Swim
by
Disclaimer: I disclaim. Not mine. M. Metz, Jason Katims, UPN. All not me.
Summary: What will it take to get a little communication going between the so-far alienated Max and Liz this summer? Plus, what's going on with Liz and rest of the gang?
Rating: PG-13
Dear Diary:
I'm Liz Parker, and it's a hot day in late June right now. I'm with Isabel, Maria, Michael and Kyle at the local pool. Max is here too, but surprise, surprise! The King has lowered himself, at least temporarily, to the level of us lowly humans! He's life-guarding the larger of two pools, along with an assistant, for the next three hours, amazingly enough.
I think Kyle's only here because he wants to do something and force Max to blow the whistle on him. In fact, I know that's why he's here, because he's already misbehaved 'accidentally' twice. He seems to get a real kick out of agitating our local alien leader. I'm not sure why.
Isabel is wearing this bikini you wouldn't believe. Earlier, when she was swimming real, honest laps, she was wearing the littlest piece of fabric that could be called a one-piece, and now this. I think she's trying to attract the guys. And it sure is working! But the funny thing is, she doesn't seem happy about it when she does.
For a little while, I was upset, but now I understand. I thought that she was being careless with Alex's memory, but then I got it. I think she's trying to attract the attention to prove she can, or to force herself to think about a guy other than Alex. But it doesn't look like it's working very well.
I'm gonna go now, and see if I can pry Maria off of Michael's lap, and onto the diving board. It won't be easy, but I'm bored, and definitely up for a challenge.
And, there goes Kyle. He just did a backflip off the high dive, which is definitely not allowed, and Max's whistle is in his mouth faster than you can say "Got ya!" And now, he's playing the innocent act when Max's partner swims out and talks to him. God, who will ever understand guys?
Liz stood, displaying the somewhat modest two-piece she'd worn, and headed towards where Maria was flopped out on her stomach, about two inches from where Michael lay on his back, his hand wrapped possessively around hers. He appeared to be sleeping, but Liz knew that wasn't so. The aliens never slept in the open. They could barely sleep in the safety of their own home.
She didn't attempt to keep her voice down when she called her friend, knowing she couldn't wake a person who wasn't really asleep. "Maria!"
Maria groaned, and opened her eyes, squinting into the sun. "What?" She asked.
"Come swim with me?"
Maria closed her eyes again. "Liz, it's hot."
Liz rolled her eyes, Maria-style. "That's why we're at the pool."
Maria cracked one eye. "Haven't you ever heard that heat makes a person lazy?"
Liz gently kicked her friend in this ribs. Maria rolled protectively, pulling her hand from Michael, who immediately turned to look at the situation, and then lay back down, without a word. "Liz!" Maria cried.
"Maria!" Liz mocked.
Rolling her eyes, Maria scrambled slowly to her feet, yawning and stretching as she followed her friend across the deck. "Okay, I'm up. Now, what do you want to do?"
"Let's go diving."
Maria stopped stock-still, and waited. "Or not."
Liz turned to face her. "Please?"
"Liz, I look like a big chicken falling from the rafters. You know I can't dive."
Liz laughed lightly. "No, you don't. Besides, how could you tell? Have you ever seen yourself dive?"
Maria considered. "No, but I've heard all the laughing Spaceboy does whenever I try to."
Liz laughed harder. "Maria, you must know by now that anything Michael does on the outside is about as useful to telling what he thinks as a kitchen thermometer."
"What would a kitchen thermometer have to do with what Michael thinks?"
"That's my point. Nothing. Neither does anything he says, or does, at least when in public."
Maria considered this another moment. "You have a point. But I still don't want to dive."
"Come on!" Liz pleaded. "Just once. And then we can swim, and you and I can talk."
Maria looked around, and her eyes lit on Isabel, lying on one of the lawn chairs, her bikini nearly indecent, being ogled by at least a half a dozen guys, not all of them anywhere near her age. "Why don't you ask Isabel to go diving with you?" She said. "She's been lying there for hours, she must be hot."
Liz looked to where Maria's gaze was, and laughed again. "It's barely staying on as it is. If she tried to go diving, that thing wouldn't stand a chance."
The girls cracked up, and Maria covered her mouth to keep from making a lot of noise. "Alright," She said. "But just once."
Liz nodded, and dragged her friend away.
Insisting that she go second, Maria watched Liz make a perfect dive into the water, hardly creating a splash. Then, screwing up her face in general dislike of what she was about to do, she took a huge breath, and flung herself from the board.
She hit the water with a splash, and came up to see Liz's smiling face. But ten years of friendship didn't serve no purpose-- she knew that she hadn't looked too stupid up there, because if she had, Liz's expression, if not her words, would have told her.
Treading water near the side, Maria and Liz watched the other divers. Kyle dove once again, this time keeping it to the allowed movements. He'd been warned that if he got two more warnings, he'd be kicked out. Liz figured that he was just waiting until they were almost ready to leave anyway, to use them. She didn't exactly approve of what he was doing, but he wasn't endangering anyone except himself, and she'd done her best to warn him, so she was going to let it go.
"Michael opened his eyes when you dove," Liz said casually, as if it were an easy conversation topic. Which, now, ironically, it might be. She'd expected the reaction she would have gotten from Maria two months ago: disbelief. Or maybe, what she would have done a year ago. Which was, ask Liz why she should care.
But now, Maria only smiled, and turned her head in his direction. He opened his eyes, almost as if by knowledge that she was looking at him, and met her gaze. He didn't smile, but Maria and Liz had both been around him long enough not to expect that. His eyes did seem to soften just a little when he met Maria's smiling ones, though.
Liz watched with curiosity. "Do you want to tell me what this is all about?" She asked.
Maria shrugged as best as she could while hanging onto the wall. "What what's all about?" She responded.
Liz tweaked herself so that she was face to face with her best friend. "The 'what' that you've been refusing to tell me about for the last two months. Why you and Michael are suddenly five times more civil to each other, almost on the side of 'mushy'. Why I've had to cover for you with your mom three times in the past two weeks. You were with him, weren't you? I'm not stupid."
Maria smiled a little regretfully, her secret out. "Just jealous?" She responded softly, intending it to be rhetorical.
Liz looked at her funny. "Jealous?"
"Yeah. I mean, it looks like you and Isabel are the last virgins. I know you thought about it with Max. I thought you'd be a little envious."
It was Liz's turn to smile a little sadly. "Maybe I am." Then she cheered up considerably. "But I'd never be upset, Maria. You and Michael... have something amazing, something indescribable. I mean... he gave up a chance to go home for you. If you felt it was the right thing to do, then I'm happy for you."
Maria grinned, her secret off her shoulders. Finally, she had someone to talk to. "Is it okay... Do you want to... you know... hear?"
Liz smiled back. "Skip the gory details, but yeah. I'm dying to know."
Maria hopped from the bottom of the pool onto the side, where there was a shallow ledge, just right for sitting and staying wet.
"You won't believe it. He wasn't even expecting anything, but he set up a table with candles, and made Italian food, and bought Scooby Do plates, because I'd told him they were my favorite. He told me that what he loved most about me was that he could see what I was thinking, feeling, in my eyes. I told him that I saw him, too, and he said no, I didn't.
"And then, he told me... that he knew I'd been jealous of the flashes you used to get when you... you know, with Max, and that the reason I hadn't been able to get them, was because he hadn't let me. He was too closed up, I guess. Couldn't let go, couldn't be out of control.
"And he told me that he wanted to show me him. And he took my hand, and I got the most amazing flashes. I saw him when he was little kid, running from Hank. I saw him when he and Max and Isabel left the pods. And Liz... he had this image of me, smiling, with all the colors of the rainbow around it, shining so brightly...
"God, it's amazing to know that someone thinks of you that way." Maria looked dreamy, like someone waking up from a wonderful fantasy. Or, in her case, a dream with a real alien partner.
Maria looked over at her best friend, though, and noticed that Liz was staring down at the water, splashing absently with her hands, gently, on the surface of the water. "You okay, Liz?"
Liz looked up, and forced a smile for her friend. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Maria looked a little worried. "Do you want me to stop?" She asked.
Liz gave a stronger smile, and focused on her friend. "No! Maria, it's just a little hard... because of... you know. But I want to hear."
Maria looked dubious, but continued. "Alright. Where were we?"
"He showed you his memories," Liz prompted. "And?"
"Well, he told me that he had something to tell me, but I didn't want the moment to end, so I shushed him, and kissed him. And then... you know what happened after that."
Liz looked at her friend in wonder, and Maria pulled back a little under the intense scrutinization. "What?"
"Remember that I said I didn't want to hear the gory details?"
"Yeah."
"Forget it."
Maria laughed. "Okay. What do you want to hear?"
"Did it hurt?"
Maria shook her head. "Privileges of alien boyfriends," She told Liz, grinning.
"So, he took your pain away?" She asked. Maria nodded.
"I didn't think Michael could do that," Liz remarked.
Maria smiled. "He wasn't sure he could. I told him I didn't care, and he said he'd try. Apparently, it worked better than he thought it would."
"Did it hurt the next day?"
Maria grimaced. "It was sore. I was moving kind of slow that morning, and I would have been moving slower. But I guess we were more concerned with... you know," She said, not wanting to bring Tess into this.
She smiled again. "But it wasn't for long. After the whole fiasco, you know, at the pod chamber, he fixed that for me, too."
Liz looked a little wistful. Maria clambered from the pool, and reached out a hand to her friend. "Want to get something to eat?" She asked, motioning to the snack bar.
Liz shook her head. "No, thanks. I think I'm going to read a little."
"Want someone to join you?" Maria asked, knowing that Liz might not tell her if she didn't want to be alone.
Her best friend shook her head a little more. "That's okay, thanks. I'm just going to catch up on my diary as best as I can. There's been too much going on to record much of it."
Maria smiled. "Okay."
Dear Diary:
It's me again. Maria and I just talked about what's going on with her and Michael, and she told me that she slept with him. Not like I hadn't figured it out, but it's nice not having any secrets between us again, even if they were poorly kept ones.
Isabel hasn't opened her eyes in hours. She really isn't happy. I wish there were something I could do for her, because I know that her shallow, fashion-oriented, make-up covered 'friends' haven't offered her anything in the way of support, but she rejects my help. She doesn't seem to know how to cope, and while I miss Alex like hell, I'm getting on with my life. She isn't.
Max told Michael, who told Maria, who told me, (I know, a very roundabout way to get your information!) that Isabel won't let him help her, either. Maria said Michael's tried, but met with the same resistance as everyone else.
And the bad thing is, she doesn't appear very un-Isabel-like to anyone else. She's snippy, she never laughs or smiles, and she doesn't put in appearances when she says she's going to during regular times, either. So no one has been very inclined to help her deal.
But, for now, since I can't do anything about it, I'm going to let Isabel have her space, and help if and when she'll accept it.
On a different, and happier, note, Maria went to the snack bar, and got an ice cream sandwich, which, if you watch closely enough, you can see Michael is feeding her. He's not one for public displays of affection, especially not ones involving mush, but hidden behind the arm of a lawn chair, apparently he feels safe enough. I can barely keep my eyes off them.
God, she's right. I am jealous. And it doesn't help matters any that my dream guy is sitting just at the other end of the pool, watching me. I know he is, even though I haven't looked up. I can always feel his eyes on my skin.
Max and I... Max and I are the definition of complicated. It's that easy and that hard to explain. But I don't feel like explaining it right now. I think, for the first time this summer, I might actually feel like... dealing with it, instead.
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