Title: Whom among us Part three

Author: Chris Kenworthy

Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com

Rating: PG-13 for now

Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. ;-) I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.

Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, now based at http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy

Author's notes: Future fic. Assumes that Liz has a lot more luck cutting Max out of her life after 'End of the world.' There's been a lot of furor over whether this qualifies as a dreamer fic, so watch out if you have no tolerance for rebel-ness.

Spoilers: End of the world. Scattered concepts after that.

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"I can't believe this," Isabel muttered under her breath. "In an institution of this size, surely temporary accommodations must be available..."

"There *are* facilities, Miss Evans," the guy at the housing office sighed, looking first up at the clock, then down Isabel's shirt. "But we're not a hotel, and I can't just assign you an eight-occupant suite in exchange for cash. There have to be authorizations, reservations approved..."

Isabel had had enough. Switching mental gears, she turned on her alien power. Communicating with someone with words and subconscious imagery was uncomfortable and difficult, but possible after all the practice she had had, if the receiver was right there in front of her. What's more, it was a one-two persuasive punch that most people were hardly equipped to resist.

"I'm afraid I don't have my paperwork, with me," she whispered, pulling a small pocketbook out of her jeans, and removing two hundreds, also 'accidentally' half pulling out one of her fake ID's so that housing-boy would get a good look at the name. Belle Evans, (which wasn't exactly a fake name, but it wasn't the variant she normally used, so it would do.)

Subconscious thought: joking around with a friend, (don't worry about who, the boy's old mind will fill in the face.) Friend told him about an eccentric woman, Belle Evans, young enough to pass for a college student herself, but she was in tight with the upper circles of the University administration. "She doesn't like to make a big deal about her connections, until she's using them to fire someone. Believe me, you don't want to get on her bad side."

"I... Are you trying to bribe me, miss?" the guy squeaked out. Looking into his eyes, Isabel could tell that it wasn't quite working yet. He wasn't sure whether to trust the 'memory,' thought he was just making it up. Time to try harder.

"Not at all," Isabel replied. More details into his subconscious - 'friend' showing him a picture of Isabel in a beautiful evening gown with her blonde hair pinned up. "I just think that you could find an apartment you can rent me and my friends," -- housing-guy reacted with doubt to his friend at the time: 'how would a girl like that get in with the University governors?' "for a fair price, without violating any University protocols." Place the money in his hand. 'Whatcha think buddy? She's probably a bit of nookie on the side for the Chancellor or something. Man, a body like that... can you imagine her trying to *really* impress you??'

Housing-boy exploded into a splutter of coughs, blushing. Isabel did her best to keep a cucumber-cool composure as she looked back towards him, and ended up letting slip a quirky smile, which kind of worked too. "Umm... I'll... I'll need an extra sixty-seven eighty-five," he bluffed, holding out his hand. Isabel gave him another hundred without a second thought. He was squeezing them, but the cash was not an object. In exchange, two keyrings were passed back. "Number six-fourteen in the Congreve tower. Follow the path left when you go out these doors." He flushed again. "Come back in the evening within four days to return the keys or, umm... renegotiate."

"Thanks." Isabel flashed him a grin and left, swinging her hips just a little. As soon as she was back outside the double doors of the office building, she burst into helpless laughter at what she had just done. Or was that what 'Belle' had just done?

* * * * *

Liz sat up in bed for the hundredth time and stared at the glowing blue LED's of her clock radio. 2:37 am. Past two-thirty in the morning and she *still* could not get to sleep.

It wasn't because of Max. Well, not directly. Every so often Liz got hit with insomnia, normally when there was something very important happening in the morning. Strange kind of irony, but it was as if she couldn't get her body to calm down enough to get the rest she so badly needed.

It had been like this the night before she started high school (a year before she met Max...) and before leaving on the trip to work at Mauna Kea Observatory two summers ago. Well, she wasn't getting anything accomplished by lying here in the dark. In fact, it was just making her feel more nervous and antsy and fidgety and... No, she'd get up, put on some warm clothes and take a bit of a walk around. The cool March night air would calm her down. (Luckily, it didn't often get very cold in Arizona, any more than in New Mexico.)

Liz pounced up out of the bed and switched her light on. Now, what of her clothes would be most comfortable outside? The dark green pants were normally pretty warm. The snug lavender sweater that Grandma gave her, fuzzy socks and her running shoes, and the tuque Kyle had sent after taking his trip to Alaska. Within ten minutes of turning the lights on, Liz was leaving her residence, walking amidst the nightscape of the University, still brightly lit by polelamps and lights shining from building walls everywhere.

It was so quiet, though. All the parties were over now, and there wasn't a single other figure that Liz could see anywhere. Without conscious thought, she headed up the main walkway that would take her between two other residence towers, past the science building and the library, near the main lecture halls and finally to the student union, if she took it that far.

Boy, how weird was it to see Max and his 'family' again after all these years? Automatically, her mind cast back to when she had started to cut the ties with him, at his future self's insistence. It had seemed to Liz that just making Max think that she had slept with Kyle wouldn't be enough. She had to make a clean break, to separate herself from him, or their usual chemistry would re-assert itself. Or, horror of horrors, the truth about Liz and Kyle and future-max would come out.

She had begged out of an expedition up to the mysterious Copper Summit, the home of Congresswoman Whittaker. At the time, four hours in a car with Max, Tess, and Isabel had seemed like a very not-good idea. It had actually been something of an ugly scene at the time, with Michael going on about her being the only one with a legitimate connection to Whittaker and Max accusing her of selfishness. In the end, Isabel had gone pretending to be Liz Parker, Whittaker's assistant, in the hopes that no-one would know the difference. But she had been recognized as an alien by the Skins anyway, and... well, there had been a whole big thing.

Some of the time Liz had still gotten involved despite her best intentions, like the Skins' attack on Roswell, and sometimes she had just heard what happened second or third-hand, like the big 'Summit' the next spring. But mostly Liz had drifted away, not just from Max and the aliens, but even from Kyle, Alex, and Maria. Now she basically knew where her old friends were, as she had told Max, but hadn't heard from them in months. Oh, except Maria, who still called Liz every other Saturday at eight on the dot.

Suddenly, other footsteps impinged on Liz's awareness. She looked up towards the lecture hall, where someone had just rounded the corner that led to the graduate apartments. Max. Of course. Liz couldn't help laughing. "We've got to stop meeting like this."

"Speak for yourself, Miss Parker." Max was grinning at her, and he seemed totally different from when she had seen him just earlier today. Suaver, more carefree. Like the burdens of a world had been lifted up off of his shoulders for a few precious hours.

Liz had to smile back. "I guess you couldn't sleep either, huh?"

"Oh, sleep." Max pshawed. "I never sleep before a raid."

That raised Liz's eyebrows. "Just how often do you do this sort of thing, Max Evans??"

"I'm not sure," Max admitted. "As you might remember, covert operations is sometimes the name of the game. Stinging guidance counsellors, planting surveillance devices, tampering with bones..."

"Yeah, I remember," Liz assured him with a chuckle. "So, is that what it's been like since I've been gone? Just more sophomore hijinks??"

Max thought about that for a second. "The stakes have gone up," he decided, "and a few new players have dealt themselves in. But the basic rules of the game never seem to change much."

"You seem to be handling it well," Liz observed. "You, and Tess, and everyone else. Like you're a well-oiled alien machine."

"We do our best." That brought a lull to the conversation for a long while, as the two old friends walked on in silence. By some sort of unspoken agreement they turned away from the path that led back to the student centre and passed between the history building and the psych complex.

"So," Liz said, wanting to fill the quiet moment. "You said you remembered your past life now... on your home world. With Tess. What... what was it like?" And what just possessed me to ask that question?

"Um, th-that's..." Max stuttered, and took a break. "That's a pretty big question, Liz. What kind of things were you wondering?"

"Er..." Liz tried to think of something that wouldn't hurt her to know. "How did you meet Tess? I mean..." Oh, good one.

"How I met Evani?" Max laughed softly, and seemed to get a faraway look in his eyes. "I would've been... oh, two cycles old... that'd be about six year in our human terms. She was the daughter of a high-born noble family, and so someone who could understand what Vilandra and I went through, as crown prince and princess." He took a deep breath.

"S-so you were childhood friends?" Liz summarized not sure what else to say.

"Yeah." Max was on a roll. "Things weren't safe for Evani in her home province, so she can to live with us for a while when she was three cycles old. She was Vilandra's best friend. I can still see them playing hide and seek all over the palace." He chuckled. "Their special powers were already starting to develop, so Evani cast illusions to try to misdirect 'Landra or spook her into giving up her hiding place. And my sister would just try to see into Evani's mind and see where she was hiding."

"And let me guess," Liz finished up sourly. "She stayed with you guys until you realized you loved her and got married."

"Oh no. She went back home before the cycle was over - the extremists who had been threatening her death got rooted out. But we stayed friends, and when my..." Max choked off for a second. "When my father was killed, I needed a royal bride. Ke'Var was already saying that the monarchy was insupportable and trying to raise support for a civilian government."

"With himself as first citizen, I assume?" Liz put in.

"Exactly. Part of our plan for heading him off was to play up the royal tradition, which meant having a queen. Evani knew the drill, she was loyal and capable, and pretty. She was the obvious choice."

"So that's how it was," Liz breathed with a sigh of relief. "A marriage of convenience, no love?" Careful, girl. You're getting too invested here.

The comment stopped Max short. "I'm not sure. At the time, I would have said I loved Evani. She was one of the dearest people in my life, aside from my mother and Vilandra. I was only five and a half cycles, and I didn't know much about love. We didn't have a great and fiery passion in our marriage, but I wanted very much to make things work. But then Ke'var started a revolution." He moaned with the pain of the memories. "New topic. What've you been up to since leaving Roswell, Liz?"

Liz took a deep breath and prepared for the conversation to reverse polarity. "Not much. Did the whole 'freshman, finding myself' thing, and then kinda settled down into the sciences."

"You always did like science," Max said reminiscently. "You said you could depend on it." Liz let that memory go by without comment. "Anything else besides school in your life? Any boyfriends??"

"Hmm... a few," Liz admitted. "I was 'seen' with Randy Davis from homecoming through spring finals last year." Randy Davis who, now that Liz thought of him, looked quite a bit like Max... oh god... "But we stopped seeing each other as friends. There really hasn't been anybody... that serious in my life."

Was it just her imagination, or did Max look as relieved as Liz had felt when she thought his marriage to 'Evani' was just convenience?? "So, university," he said with a smile. "Is it everything you expected it to be?"

"Yes, and no," Liz qualified. "In a lot of way, it's just like I always hoped. The only thing wrong is..." She trailed off uncertainly.

"What??"

"So lonely," Liz finally finished. "I always thought Liz and Alex and I would go to the same school. Maybe Kyle too. And there was a time when it wouldn't have been too outrageous an idea that you be here with me." She waited for Max to say something but he didn't. "I know, it isn't your fault that we've all grown apart. It's mine."

"I didn't say that," Max insisted fiercely. "So, do you get back home often? Visit your parents, Maria? I hear that the Crashdown is still going strong."

"Not as often as I'd like." That was a half-truth. Liz hadn't set foot in Roswell in more than two years, ever since she tried to spend the Christmas break with her parents. She ended up leaving town in a car with Maria on boxing day and ending up at a New Year's eve bash an Arizona State acquaintance was throwing in Baja. There had just been too many emptinesses to bear in Roswell.

"Okay, that's it," she finally said. "Switch again."

"That wasn't a very long turn," Max protested, laughter dancing deep behind his big brown eyes.

"Tell it to the Quizmaster."

"Wh-"

"You heard me!!" Liz insisted.

"Yes, yes I did. What Quizmaster??"

"The one in charge of old friends asking painfully probing questions of each other," she explained. "What's the deal with you and Tess now? Are you, like, married? For real??" According to the time-frame Future Max had given her, she would have married Max years ago in the original timeline. Somehow, she couldn't help comparing.

"We..." Max hesitated a second. "We've never been married on Earth. Tess thought it would be disrespectful to our heritage, to pretend that our original wedding didn't count just because it was different from everything on Earth."

"It was also another lifetime," Liz muttered under her breath. Max glared at her. (Couldn't she ever seem to say anything that he wouldn't hear?) "I'm just saying, it wouldn't seem inappropriate to have a renewal ceremony or whatever."

"I think we did, kind of," Max said slowly. "When Michael and Isabel had their joining ceremony, Tess and I stood by them. That was when we first started really living as husband and wife."

"I... I see," Liz whispered. "And do you love her, Max?"

"I -" Max started, and then looked at her, Each of them was brightly lit by a light standing off to one side. Max had probably never looked so handsome, and she wondered if he still thought she was beautiful. "I... I don't think this is something we should be talking about anymore, Liz."

"You're... you're probably right," she agreed. "I'm feeling like sleep isn't so impossible after all, so maybe I'll get back to my dorm, and let you just continue prowling the campus alone."

"I think that's a good idea."

"Goodnight, Max." Liz headed off towards where the north path began, a few yards from where they were standing and then turned back. "Hey, Max! One more question?" she called out.

"What is it, Liz?"

"What was Michael, back on your home planet? A Duke or something??"

Max laughed. "Michael wasn't noble-born, and boy was he pissed when he found *that* out. Rev was the son of my father's chief bodyguard, who was also my tactics tutor. But Rev was also knighted when he was five cycles old and got my sister to agree to marry him."

Liz thought about that. "See you bright and early tomorrow morning, Max."

* * * * *

Bright and early was not an understatement. The morning sun seemed to burn down from the eastern horizon as Liz headed towards the point near the Chemistry lab complex that Max had chosen for a rendezvous point yesterday. The time on her watch was one minute to eight o'clock.

"You're early," a voice accused her. When Liz turned around, (not too deliberately, she didn't want to attract any undue attention,) she realized it was one of the four 'Others.' He was none too tall, with a balding head and black moustache and beard. Like all of the 'others,' he seemed to be in his early thirties, making Liz wonder if they had come out of their pods earlier, or grown longer while still 'incubated.' Come to think of it, she knew almost nothing about these 'new' aliens.

"By a minute," she whispered. "I don't tend to time out my movements to the second."

"Amateur."

"You're here too!" Liz protested.

"We're supposed to be. That's in the plan. You showing up before eight isn't."

"Break it up," Max said, getting between the two of them. "Okay. Michael, Liz, Kenner, you're alpha team. It's up to you to actually infiltrate the observatory and retrieve the data we need. Isabel, Tess, and Bentor are back at the room. If anything goes wrong, Isabel will hopefully read it in your subconscious thoughts. The first reaction will be by Tess, who will use her power to create a diversion, or a screen of illusion to hide you, or whatever you most need. Meanwhile, Is and Bentor will be formulating a rescue plan and letting us," (and Max gestured to himself and the two remaining 'Others,') "implement it. Clear?"

"Do we really need this complicated a plan?" Liz muttered to herself.

"You'd be surprised," Michael told her snidely. "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."

"I'm aware of Murphy's first law," she shot back. "Okay, come on, let's go." She led her two 'charges' off toward the Markman building. Though Michael might be thinking that they have to take care of her, but Liz felt reasonably certain of her indispensability since she was the one who knew where they were going.

Although there were more people than Liz had expected walking down the path at eight o'clock on a Friday morning, none of them seemed to pay any attention to her little party, and the first floor of the Markman building seemed deserted. Silently she brought them up the main stairwell to the second story, then the third, then the fourth. Across the corridor on the fourth floor, (waving hello to a silent janitor,) and up a less conspicuous flight of stairs, and Liz was staring at the door to the main observatory.

"Locked, as always," she muttered, looking at the electronic combination security device on the door. "But my student combination should get us in."

"Too risky," Michael said. "It could flash us up onto a monitor at campus security. Allow me." He squeezed past her to the door, and waved his hand over the lock, his eyes closed in concentration. Suddenly the display flashed 'ACCESS GRANTED - PROFESSOR LEVEL.' A second, and then 'SILENT MODE.' Michael opened the doorway, and Liz and 'Kenner' hurried in. Before closing the door, Michael waved at the lock once again.

"It shouldn't even have reported us, and we'll be able to get out without any trouble, but only if we leave within four minutes," he summarized. "So, what do we take??"

Liz had sat down at the computer terminal connected to the main telescope and the electronic camera attached to it. "Umm... take a look over there, see if there are any photographic prints," she suggested, pointing over to a large table while booting up the computer. "We can't swipe the negatives, that's too big a giveaway. Really careful track is kept of them. But if we take some of the prints, then everybody will just think some other professor wanted to take them for further study."

"Okay," Michael said, going over to the table and looking around. "Score!! What kind of prints do we want?"

"Umm..." Liz was concentrating on navigating the computer's file system as quickly as possible. "Just hang on a second." Soon she had her place and was copying observation records and digital images to a Jaz disk. "Anything that seems different from the rest, that shows something unique or interesting about the Oddity."

"Uh, okay..." Michael started shuffling through papers. "How much time?"

"Two minutes, forty-five seconds," Kenner announced. Seconds and then minutes ticked away in silence, as Liz watched the computer do her dirty work and Michael inventoried all of the photographs and selected four.

"Time check?" he called out for the third or fourth time.

"Twenty-two seconds."

"Okay, we'll have to make do with what we've got," Liz decided, cancelling all further file transfers. She had over seven megs of data so far, so that sounded good enough. If only it was the right seven megs. She popped out the disk and hurried over to the door, which Kenner was holding open for her.

They rocketed down the observatory stairs and the first flight of the stairwell back down to the third story, motivated more by adrenalin than any real fear of discovery, as far as Liz could say. But on the third floor the door opened and two campus security officers stepped in, glaring at Michael with his armful of stolen photographs. "Now, just what are *you* fine folks doing raising a kuffle so early in the morning?" one of them asked.

Isabel! HELLPP!! Liz screamed mentally.