Title: Beautiful
Author: Dark Roswellian Angel
Elizabeth McDowell
Disclaimer: I don't own any of it. If I did, "Roswell" would still be airing, and things would have turned out very, very different.
Copying/Downloading/Posting: Please let me know first, and let me know where my work will be posted as I would love to come visit it. Make sure that it is put under my name, as I would love to hear how others feel about it. Thanks ;)
A/N: I've never written a Roswell fic that went this direction before, but I really, really like the way it turned out- at least in my head. Let me know what you think. This comes soon after "4A&aB."
Summary: Things are very, very seldom what they seem. But that doesn't mean that they can't still have a happily-ever-after.
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. There was no other word for it. A small smile escaped her as she stood looking over the valley while the sun rose above the opposite mountains. Unable to help herself, she turned toward the north. The dust had basically settled, but there was still a lot of action. She turned away, unwilling to face what she had just done. An entity began to push along the edges of her subconscious. She smiled. He was here. Finally. She smiled as she felt comforting hands wrap around her from behind and she leaned back onto a strong chest.
"Hi," she said in a tone that left no question as to whether she had already known he was there.
Her sweet voice made him smile. He would never get tired of her being able to do that. It was part of what had brought them together in the first place. Ever since the first time they met, they had felt this connection. Over time, it had only deepened. "Hi," he dropped his head onto her shoulder and whispered, "How are you?"
"All things considered?" she cocked her head to one side as she looked up at him.
He nodded sympathetically.
"I'm… okay, I guess." She shrugged her delicate shoulders. He knew that was the closest she would be coming to admitting how much she had been affected by what had happened for a long time.
Not wanting to push such painful things further than he had to, he turned the subject to more immediate matters, "So, how'd it go?"
"Okay." She turned in his arms so that she could look into his eyes more easily. Since the beginning most of their true communication had been done through that conduit.
"So, did you…"
"Yeah…" she bit her lip and nodded her head, "I did what had to be done." She didn't want to think about what had happened. She was still recovering.
He reached out and stroked her hair. "Are you okay?" he asked gently.
She smiled, more for his benefit than from any true feeling. "Yeah. Or at least, I will be." She didn't like the look of worry that crossed his brows. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."
He let it go, knowing that although she seemed to be taking things in stride it would be a long time before she would really be able to work through everything that had happened. "I'm so sorry that I haven't been here for you."
"I know you would have been around if you could have been. Things were just a little too weird."
"I still don't like how you've had to deal with it all by yourself."
She shrugged in response knowing that he understood how she felt.
A few seconds of silence stretched out before he spoke again, "So, what if Future Max was right?"
Confusion marred her pretty features.
"What if the Royal Four need to be together when Khivar comes to the earth?"
"I don't even want to think about that." Things would get so complicated so quickly. So very, very bad so incredibly quickly.
As much as he wanted to let things go at that, he knew he couldn't. His heart wanted to pick her up and carry her away from all the things that had hurt her, but his conscience wouldn't let him. They had a responsibility and neither of them would be able to live with themselves if they ignored it. "What if it's true?"
"I don't know. We'll be here. We're not going anywhere. We'll check on them as often as we can. We'll have to be careful to not let them know that we're watching them, but if-"
"When," he corrected her. They both knew it was inevitable.
She gave him a half-smirk, "When something comes up, we'll deal with it."
He smiled at her. She was so noble. So loyal. She always put the needs of others before her own. He knew that she had never cared how unbalanced the scale was, but he was glad he was finally in a position to help even the score a little.
"So, do you think they've noticed anything?"
"No. Things got so messed up so quickly. They didn't have time to notice anything. And even if they did, the whole betrayal thing would pretty much take care of any need to figure things out."
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I still can't believe things went down like that."
They stood silent for a few minutes, each lost in similar thoughts, soaking in the comfort and strength that they had almost always found in each other's presence. She put her head on his chest and he rested his chin on her curls. Finally, a nagging thought made him pull away to look down at her.
"So, who was he?"
She instinctively knew who he was talking about. "An orphan. His mother placed him in my arms and asked me to take care of him just before she died. Since I had to complete the lie anyway, I figured it was fate. He'll have a much better life this way anyway. You..." she looked up at him with a worried expression, "you know that we never actually... I just had to make him think... so I mindwarped him. He'll remember the truth one day. I made sure to make it temporary- it'll just take a trigger to undo it."
Although he had basically surmised as much, a small part of him was relieved to hear the truth. He pulled her back to him as he thought about all of the problems they'd had to go through during the last few years to get where they were now. He thought of all the misunderstandings, the arguments, the twists and turns that Fate had thrown at them. He shook his head as he silently thanked her mother for sending that orb that had told her the truth about who she really belonged with. He still couldn't believe that he had a part in their story, but he would be grateful for the rest of his life. And after the changes she had made, he expected that life to be a very, very long one. He smiled as he felt himself begin to respond to her nearness- and aside from a few major battles, a very, very happy one.
As they hugged she noticed that he had begun to glow a little. She smiled to herself. Everything she had gone through had been worth it. She had tried to explain what had happened, but no one had listened. Her experiment in changing him so that he could protect himself while he fulfilled the prophecy had seemed to backfire horribly for a while there, but everything was working out now. She knew that one day they would go back, tell the others the truth, let them know that they were still alive. One day the battles would begin, their enemies would reach Earth. But as she felt the man who owned her heart turn her in his arms, keeping her back pulled tight against him, so that they could enjoy the sunrise together, she knew that their enemies would only be disappointed. They would be victorious. There was no way that their group could be anything but victorious when they were all together. And then they would go back and liberate their people. And in the meantime, she would celebrate every second she could have him all to herself- she looked towards the mountain where their cabin was hidden and began to picture their new lives together.
He watched as her interest turned and followed her gaze. Imagining what she might be thinking, he suddenly found himself impatient to get her back to their home. Our home. He had never realized just exactly how wonderful one word could sound. He let her go and grabbed her hand. With a radiant smile, he asked, "Are you ready to start our life together Tess?"
Her smile sparkled back at him. "I was ready to be with you from the moment I came out of that pod, Alex; I just didn't know who I was looking for yet."
Their smiles widened as their lips met in a promise of a very long, very eventful, and most of all very happy future together.