Chapter 24

February 18, 2005 7:15 a.m.

Yawning Liz sluggishly made her way down the stairs to the back room of the Crashdown. She had never in her life felt that drained, even after a round of marathon slayings.

She pushed through the door separating the back room from the dining area. The AI team had left last night an hour or so after she and Drusilla went upstairs. Spike mentioned they went back to the hotel a couple miles away. Liz would have offered to let them stay with her and Spike at the Crashdown but the upstairs apartment wasn't spacious enough for that many guests.

As she neared the double doors she prayed that the newspaper was outside. She needed to start the day off with some comic strips. Normally she went straight to the obituary page to look at any recent deaths with neck wound injuries or other unexplainable killings. Today would be different though, the last thing she was looking at was the obit page.

Liz gripped the coffee mug in her hand that was filled with decaffeinated tea and unlocked the Crashdown doors. What she wouldn't do for a real cup of coffee right then, unfortunately her doctor back in LA told her to cut down on the caffeine till the baby was born. She pushed open the left door and bent down for the paper lying diagonally on the sidewalk. When she stood back up she saw a shadow to the right of her and tensed up.

The paper crunched under her tightened grip preparing to fight off whoever lurked nearby. Liz twisted her neck toward the shadow. Immediately her muscles relaxed and faced the figure straight on. "What are you doing standing out here so early?"

"We need to talk, thought sooner would be better." Kyle shrugged. The sun shined brightly in his eyes and he had to put his hand up to block the rays.

Liz took a deep breath. The moment she had been worried about was suddenly there. Kyle deserved to know the truth about Lucas. She should have told him sooner than today but she never could gather up the courage to call and let him in on the fact that he had a son.

"Come on in." Liz gestured with the newspaper. "Have a seat at one of the booths."

Kyle walked passed her and stepped inside. He swallowed with difficulty; when Liz and Lucas came into the Crashdown yesterday he figured that Lucas was his son. The little guy had his eyes and looked similar to him when he was that age. All he needed was Liz to confirm it.

"Do you want something to drink? Coffee? Tea?" Liz set the paper down in the booth that Kyle chose.

"No thanks."

"Want some breakfast?" Liz tried again. She hoped for one more second alone to gather her thoughts but it didn't seem like she'd be able too.

Again Kyle shook his head. He didn't want anything to eat or drink. The only thing he was interested in was what he came there for. "Can we just sit and talk. That's all I want right now." While admittedly he was curious about what he saw last night, whether or not the boy Liz had on her hip when she returned to Roswell was his son took priority.

She nodded slowly. "Ok." Liz then slid into the booth and stared at the man across from her. "So—," she paused for a moment, "where do you want to start?"

Kyle stared at his clasped hands. "Guess the obvious." He lifted his head and looked straight at her. "Is Lucas my son?"

Liz took a deep breath and mentally prepared. "Biologically yes he is."

Immediately Kyle narrowed his eyes at her. "Why do you say it like that?"

She coughed nervously but plunged forward. "You are his biological father but that's all you are to him. Spike, my husband, is Luke's father." Kyle clearly didn't like being characterized as only the genetic father but Luke had a dad and that's Spike.

Instead of pouncing on what he didn't like first he focused on something else. "He knows about me? He knows I'm his father?"

"Yes. He's known for a while." She saw his shoulders loosen but there was still tension in the air between them, not that she could blame him for being tense.

"Did he ask or did you tell him without him questioning?" He wasn't being judgmental only curious as to how the conversation came about.

Liz half-smiled and shook her head, "Well I didn't tell him the second he was born or anything but when he could talk more than a few words here and there he asked me why Spike's hair was a different color than his own and mine it was the perfect opening to start telling him about you."

"What did you tell him?"

"Well at first I explained to him that Spike wasn't his biological father and then he asked what that meant. I told him that Mommy was with someone before Spike and that during our time together we made him. And finally he asked if Spike would still be his Daddy." She breathed in deeply before continuing. "I told him that Spike would always be his Dad no matter what. With that he said ok and then went to play with his toys." There hadn't been much to the first time Luke was exposed to the reality of Kyle.

"Is that all?" He was disappointed that those questions were all that were asked.

Liz shook her head negatively. "No, when he got older he had more questions. He wanted to know your name, a little of what you were like. Luke asked once why we weren't together when Tommy, a friend at daycare, had both biological parents living together. That conversation was harder to explain but I think in the end he understood why you weren't in his life and why we weren't a couple."

Kyle snorted rudely. "I bet you didn't paint me or the others in a very good light did you?" He couldn't imagine Liz saying anything good about the people that shunned her after that whole debacle of them sleeping together.

"What makes you think that?" Liz straightened insulted that he would assume anything about what she told her son.

"Oh come on Liz. Not only did Max, Isabel, Michael, Maria, and I ignore you for that last month none of us were particularly quiet when it came to calling you names and insulting you. So not only were we hurting you the entire school got in on it as well so why wouldn't you bad mouth us to Lucas?"

True, it wouldn't be far fetched to believe that she'd tell Luke the cruel taunts that were thrown her way so carelessly. To that day she felt anger about that month of her life but as much as she hated it and wanted to get back at them for everything they put her through she also had a sense of gratitude toward them. Without them acting the way they had she wouldn't have gone to LA and she wouldn't have met Spike. Spike was the second best thing to happen to her; Lucas was the first.

"I didn't. Last thing I want for my son is to have hate in his heart. I know that if I told him about the name calling, about the shunning he'd hate every person that hurt me. He doesn't like people hurting his Mommy. But I won't do that to him, I won't be responsible for putting hate in his heart. I try my best to show by example to take the high road because if I can't do it why the hell should I make Luke?" Liz sipped at her tea while Kyle absorbed everything she said. "Why don't I get you a cup of coffee?"

Kyle didn't say a word, he only nodded at her. Liz stood up and walked around the front counter. As if she hadn't left she got to work on making a pot of coffee. Although Kyle was the only one there now she expected the other members of the 'I Know an Alien Club' to show up eventually. There were too many weird things that happened last night for them to wait long.

TBC