"You're glowing."
"I am not!" Casey exclaimed. "Jillian Valenti, you are crazy in the head."
"You are both glowing!" Anna exclaimed. "You both are in love, and you're glow
with excitement."
"I thought that only happened when you were pregnant." Chad said from his
position on the couch.
Jill blushed.
Casey laughed. "It's not anything near that. I am a virgin…Jill?"
Jill just blushed.
Casey's mouth dropped open. "And when were you gonna plan on telling me this?"
"When have I had time?"
"But you aren't.."
"Not that I know of!" Jill protested.
"You don't know anything, son." Amy said, joining the group. "Now go back to
your leather boob watching and leave us alone."
***
The conversation taking place in the kitchen was nowhere as light.
"I…I…I went to the park with Casey. And we sat down on the bench…and I had a
vision of my father…and of you…so tell me, tell me about my father. Tell me why
you didn't raise me. Tell me why my father died."
Tess gripped both Jim's and Liz's hands in support.
"It's a long story. As was said before…we all were sent with a destiny, a role
to fulfill…it corresponded with our former lives on Antar, the lives in which
we lost the war. I was to be your father's mate, and your father's queen."
"Ok…that seems pretty simple."
"But by the time I came to Roswell, your father was already in love."
"With who?"
"Me" Liz said in a soft voice. "Max had always had a little bit of a crush on
me, but I didn't know it..and then he saved my life in the Crashdown…and we
fell in love. It was powerful, it was the first time I ever loved anyone, and
I've never loved anyone in that same way since."
"If you and Max were in love, then how?"
"A version of Max came to me from the future. He said that in order to save the
world, I had to make his younger self fall out of love with me."
"And did you? How?"
"I pretended to sleep with Kyle?"
"Jill's dad?"
"He was my boyfriend before Max…and he's still one of my dearest friends."
"You were who he was upset about on the bench."
"Yes." Liz nodded. "Doing that hurt me more than anything else that
happened…letting him go was so hard.."
"So then you, Tess, got together with my Dad?"
"Not exactly."
"Huh?"
"I told you how Nasedo had control over me. Part of Nasedo's deal for power on
Antar was to bring back a child of the Royal Four, so that Khivar could claim
him for a heir."
"I was a mistake."
"You weren't planned…at least not by me…I loved your father, but not exactly in
that way…but you were the only good thing that came out of that deception. You,
the dream of you kept me alive when I was kept prisoner. I knew that you would
be handsome, but I never dreamed that you would look so much like him. I know
that you might not be able to forgive me, Rob, but please know that I love you,
and I've loved you since the moment I knew that you were conceived."
"This…this is so much to handle…" Rob said rubbing his head. "I don't really
know what to say.."
"Give it time, Rob. Ask Jill if you can use one of the guest bedrooms to take a
nap..you haven't slept in so long." Jim said, ever fulfilling his role of
parent.
"Okay." Rob said, walking out of the room.
Tess turned to Jim. "What do I do?"
"Just give it time, Tess. Give it time."
"I can't sleep."
"Just relax." Casey soothed, rubbing Rob's head.
"You don't have to carry the world on your shoulders…"
"But…" he protested.
"No. The world will keep on going, the clock will
keep on ticking and the universe will keep on
spinning, even if Rob Valenti does take a nap."
"But…I feel so lost. If I go to sleep, I might loose
what little semblance of control I have."
"I'll be right here, holding on to you. Maybe if I'm
holding on to you, you won't get lost." Casey yawned.
Rob put his head back down, and sighed with pleasure
as Casey put her arms around his torso.
"Now go to sleep, cheesehead."
"Cheesehead?"
"It's what my mom always calls my Dad. I just wanted
to see how it would feel to have my own cheesehead."
"So I'm your cheesehead?"
"Nah." She replied with a yawn. "You're much more
than that. You're my Rob."
Rob closed his eyes as a wide smile spread over his
face.
***
Anna could barely keep her eyes open. "Are we ever
going home?"
Amy shook her head. "Jill has offered to let us stay
here tonight, since Rob is so exhausted. We can't go
home until the department searches our house for
evidence."
"So where do I sleep?"
"Find a spot. I'm sure there's a place somewhere. I
see that Chad didn't have a hard time with that."
"Oh yeah? The Olympic snoring champion? He could
sleep just about anywhere." Anna sighed, pointing to
her brother lounging on the couch.
"Improvise." Jim suggested. "Pick a spot and lie
down for awhile. I'm cooking dinner."
"Cooking?"
"Ok…ordering pizza. You happy?"
"Dad…your idea of cooking is opening a can of soup.
And even then you need help."
"Why do you think I married your mother? Kyle was
costing me a fortune in food bills."
Anna sighed. "Wake me up when the 'za gets here, ok?"
***
"Alex, would you turn off the TV? I really want to
take a nap."
"It's Sydney!"
"It's syndicated. You can catch it 20 or 30 more
times, later on today."
"But not this episode!"
Jill sighed. "And which episode would this be?"
"Allie and Jason are…cementing."
"Oh…cementing." Jill sighed. "I still want to go to
sleep."
"I'll turn it off as soon as the credits roll, ok?"
Jill sighed. "I'm sorry I'm snappy, but I haven't slept in over 24 hours, and I
am a very needy person when it comes to slumber."
Alex rolled his eyes. "Gee, I hadn't noticed."
Jill squinted as she was looking at the tv. "What do they need pot holders
for?"
"What do you think?"
"This is a weird, weird, TV show." Jill said, leaning back against Alex and
shutting her eyes.
***
One minute he was laying down in one of Jill's guest rooms, Casey's arms
serving as an anchor, keeping him grounded.
The next minute, he was flying. It was as if his mind left his physical body
and was soaring far and away.
He was in a valley, green and rich, full of fragrant flowers.
Tess was there, dressed in a white lace dress, surrounded by a field of
daisies.
"Come here! Come to Mommy!" She said.
And a toddler appeared, seemingly from nowhere. The baby had dark hair, and
rich blue eyes. It toddled towards Tess at a lightning fast pace."
"Mommy! Mommy!"
Tess stretched out her arms. "I love you, Rob."
The older Rob just gaped at the picture. Tess was dreaming of him. Tess loved
him. His mother loved him.
All that she said was true. This Tess, this happy Tess who only cared to play
with her child, her small son…this was a reflection of the true Tess. Rob
wasn't sure how he knew it, but somehow he did. It was similar to the way he
fell for Casey- he just knew it was right, he just knew it was meant to be. It
was meant to be. He was meant to be her son, no matter why or how he had been
conceived. She didn't abadon Rob, she gave him up so that he could live. So
that he could be free. Just like- Max- his father had.
There had always been a few images in the back of Rob's mind- faces and places
that he couldn't identify.
He remembered a man with slightly stuck out ears, just like his. The man had a
warm smile, and golden brown eyes. Rob's memories of the man were tinted with a
hint of security, peace, and love.
Only now, surrounded in Tess' happy dream, could he identify who that man was.
Because Tess sent off that same aura of security, peace, and love.
Rob Valenti was not an orphan.
As far as he was concerned, he had the best family in the universe.
And then Tess' laugh rang out across the valley. "Kyle!" She called, and Rob
saw the same always-absent Valenti brother who smiled down from the mantelpiece
at home.
Kyle walked up to Tess and kissed her deeply.
"NO!" He yelled, protesting what he was seeing. "This isn't right!"
Tess looked towards the older Rob, as if seeing him for the first time.
The fabric of the dream began to dissolve around Rob.
He woke up screaming, with Casey kneeling next to him.
"What happened? Bad dream?"
"It was more than a nightmare." He swallowed, as the door opened and a crazed
Tess opened the door.
"What was all that about, MOM?" he demanded.