The car stopped.
"Here we are." Casey announced. "Home sweet home."
"Which is which?" Rob said, scrutinizing the houses, pretty much similar in
design.
"The purple house is ours, it's my Mom's favorite color." Casey replied.
The door to the yellow house opened, and a short little boy ran out, trailed
closely by a brunette teenager.
"Jilly! Jilly!" The boy cried, running down the driveway. "You home! You home!"
Jill climbed out of her seat and embraced the little boy. "Hey M-A-V!" She said
spinning him around. "I've missed you."
He smiled and kissed her cheek. "Case! Case!" He said, seeing his cousin.
Casey smiled and took the squirming toddler from Jill. "Have you grown Max?"
He grinned. "I'm a big boy!" Then Max Alexander caught sight of Alex and Rob.
"Who are you?" He asked, his eyes growing wide.
"They are our friends." Jill explained. "This is Charles, and that's Rob. Guys,
this is my little brother…"
"Not little" he pouted
"My brother, Max Alexander. We call him MAV for short." Jill explained,
reaching over and tickled her brother.
Max's eyes grew wide. "Charles is old. And Rob's just like me. He's special
like me. Does he have powers? Does his Momma get mad if he uses them out in
poo-blic?"
Jill and Casey exchanged a glance. No one in the family doubted that Max
Alexander was special. He'd started using his powers earlier than his sisters
and the Guerins. Using his powers was natural to Max, and they feared that
someone, the wrong someone would find him and take him away. He also had more
powers than anybody, even Michael and Isabel. Maxwell Alexander Valenti was a
very special young boy, a fact that both delighted and scared his family.
The teenager, now out of breath, approached the group. "Jill, Who are the
babes?"
Jill rolled her eyes. "This is my sister Tara. She's boy crazy."
"I appreciate and enjoy males. That's not being boy crazy."
Rob and Alex exchanged a smile.
"I'm Charles." Alex announced. "Your sister's boyfriend."
"And I have a very jealous fiancée." Rob added.
Casey punched him in the gut.
Rob grimaced and put his arms around Casey's shoulders. "Isn't she lovely?"
***
Now he knew how criminals felt when he interrogated them.
Scared. Nervous. Sweaty. Sick, even.
This was the most difficult thing he had ever done.
Whatever didn't kill him would make him stronger. Right? Right?
Rob glanced up into the pair of eyes studying him like a hawk. The brown eyes
didn't betray a single feeling or thought.
He would never look at the movie, "Meet the Parents" the same way again.
"So." Michael Guerin stated, sitting down at his large, worn, paint splattered
desk.
Rob shifted. He had super powers. He could stand any, and every horror movie,
good or bad, scary and gory ever made. So why was this confrontation with his father-in-law
to be scaring him so much?
"You want to marry my daughter."
"Yes sir." Breathe. He only had to breathe.
"Don't you find it a little odd that, you, her Uncle, has such type feelings
for my daughter?"
"It…It…It's not incest." Rob said, feeling his tongue swell with the sound of
each letter.
Michael's eyebrows lifted. "It's not?"
"I'm not really her Uncle."
His eyebrows went even further up, almost reaching his spiky brown hair. "You
are the son of Jim and Amy Valenti?"
"Sort of."
"Sort of?"
"I'm adopted."
Michael laughed. "If Jim and Amy adopted a child they would have told us."
Rob shook his head. "They couldn't."
"And just why couldn't they, then, Mr. Valenti?"
"Because it would have broke my cover."
"Cover? You certainly do have an imagination."
Rob couldn't take anymore. It was obvious that Mr. Guerin didn't like him, and
that he wouldn't consider anything he would say. So he let it all fly.
"I wish all that I had was an imagination. But it's not. I have a legacy. A
legacy that I don't really want, a legacy that I really don't know anything
about. I was fine just being the son of Jim and Amy Valenti, but that isn't my
destiny. No. I couldn't have it that simple, I couldn't just stay the Sheriff
of a small little town. No. Instead, I'm supposed to be some sort of alien heir
to a planet that I know nothing about. My father's dead and my mother was
possessed by some other sort of alien when she became pregnant with me. And
yes, I do love your daughter. I love her with all my heart and soul. Because in
the middle of all this craziness and absurdity, she is the only thing that
makes sense. I love Casey and nothing you say or do can ever stop me. She is my
destiny."
Michael was staring at him, as if seeing him for the first time. "You're an
alien."
"Who isn't?" Rob huffed.
"Your father's dead?"
"So I've been told."
Michael was silent for a second. "I can't believe it."
"What?"
"You're Max's son. He found you. He didn't die in vain."
"I'm Max's son." Rob repeated. "He gave me to Jim to raise."
Michael crossed the room and gave Rob a hug, catching Rob by surprise. "Welcome
to family." He said, his voice gruff. "If you're anything like your father you
fell in love with my girl at first sight. And anything I say to keep you away from
her won't work at all."
***
"I want to watch Sydney." Robin said, wrestling Tara for the remote.
"I need complete silence. I'm waiting for Eric to call." Tara reasoned.
Jill came back in the room, and gave Alex a hug. "Mav's all tucked in."
"Jill! Tell Tara I want to watch TV!"
"Jill! Tell Robin I need silence. Eric, is only like the cutest guy in school."
Jill rolled her eyes. "You guys are twenty and eighteen years old. I thought
you would have gotten over this prepubescent arguing ages ago."
Robin sighed. "If Josh wasn't visiting his grandmother, I could be having fun
right now."
"You are too dependent on your man." Tara rolled her eyes.
"This from the girl who wants complete silence so she can wait for a boy's
phone call?"
"Get a life."
"No, you get a life!"
Both sisters looked at Jill.
She shrugged. "Don't look at me. I've got Charles, and I'm happy."
The door opened, and the Valenti parents stepped in the house.
"Mom!" Tara and Jill chorused. "She won't let me…"
"Oh, can it." Kyle said, coming over and giving his daughters a hug. "If I
don't have the world's silliest…" He trailed off as he looked behind him.
"Jilly! You're home!"
Isabel stood silently in the doorway, staring at the scene in front of her.
