Sacrifice

A Sequel to Quietly into the Night

Conventional Couples

Rating:  PG-13

Chapter Four

"Good morning Lexie Bear," said Max, scooping his daughter up in a big hug.  "You sure are an early bird."

"Daddy, I wanna go get Mommy, she needs us.  She gots a bad cut on her face, but she said for me not to worry, that Daddy could make it better.  Do you think Mommy needs one of my Blues Clues boo boo strips?  They always make my cuts better real quick.  Hi Grammy Amy and Grampy Jim.  Whatcha doin here?  Did you come to have breakfast with me?" asked Lexie, noticing the other adults for the first time.  "Your pretty," she said turning to Isabelle.  "You look like the picture of the pretty lady in the living room.  Are you her?"

"Yes sweetie, I guess I am," said Isabelle, kneeling down in front of the small niece she hasn't seen in year.

"Oh goody, that means you're my Auntie, like Auntie Maria.  Daddy, where's my Fruity Pebbles?"

Everybody laughed at the child's exuberance and Max picked her up and dropped her into her booster seat.  "Toast and fruit first," he said firmly, "Fruity Pebbles after.  You know what would be fun pumpkin.  Why don't you tell me some more about your dream while you eat your fruit."  Lexie nodded her agreement and munched on a banana while Max tried to draw some details out of the girl. 

"Did Mommy say where she was Lexie?"

"Nope," she said through a mouthful of banana.

"Ok, did she say how we should go get her, are we going to drive the car to get them?"

"No silly," she said laughing.  "Mommy said she's far away, but the directions are in the book."  Her declaration sent a shockwave of excitement through the room.  She had to mean the destiny book.  Max looked at Michael, but he was already leaving the room to open the safe Max had hidden in the family room wall.

"That's great to know Lexie Bear," said Max.  "Was Mommy alone in your dream or was there anybody else with her?"

"Uh-hun," she said finishing off her toast.  "Can I have my Pebbles now?"

"Sure kiddo," said Max fixing her a bowl.  "Who else was with her Mommy?"

"That Unca Kyle guy and Xander.  Mommy says Xander's my brother.  How come he doesn't live with us, and gets to live with Mommy?  Are we divorced like that movie?" she asked in a knowing voice.

"No Sweetie, we're not divorced.  Mommy just had to live someplace else for a while."

"OK Daddy," she said in a matter of fact voice.  "I'm gonna go watch cartoons now."

Lexie left the room, ducking under the large box that Michael was carrying into the kitchen.  "Look he said, setting the box down on the table.  "I have to go bring Maria and the baby home.  I'll come back later to help you go through all of this."

"Thanks, but I don't really want your help.  Your help cost me my wife and my son.  I don't think I could survive any more of your kind of help.

Michael said nothing to Max.  He turned to Amy and asked her if she wanted to accompany him to the hospital to bring home Maria and the baby.

"Thanks Michael," she said to the tension filled room.  "Did you remember to bring the car seat with you."

"Damn it no, we haven't picked one up yet.  We were planning on shopping this weekend for the few things we needed.  I wonder what time the baby store opens?"

"You can use Lexie's old one," said Max.  It's down in the basement."

"Thanks Man, I appreciate it."

"This doesn't change anything Michael.  I just want your baby to be safe." The unspoken implication of unlike mine hung in the air.

Michael retrieved the car seat and he an Amy left for the hospital.  As they drove away, Maria turned on Max in a fury.  "You stupid ass!" she shouted.  "Why are you acting like that?  Michael is your best friend!"

"Because my best friend left my wife and child behind in a rebellion on another planet to fend for themselves, that's why!" Max shouted right back.

"Um, kids," said Jim hesitantly.  "Can I just point out a couple of things here?  First of all, Liz made her decision all on her own Max.  You know that girl better than anybody.  Nobody could convince her to go if she decided to stay.  Secondly, she's not alone.  Remember Kyle?  MY son.  Well, he's there too.  Did you forget that little fact Max?  I lost a son too.  Kyle made the choice to stay and protect Liz and YOUR son.  Nobody made him do that, not Liz, not Michael, just like nobody made Liz decide to stay.  SHE made the choice to stay so that you and Lexie could escape.  She knew what she was doing Max.  Liz isn't a stupid girl, if she stayed, it's because she felt she didn't have a choice.  She made a sacrifice to save Lexie.  Like almost any parent would, she sacrificed herself for the good of her child."

Jim stopped talking abruptly and walked out of the room into the family room where Lexie was watching cartoons.  Isabelle looked at Max, the look on her face was unfathomable.  She grabbed two cups of coffee from the table and followed Jim to the family room.  From the other room he heard the soft voices of his sister and the sheriff punctuated by laughter from Lexie.  Grabbing the remaining cup from the table Max took a sit of the bitter brew and stared out the window.  Turning abruptly, he placed the coffee cup on the counter and picked up the phone.  He dialed a number and waited to be connected.

"Yes, Maria Guerin's room please."

"Maria, its Max, is Michael there yet.  OK, listen, when he gets there; just tell him I was a complete and utter jackass.  Yes, a jackass as usual," he laughed.  Tell him whenever he's ready, to come over and we'll go through the stuff together.  What?  No, I'm not going to tell you what I'm taking about.  That's up to Michael.  Yes, I'm a coward.  Take care of that little baby of yours Maria," he said and hung up the phone.

Two hours later, Elizabeth Isabelle Guerin arrived with her entourage.  Michael helped Maria in to the house, followed by Amy carrying the baby in the carrier.  Behind her, were the Parkers and the Evans', both of whom carried boxes full of food.  "What's going on?" asked Max to nobody in particular.

"Well, rumor has it we're going to have a planning session," said Philip as handed a box full of casserole dishes to Max.  "We may not be of any use, but you certainly aren't going to leave us out of the loop again."

Max passed off the box of food to Jim and turned to Michael.  "I've still got Lexie's crib.  It's up in my office.  I meant to have it put together before Maria had the baby.  If you want, we can set it up now so Maria has a place to put her down.  And Michael, I'm sorry, I was a total,"

"Jackass, yeah, I know," said Michael.  "I don't blame you.  I would have acted the same way.  "But damn it Max, I tried to get her to come with us, but she was so positive that it would hurt the other baby."

The two men went upstairs to assemble the crib and to talk.  "I still can't believe I have a son, another son," said Max.

"Alexander Michael Evans," said Michael.  "It's a good name, a strong name."

"Like the two people we named him after," said Max smiling at his friend.

"Uh Max, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Isn't calling him Xander a little too close to Zan for comfort.  I mean, Liz is cool and all but isn't that rubbing it in a bit much?"

Max roared with laughter.  "I suspect, that is my daughters mispronunciation of his name.  You know she still can't say Alexandra either.  We were going to call him Alex or Sandy or something, but no, never Xander.  I mean come on, what is this, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer?"  They made quick work of assembling the crib as they laughed and talked.  They soon had it made up with clean sheets and a light blanket.

"Well, now that the fun stuff's don," said Michael, should we get to work on the book?"

"I guess," said Max as they made their way downstairs.

Downstairs they found that the planning session had already begun.  In the family room, Maria was lying on the couch while he baby snoozed in her carrier.  Michael scooped Maria up in his arms and carried her upstairs.  "Enough, you need to rest, you just had a baby you know."

"I know," she said. "Look, don't go blasting off to Antar without talking to me first, and for what it's worth Space Boy.  I understand why Liz did what she did and why you kept her secret.  You're a good friend and a better husband. Now go bring me my little baby, she's just about ready to eat I think."  Michael laid her on the futon in Max's office and ran back down to get the baby.  When he came back upstairs, he had Lexie in tow as well.  "This little doodlebug is sleepy too," he said.  "She wanted to know if she could lay down up here with her baby sister."

"Sure thing," said Maria.  "Climb right up beside me and snuggle in sweetie."

Back downstairs Max had opened their "alien box" of artifacts.  On the table in front of him was the destiny book and a copy of Alex's translation of the book, and Max's laptop.  Max was explaining to the parents what everything was.  "Before we left for Antar, I went to see Alex's parents," he said.  "They had finally decided to get rid of some of Alex's things, and I asked to buy his computer from them.  They gave it to me.  With Liz's help, we accessed his email accounts.  It turns out he had more than one.  Luckily, he wasn't too inventive with his password."

"I THE STUD," Isabelle murmured. 

"That's right, he used the same password for every account. We found that Alex had emailed himself all his notes as well as another translation of the book."

"Max, that's incredible.  Why didn't you say anything about it before now?" asked Michael.

"Well, let me see, we traveled how many thousands of light years to another planet, my wife gave birth, and to my knowledge died, leaving me to raise our infant daughter alone.  Gee Michael, I don't know, it kind of slipped my mind."

"Point taken," said Michael did you find anything yet?"

"No, but we're just starting, we have to."

Antar

Liz sat in a small dark room, doing her best to keep Kam silent.  She didn't want to draw any attention to her small son.  The fewer people that noticed him the better.  The door opened, and Kyle slipped in and shut it tightly behind him.

"Any luck?" he asked.

"I didn't want to try without you here to watch Kam," she said.  "You know how upset he gets whenever I try."

"Liz, I still think you should get Kam to try.  There's a chance that they have a special bond.  Lot's of twins do."

"Kyle, those are usually identical twins.  Lexie and Kam are fraternal twins.  There's no way they have that 'twin thing' as you call it."

"Please Liz, just one time, will you ask him to try it.  You know his powers are incredible."

"Alright," she sighed.  "But first, tell me what's going on, have you heard anything?"

"Yeah, and it's not so good.  Kivar, God, I still can't believe he's alive.  Anyhow, Kivar is tightening his control over the people, and they are sick of it.  There's talk in the city of another uprising."

"I know, I thought we were safe from him when Maria whacked him with that pipe.  She was so incredible.  I still can't believe he used the same technology Max's mother used to clone him, to clone himself."

"Well, believe it, he did it.  But if Naloch's sources are right, that was the only one, so if we can just find a way to kill this one, we should be all set."

"Oh sure Kyle, no problem.  Here we are, virtual political prisoners, our every move watched, and you say let's kill Kivar."

Kyle moved across the room and sat down on the floor next to Liz and Kam.  "Liz, will you relax, this room is safe, you know I check it every day for listening devices.  The only bugs are out in the living quarters in our suite and in the bedrooms.  They didn't think we'd stoop to sitting in a closet to talk."

"I'm sorry Kyle, I just get so sick of being here.  I want Kam to have a normal life.  I want him to be able to go outside and play and to feel the sunshine on his face.  He deserves to experience life outside the palace walls."

"Jesus Liz, don't you think I want the same.  But we're lucky they let me out at all.  Lucky for us, they don't think I'm a real threat to them.  We've done a good job of convincing them I have no real loyalty to Max.  But we owe that to you.  That acting job you did right after Kam was born was incredible.  You even had me convinced I'd betrayed you and tricked you into staying after the others left."

"Don't remind me Kyle, I still feel bad when I think about all the horrid things I said about you.  At least it works to our benefit.  Kivar is just warped enough to enjoy the though of punishing me by forcing me to live with the man who betrayed me."

"Mommy, I don't want to build with my blocks anymore," said Kam.  "What can we do now?"

"Hey Kam-meister, how are you doing today?" said Kyle.  "I think I have a game we can play."
"Is it the one where we have to pretend that you're a bad guy?  I don't like that game.  You're the best guy I know."

"Thanks squirt," Kyle said ruffling Kam's hair.  "I think your pretty cool too.  No, this time we're going to play a thinking game."
"I don't think that's gonna be very fun," Kam said resentfully."

"I'll tell you what, you play my game, and I'll see if I can take you up on the roof tonight to look at the stars."

"Will you tell me about Earth again?" Kam asked eagerly.  "I wanna go there some day."

"Yeah, me too kiddo, me too.  Listen, you know how you can sometimes talk to me inside my head.  Well, this time, I want you to try and go inside your mom's head, and she's going to try and get inside someone else's head far, far away from here and tell them a secret.  Do you think you can do that?"

"Oh, ok," said the boy with a sigh.

Liz looked at Kyle doubtfully.  "I'm not very good at this you know.  Dream walking was Isabelle's specialty, not mine."

"Come on Liz, you promised me we'd try this for a month.  You think you've made contact, I've been trying to contact Isabelle, we can't stop now."

"I know, I'm just so afraid that I may scare poor Lexie."

"All the more reason to have Kam help you.  If she sees him, she's not going to be scared."

"Hey, Kaminator, come here," she called to her son.  "Let's play Uncle Kyle's game."  She took a worn and creased piece of paper out of her pocket and smoothed it out on the floor.

"What's that Mommy?" Kam asked.

"That's a picture of you and Lexie when you were in Mommy's tummy.  See, that's you over there, and that is Lexie."

"We sure were funny looking," said Kam looking at the picture.

"I think you were beautiful."

"Lexie's with our Daddy, right?

"Yes sweetie, she is."

"And he's 'tecting her, and my job is to 'tect you, right, and you 'tect me?"

"Yes sweetie I protect you, you protect me, and Uncle Kyle protects us."

"Ok, let's play then."

Kam snuggled next to his mother on the floor, he closed his eyes tightly in concentration.  Within a matter of seconds, Liz heard his voice in her head.  She reached out and rested her fingers on the image of Lexie and tried to concentrate.

"Hi Lexie, it's Mommy again," said Liz.

"Hi Mommy, who's that," said the little girl pointing.  Liz looked down and saw that Kam was with her in Lexie's dream.

"That's your brother, his name is Kyle Alexander Michael Evans, but I call him Kam.  You can too."

"Hi," said Lexie, waving a little.

"Hi," said Kam.

"Wow, I have a brother and a sister," said Lexie.  "I sure am lucky."

"A sister?" Liz asked faintly.

"Un-huh.  Auntie Maria had a baby last night and she said I can help by being a big sister to her.  Her name is LizzyBelle, but only I gets to call her that.  Everyone else calls her Beth."

"And where's Uncle Michael sweetie?" Liz asked."

"He's with Daddy."

"Oh, that's good," said Liz in relief.  "Listen sweetie, Kam and I have to go soon, but can you be a big girl and tell Daddy something for me?"

"Yeah, I told him you've been in my dreams and he believed me.  I have the bestest Daddy."

"You sure do sweetie, now listen, it's very important.  Tell Daddy it's all in the book and Kivar is alive.  Can you say that for me sweetie."

"It's all in the book and Kivar's alive.  Mommy, can't you and Kam come and play with me?  I miss you."

"We miss you too sweetie.  Maybe someday soon, we can all be together again.  Would you like that?"

"Ok, I love you Mommy, I love you Kam."

"We love you to Lexie," said Liz, but it was too late, the image faded.

"Did it work," asked Kyle as Liz sat up wiping tears from her face.  "Yeah, it did.  It was the strongest connection ever.  Lexie told me all about her new baby sister."

"That bastard, I'll kill him as soon as we get home," said Kyle.

"Kyle, relax, I thought the same thing at first, but it's Maria's baby.  She and Michael had a baby.  Lexie said her name is LizzyBelle, but everybody else calls her Beth."

"LizzyBelle," said Kyle softly.  "Elizabeth Isabelle Guerin.  I like it.  You do realize, if we keep naming our kids after each other, it's going to get pretty damn confusing at the reunions."  Liz laughed and hugged her friend and watched while he slipped out of the closet.  She waited a few minutes and picked up her son and carried him out into their suite of rooms.

Earth

Max worked feverishly on his laptop analyzing Alex's data when Lexie climbed up into his lap.

"Hey Lexie Bear, did you have a good nap?  You slept for a long time.  I bet you'd love to go for a walk with Grammy Nancy and Grammy Diane, won't that be fun?"
"Yeah Daddy, but first, I gots to tell you something, and it's really 'portant."

"Ok sweetie, what is it?"
"Mommy says to tell you it's all in the book, and some guy is alive."

Max felt his heart pounding in his chest and the sweat beading up on his forehead.

"What guy is that sweetie, does he have a name?"

"I think so, but it's a funny name.  Oh and guess what, I got to meet Kam," she said proudly.

"Kam, who is Kam honey?"

"He's my brother.  He gots a bigger name than that, but Mommy says she calls him Kam.  His name is funny it's Kyle Xander Michael Parker, like I'm Xandra Claudia Parker.  And guess what Daddy.  Kam looks just like me!"

"That's nice sweetie, really nice," Max said rubbing his daughter's back while the others looked on in stunned silence.

"I wanna go play now Daddy, ok?"

"Sure thing sweetie," Max said, letting her slide down off his lap.  She walked over and grabbed her grandmothers by their hands and pulled them towards the door when Max called out," Lexie, that man Mommy said was alive, was it Kivar?"

"Yeah, that's it, you are such a smart Daddy."