Enemy on the Inside
by
Disclaimer: Not mine. Jason Katims. The WB. UPN. All not me, so I guess they're not mine.
Author's Note: This is cliche. I admit it. Hurt/comfort stories are really done much too often. But a good H/C story is the only thing that can make me cry, and I like to write them, as well. Please give it a chance.
Setting: AU-post 'Departure'. Alex is alive, Tess is gone, there is no kid. Michael and Maria as they were, Max and Liz together again, Alex and Isabel, too. Isabel and Kyle's (platonic!) relationship occurred as it did on the show.
Summary: Max's life is threatened by an illness that no one thought would claim the health of the King. What can a helpless group of teenagers do against an enemy that strikes from the inside?
Rating: By chapter
CHAPTER TWO--G
Three long days later, the group of teenagers gathered once more, this time at the Crashdown. Maria and Liz were working, but had persuaded Liz's father that on a slow day, they shouldn't be forbidden to take their lunches and eat with their friends.
Max looked around the table, and everyone's eyes drooped. Alex shook his head. "Sorry, Max. I've got a lot of information, but nothing that will really be much help."
Max turned his head to the next person. Liz looked him in the eye, and pulled away from his side a little.
"Nothing. Hospitals, blood work, surgery, blah blah blah blah blah. Nothing useful."
Max's gaze fell on Maria, who sat up and met it. "Anything?"
"I have an appointment for you with a natural-remedies doctor," She told him, handing him a slip of paper. "No blood work necessary, no surgery. But I told him you've already been diagnosed, because they won't work on anyone before they've been to a conventional doctor and heard their options there."
Max nodded, and caught sight of the papers Alex was holding out to him. The King took them, looking quizzically at the younger student. "Your diagnosis," Alex explained. "To the best of the information I have, this is what you've got."
Max skimmed the papers and put them down. He forced a smile, and everyone tried to get back to him. "Isabel?"
"Nothing." His blond-haired sister shook her head, looking at the table. Alex took her hand, squeezing it gently under the table, and she smiled just the tiniest bit.
"Okay. Michael?"
Michael reached over to Maria, pulling her against him. "I'd like some of that tumor, Max."
When the King stared blankly at his second-in-command, Michael explained further. "I'd like a piece of it, to work on with my powers, see what works and what doesn't. You healed those kids with cancer, I want to know why we can't do you."
Max nodded. "Good idea. I'm not sure how we'll do it, but we'll try. For now, can you use some blood?"
Michael nodded back, curtly. "That might help."
"Okay. I'll come by your place later, and leave you some to work with." Max took a breath, and was about to speak, when the pain took him over, and he clutched his stomach, pressing the back of one wrist to his mouth to stifle his groans of pain. Liz immediately went to his side, more than she already was, that was, and Michael slid out of his side of the booth, freeing Maria and Isabel.
"Maxwell." He shook his friend's shoulder, Isabel leaned over him. Max didn't respond.
By now, a crowd had gathered, and motherly-looking woman was asking if she could help. A man asked if they needed someone to call an ambulance, and Mr. Parker had rushed from the kitchen to see what was going on.
Michael let Isabel in to see Max, but kept calling for him. Liz clutched his side, and all Kyle could do was sit there, trapped between the back of the booth and Liz. Maria took charge of the people who were gawking, because she could see no one else was going to.
"No, no, thank you, though. He has... he has epilepsy, and he'll be fine in a minute." The woman at the front didn't look like she believed Maria, but they all bought her explanation for the moment, especially as Max began to come out of it, opening his previously screwed-shut eyes and looking around, dazedly.
Maria pushed her way to the front, to make sure that no one would mess up and call Max's illness other than what she already had. "Max! Max, are you okay now that you epileptic seizure is over?"
Michael leaned over her head, looking like he was reaching for a napkin, and ended up with his mouth in Maria's ear. "Very subtle," He muttered. Maria glared at him, but couldn't respond further in the circumstances.
Moments later, Max felt well enough to walk, and the whole group escorted him out of the room, leaning on Michael and Isabel's shoulders. "You okay?" Michael asked in a lowered tone as they headed from the building.
Max didn't look at his best friend, so concerned was he with putting one foot in front of the other, and his face was still twisted with the remnants of the obviously crippling pain. "I will be."
Isabel stayed silent as they made their way to the Jeep, and piled inside, Isabel driving, Michael, Kyle and Alex piling into the backseat. "Meet us at Michael's house when you can," Isabel called out to Maria and Liz, who had to stay behind to work their shifts. They nodded tersely, and watched as the Jeep pulled from the curb.
The next hours went by agonizingly slowly for all. Liz and Maria, cooped up at the Crashdown, were first kept busy with the lunch rush, and then had the afternoon quiet to handle before they were relieved by the dinner shift staff. There was nothing to do with no one to serve, so much of that time was spent brooding over Max's condition. Liz's father came out into the diner once, and Liz told him that Max hadn't had a seizure in a long time, which was why she was so worried. He seemed sympathetic, but didn't offer to let her off work early, like Maria had hoped he would.
At Michael's house, the silence felt stifling to Isabel and Michael, and Max wrestled with a dull pain, but breathed freely even through it, and thanked Fate for that small assent. The King rested on Michael's couch, glad just to be out of the crippling pain for the moment, while Isabel paced and Michael sat, completely still, in a chair on the other side of the room. Kyle stood, rather awkwardly, and Alex attempted to calm a distraught Isabel.
Eventually, Alex managed to get Isabel up and on a walk with him. She argued tremendously that something might change while they were gone, and she wouldn't be around to help, but Alex promised her that they would just go around the block, and they could check in every ten minutes. She'd finally consented, realizing that pacing in Michael's apartment wasn't helping Max, either.
Kyle had been persuaded to go home, consenting that there was nothing he could do at this point, and Isabel had promised to call him if there was something he or his father could do to help. To tell the truth, Kyle felt a little useless at this point, but he was slowly getting used to that fact. Now that Tess had left, there weren't any real ties to the group for him. Isabel was a good friend, maybe even his best friends, but in times of trial, she went to Alex first, and then him.
At six-fifteen, Maria and Liz hurried through the door, shedding bits and pieces of their possessions as they went through the entrance. Michael didn't even take the time to send Maria the normal glare for dropping her things on his ground. Maria knew he was worried then, because for a guy, especially one living along, Michael was pretty fastidious about keeping his place neat.
"How is he?" Liz asked Isabel softly, brushing a bang off of Max's slightly sweaty brow. The alien teen had fallen asleep about an hour previously, and Michael and Isabel had agreed that he needed his sleep more than he needed to think about ways to go from here, what he had been doing.
Isabel shrugged, watching her brother's every breath as she replied. "The same, I think."
Liz nodded, and sat down gently on the couch next to Max. She slid slowly in so that she was right up against his side, and lifted his arm over her shoulder. He stirred momentarily, and she stilled, looking up at his face, but he didn't wake, only curled both of his arms around her. Liz put her head gently on his chest, and Max mumbled something before nodding off again.
Isabel, Michael, Maria and Alex watched this for a few long moments, and then Michael led the group into his bedroom, so that they could talk without disturbing Max. The door clicking shut behind them gave Maria a funny feeling, but she ignored it, not quite sure what the feeling even was.
"So, he's not better?" Maria asked, concerned for her friend's health, as well as her best friend's state of mind.
Michael and Isabel shook their heads. "The pain that was so bad in the diner has subsided," Isabel told her, "But he's still uncomfortable at the least."
Maria backed into Michael's embrace, shivering a little. She was upset for Max, but also for Liz. She knew how she would be feeling if it were Michael on the line, and she was selfishly glad that it wasn't. She wasn't sure if she would have handled it as well as Liz had, and even more so, she didn't ever want to find out.
Michael wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, and when she looked up into his eyes, she knew he was thinking exactly the same thing she was. It was unexpected to Maria that she could now see what he was thinking in his eyes much better than before, but she was glad of the side effect of the connection.
"So, what do we do now?" Kyle asked, broaching the subject that no one wanted to discuss.
Michael and Isabel exchanged uncomfortable glances. "I don't really know," Isabel told them. "We'll have to discuss it with Max."
Maria looked from one alien to the other and back again, pulling herself from Michael's arms to do so. "You know something, don't you?" She asked.
Michael and Isabel looked at each other again.
"You know something, and I want to know what it is!" Maria was getting truly impatient now.
Michael looked from Isabel to Maria, and back again. Isabel shook her head just slightly, just enough so that Maria was sure Michael caught it, he ignored her. "We have plans for certain circumstances," He told Maria hesitantly, looking at Isabel, who glared down at her fellow alien.
"And?" Maria prompted.
"I think we have one for circumstances that fit this description."
Maria rolled her eyes. "I sort of figured that out, Spaceboy. But what would this plan be?"
Michael looked at Isabel, who had crossed her arms over her chest and was glaring at him with a look that could melt steel, literally, but he continued. "It involves us going into hiding."
Maria looked up at her boyfriend in shock. "What?!"
Michael put a hand on her shoulder, but she shook it off. "What do you mean, it involves going into hiding, Mister? You have friends, and people who will help you, now. You don't need crazy plans like running away, anymore."Isabel uncrossed her arms. "It's not just about you and your friends, Maria. Our enemies can't know that we're at a disadvantage. With Tess gone, we're already weaker than we should be, if they should learn that Max, our King, is incapacitated, it could spell the end for us."
Maria had just gaped at her as she stated the facts so baldly and with such openness, but now she continued to argue. "And you'll be even weaker if you only have the three of you, and Max is down. You need us, in case you've forgotten. We're the only help you've got."
"And you're also our greatest weakness," Isabel told her frankly. "If you can be used as leverage, we could be forced into much more dangerous situations."
Kyle and Alex, who'd so far been silent observers, kicked in their own opinions as Isabel and Maria's argument started drifting from the actual facts, into whose facts were more accurate.
"Look," Alex said calmly, in his usual manner. "I know that we're a liability, Isabel, but we're also your only help, and you're going to need us to help save Max."
The room went quiet. To this point, no one had actually discussed the fact that their King might die. Everyone had known it, of course, but no one had said anything. To discuss it would have been to acknowledge it, and no one had wanted that.
The door cracked open, and Liz peered in. "Guys?" She said. "He's up. You can come back out."
The stunned aliens and their slightly less staggered human companions filed into the living area to find Max sitting up and smiling, though pale and slightly weaker-looking than usual. "Hey," He greeted them. "Thanks for getting me out of there," He said to Maria, though he meant everyone.
Maria nodded. "Sure."
The dark-haired alien noticed their somber mood for the first time, and his smile fell from his face. "What's going on?" He asked.
"Michael told us about your plans," Kyle spoke up, from the back of the group. "It's crazy, Max."
Max looked from Michael to his sister, and then to Liz, who looked bewildered and confused. "What's going on, Max?" She asked.
Max looked away from her a little, clearly not thrilled about saying what he clearly had to. "Michael, Isabel and I made certain plans for certain circumstances a while ago. If we adhere to them, we should be leaving to go into hiding soon."
Liz looked up, stunned, and met Maria's eyes. Maria flashed her a sympathetic smile, and then bit into Max as she had into his fellow aliens. "Max, as I was telling these lame-brains," She gestured to Michael and Isabel, "It was a good plan at the time, but now you have us. You need our help, and the benefit we can give definitely outweighs the risk."
Isabel looked pointedly only at her brother. "Max, they're a liability. We're already weaker than we should be, with you down, we're triply overwhelmed. We don't need any enemy of ours deciding that they look like good bait."
Max looked from Isabel to Maria, and then up to Michael. "What do you think?" He asked his second-in-command neutrally.
Michael shrugged. "I don't know, Maxwell. I want to keep them safe as much as Isabel, but leaving them alone doesn't guarantee that they'll be safe. In fact, it may just put them more at risk."
Max looked around the room, finding everyone's face and studying it for a long moment before he continued. "Well, we're going to have to leave Roswell," He told them. "All of our enemies know we're here, and with me unable to fight, we can't allow that. I guess the question now is whether to risk the attention of the town, and take Liz, Maria, Alex and Kyle with us, or to try and do this quietly, and risk leaving them alone and unprotected in town."
~~~~~~~~~~~
A long silence followed Max's proclamation. Then Maria spoke.
"Where will we go, Max?"
Max lifted his shoulders in the slightest shrug, ignoring for now that Maria had made the assumption the humans were going. "I'm not really sure. Either somewhere really isolated that no one will look for us, or in a big city where we could easily be missed. We might have to go pretty far from here."
"How are we going to make the trip?" Isabel asked. "We don't have unlimited funds. And what are we going to do for money once we're there?"
"We'll forge some cash," Max told her grimly. "I don't like it, but it's our only choice. And once we're there, we'll have to work."
"What about us?" Alex asked. "You guys are all eighteen, but we're not." He gestured broadly, pointing out that the humans in the group still had to have work permits to hold down jobs.
"If we decide to bring you along," Max told them, this time pointedly noting that the decision had not been made, "Then bring your birth certificate, you driver's license, stuff like that, and we'll change the names, dates, whatever we need to."
Alex nodded. "When do you leave?" He asked.
Max shrugged. "The appointment with the natural remedies doctor is tomorrow. We'll have to stick around through that, long enough to make any necessary arrangements with the Sheriff, after that, I'm not sure. We'll be gone before the weekend."
It was Wednesday.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday morning, Max, Isabel, Michael, Maria, Liz, Alex and Kyle stood in the Evans' driveway, watching Max and Isabel exchange one last good-bye with their parents. They had told everyone that they were going on a trip, to keep their parents off their tail for at least the first while. They were supposed to return in two weeks, and if all went smoothly, Liz hoped that they might.
However, things were not looking smooth.
The appointment with the natural doctor had given them some insight into how to handle the cancer, by learning how cancer worked in the body. Max had gotten some pills to take, herbs and other things, and the names of some of the top natural medicine doctors in the world. However, it wasn't exactly a gold mine of information.
It had been hard on him, too, keeping up the facade that he was fine for his parents. The attacks came more and more often, every six hours or so, now, and it was harder and harder to hide. Liz was glad they were leaving now, because they wouldn't have been successful much longer, she knew.
Max was in more and more constant pain. He'd waited a long time to tell the others about the disease, and he knew that if he were human, he wouldn't have long to live. As it was, the research was going slowly, and Michael and Isabel were getting more frustrated with their powers by the second.
Liz, more than anything, felt annoyingly helpless. She could do nothing to soothe the constant ache, nothing to stop the awful attacks or lessen their effect. She couldn't help Michael and Isabel, because the power she possessed tended more towards abstract, and she couldn't really control it.
Hugging her father once more, Isabel piled into the Jeep, and pulled it out of the driveway. Maria pulled the Jetta off the curb, and followed the group down the street at a sedate pace. Michael, on her left, and Kyle and Alex, in the backseat were clearly tense, but sat stiffly and quietly as Maria drove them out of the area.
As soon as they were out of the immediate area, Isabel pulled the Jeep around and headed swiftly towards the airport. Maria followed her, and the two cars made good time for the time of day they'd been forced to travel. Their parents hadn't wanted them to leave until later in the afternoon than they would have preferred, but the end result was the same.
They were leaving.
When they reached the airport, Maria pulled the Jetta into the spot next to the Jeep in the long-term parking lot. Isabel hopped out of the car from the driver's seat, but Max didn't make a move, and Liz stayed with him. The rest of the teens went into wallets, luggage, anything they had to verify their age, and handed the documents to Isabel. One by one, she shifted the age on their things one year earlier, and twisted their names up.
Maria got a new last name. Instead of DeLuca, she was now Maria Lucas, born one year earlier, which made her eighteen. Michael left his things as they were, being a legal adult as it was, and having no one who would look for him. Alex became Mason Whittaker, and Liz's documentation was changed to Bethany Parks. Isabel called herself Bella Emerson, and Max got to be Christopher. Kyle got to keep his name, too, because the Sheriff was on their side.
The airline reservations were in Michael's name, because he was the only one who didn't have parents to be suspicious if they called. The group made their way slowly into the terminal, Max refusing their help. To the abstract observer, Max's gait was steady enough, but the aliens and their friends noticed that their leader's walk lacked the confident, cocky, strong step that marked his normal pace. Liz stood at his side, the only one of the seven whom he allowed to touch him.
Checking their luggage, they signed in under the names that Isabel and Michael had given them. Everyone signed the appropriate paperwork, and they sat down to wait for the plane. When it finally arrived, they got on, sat in seats as close to each other as possible, with Liz on one side of Max, and Isabel on the other. Alex sat on her side, and across the aisle, Maria leaned on Michael, and Kyle stared out the window.
The plane lifted into the air, and group of alien teens was on the way to their destination: San Francisco, California.
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