He slammed the door of the kitchen.

Sure, his mom hated it when he slammed the door, but he was old enough that he didn't care. At all.

Cousin.

He had just flirted with his COUSIN.

But wait, she wasn't really his cousin, was she…neither was Jill…Jill's dad and Casey's mother were his half brother and sister. So that made him Casey's uncle.

He was going crazy. He was simply going crazy. You were not supposed to get automatic sparks from your niece, even though she tended to look like a fairy princess goddess girl.

Rob opened the refrigerator, an ancient model that his parents bought when they first got married. He thought it was stupid to keep a machine that was basically falling apart and didn't work right because it reminded them of the past. The past was a load of crap.

He pulled out the ingredients to make his favorite snack..tortillas, spaghetti sauce, pepperoni, cheese, garlic powder, pepper, Tabasco sauce, and of course Pixy Sticks. The perfect combination of sweet and spicy.

Chad and Anna hated when he would make tortilla pizzas-they hated his special recipe…and couldn't see how he could eat the combination.

He'd always had a weird sense of taste, since he was little. Everything naturally seemed bland…as if it were missing some vital element that would make it taste JUST right. It wasn't until the one time that they all went to visit Kyle and Maria in Florida, and when he took some of Jill's food that everything tasted…RIGHT. He asked his Dad about it, and Jim had been more than willing to help his son with dietary needs. Chad still complained that Rob got special food at dinner sometimes.

"Oh gosh, not that again!" Anna was standing in doorway of the kitchen, leaning against the doorframe. "I will never understand where you got your weird sense of taste."

"Maybe I'm normal, and you're weird." Rob taunted, finishing off his pizza and putting it in the microwave. "I enjoy things food with flavor."

"I still say you need to enter the spiciest chili-eating contest." Anna said, her eyes twinkling. Anna was a very beautiful girl, very quickly becoming a woman. She looked a lot like Maria, who was an ever present element in the family, just like Kyle, due to the stories their parents told them, and the pictures spread around the house. Her hair was a light brown, the same color that Kyle's was in his senior picture. Her eyes were the traditional Valenti blue, and when she smiled, Anna looked just like Amy. "It came today!" She said, grabbing her brother's hand.

"What came?"

"My acceptance! I got in."

"To college?" Anna had her sights set on the University of Michigan, and it's Chemical engineering program. She'd been waiting out by the mailbox for days.

"Yes!" She said, squealing and grabbing Rob's shoulders.

And then there was a flash of light.

Rob was rocked off his feet and fell to the cold, cool tile of the floor.

"ANNA? Are you all right?" He said, his voice dull and hoarse from the smoke. "Anna Banana?"

There was no answer.

Rob's heart thudded against his chest. She had to be ok. She had to. She was his little sister.

He started to crawl through the smoke, searching for Anna.

He found her. She was bleeding, her breaths were shallow.

Whatever had happened, it wasn't good. Anna was hurt, badly. And Chad was probably still out, but Mom and Dad would be back soon…

She needed help. There was so much blood. She needed help now.

He touched her belly, where the blood seemed to be coming out of. He pulled up her shirt and winced as he touched the wound.

"Anna, you still there? Look at me." She wasn't going to die on his watch.

And then it happened.

Flashes.

Anna watching Rob and Chad playing in the pool, but being too little to join in.

A package from Florida, with presents just for her.

A nervous Anna at her first ballet recitial.

Beating her brothers in a game of basketball.

Learning to sew with her mother.

Being elected 6th grade class president.

Breaking her leg by falling off the jungle gym.

Spying as her brothers went on dates

Babysitting the local terror of a kid, known simply as "the toad".

Her first kiss, from Tom Sohn.

Prom.

Opening the acceptance letter from Michigan.

The flashes stopped as suddenly as they had started.

"Robbie?" Anna said, in a little girlish voice. "Robbie, what happened?"

Rob couldn't speak. He couldn't think…he must be going crazy. "I've got to go Annie." He said, running past his concerned parents and out the door.

"Anna baby?" Her mother asked, seeing her daughter sprawled out on the floor. "Are you ok?"

Anna was flustered to say the best. "Yeah…I wasn't…but I am…and I don't know what's going on."

Amy's eyes were drawn to her daughter's stomach. A simple silver handprint gleamed brilliantly in the dark kitchen.

Jim braced himself. The next stage was beginning, the stage he had feared for so many years. "Amy, Anna, I have a lot to tell you…"

There was a fierce pounding on the door.

"What in the…" Casey muttered, not wanting to be
taken away from the all night "Sydney" marathon. She
simply had to know about what would happen next, when
Zan's sisters Emily and Kara came to Sydney, each
dragging along a drooly love slave. "What I wouldn't
give to have a drooly love slave…"

It was Rob, Rob her hunkalicious, drop dead gorgeous,
cute, funny, cousin, uncle dude.

And he was upset. Tears were pouring down his face,
and he was shaking.

Casey enfolded him in her arms, and tuned out all the
goings on of Sydney, and concentrated on Rob. He was
so strong, so tall, so muscular, but yet he seemed so
little, so fragile, so emotional.

He needed her.

She held him, and let him cry.

The other occupants awoke from their sleep, and
started converging on the front hallway.

Jill was concerned, and gripped Alex's hand for
support.

Liz put down the baseball bat she had picked up in
case the strange noise was because of an intruder.

Tess stood transfixed, looking at Casey and Rob, her
eyes full of tears.

***

The mini-van was silent as it sped to the Whitman
house across town.

Amy was sitting in the middle, holding her baby girl,
afraid that something might happen and she'd loose her
again.

Chad was sitting in the front seat, looking very much
like his father, twiddling with his hands, trying to
figure out what this was all about. He'd just gotten
home from his date, and his Dad burst through the
door, carrying Anna, and ordering him to follow in the
car. Had something happened to Anna? To Rob?

Jim's mind was set on Rob. Rob, who had to be so
confused. He hated lying to his son about the past,
about his heritage, but it was the only way to keep
him safe. He helped Rob get special meals, and he had
calmed and comforted Rob when he healed the family
parakeet, Buster.

Now the truth was going to come out, and all of it.
He could only guess where Rob would go- to a place
that felt safe, to someone he could trust…years of
intuition and criminal psychology clicked in. Rob
would go to Jill's house…he was much friendlier and
open to her than he was to most people, probably
because of an unknown connection- the Evans link
through Isabel and Max.

***

There was another series of sharp knocks on the door.

"I have got to get a better security system." Jill
groaned, and went to open the door.

"Grandpa?" She exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Dad?" Rob exclaimed, still in the warm shelter of
Casey's arms.

"Sheriff?" Liz said, confused at the turn of events.

"Alex??" Jim exclaimed seeing him for the first time.
"What the?"

"Dad…" Tess muttered, looking fondly on the Sheriff.

"I am so confused." Casey muttered, pulling Rob
closer. "What in the heck is going on here?"

Liz's pratical sense of control took over. "Let's all
rationally sit down and talk this out."

"Alex?" Amy screamed walking in the door. She
reached for a bottle of cedar oil in her pocket, but
didn't make it before her eyes rolled up to the back
of her head. Chad ran in and kept his mother from
hitting the floor.

"What is this?" Chad said, looking around at the
assorted people in the room.

***

It was an uneasy circle, each person dreading part of
the explanation that was to follow.

"Where do we start?" Liz said, looking around for
answers. "We have to talk this out, we're not doing
any good sitting around staring at each other."

"Alex." Amy asserted. "How is he here? He's dead."

"He looks alive to me." Chad muttered, running his
fingers through his hair. "He's breathing and all."

"Alex was never dead." Tess spoke up. "He was
undergoing an alien evolution process, and he existed
on a plane greater and different than ours. Nasedo
knew this, and the accident and body were one of his
mindwarps. Jill, with her alien power, was somehow
able to draw Alex out of temporal flux and back into
this dimension."

"Whoa…wait a minute….did you say ALIEN?" Rob
exclaimed. "I thought that was just a bunch of
tourist crap..not anything real…aliens aren't real.."

"I assure you that they are." Casey's voice grew
cold. "I am one."

"What? You're human!" Chad exclaimed. "Are you
trying to tell me this place is overflowing with
ghosts and aliens?"

"The truth is kind of freaky, huh. Actually, Casey
and I are hybrids. Part human, part alien. And Liz is
part alien too, just like my Dad, cuz Uncle Max healed
her…" Jill replied.

"This is just going too fast! Could somebody slow
down and explain something!" Anna exclaimed. "I have
been through a lot tonight, and I would like some
frigging answers!"

"Watch your language!" Amy chided.

"In 1947, a UFO did actually crash in Roswell. It was
carrying 4 pods. The pods each contained a fetus,
that would grow into a half alien, half human child.
They hatched in 1989, and the children were adopted
and grew up as normal children."

"Who?" Rob said, intrigued by the story.

"Only three were actually adopted…Michael Guerin,
Isabel Evans, and Max Evans." A hint of regret and
sadness was present when Liz said Max's name. "The
other one, Tess," Liz pointed to Tess "Did not hatch
at the same time, and was raised by an alien that
survived the crash, Nasedo."

"Then?"

"Isabel, Max, and Michael tried to live in Roswell as
normal children. They succeeded, mostly, until one day in 1999."

"What happened?" Chad said, becoming involved in the story as well.

"I was shot. And Max saved me. It began a whole chain of events…they couldn't hide anymore…from their enemies, from the FBI, from anyone."

Tess took over the story. "I was raised by Nasedo, and we finally found the other three in the Spring of 2000. I was brought up being taught that I was meant to be with Max, that he was my destiny. After a while, I saw how wrong my views were, and things began to change." She took a deep breath and went on. "Unfortunately, I didn't get a choice. Nasedo was killed by one of our enemies, a skin, but he managed to find a way to transfer his essence into my body. He controlled me, my thoughts, my actions, I was not myself."

"Continue." Jim said, his eyes following Tess.

"Nasedo had made a deal, years ago, to return with a child of one of the Royal Four. In exchange for handing them over to Khivar, he would gain riches and wealth on our planet. He was desperate to find a way to use the granalith to get back home. He mindwarped Alex, turned him into a mindless puppet. It ended up putting Alex through an Antarian custom that his human body could not handle. To cover this up, Nasedo mindwarped everyone to think that Alex had died, when he was really existing in an alternate dimension."

Rob sighed. "Interesting story, but that doesn't explain what in the heck is happening to me."

"And it doesn't explain how I got this thing on my stomach. And how Rob did whatever he did to heal me?"

Jim grabbed for Amy's hand, as if to brace himself.

"Rob, I want you to know that I love you. I have watched you grow up, and I couldn't be more proud of you if you were my own son."

"I…am…your…son." Rob said looking at Jim in disbelief.

"Yes, you are my son, but not by blood. I love you as much as I love Chad, Anna, Maria, and Kyle. You were a precious gift to us, one that I thank God every day for."

"What do you mean?"

"You were a baby when your father handed you over to us. He was dying. Amy and I did all that we could to make him comfortable, and to save him, but the damage the fight had done was too severe. He asked me…said that I was one of the few that he would trust…to raise you, to keep you safe, Rob. And I have, I've done everything I could, from giving you my name, to hiding the times when you did access your powers accidentally."

"Powers?" He asked incredulously.

"You did exactly what your father did twenty six years ago. You saved the life of someone that you loved."

Liz was staring at Rob, tears flowing down her face. This was Max's son…she could see it now, the expression full of hope and doubt, much like a little boy…the ears…the sense of authority…This was Max's son…the reason that he died.

"Max was my father? I'm an alien?" Rob said, staring at his hands, flipping them over as if he had an external "Alien Power" switch.

"Yes. I've been afraid you'd guess so many other times, like the time you healed the parakeet, or the time the tree suddenly burst into fire?"

"I did that?"

"Or the time Anna's plastic ponies suddenly got switched around, with their tails on their heads and their heads on their tails?"

"Me? I thought that was Chad!"

"I told you it wasn't me!" Chad said, swatting his arm. "Dad, Anna and I aren't aliens, are we?"

"No…even though with the weird things you two do, sometimes I wonder…"

"If Max was my father, who was my mother?" Rob said, grabbing Casey's hand.

"I am." Tess said, tears flowing down her face. "And you have no idea how long I have searched for you. You are more beautiful than I ever dreamed."