Okay, I'm
sorry this one took so long to get out. But when you take relationship issues and severe writer's block, then
add to that the fact that I decided to change the entire idea for this fic
halfway through, you wind up taking a lot of time writing. Sorry.
Title: Time
Author: Shannon (aka on Fanfiction.net, superCANDYgirl)
E-mail: slaygirl2000@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I do not own Roswell. But give
me time. Lyrics belong to Linkin Park.
Rating: PG-13 I
think
Category: I/A, M/M, M/L, K/T
Summary: This ep is basically a summary of everyone's thoughts and positions
right now as we head into the final six eps. All characters are given more-or-less equal time (gasp!). Maria has less cuz she was the source of my
writer's block. Max's sucks because I
had no clue what to write and was just dying to get to Kyle. Some very minor plot advancement and hints
for the last 6 eppys, but almost fluff.
Spoilers: Everything up to the end of season 2.
Distribution: If you want it take it, but let me know please.
Feedback: YES!!! Feedback is the food of
life. Or fanfiction at any rate.
Author's
Note: Starts a day or two after "Lost and
Found".
Air
Date: March 5, 2002
Time heals all wounds. What a joke, Isabel Evans thought. Time causes all wounds, she thought bitterly. Then she sighed, because she knew that wasn't true either. Time didn't cause wounds, what you did with it did. Or in her case, what she didn't do with it. All those months she had wasted with Grant, ignoring the fact that what she needed, what she really wanted was right in front of her. She finally came to her senses and saw Alex for the wonder that he was. And then time was taken from her. In one instant, Tess took away every moment she and Alex would ever have had. And now all Isabel had was time. Days like these, when Michael and Maria were lost in each other, oblivious to the rest of the world; and Max and Liz were trying to put back the pieces of their relationship; and Kyle was as reclusive as she was. Days like these when she spent hours sitting by Alex's grave, trapped in memories and mysteries. Alex's death, or supposed death. Between Garok and the whole Lonnie thing, she wasn't sure what to believe about that anymore. And then there were the things Khivar had said to her while possessing Peter DeLuca's body. How did Nicolas fit into the deal? Why was he responsible for it not being completed? What did Tess's willpower have to do with anything? And why did he refer to Maria as Micaela? Isabel growled in frustration, and kicked the ground.
"Have some respect for the dead," a familiar voice said jokingly behind her. Isabel spun around, her eyes wide with surprise. "Alex?" she asked quietly. He stood before her, but he wasn't quite whole. He was sort of ephemeral, like Liz had been when she dreamwalked Max to save his life from the Dupes in New York. But it was better than nothing as she hadn't seen him in months.
He smiled his infamous half-smile. "In the not-quite-flesh." Isabel tried to hug him but found her arms went right through him. She looked up at him questioningly. "That's why they call it 'not-quite-flesh'," he said by means of explanation. She rolled her eyes, but smiled. She had really missed his sense of humour.
"Alex, where have you been? Why haven't I seen you?" she asked.
"It was too risky. I didn't want to expose you. But that doesn't really matter anymore," he sighed.
Isabel could feel her frustration rising again. What is with everyone talking in these cryptic, non-sensical sentences? Information people! "What are you talking about? Alex, what happened to you?" she demanded.
He looked at her hesitantly. "That's a phenomenally long story. And I don't have enough time to get into it. Please, just be patient, you'll find everything out eventually."
Now Isabel was mad. "No! Damnit, I am sick of being patient. I have spent the last year of my life pining after a ghost! Now, I either want an explanation, or a reason why I should keep waiting. And let me tell you, it better be a friggin' good one!" She stood there, eyes flaming and her arms crossed over her chest. Alex walked forward until he was right in front of her. He closed his eyes in concentration. To Isabel's shock, his figure seemed to solidify. He closed the remaining gap between them and pressed his lips to hers in a brief but passionate kiss. He pulled back to look at her.
"Just trust me, please?" he pleaded. She watched him for a minute, then nodded reluctantly. He smiled gratefully. "Isabel, be careful. They're coming." Then he disappeared as suddenly as he had shown up.
Isabel sighed and dropped back to the ground. Isabel Evans, bought with a kiss, she berated herself mentally. She stared off into space, worrying about Alex, Khivar, and the fact that maybe she was more like Vilandra than she wanted to admit. Then she groaned, realizing that once again, only time would tell.
Across the country, Maria smiled as she trailed her fingers lightly over Michael's chest. It was four in the afternoon here, but Michael was sound asleep. Time had lost all meaning to them since they had arrived at the private beach house for the honeymoon that was their present two days earlier. Of course, time had a tendency to do that whenever she was with him, no matter where they were. Hours together flew by in seconds, while time apart seemed as though it would never end. Time was funny like that – slowing down and speeding up at all the wrong moments. It was why she loved watching him sleep. Time seemed to stop when they were just lying together, peaceful and content, lost in another world. A world where they didn't have to worry about things like destiny, or the government, or the past coming back to haunt them in the forms of fathers and aliens. A world where a few seconds didn't mean the difference between life and death. A place where they had all the time in the world.
Nine months ago time had almost run out for them. She could still hear his voice in her mind, *About an hour.* One hour before Michael would walk out of her life forever. A relationship with a time limit. It was like being on death row. Actually, it was worse than being on death row, because after the time was up she would have to go on with her life with the most important part of it missing. But Michael had decided to stay and came out of the cave at just the right time, saving Max and Isabel's lives, and her heart.
Of course, time had cut it close again during that whole incident with the CIA. She had almost died, they both had. Actually, all three of them had almost died. Maria's hand unconsciously travelled to her stomach, where her's and Michael's baby lay. Her baby had saved their lives. She and Michael both figured it was the pregnancy that caused her timely if unexpected development of powers and gave her advanced use of them. They could be wrong, but it was the best theory anyone could come up with. But it didn't really matter, Maria had bigger things to worry about. Namely the fact that in three short months she was going to be a mother. On top of all the crazy stuff that already happened in her life, she and Michael were going to have a child. It wasn't that she didn't want this baby, or that she wasn't sure that Michael would stay with and be a good father. It was just parenthood. It was big. It was bigger than big. And as happy and excited as she was Maria was still scared. Scared that she wouldn't be ready in time.
Liz's musical tastes had always been erratic. She never really had a favourite group, or fell into a typical music clique. Some songs spoke to her, others didn't. But now, laying in her bubble bath, the radio playing a safe distance away, Liz could still hear the lyrics from five songs ago ringing in her ears. They spoke to her like no others had in a long time. It was fitting then that they would be about time.
*All I know / Is time is a valuable thing*
Liz had more experience with time than anyone. Heck, Liz had changed time. She had literally changed history, or the future, or history-to-be or whatever. She had altered the course of time, and almost everyone had suffered from it.
*Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings / Watch it count
down to the end of the day / The clock ticks life away*
It was true, that was what she had done for the last two and a half years of her life. Watch as the time passed her by. She just let things happen. The couple of times she had actually made the decision, decided which way time would go, it had blown up. She walked away from Max after he discovered his destiny, and that got her nowhere. And then the whole thing with Future Max. She changed time, and then watched as her life fell apart piece by piece. She lost Max, she and Maria drifted, and Alex died. Time really did take life away.
*It's so unreal / You didn't look out below / Watch the time go right out the window / Trying to hold on but you didn't even know / I wasted it all just to watch you go*
All those months last year after the Skins came to Roswell. All that time when she just waited, expecting Max to be there or Tess to change or something to happen to bring her life back to her. All that time she spent pining over Max; all the time she should have spent working on her real relationships with Maria and Alex. All the time she wasted just to watch everyone in her life go. And now Liz couldn't help but worry that she was doing the same thing all over again with Max. They were together but so many things kept them separated. Maybe it really wasn't meant to be and she just couldn't let go.
*I kept everything inside and even though I tried it all
fell apart / What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time…*
A time when she still believed anything was possible if you wanted it. A time when she could pretend that she and Max were destined to be together. A time when time wasn't her enemy.
Michael laced his fingers through his sleeping wife's hair. Wife, he thought with a mixture of amazement and amusement. There's a term he never thought he'd be using. So much had changed in such a short time. Michael sighed, wondering just when his view of the world, of life, had been altered. Of course, he knew the answer. He could pinpoint the exact day. It was when they had found Laurie Dupree, his sister or granddaughter, or whatever relation she was to his human side. Until then, he had always seen the alien side of life. He was half alien, belonging to another planet. But that entire thing had made him realize that he had ties to Earth that were just as strong, if not stronger because of his life here, as the ones he had to that other world. For the first time he started thinking of himself as half human. And Maria had been right there with him through the whole thing reminding him that, while Bobby and Meredith Dupree might not be anything he'd want to call family, that he did have a place on this planet. And somehow, unwittingly, he had begun to turn Maria into his home. She was his world, his strongest bond to earth. She made him want to stay, and for the first time ever he felt like it was okay, that maybe this was where he was supposed to be.
Granted, in typical Michael fashion he hadn't really realized this until it was almost too late. He was standing in the Granolith Chamber, watching the seconds on the clock count down. Since he had left his apartment to the sound of Maria sobbing, he had felt cold and empty inside. Absolutely broken hearted. But the soldier in him forced him to keep going. The delusion of destiny created by someone else almost destroyed him and everyone else. But standing there, watching as Max pressed his hand to the Granolith, Michael was suddenly gripped by a feeling he had never really felt before. Panic. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't see, he couldn't hear anything but the sound of his heart racing in his own ears. And in that instant, he knew. He knew that he couldn't leave. That whatever was out there, wasn't where he belonged anymore. That home was where you made it and he had made it with Maria.
After that, he and Maria had only gotten closer. Now they were married. He knew some people still didn't understand that. Sometimes he didn't even understand it. It was quite a leap from who he used to be. But it didn't surprise him, and he knew it didn't really surprise Maria either. Neither of them had ever been the type to do something halfway. It was all or nothing. What they wanted, they did. That policy had a history of putting people in danger, but thankfully this time all it brought was home.
Just give it time. That had always been Max's motto. Wait and see what happened. The exact opposite of Michael's "Just do it" policy. And Max had never questioned the merit of this. But now, lying in front of the TV, not really watching anything, Max couldn't help but wonder if maybe he had given things too much time. He had waited for months for Liz, and they still were only baby steps ahead of where they had been when Tess left. Max knew that it would take time for Liz to trust him again, for their relationship to be where it had been, but they were just moving so slow, it was like they weren't getting anywhere at all. Liz was scared and had a lot to deal with, but he just wished that they could deal with it together. But she was always so closed off, so hesitant to open up. And it seemed like the more time that passed, the less likely she was to move beyond it.
Then there was his son. Stuck on some strange planet with a murderer for a mother. He had tried to find him during the summer, but had just come up with a bunch of dead ends. So once again, Max had decided to sit back and wait, see what came to him. And so far, nothing. For all he knew his son was dead, killed at the hands of Khivar. Another death he was responsible for.
Max sighed, realizing he was wasting time lying around feeling sorry for himself. He knew he would wait for Liz forever if he had to, because she was Liz. But he felt he should be doing something, he just didn't know what. A lifetime of waiting creates a difficult habit to break. In time, everything would work out. He'd just give it time.
Friday, March 8, 2002. 11:36pm. 10 months, 3 days, 17 hours, 6 minutes and 42 seconds since Tess had left for the mother planet. Kyle realized it was sad that he knew this, that he had taken the time to figure it out. But, like Isabel, he had plenty of time on his hands to think in the last few months. Too much. And most of the time, his thoughts went to her. Even though he didn't want to, there was something about this room that just forced his brain to her. He had redecorated completely. Burned everything she had ever touched (that his father would let him). He had even let Maria do that aura cleansing ceremony thingy for the room. Any trace of Tess's existence had been purged from the house. But there were still times, mostly late at night like this, when he could still feel her. When the faint smell of lavender and Tobasco sauce and something uniquely Tess filled his head, and he could swear she was in the room with him. Those were usually the nights when he wound up sleeping on the couch. It was like that tonight. And so Kyle sat on his floor, thinking about the blonde alien that screwed his life. Thinking about how he didn't see it, how he could have been so stupid as to trust her, how he could have lov-. No, not going there. But most of all, he thought about how none of it made sense. Kyle had spent a lot of time thinking about this, and he had realized that the reason he didn't see it coming was because it didn't fit. Tess couldn't be a murderer. She was the one who "approved" of his Calvin Klein boxers. The only person who understood his Buddhist beliefs. She kept his football posters up cuz she liked the guys buts. She saved everyone from the Skins. Why would she do that if she was just going to turn them in? She made Christmas dinner and read Seventeen magazine and got in Skittle fights with him. She cried when Jim had gotten fired. How could she be the same person who killed Alex? Who made Kyle carry the body? No matter how much time he spent thinking about it, it just didn't seem right to Kyle. He had seen it with his own eyes, true, but when the aliens were concerned, what you saw and what was real tended to be different. Frustrated, Kyle got up and kicked over lamp in the corner.
"Damnit!" he shouted as his big toe connected with the metal. He sat down on the bed, the bed she slept in, and put his head in his hands. "There has to be another explanation," he muttered.
Kyle didn't feel the small hand run through his hair, or the soft kiss placed to his temple. He didn't hear the voice say to him, "In time, I promise." And he didn't see the petite blonde sitting next to him, or her fade to nothing. All Kyle noticed was when he couldn't smell the lavender anymore.
He looked at the clock.
11:49pm.
He still had too much time to think.
She jerked up in her bed, her eyes wild with fear. It had started. What she had long feared was coming to pass. They were leaving, and she had to as well. She flung open the door to her room, and ran down the stairs. Halfway down, he met her. He too had realized what was about to happen. Together, Tess Harding and Alex Whitman voiced their fears, confirming their worst nightmare.
"It's time."
AN: Okay, I know,
it certainly was not worth the two week wait, but I promise I'll make up for
it, so keep reading, we're just getting to the good part.