(Afternoon of thursday, January 4 2001.)
Liz shifted her weight reslessly in the front seat of Max's jeep as he drove through the relatively quiet afternoon streets of Roswell. Was it her imagination or was the wind blowing a little harshly today?
"You're worried," Max observed, shooting her a sideways glance.
Liz shrugged awkwardly and nodded her head a little. "I guess I am." She kept her mouth open as if expecting to elaborate, but nothing came. So after a long moment, she set her lips back together.
"I'm fine, now," Max assured her. "I probably just psyched myself into it because I was worried about Izzy. But she just fainted because she didn't have enough to eat yesterday. She's fine, and so am I."
Liz, deep inside herself, was far from convinced, and Max's reassurances were starting to seem like rationalizations. First, Isabel had fainted right in the middle of the big toast at her father's office party last night. Today after school, Max had been hit with an intense spell of dizziness during debate team practice, so bad that he'd had to sit down on the auditorium stage right in the middle of his turn to speak. (Luckily, Isabel and Liz had happened to be there, watching the practice, and had helped him into a seat near the back of the audience section. Max hadn't blacked out like Isabel had, but it seemed too close to her experience for Liz to put her suspicions to rest -- not that she'd been complacent about the situation when it was just Isabel who had had an odd fainting spell.
Perhaps somehow Max could tell how silentl skeptical his girlfriend was at that moment. "Okay, worst case," he sighed, changing tactics. "If something really is wrong, it makes more sense to do this thing right away. We'll be stronger once Isabel's reversed once she did to my brain in Mexico, and have a whole lot more information available to us. Who knows, maybe it's the fact that I've got a lockbox stuck in my head and Isabel has he key that's messing us both up. Some side effect she didn't research intensively enough to find out."
"That makes sense on the face of it, I guess," Liz admitted. "I just have... I dunno, a feeling about all this."
Max shot a look at her, almost cut someone off that he didn't see, and focused on getting the Jeep parked. They were a short fraction of a block away from Michael's building. "A feeling? Any connection with your dreams?" Liz had had two 'spooky' dreams that had saved the entire gang by now, dreams that were, as she described it one time, 'prophetic in a kinesthetic way.' They seemed to bear on the future -- on dangerous situations that Liz and her friends would get into, and even point the way towards a solution, but only in feelings and sensations of bodily position - no visual or audio component. It was more than a little frustrating to her.
"No," she shot back. "Haven't been having any spooky dreams lately. Do I have to have one for you to take me seriously?"
"Maybe you did and just didn't remember it," Max continued, off on his own track. "Because the last two times you woke up afterwards. Nobody remembers many of their dreams because they don't wake up after them, they just sink back into the subconscious and..." He broke off, because he just noticed that Liz was giving him a look. "Sorry."
Liz decided to put the entire dream thing to one side. "I just... I have this seriously clear feeling that..." She tried to put it as precisely and evenly as possible. "While you might find out something by doing this, now, it won't be worth what you lose."
Max leaned over and kissed her. "Well, after today, I guess we'll know how much trust to put in your 'feelings.'"
Liz smiled at that, and then, as Max got out of the Jeep, did a double-take. "Hey!" The only way that they would put her feeling to the test - was to go ahead in spite of it and see how much, if any, trouble ensued.
---------
It was seven of them gathered in Michael's place this time... Max and Isabel, as the primary participants. Michael and Tess, who each had a sizeable interest in the information Isabel might retrieve here. Alex and Liz, each worried about their respective sweeties. And Maria, who was not about to let herself be left out at this point, especially not since it was her boyfriend who was hosting the proceedings.
Alex, Maria, and Liz were talking amongst themselves in low voices as Michael, Max, and Isabel were making the preparations and Tess hovered around nearby.
"No, I couldn't talk Isabel out of it either," Alex whispered with a resigned tone. "Guess we'll just have to have faith for the best."
"What about this idea that it's actually the professors' memories being inside Max that's messing them both up?" Maria asked. "Is that even possible?"
"Considering how weird some of this Czechoslovakian stuff is, I wouldn't like to rule everything out." Liz sighed.
"Saint Camber," Tess put in, stepping closer to the three of them. "After death-reading the memories of Allister Cullen, Camber MacRorie is nearly driven mad until he can safely complete the ritual to integrate those memories into his own mind."
Maria stared at the hybrid girl. Alex blinked several times in a row. Liz hazarded "Another one of your wacky sci-fi books, Tess?"
"More like fantasy... alternate historical," Tess explained, sitting down opposite Liz. "But the Deryni books resonate with me for a different reason... the running theme of a people who are born with magical powers, or at least the potential to develop them -- and how much they are feared and persecuted by those who don't have their gifts, the ones who reseve for themselves the title of 'normal human.'"
"Ahh, yeah, sounds familiar," Liz agreed, smiling slightly at Tess. She was trying to think of something else to say when it became clear that the main event was about to begin.
Max was sitting down on a chair, hands by his side near the outside of his upper thighs, his face the very picture of calm repose, eyes closed. Isabel walked around him, clearly feeling very nervous, and stepped up behind him, laying one hand across his temple and the other across the opposite ear.
Alex watched Isabel's face very carefully, moving quietly so that he could look at her directly on, and could see a number of different reactions pass across her face in the silence. First, frustration... something wasn't working as she had expected it to, right at the start. Then, some mild relief. Puzzlement shaded into alarm, and quickly to fear. "No, no..." she whispered, her voice cracking and hardly audible. "The link... we're not alone! Help -- help mee!"
What was going on? Not alone in the link. Alex rushed forward, but Isabel didn't seem to be able to let go of Max, and he knew enough about what was going on to know that attempting to drag her away bodily could be catastrophic by both of them. Max's face was now also reading the terror of some dreaded realization, though his eyes were still calmly closed and the set of his mouth remained oddly serene.
Michael whirled into action, literally -- turning on his heel three eights of a full circle, he gestured and a sparkly purple field appeared in the air at the border of the room. Tess smiled and pointed to the side, and Michael oriented in that direction, moving the field with him as he turned his body. Finally, growning in confidence, he began to spin around and around, fast enough that Alex was dizzy just looking at him. The purple sparkles assumed the unmistakeable of an strobotronic sphere surrounding them all, enclosing them above and below most likely, though none of them could see it extend beyond the ceiling or the floor -- not complete at any one instant, but not leaving a gap open at a particular spot for more than a fraction of a second.
After an interminable minute, Isabel suddenly wrenched her hands away from Max's head and staggered off to the couch. "It -- it's okay," she announced to no-one in particular. "He won't be able to get in again now." Michael puzzled over that for a few seconds, and then let his makeshift barrier collapse.
"What HAPPENED?" Liz asked, running forward to Max. Max opened his eyes, looked around for Isabel, who was also seeming more aware of her surroundings now, and she caught his glance as Alex sat down next to her.
"I'll go first," she volunteered. "It took a long time to establish any kind of connection at all with Max... my powers seemed so weak. Once I started opening up the professor's memories, I realized that there was -- another telepathic presence, inside the link with us. A powerful mind, tunneling into our connection from, from a long way away. I can't pin down its... his location, any more than that."
"A skin, maybe?" Tess asked. "One of Steve Banks' cronies? He would have been able to recruit two more into the 'field of play,' after we were forced to kill Grant Sorenson and frat-boy on hostage night. That's in the rules of the challenge."
Isabel frowned, remembering what they'd heard about the strange bet that was being wagered over whether they could return to their home planet. "Maybe -- I don't know how to tell. But he was definitely not friendly... when he realized what I was doing, he tried to grab the Professor's memories for himself."
"Oh, no," Michael breathed. Maria shot him a look. "Sorry, but after everything we went through to get those brain files, not to mention what happened to the professor himself..."
"I understand," Liz put in. "Isabel?" she prompted as gently as she could.
"I don't know how much he got," Isabel muttered. "There was some kind of interference..."
"You can thank Michael for that," Alex admitted. "I think."
"Okay," Isabel smiled nervously up at him. "And I was able to keep him from deleting anything, I think. But... how was he able to get in in the first place? The instructions in the book explained the basics of mentalic defense, and I was using the appropriate precautions. Unless..."
"You said your powers were weak," Max put in. "I don't think it was your imagination, and that's why your precautions didn't work." He had everyone's attention. "While that was happening, I couldn't sense what was going on with you and this other telepathic mind, but for a moment my healing powers came on, in diagnostic mode. I was aware of what's going on in your body, and mine, Isabel."
He broke off there, breathing heavily, and Liz, sitting down on the floor next to and beneath him, rubbed his hand and arm, her eyes suddenly alive with fear. Michael waited a few minutes, then prompted. "Well? Not to sound rude, Maxwell, but you've got us all on the edge of our seats here, especially Isabel... and Liz, ane Alex, and Tess."
Max laughed hollowly. "We're infected. Couldn't quite tell with what -- I don't think it's communicable, but some kind of virus or single-celled organism. That's what's been affecting our powers, and giving us those dizzy spells, Isabel. The reason I didn't see the signs in you yesterday was that my own powers weren't working -- I didn't see anything wrong, so I didn't realize that the fault was mine."
There was a long, stunned silence, which was finally broken by Maria. "So -- what the heck do we do now?"
---------
(Later that evening.)
"So, he's just going to sit tight and wait?" Kyle asked incredulously. "Knowing that he and Isbael are infected?"
"It's not quite as stupid as it sounds, Kyle," Tess told him. They were hanging out in the living room of the Valenti house, now once again Kyle's de-facto bedroom. (He had been crashing at Michael's apartment before the holidays, but come back for christmas with his father, and the girl he was coming to think of as a foster sister.) "For one thing, the fact that Steve Banks had someone ready to drill into Isabel's mind long-distance does seem to suggest that the infection was just a ploy to weaken her, or Max, or both of them. Which suggests that maybe it's not fatal, something that they'll recover from, given time."
"And... and what if it isn't?" Kyle asked, wondering why he cared so much. He still tended to think of Max Evans as a foil or a rival, but... but, well, he'd never really held much personally against Isabel, and for a girl that hot to die at seventeen was certainly a tragedy. Heck, even Max dying of a mysterious infection was something that he had a hard time thinking of. "What if this thing is terminal?"
"Then... I don't know, Kyle!" Tess exploded. "No-one really has any better ideas just now. If they don't get better, we'll just have to bloody well think of something, huh!" She let out a sound that was somewhere between a squeak of fury and a shout of frustration.
Kyle fixed Tess with a look... and then waited until she noticed that he was staring at her and returned eye contact. "It's really hard for you, being worried about Max in particular, isn't it? You're doing your best to back off and give Liz and Max their space, but you can't really fool yourself, now can you?"
She half-smiled at him. "I... I wish there was some way to let them know that -- that what I feel isn't the point. Max loves her, and so I am damned well going to do my best to protect both of them... for each others' sake! If... if I do still have feelings for him, can I do anything less?"
Kyle smiled. "I think that'd be cool."
---------
(Friday night. January 5th 2001)
"So, Michael..." the man sitting at the head of the table asks me. "How are your classes so far this term?"
"Ummm..." Michael let that sound fade out, playing idly at the mixed vegetables on his plate as he stared at them, until he realized that somebody was waiting for more of a reply than that. "Uhh... I'm really sorry, I wasn't -- er, that is, I didn't quite hear you."
He didn't want to be there. Considering everything that had been going on, he wanted to be anyplace other than here in a small but reasonably affluent apartment four flights above East Hobbs street, having dinner with the man who had run out on Maria and broke her heart when she was just seven years old.
"Maria said that you did pretty well in school in the fall," the man continued, probing for some sort of reply. Yes... what with the mysterious challenge, Max, Isabel and Maria had finally been able to convince him that being behind on schoolwork was just a distraction when more important issues came along. Since the autumn and early winter had been pretty quiet, alien drama-wise, Michael had been able to put some time in getting tutored by the brainier members of the 'I know an alien' club and pulled up his GPA to waist level, as it were.
He shook his head, climbing out of the funk as best he could and focusing on the scene around him. Maria's father, Ryan Galdamez, who had returned after almost a ten year absence, hoping to repair the gulf that seperated him from his daughter and ex-lover. Who Maria had finally agreed to visit for dinner, and asked Michael to come along for moral support. It suddenly occured to him that he'd been acting whatever the opposite of supportive was.
"Uh yeah, that's a good feeling," he mumbled, still feeling it a little hard to concentrate all of his attention on the conversation. "As far as the new semester... well, there's econ, which looks like it's gonna be pretty tough, and Bio 2. My lit teacher seems pretty cool though."
The three of them continued to eat in silence for a little while after that. Maria tried to start things up again, asking her father a question. "So, what did you..." She broke off at that point, and Michael realized that she had decided 'what did you do after you abandoned us' might be a little too inflammatory. "What were you doing just before you came back to Roswell? A year, two years before, say."
"Umm... I was working in San Diego for about three years," Mister Galdamez said after an instant's pause. "Working in Human Resources at a mid-size pharmaceutical company." Michael thought he remembered hearing that Maria's dad had been working as the office manager of some tourism agency thing since he had come to Roswell in the late fall.
"Did you leave a family behind in San Diego too?" Maria muttered under her breath, then looked up and blushed when she realized that both of the men at the table had been able to hear what she was saying.
There was an awkward pause, and then her father sighed, "No. This is the only place that I have family, 'Ria. There were..." he paused, then carefully continued on. "There were a few women that I've seen socially since I left Roswell. No-one who I've truly been intimate with." While the two teenagers were wondering how to take this, he contiuned after several seconds.
"I realize that this is an uncomfortable situation, and that you have a lot of reason to be angry with me. But despite all the regrets I have and all the mistakes I've made, I'm still your father. I didn't have a chance to know my own father very well, and I think you'll regret it if you let out second chance slip away." He took a deep, unsteady breath. "So I hope that you won't give up just because this evening had been awkward or painful. What do you say, 'Ria?"
For a second she froze, pinned to her chair by the intensity of his stare. Then, softly, she muttered. "'Ria... you used to call me that when I was, what, four?" She was trying to make the words a complaint, but Michael could tell that she was about ten seconds from melting into a figurative puddle of syrupy mush, no matter how embarassed she would be about it.
So Michael leapt in with the diversion. Time to justify your presence here, supporter boy. "Mister Galdamez... do you follow soccer?"
---------
Halfway across town, an almost staggering number of teenagers were crowded into the Evans upstairs den. Liz, Alex, and Tess had each pretty much 'invited themselves' over, worried about Max and Isabel, and Tess had asked Kyle and Courtney Banks to come along.
Most of the company was gathered around the computer playing a game: Liz and Kyle at the controls, with Alex, Tess, and Max sitting a little further back and offering suggestions. Isabel and Courtney were across the room, listening to some music through headphones.
"Okay, the corvette hypership is sending us a message, audio only."
"Put it on," Alex suggested, and Kyle tapped a key. The speakers crackled to life with a digitally recorded voice.
"The Minaltan dissidents are holding your ambassador hostage at the edge of their camp. Our vessel is too large to attempt a discreet landing and we have no suitable support craft, but if you wish to send down a rescue team in a landing shuttle, we will assist to the best of our ability."
"They're lying to us - we should attack THEM," Kyle suggested. Several of the others groaned -- this was becoming a recurrent theme for him.
"Scanning the corvette," Liz announced, clicking away with the mouse. "Only Terellan lifeforms, no sign of a struggle inside. I think they're who they say they are."
"Before we pick a landing party, is there anyone on the planet below we can talk to on the ship's communicator?" Max asked.
After a particularly energetic track ended, Isabel caught Courtney's eye and moved her hand towards the 'next album' button, but Court shook her head and took off the large, stereo-quality earphones that had been leant her instead, and Iz followed suit.
"Just wanted to make sure to thank you for having us over," Courtney explained after a couple seconds. "I realize that I'm the new kid, kinda unfamiliar to most of Kyle's friends, even though you saw me around the Crash this summer. It means a lot that you've let me in like this."
"Hey, it's no big," Isabel protested somewhat awkwardly.
"Maybe not, but I still wanted to mention how cool I think it is," Courtney maintained with a tiny flip of some of the hair that was trying to fall down across her face. "I realize that you guys don't exactly want to talk about my brother and all of that stuff that happened with him."
Talk about a leading statement! "No, not for preference. I imagine you still have a lot of unanswered questions."
"Yeah, but that's okay. They can wait until you trust me enough."
Isabel was still thinking about that as Courtney put the headphones back on and began switching out a CD on the stereo.
---------
"I wish you wouldn't worry so much," Max murmurred to Liz, pretty much through a tender kiss, as they said goodbye at his door that night.
"Max, you tell me you've been infected by something, probably as a form of deliberate attack by your enemies, but I'm not supposed to worry?" Liz pointed out, drawing away. "Nuh-uh. Isn't gonna happen!"
"Well... but what can you DO about it?" Max realized he didn't exactly like the pensive look that crossed his girlfriend's face when he said that. "Come on... if we're still having symptoms after a few days, we'll gather the gang and come up with a plan. As it is -- I've been taking it easy ever since yesterday afternoon and I haven't had so much as a dizzy spell."
Liz smiled at that point and hugged Max tightly. "Just don't you dare try to hide it from me if things start getting worse again," she warned. "No matter how bad this might be, we'll face it together. Promise?"
"I swear it," he assured her. "Gonna rest up and take plenty of fluids this weekend... just in case that helps."
Liz shook her head at that, kissed him goodbye one last time, and headed off down to her car -- at least, she meant to. A few steps out of the doorway she nearly collided into Michael, with Maria just three feet behind him.
"Hey -- did we miss the whole party?" Michael joked.
---------
(Early afternoon of Saturday, January 6th.)
"Hey, Max!" Alex said as he walked up to the booth in the Crashdown. "You've come out again? I didn't really need your moral support THAT much."
"Ha, ha," Max announced. "No, Tess asked if both Liz and I could come. She's singing a number with the band tonight." Apparently, Tess had been oddly intent about both of them witnessing her debut, which had made several people very curious. Maria, who apparently knew something about what song Tess would be singing and why, had been oddly mum about the whole thing.
"Oh, she is?"
Max fixed the bass guitarist with a penetrating stare. "Didn't you know?"
"Missed the last rehearsal, so that's probably when she set it up," Alex replied with a shrug. "Gotta go -- say hi to Liz for me?" Max nodded, and Alex made his getaway. Soon enough, Liz came back to the booth - along with Isabel and Michael.
"Hey, where did my boy go?" Isabel quipped with a mock pout as she slid into the seat. "Without even a hello!"
"Had to go get set up, and I don't think he saw you," Max explained. "Asked me to pass along his greetings... but frankly, I don't want to say hello to you the way he would have -- because you're my sister and it'd be really weird."
"Ha ha," Princess Isabel pronounced in her best 'we are not amused' tone of voice.
"Speaking of which..." Max paused to kiss Liz hello, since she'd been sitting next to him for a moment or so without a visible display of affection, "Michael, have you been keeping young sir Whitman from his other responsibilities? Like research into the book and such?"
Michael's face turned down and sharp slightly. "We lost track of time - ONCE."
"Well, if that was the occasion I think it was, if he'd made it to practice he'd have been able to tell us what this whole thing with Tess' song is about... since Maria isn't making with the gossip for once."
Michael just shook his head at Max, and they started in on the finger foods. Soon the band came up again, and Tess' number was on second. Since the first music session had gone pretty well, Jeff Parker had been encouraging the 'open mike' idea... that good regular customers could attend part of a rehearsal session with the band if they wanted to sing a song in public, stuff like that.
Jeff Parker had moved aside from the small stand-up piano for this number, and Max suddenly realized why, as he led off the instruments with an opening melody that sounded remarkably like a small fragment of a hymnal on a church pipe organ. The other instruments joined in for a measure, and then, nervously, Tess began to sing her part.
"I thought that this was supposed to feel good,
And if you were really mine I guess it would.
I didn't fall in love 'cause it was the right thing to do.
I just went ahead and fell for you."
Her singing was untrained, and she certainly didn't have one of the naturally prettiest voices that Max had ever heard. But Tess was giving the piece her all, and deep feeling and a slight trace of vulnerability made it powerful as she led into the chorus, and Maria and the guitarist backed up her vocals softly but steadily.
"Somewhere down along the line,
I guess that love became a crime.
The contradiction makes no sense:
This is punishment.
I feel like this is judgement day,
I'll raise my hand, stand up and say,
'I don't believe I'm innocent'
This is punishment."
Getting into it, Tess even let out a whoop in harmony during the short instrumental break, and waved a vague, but somehow meaningful gesture to Max and Liz. This was why she wanted them here. It was something she wanted to tell both of them, he realized.
"Truth is, your heart was never mine to take,
Now I'm stuck in a feeling that I'll never shake.
I prayed for it to go, god knows I want it to stay,
But here I am, loving you either way.
Somewhere down along the line..."
As she repeated the chorus, Max thought about that message that Tess was trying to send. It was an apology... and maybe a surrender. There were still intense feelings about Tess' obsession with their past marriage, and what she had done about it when she first got to Roswell... traces that their confrontation the morning after Hostage night had not cleared away entirely. Now, Tess had taken the initiative to tell them, 'mea culpa' once and for all. She was admitting that she'd done wrong.
The bridge caught him by surprise.
"You'll never feel
All the things I can't say. (the things that I can't say)
And I'll never know
If it's... better this way-ay-ay.
Somewhere down along the line,
I guess that love became a crime.
The contradiction makes no sense:
This is punishment."
And then, there was the other side of what the lyrics said... the punishment. Clearly they were written to imply that to remain in love with someone who didn't love you back, not in the same way, was quite a harsh sentence. Max couldn't disagree. But he felt awkward about the notion of Tess' feelings for him being her own prison... and he could guess, by the look on Liz's face, that she might be feeling the same way...
"I feel like this is judgement day.
I'll raise my hand, stand up and say:
'I don't believe I'm innocent'
This is punishment...
I guess that love became a crime, (this is punishment)
I'll raise my hand, stand up and say, (this is punishment...)
This is punishment..."
When the song came to an end, Tess got a standing ovation, and she put the mike back on the stand and ran for the kitchen door.
---------
(Sunday afternoon, January 7th 2001)
"Okay, the path gets a little narrow here, so step careful." Maria groaned a little as she turned towards the rock face and strode sideways, keeping her weight on the tips of her feet, away from the heels.
A few minutes later, as they turned carefully around an outcropping and the sun shone suddenly right into her eyes, Liz turned to Kyle and asked, "So, what's Tess doing today, anyway?"
"Think she's up with River dog again," Kyle said with a small sigh. "Whatever."
Max and Isabel both seemed to be feeling less than in high spirits today, and were spending some quality time with their parents, so the rest of the group had decided to do something together to try to take their minds off of the 'infection' situation.
"Have to admit, it's quite a view," Alex said as they came up to a scenic lookout plateau. In front of and beneath them, the desert and mountains rolled away, until far in the distance a few ranch fences and small farmhouses could be seen.
All of a sudden... BAMFF! A cloud of dust and shatter of loose rocks emerged from another rocky peak nearby. Michael almost ducked for cover, until he saw that Liz was holding the small, polished irregularity of the Skins' raygun in her hand, aiming at exactly where the small explosion had been. "For jeez' sake, Parker! Forget about a little thing like subtlety?"
"I bet no-one else would have even heard it," she countered. "Listen."
And, as the five of them stood there and the sound of falling gravel faded away to nothingness, the silence was indeed eerie. In a place like this, Michael knew, shouts of 'hey, what the hell was that?' would carry several miles at least. Presumably, then, there was nobody to shout.
"Alright," Maria said after a few minutes, "where to from here? Do we turn around and head back again?" The path did not continue on up the mountain very obviously from this plateau.
"Umm, well, usually I go through here, but it's a little tricky," Michael mentioned, leading the way to a corner of the lookout, where a second steep and somewhat irregular footpath continued down the hill and around it in the same direction, more or less, as they had been climbing up.
"Now just why," Maria complained as she tried to navigate the first tricky footing, "did we have to go hiking through the desert hills today, Michael?"
"I never said we had to," her boyfriend shot back insouciantly. "You were asking for ideas as to what we could do, and I said we could go out and do this, because we could. I think it was Alex and Kyle who really wanted to come."
"I think I've changed my mind," Alex joked from further back in the line. "But maybe not... it's good exercise at least, and not like much else I've been doing lately."
"So," Maria muttered, leaving the topic of hiking behind, "seen much of Court lately, Michael?"
"Umm..." Kyle apparently had to think about that one for a minute, maybe because his attention was on his footing. "Yeah, we went out starwatching last night... nothing special, but it was fun."
"By the way," Alex asked, "how did things go with the two of you and Maria's dad, Michael?"
"Ehhh, not too bad," Michael said after a moment. "He's a nice guy, but I don't think he knows how to act around us, or we around him for that matter. I know he feels bad for booting it all those years ago..." Michael sighed. He could understand a guy freaking out about the responsibility of having to take care of a wife and a kid, but he also knew how much it had hurt Maria and her mother to have to go through all of those years alone.
Conversation had mostly drifted off to a halt by the time they made it down the rough trail to the desert floor again. "Okay, so what now?" Liz asked.
"Well, it's just a short trek over to that rock over there," Michael pointed, "and it's got a really nice, wide corkscrew trail nearly all the way to the top."
More than one person groaned at the thought, but when Michael started to lead the way over the desert sands, the rest of the teenagers looked at each other for a long moment and then followed.
"So, how've things been with Tess, and the whole 'no room at the inn' thing?" Maria asked, earning her a surprised look from Kyle. "What, I can care a little, can't I?"
Kyle shrugged. "I've kinda gotten used to bunking down in the living room, but I think Tess is feeling guilty about it," Kyle admitted. "She keeps saying that she wants to get her own place."
"Really?" Alex asked.
"Well, I don't object to the idea in theory, of course," Michael said, turning around to face them and pacing slowly backward, "but I have to say I'm not sure if it's the right time. Maybe after we know what the score is with Max and Isabel... and maybe found something out about what Steve Banks is up to next."
---------
(Evening.)
When Tess pulled her car into the driveway, all the lights were out in Jim Valenti's house, and not many people were around on the street. She unlocked the door and made her way through the dark hallway without turning any lights on or making any noises that she could help.
She had changed for bed, in the dark, before she really realized the meaning of the blinking red light on the nightstand... up to that point it had just been vaguely convenient. A message on the private line into the room... the phone line she had kind of co-opted along with the bed and everything else.
She sat down on the mattress and considered a moment. Kyle's friends still sometimes called him on that line... but either he hadn't gotten the message or he'd not wanted to check for messages because he thought it was for HER. So she would call in. It made more sense than waiting for morning to argue with him about who would check it, which would still probably be herself.
It didn't take her long to tap into the voice mail service and enter the password. "You have one message waiting, from seven thirty-six," the synthesized voice told her, and she tapped on the one button to play it.
"Hey Tess, umm... this is Max. Just thought I'd give you a call, but I guess that you're... well, you're not there. Or maybe you're there but you're not answering the phone. Well, anyway, I guess what I wanted to say was thank you. About, well, about yesterday, saturday afternoon, at the crashdown, and what you sang. What you did, I mean."
There was a pause. "I know it probably wasn't easy for you to send that message... with Liz and I sitting right there, and everyone -- but I appreciated it, and Liz did too I think. We --" He took a deep breath in the phone. "I know it isn't completely up to me, but I'd really rather you didn't stay locked up, as it were. I guess that's what I wanted to say."
Tess smiled as she deleted the message and hung up the phone.
---------
(Monday morning. January 8th 2001.)
"Does anybody remember if Mister Simpson announced a quiz for today?" Maria asked as she pulled out into the street.
"Ummm... he didn't announce, but then he never 'announces,'" Alex decided. "He hinted. By the way guys, thanks for the lift."
"No problem," Michael said from the front passenger seat. "But then it isn't really my car or my driving, so maybe I'd better not..." He was cut off by a ringing sound.
"Can you get that hon?" Maria asked Michael. She was in the middle of a turn.
"Um, sure," He grabbed the cell phone, which was in the little console between the front seats, and answered it. "Hello, Genie the jetta... umm, yeah, we're already heading... all right, all right man. We'll be there as soon as we... Hurry, Maria. The Evanses ASAP."
"Umm, what?" Maria asked, frowning a little.
"I said get us there as soon as you can!" Michael repeated. "It... it's Max, he's freaking out."
Alex stiffened. "Did something happen to Isabel?"
"I'm driving!" Maria announced needlessly... they could all feel the car speeding up and the verve with which she negotiated the turn onto Murray lane... nearly missing an oncoming minivan.
From there, it didn't take long until they screeched into a parking spot right in front of Max and Isabel's house and piled out of the Jetta. Michael was still on the phone, but he told Max, "We're here, see you in a moment," and cut the connection.
Once they got inside the house, it didn't take long to see what Max was so freaked out about. Isabel was lying on the sofa in the living room, dressed in her school clothes. Her body was slightly askew, eyes closed but her limbs, head, and lips making jerky movements. Mister Evans was kneeling down next to her, while Max stood across the room, cordless phone still in his hands, and his mother standing next to him, her eyes wide.
Quickly they flew into action. Maria went over to Max, making a signal, and Max, catching it, called out "Dad!" and distracted his father away from the couch. Alex and Michael hurried over to Isabel. Alex frowned, not really knowing what to do, but he sat down next to her head, stroking her neck, her hair affectionately and with concern.
Michael bent down over Isabel's body, taking one of her hands in his, and pressed his other hand above her forehead, muttering under his breath. Isabel's eyes opened slowly, and Michael started to breathe hard. (Maria and Max were doing their best to create a diversion for Max and Isabel's parents at this point.)
And, in only a few seconds, it was over. Isabel groaned and sat up, Alex and Michael quickly sitting down on the couch on each side of her, and the parental units rushed over and started asking her breathless questions.
On a corner of the school grounds that morning, Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, Alex and Tess stood in a rough circle and conferred, just about the time that first period was getting under way.
"We had to do some fast talking to keep my mom from making an appointment with her family doctor right away," Max muttered. "They don't realize anything's up with me, haven't heard about the debate practice incident I suppose, but if anything more in this vein starts to happen to either of us, they might just head straight for the emergency room next time." He groaned. "And that would be disaster."
Alex nodded. "Well, for now all they've done is insisted that Izzie stay home from school today, and the rest may do her some good."
"They've been resting all weekend, pretty much," Michael pointed out. "And then this happened."
"I think Michael has a point," Liz said softly. "Max, you said you wanted to take it easy for a little while and see what happened. Well, it happened. More than two days from when you found out without an incident, which probably suggests that conserving your strength helps, but it sounds like this attack was the worst so far. We have to assume that Isabel will continue to get worse, and that you may start showing symptoms again too. Which means that we have two problems now -- finding a cure, and keeping your parents from accidentally 'outing' you guys as they try to get their own medical diagnosis."
"I know this is way out there," Maria whispered, "but I just wanted to put it on the table. Are you sure you can't just tell them?"
Max thought about it for a long moment. "I've been thinking about it more and more. I'd like to... and I think there's a certain chance that they'd be able to handle the news." He sighed. "But if they can't... the disaster would be too horrible to contemplate, especially in the middle of a crisis like this. We CANNOT take the risk."
"But maybe expanding the conspiracy in another direction could be the solution," Alex suggested. "If we can find a doctor, someone who might be able to help, someone who could be counted on to honor doctor patient confidentiality even in the case of non-human patients, that might help kill two birds at a stroke. Not only could he help find the cure, but he'd be able to reassure your parents that you're getting medical help."
"Are you thinking of who I'm thinking of, Alex?" Liz asked softly.
"Maybe... we'd need to check him out a lot more closely," Alex muttered. "Valenti could help with that. And... there's someone else who I'd like to tell."
"Who?" Tess burst out.
"My father," Alex said. He got several stares. "He's not a medical doctor, but I'm pretty sure we could all trust him, and he's a brilliant biologist. Done extensive work in immunology and virology."
"We'll think about it," Michael muttered, a little dismissively. "Personally, I think that there's only so far that a human doctor might be able to help. How about an alien doctor?"
"And just where do you expect to find one?" Liz asked.
"Let my orbs do the walking," Michael shot back. "We know how to use them, and the pod chamber, as an interstellar communicator, right? See if we can talk to an Aztan specialist that way."
Max frowned in thought. "There are restrictions on our use of the communicator, by the terms of the challenge. We'd have to call one of the agreed groups at random and see if they can reccommend a doctor by name. But it's a good idea."
Michael nodded. "Worst comes to worst, if you and Isabel are getting pretty bad, we can chuck the rules of the challenge out the window anyway. We can't win it anyway if you die, so it's worth giving up the challenge to save your lives."
"Except that if we give up on the challenge, there's nothing to keep Kivar from using as many agents as he likes to kill us," Tess pointed out.
"Well," Maria sighed. "We've got enough to think about, and enough to do. Maybe we should adjourn for now... either show up for class, or ditch entirely if there's something productive that can be accomplished right now."
There was a short silence, and then nods of agreement. "I'll go see Valenti this evening, talk about trying to find a doctor," Alex volunteered.
"I'll research our communicator options again," Michael said. "Tess, I guess it'll be you and I manning the orbs, since Max and Isabel's powers aren't working right at the moment."
She nodded agreement, and they all drifted dispiritedly in towards the school building.
TO BE CONTINUED...