"First off," Tess muttered, "I... I'm so sorry, about - about being so cold to you yesterday, about taking off like I did this morning. I - I do want our marriage to survive, and I'm willing to work at that, but - but it might not be as easy as either of us hoped."
"I'm not sure that I ever 'hoped' or assumed that it would be easy," I told her in a soft voice. "Still remember too much about my parents for that. But - but could you do two things for me, my darling wife?"
She looked up at me. "If I possibly can, Kyle. What are they?"
"One, take your ring back while we're working on things." I pulled the string out from under my top and slipped it off over my head, presenting the gold band to her. With a bit of a rueful expression, she took it, severed the string with a look (and alien powers) so that it fell to the ground, and slipped the ring back on her finger next to the tacky engagement band. "And two - tell me what - what you were so scared of, or what made you act like that if it wasn't fear."
"I... I'm not sure how well I can put it into words," Tess said uncertainly, walking a bit further and then jumping up onto a rock fence. I took my place right next to her. "It... it wasn't anything obvious and clearly problematic, like deciding that I still had feelings for Max, or was worried that you'd find somebody you'd like better when we were at college." She sighed deeply. "Part of it was what Liz told us yesterday - reminded me that I wasn't just a stranger here on Earth, but I'm pretty much a national of another planet, so far away we don't even know the figures." She started to say something else, but it didn't come out, and the silence hung heavily.
"So, what - do you think the Antarian people would disapprove if they knew about me?" I probed. "Knew that you and Max had rejected your quote 'marriage' unquote, and thus..."
"And thus, arguably, rejected our heritage, though I do think that's a bit of a leap," Tess whispered. "I... I guess that that's part of it, though I'd want to add that I'm not ashamed of what I feel for you. Also... we may yet need to go to some other planet, and I'm not sure that you'd be safe there. Max and Isabel aren't sure if a hybrid girl could... could have a baby safely in Earth's atmosphere - if I get pregnant, you know." I made a sort of strangled snort. "Yeah, I know that it's not something we're going to plan for anytime soon, but no protection is perfect."
"It... it sounds to me a bit," I said quietly, "that we should probably go through some sort of post-marital counselling sessions, to sort out any things like this that we're worried or concerned about." Tess shot me a look. "Yeah, maybe I have a few things that I haven't admitted to yet. Probably there are very good reasons that we couldn't open up about some of the issues involved in front of a professional therapist - maybe we can go through it ourselves, or ask someone in the gang to stand in, like Isabel."
Tess considered that, and then smiled that perfect smile of hers. "How... how do you manage to do that, to just say the perfect thing to make me feel better about all of my fears and forebodings?"
"I guess I'm just the guy you were always destined to be with," I kidded her. "Okay, do we go back to class at this point, or keep talking more, or what?"
"Say what?" Tess quipped, and I blinked in surprise Then she kissed me deliciously. "Yeah, no sense in going back halfway through class, we can time it for third period. What's something that you're scared of?"
"Umm... you and Max?" I blurted out. Tess raised an eyebrow. "Not really badly, just considering your history - our history, I mean... the first time we kissed it was because you were pissed at him."
"Hmm?" Tess pouted, trying to remember. "Oh, right... you gave me that line about trimming the lamp of wisdom." I chuckled softly. "And then just when the kiss was starting to get good, Liz came to your door... asking for your help in making Max think that she'd slept with someone else?"
"Umm... no, that was later," I said. "I thought that she came to see you that day."
"Oh, right," Tess agreed. "Setting me up to meet Max with his favorite book and a v-neck black top." She sighed. "Seriously, Kyle... if there's anything that I can do or say to tell you that you don't need to be worried about Max and..."
"I... I guess that's a start," I agreed, running my hand along the denim that was between me and her soft skin.
#
And, as unlikely as it might seem, that was the turning point. Tess and I set up our 'marriage counseling' sessions twice a week - one hour with Isabel moderating, (she saw it as good practice for intro psych next year,) and one with just the two of us. In the meantime, final exams were written, and at the official pre-graduation party, we were designated the winners of the 'wildest couple' award, which I accepted as a great compliment.
Graduation day was pretty boring, actually... a lot of standing and waiting in line, everybody forced to stay in alphabetical order, so that I was a long way from Tess, and from most of the rest of the gang, except for Alex, who was three places behind me. Tess actually tried to take on my last name, hyphenated to her own, on the day of the ceremony, as far as the school was concerned, but the admin office secretary would have none of it - she had completed her school years at West Roswell high as Tess Harding, and she would graduate as Tess Harding - no alternatives.
The day after graduation, Dad and Amy DeLuca announced that he's popped the question too, though they still haven't settled on an official date yet. I keep teasing them about how running off to elope is so much simpler and easier to plan.
I've been working my ass off for most of the summer at Tobey's garage, which might sound a bit weird when you think of all that lottery money just sitting there waiting to get spent. But I know that once we do start really depending on the windfall, it'll never last as long as you'd expect it to, and both Tess and I are still a little worried about somehow losing it. Besides, I like the idea of working to save up for our future, and even emptying RV septic tanks isn't that unpleasant as long as I can picture her face turning to look at me with that slightly surprised smile that she gets. And neither of us have been working nearly so hard that we can't make time for each other. (Tess got a job waiting tables at a biker roadhouse just this side of the city limits.)
The summer is almost over, and all of the gang is going to be splitting up and heading out into the world - two by two. Max and Liz are heading off to San Francisco for University, Alex and Isabel will be in Albuquerque. Michael and Maria are going the shortest distance together - just up the road a few hours to the state college in Las Cruces. But everybody's kind of excited about getting a chance to leave Roswell behind, at least for a little while. I've heard Liz tease Max about how the clock is ticking for them to get married too, but there isn't an official engagement yet I think.
#
"Hey bud, it's time."
I smiled and nodded at Alex and followed him along the thin path, trying to make sure that none of the trees of north Frazier woods got anything on my clothes or my hair. This might not quite be my best suit anymore after Tess got to it, (well, maybe it will be again after this is done,) but still, she deserves to have everything perfect for this moment.
Blinked slightly as the path came out in a clearing, and all of the gang was there - all ten current members of the 'I know an alien' club, counting myself, my dad, and Michael's sister Laurie. Some of them were sitting in folding chairs making an audience, and there was a clear aisle through the middle of these. I walked up it, smiling at my friends in their own slightly unusual formalwear, and stepped up next to my wife, who was gorgeous in an exotic pink dress.
Max stood in front of both of us. "Good afternoon, everybody," he said with a slightly nervous smile. "It's a great honor to be asked to conduct this ceremony for Kyle and Tess, as they renew their marriage vows in front of their friends and solemnize their union in the Antarian fashion, as well as we know what the Antarian fashion is, a week before they leave us for college."
"Hey, you're leaving too," Michael heckled from the audience.
"We're all leaving," Isabel pointed out. "Just go on, Max."
Max rolled his eyes briefly and took a short breath. "Umm... I believe that both of you have prepared short affirmations in your own words." Yeah, and like the slight control freak that Max was, he had actually made a point of asking me beforehand if I'd gotten the writing done, not wanting me to wing it with an ad-lib at the big moment. Maybe he asked Tess privately as well; I'm not sure about that part. "A random selection was made beforehand, and Tess was selected to give her affirmation first. Go ahead, Tess." This time, I chuckled at the idea of deciding this without us, and the way he'd put it.
"I... I wasn't quite sure what to say at this point," Tess admitted, casting her eyes down. "For a long time. We didn't have personal vows the first time around, which is maybe a good thing, because I'm not sure that we'd have been able to think of much that would reflect well on us."
"But someone pretty smart pointed out that all I really need to do is say a little about why I love Kyle so much, and why I want to spend the rest of our lives together." Then she looked up again and fixed her eyes straight on mine. "I... I love you because when I'm with you, I feel perfectly comfortable to be myself, whatever that means in the particular situation, and I know that you would never want me to change so much that I was anybody else. Nobody else has made me feel that so strongly. You can make me laugh or let me cry just as easily, and when you wrap me in your arms I still feel like nothing in this bitter world can get to me."
"I... um, I'm not quite sure where life will take us, after college - but I do want it to be a path that we walk together, side by side, helping each other up when the ground is rough and we stumble. For all these reasons and more, I re-affirm the vows that I took once before, and openly declare my love and eternal commitment to you, in front of our friends, my family - and the symbolic link to the Antarian homeworld."
A short pause. "Okay, Kyle, you're up," Alex quipped, and Max gravely, silently, nodded agreement.
"Hoo boy," I muttered, a bit louder than I'd intended, because a brief ripple of laughter ensued. "Tess, I - I can't remember a word of what I was about to say now, so I'm going to have to wing it now..."
"Don't do it!" Michael called out. "You can't afford to muck things up now. I brought a cheat sheat for you." I looked over at Tess - and she shrugged, then tilted her head back towards Michael. So I waited and let him hand me a copy of the words that I'd wrote out. Took a look at the sheet of paper, trying to jog my memory instead of having to read off of the sheet like a complete moron.
"Umm... Ever since what happened in Vegas, I've been trying to pin down the moment that you became one of the most important people in my life, Tess. Not quite sure why that matters, but it's just the kind of thing that I tend to obsess over. It - it wasn't the first time I met you, or our 'study date' in the library, because you were just a cute new girl at school. It - it wasn't when you moved into our house, or one of the times that we were flirting in the bedroom that's been both of ours now, or anything like that."
Pause. "As... as nearly as I can work out, it was that first Christmas that we spent together - the time that you invited Maria's mom over without telling my Dad, so that we'd have a real holiday dinner instead of staying glued to the television watching football. And I guess that - that's why I married you. Why I love you. You turn my life around in all the best ways, just when I'm starting to notice that I've gotten into a rut, and being near you has this amazing way of helping me to see how really lucky I am for the true blessings in my life, instead of getting bummed about money or working a job that's getting me down, or any other transitory circumstances."
"I - I don't know what things are going to be like for us either, actually." Pause. "I - I really wrote that before knowing that you used a similar line in yours - except I didn't right the 'either' or 'actually.'" Tess chuckled. "But... but maybe that's best, because if the journey is the important thing, then I suspect that knowing what the trip would be like before it starts would take all the value of it. Whatever weird alien stuff you want to share with me, I can't wait to learn about it. And I'll do my best to protect you, though you've got a lot of practice at taking care of yourself by this point I know. Umm... that's all I got."
"It's more than enough," she breathed, reaching up and brushing my cheek for a moment.
"Yes, quite lovely," Max remarked, with just a slightly droll tone. I looked up and he was grinning in a friendly way, though. "Avzerban kel arn-amitee con selivas!" The alien expression caught me by surprise. Tess had been teaching me some of the Antarian that they know, but most of that went right by me - something about those who were close coming.
"Reslifa," Tess, Michael, Isabel, and Alex answered - probably Liz was quick on the cue too. Maria, Dad, and I repeated it late.
"We have come to this place, a spot of good harmony and memories for all of us who share the knowledge of Antarian things on Earth, to reaffirm the lifelong bonds of espousal that Kyle and Tess have chosen to undertake," Max intoned. "These are not choices that any person should make carelessly, but I think that we can all tell how much care and conviction has gone into Kyle and Tess' decision to share their lives with each other. Therefore, today is a time of great celebration as well as solemn ceremony, for all the universe is richer when two souls discover that they are each other's mate, and join together in love."
I'm not going to go through all the rest of the ceremony, all the slightly odd catechisms that Max led us through and various speeches from our friends. I do have fond memories of the end, right before our marriage was declared good and beautiful in the eyes of Tess' Antarian ancestors, where we exchanged 'pledge pendants' on long necklace chains. These were the counterparts to our wedding rings, and there was a little speech that went with them, about how the head, for all its virtues, is second to the heart in a long-term pairing, thus the chain wrapping round our necks and the pendants themselves staying close to our hearts.
And then we headed back to the Crashdown for a party.
#
"Hello there," a tall guy with dark reddish hair said, poking his head into our new room in Santa Fe. "Just wanted to see who the new people were... sheesh, you guys are so young. Freshmen?"
"Well yeah," Tess replied, turning around from unpacking some of her CDs. "That's Kyle, and I'm Tess - Tess Valenti. We're from Roswell."
"Darren Vanderly, from Taos... and this is Heather," he replied as a young lady with sandy blond hair showed up at his side. "Welcome to the married students dormitory..."
"Or Hell, New Mexico, as we sometimes refer to it," Heather added in.
"Really? It seems great to me," Tess said, and I had to agree with the sentiment. The room was much bigger than my bedroom back home, with a desk for each of us, queen-sized bed, (a bit lumpy, at least until Tess used her powers on the mattress,) and a cooking nook with a small two-element range and...
"Don't pay attentiong to my bride, she's used to living a bit closer to the lap of luxury," Darren pointed out. "Treat your room well, and it'll do right by you. I'm also the residence advisor, so if you have any problems you can come find us over in room 3, as long as there isn't a red scrunchy over the doorknob."
"So how did it happen for you guys?" Heather asked.
"What, you mean getting married before we started college?" I asked, and Heather nodded. "As cliche as it sounds, we got married on a Spring Break trip to Vegas."