Upstairs, Olivia was discussing the developments with Amelia as they were doing their homework. Amelia was astonished at both the acceptance to the New York program, even though she had known her friend had applied. Neither of them had thought that Olivia had a chance. Coming from a small town in New Mexico, and then of course what Olivia’s mother had offer. “Wow,” she smiled as she concentrated on the life changer of an offer. “Are you going to accept your mother’s offer?”
“Mom told me to think about it, and I am, and to talk it over with Aunt Isabel” Olivia sighed because she could not believe this chance she had gotten. A chance at grabbing her future, and to know her child would be well taken care of. She knew her mother would be a better parent than Olive could be. At sixteen, she was too young to be a mother. While her mother was well equipped to handle to demands. And professionally in a much clearer place than her daughter “I never would have dreamt that Mom would offer it?”
“It would solve everything,” Amelia smiled as it was the answer to both her best friend and her brother’s prayers. Neither were ready, but she did know how unusual the situation would be for Olivia most of all “Although, could you handle seeing the baby every day, knowing it was yours, and not really your sibling?” Amelia asked.
“That is something to think about, I guess” Olivia conceded. “It would be a unique set of circumstances, but New York would help the adjustment period I would think” she allowed. “But I know I cannot be a mother, not right now. And Alex is not ready. We have too much to look forward in the rest of our high school careers to be dealing all this…”
“It would be a chance for you. I do know you are a talented writer,” Amelia smiled. “We would miss you…”
“I’ll miss you guys too, but it is months before I leave if I do go” Olivia laughed. “It would be nice to see some places other than the state of New Mexico?”
“I hear New York is very lively” Amelia smiled as she thought of her own dreams to get out of New Mexico and see the world. She did not know what she wanted. She knew she was not the writer her friend was, but still she had plans for herself, and everything she did in school was a steppingstone because she knew her parents wanted something, anything for her and it was not to settle here in Roswell before she saw what the world had to offer. She knew that was her mother’s dream for her because her mother had not been able to get it for herself because she loved her father and had been a parent too early.
Not becoming their parents had been big within their clan, and both girls wanted something from their lives, and both knew they had the ability to get there if they kept on the path they were, and his offer for Olivia allowed her re-entry to that path. Olivia would be crazy to give up on it, to stay here in Roswell because she might not have that chance again. “You are going to take that offer, because the cards that are stacked up for you, and you would be crazy not to take it” she laughed as a sudden thought came to her mind “Maybe you can get advice from Zack because he lives in New York, does he not live in New York?”
“He does,” Olivia muttered as she had forgotten that her half brother was from New York. “Maybe it will not be a good time, after all?”
“Oh, stop it,” Amelia laughed. “Zack is not so bad you know?”
“I know,” Olivia conceded as she wondered Zack was up to as they got back to their homework.
*
“It is not an easy life,” Max conceded as he and Zack continued to talk as Max knew his time was ticking down, but it was his chance to spend time with his son. He could see that his son had been raised right and had a chance at a normal life despite not being normal. “It takes a little bit of you to know who we are?”
“Why?” Zack asked,
“The secrecy,” Max sighed. “It not easy to know what we know, and to keep it a secret. We can do some unbelievable things with our abilities,” he sighed although he had not been able to do much these last years. “Or at least in my old life. The older you become, the responsibility that comes with the abilities can weigh on you and force you down paths you did not see coming, and you have been blissfully unaware of this?” he sighed. “Sometimes I wish I could be that person again, not knowing…”
“Then why keep up the charade?” Zack asked. “I asked this of your daughter. Olivia seems overwhelmed by it, and the others I do not know well enough to assess,” he murmured even though he knew Amelia was comfortable in her skin, and okay with the state of her life. But Olivia was quite different.
“My daughter has the burden that others do not have, as it’s not easy to live down me for a father” Max muttered I
have only known her for a few weeks, but she has sixteen years of knowing that I am her father. “I am pretty notorious, and even if I was some absentee father, still there is a burden that comes with having to keep on your toes, and not make waves and be the upstanding citizen so that people do not suspect”
“Then why not tell the truth?” Zack wondered. “Would it not take a lot of stress of your shoulders?
“It would,” Max conceded. “But it would be put so much more on. People will look at us differently, and especially if they get a wind of our abilities. They will look at us suspiciously, and question our motives, and look back into the archives and dig up some of the stuff we did that does not look good under the glaring light of today. Even if we could deal with it, and a lot of it is sitting on almost 2 decades, so there is not going to be a lot they could prove, but still the stress will still be there. It will be newer, and graver because there are others, whose lives would go under the microscope if they knew” he allowed as he though of Jim Valenti, and all he had for them. He lost his job because of them once before, and fortunately was able to get it back but not without having the climb the ladder and getting the town to trust him. “I do not want that on our shoulders.”
“But it will not give them the satisfaction of coming after you?” Zack asked as he could understand why the secrecy. “Change the narrative?” he asked. “If your abilities allowed your wife to be saved, and you did not hurt her…”
“I still hurt her, it might not be me, but I still hurt her,” Max muttered. “It doesn’t take away
all the bad that happened by telling the truth.”
“But telling the truth and allowing people to know there were others who did the crime, and you only pinned it on yourself to protect your love ones.”
“Then they will paint us all with the same brush. A few bad apples then we must all be bad, and we should be locked up. I hear today is not as enlightening on human rights, as it was even two decades before, and even then, people who were different were not welcomed with open arms. It won’t make things better to come clean” Max murmured as he truly wished they could come clean. It is never easy to keep the truth from people, and to lie about who you are.
“There will be complications, but who knows, the weight off your shoulders might be freeing?” Zack sighed.
“You are a creature of today. You are coming into this without experiencing what it truly means to be one of us, and I am glad for that because I wish every could have the experience of a life without burden and obviously you are exploring your origins and learning more about it because your birth mother was at best misinformed when she told me that you would be someone different than what obviously you are today…”
Zack nodded as he saw a guard coming as he refocused his attention on his birth father. A man who was different from what his media presented. He did not know if it were because it has been nearly seventeen years or the media spinning the events in their own way, but it was obvious that Max was not the man he had come to Roswell believing, and Zack still did not know that would mean in the long run. “I guess time is up?”
“Yeah,” Max muttered as he also saw the approaching gods, and the clock on the wall, and knew time was indeed up. “I wish this were not where we would be having our first meeting. But I do appreciate that you did come. It was good to meet you, and to know you did have a good life...”
“I did, and that was because of you. You did make the right choice because my parents did love me, and I have younger sister, and I am happy,” Zack murmured as he was coming to terms with his life. “I guess I wish you would have had the ability to have some happiness yourself…” Zack murmured because he was coming to understand that he had been lucky to be put up for adoption, and to live away from the atmosphere of Roswell. It would make it easier to know that his birth father gave himself a chance for a better life by choosing adoption. Except Max was then fated to a lot of pain.
Max laughed
personal happiness is overrated he mused to himself. “I find that I am only happy if my family can have their happiness, all of them. It makes all my decisions worth it” he muttered even if it meant sacrificing himself. He did not regret it, because he always only wanted Liz to be happy. And she had gotten a chance to have a life, and to experience what she had deserved. Being a doctor, even if it was the hard way. And knowing she was the parent their daughter needed.
Zack nodded. “I know, time is up” he muttered as guard approached as he stood up and faced his birth father one last time. “Good-bye”
“You too, good-bye Zack” Max said as he watched his son walk away and could see that his son was nothing like his biological mother, and he was thankful for that as he stood up and was led back to his cell and a reminder that he led a different life than his children.
And he was they did have a chance… as he was led back to his cell,
while a prisoner nearby got an envelope pushed between the bars of their cell. “You know what to do? said the guard.
As the prisoner nodded and took the envelope and counted the money, and then hid it under his mattress.
*
Alex was walking down the street after finishing up with the basketball game he and his buddies had been into on the public courts nearby. Prepared to go home and watch some television, as he walked up the pathway of his family home. He was surprised to find Olivia sitting on the porch, waiting for him to come home. Looking up, he could see the house was dark. Which was not a surprise because he knew his family had other plans. “Olivia, what are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you?” Olivia muttered because once Amelia had gone up to meet up with her friends to go the movies. Maria was still visiting with her mother, and Olivia needed to get out of the house, and go for a walk, and she ended up here, and she knew she had to tell Alex of her mother’s offer and get his approval.
She suspected she would have it. It was not like Alex wanted to raise the child. Both were too young for that. Her mother’s plan was in the best interest of the child, and for them also, but he needed to be aware and have input into it…
“Obviously, so what is up?” Alex asked as he unlocked the door. “I thought you were with my sister?”
“Your mother is still with my mother, and Amelia had a movie date with friends. I did not want to go, and so I ended up here…” she sighed as she had given up on the idea of a night out with friends to deal with his matter. Being an adult can get in the way of your social life she was finding, but this was the right place to be, because she and Alex needed to have this talk. It was long overdue.
“Why?” Alex asked.
“We have to talk…” Olivia murmured because she knew finally that they needed to chat. About their relationship and of course about the baby. She was feeling finally on settle ground and needed to act on it so that she could firmly land, and make plans “Where were you?”
“A game with friends,” Alex muttered as they walked into the kitchen.
Taking my aggression out on the court, and with friends. No one was home. He knew his father was preoccupied with the case lately, and his mother was with Olivia’s, so they had the house to themselves. Something they had done countless times before, and always found a way to have fun. The perks of being young and in love, and they learned the downside of having fun and now they were over.
So, today was different.
“So,” Alex asked.
“So,” Olivia agreed. “I have been doing a lot of thinking, and first off, I know we have been taking a breather these few weeks?”
“Yes,” Alex nodded as she could see the shift in his ex-friend or girlfriend. Since their status was murky at best. He though sensed this was the chat that had been long and coming since the hospital which is why he had been staying away so that they could delay the inevitable. “Is this about you and me?” he asked because he could sense that Olivia had a lot on her mind. “We do not have to settle on anything you know. We can continue to take time away from each other.”
“I know,” Olivia nodded. “I love you, you know that, right?” she murmured because she did not know how to say what she was going to say. She did love Alex. He was sweet and loving and perfect, and yet she knew it was not enough. Not now. Maybe in the future, but not today, and not tomorrow.
“I love you too, you know that don’t you?” Alex asked of his vanishing act that he had been doing these weeks, and he did not want her to think he did not care. He did, but… “My parents might think I am not being supportive and putting all this on you, but I do care, and I wish things could be different you know…”
“I know,” Olivia nodded. “I know I have your support. We do not have to be together every second of the day to know you would be there for me if I asked, and I do appreciate that you have listened to me and stayed away. It is that we are young, and we are not our parents?”
“No, we are not” Alex agreed. “Both sets had an intensity from the start, and even then, we only have to rely on stories of their connections even if I have Mom and Dad with me, always…” he sighed as much as he relied on his parents. It was clear that his parents had a soulmate connection that was rare, and he had spent the last two years trying to get that from his own relationship with Olivia. It might be there, but he was not sure if it was there today. Being young sucks when you are in love.
“And I only have my mother,” Olivia sighed as she wished she could have had a mother and a father growing up. She heard the stories and could sense that her mother was a lost cause without her father, and that she would never remarry or find companionship with another man even if she went away to university, and moved out, and moved on. She knew her mother was a
one-man woman for good and for bad. And from the few visits with her father, she knew her mother was the
one for him too. It made her know that she knew she did not want that.
Not now and may not in the future. But not now. The last few weeks of hearing stories about her parents told her that. “I love you…” she murmured once again.
“But you
do not want us to get back together?” Alex asked. “You want us to be finished, for good?” he asked. “You are not looking at a time in the near future at least that you want us to get back together?”
“Yes, right” Olivia muttered. “Maybe in five or ten years it will be different. But now, I am not ready to settle down. If the one thing this situation has told me, and listening to the story of my parents, and our family’s origin story is that I want time to explore. I want to know what the future is and not to be settled on one person. You should not want that either?”
Alex nodded because she was saying the truth. They were not their parents and it was fruitless to try to be them.
“We love each other, but we do not love each other enough to want to settle down and to try defy the odds that are against us succeeding despite having two sets of parents who loved each other as teenagers, and one set who made it, and one set whose fate was decided by outside forces, but they still love each other. That is not us, not yet anyways, right?”
“We cannot know what the future holds?” Alex asked. “No one can know…”
“No, we do not, unless we have my mother’s powers, and even then, there is a degree of flexibility in them, and it is obvious that we do not want to raise this baby together, right?” Olivia asked. “And try to defy the skeptics who think we are too young?”
Alex nodded.
“I thought so,” Olivia murmured as she was finding her feet in their conversation. “I am finding out that I do not want to settle down into a relationship with anyone right now, and you deserve a chance to find someone else if there is someone out there for you. I do not want you to wait for me, because I do not know when I will be ready for something,” she sighed. “We were friends, and then we were not, and it was so sudden and so second nature, like it was right.”
“But eventually it becomes too real,” Alex asked.
“Right,” Olivia nodded. “And on top of this, I got into the program in New York for October” she said softly as Alex eyes went wide with surprise. “I know, only ten slots, and I got one of them. And it has made me think, because I want this chance, and I want this shot to see if I can do it.”
“You can do anything you set your mind to,” Alex murmured as he had known she had applied but neither of them had anticipated that she might get selected for the program. And finding out about the acceptance, she could see the writing on the wall, and knew this offer would solve their other issue. “So, does that mean?”
“It would, but….” Olivia nodded.
“But what?” Alex asked.
“I was all set to decide on adoption, and take the chances that the odds are for this baby to be normal, but then Mom decided… and if I were to take her up on the offer, then I would need you to approve, but then I need your approval anyways”
“Decide what?” Alex asked, confused by what Olivia was trying to say.
“Mom wants to raise our baby,” Olivia announced, and Alex jaw dropped. “I know, I was shocked when she told me. She knows how much that I worry about the status of our child. She wants to raise him or her, and give them a life that you and I, we can’t provide.”
“Did you say yes?” Alex asked.
“No, not yet. She told me to think about it, and I have. She also told me to get advice from my aunt, but the more I think about it. The more right it sounds because it would solve everything. You and I would get a chance at a new chance and a new future. We would know the baby was safe, and sound, and we would know if one day if the baby does have abilities and we can help them deal with them and they would not be unprotected out there in the world,” Olivia murmured as she said the downside of her mother’s offer. “Even if they would be loved regardless. Still, if we did this and took up my mother’s offer. We would have to get used to seeing the baby grow up and knowing that we are not their parents?”
“But not all kids are loved for their differences,” Alex murmured as he thought of his friends who were not like him, but they were different, and they did not always have supportive families. “It would be unique alright…” he thought of the idea of seeing the child because their families were so interconnected, and yet know they would call someone else Mom and so he nodded. “It would be weird?”
“Yeah, I know, but it sounds right to me,” Olivia murmured as she thought of what their new normal could be once the baby was born. She knew her relocating would help with the transition. But that was only six months, how would the rest of her life be like. And for Alex to be here and know. “Look I do know what it means to make this choice, but my mother can provide the baby a life we cannot, and it would be unfair to take that chance away from our child,” she sighed. “I wish this were an ordinary situation and we did not need to be bailed out by either of our families, but this is going to be a unique child regardless. I would love to be able to give them to a family who would love them. Like my father and aunt found in my grandparents. But know the downside from them how hard it was to raise someone like us, and to not know until late in the process. This gives a chance for our son or daughter. “So, do I have your support on this. Will you say yes.”
“I need to think about it,” Alex murmured as he struggled to piece together some thoughts on the subject. “You know, talk it over with Mom and Dad?”
“Which is what I expected,” Olivia said as she did not expect a quick yes, because Alex did have investment in this situation and needed to talk it over with his parents because they were his guardians until he was old enough to make his own decisions. “I think this would be the best decision for the both of us,” she asked. “We would still know the child, and they would be able to know us?”
Alex smiled and nodded.
“I am sorry…” Olivia sighed as they stepped close to each other, and she lightly kissed him “I will always know that we had something special. Even if we end up being friends in the future, which is what I hope we end up being…”
“Of course, we will always be friends” Alex confirmed. “Our families are too interconnected for us not to be…”
“Which is probably why this is for the best,” Olivia murmured as she turned to leave as she knew it was best for both to quickly leave, because it did would help them to stay. “Let me know what you decide.”
“I will,” Alex nodded as he watched the girl, he did love to leave him behind but knew it was for the best they broke up before anything else happened that had the capacity to confuse their lives.
*
As across town Michael was entering a room, and waiting as the darkness of the night fell, he did a little cursory investigation to make sure everything was still the lay of the land in the room, and that they had not missed anything else out. He wanted to be home, and some semblance of normal to take back their lives again but then he knew he would not rest until his best friend was home again, with his wife and daughter.
They might not be able to reclaim the last time. But Max did not deserve to be in a prison that other people’s crimes had bought him.
The door opened, and the light turned on and curses were exchanged. “I was waiting?” was all Michael said.
“You do know that this is not your room, right?” came the voice. “That you are not welcome to come in as you like it, and if you did, then you are trespassing. Maybe I should call the town Sheriff on you?”
“He is on my side but let us not bring him into this” Michael murmured because the last thing they needed to do was get Jim involved. It would do no good for the town Sheriff to be embroiled in controversy once again. Because he knew how much knowing their secret cost their ally and his father-in-law. “Of course, but I was waiting for you, so where were you. There were no signs of you all day?” came Michael’s voice, that was one mixed with tension, and irritation as he had checked all the locations the kid was known show his face, and none of them materialized.
“What does it matter to you?” Zack asked. “Do I have to report to you?” he asked before spilling. “But in this case, I was visiting dear old Dad,” came Zack as he came face to face with his intruded, someone he did not want in his own. “As if it were any of your business. So, why can someone not get some privacy in their room?”
“I would love to give it to you, but you are part of this” Michael muttered as he felt the surprise that Zack had gone to see Max. “And why would you do something like that?”
“You mean, visiting my birth father. Why would I not do it” Zack asked. “He’s part of why I am the way I am. Anyways, I ask once again, why are you here? If this to try to dissuade me from spending time with your daughter. If it is, you can leave. Amelia and I are only friends.”
“You better be,” Michael responded with true irritation coming through in the tone of his voice at he thought of his daughter and this punk. The last thing he wanted was his daughter to get mixed up with someone like Zack when she had the potential to get out of this town, and to make something of herself, and he knew he would battle every day to make that to happen because his children were not going to have to settle for anything less than what they deserved. “Because if I find out you did anything more with my daughter than you will find that the next time you find me here waiting for you. I will not be civilized. I will find you, and kill you because my daughter is only fifteen and you are way too old for her…”
“I am only seventeen?” Zack muttered.
“That says it all,” Michael muttered. The last thing he wanted was for someone older to get involved with his daughter. The motorcycle was already confusing the situation, and he wanted his daughter to be the opposite of him or Maria. “I will not say it again. Leave Amelia alone”
“Something tells me Amelia can handle her own life, but she is she not seeing someone, and I am seeing someone too, so you do not have to worry about your daughter Mr. Guerin. We are only friends. She is being nice, and welcoming. Which is more than I have gotten from the other corners of your gang.”
“You are new,” Michael muttered “We do not like new” which was an understatement because none of them took to newbies, whether they had alien blood or not. Zack was new, and a distinct change after years of trying to make peace with the state of their lives.
“I gather,” Zack muttered as he once again looked around the room and saw Michael’s searching technique had been employed once again. Disturb everything to make sure you did not miss anything, whether it was small or big. “So, what do you want?”
“We have to talk…” was all Michael would say because by coming to his town. As much as he wanted the kid to leave Roswell and head back to his normal life, all American family in New York. Michael knew that could not happen yet. Because Zack was an important ingredient to their story, and he could not be ignored, even if he had wanted to, and he did but this was Max’s son. One of them. Biologically, he was part of this clan, and they would have to make it work.
If they wanted to get Max back home…
*
In the recesses of an office building in Las Cruces. Because Roswell was too small for these professionals. So, they operated under the bigger city lights of Las Cruces, even if they were talking about a case involving Roswell citizens even if the prisoner they were talking about, was not a resident of the town anymore, and had not been one for nearly seventeen years. Still, he was a topic of discussion.
“I do not care what you do. You are not to give those people anymore wins. It’s bad enough you got a judge so lenient to a confessed army base bomber, that she allowed a visit, overnight which is even worse, between the prisoner and the woman he abused” came the voice into an office across town via a telephone speaker. “You have allowed them to see each other, and now Evans will be determined to spend more time with his wife, and visa versa for his wife, which is a hell of a lot worse. It gives him hope. You are not to let that happen; do you have me?” came the voice across the phone line within the office.
“I understand,” came the chastened government agent as he was surrounded by others, as they were listening to the directive coming across to the senior agent.
“Good, then I expect to hear you pushing back against Evans request at the next hearing into the case, and you actually prevailing” came the voice to the one next the agent, the lawyer. “You are to do something to prevent another visit, anything, do you hear me?”
“Yes,” came both the lawyer, and the government agent. “But you know, he is innocent you know…” came the agent.
“I do not care,” the voice muttered, “I will not have the media making mincemeat of us because we let someone with his convictions walk all over us. Do you hear me?”
“You only got the conviction, because you threatened his family?” answered the lawyer in the room, as he was well versed in the case lore, and knew the media might find themselves on Evans side if they knew half of what the true story was… Especially if it was known how they had even coerced the confession out of Evans by concentrating their attention on those who Evans clearly loved. And the case against the suspect on the basis of the wife was flimsy when they did not even have the victim wanting to press charges, and yet they pressed on, even when the victim said they had the story wrong. And their side had also edited the footage to make it worse for the accused.
“His attack on his wife was not good enough. I needed more, and I will not let you them override my greatest victory, do you read me?”
“I read you,” came the agent
so that your senate campaign will not fail he muttered as he disconnected the call and looked at his secretary once the call ended.
But I have my orders “Find me anything you can on the judge, so that we can get this case moved to someone else.”
“Yes sir,” the secretary nodded and left the agent and the lawyer in the room to talk.
“This will come back on us you know, because the forces are amassing, and they will do something if we prevent then from seeing Evans at least. If we allow them
something. At least one thing they want. Which would be more visits than they might not press for more, to revoke the confession?”
“If they try anything, then the media will be on our side?” came the agent.
“At what cost?” said the lawyer. “You have already separated a man from his family for nearly two decades when you know he was innocent and saved his wife’s life on that tape. We saw the footage. We even saw her bringing him back to life.”
“I have my orders,” agent muttered. “Plus, I have already started the process…”
Not eager to find out exactly what had been started, a new warning was established. “I am just giving you fair warning that this will not be pretty in the end if you do not reign in that man. Something tells me Evans family will not let it rest, and something tells me that we are all should be thankful they have not acted before now…
The agent did not care because he had his orders and knew too much was at risk if he went with his conscious.
*****
THANK YOU all for your interest in the story so far. To those who are leaving great thoughts. It's great to know what you are thinking. And I hope you continue to enjoy it. And thanks to those who are just lurking and reading.
All is welcome. We have a ways to go. And knowing that. We we have
now come to the end of
Act 1. With
Act 2 beginning very soon. where there will be significant twisty action to come. With people coming together, apart maybe, and futures in significant distress some by their own actions. There will be a
Act 3. So, there is still some significant roads to go down...
Enjoy.
I hope that Liz is wrong about her chances of getting pregnant. They deserve to be together Max free from prison and beginning anew life with hopefully a new baby added...fingers crossed here's to there future. To be new grandparents and newborn parents at the same time, lol 
That'd be something for Max and Liz