"Come on, Pizza, Pizza, Pizza." Jill chanted. "Why does Pizza delivery always take so long?"

"Try Thai food. It's murder." Alex called, and then winced when he thought about the significance of the statement.

"I wouldn't touch anything so vile."

"Don't blame you. It truly is terrible."

"Except to the people that like it.."

Alex started to laugh. "Jill, are you trying to fight me? I'm agreeing with you!"

Jill started to laugh. "I guess I don't want to let anybody in. It's a lot easier not to get hurt that way."

The doorbell rang, and Jill finally got her pizza.

"Didn't you just get pizza last night?" Alex said as Jill smothered her food with Tabasco.
"It's my favorite food. We don't eat it much at home…except for when it's just me and my dad…and now that I am on my own, I'll get it as often as I want. I am an adult!"

"And you sound like it too."

"Shut up!" Jill exclaimed, turning on the TV. "Ooooh, Jurrassic Park 3. A classic."

"Dude, I never got to see this! Oh man, we have to go rent the 2nd and 3rd Star Wars Prequels, and did they ever make anymore Batman movies?"

"I have the whole Star Wars Saga on MDVD. And yeah, the whole Batman franchise still goes on. I swear, Warner Brothers would do anything for money."

"MDVD?"

"Mini-DVD."

"They found a way to make DVD's even smaller? Do they still have special features?"

Jill shrugged. "Go ahead and look at them if it makes you happy, ghost boy. They're over there in the entertainment unit." She changed the channel again. "Uggh….I tell you, Buffy the Middle Aged Vampire Mother is not a good show….cut the cord, you know…it should have went out on top."

"It's on UPN?" Alex squeaked, looking at the TV. "I thought it was on the WB."

"UPN stole it away in 2001…they also took "Sydney" that show about teenage aliens in Australia.."

"They ruined that show in the second season. The first season was great…with all the Allie and Jason action…"

"Oh, and Sheli and Brian…" Jill gushed.

"You like the show?"

"Mom got me hooked on reruns."

"Your mom sounds like a pretty cool person. Someone that I'd like."

"She's great." Jill said, and then felt something poking her in thigh.

"Ouch!" She said, looking at the offending object.

It was a folder, like the ones used at work. This was an older one. And it read "Whitman, Alexander Charles."
"This is your file." She muttered, looking at the folder. "Alex? Why did you take this? Do you know how much trouble I could be in?"


***


"That folder will help me find out…what happened and why. 24 years ago, in 2001, I died. And I need to figure out why."

"And a folder will tell you why? You know that investigations don't always find the truth, or the whole truth. If it did, my uncle would have died years before he did, and my mother would have been hauled off too, and goodness knows what would have happened to my Dad? The answers aren't always on paper, Alex."

He stared at her. She was so vibrant, so full of life, so passionate. If he was alive…he didn't know what he would do. He couldn't deny that her words, so full of emotion, triggered a sense inside him that had been long dormant.

"Then how do I find them?"

She sighed, looked down at her feet, and then looked back at Alex. "I'll help you, that's what. I'll help you."

For the first time in twenty four years, a smile traced the face of Alex Whitman.

***

"I can't believe I'm doing this." She sighed.

"What, going to the library? You sound like someone I used to know."

"I love the library. My Dad is another story. He always got sad when he took us to the library."

"Why?" Alex said, as they strolled inside the library. Roswell's library stayed open until 11 on weeknights, so they had a bit of time- it was only 9:30.

Jill shrugged. "I dunno. He always said it reminded him of someone."

"Weird."

"I know. So what are we going to look at?"

"I'll go back in the back and find the old West Roswell High yearbooks. You look through the microfilm and find any articles you can. Run them off and bring them to me."
"Yes sir, Captain."

"That's Admiral Whitman to you." He said, winking at her and wiggling his eyebrows.

"Oh give me a break!" Jill said as she headed off to the microfilm section.

***
"2001" Alex muttered. "I paid for a copy of this yearbook, and I never got it. Ripoff."

He turned the pages.

Everyone was so young. They were all kids then, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders.

He smiled at the class pictures. Maria, with her curls. Max, looking like the leader few knew that he truly was. Isabel, looking like she had the world completely under his control. She really was beautiful. And she had loved him, as he loved her. Michael, sulking for the camera, and Tess hamming it up.

Tess. Why? Why had she done this? Was this terrible fate her way of getting Max for herself, once and for all. He felt rage, anger like he had never ever felt before. She robbed him of a future. Of a life.

The last page had his and Kyle's pictures, right beside each other because there was no other names that fell between Valenti and Whitman.

The alphabetical order had also made Kyle his best friend, back in first grade when he first moved to Roswell. They sat beside each other that year, and helped each other with craft projects, and the troublesome task of learning to write. That whole year they were best buddies, going everywhere together and doing everything together. Then that summer, Kyle's mother left, and then Alex went back to California for the summer. Kyle went to Boy Scout camp that summer and made a whole new group of friends. Lonely on the playground, watching Kyle play with Tommy, Paulie, and the rest of the popular crowd, Alex had stooped to pick up a ball that a curly haired pixie dropped. That was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Despite a few incidents in fifth grade, Kyle and Alex never really interacted, until Kyle started to get interested in Liz. And then…with the sound of a metallic bullet, everyone's lives changed. It wasn't until they were trapped underground, afraid of being taken and killed by an alien parasite, that Kyle and Alex had become friends again. And things were cool, both having a best friend to lean on.

Then he had died.

He wondered what happened to Kyle.

Alex decided to shut the book and go get the 2002 yearbook, and find out what their Senior year had been like…without him.

In flipping, he caught something that made him cry.

A collage. "IN LOVING MEMORY OF ALEX WHITMAN"

There were pictures of him at various ages, doing all sorts of things…pictures of the Whits, pictures of the gang….even pictures of his guitars. It was something done with love. He was amazed, and his heart filled with joy and sadness together at the same time, a vicious cocktail that shook his soul. In the corner was a small signature: From your Friends, We Love You Always…collage made by Maria De Luca and Michael Guerin.

He was gone…but not forgotten.