Title: Busted
Author: Shannon (aka on Fanfiction.net, superCANDYgirl)
E-mail: slaygirl2000@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I do not own Roswell any more than I own this idea. Which, of course, is not at all. The idea is Jade's.
Rating: PG-13
Category: General
Summary: This is the fifth episode of my version of season 3. The group must deal with the ramifications
of the change in ownership at the Crashdown.
Spoilers: Everything that's happened so far in the
series, nothing that I write is based on anything I've heard for S3.
Distribution: If you want it take it, but let me know please.
Feedback: YES!!! I live on feedback.
Author's
Note: This is the fifth episode of In My
Dreams. Treat it like a regular
season on television. See Ep 1 or 2 for
air date explanation. Thank you so much
to Jade for the amazing idea. This
episode really wouldn't have been possible without you! You rock! Hope you enjoy it. J
Air
Date: November 6, 2001
Michael
pushed open the door of their, well his, apartment. He was the only one who officially lived there, but Maria spent
so much time there and had so much of her stuff lying around that they had both
come to think of it as "their" apartment. He was in an extremely bad mood, as was his companion. Maria followed him inside, and immediately
flopped down on the bed with a sigh.
"I can't
believe we got fired!" she moaned. "What am I going to do?"
"What are
you going to do?" Michael asked incredulously, lying down beside her. "You at least have your mom. I'm on my own. If I don't find another job fast I'm out on the street."
Maria
snorted. "Yeah, my mom. She buys me food, but that's about it. Almost everything I have comes from my check
at the Crashdown. I might as well pay
rent for all the money she 'borrows' from me. And besides, you can at least ask Max for a job at the museum."
"Yeah, well
I actually pay rent. And buy
food. And pay for everything else. And buy you stuff. And it's not like you can't ask Max for a job too," Michael replied.
"Yeah, but
he'll hire you over me," Maria whined.
"Why?"
"Because
you're more qualified," Maria replied perfectly serious, or as serious as a
semi-hysterical person can be.
"What?" he
asked in disbelief, turning to look at her. "Based on what?"
"You're an
alien. It's a UFO museum. You do the math," Maria stated this as if it
were the most obvious thing in the universe.
"Just
because I'm an alien doesn't make me a better employee. It's like saying, well I don't know what
it's like saying, but it's stupid," he blurted out, frustrated.
"I'm not
stupid!" Maria shrieked before rolling over so her back was to him.
She could have sworn she heard him mutter,
"Yeah right."
Isabel turned over in her bed for exactly the 23rd time in the last two hours. You know you're an insomniac when, she thought sarcastically. She hadn't slept more than 3 hours since the whole thing with Garok. She would've been content to just believe that it was a fake deal and that Alex was really gone, it was much easier that way, if it hadn't been for that damn note she found when she got home. She tried telling herself that it was just some old note that he had given her before, but the message was too appropriate, and besides, how would it wind up on her pillow like that? Then she thought, maybe it's a forgery, but who would try that, and the writing matched his perfectly. Maybe it's a really good forgery, she thought, already getting sick of listening to the same arguments inside her head for the billionth time. If only there was some way to find out if he was still alive. There is, another voice in the back of her head popped up, but you're too scared to try it. And it was true, there was. It was also true that Isabel was afraid to try it, afraid of what she would find. Afraid that it might not work even if he was alive. She ignored the voice for a few more minutes, before throwing off her covers in defeat. She might be terrified to do this, but it was the only way she could think of, and if it could give her some closure, then it was worth it. I hope. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for, and she made her resolution to go through with it.
She would dream walk Alex.
Later.
Liz showed up to school Wednesday morning angry as hell. She had woken up that morning to find half of her apartment packed up. She was sure that by the time she would return home from school, the other half would be done. Her family still had no place to go, and they only had 2 days to find one. That bastard, if I ever get my hands on him, I swear, she thought, as she walked through the halls to her locker. She didn't mind quitting, it wound up giving her the chance to work with Max, and maybe do so much needed bonding with him, especially if she was ever going to trust him again. As she was approaching her locker, she saw Max, Michael, and Maria talking. None of them looked happy.
"What did he do now?" she asked.
"He fired us," Maria said bitterly. Liz's eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and anger. She opened her mouth to speak, but Maria cut her off. "There's more Liz. Lening, he's not who he says he is. There's something illegal going on, they're using the restaurant as a cover. But we don't know what. That's why we got fired, we overheard is conversation with one of the jerks he works for."
"I knew it, I knew that guy was crooked. We have to stop him!" Liz cried.
"We know, but we're not sure how. I can't believe the jackass fired us!" Michael said angrily.
It hit Liz then that her friends were in as much trouble as she was. "Oh my God, what are you guys going to do? You live off of what you make there."
Max cleared his throat. "Liz, as the head manager of the UFO Museum, I'd like you to meet your new Tour Guide," he pointed to Maria, who waved slightly, "and Display Co-ordinator/ Maintainance," he pointed to Michael, who nodded. Liz smiled and shook her head. Of course Max would give them jobs. He's Max.
"Why does he get the cooler title?" Maria complained.
"Because I have to fix the alien autopsy display," Michael shot back.
Maria nodded. "Point taken."
"This will be so much fun you guys! All of us working together, it'll be great!" Liz cheered. Max smiled at Liz's enthusiasm. He knew how hard it was for her right now, especially since she was about to be kicked out of her home. He had offered her a place to stay, but she had declined. Of course, Max understood, and was determined to be there in every way she needed.
"I want us all to get together at the museum today after school to talk about what each of you are going to have to do, and to begin preparing for our grand re-opening," Max told them, unconsciously falling into his role as leader, "but for now we should all get to class." Liz nodded and kissed him quickly before running off to biology. Maria tried to hide her amusement as Michael saluted, earning him a dirty look from Max.
"Keep it up and I'll fire you," Max threatened, though they both knew it was an empty one.
"Damn," Michael called as Max left, "you'd think you were a king or something."
That night the four teens plus Sheriff Valenti were sitting in the office in the UFO Museum. Max and the others had already finished discussing what they were going to do for the museum's re-opening which was to take place in three weeks, and had divided up the tasks for the preparation. They were now working with the Sheriff to see if there was anything they could do to trap Lening.
"Can't you like, set up bugs or search his place or something?" Maria was asking.
Valenti shook his head. "We don't have enough evidence to validate that. And there's no way we could get a warrant to go through his place. Until we get some solid evidence on this guy, proof of a fake identity, a work order, something, there's nothing we can do."
"He's going to take away Liz's home. He's destroying her family's life, not to mention what happened to Maria and Michael. There has to be something we can do," Max protested vehemently.
"Sheriff, I know what I heard. There is definitely something crooked with that guy. You have to believe us," Maria added.
"I do believe you. But no one else will. By all appearance, he's a respectable business man, and you guys are just two pissed off teenagers. No court will give me a warrant based on the word of two former employees, especially after everything that happened last year with Grant. I'll do a background check on the guy, see if I can find anything. I'm sorry I can't do more." Valenti shrugged his shoulders apologetically.
Liz sighed, and nodded despondently. "It's alright, I just wish…" She sighed again. She knew when she got home she would find her parents completely packed, and ready to leave, though they would just be going to some motel probably.
Maria leaned back in her chair, unhappy that they were just going to have to wait. She looked up at Michael. Uh-oh, she thought. Michael had that look in his eyes, the one that clearly said he was going to take matters into his own hands and there was nothing anybody could do to stop him. A quick check on Max's expression and she knew that he had recognized what Michael was thinking.
"Thank you Sheriff," Max said. Valenti nodded, and walked out of the museum. Max and Maria immediately turned to stare at Michael.
"What?" he asked defensively.
"Don't even think about it," Max warned him.
Michael looked taken aback. "Think about what?"
"Whatever you're thinking about doing," Maria said. "It won't do any of us any good if wind up in jail AGAIN."
Michael tried to look angry with her, but he knew she had a point. He also knew that if he tried anything she'd be right there with him, so he couldn't do anything to stupid. Thus, he turned his glare on Max. "Look, for once it's not a bad plan, and I need all of you to do it. But hey, if you'd rather sit around while your girlfriend gets evicted, that's fine by me."
Max knew Michael had him. He'd do anything to help Liz, even if it meant going along with one of Michael's crackpot plans. He also knew Michael wouldn't relent. The man had threatened Maria, it was a miracle he wasn't dead yet. Hopefully all of them could straighten it out so that they might stand a chance of not getting busted. "What's the plan?"
Liz was feeling moderately better when she walked into her barren apartment. Michael's idea actually wasn't half bad, and was pretty simple too. She felt like they stood a good chance of getting the place back. She just hoped Kyle and Isabel would agree to it. Everyone had developed their powers a great deal over the summer, even Liz had gotten really good at the dream walking, but they were still the only two that could do what they needed. Unfortunately, they would also be the most reluctant to. She sighed as took one last look around her room, and picked up her bag. Hopefully, she would be back by the beginning of next week. They had decided to wait until Saturday to carry out the plan, so that Lening would have a couple of days to set up his "office". For the moment, Liz and her family were going to stay in the "Visitors" motel, just a few blocks from the café. God I hope this works, she thought as she closed the door.
Isabel sat on her bed staring at her favourite picture of Alex. She had already agreed to go along with Michael's plan, and was now rethinking her own. She wasn't sure anymore if she really wanted to dream walk him. If she did find him, it wouldn't really change anything. He still wasn't here with her, and she couldn't be sure he was really alive. Afterall, she could have just found his soul in the afterlife. And if she found nothing, she wasn't sure she could deal with that. It would be like losing him all over again. Isabel sighed as a few tears ran down her face. Maybe it was better to hold on to this tiny bit of hope, than to risk crushing it completely. "I love you Alex," she whispered as she put the picture back on her nightstand and settled under the covers. The voice was so quiet she never heard it whisper back, "I love you too, Isabel."
Saturday didn't come fast enough for Liz. The motel she and her parents were staying at was cramped and had a slight cockroach problem. Liz wasn't sure there was a truly clean place to step. Though she supposed it could be worse. At least it wasn't Porno Aladdin's room.
Still, she was glad it was the weekend, and they could finally do this. Everything was ready. Through dream walking Lening, Liz found out that he had a meeting with Vinnie on Saturday at 1:00. The plan could have worked without this, but it was convenient nonetheless. They had borrowed all the recording equipment, and made sure it was all working properly. When Vinnie showed up at the café, Max was going to knock him unconscious using his powers. He'd wake up a few hours later, with no recollection of what happened to him. From there they just had to hope that they could the information fast enough, and that Kyle and Isabel's powers would hold out.
Liz slipped into the alley behind the café that held the back entrance. Everyone was already there, hiding.
"You ready?" Max asked her. She nodded nervously. "If it looks like he's on to something, get out of there as fast as you can." Everyone nodded their understanding, and then the group fell silent. The loud footsteps signalled Vinnie's arrival. Nobody breathed. Max swiftly moved forward behind Vinnie. Without touching him, Max used his powers to put the man to sleep. When he was sure Vinnie was really out, Max signalled to the others that it was okay. Max used his powers to unlock the door. He also turned the stairs that lead up to the apartment soft so that no one would hear their entrance. When they were upstairs Max went to keep watch. At the top of the stairs, before they knocked, Isabel and Kyle began the mindwarp on Lening. As Liz had suspected, they had both been reluctant about doing this, given the hell it put them through last year. Kyle had only developed it so he could protect himself from aliens. Isabel had always been able to do it a bit, and she and Kyle began practicing together when they discovered that the stronger you were at the mindwarp, the more you could see through a mindwarp. Their theory was that if they practiced enough, eventually a mindwarp would have no effect on them. It might be too late to save Alex, but hopefully they could save others in the future.
When they were certain that they had gotten into Lening's mind, Michael knocked on the door. Lening opened it. "Hey Vinnie, come in." Liz allowed herself a very quiet sigh of relief, and she and Maria followed Michael through the door, and began recording. Of course, Lening didn't see them. All Lening saw was Michael, and he thought he was looking at Vinnie. Because Isabel was the stronger of the two, she was responsible for mindwarping Lening to believe that Michael was Vinnie, and keeping Liz hidden. Kyle had to make sure Lening didn't see Maria. Liz held two small tape recorders, and Maria had the video camera. She was careful to keep the camera off Michael, who had used his powers to change his voice so he couldn't be incriminated.
Michael sat down in the chair at Lening's desk which was set up in what used to be the Parker's living room. Lening moved around behind the desk. "Wait a minute, Vinnie, you gotta see this. I ordered new outfits for our girls here. Check it out." What he held up really couldn't be considered an outfit – more like a piece of string. The skirt was just a band of teal, and Liz had seen bras more conservative than the top. Her mouth dropped open in disgust. "Too bad I had to fire that blonde, she would've looked good enough to eat in this."
Maria thought she was going to lose it right there, and judging by the way Michael's shoulders had tensed up she knew it was taking all his willpower not to pound the crap out of the guy. Instead, he said, "Lening, this isn't what I'm here about."
Lening cleared his throat. "Right."
"I trust everything went smoothly with the delivery?" Another piece of information that Liz had managed to get from dreamwalking, there was a delivery of some sort to the café early this morning that concerned this little operation.
"Yeah, it's all here. Cocaine, hash, marijuana, and the E. We'll be in business in a few days," Lening said nervously.
"When?" Michael demanded, looking intimidating.
"I've got a bunch of dealers lined up. We'll start distributing tomorrow. We should be raking in the profit by the end of the week." Lening tried to sound sure of himself. The guy really was a snivelling little weasel.
"No set backs. Sam wants his money soon," Michael told him.
"Sure, sure. As soon as we set up the kids, they'll be begging us for more. We got some of the best drugs around and a fresh market. We can make a killing here, better than San Diego."
"Alright," Michael stood up and turned to leave, motioning for the girls to get out. Then he turned back around quickly to grab Lening by the collar. "Anything goes wrong, and it's your head on a platter. Got it?" For emphasis he shoved Lening against the wall. Then he dropped the man, and exited slamming the door.
Michael met the others outside. Liz handed him one of her recorders, the tape already rewound. She gave the other one to Isabel. Isabel and Maria got in Maria's car and took off. Michael waited 5 minutes, then looked around at the remaining three. "You ready?" he asked, and the others nodded. Liz had insisted on being here for this part. Michael, Max, Kyle and Liz broke into the café for the second time, and stormed upstairs. They burst into the apartment. Lening was still sitting at his desk. Before he could move they surrounded him. Kyle held him down in his chair with two strong hands on his shoulders. Before Lening could speak, they played back the tape they had made just minutes earlier. Lening's mouth dropped open in shock.
"Where'd you get that?" he demanded trying to jump out of his chair, but Kyle's grip held him where he was.
"You should really learn to look for bugs," Liz told him.
"We've got more where that came from. You give us what we want, or we give these tapes to the police," Michael told him.
"Punk kids, think you can just…" Lening screamed as Kyle tightened his grip painfully. "Alright, alright, what do you want?"
"We want you gone. We want you to give the café back to Mr. Parker. We want you to leave town, and never show your sorry face in Roswell again," Max spoke this time.
"Fine, I'll do it, just don't turn me in," Lening begged.
"Now!" Michael shouted. Lening called downstairs, and asked Mr. Parker to come upstairs. When Mr. Parker arrived, he was visibly confused by the sight before him.
"What's going on," he asked.
"Well, Jeff, I've been reevaluating this place's potential, and I really don't think there's much I can do for it, as I'm being called away on a family emergency. I don't know how long I'll be gone, so I would be willing to sell the property back to you for less than I bought it for," Lening stuttered.
"How much?" Mr. Parker asked.
"Say, $75…" Michael coughed, "…$50…" Kyle twisted hard on his shoulder, "…$10…" Max stepped forward, "…$5…" Liz waved the tape, "…one thou…" all four glared menacingly at him, "…hundred dollars?" Lening grimaced. He was a dead man.
Mr. Parker looked stunned beyond belief. "You're not serious?" Lening nodded. "Must be a real emergency. Well of course. Thank you Mr. Lening." They shook hands, and Lening returned the deed to Mr. Parker. Mr. Parker ran off to tell his wife.
"Leave. Now," Michael told Lening, who bolted out of the room. Of course, by that time the sheriff's department had already received the tapes courtesy of two anonymous witnesses, and were just arriving as Lening ran outside. He was immediately arrested.
That night, the six teens were gathered in the café to celebrate their success. Liz and her family had already started moving their stuff back. Though her parents were back in possession of the café, both Maria and Liz had decided to stick with their new jobs at the museum, while agreeing to help out whenever it was busy at the restaurant. Michael had taken back his old job, with a 50% raise, but was also going to keep working for Max as he could use the extra money. Everyone was in such a good mood, they didn't notice the two figures watching them from across the street.
"Isabel?" one said. The other nodded, then they disappeared into the night.
End Note: Sorry, if this was not so good. I don't know anything about drug trafficking, business deals, or black mail. I did the best I could, and I promise the next episodes will be better. And if the plan seemed too elaborate, well it was actually the simplest thing I could think of.