Reunion (CC, Mature) Couples: L/M, M/M, I/K - Chapter 71 - Completed - 7/15/2018

[Superman86]

OMG!!! Keeps getting better and better, can't wait for more!!!
When is Max gonna be brought in the loop? ( pulling my hair out) in suspense

[roswell4life]

Ahhhh!!!! I want Kyle and Michael to show Beth pictures of her, Max and Grace!!! They've gotta have one right?!?! I'm just glad Beth is letting the guys in to talk things through!!! Please come back soon!!!!!

[Parker1947]

“I should really go home,” Grace was saying as she walked in the park with Jake. After dinner at her grandparents ended, her cousins of the Valenti branch of the family tree stayed for the night and her dad had some business to discuss with a client, so she and Jake decided to take a break from everything while Maria and the rest of her kids went home.

“I have classes in the morning. After a week, off, I have to be on time.”

“I am pretty sure you will be. Your dad will probably be watching you to make sure you actually show up this time.”

“You’re one to talk Guerin,” Grace said with a laugh.

“But seriously you still have time before you need to get home. Did your grandparents ask you questions about our misadventures?” Jake as they sat down on a bench.

“I am sure they are curious, but no, there were no advert questions to what was going on. They believe the story of the blown appendix. Or if they don’t, they are wise enough not to be so direct with the questions.” Grace said.

“You think they know?” Jake asked.

“Probably in some ways, but no, I don’t think they know the truth about what happened in New Haven or the real reason for my hospitalization, which is fine with me,” Grace said honestly. “They might know for all I know, but they aren’t questioning the story at least to me. Maybe to Dad, but not me. And yet they probably believe that it was an inflamed appendix and because of who I am, I had to abide by conventional medical healing and stay home.”

“Do you think about it?” Jake asked cautiously. They hadn’t really talked about the developments of their trip out East since their arrival home and since everything had happened.

“Sometimes,” Grace said honestly. “Dad now is trying to trust me, but of course I am sure he really wanted to wring my neck for sneaking off with you, but he’s trying to be patient. He’s being kind of Zen about it all.

“I don’t want to even think of it with Elizabeth,” Jake admitted.

“You don’t. Elizabeth might be more on the wild side. Heck I even admit that she’s slightly more compulsive than I am,” Grace smiled.

“Only slightly?” Jake smirked.

“Okay much more so,” Grace smiled. “But I don’t think your family has to worry about your sister. She has a better ability to handle guys,” Grace said sighing. “I wish I did.”

“It’s not your fault,” Jake said.

“Maybe not,” Grace said. “But it feels like it is. If I wasn’t drinking,” she said honestly.

“Maybe shoulda, coulda,” Jake said. “We all make mistakes. And it’s not your fault,” Jake said again with more passion. “I wish I could just have a moment with that bastard.”

“You can’t Jake,” Grace cried. “Think of his parents. They will make our family a living a hell, and given the number of secrets we hold, it’s not given we would come out of this unscathed even if their son is a smuck who should be in jail by now.” Grace sighed. “Anyway, there is no evidence of him doing anything. I didn’t speak up, and it’s now too late.”

“It’s never too late,” Jake said quietly. “He should be held accountable for what he did to you,” he said. He knew the situation they were talking thinly between the lines was basically rape. Grace had been too tipsy, and wouldn’t have been able to defend herself which is why he tried to stop them from leaving the party. But he had been punched, and he had been knocked out cold and when he awoke, she was gone. And he could only assume what happened next when he saw her, and she wasn’t in the greatest of shapes. They just never talked about it.

“The risks outweigh the justice,” Grace said. “If it goes to court, I hate to imagine what would happen.”

“He’s guilty Grace,” Jake sighed.

“He may be. But I was drunk. I went with him, even when you tried to stop me. Sure, my memory is hazy of the night in question but there will be enough doubt. I could have spoken up, but I didn’t. I just wanted to forget it happened, but unfortunately I came to realize there were consequences.”

“I know,” Jake said.

“I will think about it for the rest of my life, you know, the what if’s.” Grace acknowledged. “Life is going on.”

“It is,” Jake nodded. “Look I know firsthand that I am a product of a night that is regretted by my mother. I am a mistake. But I am grateful every day that Michael loved us both enough to take a chance on us.”

“Do you ever wonder about your biological father?” Grace asked.

“Nope,” Jake said honestly and without shame. “I know the guy’s name, and I know the circumstances of my conception and that is enough. Do I wonder the other side of the story, he probably has one? That is even if he remembers my mother’s name. She knows she made a mistake. She took a chance in keeping me; I know she was thinking of adoption. But she came home and fell back in love if she ever stopped with Michael, and the rest is history.”

“And he became your father,” Grace said.

“Yup and as far as I am concerned, I am a Guerin. Not only via official adoption, but because my father loved me enough to take a chance on my mother and me. Of course, it helped that they were in love in high school, and never stopped. But he didn’t have to. I know you Grace, if things had been different. You would have found a way to deal with it, no matter what you would have decided.”

“I know,” Grace said as she thought of her situation. Would she have kept the baby if she had known as she had been too far along for an abortion and if she had kept it, given its half genetic history, what would have her life been like. Jake had been a normal baby. Maria could have chosen adoption and been confident enough that her child was healthy and well taken care of but what about her baby if it had lived. She couldn’t help but wonder as she looked at her watch. “I better get home. Dad should be home by now.”

They began to walk home, “Are you still thinking of going away to university?” she asked Jake who smiled. “I will miss you.”

“I don’t know what I will do. I guess it depends on where I end up getting accepted to, I am not like Dominic who only has one school.”

“Jake,” Grace began.

“I know. I heard you and Elizabeth talking about it. I know you’re going out with him on Tuesday night.”

“It’s only a movie,” Grace sighed.

“It’s okay,” Jake said. “I probably have to work on Tuesday night anyways, so I won’t be home. But are we still on for the concert?”

“Sure,” Grace smiled. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

“Good,” Jake said as they walked up the front pathway in front of the Evans home and saw that the house was dark. “Do you want me to stay and keep you company. I see your father isn’t home from the office yet.”

“Must be some emergency,” Grace said. “Don’t worry as I am used to my father’s late nights and emergency cases. I’ll be fine,” she said. “Go home, with your father out of town, your mother could use you around.”

“Sure,” Jake said. “Good-night,” he said as he watched Grace unlock the front door and walk into the house and turn on the lights. He decided to wait for about ten minutes and he soon saw an upstairs bedroom light soon turn off and he headed home to his mother and siblings.

On the other side of town, Max was getting into his car as he had been indeed held up with a client who ended up getting arrested and he was needed to be bailed out of jail. And so, the paperwork took time, and now he was headed home, hoping that his daughter was in bed and Jake long gone. Driving past the cemetery for the first time in a long time, he decided to stop. He felt compelled to stop, and get out and walk to a very familiar tomb stone.

But first he went to a relatively new one. A new plaque that said…

Adam Parker Evans
March 19, 2022 – March 19, 2022
Born before his time

Grace and he had had a brief ceremony once the remains of the remains were returned to Roswell. And Grace had decided one a name, even though a birth certificate hadn’t been issued or any official documentation. Saying a quick nod to the baby that had been briefly his grandson, he went to next one…

Elizabeth Parker Evans
December 1, 1984 to June 25, 2008
Beloved daughter, wife and mother

“Why am I here Liz,” Max said quietly to the tomb stone. “Why?” he asked. “It’s been almost fourteen years so why are memories being stirred up in me in a way that it seems like you only died last week. Is it because out daughter is growing up, and testing her limits and making me revisit out time as teenagers? I don’t know, I really don’t! I wish I had some answers,” he said quietly.

“Isabel and Maria have been for years trying to get me to move on. And I thought I had, maybe not in the romance department which to them is very thin. But you were my one and only, and when we got a second shot at our love back in high school, I never wanted to lose that. And even though you had lost me, no one could hold a candle to you. So why is it that I feel like my life is colliding towards an unparalleled explosion, and we won’t be able to stop it?” he asked.

Max. A great injustice has been done to you, Grace and Liz. It wasn’t time before to make this all go away but it should have been. Look in yourself and see the truth, but it’s not going to be that easy even with you being an alien, so look down came the prompting voice.

A phone call had distracted Max was speaking his heart to his wife’s tomb stone, and when he and got off he felt this force behind him. Looking around, he saw nothing. “Anyone here?” he called out but only got silence. “I am in a graveyard I aren’t I,” he smiled at himself and prepared to leave when he saw a flash of light that made him see something that was at the base of Liz’s tombstone. “What?” he asked as he leaned over and picked up what looked like a glossy picture.

“How did this get here?” he asked as he focused on the picture and stammered at the image that looked like a copy of the family picture he had at home of him, Liz and their two-year-old daughter back before the crash, but Liz was torn out of the picture, and what looked like ink marks that had a X where Liz had once been.

“What is going on?” he asked and took the picture and walked back to his car.

Behind him the ghostly vision of Alex watched Max walk away with the decapitated picture with him. I am sorry Max and Liz

*******

“Do I have a husband and daughter out there,” Beth was asking herself back at her home in Connecticut. It was the middle of the night and had been a few hours since Beth and Serena had gotten rid of the guests from New Mexico for the night. Sensing her friend was seriously overwhelmed, Serena had left soon after, and the twins went to bed as they had school in the morning and their mother on the other hand tried to sleep, but found she was unable and was tossing and turning. The events of the evening had been swirling around in her head.

“Am I this Elizabeth?” Beth asked herself. “Could I have picked the name Evans because I deep down remembered that it was my married name, and felt safe to give my daughters their biological father’s last name without my conscious self-knowing what I was doing?”

“Mom, are you okay,” came a voice and Beth sat up in bed and saw the door to her bedroom opening.

“Yes,”

“Are you okay?” Alexandra asked as she saw her mother in distress. Something she and Carrie hadn’t seen ever in their life, and she was worried and was one of the reasons she couldn’t sleep much herself. Carrie was passed out in her own bedroom, but Alexandra had been tossing and turning. “Mom?”

“I am fine Alex,” Beth smiled. “You should be in bed because you have school in the morning.”

“You should be sleeping because you have to work,” Alex reasoned.

“I don’t have to be in until 7 p.m. for the night shift,” Beth smiled. “I can get some sleep while you are at school,”

“But you won’t, you will be dealing with chores or making sure Carrie and I have everything while you work the night shift until Thursday.” Alexandra smiled.

“You know me don’t you sweetheart?” Beth said. “I am really okay,”

“It’s got to be tough to find out what you did,” Alex said. “Do you think it could be true?” she asked. “Do you think you are really this Elizabeth?”

“Wish I knew,” Beth said. “But we shouldn’t be talking about this now as you have to get to bed. You and your sister have to be at school first thing in the morning, so you need a good night sleep.”

“I know,” Alexandra acknowledged. “Do you think it’s true that our father didn’t come looking for you or us because he thinks you are dead?”

“I don’t know sweetheart,” Beth said as that was one of the questions she was asking herself as questions flooded her mind. Is it possible that for all this time my biological family believed me to be dead? Did I even know about the babies before the crash?

“It would make sense,” Alexandra said before she left her mother’s bedroom to go back to her own. “Why they never came looking.”

“You never know,” Beth nodded. “Please honey, go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Okay. Good night Mom,” Alexandra smiled as she hugged her mother. “I love you. No matter what we find out, we love you. You do an awesome job with us.”

“Thank you honey,” Beth smiled as memories of the twins as babies flooded her mind as she watched her eldest twin let herself out of the bedroom to head back to her own bedroom. It had been cherishing time, rewarding even if it had been hard at times raising her babies without a memory and trying to construct a life with two little human beings when she was a blank slate. She worked hard for her life, and now she was wondering what would have happened if she knew earlier. What if she had been found, yet didn’t remember her family. What happens now if they were reunited if she was indeed this woman and what if she didn’t recognize them, and couldn’t remember them at all?

Overwhelmed she couldn’t so she took a sleeping pill she kept only for when she was completely overwhelmed and needing sleep, and moments later she drifted off to sleep.

*******

Max walked into the house and saw that the car was around which meant that his daughter was home, and the house was dark except for the light in the porch that Grace had left on for her father.

Sighing, he reached for a glass of whisky. He knew he shouldn’t drink. But he was safely home, and had barely touched the stuff except for the real blowout parties they sometime were known to have…

Sitting down on the couch he looked at the torn picture he now had a good look at. It did look as someone took a copy of our family portrait done around Christmas time, months before the crash and tore Liz off, leaving Max holding his daughter while there looks to be an ink marked X on the side that had Liz in the picture.

What is the heck is going on? he asked as his mind whirled with questions and he took another slight sip of the whisky and gulped it down, and soon fell asleep on the couch.

******

“Why won’t you tell me anything?” Isabel was asking Jim the next morning at the house as Jim was getting ready to go the station. “I know you know something” she was saying as she became frustrated at the sealed lips of her father-in-law. She was invited to spend the night by Amy when after pleading with Jim to tell her something, she saw that it was getting late.

“I am sorry Isabel, I just can’t. It’s not my story to tell you, and I don’t know anything about what you want to know.”

“Damn it,” Isabel said as she stormed out of the house to go home and change so that she could go to her boutique.

“Why not tell her something?” Amy asked her husband

“Because if she knew she would feel compelled to tell her brother or niece and that is the last thing we need until we have more pieces of the puzzle. If this is all some gross elaborate trick, the pain done to Max and Grace will be immeasurable. Michael and Kyle needed to know because I needed their help, but it shouldn’t be common knowledge until we know more.”

“I get that, but Isabel would have understood if we told her to keep it a secret,” Amy reasoned.

“Maybe but that is an unfair burden to put her in with her brother and niece,” Jim said. “Hopefully this will all end soon one way or another.”

“Let us hope,” Amy said as she grabbed the car keys as they both left the house, “Have a good day at work” she said quietly as they kissed goodbye before walking to their cars to drive to their different work places. Amy was planning to check in on the plans for the renovations before going shopping.

******

“What aren’t they telling me?” Isabel raged as she stormed into her home. She had twenty minutes to change and get to the store to be able to open as normal. She felt lied to. She didn’t like that feeling. “Those cops know something. Now Jim is deliberately misleading me. And why do I think Amy knows too…”

“I hate this,” Isabel swore as she blasted open her closet door and went in search for a suitable dress to wear to work. “I will find answers!”

*******

“Where are the twins?” Kyle as he and Michael walked into Beth’s home on the Monday morning. Both were up early, and after calling home and feeling guilty about not being able to tell their wives the truth about their mission they decided to get an early go of the day.

“School,” Beth said quietly. “They are enrolled at a private school across town.”

“That must cost a fortune?” Michael asked. “For a single parent.”

“They are on scholarships. Based on their grades, and while I can afford it now in comparison to when they started at the school with my job the way it is. But they have managed to keep their tuitions paid by those scholarships. But that will change next year.”

“Why?” Michael asked.

“They start high school in the fall and I have elected to enroll them in the public school a couple of blocks away. So, they will be able to walk.”

“That should be interesting to have them in high school.”

“You have no idea,” Beth said. “It’s occurring to me every day that they are growing up.”

“Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“I am working the late shift tonight through Thursday,” Beth acknowledged. “So, I am not needed until tonight.”

“Where will the kids be?” Kyle asked. “I can’t see you leaving them home alone at night.”

“Serena. She and her husband will help this week after school. They live nearby and have two young sons. And the kids are all very close. So, the girls are looking forward to it.”

“Look I am sorry if we’re confusing your life,” Kyle said quietly, and he could sense the weight they were putting on this woman, and regardless about whether she was Liz or not. Her life was now forever changed regardless how it ended up. “I can see that we have upset it.”

“You have,” Beth admitted. “But to tell you the truth, it was already colliding into confusion even before your arrival. So, it’s not just you that is upsetting me life.”

“How so?” Michael asked.

“It started with the kids. Alexandra and Carrie. They are getting to the age where their history is becoming a problem. You know the not knowing.”

“I can’t imagine,” Kyle said as he looked at Michael who was reminded firsthand not knowing where you come from can weigh on a kid. It had for Michael, Max and Isabel and it had led to all kinds of confusion and pain when they finally did start down the path to learning the truth of where they came from.

“They are getting to an age where they are curious and while they have known since they were very small about my accident, and their lack of a father. It comes a point in time where you have to wonder where you come from.”

“Naturally,” Michael nodded. “We all have to answer those questions.”

“And given the nature of my accident, and the way the twins were born. They can’t easily get those answers and because I couldn’t provide them. And they have been understanding about it, and it was easy when they were younger. Now it’s not so easy and they are getting to the age where they wouldn’t mind answers and it’s weighing on them.

“Which is understandable,” Kyle nodded.

“It is,” Beth acknowledged.

“How difficult was it after the crash?” Michael asked as he sat in the room with Kyle and marveled at the similarities and yet differences in this woman that looked so like the Liz Parker he knew in high school. He knew if this was Liz they were talking to, it’s would be almost fourteen years.”

“Rough,” Beth admitted. “Imagine waking up in the hospital and being told that not only are you pregnant, but you have been comatose for two months. You barely lived through a monstrous crash. Of course, by the time I woke up, most of the bruises had started to clear up. But still I had numerous injuries coupled with the pregnancy to deal with, so I was on bed rest. And because I couldn’t remember who I was, I had no one to claim me or anywhere to go.”

“That would be horrible,” Kyle shuttered to think of it happening to anyone they knew, and if this was really Liz. He was heart sick to think of all she suffered. “I can’t imagine having a blank slate.”

“It is hell,” Beth sighed. “Luckily the hospital was kind to let me stay. Of course, I was on bed rest, and being a hospital was beneficial while I recovered. But having a total blank slate for my memory made the early days not the most stress less.”

“How did you come up with your name, can we ask?” Kyle asked.

“It popped in my head,” Beth admitted.

“Really?” Michael asked.

“Yeah,” Beth sighed. “I was lying in bed day after day sick of being called Jane Doe. Nothing was popping up in my mind, but when Serena who had become close to me as she worked my case as an intern batted around names with me. I responded to the name Beth. I don’t know why. And then for a last name, I honestly don’t know why Evans came to me, but it did. And so, they stuck, and when I was released from the hospital. I officially decided to take the name. Since it was obvious my memory wasn’t coming back to me.”

It’s amazing to think about,” Kyle thought.

“Yeah,” Michael said as he remembered back to before Liz died. He and Maria had named their eldest daughter Elizabeth, but she was always going under the nickname Beth until after Liz did die and they chose to honor their fallen friend, and use Elizabeth officially. Elizabeth had just turned 2 years old when the crash had happened. He couldn’t help but wonder if the name seemed familiar because it was something in Liz’s life coming to the forefront. And he didn’t need to doubt the name Evans. That was a clear calling out to her married name.

“So, I kept it,” Beth continued. “And so, I began my new life not knowing if it was wrong or right.”

*******

“Do you feel like there is something we should know, but we don’t?” Isabel was asking Maria at lunch. With all their kids in school Maria had met her for lunch on a break from working on the manuscript. A diversion was needed, and she elected to take one. The house seemed lonely without Michael and the kids.

“Why? Maria asked.

“It’s just this sense I get,” Isabel confessed. “That there is this something colliding our way and there is something we should know.”

“The kids are growing up.”

“They are,” Isabel acknowledged. “And Grace’s scare was a wakeup on that front. But it’s just that we have had some quiet years, and it is the feeling that dirt is being kicked, and something is brewing. I don’t know what it is.”

“Is it Michael’s mission and the need for Kyle to go with him?” Maria asked as she took a sip of the wine they had ordered with their lunches.

“It is odd, isn’t it?” Isabel asked.

“Yeah, I even admit it’s weird that Kyle would be asked to go along with Michael. Michael is always going off on cases. But Kyle’s a high school teacher, and coach. Why would he be needed?”

“I know,” Isabel muttered. “Have you talked to Michael?”

“Not since last night,” Maria admitted. “With the time difference, I was concentrating on getting the kids off to school this morning, so we never really connected. Have you talked to Kyle?”

“Briefly,” Isabel said. “Maybe that is adding to my worries. He was awfully silent. I would think by now he would get a sense of why he was needed to accompany Michael. But there was this aura of silence, like he could tell me, but he didn’t want to. I don’t know why.”

“Michael usually can’t tell me what is going on with his cases until they are settled” Maria admitted.

“I would expect that after all they are personal and professional cases but in this case, it was this feeling like Kyle knew something I should know by he didn’t want to broach it. He was too quick to dodge my questions onto asking about the kids.”

“Your trusty senses on high alert?” Maria asked referring to Isabel’s alien abilities.

“Maybe,” Isabel sighed.

“Is it Grace’s heavenly visitor?” Maria asked. “I know we haven’t talked about it much since it happened.”

“No, we haven’t,” Isabel acknowledged. “That is part of it, but I have this sense the past is coming back to haunt us in some way we never imagined.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because some cops are in town. And I fear they are dredging up some painful past for many of us. And I think Jim knows and isn’t telling us, for fear of what it might bring up.”

“What?” Maria asked. “I don’t understand?”

“I don’t either. And that is what confuses me. I met some cops in town. They are in from Connecticut.”

“Connecticut?” Maria asked.

“Yes, but not in relation to Grace and Jake’s grand escapades. And they are trying to cover it, but they are investigating a car crash.”

“Car crash?” Maria asked as she took a deep sip of the wine.

Isabel took a sip of her own glass of wine. Moderation was all that was required of alien hybrids and alcohol and while she was tempted to drink more to get over the confusion running through her mind. But she kept it to a glass. “Liz’s” and then she took a sip a carefully and quietly and saw Maria’s jaw drop open, “Exactly.”

[keepsmiling7]

I admire Grace for accepting her part in making a big mistake.....
More questions.........what is the meaning of the picture with the "x" in Liz's place?
Now Isabel and Maria are ready to start their own investigation.......Michael and Kyle better watch out!
Thanks,
Carolyn

[L-J-L 76]

Alex come on you need to help Max and the others find out Liz is alive. Michael and Kyle are taking this good I think. Isabel and Maria trying to figure things out id interesting. Someone has to help Beth remember. And someone has to get Max and the others to figure out what happened to Liz and let be known that she is alive with 2 daughters.

From:
L-J-L 76

[Roswelllostcause]

Why do I have this feeling that someone from the pod squad's past is responsible for what has happened.

[L-J-L 76]

Please please please please come back and post more really really soon? I can't wait to find out what Michael, Kyle, Liz will do next. And I can't wait for Max, Maria, Grace Jeff to find out Liz is alive.

From:
L-J-L 76

[roswell4life]

Waiting.....

[Superman86]

Can't wait for next update!!!

[Parker1947]

“How is being back at school,” Jake was asking Grace as they sat out in the court yard eating their packed lunches. He didn’t have any morning classes, but he had come in to take advantage of the art room to work on his final exam project for his art class. An end of term art project that would be due by the last week of school. It was also going to be part of his project mark in his computer science class, so he had spent time in the computer lab as well, so he was meeting with Grace for lunch before his first class and her free period.

“I am glad to be back. I missed it, the demanding work” Grace said as she took her spicy sandwich out of her bag.

“You are a freak you know that, liking school.”

“I like school,” Elizabeth piped up as she joined the duo in the courtyard with her own lunch.

“You are a freak too, but other reasons,” Jake smiled. “I don’t think I know two other people in this whole school who like school as the two of you. I don’t know why.”

“It’s the challenge Jake. It is the way every day is different, and idea of finding out something new each day,” Grace smiled. “And right now, that is a much-needed diversion.”

“Okay I’ll accept that,” Jake said as he elected to choose a less depressing topic and thought of his parents and the unusual trip his father was on with his Uncle. “Hey sis, do you know if Dad called Mom this morning?”

“Nope,” Elizabeth said. “Mom was working on her writing when I left the house. I think they spoke last night though.”

“I wonder how it is going in Connecticut.” Jake asked.

“Me too,” Elizabeth admitted.

“What is with the state of Connecticut right now? First, we ended up there, and now your father and Uncle Kyle are out there investigating a case together.

“I wish I knew,” Jake muttered.

“I heard Mom talking with Uncle Max, and there is the suspicion that this is an undercover mission regarding our secret society,” Elizabeth admitted.

“Then shouldn’t Dad know what is going on?” Grace asked.

“Yeah, you think he would wouldn’t. Why is the Sheriff being secretive about it if it does involve our families?”

“You would think, wouldn’t you?” Jake sighed and wondered what it could be that was about the strike the family and why Uncle Max wouldn’t be up on it. “Dad rarely goes on these long trips. Especially not ones that don’t have an end date or with someone else who isn’t another investigator.”

********

“What the hell do you mean they are in town investigating Liz’s crash?” Maria asked as she put her glass of wine down and looked Isabel with confusion but also anger. It had taken fourteen years to get over to the fact she lost not one but two of her closest friends from childhood in a senseless accident. And if she was truthful with herself she would admit that she still wasn’t that over it. But life went on, and the fact she had Grace and Max to concentrate on as well as her own brood of children and Michael, it had kept her sane and now to think that maybe the past was being dredged up. “Isabel, what is going on?”

“I have no idea. Because no one is being honest with me,” Isabel admitted.

“How so?”

Jim knows something, but he won’t confirm it. I overheard some cops new in town talking about Liz’s crash. But they went radio silent when I questioned them.

“I don’t understand. Why?” Maria asked. “Why after fourteen years? The crash was an unfortunate and unforeseen accident.”

“I know,” Isabel sighed. “I wish I knew, why” she said quietly. “It doesn’t really make any sense and now along with Michael and Kyle’s trip, and the recent visit to Grace by Alex.”

“You think, you honestly think maybe Alex’s visitation to Grace is about Liz’s crash?” Maria asked as she followed her friend’s train of thought and putting the two occurrences together.

“Maybe,” Isabel asked. “Because it is the only thing that makes sense. Grace might be going through a lot lately, and her trip with Jake put her through the emotional wringer with what she lost, before even coming to terms with it. But I can’t see why Alex would be back for any other reason than that some connection to the past. He wouldn’t be here about the baby. It has to be about something far more devastating to Grace which is the loss of her mother.”

“Which is very painful to not only Grace and her father but all of us who miss her every single day,” Maria admitted.

“She is missed,” Isabel agreed.

“I don’t understand why would anyone want to bring up the crash because all it does for all of us is bring back some very painful memories.”

“Well it was unsolved.”

“But it was an accident,” Maria reasoned. “I don’t understand why now?”

“I wish I knew too,” Isabel sighed. “That is what I don’t know. What is accomplished by dredging up painful memories of fourteen years ago?”

“Max and Grace don’t need this,” Maria said through gritted teeth.

*******

“I think we need to look at Beth’s crash,” Michael was saying as he and Kyle left the house as Beth was planning to take some to rest and try to figure out how to get control of her out of control life. And the guys had decided to give her a break.

“You call her Beth,” Kyle remarked as they walked to the car and got in.

“No matter if she is Liz or not, she believes she’s Beth right now.” Michael cautioned. “It’s going to take time to sort this all out.”

“I know,” Kyle nodded. “So, what do you want to do now?”

“I want to vet the crash,” Michael said. “Beth says it happened on the outskirts of town, and she barely made from it alive, she and the twins.”

“Where do we look?” Kyle asked.

“The local police department,” Michael said. “I want to see if we can get access to her accident report.”

******

“Thanks Mom for taking Belle for lunch,” Maria was saying as she dropped off at the Deluca-Valenti household to pick up her youngest daughter who was having a “Grandma and Belle” lunch. “Isabel had gone back to her store, while Maria on the way home and to more writing elected to stop off and pick up Belle who didn’t have school that day due some assembly for older kids.

Colin, Liam and Belle were students at a private school, Roswell Prep Academy. A few years before the elementary Colin and Liam were attending had been severely damaged in a storm and therefore all the students scattered to new schools while the school was basically rebuilt. Maria and Michael had found space in a private school that had openings but once the old school reopened, the parents liked the atmosphere and the level of education for the boys and decided to keep the kids going there, and enrolled Belle once she hit school age yet with the understanding that they would be back in the public system and their old high school once it was time for high school.

“She’s a no issue,” Amy smiled at her youngest grandchild. “With the others growing up, it’s nice to have a young child to do things with occasionally.”

“It definitely been a unique challenge to know that we have a six-year-old, but we also have an eighteen-year-old. Therefore, we have at least 12 years before the empty nest if that ever happens,” Maria smiled. “Who knows which kid will end up in our home in the end?”

“That is what parenthood is all about. But I only had to deal with it once, it was a brutal time when you became of age, and left home.”

“And then I came back,” Maria smiled.

“That you did,” Amy smiled back but a thought came to her about what she and Jim knew, but what her own daughter didn’t know, and her smile turned towards a frown.

“Mom?”

“What,” Amy said as she glanced at her daughter.

“Why do you seem so far away?” Maria asked. “Is there something on your mind?”

“No,” Amy said she tried lying. “Honey, everything is fine.”

“I know a lie when I see it Mom as you’re talking to someone who was an expert at it during my childhood due to everything I knew about my husband, Max and Isabel. So, I can spot them easily, which helps with five kids.”

“It’s nothing sweetheart,” Amy said with a smile on her face. “Everything is fine.”

“Then why don’t I believe you,” Maria asked. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

“Honey I know you would be there for me, and if you don’t believe me then it’s on you,” Amy said. “Because I promise you that everything is going alright with me.”

Maria sighed because she didn’t know whether she should believe her mother or not, but she figured she didn’t have any reason not to believe her, so she dropped it. “I do appreciate you being able to take Belle today.”

“As I said, no problem” Amy smiled at her daughter. “Have you talked to Michael today?”

“No,” Maria said. “I did briefly last night,” Maria acknowledged. “He’s busy on his case, but he said he might try if it doesn’t get too late given the time difference.”

“Did he mention his case?” Amy asked as she wondered how it was going with the guys, and whether they had come to any further conclusions on their mission.

“No,” Maria said. “But that is not too unusual. It’s early on. And it’s a secretive one from what I gather. So, I’ll leave it to him to tell me when he’s ready to, so I’ll be happy when he is able to come home.”

“I am sure it will be soon,” Amy said. “Michael is never gone long.”

“Mom?” Maria asked.

“Yes,” Amy asked.

“Why do I sense you know something about this case my husband is on. And why your husband has him and his son on it.”

“No, I don’t,” Amy tried saying.

“Mom,” Maria asked.

“I truly don’t know the details honey,” Amy said which was the truth. She knew the broad outlines, but she really didn’t know the nitty gritty of the case. “I shouldn’t be the one to let you in on it. It’s not my place.”

“If you know something, why can’t you tell me?” Maria said as she was now actively onto the scent of the idea this was an investigation that meant something if her mother knew something anything about it. “Damn it Mom, why do I have a feeling this is something I need to know. Or that the group needs to know.”

“I am sorry, I am really in a bind here,” Amy said honestly. “I wish I could tell you. But it’s not my place.”

“So, my husband knows?”

“Since this is Jim’s personal mission, he knows.”

“So, my own husband knows, and he isn’t telling the rest of us so why do I sense that Isabel is on the right track with her suspicions,” she muttered to herself, out loud and Amy only could frown.

“What is Isabel saying?” Amy asked.

“That this is about Liz’s crash. Are we right Mom, is Jim’s mission concerning the crash that claimed Liz’s life fourteen years ago, this June?” Maria asked with a sigh.

******

“Michael Guerin, of all people,” came a voice as Michael and Kyle walked into the New Haven Police Department looking for the Captain of the criminal unit, as they searched for more details about Beth’s crash. Making their way to the right department, they were told where to go and hadn’t expected to run into who they did.

“Hanson,” Michael asked as he recognized the older gentlemen as the man walked towards them.

“Hanson?” Kyle said shocked to see his father’s old deputy in their vicinity.

“If wonders don’t cease,” Captain Hanson asked as he stopped in front of Michael and Kyle. “Kyle… Kyle Valenti?”

“Yes, it is?” Kyle remarked as they shook hands.

“Wow,” Hanson smiled. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

“You work here?” Michael asked.

“Yeah, I moved here shortly after leaving Roswell and have made quite the life. I am now Captain here at the criminal unit.”

“Dad would be proud,” Kyle remarked at the oddities that was coming from this case.

“What are you doing here?” Hanson asked. “How can I help you?”

“You are actually the person we wanted to speak to. We are curious in a cold case, a car crash about fourteen years ago, we know we’re not locals here, but we have a vested interest in it. If only right at this moment to know more about the case.”

“It wouldn’t be the Beth Evans car crash on June 30, 2008 by any chance?” Hanson asked as he got a good sense of why Michael and Kyle were in his police department. “I sent two of my finest your way a few days ago, now.”

“So, you saw the coincidences?” Michael asked as they walked to Hanson’s office and walked in, once they reached the room.

“Yes,” Hanson said. “I didn’t picture you a cop, Guerin or even you Kyle.”

“I am not,” Michael admitted. “But I am a private investigator.”

“I am definitely not a cop.” Kyle smiled. “I am only here as a witness and helper for Michael, to be able to tell what is going on, so I can relay it on to my father. I am actually a high school teacher and football/basketball coach.”

“So, Jim wanted his own confirmation?” Hanson asked.

“Yes,” Michael admitted.

“So, would you say that it is possible?” Kyle asked as Hanson sat down at his desk and looked at Michael and Kyle on the other side.

“I haven’t interviewed the former Jane Doe who now calls herself Beth Evans, but all the evidence does seem to be pointing to the conclusion. I do know you guys are very close to the situation. Was there any way to know that the crash that claimed the life of Elizabeth Parker Evans could have been a hoax?”

“No!” Michael said adamantly. “Max and their daughter Grace have been living the last fourteen years believing she’s dead and we hadn’t had any evidence to the contrary until this point. Can I ask how this all started?”

“My detectives MacIntosh and Casper were interviewing a deadbeat drug dealer on another case that has no connection to this case and they were trying to get him to confess, only he started to confess to staging Mrs. Evans’ crash believing if he spilled on the crime than he could get a deal regards the case we were trying to catch him at. It didn’t work but enough of what he spewed about the Roswell crash held up.

“What did he say happened?” Michael asked.

“He said he was paid fourteen years to make Mrs. Evans stop, and then grab her and stage it as she died. We don’t know how she would have gotten to here in Connecticut, but one can guess maybe they were trying to cover the crime in New Mexico, and thought they got far enough away from the scene of the crime, and didn’t expect her to survive the second and real crash here in New Haven and then they got lucky when she woke up with amnesia.”

“And it pans out?” Michael asked.

“Enough of it,” Hanson acknowledged. “He was in the area at the time. Newly out of jail on another crime. And we have found out his bank account for a period of few days had a deposit of 10,000 in it before he blew it on drugs.”

“That is how much he would have been paid?” Kyle asked, piping into the conversation.

“Yes.” Hanson acknowledged.

“Seems low to grab a woman for that kind of money,” Kyle asked.

“Well Kyle he was a lowlife, still is. He would have taken any money to be able to pay for drugs. So, he does seem that type of guy to take such a low amount. He doesn’t seem to have the brains to plot that kind of crime, or to falsely claim something. He was stupid even to admit to my detectives.

“Did he give a name as to who might have wanted it done?” Michael asked.

“Let me check the notes,” Hanson said as he checked his computer, and called up the notes from the investigation that Trevor and Sandra had sent to him. “Hmm…My detectives said he named some guy Denny. Dirty blond hair who said he had it out for the husband of Mrs. Evans.”

“Denny……” Michael said quietly while Kyle looked at his partner with a pale face.

“Do you guys know this Denny?”

“Maybe,” Michael said quietly. “It’s not his given name. But it’s let us say an alias of an individual we know who may have wanted to do something like this if he was motivated enough.”

“How so?”

“Past interaction,” Michael sighed as he let out a curse. “Sh@t!”

*******

“I need to talk to the Sheriff,” Maria was saying as she left her mother’s home. Amy had agreed to keep Belle a little longer while Maria vented some steam. “I don’t care if he’s in a meeting. It’s important. Damn it, okay. Tell him to call his step daughter right away. Or I will come looking for him. And yes, he knows what it’s about” she said angry at the feeling that something was happening, and she wasn’t being told the truth. “You can tell him his wife is fine, not to worry but I need to speak to him right away,” Maria said as she softened her tone a little.

Needing to drive a bit, she drove and drove. And found she was ending up by the chamber and Liz’s honorary grave.

“You died here,” Maria said softly. “Why is this coming up now? It’s been almost fourteen years. I thought we were learning to live with the hurt that we all felt, the devastation at the loss but now it’s all being torn up again and they are kicking the dirt on your grave and I don’t know why.”

“I miss you Liz, I truly do miss you” Maria whispered as her cell phone and she answered. “Yes. Jim, well hello! Yeah, sorry for the tone of my message before, but I am well you know frustrated. I know you’ve probably talked to my mother, but I need some answers.”

*******

“Whoa,” Kyle whistled as he looked at the photos from the crash as Michael read the incident report, and investigation. “She’s lucky to have lived through that. I am frankly amazed that she did” he muttered as they sat in Hanson’s office and read through the file.

“It was pretty brutal from all the notes. I was still in Roswell at the time, so I only came to town afterwards, so the investigation wasn’t at my scale. It was a later declared unsolved, and put in cold storage.

“The idea she survived, and the babies also survived is amazing,” Michael remarked.

“It is,” Hanson said. “I am told it was pretty touch and go at the hospital in the early hours after she was admitted, and she and the babies were almost lost but somehow they pulled through and she went into a coma.”

“Where she stayed for two months,” Michael asked.

“Yes,” Hanson said. “She came out of it, amazingly without much impairment except for her memory. She delivered the babies a couple of months later and they were released all normally.”

“Was there any further investigation as the years went on?” Michael asked.

“Everything that was related to the case is in that file. Nothing really happened once she awoke, and it was discovered that she was without her memory, and it was apparent that it was a complete loss and wasn’t coming back.”

“And they tried to match her genetics or the babies to the database?” Kyle asked.

“I am told they tried, but nothing matched. But if this is who we think it is. Roswell was so out of the mainstream in terms of technology back then that it doesn’t surprise me it took this long for a match to come about.”

“Yeah, I do remember Dad mentioning about five years ago, that they were going to modernize the office, and allow the office into the many databases that exist today throughout the country, so they could be more efficient. The way today’s law enforcement is, it’s always good to be consistent country wide.”

“So, because there was no request until now, we didn’t have the chance to ask any questions or figure the similarities of the two crashes.” Hanson reasoned.

“That could be likely,” Michael conceded.

“The children’s DNA was recently rerun, right?” Kyle asked.

“Yes,” Hanson acknowledged. “It was via our lab and a match came up as Jeff Parker in Roswell. Which means I think it would be foolish to discount the fact that Beth could well be your Liz.”

“She definitely looks like the Liz we remember,” Kyle remarked. “With the added dimension of age, of course.”

“Have you talked to the husband?” Hanson asked.

“We haven’t wanted to because of the pain and devastation the death provided the town, and the family. Heck only we know, and of course my father.” Kyle acknowledged. “But the time is coming where we might have to.”

“Yes indeed,” Hanson nodded.

*******

Jim was sitting in his office debating with himself whether he should continue to be so secretive from his stepdaughter. He could tell the anguish in her voice on the phone as she tried to get some answers. It was first Isabel and now Maria. It felt like things were spinning out of control, and sooner or later the truth would be out whether they could handle it or not or whether they were ready for it or not.

“Damn it,” he muttered to himself as he was trying to review a new case that had come over his desk that morning when there was a ring on his computer. Sighing to himself while looking at his computer desktop as he was still not used to the newest technology that he now had to get used to in law enforcement. Skype may be now years old, but it was new to Jim. Smiling when he realized it was his son who was popping up on his computer. Answering, he frowned. “Kyle, is everything alright?”

“Dad,” Kyle was saying from the office in Connecticut. “Everything is fine. You will never guess whose office I am sitting in.”

“Whose?” Jim asked from Roswell. “He didn’t know anyone in Connecticut or figured his son would know anyone in that part of the country. Most Kyle’s childhood or high school friends still resided in New Mexico.

“Dad you remember your former deputy. Hanson.”

“Sure,” Jim said. “It’s been a long time. But yeah, he was a wonderful deputy. He was headed for brighter things when he left here as I recall. Why?”

“He’s here Dad,” Kyle smiled. “He’s the captain out here in New Haven. You know our connection to that case we’re all suddenly obsessed with now.”

“He is,” Jim asked.

“Hello Sheriff Valenti,” Hanson popped into the conversation. “It’s been a long time.”

“Wow Hanson!” Jim said as he sat straighter in his chair at his desk.

“So, our cases are colliding?” Hanson asked to the group. “We thought we should let you know the latest.”

“Which is?”

“That Elizabeth Parker Evans is very likely alive!” Hanson said as he appeared on screen and then there was a huge gasp in the room.

“What the hell did you just say?” came a shriek and from the office in New Haven, Michael knew the sound of the voice instantly, and so did Jim as he looked up and saw Maria at the entrance to his office.