Title: Time After Time
Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Author's note: So, in my haste to show more of the complication that is Maria and Michael's current relationship, I think I've been neglecting the other couples. So for the next few chapter I'll be doing my best to show Alex and Isabel and Max and Liz and how they interact now.
Chapter Seven: On the Campaign Trail
"You froze erasers?"
It was perhaps the tenth time Isabel had asked the question. She'd started with plain incredulity, but now her tone had changed more towards one of suspicion and disbelief, and Michael was getting annoyed. Max had long since stopped asking anything, and was now watching the conversation with mild amusement. Tess, too, was silent, but her expression was, as usual, unreadable.
"Isabel, how many times do I have to go over this?" Michael asked hotly. "They didn't really freeze, they just stopped moving." He leaned back in the booth and stared around the empty Crashdown. For some reason, he didn't like the idea of meeting in the diner without Maria or Liz, but he also saw the reality of the situation, and it would have been too dangerous for both of them to get involved in this.
Never mind that they had been in danger many times before.
"Did they stop moving completely?" Max asked, finally breaking into the conversation to keep it from going in circles.
"No," Michael answered thoughtfully. "They were vibrating."
"Vibrating?" Isabel asked skeptically. "They were vibrating erasers?" She smirked, the corners of her lips turning up.
"Yes," Michael hissed, glowering at her. "Do I have to spell this out for you?"
"So you have a new gift," Tess said, giving Michael a contemplative stare. She paused, seeming to choose her words carefully, before saying, "Congratulations. Can you control it?"
"Not yet," Michael admitted warily. "It's just a reflex right now."
"You might want to work on that one," Isabel interjected with a smile. "It would be a bad idea if you suddenly froze things in public." The situation really wasn't that funny, but she was trying to see the humor in it because yielding to the panic might very well send her over the edge into hysteria.
They had way too many problems to deal with.
"Well, now that I've shared that little tidbit," Michael said sardonically, "Tess and I have something else to report. About the mayor. And possibly about Senator Whitaker." And he launched into the story of his nighttime trip into the mayor's office.
Max pushed his way through the crowded hallway, searching for Liz. Lunch had started only a few moments before, and he knew she would probably being heading towards her locker before venturing outside with all the other students. He needed to talk to her, needed to warn her.
He caught sight of her, standing next to Maria and Courtney, chatting with the two blondes. He paused, watching with the tiniest bit of curiosity as she smiled and gestured with her hands, clearly caught up in some conversation.
Then she turned and their gazes met, and her expression became instantly blank.
He walked forward determinedly. Maria and Courtney both watched him as he approached, Maria with blatant suspicion and a warning in her eyes. He could read her expression well enough, and she was warning him not to hurt Liz. But he wasn't here to hurt Liz, he was here to keep her from being hurt.
"Liz? Can I talk to you for a moment?" Max asked, finding his voice shaking even as he formed the words.
"Oh… sure," Liz answered, clearly surprised. She followed Max as he lead her away from the other two. Once they were far enough away that their conversation could not be easily overheard, she tentatively touched Max's arm and asked, "What is it?"
"It is Senator Whitaker," Max answered. "You're working for her."
"Yes," Liz answered, wondering how the news had reached him. "It's election year, you know, and I need something like this for my college applications."
"Right," Max agreed. He stared at her, watching as she pulled nervously at a strand of hair. "Just… be careful, okay?"
Liz lifted on eyebrow. "Max, what could possibly happen to me in this job?" she asked, her mind instantly traveling over several scenario. They mostly involved unscrupulous politicians flirting with her behind closed doors, and while the thoughts of harassment by male employees were not exactly pleasant, they were also unlikely.
"Senator Whitaker and the mayor… we think they might know something about us," Max answered. His mind traveled back to the papers discovered in the mayor's office. Liz's name had been on that list, and Max still wasn't sure why.
"What do you mean?" Liz's eyes were wide now, wide as saucers and filled with worry.
"They might know something about us," Max repeated. The statement didn't really need explanation, and anyway he couldn't give any even if he had wanted. The name Vilandra had sounded familiar to all of them, but they couldn't come up with any idea of what the Vilandra Project was, or how they were involved.
Liz was quiet for a moment, thinking. "I can do a little digging at the office," she offered finally. "I'm working their again this afternoon. Maybe I can find something."
"No!" Max said instantly, fervently. Liz started, and he said in a calmer voice, "Don't do anything dangerous, Liz. Let us handle this."
"Why not?" Liz countered. "Max, I am in the perfect position to look around. If anyone asks what I am doing, I can just say that I was trying to familiarize myself with the campaign. It is a lot less suspicious that having you there, investigating."
Max leaned against the wall, shaking his head slowly. "Liz, the FBI knew so much more than we realized. We don't know who else in the government had access to that information. But if it was Whitaker, then she is a threat. A very serious threat, and she probably won't hesitate to get rid of you if she feels you are in the way." He paused, thinking of all the others, killed at the hands of Agent Pierce and his followers.
Liz didn't answer. There wasn't anything she could say to convince Max to let her help, but she also wasn't about to just pretend like she didn't know something was going on. She could do her own digging, and once she found something concrete… well, Max couldn't do anything after the fact.
"Just be careful," Max said finally, breaking the silence.
"Fine," Liz answered. "I'll be careful." She turned and walked away, seeking out Maria and Courtney. Inside, she couldn't help but feel a little elation, because Max still so obviously cared about her, cared enough to seek her out and warn her that she might be in danger.
"Okay, how about this?" Sara asked, pushing a piece of paper towards Isabel. "It's a list of all the types of chips we should have at the party."
"Why are you so determined to do this?" Isabel asked wearily, taking the list and skimming over it. "It looks fine," she said, and pushed it back towards her friend.
"Why are you so determined to ruin it?" Sara snapped back. "I'm trying to plan a party for you, and you aren't even attempting to have fun with it."
"I just… don't really do parties," Isabel said, gesturing vaguely with one hand. She have a half-hearted shrug and turned her attention back to her lunch.
Sara turned incredulous eyes to the other three people sitting at the table. Kyle, who didn't seem all that surprised by the conversation, and rather bored by the constant arguments, gave her a tiny shrug. Chris, who was sitting across from Kyle, and apparently deeply engaged in his task of trying to stack all his carrot sticks on top of one another, didn't even bother adding to the conversation. Only Trudy, squeezed in between Kyle and Isabel, looked up with a sympathetic gaze.
"What about the guest list?" she offered. "Don't you want to talk about that?"
"A guest list," Sara agreed. "Now, I was thinking, obviously, you'd invite all of us and our friends. Did you want to do one of those things were you invite the entire class, or just a few select people? Personally, I think a few people is better. Just the cool ones, you know? You don't really want to hang out with anyone else, and inviting everyone is really only a stupid tradition leftover from kindergarten when we weren't suppose to exclude people."
Isabel looked at Sara with a resigned sigh. At some point, she had to give Sara credit for persistence, and it seemed unlikely that she was going to get off the hook for this one. "Fine. For the guest list… us, Tess, Jessica, Cliff, anyone else from that group you think necessary, Max, Michael, Liz, Alex, Maria… maybe the new girl, Courtney, because she's friends with Maria and Liz now…"
"Woah, wait a minute," Sara cut in. "You want to invite all of them?" She was clearly displeased by the idea of having some many incredibly uncool people at her party.
"Well, she can't very well not invite Max," Trudy pointed out logically. "He is her brother, after all."
"And Liz is Max's girlfriend," Kyle added, deciding to participate in the conversation when it became clear that Sara was not going to stop talking about this party.
"Not anymore," Sara said in a conspiratorial whisper. "I heard they've been having problems. And notice how he never sits with her anymore?"
Kyle glanced across the quad, and sure enough, Max was sitting with Michael, while Liz was sitting at a separate table with Maria, Courtney, and Alex.
"What do we think of the new girl?" Sara asked, fixing her eyes on Courtney now.
"She's hot," Kyle said without thinking. He received a sharp elbow in the ribs, and said ruefully, giving Trudy and pleading smile, "But not as beautiful as my amazing, wonderful, charming girlfriend."
"Nice save," Chris muttered under his breath.
"Okay, so we have to invite Max and possibly Liz. Why all the others?" Sara demanded, turning the conversation back to the party. Kyle groaned and buried his head in his hands, murmuring something about killing himself to get out of this conversation. Chris echoed the sentiment, then continued building towers with his carrots.
"Because I was friends with them," Isabel answered defiantly. Then she flushed and said, "I mean… I am friends with them."
"It's her party, she can do whatever she wants," Trudy interjected.
"Exactly," Isabel agreed. "It's my party, I can invite whoever I want."
Sara's smile widened into a grin. "So you've agreed to the party, then?"
Liz turned away from the computer and glanced at the door. It was her second day of work, and she was both exhausted and frustrated by her tasks. So far, Nicolas Crawford had treated her with open contempt, and she had yet to meet any of the others in the office. The Senator had stopped by briefly in the morning, before Liz had arrived at work, and left a list of rather dull chores for her.
Still, she reminded herself gamely, someone had to do the leg work, and this internship would look good on a college application.
She chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. School had been rather boring, the only interesting part of the day being Max's surprising attempt at conversation. Lunch had been a relatively silent affair, with Maria and Courtney exchanging polite, but clipped, conversation and Liz lost in her own thoughts. Alex had joined them at one point, but then drifted away when he caught sight of Isabel.
She rose from her chair, walking towards the door. In the hallway, she heard a soft rise and fall of sound coming from Nicolas' office. He was on the phone, and she crept forward, staying out of sight of the partially-open door, struggling to hear the words being exchanged.
"I know… Of course not, Mayor. But you have to admit it was too good of an opportunity to pass up… She's just a girl. She's harmless. And she's very good at filing documents…Well, I can ask the Senator her opinion, but… Which one do you want? You can't have both, and I'm not risking my life for the other… I know, but it's Vilandra… because that's what he said he wanted! Her, not the others."
Liz frowned as she listened to the conversation, but the sound of a chair scraping against the ground warned her that Nicolas was moving now, and she jerked away from the door. Racing down the hallway, she scrambled back into her own room and settled herself at the computer just at the same moment that Nicolas came to the doorway, slamming his cell phone shut and staring at her.
"How is the work going?" he asked.
"Fine, Mr. Crawford," Liz answered, turning to smile at Nicolas. "I just finished inputting the last of the census data into the spreadsheet."
"Good," Nicolas answered. He glanced around the room for a moment, before turning back to her with a lingering gaze. "Go home," he said finally. "We won't need you any more today."
"Uh… are you sure?" Liz asked. She glanced at the clock on the computer screen and noted that there was still an hour until her usual leaving time.
"I'm sure," Nicolas snapped irritably. "I'm always sure." He strode from the room, letting the door bang shut behind him.
Liz took a slow breath as he left, then began stuffing her belongings back into her purse. She closed the browser on the computer and shut down the machine. Slinging her purse over one shoulder and pulling her backpack on, she crossed to the door and flicked off the lights.
In the dim room, the light from the window fell across the computer and the chair were she had been sitting, lighting it up like a beacon. Somehow, the imagery sent chills down her spine.
She turned, and determinedly walked from the room.
In the hallway, she listened for any sounds from Nicolas' office, but it was silent. She wondered if she would meet Senator Whitaker any time soon. She wondered why Nicolas had been calling the mayor, and what the two of them had spoken about. But most of all, she wondered if she was actually walking into any danger, and if these people she now worked for posed a threat to any of her friends.
Courtney watched as the woman across from her carefully chopped vegetables. She felt a strong and sudden desire to grab the knife and stab it directly into the other woman's heart, but she was fairly certain such an action would blow her cover, and they couldn't really afford that right now.
"Be useful boil some water for the pasta," the woman said, looking up sharply. "And stop staring like that. It's rude."
Courtney rolled her eyes, but moved towards the stove. "Whatever you say, Mother," she sneered. She hoped the others knew what she was sacrificing for them all.
Mrs. Banks licked her lips and shot Courtney a look which said very clearly that she was not amused by the girl's tone of voice. Instead of comment on it, however, she dropped the knife on the counter and dumped the sliced vegetables into the drying pan on the stove. "Are you any closer to the Royals?" she asked, slanting a look at the gril she was pretending was her daughter.
"I'm getting there," Courtney answered. "Stop pushing."
"My dear, we are all under pressure to finish out jobs, and quickly," Mrs. Banks replied, "and I doubt I need remind you that my success is partially determined by your own. I'll push you as much as I please."
Courtney sniffed disdainfully. "Do you want it done quickly, or do you want it done right?" she demanded, watching as the pot of water slowly heated up. She didn't want to look at this woman that was supposed to be her mother or she might end up strangling her.
"I want it done, period," Mrs. Banks answered.
Courtney nodded slowly. "It will be," she answered calmly. "You'll have three dead royals by the time this is all over." She wondered silently if there was anyway to prepare Isabel for what their enemies wanted. She certainly couldn't walk up to the other girl and tell her the entire story, because she would never be believed. But Khivar wasn't likely to stop at one attempt, and if Whitaker failed, there were still several others out there willing to do his bidding and bring back the errant princess.
"I'm counting on it, Courtney. We all are, and you'd better not forget that."
Courtney struggled to keep her temper in check as she replied pointedly, "Mother, darling, you're just my cover. You don't have to do any of the actual work. I'm the one stuck with the difficult tasks." She turned and walked from the room, leaving behind the boiling water and the cooking vegetables.
Mrs. Banks watched her go, a cool look in her eyes, her lips thinning into a straight line. "Your own loyalties have been suspect for a long time, my dear," she said under her breath. "Don't think for one second that I've forgotten that."
If Alex was surprised to see Liz suddenly appear in the doorway to his room, he didn't show it. But, she supposed, after everything that had happened in the past year, could any of them really say they were surprised by anything?
"Hey, come on in," Alex said, stepping aside and letting her enter the room. "How was your day at the office, Ms. I-have-a-job?"
Liz rolled her eyes. "I think Maria's starting to rub off on you," she commented dryly. Taking a seat on the edge of his bed, she then added, "And my day at the office was… interesting."
"Enthusiastic," Alex deadpanned. "I see you love it already."
Liz offered a hint of a smile. "My boss is a condescending, egotistical, self-important…" She struggled to find the right words, then finally gave up with a huff of frustration. "I haven't even met Senator Whitaker yet," she added morosely.
"Maybe it will get better," Alex answered, ever the optimist. "After all, it's only been two days."
"Yeah," Liz agreed somewhat sullenly. "I suppose."
Alex settled himself into the chair in front of his desk and fixed Liz with a shrewd stare. "But I'm guessing you didn't come here for a pep-talk about your job. What's going on?"
"Does the word Vilandra mean anything to you?" Liz asked, getting right down to business.
Alex mouthed the word slowly, testing it out on his tongue. He shook his head. "It sounds foreign," he remarked, "but I don't think I've ever heard it before. Is it a word or a name?"
Liz let her mind wander back to the conversation she had overheard. "It's a name," she said finally. "A name of something or someone. I'm not really sure." She pushed herself further back on the bed and pulled her knees into her chest. "Can you do a web search, see if it comes up with anything?"
Alex gave Liz a long look, then said, "If it is alien related… have you discussed this with Max?"
Liz swallowed nervously. "I haven't discussed much of anything with Max lately," she answered pointedly, and Alex bowed his head quickly in recognition of the truth of that statement. Liz bit her lip, but continued firmly, "Look, it isn't like I'm asking you to actually walk up to the mayor or to Mr. Crawford and demand to know what is going on. And it might be nothing. But it might not and…"
Alex finally gave in, and said with a soft sigh, "I'll do a web search for it. If it is a governmental or private organization, I should be able to find it relatively easily. If it is a person, likewise that should be easy enough to come up with a list of people with that name. If it is something more hidden, though, like part of the FBI…"
"Don't do anything that could put yourself in danger," Liz replied instantly, concern clouding her eyes. "I don't want you to get into trouble."
Alex nodded. "I'll be careful."
"Do you love her?" Isabel asked, watching as Max paced back and forth across the marble floor. "It is a very simple question, brother."
Max spun to face his sister, dark eyes flashing with the reflection of his internal struggles. "It is not a simple question," he argued, his voice filled with fervor. "Sometimes I love her more than anything in the world. Sometimes I look into her eyes and I think that there is nothing I want more than her. And sometimes…"
"Sometimes you would like to rip her hair out and burn her at the stake?" Isabel offered, a teasing smile playing at the corner's of her lips. "That is love, my darling brother. That constant up- and-down of emotions is what love is all about."
Max seemed to take this in silence as he ran a hand through his hair and stared across the large room towards the great window that opened up into a lush garden. The sunlight filtered through the glass, casting strange shapes of shadows across the floor. It was true, he knew, that what he felt was love. But was it enough?
"With her… it is as though everything is… I feel everything so strongly. There are no in betweens, there is no peace, no quiet. I never enjoy a restful afternoon by a fire with her." He let out a slow breath. "I want that. I want happiness that will last even through boredom."
"She would make a good Queen," Isabel said finally. "Better, I think, than any other woman you have ever looked at. She has grown up in the palace, she knows the customs, the rules, the way our planet works…" Isabel rose from the chair on which she had been sitting and carefully smoothed the silk of her dress. "You will need a good Queen by your side, if you are to rule wisely."
"I know," Max agreed. "And she is the girl that both mother and father have wanted for so long… they were discussing possible arrangements with her father long before I even showed an interest in a wife."
Isabel grinned/ "Of course. That is what mother lives for. Watching us become betrothed and then married. She wants grandchildren, I believe. And father wants to know that his line will be continued, that his heir will produce more heirs."
Max wrinkled his nose. "I suppose," he said finally.
When Max awoke, it was still dark out, and the tree outside his window was silhouetted against the dark sky. The moon shown faintly from between the tree branches, and the light patter of rain against the ceiling indicated a gentle shower.
They were having very unusual weather, given that it was still the beginning of the school year. This rain usually did not set in until much later in the year, closer to December or January.
He rose, pushing the covers back from his bed, and walked to the window. The dream had faded, leaving the strangest lingering feeling of unease. He knew that whatever he had seen in his dream, it had to do with Tess. But beyond that, everything was a hazy, convoluted set of feelings and emotions.
He wondered, idly, if Nasedo could teach him how to remember these dreams, how to sort through the emotions and determine what exactly it was that he was feeling. But then, he thought vaguely, would knowing his emotions from a previous life color what he thought of this one? What if there was only room for one set of memories in his brain, and by trying to remember something else, he would have to forget parts of this life?
He wanted to remember. For the sake of the other three hybrids, for their safety, he wanted to remember what he had been like, as a king. What decisions had he made? How had he acted? How had he worn the mantle of leadership?
But what if remembering that meant forgetting his parents here, on Earth? Or forgetting Liz? Maria and Alex? Could he do that?
He walked back to his bed and lay down. Staring up at the ceiling, he willed himself to fall asleep.
It didn't work, and he lay awake the rest of the night with his worries and his doubts.
Next Chapter: Round and Round and Round We Go
Due: Sun 2/24
