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 Thirty Meeting at Liz's

Alex and Isabelle walked into Liz's room hand in hand. They had met Liz down in the café, and she sent them upstairs to wait, reassuring them that she would be up soon, with some snacks for them to eat.
"Alex, how are we going to tell them?" asked Isabelle.
"Tell them what, Isabelle. About us, or about Liz?"
"Both, actually. I mean telling them about us will be okay, don't you think?" Isabelle asked, nervously.
"Yeah, I think they'll be happy to know we're together, Isabelle. And as far as us getting married, I think they know and respect us enough to be happy with our decision."

"Oh my God!" shouted Liz from the door, the tray in her hands teetering to one side. Alex jumped up and rescued the tray before it, and it's contents ended up on the floor of Liz's bedroom. Liz threw herself at Isabelle and hugged her tightly and then launched herself across the room and landed in Alex's arms, screaming all the while.
"This is great, this is fantastic, this is the best news I could have ever had!" she shouted.
"I take it she's happy about the news," Alex said over Liz's head to an amused Isabelle.
"You think?" said Isabelle, arching an eyebrow.

"No, don't you get it, this is so fantastic. First Max and I, and now you guys! It's like fate or something," Liz said, spinning around the room.
"Wait, Liz, what do you mean, first you and Max?" questioned Isabelle.
"Well, we've been keeping it quite because of everything, but look," she said, pulling out the necklace with the engagement ring Max had given her.
"It's beautiful, Liz," said Isabelle.
"Don't you get it?" asked Liz. "This means we're going to be sisters!"

"Who's going to be sisters?" asked Michael, as he and Maria walked through the door.
"Where are Max, Ava and Kyle?" asked Alex, interrupting Liz before she could say anything else.
"Right here," said Kyle climbing through the window. He turned around and helped Ava through the window, and Max climbed through behind them.
"We'll explain later," said Alex. "Let's eat first, I'm starving. What do you have for us to eat Liz?"
"Oh, the usual, chips, dip, cookies, ice cream, Tabasco sauce. Nothing out of the ordinary."

The gang attacked the tray like a hoard of starving prisoners who hadn't seen food in months.
"Oh gross," said Maria, watching Liz. "Chica, you are my best friend, and best friends let a lot of things slide, but I have to ask, Liz, what the hell are you eating?" Everyone turned to look at Liz, who had a cookie loaded with onion dip and topped with a dollop of ice cream in her hand.
"What?" she asked defensively, "It's good. Have you ever tried it?"
"Liz, I've known you almost all my life," said Kyle. "So I feel like it's up to me to tell you that is the most disgusting combination of food I have ever seen I my life."
"What, is it any stranger than dumping Tabasco sauce on ice cream?" demanded Liz. "We all have different tastes, and I'll thank all of you to get the hell off of my back!" she shouted.

Isabelle shot Alex a nervous look, concerned about the mood swings Liz seemed to be suffering. It seemed as though she was having typical pregnancy symptoms, but they were magnified because of the whole alien thing.
"Uh, Alex and I have something we want to tell you," she said. "Liz already knows. I want all of you to just listen for a minute and not say anything until we're done telling you our news." She reached over and took Alex's hand in hers. "We're getting married," the two said together.

The room erupted in chaos. People were laughing, and yelling, and in Liz's case, crying. Ava put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly, effectively silencing the room.
"Ah, people, why don'tcha all shaddup and let them tell us what's goin on," she said.
"Ava's right," said Isabelle, passing Liz the box of tissues from her nightstand. "Why don't you listen, while we tell you what happened." The two took turns telling the others about Alex's mind warp on the teacher, and how it almost killed him. Isabelle filled them in on what happened in the granolith chamber.
"And then, we went back to Alex's, and were going over the two books, when we realized that the two books are supposed to be read together!" said Isabelle, her voice filled with excitement.

"What do you mean, together?" asked Michael.
"It's really kind of cool," said Alex. "Each book on it's own makes sense, but if you read, say page 35 of our book, when you get to the bottom, you don't turn the page to go to page 36, you go to page 35 of the other book. When you read them that way, it tells the complete story of your life on Antar, the war, how you were created, and a bunch of other stuff. We haven't finished reading them yet, so we don't know everything that's in there."
"So Alex, set up a program to combine the two books into one," continued Isabelle. "And he printed off eight copies, one for each of us. Alex pointed out to me that we need to know these books inside out."

"That's great," said Max. "And I'm very glad you found that out. That was an awesome bit of work, but it still doesn't explain why Alex needed to talk to you so badly that he almost mind warped himself into oblivion, or how the two of you, who have never even dated, managed to push right past going out to getting married. Don't get me wrong," Max continued. "I'm not saying I'm not happy, but it does seem rather sudden."
"Yeah, way to sudden to me," added Maria. "I refuse to believe it. I don't see a ring," she added, her voice sharp.
"Maria, what is your problem?" asked Michael.
"I don't have a problem, but how do we know this isn't some kind of alien trick or something?"

"So what your saying is that Isabelle doesn't really love me, she's only using me to meet her own evil needs," said Alex.
"Right, as soon as we mate, I'm going to suck the life force out of him. You found me out, Maria," said Isabelle, as she extended her hand and showed Maria, and the others the sapphire ring she wore on her left hand.
"You're being a class act brat," Alex added. "Did any of us say anything when you started dating Michael? No, we trusted you both to do what was best for you. Why can't you give Isabelle and I the same right?"
"I'm sorry," said Maria. "I didn't mean it that way, at least I don't think I did. It's just that it all came out of the blue. Isabelle," she said turning to the other girl. "I know you're not going to hurt Alex by sucking out his life force, but you do have the power to hurt him. And let me tell you something. If you ever do hurt him, I will find a way to hurt you, alien powers be damned."

The group laughed at the tough guy image that Maria tried to convey, and the tension in the room was broken.
"I guess it's time for Liz and I to share our news," said Max. Alex and Isabelle shared a nervous glance, because they knew they had more news to share as well.
"I asked Liz to marry me several weeks ago, and she said yes," said Max.
"First this place is Mayberry, and now it's like Noah and his friggen ark, the way youse guys are pairin up," said Ava.
"Yeah, besides, we have more we need to tell you," said Alex.

"What else could you possibly have to top the marriage announcements of you guys, and Max and Liz," asked Kyle.
"Oh, you'd be surprised," said Alex, quietly.
"Look, before we start, I need to talk to Maria," said Michael. He motioned to Maria, and the two climbed out the window and onto the roof. Michael sat on the ground, with the wall to Liz's room at his back, and pulled Maria down so that she sat between his bent legs, her back resting on his chest. He rested his chin on her hair and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"You're angry," he said. "Aren't you?"
"Me, angry," Maria said stiffly. "Why would I be angry?"
"Because Alex proposed to Isabelle," answered Michael.
"Why would I be angry about that? Why would I be angry that one of my best friends is suddenly planning to marry a woman who hasn't looked twice at him in the past two years?" Maria railed. "Why would something like that bother me?"
"I think you're also mad because we haven't discussed taking a step like that," continued Michael, as if Maria hadn't spoken.
"Maybe a little," admitted Maria.

"I've spent my whole life looking for a place to belong," said Michael. "I'd go over to Max and Isabelle's and see what their lives were like, and look at mine, and I knew there was a reason. I didn't deserve to belong, to have what they had. But then I met you, Maria, and that began to change. I don't know how to live Max and Isabelle's life, and I know I'm a lousy boyfriend. I screw up even the simplest things. I'm not romantic, I never think about flowers, and I suck at buying gifts, but I do love you, Maria. I'm not ready to take that step yet, I still have so much to learn before I'll be ready, but when I am, I want that step to be with you."
"Michael?" said Maria.
"Yeah."
"Shut up and kiss me!"

"Um, I hate to interrupt you two," said Alex, sticking his head out the window. "But we have a lot to cover."
"Yeah, we'll be right in," said Michael. He stood up, and reached down to help Maria. The two climbed back into the room and sat down in a giant beanbag chair Liz had in the corner. As soon as everyone was settled, Alex passed out the copies of the destiny book to everyone.
"What's this?" Kyle asked, pointing to the post it note that stuck out of everyone's copy.
"Yeah, about that," said Alex. "It's what Isabelle and I were researching today. I, God, there just isn't any easy way to say this," said Alex, running his hand across his face. "So I'm just going to say it. Liz, we think you're pregnant."