Disclaimer: I don't own them. If I did, Roswell would be a totally different world. This wouldn't be necessary. And I would be SUCH a happy camper. Also, I don't own You Can Sleep While I Drive by Melissa Ethridge. So please don't sue me.
Alex POV – You Can Sleep While I
Drive
We've
been driving for seven days non-stop.
Seven long days and even longer nights of not knowing if each breath could be our last.
Seven
excruciating days and nerve-wracking nights of searching the rear-view mirror
for cars that could possibly be trailing us.
I'm
scared. I freely admit it, but I've got
to be strong. Isabel needs me to be
strong right now. That doesn't stop me
from being scared, though. I'm
terrified I will never see Liz and Maria again. I'm terrified that I'll never be able to go home again. But most of all, I'm terrified that the
Special Unit will catch us.
But one
thing I'm not scared about is Isabel. I
will never regret coming with her, no matter what happens. I will never let her go. We belong together, and I would go crazy
with worry if she had left me behind in Roswell.
If I can
see she's okay, I can at least pretend to be sane. I can go crazy with worry with her.
I would
know, though, if anything happened to her and I wasn't around. I would feel it. Our bond, our connection, is so strong that sometimes, I'm not
sure where I end and she begins.
//Come on baby let's get out of this town
I got a full tank of gas with the top rolled down
There's a chill in my bones
I don't want to be left alone
So baby you can sleep while I drive
I'll pack my bag and load up my guitar
In my pocket I'll carry my harp
I got some money I saved
Enough to get underway
And baby you can sleep while I drive//
Isabel's asleep next to me. She's trying to dreamwalk someone in the other jeep, just to make sure they're okay. If we don't run into any problems, we should be at the meeting place by lunch, but she's worried sick. We all are.
Tess is curled up in a corner of the back seat. We ran into a sticky situation a few hours ago, when we stopped to pick up more snacks, and she had to mindwarp a bunch of people to hide us. Kyle had spotted someone who might have been following us. It might have been paranoid delusions, but we weren't about to take any chances. Not with something so important. And thanks to her, we were able to make a quick getaway. So now she's resting, trying to recover her strength, in case we need her again.
"Are you okay driving, man?" Kyle asks.
"Yeah, I think so," I answer. "Try and get some sleep for a while – I'll need you to take over in a couple of hours."
And then there's silence, with only the sound of the wind whipping against the cover of the jeep and the low drone of the engine to keep me company. I lose myself in my thoughts in an attempt to escape the monotony of the road.
As always, I think about my princess. I remember the way her eyes lit up last Christmas when she saw her present. I remember the way she held me the nigh my mother left. I remember how nervous she was when she told me she loved me last spring at the prom.
I hope we can go to the prom again this year.
Hell, I just hope we can go home again.
We called Valenti from a payphone two days ago. We knew we were risking a lot, but we just had to know what was going on at home. He said our parents are all still blissfully ignorant that we aren't sleeping under the stars, and that even if we don't make it back in time for classes, he's got a cover story worked out for us. Sometimes it's good to have an adult on our side.
He also said that his friend from the FBI, Agent Duff, is working on getting the Special unit shut down again – for good this time – but that it will take time. And that the only thing we can do until then is lay low and keep the Czechoslovakians out of their clutches.
Like I'd let them get anywhere near my Isabel. I'd die first.
He also said he hadn't heard from Max yet.
//We'll go thorough Tucson up to Santa Fe
And Barbara in Nashville says we're welcome to stay
I'll buy you glasses in Texas a hat from New Orleans
And in the morning you can tell me your dreams//
We're meeting the others in New Orleans. We've been taking a very circuitous route to get there – from Roswell to Santa Fe to Tucson, then down into Mexico and over to San Antonio before heading north to Oklahoma City and Nashville. The other group headed north and then east, but we agreed that our best bet was to take the most complicated path we could dream up. Tess and Kyle spent over three hours marking out a path that zigzagged and backtracked across the country while Isabel dreamed up fake names and changed our identification. I just hope it's enough to keep all of us safe.
Isabel changed our appearances when we reached Santa Fe, too. So now Kyle and I are blonde, Isabel's a brunette and Tess is a redhead.
I like her as a brunette, but I've gotta admit – I can't wait until I can run my fingers through her long blonde hair again.
I pull over for gas in the early pre-dawn hours. After filling up the tank and paying the
tired and grumpy cashier, I head back onto the highway. It's mostly deserted at this time of night,
and I'm hopeful we can make better time. Just a few more hours and we'll be there…
"Hi," she whispers, stretching as best she can in the confines of the jeep. She leans over and kisses my cheek.
"Hi yourself," I whisper back, trying not to wake the others. "Did you have good dreams?"
//You know I've seen it before
This mist that covers your eyes
You've been looking for something
That's not in your life
My intentions are true
Won't you take me with you
And baby you can sleep while I drive//
Her eyes mist over. "I couldn't reach them," she says brokenly. "Alex, what do you think it means?"
I swallow, knowing she's spent the entire night searching for our friends. Not finding any of them isn't a good sign, but I can't let her get discouraged. Not now. "They're probably all awake, Izzy. It's pretty close to Max's deadline, and if their route was even a little bit as backwards as ours, they're probably busy trying to reach the meeting point in time."
She knows what I'm doing, I can see it in her eyes when I
glance over at her, but she nods anyway. She plasters a happy smile on her face that doesn't fool either of us
and agrees with me. "You're probably
right." We do this every few hours –
take turns reassuring each other. Neither one of us believes these little reassurances, but we cling to
them desperately anyway. They're all
we've got.
Her eyes turn serious. "Alex?" she asks in a tiny voice. "Do you think we'll be okay?"
I know what she's really asking me. Do you think our lives can ever go back to normal? I take her hand and bring it to my lips. "Yeah, Izzy. We'll be okay."
//Oh is it other arms you want to
Hold you the stranger
The lover you're free
Can't you get that with me//
She flashes a beautiful smile at me then, and I grin back at her. Some of the sadness has left her eyes, and I know I've managed to do that.
"I love you," she whispers as she leans over, resting her head on my shoulder.
I brush my lips across her forehead. "I love you, too," I whisper. "Go to sleep, baby. You can sleep while I drive, and when we get there, everything will be fine."
She murmurs sleepily as she cuddles closer to me, and I pray that I'm not lying to her.
//Come on baby let's get out of this town
I got a full tank of gas with the top rolled down
If you won't take me with you
I'll go before night is through
And baby you can sleep while I drive//