You and Whose Army? (AU,CC,MATURE) Part 20 07/21/21

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You and Whose Army? (AU,CC,MATURE) Part 20 07/21/21

Post by morethenwords122 »

Image
Banner by April :D

Title: You and whose Army? (The title is one of my favorite songs by a band called ‘Radiohead’ by the same name, I suggest you go and listen to it. I feel it sets the tone of this story perfectly.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I don’t own the characters or the show. This story is just for fun. No copyright infringement intended.

Rating: Mature for strong language, some sexual content, and some scenes of extreme violence and gore

Parings/ Couples: CC, Ensemble

Genre: Au with Aliens/ Angst/ Romance

Spoilers: Everything up to ‘Cry Your Name’ in season 2 than Au elements that lead to ‘Ch-Ch-Changes’ in season 3


Summary: Instead of mind-warpping Alex, Tess comes to him and asks him for his help in decoding the book; Alex being Alex, agrees. But the two soon learn that by decoding the book, they have brought all forms of danger to Roswell. So, in order to keep everybody they love safe; they make up an elaborate plan for Alex to die in a gruesome but suspicious car crash and for Tess to be framed for it.

Now, ten years later, Tess, Alex, and her young son are on the run from an enemy far more dangerous than they could have ever imagined. So dangerous, in fact, that not even those they left in Roswell aren't safe anymore. To right, what they've done wrong; Tess and Alex decided to return to Roswell to warn their friends of their unknown enemy and to give them the true translation of the book. But are they ready to pay the price for returning home?

A/N: I know that an 'Alex is alive' fic is not a new idea but since this story broke me out of the intense writers block i was suffering from, i decided to share it.

Tad bit of info before hand, I will have to briefly, I mean briefly, venture into the world of Max and Tess but their relationship is only used to move the plot along. Max and Tess WILL NOT be together! Repeat: Max and Tess will feel nothing romantic about each other.



AU things to Know in this story:



• Alex really did go to Sweden but lied about why he was going. He really went there to find a simpler way to decode the book. In Sweden, he met Leanne aka Jennifer (a fellow alien), who helped him with the book and later, while he and Tess are on the run.

• While decoding the book, Alex was hit by ancient Antar cruse that should have killed him but instead caused him to develop powers. You’ll learn what happened, what will happen, and what power he has as the story goes on.

• Isabel’s visions of Alex at the end of season two and that one episode in season three will not be a part of Isabel’s guilty conscious. The reason Isabel can see Alex will tie into Alex’s power.

• I have also somewhat altered the effects that Tess and Max’s power has on them. Like, with Max, in order to heal people, he must absorb the person’s pain, which causes him pain. And Tess can only mind-wrap someone for so long before it begins to eat away at her body system and eventually her brain, making her believe the illusion is real. If she uses her power to long after that, she’ll become a vegetable and locked in her own illusion forever.



Warning! This story has loads of dark angst, death, and dark sarcastic humor. You’ve been warned.


/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Act 1, Part 1

April 23rd, 2001 7:30 PM


It'd taken about three hours to make it to the deserted highway near the New Mexico State line. It usually was only about an hour drive...but the torrential downpour of stinging rain and heavy hail had made the drive much more difficult.

The lone highway was more a dirt road than a highway really. Only truck drivers and tourists...who didn't know the area, but were looking for a shortcut...would use it. Born natives of the state knew better, knew to watch out while driving on that road. It had developed a poor foundation over the years from tire-tracks and poor upkeep. It had also become cluttered with boulders and asphalt potholes, half-ptached up from back when the state had tried in vain to restore it...amd with the crazy amount of rain pouring down, the road had become clumped together with hard mud that had hugh rocks as their center.

The mud had become so hard, that if someone wasn't careful, they would get their tires stuck...or if they were unlucky enough to get a mud ball, they would lose their car's axis altogether...but that wasn't really something that the owner of a black car feared as it zoomed down the road at top speed. The driver's turns were reckless, swerving to dodge boulders caked with mud...and the road’s mud patches. The owner of the car didn't seem to care about his own well-being...or that of others; and at a closer look, someone might have thought the driver of the car could be drunk to be driving like that in this weather.

About a quarter mile up the road, the car csme to a complete stop...and, a moment later, two hurried figures stepped out. The occupants were two teens; a boy, the driver and a girl, the passenger....both seemed to be around the same age and wore equally dark expressions. The boy was tall but not gracefully so; he had medium length hair as black as midnight that was all over the place. It looked like he had run his fingers through it more than once. He wore simple clothing: a blue, long-sleeved shirt and a pair of faded-beige khakis. His features were average; run-of-the- mill. He blended into the wallpaper. The only striking thing about him were his eyes, a deep, chocolate brown that shone with an intense sense of understanding, shinning with a kindness that someone could get lost in for hours.

But now those eyes had lost that serene light...and a deadly knowledge had replaced it, a sense of what needed to be done; a intimate feeling that everything in the world was dangerous.

The girl, on the other hand, was not ordinary in any way.

She was an attractive kind of blonde, blue eyed girl that almost every adolescent...or perverted old man...drooled over, but her normalities ended there. Her blonde hair came down in long sheets of curly waves; her blue eyes sparkled with bubbly, naive excitement....but now they looked burdened with pain; a sorrow that no normal teen should have to know about yet.

But then again, she wasn't a normal teenager. She was an alien.

After leaving the car, the two teens spoke briefly to each other before going to the car’s fender. The boy paused, pulling a pair of keys out from his pocket and opened the trunk. He pulled out what could only be described as two small duffel bags. The first one seemed to bulge slightly, overloaded...and the boy groaned as he pulled it out, sending the small blonde a glare which she returned with a look. The second duffel was small enough for the boy to simply pull out of the trunk and sling over his shoulder.

The boy slammed the trunk shut, and with a brief look at his small friend, started walking up the mud sleeked road...only stopping to let the young girl catch up to him. They continued a mile up before either one of them spoke again.

“Are we doing the right thing?” the short blonde asked, focusing on the trek ahead for any oncoming cars.

The lanky boy carrying the duffels turned to her with a solemn expression.

"We’re doing what we have to do.” He said, harshly. He was beginning to look like a drowned puppy, his clothes drenched, and hanging off him like heavy comforters. His wild hair was beginning to become plastered to his head.

“But is it right?” the blonde pushed, trying to ignore the painful stinging of the hail that marked her cheeks red. The tall boy only shrugged. He couldn't answer that. He wasn't doing this to be right; he was doing this because it would keep everybody safe.

The small blonde let the subject drop and continued to walk the path for another mile before an unmistakable sound startled her. The two turned sharply at the sound of the oncoming semi-truck.

Even through the violent rain and hail, the truck still made the road shake from its power. The teens took a collective breath before bolting towards the small ditch on the other side of them, sliding in at the last minute. Their duffels sloshed them both with wet mud, and by the time the two had settled into the rocky ditch, the semi had grown closer. There wasn't much time before their stilled car would be noticed in the middle of the road.

With a deep breath, the blonde girl raised her hand towards the direction of the car they had abandoned a few miles back, and after a few moments of heavy concentrating, the car began to move toward the approaching semi. Neither the boy nor the girl had a clear view what was happening until it was about a half a mile from their position on the ground, with the semi still about a mile away from them and the car. The boy noticed that the concentration it took to power the car forward was starting to take its toll on the blonde next to him. So with a slight shove on the girl’s shoulder, he made her break the connection.

The car stopped....and moments later, the semi-truck collided with the small car. The catastrophic collision of a semi and a car shouldn't have been much of a shock really. Any car, no matter how big, wasn't a match for a semi...but that didn't stop the two teens from being unprepared for its devastating impact. Glass was thrown everywhere and the initial impact from the semi made the car cave in, causing it to buck wildly before bursting into flames and exploding.

The driver of the semi had apparently been knocked unconscious by the impact...and both teens had to resist the urge to go over and check to see if the man was still alive. But they couldn't worry about that now. They had to remain impassive, detached from the situation. So they stayed motionless as they watched the small car’s flames slowly die down; the rain putting it out...and making everything, even the air, smell like charred flesh.

“I need to head back to town,” the blonde said suddenly, glancing at her watch. They hadn't said anything to each other in nearly an hour-- since the car caught on fire.

“How are you going to get back?” the boy asked, worried. He didn't want anything bad to happen to her. Ailen or not, she was still a teenage girl. “You can’t walk in this weather.”

“I’ll manage,” the girl said with a small smile. She always did.

The girl took one last look at the charred wreckage she had just created, trying to bite down the roaring guilt that slowly snuck up on her. It had to be done. It had to be done to keep their friends safe.She turned away from the wreckage, choking down the urge to vomit. She prayed that they hadn't killed the man laying unconscious in the semi. She didn't think she could handle having that burden on her conscious...not with all the others she was going to be the keeper of soon.

“You sure there wasn't any other way, Tess?” The tall boy asked her as she climbed out of the ditch and began to walk down the road.

Tess paused, mulling it over...but she already knew the answer. “I wish there was.”

“Goodbye, Alex.” She smiled sadly at her friend before continuing to walk down the road into the next town to hitch a ride. She only had three hours to get back to Roswell, get cleaned, and get to the Crashdown to meet with her friends. Isabel wanted to talk about the prom, about her date… with Alex.

As she continued back to town, Alex looked to the wreckage that lay in front of him...the flames completely extinguished. God, what have we done?!

He slowly putt his hand over his mouth to hide his erratic breathing. He kept staring at the grisly scene before him. What are we about to do?! Did they really know what they were up against?! Were they doing the right thing by faking his death?!

It didn’t matter thought...because no matter how much Alex pleaded with himself to understand what needed be done, even through all the bullshit excuses of mortality, he still couldn’t make himself believe that he and Tess were somehow doing the right thing. They were creating deception...even if they were doing it for all the right reasons. They were keeping their loved ones safe...but what about the damage they were about to cause, the pain they would soon inflict? It didn’t stop the guilt from gnawing at his stomach, from churning his guts inside out...or causing him to picture the grief his death would cause his friends. Grief they would forever be laden with. It was almost too much for him to bare.

Almost.

Alex looked away from their destruction and instead turned to Tess. She was about a mile up the road now. He raised his hand and waved, watching Tess’s small frame disappear from view.

“Goodbye, Tess.” Alex mumbled sadly, tears he had been holding in since seeinb the ‘Now Leaving Roswell’ sign, slip down his cheeks, leaving a trail of dirt and soot dripping onto his wet clothes.

Goodbye. Forever.

TBC...
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Here's a little bitty trailer to this story:[url=https://www.youtube
Last edited by morethenwords122 on Wed Jul 21, 2021 10:48 pm, edited 40 times in total.
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Re: You and Whose Army? (AUwA, CC, Mature) Part 2 6/2/2014

Post by morethenwords122 »

Part 2



Carolyn:
WOW.......it does appear that we are in for a wild ride.
Yep, Your definitely in for a wild ride!

Tzigone:
So much so that her joy/relief at him being alive might be the only thing that keeps him alive.
I don’t know about that. Alex’s reunion with Isabel and the group won’t be a happy one. Alex has changed a lot since they last saw him… and not necessarily for the better.
But since this doesn't count "Graduation", does that mean she's still married to Jesse whenever she discovers Alex is alive? Ugh, not my cup of tea (not up for love triangles or infidelity).
Don’t worry; there will be no infidelity or love triangle between Jesse, Alex, and Isabel in this story. Alex is not someone who will start something torrid with a married woman, even if it is Isabel. And while Isabel may want to have an affair with Alex, she won’t; her loyalty is to Jesse.

Roswelllostcause: Thanks for reading!

Eva: Thanks for reading and i'm curious to see your feedback as the story goes on

Warning: I know the episode ‘Cry Your Name’ was filled with angst but … it wasn’t filled with this level of angst. I know I overdid the angst a little in this chapter (Hint: and ones to come) but hey, I had to make this story as original as I could. So, some more foresight before diving further into this story, I will take some scenes from some of the episodes at the end of season two but they will be more intense and drama filled then they originally were.





April 23rd, 2001

A few hours later at the Crashdown

Maria hummed happily as she walked outside, taking out tonight's garbage. She smiled at the sky above. The weather had finally cleared up.

Unable to resist, Maria spun lazily under the peeking afternoon sunlight. It was beginning to fade and turn dark, but some light still remained and had enough power for her to feel its rays beat down softly on her face.

Maria sighed as she skipped towards the dumpster. She was still on a nirvana-like high from last night.

Maria had thought prom would be an extremely horrible experience after discovering Michael with that older woman from earlier that week. But after much needed explaining, along with Michael’s new–but really bad–dance moves and his willingness to actually clean up nicely and humiliate himself in front of his peers, gave Maria the magic she had originally hoped the night would be.

The night’s lingering enchantment still glinted in her eyes as she looked at her group of friends, still seeing how the night had played out for the others across their faces too. It looked like Alex was finally going to get the girl of his dreams, as long as he played it cool and made her wait it out a bit; it wouldn't hurt Isabel to chase after him for a change.

Maria had gotten to see Michael make a deliberate ass out of himself to make things right with her...and it had all beem in the name of love.

So, in other words, everybody’s fairy tale had come true… well, almost everybody’s.

Liz had ended up with a broken heart again when she'd seen Tess and Max kissing in the hallway. Maria had immediately felt sorry for her best friend when she told her about it...especially since Maria herself had been rattling on and on about how wonderful prom was supposed to be.

But what could she do for her dearest friend?

She couldn't shake Liz of her silly belief that everything would crumble if Max found out everything about future Max’s visit...and no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't make Tess disappear either.

It was out of her hands; there was nothing she could do about the outcome of their story.

Maria’s thoughts were disrupted by the sound of Sheriff Valenti’s--ex-sheriff’s-- boots echoing loudly against the wet pavement. She recognized his footsteps from anywhere; his feet always moved with an authoritative stomp to them.

She turned around and smiled sweetly at Kyle’s father, the only adult who helped on a number of occasions to save their behinds...and not so long ago his help had cost him his job as sheriff. Maria knew the pod squad felt guilty about the price the older Valenti had to pay to keep their secret.
But, like everything else in their life, it couldn't of been prevented.

Maria knew it was no use getting all tied up in ‘what if’s’ when it came to knowing an alien hybrid; she was just happy that they had a grown up who was willing to sacrifice so much to keep them all safe.

“Here to see Kyle?” Maria asked, raising her eyebrow. As much as she loved to see the older Valenti, she was a little bewildered by his presence. He hardly ever visited the Crashdown unless her mother or Kyle was in tow.

“Kind of,” the older Valenti replied, glancing briefly toward his car parked behind him.

He looks ready to bolt. If she wasn't confused before, she was now.

“Okay. He’s in the dining area.” Maria replied warily, pointing to the back entrance.

“Okay.” Jim glanced at the door in question before turning back to Maria, a grim smile om his face. “You have fun at prom?”

“Yeah.” Maria beamed. “I still can’t believe Michael cleaned up… or that he wore a tux!” Maria exclaimed.

Jim nodded his head.

“But it’s not the first time Michael Guerin's ever surprised me.” Maria shook her head and laughed. It definitely won't be the last time.

“I’m glad you had a good time, Maria,” Jim said politely. He was looking everywhere but at her.

“Yeah,” Maria nodded, concern lacing her vocal cords. Something wasn't right. “I really had a good time, especially since I had front row seats to Michael’s lame dance moves.”

“Uh-Huh.” Jim said vaguely.

Maria shook her head again as the night slowly come back to her. She put her hands on her hips as she thought of another funny story from the previous night. “Oh, I have to tell you about--"

“Maria,” Jim Valenti interjected her excited rambling. If he didn't stop her now, if he didn't say what he had to… then he would probably never say it.

“Maria.” He sighed, playing with his hands. “It’s Alex. He’s…” Jim trailed off, desperately trying to hold back the tears that threatened to fall...tears he had been holding in since he'd seen Alex’s burnt body at the accident site.

Maria suddenly felt uneasy; she didn't like the tone of his voice, didn't like the barely contained misty look in his eyes...then suddenly, everything hit her like a lightning bolt, causing Maria to stumble back into the dumpster.

“No.” She choked out, holding her arms out to ward off Valenti’s unspoken words. No! Please! Please! Don’t say it!

She made her way back to the back entrance to get into the kitchen and away from him. She knew what was about to come. She could feel it, sense it...and she just prayed silently that the lord would show mercy on her…but then again, God had never really been all that kind to Maria DeLuca.

Jim Valenti eyes followed her every footstep, still wearing that look of tearful heartbreak on his face. He paused before saying, almost harshly. “He’s dead, Maria. Alex is dead.”

Maria’s reaction was instant.

“NO!!!!” she screamed frantically, crashing through the back door into the kitchen, through the dining area and into Liz’s confused but comforting arms.

Max stood up, alert at Maria’s uncommon entrance. His face was a mixture of looks directed at her, ranging from panic to concern to slight annoyance.

Maria just ignored him..and buried her head deeper into Liz’s shoulder.

Michael kept trying to get Maria to look at him, to tell him what was wrong...even at one point pleading with her to stop crying and tell him what was going on. But Maria couldn't speak; she couldn't breathe. She didn't want to be touched by anybody but Liz...because Liz was the only one who would understand, the only one who understood her pain. Maria felt like she had just lost a part of herself, an essential part of her being. It had always been her, Alex, and Liz long before the Czechoslovakians had come along. They had stuck together through any alien or human messes life had seen fit to throw at them. They were born being the three musketeers, born to always be together.

Always.

Jim immediately informed the other teens of the news. He had seen his mistake with Maria. He had taken too long, been too harsh. It was his own fault; he still hadn't gotten over the shock of seeing Alex’s lifeless body being taken away by the coroners.

(They hadn't even tried to revive him...hadn't given his body a second glance...before zipping it up. They had said it was useless. He had been burnt too badly.)

As Jim Valenti told the others the news, Maria noticed vaguely, the stoic expression on Tess’s face as Valenti spoke to them.

Then Maria went into hysterics, her sobs turning to screams.

Even after Liz had heard the news herself, she didn't push her away. She just held Maria closer…even when Maria had started screaming bloody murder at the ceiling.

Michael tired frantically to get his girlfriend to calm down.

Max looked away, stunned speechless.

Kyle pulled Tess in for a hug and Isabel just wore a blank expression on her face, either not registering anything…or just not wanting to. The only time an expression briefly flicked across her features was when Maria began her insane chanting.

(“Alex isn't dead! Alex isn't dead!”)

Even then, it was cold and detached... almost as though Isabel had gone into permanent ‘Ice Queen’ mood, not feeling anything.

And Maria wished she could turn everything off like that and just become numb...but every time she tried, it was like she only became more hysterical. Every time she told herself not to think about it, it only made her think about it more… almost to the point that she truly began to believe she was driving herself crazy.

He can’t be dead!

She began trying to pull away from Liz’s embrace, but Liz only held on tighter as Maria became downright insane in her grief.

No! No! No! Alex can’t be dead! That had been Maria’s last coherent thought before she blacked out into oblivion.

TBC...

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Last edited by morethenwords122 on Wed Jul 21, 2021 11:47 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: You and Whose Army? (AUwA, CC, Mature) Part 3 6/9/2014

Post by morethenwords122 »

Part 3


Carolyn:
I still cry every time I see the segment with Alex being dead.
This was really a turning point in the series
Yes, I agree! Alex's death was definitely the turning point in the series... but in my opinion, some of the changes were not for the better :lol:

Eve:
let me tell you that I was frightened by some autors about how bad it was to read what they wrote... But I have this bad feeling that you will be even more bad as the others! :wink: :lol:
I don't know if i should be offended or not :lol: No, Just kidding. I agree, I hate it when writers post thing that don't make sense to nobody but themselves and i'll admit, I am a offender of that :oops: I learned my lesson when i did that with 'All Roads Lead To Roswell' and that's why i no longer post anything that hasn't been reviewed by a beta :D
But if in the end, they are all well and safe, maybe I will close my eyes or look away when it's become too bad!
Do you mean my writing... or when this stories unexpected (I hope) twists come along 8)



A/N: Sorry that this chapter is so short but I found myself having a hard time writing for this Isabel I created. Since this is a different timeline, I wanted a different atmosphere for the scenes I took from ‘Cry Your Name’.In this timeline, I didn't want Isabel to let herself feel half the things she felt that she had originally felt in ‘Cry Your Name’, hence the lack of dialogue. I didn't even want her to feel hope, or at least not like I felt she did. I just wanted her to feel numb and I hope that I portrayed that in this chapter.

-/-/-/-/-/-

With each passing moment, Isabel began to grow more and more impatient for Max to come out of the coroner’s van.

She'd spent the last half hour trying everything to keep herself from running over there and yanking the doors open, pushing Max out of the way...and healing Alex her own damn self. She had done everything to keep herself steady, from playing with her hair to rocking back and forth on the heels of her two feet--the latter had helped to settle the sudden hammering of her beating heart.

And for a bit she was able to breathe again, to feel normal… like everything would be alright if she just continued to rock back and forth. The rhythm helped her to forget, kept her mind from racing. It kept her head from filling up with images… images of Alex. It kept her from remembering that he was dead…until Michael roughly put his hand on her shoulder and shot her a hard glare, causing her to come crashing back into reality.

Michael’s glare made everything come rushing back to her...almost tenfold. It made the cool air she was standing in seem arctic. It made the street lights that shone down on the brick building of the hospital seem brighter...made the standing, the endless waiting for Max to come out of the van seem much more real than before.

She swatted at Michael’s hand, pushing it violently off her shoulder violently. She was hit with a sudden tidal wave of intense emotion and quiet desperation that made her almost double over...but she soon tapped into the defiant denial that had been fueling her since Valenti had given them thr news of Alex’s death.

Isabel shut herself back down for the second time tonight. She couldn't handle the heightened sense of every feeling, every aura that swirled around her. She wanted to hate Michael for making everything seem real to her again; his hand had remained her of memories she was trying to keep at bay...emotions she had been successfully running away from until now. They just kept coming back like a brick that threatened to crush her skull in.

But in the end, she couldn't seem to muster the energy to hate him...not when she knew that Michael was just as heartbroken as she was.

Isabel took a deep breath, lifting her head to take in the surroundings around her--not that they had changed much since she had escaped into her own head for those brief moments. Everybody’s energy and aura was still the same, filled with desperation..and a mixture of emotion that almost knocked her on her ass but not quite.

The only thing that had seemed to change was that everybody had moved to the outer perimeter of the coroner’s van. They were holding hands now; their breaths in sync with one another...their combined silence a balm. She was the only one who was alone in her chaos as they waited, hoping against hope that Max would come out with a smiling Alex...trying to come up with some lame attempt at making light of the situation.

Isabel couldn't remember how they all had formed a huddle outside of the double doors of the van...but then again, she couldn't really remember anything after Valenti had delivered the news. All she could remember, before they all sped away in Max’s jeep to the morgue, was Maria’s hysterical crying.

It had taken Michael and Liz about an hour to calm Maria down enough to be able to get her into the jeep. Isabel hadn't really been able to look at Maria in the eye during all of that, expect with a l brief glances to make she was alright...but every time Isabel even dared to sneak a longer look, she had seen the broken beyond repair expression etched on Maria’s face...and Isabel feared that, if she looked at it for too long, she would become just as broken inside too.

What if I am already broken? What if I become even more broken then....? Isabel startled when she heard a loud gasp. Following the sound, Isabel whipped her head in the direction of the van and Max was stepping out…without Alex.

Isabel began to hyperventilate.

She couldn't breathe, her breath was turning shallow. It felt like her life force was being sucked out of her. She could only imagine what her aura must look like right now... all muddy and marked with the black recognition of death. She wouldn't be surprised if death himself had played a part in her essence now. She felt like she was dead.

That was probably why Max was moving towards her first; her aura must have scared him into action. Her breathing had became erratic at the sight of Max’s hands, reaching out to her. They were dripping with blood. Alex’s blood.

She could feel herself having a panic attack. It was all becoming too much.

Max continued to reach out for her, the blood on his hands testifying to the finality of Alex’s death. She knew he only wanted to confront her, but she couldn't stand to have him touch her right now... not with everything crashing into her, becoming way too real. Not when she was unable to tune out the roar of emotions that were threatening to wash her away. She couldn't stand anything right now… especially not Max, not after he had touched Alex’s lifeless body.

She just couldn't stand it. She couldn't stand herself.[/]

So she ran away.

She ran from Max’s hurt face. She ran from the blood staining hsi hands, from the rapidly cooling of Alex's body…laying in the van...to be pushed away and opened up for an autopsy, to be dissected like some kind of alien experiment.

She ran from the memories that were trying to suffocate her. She ran from herself.

TBC...
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Last edited by morethenwords122 on Thu Jul 22, 2021 12:22 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: You and Whose Army? (AUwA, CC, Mature) Part 4 6/16/2014

Post by morethenwords122 »

Part 4


Eva:
Isabel is going to freak when she sees Alex again, not to mention the others.
Alex's reunion with the gang will be... unexpected and not at all happy :oops:

EVE:
No, no, I would never critisize your writing style because my english is the one from someone, who has learned another language and does automatically translate directly from french to english...
Oh, No! I didn't think you were criticizing my writing.... I was just teasing you.
Isabel's point of view about Alex's death was painful to read, especially that we know who did kill him...
I'd like to say that it was painful for me to write all these emotional parts of this story but it wasn't... I'm too neutral when i write. I guess that's why i'm able to write angst but who know's?
Let see how you will deal with Tess...
Will be seeing how Tess is feeling in this part coming up :D

Roswelllostcause: Thanks for the feedback!

AN: Sorry for the delay, It was like this chapter didn't want to be posted. Man, did this chapter give me the blues! First, i lost everything i originally wrote for the this chapter and i had to start all over again. Then, I was rushing to get this chapter in on time so my beta could review it for me. So, i think along the way this chapter might have lost it's emotional factor and became more technical. So, hopefully, there's still a somewhat emotional factor to this part :D

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Tess fidgeted as Max slowly approached the entrance of the Coroner’s van. She felt like a brick was trying to suffocate her with each step he took nearer to that van. She had barely been able to breathe since having to leave Alex back in the ditch...unable to keep the foreboding feeling from filling up her lungs as she walked back into town; but it wasn't until now — at this very moment — that she realized just how much of their plan was riding on her and her abilities.

If she couldn’t pull this off, if she allowed herself to fail… then everything would fall apart along with her.

She took a deep breath to keep herself from laughing manically. She thought that destroying the car had been the most important part in their act, but she was wrong—it was this scene that sealed the deal. If she couldn’t make Max believe what she needed him to, then what happened next would bring its own dangers down upon them. Everything she and Alex had worked for would come crumbling down.

Everybody she had grown to love would lose their lives. It was almost enough to make her want to break down and cry...but Tess stuffed her emotions back in; she couldn’t let them rule her, not now. Not if she wanted to do this right...and redoubled her focus on Max Evans’ being, his mind.

She needed all her wits about her to be able to connect with him...to began to perform the mind-warp.

Tess forced herself to put everything into perspective. She knew how Max’s power worked...and she knew how she had to proceed to make Max believe he was touching Alex and connecting to his being, in order to make Max believe his healing Alex had been unsuccessful. She just wished she had more experience than she actually did in the area of her power. She never attempted to use her power to this extent before. The closest she had ever come to this level of energy was when Nicholas and the Skins had invaded Roswell

(They had been so powerful, their minds so guarded, that she'd been surprised that they hadn’t noticed an amateur like her had access to their brains.)

But Nicholas and the skins had one fatal flaw which she was sure Max wouldn’t have: arrogance. The main reason Tess had been able to gain entrance to their minds in the first place was because they believed that no one ever could.

She knew Max wasn’t nearly arrogant enough for that scenario to work to her advantage...and he was smart enough to know when someone was trying to control him, which made her job much more difficult. This wasn’t going to be like when she had first arrived in Roswell and had hacked into Max, Isabel, and Michael’s minds.

She'd been initially shocked at how easy it had been to crack into Max’s mind back then; she had been surprised to know that Max had the mind of a child, like a child he had no clear definition of reality. Everything was about one thing or the other, whether it was in a realistic or fantasy sense was up to him but he had only one thought racing through his brain all day and night: Liz Parker.

When she had first connected with Max, she had to immediately sort through his feelings and thoughts about Liz. They were so strong and persistent, when she thought that she had gotten rid of one, another would bombard her...as if Max’s love for Liz was his default. Like something he used to keep himself sane, planted firmly in the ground. Liz was all Max ever thought about. Maybe that was why Liz had been able to connect with him in New York, when no one else could?

Max didn’t know it, but by epitomizing Liz the way he did, his alien side had kicked in and decided to recognize the life source as his soul mate. He had bonded them to each other forever. He had made Liz more alien.

But, unlike last time, Tess wasn’t showing snippets of illusions. She was creating one that had to be believed, not only by him...but by the group as well. So Tess had to bypass that bond, break it, and replace Liz’s core with her own, in order to access that kind of depth to Max’s being.

She didn’t want to do that...didn’t want to become Max’s new soul mate. She had long ago abandoned the idea of being with Max Evans. He was just too in love with Liz...and it was no fun being in love by yourself... she really could have really called what she had once felt for Max as ‘love’.

And, despite Liz and Maria’s refusal to accept her in any way, Tess had still grown quite fond of them both. Liz and Maria had something that Tess admired and adored— they both had the drive and the spunk to get what they wanted out of life...and an unbreakable will that Tess desperately wanted to possess.

Maybe today is the day she will possess it?

Tess shifted on her feet as Max opened the doors of the van. She was going to have to possess some kind of will, if she wanted to make it through this. She didn’t have much of a choice. Her choices had been taken from her the minute she had placed that book in Alex’s hands and asked him to decode it.

With a deep breath, she began to reach into Max’s mind. It took serious effort on her part; the bond between Max and Liz was stronger than she had originally thought...but she finally broke through. She was connected with Max’s brain.

When Tess finally cracked into someone’s mind, she saw what she could only describe as various strips of film racing through her closed eyelids. It was a film of their memories. Nasedo had once told her a long time ago that the only way a human brain could process the data of their lives was through strips of film...and even though they were hybrids, their brains were no different than a human’s.

Max’s brain was no different.

She still had to sort through Max’s film strips, looking for his memories of Alex. There weren’t many...or many that didn’t involve Liz or even Maria in some way...but she was able to find a few of when Max had interacted with Alex by himself. They were minor ones, like small hellos in the halls of school, or Max asking Alex for advice on how to impress Liz...or working on a project’ for school or adventures of the alien kind. She wasn’t after the actual memories, but the feelings they invoked...and Max’s general feeling about Alex was just that he was a good friend, and an even better one to Liz Parker.

It didn’t really give Tess much to go on. It was easier for her to warp someone’s memories of a person when they had a stronger connection to the object of the illusion, but the memories she found would have to do. She didn’t have much time. Taking another deep breath, she began to lock in on those selected memories... and began to twist them, seeping the feelings those memories evoked and creating new ones, transferring those feelings to Max.

Tess could feel it as Max began trying to make a connection to Alex. It was a hesitant connection. She could feel the fear and disgust Max felt at having to touch ‘Alex’s’ lifeless body. She would have to use that to her advantage. If she could use those feelings coursing through Max right now, then she could take them and use them to make the faint connection to the corpse Max was touching...and once she was sure that Max believed he was connected to the dead body, Tess would begin the process of taking the memories from Max and transferring them to the corpse laying on the stretcher in the van.

(She and Alex had tried to mutilate and dismember the body they'd chosen to be replacement for Alex. But they couldn’t do the same to the corpse’s spirit. Their memories and mind. The actual remnants of the corpse still was possessed in its core being; everything it had ever felt, desired, or feared remained. She had to replace all those memories and fears with Alex’s…or illusions of Alex’s desires, fears, and feelings...and the flashes Tess knew he would soon receive from trying to heal Alex had to feel genuine. They couldn’t feel like flashes of some else’s life.)

Something was wrong. Tess picked up on Max’s uncertainty...and she decided she had dive deeper into Max’s psyche to pull out more memories that didn’t just involve Max and Alex. She had to pull some of Isabel, Liz, Maria, Kyle, herself, and even Michael… and add Alex’s essence to them. She placed them into the lifeless corpse in the van, giving him a name: Alex.

Tess could feel her head to begin to ache from the excess force her mind was using to give her power substance. She was exhausting herself. So much so, that she was beginning to believe her own lies. That was never a good sign; her mind could only access her power for so long before it began to mess with her own memory strips, making the illusion become real to even her. If she wasn’t careful, she would be stuck in it forever.

The pain got so bad that she could feel herself visibly shake from it...and when Tess heard someone gasp, her attention was derailed, broken from the mind-warp. She breathed frantically, a severe headache beginning to kick in. She pushed through the pain. She didn’t know how long she had been able to hold on to Max’s mind, how long she had held the connection...or if her mind-warp had lasted long enough to work. She looked around at everybody, relief washing over her to find that their faces were still turned hopefully towards the van--and she felt the hot flowing liquid dripping from her nose. It was her blood. A clear sign that she had held on to the connection for too long.

She quickly wiped the trickle of blood away before anyone else could notice, then turned her attention back to the van that Max had stepped out… without Alex in tow.

Tess sighed in relief. It had worked. She saw Max looking at her with a look of intense desperation. He looked lost, stunned.

It was happening. His soul was beginning to recognize her as his soul mate. The realization made her want to puke. He continued to stare out at nothing, not knowing which one of them to comfort first: Tess, Liz, or Isabel. He seemed to settle on the more logical choice; Isabel’s dark aura made even Tess want to go and comfort her, but she couldn’t move.

Isabel made his choice easier for him as she stumbled away from Max, away from everybody.

It must have been the blood dripping from his hands? It took everything she had not to scream for Isabel to come back, to shout that everything was going to be okay; that it wasn’t really Alex’s blood on his hands. She wanted to tell her that he wasn’t dead...that he was still alive, but nothing came out.

Max looked around, confused and a little rejected... but he quickly recovered before he looked back in Tess’ direction.

No! Liz! Go to Liz! Tess couldn’t stand the idea of being touched right now. If she let him touch her, she feared that she’d just break down and tell everybody everything. She couldn’t afford that. It was far too ate to turn back now.

And amost like he could read her mind, he turned to hug Liz...but she backed away wildly from him. “Go after her, Max,” Liz said coldly...and for a minute, Max was taken aback by Liz’s cold demeanor. She had hurt him with her distance. She had hurt him more than Alex’s cold body ever did.

“Yes, Max, go after her,” Tess echoed, letting the tears finally fall. She had been holding them back since she had left Alex back on that dirt road. “Isabel needs you.”

And she wished silently for Alex’s safety, hoped that he had made it to a safer location. But most of all, she wished that he was here with them right now.

TBC...

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Last edited by morethenwords122 on Thu Jul 22, 2021 10:08 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: You and Whose Army? (AUwA, CC, Mature) Part 5 6/23/2014

Post by morethenwords122 »

Part 5


Eve:
If Tess's reasons seem to be reasonable, I hate her for manipulating people the way she does...
Tess' reasons are reasonable but your right, she shouldn't be manipulating people... but neither should Alex.
Even if it is to save the world, I guess it is most to save HER own world and nothing else...

Because she could have explained everything to the others but no, it won't go the way she wants...
Tess' could have explained everything to everybody; it's the logical option but she's not thinking that way... she's just worried about the danger the truth could bring.

Carolyn:
Will this really solve all the problems with the curse??
The curse won't effect anyone but Alex... which you'll get a little taste of in this part. Tess and Alex are running from something entirely different.
There is so much emotion involved in this part.......I cry even thinking about it.
Thanks! Not for making you cry but for letting me know there was an emotional factor in Tess' part, I was afraid there wasn't ... but after you get done reading this part... with all the crying that could come your way... i don't think your going to like me very much :oops:


Roswelllostcause:I'm back, my friend! With an angsty and emtional new part!


A/N: I have a feeling everybody is going to want to kill me by the end of this part *Puts on a helmet and hides behind a couch*

The Song featured in this part is '9 Crimes By Damien Rice' Listen when you see this :mrgreen:

P.S. The first segemet in italics is a dream sequence

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

:mrgreen:

“Are you really here?” A figured that looked a lot like Isabel asked.

“No, you’re talking in your sleep.” Alex said more to himself than the illuminated figure sitting next to him. This wasn’t real. He must be dreaming....or Isabel was dream-walking him. Panic began to set in to Alex’s core; they couldn’t be found out! He and Tess had worked too hard to be discovered for their web of deceit now!

Alex scratched his eyebrow, trying to portray nonchalance. He had to believe that this was a dream, that his mind was playing tricks on him. He had worked too hard to believe anything else.


“I wish I could talk to you.” Isabel said, tears streaming down her face. She placed her hand on his, rubbing it with a kind of intimacy that he had never experienced from her when he was alive.

“This is the next b-b-best thing for us all.”

Alex’s voice hitched when she placed a butterfly kiss to the palm of his hand. He decided to give in to the dream, give in to the fluttering in the pit of his stomach and the sudden heat that threatened to sneak up on him, waiting to burn him alive with its invisible flames. He reached out and caressed Isabel’s beautiful, but heartbroken face, kissing away her tears. Why couldn’t he have been this bold when he was alive?

“I feel like this is a-all my f-f-fault.” Isabel’s voiced croaked, holding onto the hand that cupped her face.

“What do you mean?” Alex’s brows furrowed in confusion... before it turned to anger. She couldn’t think…? “You think you had something to do with my death?” he hissed, snatching his hand back from Isabel’s grip, cursing himself for the loss of warmth.

Her heartbreak was replaced by a confusion that had mirrored of his own just moments ago, “Yes. Yes, I do,” Isabel moved closer. “If it… hadn’t been for me… if you hadn’t gotten involved with me… maybe, you’d still be alive.” Isabel grabbed Alex’s hand again and placed it back on her face with an insistence that only Isabel could possess. She wasn’t going to have a moment without Alex’s warmth near her, a part of her ever again. She wasn’t going to lose him.

Alex couldn’t muster the energy that he knew it would take to defy her. He couldn’t deny her, not when she was like this. He didn’t want to spend another moment without using this dream to the fullest...but he wouldn’t stand for Isabel’s misplaced blame. “We both know that’s fucking bullshit, Isabel,” he squeezed her hand. “Everything we went through these past two years… every moment we shared together, whether they were good or bad. I wouldn’t trade them in for the world… because you are my world.” Alex pulled her closer, hugging her. He breathed in her scent: a faint mixture of jasmine and the woods... like the night they had stargazed together out in Frasier Woods.

Sighing, he was overtaken by the sudden need to be closer. Oh, god! He had missed this! He missed being close to her...being the only one to ever see her bring her guard down. He just plain missed her.


“I’m sorry.” Isabel whispered, kissing his neck.

Alex shuddered. “I am too.” Alex whispered back...and hey stayed in each other’s arms for what seemed like eternity, crying and holding on to one another. He wished this dream could last forever.

But it couldn’t.

Alex broke their embrace. “I better go.” He wiped the tears he had shed from his face and got up from his place next to Isabel. He took her in one last time before he made a move for the double doors of the Crashdown...but Isabel grabbed his hand at the last moment.


“What? No, don’t go,” Isabel pleaded, trying to pull him back into his seat.

“This isn’t helping you.” Alex said firmly, tugging his hand back.

“I can’t… I can’t just let you go,” Isabel said. “Not when I already got you back.”


Alex turned away from her. He couldn’t see her like this...so broken and fragile.“Isabel…” He started. “I’m already gone.”

He pulled away. “I won’t be there when you wake up… and you willwake up.” He said coldly.

“But will I see you again?” she asked.


Alex shrugged. “I don’t know. I think that’s up to you.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

Isabel held his head against hers. “I love you.”

She kissed him with an intensity that it took everything he had not to completely break down. “I will always love you.”


“You will?” Alex asked, his voice laced with doubt. He had waited since the third grade to hear those words come out of her mouth, but now that they had...and he wasn’t so sure he believed them. Isabel kissed him again, leaving no room for uncertainty. She had left her mark. The mark of endless love.

“Yeah. Well, I love you too.” Alex smiled, blushing. “Goodbye, Isabel.”


-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Alex wakened to a painful pounding in his temples. He opened his eyes, groaning as the throbbing grew.

He must have dozed off after the rain had finally let up...and the paramedics and coroner’s vehicles had driven away. He hadn’t even realized how exhausted he had been until his eyes had began to droop. He rubbed his temples lightly, looking around, trying to remember where he was. He was confused, until he remembered he had decided to stay down in the ditch after Tess had disappeared into nothingness. He didn’t really know why he hadn’t made a move to travel on forward; that would have been the wiser choice...but he hadn’t felt safe leaving his hideout.

So, he had stayed put…and had fallen asleep, it seemed. His drowsiness cleared, and Alex was finally able to place the feeling that had woken him up. It was a headache.

There were still cars passing by and Alex glanced at his aging Timex. It read 1:42 AM. It was rush hour time for the truck drivers that used this road as short cuts for their routes... but because of the rumored car wreck that had happened only hours ago, the main road was even more piled up than usual. Alex turned sharply in the direction of the increasingly loud highway, sinking further into the ditch for better coverage if he needed to still be hiding. The ditch was small, but it was also deep enough to conceal him from any passersby who would be scouting the area, looking to satisfy their morbid fascination with the death that had just occurred there earlier.

Alex could still feel the panic coursing through him from when the paramedics had come. It hadn’t worn off, not even in sleep. He'd feared being discovered then too...could still feel the hard boulders digging into his stomach and ribs, leaving bruises as he tried to cover his mouth to stop his heavy breathing, not wanting to alert them to his hiding place.

He could still feel the horror that he'd felt when the paramedics had begun searching his car for his body, until he remembered. Tess had covered that. He had been so wrapped up in his own turmoil that he had forgotten that Tess had carried a mutilated corpse around in the front seat of his car the night before. She hadn’t explained how she had gotten it...or who he had been...but he hadn’t asked. He hadn’t wanted to know the name of the person whose head he had been sawing off.

Alex had seen the grim expressions on the paramedics' faces as they explained to the new sheriff--and Mr. Valenti--that his body had been charred beyond recognition. How the head-on impact with the semi had taken his head clean off. They'd said that the only way they had been able to identify the victim was by a picture. It was a picture of him, Liz, and Maria; he always kept it on his dashboard.

The paramedics handed Mr. Valenti the picture. He had stared at it for such a long time that the paramedics had had to politely ask for it back...before saying the only way they would be able to positively match Alex to the body in the car was by the pink slips in the glove compartment.

(Alex hadn't been able to help himself, but he kept thinking...with a detached sense of wonder...that he had died a pretty horrible death. He no longer had an identity. He was just another number on a toe-tag now. Just another John Doe.)

Valenti had handed the picture to the new sheriff...before asking a tall and wiry dude, who had been called in on the accident, questions about what had happened as the paramedics began scooping the semi out for signs of life. He had heard some faint, at times inaudible, yelling as one of the paramedics shouted to another ine to call the coroner over again. The truck driver was dead also...and he didn’t know why, but he'd felt a sharp pain invaded his heart when he had heard that. He was killed because of us He was dead because of him.

He hadn't even gotten over the State line yet, but he already regretted his decision to go along with this plan. He missed his friends. He missed Roswell. He wanted to go back home. He wanted to hug his father and mother, to go on forever hugging Isabel… like he had in his dream, whispering to her that everything was going to be alright. He wanted to turn back time and throw that damn book out the fucking window… but he couldn’t. He had to live with his reality now... had to live with what he’d done.

And Alex couldn’t really remember anything after the coroner had zipped up the truck driver’s body. He vaguely heard some talking, more yelling—mainly from Valenti. Some more zipping and finally the sounds of a tow truck...but eventually everybody but him had begun to disappear into the night.

Until just Alex had remained. The guilt of his actions catching up to him, making his stomach churn until he had begun to dry-heave, the boulders continuing to dig deeper into his sides. He had welcomed the discomfort. It had seemed fitting...that pain. It had made him feel something other than guilty and numb.

He had eventually cried himself to sleep a few hours later. It had been the most serene he had felt in months...and he was glad he had gotten some peace. He wasn’t going to get much of that over the next couple of weeks...but even sleep had eventually worn out its welcome when Alex had been jolted awake by the sharp pain in his head.

Alex continued to rub his aching temples, contemplating what to do next. It wasn’t safe here anymore. He needed to get out of Roswell. He needed to go to the next town, or better yet, another state entirely. He needed to leave...and soon.

Alex had barely begun to climb out of the ditch before he doubled over in pain. God! This headache! Alex held his head in both his hands, the pain just seemed to get even worse … and then the images started.

Images flashed through his head at lightning speed, so rapid that he didn’t have time to process what was even seen. He couldn’t pinpoint anything that looked familiar. No image was greater than the other, something that he knew from childhood...or that stood out to him. The only thing he did know was that they weren’t exactly his memories, flashing through his head. They were of him—he saw himself with various members of the group... but the memories themselves seemed too forced from another entity, as if they were created by an outside hand. They all appeared to be too hazy, blurred out like an old photo album....a polorid that had lost its color, almost like a kaleidoscope— a film reel of someone else's life; sorting... picking through certain strips and transferring them to suck the feelings out...until they were nothing but smoke of the brain, before placing them in someone’s—his head— skull to call their own. The only thing Alex knew for sure was that these images were clearly from someone else's mind; they were too distant and lacking his very own essence to be his.

And as the images continued to pass aggressively through his brain, the ache in his temples began to build along with it...until he felt like his head was going to explode. His muscles spasmed to a point that of debilitation; his mind slipt in half. He could feel his eyes rolling into the back of his head as the pain soon became the only thing his body could register. It was so bad that he could feel himself shaking, convulsing all over the place...all of his limbs were set in motion, jerking...flipping him everywhere like a fish out of water. Everything become unfocused, blurred to a flash of pain. He was so out of it that he was unaware that he was bleeding profusely from his nose, that the blood had began to drip out in streams...and all he could remember after that was puking his guts out before the pain had become so intense that he fell back into the ditch and blacked out.

TBC...

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Last edited by morethenwords122 on Thu Jul 22, 2021 11:10 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: You and Whose Army? (AUwA, CC, Mature) Part 6 6/30/2014

Post by morethenwords122 »

Part 6


Carolyn:
Poor Alex.....not only did he have to leave, but he had those terrible images in his head.
Yeah, poor Alex :( He just keeps getting dealt some pretty hard cards.

Eve:
His headaches; it looks more as if they were mindwarp to me than headaches provocated by the accident, where he wasn't involved in with, because he saw it happen! :twisted:

So I wonder what is all about; Tess saving the world or Tess saving herself... :roll:
Your right about one thing, Tess does have something to do with his headaches but not in the way you might be thinking.
PS Great videa anyway... :wink:
Thanks! that means a lot :D

Eva:
I've got to second Eve here! These headaches aren't normal.
No, those headaches aren't normal but all will be explained in time :twisted:
Oh, Alex, why the hell did you do this?
That's a question even Alex's can't answer.
Even with the background I'm reading here, I keep wondering.
I like how even with all the background, everybody still doesn't know what to make of Tess! I like that... keeping everybody in suspense :D


A/N: Thanks everyone for the feedback! It keeps me going :D

P.S. I was sick all last week... so i may have gotten a little lazy with this part.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Isabel pulled Alex closer, pressing his head against her forehead. “I love you, Alex,”

She kissed him, her heart beating with the intensity of it. It took everything she had to let him go, but she had to be strong. She’d see him again. She was sure of it. “I will always love you.”


“You will?” Alex asked, raising his eyebrow in skepticism. She gave him a funny look and rolled her eyes. Did he even have to ask?! She had known from that night at the rave that he was the one. Isabel just kissed him again, leaving no room for uncertainty. She’d love him till the end of time. She’d love him until her last breath.

“Yeah. Well, I love you too.” Alex smiled, turning his head away in embarrassment. “Goodbye, Isabel”

He took one more look at her before turning away, disappearing into nothingness.


“Isabel.” Someone called her. She didn’t listen. She just watched Alex leave with a sinking feeling filling up her stomach….because people always leave her.

“Isabel.” The voice became clear, louder as she crashed back into consciousness.

“Isabel, honey."

Isabel didn’t open her eyes. She didn’t want to wake up. She wanted to sleep. To sleep forever… with Alex by her side.

“Isabel, sweetie, come on. Get up.”

Isabel moaned, slowly opening her eyes. There was no use denying it any longer. She couldn’t stop the inevitable. Her happiness was over.

“It’s time to get ready for the funeral.” Her mother said softly, stroking Isabel’s blonde hair. She looked around, taking in her surroundings....briefly glancing at the alarm clock on her night stand. It blinked red fire at her, reading 1:42 PM. She turned back to her mother. She wasn’t in the Crashdown anymore. She was awake now, in the real world and that meant…

“It was just a dream.” Isabel said softly. She could feel the tears falling down her cheeks. She had only been dreaming. Nothing had changed; Alex was still dead. “No. It was just a dream.”

Isabel gave in to her sadness, letting it overtake her. Yesterday's events came crashing back to her, each memory like a tidal wave of pain and loss..each feeling making her gasp out for air. Nothing was different; the funeral was still today. Alex was still dead. She was still broken.

Isabel continued to cry as her mother cradled her in her arms, offering comfort that only a mother could.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Max huffed as he continued to fuss with his tie. He never had to wear a tie before today. He always thought he wouldn’t have to until the day he got married, and then he'd just have his dad there to tie it for him...and to give him some last minute fatherly advice. But then again, things never really go according to plan, do they?

He'd never thought that he and Liz would barely be able to stand being in the same room together. He'd never thought that all he would be able to think about would be that he couldn’t wait to see Tess again.

He never thought that he would have a dead friend...never thought for a second that one of them would end up six feet under… especially not Alex Whitman. Alex had been life itself to their little group. The glue that kept everybody together, kept them all grounded. He was the heart and soul of them all.

What was going to happen to them now that he was dead? Were they going to fall apart? He knew that his sister was having a hard time; he had heard her crying earlier that morning.

Was she broken beyond repair? Was he?

Max looped his crimson tie through one last hole before looking back into the mirror with slight satisfaction. The tie was a bit lopsided, curving slightly to the left...but with one last touch, he decided to leave it alone. This was the best he was going to get it.

He sighed, a grim smile crossing his face before he turned away from the mirror and headed up the stairs to make a call.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Liz slowly turned her head towards the knock that sounded at her bedroom door.

She frowned, a bit confused. She had been in a haze while dressed for the funeral...and she wasn’t in any hurry to sped herself up. If it had been up to her, she wouldn't even be getting dressed, wouldn’t even be going at all...but her mom had kicked up such a fuzs that it had just seemed easier to give in and go. So with a sigh, Liz got up and walked over to her door, ready to open it... but she stopped herself, looking in the mirror that hung off of her door frame. She was still in her underwear and bra....and Liz couldn't help but laugh a little crazily at that.

She was delirious; her sleepless night had finally caught up with her. Everything was finally catching up to her.

She kept running what had happened through her head; the annoying questions tearing through her rage and desperation to make its presence known. Was Alex really dead? Probably...at least Max thought so. Was it Max’s fault Alex was being put into the ground today?[/] She couldn’t answer that...not honestly. Her head, the logical part of her body, told her that it wasn’t anyone’s fault… that Alex had gotten his head cut off by an oncoming semi. But her heart, the one that seemed to rule every one of her decisions lately, wasn’t so sure of Max’s innocence. A part of her, a big part…wanted to blame Max for everything, to fault him for saving her life that day at the Crashdown...but not being able to save Alex’s. She wanted to hate him. She wanted to hate everybody… including herself.

Another hard knock brought Liz back to the present, and she opened the door. Her mom was standing on the other side. “Mom…” Liz said, staring blankly at her mother’s small frame standing outside her bedroom door.

Neither of them knew what to do with the other; her mother had never been good at showing Liz affection or comfort of any kind. Liz had never been really good with feelings either...just like her mother, who had never even told Liz that she loved her, and she needed the emotional support from her parents the most right now... but Liz wouldn't get it. She didn’t want it.

To break the uncomfortable silence between the two, Liz handed her mother the blouse she was going to wear to the funeral. “Will you iron this?” Liz asked softly.

Her mother blinked at her, taken off guard. She hadn’t expected that. She took the garment from her. "Liz, Max is on the phone.” Nancy Parker shifted her left hand with the shirt to the side as she handed Liz the cordless phone with the other. Liz took it with hesitant finbers, lightly closinb the door behind her.

Liz brought the phone to her ear. “Liz?" came Max’s deep voice. Liz juzt stared out the window over her bed, unmoving.

“Liz, are you there?”

Liz gripped the phone tighter. A blue-jay flew by her window. It was beautiful.

Liz could hear Max sigh on the other end of the line. “Liz, please. Come on, talk to me.”

Liz moved her mouth but nothing came out. She wanted to say something. She really did. She wanted to squash the quiet desperation that came over to her om the line in Max’s voice… but she couldn’t. The hate that flowed through her was too intense. She couldn’t comfort him. He didn’t deserve it.

“Liz, please!" The desperation in Max’s voice was almost tangible now. “Look what’s happening to us?! I love you and I know you love me! I just wish you’d come back to me. I just wish you’d love me again...”

Liz glared at the phone. Her rage building to a wildfire within her now. How dare he! How dare he make a fool of her! She had believed in him, gave him all of her... and he had just thrown it away to have a one off with Tess!

“Liz! Liz! Talk to me!”

She couldn’t take it anymore, and shaking hands, Liz Parke4 hung up the phone...and smashed it against the wall.

-/-/-/-/-/-

Tess watched as the thick traces of blood washed away down the drain of the Valenti’s’ shower. She had never felt so tired in her life, so washed up. She felt like everything she had left inside herself had gone down the drain too. She had nothing left. She was nobody but herself…and she didn’t even want to be that.

Tess continued to wash the blood off her face. She’d had a hard night, hadn’t slept...not even a wink. Everything kept rushing back to her; panic overode every reasonable emotion or explanation in her head. She couldn’t think straight...couldn't help but feel that she was a bad person. How could she lie like this? Like it was so easy for her to? Like she had no empathy, no moral compassion to guild her home… just a selfish sense of self-preservation to keep her moving forward. She couldn't keep thinking that she had done everything she did for her friends, for their safety...because there a small part of her, a tiny bitty part of her soul, that had done it more for herself.

Her headache had gotten worse through the night. The pain was so bad, that at one point, she had to keep herself from screaming out in agony out of fear of waking Kyle and Jim… and then the blood had started… and the images.

It wasn’t normal. It was like everything just kept spiraling out of her control.

She didn’t know who she was anymore. It was like she owned nothing of herself now. It had become Destiny all over again, with her stuck in a corner...caged in. She couldn’t think for herself, because once again she had been forced into a life that she hadn’t asked for. Freedom was too far out of reach; everything she'd done to find herself had gone up in smoke.

She didn’t have a say anymore.

What had happened to them? Why couldn’t everything stay the way it had always been? With everyone safe, a family again. When had everyone began to pick sides? Turn on each other? Why did it have to be her who turned everyone's world upside down? Why was she still here?

She didn’t have any answers for her questions...not anymore.

Tess watched the last traces of blood flow down the drain.

It might as well have been her heart along with it.

TBC...

-/-/-/-/-/-
Last edited by morethenwords122 on Thu Jul 22, 2021 12:06 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: You and Whose Army? (AUwA, CC, Mature) Part 7 7/07/2014

Post by morethenwords122 »

Part 7


Carolyn:
Wow.....this is an emotional part....and it really makes you think.....
Max thinking of the first time to wear a tie...
No one that age ever thinks about having a dead friend.
I think anybody at any age doesn't think about someday having a dead friend :(
Poor Liz....no emotion or support from her mother.
And Tess with the blood in the shower with the images.....
I always felt that Liz was much closer to her father than she was with her mother and every time that Liz's mother was on the screen i felt that she was colder toward Liz than she should be. I felt that was where Liz got her cold side we saw at the end of season 2 from... as for Tess and the blood/images... that will be explained in time.

Eva:
Grief brings a lot of emotions. A wide palette of different emotions.
Grief affects everybody differently and i wanted to portray that in my story. I even took some of my own experiences with grief and incorporated it into one of the characters.
Tess has the same headachec as Alex?? WTF? What's going on there?
Everything will be explained in time :twisted:
Tess is frightening me with her mad thoughts and her feelings of not being in control!!!
I originally didn't plan on making Tess this out of control but then i began thinking of how i might feel if i was her in this situation... i would feel caged, mad, and out of control. Everything's riding on her shoulders... she just wants to keep everybody safe but she has to lie to do it... and it's tearing her apart... as for your theory about Tess having something planned for Alex... well, we'll see if your right.


A/N:Once again,thanks for all the feedback! I don't know if i would have continued this story if i didn't know that people were invested in it :D :D :D


-/-/-/-/-/-

Michael held Maria’s hand, turning the key into the ignition. He picked up the map off the dashboard and read the directions the Whitman’s had given all of them earlier that week. They were simple enough...since Alex was being buried at the local cemetery. It was only about six miles up the road from Maria’s house.

He sighed inwardly, holding Maria’s hand even tighter. It all seemed simple enough but… yet… it wasn’t. He hadn’t experienced a time in his life where everything was as complicated as it was now.

Nobody was speaking to each other. The tension that had been building all week between Max and Liz was completely unbearable now...and nobody, especially him, wanted to be a part of it. Everybody had startdd to pick sides...and it seemed that Max’s side was winning. It felt like one of those Sunday morning cartoons, where the bad guys fought against the good guys or vice versa...and right now, it was Aliens vs. Humans and the Aliens were winning. But that wasn’t the worst of it, at least not to Michael, the worst was that Liz had been cutting Maria off... and it was starting to hurt her.

Maria needed her friend. She needed Liz.

Michael had been trying to be her replacement, to give Maria everything she needed right now... but he could feel himself failing. He just wasn’t good at this kind of stuff. He didn’t do feelings well and this whole situation reeked of it; feelings he wasn’t even really sure he felt himself.

Sure, he missed Alex. He was a good friend, a loyal friend....and for a small period of time, Alex had helped him through a rough patch in his and Maria’s relationship and he had been grateful to him, appreciative for the time he had gotten to know the lanky boy. But he wasn’t suffering too hard from the loss… not like Maria was. How could he help Maria when he simply didn’t understand what she was feeling? It made him feel like a horrible person...that he didn’t understand what he was supposed to be feeling. He hadn’t been close to Alex….and now he would never be.

He felt like he had missed out on something great by keeping his distance, but then he’d look at Maria’s heartbroken face, and everything everybody else was going through, and he’d feel happy that he had never gotten to really know Alex.

“Michael…” Maria said, breaking Michael out of his daze. He hadn’t realized he had been staring off into space.

“Yes?” Michael asked, backing out of Maria’s driveway.

Maria didn’t speak again for awhile, but she did continued to stare at him for what seemed like eternity before she said. “Remember, don’t go over eighty...the Jetta’s engine can’t take it.” Maria paused, buckling her seat belt. She always did that now since Alex’s accident; she always buckled her seat belt. “Your driving sucks.”

“Oh, yeah,” Michael said, a small smile playiing across his lips. This conversation seemed familiar...like old times. “What exactly is wrong with my driving?”

Maria smiled too. She also remembered having this same conversation before. “You do have a tendency to drive erratically.”

Maria laughed a little and so did Michael. But their happiness didn’t last for long. Maria sobered up quickly...and went to look out her window, back inside her own thoughts again.

“Michael..."

“Yes, Maria?”

“You know I love you, right?”

Michael turned his head at her admission. She wasn’t looking at him. She was still staring out the window. He took a deep breath. He didn’t know what to say to that...didn't know what to make of her declaration. He had never thought about it before. He knew Maria had loved him long before she had said it… but did he love her back? He had deep feelings for her. He always had...but were they deep feelings of love? He didn’t think so. He didn’t think he was capable of it. Love was another emotion he just didn’t understand.

Michael turned his head back to the road ahead and sighed. “I know you do.”

He believed her words. Maria had never been one to say anything she didn’t mean... and for once, he was grateful for that. He was okay with someone loving him. Somebody had to.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

After smashing the phone against the wall, Liz hastily got the rest of her clothes on and bolted out the door, leaving her stunned mother and father behind. It wasn’t right! It wasn’t fair! How could Max just heap all of that onto her and expect everything to be okay with it!?

Nothing was okay, not between the two of them. It hadn’t been for awhile and now…. Itnever would be again.

Liz slammed her parents’ car door, jamming the keys into the ignition and revv out of the driveway of the Crashdown, raising a few eyebrows from the neighboring stores. She didn’t know where she was going...and she didn’t care. She quickly got the directions to the funeral home out of her head. She wasn’t going to the funeral. She couldn’t handle dealing with anybody right now, especially not Max Evans...not in the mood she was in. She’d probably end up killing him.

Liz continued driving, zooming down the main roads of Roswell. She hoped that she wouldn’t get pulled over; the last thing she wanted was to deal with the police. If she got pulled over, then Valenti would find out...and he'd tell everybody else, and she could do without another lecture from the great Max Evans. She took a quick look at the speedometer and realized she was going about ninety miles per hour. She smiled bitterly, pushing further onto the gas pedal...ignoring the angry honks of passing cars as she ran every red light that came her way. What gave her the right to live when Alex couldn’t?! She was just taking justice into her own hands. Everything would be righted again...with her blood on the pavement. Everything would go back to normal...if she died like Alex had.

Living was becoming a chore. Liz was tired. She was so sick of feeling. She wanted to shut off the emotions pulsing through her; every moment awake just felt like she was drowning, gasping for air. Trying to be normal, trying not to be afraid anymore. She couldn’t keep running. She just prayed that someone was stupid enough as her to run a red light.

Liz kept up her game of chicken...until about fifteen minutes later, she found herself in a familiar place...a sort of safe haven. A place that had once been like a second home.

She had stopped right outside of Alex’s house.

-/-/-/-/-/-

The service had been beautiful. Perfect, really. Nothing had been out of place. Everybody from school had been proper, offering their deepest regrets, saying that it was unfair that someone as loved and talented as Alex had to die so young. They hugged the grieving parents and gave their best wishes to all of the friends and family and….

Isabel wanted to slap every last one of them. They hadn’t known him, not like she had. Alex had never been popular, at least not with the kids at school. He had been too sweet and caring to fit into the world of high school, not like she did. How could any of them say that they were sad to see him go...when they hadn’t even been sad not to have known him when he was alive?

Max reached out for her hand...but Isabel didn’t take it. She wanted to stay, didn’t want to leave along with the others. She just couldn’t bring herself to leave Alex behind...and Max seemed to understand that; he wanted to be alone anyway. He said he would be back for her in an hour. She only half-listened…

She didn’t care if he ever came back, didn’t care if she was never thought of again. Why should she be remembered when Alex would be buried underneath the ground and forgotten… left to rot… alone? Isabel dropped to the ground, unable to hold herself up anymore. Nobody was around now. She didn’t have to pretend anymore.

She let all her emotions finally take over her, every emotion she hadn’t allowed herself to feel all week finally crashing over her. She sobbed, unable to control herself. Why did he have to die?! Was this God’s way of punishing her…because she wasn’t normal?! Was she being punished because she was an alien?!

She knew she was being irrational. God wasn’t that cruel...but her heart didn’t understand that. She felt like she was in some alternate universe, burning in hell...and every day was a day where every moment meant torture for her. She was broken; her heart torn in two. One half was soon to be hidden underneath six feet worth of dirt, and the other part was lost among all the things that Isabel had misplaced along the way in her eighteen years of life. She didn’t know where it was. Maybe it was buried underneath the house keys she had lost back in the sixth grade...or stuffed in her drawer where she hid all the notes horny boys had sent to her over all the years?

Who knew? Maybe it was lost somewhere out in space?

She sobbed harder, hugging Alex’s coffin. She wanted to be close to him again, closer to that missing piece of her heart. She wanted to be buried side by side with him. She wanted to die.

She was dead inside anyway...might as well be buried along with him.

-/-/-/-/-/-

Max drove his jeep deep into the desert. He had to clear his mind. He didn’t exactly know where he was going, but he guessed he would end up where he usually did whenever he drove into the desert...near the pod chamber. The pods were like a force of nature, always drawing him in. No matter where he was or who he had become, the pods reminded him of where he'd came from...that he’d always be an alien. It was kind of hard to forget...but he supposed it wouldn't hurt to be reminded. Not that he had forgotten it.

Max stopped his car about a mile away from the pods, deciding to walk the rest of the way. The entrance to the pods was too narrow to drive up on... and he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

It was a rare day in the desert; the air was cool and moist. He could feel the breeze flow through his styled hair and pass along his face. Cool air was a rare luxury in New Mexico..and Max took advantage of it, lingering outside the rock door that hid the pod chamber and letting the breeze pass over him. He took a pack of cigarettes out of the breast pocket of his suit jacket. Smoking had become his dirty little secret, a vice that nobody knew about. Well, Alex had known about it. You could really hide anything from Alex. The boy was just too observant.

Taking out his cell phone, he decided to dial Liz’s cell number again for the fifth time today. He prayed that this time that she’d answer. He was worried about her. She hadn’t shown up at the funeral.

After she had hung up on him earlier, he had expected her to be angry with him. He had also expected her to ignore him all day...but he hadn’t expected her not to show up. It was disrespectful and that was something that Liz just wasn’t… or so he had thought.

Max couldn’t help himself, he kept running through every worse scenario that came into his mind. Was she hurt? Was she lying in a ditch somewhere? Had she left Roswell? She had threatened to leave during one of their arguments earlier that week... but he hadn’t taken her seriously. Maybe he should have.

He lit his cigarette, waiting for Liz to answer the phone...but as he expected, he'd only gotten her answering machine. “This is Liz Parker’s phone. Sorry, I missed your call but if you leave your name and number, I’ll get back to as soon as I can. Bye.”

He took a drag of his smoke, angrily waitinb for the beep. He was sick and tired of this shit! He couldn’t keep worrying about her for the rest of his life! Liz was a big girl. She could look after herself. She didn’t need him on her heels.

He couldn’t keep trying to find something, anything that would connect them together again. He didn’t have any of the right answers to Liz’s pronlems. He could only hope that Liz would find her way back to him again. The Liz, the beautiful Liz Parker he had fallen in love with all those years ago would come running into his arms…

But with each day, with every fight or resentful glare, Max was giving up hope. He no longer had faith of ever seeing that girl again.

Max rubbed his forehead, frustrated. He hung up the phone. He wasn’t going to do this anymore. He wasn’t going to worry anymore. He was done. Liz was nothing to him now.

Snuffing the cigarette out, Max stuffed his cell phone into his back pocket and decided it was time to head back to the jeep. He had to go pick up his sister.

She was someone who was worth his concern.

TBC...

-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Last edited by morethenwords122 on Thu Jul 22, 2021 1:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: You and Whose Army? (AUwA, CC, Mature) Part 8 7/14/2014

Post by morethenwords122 »

Part 8


Carolyn:
Max goes to the desert and smokes.....then heads back to take care of Isabel.......has he really given up on Liz?
I hope all of this sacrifice will be worth it in the end.
Has Max really given up on Liz?... No, Max could never give up on Liz. He's just being pulled in a difficult direction.


A/N: The song featured in this part is 'Both Sides Now By Joni Mitchell'Play when you see this :( /b]

The section in italics is a flashback sequence

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Liz ignored her ringing cell phone. It was probably just Max calling again...and she didn't want to have to deal with him. Pressing the decline button, she drove her car up the rest of the way of the narrow driveway, parking in front of the Whitman residence. She didn't care if she looked out of place in the near empty neighborhood. They were probably at the funeral right now; the funeral for somebody that few of them even took the time to get to know. So who were they to judge her for not showing up?

Even if they had the right to judge, Liz wasn't going to feel bad about it. She was where she needed to be, and that wasn't at the funeral. She was sent here for a reason. Maybe she could find something…anything… that could prove everybody wrong. There had to be something to prove to herslrf that she wasn't crazy...or a heartless bitch...or merely in denial…because somewhere in Liz’s heart, she knew that Alex wasn't dead.

Because If Alex was really dead… then she would be worse off then she was now.

:(

Closing the car door gently to keep from drawing attention, Liz walked up the rest of the Whitman’s driveway and to the left side of the house. She had never been through this side of the house before.

Liz laughed bitterly. That might be because I never had to sneak into Alex’s room before.

The back yard was scattered with a litter of toys that had turned yellow with age. Toys that Alex must had played when he was a little kid. The grass was overgrown; it looked like it had stopped being mowed around the same time that Alex had abandoned childhood.

Weeds had overtaken the once bountiful rose garden. Liz could still remember the summer Alex’s great-aunt had came to stay...could still feel the hot summer sun beating down upon her nine-year-old face as his great aunt Maggie had forced her, Alex, and Maria to help her plant rose bushes in the back yard. Liz smiled as the memory began to overtake her, a tidal wave of happiness. it was a feeling that now felt alien to her.

They had been miserable that day. Planting roses wasn't exactly a nine-year- old’s idea of a good time...and Liz could still remember hearing Maria complain about how all the sun was going to turn her skin into leather as if it had happened yesterday...and not seven years ago. She could still see Alex making lame faces that caused Maria to slap him on the shoulder, while Liz just rolled her eyes at her best friends, going back to planting the flowers…but it hadn't been all bad.

Alex had made funny jokes behind Aunt Maggie’s back, causing Liz and Maria laugh...and once they had finished planting the flowers, Aunt Maggie had been so impressed with their diligence that she gave each of them ten bucks to spend on whatever they wanted.

(Alex had brought a new issue of Spider-Man. Maria got some fancy new healing rocks to add to her then growing collection...and Liz, well, she didn't buy anything. She just stuffed the ten dollar bill deep into her jeans pocket...and began to think up ideas for Christmas presents.)

Liz shook her head, chasing away the memory. She had to keep her mind focused....and after a few more minutes of walking and strolling through some more memories that the back yard had awakened, she finally found herself standing outside of the window of Alex’s bedroom.

She sighed with relief. She didn't know if she could handle any more of these memories. She didn't even bother to see if the window was unlocked before sliding the window seal up with one hand and climbeing through.

Alex always kept his window unlocked.

She was finally in the room...and she found herself almost saying, “Alex, I swear to God, if you make a joke about this, I’ll kill you!” but stopped herself at the last second. Sadness overtook her again. It was like she had expected his stupid grin to be beaming at her when she had climbed through the window. She had really, for a moment, been ready for him to make some lame ass joke about her being so unable to resist him that she had to climb through his window to see him...but of course, the joke would never come. She wouldn't need to kill him. He was already dead.

Liz hesitated before deciding to do what she had come to do. She began to look around, immediately feeling a different air in the room. It seemed lifeless, like it was lacking something essential now… a loss of essence. She couldn't put her finger on it exactly, but she had a feeling that she knew what it was. It was missing Alex’s warm face.

Liz cursed herself. When did she become so damn stupid?! She felt like smacking herself. She went back to rummaging through his drawers. She wasn't looking for anything specific. She just needed to find something. Anything, to prove she was right… that she wasn't off her rocker. She knew in her heart that Alex was alive out there…or that he had at least been murdered. The suicide bullshit that Valenti had been trying to shove down their throats all week was a lie. She knew her friend..and he would never commit suicide. He loved life way too much.

Slamming another drawer shut, Liz turned her attention to Alex’s computer desk and began to sift through the stuff on there, opening and closing doors. She hadn't found anything very important so far, just normal teenage boy stuff. A Playboy was hidden underneath a stack of old graded papers; she'd smirked a little when she saw that. She had almost given up on the desk altogether when her fingers closed around a velvet box..and she pulled it out. It was in the shape of a heart; probably some failed attempt to give Isabel a Valentine’s Day gift this year.

Liz rolled her eyes, Only Alex would think a heart shaped box was romantic. Thinking on it, he had prrobably been right; she would have likely swooned a little if she had seen Max pull out a heart shaped velvet box for her back in the day. God, she had been such a foolish girl.

She opened the box, her breath catching in her throat as she stared at the sparking object. It was a ring, an engagement ring. What on earth was he doing with a wedding ring?! Had he thought of…?

Liz took the ring out of the box, gripping it tightly...holding it in her sweating palms. She didn't have to finish her thought. It was coming back to her. She remembered a conversation that she and Alex had on a sunny day, one month ago.

-----

One Month Ago

“I got this in the mail today.” Alex said proudly, carefully unfolding the wrapping paper to reveal a book. It looked normal, commonplace...and Liz couldn’t understand why Alex was so excited about it, until she looked closer. It was a book of poems. The full collection of Robert Frost.

Robert Frost was Alex’s favorite poet.


“Really?” Maria said, giddy with excitement for her friend. “Who’s it from?

“Leanne.” He was beaming, radiating life. He looked like he had just won a million bucks. Liz felt a small twinge of jealously, remembering when she had once looked like she had won a million dollars too… back when Max still loved her and only her.

“Oh, your Sweden tryst?” Liz teased, trying to ignore the ache in her heart. This wasn't about her pain; this was about Alex’s happiness.


Alex bowed his head at her joke, blushing furiously.

Liz raised a eyebrow. What was wrong with him?! She was just joking.

“Oh. My. God.” Maria covered her mouth to hold in a squeal. “You really did sleep with her.”

Liz rolled her eyes. Leave it to Maria to be dramatic and take things too far.


“No!” Alex lied, blushing even more than before. He basically just sealed his own fate. Alex was a terrible liar.

“Oh, my God! You did!” Liz yelled back in disbelief. She had never thought that Alex would lose his virginity to anyone but Isabel. Just another example of how things never went the way you expect them to.


Alex threw his hands up in defeat. He already knew he wasn’t going to win this one. “Fine!” Alex slumped in his chair. “Yeah, I slept with Leanne.”

“I fucking knew it!” Maria squealed, bouncing on her side of the bed.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked Liz, a little hurt. Alex never kept anything from them.


“Because I was trying to avoid this!” Alex gestured towards Maria, who was doing some kind of complicated funny little dance on her side of the bed. Liz groaned. She loved Maria but…

“Point taken.” Sometimes Maria was just too much.

Alex shook his head in agreement. The two laughed when Maria almost fell off the bed while trying to do what could only be described as a hip bend.


Maria rolled her eyes at their laughter. “I got to go.” She groaned, getting off the bed. “I promised I’d help my mother close up shop. You need a ride, Liz?”

She shook her head. She wanted to hang with Alex. She had some more questions. “No, Alex will take me home.”


Maria nodded her head and picked her keys off Alex’s desk. “Okay. Bye, my beautiful girlfriends.”

“I resent that!” Alex sounded insulted, but he was smiling. “I’m not a girl.”

Maria rolled her eyes again. “Whatever,” she said as she opened the bedroom door. “You know you love it.” She ruffled Alex’s hair before she walked out and closed the door behind her.


“When did she stop taking me seriously?” Alex asked, smiling as he fixed his hair.

“When did she ever?” Liz answered back.

“Good point.” Alex got up from his desk chair and sat on the bed next to her, taking Maria’s old spot. He stared at the present with an odd look on his face.

Liz gently took the present that Leanne sent him out of his hand, “Does this mean you've given up on Isabel?” Liz asked, holding the book up to Alex’s face to make her point.


“I don’t know.” Alex swatted the book. “I love her. I love them both… but for different reasons…” He paused briefly, turning his head toward his bedroom window. Liz could tell that he was hiding something. He could never look at her when he wasn't being honest. She always figured him out too easily.

He rubbed his hands nervously.

"I've loved Isabel for as long as I can remember; my love for her is just a part of me now … but with Leanne…We just have more in common and she doesn't jerk me around.”

Liz nodded in agreement. She loved Isabel… but the girl was as fickle as one person could be. It wasn't like Liz couldn't understand why. Max had been hot and cold a lot in the beginning too but this was different. Alex was too… Alex to play games with. She shouldn't be hurting him … no matter what her reasons were.


The two friends sat in silence for the next half-hour, deep in their own thoughts before Alex broke the silence with, “I’m thinking about proposing to Isabel by the end of the school year.”

Liz was stunned speechless. She hadn't expected that… but she should have. Alex was a total romantic. He believed in soul mates, in fate. And she had too… once upon a time.

“I can see you doing that.” Liz laughed. She was a little bitter. She always thought that her and Max would be married after their senior year… and when future Max confirmed her dream, it made it all even worst. That dream was never going to come true now.


“Just… Don’t tell Iz, alright,” Alex pleaded softly. “I don’t even know if I’m even going to attempt to buy the ring.”

“I won’t.” Liz would never betray Alex’s trust. “I promise.”

“But I better be your best man if she says ‘yes’.” Liz said, smacking Alex’s shoulder playfully.

“What about Maria?” Alex asked, rubbing his shoulder in mock pain.

“You kidding me!” Liz smiled. “She’d kill you if you made her wear a tux… but me on the other hand, I’m…”


Liz didn’t finish before Alex said, “Dying to wear men’s clothing,” He teased.

“Yep.” Liz said. “It’s always been on my bucket list. I always wondered what it was like to walk around in men’s boxers.”

The two looked at each other and burst into laughter.

After a few moments of intense giggling, Alex turned toward Liz with an intense look in his eyes that Liz had never seen before and asked, “Do you think she’d say yes, Liz?”


Liz turned away and mulled it over. She could see Isabel easily saying no… but a part of Liz thought that Isabel Evans would never find any other man who could love her like Alex did...and a part of her knew that Isabel knew that too.

“She’d be stupid not to marry you.” Liz replied, resting her head on his shoulder.

Yep, she’d be stupid not to marry Alex Whitman.


------

“You’re an idiot, Alex Whitman." Liz spat, jamming the ring back into the box and throwing it back into the drawer. He was stupid if he thought that was going to last. Love never lasts… especially with someone like Isabel Evans. “A fucking idiot.”

Liz couldn't tell if she was telling herself that...or a dead Alex.

She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to rein in her emotions. She sat in the desk chair, slumping against it, grabbing the book of poems that Leanne had sent that had been left on Alex’s desk alongside his computer. She flipped through the pages with an absent mind. She didn’t expect to find anything in there. She just needed something to keep her mind from wandering to old flights of fancy...and turning pages of poems that she had heard a thousand times was better than trying to think up a thousand ways to kill Max Evans.

Liz smoothed down the page of the table of contents, looking for a specific poem. Alex’s favorite poem. She scanned the left side of the page, looking at the numbers to find what she was looking for. It was on page two-hundred and forty-two. She began flipping through the pages again, finding the page number. Her brow furrowed in confusion when she read the altered page of the poem.

The first segment of the poem was taped over with a letter that covered most of it, but she could still see traces of the words through the loose-leaf paper that had been taped to the top half of the page. The letter was written in a sloppy loop of block letters...and the rest of the poem was highlighted in a faded-purple marker. Liz didn't pay any attention to the written words on the top, choosing to read the only segment of the poem that was still visible.

She cleared her throat and began to read out loud:

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.”


Liz’s voice croaked on the last sentence; this was no coincidence… this was Alex’s favorite poem. He had tortured her and Maria with it a million times before. She sat up, a bizarre sense of excitement humming in her veins, briefly closing her eyes to fight against the tears that wanted to fall before she lifted her eyes upward to read the letter that had been taped on the top.

Dearest Liz,

I can’t explain much. I’ll be surprised if they don’t think to look in this book for anything first...but please understand, they will try to make my death look like a suicide. Don’t believe it!!!


I am enclosing here something on the next page that I can only trust you with. You cannot share this with anyone else in the group, not even Maria. The reason I trust you and only you with this information is because I know you will see right through anything that comes your way, through any ploy...and I know that you will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of my murder.

Good-bye Liz. I love you. Be safe. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. You never know… maybe your enemy may be someone you are already close to.

Alex


Liz continued to stare at the letter long after reading it. Murdered? Alex had been… murdered. She turned to the next page, reading the title of the poem. It was called ‘Fire and Ice’. Another poem that Alex adored. A line of the poem was underlined numerous times with the word ‘destruction’ emphasized. There was some kind of code written underneath it.

“01001100-01100101-01100001” she mumbled out loud, confusion once again washing over her. She didn’t know what that meant. Was it some kind of computer jargon? How was she supposed to figure this out if she couldn’t understand it?!

Her frustrations grew. The answer was right on the tip of her tongue. She could have sworn that she had seen this before. This type of code was familiar. She’d seen Alex working with it numerous times. It was… it was…Binary code! Liz jumped a foot in the chair.

It was some kind of location! But to where?!

Maybe she could try Alex’s computer.

She turned it on...and after a few minutes, she began typing the numbers into one of Alex’s computer programs. She was sure of the program...sure that she was using was the one most likely to help her. She could remember him telling her about some kind of software he had designed while he was in Sweden. It was just luck that she had actually been listening to him that day when he went into his computer mode and had caught the name of it. She waited impatiently as the program processed the numbers she had typed in and… a few seconds later, a name popped onto the computer screen over and over again, filling up the small space with one name.

A name she had been hearing a lot since Alex’s trip ended. The name was Leanne. Liz covered her mouth, a numb sense of shock filling her body and snding her into overload with all the possibilities that began to cloud her head. Was it possible…?

Liz reached into the side pocket of her blue jeans and took out her cell phone. She found Max’s number and dialed it. He picked up on the fifth ring.

“Yes?” he said with an edge to his voice. He didn't sound too happy to hear from her. She shrugged her shoulders at his greeting. She didn't care. She wasn't happy to be talking to him either.

“Have everybody meet me at Alex’s house, in Alex’s room. I have to talk to you guys,” Liz said with a blank tone to her voice. Everything hadn't sunk in yet… but she knew one thing. Everybody needed to know. She couldn't tell them about what she found exactly, but they deserved to know what she could tell.

Max didn't answer her right away...and it made Liz angry. She didn't have time for this. “Max."” she said through clenched teeth.

“Fine,” He finally said. There was a defeated tone to his voice. “I’ll tell everybody to meet you.” She didn't wait to for him to say anything else before she hung up.

She threw her phone onto the desk. The clunking sound the phone made echoed through her head as she went back to staring at the computerized name that flashed on the screen. She had finally found what she'd been looking for. She finally had something to rub into Max’s self-righteous, self-serving face…

So, why didn't she feel happier?

TBC...

-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Last edited by morethenwords122 on Thu Jul 22, 2021 3:01 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: You and Whose Army? (AUwA, CC, Mature) Part 9 8/8/2014

Post by morethenwords122 »

Part 9


Eve:
I can't believe that Max turned into such a ass....! And I don't think it is mindwarp but more, his natural caracter! :twisted:
Yes, Max's behavior has nothing to do with a mindwarp. Tess only broke the bond between Max and Liz, she didn't change his personality. While, Max is a good guy... he isn't necessarily a nice guy.
Anyway, thanks and waiting for more because I am still in the dark about Tess and Alex's plans...
More of Tess' and Alex's plan will be revealed in Act II of this story.


A/N: Sorry, i haven't posted anything in awhile but i've had a crazy couple of weeks! but i'm back now and i have a new part.

-/-/-/-/-/-

I’m in Stark, Arizona. Call me at 541-222-0919 from the old pay phone on the back road of Chestnut and Kindle Avenue on the 29th at 9:00PM.

P.S. Don’t forget to bring a dollar fifty for the pay phone. Talk to you soon.


Tess ran her fingers over the neatly written note on the back of a postcard she had gotten in the mail earlier that week. The letters danced in her mind, playing over and over again for the hundredth time. Every word, every sentence...until they were embedded permanently into her memory. There was no return address, but it was still too risky to keep the card for much longer.

She was probably going to have to burn it later tonight. Tess scanned the card yet again; she didn't want to forget anything. The brief note was written in a sloppy form of cursive, obviously not the poster's original handwriting. The writer had disguising it to avoid detection, if the lopsided positioning of the sentences were anything to go by.

Tess carefully turned the card back to the front. There was nothing special there either. It didn't really give anything way, just the name of some town called Stark in North Dakota in big red, white, and blue stationing. Tess flipped it back, smiling a little as she re-read the note again. He was smarter at this than she thought he would be. He didn't mention his name, any real address...just the number he gave her. It was probably either to a pay phone in the area or to a disposable cell.

But the point was that neither was traceable. He was also smart enough to tell her to use the old pay phone on Chestnut and Kindle. It was an aging thing... that looked like something out of the sixties, and had an out of order sign hanging from it...but it was a well known amongst the teens of Roswell that it had been fixed years ago by some traveling drug dealer, who had used it to sell smack without getting caught by the local police. There were some adults that knew this fact too, mainly cheating husbands or wives to keep their affairs a secret from their prying spouses. But what it was mainly used for drug addicted teens... or their dealers...wanting to do drug transaction with a minimal chance of getting caught.

Yes, he was smart, almost calculating in a way. Not that Tess had thought that he wouldn't be. He had probably planned this note out months in advance. She wouldn't be surprised if he even picked his current location out ahead of time too.

A persistent buzzing in her hip pocket interrupted Tess’ thoughts of admiration. It was just her cell phone. It was probably Kyle or Jim, calling to ask how she was doing. They’d want to know where she was...and why she had snuck out of the house earlier this morning. She was surprised that she had been able to avoid their calls for as long as she had... especially since she'd ducked out of the house after her shower without leaving a note behind.

Tess felt badly that she’d probably worried them. It wasn't a good time to just disappear without telling somebody… but she couldn't stand to be around anyone at that point in time. She just wanted to be alone with her thoughts.

Her exhaustion continuing to catch up to her, Tess took a look at her watch to check the time. It was 4:30 PM. She shook her head. The funeral had ended almost an hour ago. Time seemed to have gotten away from her as she had wandered around town, collecting her thoughts. She's spent most of the day sitting on the swing set at the West Roswell Elementary School playground. She had decided earlier that week that she wasn't going to go to the funeral. She couldn't have handled the amount of energy that pretending would have required from her. She wasn't good at faking her emotions like that...and with her luck, the overwhelming amount of emotional auras swirling around her would have caused her to have a nervous breakdown, and she just couldn't afford that right now.

Besides, it wasn't like she would be missed anyway. The ringing from her phone had became more constant, more annoying. She took her phone of her pocket and decided to answer it. She couldn't avoid talking to either of them any longer. She owned them some kind of an explanation.

Tess didn’t even check the caller I.D. before she flipping the phone open, “Kyle, I’m okay. Stop calling me. I’ll be home in an hour.”

“It’s not Kyle,” a deep voice answered back, causing her to tense up. She knew that voice. She’d recognize it anywhere.

“Max?”

“Yep, it’s me.” Max said nervously, almost edgily. “It’s Max.”

“I know it’s you.” Tess snapped. “What do you want?”

She winced. She hadn't meant for her voice to sound so harsh. She had no reason to be mad or irritated with him… but she was. He shouldn't be calling her. He should be calling Liz.

But Max didn't sound fazed by her harshness. “I was wondering, if I can….” He paused.

He didn't speak for so long that Tess began to wonder if they had gotten disconnected, but then she heard him sigh on the other end of the line.“I was wondering if I can talk to you?”

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

“Jim, I looked at every angle. I looked at these files from every which way. I've interviewed everybody I could think of to interviewand Ieven talked to the boy’s teachers, his friends; even his parents… and they’re all saying the same thing.”

Jim Valenti glanced at the cardboard box filled with folders that Sheriff Hanson had given to him earlier that week. All the evidence, new and old, that he had been collecting on Alex’s accident was right there. Jim had read everything with a critical eye since he had gotten it. Alex’s public records, transcripts, report cards, eye-witness accounts of the car crash, and even his goddamn I.Q. levels and test scores. He had read it all. Sometimes Jim would even read everything twice, trice … looking over every word that had been written down with such intensity that he thought his eyes would bleed.

He couldn't help it. It was like he was trying to find something but he didn't quite know what is was… but he knew if he could just find it, find a better answer to this whole godforsaken mess, then maybe… just maybe… he wouldn't have to be the reason that his son’s friends all fell apart.

Jim ran his hand gently over the lid of the cardboard box--and despite his gentle attitude at the moment, Jim Valenti felt like smashing something. Every aspect of Alex’s life was going to be stuffed into one tiny box, left to collect dust for all eternity. Jim swore to himself as he ran his fingers through his graying hair. It wasn’t right for a young boy’s life...for Alex’s life...to be summed up in three files that fit into one small box.

Hanson put his hand on his hip, right where he wore his gun over the pants of the tux he had worn to the funeral. “Jim, everybody’s saying the same thing. He’s been distant, distracted, at times irrationally impulsive and extremely solemn...temperamental.”

And as Hanson continued on, Jim felt like punching him. “I’m sorry, Jim, I don’t want to believe it either… but the evidence is pointing to it.” Hanson paused before whispering, “I’m sorry but that’s my ruling.”

Jim laughed bitterly as he stared at the big red words stamped over the cause of death on the file that Jim had taken out of the box. He stared at the smiling picture of Alex that had been taken his sophomore year.

It had been determined that Alex’s Whitman’s death was to be ruled a suicide.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

The bell over the Crashdown’s double glass doors chimed loudly, signaling a new customer. Jeff Parker turned his head away from the short order cook, who was standing in for Liz’s friend Michael...and walked over to the booth that tge man sat down in. He rolled his eyes a little before plastering a fake smile on his face as he greeted the man. He could tell by the way he was dressed that he was a travelling business man, and they were all snotty and demanding customers to deal with.

"Can I help you?” Jeff asked, handing him a menu. He also pulled out his notepad before eyeing the man carefully. There was something almost alarming...different...about the man in front of him.

He was a tall almost lanky. His hair was slicked back and his eyes were shielded by a big pair of aviator sunglasses. His clothes were dark in color; his jacket the only item on him that stood out in a sea of black, but it was fancy in a way that announced its designer label. But that wasn’t what unsettled Jeff Parker. No, it was the air that he projected.

The man had a deadly presence. His entire being marked with the danger, rotting of death. His body language made Jeff stand up a little straighter, heightening his senses. Jeff felt like he was in the presence of overwhelming authority, like a police officer or a judge...but with the deathly intimidation of a serial murderer.

Jeff felt like he was around a ticking time bomb...just looking for a reason to light the fuse.
The man briefly glanced at the Crashdown menu that Jeff had handed him before he discarded it onto the table. He had an odd look on his face as he did so, like he had touched something dirty and beneath him.

“Yes,” the man said, his European accent rough, his tone almost fussy...prissy. “I’m looking for someone by the name of Elizabeth Parker. I’ve asked around town and they say she works here.”

“Liz is my daughter,” Jeff said, picking the menu up off the table. “She’s not here right now. May I ask what you want with her?”

Jeff could see the man’s eyebrow rise over the rim of his sunglasses. He cleared his throat before saying, “Oh, it’s nothing important…” He laughed a little. “I just have a few questions for her.” The man looked away to rummage around in his jacket pocket.

He pulled out a business card and handed it to Jeff. “If you’ll give her this to her... and ask her to call this number, it will be greatly appreciated.” The man finished.

“Yeah, I’ll do that…” Jeff trailed off. The uneasy feeling in his stomach growning to stone. What does this man want with Liz? Jeff looked at the card. It was a fairly standard business card: white in coloring with black letters. Jeff realized with vague horror that it had no name…. just a number.

What has Lizzie gotten into?

Jeff could hear the door's bell chiming as it signaled the man walking out the door. He took his eyes off the card and watched as he got into the passenger side of a town car and drove off. Once Jeff saw the car disappear deeper into Roswell, he threw the card in the garbage can and went back to his customers.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Maria removed the jacket Michael had worn to the funeral, then carefully unbuttoned his long-sleeved shirt as her left hand touched upon the front of his boxers. She rubbed on the bulge there, not to jerk him off but to cause friction. He bit her neck as she heard him moan softly.

But she had only heard the sound vaguely, from a million miles away. She moaned too, as she dug her nails into his back, only going through the motions of fooling around with her boyfriend. Every touch, kiss, movement-- every feeling she projected was false. She felt nothing. Nothing except a faint, numbing sense of pleasure...and she welcomed that. It was nice to feel something besides bone-crushing heartache for a change.

She knew on some level that Michael was aware of this, had accepted it in a sense. It hadn’t been his idea to go parking, but he hadn’t resisted the notion either...and she'd been glad that he hadn’t. Because this wasn’t about them, it was about something greater... something stronger than the pain and the sorrow. It was about offering each other a warped sense of comfort...of love.

It was her way of letting Michael show her that he loved, that he wanted to comfort her. She knew that he couldn’t do it any other way...and if he needed to let him fuck her to do it, then she’d let him. She wouldn’t stop him. Because in her own sick way, she needed it more than he did...needed the blinding hunger of lust, of closeness to get her through her grief.

Because in the few moments that they were intertwined, she felt something that she never did any other time. She felt love, adoration, and pleasure….and right now, she desperately needed that. She needed it more than anything.

So, she would endure the awkward fumbling….would go through the emotion and the sounds that she knew made him happy. She could handle alittle pretending if she could feel loved for just a second.

Michael laid her down gently, the rough material of the back seat that had crackinb with age underneath her weight...scratching her back a little. He pulled out a condom from his wallet, pulling down his pants the rest of the way, sliding his boxers down along with them. He put it on,, slowly discarded her underwear before he entered her.

Maria sighed, turning her head toward the digital clock on the radio...staring at its small numbers flashing in dark red. Theyalmost looked like blood. It read 4:45 PM.

Alex has only been in the ground for an hour.

Miichael thrust forward and her whole body began to explode with pleasure.

TBC...

-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Last edited by morethenwords122 on Thu Jul 22, 2021 4:41 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: You and Whose Army? (AUwA, CC, Mature) Part 10 8/10/2014

Post by morethenwords122 »

Part 10

Eve:
Who is the man who has asked for Liz? an alien again, because Mr Parker had a bad feeling about him and I do to... especially with him, not telling his name which can only meant troubles!
I'll give you this...The man looking for Liz isn't an ailen but you are right not to trust him... because he is something extremely dangerous.
And with whom was Tess talking to? Another enigma... could it be Nasedo or one from the NY aliens?
I think you'll be surprised to know that Tess is talking to someone that you already met
Anyway, now that Max isn't anymore bonded to Liz, he is starting to feel attracted to Tess; not sure of the result because this girl is only looking for her own plans but that he became an ass must be the explanation!
You think Max is an ass now... wait until you read the chapter after this.

Carolyn:
why does Max want to talk to Tess now.....????
You'll find out in this chapter.

A/N: I won't be able to post anything new this week coming up so... i decided to post two chapters in one week. Sorry that this chapter is short but the next chapter will make up for that.

/-/-/-/-/-/-

Max glanced at Tess’ gloomy face as he parked his car a couple of blocks away from the cemetery. He had almost forgotten that he still had to pick up his sister. He turned off the ignition with a quick flick of his hand, settling into the soft silence that surrounded the interior of the car.

Tess hadn't said much to him since he picked her up from the playground a while ago. He still didn't even know why he had called her in the first place; his fingers had just dialed her number before he had even realized what he had been doing… before he could stop himself. At the time, he had decided to chuck his unusual impulsive to Liz’s unexpected call. Her demand that he have everybody meet her at Alex’s had frazzled him in a way that Max couldn't explain anymore than he could have told someone why he had called Tess …. but once the phone had started ringing, he had let it, welcoming the ringing in his ear.

And Max had realized by the third ring that he actually needed to talk to someone neutral, someone on the outside looking out that he could unleash all his feelings onto. He hadn't even known how close he was to breaking down until Tess had picked up the phone. He hadn't realized that he had such pent-up feelings of rage and sadness threatening to choke him every time he breathed too deeply. He'd known he was that angry, but hadn't realized his resentment until Liz had called and hung up on him.

Tess was a safer bet than Michael, who'd probably just tell him to be a man and fix it... and he couldn't burden Isabel with his feelings. His sister was already on a tight rope, barely hanging on to her own sanity. She didn't need his despair piled on top of her own; she was one step away from burying herself in the ground with Alex, and to burden her with anything else would be like handing her a loaded gun and leaving her to her own devices. Isabel couldn't handle this, not right now…maybe not ever.

“So, Liz wants to talk to us, huh?” Tess asked, playing with her hands.

Max looked at her, surprised. That was the first thing she had said to him since giving him the directions to her location so he could pick her up. “Yeah,” Max tilted his head, trying to see Tess’ face better. “She said she wanted us to meet her at Alex’s.”

He could see the lines in Tess’ face tighten at the mention of Alex’s name… but she didn't say anything and went back to staring out of the window on her side of the car.

Max raised his eyebrow as he asked, “You weren't at his funeral either. Why?” He had a good idea about why Liz hadn't shown up and he was sure that it had something to do with him… but Tess? He hadn't the slightest clue why she hadn't shown… and it bothered him.

“I needed to be alone,” she said. “Why do you care, anyway?” she faced him with a questioning look etched on her face.

That took him off guard. Tess had never been that bold with him before. She usually just went along with what ever he said. She never questioned him…or asked questions. Not like that anyway.

So… Did he? Did he care? Max looked away from her questioning gaze, drumming his finger on the steering wheel of his jeep. He mulled her question over. It was a simple one; it should have produced a simple answer. But he had trouble coming up with one he felt right saying to her...or at least one he liked. He guessed he didn't care that she hadn't shown…but that didn't mean that he had liked the lack of her presence.

“I was a little surprised,” he lied. He hadn't been at all surprised that she hadn't shown up. It wasn't like she was really welcome anyway. “I knew you two were kind of close near the end.” That wasn't a lie. He had noticed that the two had been rather chummier than usual since Alex’s return from Sweden. He'd also knew that it had bothered Isabel to no end.

“Yeah,” Tess replied softly, so quiet in fact that he almost had trouble hearing her. “He was a good guy. I really liked him.” She finished, playing with her hands again.

Max nodded his head in agreement. Yeah; Alex had been a good guy. Alex had been a great guy… but that didn't really matter now, did it? He was just a great guy who was buried underneath six feet of dirt now.

Max inwardly scoffed. When you’re dead it doesn't really matter how great you are, does it? Max shook his head. It really didn't matter.

“Have you told the others yet?” Tess asked, breaking Max out of his thoughts.

He shook his head. No he hadn't called the others yet.

Tess only nodded her head, and the two returned to a comfortable silence...each in their own world. Max couldn't help but like Tess’ presenc. Her silent understanding...and comfort was a balm on his frayed nerves.

Unlike his parents or some of the people at the funeral, Max didn't feel the overwhelming need to fill in the silence, to prove over and over again that he was okay… because he wasn't. He was nowhere near okay. He couldn't tell his parents that; he didn't want them to worry...nor did he want some random person to offer their superficial form of comfort. He didn't need that shit and he didn't want it..and some part of him, deep down, knew that Tess understood that…knew that part of him in a way that maybe Liz never did… in a way that Liz never would.

Tess understood that as Max wanted to be the good guy, to be a hero... to be the man people expected him to be, she knew deep down that he wasn't. Maybe he never have been...maybe he was really just a bad person at heart. Someone pretending, wishing, hoping to be good… and maybe sometimes, it was just nice not to have to pretend any more.

On some level he understood that she understood that...and with one last lingering look at Tess’ pretty face, he took his phone out of his pocket and began dialing the gang’s cell phone numbers one by one.

TBC...

-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Last edited by morethenwords122 on Thu Jul 22, 2021 6:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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