What is the Truth?
By Didi
Disclaimers: Do I really need to do this? I mean how many of you would believe me if I did say that I owned them all?
Note: Starts just at the end of Season 2 but I'm writing it my way cause I simply refused to except the way the writer screwed up that storyline. So, here's my take on the end of the episode and what happens afterwards. Forget everything that was on UPN, it didn't happen.
Caution: I can handle creative criticism and all but please no flames of any sort. Oh and if you are a Max/Liz fanatic, I doubt you'll like this story much.
"Spoken," *thoughts*
~~~~~
Kyle wished for something to drink. His throat felt like someone ran sandpaper over the inner lining of his esophagus. He's been sitting there for ten minutes now wondering if he should risk getting up and going for a glass of water. But thinking it over, he thought better of it. While both Maria and Liz had cried themselves to sleep, he couldn't risk them waking up and starting all over again.
He wondered for a moment if the hollow feeling he felt at the pit of his stomach was the same what Liz felt when she finally drifted into a fitful sleep. It hurt, physically hurt, to see her in so much agony. Wounds of the flesh were easy to cure but wounds of the soul... those leaves its mark on a person forever.
Shifting his weight in the uncomfortable chair, Kyle stared out the window where the moon was just beginning to peek out from behind some clouds that had hide it until now. Even the night was restless, full of clouds that shift and move across the sky. It look like a summer storm was headed their way.
"Kyle?"
Turning, he was startled to see Liz sit up on the bed, her eyes red and puffy. "Go back to sleep, Liz. It's early yet."
Liz brushed a lock of her dark hair away from her damp face. Glancing down, she spied Maria asleep on the bed beside her. "I don't remember her getting in with me."
"You weren't exactly up to thoughts at the time," Kyle said kindly with a look of sympathy. "She cried for you."
Liz offered a small smile. "Yeah, it would be so like her too. Maria, the ever soft hearted one in our little group of misfits." She reached out and touched a curl on Maria's head. "I've very lucky with friends."
"Liz?" Kyle said softly, offering his hand out to her. He may not be able to help Tess with whatever it was she was going through, but he could very well be there for Liz who hurt too.
For a moment, she hesitated. While Kyle and her had been close once, they have since went their own way. But no matter what was said and done, they belong to something that only those within can understand. Reaching out, she clasped hands with him and allowed him to pull her to him.
Drawing her to him, he settled her into his lap and allowed her to settle herself into the curves of his body. There was nothing sexual, nothing brotherly, nothing but friendship there in that embrace as Liz allowed herself to absorb the quiet strength in Kyle that she's never noticed before.
The last two years have been strange, almost unreal, for them. Both having died and come back by the means of something that was out of this world. It had forced them to both grow up and face the world.
For Liz, it was an awaking to something she always knew was out there, something that was never out of her realm of impossibilities. It had allowed her move comfortably from the strange awkward girl to a woman of infinite knowledge. For that alone, she will never regret knowing the aliens.
For Kyle, it forced him to see the world outside his safe little world. It propelled him from adolescent to man, opening him to the necessities of life. He understood his father's position so much more now, the hardships that came with knowledge of life. At the same time, he gave him a kind of peace and acceptance that he's never known before. The world opened more to him, all the possibilities... Seeing Max and the others, he knew that only the imagination limited them.
They sat there, in silence, just holding one another, offering and accepting comfort. It was the first time in a long while since either of them had this kind of peace.
~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Valenti hated being helpless. He was never good at standing in the sidelines when there were things to be done. But he was way out of his league here. This was something that was... unnatural yet natural all at the same time, unfamiliar and familiar all at the same time. "Get some hot water," he instructed quickly as Max and Michael gently moved Tess's unconscious body to the bed.
"What did you do to her?" Alex asked, as he dropped a cold compress to the reclining blonde's forehead. She was paler than she's ever been, and the lines of agony stood out plain on her face. "Michael!"
"Stop yelling!" Michael hollered back at the same volume as he lifted her leg and tucked a pillow under her ankles. "I didn't touch her if that's what you're asking."
"What happened Michael?" Max asked, slipping his body along the back wall and lifting her head into his lap. The once springy curls that drove him to distraction were limp and covered in sweat. She was hot to touch and paler than ice. Whatever was happening to her can't be good.
"Tess and I had a discussion," Michael replied, lowering the shields of his emotions.
"So why doesn't any one in this room believe you?" Valenti asked as he motioned Alex aside and checked her palse. "Her heart is racing and her breathing isn't too smooth either." He checked her eyes, sending a silent thanks to the powers above for that six months training course in his late twenties on emergency first aid.
"Here's the hot water," Isabel said as she brought the big pot that had been set to boil for spaghetti. "It hadn't boil yet."
"Good," Valenti replied, dipping as much of the hand towel into the scolding water as he could before lifting it to wring out. As hot to the touch as the water was, it was cool compared to the heat radiating from Tess as he patted her cheeks to get some blood circulating here. "She's burning up."
The choking cough woke her up slowly and she blinked unseeing blue eyes at the ceiling, muttering something unintelligible.
"What is she saying?" Isabel asked, her voice anxiously, her eyes searching her brother's concern face and Michael's carefully guarded one.
"It's no language I've heard of," Alex replied quietly. "But somethings, when she sleeps, she'd have conversations in that language."
"Must be Antarian," Max murmured softly as he brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "She must be reliving our lives again."
Michael said nothing, his eyes drawn to the words that were barely audible. Unlike the others, he recognized it. It wasn't so much he recognized the words, it was the intonation and way she was muttering it. He had seen her do so once before, just before her slipped into the coma that she never awoke from. It was a prayer; a prayer of last rites.
Shaking his head slowly, Michael fought the urge to curse at her. *Just when I got her to agree to the damn thing.... She goes and pulls a stunt like this. Damn it Tess, I'm not going to let you win on this one. No way, no how.* Getting up determinedly, he stomped to the living room and grabbed the stones from the back. "It's time."
Max stared at the smoothly carved stones. "We have to wait until she wakes up and talk us through the processes."
"She's not going to wake up," Michael replied, placing one stone in Isabel's outstretched hands.
Alex gasped at him while Valenti dropped the phone he had been using to call the others back. "What do you mean?"
"She's not waking up this time," Michael replied, dropping the fourth stone in Alex's limp hands. "You'll hold it to form the fourth corner of the square. Don't worry, you don't need to do anything but hold it." He gently took Isabel by the shoulder and set her three feet from Alex toward Tess's feet. Stepping onto the bed, he dropped himself across from Isabel and next to Max. "Let's get this over with."
"But we don't even know what to do?" Isabel asked her eyes wide with fear.
The shutter over Max's features came down like a ton of bricks. Dark eyes narrowing dangerously, he pinned Michael with a look that said not to mess with him. "How do you know she's not waking up?"
For a brief moment, Michael considered lying to him. But knowing Max the he did, and Max knowing him the way Max did, it would have been a pointless exercise. And with the fact that he's about to keep a whole deal with Tess under wraps, never to utter it again, it didn't set well with him to lie now. "She was saying her last rites of passage."
"Her what?" Valenti asked in disbelief before turning his pale eyes to the young woman in the bed. "You're kidding, right?"
"No," Michael replied. He shook his head impatiently; knowing that there was going to be more questions soon but now was definitely not the time. "Can we get on with this?"
Isabel stared at the body that was emitting wretchedly painful sounds. "We still don't know what to..."
"It'll come to you," Max said with reassurance as he stared at his sister, offering his strength and belief. "Tess said that you are the stabilizer, you can channel the energy into the body. I can heal it and Michael can provide the energy source. We can do this Isabel."
Michael nodded slowly, "We have to."
She took a deep breath, willing herself to stop the quivering stomach the threatened to make a mess out of this whole thing and opened her eyes. Alex sated at her, his eyes and body calm with confidence in her ability to mix all the problems in the world. Somehow, it strengthened her to know that he had such unwavering belief in her. "Let's do it."
TBC......
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ready for the next round?
By Didi
Disclaimers: Do I really need to do this? I mean how many of you would believe me if I did say that I owned them all?
Note: Starts just at the end of Season 2 but I'm writing it my way cause I simply refused to except the way the writer screwed up that storyline. So, here's my take on the end of the episode and what happens afterwards. Forget everything that was on UPN, it didn't happen.
Caution: I can handle creative criticism and all but please no flames of any sort. Oh and if you are a Max/Liz fanatic, I doubt you'll like this story much.
"Spoken," *thoughts*
~~~~~
Kyle wished for something to drink. His throat felt like someone ran sandpaper over the inner lining of his esophagus. He's been sitting there for ten minutes now wondering if he should risk getting up and going for a glass of water. But thinking it over, he thought better of it. While both Maria and Liz had cried themselves to sleep, he couldn't risk them waking up and starting all over again.
He wondered for a moment if the hollow feeling he felt at the pit of his stomach was the same what Liz felt when she finally drifted into a fitful sleep. It hurt, physically hurt, to see her in so much agony. Wounds of the flesh were easy to cure but wounds of the soul... those leaves its mark on a person forever.
Shifting his weight in the uncomfortable chair, Kyle stared out the window where the moon was just beginning to peek out from behind some clouds that had hide it until now. Even the night was restless, full of clouds that shift and move across the sky. It look like a summer storm was headed their way.
"Kyle?"
Turning, he was startled to see Liz sit up on the bed, her eyes red and puffy. "Go back to sleep, Liz. It's early yet."
Liz brushed a lock of her dark hair away from her damp face. Glancing down, she spied Maria asleep on the bed beside her. "I don't remember her getting in with me."
"You weren't exactly up to thoughts at the time," Kyle said kindly with a look of sympathy. "She cried for you."
Liz offered a small smile. "Yeah, it would be so like her too. Maria, the ever soft hearted one in our little group of misfits." She reached out and touched a curl on Maria's head. "I've very lucky with friends."
"Liz?" Kyle said softly, offering his hand out to her. He may not be able to help Tess with whatever it was she was going through, but he could very well be there for Liz who hurt too.
For a moment, she hesitated. While Kyle and her had been close once, they have since went their own way. But no matter what was said and done, they belong to something that only those within can understand. Reaching out, she clasped hands with him and allowed him to pull her to him.
Drawing her to him, he settled her into his lap and allowed her to settle herself into the curves of his body. There was nothing sexual, nothing brotherly, nothing but friendship there in that embrace as Liz allowed herself to absorb the quiet strength in Kyle that she's never noticed before.
The last two years have been strange, almost unreal, for them. Both having died and come back by the means of something that was out of this world. It had forced them to both grow up and face the world.
For Liz, it was an awaking to something she always knew was out there, something that was never out of her realm of impossibilities. It had allowed her move comfortably from the strange awkward girl to a woman of infinite knowledge. For that alone, she will never regret knowing the aliens.
For Kyle, it forced him to see the world outside his safe little world. It propelled him from adolescent to man, opening him to the necessities of life. He understood his father's position so much more now, the hardships that came with knowledge of life. At the same time, he gave him a kind of peace and acceptance that he's never known before. The world opened more to him, all the possibilities... Seeing Max and the others, he knew that only the imagination limited them.
They sat there, in silence, just holding one another, offering and accepting comfort. It was the first time in a long while since either of them had this kind of peace.
~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Valenti hated being helpless. He was never good at standing in the sidelines when there were things to be done. But he was way out of his league here. This was something that was... unnatural yet natural all at the same time, unfamiliar and familiar all at the same time. "Get some hot water," he instructed quickly as Max and Michael gently moved Tess's unconscious body to the bed.
"What did you do to her?" Alex asked, as he dropped a cold compress to the reclining blonde's forehead. She was paler than she's ever been, and the lines of agony stood out plain on her face. "Michael!"
"Stop yelling!" Michael hollered back at the same volume as he lifted her leg and tucked a pillow under her ankles. "I didn't touch her if that's what you're asking."
"What happened Michael?" Max asked, slipping his body along the back wall and lifting her head into his lap. The once springy curls that drove him to distraction were limp and covered in sweat. She was hot to touch and paler than ice. Whatever was happening to her can't be good.
"Tess and I had a discussion," Michael replied, lowering the shields of his emotions.
"So why doesn't any one in this room believe you?" Valenti asked as he motioned Alex aside and checked her palse. "Her heart is racing and her breathing isn't too smooth either." He checked her eyes, sending a silent thanks to the powers above for that six months training course in his late twenties on emergency first aid.
"Here's the hot water," Isabel said as she brought the big pot that had been set to boil for spaghetti. "It hadn't boil yet."
"Good," Valenti replied, dipping as much of the hand towel into the scolding water as he could before lifting it to wring out. As hot to the touch as the water was, it was cool compared to the heat radiating from Tess as he patted her cheeks to get some blood circulating here. "She's burning up."
The choking cough woke her up slowly and she blinked unseeing blue eyes at the ceiling, muttering something unintelligible.
"What is she saying?" Isabel asked, her voice anxiously, her eyes searching her brother's concern face and Michael's carefully guarded one.
"It's no language I've heard of," Alex replied quietly. "But somethings, when she sleeps, she'd have conversations in that language."
"Must be Antarian," Max murmured softly as he brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "She must be reliving our lives again."
Michael said nothing, his eyes drawn to the words that were barely audible. Unlike the others, he recognized it. It wasn't so much he recognized the words, it was the intonation and way she was muttering it. He had seen her do so once before, just before her slipped into the coma that she never awoke from. It was a prayer; a prayer of last rites.
Shaking his head slowly, Michael fought the urge to curse at her. *Just when I got her to agree to the damn thing.... She goes and pulls a stunt like this. Damn it Tess, I'm not going to let you win on this one. No way, no how.* Getting up determinedly, he stomped to the living room and grabbed the stones from the back. "It's time."
Max stared at the smoothly carved stones. "We have to wait until she wakes up and talk us through the processes."
"She's not going to wake up," Michael replied, placing one stone in Isabel's outstretched hands.
Alex gasped at him while Valenti dropped the phone he had been using to call the others back. "What do you mean?"
"She's not waking up this time," Michael replied, dropping the fourth stone in Alex's limp hands. "You'll hold it to form the fourth corner of the square. Don't worry, you don't need to do anything but hold it." He gently took Isabel by the shoulder and set her three feet from Alex toward Tess's feet. Stepping onto the bed, he dropped himself across from Isabel and next to Max. "Let's get this over with."
"But we don't even know what to do?" Isabel asked her eyes wide with fear.
The shutter over Max's features came down like a ton of bricks. Dark eyes narrowing dangerously, he pinned Michael with a look that said not to mess with him. "How do you know she's not waking up?"
For a brief moment, Michael considered lying to him. But knowing Max the he did, and Max knowing him the way Max did, it would have been a pointless exercise. And with the fact that he's about to keep a whole deal with Tess under wraps, never to utter it again, it didn't set well with him to lie now. "She was saying her last rites of passage."
"Her what?" Valenti asked in disbelief before turning his pale eyes to the young woman in the bed. "You're kidding, right?"
"No," Michael replied. He shook his head impatiently; knowing that there was going to be more questions soon but now was definitely not the time. "Can we get on with this?"
Isabel stared at the body that was emitting wretchedly painful sounds. "We still don't know what to..."
"It'll come to you," Max said with reassurance as he stared at his sister, offering his strength and belief. "Tess said that you are the stabilizer, you can channel the energy into the body. I can heal it and Michael can provide the energy source. We can do this Isabel."
Michael nodded slowly, "We have to."
She took a deep breath, willing herself to stop the quivering stomach the threatened to make a mess out of this whole thing and opened her eyes. Alex sated at her, his eyes and body calm with confidence in her ability to mix all the problems in the world. Somehow, it strengthened her to know that he had such unwavering belief in her. "Let's do it."
TBC......
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ready for the next round?