That's a good concern, wondering if Michael will have enough energy to make it to the Granolith.Kath, I've always been curious about the dupes. Especially since Ava seemed so nice. I always thought that Zan had to have been at least half decent if Ava loved him. Is it that whole nature vs. nurture at work? It seemed from the show that Ava was considered to be low on the ladder of significance to the NY set. Is that what made her nice? Because she was the 'runt', so to speak? So I've tried to write on the fence when it comes to the dupes. In this one, I've tried to show that they're a lot rougher than the Roswell set...more violent. But that underneath it all, they have the same fears. Plus, they're adults now...not the same punks from the show. Ok, I've blathered on about this enough.
I just wish this was something they would have explored more on the show. Along with a list of 50 other things. LTL, You're not forgetting anything.
Breathless, Thank you! Congratulations to you, too! You had a sweep!
jason's lover, Awww, disaster? Have a little faith, my friend.
cherie, :::looking up sleeve::: Nope, nothing there.
Gigo, The white shirts have been bugging you? Man, you grasp on to the smallest of details, don't you?;) You'll get your answer, uh, not in this part.
frenchkiss, Breathless, BehrObsession, Yes, poor Liz having to hang around with her parents instead of having wild monkey sex with Max in Cal's private jet.
I can't let them have too much fun. You know me.Craig Beatty, Yes...quite ominous.
Sternbetrachter, Who did he call? Not Ghostbusters, that's for sure.
~~Dreamer~~, Well first and foremost, congratulations on slogging through this entire thing in a day. Second, thanks for the feedback!
sonii, Thanks! And thanks for the feedback!
Tasyfa, Well, thank goodness he's not flying commercial, then.
woodwinds, Come on now, Max's plan can work! Max's plans always...um...ok, maybe not always, but this one might.
Sali103, Thanks!
FallenMagic, Thanks, and I see you've updated Shadows. I must get over and catch up.
mitra, Thanks!
RedRoze, Thank you! Yes, Cal knows about the other timelines. He didn't see everything, though. Congrats on school being over!
paper, Heh, that is a good line. I think I might start using that in everyday life. Like, when the UPS man comes.
jbangelo, Welcome, new reader! Hey, good thing you like angst. I've got truckloads of it. Thanks for the congrats. I have to admit I was scratching my head over the Candy Fic one. I never intended this to be Candy, but I guess it morphed somewhere along the way.
vegas, Where ya been? Vacation? Space Bimbos.
Sounds like a porno.Thanks for all the feedback, and thanks again for all the congrats for the awards. I'm still a bit overwhelmed by them. Sorry this is a day late, but I've been reformatting my completed fics (along with some serious re-editing...good God, they're full of mistakes!) for HTML for a friend to post on her site. It's been a while since I reread Ruins, but...sniff...it was kind of sad, wasn't it? I didn't realize. Maybe I was depressed when I wrote it.
But I'll still be back Friday with a new part. Part 60
Countdown: 8 hours
Isabel can’t believe it when she realizes that Alex is pulling up the driveway to her parent’s house at 7pm. “Alex, I thought we were going back to the hotel.” She’s wanted to be alone with him all day, but he insisted on taking her to breakfast. Then the quarry. Then a picnic in the park, and twenty other places around Roswell. Not that it all hasn’t been incredibly romantic and sweet, but it is her last day on this planet. She thought they could spend some alone time together before she leaves.
“Soon. Don’t get overheated, we’ll get there eventually.” Alex winks at her and gets out of the car, jogging around to open the passenger door for her.
She narrows her eyes at him and follows him up the front yard intending to go to the front door. But he turns abruptly and takes her hand, leading her around to the back of the house. When she sees why, she’s stunned, her eyes immediately flooding with tears. “Alex,” she whispers and looks up at his beaming face.
“You guys coming? I just put the hot dogs on.” Her dad is standing in front of the outdoor fire-pit, wearing an apron that says ‘Licensed to Grill’ with two hamburgers and an open hotdog bun underneath forming 007. She laughs as she brings her hand up to her mouth and looks over to see her mom, Max, Liz, Michael and Maria playing cards. Then she hears Zan yelling about someone cheating and she looks over to see him, Ava, Kyle and Serena playing Monopoly.
“Come on, I think they even got marshmallows.” Alex tugs her into the backyard just in time to hear Liz laughing and Max complaining that something’s not fair.
“Suck it up, Evans. Liz is right, you suck at poker,” Michael smirks as Max rolls his eyes and throws his cards down on the table.
“Isabel, come over here and take your brother’s place,” her mom calls her over. “He’s out of chips.” She says this as she gathers the chips from the middle of the table and adds them to her own formidable pile in front of her.
~~~~~~~~~~
Countdown: 5 hours
As the game playing, hot dog eating, and marshmallow roasting winds down, Max and Liz find themselves on the hammock lying side by side staring up at the stars.
“I really wish your parents would have come,” Max says. When Liz told him how it went this afternoon with them, he felt incredibly guilty. His parents invited them over, but they said they just couldn’t go to a party and pretend like nothing had happened.
“Me, too. My dad is just so angry and confused. And my mom, she won’t stop crying.” With a sigh, Liz absently places her hand over her stomach as Max rocks the hammock back and forth with his foot.
They can hear a momentary swell in the volume from the other side of the yard and they turn to see everyone gathered around the fire talking. Max watches his sister as she leans close to their mom and smiles at something Michael’s saying. She’s changed so much in the last six months. She’s happier. The three of them have always been close, but seeing her now surrounded by real family and friends, something she’s never really had, he’s finally seeing the Isabel he remembers. The Isabel he knew before they realized they weren’t meant to be on this world.
They had only been in school for a few days. Isabel found Michael the first day they were there and they quickly realized that he was like them, they remembered him. And when he told them about the first foster home he was sent to and how much he scared them by making the table float off the ground, they all knew that they had to keep their abilities a secret. Because after that, Michael was sent to live with an awful man who was mean to him and hit him. To their young minds, Max and Isabel thought they got one chance with nice people and if you blew it you got sent to someone like Hank.
It was just the three of them after that, vowing to never tell anyone about themselves, to blend in and be normal. As much as they blamed him and yelled at him for healing Liz that day in the Crashdown, though, he can’t help but look at them now and think that it was better for everyone that he did. Michael was always so quiet, lonely. Now look at him. He’s over there laughing and telling stories with his wife by his side.
And Isabel. He’s never seen her like this, in love. She seems softer, so unlike the hard person she always projects to everyone around her. Love is a funny thing. He shifts his head to look at Liz and he smiles, placing his hand on top of hers.
The silence is pierced by the sound of his cell phone and he knows what it means. Everyone who would be calling him is here, so it must be Cal. And it must mean Tess and Lonnie have shown up.
“Yah?” he answers and Liz looks at him with a worried frown on her face. “I’ll be right there. Keep your eye on them.” He ends the call and leans over to place a kiss on Liz’s forehead. “They’re there.”
As he maneuvers himself out of the hammock, she follows him and says, “I’m going with you.”
He sighs and says, “Liz, you don’t have to do this.”
She steps up to him and says, “I know I don’t. But you can share a little of the responsibility. You don’t have to do everything alone.”
Max doesn’t get a chance to respond because everyone else heard his phone ring, too and they’re all looking at him expectantly.
“We have to go,” he announces and looks at his watch. “We’re leaving at three, so that gives you about four and a half hours to get out there.”
Michael stands up and says, “I’ll go with you.”
“No.” Max shakes his head. “Stay here. I’ve got it taken care of.” He feels Liz step closer to his side and he turns to his parents. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
They quickly stand up and walk away from the group with Max. When they’re out of earshot, Diane hugs Max close and says, “We’ll be there, too. To say goodbye.”
Max nods and smiles at his dad over his mom’s shoulder. “Good. But can you do me a favor?”
Diane pulls away and says, “Of course, anything.”
“Can you call the Parkers and try to convince them to come with you?”
“We were going to do that anyway, Max. They’re just in shock right now. I know they’ll regret it if they don’t settle things with Liz before she goes,” Phillip says. “If I have to physically drag that stubborn mule out there, I will.”
Max smiles and says, “Thanks. I know it’ll mean a lot to Liz if they come to say goodbye.” He hugs his dad briefly and they rejoin the group.
“Ready?” Max asks Liz. “We probably won’t have time to come back to town. Is there anything you need?”
“I think I have everything,” she says with a brave smile, feeling anything but brave. Especially since she can see Maria starting to cry from the corner of her eye.
Max brushes her hair behind her ear and smiles back. “Ok.”
Finally, reluctantly, Liz looks over to see Maria and Alex standing side by side. She plasters a smile on her face and says, “I’ll see you guys in a little while.”
They both nod, Alex bravely trying to comfort Maria and Maria already with tears rolling down her cheeks. Liz walks over and puts her hands on both of Maria’s cheeks. “Don’t you start crying yet. You won’t have enough for later. Besides, I’m gonna see you in a few hours.”
“Ok. Just, be careful,” Maria says with a sniffle.
“I will.” Liz gives her a quick hug and squeezes Alex’s hand before turning and leaving with Max.
~~~~~~~~~~
On their way out to the cave, Max asks, “Are you sure you don’t wanna stop and pick anything up?”
She gives him a long look and says, “I have everything I need.”
He smiles and grabs her hand and they make the rest of the drive in silence not noticing the headlights following them at a distance. They pull up about a half mile from the cave and see the car Cal came out in and a limo parked next to it. They get out of the car and see Stephanie rummaging in the trunk of the limo.
She looks up at them and says, “Hello. Mr. Langley is waiting for you just over the hill.” She turns and points toward a thick copse of trees.
“Thanks.” Max sees that the trunk of the limo is packed with bags and he wonders if they’ll be able to bring all of that with them.
Max and Liz make their way toward Cal as quietly as they can in the dark. They finally see him crouched down in some bushes with binoculars trained in the direction of the cave. “Cal,” Max whispers and sees Cal motion them forward with his hand.
“They’re just sitting there now. They’ve been in and out of the cave several times. Looks like they’re just waiting now.” He hands the binoculars to Max so he can see.
Max sees Tess and Lonnie sitting side by side in the dirt, throwing rocks, bored. “Have you seen any Skins?”
“Two. I’m pretty sure that’s all there is. One is about twenty feet to the south, the other to the north,” Cal says.
“Alright.” Max lowers the binoculars and hands them to Liz. “Two is doable.” He stands up and takes a deep breath. Pushing his fear aside, he says, “Let’s get this over with.”
When they arrive in the clearing, Tess gives Max an impatient look, as though having to sit out there and wait for him has been an inconvenience to her and he should feel bad. “Jesus, took you long enough.” She rolls her eyes and stands up before taking in Liz’s presence. Narrowing her eyes, she says, “You’re supposed to be dead.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” Liz responds, raising her eyebrows in disdain.
“Hey brother, you weren’t plannin’ on goin’ home without me, were ya?” Lonnie stands up next to Tess and fixes Max with a smirk.
“Actually, yes,” Max answers.
“You sure didn’t try to hard to keep yourselves hidden. One benefit of being a guest of the FBI…People Magazine,” Tess says. “Your second’s picture was in there every other week. We appreciate your effort to make it easier for us to find you.” She smirks and makes a small jerking motion with her head.
Liz sees one of the Skins step out of the trees from the corner of her eye and she turns toward him. He has a gun in his hand and he’s just raising it when she throws her hand up and blasts him. Just as she sees him reduced to a cloud of floating skin, she hears another gun go off and feels a sting in her leg. Max throws her behind him and puts his shield up between them and the other Skin.
“Damn. That stung,” she mutters as she leans down and places her hand over her thigh, healing it.
Max glances back and asks, “You ok?”
“Yah. Put it down.” She motions toward his shield and she throws her arm up, blasting the Skin that shot her before swinging up both arms toward Tess and Lonnie. She sees that Cal and Max are in a similar stance.
Tess looks bored, but impressed. “Wow. Nice bodyguard you have there, Max.”
“That was a shitty thing to do, turning us over to the Feds,” Lonnie says to Cal. “But see, that’s all water under the bridge now. We’re goin’ back home, and I guess I should thank you for startin’ up the ride for us.”
“You’re not coming with us,” Max says, his arm raised toward her, at the ready.
Tess smirks and says, “Oh, we know. We’re going without you.” She suddenly looks over at Liz, then, and smiles slowly as her eyes drift to Liz’s midsection. “Except maybe you. Looks like someone has a little royal bun in the oven.”
Lonnie looks over then, too, and smiles. “Well, surprises all around, then. Khivar’ll bust a nut when we bring the heir with us.”
While Tess and Lonnie are congratulating themselves, Liz is waiting for Cal to make his move, but in a split second she sees Tess shoot a powerful blast right at Max’s chest and he falls next to her. “Max!” She raises her shield, creating a bubble around them and drops down next to him. There’s so much blood already and she tries to heal him with her free hand but it’s not working. “No, Max! Come on!”
As she pours more of her energy into trying to heal him, her shield weakens and she feels a tug in the back of mind. It’s almost as if she can hear Max yelling at her from far away. As she lets her shield fade, she can hear him getting louder and louder until she can just make out the words, but it’s too late.
“…a mindwarp!” She hears it a split second before someone barrels into her and knocks her down on the ground.
“Shit!” She has dirt in her mouth and she’s lying face down on the ground. Able to turn her head slightly to the side, she can see a brief flash of blonde hair. “Get the fuck off me you cow!” she spits, trying to clear her mouth.
She feels a burning sensation in her back as she struggles to roll over. A few feet away to her left where she can’t see, she can hear a struggle and assumes Lonnie, Max and Cal are fighting. She tries to throw her shield up but she can see a blast directed at Tess fly over her head and assumes it’s coming from either Max or Cal. So she holds off, hoping one of their blasts will catch her first.
The burning in her back is getting worse, but she can also feel her body healing itself even as Tess burns her. She bucks up off the ground, trying to throw Tess off, but she has a death grip on her hair and she’s pressing her face into the ground. Liz finally gets her face turned the other direction and sees Max leaning over Lonnie, who’s lying prone on the ground, and Cal turns toward her and Tess, his arm raised, ready to blast.
But before he gets there, a shot rings out from the west and the weight and pressure on her back suddenly goes away. When she feels Tess roll off her, Liz scrambles away on her belly and flips around to see Tess lying right behind her staring sightlessly up to the sky, a bullet hole in the middle of her forehead.
Liz and Cal freeze and whip their heads in the direction the bullet came from and raise their hands. They hear the leaves rustling as someone walks through the woods closer to them. Finally, Liz sees a figure, both arms in the air.
“It’s ok, don’t shoot.” Jim Valenti comes into view with both hands in the air, his gun dangling from one of his fingers.
Shocked to see the sheriff there, Liz still hasn’t processed that he’s the one who shot Tess, mainly because she can smell the odor of burning flesh and it’s making her nauseous. She turns and sees Max rushing toward her, his eyes trained on Valenti, the charred remains of Lonnie on the ground behind him.
Jim stops at the edge of the clearing and slowly puts his gun on the ground. “Would you mind not pointing those at me?” He motions toward Liz and Cal’s hands and Liz lowers her arm and stands up.
“Sheriff?” Liz wipes the dirt from her face and reaches out to Cal, telling him to put his arm down. “What are you doing here?”
“Liz!” Max reaches her, his eyes wide in horror and staring at her back.
She reaches her hand up and winces when she feels burnt skin. She also realizes that the entire back of her shirt is burnt away. “Shit, I thought this shirt would last more than an hour.”
Max looks up at Valenti in suspicion. “You followed us.”
Jim nods and says, “Good thing I did.” He looks toward the ground where Tess is laying.
“You shouldn’t have interfered,” Cal says.
“Way I see it, that woman there was trying to kill Miss Parker. And all you did was throw a few of those blast things at her,” Valenti challenges. “Who was she? I recognize her, three years ago, the feds took her.” He’s still looking at Tess, but has stepped a little closer.
“She’s like us,” Max says.
They watch Valenti walk closer to Tess and he takes his hat off. “That’s just something. I saw everything you did.” He turns to Liz with a look of astonishment on his face. He half-smiles and scratches at the back of his head. But his gaze falls to her back and he frowns and looks at Max. “Aren’t you gonna heal that?”
Max looks surprised for a moment, then shakes his head. “She can do it herself.” He sighs in resignation. There’s no point in trying to hide anything from him anymore. He obviously knows everything anyway.
Jim looks over and his mouth drops open when he sees Liz’s back transform to smooth, healthy skin right before his eyes. “Oh my God.” He looks up at her face to see her smiling sadly back at him. “Are you…did they make you like them?”
She simply shakes her head and steps toward him. Glancing down at Tess’ dead body, she looks back up at him and says, “Thank you. You really shouldn’t have gotten involved in this, but still, thank you.” She doesn’t acknowledge that Cal probably would have gotten Tess off her within seconds, or that she could have thrown her shield up and taken care of Tess herself. Because what he did should mean something.
“Well, I figure I owe you,” Valenti says, unable to keep the pride from his voice. He turns to Max and asks, “So they were like you, but you came here to kill them, didn’t you?”
“They were our enemies, yours, too,” Max says.
Valenti nods and sets his hat back on his head. “So I guess we need to get rid of the bodies.”
“We’ll take care of it. You can go,” Cal says dismissively, clearly not wanting to tolerate his presence any longer.
Jim ignores him and says, “Kyle told me you’re leaving. Are there others like them here?”
“No,” Max says. “But there are others, another race. Serena will help you spot them.” He puts his arm around Liz and looks down at her. “Are you ok?” He puts his hand over her stomach, relieved to feel the connection to their daughter as strong as ever.
“I’m fine,” she says with a smile. “But I’m wishing now that we’d stopped and gotten an extra shirt.” She can’t fix this one with her powers, the entire back is missing. She can’t create something from nothing.
Max looks down and realizes with a grimace that he doesn’t have anything on under his. He shrugs and starts to pull it over his head anyway, but the Sheriff says, “Here, take mine.” He unbuttons his uniform shirt and drapes it over Liz’s shoulders, helping her arms through.
Liz looks up at him in bewilderment and says, “I couldn’t…”
“Take it. I have more where that came from.” Valenti shrugs. “So, about these bodies? Should we bury them?”
“I’ll take care of it,” Cal says to Max. “Go take care of this mess.” He nods towards the sheriff before leaning down and dragging Tess’ body away.
~~~~~~~~~~
Countdown: 1 hour
Kyle, Serena, Zan and Ava are the first ones to arrive. When they step into the clearing, they’re initially relieved to see that there’s no sign of Tess and Lonnie. But then they see Max and Liz sitting with Kyle’s dad.
“Dad! What are you…” Kyle rushes toward them, noticing that his dad is sitting there in his undershirt.
“It’s ok, Kyle.” Liz looks up at him with a smile on her face and he notices that she’s wearing his dad’s uniform shirt.
“Uh, right. So…” He looks around the clearing, wondering what’s going on.
“It’s taken care of, Kyle. Your dad kind of helped us out,” Liz says, continuing to surprise him with every word out of her mouth.
“So where’s that bitch sister of mine? Please tell me she died a fiery, painful death.” Zan walks forward, his hand intertwined with Ava’s.
“Something like that,” Max tells him.
“Good. Still think you shoulda let me do it,” Zan postures, but Max can tell by the way he’s fronting that his decision to not ask Zan to help was the right one. Zan’s a lot of talk, but Max knows it wouldn’t have been as easy to kill his sister as he makes it sound.
Valenti is openly staring at Ava and Liz notices. “This is Ava. She looks like Tess, but she’s with us.”
“Ok.” Then his gaze moves to Zan, then back to Max. “I…I never realized there were two of you. There was talk around town, but I just thought…”
“That I liked to dress weird sometimes?” Max offers.
“Hey, I ain’t the one that dresses weird, preppy boy,” Zan objects.
“I hate to break up the introductions, but what are you doing here, Dad?” Kyle asks again.
Jim stands up and puts his hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “It’s a long story, I’ll tell you about it later.” He turns to Max and Liz, who are also standing, and says, “Well, I guess I should be going.”
Liz steps forward and grabs his hand and smiles up at him. “Thank you, again. Take care of everyone for us, would you?”
“Of course.” He nods with a smile and turns to Max. The two shake hands and Jim says, “It’s an honor to know you.”
Max grips his hand and says, “Thank you.”
As the sheriff walks back into the woods toward his car, he looks back and tips his hat, and then he’s gone.
After a few moments of stunned silence, Kyle says, “Ok, that was weird.”
Serena turns to Cal and asks, “Did everything go as planned?”
“Not exactly,” Cal says with an eye roll. “Cowboy Sheriff came riding in and shot Tess.”
“So where are Tess and Lonnie?” Serena asks.
Cal points into the woods and says, “About thirty feet that way. They’re ash, no one’s gonna find them.”
“Huh.” Serena stands there, looking around at everyone. “So I guess that’s that.”
“Kinda anti-climactic. We were expecting to find lots of bloody gore and walking wounded when we got here,” Kyle says.
“Sorry to disappoint you.” Liz rolls her eyes.
“Do I wanna know why you’re wearing my dad’s shirt?” Kyle eyes the too-big shirt hanging almost to Liz’s knees with the sleeves rolled up.
“Mine got sort of singed.” She shrugs and grabs Max’s hand. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” She tugs him toward the woods, away from everyone.
“What is it?” Max puts his hand under her shirt in the back to check that she healed it completely.
She pulls his hand out with a smile and says, “I thought I could spend my last hour on Earth alone with you, if that’s ok.”
He tugs her close to him and says, “Good idea.” before he leans down and kisses her.
When he moves down to her neck, she falls against him with a sigh and says, “You know, we don’t know what to expect when we get there. This could be the last time we’re alone for a while.”
“That’s a valid point,” he whispers as he tugs on her earlobe with his teeth. He steps forward a few feet until he has her pressed back against a tree and says, “We should probably take advantage of what ever time we have.”
“Oh, yah,” she moans when she feels his hands snake up under her shirt.
~TBC~
