Homecoming, Part 2b: "Dangerous meetings"
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'
(October 20 2001.)
Alex noticed that Max was staring at him, as if wondering what he was lost in thought about now.
"The Banks party," Alex stated simply.
"Oooh," Max's face contorted into a brief grimace. "That son of a bitch."
"Yeah."
* * * *
(October 20 2000 again.)
Alex was up in the Banks' living room, sitting on a couch and listening to the soft pop music, when someone surreptitiously took the seat next to him. "Mission successful, agent double-o eight?"
Alex jumped a little in surprise. "Maria! Where's Max? *What* mission??"
"I left Max playing star raiders," Maria admitted. "He should be occupied for a few minutes. Did Liz see what had happened with T-E-S-bitch?"
Alex stifled a chuckle and shook his head at Maria's joke. He could understand why Maria wasn't the president of the Tess Harding fan club, but did she have to keep taking potshots at the girl? "No, I don't think she *wanted* to know," he told Maria.
"Good enough. I slapped the boy hard for staring, at her of all possible girls. Umm..." Maria was looking around in belated curiosity. "Where did you get rid of Liz to, anyway?"
"I didn't," Alex informed her. "She got knocked in the pool and Courtney took her upstairs to dry off."
"Oooh," Maria groaned. Alex shot her a look. "I'm sorry, I don't trust that girl. I've seen the way she looks at Michael."
"The same way you do," Alex teased her.
"Yeah, but I've got history," Maria said in her defense.
"Okay," Alex replied. "Um. So..." An awkward silence surrounded the pair.
"Hey, losers." Alex looked up to realize that Kyle was waving at Maria and him from across the room.
"Hi, jock," he replied with an artificially sunny smile, waving back.
"Cut it," Maria said, nudging Alex with an elbow.
"I'm just being sociable. And since when do you care one millimeter about Kyle Valenti??" Alex asked doubtfully.
"I don't, it's just..."
"Just what?" Max asked, dropping onto the couch on the other side of Maria.
"Umm... never mind," Maria finally said. "Would take too long to explain. How'd you do?"
"You are looking at a 'Gold captain,'" Max quoted with a trace of bemused pride.
"Ah, and who killed the gold captain off?" Alex asked with a big grin.
"The other three starfighters teamed up to destroy me," Max groused. "So... now what?"
"I could do with hunting down some snacks, gold captain," Maria laughed. "Alex, you wanna stick with us until Liz comes back."
"Liz??" Max repeated, trying, (and failing,) to keep his tone casual.
Maria's eyes brightened. "Liz got all wet," she teased Max as they got up from the couch. "Someone knocked her into the pool. She's probably changing her clothes right now..."
"Stop it!!" Max exclaimed, swatting Maria playfully on the shoulder.
"Getting out of her soaking wet things... Alex, was she dripping when she got out of the water??"
Alex just sighed and went along with his friends.
* * * *
Inside Courtney's room upstairs, Liz shivered a little, wrapping the huge, fluffy towel that Courtney had given her a little tighter around her body and rubbing a little more of the damp away. A knock sounded on the door. "Liz?"
Liz moved over towards the door. "Courtney?"
"Yeah. How're you doing?" the waitress' voice answered her.
"Um... as okay as possible under the circumstances... don't come in!" Now why had she said that? Courtney was another girl after all, and this towel made her more decent than some of the outfits at this party... but try telling that to her inhibitions.
"Um, okay... your stuff is in the wash, it'll be all dry by midnight. Let's see... all of my stuff is in the dresser to the right of the door. I'm sorry, there won't be much to choose from - most of *my* clothes need to go in the laundry."
"That's okay," Liz heard herself saying. "You've been so great about this already."
"Yeah, I have, huh?!" Courtney giggled through the door. "Well, I've got party rounds to do... you gonna be okay from here?"
"I'm... sure," Liz said as she opened the top drawer of the dresser her hostess had indicated. Was this a case of a difference in taste, what was left in Courtney's wardrobe after the girl had made her own picks, or some of each?
Everything seemed small, thin, or both. Belly shirts, silk shorts, miniskirts, halter tops... "Courtney?" Liz called out half-heartedly, not knowing what she would say next. The girl had already apologized for the fashion selection, hadn't she?
There was no answer from Courtney. So much for that.
After staring for a long minute, Liz told herself not to be so uptight, as usual. It was a party, for cripes' sake, and slightly more revealing clothing than usual was okay at a party. Determinedly, Liz chose the items that seemed most like something she'd always wanted to wear but had never had the nerve. Skin was no object.
So it was that Liz Parker opened the bedroom door several minutes later, wearing denim cutoffs, a green spandex tank top, and her hair still damp. She had dried off her heels as well as she could, and was wearing them.
Liz could hear the sounds of partying from most of the rooms around her as she stood in the hallway. She hadn't paid much attention when Courtney brought her up here, but she thought the dance room where she and Alex had met up with Maria and Max was that one at the end of the hall. She was pretty sure the stairs downstairs were right around the corner from there.
She set off down the corridor, no further thought in her mind than to meet up with Alex as she had said she would do. Liz wasn't halfway to the dance room when a large person stumbled out of a door right in front of her. Liz shrieked slightly in reflexive fright, then choked it off.
The new person was a twentyish male, muscular... not unhandsome, but certainly not what Liz thought of as her type. For one thing, his hair was on the light side and fell nearly to his shoulders. For another, his breath smelled like beer and whisky. He grinned lopsidedly at Liz.
She fought down her nervousness. It's gonna be okay. "Uh, hey there," she told the guy.
"You're... hott!!" the guy declared as if it were something monumental.
"Um... thanks, thanks a lot," Liz said nervously. "Now, I'm sorry, but I need to get back to my friend." She tried to circle around the drunk.
He lurched to the side, blocking the center of the whole hallway off. "Can't I be your friend, babycakes??" he drawled out, and then burped.
Liz froze. How should she respond to this? For the first time her nervousness began to spike into fear. If she shot this dope down, and it actually got through his liquor-soaked brain, he could get angry, which might be very dangerous to Liz. If she encouraged him, it could be almost as bad...
Well, nothing for it but to walk the line as best she could. "Sure, we can be friends," Liz said, as positively as she could. "I'd like that. But still I... I really do need to go downstairs. Ya wanna come downstairs with me, buddy?" Sunny smile, and...
"Don't you talk down to me, bitch!" The drunk suddenly cuffed Liz on the cheek with a clenched fist, and she knocked back in pain. "I don't wanna go downstairs. I wanna stay right here with you. Whatcha think about that, you little tease?" He swung Liz up against the wall, crowding close to her.
Liz realized that she had made a mistake. The only drunk young person she was used to dealing with was Kyle, who tended to get friendly, mellow, suggestible, and pliant when he'd been boozing. This drunk was definitely on the moody side.
She tried to struggle away, but it was no use, as Booze-hound gripped her upper arm firmly with one hand, mauling her chest vaguely with the other and leaning his hips towards hers.
"Help!!" Liz called out, hating how helpless she was seeming.
* * * *
"Oh, hey," a vaguely familiar voice called as Alex, Max and Maria approached the snack foods table. "You're... Liz's friend. Sorry, I didn't catch your name." It was Steve Banks.
"Alex," Alex said. "Alex Whitman. Maria, Max, this is our host, Steve Banks." They all shook hands over pringles and peanuts.
"You're Courtney's sister?" another high-school teenager nearby said to Steve. "Nice to meet you man, and you throw a killer housewarming."
"Thank you very much." Steve said solemnly.
"So... why did you guys move to Roswell?" someone else asked Steve.
"Oh, hey!" Alex spotted a very familiar face across the room and tapped Maria on the shoulder. "Guess who."
The look of pure joy crossing over Maria's face when she recognized Michael was priceless. If short-lived. "Who's that he's t-- Courtney?! It's not enough he lets her flirt with him at work, now he's making time with her at a party!?"
"She's the one who invited us all, Maria," Max pointed out. "Maybe he's just being polite."
"When, in all your life, have you known Michael to be polite?" Maria countered. While Max was thinking about that, Maria headed off to give Michael a piece of her mind.
Alex shot a glance at Max. "Should we go with?"
"Better to give those two some space," Max advised. "Espcially considering Michael finding out Maria came with another guy, ie me, might hurt the whole righteous indignation thing she's got going."
"Ah." Alex filed that away. He had been wondering if Max and Maria had shown up here together to make *Michael* jealous too, especially in light of the whole Liz-Michael-Whittaker-dinner thing, but...
"You wanna come too, Max?" Steve asked, breaking Alex out of his thoughts.
"Huh?" Max asked, echoing Alex's thoughts. "Come where?"
"Up to my room, I was gonna show you guys-"
"Sure," Max agreed pre-emptively, surprising Alex. "Let's go."
Alex followed as Steve, Max, and a few other high school students, two guys and a girl, climbed up the stairs and turned around the corner.
Alex and Max had passed the others before Alex realized that Steve had stopped, stock still. Then he realized why. Liz was pinned up the wall, being gripped and groped by some college freshman (or he looked around that age, anyways.) "Stop it, you're hurting me," Liz whimpered in a tone of the purest desperation.
Alex shot a quick glance over at Max, sure that with the boiling anger he himself felt, the guy who called himself Liz Parker's soulmate had to be taking it even worse. Sure enough, Max's face was a mask of contorted fury. If I had his alien powers, that guy would be flying through three walls by now, Alex thought. Probably he will be, in about three seconds...
Something struck Alex funny about that. Steve and three other witnesses were right here. Max couldn't afford to use his powers right at the moment. Would he recognize that in the flush of hot anger? Very vaguely, Alex remembered what he'd talked with Liz about the skins trying to expose or indirectly attack the royal four. Had their sinister alien hand been setting up this scene?!
All of these thoughts flashed through Alex's mind in a fraction of a second. He had to act, and he had to act now. Stepping forward towards Liz and the goonball, he made himself trip and crash into Max, who was even more furious now, his eyes narrowed and fingers trembling. As the two of them stumbled together, he whispered so softly that only Max could hear him, "Be careful, your majesty."
Max looked up at Alex, and it was clear that the message had gotten through. Together the two of them hurried over to seperate Liz from her attacker. Alex held the freshman back while Max hugged Liz and made sure she was alright. "Sorry, buddy," Alex cracked, feeling a little awkward about the situation. "This ain't a kissing booth."
"You're sure you're okay?" Alex heard Max say to Liz.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, thanks to you. I'm just so glad you were here..." She choked off, looking up into Max's eyes. "I'm so sorry, Max, I... I have so much I..."
"Yeh." Max kissed Liz quickly on the cheek, and held her close for a moment. "We'll talk later, okay??"
"Yeah." Liz nodded attentively.
"What... what's going on here??" the drunk bellowed.
Max whirled on him, making sure that Liz was safe behind him. "That's my friend that you were assaulting!!"
"Huh??" the drunk drawled. "Uh, so??"
"So?" Max grinned tightly. "So, that means I kick your ass right now. Alex, let him go."
Alex paused a second, and then let the drunk guy's arms go. He staggered towards Max, who took one swing and laid the guy out on the hallway floor.
"Get back up so I can do it again, loser," he growled.
"Max, that's enough," Liz said, hurrying over to him. "He's just drunk, and he didn't hurt me."
"Who didn't hurt who??" The voice indicated that someone new had arrived on the scene - Courtney Banks. "Liz, are you okay??"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Liz joked. "Yeah, Courtney, I'm fine, thanks."
"What's going on here??" Courtney continued. "Steve? Alex??"
"Well, um..." Alex spluttered, surprised at being called upon. "We were coming up here to... umm... well, I'm not sure why, exactly," he muttered. "We found out that, well... it seems that this guy," he nudged chuggy with his toe delicately, "had had a little too much to drink, and he was... attacking Liz. In a frat guy kinda way."
"What??!" Courtney spun towards Steve. "Steve, do you know who invited this guy here? I don't think he was brought by me or anyone at the high school..." She paused dramatically. "You know, don't you??"
Steve flinched a little bit. "He's... he's a friend of a friend, okay Court?? Don't make a big deal ab-"
"Well, you can tell your friend that neither he, nor his friend, are welcome in my house ever again!!" Alex blinked in surprise, but Steve seemed to take this at face value. Courtney's house??
"Come on, guys," Max said to Liz and Alex. "Let's blow this popsicle stand."
* * * *
(Still October 20th, getting near midnight.)
"I can't believe Liz was attacked," Maria repeated for the sixth time. "Like... like *that*." She shuddered expressively. "Do you think she's okay?"
"Hmm... she spent the whole ride here assuring you that she's fine," Michael said slowly. "You know, there's a slight chance that she's doing alright."
"Hmph." Maria ignored Michael expressively and turned to Alex. "And I can't believe that I missed it all."
The five of them, Alex, Maria, Michael, Liz, and Max, had driven back from the Banks' place to the Crashdown in Max's jeep, (a pretty cramped ride,) and Max and Liz were having their 'private talk' out on the balcony.
The two of them had been acting very... close, ever since the incident at the party. Not quite like they were back together yet, but... back when they were in one of their 'off again' phases before all this Destiny crap got in the way. A reconciliation might be on the way.
Alex wasn't quite sure what he felt about it all. He loved Liz like a best friend and wanted her to be happy, and he'd never seen her as happy as when she'd been a couple with Max last year. On the other hand, for her to be looking up at Max with those doe eyes like he was her big hero... Alex had come to the rescue too, hadn't he? In fact, Alex had a sneaking suspicion that if it hadn't been for his quick thinking, all of them would be in much deeper trouble right now.
The sequence of events ran through Alex's mind on its own. Steve Banks, news director that he was, would run with the story. High school junior uses telekinetic powers in 'difference of opinion' at local housewarming. Everything that happened last year with Max and Liz would get dragged out again. The shooting, the fire with Max's mother, the carnival incident. There had to be people who would still remember. Congresswoman Vanessa Whittaker, for example.
They'd have to go on the run again. Max and Liz at least. Take off for the Mexico border, where the FBI would have a harder time chasing them. Maybe Michael and Isabel too...
"Oh my god, I came as soon as I heard." Isabel had just walked through the front door of the crashdown, taking off her leather jacket. No-one else was in the dining room except for an old man in the far corner -- Liz had asked him if he wanted anything before she disappeared, and he had just shaken his head and gone back half to sleep.
Isabel tucked the hem of her dress under as she slid into the table next to Maria, across from Alex. "So, what's the deal? You all just take off from the party without telling me?"
"I looked for you," Alex told Isabel pointedly. "Max wanted to go, and we couldn't find you."
"So, was Liz really..." Isabel started.
"Oh, look." Alex looked up to see Kyle Valenti strutting towards them. "If it isn't the Roswell nuts club having a quorum meeting."
"It's invitation only, Valenti," Michael told him dryly. "What are you doing here?"
"Chill, okay?" Isabel told him. "When I found out Liz was... um, attacked, you know..." She dropped her voice to a whisper for the last phrase. "I wanted to go right away, Grant didn't want to leave the party right then, and Kyle nicely offered to give me a ride."
"It doesn't count as nice when you dig your nails into my wrist, Evans," Kyle told her dryly.
"Hey, everybody." This was Max, standing on the stairs, with Liz.
"It's getting a little late, isn't it?" Liz giggled, obviously trying hard not to look at Max.
"Yeah, can you guys do drive home duty?" Max asked Isabel and Michael, tossing the Jeep keys onto the table. "I wanna take a walk, get some air. Umm... Alex, your place is about the right distance. You up for it?"
Alex could tell that this wasn't a casual request from Max. "Okay." He waved bye to everybody, and followed Max out the front door. He didn't miss the smouldering stare that Max sent back towards the stairs.
Towards Liz.
"So, umm..." Max said, when they were a block away from the cafe. "We still on for tomorrow morning? The Puhlman ranch??"
"Hmm??" With all that had gone on, Alex had nearly forgotten. He looked around to make sure that no-one was within hearing range on the street. "The pod chamber? Yeah."
"Okay, I'll swing by and pick you up... around nine thirty?" Alex nodded. "Cool."
There was another awkward silence. "So," Alex said in turn. "Did you... and Liz..."
"Did we..." Max trailed off and looked over at Alex, a serious look on his face breaking into a grin. "Are we back together? Yes."
"Ah," Alex said, smiling and nodding politely. "That's nice."
"It's weird how it happened," Max related quietly as they walked. "From the moment I rescued her from that guy, it was BOOM! Flash. And I'm looking at her, trying to figure out if she had a flash, and she smiled at me, and I knew everything was gonna be okay. Up on the balcony, she told me that she was sorry for pulling away from me, and that if I wanted to try to make a new destiny for a new life with her, she'd go down the road with me as far as it would lead." Max sighed happily. "Or something like that... I'm so giddy right now I might have totally missed everything but the truly central point. We're back."
"Okay," Alex agreed.
"Oh, I think I was the one who brought up the stuff about the new life," Max suddenly remembered. "Like 'I might have a destiny, but this is a new life, and I can make new choices if I want to.' Of course, I had to tell her that we needed to keep the whole thing low profile for now, especially from Tess, and I could tell she was a little hurt by that." The young alien was basically rambling now. "But what could I do? Tess isn't my dream girl, but she's a part of my life now, and I can't alienate her. Pun not intended..."
"Max?" Alex broke in. "I've got one more question. When we were... at the party, when we just came upon Liz and that goon. If I hadn't reminded you, do you think you would have used your powers on him??"
Max had to think about that for a bit. "It's quite possible," he admitted. "I was so mad in that moment that I didn't care that Steve and the others were around. So thank you, Alex. I owe you another one now."
"Just treat Liz right, okay?" Alex asked him. "And... be careful. I had the wild notion that the whole Liz thing might have been staged. Like by a skin - trying to make you expose yourself."
"Yeah, it's a possibility," Max agreed. Neither of them broke the silence the rest of the way to Alex's house. But Max cleared his throat as Alex stepped onto the first of the porch stairs.
"Yeah, man?" Alex asked, turning back to him.
"I can tell that something's bugging you man, and I think I know what it is," Max told him.
Oh, really? "Yeah?"
"Don't worry. I'll put in a word with Isabel for you, man."
Alex forced a smile and went up into his house.
* * * *
(October 21 2000.)
Max was up early the next morning, making some instant pancakes and waiting until the time came to go pick up Alex. He heard footsteps and looked up. Isabel, still wearing her silk pj's, had come into the kitchen.
"Want some?" Max asked, gesturing to the pancakes.
"Sure." Isabel sat down at the kitchen table and closed her eyes, breathing deeply and perhaps listening to the birds chirp through the open window.
Max dumped some more batter down on the frying pan, and turned to his sister. "Iz?" He checked to make sure their parents hadn't followed her down, but there was no sign of them. They often slept in on Saturdays.
"Yeah?" She didn't open her eyes, but her voice was clear and alert.
"I... Liz and I... last night we..."
"You're back together," Isabel filled in.
"It's that obvious?" Max blinked in surprise.
Now Isabel opened her eyes, and turned towards Max. "Let's put it this way. I don't think Michael or Kyle clued in last night."
Max grinned sheepishly. "I get the picture."
"I'm happy for the two of you, Max, I really am."
Max cleared his throat as he offered Is a pair of pancakes on a plate. She stood up and headed over to the cupboard. "What else, brother Max?"
"About you... and Grant Sorenson..."
Isabel took the box of icing sugar and a bottle of Tabasco back to her place at the table. "I'm interested in Grant, and I think he likes me, but we're just friends. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"And Alex??" Isabel's silence was expressive. "Okay, Iz, I know I have no right to tell you who to date or not to date, but I'm curious. You were really into Alex, back this spring, before everything happened. A few weeks ago you were telling him you weren't ready to be with any guy. And now you're 'interested' in Grant."
"So... are you dancing around in circles because you don't want to tell me straight out you think I'm a hypocrite??" Isabel snapped.
"No! I'm just... wondering what's going on in your head."
"Too bad you can't dreamwalk me," Isabel mumbled under her breath.
Max ignored that. "I know Alex, I like Alex, and I like the thought of the two of you being together. You don't have to explain the why or why not to me if you don't want to, Isabel. Just think about it for yourself, okay??"
Isabel mulled that over while she finished her pancakes.
* * * *
(Again October 21 2000)
"So..." Max murmurred as Alex walked around. "Do you recognize anything, man?"
"Hmm..." Alex thought about that. "The pods, yeah. They're definitely the same ones I saw in my dream."
"Anything else?"
Alex chuckled. "Max, don't take this the wrong way, but there isn't much else." Aside from the four huge (and now empty,) pods, the passageway back outside, (which was pretty cool, Alex had to admit, with Max using the handprint to make the stone wall slide away,) the chamber was pretty spartan. Here and there a touch of alienesque architecture decorated the walls, and there was a slightly raised slab on the floor... where, Alex presumed, the royal four had ince used healing stones to bring Nasedo back to life. And failed to repeat the feat, just a handful of days ago.
"Haha, very funny," Max drawled.
"Nothing else is familiar to me," Alex said in a more serious tone. "The space, the layout, nothing. Well... maybe a bit of the doodads there." He pointed at the intricately carved supports that supported the vaulted chamber ceilling. "I might just be imagining that though."
"So, that's that I guess," Max sighed. "Well, it was worth a try."
"Yeah." Alex reached up and tentatively touched the supportive shelf that seperated two of the empty pods. "How did you find this place, anyways??"
"Tess showed me," Max said, after a moment. "Though I guess Michael had figured out something was here before that, using the alien map."
Alex stood stock still for a moment. Not again, he thought to himself. "Max, what alien map??"
Max froze for a second himself, then shook it out. "You know, Alex, you were there. I know you were there for this one. After we healed Michael at the cave on the reservation, he found out that this alien writing on the cave wall was a map..."
"I remember," Alex said. He did, now, and even realized that he had taken Isabel to the UFO center to show her similar inscriptions from somewhere in South America or something. "I wasn't informed that Michael had actually *found* anything on the map, though."
"I'll get a copy of it to you," Max promised. "We'll see if you can make anything more of it, now that you've been... zapped by that alien ring."
"Okay. I guess we'd better go," Alex decided. With Max, he headed out of the chamber, and the doorway was sealed back tight behind them. As they headed down the slope to where Max had parked the Jeep, Alex suddenly blurted out, "Max, why don't you want to tell the rest of the gang about this?"
Max stopped short, almost slipped on a rock, and turned to Alex, blinking in surprise. "Why don't I want... Alex, I'm just following *your* lead here!"
Alex felt like he was missing something obvious. "My... my lead??"
"Yeah," Max agreed. "I mean... you could have brought Liz or Isabel... Michael, Maria, whoever, into this at the very beginning. But you didn't. You came to me, Alex. And I guess I didn't want to take it over and bring it to the gang in your place. That's your privilege, Alex."
Alex found himself laughing. "And here I was stewing because I thought I needed your permission to bring my friends in on the whole thing. Well, okay, I think it's time we let everybody know."
"Everybody??" Max echoed. They had finished the climb down now and the Jeep was only a short distance away.
"Well, you know," Alex mumbled. "The usual suspects."
"Boy, that's gonna be weird," Max muttered softly. "Getting everybody together, in the same place, with all that's been going on, without it looking suspicious."
"Don't worry," Alex told him. "I know just how to handle it."
* * * *
"You are hereby invited to the next meeting of the Roswell parlour games club. Saturday, October 21st, 2001 @ 7:30 pm. 275 White palm south."
Michael looked at the printed card Alex had just handed him. "What the hell is this?"
"Just be there, Michael."
* * * *
(Still October 21st, of course.)
Alex looked around his parents' rec room, filled with his friends. "Okay, thanks for coming everybody... the card isn't quite full yet, so as soon as the stragglers arrive we'll start playing..."
"The stragglers?" Maria piped up. "But everybody's he..." She broke off, looking around the room. Alex, Max, Liz, Michael, and Isabel. With Maria herself, that made six... "Oh god, Alex, you didn't..."
Alex was about to ask Maria what she meant, when the doorbell rang. "That's probably our missing players now," he said unneccesarily, and sprinted up the basement stairs to the front door.
He got there a little after his mother. "Hi, Kyle... Sherriff!! Is... is there something wrong, sir?"
"Not at all, Mrs. Whitman." Valenti tipped his hat slightly, then took it off. "I'm here for the club."
Alex's mother's expression of surprise was eloquent. Alex chimed in. "The sherriff plays a mean hand of tyzicha, mom. We needed a sixth one day over at Kyle and Tess'..."
"Tess?" Carol Whitman seized on this, and connected it up with the girl standing in front of her. "Tess?" Tess nodded slightly at the mention of her name, and Alex's mother shook the blonde's hand enthusiastically. "So nice to meet you, Tess."
"Mom?" Alex fixed her with a look. "We should be getting started."
She dropped the shake immediately with a trace of embarassment. "Of course." She stood aside in an overt gesture of allowing the extended Valenti household to pass on into the basement.
Sherrif Valenti nodded again as he passed through, and Kyle and Tess nervously followed suit. Alex smiled a silent goodbye to his mother as he brought up the rear.
While he was gone, Max had consulted the seating charts Alex had made and started to arrange the gang in their seats for the first game. Alex was at the same table as Michael and Isabel, while sherrif Valenti went over to Max and Maria and Liz had to deal with Tess and Kyle.
"Okay," Alex whispered softly but clearly as he shuffled the short pack of cards. He had managed to put together a makeshift bug sweeper, and Max had done his best to 'sense' for alien equivalents, so the room was as safe from eavesdropping as possible - but no sense in taking chances.
"We're not here to play cards, of course. What could be less suspicious of alien secrets than a loose collection of acquaintances getting together to play indoor games every week?" As Alex finished, the only sound he could hear over the dealing cards was fragments of Max and Liz going over the same spiel at their own tables.
Alex picked up his cards -- two red kings and three aces. "Your bid first," he softly prompted Michael.
* * * *
Isabel bid Tyzicha somewhat naively, Alex thought, but she was having enough luck tonight to win despite that, and was making a serious drive for the 501 point game Alex had stipulated. Michael played cards the same way he apparently approached everything in his life - with an overconfident, full-barrel run, heedless of the consequences. He was in the hole for a hundred thirty five, leaving Alex with no more likely fate than to end up in between them.
Of course, none of them were really paying all their attention to the game. Alex told the others about the gizmo he had touched and the dreams and flashes he had had. Isabel lent supportive attention, while Mchael was obviously holding back a doubtful scoff - though that was exchanged for a serious look when Alex explained how he had drawn the incubation pods from his memory flash, sight unseen. Alex finished up by asking Michael if he still had a copy of River dog's map, and if he could repeat what he had done to line it up with real Roswell.
"Sure, I guess," Michael replied, throwing out an ace lead and getting soundly trumped by Isabel. "I'm pretty sure I could do it again. Where there's a copy of the map is harder, but I'm sure one of us has it."
"That's what we thought about the book," Isabel muttered forebodingly, but didn't press the issue. Over the next deal, as the queen of hearts drove home her victory, Alex shared the hypothesis that the mysterious 'Skins' might be behind the assault on Liz at the party, with intent to force Max to expose himself for payback. (It took a little effort to avoid blowing his own horn over preventing that, but Alex didn't even mention it. Let Max take the credit.)
"Wouldn't be surprised," Michael muttered while surrendering the ten of spades to Isabel's offensive. "Better be on the watch for something more overt. Pretty soon they're gonna decide that these subtle ploys aren't getting the job done."
Before Alex could answer, Isabel raked in the last trick and turned her captured cards over, counting them at a glance. "That makes five-ten. What now?"
From across the room Max launched into the pre-arranged spiel. "Tables two and three, last hand. Once this deal is over, we switch tables. Winners together, losers together, in-betweeners together. Alright?"
So after a few minutes, Alex drew up a chair at the middle table, with fellow 'in-betweeners' Maria and Kyle. "So, any questions?" he asked as the sherriff's son dealt the cards. This could take a while.
* * * *
Later on that night, a procession made its disordely way up the Whitman steps, and... (more or less,) out the door.
"May I offer you a ride home, Miss Parker?" Max offered, half-bowing gallantly at her.
"Why certainly, Mister Evans. What a generous offer for you to make!" Liz couldn't hide her smile as she let Max lead her off to the driveway.
Maria and Michael made a big production of getting their jackets put on, neither of them able to look each other in the eye. They stepped towards the door at the same moment, each backed off and waved the other through with the same motion, and blurted out in unison, "We need to talk."
There was a tense pause. "Okay, we'll talk. Where and when?" Maria asked.
"Um... tommorow won't be much good, with the stupid Whittaker thing," Michael decided. "How about Monday? You can come over to my place after school."
"Monday?!" Obviously, this wasn't sitting particularly well with Maria. "Whatever." She stormed off, leaving Michael to shrug his usual 'What did I do now?' shrugs and stroll out the door himself, going the opposite way from Maria and wandering down to the driveway.
Jim valenti checked his watch. "I'm gonna need to swing by the station to take care of something," he announced out loud. "Tess, Kyle, can I drop you off at home first?"
"I'm taking a walk," Kyle groused, suiting action to word.
"Me too," Tess declared, storming off right after Kyle. The sherriff shrugged and headed down to his truck.
That left Isabel and Alex. "I should probably... go with Michael," Isabel muttered. "He's waiting down at my mom's car."
Alex laughed softly. "Yeah, that's okay."
Is looked up into his eyes. "Alex, do you wanna... meet me for lunch tomorrow? Just to spend a little time together, maybe talk about things??"
Alex's smile grew even wider. "Yeah, Isabel, I'd like that."
Isabel smiled back. "Okay, I'll call you." She shook Alex's hand formally, and then in a rush of impulse, leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek. Then she was gone. Alex leaned out the door to watch the girl of his dreams running down to her car, letting Michael in, and driving away. He stayed out there a little while, just enjoying the moment.
He didn't notice the person lost in shadow on the other side of his street, the one who had been carefully watching that door ever since Max Evans and Liz Parker had come up the stairs. Now he faded back into greater darkness, the purposes to his observation complete. He knew what the next move would be, and where, and when.
It wasn't until he had passed through a long alleyway all alone that the mysterious eavesdropper stepped into streetlight bright enough to reveal his face - a face that the human world knew as 'Steven Banks.'
Steve wasted no time as he got into his '98 Viper and drove away.
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'
(October 20 2001.)
Alex noticed that Max was staring at him, as if wondering what he was lost in thought about now.
"The Banks party," Alex stated simply.
"Oooh," Max's face contorted into a brief grimace. "That son of a bitch."
"Yeah."
* * * *
(October 20 2000 again.)
Alex was up in the Banks' living room, sitting on a couch and listening to the soft pop music, when someone surreptitiously took the seat next to him. "Mission successful, agent double-o eight?"
Alex jumped a little in surprise. "Maria! Where's Max? *What* mission??"
"I left Max playing star raiders," Maria admitted. "He should be occupied for a few minutes. Did Liz see what had happened with T-E-S-bitch?"
Alex stifled a chuckle and shook his head at Maria's joke. He could understand why Maria wasn't the president of the Tess Harding fan club, but did she have to keep taking potshots at the girl? "No, I don't think she *wanted* to know," he told Maria.
"Good enough. I slapped the boy hard for staring, at her of all possible girls. Umm..." Maria was looking around in belated curiosity. "Where did you get rid of Liz to, anyway?"
"I didn't," Alex informed her. "She got knocked in the pool and Courtney took her upstairs to dry off."
"Oooh," Maria groaned. Alex shot her a look. "I'm sorry, I don't trust that girl. I've seen the way she looks at Michael."
"The same way you do," Alex teased her.
"Yeah, but I've got history," Maria said in her defense.
"Okay," Alex replied. "Um. So..." An awkward silence surrounded the pair.
"Hey, losers." Alex looked up to realize that Kyle was waving at Maria and him from across the room.
"Hi, jock," he replied with an artificially sunny smile, waving back.
"Cut it," Maria said, nudging Alex with an elbow.
"I'm just being sociable. And since when do you care one millimeter about Kyle Valenti??" Alex asked doubtfully.
"I don't, it's just..."
"Just what?" Max asked, dropping onto the couch on the other side of Maria.
"Umm... never mind," Maria finally said. "Would take too long to explain. How'd you do?"
"You are looking at a 'Gold captain,'" Max quoted with a trace of bemused pride.
"Ah, and who killed the gold captain off?" Alex asked with a big grin.
"The other three starfighters teamed up to destroy me," Max groused. "So... now what?"
"I could do with hunting down some snacks, gold captain," Maria laughed. "Alex, you wanna stick with us until Liz comes back."
"Liz??" Max repeated, trying, (and failing,) to keep his tone casual.
Maria's eyes brightened. "Liz got all wet," she teased Max as they got up from the couch. "Someone knocked her into the pool. She's probably changing her clothes right now..."
"Stop it!!" Max exclaimed, swatting Maria playfully on the shoulder.
"Getting out of her soaking wet things... Alex, was she dripping when she got out of the water??"
Alex just sighed and went along with his friends.
* * * *
Inside Courtney's room upstairs, Liz shivered a little, wrapping the huge, fluffy towel that Courtney had given her a little tighter around her body and rubbing a little more of the damp away. A knock sounded on the door. "Liz?"
Liz moved over towards the door. "Courtney?"
"Yeah. How're you doing?" the waitress' voice answered her.
"Um... as okay as possible under the circumstances... don't come in!" Now why had she said that? Courtney was another girl after all, and this towel made her more decent than some of the outfits at this party... but try telling that to her inhibitions.
"Um, okay... your stuff is in the wash, it'll be all dry by midnight. Let's see... all of my stuff is in the dresser to the right of the door. I'm sorry, there won't be much to choose from - most of *my* clothes need to go in the laundry."
"That's okay," Liz heard herself saying. "You've been so great about this already."
"Yeah, I have, huh?!" Courtney giggled through the door. "Well, I've got party rounds to do... you gonna be okay from here?"
"I'm... sure," Liz said as she opened the top drawer of the dresser her hostess had indicated. Was this a case of a difference in taste, what was left in Courtney's wardrobe after the girl had made her own picks, or some of each?
Everything seemed small, thin, or both. Belly shirts, silk shorts, miniskirts, halter tops... "Courtney?" Liz called out half-heartedly, not knowing what she would say next. The girl had already apologized for the fashion selection, hadn't she?
There was no answer from Courtney. So much for that.
After staring for a long minute, Liz told herself not to be so uptight, as usual. It was a party, for cripes' sake, and slightly more revealing clothing than usual was okay at a party. Determinedly, Liz chose the items that seemed most like something she'd always wanted to wear but had never had the nerve. Skin was no object.
So it was that Liz Parker opened the bedroom door several minutes later, wearing denim cutoffs, a green spandex tank top, and her hair still damp. She had dried off her heels as well as she could, and was wearing them.
Liz could hear the sounds of partying from most of the rooms around her as she stood in the hallway. She hadn't paid much attention when Courtney brought her up here, but she thought the dance room where she and Alex had met up with Maria and Max was that one at the end of the hall. She was pretty sure the stairs downstairs were right around the corner from there.
She set off down the corridor, no further thought in her mind than to meet up with Alex as she had said she would do. Liz wasn't halfway to the dance room when a large person stumbled out of a door right in front of her. Liz shrieked slightly in reflexive fright, then choked it off.
The new person was a twentyish male, muscular... not unhandsome, but certainly not what Liz thought of as her type. For one thing, his hair was on the light side and fell nearly to his shoulders. For another, his breath smelled like beer and whisky. He grinned lopsidedly at Liz.
She fought down her nervousness. It's gonna be okay. "Uh, hey there," she told the guy.
"You're... hott!!" the guy declared as if it were something monumental.
"Um... thanks, thanks a lot," Liz said nervously. "Now, I'm sorry, but I need to get back to my friend." She tried to circle around the drunk.
He lurched to the side, blocking the center of the whole hallway off. "Can't I be your friend, babycakes??" he drawled out, and then burped.
Liz froze. How should she respond to this? For the first time her nervousness began to spike into fear. If she shot this dope down, and it actually got through his liquor-soaked brain, he could get angry, which might be very dangerous to Liz. If she encouraged him, it could be almost as bad...
Well, nothing for it but to walk the line as best she could. "Sure, we can be friends," Liz said, as positively as she could. "I'd like that. But still I... I really do need to go downstairs. Ya wanna come downstairs with me, buddy?" Sunny smile, and...
"Don't you talk down to me, bitch!" The drunk suddenly cuffed Liz on the cheek with a clenched fist, and she knocked back in pain. "I don't wanna go downstairs. I wanna stay right here with you. Whatcha think about that, you little tease?" He swung Liz up against the wall, crowding close to her.
Liz realized that she had made a mistake. The only drunk young person she was used to dealing with was Kyle, who tended to get friendly, mellow, suggestible, and pliant when he'd been boozing. This drunk was definitely on the moody side.
She tried to struggle away, but it was no use, as Booze-hound gripped her upper arm firmly with one hand, mauling her chest vaguely with the other and leaning his hips towards hers.
"Help!!" Liz called out, hating how helpless she was seeming.
* * * *
"Oh, hey," a vaguely familiar voice called as Alex, Max and Maria approached the snack foods table. "You're... Liz's friend. Sorry, I didn't catch your name." It was Steve Banks.
"Alex," Alex said. "Alex Whitman. Maria, Max, this is our host, Steve Banks." They all shook hands over pringles and peanuts.
"You're Courtney's sister?" another high-school teenager nearby said to Steve. "Nice to meet you man, and you throw a killer housewarming."
"Thank you very much." Steve said solemnly.
"So... why did you guys move to Roswell?" someone else asked Steve.
"Oh, hey!" Alex spotted a very familiar face across the room and tapped Maria on the shoulder. "Guess who."
The look of pure joy crossing over Maria's face when she recognized Michael was priceless. If short-lived. "Who's that he's t-- Courtney?! It's not enough he lets her flirt with him at work, now he's making time with her at a party!?"
"She's the one who invited us all, Maria," Max pointed out. "Maybe he's just being polite."
"When, in all your life, have you known Michael to be polite?" Maria countered. While Max was thinking about that, Maria headed off to give Michael a piece of her mind.
Alex shot a glance at Max. "Should we go with?"
"Better to give those two some space," Max advised. "Espcially considering Michael finding out Maria came with another guy, ie me, might hurt the whole righteous indignation thing she's got going."
"Ah." Alex filed that away. He had been wondering if Max and Maria had shown up here together to make *Michael* jealous too, especially in light of the whole Liz-Michael-Whittaker-dinner thing, but...
"You wanna come too, Max?" Steve asked, breaking Alex out of his thoughts.
"Huh?" Max asked, echoing Alex's thoughts. "Come where?"
"Up to my room, I was gonna show you guys-"
"Sure," Max agreed pre-emptively, surprising Alex. "Let's go."
Alex followed as Steve, Max, and a few other high school students, two guys and a girl, climbed up the stairs and turned around the corner.
Alex and Max had passed the others before Alex realized that Steve had stopped, stock still. Then he realized why. Liz was pinned up the wall, being gripped and groped by some college freshman (or he looked around that age, anyways.) "Stop it, you're hurting me," Liz whimpered in a tone of the purest desperation.
Alex shot a quick glance over at Max, sure that with the boiling anger he himself felt, the guy who called himself Liz Parker's soulmate had to be taking it even worse. Sure enough, Max's face was a mask of contorted fury. If I had his alien powers, that guy would be flying through three walls by now, Alex thought. Probably he will be, in about three seconds...
Something struck Alex funny about that. Steve and three other witnesses were right here. Max couldn't afford to use his powers right at the moment. Would he recognize that in the flush of hot anger? Very vaguely, Alex remembered what he'd talked with Liz about the skins trying to expose or indirectly attack the royal four. Had their sinister alien hand been setting up this scene?!
All of these thoughts flashed through Alex's mind in a fraction of a second. He had to act, and he had to act now. Stepping forward towards Liz and the goonball, he made himself trip and crash into Max, who was even more furious now, his eyes narrowed and fingers trembling. As the two of them stumbled together, he whispered so softly that only Max could hear him, "Be careful, your majesty."
Max looked up at Alex, and it was clear that the message had gotten through. Together the two of them hurried over to seperate Liz from her attacker. Alex held the freshman back while Max hugged Liz and made sure she was alright. "Sorry, buddy," Alex cracked, feeling a little awkward about the situation. "This ain't a kissing booth."
"You're sure you're okay?" Alex heard Max say to Liz.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, thanks to you. I'm just so glad you were here..." She choked off, looking up into Max's eyes. "I'm so sorry, Max, I... I have so much I..."
"Yeh." Max kissed Liz quickly on the cheek, and held her close for a moment. "We'll talk later, okay??"
"Yeah." Liz nodded attentively.
"What... what's going on here??" the drunk bellowed.
Max whirled on him, making sure that Liz was safe behind him. "That's my friend that you were assaulting!!"
"Huh??" the drunk drawled. "Uh, so??"
"So?" Max grinned tightly. "So, that means I kick your ass right now. Alex, let him go."
Alex paused a second, and then let the drunk guy's arms go. He staggered towards Max, who took one swing and laid the guy out on the hallway floor.
"Get back up so I can do it again, loser," he growled.
"Max, that's enough," Liz said, hurrying over to him. "He's just drunk, and he didn't hurt me."
"Who didn't hurt who??" The voice indicated that someone new had arrived on the scene - Courtney Banks. "Liz, are you okay??"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Liz joked. "Yeah, Courtney, I'm fine, thanks."
"What's going on here??" Courtney continued. "Steve? Alex??"
"Well, um..." Alex spluttered, surprised at being called upon. "We were coming up here to... umm... well, I'm not sure why, exactly," he muttered. "We found out that, well... it seems that this guy," he nudged chuggy with his toe delicately, "had had a little too much to drink, and he was... attacking Liz. In a frat guy kinda way."
"What??!" Courtney spun towards Steve. "Steve, do you know who invited this guy here? I don't think he was brought by me or anyone at the high school..." She paused dramatically. "You know, don't you??"
Steve flinched a little bit. "He's... he's a friend of a friend, okay Court?? Don't make a big deal ab-"
"Well, you can tell your friend that neither he, nor his friend, are welcome in my house ever again!!" Alex blinked in surprise, but Steve seemed to take this at face value. Courtney's house??
"Come on, guys," Max said to Liz and Alex. "Let's blow this popsicle stand."
* * * *
(Still October 20th, getting near midnight.)
"I can't believe Liz was attacked," Maria repeated for the sixth time. "Like... like *that*." She shuddered expressively. "Do you think she's okay?"
"Hmm... she spent the whole ride here assuring you that she's fine," Michael said slowly. "You know, there's a slight chance that she's doing alright."
"Hmph." Maria ignored Michael expressively and turned to Alex. "And I can't believe that I missed it all."
The five of them, Alex, Maria, Michael, Liz, and Max, had driven back from the Banks' place to the Crashdown in Max's jeep, (a pretty cramped ride,) and Max and Liz were having their 'private talk' out on the balcony.
The two of them had been acting very... close, ever since the incident at the party. Not quite like they were back together yet, but... back when they were in one of their 'off again' phases before all this Destiny crap got in the way. A reconciliation might be on the way.
Alex wasn't quite sure what he felt about it all. He loved Liz like a best friend and wanted her to be happy, and he'd never seen her as happy as when she'd been a couple with Max last year. On the other hand, for her to be looking up at Max with those doe eyes like he was her big hero... Alex had come to the rescue too, hadn't he? In fact, Alex had a sneaking suspicion that if it hadn't been for his quick thinking, all of them would be in much deeper trouble right now.
The sequence of events ran through Alex's mind on its own. Steve Banks, news director that he was, would run with the story. High school junior uses telekinetic powers in 'difference of opinion' at local housewarming. Everything that happened last year with Max and Liz would get dragged out again. The shooting, the fire with Max's mother, the carnival incident. There had to be people who would still remember. Congresswoman Vanessa Whittaker, for example.
They'd have to go on the run again. Max and Liz at least. Take off for the Mexico border, where the FBI would have a harder time chasing them. Maybe Michael and Isabel too...
"Oh my god, I came as soon as I heard." Isabel had just walked through the front door of the crashdown, taking off her leather jacket. No-one else was in the dining room except for an old man in the far corner -- Liz had asked him if he wanted anything before she disappeared, and he had just shaken his head and gone back half to sleep.
Isabel tucked the hem of her dress under as she slid into the table next to Maria, across from Alex. "So, what's the deal? You all just take off from the party without telling me?"
"I looked for you," Alex told Isabel pointedly. "Max wanted to go, and we couldn't find you."
"So, was Liz really..." Isabel started.
"Oh, look." Alex looked up to see Kyle Valenti strutting towards them. "If it isn't the Roswell nuts club having a quorum meeting."
"It's invitation only, Valenti," Michael told him dryly. "What are you doing here?"
"Chill, okay?" Isabel told him. "When I found out Liz was... um, attacked, you know..." She dropped her voice to a whisper for the last phrase. "I wanted to go right away, Grant didn't want to leave the party right then, and Kyle nicely offered to give me a ride."
"It doesn't count as nice when you dig your nails into my wrist, Evans," Kyle told her dryly.
"Hey, everybody." This was Max, standing on the stairs, with Liz.
"It's getting a little late, isn't it?" Liz giggled, obviously trying hard not to look at Max.
"Yeah, can you guys do drive home duty?" Max asked Isabel and Michael, tossing the Jeep keys onto the table. "I wanna take a walk, get some air. Umm... Alex, your place is about the right distance. You up for it?"
Alex could tell that this wasn't a casual request from Max. "Okay." He waved bye to everybody, and followed Max out the front door. He didn't miss the smouldering stare that Max sent back towards the stairs.
Towards Liz.
"So, umm..." Max said, when they were a block away from the cafe. "We still on for tomorrow morning? The Puhlman ranch??"
"Hmm??" With all that had gone on, Alex had nearly forgotten. He looked around to make sure that no-one was within hearing range on the street. "The pod chamber? Yeah."
"Okay, I'll swing by and pick you up... around nine thirty?" Alex nodded. "Cool."
There was another awkward silence. "So," Alex said in turn. "Did you... and Liz..."
"Did we..." Max trailed off and looked over at Alex, a serious look on his face breaking into a grin. "Are we back together? Yes."
"Ah," Alex said, smiling and nodding politely. "That's nice."
"It's weird how it happened," Max related quietly as they walked. "From the moment I rescued her from that guy, it was BOOM! Flash. And I'm looking at her, trying to figure out if she had a flash, and she smiled at me, and I knew everything was gonna be okay. Up on the balcony, she told me that she was sorry for pulling away from me, and that if I wanted to try to make a new destiny for a new life with her, she'd go down the road with me as far as it would lead." Max sighed happily. "Or something like that... I'm so giddy right now I might have totally missed everything but the truly central point. We're back."
"Okay," Alex agreed.
"Oh, I think I was the one who brought up the stuff about the new life," Max suddenly remembered. "Like 'I might have a destiny, but this is a new life, and I can make new choices if I want to.' Of course, I had to tell her that we needed to keep the whole thing low profile for now, especially from Tess, and I could tell she was a little hurt by that." The young alien was basically rambling now. "But what could I do? Tess isn't my dream girl, but she's a part of my life now, and I can't alienate her. Pun not intended..."
"Max?" Alex broke in. "I've got one more question. When we were... at the party, when we just came upon Liz and that goon. If I hadn't reminded you, do you think you would have used your powers on him??"
Max had to think about that for a bit. "It's quite possible," he admitted. "I was so mad in that moment that I didn't care that Steve and the others were around. So thank you, Alex. I owe you another one now."
"Just treat Liz right, okay?" Alex asked him. "And... be careful. I had the wild notion that the whole Liz thing might have been staged. Like by a skin - trying to make you expose yourself."
"Yeah, it's a possibility," Max agreed. Neither of them broke the silence the rest of the way to Alex's house. But Max cleared his throat as Alex stepped onto the first of the porch stairs.
"Yeah, man?" Alex asked, turning back to him.
"I can tell that something's bugging you man, and I think I know what it is," Max told him.
Oh, really? "Yeah?"
"Don't worry. I'll put in a word with Isabel for you, man."
Alex forced a smile and went up into his house.
* * * *
(October 21 2000.)
Max was up early the next morning, making some instant pancakes and waiting until the time came to go pick up Alex. He heard footsteps and looked up. Isabel, still wearing her silk pj's, had come into the kitchen.
"Want some?" Max asked, gesturing to the pancakes.
"Sure." Isabel sat down at the kitchen table and closed her eyes, breathing deeply and perhaps listening to the birds chirp through the open window.
Max dumped some more batter down on the frying pan, and turned to his sister. "Iz?" He checked to make sure their parents hadn't followed her down, but there was no sign of them. They often slept in on Saturdays.
"Yeah?" She didn't open her eyes, but her voice was clear and alert.
"I... Liz and I... last night we..."
"You're back together," Isabel filled in.
"It's that obvious?" Max blinked in surprise.
Now Isabel opened her eyes, and turned towards Max. "Let's put it this way. I don't think Michael or Kyle clued in last night."
Max grinned sheepishly. "I get the picture."
"I'm happy for the two of you, Max, I really am."
Max cleared his throat as he offered Is a pair of pancakes on a plate. She stood up and headed over to the cupboard. "What else, brother Max?"
"About you... and Grant Sorenson..."
Isabel took the box of icing sugar and a bottle of Tabasco back to her place at the table. "I'm interested in Grant, and I think he likes me, but we're just friends. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"And Alex??" Isabel's silence was expressive. "Okay, Iz, I know I have no right to tell you who to date or not to date, but I'm curious. You were really into Alex, back this spring, before everything happened. A few weeks ago you were telling him you weren't ready to be with any guy. And now you're 'interested' in Grant."
"So... are you dancing around in circles because you don't want to tell me straight out you think I'm a hypocrite??" Isabel snapped.
"No! I'm just... wondering what's going on in your head."
"Too bad you can't dreamwalk me," Isabel mumbled under her breath.
Max ignored that. "I know Alex, I like Alex, and I like the thought of the two of you being together. You don't have to explain the why or why not to me if you don't want to, Isabel. Just think about it for yourself, okay??"
Isabel mulled that over while she finished her pancakes.
* * * *
(Again October 21 2000)
"So..." Max murmurred as Alex walked around. "Do you recognize anything, man?"
"Hmm..." Alex thought about that. "The pods, yeah. They're definitely the same ones I saw in my dream."
"Anything else?"
Alex chuckled. "Max, don't take this the wrong way, but there isn't much else." Aside from the four huge (and now empty,) pods, the passageway back outside, (which was pretty cool, Alex had to admit, with Max using the handprint to make the stone wall slide away,) the chamber was pretty spartan. Here and there a touch of alienesque architecture decorated the walls, and there was a slightly raised slab on the floor... where, Alex presumed, the royal four had ince used healing stones to bring Nasedo back to life. And failed to repeat the feat, just a handful of days ago.
"Haha, very funny," Max drawled.
"Nothing else is familiar to me," Alex said in a more serious tone. "The space, the layout, nothing. Well... maybe a bit of the doodads there." He pointed at the intricately carved supports that supported the vaulted chamber ceilling. "I might just be imagining that though."
"So, that's that I guess," Max sighed. "Well, it was worth a try."
"Yeah." Alex reached up and tentatively touched the supportive shelf that seperated two of the empty pods. "How did you find this place, anyways??"
"Tess showed me," Max said, after a moment. "Though I guess Michael had figured out something was here before that, using the alien map."
Alex stood stock still for a moment. Not again, he thought to himself. "Max, what alien map??"
Max froze for a second himself, then shook it out. "You know, Alex, you were there. I know you were there for this one. After we healed Michael at the cave on the reservation, he found out that this alien writing on the cave wall was a map..."
"I remember," Alex said. He did, now, and even realized that he had taken Isabel to the UFO center to show her similar inscriptions from somewhere in South America or something. "I wasn't informed that Michael had actually *found* anything on the map, though."
"I'll get a copy of it to you," Max promised. "We'll see if you can make anything more of it, now that you've been... zapped by that alien ring."
"Okay. I guess we'd better go," Alex decided. With Max, he headed out of the chamber, and the doorway was sealed back tight behind them. As they headed down the slope to where Max had parked the Jeep, Alex suddenly blurted out, "Max, why don't you want to tell the rest of the gang about this?"
Max stopped short, almost slipped on a rock, and turned to Alex, blinking in surprise. "Why don't I want... Alex, I'm just following *your* lead here!"
Alex felt like he was missing something obvious. "My... my lead??"
"Yeah," Max agreed. "I mean... you could have brought Liz or Isabel... Michael, Maria, whoever, into this at the very beginning. But you didn't. You came to me, Alex. And I guess I didn't want to take it over and bring it to the gang in your place. That's your privilege, Alex."
Alex found himself laughing. "And here I was stewing because I thought I needed your permission to bring my friends in on the whole thing. Well, okay, I think it's time we let everybody know."
"Everybody??" Max echoed. They had finished the climb down now and the Jeep was only a short distance away.
"Well, you know," Alex mumbled. "The usual suspects."
"Boy, that's gonna be weird," Max muttered softly. "Getting everybody together, in the same place, with all that's been going on, without it looking suspicious."
"Don't worry," Alex told him. "I know just how to handle it."
* * * *
"You are hereby invited to the next meeting of the Roswell parlour games club. Saturday, October 21st, 2001 @ 7:30 pm. 275 White palm south."
Michael looked at the printed card Alex had just handed him. "What the hell is this?"
"Just be there, Michael."
* * * *
(Still October 21st, of course.)
Alex looked around his parents' rec room, filled with his friends. "Okay, thanks for coming everybody... the card isn't quite full yet, so as soon as the stragglers arrive we'll start playing..."
"The stragglers?" Maria piped up. "But everybody's he..." She broke off, looking around the room. Alex, Max, Liz, Michael, and Isabel. With Maria herself, that made six... "Oh god, Alex, you didn't..."
Alex was about to ask Maria what she meant, when the doorbell rang. "That's probably our missing players now," he said unneccesarily, and sprinted up the basement stairs to the front door.
He got there a little after his mother. "Hi, Kyle... Sherriff!! Is... is there something wrong, sir?"
"Not at all, Mrs. Whitman." Valenti tipped his hat slightly, then took it off. "I'm here for the club."
Alex's mother's expression of surprise was eloquent. Alex chimed in. "The sherriff plays a mean hand of tyzicha, mom. We needed a sixth one day over at Kyle and Tess'..."
"Tess?" Carol Whitman seized on this, and connected it up with the girl standing in front of her. "Tess?" Tess nodded slightly at the mention of her name, and Alex's mother shook the blonde's hand enthusiastically. "So nice to meet you, Tess."
"Mom?" Alex fixed her with a look. "We should be getting started."
She dropped the shake immediately with a trace of embarassment. "Of course." She stood aside in an overt gesture of allowing the extended Valenti household to pass on into the basement.
Sherrif Valenti nodded again as he passed through, and Kyle and Tess nervously followed suit. Alex smiled a silent goodbye to his mother as he brought up the rear.
While he was gone, Max had consulted the seating charts Alex had made and started to arrange the gang in their seats for the first game. Alex was at the same table as Michael and Isabel, while sherrif Valenti went over to Max and Maria and Liz had to deal with Tess and Kyle.
"Okay," Alex whispered softly but clearly as he shuffled the short pack of cards. He had managed to put together a makeshift bug sweeper, and Max had done his best to 'sense' for alien equivalents, so the room was as safe from eavesdropping as possible - but no sense in taking chances.
"We're not here to play cards, of course. What could be less suspicious of alien secrets than a loose collection of acquaintances getting together to play indoor games every week?" As Alex finished, the only sound he could hear over the dealing cards was fragments of Max and Liz going over the same spiel at their own tables.
Alex picked up his cards -- two red kings and three aces. "Your bid first," he softly prompted Michael.
* * * *
Isabel bid Tyzicha somewhat naively, Alex thought, but she was having enough luck tonight to win despite that, and was making a serious drive for the 501 point game Alex had stipulated. Michael played cards the same way he apparently approached everything in his life - with an overconfident, full-barrel run, heedless of the consequences. He was in the hole for a hundred thirty five, leaving Alex with no more likely fate than to end up in between them.
Of course, none of them were really paying all their attention to the game. Alex told the others about the gizmo he had touched and the dreams and flashes he had had. Isabel lent supportive attention, while Mchael was obviously holding back a doubtful scoff - though that was exchanged for a serious look when Alex explained how he had drawn the incubation pods from his memory flash, sight unseen. Alex finished up by asking Michael if he still had a copy of River dog's map, and if he could repeat what he had done to line it up with real Roswell.
"Sure, I guess," Michael replied, throwing out an ace lead and getting soundly trumped by Isabel. "I'm pretty sure I could do it again. Where there's a copy of the map is harder, but I'm sure one of us has it."
"That's what we thought about the book," Isabel muttered forebodingly, but didn't press the issue. Over the next deal, as the queen of hearts drove home her victory, Alex shared the hypothesis that the mysterious 'Skins' might be behind the assault on Liz at the party, with intent to force Max to expose himself for payback. (It took a little effort to avoid blowing his own horn over preventing that, but Alex didn't even mention it. Let Max take the credit.)
"Wouldn't be surprised," Michael muttered while surrendering the ten of spades to Isabel's offensive. "Better be on the watch for something more overt. Pretty soon they're gonna decide that these subtle ploys aren't getting the job done."
Before Alex could answer, Isabel raked in the last trick and turned her captured cards over, counting them at a glance. "That makes five-ten. What now?"
From across the room Max launched into the pre-arranged spiel. "Tables two and three, last hand. Once this deal is over, we switch tables. Winners together, losers together, in-betweeners together. Alright?"
So after a few minutes, Alex drew up a chair at the middle table, with fellow 'in-betweeners' Maria and Kyle. "So, any questions?" he asked as the sherriff's son dealt the cards. This could take a while.
* * * *
Later on that night, a procession made its disordely way up the Whitman steps, and... (more or less,) out the door.
"May I offer you a ride home, Miss Parker?" Max offered, half-bowing gallantly at her.
"Why certainly, Mister Evans. What a generous offer for you to make!" Liz couldn't hide her smile as she let Max lead her off to the driveway.
Maria and Michael made a big production of getting their jackets put on, neither of them able to look each other in the eye. They stepped towards the door at the same moment, each backed off and waved the other through with the same motion, and blurted out in unison, "We need to talk."
There was a tense pause. "Okay, we'll talk. Where and when?" Maria asked.
"Um... tommorow won't be much good, with the stupid Whittaker thing," Michael decided. "How about Monday? You can come over to my place after school."
"Monday?!" Obviously, this wasn't sitting particularly well with Maria. "Whatever." She stormed off, leaving Michael to shrug his usual 'What did I do now?' shrugs and stroll out the door himself, going the opposite way from Maria and wandering down to the driveway.
Jim valenti checked his watch. "I'm gonna need to swing by the station to take care of something," he announced out loud. "Tess, Kyle, can I drop you off at home first?"
"I'm taking a walk," Kyle groused, suiting action to word.
"Me too," Tess declared, storming off right after Kyle. The sherriff shrugged and headed down to his truck.
That left Isabel and Alex. "I should probably... go with Michael," Isabel muttered. "He's waiting down at my mom's car."
Alex laughed softly. "Yeah, that's okay."
Is looked up into his eyes. "Alex, do you wanna... meet me for lunch tomorrow? Just to spend a little time together, maybe talk about things??"
Alex's smile grew even wider. "Yeah, Isabel, I'd like that."
Isabel smiled back. "Okay, I'll call you." She shook Alex's hand formally, and then in a rush of impulse, leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek. Then she was gone. Alex leaned out the door to watch the girl of his dreams running down to her car, letting Michael in, and driving away. He stayed out there a little while, just enjoying the moment.
He didn't notice the person lost in shadow on the other side of his street, the one who had been carefully watching that door ever since Max Evans and Liz Parker had come up the stairs. Now he faded back into greater darkness, the purposes to his observation complete. He knew what the next move would be, and where, and when.
It wasn't until he had passed through a long alleyway all alone that the mysterious eavesdropper stepped into streetlight bright enough to reveal his face - a face that the human world knew as 'Steven Banks.'
Steve wasted no time as he got into his '98 Viper and drove away.
TO BE CONTINUED.