Chapter 13

It took Liz ten minutes to make it to the Valenti home where Tess lived. She, Kyle, and Jim had formed their own family and she knew how much Tess loved them.

She pulled into the driveway, when Jack found out that she took the truck he wouldn't be too happy with her but he'd forgive her. Liz stamped out the cigarette that dangled from her mouth and blew out the smoke. Yea, she promised Mom she'd quit but she hardly drank; compared to the guys in the crew she barely had sex…she needed some kind of vice to get through what she saw every night.

If she wanted to be honest with herself she started smoking because she didn't think she'd live long enough to get cancer. Hell the Goons they fried usually in multiple numbers caused more damage to her lungs then a cigarette did.

She stepped out of the truck and made her way to the Valenti's front door. Liz took a deep breath and knocked.

It didn't take long for Tess to answer the door. "Hey Tess." Liz sheepishly smiled. "I think I owe you a couple apologies."

Tess nodded. "Yea I'd agree with that." She crossed her arms. "Honestly I didn't expect you so soon."

"How come?" Liz put her hands in her pants pocket.

Tess shrugged. "I know this visit to Roswell wasn't a social call." She leaned against the door frame. "You and the crew have some Goons to deal with and I understand that would take precedence over my feelings."

"Yea, getting the Masters and Goons are important. It is the reason I'm here but that didn't give me the right to accuse you of telling Dad about me and Jack. And being friends I consider your feelings more important than the vamps." Liz told her.

Sighing Tess moved aside. "Might as well come in." As childish as it might sound she didn't want to forgive Liz yet. It hurt when she accused her of blabbing a secret to Mr. Parker. She was a master at keeping secrets.

Liz smiled and walked passed her into the Valenti living room. The front room was clean and had feminine touches that gave a clear indication who ran the home. When Liz dated Kyle she tried to get him to at least pick up his clothes from the living room. It was then he informed her that most of them were Jim's.

Now when she walked in the couch was visible, free from clutter and clothes. The remotes were put in the proper container and the windows looked like they had been cleaned fairly recently. "The boys don't chip into help at all do they?" Liz asked.

"Not one little bit. Most of the time they'll lift their feet if I'm going under them with a vacuum or if I'm cleaning off the coffee table but that's about it." Tess confirmed. "I'm sure you have the same problem with Jack and the crew."

Liz shook her head. "Not really. Usually we stay in motels, the guys trash it…somewhat and then we leave. Cleaning up after them is not in my job description." She sat down on the couch and Tess took the reclining chair next to her.

Liz hated the awkwardness that had developed between her and Tess over the last hour. She knew she hurt her friend and there was no excuse for it.

"So…can I get you anything to drink?" Tess offered.

"No thanks." Liz looked Tess directly in the eyes. "I'm sorry that I blamed you for telling Dad. It was out of line and I should have known that you wouldn't have told him…on purpose or by accident."

"It's ok." Tess tried to brush it off.

"No it's not. You've been one of my best friends for the past six months. Hell, you're the only girl friend I've got. Your friendship means more to me than you can possibly know and I almost ruined that." Liz admitted.

Tess smiled and relaxed a bit. "I know what you mean. When I first came to town I figured that Isabel and I would be inseparable. We had so much in common, with being aliens, and her being the Princess, me the Queen. But it didn't work out that way. Isabel was more interested in finding out who we were then to really get to know me."

"Yea that can't be fun." Liz sympathized.

"You, Alex, Kyle, and Jim are the first people who looked past who Nasedo was trying to get me to be and see who I really was. Not the Queen, not Nasedo's pet project, not the bitch, or Max's stalker…"

Liz laughed at Tess description of herself. "Oh sweetie you weren't that bad."

"Yes I was. I followed him around like a puppy. Meanwhile you kept trying to push him away toward me and he was slobbering all over you." Tess pointed out.

Her brunette friend shrugged. "Maybe that's just in Antarians genes." She teased.

"Oh you…" Tess grabbed a small square pillow that was behind her back and hit Liz on the arm with it.

"Ya gotta admit you following Max, Max following me. It makes one wonder." Liz fell over on the couch and laughed till it hurt.

Tess threw the pillow at her one more time and she caught it in her hands. "Ok, so what happened after I left?"

"There's another Michael." Liz smirked.

"Another Michael? That doesn't make sense, unless it's the other set." Tess stated.

"Other set?"

Tess nodded. "There are another set that Nasedo told me about but they're in New York. So there are doubles of Max, Isabel, Michael and me walking around out."

"Wow, okay, so there's a third Michael out there." Liz told Tess everything that happened with Nick, Sean, the crew and the Goons. She also mentioned the different kind of vampires that Nick said were out in the world.

"That is weird. God with how much we know about various things can you imagine how many things we don't know about." Tess leaned back in the chair.

The two continued to talk for the next thirty minutes when Liz's phone rang. "Hello…yes…" Liz glanced at her watch. "Ok I'll be there in twenty minutes." She hung up the phone. "That was Lance; the group has reached a decision. Do you want to come to Crashdown with me?"

Tess grabbed her boots and slipped them on. "Yea. I'll call Jim when I get there and let him know." The duo left the Valenti's home and began to head toward the Crashdown in Jack's truck.

TBC