He wasn't scared of the aliens themselves. He would gladly square up against Evans and his moody sidekick, Guerin any day, and while Isabel was know to be an Ice Queen, he never felt there was anything to be scared of… well, apart from when she got that bitchy way that he noticed girls got sometimes. And, Tess? Well, he could never be afraid of someone who cried into his shoulder when she saw Bambi lose his mother for the first time, and refused to ever watch anything like it again.
What did scare him was the thought that by being healed by Max Evans, he could turn into one of them. And that fear seemed to be coming true. After having such a weird couple of weeks, he tried to convince himself that it was just one of these things. Sure he felt fit, without even having to train as much. Sure he had odd eating and drinking habits, but hey he was already mixing Tabasco sauce with potato chips for the past four months now!
But what happened an hour ago in the Crashdown, threw all of his denial out of the window. He had been walking over to Alex when it happened. It wasn't quite sure how it happened but suddenly he felt himself rooted to the spot where he stood, and everything around him began to spin. Then when it slowed down, it really did [i]slow[/i] down. Everyone around him began to move slowly, like time itself had slowed down and he was the only one moving in real time. Well, not the only one. Because as he looked at Alex, he seemed just as shocked as he did over the situation and was able to move in real time too.
It was then he felt a jolt and this incredibly energy go through him, and everything began to grow darker. Everything that is besides a glow that surrounded Alex. Kyle looked around and saw that other people had the glow as well… Sean, Maria, and that Laurie girl all had the same bright blue glow around them that Alex did, and Kyle had looked down at his hand to find the outer glow surrounded him too.
They must have noticed it too as they all looked at each other with the same stunned expression, and soon the darkness faded as the energy disappeared and the people around them came back up to speed.
He was left with a sharp pain where the jolt had stabbed him, and Tess had hurried to his side asking him if he were all right.
And now an hour later he was sitting in Guerin's apartment with everyone else including Sean and Laurie. He felt restless and had been pacing the room ever since he had arrived here. It seemed that he wasn't the only one who couldn't sit as Sean stood by the door, with his hands buried deep into his jean pockets rocking on his heels nervously. Alex stood beside Liz, and Kyle noticed that his knuckles were white from clutching the kitchen counter so hard. Maria and Laurie did manage to sit, however, not comfortably.
Maria look agitated even though Michael was doing his best to calm her down by drawing little circles on her shoulder with his fingers. While Laurie looked even more agitated than Maria, if it were possible. She kept eyeing the front door as if she were ready to make a break for it, but then would clench her fist as if stopping herself from doing so.
Actually he felt like making a bolt for it himself.
"Sit down, Kyle," Isabel ordered clearly irritated at his pacing.
Kyle glared at her, but instead of sitting he stood beside Tess who gave him a reassuring smile.
"So what else did you guys see?" Liz asked them.
"Just us," Alex mumbled, seemingly not really wanting to be there just as much as he did to have this discussion. "Glowing," he added giving them all a look.
"And you felt an energy go through you?" Max was asking them.
This was getting them nowhere and the line of questioning was beginning to grate on Kyle's nerves. They had been going through this for half an hour now. "Yes, and it hurt like hell when it left. We've already told you this!"
"Kyle," Tess was now touching his arm. "We're just trying to find out what's been happening to you."
"I know what's been happening to me! I'm turning into one of you!" As soon as the words left his mouth he regretted them as Tess gave him a hurt look. "I'm sorry…"
She took a step back as if she had been slapped. "It's okay."
He knew it wasn't. "Tess…"
"Um, excuse me…"
Kyle tried to catch Tess's eye again but she had already turned in Sean's direction, just like everyone else.
"Does someone want to tell me what being one of you means?" He then looked at them suspiciously. "What are you, people?"
The others all shared looks, and Kyle was aware of the anxiety that had filled the room. This was the moment of truth where Sean DeLuca would be let in on the secret that Kyle had regretted knowing for the past year. The poor guy didn't know what he was letting himself in for.
Max shared one more look with Isabel, Michael and Tess before turning to Sean. "We aren't from this world. We were brought to Earth in nineteen forty seven and the crash that happened here was real. Alien life forms really did land in Roswell, New Mexico." He swallowed and looked Sean straight in the eye. "Us."
Kyle snorted and rolled his eyes. Evans always had to go for the dramatic affect. Even with Isabel glaring at him he didn't care. Nothing would change the fact that he always thought that Max Evans was a drama queen.
Sean shook his head and tried to laugh, but Kyle knew that after his experience he already knew it was true. "So what're you saying? You're the aliens?"
"Yes," Max nodded seriously. "And you might be too."
Kyle closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. The thing that is more frightening than knowing deep down that you're probably somehow alien, is when someone else voice's that opinion out loud. Now he actually felt the need to sit down.
*****
Alex watched as the people around them gave their own opinions on what was happening to him, and four other people. Something was changing inside him. He could feel it. He had been feeling it for the past two weeks, but now after that jolt in the Crashdown he could feel something changing in his body. He felt a tingle that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and he knew whatever went through him was powerful. At the time it seemed that it had disappeared and left just a pain behind, but now that had subsided he felt an energy run through him. One that he couldn't explain. One that he felt he shouldn't explain. Not to anyone who wasn't going through it like him.
"I don't think they were born like this," Liz was saying. "Whatever it is it's just manifesting itself now, and if it happened through birth then someone in their bloodline would have had to be alien."
"Who says they don't have aliens in their family?" Michael piped up from the sofa. "You know like the skins?
"Who?" Sean frowned.
Kyle glared at Michael. "Hey, I don't have little green men in my family. Especially anyone who is evil. I know for a fact that my parents and grandparents are all human."
"Did you ever ask them if they were alien?" Michael quipped.
Alex sighed. This was going to be a fight he knew it.
"Guys, stop," Liz ordered as she stood in between them. "It doesn't make sense for these powers to be given through birth, otherwise Sean and Laurie's powers wouldn't just develop now. They're a year older than the rest of you." She turned to Maria. "You said you've been having nightmares?"
Maria nodded. "Yeah."
"And it was like something bad was happening to you? Like you were being attacked?"
Alex had a sudden flash of being put into a blue room. Everything was blue. The walls, the ceiling, the floors, and the lighting.
"Yeah," Maria nodded suddenly pale. Alex wondered if she just had the same flashes that he did. Why he couldn't bring himself to tell them about the blue room he didn't know.
Liz was now looking at everyone again. "Maybe the reason this is happening now isn't because you were born this way, or through being in contact with Max, Isabel, Michael and Tess. Maybe you were taken by someone?" She looked around darkly. "Or something?"
Where are we?
Please don't...
Leave me alone!
Stop!
HELP!!!!!!!!
Alex shut his eyes tightly and tried to drown out the screams in his mind.
"What is it?"
Alex opened his eyes again to see everyone looking at him, Maria, Laurie, Kyle and Sean with concern and curiosity. He began to feel panic and fear, and realised that it wasn't just his own he was feeling. It was the feelings belonging to the other four.
"Nothing," Laurie said quickly.
"Just a dizzy spell," Maria added anxiously.
The others looked at the five of them suspiciously, and Alex hoped they weren't going to question them anymore. Maria got up abruptly and quickly crossed towards the front door.
"Where're you going?" Michael asked her standing up.
"I just need to…leave here," Maria said, obviously feeling trapped like he did.
"Maria, we should really discuss this?" Liz said gently.
"I know, Liz, but…" Maria looked at Alex and he nodded in understanding. He knew exactly how she felt. "I can't right now."
She opened the door and Michael reached for his jacket. "I'm coming with you."
Maria paused at the door and slowly turned to Michael. Alex could only see Michael from behind, but he watched as Maria gave a relieved smile. "Thank you."
Michael nodded and Maria walked out of the door. Max reached out a hand to stop the taller alien. "Michael, we really should discuss this more."
"It's whatever she wants, Maxwell," Michael stated putting on his denim jacket. "She'll talk when she's ready."
Max seemed like he wanted to argue this more, but Liz touched his arm to prevent him, and Max let Michael go. Isabel shared a look with Michael and nodded her understanding as Michael left the apartment.
"Well, there doesn't seem to be any need for me to hang around here," Sean said as he looked at Liz who still had her hand resting on Max's arm. She looked at him and quickly dropped her hand which made Max look from her to Sean.
"Can I have a ride back into town?" Tess asked from where she was standing with Kyle. Alex felt a pang of guilt, and realised just by looking at him that it was coming from Kyle. He glanced at Sean, who winced, and knew he must have felt it too.
"Sure. Kyle you coming?"
"Yeah, sure."
Tess quickly followed Sean out of the apartment while a gloom looking Kyle trailed behind them. Alex gave a small sigh as Max and Liz looked awkwardly around each other. Isabel shared a look with him and he knew she was thinking the same thing he was. If these two were ever going to work out they'd have to sort things out between them soon.
The side door to the apartment closed and he realised that Laurie had already slipped out of there virtually unnoticed when they had been distracted by Max and Liz. He felt bewilderment and confusion and wondered if it was his own he was feeling or hers. As Isabel tried to strike up a conversation about what was happening to break the tension in the room, Alex quietly left by the same exit as he didn't really want to answer anymore questions.
Laurie was sitting on the step to the apartment, and glanced up as Alex closed the door behind him. "Do you mind if I sit down?"
She shook her head, and Alex sat down beside her on the step. He wasn't sure what to say. He had never spoken to Laurie before and they were basically strangers. All he knew about her was that she was a blood relative of Michael's because her grandfather had been the hybrid's human donor. Also he once thought she had been nothing more than a fugitive who was leading Maria into trouble four months ago.
Of course she hadn't been, but still that's what he thought at the time.
He felt this need, however, to talk to someone. The most obvious choice would have been Liz or Maria. But Liz hadn't been through what he was experiencing and Maria had taken off. Also it looked like she wanted to be alone with Michael. The next choice would have been Isabel or one of the other aliens, but somehow there was something holding him back, a nagging doubt in the back of his mind telling him that he shouldn't share just yet with the royal four.
Then there was Kyle who had also taken off. He would gladly talk to him, but at the same time it looked like Kyle might have some problems at home tonight with Tess. It wasn't lost on Alex the look she gave the young Buddist for his outburst earlier. When he was ever going to learn to think before he spoke, Alex didn't know.
It didn't take long for Alex to decide to talk with after being left with the choices of either Sean or Laurie. Actually his decision was quick and swift. He could either choose someone who had bullied him when he was younger and hadn't done anything to redeem himself since then, even though Liz would disagree with that statement. Or he could just talk to a complete and utter stranger.
Yep, the choice was already made for him. And now he was sitting here with Laurie, not sure how to begin this conversation that he could feel that she wanted to have too.
"Are you scared?" she asked him without looking at him.
Alex hadn't been asked that yet. After been asked question after question for what seemed an eternity, no one had bothered to ask him that. "Yeah," he nodded.
Laurie looked at him and he saw in her eyes the same fear and turmoil as he felt.
"Are you?"
She nodded slowly without saying a word. Alex nodded knowingly. He did know and understand how she felt, and he was sure that Maria, Kyle, and Sean were feeling the same way. Even now that they had gone, he could still feel their fear.
"Do you think they'll come back?" Laurie was looking at her hands.
She didn't have to say who they were. He knew exactly who they were. He had nightmares about them only a week ago. "I don't know," he sighed. "But I think they will."
Laurie finally turned to him once more, this time with a grim expression. "So do I."