Roswell Fanatics

Ormsby had been to the bar perhaps a dozen times after mail runs over the last two years, but he'd kept to himself and knew only a few locals by sight. But he had been trained to be observant, and it took little observation to see that everyone in the bar knew one another on a first name basis. That alone was reassuring, as he sat down at the stool, lit up a cigarette, and ordered his first drink. He had scarcely started it when the couple came through the door and went to a table in the corner. The man was probalby forty...the woman a few years younger. But from the lack of reaction of the locals, they were also strangers, which quickly piqued Ormsby's interest, because if they weren't locals they were a possible threat. So Ormsby watched their reflections closely in the mirror behind the old bar, as they ordered a couple of beers.

Jim actually didn't want a beer, and wasn't sure that Amy even drank, 'but when in Rome....,' he thought, as he flagged down the waitress. There was a difference, he thought as he saw the man watching him in the mirror, between a stakeout and close surveillance. Coming in the tavern had been a mistake, more likely to attract the man's attention than to enable them to find out where the man had come from. But even as he realized it, he realized it was too late to leave...right now that'd only make the man more suspicious.

Amy watched the apprehension in Jim's eyes as they flicked toward the man studying them in the mirror. While the Sheriff had a lot of good attributes, she decided, a poker face was not one of them She picked up her purse and went quickly to the jukebox and deposited a few coins. The jukebox menu showed three types of music, Country, Western, and Country-Western, it was that type of place. She didn't recognize any of the titles but managed to punch some buttons at random. Moments later someone with a gravelly voice was rasping out a song combining the typical subjects of that particular genre of music, a cheating woman, a broken heart, a Chevy pickup, and a faithful dog.

As Amy returned from the jukebox she held out her hand. "Well Jim...., do you happen to know how to linedance?"

As he watched the two dance, Ormsby shook his head. 'You're getting a little paranoid,' he told himself. Of couse, kidnapping a Sheriff's kid hadn't been the smartest move, but it wasn't like the kid had been wearing a badge. But as he watched the man stumble through the dance, Ormsby took another swallow of his drink. The man was clumsy...probably already half drunk. Maybe they weren't locals, but they weren't any threat either. Ormsby was thinking they'd probably be in a room in the one hotel in town in a few hours....assuming the guy wasn't too drunk to get it up. Finishing the first drink, Ormsby ordered another, and ceased to worry about the couple at all.

Even though a person may be unconscious, the human brain never completely stops working. If it does, you tend to die...at least if you aren't on life support. The most primitive portion of the brain....the brainstem...keeps on working, even if you are unconscious. It works through the autonomic system to keep the body functions going. Even if you are sound asleep, you still need to breathe. And that's not the only function. Your blood pressure and heart rate still need to be kept within certain limits, and it's nice to keep some of the sphincters shut...otherwise it's going to get messy.

Although the gas had not quite worn off Kyle and his cerebral hemispheres...the 'higher centers' of the brain, were only starting to come out of their anestetic caused dysfunction, Kyle's midbrain was hard at work...doing what midbrains do. Midbrains are the old part of the brain...what we have in common with pretty much all of the chordates....that is, animals with backbones and central nervous systems. While Kyle's Cerebral hemispheres might have been non compos mentis, the level of anaesthetic gas still remaining in Kyle was low enough that his midbrain was not significantly impaired.

The autonomic nervous system has two parts, the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. Without going in to a great detail that probably even Miss Scientist herself would find boring, suffice it to generalize that the function of the sympathetic nervous system is "fight or flight." More accurately perhaps, it's run if you can, fight if you must...this system prepares the body for conflict. The parasympathetic system handles other important functions. Generations of medical students have referred to it as the 'feed and breed' system. It handles digestion and...well..it has a key role in other functions important for the propagation of the species. And although the higher thought centers of Kyle's mind are just a little bit shakey right now, his midbrain is doing fine.

While Tess was enjoying the moment...nuzzling gently against Kyle, her parasympathetic system was working too. Pheromones were pouring from the girl...from her sweat glands...and even more so from the oil glands of her labia minora. Her parasympathetic system was actually working in overdrive...driven by her own olfactory nerve detecting Kyle's pheromones every time she took in a deep breath. In fact, the two parasympathetic nervous systems had been working overtime for some while, Kyle not conscious enough to realizze it, and Tess....well, Tess was just enjoying the moment, and the stimulation that was occurring to both of their bodies was just part of that moment.

It was third and twelve on the WRH twelve yard line, and if he was going to sustain this drive, Kyle knew damn well he'd have to make this first down. But as he took the snap he saw the right tight end miss the block on the blitzing left outside linebacker and Kyle was immediately flushed from the pocket. All three receivers were on deep routes, and the only one that looked back and saw that the quarterback was in trouble, slipped and fell trying to reverse his course. But as he dodget to the right and the blitzing linebacker missed, Kyle saw his right tight end redeem himself by laying a crushing block on the defensive end, clearing a path into the right flat. He put the ball under his arm and ran to the right...headed for the sidelines and the first down marker.

As soon as he passed the line of scrimmage the two middle linebackers dropped off their coverage and started for him. It was simply a footrace. If he got to the first down marker before they got to him, he could sustain the drive and get WRH out of a deep hole. If he couldn't, they'd simply have to kick. It was going to be close...there would be no feet first slide for the first down. The two linebackers needed to knock him out of bounds...he needed to stay in past the marker...it was as simple as that.

As Kyle crossed the marker the two linebackers hit him simultaneously and he shot out of bounds just past the twenty-yard line in full view of the West Roswell stands...and straight in to the West Roswell cheerleaders. He couldn't help hitting the new cheerleader with the blonde hair. She seemed familiar somehow, although Kyle couldn't exactly place her. But it was a rough introduction as he bowled in to her...winding up on top of her on the ground in front of the whole stands. 'I'm sorry..." he said into the face looking up at him. That's when the dream started to change...as his and her uniform started to dissolve in front of his eyes to the cheer of the home crowd.

Tess felt Kyle start to move slightly...like he was waking up. But it was more than that..he was also...growing...she could feel it against her thigh. He really wasn't awake yet, but somehow his right hand found her breast...she felt her heart flutter as he caressed it...and suddenly she was aware of her body responding to his body responding to her body responding to him.... 'We might just be able to avoid the ritual part altogether,' she thought with a smile.

They were three miles outside of Corona New Mexico and Jim was wondering yet again if he should have ever brought Amy along.

The man had three fairly stiff drinks at the bar while they'd danced to the jukebox...that part had certainly been pleasant enough, and apparently the big guy had pretty good tolerance to the alcohol, because he was driving at exactly the speed limit...down the road about a mile ahead down the empty road.
Jim could see the man's tailights as well as where his headlights lit up the desert.

Jim, on the other hand, was driving without his headlights on, trying to keep the guy from spotting him. And that, as much as anything, was why he was worried about Amy DeLuca. Their were deer out here...not many of them, but they were almost impossible to see in the dim light of the moon that was sufficient...barely..to allow him to safely keep up with the vehicle ahead. He had just missed one, and while Jim didn't mind taking whatever personal risk he needed to to get his son back, getting Amy DeLuca hurt wasn't right. She had a kid of her own that needed her. But he should have thought of that earlier...it was hardly like he could let her off in the dark in the middle of the desert.

"Maybe I should give this up...come back by myself. This could be dangerous, Amy."

"Jim...we can't lose him now... it might be a week before we could do this again."

"It's the 'we' I am worried about, Amy. I am scared to death that a deer is going to come crashing through the windshield and commence to thrash itself to death in your lap"

"We HAVE to find Kyle, Jim. Would you quit if it was Maria out there?"

"Well, no...but that's different. I get paid to do this.."

"You get PAID to have your child kidnapped?"

"No..of course not. I didn't mean that..."

"Jim...you're just being silly. Kid's are everyone's responsibility. Besides...look there...he's turning off on that side road."



It was going so great for Tess...right up until the moment Kyle opened his eyes and looked down at her. The waves of disgust and terror and reproach that came through the connection startled her. Even back when they'd come in to Taser her...shoot her with the drug darts...she'd never felt such disgust. Her mind locked up...she was so shocked....so frightened... she couldn't even communicate with him. Before she could come to her senses Kyle had gotten off of her...off of the sleeping pad...and was huddled in the corner with his back to her...looking at the wall.

As the tears came down her cheeks she lay immobile on the sleeping pad looking up at the ceiling. 'What have I done?' Tess asked herself. 'What have I done??'


As Jim turned off on the road he saw the ancient no trespassing-government property sign. He slowed up since the car ahead had slowed, unable to keep driving at highway speeds over the narrow gravel road. He wanted the car to stay a mile ahead, so the Jetta wouldn't be seen. They crept down the road in the darkness as the car with the man continued on. It was about three miles before the car ahead of him stopped and the lights went out. Jim saw a smaller dirt road leading to the right...leading off to what appeared to be a long abandoned cabin and what looked like an old mining claim. He parked the car and got out a map, trying to figure out just where they were by the light of a small penlight.

As Ormsby pulled in to the parking lot he was comfortably mellow, enjoying the effects of the three drinks. He showed his badge to the gate guard who buzzed himn in through the gate. But as he approached the elevator it opened abruptly, two men in camouglage uniforms carrying automatic weapons coming out. One handed him an assault rifle and a pair of night vision goggles.

"The computer picked up a car following you on the acoustic sensors. It turned off at the old mining camp. Higby says check them out. He says he doesn't really want anymore people disappearing around here for awhile...too soon after the boy. But if they are suspicious....suspicious in any way...we toss them down the mine shaft and drive the car off some cliff. Got that?"

"Yup," said Ormsby. Suddenly he felt stone cold sober.

Carlson and Higby ran the recording backwards quickly to the first movements made by Kyle Valenti, then ran the recording forward in slow motion, this time with the magnification on high, so they could see every detail. It was the fourth time they had viewed this recording.

"Well, I think it's obvious what happened here," said Higby. "Although the two technicians are going to take some heat from their coworkers by trying to screw with the betting pool, their actions certainly do appear to have given our Eagle Scout there some ideas. I was starting to think that the risk we took in capturing the boy was all for naught. Unfortunately Tess seems to have awakened before the young man had quite the time he needed to finish the job."

"Yes," said Carlson, "...but look at the outcome. She could have killed him instantly...or driven him insane, like she did a decade ago. Instead she just scared him...drove him away with her mind...and she's crying. I think that all the years of isolation have affected our girl Tess. I believe she is slowly bonding with the boy...enough to stop her instinctual urge to kill when she perceived herself being attacked. If I'm right, and I'm pretty sure I am, if the boy had just moved a little slower...romanced her rather than try the brute force approach, I think she might have proven more ...receptive."

"I'll tell you Dr. Carlson....I had almost given up on this kid. I know, I agreed to wait one cycle..until she was in her fertile period, but I'd almost convinced myself that this kid was going to do nothing but play chess with her. This gives me a little more hope. In fact, If it does happen...as I now think it might, it might even be worthwhile to keep the kid alive...throughout the early part of the pregnancy, to provide her some emotional support."

"I think that would be an excellent idea. It may give her some stability through the stress of the early months."

"Of course, we'll need more genetic diversity than that boy, in case we decide to breed Tess's offspring with each other. After that first child, we'll of course want to dispose of the boy...use artificial means with sperm from donors."

"Of course. We picked the boy at random...who knows what recessive genes we might retain if he were to be her only mate. But given her level of emotional development, I think having him here for her first pregnancy...certainly for the first six or seven months, would be quite worthwhile. By the way...what's going on with the intruder...the car out by the old mining claim?"

"That's right," said Higby. "They ought to be getting very close to it right now."

The car door opened and Jim got back in the driver's seat.

"I got a view of where the car parked from up on that little rise. There's what looks like a guard shack, and a half dozen vehicles. But there's really no building other than a little one near the guars shack. I can't see six people working in that small a building."

"Could it be underground...like that old mining claim. You couldn't get a half dozen people in that old cabin probably...but who knows how many you could put in the mine itself?"

"Now that's a thought. But the question is where to go from here?"

"I don't suppose that you could just go get a search warrant and look around?"

"I thought you were the big civil rights person. Do YOU think we have probable cause? Could you make a case before some skeptical judge that we have enough reason to believe Kyle is in there to justify going in guns blazing? And this is federal property, so we'd probably have the US Attorney's office fighting us."

"I guess not...not when you put it like that, anyhow. So what are you going to do?"

"Well, first I'm going to look at this map and see what options I have to go in there on foot. I am going to need to do some close surveillance which probably isn't going to happen tonight. I'm not dressed for it, and I don't want to leave you here alone in any event. We've already got one missing person. This is just the sort of place where if someone was suspicious of what we were doing out here...well, we could disappear down that mineshaft and never be seen again. Stranger things have happened."


Ormsby moved silently through the desert in a rough line abreast with the other two guards. They had left their night vision goggles behind, the bright desert moon giving so much illumination that the devices were too bright to use, even on their lowest setting. But as they moved up on the car the illumination was not as good as he would have liked even so. There were ...he thought...two people in the car, but he couldn't be too sure of that. He looked at his fellow guards and his automatic rifle's safety gave two quiet clicks as it moved from 'safe' through 'semi-auto' to finally settle on the setting for fully automatic fire. If the vehicle tried to run, if anyone bolted from it, or if they didn't have a damn good explanation for what they were doing on this deserted road where they had no business being, well...the two were probably as good as dead.

Jim was lost in thought, trying to figure what would be the best way to approach the guardhouse when he came back on the next night, wishing desperately that he had a topographic map...perhaps he could get one. But as deep in concentration as he was, it was broken by a quick shout of alarm from Amy.

Amy loved clear nights with full moons...always had, and was turned around looking at the beautiful moon in the sky when she saw the first one...then two...then finally the third man with assault rifles.

"Jim!...behind us...they have machineguns..."

Jim's eyes swiveled to the side view mirror, in time to see at least one gunman silhouetted against the full moon. Worse yet, they were between the car and the access road. If he tried to start the car, they could simply riddle it with bullets. He grabbed his backup pistol...a 38 Special..not much help against three men with automatic rifles.

"Look, Amy...I want you to duck down," said the Sheriff, his eyes still on the rear view mirror, "I'm going to take off running...fire a few shots back at them, and try to lure them away. As soon as they follow me, take the car and get the hell out of here, and don't look back. Do you understand that?"

"Jim, that's insane. You won't stand a chance."

"Just do it, Amy. They are going to realize as soon as they see us that we've been spying on the place...it's not like we were parked at a drive-in movie or something. At least this way ONE of us might get out of here."

Terror was hitting at Amy, certain that Jim Valenti was going to die...sacrificing himself to give her a chance to escape, and not even a good chance at that. Amy was originally from San Francisco...second generation well...hippy was the old name people called them. She'd been conceived in the back of a VW microbus, like her mother before her. She'd been a wild child, and Maria had been conceived on a beach in Marin county. Amy had decided when Maria's father split for the East coast, leaving her without support that the string of fatherless homes was going to end with Maria. She'd moved herself and Maria to Roswell New Mexico, the heart of smalltown America, and was determined to stop the string with herself. Maria wasn't going to be impregnated by some guy talking free love and woman's lib, who subsequently went off to become an investment banker in New York with a house in the Hamptons and a series of trophy wives.

But Amy still remembered the moves, and a decade of substituting yoga lessons for male companionship had left her lithe and well coordinated. Even in the crowded space of the passenger seat of the little Jetta, she had no problem reaching behind her and grabbing a handful of blouse and sports bra. She pulled them over her head in one fluid motion, grabbing Jim's head as soon as the clothing dropped from her lap.

"Jim..."

""Yes....mmmmph.'

Jim Valenti caught a brief glimpse of pale breasts in the moonlight as his head was pulled toward them, and the shock of that froze him...even with three armed assailants only seconds away. As he was pulled against her breast he smelled the musky odor of sandalwood oil, and despite hearing the footsteps draw closer...what really worried him was that he hadn't shaved since 6AM and he had a chinful of stubble. Even so, his lips found the nipple and his tongue flicked out as if it had a mind of his own, as Amy arched her back and cradled his head...holding his face against her right breast as if their lives depended on it.

Ormsby hit the button on the flashlight, ready to open fire. The scene blazed with light..and he almost dropped the flashlight with surprise. It was the two from the bar, and the drunk had been about to get lucky it appeared. The two other guards chuckled as the woman started to scream, pushing the man away and covering her breasts with a blouse she picked up off the floor of the car.

It took Jim himself a second to recover. Fortunately the pistol had fallen from his grasp in his shock and ....enjoyment, and was now out of sight between the two bucket seats.

"You are on federal property," shouted Ormsby. "This is a restricted government reservation...you passed several signs."

The woman seemed to quake with fright. "We're sorry...please..please don't turn us over to the cops. We weren't hurting anyone and ....my husband wouldn't understand. His...," she said, nodding at Jim, "...his wife wouldn't either."

Ten minutes later the adrenalin had finally subsided enough in Jim Valenti that he could talk, and he wasn't sure it had all come from looking down the barrels of three automatic rifles either. They were five miles away already, the little Jetta putting distance between them and the facility where he was almost sure his son had been taken. There hadn't been a word between him and Amy....that sure hadn't been what he would have expected her to do, but it had probably been the only thing that could have saved them. But how do you thank someone for doing something like that? He couldn't think of any way to do that. He was taken by surprise when her voice interrupted his thoughts...thoughts of sandalwood and pale flesh and pink areolae in the moonlight.

"Well Jim, you certainly can make a date interesting for a girl, thanks for the ...entertaining night."

His mind was still in chaos, and the words came out automatically, "I assure you Amy, the pleasure was all mine."

His mind recoiled in shock as he heard the words come from his lips...certain that she'd misinterpret them.

"Oh....I wouldn't say that. This is the first time anyone has gotten that far with me since that bastard deserted me and little Maria. It actually felt rather...nice."

'Yeah,' Jim had to admit to himself as he swallowed several times, '...it sure had. If only Kyle were home safe right now....but he wasn't.'

"Goddam...you shoulda been there. That was the funniest thing I ever saw, I thought that drunk cowboy was just going to fill his pants when we caught him sucking on that tit," said Ormsby. "I wish we woulda gotten there a little later, probably in ten minutes we could have shined the light on them and caught them in the act....some kind of coitus interruptus that would have been..."

Brosby smiled, "Too bad you didn't get a picture..."

"It really was... I bet if we'd just given them a little more time and then shined those flashlights on them we'd a seen nothing but assholes and elbows as they went diving for their clothes. And the way the gal was screaming...'Please don't tell anybody...my husband will kill me..,' shit it was the funninest damn thing..."

Higby turned to Carlson and gestured back to Ormsby, a slight smile on his face. "Well finally something went right. He at least had the good sense to give them a scare and to let them go. The last thing we would have needed would have been not one...but two jealous spouses looking for that couple...with the last place anyone had seen them being in the town closest to us."

"Yeah," said Carlson, "...looks like we dodged an opportunity to be on the cover of the National Enquirer....love quadrangle goes awry, two people missing. Too bad the two in there,"he said, pointing at the monitor, "aren't as willing as the two the guards ran off."

Both looked again at the monitor to see Tess still on the sleeping pad, no longer sobbing but tears still trickling out of the corners of her eyes as she stared at the ceiling, while the boy just sat in the corner looking the other way.

"Oh, they will be...or freeze their asses off," said Dr. Higby as he went to the environmental controls and dialed the temperature in Tess's holding cell all the way down. He wasn't too sure just how cold it would make the room, but the contaminated morgue area was easily held at 2 degrees Centigrade by the same environmental system, and although the thermal mass of the depleted uranium lined room was huge and it might take hours, the refrigeration unit would certainly make it at least that cold. Even if the thin mat protected Tess, the kid probably would get a frostbitten butt if he didn't get back on the pad with Tess.


Amy watched Jim as they drove back toward the Sheriff's office. It was difficult to avoid contrasting him with the last man she'd been close to...Maria's father. Maria had told Amy that Jim had attended almost every one of the games Kyle had played in, cheering him on. Maria's father....well, the sex had been good, but his idea of family life was similar to that of a sea urchin...just send the sperm out there...how the little sea urchins took care of themselves wasn't something to worry about. And the man had been no more caring of her, once she was burdened by Maria, than he was of Maria herself.
Jim, on the other hand, was about to take on the federal government single-handed for his son...and had just tried to do something totally suicidal to take care of her. Certainly not the behavior one would expect from a 'fascist pawn of the establishment,' as she'd called him when he'd arr3ested her...all though even then he'd struck her as cute.
'Why didn't you wait for someone like him?' she asked herself. She hoped Maria could find someone like Jim some day...someone who could really care for her...not run off to some other planet or something after their first time in the sack together. Amy had never really dated after Maria's dad had left...too little time what with taking care of her daughter to begin with, then later when Maria was older...well, they just didn't seem to be the kind of guys she'd trust...not just trust for herself, but...she'd read about women whose boyfriends...even husbands...had wound up hitting on their stepdaughters. She knew intuitively that Jim could never do that...that he'd have made a great dad for Maria.

'Is it too late?' she asked herself. 'I'm almost 35...but that's not really over the hill yet. Heck, women in their forties are still having children...'

Maybe it wasn't, but she knew that right now it didn't matter. The important thing right now was to get Kyle back. Amy watched Jim's head bob for the third time, him barely catching himself before nodding off.

"Turn right on 3rd Street"

"Wha....that won't get us to the sheriff's office."

"No Jim, it will get us to my place. You see, Maria's spending the night with Liz, and..."

"Amy...I couldn't..."

"I'm not inviting you into my bed, Jim," she said, 'at least not right now...' "...you are about to fall asleep at the wheel. My place is closer, and you can crash in Maria's room for the night. Have you gotten ANY sleep at all since Kyle disappeared?"

"A couple hours a night, maybe. I wake up...walk down the hall to his room, and..." Even in the darkness she saw his eyes glisten with unshed tears. '...but you really don't have to..."

"Yes, Jim...I do. Turn here."

She sat him on the couch and gave him some green tea, soft music playing in the background. "I'll go make up Maria's bed with fresh sheets..."

"You don't need to go to any trouble...I can just sleep on top of the bedspread...that'll be fine."

"Well, I still need to go clear a path from the door to the bed...you know teenagers," she said, instantly regretting it, and fearing it would only remind him of Kyle. "I'll be right back."

As she left, Jim couldn't help contrasting her with Kyle's mother. That woman had turned out to be the most cold-hearted bitch he'd ever met. He would always remember her...twenty-minutes into labor Kyle, asking the obstetrician if it was too late for an abortion. Jim had tried to make it work, for Kyle's sake if nothing else. Ultimately she'd said that she'd stay with him...if they could 'get rid of the brat'. He hadn't really been serious about a woman since,...not at first because it was just too hard to be a single father in law enforcement and have a social life, afterwards because...well, maybe he just didn't want to get burned again.

But Amy wasn't like that...she'd almost gotten herself killed tonight...and kept him from being killed, trying to help a boy that wasn't even her son. 'Is it too late?,' he wondered. 'You aren't really over the hill yet....just pushing forty...' Kyle had been devastated when he'd lost his mother, but Amy was a thousand times better. 'Heck, Kyle and Maria would be off to college in four years...maybe we could have another....' Jim shook his head, '....no time to dream about that sort of thing, you need to get Kyle back. Besides, Amy could have her pick of guys...why would she want you?'

Amy was back in five minutes, but Jim was already asleep on the couch. She put a comforter over him where he lay, and went off to her own room. As she put on her nightgown she felt the tender area near her right breast where the stubble had abraded her. 'That hasn't happened in a long time,' she thought with a smile. She reached for a jar of cucumber and aloe, knowing that would take care of it...but then she put the jar back down. She donned her robe and went back to the living room and placed a gentle kiss on the forehead of the sleeping Jim Valenti, then went back to her own bed. The abrasion was a little tender, but she savored the felling of closeness it gave her. She'd get up early and fix him a good breakfast. They had a lot of work to do if they were going to save Kyle. Both of them slept throughout the night, a sleep only interrupted by pleasant dreams...

At the Crashdown:
Michael walked in the darkness of the early morning down the narrow alley in back of the Crashdown, knowing that Maria was asleep up in Liz's room. It wasn't that he liked her...she was a real pain in the ass, he told himself. It was just that...well...he sort of got a kick out of the way she sassed him, and it would probably be real hard for him to find someone to replace her if whoever got Kyle, happened to get her. He just couldn't let that happen, he had too much invested in insulting her to have to start all over with someone else. So that was the reason he intended to stand guard over her tonight...sitting up on Liz's patio, just as he had sttod guard in the small room at the front of her mother's carport the last two nights.

The fire escape was the old type, where a ladder is held high by a weight, and it descends automatically if someone stand on it or pushes it down from above, but cannot be reached by passers-by below. Of course, thought Michael as he looked in all directions, certain that no one was awake or likely to see him in the darkness even if they were, most passers-by didn't have telekinetic abilities. As he stretched out his hand he used them to pull down the ladder until he could reach it, silently and carefully. As he stepped on it however, it descended another foot, the counterweight going "thunk" as it hit it's stop. It was only a tiny sound, and certainly wouldn't be noticed out in the alley. It wouldn't have been noticed inside either, if a father hadn't been laying there awake, wondering what sort of a world his daughter was inheriting where her classmates could be kidnapped for no apparent reason.

"Dear...what are you doing?" asked Nancy.

"I thought I heard a sound...it's probably just my imagination," said Jeff Parker, taking the old double barrelled shotgun down from above the closet, breaking it and inserting two shells of number seven birdshot. It was a good defensive load...it'd kill an elephant at close range, but at even moderate range could be stopped by a double thickness of sheetrock.

"Jeff...you be careful, I don't want you shooting the girls with that.."

"I'm not going to shoot anyone....it's probably all just my imagination, I'll be right back."

Jeff walked down the hall toward a window that overlooked the alley. Once there he looked up...just in time to see the boy go over the wall onto the rooftop.



At the Evans residence:
It was 1 AM and she'd tried again to dreamwalk Kyle...to no avail. But worse yet, when she'd tried to go back to Alex's dream...to reassure herself that he was alright, there was no longer any dream orb. Maybe he was just getting a late night snack but....the fear sent shudders through her and she blinked back tears. She pulled on her shoes, covered her red satin pajamas with a calf-length coat, and quietly opened her window...lowering herself to the ground outside. She hadn't gotten 10 feet before she saw the figure hiding there......


At the Facility:
She lay on the pad, staring up at the ceiling in the darkness. Physically she was comfortable...her powers were keeping the air in an envelope around her warm enough, despite the fact that each breath she exhaled condensed into a cloud in front of her, visible even in the scant light from the monitor. It couldn't be more that 5 degrees Celsius in the room, but still he sat in the corner with his back to her. Her face was streaked with the residue of dry tears, although the tears still trickled down over her cheeks when she thought of how much disgust she'd felt as he'd awakened. He'd been shivering noticeably for at least an hour, but had made no attempt to join her on the pad where it's thin insulation could at least keep him from direct contact with the cold medal, even if he wouldn't accept the warmth her powers...or her body...could give him. When she heard his teeth start to chatter it was more than she could bear.
'If Mohammed won't go to the mountain...' thought Tess.

She got up off the bed and went into the corner to sit back to back with him. As she felt the shudders of his body and the icy chill of his back, she thought the words as strongly as she knew how.

*Kyle...come back to the pad.....*

*Get away from me, Tess* the thought came back from him....

Michael had barely gotten a look at the roof when he was blasted off his feet, sliding along the flat roof until he was stopped by the raised side of the building. He turned quickly, not worried about the pain of the deep scratches the crushed rock covering the rood had left on his forearms and knees...not worried about himself at all...worried only that there was a threat there...a threat to Maria. His hand went up toward the threat as quickly as he recovered...only to see another figure with his hand raised in an identical pose...

"Max?!!"

"Michael?!!"

"What are YOU doing here?" they said simultaneously.

Max ran to his friend and put out his hand to the abrasions...a golden glow healing them. They took turns exchanging sheepish glances. Finally Michael said, "You first, Maxwell..."

"Hey..I'm sorry about knocking you down. I've been worried sick ... ever since Kyle disappeared. I've been spending my nights up here...you know...I couldn't sleep anyway, worrying that something might happen to Liz....I know, I know, there can't ever be anything...you know....REAL, between me and my lab partner...but....,"

Michael's eyes seemed to say it, 'I know...that damn 'sacred vow' of Isabel's...'

"I understand Max...really. I spent the last two nights in the room in front of Maria's mom's carport for the same reason...just to make sure that whoever got Kyle didn't come looking for her. I thought I'd just do a little guard duty up here tonight....so you been here for two nights?"

"Well, three counting tonight. Hey..I've got a sleeping bag, one of us could watch while they other slept.."

"That'd be great...It'd give me the first half-night's sleep I've had since this thing started."

"OK, but we'll have to be out of here at 6:45. Old man Parker starts to get the restaurant ready for breakfast about 7:OO."

Three minutes later Nancy heard Jeff return to the room, breaking the shotgun and removing the two shells before putting it back up in the closet. "False alarm dear?"

"Yes...something like that," he said with a smile. "Our daughter's lab partner...the young man she kissed tonight...and Maria's friend are up on the roof...taking turns standing guard duty over the girls. I saw Maria's boyfriend go up and apparently young Mr. Evans tackled him, before they straightened everything out. From the sound of their coversation, both have been doing this for their particular girlfriend since they heard that Kyle disappeared. I'm setting the alarm clock for 6:00. I intend to be at the bottom of that fire escape standing in the door when they come down..."

"They're only kids, Jeff...."

"No dear. They aren't kids. They are young men...young men worried about people they are coming to care for. Don't worry, I won't hurt them. I'm just going to make them come in...sit them down to breakfast, and inform them in no uncertain terms that 'Old Man' Parker is still fit enought to keep his own family and their friends safe and secure in his home, thank you very much. I am beginning to think it won't be too many years before young Max Evans will be taking over though. He's in denial now....the same way I was when we first started dating. I hope that lasts a few more years. at least..."

Nancy smiled, pulling him tightly against her in the bed. "Well....you've still got me...even if you have cold feet.."

"yeah...Old Man Parker's got cold hands, too..."

"Eeek...you sure do, Jeffrey....but other parts of you are pleasantly warm...."

It was probably just as well that Michael was on guard for the next twenty minutes or so because Old Man Parker was occupied.

He was looking out to the roadway, with his back to the building, but in the light of the full moon, Isabel knew there could be no mistaking that profile. "Alex...?"

He jumped almost a foot before looking behind him. "Uh..Isabel," he said, the flush coming to his face now visible even in the paleness of the moonlight, "..it's not what you think...uh, I'm not trying to be some sort of a peeping Tom."

Isabel hadn't actually been thinking of that at all. During a hundred dreamwalks, he'd never been anything but a gentleman, never once taking any liberties...even on a couple of occasions when she'd dreamed up some dresses which had left little to the imagination when it came to what was underneath. "I didn't think that at all, Alex," she said, putting her hand on his forearm...which felt like ice.

"Well I was just....well, I didn't want anything to happen to you...like happened to Kyle."

"My God, Alex...you're freezing...and your clothing is wet..."

"I didn't think the night would be quite so cold," he said through blue lips, and I didn't expect the sprinklers to come on when I walked through Farragut Park, either."

"You're going to catch pneumonia if you stand out here....come inside...right now."

In two minutes Alex found himself somewhere he'd never expected to be...in Isabel Evans' bedroom. He hadn't quite gotten his brain to process that when he felt her hands unbuttoning his shirt. "ISABEL...!!!?"

"Shhhh, you'll wake my father. We aren't going to DO anything, Alex. You need to get those soggy things off....We can put them on the heater vent to dry while you stay warm." She looked around the room briefly for a robe or something in his size, that wasn't going to happen, she decided. Isabel stopped when she had him in his underwear...he looked like he was about to go into shock, and not from the cold either. She pulled back the bedspread and sheet and shoved him in...he appeared too cold and bewildered to say much. She folded his clothes over a chair and placed the chair above the heating duct, checking to see that he wasn't watching in the dark room, and then used her powers to dry them. 'Now it's just a matter of talking to him for awhile until 'the furnace ' dries his clothes,' she thought. But as she looked at him...his lips blue, and his body shaking...her heart started to flutter. Neither the sheet nor the bedspread were particularly warm, if it got too cold she just used her powers to warm them. But Alex didn't have that power and she was pretty sure he was hypothermic. On the other hand, she thought, she'd been in those arms a hundred times in dreamwalks...and for real for almost an hour last night. If she snuggled up to him she could use her powers to bring his body temperature up to normal...and he wouldn't be the wiser. She dropped the coat on the bedroom floor, pulled back the covers and snuggled in beside him.

"Isabel???"

"Shhh, Alex. I'm just trying to get you warm."

'Yeah....and it's working too,' thought Alex...trying not to touch anything......well....anything that he shouldn't, as he lay on his side, feeling her snuggle up to his chest and her right arm encircle him and pull him closer. But even through the damp t-shirt it was possible to feel her against him...her satin pajamas doing little to stop his chest from the full tactile experience of what lay beneath them. He was getting more than warm...he was getting...hot, as he felt the smoothness of the satin as it pushed against him with every single breath. It should have been heaven...but it wasn't...not to Alex, as he felt the increasing fullness in the damp briefs that he was wearing. They wouldn't hide much either...and in seconds she was going to feel him through those same flimsy pajamas....

"Uh, that's really great, Isabel...I'm warm now," he said, rolling awkwardly to the far edge of the bed.

'That wasn't the smoothest job of rolling I've ever seen,' Isabel thought, trying not to giggle. "OK, Alex...," she said with a smile, keeping to her side of the bed...just reaching out one hand to find his, and sending the warmth through that. "...you stay there and I'll stay here...sort of like bundling in the old days. When your clothes are dry you can go.....except of course...that leaves me unprotected...." She grinned in the darkness as she thought, 'The kidnapper that interrupts this, get's powerblasted.'

"You know Isabel, ...I've dreamed about you a lot this past year..."

"I kn...., uh, that is, sometimes I dream about you too, Alex."

"I was always afraid to talk to you...you were always such an...an..."

"An Idiot?"

"No, never that...an Ice Princess."

"Two ways of saying the same thing, Alex. I never gave you very much encouragement to talk to me...I'm sorry. I really enjoyed our dance tonight..."

"It was so strange, me asking you. After all those dreams it just felt...well normal."

'I wish I was normal,' she thought. She smiled to herself, remembering his discomfort in rolling. 'If I were a real human being...capable of giving him the love he deserves...of bearing his children...I'd forget that sacred vow that Michael and Max made me take,'....at least that was the way she was remembering it now. They'd all been in fifth grade at the time.

"...at least it felt normal...up until you started kissing me," he finished.

"I'm sorry about that, Alex. I guess I just got a little carried away.."

"You are? I'm not...best thing that ever happened to me..."

They talked quietly for most of an hour, and finally they both fell asleep...laying on opposite sides of the bed, the fingers of his right and her left hands entwined.

But in the dream orb, they danced on, and as he held her, dancing slowly, she suddenly looked up at him andd said, "I lied to you, Alex. I'm sorry."

"About what?"

"Well," she said looking up at him, "...I did get carried away at the dance...but I'm not the least bit sorry.."

Whatever he might have been trying to say was forgotten...as her lips covered his......

Philip Evans had been having an uneasy night, still bothered by what had happened to Jim Valenti's kid. At a little after 2AM he got up to go check his own, and when he saw the empty bed in Max's room, his heart almost stopped. He rushed to check Isabel's room, and breathed a deep sigh of relief when he saw the two bodies under the covers on opposite sides of the bed, the nearest one with moonbeams shining on his daughter's face, looking contented and happy. He crept back to the master bedroom, and Diane awoke as he settled back under the covers.

"Checking on the kids?"

"Umm-hmmm! They are fine, but I think Max is worried about all this Kyle Valenti business. He's bunking with Isabel tonight, I don't think he's done that since he was nine."

"Um-mmm, eight...although I think he was nine by the time he really decided he wanted to stay here. Those first two years...well, it seemed like Isabel was the only one on the planet he really trusted."

"Oh yes, he had bad dreams if he was separated from her, wasn't that it."

"Something like that. Uh...he finally actually asked Liz Parker to dance with him tonight..."

"Oh Lord, now it starts...., I told you he'd eventually overcome his shyness.."

"About time, too. He's liked her since the third grade...time for him to get over his shyness."

"Yeah, Izzy too. I hope she doesn't hide behind that Ice Princess persona forever."

"Well, according to Nancy Parker, she was warming up to Alex Whitman tonight..."

"Whitman, Whitman...not sure I know him. Maybe we should invite him over for dinner."

"Phil...don't push the girl. She'll outgrow the coldness...then you'll probably have to beat the young men away with sticks..."

"I'll believe THAT when I see it," he said, snuggling up against Diane, and shortly thereafter falling asleep.

Three doors down the hall, the two in the dream orb danced on, their lips touching frequently, their bodies together....