Disclaimer: You know the drill…the characters aren't mine. A lot of stuff in the beginning is taken from End of the World. God knows THAT'S not mine. Anything that makes sense and makes it all better, now that's mine. Seriously, Roswell and all characters belong to Jason Katims, 20th Century Fox etc. I'm just borrowing them.

Rating: PG-13 – possibly to R

Chapter Twenty-Eight – Time to Hit the Books

Alex stood outside Isabelle's World History class, and struggled to get her attention. He kept waving at her, but her attention was focused entirely on the teacher. Finally, he decided to take a chance, and focused his energy on the teacher. He imagined her asking Isabelle to take a note to the office. He began to shake, and sweat beaded on his upper lip and forehead. Letting go of the image, he collapsed against the wall, and slid down onto the floor, and rested his head on his knees.

The door to the classroom opened, and Isabelle stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind her. She started to walk away from Alex, in the direction of the office, a folded paper in her hand.
"Isabelle," he gasped.
"Alex?" said Isabelle, turning around. "Oh my God! What happened?" she cried as she knelt down on the floor next to him. "Did Tess do this to you?"
"No, I did it to me," he whispered.
"What?" cried Isabelle, puzzled. "How did you do this to yourself?"

"I needed to talk to you," he explained. "I did everything except for knocking on the door to get your attention, but nothing worked. So I tried to mind warp Ms. Ferguson into sending you to the office with a note. Did it work?"
"Yes it worked, you idiot. But why didn't you just wait until class was over. What could be so important that you almost killed yourself to tell me?"
"I'm not sure yet," said Alex, as he struggled to get up. "I need to go home and look at something, and I wanted you to come with me. I figured two sets of eyes are better than one?"

Isabelle slipped her arm around Alex's waist and helped him to his feet.
"What are we looking for?" she asked as they slowly made their way down the deserted hall.
"I don't know," he admitted. "I think I read something in one of the book translations, and I wanted your help to review them again," he paused, his steps faltered, and he started to slump to the floor.
"Alex, don't bail on me now," said Isabelle, as she tightened her arm around his waist. Using all her strength, Isabelle managed to half lead, half carry Alex out to the parking lot, to his car.

"Where are your keys, Alex?" she asked.
"Pocket," he mumbled.
"Damn," said Isabelle, as she slipped her hand into Alex's pockets, searching for the keys. "Alex, I want to get closer to you, but this isn't the what I had in mind." She crowed with triumph when she located the keys in his jacket pocket. She quickly opened the door, and slid Alex into the passenger seat. She climbed in the car and inserted the key into the ignition.

Half way to Alex's house, Isabelle made a decision and turned the car around and headed out into the desert. She pulled his car in behind a sandstone outcropping. She climbed out and went around to the passenger side and opened the door.
"Alex, Alex, come on, wake up," she said. Alex stirred and slowly opened his eyes.
"Isabelle? What's wrong with me?" he asked, his voice slurred.
"I don't know, but you've got to try and get out of the car. I can't carry you."

Alex struggled to climb out of the car. Again, Isabelle slid her arm around his waist and helped to lead him up the path leading to the hidden pod chamber. She used her powers to activate the concealed door, and the two entered the cool chamber that sheltered the pods. She pushed Alex past the pods, and into the room that contained the granolith.
"Come on Alex," she said to the nearly unconscious man in her arms. "Don't pass out on me now, Sweetie." She pulled and tugged Alex into the shadow of the granolith, and stood in front of him, holding her hands in his.

The granolith began to hum again, the pitch higher this time, and a burst of blue light shot out, and enveloped Alex. The beam of light faded back into the granolith, but Alex seemed to glow with residual light. Isabelle released Alex's and, and moved it to her mouth as she watched in horrific fascination. Another beam of light shot forth from the granolith, this one gold in color, and it enveloped both Alex and Isabelle. Against her own volition, Isabelle felt herself move closer to Alex. Some inner voice instructed her to hold her hands out to his. She reached out, arms extended and palms facing the ceiling. Alex extended his arms and laid his hands on top of hers. The light began to swirl around them, faster and faster until they couldn't see anything but each other, and a golden blur.

The light began to change from gold, to pure white, and Isabelle realized that they were no longer on the ground. Instead, they were floating, about 15 feet off the ground, and circling around the granolith. Isabelle felt herself slowly float back down to the floor, her hands still touching Alex's. The light faded and they were left breathless, but Alex was completely alert.
"What was that?" he asked.
"I don't have a clue," answered Isabelle. Are you okay? You were so out of it for a while."
"Yeah, I'm fine now. Iz, I swear, while that whole thing was going on, I heard voices in my head, explaining how to use the mind warp thing so that I wouldn't hurt myself again."
"Well, I hope you took notes, Alex, because I don't ever want to see you like that again. You scared me."

"I scared me too," admitted Alex. "Isabelle, you mean everything to me. I'm sorry I scared you," he said. "Isabelle, I've spent a large portion of my life basically worshiping you from a distance. Now, all of a sudden, you're a part of my life. I spend half my time being amazed, and the other half worrying that you're only with me because I know your secret. All the way over here, I knew something was wrong with me. I felt as if my brain was melting, and I was so pissed, because I was never going to get the chance to find out if what was between us was real. But when I felt that blue light go through me, I knew I was going to be all right. The only thing I could think about then was talking to you and letting you know how I felt."
"Alex, I," began Isabelle, but she didn't get to finish her sentence. Alex just kept talking.
"But see, the thing is, after that other light hit us, I knew, I just knew that I was right where I was supposed to be, and you are the person I was supposed to be with."

"Am I allowed to speak now?" questioned Isabelle. "Because if you had told me this before Alex, I could have saved you the whole golden glow experience. I am crazy about you Alex Whitman, and not just because you know my big secret. I'm crazy about YOU, the computer geek, the guitarist, and all around funny guy. Is that clear?"
"Yes, ma'am," said Alex, bowing down low before her. "Now, do you think we can get out of here? I still want to go check those out those translations." He reached out and took Isabelle's hand, and the two left the granolith chamber.


"Are you sure you don't know what we're looking for, Alex?" Isabelle asked.
"No, but I think you'll know it if you see it," said Alex. "Just keep looking."
"This is hopeless," said Isabelle, tossing the page she had been reading on the bed next to Alex's pile.
"Do you want to take a break? Maybe get some food or something?" Alex asked.
"No, said Isabelle, reaching to pick up the papers. "If you think it's here, then it's here. We just have to find it." She glanced that the papers that she held. "Oh, I think I grabbed some of yours, Alex."

Alex reached out his hand for the paper, but Isabelle pulled it back, excitedly.
"Wait a second, Alex. "Did you see this?"
"Uh, Isabelle, I can't see anything, you're holding the paper," said Alex.
"Alex, I'm serious, look at this. Read the two pages together."
"Isabelle, you're worrying me, how can I read the two pages together?"
"Like this, look," she began to read the first sentence from the page in her left hand. When she came to the end of the first line, she continued reading on the top of the page in her right hand. When she completed that line, she moved to the second line on the page in her left hand. "Don't you get it?" she said. "They wrote the two books to be read together. They each make sense when read alone, but when you read them together, they contain so much more information!"

Alex took the two pages from Isabelle and read silently to himself.
"Isabelle, you are a genius," he said. "I don't know why I didn't see it myself. Wait, that's it!" said Alex as he began to shuffle through the papers.
"What's it, Alex?"
"Yeah, yeah, here it is!" he shouted excitedly. "I was reading excerpts from both books the other night. Obviously, it reached my subconscious, but I didn't make the connection because I didn't realize the two books could be combined."
"So you found it?" asked Isabelle. "Whatever it is."
"This, this is it," said Alex. "But it isn't great."
"Alex, will you just tell me already?" said Isabelle, her voice exasperated.
"It looks like Liz is pregnant."