Chapter 29
"You're what?" Michael roared from where he was standing behind his counter in his house. Max was sitting on the stool in front of the counter. They were both staring at Isabel who stood in the middle of the apartment, staring at them.
"I'm dating Jesse Ramirez," Isabel repeated.
"The lawyer that's working for dad?" Max asked and Isabel nodded. "So, why are you telling us?"
"Because I want to tell him the truth about me," Isabel told him.
"No!" Michael snapped and Isabel looked at him.
"What?" Isabel demanded.
"You heard me," Michael shot back at her and Max rubbed his forehead.
"Izzy, how long have you been dating him?" Max asked.
"About two/three months," she admitted and Max shook his head.
"I'm sorry but you can't tell him. Not right now. You have to wait till you have a better idea of how he would react to a secret like this. It's too early in the relationship," Max explained.
"Max…" Isabel started.
"She's not telling him at all!" Michael butted in; causing Isabel to look at him, shocked while Max just stared at him.
"What?" Isabel demanded and Michael looked at her.
"We forbid you tell Jesse anything. You are not telling him the truth and that's that," he informed her. Max stood up, he wasn't happy with everything now.
"I'm sorry, 'we' forbid her?" Max demanded and Michael looked at him. "All I said was that Isabel should wait till their relationship get serious and when she has a better idea of what his reaction would be to about aliens, we would talk about it again. I did not forbid her to tell Jesse," Max informed him.
"We're not letting anyone else into the secret," he told them and Isabel planted her hands on her hips.
"Is this due to the fact that Maria wants to tell James so you're taking your answer on her out on me?" Isabel snapped.
"I just don't think that anyone should be involved in the secret," Michael snapped at her and Isabel threw up her hands.
"I'm out of here," Isabel informed them before she stormed out of the apartment, leaving Michael and Max alone.
Max sighed as he looked at Michael before shaking his head and he walked out of the apartment.
Isabel found herself at the Crashdown, just staring in through the window as she watched Liz as she danced in the empty Crashdown. It was nighttime. Everybody was home while Liz cleaned the tables, moving her hips to the beat of the soundless music.
Isabel sighed as she moved closer to the door and knocked on the window. Liz looked up and smiled when she saw Isabel. She made her way over to the door and unlocked it. Isabel stepped in only to smile as the beat of 'Murder on the Dance floor' filled the Crashdown.
"Hey, how come you're walking around Roswell?" Liz asked and Isabel looked at her.
"Did Max not tell you?" Isabel asked, curious. Max never left Liz out on anything.
"Max is coming by after I've finished cleaning up," Liz told her and Isabel nodded. "Tell me what?" Liz asked, curious to what is going on.
"I'm dating Jesse Ramirez," Isabel explained and a look of puzzlement crossed her face.
"Your dad new lawyer?" she asked and Isabel nodded. "Ah, and you told Max this?" she asked and Isabel nodded. "How did he take it?"
"He was fine, it was Michael who blew his temper," she told her and Liz smiled slightly.
"Yeah, I kinda figure that out," Liz told her and Liz tilted her head, she had a feeling that there was more than what was being told.
"I want to tell him the truth," Isabel told Liz and Liz sighed.
"Isabel, you and Jesse have just started dating each other. Don't you want to make sure it actually leads somewhere before you tell him your secret?" Liz asked. "I mean; you don't even know him that well to predict what he could do."
"Shouldn't a relationship base on truth?" Isabel asked and Liz smiled, softly.
"Yes it should but not this early. Once you have settled down and you are really serious into the relationship, if you still want to tell him the truth then I'll back you all the way," Liz promised.
"Really?" Isabel asked as she looked at Liz. She knew that Max and Michael would have problems with her bringing anyone else into the alien abyss. Especially after what happened to Sarah. She wasn't even in the alien abyss but an alien killed her. Someone they considered as a friend.
"Yes, I know that trust is an important part of a relationship," Liz told her. "But not this early in a relationship. You don't even know what could happen."
Isabel let out a small sigh before she nodded after thinking about it.
"Okay, I'll leave it," she told Liz and Liz nodded, relieved, she reached out and took Isabel's hand and Isabel looked at her.
"I hope you really do find something with Jesse, he seems like a really nice man and he really seems to care for you," Liz told her and Isabel nodded before she stood up.
"I gotta go, I have a date this afternoon," she told Liz and Liz nodded as she watched Isabel leave the Crashdown.
Liz got back up, locked the door, finished off cleaning up and she made her way out of the Crashdown, switching the lights off as she did. She made her way up the stairs and headed into the kitchen to make some dinner for herself as she waited for Max to come over and visit.
Max sighed as he made his way up the path till he knocked on the door of Liz's house. He waited till heard the sound of unlocking and the door opened to reveal Liz standing in the doorway. She smiled.
"Hey," she greeted as she reached up and kissed him before she pulled him into the house and shut the door behind him before she wrapped her other arm around his neck as Max wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her close to him.
"Mmh, that was a good greeting," Max, teased once he pulled away and Liz smiled.
"Actually, that was your reward for not blowing up at Isabel when she told you about Jesse and that she wanted to tell him about your secret," Liz told him and he looked at her, shocked and she giggled. "Isabel came by while I was cleaning up, we talked and she told me what happened with you and Michael," she explained and Max nodded as Liz led the way into her bedroom.
They both got settled on the bed with Liz curled into Max's side.
"I'm trying to get over the fact that she is dating an older man," Max told her and Liz smiled.
"You have to admit, she does seem happy with Jesse," Liz pointed out and Max sighed.
"I know but she wants to tell him our secret," he told her and Liz nodded.
"I know. I spoke to her about it and she seems a little more receptive to the idea of leaving the secret till she is pretty sure how serious her relationship could go," Liz told him and Max let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank god for that. I mean, I'm happy that she has found someone who obviously cares about her but I'm not ready for her to tell someone our secret this way early in the relationship," Max told her and Liz smiled.
"I explained that out to her. She promised to wait to see where the relationship is heading and if it heads into the serious category and she still wants to tell him, I'm backing her up," Liz told him and Max looked at her.
"What?" he demanded.
"I'm going to on Isabel's side if she wants to tell him when they are serious," Liz repeated and Max sighed.
"Liz…" he started but Liz cupped Max's face.
"No Max, trust is a serious issue in a relationship. If she hides this from him after they are pretty sure they are serious about each other, this could ruin their relationship – you know that," she told him and Max looked down as he remembered what Liz was saying. After Tess had mind warped him into kissing her, he was more than willing to keep it hidden from her, to prevent Liz from getting hurt but it had already happened because she had saw them.
"Okay," he told her and Liz smiled before she kissed Max. "Now, about James…" he started and she laughed.
"I was wondering when you were going to get round to that," she told him and Max sighed.
"Maria is pretty determined to tell him the truth, isn't she?" Max asked and Liz nodded.
"I think she's scared. I mean; Sarah wasn't in the alien abyss when she was killed. I think that Maria thinks of James knows the truth, he'll be able to keep a look out on anything that might harm him," she explained and Max nodded.
"I understand but you do realise that she'll need to convince Isabel and Michael?" Max asked and Liz nodded.
"I know and I know that Michael isn't going to let that happen. I think he's still in love with Maria," Liz admitted. Max looked at her.
"What makes you say that?" Max asked.
"Alex told me that Michael asked Tess out just after James asked Maria out in front of her and that Michael seemed to trying to make Maria jealous but it hadn't been working," Liz explained and Max sighed.
"This doesn't look like it's going to be good," Max told her only for Liz to jump up when she heard a buzzard.
"The cookies!" she exclaimed before she hopped off the bed and rushed out of the bedroom, causing Max to get up after her and follow her into the kitchen.
He saw her pulling out a tray of cookies and placed them on top of the cooker before she switched the cooker off.
"You're baking?" Max asked and Liz laughed.
"This new recipe I'm trying," she explained as she slid the cookies off onto a cooling rack before she placed the cooling rack on the middle of the table. "Try one," she told him and he arched an eyebrow at her before he raised his hand, waved it over one of the cookies and cooled it immediately before he picked it up.
"Any Tabasco about?" he asked and Liz smirked.
"Try it without the sauce," she told him and Max looked at her, curiously before he shrugged his shoulders and bit into the cookie, expecting the cookie to taste bland when his eyebrows shot up. He could taste Tabasco in it.
"Liz…" he trailed off and she laughed.
"Yeah, I put Tabasco into the batter. I know how much you love cookies but always complain how it gets soggy when you drench it in Tabasco so I created this. I guess I made it right?" she asked and Max nodded.
"Oh yeah," he mumbled as he ate the rest of the cookies.
"Don't think I will be baking them all the times, this is my fifth batter and I keep burning my fingers. Tabasco cooks quicker than any of us thought," Liz informed him. Max looked at her before wriggling his eyebrows.
"Not even I do certain things?" he asked, causing Liz to flush before she slapped him on the shoulder.
"No," she retorted.
"Please?" Max begged as he gave her the puppy dogs' eyes but she was firm.
"No, I have to taste the batter in order to make sure it right!" she exclaimed. "And it really quick to cook so I have to make sure that I don't burn it, which is a nightmare," she told him. Max just got off the chair, knelt down and wrapped his arms around her waist before looking up at her.
"I'll do anything," he told her and she arched an eyebrow as all the thoughts came to her mind before she gave him a sly smile. "Okay, what have you got in mind for me?" he asked and she shook her head.
"You can find out as we go along, lover boy," she told him and an eyebrow arched up when he heard his new nickname. "And I'm going to milk this for everything I can get out of it." With that, she grabbed Max's shirt and yanked him up before she started to lead him to the bedroom.
"Wait," Max called out as he detangled himself from Liz, grabbed some cookies and a bowl of ice cream before he hurried back over to her and hustled her into her bedroom, ideas floating around his head about how he could get Liz to make more of those cookies.
Liz just laughed as Max slammed the bedroom door shut, extremely grateful that her parents were out of town that week.
Maria sighed from where she was sitting sideways on the couch. Her legs were over James' lap, who was busy rubbing her feet as she watched the TV but her mind wasn't anywhere near the TV. She wanted to tell James the truth of what is really going on with them all. She was terrified that someone who wants to kill James would try and use him to get to them and in process she could lose him.
"Okay, what's going on in that pretty head of yours?" James asked. Maria looked at him and saw that he shifted onto his side so he could look at her.
"How do you mean?" Maria asked and James smiled.
"You're not watching the film, in fact, you are not even on planet earth," he teased and she flushed slightly. "You've been quiet lately and I know you had a huge fight with Michael. Is there something going on?" he asked and Maria sighed.
"It's complicated. I want to tell you everything that has been going on but some people are not ready to let you in," Maria explained and James nodded.
"Is it to do with Sarah's death?" he asked and she tilted her head. "I noticed that Liz seems to worry about Alex, is it because of her death you want to involve me in what's going on?" Maria nodded.
"We don't know how much time we have on earth – I mean, Sarah's death proved that. She was 17 and she died. I don't want to keep anything from you but I need people on my side because I can tell you," she explained. James reached out and took her hand.
"Hey, I'm not bothered about the secret. As long I have you by my side, I can wait for as long as it would take them," he told her and she smiled at him. She wondered how she got so lucky with James but decided not to question it.
She pulled her legs away from James before she turned her body round and curled into James' side, just relaxing and loving her time with her boyfriend.
"So, how is it going?" Alex asked as he placed the plate in front of Isabel. She laughed.
"I told them about Jesse," she told Alex and Alex nodded.
"Good, you know what Michael is like. If he found out about Jesse before you told him, he would have went off on his little following mode, got all the wrong facts and jumped on the wrong conclusion," Alex reminded with a teasing smile as he sat down across from Isabel with his own plate.
The two of them had made a deal to catch up with each other at least once a week. Isabel has slightly given up on Alex while Alex was still dealing with Sarah's death but they didn't want to lose their friendship so they just caught up with dinner every now and then.
"Tell me about," Isabel laughed. "I did ask if I could tell him my secret but Michael went of his head about it." Alex nodded.
"I'm not surprise. Michael wants to keep the secret as quiet as possible. I heard the fight between Michael and Maria like mad," Alex told her and Isabel sighed.
"I talked to Liz and she helped me to see that it was too early in the relationship to tell Jesse, that we don't know how he would react," Isabel told her. "But she told me that she would back me up when the relationship does gets serious and if I still want to tell him."
"That's good, and you know I'll back you up when the time comes. Although you'll probably have a harder time with Maria, back her up about James then she'll back you up…" Alex told her.
"Don't back her up about James and she'll won't back me up," Isabel finished and Alex nodded.
"You can't blame her. I mean, after Sarah, she is just scared that the same thing will happen to James and she wants to try and prevent it as much as she can," Alex explained as he took a forkful of his food and Isabel nodded.
"I know, I want him to know because I feel that he will have a good effect on the group, that he'll be able to help us but Michael and Max are wary about trusting anyone with our secret after it was Tess, you know," Isabel told him and Alex sighed.
"After it was Tess who killed Sarah?" he finished and Isabel gave him a sheepish grin as she nodded. "It's okay Isabel, you can say Tess' name. It's not like I'm going to break down."
"I know; it's not that. I just have a hard time saying her name because she was suppose to my friend yet she was more than willing to sell us out to Khivar. She wanted to steal Max away from Liz, get pregnant with his child and have him killed off!" she exclaimed. "You have no idea how glad I am that Max had the sense to stay with Liz – she never betrayed him like that at all, she would never betray him like that."
"I know, she was suppose to be all of our friends. I could see that she was hesitated about something over the time we knew her. It was like she was fighting herself but in the end, her alien side won. It makes me wonder if it would have been different if she had been brought up in a loving family with you, Max and Michael," Alex told her and she nodded.
"I know," Isabel agreed.
"Are you meeting up with Jesse tomorrow?" Alex asked and Isabel nodded as she took a bite of her food.
"Yeah, he's taking me out for lunch," she told him and Alex grinned.
"Must be weird not being at school anymore with us kiddies," he teased her and she laughed.
"I have to admit, I do miss being at school with you guys but, it makes me feel like I'm moving on with my life," she told him and Alex nodded.
"Yeah, I get what you mean," he told her and she smiled back at him before they continued on eating their food, just enjoying their night.
Liz came out of her bedroom on slightly weak knees. She was dressed in her bathrobe and her hair was slightly mussed up due to their lovemaking throughout the night of Max trying to bargain his way into her making more cookies.
She made her way into the kitchen and opened the fridge only to moan when Max wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back into his body, kissing her neck as he did. He was dressed in his boxers.
"Hm, didn't you get enough last night? Or this morning? Or just a few minutes ago?" she teased and Max laughed.
"Nope," he told her as he spun her around and kissed her deeply on the mouth, causing her to sigh into his. "What do you want for breakfast?" he asked, once he pulled away. She just smiled up at him as she took a seat at the table, as she got ready to watch her boyfriend make her breakfast.
Liz knocked on the door and Michael opened it a few minutes later and sighed.
"If you are here to get on my case about refusing to let Isabel and Maria tell Jesse and James the truth, forget it," Michael informed her. Liz just held up her hands.
"No, I just came here to give you the reasons that I know they haven't been forthcoming with," she told him.
Michael stared at her before he stood to the side and let her through. She nodded her head in thanks before she stepped in. Michael shut the door behind her and moved over to the counter so he could get his breakfast.
"Do you want anything?" he asked and Liz shook her head with a smile.
"It's okay, Max made me a big breakfast this morning," she admitted and Michael arched an eyebrow. "He's kinda trying to get me to do something, it's a long story – he can tell you if he wants," she told him and he nodded.
"Okay, the floor is all yours," he told her and she laughed as she took a seat at the counter and watched as Michael made his breakfast.
"Isabel came by my place last night after your fight. She told me that you were kinda defensive about Jesse finding out the truth," she told him and Michael nodded.
"I'm just being cautious," he told her and Liz nodded.
"I know," she told him. "You have to admit that Isabel hasn't been happy ever right?" Liz asked. "She smiled more. She glows, she really cares about Jesse and you need to accept that Jesse could end up being a large part of her life, whether you like it or not," Liz told him and Michael sighed. "You understand why she wants to tell him, right?" Liz asked and Michael raked a hand through his hair.
"Yes but it's too dangerous," Michael snapped. Liz held up her hands.
"Michael, I'm not getting on to you here. It's just; I'm scared for James too. Sarah was killed and didn't even know the secret. I don't want to lose James because he couldn't be careful because he didn't know there was anything to be careful of," Liz told him.
"Have you told Max?" he asked and Liz nodded.
"And Max understands how I feel but he's against it too. It's just, you guys are kind outnumbered you know, Isabel is on our side, Alex and Kyle too. That 6 against 3," she told him.
"3?" Michael asked.
"Mr. Valenti, he wants to be careful because he doesn't want another death in Roswell," she explained and Michael nodded in understanding.
"How about you leave Max and I alone to think about it. I know you want to tell James to keep him safe but we also got to consider the possibilities that he could end up telling someone else by accident," Michael told her and Liz nodded.
"I know but I also know in my heart that James would never do anything that would put me or Maria in danger," Liz told him. "Just think about it, and while you are doing that, could you please take it easy on Isabel? She really cares for Jesse and she doesn't want to lose him before the relationship has even started." With that, she walked out of the apartment, leaving Michael alone with his thoughts.
Isabel met up with Jesse. He was a tall Latino man; he had dark hair and dark eyes. He was dressed smartly in a suit and he smiled when he saw Isabel making her way over to him. She wrapped her arm around his and they made their way into the restaurant, Isabel laughing at something Jesse said.
Michael watched from a distance as he recalled Liz's words from this morning. He sighed, as he had to admit it.
He hasn't seen Isabel this happy before and he knew he had a lot of thinking ahead of him.
TBC