Homecoming, part 2a, 'Party night.'
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
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, currently based at fanatics: http://www.roswellfanatics.net/
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'
Notes: This is the beginning of an alternate future fic that flips back and forth between Homecoming night 2001 and flashbacks of the events that have led up to that point. The storyline diverges as of the end of 'Ask Not' so anything about Whittaker being revealed as a skin, the Harvest, Future Max, the Dupes, Christmas, the Granolith, and the Gandarium are all irrelevant lol.
Section 2: The overture.
(October 20 2001 again.)
Alex only jogged back to an awareness of reality a few seconds after the limo had stopped. A quick look out the window confirmed that the car was stopped at a very familiar part of Murray Lane.
"Meter's still running, mac," the driver reminded him with friendly carelessness. Alex thought about that for a second and put a hand to his door handle - just in time to see through the open limo door as Maxwell Evans emerge from the Evans household.
When they met up, twenty-five seconds or so later on the curb next to the expensive rented chauffeurmobile, Max nodded at Alex. "Targazinzki melior tto quaree azhvar son keh milliap," he said offhandedly.
"Torgin vve keels," Alex replied politely in the same language. "What's the ETA on Isabel being dressed and ready to go?"
"Wrong guy to ask," Max admitted with a grin. "Is and Tess are all getting primped at Liz's place over the Crashdown." Max smiled in anticipation.
"Tess, Isabel, and Liz?" Alex repeated carefully. "Not Maria?!"
"Not Maria," Max confirmed. "My latest instructions are that she's to be picked up at her Mom's new house."
"As planned," Alex said as he got back into the stretch. "Well, we can cross Tess's studio off the itinerary. Driver? Cancel the stop on Roxdale."
The chauffeur met that news with a kind of stolid passivity. "Still 247 Elm next?"
"Yeah," Alex agreed. Max had gotten into the car by now, and closed the door, so Buddy put the motor in gear and pulled out into the street again. Alex's fingers brushed the disk again, and Max looked at him questioningly.
"I was remembering how we found out about the archive," Alex explained. "On the way over here."
"Ah," Max said, nodding. "Some crazy months we went through, huh? I'm glad things have calmed down a little..."
* * * *
(Just after midnight, the morning of October 18 2000.)
"Okay," Max Evans said, pacing quietly across Alex's room. "Let's start at the beginning here. You touched this gizmo of Brody's at the UFO center."
"Mm-hm," Alex agreed, concentrating most of his attention on the drawing program on his computer.
"And you started having dreams about aliens?" Max continued doubtfully.
"*Last* night I had a deam," Alex maintained. "Tonight I had a flash." There was no uncertainty in his voice.
"And you think what you saw has a connection to us?" Max asked. He leaned over Alex's shoulder and peered at the computer screen. "If it looked like that, I hope it was just your imagination," he joked.
"Shut up," Alex groused grumpily. "It's not coming out right. I'm a musician, not a visual artist." But he continued to work at the picture, trying to refine the details that didn't match his memory.
"Okay, okay," Max said, resuming his pace. "Now, you said there were notes Brody was keeping about the gizmo. Can you remember any of them?"
"Um... it reacted to the may fourteenth pulse," Alex recounted. "To the signal the orbs sent out."
"We can't be sure of that connection," Max said. Alex turned around in his computer chair to stare doubtfully at the alien teenager. "Well, we already know Brody is obsessed with May 14th in particular. If someone else sold him this doodad, they could have known that too and made up a connection to that date, but go on."
Alex sighed and then did so. "Has been reported to shock other people, but nothing about creepy dreams. Oh, and supposedly it was taken from some FBI special warehouse of crash-related evidence."
"Wait a second," Max replied quickly. "The regular FBI or the special unit??"
"Brody's notes didn't say," Alex said pointedly. "The word 'unit' didn't appear, but the word 'special' did. That may be important."
"Okay," Max sighed. "Anything else in the notes?" Alex didn't answer aloud, which Max took as a pretty clear negative. "Well, it's weird, I'll grant you that, but I don't see that there's anything I can do. Take some of those goodnight pills and try to get plenty of r..." Max's voice was broken off in mid-word as he stared at the computer screen, which Alex was still working on with a frown.
Max stepped up beside Alex and drew his attention away from the screen with a gentle pressure on his shoulder. For Max's own part, he couldn't seem to keep his eyes of the cathode ray tube screen. "Alex, did Liz ever tell you about the... the secret chamber up near the Pullman ranch that Tess showed us last spring?" There was a dreadfully dark intensity in his voice.
"What, the pod chamber?" Alex asked, mystified. "Yeah, of course. I think you've even mentioned it a few times, Max."
Max scowled at the jibe. "Not just a name. Have you ever been told of anything that's inside?"
Alex was getting more confused by the second. "Well, yeah!! The pods that you guys incubated in until you emerged as little kids."
"Just that?" Max pressed. "You've never been told any more about what the pods looked like?"
Alex shook his head, mystified, and then suddenly followed Max's gaze back to his computer's screen. "You mean... he started, vaguely awed.
Max nodded grimly and pointed at one of the oval shapes in the bank of four machines that Alex had been doing his best to illustrate. "Did you see anythinh inside?? Shapes, or faces?"
"No," Alex had to admit. "Just some slopping goo."
"Which might mean it was before we were incubated," Max guessed. He turned, walked away from the computer, and sat himself down on the bed with a weary thud. "Maybe you'd better tell me as much of the rest as you can remember, Alex," he said softly. "Every detail."
Max believed now, Alex realized. Before he saw the pods on Alex's computer screen, he had just been doing lip service to the idea that Max could have gotten ahold of some memories from his homeworld. Now... he wasn't completely convinced, but unable to truly disbelieve either. And the stress, of one crisis or mystery after another, was weighing on him.
"Well?" After a second's more hesitation, Alex started to haltingly retell what he could remember of the alien imagery. The ceremony, the genetic library, the computer, the holograph. The book.
"What??" Max called out, loudly enough that Alex was worried his parents would wake up.
"Ssh."
"Like Tess's book? Why didn't you tell me about the book first, Alex??!"
"Uhh... Tess's what??" was all Alex could think of to say.
It took them a few minutes to get that sorted out. Alex had never heard of or seen the book - Liz had seen Tess take it out of the library wall using an alien handprint technique, and Michael and Isabel had both seen it, but Alex had had bigger things on his mind - like the general misconception that Tess was Nasedo and Isabel's conviction that she was somehow carrying Michael's baby.
"I'd like to see this book," Alex said. "Maybe - I'm not saying it's a sure thing, but I feel like I might be able to decipher some of those characters if I had access to them for a while."
"Sure, sure," Max agreed.
"Who keeping it safe?" Alex asked offhandedly. And Max froze.
"Oh, no," Alex muttered when he saw how Max was acting.
"It was a really crazy time," Max murmured. "Tess... Tess and I were discussing Isabel and Michael's alien dreams in the park... I think I had the book with me then. We went back to the Crashdown, and found out from Maria that a different Max had taken Liz on a romantic drive. Nasedo." He sighed. "That's the last point I remember having the book with me." He looked mortified.
"Well, let's look over the cases," Alex suggested. "Either you put it down and Tess or Isabel or one of the others picked it up. If you had kept it with you..." Alex stopped that line of thought as soon as he saw where it was leading. If Max had still had the book on his person when he got to the country fair, chasing after Liz, then Agent Pierce would have gotten his hands on it. And there was no telling where a psycho government alien hunter might have taken a thing like that.
"Alternatively, if I had left it in the Crashdown and one of us didn't notice it," Max sighed, "then anyone could have picked it up!"
"Yeah," Alex agreed morosely. "Probably nobody would think it was too unusual, in there - just another piece of 'fake' alien memerobilia. Still..."
A loud knocking sounded on Alex's door suddenly. "Allie, honey, you still up?" his mother called out, using the nickname he despised. "Come on, lights out sweetie. It's a school day tomorrow."
"Of course, Mom," Alex called out, getting up to switch off the ceiling light, leaving only the small desk lamp on to attempt to illuminate his room. "Sorry," he whispered to Max, or, rather, the place where Max had last been. There was now no sign of him - he must have jumped for the window as soon as Alex's mom knocked. Just as well, Alex supposed. It would have been pretty embarassing if his mother caught him with another guy in his bedroom, late at night.
After all of the commotion, surprisingly, Alex didn't have any more trouble getting to sleep that night. He had a vague memory of dreaming alien dreams again that night, but couldn't remember the details.
* * * *
(October 18 and 19 of 2000)
The next day, Max had too much to deal with to really get into the issue of the Book's current whereabouts. The thing was, Liz had caught Michael breaking into Congresswoman Whittaker's office and looking through her files. While trying to hurry him out of the office, Liz had mentioned that Whittaker had shredded some files in her presence the day before, and Michael started telling her off for 'allowing that to happen.'
Liz shouted back that she was just a receptionist, she really couldn't tell the Congresswoman what not to do, and it evolved into a full yelling and screaming argument from there. Which is exactly when Whittaker herself walked in, wondering who on earth Michael was and why he and Liz were raising a din that could raise the dead. To defer suspicion, Liz had to spin a whole spiel that Michael was her boyfriend, that he had come by to pick her up, and that a friendly discussion of movie selections while Liz packed up to leave had turned into an unpleasant argument.
Whittaker bought the story, apparently, but she'd invited Liz, Michael, and Liz's parents to dinner at her place on Sunday night, and Liz didn't see any way to get them out of it.
Liz was furious at Michael for having put her in that position. Michael was ticked off that nobody seemed to understand how important what he had been doing was. Isabel was out of patience with the whole merry go round, Maria just stared at Michael and shook her head, and everybody seemed to expect Max to wave a magic wand (or an alien hand,) and solve everything in an instant. Max didn't have a magic wand, and all he was sure of was that, as with Maria, the thought of Michael and Liz as a couple made him feel knotted up inside.
Steering clear of all this, Tess badgered Alex about directions to see River Dog. He claimed vagueness of memory, (which was quite true, since he had only been up there once and that was when Michael had been dying,) and told her to talk to Max about it. He didn't want to upset Isabel by giving Tess the information she needed to go see River Dog herself.
It was after school the next day when Max finally brought up the subject of the Book, and to give him credit he did it pretty discretely, given all the discord that was going around.
He had gathered Isabel, Liz, Tess, and Michael around a table of Bugeye sodas at the Crashdown. Alex and Maria were drinking milkshakes at the corner, but Alex was just close enough to hear what was being said.
"Say, you remember that book?" Max started softly. "With the funky stencil cutouts and the lettering that none of us could read?" There was a very quiet pause. "Umm... does anyone here know what happened to it, by any chance?"
Tess reacted first, and very dramatically. Rising from her chair, she yelled at him "You LOST my BOOK? Max Evans, you *BASTARD!!*" And with that, she turned and stormed out of the cafe. A large percentage of the Crashdown clientelle looked at the group Tess left behind, and then with a few dozen small shrugs they returned to their own business.
The four remaining exchanged bemused glances. "Abandonment issues?" Michael guessed.
Isabel shook that issue off and returned to the subject at hand in a fierce whisper. "If you don't know where the book is, Max, and Tess doesn't know, none of us have it. You had it last, when you went off to talk to her about... dreams."
"None of you have seen it since then?" Max countered, in a voice that was even more whispery. Three heads shook quickly. "Well then, here's the thing. I remember carrying the book with me when I came back from that talk with Tess," he told them. "That's when I arrived here at the Crashdown, asked Maria about Liz, and found out she had left." Max didn't say what he hoped they all remembered - that Liz had been taken hostage by the shapechanging Nasedo, assuming Max's form as he led the FBI special unit on a deadly game of cat and mouse that had ended with Max a prisoner of Daniel Pierce.
"Oh, my god," Michael moaned. "You mean you had it on you when the special unit caught you?" Michael groaned. "It's probably been destroyed by now. Thank you Ed Harding, covering our tracks so well WE can't even find them."
"No, no," Max broke in once Michael finally came to a conversational full stop. "I'm pretty sure I didn't have it when I got to the carnival. I remember thinking about it when we were in the Jeep, that I didn't feel it in my jacket and maybe I should go back to the Crashdown looking for it. Before I could make up my mind, along sped Valenti and that was that."
"The... Crashdown?" Isabel repeated slowly. "Are you saying you left it... here, Max? In public??"
"I'm not sure," Max sighed. "I wouldn't have thought so, but I can't think where else if none of you remember me giving it to you. Plus... I think I *might* remember putting it down on the counter." Max gestured.
"This is just great," Michael growled. "You left it out in public, where anyone could find it. Valenti. One of the FBI boys."
"I don't think so," Isabel said pragmatically. "*They* were all pretty busy at the time too. So..."
"Chances are, it was picked up by someone who doesn't know anything..." Max continued. "Just a regular cafe customer."
"Who wouldn't have any good reason to suspect that it was real," Isabel realized, going over the same line of thought that Alex had. "I mean... it's an alien-looking book, and this is an alien theme restaurant. Our ordinary customer would think it was a souvenir or a piece of the ambience."
"But most good customers just don't help themselves to pieces of the ambience," Michael pointed out. "So either whoever took the book out of the cafe is klepto, or..."
"They paid for it to someone associated with the cafe," Max continued. "The Parkers, one of the waitresses, anyone. In any event..." He turned to look square at Liz.
"I know, I know," Liz groaned. "I'm your best shot for getting this darn thing back, whatever it is. Maybe your only shot." She sighed. "I'll see what I can do."
Max nodded gravely. "Thank you," Isabel told her with a fair amount of sincerity.
"By the way, why the sudden concern about the B right now, Maxwell?" Michael asked. "I mean, I know it's a problem that it's gone missing, but why did you just realize it now? I haven't thought about the thing in months, I know."
"It just... occurred to me," Max covered. "No particular reason."
* * * *
(October 20 2000)
"Parker residence?"
"Hi Liz," Alex said into his telephone. "It's Alex."
"Hi Alex," Liz replied. "No, I haven't figured out what happened to the book yet."
"Book?" Alex said in as innocent a voice as he could manage. If Max wasn't telling Michael and Isabel the real story about the book and the dreams, Alex wasn't going to breathe a word about his part in the situation.
"Oh, don't use that 'who, me?' voice on... well, me, Alex," Liz said. "I noticed you paying careful attention in the Crashdown day before yesterday when Max was telling us about it. And that's okay. I don't keep secrets from you any more."
Alex smiled. "Thanks. I really didn't call to bug you about the book, though I'm interested. I rang to ask you how you were doing, especially in the 'dealing with all this' category."
"Oh, *that* category, huh?" Liz giggled. "Quite a general definition, isn't it?" Alex chuckled, but didn't answer aloud. "Well, I'm feeling a little stressed out, I'll admit it," Liz said after a moment. "All this pressure from so many sides at once..."
"I know what you mean," Alex said. "In fact... do you have any plans for tonight, Liz? The Banks' party perhaps?"
"Um... no, no plans as such," Liz told him. "In fact, I'd forgotten about the party until just now."
"Why don't we go together?" Alex asked. There was an awkward silence. "As friends, of course. You know, party, plutonic good time, take our minds off our troubles, that kind of thing."
Liz laughed. "I'd love to. Meet me at... where do the Banks live again?"
"Up on Redwood," Alex told her. "We can rendezvous next to that science knicknack store on Grosvenor."
"I'll be there in half an hour," Liz assured him.
"Half an hour," Alex agreed, and the line went dead as Liz hung up. Alex placed his phone in its cradle too.
It was after Alex had taken a superspeed shower and put most of his party duds on that the phone rang again. Alex picked the receiver up and immediately said "No, Liz, you cannot back out, because you'd just sit in your room in the dark and mope about Max all night. We're going."
"Actually..." Alex flushed in mortification as he recognized the voice on the other end of the line, "...this *is* Max. Just where are you and Liz going?"
"Max, hi!" Alex exclaimed, avoiding the question. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Max paused a second. "Well, I was calling to suggest that we go up to the pod chamber sometime soon. To see if it brings back anything from your dreams. Did you have any last night by the way?"
"No," Alex admitted, "they've faded out. Maybe whatever that dingus did to me has worn off." Hint hint. "As far as you taking me up to the Puhlman ranch, sure, and thanks."
"Mm-hmm." Max's voice became probing. "How's tonight for you?"
Alex gasped out his frustration. "Well, if you must know, Liz and I are going to Courtney's party. As friends. I really have to go now, actually." For a brief second, Alex wondered if Max would ask Alex to back off so that Liz could be his date at the party, and what Alex should say if Max *did*. He didn't think Liz would be wild about the idea.
For better or worse, Max didn't bring it up. "I see," he muttered, his voice hardly more than a whisper across the telephone line. "Well, tell Liz I may see you guys there, then?"
Alex wondered how to take that for a second, then chose 'at face value.' "Will do."
* * * *
When Alex arrived at the corner, Liz was waiting for him. "What kept you? I thought I was being 'stood up.'"
Alex just smiled at his old friend. "Threads this good don't just pick themselves," he deadpanned, gesturing at his gold-tone collar shirt. A second's thought had decided him against mentioning the phone call from Max. "Been waiting long?"
"Nah, just a few minutes." Liz fell in beside him and pointed down the street, a small scrap of paper in her hand with a miniature map scrawled on it. Alex knew in which direction they were going, but set off in step with Liz without commenting on the fact.
"By the way, you look very nice," Liz mentioned after they had been walking for about twenty seconds.
"Oh, yeah, th- thanks," Alex stuttered. "And you look..."
Alex hadn't really looked at Liz when he met up with her at the corner. He didn't tend to really look at her, actually. Liz was just someone who was there. Reliably, comfortingly there... except when he percieved that she wasn't. But Alex would never have thought of paying attention to something like the clothes Liz was wearing to a party.
"You look great!!" It was an understatement. Oh, Liz's clothes may have been far from 'cool stylish threads' in the opinion of the most fashion-conscious of their peers. Just a mid-length dark red skirt, matched with a slightly brighter sweater in the same tone, along with low-heely-type shoes. But she looked just perfect somehow. Perfect for a party. I wonder if this is how Max sees her? The thought running through his mind surprised and disturbed Alex. How Max - the soulmate - saw Liz Parker was not how Alex, the best friend, should be looking at her!
Meanwhile, Liz was speaking again, her words breaking apart Alex's introspection. "So... I've been thinking lately," she said in a confessional voice.
"Why does that not surprise me??" Alex joked at her. "And would you like to share the subject matter of your thoughts, Miss Parker?"
"Sure," Liz agreed, smiling, and then looked back and forth, craning her neck to stare behind them, making sure that no-one else was in earshot. "It's about the Skins."
Alex nodded solemnly. "What about them??"
"Well, everyone is being so melodramatic about the situation. Like any moment these alien bogeymen might pop up from around the corner and try to kill Max and Isabel, or whatever. But work it out. The skins have probably been here in Roswell for what, two or three weeks now? And they haven't attacked, haven't revealed themselves..."
"They killed Nasedo... or one of them did," Alex pointed out softly.
"Yes they did," Liz agreed... "Or so Nasedo implied to Max before he died, anyway. But aside from that... nothing. Or at least nothing obvious."
"And what does your finely analytical and deductive brain conclude from this, Sherlock??" Alex asked her playfully.
"That they're not about to face Max... or any of the four... directly, any time soon," Liz told him confidently. "If they were, they'd have been smart to do it immediately, before Max and Michael tumbled to the risk." She paused a moment. "I've been thinking about Michael's arrest, though."
"You think the skins might be behind that??" Alex asked cautiously.
"Why not? If he'd been exposed as an alien and a murderer, the skins might not have needed to do anything more to get rid of him. But they wouldn't be risking themselves in the same way as a frontal assault. For all we know, they were watching. Trying to figure out how Max and Isabel handled themselves in a crisis."
"Hmm... I think it's a good thought," Alex admitted. "Max may have realized it already, actually. He's been pretty Nazi-like lately about the head down thing. Nothing suspicious in public, etcetera."
"Oh, darn," Liz mumbled, pouting cutely in disappointment at the idea of her thunder being stolen. "Sshh," Alex and Liz whispered to each other in unison as another partygoer crossed the street and started walking right in front of them. Not surprising - the Banks house was right up ahead.
* * * *
The party was, on first sighting, incredible. The Banks' place wasn't fancy, in fact the house looked slightly run-down, but it was large and no cheap expense had been spared in decorating it for the festivities. Dozens of people were circulating in the first few rooms that Alex could see into immediately upon entering the building, some high-school age, some older through what looked like older twenties and 'thirty-ish.' No farther.
Most of the partyers were carrying beverages, some obviously soft drinks, some probably not, (and there was no obvious correlation between how old an individual looked and how alcoholic their drink seemed.) Alex was reminded of his big rant to sheriff Valenti late the night of the heatwave party, last year, and wondered what he would do if somebody offered him booze. At least there wasn't likely to be pressure, the number of people around who were drinking Cokes and Pepsis.
"Umm... hi there!" A tall, buff-looking guy in his mid-twenties put down a huge package of styrofoam cups and waved hello to Alex and Liz. "Not meaning to be rude, but who are you?"
Liz fielded the questions. "Umm... we're, that is, we're kinda friends of Courtney's."
The guy ran a hand though his short blond hair and grinned. "From which class?"
"From the Crashdown," Alex offered. "I'm a terminal regular and Liz," he pointed to her with the over-the-shoulder gesture of a thumb, "is the owners' daughter."
"Oh, okay. Hi there, I'm Steve Banks, Courtney's brother and your host for the evening. Sorry for being snarky, but this was supposed to be a mid-size housewarming, not a huge rave bash. Most of the high school seems to be here."
"No," Alex corrected. "The senior party crowd wouldn't dream of showing up before nine. Wouldn't look 'cool.'"
"Thanks for the warning... I think," Steve told him dubiously. "Well, let's see. Pool's in the basement, computer games are down the hall on your left, drinks and dance floor upstairs. Aside from that, just wander around and have fun!" Steve waved at them again, picked up his burden, and headed to the staircase that led up from the front hall of the house.
Liz turned towards Alex, smiling, evidently having been as affected by the charm of Courtney's brother as he had. "Check out these computer games?" she suggested.
"Unless you want to go for a dip in the pool," Alex replied with a wide grin.
"Don't think so." Liz led him down the hallway Steve Banks had indicated and into a room with more than its fair share of people per square foot, even for this party.
The computer setup was pretty cool, Alex had to admit. Someone, presumably Steve, had linked together a modern server tower, a few-years-old desktop, a workstation that seemed to be little more than a screen keyboard and builtin trackball, and a little laptop. All four were interfacing to run an old-fashioned video game, with each station controlling a spaceship out to explore the galaxy, find energy and weapons, and destroy the competition.
Alex and Liz took a turn together, but got blasted out of the galaxy pretty early when a better-armed starfighter ambushed them. By the rules of precedence that were being enforced, they had to go back to the end of the line, which had grown even longer.
"So..." Alex mumbled, as he held the black magic marker and looked up at the nine entries ahead of them. "So, Liz, do you *want* to wait for another go?"
Liz shrugged carelessly. "I could go either way, I guess. You?"
"Maybe we'll leave it for later," he decided, putting the marker down and walking back over to Liz. "Thanks for coming with me, by the way. A party was just what I needed."
"I know what you mean," Liz agreed, as they left the computer room. "And - thank you for asking me, Alex."
"Oh, you're very welcome," Alex replied. Somewhat to Alex's surprise, he reached out an arm and wrapped it around Liz's shoulders. What the heck was that? Well, it could be considered a friendly gesture. Liz didn't seem to be worried about it...
"So, where to next?" Liz mumbled softly, as they stood at a junction od rooms.
"Oh, hey guys! Liz!!" They turned around in the direction of the voice, and Alex blinked in shock. There before him stood Maria DeLuca and Max Evans... holding hands. What was going on here?
"Hey," Alex said slowly.
"Hello." That was Max. Maria's voice had been the one hailing them down.
Liz was the one to figure it out first. "What is this... are you two trying to make me jealous or something?"
"No, of co-" Max started.
"That depends," Maria quipped, letting go of Max's hand, stepping closer to the teenaged alien, and wrapping her arm around his back so that her hand ended up at the other side of Max's waist. "Is it working?!"
"No!!" Liz burst out. "No, it isn't 'working,' and quite frankly I'm disappointed in both of you for pulling such a cheap stunt..."
"Oh, and bringing Alex was what, a brilliant stratagem?" Maria taunted back. The two guys, Max and Alex were just staring wordlessly at the bitch-off by this point. "We're just followin' your lead, sister."
"Alex and me coming here was not a stratagem," Liz replied heatedly. "We're just two friends going to a party together." Belatedly, Alex whipped his arm off of Liz's shoulders.
"Yeah, right. And did you even think about how it would look to Max? How he might feel about your little friendship date?"
"'Max' is damn well gonna have to get used to it!!" Liz shouted.
Alex turned to Max to see how he was dealing with this, but remarkably young Mister Evans didn't even seem to be paying attention to Liz and Maria's argument. He was staring at something behind Alex and he whispered softly "Oh, no." Alex turned around to see what was up.
Isabel had just walked into the room. With Grant Sorenson right next to her.
Alex shot a glance back over his shoulder. Liz and Maria had apparently put the squab fight on hold in the face of the new diversion. Maria, who probably couldn't see Isabel or recognize Grant from where she was standing because Alex was between them, was looking from Liz to Max, trying to figure out what was going on. Liz, who could see Isabel and Grant, was looking up at Alex with silent support and commiseration. And Isabel had recognized her friends and was bringing Grant over.
"I'll be a minute, okay?" Alex murmured to Liz, and stepped forward to meet his ex-girlfriend and her new fling. Or, perhaps more precisely, to say "Pardon me," to Grant and drag Isabel back towards the doorway before either the other man or the girl could react. "What are you doing?" he hissed. For god's sake, if his life was going to suddenly become a Melrose Place episode, he might as well act the part.
"I'm... having fun at a party," Iz spluttered. "Or I was until ten seconds ago. What did it look like I was doing, Alex?"
Alex ignored that question. "And what's Grant doing here with you? Are you on a date with him!?"
Isabel smirked a little, and Alex worried that he'd made a mistake, asking her straight out like that. "What about you and Liz? Are you two 'here on a date?"
Alex groaned. Why did everyone seem to think that he and Liz were the next hot couple or something? "No, we're just here as friends."
"Then Grant and I are friends too," Isabel declared, energetically but not really convincingly.
Alex wasn't buying it for a second. "Isabel..."
"Okay, try this: I fail to see how Grant and I are any of your business anymore, Alex. By the way, have you ever *thought* about asking Liz out? The two of you are really cute together."
Isabel's decision to change the subject was obvious... and effective. "Iz! If your love life is none of my business, then you certainly have no right to come and tell me something like..."
"Chill," she advised him. "It was just a friendly observation, nothing more. Even though it would solve a lot of problems if you two got together..."
Alex gave up and turned away, trying to determine if Liz was still back where he had left her. A knot of other partyers was in the way.
"Or Maria... is Maria attractive to you at all??" Isabel asked him as he walked away.
He found Liz talking with Max and Maria a little further across the room. "We've declared pax," Liz advised him. "How'd things go with Isabel?"
"Not nearly so good," Alex admitted, and turned to greet his friends in the new post-armistice context. "Hey, Maria, glad you came out."
"Looking sharp, bassman."
"Nice to see ya here, Max. Now that the surprise wore off."
Max laughed. "I know what you mean."
The four of them stood there, clustered in a tight knot for several seconds. "So... what else is there to do at this shindig?" Maria asked just after the silence became awkward.
Liz laughed. "Well, Courtney's brother said something about beverages and music upstairs."
"Sounds good to me," Max decided. "What's this brother like?" he asked conversationally as the foursome began to maneuver back to the front hall.
Alex shot Liz a glance, but she shrugged slightly in response as if to say 'your turn.' "Um... he seemed pretty cool. Older, a little frenzied with the party stuff, but really friendly."
"I heard that he's the new director of news for KROZ radio," Maria commented. That line proved a conversation stopper as each of the four of them remembered the angst of the Blind Date concert KROZ had run that winter.
Things loosened up once the foursome got upstairs and were provided with sodas by a guy Alex recognized from being on the football team with Kyle Valenti. Still, the conversation stayed pretty much the smallest of small talk for a while - classes, CDs, who was dating who out of the people none of them knew well.
Suddenly, something was causing a minor commotion across the room. "Whoo, baby!!" some guy called out.
Maria turned around to see what the kaffuffle was all about. "Oh, god," she whispered.
Tess had just shown up.
She was dressed up to the nines, (or possibly the tens?) in a navy blue dress that was short on the legs, low-cut over the cleavage, tight and stretchy all over. Plus high-heeled leather boots, earrings, and a bracelet. Her blonde hair was down in a mass of curls, the ouftit looked like it belonged on the cover of a 'Maxim,' but all the guys were staring at her as if with a single hormone. Including, unfortunately, Max.
Alex tore himself away from the sight, (which took a little effort, even though Tess really wasn't his type,) and turned to Liz, who hadn't yet realized what was going on. "Dance with me," he mumbled to her, dragging Liz away from Tess's direction, away from Max, towards an empty section of the dance floor. He didn't have any plan in mind beyond trying to distract Liz, but he felt a need to do whatever he could to shelter Liz from any more painful angst.
It seemed to be working. "What's this about, Alex," Liz asked as she started to dance with him.
"Just... just a whim," Alex said unconvincingly.
"Is... is there something you're not telling me?" Liz asked.
"Yes. And believe me, you don't want me to."
Liz considered that for a moment. "Okay... I guess."
* * * *
Alex carefully picked his way around the wet patches on the stairs down from the Banks' front hall. Liz looked a little less than ready to follow him. "You sure you want to do this?"
Liz considered only a moment. "Yeah. That guy told us Michael was down here somewhere, and I'd like to find him and say hi."
"Sure." Alex led the way again, and Liz followed. As he had suspected, the pool room was right at the bottom of the stairs. It was good-sized for an indoor pool, and a lot of partyers (most of them twenty-something or under,) were swimming, laughing, and playing in and around the water in bathing suits. A few piles of spare suits were laying around.
Alex looked around, but he couldn't see Michael around the pool. There was a door at the far end of the pool room, so Alex waved Liz along. They started to cross the room. A guy was heading in their direction, carrying a tray of drinks. He moved closer to the wall, so Liz and Alex nudged a little closer to the pool to let him pass.
It was not meant to be. As they were walking past each other, the waiter-guy slipped on a wet patch and lost his balance. He dropped the tray, sending cans of beer and soda pop rolling every which way, and a single glass tumbling, spilling yet more liquid on the floor, and clattering against the hard surface. Waiter guy's momentum sent him stumbling straight into Liz, which knocked her straight - into - the - pool.
"Oh, god, are you okay??" Someone was hurrying over from the stairs - it was Courtney Banks, from the Crashdown, (and their host's sister who had invited West Roswell High to the party.) She gave Liz a helping hand out of the pool while Alex steadied the waiter guy up to his feet.
"Yeah, yeah, just a little wet," Liz said as she got out. Not just wet, she was dripping, her sweater, the rest of her clothes, and her hair soaked from her brief dip in the pool.
"Oh, you're drenched, you poor thing," Courtney said solicitously. "Come on, I'll get you upstairs, you can put on some of my things and I'll get these clothes washed and dry."
"Um, okay..." Liz said, turning to Alex. "You just hang out, enjoy the party, okay Alex? I'll find you once I'm put together again."
"Okay," Alex said, waving goodbye to Liz as Courtney led her up the stairs. None of them noticed Courtney's brother Steve watching with interest from the living room.
"The game is afoot," he whispered softly.
TO BE CONTINUED.
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
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, currently based at fanatics: http://www.roswellfanatics.net/
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'
Notes: This is the beginning of an alternate future fic that flips back and forth between Homecoming night 2001 and flashbacks of the events that have led up to that point. The storyline diverges as of the end of 'Ask Not' so anything about Whittaker being revealed as a skin, the Harvest, Future Max, the Dupes, Christmas, the Granolith, and the Gandarium are all irrelevant lol.
Section 2: The overture.
(October 20 2001 again.)
Alex only jogged back to an awareness of reality a few seconds after the limo had stopped. A quick look out the window confirmed that the car was stopped at a very familiar part of Murray Lane.
"Meter's still running, mac," the driver reminded him with friendly carelessness. Alex thought about that for a second and put a hand to his door handle - just in time to see through the open limo door as Maxwell Evans emerge from the Evans household.
When they met up, twenty-five seconds or so later on the curb next to the expensive rented chauffeurmobile, Max nodded at Alex. "Targazinzki melior tto quaree azhvar son keh milliap," he said offhandedly.
"Torgin vve keels," Alex replied politely in the same language. "What's the ETA on Isabel being dressed and ready to go?"
"Wrong guy to ask," Max admitted with a grin. "Is and Tess are all getting primped at Liz's place over the Crashdown." Max smiled in anticipation.
"Tess, Isabel, and Liz?" Alex repeated carefully. "Not Maria?!"
"Not Maria," Max confirmed. "My latest instructions are that she's to be picked up at her Mom's new house."
"As planned," Alex said as he got back into the stretch. "Well, we can cross Tess's studio off the itinerary. Driver? Cancel the stop on Roxdale."
The chauffeur met that news with a kind of stolid passivity. "Still 247 Elm next?"
"Yeah," Alex agreed. Max had gotten into the car by now, and closed the door, so Buddy put the motor in gear and pulled out into the street again. Alex's fingers brushed the disk again, and Max looked at him questioningly.
"I was remembering how we found out about the archive," Alex explained. "On the way over here."
"Ah," Max said, nodding. "Some crazy months we went through, huh? I'm glad things have calmed down a little..."
* * * *
(Just after midnight, the morning of October 18 2000.)
"Okay," Max Evans said, pacing quietly across Alex's room. "Let's start at the beginning here. You touched this gizmo of Brody's at the UFO center."
"Mm-hm," Alex agreed, concentrating most of his attention on the drawing program on his computer.
"And you started having dreams about aliens?" Max continued doubtfully.
"*Last* night I had a deam," Alex maintained. "Tonight I had a flash." There was no uncertainty in his voice.
"And you think what you saw has a connection to us?" Max asked. He leaned over Alex's shoulder and peered at the computer screen. "If it looked like that, I hope it was just your imagination," he joked.
"Shut up," Alex groused grumpily. "It's not coming out right. I'm a musician, not a visual artist." But he continued to work at the picture, trying to refine the details that didn't match his memory.
"Okay, okay," Max said, resuming his pace. "Now, you said there were notes Brody was keeping about the gizmo. Can you remember any of them?"
"Um... it reacted to the may fourteenth pulse," Alex recounted. "To the signal the orbs sent out."
"We can't be sure of that connection," Max said. Alex turned around in his computer chair to stare doubtfully at the alien teenager. "Well, we already know Brody is obsessed with May 14th in particular. If someone else sold him this doodad, they could have known that too and made up a connection to that date, but go on."
Alex sighed and then did so. "Has been reported to shock other people, but nothing about creepy dreams. Oh, and supposedly it was taken from some FBI special warehouse of crash-related evidence."
"Wait a second," Max replied quickly. "The regular FBI or the special unit??"
"Brody's notes didn't say," Alex said pointedly. "The word 'unit' didn't appear, but the word 'special' did. That may be important."
"Okay," Max sighed. "Anything else in the notes?" Alex didn't answer aloud, which Max took as a pretty clear negative. "Well, it's weird, I'll grant you that, but I don't see that there's anything I can do. Take some of those goodnight pills and try to get plenty of r..." Max's voice was broken off in mid-word as he stared at the computer screen, which Alex was still working on with a frown.
Max stepped up beside Alex and drew his attention away from the screen with a gentle pressure on his shoulder. For Max's own part, he couldn't seem to keep his eyes of the cathode ray tube screen. "Alex, did Liz ever tell you about the... the secret chamber up near the Pullman ranch that Tess showed us last spring?" There was a dreadfully dark intensity in his voice.
"What, the pod chamber?" Alex asked, mystified. "Yeah, of course. I think you've even mentioned it a few times, Max."
Max scowled at the jibe. "Not just a name. Have you ever been told of anything that's inside?"
Alex was getting more confused by the second. "Well, yeah!! The pods that you guys incubated in until you emerged as little kids."
"Just that?" Max pressed. "You've never been told any more about what the pods looked like?"
Alex shook his head, mystified, and then suddenly followed Max's gaze back to his computer's screen. "You mean... he started, vaguely awed.
Max nodded grimly and pointed at one of the oval shapes in the bank of four machines that Alex had been doing his best to illustrate. "Did you see anythinh inside?? Shapes, or faces?"
"No," Alex had to admit. "Just some slopping goo."
"Which might mean it was before we were incubated," Max guessed. He turned, walked away from the computer, and sat himself down on the bed with a weary thud. "Maybe you'd better tell me as much of the rest as you can remember, Alex," he said softly. "Every detail."
Max believed now, Alex realized. Before he saw the pods on Alex's computer screen, he had just been doing lip service to the idea that Max could have gotten ahold of some memories from his homeworld. Now... he wasn't completely convinced, but unable to truly disbelieve either. And the stress, of one crisis or mystery after another, was weighing on him.
"Well?" After a second's more hesitation, Alex started to haltingly retell what he could remember of the alien imagery. The ceremony, the genetic library, the computer, the holograph. The book.
"What??" Max called out, loudly enough that Alex was worried his parents would wake up.
"Ssh."
"Like Tess's book? Why didn't you tell me about the book first, Alex??!"
"Uhh... Tess's what??" was all Alex could think of to say.
It took them a few minutes to get that sorted out. Alex had never heard of or seen the book - Liz had seen Tess take it out of the library wall using an alien handprint technique, and Michael and Isabel had both seen it, but Alex had had bigger things on his mind - like the general misconception that Tess was Nasedo and Isabel's conviction that she was somehow carrying Michael's baby.
"I'd like to see this book," Alex said. "Maybe - I'm not saying it's a sure thing, but I feel like I might be able to decipher some of those characters if I had access to them for a while."
"Sure, sure," Max agreed.
"Who keeping it safe?" Alex asked offhandedly. And Max froze.
"Oh, no," Alex muttered when he saw how Max was acting.
"It was a really crazy time," Max murmured. "Tess... Tess and I were discussing Isabel and Michael's alien dreams in the park... I think I had the book with me then. We went back to the Crashdown, and found out from Maria that a different Max had taken Liz on a romantic drive. Nasedo." He sighed. "That's the last point I remember having the book with me." He looked mortified.
"Well, let's look over the cases," Alex suggested. "Either you put it down and Tess or Isabel or one of the others picked it up. If you had kept it with you..." Alex stopped that line of thought as soon as he saw where it was leading. If Max had still had the book on his person when he got to the country fair, chasing after Liz, then Agent Pierce would have gotten his hands on it. And there was no telling where a psycho government alien hunter might have taken a thing like that.
"Alternatively, if I had left it in the Crashdown and one of us didn't notice it," Max sighed, "then anyone could have picked it up!"
"Yeah," Alex agreed morosely. "Probably nobody would think it was too unusual, in there - just another piece of 'fake' alien memerobilia. Still..."
A loud knocking sounded on Alex's door suddenly. "Allie, honey, you still up?" his mother called out, using the nickname he despised. "Come on, lights out sweetie. It's a school day tomorrow."
"Of course, Mom," Alex called out, getting up to switch off the ceiling light, leaving only the small desk lamp on to attempt to illuminate his room. "Sorry," he whispered to Max, or, rather, the place where Max had last been. There was now no sign of him - he must have jumped for the window as soon as Alex's mom knocked. Just as well, Alex supposed. It would have been pretty embarassing if his mother caught him with another guy in his bedroom, late at night.
After all of the commotion, surprisingly, Alex didn't have any more trouble getting to sleep that night. He had a vague memory of dreaming alien dreams again that night, but couldn't remember the details.
* * * *
(October 18 and 19 of 2000)
The next day, Max had too much to deal with to really get into the issue of the Book's current whereabouts. The thing was, Liz had caught Michael breaking into Congresswoman Whittaker's office and looking through her files. While trying to hurry him out of the office, Liz had mentioned that Whittaker had shredded some files in her presence the day before, and Michael started telling her off for 'allowing that to happen.'
Liz shouted back that she was just a receptionist, she really couldn't tell the Congresswoman what not to do, and it evolved into a full yelling and screaming argument from there. Which is exactly when Whittaker herself walked in, wondering who on earth Michael was and why he and Liz were raising a din that could raise the dead. To defer suspicion, Liz had to spin a whole spiel that Michael was her boyfriend, that he had come by to pick her up, and that a friendly discussion of movie selections while Liz packed up to leave had turned into an unpleasant argument.
Whittaker bought the story, apparently, but she'd invited Liz, Michael, and Liz's parents to dinner at her place on Sunday night, and Liz didn't see any way to get them out of it.
Liz was furious at Michael for having put her in that position. Michael was ticked off that nobody seemed to understand how important what he had been doing was. Isabel was out of patience with the whole merry go round, Maria just stared at Michael and shook her head, and everybody seemed to expect Max to wave a magic wand (or an alien hand,) and solve everything in an instant. Max didn't have a magic wand, and all he was sure of was that, as with Maria, the thought of Michael and Liz as a couple made him feel knotted up inside.
Steering clear of all this, Tess badgered Alex about directions to see River Dog. He claimed vagueness of memory, (which was quite true, since he had only been up there once and that was when Michael had been dying,) and told her to talk to Max about it. He didn't want to upset Isabel by giving Tess the information she needed to go see River Dog herself.
It was after school the next day when Max finally brought up the subject of the Book, and to give him credit he did it pretty discretely, given all the discord that was going around.
He had gathered Isabel, Liz, Tess, and Michael around a table of Bugeye sodas at the Crashdown. Alex and Maria were drinking milkshakes at the corner, but Alex was just close enough to hear what was being said.
"Say, you remember that book?" Max started softly. "With the funky stencil cutouts and the lettering that none of us could read?" There was a very quiet pause. "Umm... does anyone here know what happened to it, by any chance?"
Tess reacted first, and very dramatically. Rising from her chair, she yelled at him "You LOST my BOOK? Max Evans, you *BASTARD!!*" And with that, she turned and stormed out of the cafe. A large percentage of the Crashdown clientelle looked at the group Tess left behind, and then with a few dozen small shrugs they returned to their own business.
The four remaining exchanged bemused glances. "Abandonment issues?" Michael guessed.
Isabel shook that issue off and returned to the subject at hand in a fierce whisper. "If you don't know where the book is, Max, and Tess doesn't know, none of us have it. You had it last, when you went off to talk to her about... dreams."
"None of you have seen it since then?" Max countered, in a voice that was even more whispery. Three heads shook quickly. "Well then, here's the thing. I remember carrying the book with me when I came back from that talk with Tess," he told them. "That's when I arrived here at the Crashdown, asked Maria about Liz, and found out she had left." Max didn't say what he hoped they all remembered - that Liz had been taken hostage by the shapechanging Nasedo, assuming Max's form as he led the FBI special unit on a deadly game of cat and mouse that had ended with Max a prisoner of Daniel Pierce.
"Oh, my god," Michael moaned. "You mean you had it on you when the special unit caught you?" Michael groaned. "It's probably been destroyed by now. Thank you Ed Harding, covering our tracks so well WE can't even find them."
"No, no," Max broke in once Michael finally came to a conversational full stop. "I'm pretty sure I didn't have it when I got to the carnival. I remember thinking about it when we were in the Jeep, that I didn't feel it in my jacket and maybe I should go back to the Crashdown looking for it. Before I could make up my mind, along sped Valenti and that was that."
"The... Crashdown?" Isabel repeated slowly. "Are you saying you left it... here, Max? In public??"
"I'm not sure," Max sighed. "I wouldn't have thought so, but I can't think where else if none of you remember me giving it to you. Plus... I think I *might* remember putting it down on the counter." Max gestured.
"This is just great," Michael growled. "You left it out in public, where anyone could find it. Valenti. One of the FBI boys."
"I don't think so," Isabel said pragmatically. "*They* were all pretty busy at the time too. So..."
"Chances are, it was picked up by someone who doesn't know anything..." Max continued. "Just a regular cafe customer."
"Who wouldn't have any good reason to suspect that it was real," Isabel realized, going over the same line of thought that Alex had. "I mean... it's an alien-looking book, and this is an alien theme restaurant. Our ordinary customer would think it was a souvenir or a piece of the ambience."
"But most good customers just don't help themselves to pieces of the ambience," Michael pointed out. "So either whoever took the book out of the cafe is klepto, or..."
"They paid for it to someone associated with the cafe," Max continued. "The Parkers, one of the waitresses, anyone. In any event..." He turned to look square at Liz.
"I know, I know," Liz groaned. "I'm your best shot for getting this darn thing back, whatever it is. Maybe your only shot." She sighed. "I'll see what I can do."
Max nodded gravely. "Thank you," Isabel told her with a fair amount of sincerity.
"By the way, why the sudden concern about the B right now, Maxwell?" Michael asked. "I mean, I know it's a problem that it's gone missing, but why did you just realize it now? I haven't thought about the thing in months, I know."
"It just... occurred to me," Max covered. "No particular reason."
* * * *
(October 20 2000)
"Parker residence?"
"Hi Liz," Alex said into his telephone. "It's Alex."
"Hi Alex," Liz replied. "No, I haven't figured out what happened to the book yet."
"Book?" Alex said in as innocent a voice as he could manage. If Max wasn't telling Michael and Isabel the real story about the book and the dreams, Alex wasn't going to breathe a word about his part in the situation.
"Oh, don't use that 'who, me?' voice on... well, me, Alex," Liz said. "I noticed you paying careful attention in the Crashdown day before yesterday when Max was telling us about it. And that's okay. I don't keep secrets from you any more."
Alex smiled. "Thanks. I really didn't call to bug you about the book, though I'm interested. I rang to ask you how you were doing, especially in the 'dealing with all this' category."
"Oh, *that* category, huh?" Liz giggled. "Quite a general definition, isn't it?" Alex chuckled, but didn't answer aloud. "Well, I'm feeling a little stressed out, I'll admit it," Liz said after a moment. "All this pressure from so many sides at once..."
"I know what you mean," Alex said. "In fact... do you have any plans for tonight, Liz? The Banks' party perhaps?"
"Um... no, no plans as such," Liz told him. "In fact, I'd forgotten about the party until just now."
"Why don't we go together?" Alex asked. There was an awkward silence. "As friends, of course. You know, party, plutonic good time, take our minds off our troubles, that kind of thing."
Liz laughed. "I'd love to. Meet me at... where do the Banks live again?"
"Up on Redwood," Alex told her. "We can rendezvous next to that science knicknack store on Grosvenor."
"I'll be there in half an hour," Liz assured him.
"Half an hour," Alex agreed, and the line went dead as Liz hung up. Alex placed his phone in its cradle too.
It was after Alex had taken a superspeed shower and put most of his party duds on that the phone rang again. Alex picked the receiver up and immediately said "No, Liz, you cannot back out, because you'd just sit in your room in the dark and mope about Max all night. We're going."
"Actually..." Alex flushed in mortification as he recognized the voice on the other end of the line, "...this *is* Max. Just where are you and Liz going?"
"Max, hi!" Alex exclaimed, avoiding the question. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Max paused a second. "Well, I was calling to suggest that we go up to the pod chamber sometime soon. To see if it brings back anything from your dreams. Did you have any last night by the way?"
"No," Alex admitted, "they've faded out. Maybe whatever that dingus did to me has worn off." Hint hint. "As far as you taking me up to the Puhlman ranch, sure, and thanks."
"Mm-hmm." Max's voice became probing. "How's tonight for you?"
Alex gasped out his frustration. "Well, if you must know, Liz and I are going to Courtney's party. As friends. I really have to go now, actually." For a brief second, Alex wondered if Max would ask Alex to back off so that Liz could be his date at the party, and what Alex should say if Max *did*. He didn't think Liz would be wild about the idea.
For better or worse, Max didn't bring it up. "I see," he muttered, his voice hardly more than a whisper across the telephone line. "Well, tell Liz I may see you guys there, then?"
Alex wondered how to take that for a second, then chose 'at face value.' "Will do."
* * * *
When Alex arrived at the corner, Liz was waiting for him. "What kept you? I thought I was being 'stood up.'"
Alex just smiled at his old friend. "Threads this good don't just pick themselves," he deadpanned, gesturing at his gold-tone collar shirt. A second's thought had decided him against mentioning the phone call from Max. "Been waiting long?"
"Nah, just a few minutes." Liz fell in beside him and pointed down the street, a small scrap of paper in her hand with a miniature map scrawled on it. Alex knew in which direction they were going, but set off in step with Liz without commenting on the fact.
"By the way, you look very nice," Liz mentioned after they had been walking for about twenty seconds.
"Oh, yeah, th- thanks," Alex stuttered. "And you look..."
Alex hadn't really looked at Liz when he met up with her at the corner. He didn't tend to really look at her, actually. Liz was just someone who was there. Reliably, comfortingly there... except when he percieved that she wasn't. But Alex would never have thought of paying attention to something like the clothes Liz was wearing to a party.
"You look great!!" It was an understatement. Oh, Liz's clothes may have been far from 'cool stylish threads' in the opinion of the most fashion-conscious of their peers. Just a mid-length dark red skirt, matched with a slightly brighter sweater in the same tone, along with low-heely-type shoes. But she looked just perfect somehow. Perfect for a party. I wonder if this is how Max sees her? The thought running through his mind surprised and disturbed Alex. How Max - the soulmate - saw Liz Parker was not how Alex, the best friend, should be looking at her!
Meanwhile, Liz was speaking again, her words breaking apart Alex's introspection. "So... I've been thinking lately," she said in a confessional voice.
"Why does that not surprise me??" Alex joked at her. "And would you like to share the subject matter of your thoughts, Miss Parker?"
"Sure," Liz agreed, smiling, and then looked back and forth, craning her neck to stare behind them, making sure that no-one else was in earshot. "It's about the Skins."
Alex nodded solemnly. "What about them??"
"Well, everyone is being so melodramatic about the situation. Like any moment these alien bogeymen might pop up from around the corner and try to kill Max and Isabel, or whatever. But work it out. The skins have probably been here in Roswell for what, two or three weeks now? And they haven't attacked, haven't revealed themselves..."
"They killed Nasedo... or one of them did," Alex pointed out softly.
"Yes they did," Liz agreed... "Or so Nasedo implied to Max before he died, anyway. But aside from that... nothing. Or at least nothing obvious."
"And what does your finely analytical and deductive brain conclude from this, Sherlock??" Alex asked her playfully.
"That they're not about to face Max... or any of the four... directly, any time soon," Liz told him confidently. "If they were, they'd have been smart to do it immediately, before Max and Michael tumbled to the risk." She paused a moment. "I've been thinking about Michael's arrest, though."
"You think the skins might be behind that??" Alex asked cautiously.
"Why not? If he'd been exposed as an alien and a murderer, the skins might not have needed to do anything more to get rid of him. But they wouldn't be risking themselves in the same way as a frontal assault. For all we know, they were watching. Trying to figure out how Max and Isabel handled themselves in a crisis."
"Hmm... I think it's a good thought," Alex admitted. "Max may have realized it already, actually. He's been pretty Nazi-like lately about the head down thing. Nothing suspicious in public, etcetera."
"Oh, darn," Liz mumbled, pouting cutely in disappointment at the idea of her thunder being stolen. "Sshh," Alex and Liz whispered to each other in unison as another partygoer crossed the street and started walking right in front of them. Not surprising - the Banks house was right up ahead.
* * * *
The party was, on first sighting, incredible. The Banks' place wasn't fancy, in fact the house looked slightly run-down, but it was large and no cheap expense had been spared in decorating it for the festivities. Dozens of people were circulating in the first few rooms that Alex could see into immediately upon entering the building, some high-school age, some older through what looked like older twenties and 'thirty-ish.' No farther.
Most of the partyers were carrying beverages, some obviously soft drinks, some probably not, (and there was no obvious correlation between how old an individual looked and how alcoholic their drink seemed.) Alex was reminded of his big rant to sheriff Valenti late the night of the heatwave party, last year, and wondered what he would do if somebody offered him booze. At least there wasn't likely to be pressure, the number of people around who were drinking Cokes and Pepsis.
"Umm... hi there!" A tall, buff-looking guy in his mid-twenties put down a huge package of styrofoam cups and waved hello to Alex and Liz. "Not meaning to be rude, but who are you?"
Liz fielded the questions. "Umm... we're, that is, we're kinda friends of Courtney's."
The guy ran a hand though his short blond hair and grinned. "From which class?"
"From the Crashdown," Alex offered. "I'm a terminal regular and Liz," he pointed to her with the over-the-shoulder gesture of a thumb, "is the owners' daughter."
"Oh, okay. Hi there, I'm Steve Banks, Courtney's brother and your host for the evening. Sorry for being snarky, but this was supposed to be a mid-size housewarming, not a huge rave bash. Most of the high school seems to be here."
"No," Alex corrected. "The senior party crowd wouldn't dream of showing up before nine. Wouldn't look 'cool.'"
"Thanks for the warning... I think," Steve told him dubiously. "Well, let's see. Pool's in the basement, computer games are down the hall on your left, drinks and dance floor upstairs. Aside from that, just wander around and have fun!" Steve waved at them again, picked up his burden, and headed to the staircase that led up from the front hall of the house.
Liz turned towards Alex, smiling, evidently having been as affected by the charm of Courtney's brother as he had. "Check out these computer games?" she suggested.
"Unless you want to go for a dip in the pool," Alex replied with a wide grin.
"Don't think so." Liz led him down the hallway Steve Banks had indicated and into a room with more than its fair share of people per square foot, even for this party.
The computer setup was pretty cool, Alex had to admit. Someone, presumably Steve, had linked together a modern server tower, a few-years-old desktop, a workstation that seemed to be little more than a screen keyboard and builtin trackball, and a little laptop. All four were interfacing to run an old-fashioned video game, with each station controlling a spaceship out to explore the galaxy, find energy and weapons, and destroy the competition.
Alex and Liz took a turn together, but got blasted out of the galaxy pretty early when a better-armed starfighter ambushed them. By the rules of precedence that were being enforced, they had to go back to the end of the line, which had grown even longer.
"So..." Alex mumbled, as he held the black magic marker and looked up at the nine entries ahead of them. "So, Liz, do you *want* to wait for another go?"
Liz shrugged carelessly. "I could go either way, I guess. You?"
"Maybe we'll leave it for later," he decided, putting the marker down and walking back over to Liz. "Thanks for coming with me, by the way. A party was just what I needed."
"I know what you mean," Liz agreed, as they left the computer room. "And - thank you for asking me, Alex."
"Oh, you're very welcome," Alex replied. Somewhat to Alex's surprise, he reached out an arm and wrapped it around Liz's shoulders. What the heck was that? Well, it could be considered a friendly gesture. Liz didn't seem to be worried about it...
"So, where to next?" Liz mumbled softly, as they stood at a junction od rooms.
"Oh, hey guys! Liz!!" They turned around in the direction of the voice, and Alex blinked in shock. There before him stood Maria DeLuca and Max Evans... holding hands. What was going on here?
"Hey," Alex said slowly.
"Hello." That was Max. Maria's voice had been the one hailing them down.
Liz was the one to figure it out first. "What is this... are you two trying to make me jealous or something?"
"No, of co-" Max started.
"That depends," Maria quipped, letting go of Max's hand, stepping closer to the teenaged alien, and wrapping her arm around his back so that her hand ended up at the other side of Max's waist. "Is it working?!"
"No!!" Liz burst out. "No, it isn't 'working,' and quite frankly I'm disappointed in both of you for pulling such a cheap stunt..."
"Oh, and bringing Alex was what, a brilliant stratagem?" Maria taunted back. The two guys, Max and Alex were just staring wordlessly at the bitch-off by this point. "We're just followin' your lead, sister."
"Alex and me coming here was not a stratagem," Liz replied heatedly. "We're just two friends going to a party together." Belatedly, Alex whipped his arm off of Liz's shoulders.
"Yeah, right. And did you even think about how it would look to Max? How he might feel about your little friendship date?"
"'Max' is damn well gonna have to get used to it!!" Liz shouted.
Alex turned to Max to see how he was dealing with this, but remarkably young Mister Evans didn't even seem to be paying attention to Liz and Maria's argument. He was staring at something behind Alex and he whispered softly "Oh, no." Alex turned around to see what was up.
Isabel had just walked into the room. With Grant Sorenson right next to her.
Alex shot a glance back over his shoulder. Liz and Maria had apparently put the squab fight on hold in the face of the new diversion. Maria, who probably couldn't see Isabel or recognize Grant from where she was standing because Alex was between them, was looking from Liz to Max, trying to figure out what was going on. Liz, who could see Isabel and Grant, was looking up at Alex with silent support and commiseration. And Isabel had recognized her friends and was bringing Grant over.
"I'll be a minute, okay?" Alex murmured to Liz, and stepped forward to meet his ex-girlfriend and her new fling. Or, perhaps more precisely, to say "Pardon me," to Grant and drag Isabel back towards the doorway before either the other man or the girl could react. "What are you doing?" he hissed. For god's sake, if his life was going to suddenly become a Melrose Place episode, he might as well act the part.
"I'm... having fun at a party," Iz spluttered. "Or I was until ten seconds ago. What did it look like I was doing, Alex?"
Alex ignored that question. "And what's Grant doing here with you? Are you on a date with him!?"
Isabel smirked a little, and Alex worried that he'd made a mistake, asking her straight out like that. "What about you and Liz? Are you two 'here on a date?"
Alex groaned. Why did everyone seem to think that he and Liz were the next hot couple or something? "No, we're just here as friends."
"Then Grant and I are friends too," Isabel declared, energetically but not really convincingly.
Alex wasn't buying it for a second. "Isabel..."
"Okay, try this: I fail to see how Grant and I are any of your business anymore, Alex. By the way, have you ever *thought* about asking Liz out? The two of you are really cute together."
Isabel's decision to change the subject was obvious... and effective. "Iz! If your love life is none of my business, then you certainly have no right to come and tell me something like..."
"Chill," she advised him. "It was just a friendly observation, nothing more. Even though it would solve a lot of problems if you two got together..."
Alex gave up and turned away, trying to determine if Liz was still back where he had left her. A knot of other partyers was in the way.
"Or Maria... is Maria attractive to you at all??" Isabel asked him as he walked away.
He found Liz talking with Max and Maria a little further across the room. "We've declared pax," Liz advised him. "How'd things go with Isabel?"
"Not nearly so good," Alex admitted, and turned to greet his friends in the new post-armistice context. "Hey, Maria, glad you came out."
"Looking sharp, bassman."
"Nice to see ya here, Max. Now that the surprise wore off."
Max laughed. "I know what you mean."
The four of them stood there, clustered in a tight knot for several seconds. "So... what else is there to do at this shindig?" Maria asked just after the silence became awkward.
Liz laughed. "Well, Courtney's brother said something about beverages and music upstairs."
"Sounds good to me," Max decided. "What's this brother like?" he asked conversationally as the foursome began to maneuver back to the front hall.
Alex shot Liz a glance, but she shrugged slightly in response as if to say 'your turn.' "Um... he seemed pretty cool. Older, a little frenzied with the party stuff, but really friendly."
"I heard that he's the new director of news for KROZ radio," Maria commented. That line proved a conversation stopper as each of the four of them remembered the angst of the Blind Date concert KROZ had run that winter.
Things loosened up once the foursome got upstairs and were provided with sodas by a guy Alex recognized from being on the football team with Kyle Valenti. Still, the conversation stayed pretty much the smallest of small talk for a while - classes, CDs, who was dating who out of the people none of them knew well.
Suddenly, something was causing a minor commotion across the room. "Whoo, baby!!" some guy called out.
Maria turned around to see what the kaffuffle was all about. "Oh, god," she whispered.
Tess had just shown up.
She was dressed up to the nines, (or possibly the tens?) in a navy blue dress that was short on the legs, low-cut over the cleavage, tight and stretchy all over. Plus high-heeled leather boots, earrings, and a bracelet. Her blonde hair was down in a mass of curls, the ouftit looked like it belonged on the cover of a 'Maxim,' but all the guys were staring at her as if with a single hormone. Including, unfortunately, Max.
Alex tore himself away from the sight, (which took a little effort, even though Tess really wasn't his type,) and turned to Liz, who hadn't yet realized what was going on. "Dance with me," he mumbled to her, dragging Liz away from Tess's direction, away from Max, towards an empty section of the dance floor. He didn't have any plan in mind beyond trying to distract Liz, but he felt a need to do whatever he could to shelter Liz from any more painful angst.
It seemed to be working. "What's this about, Alex," Liz asked as she started to dance with him.
"Just... just a whim," Alex said unconvincingly.
"Is... is there something you're not telling me?" Liz asked.
"Yes. And believe me, you don't want me to."
Liz considered that for a moment. "Okay... I guess."
* * * *
Alex carefully picked his way around the wet patches on the stairs down from the Banks' front hall. Liz looked a little less than ready to follow him. "You sure you want to do this?"
Liz considered only a moment. "Yeah. That guy told us Michael was down here somewhere, and I'd like to find him and say hi."
"Sure." Alex led the way again, and Liz followed. As he had suspected, the pool room was right at the bottom of the stairs. It was good-sized for an indoor pool, and a lot of partyers (most of them twenty-something or under,) were swimming, laughing, and playing in and around the water in bathing suits. A few piles of spare suits were laying around.
Alex looked around, but he couldn't see Michael around the pool. There was a door at the far end of the pool room, so Alex waved Liz along. They started to cross the room. A guy was heading in their direction, carrying a tray of drinks. He moved closer to the wall, so Liz and Alex nudged a little closer to the pool to let him pass.
It was not meant to be. As they were walking past each other, the waiter-guy slipped on a wet patch and lost his balance. He dropped the tray, sending cans of beer and soda pop rolling every which way, and a single glass tumbling, spilling yet more liquid on the floor, and clattering against the hard surface. Waiter guy's momentum sent him stumbling straight into Liz, which knocked her straight - into - the - pool.
"Oh, god, are you okay??" Someone was hurrying over from the stairs - it was Courtney Banks, from the Crashdown, (and their host's sister who had invited West Roswell High to the party.) She gave Liz a helping hand out of the pool while Alex steadied the waiter guy up to his feet.
"Yeah, yeah, just a little wet," Liz said as she got out. Not just wet, she was dripping, her sweater, the rest of her clothes, and her hair soaked from her brief dip in the pool.
"Oh, you're drenched, you poor thing," Courtney said solicitously. "Come on, I'll get you upstairs, you can put on some of my things and I'll get these clothes washed and dry."
"Um, okay..." Liz said, turning to Alex. "You just hang out, enjoy the party, okay Alex? I'll find you once I'm put together again."
"Okay," Alex said, waving goodbye to Liz as Courtney led her up the stairs. None of them noticed Courtney's brother Steve watching with interest from the living room.
"The game is afoot," he whispered softly.
TO BE CONTINUED.