*****
Liz Parker had always considered herself to be a pretty smart person. All throughout her schooling she had been in the top three of her class, and at the moment was in the top two. She always tried to think of a practical solution to any problem that might arise, and when it came to a difficult situation she prided herself on the fact that she could somehow find a way around it. It was simple really. She lived by a method of three things…
Seek out the problem
Find a solution to said problem
Move past said problem
Of course that method had been flawed off late. Ever since discovering the true origin of Max Evans she was finding it harder each day to live by a method that she had sworn by for most of her life. Yet she tried it anyway. Standing in the Crashdown Café which her parents owned, and where she herself worked as a waitress, Liz tried to decipher her current problem. That was that both Max Evans and Sean DeLuca were sitting together at the counter gladly ignoring each other while stealing glances at her.
Now this was a problem that she so far hadn't been able to solve. And she wasn't sure how she was going to solve this one. Quite frankly she had absolutely no idea whatsoever.
Her problem with these two was complicated. She had been in love with Max, and she was sure that she still was. Even though they have had an ongoing on-off relationship which was currently in the off position, she still had deep feelings for Max, and she was sure that he felt the same. Their connection was intense. She had never felt anything like it before. He made her feel wonderful just by looking at her.
Then there was Sean, who really couldn't be anymore different from the young hybrid. She had been attracted to him ever since she could remember. He was her first crush, and her first kiss though even now he was the only one to know that little fact. She thought their attraction had faded after Sean had been sent to away but once he came back four months ago she had found that their attraction had grown and not flourished. Also she felt carefree when with him. Their connection may not be as intense as it was with Max, but it was still a connection nonetheless.
"Parker?"
Liz was broken out of her thoughts with Sean's voice. A hint of a smile was playing on his lips and Max was glaring at him, looking offended that Sean had addressed her by her surname.
She strolled over and sighed. Her heart was thundering in her chest as both of them turned their attention on her. She didn't know which one was affecting the erratic beat of her heart, but she had a slight suspicion it might be both of them.
"Yes, Sean," she sighed, glancing from the sandy blond haired boy who was highly amused to the younger dark haired one who was anything but.
"Another coffee if you don't mind," Sean smirked. "And I think I might need some more sugar," he held up the empty dish.
Liz's eyes narrowed. "You used all of the sugar?"
Sean shrugged. "Yeah."
"It was half full."
"I have a sweet tooth."
Liz felt a smile on her lips at his response. "Sean, you will be bouncing off the walls in the next few hours. It doesn't do you well for your laid back image if you're Mr. Hyperactive."
"Why, Parker, do you like my laid back image?"
His suggestive tone registered three things with Liz. One, was that she already felt the heat rise in her cheeks and she knew that everyone who was bothering to watch the exchange could also see her blush. Two, Sean was flirting with her in front of Max of all people! And three, Max himself looked like he was holding himself back from using some alien power on Sean, who was deliberately giving her a suggestive smirk that she wanted to knock of his face by either hitting him or kissing him.
Which way she wanted to rid him of his smirk she wasn't sure of because both ways seemed very tempting.
At that moment she had never been so glad to see Isabel Evans as she walked into the Crashdown and sat on the other side of Max. "Max, I have to talk to you."
Max still seemed to be glaring at Sean, and Liz began wishing and was on the verge of praying that he would turn around and talk to his sister to distract himself from Maria's cousin who was now grinning at her.
"Max," Isabel said with more urgency.
This got his attention and he turned around. "What is it?"
"Stop it, Sean," Liz took this chance to reprimand him.
Sean shrugged. "I'm not the one doing anything, Parker."
Liz shook her head, as she poured out coffee into his cup.
"There's something going on… with Alex."
Now this caught Liz's attention. "Is there something wrong with Alex?"
Isabel gave her a look that told her that something was indeed wrong with her best friend, and she felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Hey, Liz!"
Liz abruptly stopped pouring the coffee which had overflowed from the cup and was now spilling onto Sean's jacket sleeve. "Sorry."
"Do I get a discount for this?"
"Shut up, Sean," Liz dismissed him quickly. As Sean began to dab at his sleeve with napkins Liz leaned closer towards Max and Isabel. "What's wrong with Alex? Is he hurt?"
"No…" Isabel shook her head. "He's… able to do things. Things that he shouldn't be able to do."
Liz frowned and exchanged a look with Max and could tell that he was just as confused as she was. Isabel must have noticed their confusion because she lowered her voice and leaned further towards them.
"Things that only we," she whispered gesturing between herself and Max, "can do."
Liz took a step backwards. Her mind was left reeling from the news. Alex was able to do things? Alien things? How did this happen? Did something happen to him to cause this? Was he always like this and it was now just kicking in?
The questions turning in her mind were now beginning to be too much. She had all these questions that she need answers for. She had to discover what was behind all of this.
"How can he be… like us?" Max hissed to Isabel.
"I don't know," Isabel answered back in the same tone.
"Parker."
Liz turned to see Sean looking at her expectantly. He was holding up the sugar dish, and apologetically, Liz absent-mindedly began to refill it.
"You okay, Parker?" Sean asked her. While his voice was calm, she could see the concern in his eyes.
"Yeah," she nodded quickly. "Fine."
She put the dish back on the counter and was aware of Sean still watching her, but she was still distracted by the news of her best friend. "Where is he now?" she asked Isabel.
"He's parking
the car."
Liz nodded. Good. She would get to see Alex in a few minutes. Maybe something
happened to him in Sweden? Her train of thought was interrupted when she noticed
that Sean was putting a teaspoonful of sugar into his coffee cup. Her eyes narrowed
as she counted six large teaspoonful of sugar being deposited into the cup.
She let out a small gasp as he then picked up a bottle of Tabasco sauce and
shaking the bottle first, began to pour it into the cup as well.
Max and Isabel looked at her then followed her eyes and looked stunned as Sean finished with the Tabasco sauce and lifted the cup to his mouth and took a sip. Giving an audible sigh of pleasure, he smacked his lips before taking another drink. It wasn't until his third drink that he noticed that they were all watching him.
"What?" he asked clearly confused at their interest in him.
Yeah, something was definitely wrong, Liz thought as Sean shrugged nonchalantly before taking another drink.
*****
As far as Michael Guerin was concerned, life at the moment just absolutely sucked. His relationship with Maria seemed to have hit a rough spot, because obviously if she was getting visions from him and he wasn't getting any in return then obviously she must be closing herself off from him. Also he had to keep his eye on Maxwell who looked ready to punch out that jerk DeLuca who was eyeing up Liz. The King was going to lose it any minute he could tell. Thank God, Isabel had now came in so he could try and concentrate on the burgers he was cooking. He'd been burning the food all day! He shook his head in a hope to clear it, knowing that he would have to get his act together otherwise he could be soon out of a job.
He quickly glanced over to a booth in the corner that seated Laurie, Tess and Kyle. He had asked Tess to keep an eye on Laurie, who had been quite frankly been acting strangely. More than she had ever been on the road. She wasn't being erratic like she was back then, but she wasn't exactly being normal either. He woke up in the middle of the night to find her cleaning his apartment. When he asked her why she found it necessary to clean the apartment at four in the morning, she simply stated that she wasn't tired anymore.
He frowned when Laurie seemingly was asking Kyle for a try of his food, which he had seen the young Buddist pour Tabasco sauce onto. He was just about to go over there and warn Laurie not to touch it, when he noted that Kyle must have warned her about the extra flavour himself. Michael narrowed his eyes at him. He was lucky because if Kyle had to have let Laurie taste that food then Michael was prepared to take Kyle outside and show him just how real his powers were, and even Tess wouldn't have been able to stop him.
Not saying that the food would taste awful, well not to him anyway. But the alien taste buds of having food that's both extremely sweet mixed with extremely spicy didn't hold well with human's taste in food. Unless you were Kyle Valenti who was just a weird shi…
His train of thought was interrupted when Laurie nodded and dipping her own fork into Kyle's meal took a bite. This was it. He expected his sister to spit out the offending food and regret the day that she ever took anything that Kyle Valenti had to offer. But instead she… smiled. She liked it? Kyle gave her a nod of approval while Tess seemed to be as stunned as he was at her reaction. Tess looked over her shoulder to share a look with Michael, and both knew that there was something weird going on.
All thoughts of Laurie disappeared from his mind, however, when the door to the Crashdown opened and Maria and Alex entered. Alex looked around him and sighed upon seeing Liz, Max and Isabel all look at him with concern. He didn't really care what was going on there though, since Maria was looking straight at him. It felt like even from this great distance she was trying to look into his soul, but the thought of her not opening up to him while he was be open with her killed him.
He lowered his eyes and flipped the burgers on the stove. He looked up again and was vaguely aware of Kyle calling out to Alex and walking over towards him while Alex remained at the door, obviously torn between going to Kyle or doing some serious talking with the others which he really didn't look like he wanted to talk about to be honest.
He looked at Maria again who was now walking towards him. She looked beautiful like she always did. But he couldn't talk to her. He wanted to. But after all this time of asking him to open up more, well he must be doing that now. That takes a lot of trust for him to open himself to someone. So she obviously didn't trust him like he did her. Or maybe she didn't feel the same?
Suddenly she stopped and actually looked terrified. It was as if she couldn't move and when she did she quickly looked around her with the same terrified expression. Michael quickly rushed out of the kitchen and was soon standing in front of her.
"Maria?" he put his hands on her shoulders. "Maria?" he began to shake her gently.
Her eyes seemed unfocused as she stared blankly around her. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Kyle was doing the same thing. He was rooted to the spot, with an expression of confusion and fear. Michael looked around him and sure enough Alex and Sean, who was still seated at the counter were acting as strangely as Maria and Kyle were. Liz was shaking Sean's arm, as Max stood up on alert, while Isabel had already rushed over to Alex.
With a nagging thought in the back of his mind he looked over his shoulder to a booth in the corner. His suspicion was right. Tess was touching Laurie's arm, as Laurie looked horrified at whatever was happening and was slowly looking around her as if she could see something that he couldn't. All of them seemed to be like that. Like they could see something was happening to them.
Soon they all quickly looked at each other, and as quickly as they had gotten into this state they slipped out of it. Maria's eyes seemed to clear, but then became suddenly bright with what he realised was unshed tears.
"Michael…"
Michael gathered her in his arms, and pulled her into his chest. "It's okay."
"Kyle!"
He watched as Tess rushed out of the booth towards Kyle who was swaying a little. Alex was nodding absently as Isabel tried to lead him towards a chair, but he kept looking from Sean, to Maria, to Laurie, to Kyle, and would start the rotation all over again.
"What the hell was that?" he heard Sean's voice rise, which was filled with fear and confusion.
That was a question Michael wanted an answer to as well as he tightened his arms around Maria.
TBC...