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.
Author's Note: I started to write the story as if it was going to be the last. And I had sincerely thought that it was going to be the last. And then the characters decided to do a 180 on me. Don't ask how or why but you're going to have to bear with me for a little while longer while I sort through this mess that I created for myself. (sheesh)
~~~~~
"So how pissed off are you?" Alex asked quietly as he took a seat by a silently munching Tess.
Taking another bite of the ham and cheese sandwich, she ignored him for a moment in favor of watching the argument across the room on how to integrate the two of them back in Roswell. Max and Michael stood on solid on opposites sides of the argument with Valenti acting as referee and everyone else taking sides. So far, no one has bothered to ask either Tess or Alex what they wanted to do.
"Oh, I am majorly pissed at you," she answered between bites, taking sips of her juice every once in a while.
"To paraphrase you earlier, don't I even get bonus points for doing it for all the right reasons?"
"No," she replied, finishing the second sandwich Valenti had insisted on making for her. She was glad, she was honestly starving. Probably making up for all the skipped meals lately. "Since I caught hell for it, you should too."
He reached over and slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her near. "I'm not sorry you're all right."
Leaning her head against his shoulder, she sighed. There was no way she could blame him. He *did* do it for all the right reasons, even if it was against all her wises and desires. "What are we going to do, Alex?"
"We're going to do exactly what we want to do," he replied, looking up at the arguing couple. Michael was making a valid point of not drawing any more attention to themselves, as with the dead federal agents and a giant rocket shooting off into outer space. NASA and FBI agents were all over Roswell for days. "No matter what our friends and family decide."
She smiled with amusement and looked to her determined friend. "We?"
Raising a brow at her, "Yes, we. I made a promise to you a long time ago. We're in this together, come hell and alien invasions. Nothing has changed in that respect."
Her blue eyes shifted for a moment, "And what about Isabel?"
Silence told her a lot before he finally spoke. "Nothing has changed there either."
Tess rolled her eyes. "Right, her knowing that you're still kicking instead of pushing daisies don't make a difference."
"Not where you're concerned."
If there was an appropriate response to the blatant show of loyalty, she knew them not. Swallowing tears that she hadn't realized that she was about to shed, her eyes went in search of something else to occupy her mind before she embarrassed them both by bursting into tears.
Her eyes strayed to Liz, off in the corner, barely giving her opinion every once in a while. "What happened with Max and Liz?"
"Don't worry about them," he advised, brows knitting together with concern.
"Don't give me that," Tess admonished gently. "I want to know what happened to them and why I woke up with Max?"
For a moment, Alex considered lying to her and not worrying her too much. In the days that followed her first arrival, she had clung to the hope that Max would be happy with Liz. And while the thought broke her fragile heart, it also gave her hope and conviction that she did the right thing overall. Alex had reinforced that hope, telling her all the things he thought she wanted to hear. But now... "He kind of collapsed after they healed you. Didn't want to leave you when they all woke up. He didn't want you waking up alone. As for Max and Liz..." his eyes took in the haggard, dejected look on his brunette friend's face. "They came to an understanding."
Tess held her breath, her observant eyes not missing a thing but too fearful to be hopeful. Her heart couldn't taken another beating, it just couldn't. "What kind of understanding?"
Alex looked at her, "That's something you're going to have to ask one of them. I was not privileged to their conversation." He patted her shoulder and sighed. "But I don't think you'll be particularly disappointed with the results."
She looked over at Max, who was arguing on the point of staying near the pod chambers, and then looked over at Liz, who held her hands together in front of her. So far, since her awaking, she hasn't seen him so much as turn to her for anything. Liz, on the other hand, had looked to Max more often than not. She wore a look that Tess knew only too well. How many times has she seen it in the mirror? "She's sad."
Alex didn't dispute it. "Yeah."
And though she hated herself for it, a small sparkle of hope ignited in her heart. Knowing the potentially deadly fall of disappointment she stomped furiously on that spark... only it refused to die. Well... there was more than one way to skin a cat. "Alex?"
"Hum?" distracted by the halo of radiance that sat around an anxious Isabel.
"How do you like LA?"
~~~~~~~~~~
"And what exactly do you expect to tell the rest of the town?" Michael asked with exasperation. "That Tess was kidnapped by aliens and Alex rose from the dead?"
"In Roswell, that just might be believed," Maria commented dryly.
"You're not helping," Michael growled at her, brows furrowed.
"Who said I was on your side with this?" Maria shot back, crossing her arms over her chest. Michael's attitude over this whole thing was beginning to grate at her nervous. He had no consideration of anyone else except Tess. Not that she was jealous or anything like that. "I have no desire to pack up and leave Roswell."
"Michael, be reasonable there," Isabel said softly, her light color eyes shifting between her brother and her friend. "None of us can just pick up and leave without causing some uproar. And the last thing we need right now is to draw more attention to ourselves."
Michael rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because bringing Alex home isn't going to cause the biggest shock since Nixon's Watergate fiasco."
"Didn't know you were such a history buff," Isabel murmured as she looked at her brother, who was quietly fuming. "Look, we don't need to make a decision right this second. So if we all just..."
"Of course we do," Michael exploded, throwing his hands up in the air. "Hello! We can't stay here much longer without your parents sending out the national guards after us. How long do you think that 'we're going on a camping trip with Sheriff Valenti' crap is going to hold up?"
"He's right," Max added with a sigh. "Even with you playing in their dreams, we can't stay here much longer."
Liz, silent until now, offered tentatively, "How about if we just split up?"
"WHAT?" All faces turned toward her stunned.
Swallowing the unshed tears she was already beginning to feel, "All of us shifting around like a horde is more than likely to give notice to anyone, or anything, that may be watching. Max is right when he said that moving Tess back won't be that hard, given no one ever found out what happened to her. A quick lie will solve everything. But Michael is also right; Alex is another matter all together. He died in town. There are people in school that attended his funeral. Unless Tess can mindwarp the entire town, and even at her best that's doubtful, it's going to cause a scandal."
"What are you saying Liz?" Max asked quietly. "Leave Tess and Alex here? On their own? Like none of this ever happened?"
"No..." she protested.
"Of course not," Michael added determinedly. "I'll stay with them. Make sure nothing happens to Tess or the baby."
Maria stared at him, shocked. "Michael!"
"I gave my word, Max," Michael added, his eyes watching his friend's steadily. All his life, he's felt this strange void in his life. Everyone had a place in the universe except him. But now... Remembering gave him something, something powerfully good, a purpose. "I promised to protect her, with my life if necessary. I failed once. That isn't going to happen again."
"But Michael..." Isabel started to protest but was stopped as Max raised one hand to her.
Nodding his head with understanding, Max held his hand to his friend, pressing his palm to Michael's forearm. Sheen of warmth flowed from his hand to imprint itself to Michael's. He didn't understand it but he knew it was right. Plus... it was familiar. "Pledge your loyalty to your queen."
"No!" Tess called out, scrambling to her feet from across the room. She recognized it even if no one else did.
His fist to his heart, Michael recited from distant memory. A language none of them remembers, in words none of them knew; but the meaning they all understood. It was almost musical in tone but held a note of solidness that offered gravity to the promise.
Tess reached Max just as he pulled his hand away, the emblem of the king forever marking his friend. She watched with both fascination and horror as the glowing V symbol of the royal house stood out plain from beneath Michael's tee shirt. "Oh my god, what have you done?"
Max didn't reply as Tess continued to stare. He watched her with a silent resolve.
"You idiot!" Tess hit Michael in the arm as hard as she could then yapped as her hand went numb with pain.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Alex instructed as he grabbed Tess's hand into both of his and squeezed tight, pushing pass the sting. "For such a smart girl, you do the dumbest things sometimes."
Hissing at Alex, she glared at Max before she realized he was still watching her, hand glowing with unshed power. "Oh no you don't!" backing away, putting Alex between her and her former husband. "Don't even consider it."
"Tess," he replied, quite calmly for someone that had only moments before in the mist of a heated argument. "It's for the best."
"Yeah right!" she spat back at him, continuing to back toward the door even as she watched Michael move to stop her. "Stay where you are, Rath...eh... Michael. Don't think for a moment that this is going to work. I won't be bullied into this!"
"What are you talking about?" Maria asked, her eyes never leaving the glowing imprint on Michael's forearm. "Michael, what did you and Max just do to each other?"
"Max?" Isabel whispered, her eyes wide with incomprehensible dread. She knew this, this whole thing but it made no sense to her. All she knew was that this was important... this was something that one couldn't turn back from.
"Alex, get out of the way," Max advised softly, still slowly advancing on them.
"Max," eyeing his hand with more caution since he first met his alien friend, Alex pushed Tess back as far as he could without loosing touch of her. "What are you going to do?"
"Alex, get out of the way," Michael echoed his king and made a grab for Tess that she easily knocked away. "Tess..."
"Don't 'Tess' me!" she said scrambling over the coffee table and around to behind Valenti. "I didn't agree to this. And I don't plan on going through this either. For goodness sakes, Michael. If you remember even half of what you say you do, you'd remember what happened the last time we did this!"
It didn't phase him at all but Max stopped, hand wavering in mid-air. "Michael..."
"Don't!" he pointed one finger out to stop him. The determination bright in his eyes, "I went into it willingly and I'm doing it again. Only this time it's for her and not you."
"And look what it got you the last time!" Tess shot back from behind Valent's and Kyle, having maneuvered the father by the pant waist to behind the son. "Or did you forget how you died!"
Michael paused, avoiding Max and Isabel's eyes as they both stared in shock. This wasn't the time nor place for such discussions. And he didn't want them knowing. Tess had been right before, there was no need for them to know. No need at all. "Tess..."
"I won't do it, Michael," one hand on Valenti's belt and one hand closing over the doorknob of the bedroom door. "I'm not putting myself and you through that."
"I'm doing this for you," Michael replied, calmly as he advanced at Kyle. "Kyle... you want Tess to be safe, right?"
Kyle was torn between the unknown and his heart. Eyes shifting from Michael's glowing mark on his forearm to Max's still glowing hand. They were both deathly calm and sure of themselves... well, at least Michael was. Max seemed to be having second thoughts now, but he was sure it had nothing to do with what they are attempting to do and everything with what Tess had said. Tess was healthy now... Wasn't that enough? No... it wasn't. She was still in danger. "Yeah, I want her safe."
"Then move aside," Michael ordered, his manners changing already.
"Don't let them do this!" Tess pleaded with Valenti has she turned the doorknob slowly, hoping, praying no one noticed.
"Michael, wait," Valenti said putting his hand out, stopping the teen from coming closer as Kyle stepped slowly aside, eyes apologetic. "I don't know what's going on and I'm not sure I want to. And while I understand that you want to protect Tess with whatever this is, she should be able to weigh in on this every bit as much as you have. You can't just enforce your will on her. It's not right."
"Yeah," Michael agreed slowly, lips curling dryly at him. "Just like it wasn't her right to decide how our futures should be when she concocted this crazy plan of hers to die for us. Turn about is fair play. Please move, I don't want to have to hurt you."
"I can't let you do this."
"You cannot stop me."
"I will if I have to," Valenti replied, his hand on his hip holster.
"You're not going to have to," Tess announced, shoving Valenti forward before slamming the bedroom door shut.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This story kind of got away from me again. (Scratches head) How the heck did that happen?!?
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.
Author's Note: I started to write the story as if it was going to be the last. And I had sincerely thought that it was going to be the last. And then the characters decided to do a 180 on me. Don't ask how or why but you're going to have to bear with me for a little while longer while I sort through this mess that I created for myself. (sheesh)
~~~~~
"So how pissed off are you?" Alex asked quietly as he took a seat by a silently munching Tess.
Taking another bite of the ham and cheese sandwich, she ignored him for a moment in favor of watching the argument across the room on how to integrate the two of them back in Roswell. Max and Michael stood on solid on opposites sides of the argument with Valenti acting as referee and everyone else taking sides. So far, no one has bothered to ask either Tess or Alex what they wanted to do.
"Oh, I am majorly pissed at you," she answered between bites, taking sips of her juice every once in a while.
"To paraphrase you earlier, don't I even get bonus points for doing it for all the right reasons?"
"No," she replied, finishing the second sandwich Valenti had insisted on making for her. She was glad, she was honestly starving. Probably making up for all the skipped meals lately. "Since I caught hell for it, you should too."
He reached over and slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her near. "I'm not sorry you're all right."
Leaning her head against his shoulder, she sighed. There was no way she could blame him. He *did* do it for all the right reasons, even if it was against all her wises and desires. "What are we going to do, Alex?"
"We're going to do exactly what we want to do," he replied, looking up at the arguing couple. Michael was making a valid point of not drawing any more attention to themselves, as with the dead federal agents and a giant rocket shooting off into outer space. NASA and FBI agents were all over Roswell for days. "No matter what our friends and family decide."
She smiled with amusement and looked to her determined friend. "We?"
Raising a brow at her, "Yes, we. I made a promise to you a long time ago. We're in this together, come hell and alien invasions. Nothing has changed in that respect."
Her blue eyes shifted for a moment, "And what about Isabel?"
Silence told her a lot before he finally spoke. "Nothing has changed there either."
Tess rolled her eyes. "Right, her knowing that you're still kicking instead of pushing daisies don't make a difference."
"Not where you're concerned."
If there was an appropriate response to the blatant show of loyalty, she knew them not. Swallowing tears that she hadn't realized that she was about to shed, her eyes went in search of something else to occupy her mind before she embarrassed them both by bursting into tears.
Her eyes strayed to Liz, off in the corner, barely giving her opinion every once in a while. "What happened with Max and Liz?"
"Don't worry about them," he advised, brows knitting together with concern.
"Don't give me that," Tess admonished gently. "I want to know what happened to them and why I woke up with Max?"
For a moment, Alex considered lying to her and not worrying her too much. In the days that followed her first arrival, she had clung to the hope that Max would be happy with Liz. And while the thought broke her fragile heart, it also gave her hope and conviction that she did the right thing overall. Alex had reinforced that hope, telling her all the things he thought she wanted to hear. But now... "He kind of collapsed after they healed you. Didn't want to leave you when they all woke up. He didn't want you waking up alone. As for Max and Liz..." his eyes took in the haggard, dejected look on his brunette friend's face. "They came to an understanding."
Tess held her breath, her observant eyes not missing a thing but too fearful to be hopeful. Her heart couldn't taken another beating, it just couldn't. "What kind of understanding?"
Alex looked at her, "That's something you're going to have to ask one of them. I was not privileged to their conversation." He patted her shoulder and sighed. "But I don't think you'll be particularly disappointed with the results."
She looked over at Max, who was arguing on the point of staying near the pod chambers, and then looked over at Liz, who held her hands together in front of her. So far, since her awaking, she hasn't seen him so much as turn to her for anything. Liz, on the other hand, had looked to Max more often than not. She wore a look that Tess knew only too well. How many times has she seen it in the mirror? "She's sad."
Alex didn't dispute it. "Yeah."
And though she hated herself for it, a small sparkle of hope ignited in her heart. Knowing the potentially deadly fall of disappointment she stomped furiously on that spark... only it refused to die. Well... there was more than one way to skin a cat. "Alex?"
"Hum?" distracted by the halo of radiance that sat around an anxious Isabel.
"How do you like LA?"
~~~~~~~~~~
"And what exactly do you expect to tell the rest of the town?" Michael asked with exasperation. "That Tess was kidnapped by aliens and Alex rose from the dead?"
"In Roswell, that just might be believed," Maria commented dryly.
"You're not helping," Michael growled at her, brows furrowed.
"Who said I was on your side with this?" Maria shot back, crossing her arms over her chest. Michael's attitude over this whole thing was beginning to grate at her nervous. He had no consideration of anyone else except Tess. Not that she was jealous or anything like that. "I have no desire to pack up and leave Roswell."
"Michael, be reasonable there," Isabel said softly, her light color eyes shifting between her brother and her friend. "None of us can just pick up and leave without causing some uproar. And the last thing we need right now is to draw more attention to ourselves."
Michael rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because bringing Alex home isn't going to cause the biggest shock since Nixon's Watergate fiasco."
"Didn't know you were such a history buff," Isabel murmured as she looked at her brother, who was quietly fuming. "Look, we don't need to make a decision right this second. So if we all just..."
"Of course we do," Michael exploded, throwing his hands up in the air. "Hello! We can't stay here much longer without your parents sending out the national guards after us. How long do you think that 'we're going on a camping trip with Sheriff Valenti' crap is going to hold up?"
"He's right," Max added with a sigh. "Even with you playing in their dreams, we can't stay here much longer."
Liz, silent until now, offered tentatively, "How about if we just split up?"
"WHAT?" All faces turned toward her stunned.
Swallowing the unshed tears she was already beginning to feel, "All of us shifting around like a horde is more than likely to give notice to anyone, or anything, that may be watching. Max is right when he said that moving Tess back won't be that hard, given no one ever found out what happened to her. A quick lie will solve everything. But Michael is also right; Alex is another matter all together. He died in town. There are people in school that attended his funeral. Unless Tess can mindwarp the entire town, and even at her best that's doubtful, it's going to cause a scandal."
"What are you saying Liz?" Max asked quietly. "Leave Tess and Alex here? On their own? Like none of this ever happened?"
"No..." she protested.
"Of course not," Michael added determinedly. "I'll stay with them. Make sure nothing happens to Tess or the baby."
Maria stared at him, shocked. "Michael!"
"I gave my word, Max," Michael added, his eyes watching his friend's steadily. All his life, he's felt this strange void in his life. Everyone had a place in the universe except him. But now... Remembering gave him something, something powerfully good, a purpose. "I promised to protect her, with my life if necessary. I failed once. That isn't going to happen again."
"But Michael..." Isabel started to protest but was stopped as Max raised one hand to her.
Nodding his head with understanding, Max held his hand to his friend, pressing his palm to Michael's forearm. Sheen of warmth flowed from his hand to imprint itself to Michael's. He didn't understand it but he knew it was right. Plus... it was familiar. "Pledge your loyalty to your queen."
"No!" Tess called out, scrambling to her feet from across the room. She recognized it even if no one else did.
His fist to his heart, Michael recited from distant memory. A language none of them remembers, in words none of them knew; but the meaning they all understood. It was almost musical in tone but held a note of solidness that offered gravity to the promise.
Tess reached Max just as he pulled his hand away, the emblem of the king forever marking his friend. She watched with both fascination and horror as the glowing V symbol of the royal house stood out plain from beneath Michael's tee shirt. "Oh my god, what have you done?"
Max didn't reply as Tess continued to stare. He watched her with a silent resolve.
"You idiot!" Tess hit Michael in the arm as hard as she could then yapped as her hand went numb with pain.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Alex instructed as he grabbed Tess's hand into both of his and squeezed tight, pushing pass the sting. "For such a smart girl, you do the dumbest things sometimes."
Hissing at Alex, she glared at Max before she realized he was still watching her, hand glowing with unshed power. "Oh no you don't!" backing away, putting Alex between her and her former husband. "Don't even consider it."
"Tess," he replied, quite calmly for someone that had only moments before in the mist of a heated argument. "It's for the best."
"Yeah right!" she spat back at him, continuing to back toward the door even as she watched Michael move to stop her. "Stay where you are, Rath...eh... Michael. Don't think for a moment that this is going to work. I won't be bullied into this!"
"What are you talking about?" Maria asked, her eyes never leaving the glowing imprint on Michael's forearm. "Michael, what did you and Max just do to each other?"
"Max?" Isabel whispered, her eyes wide with incomprehensible dread. She knew this, this whole thing but it made no sense to her. All she knew was that this was important... this was something that one couldn't turn back from.
"Alex, get out of the way," Max advised softly, still slowly advancing on them.
"Max," eyeing his hand with more caution since he first met his alien friend, Alex pushed Tess back as far as he could without loosing touch of her. "What are you going to do?"
"Alex, get out of the way," Michael echoed his king and made a grab for Tess that she easily knocked away. "Tess..."
"Don't 'Tess' me!" she said scrambling over the coffee table and around to behind Valenti. "I didn't agree to this. And I don't plan on going through this either. For goodness sakes, Michael. If you remember even half of what you say you do, you'd remember what happened the last time we did this!"
It didn't phase him at all but Max stopped, hand wavering in mid-air. "Michael..."
"Don't!" he pointed one finger out to stop him. The determination bright in his eyes, "I went into it willingly and I'm doing it again. Only this time it's for her and not you."
"And look what it got you the last time!" Tess shot back from behind Valent's and Kyle, having maneuvered the father by the pant waist to behind the son. "Or did you forget how you died!"
Michael paused, avoiding Max and Isabel's eyes as they both stared in shock. This wasn't the time nor place for such discussions. And he didn't want them knowing. Tess had been right before, there was no need for them to know. No need at all. "Tess..."
"I won't do it, Michael," one hand on Valenti's belt and one hand closing over the doorknob of the bedroom door. "I'm not putting myself and you through that."
"I'm doing this for you," Michael replied, calmly as he advanced at Kyle. "Kyle... you want Tess to be safe, right?"
Kyle was torn between the unknown and his heart. Eyes shifting from Michael's glowing mark on his forearm to Max's still glowing hand. They were both deathly calm and sure of themselves... well, at least Michael was. Max seemed to be having second thoughts now, but he was sure it had nothing to do with what they are attempting to do and everything with what Tess had said. Tess was healthy now... Wasn't that enough? No... it wasn't. She was still in danger. "Yeah, I want her safe."
"Then move aside," Michael ordered, his manners changing already.
"Don't let them do this!" Tess pleaded with Valenti has she turned the doorknob slowly, hoping, praying no one noticed.
"Michael, wait," Valenti said putting his hand out, stopping the teen from coming closer as Kyle stepped slowly aside, eyes apologetic. "I don't know what's going on and I'm not sure I want to. And while I understand that you want to protect Tess with whatever this is, she should be able to weigh in on this every bit as much as you have. You can't just enforce your will on her. It's not right."
"Yeah," Michael agreed slowly, lips curling dryly at him. "Just like it wasn't her right to decide how our futures should be when she concocted this crazy plan of hers to die for us. Turn about is fair play. Please move, I don't want to have to hurt you."
"I can't let you do this."
"You cannot stop me."
"I will if I have to," Valenti replied, his hand on his hip holster.
"You're not going to have to," Tess announced, shoving Valenti forward before slamming the bedroom door shut.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This story kind of got away from me again. (Scratches head) How the heck did that happen?!?