Let's Make a Deal
PART ONE
"I can't believe you had to come up with such a busted combination of food. Do you know what that did to me? Emotionally damaged, dude." Michael pours a couple dashes of Tabasco on his chocolate chip cookie shoving it into his mouth whole.
"We had to be sure it wasn't something you would normally get." Kyle hands Maria the jar of spaghetti sauce he just opened. Liz had ordered them into the kitchen to start dinner while she had taken the task of talking Max down.
"It's just so crazy the way Max is acting right now, he's always been the bossy pushy sort, but I dunno, he just seems really out of sorts." Maria adds the sauce to the browned ground beef, the aroma fills the kitchen. "Yum." She turns back to the others. "I think Isabel was right in what she did at Twin Falls. Personally I—"
Michael jumps in interrupting her and waving her off. "You don't really have a say. They might poke you around a bit, but you're off the hook once they see you're just a total norm." Maria stares dumbfounded at Michael, he shrugs it off. "The truth hurts babe."
Maria was furious, how dare Michael try to pull this crap. She has just as much on the line as they do. So she doesn't have powers, whoop-dee-doo. She knew secrets and…stuff. Maria shakes her head and pulls her apron off throwing it at Michael before stalking out of the kitchen. "You're such an ass."
"Oh come on Maria! I didn't do anything wrong this time. Are you kidding me?" Michael exchanges a bewildered look with Kyle before he tosses him the apron and quickly follows after her.
"No, really, go work out your stuff. I got this." Kyle looks around the empty kitchen. "It's all good." he sighs, and stirs the bubbling pot of sauce.
PART TWO
"Jesse, why didn't you tell us? You know what we have been going through! How could you just sit by and watch us losing our minds and not do something?" Diane screams at him, her face red with anger. Amy gently pulls Diane back to the couch.
"I've said I'm sorry, but it's not like they have a cell phone that I didn't give you the number to." Jesse had been shouted at for the last twenty-five minutes. He was over it now. "My wife asked me to keep this quite so that is what I did. That's how she wanted it, so that's how it was. You think I wanted it this way?" He looks around the room and sees that there's no use fighting about this, they had something bigger to discuss. "If she contacts me, then I will tell her what was said. If we all agree she should know about it that is."
"What choice do we have? There are evil aliens out there trying to kill them. We have to do something." Jeff was prepared to do anything to bring his daughter home. Liz being gone had taken its toll on him and his marriage. He wasn't sure how much more either of them could take.
Amy shakes her head confused. "I'm playing devil's advocate, but what if we are putting them in more danger?"
"What do you mean, Amy?" Jeff asks her, weary she's about to take them on some wild tangent about personal journeys and chakras and whatever nonsense she normally would pull out. It was a Herculean feat not to roll his eyes when she spoke.
"I mean for the first time since this whole mess began we finally have something we can do." She hesitates not wanting to upset Diane any further but presses on, "And maybe we need to step back and consider the fact that the best thing to do is not give our kids to someone who going to lock them up forever and do heaven knows what to them." She swallows the lump of emotion at the thought of never seeing her daughter again. "As parents we fix things, it's what we do. But what if we're doing this, not because it's the best thing for them, but because it's the only thing we can do right now?"
The group sits quietly thinking about this, each parent trying to decide if they were doing what was right for their child or if they were about to do something that was irrational for the sake of doing something.
Jim clears his throat, "I, well I have faith in Max and the others. They are smart kids, and I believe they are capable of taking care of themselves. Now, I don't know why Isabel made a deal with these people, but the way I figure it is that if they had intended to follow through on their surrender they've had plenty of time since they left Twin Falls to do so." He picks up his hat, his fingers playing on the brim. "I think Amy is right. Taking them from one unknown danger and turning them into another doesn't really sit well with me."
"So in the mean time what do we do?" Jeff asks. He had let for the briefest moment the idea of Liz coming home get to him. He couldn't help being angry that it was now being taken away.
"What we've done since this all started." Nancy sighs and shrugs looking at the others. "We wait."
"If we're in agreement, I'll call Charlie and let him know what our answer is."
Part Three
"Where'd the twerp say he was gonna go?" Rafe was bitter and there was just no way around it. Not only had he had failed to prove that was capable kicking ass and taking names, but Valandra was acting like he was her lap dog. Plus he had not gotten his ass kicked twice now. "I swear to god V, if we don't settle this mess with Max and his crew I'm going to tear up a trail to Ros-hell and I'm going to kill everyone that ever crossed paths with them. I swear."
Valandra was staring out the window as they sped through yet another crummy little town. Tuning out Rafe was second nature to her after all the miles behind them. Currently she was lost in thought, thinking about how much she missed the lights of New York. The pulsing of life in the city danced on the edge of her memory, slipping away from her when she tried to focus on it to hard. She hated this cross country zigzag road trip nonsense. And she had come to realize how much of a pig Rafe was.
Thankfully they changed cars every couple of days, but by then the ride was so littered with wrappers and empty containers every molecule of her being screamed for a shower. She wasn't sure how much more she could take. Rafe snapping his fingers in front of her face jolted her out of her thoughts.
"What?" she slaps his hand away from her face. "WHAT?"
"Did you hear what I said?" Rafe smacks his lips and pulls over.
"No. I was ignoring you. Like I have been ignoring you for the last two hundred miles." She snarked and turned to look back out the window. Rafe yanks the steering wheel roughly and comes to an abrupt stop on the side of the road.
"Let's clear something up princess. I am over your issues and attitude and I am tired of taking the fall anything something goes wrong."
"Stop making mistakes and screwing everything up and then maybe, YOU WON'T HAVE TO!" she punches the dashboard. "Why is it so hard for you to just follow a plan? Huh?"
"What are you talking about? How was I supposed to know that the Parker chick had powers? I'm an extraterrestrial. I do not have extrasensory perception."
Valandra stares at him both angry and stunned that he knows what ESP was. "Uh, Okay. I didn't say you were, but I'm sure that even if you could see the future you would find a way to screw it all up." She crosses her arms defiantly and gives him a smug look. Rafe for his part didn't reach across and choke her, though he was having very vivid images of doing just that flashing across his mind. Instead he took a deep breath and said, "I'm through chasing these losers across the map. We're going to make them come to us."
"Really genius? How do you propose to accomplish that task? Huh Wile E. Coyote? Huh?" she rolls her eyes in disgust.
"Well, you impossible mega-bitch, for starter we're going back to Roswell, and once we get there I'm going to kill anyone with ties to them until Max comes begging for a fight. Does that plan work for you Princess?" Rafe puts the car back into drive and peels out back onto the road.
Part Four
Nicholas had experienced the same epiphany after his call with Rafe and Valandra and was on his way to Roswell. He was currently sitting comfortably in a the back of a rented town car drinking a chilled bottle of water and calculating the odds that Rafe would save him the trouble and get himself killed. It irritated him that lately he was consumed with such negative feelings. He wasn't exactly a chirper type but right now he was just consumed with so much negativity it was exhausting. All he could think about was that how much hated the desert. And how much he hated Rafe, He begrudgingly admitted to himself he didn't mind Valandra so much, but the fact the Rafe's failure was the reason he was on the way to New Mexico was festering in his mind and had him sitting deathly quite while a rage simmered just below the surface. At least his driver had the good sense to keep to himself, although Levi thought the kid was creepy, there was certainly something threatening about him as well.
Part Five
Isabel enters the kitchen as the smoke alarm screams in the background. "Kyle! What's burning?" She covers her mouth and nose, watching as the smoke billows from a blackened pan on the stove. Kyle is standing at the back door using a cookie sheet trying to wave the smoke out.
"Everything! Liz went after Max, and then Michael said something stupid and Maria bolted and he went chasing her and I got stuck with cooking." He drops the cookie sheet on the counter and grabs the phone. "But I have it under control. I'm going to order pizza."
"Yes because Liz's declaration of home cooking totally had the 'Except in cases where Kyle ruins dinner' clause. Look if you want I can help. I'm sure there has to be something salvageable." She peers into the pots and pans. "Or not. What was in here?"
Kyle replaces the phone and looks into the burnt pot. "Water."
Isabel rolls her eyes. "So basically, we lost the security deposit." She opens the fridge, "Might as well toss those pans. Uh, start a fresh pot of water boiling and then grab the potato peeler. You peel, I'll chop." She grabs a few items and moves them to the counter
"Don't trust me with a knife?" Kyle teases and begins peeling the potatoes with a flourish before settling into a normal pace.
"No, not really." She laughs and beings clearing the pots from the stove.
A few minutes pass as they work together preparing the meal. Kyle notices that Isabel keeps almost saying something before deciding not to. "Since when do you have trouble saying what's on your mind, Iz?"
She smirks and gives a self conscious shrug. "Well we haven't really had a chance to talk about Twin Falls. Everyone else has weighed in but not you."
"I don't think it really matters what I think. It's the past. It's over with. We can't change it, so let's just move on." Kyle gives her a wary side glance.
Isabel stop chopping and sets the knife down, she faces him. "But it does matter. To me. I-I," she takes a steadying breath and continues, "What you think Kyle, it matters. Since this all began…well we've become close. As friends. Right? So it matters to me Kyle."
Kyle sighs and tosses the peeler and potato down. "Don't do that. Don't use this stupid thing you did there as a way to talk about this other thing going on between us Isabel." He turns to face her. "You wanna talk about Twin Falls. No, I can't say I would have made the same choice as you. I don't even understand why you made the choice you did."
"Kyle I explained what Carter said-." Kyle holds up a hand stopping her.
"I know you Isabel Evans, and you wouldn't have put any of us in their hands unless you truly did trust this guy. So in the end I'm okay with what you did." Kyle smiles sweetly and gives her a slight shrug.
"Then why are you suddenly keeping me at arms length? Why are you mad at me?" Isabel asks.
Kyle tries to turn away, but Izzie pulls him back to her, taking his hands in hers. They stay like that quietly for a few moments. Kyle clears his throat. "Something is happening between us right? It's not just in my head?"
"No." Isabel smiles sadly. "It's not in your head." Kyle squeezes her hands in his and relaxes. He moves to close the space between them, but she steps back and pulls her hands away. "I'm married." She shakes her head and turns from him.
Her shoulders fall and she grabs the counter holding on tightly, as if trying to hold everything together by sheer will. She shakes her head, trying to clear the emotion and struggles to swallow back the tears and emotion. "I'm sorry. I saw it happening and I should have stopped it but…I couldn't. I didn't. I'm so sorry Kyle." Isabel shakes as a sob escapes her lips. Kyle turns her to face him and gently wipes her tears away.
"Hey come on, shhh." He holds her to him letting her cry and gently swaying. "Listen to me for just a second Izzie, you didn't betray anyone. I know you, and as emo as your being right now, you didn't do anything wrong. Being alone and so damn abstinent sucks and it mess with our minds. It's nothing. Hell for all we know, it could just be a side effect of the training and sharing of powers. So then it's just really nothing." He smiles in a way that she knows he is lying about this being no big deal. Here heart breaks.
"Kyle, you're important to me." Isabel pulls away from him.
"Of course. Friends are important in times of …whatever we'll call this part of our lives."
"Shut up. Just shut up Kyle." Isabel takes a breath as she closes the space between them. Kyle could feel his pulse quicken as her finger tips glided along the side of his neck. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. Their lips touch just barely.
"NO FREAKING WAY!" Maria shouted from the entryway.