By Didi
Disclaimer: Roswell does not belong to me or anything associated with me. Honestly, I'm not sure who owns the copyrights to the show at the moment. (I do know there are some weird juvenile novels under the same name and character ideas though.) Don't sue, I'm not making a profit off of this; hell, I'm not making any money period. I'll take the story off if it offends anyone.
Timeline: Okay, I'm not even sure if anyone needs this section anymore. We're no where near Kansas anymore Dorothy, probably somewhere over Normandy now, go read the other chapters.
Ratings: R for restricted.
Summary: Topolski makes a connection. The gang makes a road trip. Michael gets a little visit and it ends rather unexpectedly. Maria discovers a problem.
Author's Note:I'm so sorry for the delay in updates. I've been a little swamped with events in my life. Okay, for the two of people that might actually still be reading this, here's the new chapter. Hope you enjoy it!
Key: "Spoken" "Thoughts."
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Chapter 36 - Compromised
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"Are you sure?" Topolski gripped her phone a little tighter.
"Yes, I'm watching the man get into his car now."
"Okay, hold your position and keep watching the house," she got up and grabbed her keys.
"You don't want me to follow the sheriff?"
"No," the last thing she wanted was another agent going missing under her watch. "Stay where you are and watch for Michael Guerin."
"You think the Guerin kid will come back?" there was doubt in the field agent's tone.
For a moment, Topolski considered something sarcastic. "I want all the bases covered, I'm not going to have this case fouled up because you don't like doing surveillance." Okay, she didn't keep her temper checked. They didn't call her a bitch without a good reason. "Now hold your position."
"Yes, ma'am," was the proper response but the agent didn't bother hiding his unhappiness with the assignment.
Hanging up, Topolski grabbed the remote control and shut off the scene from the trauma room she had been watching… over and over and over again. None of it helped, it was always the same thing. Busy doctors moving around, Maria Harding shoved into the room as people scramble to get oxygen masks, blood bag, IV's and other assorted instruments of torture into place. The girl flat-lined at a point which forced more nurses and doctors to scramble for yet more instructions of life and death. There was a long as Maria Harding's struggle to pump blood through her tortured system and another when the doctors talk gravely amongst themselves.
Then the video goes blank. Simply winked out of existence, like someone had turned the off switch… or unplugged it.
Standing, she grabbed her keys and made her way to the door.
Having read the reports, having studied the tape, she was not inclined to agree with the hospital that one of the nurses simply unplugging the security camera for an extra outlet. It didn't appear that way at all. It was as if someone had purposely shut off the camera so that there would be no evidence of what happened in that trauma room just before Maria Harding's miracle recovery.
Something happened in that trauma room.
Something unnatural.
And so far, she couldn't find one person in that whole hospital that knew where Michael Guerin was during that moment in time.
-&-&-&-&-&-
"I don't understand why…"
"Shh…" Maria shook her head slowly and gripped Liz's hand tighter. "You're here 'cause I think Alex might need you." She didn't add that she wasn't all together sure Alex was even involved but he hadn't picked up his phone and --
Liz nodded her head slowly, her eyes focused on Maria's as she leaned closer, behind Tess's back. "Do you think Michael will hurt him?"
Maria shook her head slowly. She may not like Michael Guerin but she's seen the way he treated others. "No, he's a good guy here."
"Then why…"
"I don't know."
"But…"
"Liz," she squeezed Liz's hand. "I really don't know."
Staring at her friend, Liz frowned slowly. There was something about the way Maria kept glancing toward the front seats where Max and Isabel were talking a muffled tone with Tess at the edge of the backseat leaning forward in her seat between Liz and Maria to listen that made Liz very uneasy. "You keeping something from me, aren't you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Maria," Liz warned carefully, her anger making her fear recede. "You drag me out here, in the middle of the night with a story about--"
"Not a story," Maria said firmly, she glanced at Tess when her eyes turned to look at her. Fingers tightening on Liz's, she shook her head at her sister. "Liz and I need to know what's going on, Tessie."
"If I knew," Tess answered softly, turning her head again to look at Liz so she could see the truth in her eyes. She didn't need to convince Maria. "I'd tell you. But all we really know now is that Michael and Alex are missing and Isabel thinks she may know where they're going."
"Isabel thinks she know?" Liz's eyes darted to the blonde in the front seat, head leaning against the window as if sleeping. "Are you sure?"
"No," Tess answered honestly.
Maria groaned. "You can't lie to make me feel better?"
Tess thought about it. "No."
Liz smiled for the first time since she got into the jeep. For some reason, it made her feel better that Tess wasn't lying to her - and that Maria was just as lost in all this as she was. "Okay, but the minute you know--"
"I'll yell it," Tess made a cross over her heart.
Liz grinned back and tightened her hand in Maria's. "At least I'm not alone in this."
Maria gave her sister a nod, feeling better herself.
Turning her head back, Tess took a moment to regain some of her composure. She was scared, more than just scared in fact. Anything could have happened to Michael… and Alex. Leaning forward until she was close to Max's ear, "Do you really think Isabel can locate Michael through the dreamscape?"
"I honestly don't know," Max replied, distracted by the scent of honeysuckle and vanilla. The warmth of her breath sent an unwanted shiver down his spine. "We've never tried this while someone might be awake."
"Max, if we don't know where he is, where are you driving to?" her head tilted to look at Isabel's relaxed face as she attempted to find Michael. "Isabel only said that--"
"Marathon," Max replied, turning his head to watch Tess watch his sister. In the glow of the fading sun, he could almost superimpose the way she looked in his dreams to the way she looked now: her face aglow with a kind of loveliness the defied description. Simply beautiful.
"Marathon?" turning back, startled to hind him staring at her. For a moment, she was lost in a memory, a memory of a dream where he looked at her in the exact same manner, with an intensity that should frighten her but didn't. "Max?"
Forcing his eyes back on the road, "Remember the fight we had this afternoon? He wanted to go to Marathon, Texas to see that… that…"
"Geo-Dome," she nodded her head slowly. "Yeah, that would make sense." She was silent for a moment. "Why did we have to bring Liz?" she wanted to know. "Not that there's anything wrong with brining Liz, cause that's not why I ask. I'm just not all too sure what--"
"I can't afford to have her talking if something goes wrong tonight." He hadn't meant for it to sound so harsh and… cold. But the reality was he couldn't trust Liz not to come apart without someone around to cover her. And the last thing they needed right now, with the FBI nosing around was a loose cannon.
Not knowing why, Tess reached out and squeezed Max's tense shoulder. "We'll find Michael and Alex."
"I'm not worried about Alex," Max replied softly so only she could hear. "They won't hurt Alex."
"You don't know that," Tess reminded him quietly, her brows knitted together with concern.
Max shook his head at her. "Let me rephrase that. If they've got Michael and Alex together, Michael will not allow anything to happen to Alex."
"You know that for sure?" though she already did.
"Yeah."
Tess was silent for a moment, her mind wondering to places she didn't really want to be visiting. Her soft hand tightened on Max's shoulder as she watched the darkened roads. Too many TV specials and Sci-Fi movies gave her pretty good idea what might happen to Michael. "Let's find them fast, okay?"
He felt her fear, saw it in his mind's eyes and pray to whatever being was above watching them that he didn't let her down. Why he didn't want to let her down had nothing to do with his own fears for the brother of his heart if not of his blood. Reaching over, he slid his hand over hers, giving her what little assurance he could. "Yeah, let's do that."
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As he drove down the nearly blackened lane, Alex saw out of the corner of his eyes Michael's face twisting painfully in sleep. He didn't know what kind of nightmares plagued the usually stoic teen but he could well imagine it was nothing Alex cared to experience. All the problems Michael must endure while trying to hide the fact that he was… well, different.
"Well it's no wonder he's got a reputation," Alex thought feeling sympathy for the guy where as a month ago he would have rolled his eyes and made some kind of sly comment. "I'd have to just to keep from going out of your head remembering to be careful all the time."
Reaching behind, Alex pulled the beach towel that lined his backseat – a habit he picked up from too many times scrubbing the chair after his guitar strings left scuff marks – and draped it lightly over Michael's legs. There was silence in the car. Alex was rather surprised that Michael hadn't awakened at the light touch.
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"You have any idea how stupid this is?"
"No but I'm sure you're going to tell me," Michael sighed and leaned against the warm stone baked by the sun. It often surprised him now much he could sense, smell and feel in the dream world. Funny, all the science books always say that you can't taste and smell in dreams but… well, this isn't really a dream. Not really.
"Do you have any idea where you are right now?" Isabel demanded, her face contorted in anger as she gazed out across the right ridges of the New Mexican desert. She wasn't angry, not really. She was scared… too scared to really voice. Lord she was tired of being scared all the time.
"Somewhere between New Mexico and Texas Michael asked, studying her classically beautiful profile. "Where are you?"
Isabel stared across the desert and breathed a sigh of relief she hadn't realized that she needed. He was safe, Michael was safe. No impending danger... not yet anyways. She couldn't really say that same when Max finally catches up to him. "We're coming to kick your ass."
Michael grinned. "Max dragged you out to…"
"Me, Tess, Maria and Liz," Isabel informed him with displeasure.
"Oh, he didn't," Michael groaned.
"Oh he did," she assured him, almost amused but the dread on Michael's face. No, it wasn't just dread, it was fear. "What's the matter?" not believing that Michael could possibly be that afraid of Max.
Dropping his head into his hands, Michael slid down to sit on his romp with a groan from deep down. "You have any idea what Maria and Tess is going to do to me?"
Isabel laughed, it was the first good laugh she's had in too long. This felt good; it felt very good. Just as it felt right being at the cliffs with Michael. She felt better just being here, where everything had begun; almost at peace. It's been too long.
"Issy?" Michael gave her hand a tug, bringing her down next to him until she was resting her head against his shoulder. She looked so beautiful standing here, in the sunlight with her golden halo of hair about her shoulders. "Are you all right?"
Her initial gut-reaction was a firm "yes," a defensive "yes," a lying "yes." But this was Michael, her ally, her friend, her champion… forever. Plus it would do her no good. "I'm so tired."
"You're scared," he corrected, feeling it in his bones. It was the one thing that Max also griped about, Michael's ability to share Isabel's emotions in the dream realm when Max had barely enough control to shove Issy out at will. "You're so wound up with fear that you're exhausting yourself."
She didn't respond. Lying to Michael here would be a waste of time. "Come home, Michael."
"I can't," was the reluctant reply. He hated disappointing her.
Turning to face him, she studied his face in the light. He had a pretty face, one that was both beautiful and strong. It was a face she knew well, a face she's seen all her life, the first she saw when she awoke. It was a face she trust, not so much because it was familiar but that it was attached to a feeling to safety in her universe. Fingering his jaw line lightly, she asked him why with her eyes.
He couldn't answer her, didn't know how to answer her. The cool fingers under his chin were making him think of nothing but her light touch, both of curiosity and of interest. It felt good, the touch, the connection. It gave him a feeling of home… a feeling he's never been blessed with.
Cautiously, he leaned into her touch.
Isabel slid her hand open, her palm cradling his face.
He watched her eyes, those golden eyes that usually sparkled with amusement at the world. Now they were like molten gold, a sensual color that seemed to suck the very soul out of Michael, making even breathing hard to remember.
She leaned a little closer, his breath upon her lips; it sent a shiver down her spine.
He watched her watching him and felt something within him.
Their lips met, merely a brush of a butterfly's wing, and the universe exploded around them.
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Michael jerked awake, his breath caught in his throat.
"Whoa," Alex's hand instinctively reached out and kept Michael's body back, against the strain of the seatbelt. "Easy there."
Swallowing with difficulty, his mouth having gone as dry as the Mohave Desert, Michael took a moment to grasp at the reality around him. He could see the car he was in. He could feel the roar of the engine beneath him. He could smell the greasy fries he and Alex had shared for dinner. But he could almost taste the scent that was uniquely Isabel on his lips.
Because he wasn't saying anything, Alex couldn't stop himself from asking. "What happened?"
Waiting another moment, until he was sure his voice wasn't going to crack, "A dream."
"It looks more like a nightmare," Alex commented with concern.
"It wasn't a nightmare," Michael whispered, not too sure of it himself. "It was…" he didn't know what it was exactly. "It was different."
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Muffling her gasp with her hand, Isabel jerked awake from her dreams.
"Isabel," Tess's hand instinctively reached out to give comfort. "What happened? Are you alright?"
Fumbling for the hand that was offered, Isabel pressed back the cry of panic as she tried to calm her thundering heart. She could still feel the pressure of soft lips, warm breath against her cheek, the taste of cinnamon and raspberry ice tea Snapple. And above all that, she could smell him; it was a scent that was solely his. "No, no. Michael isn't like that. I can't have Michael be like that."
"Issy?" Max turned his head, his eyes searching for answers in his sister's face.
"What is happening to me?" Isabel wanted to scream.
"Pull over," Maria ordered, seeing that scene before her. Something was wrong, something was terribly wrong and no one was saying it. "Pull over Max."
Torn between his sister's needs and the needs of the whole, he hesitated.
Tess gave him the opening he needed. "There's a gas station over there. We should fill up."
Max nodded, thankful for her.
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Jim considered turning on his siren and lights. It would certainly make the trip a little more interesting but it would also be construed as an abuse of his position. Right now, he wasn't the sheriff of Roswell looking for a couple of missing children. He was Jim Valenti, foster father, out to drag his charge's sorry butt back home.
A short conversation with Kyle turned out to be much more informative than expected. Between Michael's curious behaviors that morning, three of his deputies seeing Michael and Alex get into a car together heading East and Max Evan's car being spotting just out of town, Jim had a good idea where Michael was headed, an he wasn't happy about it either.
And it certainly didn't help that he caught a glimpse of Hank Guerin on his way out of town. If nothing else, jail time only made Hank even more sourly and angry than he had been while sitting in lock up before Amy Harding convinced Michael to let her file charges separate from the attack on Tess Harding. He couldn't quite get over Michael's insistence that Tess press charges against his father but that he shouldn't be removed from Hank Guerin's care. That kind both amazed and exasperated Jim.
But when he gets his hands on Michael for pulling such a stunt… He was in for it. No TV, no movie, curfew at ten, no phone privileges… the list can go on and on. Granted, Hank probably usually didn't notice when Michael takes off or disappears for a day or two, "But damn it, he's living under my roof and he will obey by my rules. The least he could have done was dropped off a note."
Irritated with teenagers in general, Jim failed to see the tinted sedan that pulled up behind him.
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"I'll get you some ice," Liz murmured softly, watching Isabel's pale face with concern. Until that moment, Liz hadn't even considered what the powers that made Max and the others different were doing to them. Seeing Isabel's wane face, watching Max's tense eyes, seeing Tess and Maria fret, it was obvious that Liz hadn't been seeing the whole picture… not really. She remembered Max the morning after the shooting at the diner, he had been pale and weak, like he had spent the night tossing and turning… which at the time was what she thought. But in retrospect, she could see that it was probably something else, "Like bringing back the dead."
"Do you need anything?" Maria asked her voice soft as watched Liz hurried to the convenience store. "A soda? Cookies? Ice cream?"
Isabel gave a sigh and smiled, grateful for the female companionship for the first time. She's never had close friends, couldn't ever allow anyone that close. "No, I'm okay. Thank you."
"What happened, Isabel?" Tess whispered; her eyes were on the rear view mirror where Max was watching. She could feel him ask the question she wanted the answers to. "Did you reach Michael?"
Isabel swallowed, her eyes darting away from the others. "Yeah, I reached him."
"And?" Maria prompted with a rolling gesture.
"He and Alex are speeding toward Marathon," Isabel confirmed with a grim smile. "Max isn't going to be too happy about this."
"Forget Max," Maria retorted angrily. "I'm going to strangle him when we catch up to them… him and Alex. Of all the lame brain…" she went on for a few more moments of ugly mutterings of curses upon the two teens' heads while Tess and Isabel watched her with interest.
It startled Isabel, though she won't admit it, to hear Maria run through the tirade of angry remarks on the defective brains of Michael and Alex. "What makes you think Alex had a choice in the matter?"
Maria dismissed it carelessly. "Michael is stupid but he's not that stupid. Besides, he's not the type to play with people's life like that. That's his old man's game, not Michael's."
Tess's lips pressed together so she couldn't wear the grin she just knew was threatening to break out over her face. They say action spoke louder than words, but in Maria's case… Whether she knew it or not, Maria just showed which side of the fence she's on.
Isabel nodded her head slowly. "We need to get to them fast. Alex and Michael are guys, and guys can do some pretty stupid things."
"Like this?" Marai rolled her eyes. "Oh lord, how are going to clean this up?"
"Alex seems to be cooperating so far," Isabel observed, glad for something else to concentrate on. She didn't need to think about what happened on the dream planes, no need at all. "If he could keep his mouth shut and we can pass off Michael's little trip as…"
Shaking her head, Tess made a grim face. "The Sheriff will pick any story Michael gives him apart," she pointed tensely. "If we're going to do this, we'll have to make the story air tight. No holes or we're screwed."
"I'm going to have to take a couple of visits to his head, aren't I?"
"Michael?"
"No," Isabel answered a little too quickly.
"What's the matter with you?" Tess asked, her eyes searching Isabel's. "Did you and Michael get into a fight or something?"
"Something," Isabel muttered, wishing to hell that Tess wasn't so observant.
"Holy shit!" Maria's jaw dropped.
"What?" The pointed figure directed their attention toward the other side of the gas station, to the silver corvette that had just pulled in. The blonde woman behind the wheels looked only a little too familiar.
"Ms. Topolski," Tess whispered two seconds before she watched the honor club advisor exit her car. "What the hell is she doing here?" But the answer came in the most horrible form. The pale suit Topokski wore shifting just enough to reveal a tan color holster clipped to her back, hidden for most part by her jacket. "Oh my god."
"Was that what I think I saw?" Isabel's eyes went wide, all other thoughts disappearing behind the swift kick of fear.
"Max," Maria hissed sharply through the window, "Turn your head."
Max's eyes questioned her for a moment, but her tone convinced him that it was wiser to do as she said. He shifted his body so he was facing the highway.
"Tess," Maria grabbed her sister's arm. "Make sure she doesn't see."
Nodding, Tess closed her eyes and went to work as Maria waited half a second and scrambled out of the car. "Max, get in the car; Tess is running interference for us. I'm getting Liz." She didn't wait to see if Max complied before she was racing toward the convenience store. They didn't need this kind of trouble.
Beneath the fear was anger; Topolski was a teacher; someone Maria had talked to and trusted. She felt betrayed. "Freaking liar!" Those all-so-casual questions of Tess and the 'horrible' shooting… Disgust choked at her. Lord only knows how much Liz has accidentally told the woman. It burned her to realize that Topolski had used them; used them to betray Tess. "Bitch!" But now wasn't the time to deal with the anger; they're safety came first.
And Maria had no doubt they're safety was an issue.
To be continued….