“I was not Tess I am not anything like her” Serena sat annoyed about her motivations being questioned. Which she supposed was warranted but it was easy to hear or know that she had wasted years and Max could have been home with his family, or they would fail, and it would be all be a wasted effort, and that would stay with her too.
“No one was claiming you are,” Michael muttered as people wanted to say they were lucky for the life they had led. But they had lost too much to think they had been lucky, and have good luck swung in their direction, and he wanted it to finally go their way. “The fact you are not Tess speaks highly of you because no one should be her, as we had the misfortunate to experience her the first time” Michael mumbled as he had no desire to experience that time once again, because they had been lucky to get out it in one piece. And not everyone had gotten it out it, and it had cost them.
“Yeah, I got the same impression upon meeting her too” Serena sighed. “Ava didn’t have the easiest time acclimating in her return to our planet’s surface as she quickly saw that it wasn’t what she had been sold to expect. But she had the one thing that greased her acceptance into society,” she sighed as she thought of the ticket into society that Ava managed to bring from Earth.
“The baby,” Michael muttered.
“Right,” Serena admitted. “In the beginning Khivar was suspicious about then his mood turned into happiness, especially once the kid was born, and they were able to authenticate that he was truly Zan’s heir, and a male, and once they did, Ava soon discovered that she was going to lose her only reason for immunity as the throne started to take control of Zan’s child so that he could stay on the throne, as long as he chose to, and had plans to mold the child in his image. Biology be damned.”
“She had to know that was the deal?” Michael muttered.
“I guess she wasn’t told that being the mother of future king on Antar doesn’t get you far because being a female means you are treated as if they were lower than even the lowest Antarian,” Serena muttered. “We are only needed for one thing, and I learned that the hard way when my mother and I were left without our father.”
“Your father being Kal Langley?” Michael asked.
“Yes,” Serena muttered. “I saw how they treated my mother, and even how my father treated my mother therefore because time goes slower on that planet, I had been around a long time, and I even knew Courtney.”
“Courtney” Michael muttered as he thought of the blonde who almost ended any chance of being with Maria, and who had sacrificed herself to protect them from Nicholas. A temptation if there was ever one, and who thought he was more than he was, or wanted to believe it. “You knew Courtney?”
“Yes,” Serena admitted. “As I said, time does go slow up there, and I knew before she disappeared in the evacuation.”
“You didn’t come with us?” Michael asked.
“They only wanted the Royal Four to head for safety, anyone else was sent in another one that wasn’t supported by the families. After Courtney left, I grew even more to take part in the next resistance. The newest resistance to Khivar’s reign. When Ava realized that she had miscalculated, and they did not want her contributions and they were prepared to terminate her, well, she grabbed her son, and she prepared to come back. I was part of those plans. We barely made it off the planet in one piece. Because I wanted off, I came along because I thought if I found you, I could convince you to join us in reclaiming the throne.”
“That is not me,” Michael muttered as he thought of his one and only shot at Max’s job, and it had not exactly been for him because he had hurt a lot of people with his actions, and he knew he should be grateful that Maria came back to him given how he treated her, and others.
“I saw that, once I got here and got a sense of the lay of the land” Serena muttered. “Tess had a better grip on re-entry than I did, because of her human status. I did not have the ability to access any husks,” she grumbled, and Michael winced at his knowledge of how he had been part of destroying those husks. “Ones that would give me form, and it took me time to find a way to survive on this planet. Once I did, it was of course after Tess did what she did… All I can say is that I was lucky to get out of there in the form that I was before they discovered me in that ship, or before the base exploded.”
“Yeah,” Michael muttered.
“It took me a long time to used to this planet. It operates differently than our home one, and I had no ability to help your friend stay out of prison before I started to understand the way this planet operated, and find a form that would work on me, and I went from there, and built a foundation and then I found out that Kal hadn’t been doing his job, and I elected to take over…”
“Why?” Michael asked.
“Because someone had to do it,” Serena admitted. “Kal liked his life. The one he built here on Earth. I suppose I can see why, because it is a different life than the ones we were forced to live under on our planet. Eventually he would die, and I inherited his papers…”
“You could not have done it before?” Michael asked.
“As I said. I could only do what I could do. I saw what Kal did, and I knew the situation had to be rectified, and with Olivia and Zack coming of age, I decided it was time to make my entry into the story.”
“What does they have to do with this?”
“It does happen to mean everything. The truth has to come out” Serena murmured.
“What do you mean by that?” Michael asked.
“You will see,” Serena murmured as she checked her watch. “I have to get back to the job and undertake what else I have to do on this Earth…” she acknowledged. “Good to meet you and I am happy you were able to find a way of life that works for you…”
“What do you want me to do with this information?” Michael asked as what Serena had laid o n him did not make a lot of sense and he could not grasp how he could make it work for Max.
“That is for you to decide,” Serena murmured. “Don’t contact me unless I contact you…” she murmured. “Your friend is on a slippery slope because the authorities would find a way for all of this to fail and keep status quo.”
“They know he wasn’t guilty,” Michael muttered bitterly.
“Your friend confessed, and therefore they had someone to blame” Serena muttered. “If you had only fought it, they might not have done what they did…”
“How do we fix it?” Michael asked.
*
Michael did not get an answer as he started the drive on back to home. While back in Roswell his wife was dealing with normal duties of being a parent. With her daughter sitting at the kitchen table doing homework after getting off school. Maria had someone else looking after the shop, and knew she was lucky to be able to choose her hours, and on this day. She chose to be close to home because she did not trust either of her children not to do something crazy. While her son was too far gone to worry about on this day, because she did trust that the situation between him and Olivia would eventually sort itself out. Amelia was now becoming a growing concern. She knew what a girl who was smitten looked like, and she also knew their world was complicated enough and the last thing Amelia needed to do was complicate her future with someone older, and someone who was different. Which was a funny criticism for Maria to have given who she was married to, and what their children had the ability on any given day. There was something comforting about normal Sure, she and Liz had not chosen normal, but that was them, and she dd not want her daughter to face the same difficulty in life “Are you sure everything is alright with you and Greg?” she wondered of her daughter and smiled at the eye rolling of her daughter. “I am only concerned?”
“Since you and Dad were never that strong of a proponent of me and Greg to begin with, this switch to being a member of our fan club is beyond obvious and also annoying” Amelia muttered as she knew her parents would rather have her single and concentrate on her studies than dealing with being in a relationship. No matter how good of a guy Greg was, and he was. All American, and the one every parent wanted their daughter to be involved with if they were going to get involved with someone. So, the switch of her mother to being an advocate for her and Greg was startling and hilarious at the same time. Oh Mom
“We would rather you were concentrating on your schoolwork?” Maria muttered because unlike her or Michael’s scholastic achievements. Their daughter had the chance to do something with her brain and do something more than stick around their hometown because they found love with someone who could not leave, or you did not have the funds to go elsewhere. She wanted the world for their daughter. She wanted her to go somewhere, anywhere other than a life in Roswell, unless that was what she wanted.
“I can do that and do other things you know Mom,” Amelia muttered. “It’s not like my schoolwork is suffering because I am up there with Olivia at the head of our class and I don’t have the distractions she does in my life”
“Which is another thing I want you to avoid,” Maria murmured.
“You can count me for wanting to avoid that because Olivia is a show on whole bunch of matters of the route I don’t want to take. Who wants those worries, unless I am older, and settled in my life because Mom I am handling my life in a way you and Dad would be proud of…” Amelia muttered hell do I want my brother’s life or even my parents’ life because she knew how complicated being in love as a teenager was in those days “Greg and I are fine. As I said to Alex, he is coming back for my party. We are good. Nothing is happening between Zack and I”
“I saw you on the back of his bike, and that tells me there is something to worry about” Maria muttered. “Honey, he’s older?”
“Yeah, he is, but that by that much” Amelia murmured. “If I hadn’t been running late and had just missed the bus, then I wouldn’t have taken him up on the offer because I am not looking for anything on that front…”
“We might not want to happen, but it does have a knack of happening whether we want it to happen or not” Maria murmured as she thought of her own life. Michael just appeared and he had been the last one she thought she would want or would want her. “I don’t want you to be dragged down by any angst, honey.”
“You don’t have to worry about that Mom,” Amelia smiled. “Zack is coming into a difficult situation and I am trying to be nice to him and that is all there is…” she sighed. “Everyone else looks like he shouldn’t exist…”
“Honey,” Maria murmured.
“Mom, I know people’s reasons for thinking the way you do. You do not like his birth mother, and Max is in a hellhole, and if he had not been born than Olivia’s parents might have had a better time of it, and you do not like Tess, I get it. I probably would not like her if I had known her, but I grew up in this life. Alex and I both did. We know along with Olivia experience what it means to know what we know, and for someone on the outside, and with blood of being one of us is coming from it from a different place. He was adopted out, and he got a chance to be normal. But he is not normal, and he is now finding out there is more to us than a simple story of a birth mother and father who were too young to keep him. So, all I am doing is being a shoulder for him. I am not looking at him as anything more. I have Greg, and Zack does have a girlfriend too because she’s now in town.”
“He does,” Maria murmured as her daughter had a way of saying things that told them they were right, but also a slap against how they were treating Max’s son. “Really?”
“Yes, I saw her today” Amelia murmured. “They seem to be happy, so no Mom and Dad, you do no have to worry about me. You should keep your worries to Alex and Olivia who need them and leave me alone” she sighed as she picked up her books and stalked away from the kitchen table. Leaving Maria to wonder about her children. Her daughter did have a knack of being able to get a sense of people, and even if Zack was in a horrible situation. Still. it did not mean she wanted her daughter mixed up with him, and so she took the hope that Zack was taken and went back to concentrating on other matters including her son who came into the kitchen.
“Have you talked to Olivia?” Maria muttered to her son.
“She’s fine Mom.” Alex sighed as he walked to the fridge and found a drink. “You don’t have to worry about me because we both have a handle on it.” Ignoring that both were trying to ignore the issue by not talking about it.
“I do,” Maria muttered as she left the room as Alex took his drink and went back to his own room.
*
Olivia knew she was ignoring her situation by concentrating on everything other than trying to figure out her future. It remained an enigma to her because she was confused, and she did not know what she wanted. She knew she was having the baby, but she did not think of herself of a mother, and she knew two years was a big difference between her and her mother. When her mother faced a similar situation. She knew her mother had been dealt with a lot to put it mildly because of her love for her father, and she and Alex could only know a small fraction of what it must have been like to live those three years.
So as Olivia found herself back at the Crashdown to meet her mother for dinner because she was busy at the office because of the time she had taken off to go court. So, Olivia offered to meet her mother for dinner. And they both agreed on the Crashdown because it was familiar, and they knew the territory for anything they might say. “Grandma,” Olivia smiled as she saw Nancy Parker walked towards her. “Has Mom showed up yet?”
“She called, and she’s running late” Nancy smiled as she showed her granddaughter to a table. Olivia looked around at the packed restaurant. “Are you okay?” she asked as her smile turned to a frown, which her granddaughter was able to register.
“I am fine Grandma, honest” Olivia smiled because the last thing she wanted to do was worry her grandparents or her mother. “Life is normal, and I have been busy with school.”
“If you need to talk about anything, you can come to me you know” Nancy asked. “I could be someone you can talk to you know, if you don’t want to talk to your mother.”
“I know that,” Olivia sighed as she looked around and saw that the restaurant was still so much like it was when her parents met, re-met after the shooting. She knew her grandparents had not done much over the years because it had not been warranted, except an odd paint job and yet they kept it so similar. “I know I have family who loves me, but I am handling it the best way I can for now,” I am not handling it, that is the problem she mused to herself, but she did not go there, or say that as she moved on to another topic. “You and Grandpa once approved of my Dad, didn’t you?”
“Oh, honey” Nancy murmured as she wished her granddaughter had raised any other subject than this one, because it hit a raw nerve on both sides whenever it was brought up. “We love you.”
“I know you do Grandma,” Olivia sighed. “I have never questioned that but at one time you did not think my father was the worst thing to happen to my mother, your daughter?”
“We never said that” Nancy muttered or not those exact words when they did think of it. “Your parents were so young when they were together, and they chose a very difficult road to go down.”
“It’s not like they had much choice,” Olivia asked. “It was picked for them if they wanted to be with each other”
“They chose many of the routes they were forced to take,” Nancy murmured. “All your grandfather and I wanted was for your mother to be safe.”
“She was, because of my father” Olivia asked.
“But it wasn’t always like it was in the beginning,” Nancy sighed as she knew she and her husband gave their son-in-law credit for jumping in and saving their daughter, but they did not give him credit for how it ultimately ended. “We were looking out for our daughter. We were looking at it as her parents. And I am sure, your mother would do the same with you…”
“If you approved of him in the beginning, why couldn’t you see there were reasons for it” Olivia asked.
“Because all we cared was that our daughter was affected. Yes, once, we believed your father loved your mother, and he probably always did but he led her down a road that led to a lot of trouble, and ultimately a lot of pain.”
“But that is growing up,” Olivia asked as she reflected on her own journey. “You can’t get to be adult without the pain?”
“No, but your father caused your mother to be arrested, and she risked the loss of her future if she hadn’t gotten out of it by the skin of her teeth, and that was before even she went to boarding school…” Nancy murmured. “It was a painful situation for all of us. I hope you can imagine being us and having to deal with that, how could we not form a view of your father that was different than that was being held by your mother?”
“Boarding school was not Dad,” Olivia muttered.
“Obviously, your mother has been telling you things,” Nancy wondered.
“Should she not have?” Olivia muttered. “It is my life. It is her life. It is why I don’t have a father, and I wish you would believe that I am here because of the love that my father had for my mother,” she sighed as she was viewing the situation very different now that she knew much of what had happened.
“Honey,” Nancy sighed.
“Mom, you should know by now that is a waste of time” came a voice of Liz who caused Nancy to twist herself around to face her daughter frowning at the anxiety on her daughter’s face. “It is a waste of time to try to turn my daughter against her father?”
“That is not what I was trying to do,” Nancy muttered as she faced her own daughter. “She has questions on why we feel the way we do about her father?”
“Which is your right, but if you would only believe that the story is more complicated and you should not be coloring your granddaughter’s views on her father,” Liz sighed with a heavy heart. “I love you and Dad, but it is our life, and her father saved my life, and didn’t end it, and that what is important in our story” she sighed as she sat down at the booth. “The obstacles do not matter except that it’s keeping him from us,” she murmured as she glanced at her daughter. “Sorry I am late,” she sighed as she smiled at her daughter. “A patient took longer than I thought it would be,” she smiled as she glanced at her mother. “Olivia does not need the stress okay Mom.”
“I understand completely,” Nancy muttered as she handed the menu to her daughter and granddaughter and walked away, and the tension at the table disappeared.
“I am sorry Mom,” Olivia sighed as she hated to see obvious tension between her mother and her parents. She knew her mother got along with her mother and father on a host of issues, and they loved each other, but the one issue that was coloring their relationship was her grandparent’s opinion on her father. Liz was not allowing her parent’s opinion to stop her from loving her husband or wishing that life could bring a different conclusion.
“For what?” Liz asked as if she did not already know.
“I wish Grandma and Grandpa were more supportive,” Olivia asked because on some level she knew why her grandparents were concerned. Given the nature of her parent’s courtship. Any parent had a right to be concerned she mused to herself. But Dad is Dad she told herself as was not easy to see them so rigid in their opinion of her father. She had seen for herself that her father appeared to genuinely love her mother, and she wished her grandparents could hold on that part of the story and knowing there were wacky things in their story.
“They mean well,” Liz allowed as she thought of her parent’s opinion of her husband and knew if the situation were reversed, she would probably be similar, but it was only too easy to rebel against their opinion when she had done it so much when she was Olivia’s age. “I know they love me, and they are only looking out for me. And if you were going through the same thing than I probably would be taking their view,” she murmured as she glanced at her daughter. “So, how I react to you and Alex is based on my own experience,” she said honestly, and Olivia nodded. “You and Alex are a fraction of the intensity that your father and I went through and even Michael and Maria went through. If it were you, I probably would think the same way so I cannot fault my parents, your grandparents but they do not know how it was, to love your father, and to be part of this life. They think they do, but they do not…”
“No one does, unless you live it for yourself?” Olivia asked.
“Right,” Liz nodded. “It has been an unbelievable tale and the fact it only last three years is insanity. I do not want that kind of life for you honey. None of us do with you kids. We did it once, and it was hell, and path was rocky and twisty, and we experience realities that no one should face, and it is not the life you should want, or anyone for that. We lost people.”
“I know,” Olivia murmured. “Alex Whitman, and then Dad”
“Yes,” Liz said sadly as memories of both the original Alex and Max flooded her mind. Two profoundly good guys. The best kind of a boy for two different ways. We were kids, and we should not have had to face what we did, or lose who we lost…
“I don’t think we are going to face what you and Dad faced. What Alex and I are going through is normal compared to what you and Dad faced.”
“But we will always worry because we don’t know what is out there,” Liz murmured as their burgers were delivered, and they started to eat their fries. “You don’t know what tomorrow will be. From the beginning, it always changed” she murmured. “When we believed our lives were in one place, the next day would be different.”
Olivia nodded.
“The future is out there for you to grab, and we don’t want you to be defined what we did when we were your age,” Liz sighed.
“So, how did it go in court?” Olivia asked as she remembered that had been where her mother had been that day.
“We won hurdle number one,” Liz revealed, and Olivia smiled because it was at least as if god were giving their family something, and she knew it did not mean her father would be coming home any time soon, or ever, but it meant something.
“I am glad,” Olivia smiled as for a moment she could dream that this nightmare might end one day. Because something was being given to her mother, and she could only hope it would mean something in the end.
Liz knew this was only one battle. But it was one battle and one win that meant the world to her as it allowed her the possibility to dream. To know she could see her husband. It did allow her to dream that if maybe he visit went well, then maybe it could be a first step. She did not know what the future meant for any of them, but she had to think this was the first step. “It doesn’t mean we will win,” she assured her daughter.
“I know, but it’s something” Olivia smiled. Something that told them they still had a chance in this fight.
