Whom among us, part fourteen
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: chrisk@fanfiction.net
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
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Roswell future-fic
Rating: PG
Summary: Liz's life changes when, as a university junior, she runs into Max again.
Spoilers: Up to 'end of the world,' kinda
The next time that Liz roused herself from the meditative trance she had just learned, (Thank you, Davin,) she was greeted by a voice. "Hey there, Einstein."
Something wasn't right about the voice, and Liz scanned her surroundings quickly, trying to get her bearings. She was still in the back seat of Max's car, but -- the other people had changed. Or some of them had, at any rate. Tess was still here, but Isabel and Davin had left - switched back to the big RV? In their place were Ardra, currently at the wheel, and the person who had spoken to Liz from the back seat across from her, who would be...
"Max?" she mumbled, still a little dizzy at the transition from inner world to outer reality.
"Yeah," Max agreed quietly. "I hope you don't mind."
"Can't say that you're my favorite person to open my eyes and see right about now," Liz mumbled, "but no. Don't 'mind' as such. Any reason your Majesty chose to grace his humble subjects with his presence??"
Max just smiled at her. "Okay, okay, I get the hint. I've been acting like a pompous jerk, haven't I??"
"Little bit," Liz agreed. She saw Tess start in the front seat, as if objecting to this criticism of her 'man,' but she remained silent.
"I'm really sorry," Max continued. "Your life is your own, and if you didn't want to let me back into it after this favor is done, I... would really understand why, actually."
"No, it's okay," Liz found herself saying. "I... I feel it too, what you're talking about. But it -- it's not something that I can decide right away."
"I understand," Max nodded. "So, um..." Max waved at the laptop computer in what seemed like a universal gesture among these aliens. "How are we doing on the course corrections??"
"Not bad at all," Liz informed him. "It's been bang on my projections the last couple of times I checked, and it's heading on its first trip around the Earth right now."
Max nodded. "So maybe this would be a good time to g..."
"If you're about to say 'get some sleep...'" Liz muttered.
"I am," Max confirmed. "I know Davin taught you a meditation technique, but your system need sleep too. Isn't this a good time for it?"
"Okay," Liz sighed. "I'll give it a try. You need to wake me up in three and a half hours, though. Catching a first look at this thing once it's completed cycle is going to be important - and difficult." She moaned. "Not even sure if I'll be able to get to sleep."
"I think you will," Max whispered softly. And sure enough, as Liz lay back in the seat, she could feel herself drifting off. She just felt so warm... and safe...
* * * *
"Maria... Maria!!" The deep voice rang through the RV. Michael snapped to full alertness. Kenner and Maria had been playing gin rummy at the dining room table, and it was Kenner who was calling out in alarm.
Michael was at the side of the table in moments, but already Maria was slumped insensate, her skin seeming unnaturally pale. His fingers went to her tender neck. "I'm not getting any heartbeat!!"
"I'll get Max over here," Isabel decided quickly, hurrying to the shotgun seat.
"No... no..." Kenner was mumbling, shaking his head helplessly.
Michael's mind raced. What had happened to her? Sudden heart failure? Some kind of psychic attack by extraterrestrial enemies??
"I had just knocked on eight," Kenner mumbled, "and she... she..."
Something suddenly slid into focus for Michael -- his father was play-acting. But why?? What was this scene really about?
Michael touched Maria again and connected. He wasn't trained enough to heal her... but he wasn't surprised to find out that he didn't need to. Her autonomous systems had been supressed, sending her into a very convincing looking death trance - a technique that Kenner himself had taught Michael. And Maria couldn't have done this to herself - well, one in ten thousand chance.
"Wake up, sleeping beauty," he mumbled, his voice still hoarse with the double shock, as mentally he willed the effect on Maria to reverse. Her heart woke from its slumber, her lungs once again began pumping air, and her eyes opened, looking straight into Michael's face.
"Did you agree to this?" he asked her, a little roughly.
Maria yawned, a natural reaction to the light oxygen depletion she had undergone, Michael knew. "Let's say I let myself be persuaded."
Michael turned away. He wasn't sure what to make of this, except that only one motive for the facade occured to him - to make him realize how much Maria DeLuca still meant to him by having him face the prospect of losing her forever. At that, they had been partly successful.
But he didn't like being deceived by the people who said they loved him.
"Let Max know it was a false alarm," he called out to the driver, who at this point was Alex.
A few minutes later, Isabel realized that a small scrap of paper had been tucked into her jean pocket. It read:
I understand, Iz. I'm scared too.
Alex
* * * *
Liz walked down to the foot of the stairs and looked around. Before, she had gotten annoyed very quickly with these frosh bashes, the loud music with thumping bass rhythms, the dark atmosphere punctuated by flashing lights. Tonight, though, for some reason that she coudln't put her finger on, all of that fit her mood particularly. She moved off into the festivities proper.
"What'll you have, beautiful??" Ah, yes, how could she have forgotten? The alcohol, which seemed to flow freely at these things, from fellow student to fellow student, and no asking for IDs of course. She hadn't refused or made a big deal out of asking for dry alternatives just because of the statutory limit, when no one else seemed to be. "Bud draft."
As the guy behind the little table poured her drink out of a keg, she caught sight of herself in the mirror behind him. She still wasn't used to seeing these brownish-red curls framing her face -- the girl in the room next door on her residence floor had dared her to perm and dye her hair. She had almost gone for a dark blonde, but chickened out in the end and gone for a less drastic change.
She'd hoped that the new hair would help her make a clean break from her old life a little more easily, and maybe it did, a little, but it was also disconcerting. She'd probably--
"There you go."
"Huh??" Oh - her drink was ready. She reached out and took the plastic cup of brew. "Thank you," she told him with a nod and smile. He was a little cute, but Liz wasn't sure if she wanted to start flirting with a guy who was this used to giving out alcohol. (Face facts - she wasn't sure if she was ready to start flirting, period.)
"What goes around comes around," he muttered meaningfully.
"What??" The guy just cleared his throat, but he seemed to be jerking his head towards - oh, of course. On the corner of the table was a box - she bent close to read it. BOOZE FUND - PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY IF THE SPIRIT MOVES YOU. Liz giggled - that was actually pretty clever. She dug out a bill and dropped it in, then started looking around, scanning the festivities.
All of the happy teenagers around her, (and a few who had passed the threshold into 'twenty-ish',) seemed like they didn't have a care in the world - she knew that this was deceiving, and yet a small part of her still resented them for that impression.
"Elizabeth!!" Liz turned around to see who had called her - it was Tania, her roommate, a friendly redhead who wanted to study kinesiology. "I'm so glad you could make it!"
Ah, yes. Liz hadn't come out to the party tonight because of Tania's impassioned arguments in favor of 'letting loose and having a little fun.' More in spite of them. But she smiled, and went over, and said hi to all of Tania's friends. She'd have to spend all year with this girl - there was no sense in going out of her way to start things off on the wrong foot or upset her.
"Hey, Liz, whar're you drinking??" one of the Tania-ites, asked, breaking the awkward silence after all of the hellos were done.
"Oh, umm... just a beer." Liz tried to act nonchalant about it.
"You should try some of the jello shooters they're passing around," someone else suggested. And sure enough, a few minutes later, with her beer still no more than a third gone, Liz found herself staring at a little dixie cup with a lump of purple stuff in it.
"Umm... what do I..." Liz's faint question died as Tania threw her head straight up, staring at the ceiling, tossed the shooter down her throat, gulped twice, and quickly grabbed her cup of red drink (punch? a cooler??) and drank a few swallows of that for good measure. A scattering of applause broke out.
"Nice form," the first girl, the one who had asked Liz about her beer, muttered.
Okay, well, might as well give it a try, right?? Liz looked up, opened her mouth, and raised the dixie cup to her lips. She turned the little container to right angles, but that wasn't enough to dislodge the shooter, and so she carefully nudged it up further, bit by bit as fast as her nerves would take her.
Suddenly the shot shlupped out of its container and landed on her tongue. Liz could detect a faint trace of fruity flavor from the jell-o - whether it was grape or cranberry or something else along those lines she couldn't say. Much stronger were the sour and bitter sensations overpowering her palate - kind of like beer, but much more so. **It shouldn't be on my tongue,** she realized, and quickly pushed it to the back of her mouth.
A little too quickly - for an instant she was choking. Then about half the shot was going down her throat - the right pipe, at least - and Liz tried to force the rest of it down the same way. A little bit of jello shooter managed to shoot out of her nose, which she hoped no-one noticed. And then it was done. Belatedly she remembered to chase, and the beer was a welcome relief from the traces of much stronger alcohol in her mouth.
"Welcome to real liquor, Parker," the girl who had first suggested the jello shooters wisecracked. "Wanna try a lemon one??"
Liz hesitated. She refused to judge herself by these girls' standards - on the amount and variety of alcohol she could consume. But the sensation that was starting the spread through her was liberating - as if she could leave the pain goodbye, at least for a night. She nodded and accepted the cup of yellow gelatin.
"Could've heard a pin drop...
When they walked through the door..."
Liz looked around a little, wondering vaguely how she'd gotten up on this stage, singing to a karaoke screen, with the Tania-ettes in the front row of the crowd, cheering her on. But she didn't really worry about it...
"Had to turn my eyes away, my heart fell to the floor.
Someone whispered 'where's her halo?'
She had an angel's face.
He stood there smiling, holding on,
To the one who took my place.
So tonight, the heartache's on me."
Some faint cheers began peeling out from somewhere, she couldn't tell where.
"Let's drink a toast to the fool who couldn't see.
Bartender - pour the wine!" (more cheers.)
"'Cuz the hurtins' all mine.
Tonight, the heartache's on me.
I wonder if he told her, she's the best he's ever known.
The way he told me every night, when we were all alone.
She'll find out, when the new wears off,
He'll find somebody new!!
She'll learn what hearache's all about,
And what I'm going through."
Liz let out a little whoop herself - she was getting into this. Especially since the lyrics were doing a pretty good job of reflecting how she felt about that whole Max/Tess mess. Had she known that subconsciously when she picked this song? (Had she even picked this song herself - she couldn't remember. Okay, that was it, she'd had enough to drink.)
"But tonight...
The heartache's on me, oh on me, yeah.
Let's drink a toast
To the fool who couldn't see.
Bartender, pour the wine, 'cause the hurting's all mine.
Tonight, the heartache's on me."
The karaoke screen indicated an instrumental break, and Liz danced around like an idiot. (That was pretty much required.) Then the verse one more time, and the recorded accompaniment wound to a close. Liz waved at the crowd, got down, and Tania clapped her on the back and offered her a little plastic glass.
"That was great, Liz. Your throat's probably dry, huh??"
"What is it??"
"Just a lemonade and vodka."
Hmm. There was something - oh, right. "Nah, I'll have this one virzhin, 'kay??"
"Oh, come on, Liz. You haven't had that..."
"Thatsh not your call!!" Liz called out, a little too loud. People turned around to see what was happening. "You're not the boss of me, and if I wanna damn virzhin lemonade, I'll have a damn virzhin lemonade, so back off, k??"
"Okay, okay, I'll..." Tania broke off. Someone was already hurrying up with a slightly larger glass - were they worried that she was going to start trashing the place if she didn't get her soft drink?? The thought made Liz giggle too much, so she was pretty sure she'd made the right decision to take a stand. Yep, that was plain lemonade all right - not very good lemonade at that, but no matter.
She ended up playing some eight-ball pool - normally she was a dead shot, all it took was geometry and a steady arm, but the latter was not with her tonight, and she kept flubbing plays. On one shot in particular the cue ball missed the three entirely, bouncing up and down a little (she must have aimed too far down,) and jumped up onto the bank, seeming to leap incredibly into the air.
She didn't see it land, but she heard the splashing sound. "Oh my god." As she hurried around the table and to the scene, it was clearly that this was a one in a million fluke. A cute freshman guy was soaked with light beer, along with the furniture and floor near him, and Liz's cue ball was settling gracefully to the bottom of his beer mug.
"Ummm... I'm sorry, that's mine," she mumbled. What else did you say in this kind of a situation. "You can send me the dry cleaning bill."
The guy laughed. "Give me two bucks in small change for the laundry machines and we'll call it even, I think. I'm Peter. Wilson. And you??"
Liz had been giving her name to everybody here in Arizona as 'Elizabeth', but suddenly she felt as if that was a facade she was hiding behind, and she didn't want to hide anything from this guy. "I'm Liz Parker."
"Delighted, I'm sure." Someone had run up with gritty paper towels, and Pete gratefully started drying himself off, while Liz helped to clean up the furniture. "Well, I'll play you a game a little later if you want, but I'm afraid that I'll be taking cover before you shoot."
Liz laughed. "Get out of the way all you want - though I should say that I'm not normally that bad."
"Somehow I believe you."
* * * *
"Kyle, could I see you in here for a moment??" Kyle looked up - it was Tess, at the door of the small bedroom.
"Hey, I..." Kyle shook his head a little. "I thought you were in the car."
But Tess shook her head. "Switched back just after the Canadian border. I guess you were too deep inside that book to even notice."
Kyle smiled weakly and put the hardcover volume down beside him. Without saying a word he stood up and walked over to the door, stepping through when Tess moved out of the way to let him pass.
There was a disorienting moment, and as Kyle looked around he was definitely not in the bedroom of the pod squad's RV. Or, at least... he almost definitely was, but he didn't seem to be.
He was standing in the middle of the West Roswell High gym floor, except that it was no a dance floor, with corny disco-ball lighting, couples slow-dancing all around him, and a soft tune playing. He was wearing a rented tuxedo, almost certainly the same tux that...
And yes, of course, there she was. Tess Harding, wearing the same lavender gown that she had worn for that spring fling so many years ago. She hadn't been standing right there a moment ago, in fact, she hadn't been anywhere that Kyle had been able to see her a moment ago. He suspected that that was part of the effect.
"Is this what I think it is, Tess?" he said softly.
She smiled sheepishly. "Well, I was thinking about what you said before, and, emm... it kinda occured to me that maybe I owe you a dance??"
"One dance," Kyle repeated, a little disappointed.
"I'm afraid that's all," she agreed. "If you don't want to," she waved a hand in the air, "I can send us back right now."
"No." He stepped forward towards her, holding his arms out. "May I have this dance, Miss Harding??"
She curtsied, (an actual curtsy, Kyle was sure,) and stepped into the classic ballroom dancing position.
"If we're going to do this, can we at least do it right?" Kyle asked her reprovingly.
"What??"
"We look like idiots." Kyle gestured to the high school dance scene around him - though none of the couples were paying either of them any attention, of course, but almost all of them were in a more traditional slow-dance position, standing much closer together than Tess was right now.
Tess blushed. "Oh - right." She stepped closer in, and when Kyle put her hands on her waist she linked her arms up behind his neck. The music washed over them, and she rested a cheek against his shoulder. "This is -- nice."
"You sound surprised."
"Well - I guess I am, a little. Considering how things ended - I feel very comfortable with you, right now. I'm not sure why, unless it's all the make believe."
"I don't think it's just that, Tess." Kyle looked down at Tess, and, cued in by some detail of his movement, she pulled back far enough to look into his eyes. "I dunno, I feel as if we still have some instinctive connection - maybe it isn't true love or whatever - if you're happy with Max, then I'm happy for you; both of you. But..."
"But what??" Tess asked after a moment.
Kyle shrugged awkwardly. "If you leave again, promise me that you'll say goodbye, okay??"
Tess was silent for a moment, aware that something very significant was going on between the two of them that couldn't easily be put into words. And then she nodded. "I promise."
They swayed together for a bit, and then the song ended. "That wasn't a full dance," Tess mentioned. "Do you want to..."
"No," Kyle muttered after a thought. "This is enough time to spend in the past."
"Okay." Tess didn't make any obvious gesture, but the mindwarp, the shared fantasy scene, vanished instantly. They were holding each other in the bedroom, the big double bed pushed up so as to clear room, and both of them were back in their ordinary clothes.
He held her for a moment, realizing that she wasn't any less beautiful than she had been in the formal gown, just different. Tess wriggled nervously, though. Kyle let her go, realizing that holding him in reality might be considerably less comfortable than in a vision of the past, as far as her relationship with Max was concerned.
"Thanks," she muttered with a brief, grateful smile. "So, um - any idea when we hit the site??"
* * * *
"Won't be long now," Michael decided after a moment's pause. "Maybe fifteen minutes." He was sitting in the navigator's seat, looking at map printouts that had been gotten off the internet via the new laptop and a wireless access card.
Liz had managed to plot the landing target of the probe to within a quarter-mile margin of error, and Michael was leading the way through the Banff national park paths towards that location.
"So... do you actually have any idea what to expect when we get to this thing, or when it gets to us??" Kyle asked out loud. He had been watching their trip for the past few minutes. "I mean, what if it's packed with enemy warriors wanting to destroy you??"
"Well, first off, it's not that big," Davin told him. "Liz managed to get a pretty good view of it with the optical telescope last stop, and she makes it out to be only about twenty feet long and nine feet wide, more or less. Considering the bulk of the engine, there wouldn't be room for even one living creature and life support. We're probably just dealing with a recorded message of some sort."
"But Kyle's got a good point - we keep our guard up," Max said in his best 'fearless leader' voice. "We don't know what to expect from this thing."
"Take a left here," Michael muttered to Ardra, who was driving.
The radio on the dash crackled to life. "Hey, Michael?"
Michael smiled as he radioed back. "Yeah, Liz??"
"Any word on an E. T. A??"
"Umm..." Michael checked his watch. "Twelve minutes and counting."
"Oh."
"Any reason why you asked??"
"Well, I'm expecting a touchdown in about two and a half minutes." There was a bit of a collective gasp around the front of the RV.
"Is that a problem??" Kyle mumbled.
"Probably not," Michael said. "I don't imagine there's much chance that someone else is going to happen upon it in ten minutes. I'd rather it had been a smaller gap of time though."
They drove along in silence for about a minute. "Hey, Liz," Max called out to the radio.
"Um, it's not on, Maximillian," Michael told him in an aside.
Max gestured in annoyance, and Michael reached out and activated the walky talky. "Liz?" Max called out again.
"Uh... yeah Max??"
"Will we be able to see the probe come down from here??"
"Uh, well, if you're looking in the right place you will," Liz laughed back. "And if there aren't any trees in the way."
"What's the bearing??" Max mumbled to Michael.
Michael pointed, and Max tried to get himself oriented to watch in that direction. Of course, then the RV swung around a turn, and he had to move.
He saw it when it happened, though. A burst of light coming downt through the sky - hard to tell exactly what color it was or how far away. "That was it??" he mumbled, a little disappointed.
"What the heck??" Ardra called out. Max felt the jostle as the brakes on the RV came on full. He looked out the front - there was something stretching all the way across the road instead of them, but he couldn't tell quite what.
"WATCH OUT UP THERE!!" Tess called from the back of the camper. "Kenner almost rammed into us - or maybe it was Maria. I'm not quite sure who's driving back there."
"I'm doing the best I can!!" Ardra snapped. Fairly quickly, both vehicles had come to a stop pulled up against the edge of the road, and everybody was piling out to take a closer look.
A purplish-blue curtain of light fell down across the road, stretching far into the woods on both sides, and a long way up into the air, apparently folding back over itself in a dome.
"It's protecting the crash site," Michael guessed. "This is coming from the capsule."
"Maybe, Michael," Isabel muttered. She hurried over to the car and started the ignition again, creeping slowly towards the barrier.
"Isabel, be careful!!" Max called out.
The car approached the curtain and slowly started to pass through. Isabel parked it just before the entire engine was through and got out, stepping carefully through herself. "What the hell??"
"What's wrong, Isabel??" Max called out, hurrying up himself, but not quite able to bring himself to step through.
"Come here," Isabel insisted, and Max followed her. As he did, he realized what had surprised Isabel.
The car wasn't there. He could see the rear of the vehicle through the curtain, but the front of it, that should be poking through towards them... wasn't.
He stepped back through. "Okay, what the space is going on here??"
TO BE CONTINUED...
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: chrisk@fanfiction.net
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
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Roswell future-fic
Rating: PG
Summary: Liz's life changes when, as a university junior, she runs into Max again.
Spoilers: Up to 'end of the world,' kinda
The next time that Liz roused herself from the meditative trance she had just learned, (Thank you, Davin,) she was greeted by a voice. "Hey there, Einstein."
Something wasn't right about the voice, and Liz scanned her surroundings quickly, trying to get her bearings. She was still in the back seat of Max's car, but -- the other people had changed. Or some of them had, at any rate. Tess was still here, but Isabel and Davin had left - switched back to the big RV? In their place were Ardra, currently at the wheel, and the person who had spoken to Liz from the back seat across from her, who would be...
"Max?" she mumbled, still a little dizzy at the transition from inner world to outer reality.
"Yeah," Max agreed quietly. "I hope you don't mind."
"Can't say that you're my favorite person to open my eyes and see right about now," Liz mumbled, "but no. Don't 'mind' as such. Any reason your Majesty chose to grace his humble subjects with his presence??"
Max just smiled at her. "Okay, okay, I get the hint. I've been acting like a pompous jerk, haven't I??"
"Little bit," Liz agreed. She saw Tess start in the front seat, as if objecting to this criticism of her 'man,' but she remained silent.
"I'm really sorry," Max continued. "Your life is your own, and if you didn't want to let me back into it after this favor is done, I... would really understand why, actually."
"No, it's okay," Liz found herself saying. "I... I feel it too, what you're talking about. But it -- it's not something that I can decide right away."
"I understand," Max nodded. "So, um..." Max waved at the laptop computer in what seemed like a universal gesture among these aliens. "How are we doing on the course corrections??"
"Not bad at all," Liz informed him. "It's been bang on my projections the last couple of times I checked, and it's heading on its first trip around the Earth right now."
Max nodded. "So maybe this would be a good time to g..."
"If you're about to say 'get some sleep...'" Liz muttered.
"I am," Max confirmed. "I know Davin taught you a meditation technique, but your system need sleep too. Isn't this a good time for it?"
"Okay," Liz sighed. "I'll give it a try. You need to wake me up in three and a half hours, though. Catching a first look at this thing once it's completed cycle is going to be important - and difficult." She moaned. "Not even sure if I'll be able to get to sleep."
"I think you will," Max whispered softly. And sure enough, as Liz lay back in the seat, she could feel herself drifting off. She just felt so warm... and safe...
* * * *
"Maria... Maria!!" The deep voice rang through the RV. Michael snapped to full alertness. Kenner and Maria had been playing gin rummy at the dining room table, and it was Kenner who was calling out in alarm.
Michael was at the side of the table in moments, but already Maria was slumped insensate, her skin seeming unnaturally pale. His fingers went to her tender neck. "I'm not getting any heartbeat!!"
"I'll get Max over here," Isabel decided quickly, hurrying to the shotgun seat.
"No... no..." Kenner was mumbling, shaking his head helplessly.
Michael's mind raced. What had happened to her? Sudden heart failure? Some kind of psychic attack by extraterrestrial enemies??
"I had just knocked on eight," Kenner mumbled, "and she... she..."
Something suddenly slid into focus for Michael -- his father was play-acting. But why?? What was this scene really about?
Michael touched Maria again and connected. He wasn't trained enough to heal her... but he wasn't surprised to find out that he didn't need to. Her autonomous systems had been supressed, sending her into a very convincing looking death trance - a technique that Kenner himself had taught Michael. And Maria couldn't have done this to herself - well, one in ten thousand chance.
"Wake up, sleeping beauty," he mumbled, his voice still hoarse with the double shock, as mentally he willed the effect on Maria to reverse. Her heart woke from its slumber, her lungs once again began pumping air, and her eyes opened, looking straight into Michael's face.
"Did you agree to this?" he asked her, a little roughly.
Maria yawned, a natural reaction to the light oxygen depletion she had undergone, Michael knew. "Let's say I let myself be persuaded."
Michael turned away. He wasn't sure what to make of this, except that only one motive for the facade occured to him - to make him realize how much Maria DeLuca still meant to him by having him face the prospect of losing her forever. At that, they had been partly successful.
But he didn't like being deceived by the people who said they loved him.
"Let Max know it was a false alarm," he called out to the driver, who at this point was Alex.
A few minutes later, Isabel realized that a small scrap of paper had been tucked into her jean pocket. It read:
I understand, Iz. I'm scared too.
Alex
* * * *
Liz walked down to the foot of the stairs and looked around. Before, she had gotten annoyed very quickly with these frosh bashes, the loud music with thumping bass rhythms, the dark atmosphere punctuated by flashing lights. Tonight, though, for some reason that she coudln't put her finger on, all of that fit her mood particularly. She moved off into the festivities proper.
"What'll you have, beautiful??" Ah, yes, how could she have forgotten? The alcohol, which seemed to flow freely at these things, from fellow student to fellow student, and no asking for IDs of course. She hadn't refused or made a big deal out of asking for dry alternatives just because of the statutory limit, when no one else seemed to be. "Bud draft."
As the guy behind the little table poured her drink out of a keg, she caught sight of herself in the mirror behind him. She still wasn't used to seeing these brownish-red curls framing her face -- the girl in the room next door on her residence floor had dared her to perm and dye her hair. She had almost gone for a dark blonde, but chickened out in the end and gone for a less drastic change.
She'd hoped that the new hair would help her make a clean break from her old life a little more easily, and maybe it did, a little, but it was also disconcerting. She'd probably--
"There you go."
"Huh??" Oh - her drink was ready. She reached out and took the plastic cup of brew. "Thank you," she told him with a nod and smile. He was a little cute, but Liz wasn't sure if she wanted to start flirting with a guy who was this used to giving out alcohol. (Face facts - she wasn't sure if she was ready to start flirting, period.)
"What goes around comes around," he muttered meaningfully.
"What??" The guy just cleared his throat, but he seemed to be jerking his head towards - oh, of course. On the corner of the table was a box - she bent close to read it. BOOZE FUND - PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY IF THE SPIRIT MOVES YOU. Liz giggled - that was actually pretty clever. She dug out a bill and dropped it in, then started looking around, scanning the festivities.
All of the happy teenagers around her, (and a few who had passed the threshold into 'twenty-ish',) seemed like they didn't have a care in the world - she knew that this was deceiving, and yet a small part of her still resented them for that impression.
"Elizabeth!!" Liz turned around to see who had called her - it was Tania, her roommate, a friendly redhead who wanted to study kinesiology. "I'm so glad you could make it!"
Ah, yes. Liz hadn't come out to the party tonight because of Tania's impassioned arguments in favor of 'letting loose and having a little fun.' More in spite of them. But she smiled, and went over, and said hi to all of Tania's friends. She'd have to spend all year with this girl - there was no sense in going out of her way to start things off on the wrong foot or upset her.
"Hey, Liz, whar're you drinking??" one of the Tania-ites, asked, breaking the awkward silence after all of the hellos were done.
"Oh, umm... just a beer." Liz tried to act nonchalant about it.
"You should try some of the jello shooters they're passing around," someone else suggested. And sure enough, a few minutes later, with her beer still no more than a third gone, Liz found herself staring at a little dixie cup with a lump of purple stuff in it.
"Umm... what do I..." Liz's faint question died as Tania threw her head straight up, staring at the ceiling, tossed the shooter down her throat, gulped twice, and quickly grabbed her cup of red drink (punch? a cooler??) and drank a few swallows of that for good measure. A scattering of applause broke out.
"Nice form," the first girl, the one who had asked Liz about her beer, muttered.
Okay, well, might as well give it a try, right?? Liz looked up, opened her mouth, and raised the dixie cup to her lips. She turned the little container to right angles, but that wasn't enough to dislodge the shooter, and so she carefully nudged it up further, bit by bit as fast as her nerves would take her.
Suddenly the shot shlupped out of its container and landed on her tongue. Liz could detect a faint trace of fruity flavor from the jell-o - whether it was grape or cranberry or something else along those lines she couldn't say. Much stronger were the sour and bitter sensations overpowering her palate - kind of like beer, but much more so. **It shouldn't be on my tongue,** she realized, and quickly pushed it to the back of her mouth.
A little too quickly - for an instant she was choking. Then about half the shot was going down her throat - the right pipe, at least - and Liz tried to force the rest of it down the same way. A little bit of jello shooter managed to shoot out of her nose, which she hoped no-one noticed. And then it was done. Belatedly she remembered to chase, and the beer was a welcome relief from the traces of much stronger alcohol in her mouth.
"Welcome to real liquor, Parker," the girl who had first suggested the jello shooters wisecracked. "Wanna try a lemon one??"
Liz hesitated. She refused to judge herself by these girls' standards - on the amount and variety of alcohol she could consume. But the sensation that was starting the spread through her was liberating - as if she could leave the pain goodbye, at least for a night. She nodded and accepted the cup of yellow gelatin.
"Could've heard a pin drop...
When they walked through the door..."
Liz looked around a little, wondering vaguely how she'd gotten up on this stage, singing to a karaoke screen, with the Tania-ettes in the front row of the crowd, cheering her on. But she didn't really worry about it...
"Had to turn my eyes away, my heart fell to the floor.
Someone whispered 'where's her halo?'
She had an angel's face.
He stood there smiling, holding on,
To the one who took my place.
So tonight, the heartache's on me."
Some faint cheers began peeling out from somewhere, she couldn't tell where.
"Let's drink a toast to the fool who couldn't see.
Bartender - pour the wine!" (more cheers.)
"'Cuz the hurtins' all mine.
Tonight, the heartache's on me.
I wonder if he told her, she's the best he's ever known.
The way he told me every night, when we were all alone.
She'll find out, when the new wears off,
He'll find somebody new!!
She'll learn what hearache's all about,
And what I'm going through."
Liz let out a little whoop herself - she was getting into this. Especially since the lyrics were doing a pretty good job of reflecting how she felt about that whole Max/Tess mess. Had she known that subconsciously when she picked this song? (Had she even picked this song herself - she couldn't remember. Okay, that was it, she'd had enough to drink.)
"But tonight...
The heartache's on me, oh on me, yeah.
Let's drink a toast
To the fool who couldn't see.
Bartender, pour the wine, 'cause the hurting's all mine.
Tonight, the heartache's on me."
The karaoke screen indicated an instrumental break, and Liz danced around like an idiot. (That was pretty much required.) Then the verse one more time, and the recorded accompaniment wound to a close. Liz waved at the crowd, got down, and Tania clapped her on the back and offered her a little plastic glass.
"That was great, Liz. Your throat's probably dry, huh??"
"What is it??"
"Just a lemonade and vodka."
Hmm. There was something - oh, right. "Nah, I'll have this one virzhin, 'kay??"
"Oh, come on, Liz. You haven't had that..."
"Thatsh not your call!!" Liz called out, a little too loud. People turned around to see what was happening. "You're not the boss of me, and if I wanna damn virzhin lemonade, I'll have a damn virzhin lemonade, so back off, k??"
"Okay, okay, I'll..." Tania broke off. Someone was already hurrying up with a slightly larger glass - were they worried that she was going to start trashing the place if she didn't get her soft drink?? The thought made Liz giggle too much, so she was pretty sure she'd made the right decision to take a stand. Yep, that was plain lemonade all right - not very good lemonade at that, but no matter.
She ended up playing some eight-ball pool - normally she was a dead shot, all it took was geometry and a steady arm, but the latter was not with her tonight, and she kept flubbing plays. On one shot in particular the cue ball missed the three entirely, bouncing up and down a little (she must have aimed too far down,) and jumped up onto the bank, seeming to leap incredibly into the air.
She didn't see it land, but she heard the splashing sound. "Oh my god." As she hurried around the table and to the scene, it was clearly that this was a one in a million fluke. A cute freshman guy was soaked with light beer, along with the furniture and floor near him, and Liz's cue ball was settling gracefully to the bottom of his beer mug.
"Ummm... I'm sorry, that's mine," she mumbled. What else did you say in this kind of a situation. "You can send me the dry cleaning bill."
The guy laughed. "Give me two bucks in small change for the laundry machines and we'll call it even, I think. I'm Peter. Wilson. And you??"
Liz had been giving her name to everybody here in Arizona as 'Elizabeth', but suddenly she felt as if that was a facade she was hiding behind, and she didn't want to hide anything from this guy. "I'm Liz Parker."
"Delighted, I'm sure." Someone had run up with gritty paper towels, and Pete gratefully started drying himself off, while Liz helped to clean up the furniture. "Well, I'll play you a game a little later if you want, but I'm afraid that I'll be taking cover before you shoot."
Liz laughed. "Get out of the way all you want - though I should say that I'm not normally that bad."
"Somehow I believe you."
* * * *
"Kyle, could I see you in here for a moment??" Kyle looked up - it was Tess, at the door of the small bedroom.
"Hey, I..." Kyle shook his head a little. "I thought you were in the car."
But Tess shook her head. "Switched back just after the Canadian border. I guess you were too deep inside that book to even notice."
Kyle smiled weakly and put the hardcover volume down beside him. Without saying a word he stood up and walked over to the door, stepping through when Tess moved out of the way to let him pass.
There was a disorienting moment, and as Kyle looked around he was definitely not in the bedroom of the pod squad's RV. Or, at least... he almost definitely was, but he didn't seem to be.
He was standing in the middle of the West Roswell High gym floor, except that it was no a dance floor, with corny disco-ball lighting, couples slow-dancing all around him, and a soft tune playing. He was wearing a rented tuxedo, almost certainly the same tux that...
And yes, of course, there she was. Tess Harding, wearing the same lavender gown that she had worn for that spring fling so many years ago. She hadn't been standing right there a moment ago, in fact, she hadn't been anywhere that Kyle had been able to see her a moment ago. He suspected that that was part of the effect.
"Is this what I think it is, Tess?" he said softly.
She smiled sheepishly. "Well, I was thinking about what you said before, and, emm... it kinda occured to me that maybe I owe you a dance??"
"One dance," Kyle repeated, a little disappointed.
"I'm afraid that's all," she agreed. "If you don't want to," she waved a hand in the air, "I can send us back right now."
"No." He stepped forward towards her, holding his arms out. "May I have this dance, Miss Harding??"
She curtsied, (an actual curtsy, Kyle was sure,) and stepped into the classic ballroom dancing position.
"If we're going to do this, can we at least do it right?" Kyle asked her reprovingly.
"What??"
"We look like idiots." Kyle gestured to the high school dance scene around him - though none of the couples were paying either of them any attention, of course, but almost all of them were in a more traditional slow-dance position, standing much closer together than Tess was right now.
Tess blushed. "Oh - right." She stepped closer in, and when Kyle put her hands on her waist she linked her arms up behind his neck. The music washed over them, and she rested a cheek against his shoulder. "This is -- nice."
"You sound surprised."
"Well - I guess I am, a little. Considering how things ended - I feel very comfortable with you, right now. I'm not sure why, unless it's all the make believe."
"I don't think it's just that, Tess." Kyle looked down at Tess, and, cued in by some detail of his movement, she pulled back far enough to look into his eyes. "I dunno, I feel as if we still have some instinctive connection - maybe it isn't true love or whatever - if you're happy with Max, then I'm happy for you; both of you. But..."
"But what??" Tess asked after a moment.
Kyle shrugged awkwardly. "If you leave again, promise me that you'll say goodbye, okay??"
Tess was silent for a moment, aware that something very significant was going on between the two of them that couldn't easily be put into words. And then she nodded. "I promise."
They swayed together for a bit, and then the song ended. "That wasn't a full dance," Tess mentioned. "Do you want to..."
"No," Kyle muttered after a thought. "This is enough time to spend in the past."
"Okay." Tess didn't make any obvious gesture, but the mindwarp, the shared fantasy scene, vanished instantly. They were holding each other in the bedroom, the big double bed pushed up so as to clear room, and both of them were back in their ordinary clothes.
He held her for a moment, realizing that she wasn't any less beautiful than she had been in the formal gown, just different. Tess wriggled nervously, though. Kyle let her go, realizing that holding him in reality might be considerably less comfortable than in a vision of the past, as far as her relationship with Max was concerned.
"Thanks," she muttered with a brief, grateful smile. "So, um - any idea when we hit the site??"
* * * *
"Won't be long now," Michael decided after a moment's pause. "Maybe fifteen minutes." He was sitting in the navigator's seat, looking at map printouts that had been gotten off the internet via the new laptop and a wireless access card.
Liz had managed to plot the landing target of the probe to within a quarter-mile margin of error, and Michael was leading the way through the Banff national park paths towards that location.
"So... do you actually have any idea what to expect when we get to this thing, or when it gets to us??" Kyle asked out loud. He had been watching their trip for the past few minutes. "I mean, what if it's packed with enemy warriors wanting to destroy you??"
"Well, first off, it's not that big," Davin told him. "Liz managed to get a pretty good view of it with the optical telescope last stop, and she makes it out to be only about twenty feet long and nine feet wide, more or less. Considering the bulk of the engine, there wouldn't be room for even one living creature and life support. We're probably just dealing with a recorded message of some sort."
"But Kyle's got a good point - we keep our guard up," Max said in his best 'fearless leader' voice. "We don't know what to expect from this thing."
"Take a left here," Michael muttered to Ardra, who was driving.
The radio on the dash crackled to life. "Hey, Michael?"
Michael smiled as he radioed back. "Yeah, Liz??"
"Any word on an E. T. A??"
"Umm..." Michael checked his watch. "Twelve minutes and counting."
"Oh."
"Any reason why you asked??"
"Well, I'm expecting a touchdown in about two and a half minutes." There was a bit of a collective gasp around the front of the RV.
"Is that a problem??" Kyle mumbled.
"Probably not," Michael said. "I don't imagine there's much chance that someone else is going to happen upon it in ten minutes. I'd rather it had been a smaller gap of time though."
They drove along in silence for about a minute. "Hey, Liz," Max called out to the radio.
"Um, it's not on, Maximillian," Michael told him in an aside.
Max gestured in annoyance, and Michael reached out and activated the walky talky. "Liz?" Max called out again.
"Uh... yeah Max??"
"Will we be able to see the probe come down from here??"
"Uh, well, if you're looking in the right place you will," Liz laughed back. "And if there aren't any trees in the way."
"What's the bearing??" Max mumbled to Michael.
Michael pointed, and Max tried to get himself oriented to watch in that direction. Of course, then the RV swung around a turn, and he had to move.
He saw it when it happened, though. A burst of light coming downt through the sky - hard to tell exactly what color it was or how far away. "That was it??" he mumbled, a little disappointed.
"What the heck??" Ardra called out. Max felt the jostle as the brakes on the RV came on full. He looked out the front - there was something stretching all the way across the road instead of them, but he couldn't tell quite what.
"WATCH OUT UP THERE!!" Tess called from the back of the camper. "Kenner almost rammed into us - or maybe it was Maria. I'm not quite sure who's driving back there."
"I'm doing the best I can!!" Ardra snapped. Fairly quickly, both vehicles had come to a stop pulled up against the edge of the road, and everybody was piling out to take a closer look.
A purplish-blue curtain of light fell down across the road, stretching far into the woods on both sides, and a long way up into the air, apparently folding back over itself in a dome.
"It's protecting the crash site," Michael guessed. "This is coming from the capsule."
"Maybe, Michael," Isabel muttered. She hurried over to the car and started the ignition again, creeping slowly towards the barrier.
"Isabel, be careful!!" Max called out.
The car approached the curtain and slowly started to pass through. Isabel parked it just before the entire engine was through and got out, stepping carefully through herself. "What the hell??"
"What's wrong, Isabel??" Max called out, hurrying up himself, but not quite able to bring himself to step through.
"Come here," Isabel insisted, and Max followed her. As he did, he realized what had surprised Isabel.
The car wasn't there. He could see the rear of the vehicle through the curtain, but the front of it, that should be poking through towards them... wasn't.
He stepped back through. "Okay, what the space is going on here??"
TO BE CONTINUED...
