what she
did to it, it was still nothing more than a leafy bunch of dead plants piled on
a cheap dinner plate. Her appetite had
been off the past few weeks anyway. It
was probably due to the photograph and accompanying file she had received from an
irritatingly anonymous source. The
contents of that manila envelope had sent the three of them racing
helter-skelter from Atlanta to end up in a tourist trap of a town on the very
edge of a lifeless desert.
Jordan, had
she voiced her opinion, would have argued that the desert was far from
lifeless. He would have known the names
of all the little creatures that made their homes in the sand dunes and rock
formations, the names of all the different kinds of plant life. That was why she kept quiet. As much as she relied on him to ground and
anchor her, she wasn't in the mood for one of his optimistic pep talks.
"Somebody
pay the bill, we've got to go rehearse."
~~~
"And the
Tourist Nazi and her minions have left the building," Maria chuckled, watching
the strange trio walk along the sidewalk in front of the Crashdown.
"The what?"
'Oh
shit!' She turned to face Isabel, why
hadn't someone warned her that she'd walked in. She tried to smile convincingly although she was cringing inside. 'Why couldn't I just keep my big mouth shut
for once?'
Enjoying
Maria's discomfort since she had blatantly refused to help her out with the
"Tourist Nazi" but willing to endure another endlessly long Isabel/Maria
disagreement, Liz popped out of the kitchen. "The tour of nutzies. You know,
all those freaks that show up looking for aliens and such. We've just had more than our fair share
today is all."
"Whatever." Isabel walked up to the counter and took a
seat.
"You owe
me!" Liz hissed into Maria's ear as she brushed past her friend.
"Yeah, I
do."
"So,
Isabel," Liz began, "what cha doin'?"
The
beautiful blonde eyed Liz thoughtfully. It hadn't been that long ago that she would have given the other girl a
sharp retort and scathing look and sent her scurrying away. A lot had changed. "Alex mentioned a new band that's playing tonight at that new
club across town. I thought I'd go
check them out."
"So is Alex
going too?" Liz couldn't keep the
ridiculous grin off her face. Who would
have thought that Alex and Isabel would ever get together as friends, much less
anything of a romantic nature?
Isabel
picked up a menu. "Well, I am supposed
to meet him here," she allowed. She
stridently worked at remaining aloof. Only Max knew how long she had worried over how she looked, trying on
more outfits than she needed to, searching for just the right thing to wear and
finally dragging Max with her to the store to buy the perfect dress. Max knew but he was sworn to secrecy.
"Cool. Maria and I were thinking about going too. Maybe we'll see you there."
"Maybe."
~~~
The club was
packed. Liz and Maria squeezed past
riotous groups of people, searching for their friends. Finally they spotted Isabel and Max standing
on the far side of the cavernous room, however Alex and Michael were nowhere to
be seen. Shoving their way through to
them, they looked around for the missing members of their group.
"Hey!" Liz
shouted, striving to be heard over the din of the crowd.
Max smiled
at her, pulling her close to his side for a kiss.
Isabel
rolled her eyes at the display and turned her back on them, facing Maria. Noting her roving eyes, Isabel motioned
toward the stage. "Alex is backstage. Michael went with him to get us something to
drink."
Attempting
to look uninterested, Maria raised her eyebrows and nodded. "So when is this supposed to start? I don't think they're going to be able to
fit many more people in here."
Maria hadn't
finished her comment before Alex descended the stage and joined them, followed
closely by Michael juggling several bottles of water in his hands.
"Maria, I'm
glad you came. You're going to love
this singer. She's amazing!" Alex walked up to her and gave her a quick
hug.
"Wouldn't
miss it." She spoke to Alex but her
eyes were trained on Michael as he passed out the bottles he held, coming up
two short.
He shrugged,
twisting the top off of his and taking a long swallow. "You weren't here." Seeing the hint of irritation creep into
Maria's eyes, he extended his water to her. "We could share, I guess."
"Thank you
so much for your act of chivalry, Michael." She shook her head and refused his offer.
"Whatever."
Maria looked
back up in time to see the Tourist Nazi and her minions, as she had come to
think of them, gather on stage. They
were the new band? Life just kept
getting more and more strange.
"Now I
remember where I saw her face before," she shouted to Liz, "on the flyers that
have been posted all over town."
Liz nodded
and turned back to watch them settle in and begin their performance.
As they
began to play, Maria was absolutely enchanted. Alex had been wrong, the Tourist Nazi was more than amazing. Her voice was an incredible blend of fire
and water that was impossible to ignore or distract from. How could someone with such a beautiful
voice embody such a cold and unforgiving personality? It had to be sacrilegious or something.
Renata
smiled at Jordan as she crooned to their audience. Man, she loved being on stage, adored the undivided attention she
got whenever she sang. For someone who
didn't particularly like to attract a lot of attention to her self in public,
she hungered for it when she was performing. And the song they were halfway through was special; Jordan had written
it for her years ago when they first met, before things had gotten weird. She sang every time they performed.
But being on
stage did have its disadvantages: she was sweltering under the bright
lights. She eased out of the jacket she
had thrown on over her stage clothes. She had been freezing in the short spaghetti-strapped dress prior to
their performance and Jordan had lent her his leather jacket. Leave it to her to forget to take it off
before going on stage.
Maria edged
closer to Michael, not taking her eyes from the stage. He gently draped an arm around her
shoulders, pulling her even closer to him in the darkened room. He could be enchantingly sweet when he
thought no one was watching and on this occasion he knew that everyone else's
eyes were riveted to the stage. The
singer was almost as enthralling as Maria was wherever she sang.
Renata
turned to drop the jacket to the floor behind Jordan, baring one golden
shoulder to the crowd for an instant before reclaiming center stage again.
"Oh my God!"
No one was
sure who had voiced the comment but it was the same thing they were all
thinking. Suddenly, their little night
away from the reality of human fears and alien wars was brought to a grinding
halt. No one could move.
Liz spoke up
at last, striving to make her voice heard, "Maybe it's just some tribal art
thing… You know how popular that stuff's been with tattoos."
All eyes
turned to look at her. Michael, Maria,
Isabel, Alex, and Michael. No one was
buying it, not even Liz.
"Tribal art
doesn't look exactly like the symbol on the orb, Liz." Michael turned back to face the stage again,
drawing Maria closer to his side and not caring if anyone noticed the
protective motion or not.
Alex reached
out and took Isabel's hand in his own, noticing the chill that had claimed her
suddenly. He had been at all the band's
rehearsals since they had hit town but had never seen the tattoo. Renata had always worn jeans and T-shirts
when she practiced.
How could
someone from the other side of the country know of a symbol that was so
intricately tied in with everything alien to the planet? Who was she? And more importantly, what was she doing in Roswell?
