Endless Spiral CC, Mature, Part 13 02/25/2016

[saori_1902]

Great part! breaks my heart all the damage that the hybrid - aliens did to our favorite human group. Is not there any hope for them?

[keepsmiling7]

This was so sad......missing Alex.
Is there an outside chance that he might still be alive.....??
Don't tease me if he isn't.
Carolyn

[xilaj]

Just read this and love this visit with Maria and her view of the fallout from the departure of Michael and the rest of her friends. Liz's feelings and reactions are so complicated by the implications of her own actions, but Maria's more straightforward tenderness and grief are just as heartbreaking. Thank you for another of these great one-shots, Alix

[Michelle in LA]

Wow. Just found this -- finally getting back into Fanatics, after (during, actually) some life turbulence, and this is wonderful, as I would expect from you.

I'm dismayed to find out that Liz has not lost any of her penchant for self-pity, or for blaming others. I don't agree that the alien hybrids ruined their lives. Liz would have died -- I can't count how many times on the show (after midway through S2) I wanted to hear Max, in response to Liz's constant whining, offer to put the bullet back. Max had healed her, but did not try to trade on that for any favors -- Liz cornered him, and demanded to know the things that Max wanted to protect her from.

Maria insisted, even blackmailed Liz into divulging the secret, and pushed and nosed her way into the "abyss". Alex, too, was no stranger to emotional blackmail, and was going to blow the whistle to the Sheriff if Liz didn't spill, apparently imagining Max in the unlikely role of drug kingpin.

So none of them -- hybrids included -- knew what they were getting themselves into, but it wasn't the hybrids dragging their human friends into their problems. They warned the humans all along that things could get dangerous, in ways even the hybrids couldn't possibly predict, and the humans were all gung-ho. Until the going got rough. (Except Alex, who was true blue once he was on board.)

Kyle was the only one who didn't force the information, and had it land on him -- had the hardest time dealing with it, and was hurt the worst by his personal interaction with a hybrid. Liz used him almost as much as She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did.

I am having a little trouble with them being so cold to the poor little boy. I don't care who he looks like, he's been kidnapped, he knows he's being lied to, he's locked up in a room -- he's a sentient being, and he's scared and missing the only center of gravity he has: a father who loves him.

Liz perpetually blames Max for what this child symbolizes (Max being with Tess), conveniently forgetting that she cut Max's heart to shreds deliberately in order to shove him back to his 'wife', and constantly told him that she wasn't interested, and that he had to be with Tess. Then when he finally resigned himself to this, she acted like the heroine of a bad country western song.

(And I hope I don't need to point out that it was supposedly Liz and Serena who concocted the End of the World Granolith scheme, and that Liz practically shoved Max into the thing, yelling, "You have to do this, Max! You have to try it!")

What happened to Alex was the result of what Liz did, yet it was she who again yelled at Max, "You don't want to think that Alex was killed by an alien because that would mean you are responsible." Who is responsible?

Anyway, this chapter was very poignant, and I can't wait to see what will happen now that Maria's blood has somehow connected her to the Granolith!

I love - love - LOHV the description of the Deluca-Valenti house! What a lovely thing to imagine -- such a glowing second chapter for the two who had been married and abandoned the first time around. I love to think of them being truly happy, especially since each lost her/his only child to the abyss.

I love their fascinating powers, too -- I wonder if this thing with Maria and the orb is the start of them being drafted by the Granolith. (I thought that was their transportation back to Antar?)

I'm curious about what happened with Liz and the Granolith, when she tried to delay their departure? It says she stuck her hand in, but I'm a little confused about what resulted. Is that supposed to still be a mystery, or is it just me?

I'll be looking out for more!

[saori_1902]

bump

[begonia9508]

With all the occus-poccus, they gave Alex a new life but he seems to be totally lost in it!!!
And you can't blame him - who wouldn't!

Great story EVE

[saori_1902]

I miss this

[saori_1902]

I want an update so bad.

[Comet]

Author's note: Hey everyone. Yes, I'm aware its been ages, I'm terrible! But I have been working on this! Thanks so much to everyone who is reading and following, I just wanted to post a new part, but I'll be back in a bit to respond to the feedback. Special thanks to my beta xilaj. for putting up with me. Enjoy, and please let me know what you think everybody!

9. The Last Dance


Spring 2002


Three glossy tickets fell onto the page before him, and Kyle Valenti blinked in surprise, before his blue eyes narrowed as he realized what they were.


Prom tickets.


Was it time for Prom already?


He glanced up to find his stepsister smirking at him in the way that always indicated trouble was imminent. It was the same sort of look she always got before she delivered a particularly painful blow to him in their kickboxing classes, or right before she mentioned something that would cause his dad and Amy to frown disapprovingly at him.


Having Maria De Luca as his stepsibling was certainly never boring.


" Do I want to know?"


" No you don't,"


The answer had come not from Maria, but from Liz, who stepped out from behind her best friend with an exasperated roll of the eyes. She settled into the seat beside Kyle with a decidedly sulky expression on her face, and Kyle couldn't help but laugh. This did nothing to improve Liz's bad temper, and she scowled some more in reaction.


" Yeah, you won't be laughing for long," She warned sullenly.


" Ignore her!" Maria chimed in now, turning up the wattage of her smile. " And how is my favorite step-brother doing today?"


Kyle mirrored Liz, and rolled his eyes too. " Last I checked I'm your only step-brother, Maria. Though, sadly, it's not from lack of our parent's trying,"


He was of course, referring to the psyche-scarring incident when he and Maria had arrived home from the movies earlier than they had initially anticipated. They had barely been in the door before they had been treated to an earful of the kinds of activities their parents indulged in when they weren't around. In unison, he and Maria shuddered, bonded by mutual distaste, and Liz was suddenly giggling. It was so unexpected, it had been forever since they had heard the girl sound so carefree, and they both stared.


Liz noticed immediately of course, and blushed. It struck Kyle that his ex was still an 18-year-old girl, and this was never more evident than the times she wasn't channeling Michael Guerin's signature scowl. Kyle moved his gaze away quickly, lest Liz revert to the somber, serious mode that seemed to be her default for the past few months. Maria seemed to have a similar thought, as she had pasted on an exaggeratedly disgusted expression in response to his earlier words.


" Gross, Valenti, must you keep bringing it up? How am I supposed to forget about it when you do that?" A wave of the hand later, and Maria was tapping the tickets she'd dropped onto Kyle's incomplete math homework. " These are prom tickets," She announced unnecessarily.


United now, Kyle and Liz gave her bland looks.


" And why do you have prom tickets, Maria?" Liz asked patiently, while Kyle reached out to retrieve his books from under the offending scraps of paper, choosing silence has his opening gambit. Maria had been dropping anvil-sized hints about Prom at home for about a week now, and he knew for a fact that Amy had bowed to Maria’s need for mother-daughter time by agreeing to go to the mall and look at dresses. Now that these tickets were on hand, he had a pretty good idea what the outcome of that trip had been.


“ I’m so glad you asked that Liz.” Maria dimpled, smiling bright. “ I have tickets, because we’re going to prom.”


There it was.


Kyle stole a glance at Liz out of the corner of his eye to see that the dark haired girl looked utterly unsurprised by the announcement, and underwhelmed by the prospect to boot.


“ And by ‘we’ I’m assuming you’re referring not to you and your date, but us three?”


Maria’s grin grew even brighter if possible and she nodded her head enthusiastically. “ Yes! Isn’t it a fabulous idea?”


“ Yeah. No way,” Liz said immediately, frowning up at the blonde, who looked immensely scandalized.


“ What? Why not?!” Liz opened her mouth to begin her list of reasons, but Maria held up a hand to stop her. “ Hang on Liz. What about you, hm? What do you think about Prom?” The beady look in her eye suggested he better fall in line with her wishes, which of course meant that he would do the opposite.


“ I think I don’t want to go either,” He admitted.


Maria pursed her lips, apparently prepared for such a reaction. Her hands immediately flew to her hips, and from beside him, Kyle heard Liz release a long-suffering sigh, evidently recognizing the signs of a lecture as well as he did.


“ Well that’s tough shit, both of you. We’re going!” She glared their protests into submission and continued on. “I know the last year has been crappy as hell, and the one-year anniversary of everything miserable is coming up, but once, just once, can we do something that has nothing to do with Czechoslovakia? Can we have one night where we’re just kids? We’re always trying to blend in, to be normal, to act just like everyone else, and you know what? Everyone. Goes. To. Prom. So we’re going.” Maria’s jaw was set, and she looked fierce, but Kyle noticed that her lips were trembling and her eyes seemed shiny with tears.


A quick moment where their gazes met showed that Liz was as taken aback as he was, but he read the reluctance in them just as clearly. He could even hazard a guess as to why. The last prom they had been to had been an unmitigated disaster for them both- he’d heard that Liz and Max had put another nail in the coffin of their relationship at the auspicious event, and he’d had the unfortunate and confusing revelation that he regarded Tess as a sister, when he’d certainly never looked at her that way before. For a while now, he’d suspected that she had been mind warping him even from then, but the implications of that weren’t things he liked to dwell on. Simply put, if he hadn’t looked that Tess as a sister, it meant that he had looked at her as…something else.


It made his skin crawl.


Regardless, last year’s prom had pretty much ensured that this year’s one was far from the top of his list of priorities, hell, he’d be lying if he said it was even on the list. Kyle knew it was much the same for Liz, but Maria…now that was a different story. He knew more details than he needed to, but he knew that Guerin had gone to great lengths to make Maria’s prom night last year one she wouldn’t forget, and it was only natural that she would want to go again this year. He realized that Maria had started to speak once more, and Kyle refocused his attention on her.


“ We need to start making better memories at some point. We can’t…we can’t keep rehashing the old ones. We’ll go crazy,”


Well, shit.


When she put it that way…


Kyle looked to Liz once more and grimaced at her. Liz correctly read his unspoken decision and groaned. Kyle ignored this, and smiled widely at Maria.


“ So what color corsages do you ladies want? If I’m going to the prom, I better have two dates,”


Liz rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that day, but didn’t try to hide the smile on her lips, and Maria squealed.


They were going to Prom.

*******************

Prom sucked.


Kyle threw back another cup of the too sweet punch and fought the urge to cringe at the next sappy love song that dripped through the speakers. Longingly, he gazed at the gym doors, wondering if it was his turn for a 20-minute sanity break yet. Liz hadn’t come back from hers, so that probably meant it wasn’t quite time for him to escape, unfortunately. It was a shame that the night was going downhill, because for the most part, it hadn’t been bad. He looked damn good in a tux, so that was always a plus, and he was currently escorting two gorgeous girls. Despite her reluctance to participate, Liz had emerged into the CrashDown main area a vision in strapless, fluttering green silk, her normally straight hair tousled and wavy around her shoulders, a necklace that glowed amber and glinted gold wrapped around her neck. She was lovely, even despite her complaints that her mother had taken far too much pleasure in helping her get ready tonight, as if it were her prom instead of the other way around.


Maria too, was a knockout tonight, and had pulled out all the stops for this event. Her long hair swept up something fancy, and the cream of her long gown, it’s bodice edged in pretty pink flowers that trailed all over flattering her colouring perfectly. It was not the dress or the makeup that made his stepsister beautiful tonight, however; it’s the happy glow, the genuine pleasure in her eyes that does that- something that’s been absent for a while. So to preserve that, Kyle had seen Liz banish the shadows in her eyes for a brief time, and try to give Maria the normal night that she wanted. When they had called him over and he presented them both with corsages and cheesy compliments, their bright laughter and genuine hugs had gone a long way in making him feel like they were just normal kids.


The good feeling had lasted until the camera flashes began.


It hadn’t been anyone’s fault really. Parents never truly grew out of taking pictures of their progeny, and the three of them prettied up and giggling like preteens at their first dance was apparently too much to resist. Amy had taken a bunch of candids, and then she and Mrs Parker had taken turns capturing the posed shots, while his dad and Mr. Parker called out suggestions. It was in the middle of the 8th or 9th one that Kyle realized his cheeks ached from the fake smile he was struggling to keep up, and that Liz was flinching every time another picture was taken. Even Maria’s sunny disposition had taken a nosedive when Mr and Mrs Evans had walked into the CrashDown to pick up an order.


The older couple had stopped short at the sight first, and then had smiled sadly, before approaching the small gathering. Kyle bit his lip in sympathy when Mrs Evans fell upon Liz with a hug after telling her she looked beautiful, and Max would have said the same thing too. Then the mother’s had converged upon Diane Evans, who was openly weeping now, leaving Liz standing still and looking like she’d just gotten punched in the face, her soft ‘thank you’ dying on her lips. They had gotten out of the CrashDown fairly quickly after that.



During dinner, Kyle and Maria had tried their best to drag Liz out of the funk that had so quickly descended upon her, and to her credit, she had rallied admirably. By the time it was time for desert, the three of them were cracking up as they made bets on who would be going home with who tonight, based on the couples who were dining at the same restaurant they were at. They had even gotten Maria to agree to breaks that would let them escape from the prom for a set period of time should the entire affair prove too much. So it was with surprisingly high spirits that they had made their grand entrance into the gym, had steered clear of the photo area and immediately stormed the dance floor. Everything had been fine for the first set of fast songs, but then the ballads had started.



They had had no choice but to retreat to the tables, and Maria insisted that sitting songs out was part of the authentic prom experience they had had submitted themselves to, and they should prepare themselves to fully participate in every aspect of it. In the next few minutes, she’d had to eat her words, as one of their classmates approached her for a dance. Holding back laughter, he and Liz had immediately fallen into deep conversation with each other and offered Maria no easy way to back out, leaving the blonde no choice but to accept the offer and glare at them periodically from the dance floor. After the first few minutes had passed however, Kyle had realized that his last slow dance had been with Tess, and perhaps it was time to change that.



So he had held his hand out to Liz and requested a dance for old times sake, and with a shy grin that reminded him of how she had looked the first time he had asked her out, she accepted. Nothing about it had been awkward or sad, and it had once again looked like they would be able to recover the night. Maria even looked like she was having a nice time with the classmate who'd asked her to dance, something that escaped neither Kyle nor Liz's attention.



" Looks like someone's getting their prom after all," Kyle quipped, and Liz had murmured her agreement as they watched the blonde girl laugh a little as she was twirled through the air. He glanced down at Liz, and then asked the question that had occurred to him. " Do you think that could ever become something real?"


Liz searched his face and found his real question, his desire to know if any of them could ever move on with normal people after spending time in the alien abyss, after being intimately acquainted with those who created it. Her dark eyes flickered to Maria once more, and Kyle grew a bit hopeful as Liz studied the pair, but when she met his eyes again he knew he wasn't going to like what she said.


" Look at her eyes,"


He did, and found his answer there. Maria was smiling yes, and she looked happy, but there was something in her gaze that spoke of loneliness, and an enduring sort of ache, the kind that you got when you had held the one you were supposed to be with in your arms and had them ripped away from you.


Kyle looked back at Liz and saw a similar look there and he sighed.


Guess that answered that.


It still hadn't been too bad then, but the next song changed that.


Come to me now...

And Lay your hands over me...

Even if it's a lie...

Say it will be all right...

And I shall believe....


Pretty words, the kind that would have had many girls swooning, but as Kyle had smirked, ready to ask Liz if she would be fainting away in his arms any moment now, he forgot that Liz Parker was not like many girls. For instead of being charmed by the song, she looked ashen instead, as if a silent trigger that froze her had been activated. She grew more and more rigid with every line, and in less than five minutes, the girl in his arms had shut down faster than his dad when Amy got started on him.


Kyle barely managed to register Liz's shallow intake of breath, and the pain that had blossomed in her eyes before she had mumbled an apology and dashed away. In the next five seconds, Maria had descended on him, cursing the song and demanding to know which way Liz had fled, before taking off after her. Kyle had remained in the middle of the dance floor, left to wonder what the hell had just happened. When Maria had found him a short time later, she had smiled wanly, claimed it was a Max thing, as if that hadn't been glaringly obvious, and said that Liz was taking her sanity break. Then she had left to apologize to the guy she'd ditched on the dance floor, and he hadn't seen her since.


Which brought him to his current position, leaning against the wall, and probably giving himself diabetes as he ingested his third cup of punch.


" I can't believe you're drinking that,"


Startled, Kyle's head whipped to the side to find that Liz had managed to make her way back to him without his noticing. He opened his mouth to ask if she was all right, but she cut him off with a quick shake of her head and a smile so plastic, he was surprised she still attempted it.


" Can we just...I'm sorry I ran off, I just...hate that song. I'm fine now, everything's good,"


It was a lie, but he could see that she was barely holding it together, so if this would help her, he was all for it. So he nodded, and sent a pointed look at the cup she had in hand as well.


" You're drinking it too, you know."


Relief played over her face, and when she grinned, it was much more genuine.


" Who says we're drinking the same thing? Here," Quickly, she swapped their cups. "Trade you," Liz took a swig and immediately grimaced. " Oh god. That is foul,"


Kyle mirrored her actions, and almost spat out the mouthful of the innocent looking concoction he had taken. With effort, he managed to swallow, and the unmistakable burn of alcohol, and liberal amounts at that, sizzled down his throat. Coughing, he almost missed Liz's snicker at his predicament, and when his eyes had stopped streaming, he glared.


" What the hell was that!?"


" I call it 'Punch Plus'," Came the easy response, and she retrieved her cup from him with wink and took a nonchalant swig. Kyle snorted.


" Plus what, an entire bottle of vodka? How did you even get that in here?"


Liz shrugged, and relinquished the cup as he braved another sip to recover his damaged pride. It still burned, but now that he was ready for it, he didn't sputter, didn't choke, and the bitter aftertaste went down a lot better than the sickly sweet of the unaltered punch. Still, he didn't hesitate to add in some of the original drink to Liz's cup, just to smoothen the taste and reduce the obvious alcohol fumes issuing from the cup. He was quite certain that it was only Liz's goody two shoes reputation that kept suspicion at bay, and if they wanted to keep their drink, he needed to hide it better.


" Morgan Timmons is running quite the little operation," She explained, taking back her cup after Kyle had tasted and approved it with a nod. Liz tapped the little purse she was carrying. " Flasks with the prom theme stamped on it and everything, $25 a pop. I thought it was a worthy investment," She took another healthy drink and Kyle did the same when it was his turn. " Never let it be said that I lack school spirit,"


Kyle smirked, and tried not to think about what it meant that they had now resorted to alcohol in order to get through the night. The whole affair turned pleasant again under the liquor haze as they kept refilling the punch and adding to it the contents of the flask. It didn't take too long for the effects to start making themselves known, he knew it had begun once he and Liz started to find the most mundane things hilarious. They were in the middle of trying not to giggle (or rather Liz was trying to stop giggling, while he held back manly chuckles) when Maria popped up in front of them with a raised eyebrow that no good could come from. She stared at them in silence for a few minutes, assessing their flushed cheeks, their guilty expressions, and the fact that still, their lips were trembling with laughter. She sighed and asked one question.


" Are you guys drunk?"


Kyle shot Liz a furtive glance, and almost lost it when he saw how hard the petite girl was working to keep a semi-serious facade in order to appease Maria. It might have worked a little better if she wasn't squinting so much in an effort to focus her eyesight. Despite his best efforts, a small snort escaped him, and Liz's glazed eyes snapped to his immediately.


That was all it took.


In the midst of their peals of laughter, Maria sighed, and rolled her eyes, retrieving the cup she suspected was the cause of all this trouble and threw back the entirety of its contents. What was that old saying? If you can't beat them, join them?


That certainly applied now.

**********

Somehow, they had managed to make it out of Prom on their own two feet instead of getting kicked out, although it had been touch and go when Mrs. Harper had come sniffing around them. The suggestion to walk back to the DeLuca-Valenti household to get some air and sober up had been full of merit, but any good that might have come from it disappeared when Liz produced another flask (how girls managed to fit so much crap into their tiny bags never ceased to amaze Kyle) and announced that sharing was caring.


By the time they made it to Kyle and Maria’s backyard, they were well and truly wasted.


Kyle didn’t have the clearest idea as to how the current game they had going on had begun. He was pretty sure that they had been playing truth or dare, but after the same dare had been repeated so many times (“ I dare you to take another sip!”) they had pretty much given up and stuck to truth instead. It was the only reason he had for the fact that he was laid out on a deck chair in his backyard, and was poised to regale his step-sister and ex-girlfriend with the tale of how he had lost his virginity.


He rolled his eyes. Who knew Liz and Maria became so rowdy when they were drunk? And why had he decided to take the deck chair in between them? He took a deep breath, another sip, and started to tell his story.


By the time he was done, Liz and Maria were silent and then Liz cleared her throat.


" So, let me get this straight. Somewhere out there is a Dolphin's cheerleader who thinks she spent the best night of her life with a fun, mysterious 25 year old...who was in actuality a 17 year-old there for football camp?"


Liz looked incredulous, while Maria cackled in delight.


" Kyle, you dog! You turned that poor girl into a rapist!"


Kyle scowled. " That’s a technicality, we were both completely sober, consenting adults!”


“ Except you weren’t one yet, not legally anyway!”


“ I was turning 18 in three days! That shouldn't even count! Anyway, there, I answered your stupid question. Parker, it's your turn."


It was Liz’s turn to squirm now, and she groaned.


" Do I have to?"


"I had to!" Kyle yelped.


" Fine. I...I haven't done it. Still a card carrying member of the v-club. Maria?"


" Swiped. Been there, been done."


It was delivered in a very nonchalant, blasé tone, and although Kyle knew it had to be far from the first time Liz had heard it, he still had to snicker at the vaguely scandalized look on the dark haired girl’s face. He and Maria were working very hard on trying to make Liz just a little less prudish, a little less liable to blush every time topics of a raunchier nature were brought up. It was a work in progress. Kyle directed his gaze back to Maria when Liz frowned at him.


" Whoa. Czechoslovakian s** huh? How was that?"


" Is that your next question?" Maria volleyed back.


" No!"


" Then I don't have to answer,"


For lack of a better response, Kyle stuck his tongue out at Maria, prompting her to do the same, and then the poking fight they had been carrying out throughout the night escalated into all-out war. Beside them, Liz sighed wearily.


“ Don’t make me come over there to separate you two. I might fall over and rip my dress, and then my mom will be heartbroken and I’ll be very mad at you both. Besides, it’s my turn to ask a question anyway,”


“ Always knows how to break up the party, this one. Okay, Parker. Give us your best shot.”


“ Yeah, better make it good.”


Liz was silent for so long, that Kyle looked over and expected to see that she had fallen asleep, but that was not the case. On the contrary, Liz was staring up at the starry sky hungrily, as if searching for the answers of the universe…or perhaps more accurately, the answer to her heart's fondest wish. When she spoke, her question was low, and hesitant, but clear all the same.


" Tell me a secret you haven't told anyone else,"


Maria stilled, and then absently picked up a strand of her hair, which had fallen out of its elegant updo on their walk home.


" When my dad left, I wore the red shoes that were the last present he'd ever given me for three months straight. I thought they would bring him back to me. I still have them in my closet."


Kyle closed his eyes then. He too, knew the pain of having a parent be there one day, and then gone the next and not because they couldn’t stay, but because they didn’t want to. He reached out for Maria’s hand, and she held onto his like a lifeline and didn’t let go. It was quiet for a few minutes as he decided if he wanted to go next, or what he would even say, but then Liz spoke up.


" I still dream of him. Sometimes, it’s like he’s still here, with me, as if he never left, like he'll still be there when I wake up. Other times, I dream of things I’ve never even seen, places I’ve never gone. I think I’m going crazy those times. Or maybe it’s just that I miss him so much I make up these things in my head. I'm afraid that it means I'll never be able to move on with anyone else."


Without clarifying, they knew who she was referring to. Kyle could say nothing to that. Maria had told him that Liz had vivid dreams now, bordering on night terrors. He held her hand too. When his confession came, he was more surprised than anyone else.


" I don't think I saw her as my sister. I think I...might have liked her. In a non-platonic way. And...I hate myself for that."


There was no need to ask who he was referring to. Kyle held his breath, awaiting recrimination from his companions. He had basically admitted that he had fallen for the girl who'd done her best to wreck Max and Liz's relationship from the moment she set foot in Roswell, the girl who'd murdered their best friend for the sake of forcing him to do something he would have willingly done for her anyway, the one who had most likely led the others to their deaths. But she had also been the girl that had gotten the Valenti men to eat a decent meal at least a couple of times a week, the girl who'd constantly harassed them about keeping the house respectable, the one who always made sure to buy two different kinds of juice, because he and his dad could never drink the same one.


In unison, Liz and Maria squeezed his hands, and when he finally gained the courage to look them in the eye, he found nothing except acceptance and sympathy, along with the promise that they were still there, and that they always would be. Or at least they would try. He released a shaky sigh of relief, and trained his eyes on the stars above.


" Do you think they're alive?"


Maria's voice was small, and Kyle pretended not to notice Liz's instinctive recoil, as if a whip had been snapped in her direction. Maria's eyes were half lidded, and he knew it was a testament to how drunk they were that she had broached the topic. It was one of the things they had trained themselves not to talk about, with the primary justification that you never knew when enemies could be listening. If Kyle was honest with himself, though, he knew it was far simpler than that. The topic opened doors to a past that would forever ache, and a future that would probably never be resolved. It was like a black hole- once you got sucked in there could be no escape.


" I don't know.” He answered quickly, hurrying to get to the next part. He squeezed both girls hands, and then let go, picking up the flask and raising it to the stars. " To Alex, Max, Michael and Isabel. May Buddha watch you, wherever you are,"


He tossed back more vodka, and Liz and Maria did the same when he passed it to them, murmuring his toast, along with their hopes into the universe. After that, he wasn’t sure when they had fallen asleep, but he did know the sun was just rising when he was rudely woken up. The stabbing pain in his head confirmed the fact. Liz and Maria were curled on either side of him, Liz with her back all along his side, and Maria drooling on his shoulder.


And his father was in front of them, hands on hips and looking highly unimpressed.


" Kyle! The hell you kids doing here? Did you let them sleep out here the whole night? "


His father went on and on, and Kyle was on the verge of begging him for mercy and a reduced volume on his lecture, when beside him, Maria let out a groan.


“ Oh God. What is that noise?”


She was stirring, and lifted her head enough to see the Sheriff glaring at them in displeasure. Apparently that action and the sunlight were too much, because she hissed and laid her head down again.


“ Ugh. My head.”


The Sheriff wasn’t in his position for nothing. His eyes immediately narrowed, taking in Kyle’s expression for nauseated rather than the sleepy one he had initially thought it was. Maria’s fervent monologue to various deities that she would turn her life around if they would only turn the sun off had to be making quite an impression as well.


“ Kyle. Maria. Were you kids drinking last night?”


The step-siblings exchanged glances, trying to decide who would be the one to answer. They were saved from this by Liz, who had remained blissfully asleep throughout the Sheriff’s lecture, but suddenly, with a gasp, she sat up, eyes wild and searching for something only she could see. This level of movement was apparently too much, though, because the next thing anyone knew, she was leaning over the side of her deck chair, puking her heart out.


Apparently, that was all the answer his father required, because with a sigh, he was by Liz’s side, holding back her hair and letting her get on with it. When she was done, he kindly helped her up and supported her as he led her to the house in search of water, aspirin and the pajamas she always wore when she slept over. Before he left, he shot his son and step-daughter a look that meant the discussion was far from over. Feeling a little sick himself, Kyle leaned back on his deck chair, and Maria did the same beside him.


“ So. How grounded do you think we are?”


Maria’s voice was weak, and she had her forearm over her eyes, as if it would be enough to block out the sun.


Kyle cracked a grin, and considered the clear blue that had taken over the starry expanse from the night before.


“ No idea. All I know is...I'm glad we went to prom."


FIN.

[saori_1902]

Oh, I'm so glad you have back!!! and with a new part no less.

Liz, my poor Liz, the memory of Max always going to pursue her, is not it?
Thanks for the update, and waiting for further updates.