By Tracy (biancaheart@yahoo.com)
Rating: PG
Category: FF, K/I
Spoilers: Season 3
Summary: Another chapter in the unfolding "The Greatest Gift" series.
Disclaimer: I don't own Roswell. Why would I write fan fiction if I did?
Why had she ever put the mistletoe up? It…it threatened everything. Everything would change. Her world was twisted, turning, she couldn't find a soft place for her feet to sit. Everything was reeling. Everything had started to make sense, fit together like a perfect jigsaw puzzle. This would change the puzzle; change it forever.
How had she gotten here?
It had started simply. For the first time since Jesse's death, she'd wanted to throw a party. A party for her friends and Kyle's friends. A grownup party with real intellectual conversation that had absolutely nothing to do with Sesame Street. She'd spent hours looking over her Martha Stewart and Better Homes and Gardens books and magazines, and hours shopping in Wal-Mart. Alien powers made the actual process quicker, as did Kyle's offer to baby sit Evan while she was decorating.
The party was set for Christmas Eve.
But on the 23rd, that went horribly wrong.
Evan wouldn't eat, and he was very fussy. He threw blocks at Kyle instead of playing, and clung to Isabel and wouldn't let go.
"Kyle!" She yelled. "Would you come get him?"
"Sure thing." Kyle came in and picked up the three year old, disentangling him from her legs. Evan was hot to the touch. "Iz- does he feel hot to you?"
"Hot?" Isabel touched her son's forehead. "Yeah. He does."
"We better take his temperature."
Evan whimpered. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no."
Isabel tried not to panic. "We don't get sick, not Max, Michael, and I. Except for when Michael got sick, but that was alien related and he was much, much, older."
"Isabel." Kyle said putting a hand on her shoulder. "Evan isn't just like you. He has more human in him than you do. Jesse was a full human, you're a hybrid- it makes sense. It's probably just a little something. We'll give him some baby Tylenol and a bath and make a call to Max. And if that doesn't work, we'll risk taking him to the emergency room."
"Evan no feel good." He whimpered from his place on Kyle's shoulder.
"Shhh." Kyle soothed, wiping back his hair from his forehead. "It will be okay, Evan. I promise."
"Isabel, draw up a lukewarm bath. I'll give him medicine and get him ready."
Kyle took off Evan's jumper and underpants. A bright red rash was all over his stomach and legs.
"Iz, come here." Kyle called. "I think he's got the Chicken pox."
"My son is turning into a chicken?"
Kyle chuckled. "No, no. It's a common human childhood disease. I had it when I was little. We'll have to give him plenty of fluids, and watch the temperature, but besides being itchy he should be okay."
"Really?" Isabel said, playing with her son's hair.
"Really. We'll get through this together, okay?"
"Okay."
***
So instead of going out to buy sophisticated alcoholic beverages and finger foods, Kyle went out to buy baby beverages, oatmeal bath, calamine lotion, and gloves.
The fever had broken by Christmas, but Evan was still weak. He spent most of the day watching Disney movies on the TV.
He fell to sleep early that night, and the adults found themselves with a bit more quiet time than they had expected.
"Of all the times for him to get sick." Isabel sighed. "I spent all that time decorating and all that money on a new dress for nothing."
"Not necessarily."
"Kyle, the holidays will be over by the time Evan's better."
"We can have our own little party, now, if you want." He said softly. "I mean, the decorations are still up, and you can put on the dress, and it might be fun."
Isabel beamed. "I'll be right back."
***
She felt like a princess. The black dress was sparkly, and hugged her body in all the right places. Isabel didn't feel like a mother in this dress- she felt like a woman.
Kyle had dimmed the lights and turned on some soft music.
"Can I have this dance?"
"Yes." She said simply, as Natalie Cole's Unforgettable came on.
Kyle was her best friend. Early in High School, before what Kyle deemed "The Alien Invasion" they had ran in the same circles. Kyle as the jock King and Isabel as the social queen- but they never talked. They truly hadn't talked, and definitely didn't click until after Alex died.
Alex. It seemed like a lifetime ago that Alex was here. A small part of her would always be in love with him- your heart never forgets your first love. Alex was young, eternally seventeen.
She wasn't seventeen anymore.
Isabel went on after Alex died, and survived the best she could. She met Jesse. She fell in love again, felt herself come back to life again. She got married. Then she lost Jesse- and gained Evan.
She didn't realize how much of her had died when Jesse did. Isabel focused on the baby she was carrying, then on raising Evan. She'd forgotten what it was like…to feel. For so long she had numbed herself, kept herself so she wouldn't feel.
But the gentle touch of Kyle's hand on her back, twirling her around the living room threatened all of that.
She looked into Kyle's face and did not see her best friend, who helped her raise her son. She saw Kyle as she'd never seen him before. A gorgeous man with a heart of gold. She was going crazy. This wasn't like Isabel- she thought each and every decision over carefully, weighing the odds, trying to make the best choice. She didn't just leap- make decisions without carefully weighing the pros and cons…except for once- except for Jesse.
A girl who could keep herself guarded until her heart came into play. A woman who could not deny love, no matter how much she wanted to.
It was a most dangerous game.
Kyle- how could she be living in the same house with a man that handsome and not even notice it? Not to mention the way he'd taken care of both her and Evan- it only made him more appealing. There was no doubt about it, she was falling for the man next door…uh the man in the next room.
He dipped her, and Isabel felt a bubble of laughter build up in her stomach. She gazed up at the ceiling.
Mistletoe.
She'd bought Mistletoe for the party.
She hadn't taken it down.
And now she was under the mistletoe with Kyle.
It could ruin everything. What if…what if the kiss went badly? What if they got into a relationship and they couldn't make a go of it? What would Evan do with out Kyle around? But what if she didn't- what if he left to marry some other girl and raise children with her? Her heart would break, and it had just come alive again.
"Uh, Kyle?" She said in a cautious voice. She was going for it.
"Yeah, Is?" His voice was a tad on the husky side.
"Well, um, yeah…we're under the mistletoe?"
Kyle gazed up and looked at the ceiling. A spark seemed to ignite in his eyes.
Slowly, agonizingly slow, he bent down and covered her lips with his.
She was flying, flying among the stars. It was a new and heady feeling. It was a feeling that she rather liked.
As soon as the kiss was over, she leaned up and kissed him again.
Christmas Eve passed into Christmas Day as Kyle and Isabel embraced
under the mistletoe.