Teresa looked around the room. It had been two hours since Beth's attack. Beth was sleeping upstairs. Marie and Cassie were cooking something, and Jim, Kyle, and Juan were taking care of the horses. Al had just gone upstairs to check on Beth. Mike sat on the couch, and Belle was lying down with her head in his lap. Max sat in one of the chairs, completely shell shocked. Teresa herself, was on the other couch.
"Do you guys have any idea what that was?" Belle asked softly.
"No, but it doesn't make any sense. Why would they lie about Juan? And why does Beth have those attacks? Does Marie have them too?" Mike asked concern in his voice.
"No I don't," Marie said walking into the room. "I haven't had them since Cassie was six months old."
"So it is from our DNA?" Max asked
"That's the only thing we could use to explain it. The doctors certainly couldn't explain it," Cassie said joining them and sitting on the floor.
"Why does Beth still have them and you don't? And why did you guys hide Juan's parentage?" Teresa asked
"Because I asked them to," Juan said walking in the room. "Truthfully, I never wanted to meet you. You hurt my mom a lot. She's happy now, but there is a difference between my mom and the girl she was in high school."
"Why is she so different?" Belle asked
"Max broke her heart," Al said joining them
"She's the one who walked away," Teresa said
"Yeah, she didn't want to interfere with your world," Marie said
"So why was she hurt so much?" Teresa asked
"Maybe it was because they had a connection none of us had. They shared their souls, we simply shared our hearts," Belle explained.
"What are you saying?" Teresa asked
"When you guys left without a goodbye or anything, we knew that you had left forever. But that was it, and you left us trying to explain where you had gone. Al claimed Juan because he cared about the girls. Amy would have been upset, but she would accept it no questions asked, and help Marie any way she could. The Parker's were another story. They would have had a harder time accepting the fact that their daughter was pregnant by a man who was never coming back," Kyle explained
"More than that, you broke her soul. She has changed because her entire being has changed. She started living an entirely different life after you left," Al said bitterly.
"You know it's impossible to break a soul Al. We've gone over this before," Beth said walking into the room.
"What are you doing up? You need your rest," Al said walking over to her.
"We have to finish what we brought them here for. We know how you can find the chosen one, and the pod chamber. You should have told us sooner that you couldn't get to it," She said turning and looking at Max.
Max sighed as they got up and followed Beth and Al. He felt terrible. He knew he had really hurt Beth, he didn't even know if she could forgive him this time, or would choose to. And finding out that Juan was his son was adding poison to the wound. On top of all that, his son hated him. And Max couldn't blame Juan one bit, he had grown up watching Beth fight what had happened, both physically and mentally. Max looked around the attic, finally noticing where they were. "Why did we come up here?" he asked
"You'll see," Marie said, not bothering to turn around.
Max and the others watched as Beth walked over to one of the walls, and placed her hand against it. After a few seconds, a section of the wall separated from the rest and slid open to reveal a passageway. Beth walked through, quickly followed by everyone except Max and Al. Max walked through and glanced back to see Al close the doorway behind them.
The group followed Beth as she walked for about five minute. Then she opened another door. The group walked through, and the aliens were surprised to find themselves in the pod chamber.
"How did we get here?" Teressa asked, "The caves were behind an electric fence with a no trespassing sign,"
"We created the pathway and blocked the other entrance so no one could possibly get in. and the fence is ours, this is all Grandpa's land," Cassie told them as they looked around.
"You bought all this?" Mike asked surprised.
"Yeah, desert sells pretty cheap, and we had to protect this area from any one who would ask questions," Jim told him.
"Thank you," Max said softly.
"It wasn't for you," Juan said, anger laced in his voice.
"What my son means," Beth began emphasizing the words for Juan's sake, "is that it wasn't just for you. It was for all of us," She finished, her face dangerously pale once more. Juan looked sheepish for a second, then got his dad's attention, knowing only he could convince his mom to leave.
"Come on, we had better get back. We can finish this later," Al said taking Beth's arm, stopping any argument she would make to the contrary.
The gang made their way back to the house and rode the horses back to the ranch. No one spoke on the trip, and they all went home immediately after returning to the ranch. At the same time, they all were left wondering what the future held.