Red flags did immediately leap into Maria head as she turned the corner as she walked home from
Glitter as it was a nice day that day and she wanted to walk as sometimes that allowed her to get out her aggression on life worries and she had a ton at the moment, so she treasured the walk. As she turned onto her street, she saw a motorcycle whip by, and she would not have noticed except she had the strong idea that she recognized the female on the back of the bike. One with long flowing blonde hair, and one who did not have permission to be on such a vehicle.
Damn it Amelia Maria muttered to herself. T
he last thing I need is more problems, and ones coming from you because she knew whose bike it had to be.
Since Amelia’s boyfriend was this semester in England with family, and Greg was not one to be riding a motorcycle. Given Greg Simpson was as upstanding and All American as they come these days, and from what Maria and Michael could gather, their daughter and Greg had been happy since they began to date the year before and been able to handle the distance once Greg was forced to another country due to a short-term parental job transfer. She and Michael had grudgingly accepted the relationship because Amelia had a good head on her shoulder, and she did not imagine two fifteen years could get into much trouble together. Amelia had never been one to give them much of an issue.
Of course, she tended to forget her own time as a fifteen-year-old, and how much trouble she had gotten in with the love of her life.
Michael. But most of that time, the trouble had not come from the romantic variety. It had been due to alien chaos, and the fact she had fallen in love with an alien, who had changed her and her friend’s world. Romantically they had more downs than ups until they were eighteen, and she got pregnant, and soon they were committed and were expecting parents.
She remembered those times and she did not want her daughter to face the same angst that had often come to them. Especially when she already had her brother facing adult worries because Alex and Olivia had decided to make things complicated before deciding to put the breaks on their relationship too late.
So, she did not need the reminder of how love can be messy. She saw too much of it in her own life, and in the life of her best friend who was in love with someone who could not be with her, and she did not need it for her children.
And especially not Tess Harding’s son.
The
blonde hair was unnerving Maria admitted to herself as she picked up her walking. Sure, her own daughter modeled after her, and had blonde hair, but still, when she looked at Zack, she did not see Max. She saw Tess, and because the boy had been raised away from them; how was she to know if he was the good or bad seed?
Of course, she doubted he was the bad seed. When Max’s DNA was in the equation too, and Max was the definition of a good guy
if you ignore the fact he is in prison for murder, and assault Maria told herself.
Max is a good guy. He took the bullet for the rest of us or most of all her husband and Isabel.
Whom should be in prison along with Max for the crimes they had done as a teenager? Max had the unfortunate misfortune of being caught for the wrong crime.
Still a mother wanted to protect her only daughter. Amelia had a good head on her shoulder, but still, a girl can be led astray by a good-looking boy. Especially one who was mysterious, and different and vastly different from the life she had led until now. So, Maria could not help but have qualms of the direction she saw her fifteen-year-old going in, especially when she had one child on the cusp of being an adult too early.
“Amelia,” Maria mumbled as she approached the parked bike as Amelia was passing the helmet to the driver, who looked amused to Maria. Amelia realized it was her mother staring at her, while at the door, was her brother and best friend. Not the situation she expected to be in.
“Mom, please don’t say anything, okay” Amelia pleaded to her mother as Maria could only shake her head at the scene being played out
this is not how I thought it would go. “Zack was only giving me a ride home?”
“I can see that” Maria muttered. “I don’t get why you would need one in the first place?” she asked. “You know you aren’t supposed to be on a motorcycle. Your father and I have given you those warnings in the past?”
“Sorry Mrs. Guerin,” Zack smiled. “I ran into your daughter on her way home, and she had to meet Olivia here, and she was running late, so I offered her a ride. It is as simple as that. It was purely safe, and not dangerous in the least.”
“Somehow I doubt that” Maria muttered as she remembered her time on Michael’s bike. One of the reasons why she had given her daughter such a warning. Michael went along with it because he did not want his daughter to be any danger and did not want her to run in that crowd. Michael had known full well he had a different life than the one he and Maria had been trying to create for the twins.
“I better go,” Zack smiled at Amelia. “See you around?”
“Thank you for the ride,” Amelia smiled as she watched as the bike drove off as she turned around and faced her disapproving mother. “Mom, seriously, all we’re doing is being friends. And he was being a gentleman in getting me a lift.”
“Honey,” Maria muttered. “You didn’t have to take it, and you had other methods of getting home?’
“God,” Amelia muttered. “Zack is nothing,” she said as she stalked off towards the door that was still open and past her brother and best friend. “It’s simple as I was running late because I had been spending time with Patsy and Lena, and I promised to meet Olivia here to give her the notes, and Zack just happened past…”
“You should be more careful?” Maria sighed.
“Mom, seriously, nothing is going on there” Amelia sighed. “I am still seeing Greg, and everything is good there, so why would I want to start anything else when I have Greg in my life. Greg is even coming to town next month with his mother, and he’s coming to my birthday party because they will be visiting his grandparents that weekend,” she sighed. “You don’t have to worry about anything related to Zack okay,” she mumbled. “Olivia, I have those notes upstairs. Do you want to come and get them?”
“Sure,” Olivia smiled as she saw the concern on Maria’s face, and she shared it too. Still, it allowed her to get away from the awkwardness that reigned between her and Alex, so she took the out and followed Amelia upstairs to her bedroom. While Maria just watched her daughter walk off, now worried about
both of her children.
“Mom.” Alex tried.
“Not now Alex, not now” Maria muttered as she stormed into the kitchen for a snack, and a stiff drink.
*
“Really Amelia?” Olivia tried as she walked upstairs and into Amelia’s bedroom and sat on the bed and watched her friend played with her computer, to bring up her notes, so she could print them off as she was taking stock of scene, she had witnessed downstairs. She sensed why Maria was concerned because they really did not know Zack all that well, and whose to say he wasn’t like his mother and not her father, even though he had been adopted by a good family and raised to be normal “That was quite the scene?”
“Mom doesn’t have anything to worry about,” Amelia muttered as she was still annoyed that anyone would question her motives “Zack is not my type”
“Someone who is older, leather jacket hot and he drives a motorcycle, and he’s not your type?” Olivia asked out loud with a laugh as she knew her friend. While she and Greg were going great. She knew in the past that Amelia tended to have her eyes wonder to the bad boys in their classes. “I find that hard to believe Amelia. Anyone with eyes will have to notice him?”
‘Whether he’s good looking or not is beside the point Olivia,” Amelia muttered
I have a boyfriend and I am not looking for anything more she muttered to herself.
Why do people not trust me? Greg and I are fine, as I told Mom. Greg is coming back for my birthday party?”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t notice someone who is looking your way?” Olivia asked. “Especially when your boyfriend is away and you can only do too much homework, and spend time with only so many friends?”
“Why would I want the trouble?” Amelia wondered. “Greg is a good guy, and loves me, and we have been able to handle him being away, and that is coming to a close?” she sighed because she did loved Greg and miss him.
Yes, Zack is cute, and hot as hell, but I am not looking for complications that come from him, because Amelia was not stupid,
I know Zack is different, and complex. Why would I want that in my life?
“Are you sure?” Olivia asked.
“Being away was only for the semester, and he is going to be coming back” Amelia smiled. “That was the agreement he had with his parents, and if they can’t come back then he’s staying with his grandparents next year, so he does want to come home, and I can’t wait until he does, and I am not looking for anything with anything else.”
“If you say so?” Olivia sighed.
“Do you want the notes or not?” Amelia asked.
“Yes, I do” Olivia smiled at the diversion tactic from her friend because she Olivia was a master of them too because while she did not doubt Amelia wanted Greg. But Zack was new, and exciting, and she could not imagine her friend not falling for her mysterious half brother’s charm whether it led to anything or not.
“So, how was your big visit with your father?” Amelia asked as she finished printing off the notes and handed them to her friend. “How was it to see him again?”
“Different,” Olivia conceded as she remembered her visit with her father. She did not know how to explain it because she knew she still could not grasp a picture of the man who had helped her mother bring her to life. One thing she was clear that he did love her mother, and yet she still did not completely believe it. “It is complicated and a little hard to explain”
*
After Isabel had dropped off Olivia at Michael and Maria’s house. She drove over to see Liz because she knew they had things to talk about and was pleasantly surprised to find her husband’s car in the driveway. Choosing to take that a good omen. Knocking on the door, Liz came to the door and smiled as she let in her sister-in-law. “Do I see my husband’s car?”
“He stopped in to pay a visit,” Liz smiled as let Isabel into the house. The craziness of their life, and the fact Kyle had been once her boyfriend and how she was married to his wife’s brother was fascinating, and despite the interconnections, she knew Isabel and Kyle were meant to be together. It was something that had gone right over the years. If she and Max could not have their dreams. She wanted them for her friends, even if she did not care much for the concept of love because she had been brutally denied the one, she loved as she looked behind her friend and did not seen a sullen teenager “I don’t see my daughter with you?”
“She had to stop in and pick up some notes from Amelia,” Isabel smiled. “I am sure she won’t be long. So, how are you holding up?” she asked as they walked into the living room as Kyle noticed his wife had arrived, and he got up and approached and kissed his wife. “Where are the kids?” she asked of her husband who handed her the drink he had recently poured and went to the bar and got him another for himself.
“Sleep over with my father and Amy,” Kyle acknowledged as he turned around to face his wife. “Amy was taking them shopping and treating them to a salon visit, and then dinner, and a movie with Jim. So, how did it go with the big visit?” he asked as Liz’s attention zoomed onto the discussion.
“It went well enough,” Isabel muttered as she hated thinking of how her brother was in a big building, with guards and behind bars, and cement walls and they could go on with their daily lives and be happy and carefree and Max could not have that, and it was much more apparent now that she had taken the reopened the wound and engaged with her brother.
“What does that mean?” Liz asked as she took her own drink because she did not know what to expect.
“What do you think?” Isabel sighed. “It’s always hell to go there, and know there isn’t anyway for him to come home with me, and if the prison and the government had their way then they will make sure he spends the rest of his life in that place, and we’ll never get him out of there…”
“Yeah,” Liz muttered because she hated knowing she had a husband who was stuck in such a plate and that she had only seen him once in the nearly seventeen years that he had been in that god awful place since they married. “Is he okay?”
“Better than he was yesterday,” Isabel said as encouragement to her sister-in-law. “That is progress I guess” she smiled. “Yesterday,” Isabel remembered. “The depression was there. The bruises were marginally better, but because of where he is, he can instantly get better but today it was better, and especially since he didn’t reject my visit like I feared, and of course he was happy to see Olivia.”
“How was it with Olivia?” Liz as fearful that this would only confuse and complicate her daughter’s life, and she knew her daughter did not need such complications when her life had enough of them already. “Was it too much for her?”
“I think it was fine. You can ask her when she got home,” Isabel smiled to assured Liz. “But it did get her annoyed that her father has to be in there, and there is very little we can do about it as she doesn’t know why we couldn’t have given them Tess as a suspect or anyone else but her father” she sighed as she thought of her talk with her niece in the car on the drive back to town.”
“There was no proof, and with her dead” Liz muttered as she knew she more than anyone would have loved to say
Tess Harding was the guilty party given the havoc the blonde had done to their life, and who she had already taken from their life. She knew that she had been who the government was after before they found the scent that got them Max. But with Tess dead, it was easy to take Max as a credible suspect because he confessed. And then when they found the videotape of Vermont, which meant they had something on them, and Max confessed to save them the danger of them picking them up.
“And it doesn’t help now we have a new suspect” Isabel muttered as she took a sip of her drink and wished for something stiffer. “And there is very little we can do about it?”
“Kal?” Kyle asked as he had known his wife’s suspicions, but Liz did not, and so this was going to be a shock, and both were right because Liz looked confused. “Sorry, I forgot we hadn’t told you of the latest suspicions?”
“What’s going on?” Liz asked as she eyes lifted at the thought of hope creeping into her gut. “Can we pin it on someone else?”
“Unfortunately, no, not at the moment,” Isabel muttered. “Because it’s the same situation as we’re in with Tess. The suspect is now dead, and the government is not going to want someone to pin it on, and they don’t want to admit they were wrong, and they sent someone innocent to prison for life” she sighed. “But we do have a name?”
“Whom?” Liz asked as she could not think of any name that would mean anything to her
“Kal Langley,” Isabel muttered. “And the more I think about it and as I was running it through with your husband the more convinced that we’re right on this regard, and still we can’t do much with it, unless the government will allow blame to be pinned on a dead man?” she sighed. “And before they can make that decision, well, we will need proof that he was the one who did it.”
“Kal,” Liz asked. “The second watcher?”
“Yes,” Isabel acknowledged. “Zack gave us theories that Kal was around this town seventeen years ago, and one thing led to another, and we’re now running with the theory that to clean up for the disastrous re-entry of Tess, Kal made his way here to Roswell to clean up the mess, and he is the one who blew up the building?”
“But they found Tess in the building. Mostly ash, but enough DNA was left to give them an identification that she had been there, and she was now dead?” Liz sighed as she remembered that she had drove the woman there, and suspected Tess was up to something, and she had allowed it to happen. She had not known it would end up being pinned on her husband because Max of all people would confess to the crime.
“That they did,” Isabel nodded as she knew she and Michael had worked in their way to make sure Tess was dead, and she had not put another’s body in the building and was faking her death but no, Tess Harding was indeed dead. Of course, in many ways they wished she had not died because they would have a suspect to feel the government trying to solve the case. Of course, now, they were operating under the assumption that Tess was innocent of at least that monstrous deed. Still, the idea of blaming Tess for all that went wrong in their life was tempting but they also knew she would not have been able to be behind bars without going on a rampage.
If she could not even come back to this planet without killing a room full of people. No way was she going to be able to stay in prison to pay for killing Alex and making their lives miserable.
“Why would Kal have done it?” Liz asked as she tried to grasp the new factors in their life. “Why would he allow the blame to go on Max, or for Max to take the blame?”’
“She was our watcher, and he hated Max for forcing him back to his old body, and it would require too much work to try to get his humanity back, and so he blamed my brother for that even though Max was justified in trying to find his son.”
“Yeah, he was,” Liz sighed at the thought of that time, and the resentment she had of the boy and still did in some ways despite trying to make peace with it, knowing the boy was back and not a baby anymore. A grown man who had his own command of his life that was vastly different from his birth parents.
“Sorry,” Isabel muttered because she knew Liz still had issues.
“No, it’s alright, because I am trying to make peace with it” Liz sighed. “It’s part of the past. Our past. Just like I told my daughter. I am not happy with parts of it, but it did happen, and we have to make do with what did happen…”
Isabel nodded. “Still, Kal was our watcher and he probably felt he had to act when it looked like we were being threatened, and yes, Tess was threatening our way of life. So, I can see that he saw what was happening and came to town to clean up the mess that Tess had created for us, and saw you drive Tess to the army base, and acted before Tess could blow up the place. Of course, he would not have known my brother would have confessed nor the fact our parents would have so much incriminating evidence that it would make life difficult for us, and that Max would confess to save us from being discovered. “Allowing Max to take the blame for his crime probably made his day?”
“God,” Liz sighed as she remembered how Max had explained to her that he had ticked Kal off with his conduct, and given at the same time, he was ticking
her off by the way he was ignoring her when he was in California, and getting into the mission and forgetting about those he was leaving before, so it did not shock Liz to think that it would leave Kal with a negative impression of her husband, although the watcher had given him one last warning that Max was losing too much, and risking too, and her husband had apparently take the warning to heart and come home groveling to her, so yes, she could imagine a scenario where Kal needing to clean up Tess’s mess unaware what that would set off, and maybe a little aware too, but given all he had lost, he was prepared to make Max’s life miserable “How can we prove it?”
“Hell, if I know,” Isabel muttered.
*
Nearby Olivia was walking home after finishing her visit with her friend and ignoring the elephant in the room with Alex and she knew she had to get home and work on her homework that she had been ignoring so that she could visit with her father, and so she like Maria took the time on her walk home to stew abut her life. Trying to figure out how to make it come together, and give herself a winning hand, than the one she had dealt herself with her conduct in recent months. She had known she had been risking too much, and that risk had come back to haunt her, and so she was stewing, and out of the corner of her eye near the Crashdown, she saw Zack.
Oh, great she muttered as she saw her half brother approach instead of staying away, which was how Olivia would rather keep him on this day “Are you following me?”
“Nope,” Zack muttered as it had not occurred to him that his half sister would take this route on her way home, after spending time at the Guerin household. “How was I supposed to know that you would be taking this way home. You are heading home, right?”
“Yes,” Olivia confirmed. She rather not deal with her half brother right now, but knew she had no choice and it allowed her to stew over his little show “You know, I saw your little stunt earlier at Amelia’s place,” Olivia asked of her mysterious half brother as his existence was once more a reminder that life didn’t often go how you expected it to, and it was a new phenomenon for her, but it also existed in the time of her parents, when they were young and in love and before Zack became a reminder of how wrong life could go, but also a reminder how lucky her parents had been to get a second shot before once again, it all went bad
Love sucks “What do you think you were doing with Amelia?” she asked as her mind came back to her best friend, and her half brother’s conduct.
“Giving the girl a ride home, so she could meet up with you,” Zack sighed. “Is it a crime to be a gentleman these days. I would think you would relish that than the opposite?” he asked. “In this day and age. You should take a gesture as sincere because it was. I was helping her out…”
“I doubt the last thing you are, is a gentleman?” Olivia muttered as she hated how the guy tended to push her buttons. While Amelia seemed to get on quite well with the guy but to Olivia all she saw was confusion, and the past when she looked at Zack.
“Are you profiling me again Olivia,” Zack muttered. “Blaming me for being the product of whatever closeness my birth mother had with our father?”
“One night,” Olivia muttered. “One night is all she had with my father because he loved someone else, and your mother had to manipulate him to even get him to see her…” she muttered wanting to forget that her mother set up the circumstances of eventual pairing.
Why did you have to listen to this future version of Dad she muttered to herself.
“One night. Which is all I am told is what he had with your mother too?” Zack asked. “Although I give him credit because at least he put a ring on her finger?”
“You are an ass…” Olivia muttered.
“I may be an ass but we’re family” Zack smiled. “You will never be able to get rid of me!”
“Even if I can’t for the moment wish you away,” Olivia muttered. “Why don’t you do me a huge favor okay and stay away from Amelia!”