Hello, hello, dear readers. So finally we're going to have everyone meet up for which I hope you'll all be glad. I'm so glad that so many of you seem to like Isobel and Serena together and are so concerned for the wellbeing of their relationship. lol I know that sometimes people can get frustrated when there's too much attention paid to "secondary couples" but I really like to use them as a counterpoint to Zan and Liz.
Anyway, it was my birthday yesterday so I had to write this part through the haze of a slight hangover, both from birthday cake and wine. As I become more of an old lady (j/k I'm only 26) I get more delicate.
Here we go...
Part 10
Ava’s eyes scanned the room. Her mind was practically on overload what with all the input coming off of the group assembled in Liz and Isabel’s living room. The airwaves were thick with tension; everyone’s emotions were riding high and ricocheting off of every corner of the room. She had to focus really hard to discern individual signals. One overriding common desire was readily apparent: everyone here desperately wanted to find Max and bring him home safe.
She glanced over at Zan. His eyes were stormy. She almost felt guilty for trying to read him. They had long had a tacit agreement that she stay out of his private world but right now she really felt the need to get a handle on what was going on. Even though she had set up a block so that he could share with her only what he wanted, she was surprised that she had not picked up on this whole Liz thing. It had clearly been brewing for a long time, long before the current crisis and went far deeper than just a desire to reunite Liz with his dupe’s son. To tell the truth she was a little pissed that he hadn’t told her that Liz was here in the city but she knew him and so she also knew that it wasn’t personal. He obviously hadn’t told her because he hadn’t been ready to deal himself. She sighed, wishing that it was easier for him to be open, to feel. They had both suffered so much at the hands of Lonnie and Rath…
Ava shifted her gaze to where Liz was sitting on the couch next to Isabel. There was so much sisterly love there, forged in mutual grief and years of living side by side. Liz seemed amazingly calm considering the circumstances but Ava knew that there was a deep well of strength hidden inside the other woman’s tiny form. It had been amazing to be reunited with Liz; she only wished that it could have been under different circumstances. Ava still felt like she owed Liz so much if only for giving her renewed faith in the kindness of others. She hoped that she would be able to start repaying that debt now. When Zan had brought Ava back here today she had been prepared to see Liz freaking out at least a little bit but she had been gratified to see that although Liz was clearly distraught for her son, she was holding her head up.
Hmmmm. Although they weren’t looking at each other, there was a certain energy zinging between Zan and Liz. Ava was almost bowled over by the intensity of the apparent connection. She herself had never experienced anything like it and was honestly a little frightened at the prospect. It seemed deeper and richer than just attraction, although that was clearly part of it and obviously the register that resonated the most strongly for Ava – desire was her specialty after all. Hmmmm, she had always known that Zan was waiting for someone to come along. Could this be what he had always been waiting for? Ava had to hand it to Zan – he sure did find himself in the tricky situations. A single mother and his dupe’s *widow* no less, a woman whose desires, although once awake, had lain dormant for a long, long time.
Looking over to Liz’s left, Ava assessed Lonnie’s dupe speculatively. She was so different than Lonnie, and so beautiful – Isabel’s good heart lit up and softened the sculpted features that on Lonnie were stunning to be sure, yet hard and mean. Now speaking of desires, here was someone who had transgressed that holding pattern that Liz was still trapped within. Catching a whiff of the heat between Isabel and the lovely, dark-haired woman sitting pensively in the armchair, Ava smiled to herself. These two were just humming with love; it almost made Ava a little jealous. It seemed that they had both been pretty lonely before. Well Serena especially, Isabel had more the air of someone who had spent a long time repressing her strongest desires while Serena it seemed had been simply cut off, starved for emotional contact. Until now, apparently…
Michael and Maria were both seated on the floor, Maria sitting between Michael’s legs, his arms wrapped around her in a gesture that was protective but not smothering. There seemed to be an easily interplay between them. The result of so many years together, no doubt. Ava could pick up on an enduring desire and respect for one another, tempered and even strengthened by a healthy dose of friction. But they were both clearly focused on Liz right now, wanting nothing more than to help their friend. Ava felt a little pang in her heart. She hoped that the Roswell group truly understood how lucky they were to have had one another all these years. She and Zan had been so alone…
Ava’s sense pricked up as she picked up another signal from Michael, one that was very clearly directed toward Zan. Or rather toward Liz but regarding Zan. Michael clearly had a very strong desire to protect his friends and obviously he seemed a little wary of Zan, and me too I suppose, Ava mused. We’re both the outsiders here, she realized. But there was something else going on for Michael in terms of Zan. It wasn’t a desire exactly so it was harder for Ava to pick up on but she strained to “hear” it. She had discovered since she began to understand her gift that most emotions were laced with desire in some way; it seemed to be the fuel that kept people going. Even the most unselfish love seemed to be pushed forward by a desire to care for another person. And the twinges of want in Michael’s feelings toward Zan…had to do with Max (well, Max senior). Michael clearly missed his best friend a great deal still to this day, and his absence left a wound in Michael’s heart. It was disconcerting him a great deal to see Zan, looking so much like his fallen brother. And Michael obviously felt that he couldn’t trust Zan…
Ava rubbed her temples. This was exhausting!
Liz’s voice cut through Ava’s mental haze.
“Thank you all so much for being here and for helping me. I know that with all of us together we will be able to bring my baby home.” Liz’s face was set with determination.
“What we need to do now is examine all of the information that we have and set a course of action. Now Ava has informed me that she is pretty much certain that Nicholas is somehow responsible for Max’s disappearance.” All eyes were on Ava. She squirmed a little but held her ground.
Liz sent Ava a grateful look, saying, “She also thinks that he will be back at her club this evening. So she is going to do some investigating there. She’ll need some back up though. Michael? You up for it?” He nodded.
Maria interjected, “Hey babe, don’t even think that I’m gonna get left behind while you run off to a strip club, even if it is all in the name of rescuing our favorite nephew. I may be just a human but I can swing my hips with the best of them. And I do have a cardio strip video at home in Roswell that I’ve been using.”
Ava nodded. “Actually, that’s a good idea. My mental energies are gonna be pretty much devoted to Nicholas so it would be a good idea to have someone there close by to keep a look out. If yer down Maria, I can set ya up waiting tables since I know ya can do that. Or if you’re serious, you can try your hand at dancing. I can show you some moves before tonight.”
Michael’s eyes darkened a little at the last statement.
Liz continued, “OK, now that that’s settled, let’s move on. Don’t ask me how but I can feel that my son is relatively OK. I just wish I could figure out where he is…”
Suddenly Serena spoke up. “Actually Liz, I think I might be able to help you with that.” Everyone’s ears pricked up to listen to her soft voice. “Um, back on Antar, there is always a strong mental connection between parents and their children. And although you are human, you and Max seem to have that connection but just haven’t been able to foster it in the way that you would if you had known more about it. And you - you have the mark of intuition.”
Liz gasped just a little. “I have what?”
“Well, as I was explaining to Isabel last night, I believe that you have the raw gift of intuition. You see, humans are also capable of harnessing their mental power – that’s part of why you were the species chosen to cross breed with – but for the most part from what I’ve seen in my time on this planet, most humans just refuse to believe, and without belief…” Serena trailed off, getting shy with the realization that so many people were listening intently to her every word. She still wasn’t used to acknowledging her alien status. Silently Isabel crossed the room to kneel beside her, reaching for Serena’s hand and giving it an encouraging squeeze.
Serena felt empowered by the touch of Isabel’s love and continued on. “Most often parents and children communicate by reaching out on the dream plane but it is also possible to access one another through going into trance.”
Liz looked startled. “Actually, I think that Max may have been reaching out to me in a dream last night, or sort of anyway…” She trailed off, blushing and looking in Zan’s direction. Zan looked down at his boots, feeling uncomfortable.
Serena looked from Zan to Liz. What weren’t they telling her?
After a long pause Zan’s voice emerged, so low that it was difficult to hear. “Is it, like, at all possible that Max could, ah, reach out to someone who wasn’t his parent?”
Serena looked confused. “It’s unprecedented but he’s a hybrid and I’m only really familiar with what happens on Antar with full bloods. Why do you ask?”
Zan shifted. “Well, I had this dream last night…and I think that I might have heard him.”
A wave of excitement and surprise rustled through the group.
Serena once again raised her voice to speak. “Well, if I understand correctly you inherited some of Max’s father’s memories?”
Zan nodded. He could feel Michael’s eyes on him and it wasn’t entirely comfortable. Not to mention the fact that he had images of the rest of that dream blasting in front of his eyes. Even if noone else knew about the full content of that dream, he now knew that Liz certainly did.
Seeming not to notice Zan’s discomfort, Serena continued to speculate. “Well, this is interesting, it seems as though when Max, the father not the son, connected with you, he must have left you more than just his memories. He entrusted you with a bond to his son.
“But why? I mean, I never even met the guy.”
“I have no idea Zan, but right now we need to work with what we’re given. I think that I can help you and Liz to strengthen the bond that you both share with Max and hopefully it will help lead us to wherever he’s been hidden. On Antar Khivar…” Serena gulped as she mentioned the brother who had claimed to love her but had really just kept her captive, “he had me trained as a telepath. Which basically just means that I can harness my own mental powers and bolster those of others. So I’m kind of like a brain battery,” she smiled wryly.
Isabel looked up at her lover with pride and awe. “Is there any way that I can help too. I mean, I can dreamwalk so I figured…”
Serena smiled down at Isabel, “Yes, of course you can sweetheart.” Her eyes were shining with love.
“Well, then I guess we have our work cut out for us,” Liz offered, glad to see that Isabel and Serena seemed to be doing well despite recent revelations. As much as it came as a shock that they had yet another alien in their midst Liz was profoundly glad to have Serena around right now.
Michael was the first to rise to his feet. “OK, well then, it sure does bring me back, having another meeting of the newly expanded ‘I know an alien club’ but I got me some important recon to do. I’m gonna go check out Ava’s club while she, uh, teaches my wife how to be sexy.” Michael ducked the joking punch that Maria sent his way.
“Watch out there Spaceboy, you know I can rock your world.” She looked at Ava expectantly, “Well, shall we go then?”
Ava nodded. “Yeah, I’ll just take you both to the club. We can practice there.”
Liz stood up and walked over to Maria. “Take my cell with you. That way we can get in touch if anything comes up. I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me too, girlfriend, me too.” Maria and Liz fell into a tight hug, one that however brief managed to express all the love stored up throughout the many years of their friendship.
After Maria, Ava and Michael had trooped out the door the four remaining were left in silence. Isabel and Serena were still sitting quietly holding hands.
Slowly Zan lifted his golden eyes to look at Liz. She was standing near the door, looking determined yet still somewhat apprehensive. Her hands were in the back pockets of her jeans and she stared at the floor, seemingly lost in thought. Her hair, although swept up messily in a clip, was falling in soft tendrils around her face. God she was beautiful, Zan thought.
He hoped that this would work – that he would be able to help her. This was definitely “alien” territory for him though. He was used to doing things with his body, working with his hands…or his fists. Sometimes his own mind seemed like a dangerous, unfamiliar place, full of hidden challenges, yet here he was, willing to share it with her – to confront his own inner demons in order to help her find her son.
Liz shifted her attention from her sneakers upwards, her eyes raising up to meet Zan’s across the room. He felt his heart increase its tempo as they met gazes…for the first time since their shared dream. Both had found it difficult to look at one another throughout the meeting, not knowing how to react to one another’s presence, fearing that this attraction would be a distraction from the quest to find little Max. Yet now they found that it was exactly what they needed to find him. In order to find Max, they would be forced to open the floodgates, to open up in a way that neither of them were used to.
Second Chances (UC, Z/L, Adult) (Complete)
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second chances
Last edited by femmenerd on Wed Mar 23, 2005 8:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
part 11
Wow, I haven't posted this story for 3 weeks. Yikes, that won't be happening again soon. I would give excuses but that's boring, right?
You will notice that I've started spelling Isabel's name properly. I actually have gone back and edited the entire thing. So if you ever happen to go back and read it again, there may be some slightly smoother wording here and there.
Thank you so much for all of your feedback! And thanks to BelievnDreamsToo for her helpful questions and musing.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Part 11
Breathless from her exertions Maria came to a stop looking up at Ava expectantly.
Ava stood up and slowly began to clap her hands together, the sound resounding through the empty room. “Damn girl, you have been practicing. If I owned this club I’d hire you in a friggin’ heartbeat. Has your husband seen you doing that?”
Maria blushed. “Um, thanks. I’ve had the tape for awhile. I heard it was good exercise you know and I thought it would be more fun than, like, Jane Fonda. And no, Michael hasn’t seen me dance yet. I ordered a pole though. For his birthday I was planning on surprising him.”
“Well, I guess he’s gonna get surprised sooner than you thought. I sure hope he can keep his mind on the mission tonight though,” Ava winked conspiratorially.
“Yeah, I guess so. It’ll be a relief not to have to hide it anymore though. You have no idea how hard it’s been to keep it from him, what with the connection and all.” Maria’s words came out excitedly. She almost forgot that she didn’t even know this woman at all really. And Ava seemed so different than when they had met before all those years ago. More self assured or something. She felt herself warming up to the blonde alien; she was even starting to forget how much she looked like that bitch Tess. They were really nothing alike though and personality really affects how you see someone, Maria mused to herself.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t know about that, never having been bonded before.” There was a hint of wistfulness in Ava’s tone. “Not that I haven’t…you know,” Ava smirked and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “I been around the block. Had my fun.”
“Oh right,” Maria looked a little embarrassed but continued on, “You mean you and Zan never…”
“Oh me and Zan used to bump uglies when we was young but not for a loooong time now. And besides I’m not the one for him and he’s not the one for me. I’m not so sure that there is a one for me. At least I haven’t met him yet. Not that I’m not enjoying playing around. Who knows, I may just not be meant for all that stuff.”
“Hmmm, well it took awhile for me and Michael to complete the connection. It was really hard for him to open up for the longest time, to let me in. But let me tell you, since he did? Well, I won’t get into it too much but let me just say this - our marriage bed sure isn’t cold, if you know what I mean. And as for the emotional side of things, our connection has become such a big part of my life, I can hardly imagine not having it. That’s why when I think about what happened to Liz…” Maria frowned slightly at the thought of the first months after Max’s death – how Liz had seemed almost incapacitated by her grief. She was so much stronger now, but still Maria worried, like Isabel, about how closed off Liz was to the idea of loving again.
“Um, speaking of connections, what do you think about the fact that Liz and my boy have been in each other’s dreams or what have you,” Ava broached the topic hesitantly, not sure how Maria was going to react.
“I honestly don’t know what to think about that right now except that whatever it is, if it will help us find Max I’ll be eternally grateful to Zan,” Maria’s words were heartfelt; Ava could tell. She liked how clear it was that Maria wore her heart on her sleeve and was totally upfront about it. It was a kind of bravery that seemed new and foreign to Ava.
Ava looked Maria in the eye with a serious expression on her face. “Zan’s a good man too. The best. You have nothing to worry about. Not you or that husband of yours either.”
Maria sighed. “You know, that’s the feeling I get actually. And I pride myself on being an excellent judge of character. I’m sorry if Michael’s being a little weird or whatever. He’s just really protective of us all. Liz and little Max especially. I think he still blames himself for Max’s death a little, even though it wasn’t his fault. He really loved Max and I think he regrets that he wasn’t able to express that to him more before he was gone. And he hasn’t really had any close male friends since. I mean shit, almost everyone who knows who he is are women, except for little Max and he’s a child and Kyle and he lives so far away…Shit! Kyle. I can’t believe we haven’t called Kyle. He’s gonna be pissed, although honestly I don’t know what he could do.”
“Well, it might just be too late now. I get da feeling that the shit is going to hit the fan tonight.”
Maria nodded nervously in agreement.
Ava looked Maria up and down before squeezing her shoulder encouragingly. “You’re gonna do fine girl. All you got to do is keep watch while I get that weasily little bitch Nicholas to fess up.”
Maria gulped. This was happening. It was really happening.
********************
Liz took a deep breath. Her entire body was tingling with the shared energy between the four of them. She had never experienced anything like this before. Her connection with Max had been intense but neither of them had really known how to focus their energy and they hadn’t really had the time to foster their psychic link or even really understood it anyway, before it was too late…
She was amazed at Serena’s power - the way that she was able to attune her energy with everyone else’s, bringing them into communion. And Isabel too. It had been decided that Isabel work with them since she had strong mental powers too and her ability to dreamwalk might infuse some badly needed power to their joint efforts to communicate with little Max.
They were sitting on the living room floor facing one another, hands in a circle. At first Liz had been acutely uncomfortable being in such close contact with Zan; she had really been floored by the realization that the two of them had shared that dream together. But as the energy began to course through them all, she relaxed somehow. It suddenly seemed natural to her, like second nature. And it definitely helped that she was already so close with Sarah – wait, Serena – and Isabel already. Feeling their bond through the connection was bittersweet for Liz. She was really happy for them – had been ever since Isabel first told her shyly that she thought she was falling in love again – but being in such close contact with that kind of love made her remember what it was like to be that intimate with another person. It had been so long…
Liz pushed these thoughts aside, working harder to concentrate on the task at hand. Serena had explained to them that what Nicholas had probably done was create some kind of mental shield around her son to keep him from communicating with her (and with Zan too apparently). When he reached them last night, Nicholas must have been distracted in some way so his powers were weakened. From what Ava had told her, Liz guessed that Ava herself had been the distraction. God it was lucky that he had happened to go into that club of all the other clubs in this huge city. Speaking of that, Liz wondered what was going on over there…
But Liz couldn’t think about that right now. She had to concentrate, focus her energies to put them in alignment with the others. Their hope was that Serena and Isabel’s powers would be able to strengthen Zan and her connection to Max enough that they would be able to get through to him, to find out where the hell Nicholas was keeping him hostage.
Gritting her teeth and pushing herself further into trance, Liz felt a surge of energy between herself and Zan. With her eyes closed, she was able to “see” a red cord that pulsed between them. She felt his essence flooded into her, strong and warm. It comforted her in a way she could not explain.
“Mommy?” Her son’s angelic voice rang out in her mind, making her ache for him.
“I’m here baby. I love you. And so are your Aunties and…and Zan. We’re going to come get you honey. We just need to figure out where you are. Are you OK sweetheart?”
“I’m OK Mommy, but I’m scared and I want to come home. The bad man keeps saying that he’s going to take me home but he’s lying. He wants to take me to another planet. I heard him talking to the others…”
Liz’s heart contracted as she felt her son’s presence in her mind. He felt so close yet so far away.
“Max, did you see anything when they took you where you are?”
“Um, well I’m in a place that is all a really big room and the floor is cold and hard. The ceiling is really high up…”
“He’s in a warehouse,” Zan’s rich mental voice echoed for the first time in Liz’s mind, filling her with a strange sense of peace.
“There was balloon store outside. I wanted to go in but he wouldn’t take me…”
Suddenly a visual image ripped through Liz’s mind. Of a street corner and one of those crazy party stores that always made one wonder how the hell they stayed in business. It was nowhere she recognized.
“Wait! I know that place. I’ve been there. It’s not far from this club that Ava and I went this one time.”
Liz could practically taste the excitement coming from Zan. The red light flared up between them in her mind’s eye. Before she knew what was happening the energy level increased once again and she felt a strong burst of energy course through her body. The next thing she knew she was lying on the floor convulsing in Zan’s arms. All four of them had their eyes open now and the mind link to little Max had been broken. Crackles of red light were sparking off of both her and Zan as they shook on the floor, breathless.
Both Isabel and Serena were staring at Liz and Zan as the sparks began to die down.
Zan looked up at Serena fiercely, keeping his arms around Liz protectively…instinctively, “What the hell was that?”
“Wow,” Serena murmured.
“Wow, what? Need a friggin’ explanation here,” Zan growled.
“I’ve heard about this before but I’ve never actually seen anything like it,” Serena’s voice was hushed in awe. “Your powers seem to be linked. Usually this happens in the case of bonded pairs with strong psychic abilities but for some reason, the process seems to have occurred between the two of you, um, prematurely, probably due to the extreme peril of this situation.” Serena blurted all of this information out quickly with a slightly embarrassed expression on her face due to the implications of what she was saying.
Zan trembled slightly and looked down at Liz as she sat up and worked to collect herself. He let go of her, looking away. Holy shit, he thought to himself. This was so incredibly bizarre. But he could feel the truth of Serena’s words, could feel the way that his own powers seemed to be strengthened and the way that the energy coursed back and forth between him and Liz. It felt amazing but a little voice inside his head nagged at him. He knew that this was big and they could certainly use any kind of bolstering of power that they could get but he also worried that Liz would feel put upon. She didn’t even really know him and now they were linked in a way that was apparently usually reserved for couples. Was it permanent? Would she feel like she had no choice in the matter?
Before he could entertain any more doubts her voice rose up out of the gathering silence in the room.
“Well, we know where he is now. Now we’ve just got to figure a way to get in there and get my son away from that baby stealing bastard.”
********************
Ava’s eyes scanned the crowd. She could see Michael standing guard by the door with the other bouncers. Thus far her mindwarp appeared to be working – Nicholas hadn’t recognized or even noticed Michael. Since she was only warping one person and it was a relatively minor adjustment – she pretty much just changed his face – it wasn’t taking up too much of her energy. She had, however, added a little extra oomph to the warp than usual since Nicholas was much stronger than humans and also highly sensitized to recognizing other aliens.
But he did know who she was – that much was abundantly clear from what she was picking up off of him. And it definitely seemed to be part of why he wanted her. I suppose I would be a fine trophy in his eyes, she though disgustedly. But this too was something she could use to her advantage. She knew from experience that nothing would pull the wool over the eyes of a power hungry male than to cater to his vanity. She could play along.
She glanced over at Maria dancing across the stage from her. Damn, that girl was workin’ it, she thought briefly. Maria had chosen to wear a souped up version of her old Crash Down waitress uniform that Ava had made using her powers. She even had on matching green stilettos and an aquamarine thong and pasties. Were the entire situation not so perilous this would have greatly amused Ava. Well shit, everyone begins with what they feel most comfortable. She hoped that Michael wasn’t too distracted though…
Ava caught Maria’s gaze and nodded slightly to indicate that she was going in for action. Maria looked between Ava and Michael. If anything went awry, Ava knew that they were both close by. She took a deep breath before leaving the stage and sauntering over to the table where Nicholas sat alone.
His eyes were greedy with lust as he looked her up and down. She leaned over seductively, giving him an ample view of her breasts. “Hey big fella, care for a lap dance?” Her voice was candy coated, oozing with honey.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the former Queen of Antar. Does Zan know what you’re up to?”
His words seemed to slither over her. She fought the urge to cringe as she whispered in his ear, “I’m done with him. I need someone with real power, who can get me off this rock of a planet.”
She pulled away from his ear and held out her hand, speaking in a normal register, “That’ll be 50 dollars. I promise you it’ll be worth every penny.”
He chuckled in a dark tone that seemed all the more disturbing coming out of a young boy’s body. “I’m sure it will Ava. I’m sure it will.” He tucked a bill into her garter, grinning evilly all the while.
She straddled him and proceeded to gyrate wildly, picking up signals of his desire telling her which way he wanted her to move. Once she knew that she had worked him up to a fever pitch of desire she once again brought her lips to his ear, “What can you do for me that he can’t?”
He smirked. “I could make you live like a queen again…back where you belong.”
“Oh yeah, and how exactly are you gonna do that?’ She teased him seductively with her voice. She could feel his desire to impress her, to be a man in her eyes.
“With the reward that I get from Khivar when I deliver the child of Zan, the one who bears the seal, I will be able to live more than handsomely and you could too. He would do anything for his Queen and I intend to profit off of that handsomely.”
Ava was a little confused by this last statement but continued to play along. “How do I know that you’re not just all talk? And what the hell does Khivar want with Max Evans’ brat?” She knew that questioning him like this would incense him and increase his need to boast. So predictable.
Nicholas grunted before telling her exactly what she needed to know. “It’s Tess that wants the boy, or rather she wants to extract his seal and give it to her son. And Khivar will do what is necessary to keep his Mistress happy. All the better for me.”
It took a lot of energy for Ava to keep her shock from registering on her face. “So Khivar and my dupe are married? Why the hell would he want to give the seal to his enemy’s son?”
Nicholas scoffed at her lack of knowledge, never thinking about the fact that he was playing right into her hands. “Tess miscarried that weakling’s child. She wants the seal for her son with Khivar so that one day he will be seen as a legitimate ruler. Not that Khivar gives a rat’s ass about all of that. He’s more my kind of man. Just takes what he wants.” And with that he shifted the topic back to his own wants and desires, “You needn’t doubt me Missy. I’ll be leaving this godforsaken planet tonight and if you’re good you can come too.”
Ava upped the wattage on her fake smile yet another notch. “I’d go anywhere with a powerful man like yourself,” she purred. “Just let me get my things.”
Nicholas groaned as she removed herself from his lap. “You won’t need any of that human crap where we’re going but suit yourself sweetheart. Just don’t take too long.”
She ran her fingers down the side of his face just before she walked away. “Don’t you worry loverboy. I’ll just be a second.”
As she walked towards the dressing rooms, she once again caught Maria’s eye, giving her a fierce look. Thankfully Maria got the message and caught up with her a minute or two later in the back of the club.
“What the fuck’s going on?” Maria hissed. “You’ve been talking to him forever.”
Ava raised her hand to silence Maria. It was urgent that she get this message across and fast. “Look Maria, we were right. It’s going down tonight. We have no time to lose. He’s got Max and he’s going to take him off planet tonight if we don’t stop him. Stupid idiot told me his whole plan. He thinks that I’m going to go with him and be his little sex toy.” Ava snorted at the sheer ridiculousness of that idea. “Now he expects that I’m going to go with him now. Once I’m in I can pull a mindwarp to help you all get in. If only I knew where the hell he was taking me.”
“Don’t need to worry about that. Zan and Liz got in contact with Max. They know where Nicholas is keeping him.”
Ava looked puzzled. “How do you know that?”
Maria responded quickly, “Liz called Michael just now and…”
“And Michael told you through your connection. Right. OK. Look I have to go now or he’ll get suspicious.” Ava reached for her purse and pulled out a piece of paper and pen. She scribbled on the scrap of paper and handed it to Maria. “This is my cell #. I’ll put my phone on vibrate and you guys call when you’re about to come in. Then I’ll pull the warp to disguise your entrance. And to think I almost didn’t renew my plan. Who would have thought that cell phones would be so handy when you’re trying to pull off a rescue mission involving evil pipsqueak alien pervs and alien/human crossbred kiddies?”
Maria almost laughed at that. “OK, good luck.”
Ava pulled on her boots and stood up to go, “Ya thanks. I’ll fuckin’ need it.”
Maria watched Ava saunter back to Nicholas’ table and then follow him out the door before she quickly rebuttoned her “uniform” and grabbed her bag from where it rested on the vanity. She stared for a second or two blinking as her eyes scanned the room, glancing at the various “costumes” hanging on racks and the veritable armory of glitter, false eyelashes and makeup clogging the counter by the mirrors. Of all the situations she had ended up in since she became a member of the “I know an Alien Club,” this was far from the most unusual but it definitely ranked high up there. She shook her head – the time for hesitation was definitely over. Pushing her way through the doors back into the club she sought out Michael’s eyes. She made her way over to him as quickly as she could, grabbing him by the hand when she got there.
“Come on babe, we gotta go. It’s happening tonight. I’ll explain in the car.”
Michael gritted his teeth. “I guess it’s on then. Here we go.”
You will notice that I've started spelling Isabel's name properly. I actually have gone back and edited the entire thing. So if you ever happen to go back and read it again, there may be some slightly smoother wording here and there.
Thank you so much for all of your feedback! And thanks to BelievnDreamsToo for her helpful questions and musing.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Part 11
Breathless from her exertions Maria came to a stop looking up at Ava expectantly.
Ava stood up and slowly began to clap her hands together, the sound resounding through the empty room. “Damn girl, you have been practicing. If I owned this club I’d hire you in a friggin’ heartbeat. Has your husband seen you doing that?”
Maria blushed. “Um, thanks. I’ve had the tape for awhile. I heard it was good exercise you know and I thought it would be more fun than, like, Jane Fonda. And no, Michael hasn’t seen me dance yet. I ordered a pole though. For his birthday I was planning on surprising him.”
“Well, I guess he’s gonna get surprised sooner than you thought. I sure hope he can keep his mind on the mission tonight though,” Ava winked conspiratorially.
“Yeah, I guess so. It’ll be a relief not to have to hide it anymore though. You have no idea how hard it’s been to keep it from him, what with the connection and all.” Maria’s words came out excitedly. She almost forgot that she didn’t even know this woman at all really. And Ava seemed so different than when they had met before all those years ago. More self assured or something. She felt herself warming up to the blonde alien; she was even starting to forget how much she looked like that bitch Tess. They were really nothing alike though and personality really affects how you see someone, Maria mused to herself.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t know about that, never having been bonded before.” There was a hint of wistfulness in Ava’s tone. “Not that I haven’t…you know,” Ava smirked and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “I been around the block. Had my fun.”
“Oh right,” Maria looked a little embarrassed but continued on, “You mean you and Zan never…”
“Oh me and Zan used to bump uglies when we was young but not for a loooong time now. And besides I’m not the one for him and he’s not the one for me. I’m not so sure that there is a one for me. At least I haven’t met him yet. Not that I’m not enjoying playing around. Who knows, I may just not be meant for all that stuff.”
“Hmmm, well it took awhile for me and Michael to complete the connection. It was really hard for him to open up for the longest time, to let me in. But let me tell you, since he did? Well, I won’t get into it too much but let me just say this - our marriage bed sure isn’t cold, if you know what I mean. And as for the emotional side of things, our connection has become such a big part of my life, I can hardly imagine not having it. That’s why when I think about what happened to Liz…” Maria frowned slightly at the thought of the first months after Max’s death – how Liz had seemed almost incapacitated by her grief. She was so much stronger now, but still Maria worried, like Isabel, about how closed off Liz was to the idea of loving again.
“Um, speaking of connections, what do you think about the fact that Liz and my boy have been in each other’s dreams or what have you,” Ava broached the topic hesitantly, not sure how Maria was going to react.
“I honestly don’t know what to think about that right now except that whatever it is, if it will help us find Max I’ll be eternally grateful to Zan,” Maria’s words were heartfelt; Ava could tell. She liked how clear it was that Maria wore her heart on her sleeve and was totally upfront about it. It was a kind of bravery that seemed new and foreign to Ava.
Ava looked Maria in the eye with a serious expression on her face. “Zan’s a good man too. The best. You have nothing to worry about. Not you or that husband of yours either.”
Maria sighed. “You know, that’s the feeling I get actually. And I pride myself on being an excellent judge of character. I’m sorry if Michael’s being a little weird or whatever. He’s just really protective of us all. Liz and little Max especially. I think he still blames himself for Max’s death a little, even though it wasn’t his fault. He really loved Max and I think he regrets that he wasn’t able to express that to him more before he was gone. And he hasn’t really had any close male friends since. I mean shit, almost everyone who knows who he is are women, except for little Max and he’s a child and Kyle and he lives so far away…Shit! Kyle. I can’t believe we haven’t called Kyle. He’s gonna be pissed, although honestly I don’t know what he could do.”
“Well, it might just be too late now. I get da feeling that the shit is going to hit the fan tonight.”
Maria nodded nervously in agreement.
Ava looked Maria up and down before squeezing her shoulder encouragingly. “You’re gonna do fine girl. All you got to do is keep watch while I get that weasily little bitch Nicholas to fess up.”
Maria gulped. This was happening. It was really happening.
********************
Liz took a deep breath. Her entire body was tingling with the shared energy between the four of them. She had never experienced anything like this before. Her connection with Max had been intense but neither of them had really known how to focus their energy and they hadn’t really had the time to foster their psychic link or even really understood it anyway, before it was too late…
She was amazed at Serena’s power - the way that she was able to attune her energy with everyone else’s, bringing them into communion. And Isabel too. It had been decided that Isabel work with them since she had strong mental powers too and her ability to dreamwalk might infuse some badly needed power to their joint efforts to communicate with little Max.
They were sitting on the living room floor facing one another, hands in a circle. At first Liz had been acutely uncomfortable being in such close contact with Zan; she had really been floored by the realization that the two of them had shared that dream together. But as the energy began to course through them all, she relaxed somehow. It suddenly seemed natural to her, like second nature. And it definitely helped that she was already so close with Sarah – wait, Serena – and Isabel already. Feeling their bond through the connection was bittersweet for Liz. She was really happy for them – had been ever since Isabel first told her shyly that she thought she was falling in love again – but being in such close contact with that kind of love made her remember what it was like to be that intimate with another person. It had been so long…
Liz pushed these thoughts aside, working harder to concentrate on the task at hand. Serena had explained to them that what Nicholas had probably done was create some kind of mental shield around her son to keep him from communicating with her (and with Zan too apparently). When he reached them last night, Nicholas must have been distracted in some way so his powers were weakened. From what Ava had told her, Liz guessed that Ava herself had been the distraction. God it was lucky that he had happened to go into that club of all the other clubs in this huge city. Speaking of that, Liz wondered what was going on over there…
But Liz couldn’t think about that right now. She had to concentrate, focus her energies to put them in alignment with the others. Their hope was that Serena and Isabel’s powers would be able to strengthen Zan and her connection to Max enough that they would be able to get through to him, to find out where the hell Nicholas was keeping him hostage.
Gritting her teeth and pushing herself further into trance, Liz felt a surge of energy between herself and Zan. With her eyes closed, she was able to “see” a red cord that pulsed between them. She felt his essence flooded into her, strong and warm. It comforted her in a way she could not explain.
“Mommy?” Her son’s angelic voice rang out in her mind, making her ache for him.
“I’m here baby. I love you. And so are your Aunties and…and Zan. We’re going to come get you honey. We just need to figure out where you are. Are you OK sweetheart?”
“I’m OK Mommy, but I’m scared and I want to come home. The bad man keeps saying that he’s going to take me home but he’s lying. He wants to take me to another planet. I heard him talking to the others…”
Liz’s heart contracted as she felt her son’s presence in her mind. He felt so close yet so far away.
“Max, did you see anything when they took you where you are?”
“Um, well I’m in a place that is all a really big room and the floor is cold and hard. The ceiling is really high up…”
“He’s in a warehouse,” Zan’s rich mental voice echoed for the first time in Liz’s mind, filling her with a strange sense of peace.
“There was balloon store outside. I wanted to go in but he wouldn’t take me…”
Suddenly a visual image ripped through Liz’s mind. Of a street corner and one of those crazy party stores that always made one wonder how the hell they stayed in business. It was nowhere she recognized.
“Wait! I know that place. I’ve been there. It’s not far from this club that Ava and I went this one time.”
Liz could practically taste the excitement coming from Zan. The red light flared up between them in her mind’s eye. Before she knew what was happening the energy level increased once again and she felt a strong burst of energy course through her body. The next thing she knew she was lying on the floor convulsing in Zan’s arms. All four of them had their eyes open now and the mind link to little Max had been broken. Crackles of red light were sparking off of both her and Zan as they shook on the floor, breathless.
Both Isabel and Serena were staring at Liz and Zan as the sparks began to die down.
Zan looked up at Serena fiercely, keeping his arms around Liz protectively…instinctively, “What the hell was that?”
“Wow,” Serena murmured.
“Wow, what? Need a friggin’ explanation here,” Zan growled.
“I’ve heard about this before but I’ve never actually seen anything like it,” Serena’s voice was hushed in awe. “Your powers seem to be linked. Usually this happens in the case of bonded pairs with strong psychic abilities but for some reason, the process seems to have occurred between the two of you, um, prematurely, probably due to the extreme peril of this situation.” Serena blurted all of this information out quickly with a slightly embarrassed expression on her face due to the implications of what she was saying.
Zan trembled slightly and looked down at Liz as she sat up and worked to collect herself. He let go of her, looking away. Holy shit, he thought to himself. This was so incredibly bizarre. But he could feel the truth of Serena’s words, could feel the way that his own powers seemed to be strengthened and the way that the energy coursed back and forth between him and Liz. It felt amazing but a little voice inside his head nagged at him. He knew that this was big and they could certainly use any kind of bolstering of power that they could get but he also worried that Liz would feel put upon. She didn’t even really know him and now they were linked in a way that was apparently usually reserved for couples. Was it permanent? Would she feel like she had no choice in the matter?
Before he could entertain any more doubts her voice rose up out of the gathering silence in the room.
“Well, we know where he is now. Now we’ve just got to figure a way to get in there and get my son away from that baby stealing bastard.”
********************
Ava’s eyes scanned the crowd. She could see Michael standing guard by the door with the other bouncers. Thus far her mindwarp appeared to be working – Nicholas hadn’t recognized or even noticed Michael. Since she was only warping one person and it was a relatively minor adjustment – she pretty much just changed his face – it wasn’t taking up too much of her energy. She had, however, added a little extra oomph to the warp than usual since Nicholas was much stronger than humans and also highly sensitized to recognizing other aliens.
But he did know who she was – that much was abundantly clear from what she was picking up off of him. And it definitely seemed to be part of why he wanted her. I suppose I would be a fine trophy in his eyes, she though disgustedly. But this too was something she could use to her advantage. She knew from experience that nothing would pull the wool over the eyes of a power hungry male than to cater to his vanity. She could play along.
She glanced over at Maria dancing across the stage from her. Damn, that girl was workin’ it, she thought briefly. Maria had chosen to wear a souped up version of her old Crash Down waitress uniform that Ava had made using her powers. She even had on matching green stilettos and an aquamarine thong and pasties. Were the entire situation not so perilous this would have greatly amused Ava. Well shit, everyone begins with what they feel most comfortable. She hoped that Michael wasn’t too distracted though…
Ava caught Maria’s gaze and nodded slightly to indicate that she was going in for action. Maria looked between Ava and Michael. If anything went awry, Ava knew that they were both close by. She took a deep breath before leaving the stage and sauntering over to the table where Nicholas sat alone.
His eyes were greedy with lust as he looked her up and down. She leaned over seductively, giving him an ample view of her breasts. “Hey big fella, care for a lap dance?” Her voice was candy coated, oozing with honey.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the former Queen of Antar. Does Zan know what you’re up to?”
His words seemed to slither over her. She fought the urge to cringe as she whispered in his ear, “I’m done with him. I need someone with real power, who can get me off this rock of a planet.”
She pulled away from his ear and held out her hand, speaking in a normal register, “That’ll be 50 dollars. I promise you it’ll be worth every penny.”
He chuckled in a dark tone that seemed all the more disturbing coming out of a young boy’s body. “I’m sure it will Ava. I’m sure it will.” He tucked a bill into her garter, grinning evilly all the while.
She straddled him and proceeded to gyrate wildly, picking up signals of his desire telling her which way he wanted her to move. Once she knew that she had worked him up to a fever pitch of desire she once again brought her lips to his ear, “What can you do for me that he can’t?”
He smirked. “I could make you live like a queen again…back where you belong.”
“Oh yeah, and how exactly are you gonna do that?’ She teased him seductively with her voice. She could feel his desire to impress her, to be a man in her eyes.
“With the reward that I get from Khivar when I deliver the child of Zan, the one who bears the seal, I will be able to live more than handsomely and you could too. He would do anything for his Queen and I intend to profit off of that handsomely.”
Ava was a little confused by this last statement but continued to play along. “How do I know that you’re not just all talk? And what the hell does Khivar want with Max Evans’ brat?” She knew that questioning him like this would incense him and increase his need to boast. So predictable.
Nicholas grunted before telling her exactly what she needed to know. “It’s Tess that wants the boy, or rather she wants to extract his seal and give it to her son. And Khivar will do what is necessary to keep his Mistress happy. All the better for me.”
It took a lot of energy for Ava to keep her shock from registering on her face. “So Khivar and my dupe are married? Why the hell would he want to give the seal to his enemy’s son?”
Nicholas scoffed at her lack of knowledge, never thinking about the fact that he was playing right into her hands. “Tess miscarried that weakling’s child. She wants the seal for her son with Khivar so that one day he will be seen as a legitimate ruler. Not that Khivar gives a rat’s ass about all of that. He’s more my kind of man. Just takes what he wants.” And with that he shifted the topic back to his own wants and desires, “You needn’t doubt me Missy. I’ll be leaving this godforsaken planet tonight and if you’re good you can come too.”
Ava upped the wattage on her fake smile yet another notch. “I’d go anywhere with a powerful man like yourself,” she purred. “Just let me get my things.”
Nicholas groaned as she removed herself from his lap. “You won’t need any of that human crap where we’re going but suit yourself sweetheart. Just don’t take too long.”
She ran her fingers down the side of his face just before she walked away. “Don’t you worry loverboy. I’ll just be a second.”
As she walked towards the dressing rooms, she once again caught Maria’s eye, giving her a fierce look. Thankfully Maria got the message and caught up with her a minute or two later in the back of the club.
“What the fuck’s going on?” Maria hissed. “You’ve been talking to him forever.”
Ava raised her hand to silence Maria. It was urgent that she get this message across and fast. “Look Maria, we were right. It’s going down tonight. We have no time to lose. He’s got Max and he’s going to take him off planet tonight if we don’t stop him. Stupid idiot told me his whole plan. He thinks that I’m going to go with him and be his little sex toy.” Ava snorted at the sheer ridiculousness of that idea. “Now he expects that I’m going to go with him now. Once I’m in I can pull a mindwarp to help you all get in. If only I knew where the hell he was taking me.”
“Don’t need to worry about that. Zan and Liz got in contact with Max. They know where Nicholas is keeping him.”
Ava looked puzzled. “How do you know that?”
Maria responded quickly, “Liz called Michael just now and…”
“And Michael told you through your connection. Right. OK. Look I have to go now or he’ll get suspicious.” Ava reached for her purse and pulled out a piece of paper and pen. She scribbled on the scrap of paper and handed it to Maria. “This is my cell #. I’ll put my phone on vibrate and you guys call when you’re about to come in. Then I’ll pull the warp to disguise your entrance. And to think I almost didn’t renew my plan. Who would have thought that cell phones would be so handy when you’re trying to pull off a rescue mission involving evil pipsqueak alien pervs and alien/human crossbred kiddies?”
Maria almost laughed at that. “OK, good luck.”
Ava pulled on her boots and stood up to go, “Ya thanks. I’ll fuckin’ need it.”
Maria watched Ava saunter back to Nicholas’ table and then follow him out the door before she quickly rebuttoned her “uniform” and grabbed her bag from where it rested on the vanity. She stared for a second or two blinking as her eyes scanned the room, glancing at the various “costumes” hanging on racks and the veritable armory of glitter, false eyelashes and makeup clogging the counter by the mirrors. Of all the situations she had ended up in since she became a member of the “I know an Alien Club,” this was far from the most unusual but it definitely ranked high up there. She shook her head – the time for hesitation was definitely over. Pushing her way through the doors back into the club she sought out Michael’s eyes. She made her way over to him as quickly as she could, grabbing him by the hand when she got there.
“Come on babe, we gotta go. It’s happening tonight. I’ll explain in the car.”
Michael gritted his teeth. “I guess it’s on then. Here we go.”
part 12
Hello all, a couple of general announcements for y'all. First off the lovely and talented alienmom and TrueLovePooh have come up with a shipper name for Isabel/Serena. It's "Lipstick Abduction" - get it? intergalactic lipstick lesbians. So thanks to those two, the original Lipstick Abductees.
Also, I want to give my sincere thanks to everyone who has nominated this or any of my other fics. Wow thanks! is all I can say.
cowlady - Thanks! sorry if this wasn't as soon as it could have been, but it was faster than last time
magikhands - the rescue is upon us! Hope you're not disapointed.
orphyfets - thanks for the lovely feedback
J - Thanks as always. You especially know how much I struggled with this part. As for the connection - I hope it makes sense at the end of this part why I've done what I've done
maijiklmoon - so glad to have you here reading! And thanks for your wonderful comments and insightful uncovering of my not-so-secret Spike longings
momalicious - let me just tell you that your support for this story and your generally hilarious comments have really helped me work through the frustration I've had writing this part. So thanks lady
D.S. Girl, where do I start? Your feedback is always so appreciated. Yes, I heart Zan too, obviously lol. I'm so glad you like Ava - sometimes I think she is my favorite character in this fic even though I hadn't even intended for her to be that significant in the story to begin with.
As for the conception of little Max, I have thought about describing that but I'm not sure that I want to take away from the growing relationship between Zan and Liz. Maybe in a tag. We'll see.
OK, so here's the new part. It really kicked my ass while I was writing it. See, I'm a lover not a fighter so this was challenging for me. I think that getting it done finally though may well have gotten me over the hump with this story though. Here's hoping...
Part 12
Liz held on tightly to her son’s little body, wrapping her arms around him firmly as his tears absorbed into her shirt. She stroked his hair protectively as she stared dumbly at the pile of ashes that once was Nicholas.
It had all happened so fast. She was hardly aware of the others as she stood there holding on to little Max for dear life, surrounded by the cold darkness of this dirty warehouse where her baby had been held captive. Just 5 minutes ago the room had been filled with a cacophony of sound but now it was silent, yet still echoed with the enormity of what had befallen there.
Miraculously, everything had gone according to plan – or at least what little plan they had had somehow managed to work, combining forces with luck and ingenuity. Ava had led them right in and they had caught that evil little Nicholas with his pants down, so to speak. And Serena…
Liz had been completely taken aback by what Serena had done. Isabel’s frail looking little lover had radiated power, putting up a shield around herself like Liz had never seen before – multi-colored and shimmering. With eyes closed and arms raised Serena had stood quietly in the middle of the fray radiating energy. Liz felt it flow into her own body and as she looked around it seemed that the same thing was happening to everyone else as well. She could see from the expressions on Michael, Isabel, Ava, and Zan’s faces that they felt it too.
Liz could see her son lying on a bed of mismatched pillows in a cage (a CAGE!) across the concrete floor. He looked small and frightened as the mayhem in the room grew wilder as more of Nicholas’ people came rushing in.
And Nicholas was standing in between Liz and her little boy. Liz’s eyes glazed over with anger when she saw him. All Liz was fully aware of in that moment was Nicholas…and Zan. Zan had stayed close by her side as they entered the building and now she felt as though he was actually inside of her and likewise she inside of him – she could feel the energy pulsing between their hands, hands she hadn’t realized were entwined until the sparks of red began to flicker and crackle.
The chaos in the rest of the room swirled around her. In the periphery of her consciousness Liz realized that Ava must be pulling mindwarps on the various Skins since they kept attacking thin air and then reeling back in confusion. Then an extraordinary thing happened.
Ava grabbed Isabel’s hand and pulled her towards where Serena was standing in the center of the room. “Something’s up,” Liz heard Ava yell as she pulled Isabel along frantically. “He’s messing with their minds somehow. They don’t want to be doing this. I can tell. I can feel it. He’s got to be controlling them …telepathically I guess.”
“Well, what the hell are we gonna do about it?” Isabel looked at the other alien blonde desperately. And then a flash of recognition crossed her face. “Ava, we can do this…together. Come on!”
Ava seemed to have picked up on Isabel’s meaning instinctively as they both ran to where Serena was standing surrounded by the array of colored lights. As they approached, Serena’s eyes opened and she held out her hands to Isabel who rushed into the glowing center of Serena’s power, tugging Ava along with her. The three women clasped hands in a circle and leaned their heads in together. The intensity of their concentration was visible in the expressions on their face and was made even more evident by the sweat dripping down their faces as they fused their mental energies together. The swirling lights surrounding them brightened and began to pulse until finally they catapulted out in tendrils of shooting energy, each one finding its mark as it collided with one of Nicholas’s apparently unwitting minions. As they were hit by the energy bolts each of the aliens immediately shook their heads and looked around the warehouse in confusion.
When Nicholas saw that his “forces” had abandoned the fight, he lashed out, rushing little Max’s cage and grabbing the boy.
“I’ve come too far to have you fools stop me now,” he snarled. “I should never have trusted a stupid little slut like you anyway,” he continued, spitting in Ava’s general direction.
He began moving swiftly towards the back of the warehouse, holding a terrified Max roughly in front of him as a “shield.” He held out his hand and suddenly a ship shimmered into view.
Zan started to move forward and as he did Nicholas shouted, “Don’t even try to come any closer you pathetic half-breed. I don’t want to give up my prize here but I will be forced to strangle this little whelp if you take one step closer.” Nicholas tightened his grip around Max’s throat, who whimpered “Mommy” before his air supply was cut off.
Nicholas’ taunting words combined with the sight of how he was threatening her son sent Liz even further into the heat of rage. Her mind filled with a single enormous thought – he was going to kill her son. She glanced at Zan for a split second as the red sparks between them leapt higher. In her mind she heard a primal scream, her voice, Zan’s voice, Max’s voice combining with the sounds of every parent who has ever feared for the life of a child. The others turned and watched with fascination as the energy coursing between Zan and Liz flowed out of Liz’s outstretched arm and straight into the gross replica of a teenager grasping onto little Max. As Nicholas was encased in red, a shocked expression crossed his twisted face. He howled a final curse, still laughing at them even as he died,
“You can kill me now but don’t think for a minute that this is over…”
And then he was dust.
Max ran directly into his mother’s arms, collapsing into her as Zan stepped aside, the red light having faded.
The remaining Skins began running toward the ship which was now humming loudly. One of them, a woman with long blonde hair, turned as she reached the entrance to the silver encased ship, “We…we didn’t…” she started before another alien pulled her on board the vessel. The expression on her face was a blend of surprise, confusion and compassion. When all of the ten, maybe fifteen Skins had boarded the ship in what seemed like a matter of seconds, the humming turned into a full-fledged roar and it burst through the ceiling of the warehouse like a torpedo. They all lifted their shields as debris fell down around them.
Surrounded by Zan’s shield, Liz felt the tears slide down her face as she stared at the spot where moments before Nicholas had held her baby in his grasp. Now his body was reduced to dust but Nicholas’ ominous last words left a residual bad taste in her mouth. She breathed in the scent of her little son’s dark hair, dirty and mussed from his time in captivity yet the sweetest thing she could possibly imagine in that moment.
Liz looked up to see Zan staring at her as he along with the others lowered their shields since the last piece of rubble had fallen. She blinked and scrambled to her feet, carrying Max in her arms protectively, his soft whimpers muffled against her chest.
The ever vigilant Michael was the first one to raise his voice. “We have to get the hell out of here. It’s a good thing that this place is far out but we’re still going to be surrounded by cops if we stay here much longer. I bet they heard that racket in Long Island.”
“Let’s torch it. Leave no evidence,” Zan’s voice was low and Liz was suddenly very aware of him there, separate from her yet still so close. Zan’s eyes met Michael’s as Michael nodded. There was a subtle shift in the way that Michael was regarding Zan but there was not time for Liz to contemplate that as Michael spoke up again.
“You all get out of here. Maria’s waiting outside in the car. We’ll meet you back at the apartment.”
For a moment the rest of them looked from Michael to Zan before Michael barked again, “Get out of here! Now.” Liz looked into Zan’s pleading eyes before she took off at a run, still carrying Max in her arms as she heard Ava, Isabel and Serena’s footfalls behind her.
********************
Liz was kneeling by the foot of her son’s bed when she heard Michael and Zan come rushing into the apartment to the excited sounds of the other women gathered in the living room awaiting their return. But still she could not tear herself from little Max’s sleeping form. His breath was even as he laid against the pillow, his little hand against his cheek. For the millionth time since she had gotten him back she reached up to stroke the softness of his angelic face.
She could hear Michael’s booming voice complaining about having to ride on the back of Zan’s motorcycle. “Never thought I’d have to ride bitch on the back of another guy’s bike,” Michael grumbled. Liz smiled as she heard Maria cluck at him, her relief at having him back safe evident in her voice even from several rooms away.
She felt him at the door before she even heard him. Liz looked up to see Zan’s shadowy form outlined by the moonlight streaming in through the window. He was still carrying his black motorcycle helmet in his hand as if still in transit, not sure what she wanted him to do. Their eyes were locked in silence for a moment before she rose, dusting off her legs as she stood up.
“Liz….I,” his voice sounded deep with just the hint of a tremor in his low tones.
She moved across the floor to meet him, her eyes firmly planted on his. When she reached where he was standing she lifted a hand to his chest, still encased in his black leather jacket. “Stay with me Zan. Tonight.”
He gulped and nodded.
“Can you do something for me Zan? Can you tell the others that I just need to lie down? That I’ll talk to them in the morning. I’m just so tired.”
Zan nodded once again and turned to go.
Liz held out her hand once again to stop him. “I’ll be in my room across the hall. Will you…will you come back? I just need to be held,” her voice was full of emotion, and a hint of hesitancy.
“Whatever you need,” he replied before he stepped out of the room.
********************
“So I set Ava up on the couch. I don’t blame her for not wanting to go home alone after all this madness,” Isabel said as she entered the bedroom where Serena was waiting.
Serena turned around partway from where she was positioned staring out the window. “Mmmm, and Michael and Maria?”
“They went back to their hotel,” Isabel replied as she crossed the distance to where her lover was standing, Serena’s long black hair shining in the moonlight. Isabel caught her breath as she looked at Serena’s slender form. How could someone so tiny be so powerful?
Isabel took the final steps toward where Serena was gazing up at the stars through the mottled glass of their bedroom window. As she came up behind Serena Isabel clasped her hands together, encircling Serena’s slim waist as she nuzzled the other woman’s neck. Serena leaned back against Isabel, letting out a sigh of exhaustion as she did so.
“You were amazing…you are amazing,” Isabel murmured in awe as she held Serena even tighter.
Serena blushed as she turned around to face Isabel. “I didn’t do it alone or anything You and Ava…”
Isabel raised a finger to Serena’s lips to silence her. “Shhh love, just listen to me. We never could have done this without you. When I think about what could have happened I…” Isabel’s voice cracked as she thought about how much danger her little nephew had been in just a few hours earlier.
“It’s OK. He’s safe now,” Serena answered her.
“Yes, thanks to you.” Isabel reached across and gently held her hand to Serena’s face. Tired as Serena obviously was, in Isabel’s eyes, she had never looked more beautiful. Isabel raised her lips to meet Serena’s, softly massaging the other woman’s mouth with her own, tasting the sweetness of this precious love.
********************
In the darkness of Liz’s bedroom, Zan held onto her small form tightly, breathing her in gratefully. He was still fully dressed save for his boots. She wore sweat pants and a worn T-shirt but she looked like an angel to him. An angel in old sweats, he smiled to himself. He still couldn’t believe that he was lying there under the covers with her. Or the way that it felt natural to do so, to comfort her and hold her as she fell asleep. Of all the things he’d experienced in the last day, space ships included, this might just be the most unbelievable to him.
He perked up his head for a moment and looked across the room to the slightly open door through which he could see across the hall to little Max’s room. Even though he knew that Nicholas was dead and the other skins gone away, he still felt the need to be extra cautious.
Lying his head back down on the pillow, Zan stroked Liz’s fingers lightly with his own where their hands were clasped in front of her stomach as he spooned her body with his.
He could still feel her faintly in his mind but the raging fire that had allowed them to destroy Nicholas together had receded back to wherever it came from before. He still did not entirely understand what had happened. Although Zan did not know what exactly he believed about the afterlife, somehow he felt as though perhaps his dupe had had a hand in it all from beyond the grave. Whatever it was, he was glad that they were able to save little Max in whatever way possible.
But Zan was also glad that the abrupt connection that forced its way upon them had mellowed. He could still feel something there like it was waiting…waiting for her to decide? All he knew is that if something was to happen between them, he wanted for her to choose; he did not want to be something that was forced upon her, without her will.
Was it really possible that she could want him?
Also, I want to give my sincere thanks to everyone who has nominated this or any of my other fics. Wow thanks! is all I can say.
cowlady - Thanks! sorry if this wasn't as soon as it could have been, but it was faster than last time
magikhands - the rescue is upon us! Hope you're not disapointed.
orphyfets - thanks for the lovely feedback
J - Thanks as always. You especially know how much I struggled with this part. As for the connection - I hope it makes sense at the end of this part why I've done what I've done
maijiklmoon - so glad to have you here reading! And thanks for your wonderful comments and insightful uncovering of my not-so-secret Spike longings
momalicious - let me just tell you that your support for this story and your generally hilarious comments have really helped me work through the frustration I've had writing this part. So thanks lady
D.S. Girl, where do I start? Your feedback is always so appreciated. Yes, I heart Zan too, obviously lol. I'm so glad you like Ava - sometimes I think she is my favorite character in this fic even though I hadn't even intended for her to be that significant in the story to begin with.
How did you know that that is exactly my intention in writing that relationship? Bumped heads indeed.Sarah/Serena is great. Love, love, love this relationship. I swear, you've got me completely sold now. Isabel was a lesbian. I don't know if I'll be able to see it any other way. And I'm so glad you have this couple to balance the "main" one... It's so nice to have an example of a mature relationship going through growth moments (that's what I like to call conflict Very Happy ) at the same time as this new one is starting up.
As for the conception of little Max, I have thought about describing that but I'm not sure that I want to take away from the growing relationship between Zan and Liz. Maybe in a tag. We'll see.
OK, so here's the new part. It really kicked my ass while I was writing it. See, I'm a lover not a fighter
so this was challenging for me. I think that getting it done finally though may well have gotten me over the hump with this story though. Here's hoping...Part 12
Liz held on tightly to her son’s little body, wrapping her arms around him firmly as his tears absorbed into her shirt. She stroked his hair protectively as she stared dumbly at the pile of ashes that once was Nicholas.
It had all happened so fast. She was hardly aware of the others as she stood there holding on to little Max for dear life, surrounded by the cold darkness of this dirty warehouse where her baby had been held captive. Just 5 minutes ago the room had been filled with a cacophony of sound but now it was silent, yet still echoed with the enormity of what had befallen there.
Miraculously, everything had gone according to plan – or at least what little plan they had had somehow managed to work, combining forces with luck and ingenuity. Ava had led them right in and they had caught that evil little Nicholas with his pants down, so to speak. And Serena…
Liz had been completely taken aback by what Serena had done. Isabel’s frail looking little lover had radiated power, putting up a shield around herself like Liz had never seen before – multi-colored and shimmering. With eyes closed and arms raised Serena had stood quietly in the middle of the fray radiating energy. Liz felt it flow into her own body and as she looked around it seemed that the same thing was happening to everyone else as well. She could see from the expressions on Michael, Isabel, Ava, and Zan’s faces that they felt it too.
Liz could see her son lying on a bed of mismatched pillows in a cage (a CAGE!) across the concrete floor. He looked small and frightened as the mayhem in the room grew wilder as more of Nicholas’ people came rushing in.
And Nicholas was standing in between Liz and her little boy. Liz’s eyes glazed over with anger when she saw him. All Liz was fully aware of in that moment was Nicholas…and Zan. Zan had stayed close by her side as they entered the building and now she felt as though he was actually inside of her and likewise she inside of him – she could feel the energy pulsing between their hands, hands she hadn’t realized were entwined until the sparks of red began to flicker and crackle.
The chaos in the rest of the room swirled around her. In the periphery of her consciousness Liz realized that Ava must be pulling mindwarps on the various Skins since they kept attacking thin air and then reeling back in confusion. Then an extraordinary thing happened.
Ava grabbed Isabel’s hand and pulled her towards where Serena was standing in the center of the room. “Something’s up,” Liz heard Ava yell as she pulled Isabel along frantically. “He’s messing with their minds somehow. They don’t want to be doing this. I can tell. I can feel it. He’s got to be controlling them …telepathically I guess.”
“Well, what the hell are we gonna do about it?” Isabel looked at the other alien blonde desperately. And then a flash of recognition crossed her face. “Ava, we can do this…together. Come on!”
Ava seemed to have picked up on Isabel’s meaning instinctively as they both ran to where Serena was standing surrounded by the array of colored lights. As they approached, Serena’s eyes opened and she held out her hands to Isabel who rushed into the glowing center of Serena’s power, tugging Ava along with her. The three women clasped hands in a circle and leaned their heads in together. The intensity of their concentration was visible in the expressions on their face and was made even more evident by the sweat dripping down their faces as they fused their mental energies together. The swirling lights surrounding them brightened and began to pulse until finally they catapulted out in tendrils of shooting energy, each one finding its mark as it collided with one of Nicholas’s apparently unwitting minions. As they were hit by the energy bolts each of the aliens immediately shook their heads and looked around the warehouse in confusion.
When Nicholas saw that his “forces” had abandoned the fight, he lashed out, rushing little Max’s cage and grabbing the boy.
“I’ve come too far to have you fools stop me now,” he snarled. “I should never have trusted a stupid little slut like you anyway,” he continued, spitting in Ava’s general direction.
He began moving swiftly towards the back of the warehouse, holding a terrified Max roughly in front of him as a “shield.” He held out his hand and suddenly a ship shimmered into view.
Zan started to move forward and as he did Nicholas shouted, “Don’t even try to come any closer you pathetic half-breed. I don’t want to give up my prize here but I will be forced to strangle this little whelp if you take one step closer.” Nicholas tightened his grip around Max’s throat, who whimpered “Mommy” before his air supply was cut off.
Nicholas’ taunting words combined with the sight of how he was threatening her son sent Liz even further into the heat of rage. Her mind filled with a single enormous thought – he was going to kill her son. She glanced at Zan for a split second as the red sparks between them leapt higher. In her mind she heard a primal scream, her voice, Zan’s voice, Max’s voice combining with the sounds of every parent who has ever feared for the life of a child. The others turned and watched with fascination as the energy coursing between Zan and Liz flowed out of Liz’s outstretched arm and straight into the gross replica of a teenager grasping onto little Max. As Nicholas was encased in red, a shocked expression crossed his twisted face. He howled a final curse, still laughing at them even as he died,
“You can kill me now but don’t think for a minute that this is over…”
And then he was dust.
Max ran directly into his mother’s arms, collapsing into her as Zan stepped aside, the red light having faded.
The remaining Skins began running toward the ship which was now humming loudly. One of them, a woman with long blonde hair, turned as she reached the entrance to the silver encased ship, “We…we didn’t…” she started before another alien pulled her on board the vessel. The expression on her face was a blend of surprise, confusion and compassion. When all of the ten, maybe fifteen Skins had boarded the ship in what seemed like a matter of seconds, the humming turned into a full-fledged roar and it burst through the ceiling of the warehouse like a torpedo. They all lifted their shields as debris fell down around them.
Surrounded by Zan’s shield, Liz felt the tears slide down her face as she stared at the spot where moments before Nicholas had held her baby in his grasp. Now his body was reduced to dust but Nicholas’ ominous last words left a residual bad taste in her mouth. She breathed in the scent of her little son’s dark hair, dirty and mussed from his time in captivity yet the sweetest thing she could possibly imagine in that moment.
Liz looked up to see Zan staring at her as he along with the others lowered their shields since the last piece of rubble had fallen. She blinked and scrambled to her feet, carrying Max in her arms protectively, his soft whimpers muffled against her chest.
The ever vigilant Michael was the first one to raise his voice. “We have to get the hell out of here. It’s a good thing that this place is far out but we’re still going to be surrounded by cops if we stay here much longer. I bet they heard that racket in Long Island.”
“Let’s torch it. Leave no evidence,” Zan’s voice was low and Liz was suddenly very aware of him there, separate from her yet still so close. Zan’s eyes met Michael’s as Michael nodded. There was a subtle shift in the way that Michael was regarding Zan but there was not time for Liz to contemplate that as Michael spoke up again.
“You all get out of here. Maria’s waiting outside in the car. We’ll meet you back at the apartment.”
For a moment the rest of them looked from Michael to Zan before Michael barked again, “Get out of here! Now.” Liz looked into Zan’s pleading eyes before she took off at a run, still carrying Max in her arms as she heard Ava, Isabel and Serena’s footfalls behind her.
********************
Liz was kneeling by the foot of her son’s bed when she heard Michael and Zan come rushing into the apartment to the excited sounds of the other women gathered in the living room awaiting their return. But still she could not tear herself from little Max’s sleeping form. His breath was even as he laid against the pillow, his little hand against his cheek. For the millionth time since she had gotten him back she reached up to stroke the softness of his angelic face.
She could hear Michael’s booming voice complaining about having to ride on the back of Zan’s motorcycle. “Never thought I’d have to ride bitch on the back of another guy’s bike,” Michael grumbled. Liz smiled as she heard Maria cluck at him, her relief at having him back safe evident in her voice even from several rooms away.
She felt him at the door before she even heard him. Liz looked up to see Zan’s shadowy form outlined by the moonlight streaming in through the window. He was still carrying his black motorcycle helmet in his hand as if still in transit, not sure what she wanted him to do. Their eyes were locked in silence for a moment before she rose, dusting off her legs as she stood up.
“Liz….I,” his voice sounded deep with just the hint of a tremor in his low tones.
She moved across the floor to meet him, her eyes firmly planted on his. When she reached where he was standing she lifted a hand to his chest, still encased in his black leather jacket. “Stay with me Zan. Tonight.”
He gulped and nodded.
“Can you do something for me Zan? Can you tell the others that I just need to lie down? That I’ll talk to them in the morning. I’m just so tired.”
Zan nodded once again and turned to go.
Liz held out her hand once again to stop him. “I’ll be in my room across the hall. Will you…will you come back? I just need to be held,” her voice was full of emotion, and a hint of hesitancy.
“Whatever you need,” he replied before he stepped out of the room.
********************
“So I set Ava up on the couch. I don’t blame her for not wanting to go home alone after all this madness,” Isabel said as she entered the bedroom where Serena was waiting.
Serena turned around partway from where she was positioned staring out the window. “Mmmm, and Michael and Maria?”
“They went back to their hotel,” Isabel replied as she crossed the distance to where her lover was standing, Serena’s long black hair shining in the moonlight. Isabel caught her breath as she looked at Serena’s slender form. How could someone so tiny be so powerful?
Isabel took the final steps toward where Serena was gazing up at the stars through the mottled glass of their bedroom window. As she came up behind Serena Isabel clasped her hands together, encircling Serena’s slim waist as she nuzzled the other woman’s neck. Serena leaned back against Isabel, letting out a sigh of exhaustion as she did so.
“You were amazing…you are amazing,” Isabel murmured in awe as she held Serena even tighter.
Serena blushed as she turned around to face Isabel. “I didn’t do it alone or anything You and Ava…”
Isabel raised a finger to Serena’s lips to silence her. “Shhh love, just listen to me. We never could have done this without you. When I think about what could have happened I…” Isabel’s voice cracked as she thought about how much danger her little nephew had been in just a few hours earlier.
“It’s OK. He’s safe now,” Serena answered her.
“Yes, thanks to you.” Isabel reached across and gently held her hand to Serena’s face. Tired as Serena obviously was, in Isabel’s eyes, she had never looked more beautiful. Isabel raised her lips to meet Serena’s, softly massaging the other woman’s mouth with her own, tasting the sweetness of this precious love.
********************
In the darkness of Liz’s bedroom, Zan held onto her small form tightly, breathing her in gratefully. He was still fully dressed save for his boots. She wore sweat pants and a worn T-shirt but she looked like an angel to him. An angel in old sweats, he smiled to himself. He still couldn’t believe that he was lying there under the covers with her. Or the way that it felt natural to do so, to comfort her and hold her as she fell asleep. Of all the things he’d experienced in the last day, space ships included, this might just be the most unbelievable to him.
He perked up his head for a moment and looked across the room to the slightly open door through which he could see across the hall to little Max’s room. Even though he knew that Nicholas was dead and the other skins gone away, he still felt the need to be extra cautious.
Lying his head back down on the pillow, Zan stroked Liz’s fingers lightly with his own where their hands were clasped in front of her stomach as he spooned her body with his.
He could still feel her faintly in his mind but the raging fire that had allowed them to destroy Nicholas together had receded back to wherever it came from before. He still did not entirely understand what had happened. Although Zan did not know what exactly he believed about the afterlife, somehow he felt as though perhaps his dupe had had a hand in it all from beyond the grave. Whatever it was, he was glad that they were able to save little Max in whatever way possible.
But Zan was also glad that the abrupt connection that forced its way upon them had mellowed. He could still feel something there like it was waiting…waiting for her to decide? All he knew is that if something was to happen between them, he wanted for her to choose; he did not want to be something that was forced upon her, without her will.
Was it really possible that she could want him?
Last edited by femmenerd on Thu Apr 21, 2005 1:49 am, edited 4 times in total.
Re: part 12
Thank you for returning with a wonderful update! I'm so happy that Max is safe, and that no one was hurt rescuing him. Please come back soon.
Dance with Me
Hey there to all the Lipstick Abductees out there. I posted another Isabel/Serena one parter tag today. It's called Dance With Me.
And my good pal TrueLovePooh was sweet enough to make a banner for what has become a series. I'm gonna post it here just 'cause she deserves for it to be seen as many places as possible. lol Mmmmm, and it's pretty.
And my good pal TrueLovePooh was sweet enough to make a banner for what has become a series. I'm gonna post it here just 'cause she deserves for it to be seen as many places as possible. lol Mmmmm, and it's pretty.
Part 13
So this fic is "mature" as of now *snicker, snicker at the MPAA* but could potentially become "Adult." Readers of my other fics will know that the rest of them are considerably more "adult" than this fic is so far but for some reason the muse hasn't taken me there as much on this one. Although it has been spilling over into the "Lipstick Abduction" tags. We'll see.
Stuforama - Glad you liked the girl power, sweetie dahling. And as you will see, there is even more respectfulness for the loves that came before in this part. *sniff*
orphyfets - thanks you so much! and thanks for the bump as well
Luscious cowlady Nat - I'm glad that the girls were able to save those Skins. I really didn't want it to turn into a blood bath. And yes, that Zan is both strong and sweet, isn't he?
purpleant and janesdilemma - thanks for the wonderful FB!
Ellie - Yep, Zan's a keeper. LOL, Glad that it doesn't need to be "Adult" for you to read it...all though it often is with me. *blush*
J - you truly amaze me with your feedbacking talent. You make me feel like I'm experiencing it for the first time and I wrote it! Thanks so much for picking up on that little Khivar/Nicholas snafoo
LovinGuerin2Much - Hey thanks for tuning in, whenever you can, that's alright. Hope you like what "happens" with Zan and Liz in this part.
magikhands - We all get tired. That's quite alright. You're right - it is a tricky thing emotionally that Liz is going through...as you will soon see.
flyawayraven - Sorry you had to wait. Hope you like this next part too!
Taty - Thank you so much!
A/N – So I have said that this story picks up after Chant Down Babylon, and it does but you will also see in this chapter that I have slightly adjusted certain events in the episodes leading up to it, most notably by adding certain things just before “Ch-Ch-Changes.”
Part 13
The first rays of sunlight were coming through the small window in Isabel and Liz’s kitchen, dancing through the assortment of colored glass knick knacks arrayed on the sill. The light flashed in Liz’s sleepy eyes as she gripped her coffee mug. The warmth coming through the mug onto her hands was a nice counterpoint to the chill of the linoleum against her bare feet as she sat at the kitchen table in her pajamas. Once again she was surrounded by textbooks and notes. She often studied early in the morning before Max woke up so that she could get some work done before she had to get him ready for pre-school. And she had a lot to catch up on now after having missed almost a week of class during the whole abduction crisis. All of her professors had given her extensions but still…
Liz rubbed her eyes and yawned, stretching a bit. Her eyes were a tad bleary due to the ungodly hour at which she had awakened this morning.
She had dreamt of him again last night.
In her dreams he surrounded her, overwhelming her senses one by one. They were so damn vivid she could swear she could smell him, taste him, not that she knew what he tasted like….yet.
She shook her head vigorously, fluttering her eyes in an attempt to refocus on the matter at hand, um, biology, yeah.
She sighed and picked up her pencil from the table and began to chew nervously at the eraser as she turned back to her book. After a few minutes Liz’s eyes began to glaze over once again and her gaze shifted to the window and the rainbows sparkling there.
You’re so beautiful.
His dream voice echoed in her mind and she closed her eyes finally and allowed herself to sink back into the place where he called out to her. The place in her mind where she could feel his touch. She felt prickles advance up through her thighs and up her spine and she shook gently in her chair, bringing her hand up to ruffle her hair in an effort to let go of some of this nervous energy.
The dreams were almost incoherent yet completely sensual and there seemed to be no way that she could stop them. It was as though it were not only Zan calling out to her but her own buried sexuality as well. It was the fire in the pit of her stomach that she had forgotten somehow, the flutter in her heart, the ache in her loins, all of which she had thought were lost to her forever. Lost along with Max.
Liz’s heart still ached bitterly when she thought of all the time that she and Max had lost together, time that could never be regained. Not just the days since he had been lost to her in that fire but the horrible time before that when she had pushed him away against her every wish, every heartfelt desire.
And it had all been for nothing, all because of a lie.
After Alex died and Tess left the planet, Liz had had strong misgivings about the veracity of her encounter with Future Max. Something just hadn’t seemed right. Her suspicion had been confirmed as she and Max worked at regaining what they had lost. The more they connected the weaker the hold of Tess’s mindwarp became. Finally the residue of how Tess had tricked Max into sleeping with her completely eroded. That was when Liz had finally felt safe enough to finally give in to the feelings that had always been there between her and Max. But it was a brief interlude for them before the changes began to take effect. If only she had known then that the green sparks that seemed so uncontrollable at the time were just a kind of intergalactic morning sickness that wore off after her first trimester of pregnancy.
Liz sighed. She was a grown woman now, someone’s mother, someone to be relied upon - an adult. Yet in some ways she still felt innocent – or rather, inexperienced. There was a roiling ball of sexual energy just beneath her surface and she was becoming increasingly aware of the fact that this untapped fount wouldn’t wait much longer before it erupted.
Yet still she hadn’t called Zan. It had been several days now and she knew that he was there…she could still feel him dimly across the lines of the connection they had formed in order to save her son’s life. She wasn’t stupid. She knew that he felt this too…this heat. But she was still afraid of being burned.
Liz jumped a little at the sound of something stirring behind her.
“Damn girl, you’re up early! Anymore coffee?” Isabel’s voice was bizarrely perky for someone who had only just woken up.
“Um, yeah, there’s some in the pot. Why are you up? I thought today was your day off.” Liz motioned towards the coffee maker on the counter.
“Oh, well, I had to pee and then I was just, well, awake. Serena’s still asleep though,” Isabel replied, sighing a little as she said her girlfriend’s name.
Liz smirked gently at her friend and shook her head. “Oh Izzy, who ever would have guessed that you would end up being such a sap with this girl. I’m glad that everything seems to be good between you two now, considering…”
“Yeah, me too. It’s just such a relief though, now that everything’s out in the open, you know? Kinda like when I finally told my parents that I dated girls and they took it so well. Although I suppose that after you find out that your daughter is an extra-terrestrial everything else kinda pales in comparison in terms of shock value,” Isabel’s voice tuned to a humorous tone towards the end of her little speech.
Liz laughed along with her. “Um, yeah, I guess so. Speaking of your parents, I’m glad that they didn’t find out about Max being gone until we’d already gotten him back. They would have totally freaked out. I still need to come up with a better explanation for my parents…”
Isabel looked at Liz seriously then, “Hon, you know that if you ever want to tell them about the whole alien thing, it’s just up to you. We’ve all agreed that it’s OK.”
“Yeah, I know.” Liz squirmed slightly.
“For one thing, if they ever meet Zan, there are definitely going to be some questions,” Isabel gave Liz a pointed look as she spoke.
Liz looked at Isabel open-mouthed and wide-eyed.
“Oh, don’t even try and act surprised with me Missy. Everyone knows that there’s something going on there, or there would be anyway if you would just get over it and call him.” After she finished speaking Isabel turned her attention to the cup of coffee that she had just poured for herself and sat down at the table next to Liz, putting up her fuzzy slipper clad feet on the neighboring chair.
Liz started to speak slowly, knowing that she was headed into dangerous emotional territory for both of them, “Oh, Iz, it’s just so hard. I…I guess there’s some part of me that feels like if I let it happen then it means really admitting that Max is dead and he’s not ever coming back.”
Isabel put down her coffee cup and raised a hand to cover Liz’s on the table, looking into Liz’s eyes as she said, “Oh sweetheart, I know. Look at me Liz. You know that I, of all people know. After Alex died I…” Isabel’s voice trembled ever so slightly. “Well, you know how much that tore me apart. And maybe I didn’t deal with it in the best way possible. I know now that I rushed into my marriage. Not that I didn’t care about Jesse but you know - I wasn’t ready. But the thing is Liz, you have waited and you are ready now. The final step is just admitting to yourself that it’s true.”
Liz looked up at her friend with imploring eyes, almost on the verge of tears.
Isabel grasped onto Liz’s hand even more securely as she continued, “Now if there is one thing that I know in this life, it is that my brother loved you with all of his heart.” The tears that had been waiting on the precipice began to slide down Liz’s face at Isabel’s earnest words. “And Liz, we both know that Max was a good man, or he was growing into one anyway, and his love for you was pure. He wanted you to be happy and I have to believe that he still wants you to be happy, to have a full life. And that means that you don’t need to be alone for the rest of your life.”
“I’m not alone Iz, I have you and my son, and Michael and Maria…”
“You know that’s not what I meant. You’re right you do have us and we love you. But you need to have passion in your life. You need to take the plunge. It’s true, your first love only happens once and nothing can ever replace it. And Max was your first true love, just as Alex was mine. But just because they’re gone doesn’t mean that it’s the end for us. I can’t imagine my life now without Serena and I don’t want to either. But that couldn’t happen for me until I realized that I deserved to really be loved again. You, Liz, deserve to love again too.”
At this point, Liz was full on crying and Isabel pulled her friend into her arms, rocking her as she sobbed.
“I love you, Iz,” Liz said through the haze of her tears.
“I love you too and I just want you to be happy,” Isabel murmured as she continued to comfort Liz.
When the tide of Liz’s tears finally subsided she sat up, wiped her now reddened face and picked up her mug once again. “Ack, it’s all cold now,” she exclaimed.
Isabel laughed, her own eyes a little damp, “So nuke it. You’re going to need it. Judging by the clock the little whippersnapper’s going to be getting up pretty soon.”
As Liz got up to put her coffee in the microwave Isabel spoke again, “So you’re going to call him, right?”
Liz turned around to face her as she closed the door to the microwave. “Something like that,” she said softly.
“Mommmmmeeeee,” the sound of little Max’s voice approached just before he did, bounding into the kitchen and attaching himself to Liz’s leg.
“Hi baby, you’re awfully energetic this morning,” Liz smiled indulgently, gratefully, at her son. When he looked up at her from where he clutched her pajama pant leg, she felt her heart rise up in her throat. Every minute with him was so precious ever since they’d almost lost him. She reached down and brushed his dark hair over his forehead, smiling down at his little face into those rich amber eyes.
“Are you OK, Mommy? Your face is all red.”
“I’m fine honey. Really. Now why don’t you go brush your teeth and I’ll make you some toast and eggs before we get you dressed for school.”
He scrunched up his face petulantly. “Ah, OK, but I want mine scrambled with cheese.”
“OK,” Liz said. As soon as she was done speaking, he scrambled off, his pajama feet sliding on the linoleum floor as he made his way towards the bathroom.
Isabel was pouring a second cup of coffee but she looked up at Liz and smiled. “So glad to have the little prince back. OK, I’m just gonna go take this to my girl. You have a good day, OK Liz? Don’t forget what I said.”
“I won’t.” Liz watched Isabel saunter gracefully out of the room carrying her two cups of coffee and trailing her red silk robe behind her. She sighed as she went to get eggs and bread out of the fridge. Things were really changing. There was no doubt about it.
********************
Are you bringing me coffee, lover?
Isabel smiled as she heard Serena’s voice in her mind. Impatient, are we?
No, just groggy. You tired me out last night.
Through the lines of their newly cemented connection, Isabel could detect the lustful vibe in Serena’s words.
Hmmm, better wake you up then.
Isabel turned the corner and stepped up to her bedroom door. Since she was using both her hands to carry coffee mugs, she used her powers to open the door.
“Good morning, Sleepyhead,” she cooed as she approached the bed.
Serena raised her head from the pillow, her long black hair tangled and wild. Isabel held out the mug to her and she took it gratefully, drinking almost half the cup at once. Isabel laughed.
“I love you, you know,” she said as she sat and watched Serena happily drink the rest of her coffee.
Yes, I do know…now.
Isabel looked into Serena’s brilliant green eyes when she heard the gentle caress in her mind. After Serena and Isabel had finally revealed their secrets to one another and completely opened up, a miraculous thing had happened – they had fully bonded. It made every minute feel shiny and sexy and well, free.
And when they made love!
Isabel’s head spun just thinking about it. Now that they were no longer holding back, the flashes came so easily, as did the accompanying pleasure. A little smirk crossed Isabel’s face as she thought about it.
The taste of love and sweat mingling on her tongue.
The hoarse little moans and cries coming from both of them harmonizing together in a symphony of love and desire.
The rush of pleasure flowing from her body to Serena’s and back again like the ebb and flow of the tide.
Knowing that Serena could see and feel every Isabel she had ever been…and that all of them were acceptable in her eyes.
The feeling of utter safety and completion she found in Serena’s kisses, in her eyes, between her legs…
Serena’s face lit up with a wicked little grin. “You know I can feel all of that, right?”
Isabel blushed minutely. “Yeah,” she said huskily.
“Then come over here and say good morning properly,” Serena replied seductively as she pulled Isabel down to her on the bed.
********************
Michael loped up to the garage slowly. He sighed. This wasn’t going to be easy for him. Talking about feelings and shit had never been his strong suit as it was. He’d gotten a lot better - after years with Maria it was necessary for survival basically. But still, this was different.
He knocked as he approached the door. “Anyone here?” he grunted.
Zan emerged from out of a shadow in the corner, wiping grease from his hands on a small cloth. He squinted his eyes into the sunlight and when he saw Michael his mouth almost dropped but he kept his cool.
“Whazzup?” he said, eying Michael with curiosity.
“So this is where you work, huh?”
“Yeah, it’s aight. My boss is pretty chill.” Zan took a couple of steps closer and stood with his arms folded across his chest. It was Saturday and they were closed so instead of wearing his standard work shirt he was just wearing a wife beater tank top and a pair of old Dickies, both dusty and stained with grease.
Michael blinked. It was still hard to get over how very much like Max, and yet how very different this man was.
Michael nodded toward the motorcycle in the corner. “That your bike?” he asked.
“Yeah. Just giving her a tune up,” Zan replied.
“She’s a fucking beaut. I used to ride a bike back in the day. Been thinking about getting another one. Maria will probably hate it but whatever. Do you do all the work yourself?” Michael eyed Zan as he spoke, knowing that this exchange of common interest would act as a peace accord between them.
“Yeah.” Zan’s eyes lit up a little bit as he responded.
After a minute he cleared his throat. “So what are you hear to talk about man? ‘Cause I know you didn’t come over here just to admire my bike. She is fuckin’ beautiful and all but I know there’s got ta be more. Is everything OK with Liz and the kid?”
“Yeah, they’re fine. Still shaken up but fine.” Michael coughed nervously. “Ah, actually Liz is what I came here to talk to you about.”
Zan’s eyes squinted a little, preparing for some kind of onslaught or warning. But none came.
“You need to go for it man.”
Zan was stunned. “Are you serious, dude? Don’t you want me to stay away from her out of loyalty to your boy or what have you?”
“OK, I’ll admit it. I didn’t trust you at the beginning. Can you blame me? After what Rath and Lonnie tried to pull I didn’t know what the fuck to think. And Liz and that boy, they’re part of my family now, alright? But after the other day, I’m willing to admit that I was wrong.” Michael looked down at his Chuck Taylors and kicked the dirt a little before continuing. It was never going to be easy to admit that he was wrong but he was willing to do it if it was warranted. “You really came through for us…for her. And I’ve been thinking in the last couple days about how hard it’s been for her. She deserves more. She deserves whatever the hell is going on between you two to really happen.”
Zan looked at Michael with a question in his eyes.
“Don’t even try to play it like it’s not there. And it’s not just that crazy mumbo jumbo you guys pulled to save Max. It’s something else and any fucking fool can see it. So don’t fuck up buddy. Geez, I can’t believe I’m doing this. I’ve been married to that Maria girl for too long. Her meddling tendencies have worn off on me or some shit.”
Then Zan started to laugh, a deep belly laugh that echoed throughout the concrete walls of the garage. It lit up his features and made him look a little younger than his usual hard façade.
“What?” Michael began indignantly.
Zan just cocked an eyebrow at him and kept laughing although he tried to muffle it in his hand.
Finally Michael cracked a smile as well. “Alright fine.”
Zan clapped a hand over Michael’s shoulder. “You’re a lucky man, you know that right? Your wife strips and shit.”
“Hey, watch out there dude!” Michael warned, but he was laughing too. Then his tone turned serious, “You could be lucky too man.”
Zan looked down at his boots. “She hasn’t called. I’m giving her space or whatever.”
“She’ll call…and if she doesn’t you should call her you pansy-ass.”
Zan shrugged but Michael could see that his message had gotten through.
Zan cleared his throat. “So, you guys are leaving today, right?”
“Yeah, Maria’s off shopping or something with Ava. I gotta meet her at your guys’ place pretty soon.”
Zan raised his eyebrows. “You better watch out then. Aves is into some pretty kinky shit.”
“Really?” Michael couldn’t tell if he was excited or worried at the prospect.
Zan grinned. “Don’t worry bout it. I’m sure you’re man enough to handle it.”
“Hey, fuck off,” Michael said good-naturedly. “Well, I gotta go but it was good to meet you, I mean it,” he said as he shook Zan’s hand. “And I assume I’ll be seeing your ass the next time we come to town, alright?”
“Aight,” Zan replied.
He watched silently as Michael loped off before trudging back to where his bike was parked inside the garage.
He had only been back at work on his bike for about half an hour when he heard the sound of footsteps once again. These ones were lighter, more delicate than Michael’s had been.
Zan whipped around and found himself speechless, staring at Liz as she walked purposefully in his direction.
His hands dropped to his sides as their eyes met. He could feel his heart beating and the blood rushing to his face…and other places. She was so goddamned beautiful. Her hair was down and the light from outside picked up on the stray reddish highlights in her dark brown hair. In jeans and a white T-shirt, she looked to him like an angel come down from heaven to turn him on and fill his heart with the most indescribable ache.
As Liz set eyes on Zan, she realized that she had no choice or rather that she had already made hers - her heart had made it for her. Briefly she looked him up and down, taking in the perfection of his musculature, the strength in his grease-stained hands, and the sensual curve of his mouth. But it was the look in his eyes that made her body flood with rightness – he was looking at her like she was the most precious thing he had ever seen and it made her feel alive in a way that she had almost completely forgotten that she could feel.
“Zan, I need to talk to you about something,” her voice sounded almost foreign to her, coming out resolute and tinged with something…desire?
“Yeah, Liz, I…” his voice came out in a lower register than his usual speaking voice.
“Oh fuck it,” she exclaimed and ran across the dusty, concrete floor.
In a heartbeat she had flung herself upon him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She took one look in his golden eyes, just a slightly different shade than her son’s, and saw her own emotions reflected there. The next thing she knew their lips had collided in a flurry of passion and just fulfilled longing.
As her body filled with heat, Liz thought to herself, “I deserve this.”
Stuforama - Glad you liked the girl power, sweetie dahling. And as you will see, there is even more respectfulness for the loves that came before in this part. *sniff*
orphyfets - thanks you so much! and thanks for the bump as well
Luscious cowlady Nat - I'm glad that the girls were able to save those Skins. I really didn't want it to turn into a blood bath. And yes, that Zan is both strong and sweet, isn't he?
purpleant and janesdilemma - thanks for the wonderful FB!
Ellie - Yep, Zan's a keeper. LOL, Glad that it doesn't need to be "Adult" for you to read it...all though it often is with me. *blush*
J - you truly amaze me with your feedbacking talent. You make me feel like I'm experiencing it for the first time and I wrote it! Thanks so much for picking up on that little Khivar/Nicholas snafoo
LovinGuerin2Much - Hey thanks for tuning in, whenever you can, that's alright. Hope you like what "happens" with Zan and Liz in this part.
magikhands - We all get tired. That's quite alright. You're right - it is a tricky thing emotionally that Liz is going through...as you will soon see.
flyawayraven - Sorry you had to wait. Hope you like this next part too!
Taty - Thank you so much!
A/N – So I have said that this story picks up after Chant Down Babylon, and it does but you will also see in this chapter that I have slightly adjusted certain events in the episodes leading up to it, most notably by adding certain things just before “Ch-Ch-Changes.”
Part 13
The first rays of sunlight were coming through the small window in Isabel and Liz’s kitchen, dancing through the assortment of colored glass knick knacks arrayed on the sill. The light flashed in Liz’s sleepy eyes as she gripped her coffee mug. The warmth coming through the mug onto her hands was a nice counterpoint to the chill of the linoleum against her bare feet as she sat at the kitchen table in her pajamas. Once again she was surrounded by textbooks and notes. She often studied early in the morning before Max woke up so that she could get some work done before she had to get him ready for pre-school. And she had a lot to catch up on now after having missed almost a week of class during the whole abduction crisis. All of her professors had given her extensions but still…
Liz rubbed her eyes and yawned, stretching a bit. Her eyes were a tad bleary due to the ungodly hour at which she had awakened this morning.
She had dreamt of him again last night.
In her dreams he surrounded her, overwhelming her senses one by one. They were so damn vivid she could swear she could smell him, taste him, not that she knew what he tasted like….yet.
She shook her head vigorously, fluttering her eyes in an attempt to refocus on the matter at hand, um, biology, yeah.
She sighed and picked up her pencil from the table and began to chew nervously at the eraser as she turned back to her book. After a few minutes Liz’s eyes began to glaze over once again and her gaze shifted to the window and the rainbows sparkling there.
You’re so beautiful.
His dream voice echoed in her mind and she closed her eyes finally and allowed herself to sink back into the place where he called out to her. The place in her mind where she could feel his touch. She felt prickles advance up through her thighs and up her spine and she shook gently in her chair, bringing her hand up to ruffle her hair in an effort to let go of some of this nervous energy.
The dreams were almost incoherent yet completely sensual and there seemed to be no way that she could stop them. It was as though it were not only Zan calling out to her but her own buried sexuality as well. It was the fire in the pit of her stomach that she had forgotten somehow, the flutter in her heart, the ache in her loins, all of which she had thought were lost to her forever. Lost along with Max.
Liz’s heart still ached bitterly when she thought of all the time that she and Max had lost together, time that could never be regained. Not just the days since he had been lost to her in that fire but the horrible time before that when she had pushed him away against her every wish, every heartfelt desire.
And it had all been for nothing, all because of a lie.
After Alex died and Tess left the planet, Liz had had strong misgivings about the veracity of her encounter with Future Max. Something just hadn’t seemed right. Her suspicion had been confirmed as she and Max worked at regaining what they had lost. The more they connected the weaker the hold of Tess’s mindwarp became. Finally the residue of how Tess had tricked Max into sleeping with her completely eroded. That was when Liz had finally felt safe enough to finally give in to the feelings that had always been there between her and Max. But it was a brief interlude for them before the changes began to take effect. If only she had known then that the green sparks that seemed so uncontrollable at the time were just a kind of intergalactic morning sickness that wore off after her first trimester of pregnancy.
Liz sighed. She was a grown woman now, someone’s mother, someone to be relied upon - an adult. Yet in some ways she still felt innocent – or rather, inexperienced. There was a roiling ball of sexual energy just beneath her surface and she was becoming increasingly aware of the fact that this untapped fount wouldn’t wait much longer before it erupted.
Yet still she hadn’t called Zan. It had been several days now and she knew that he was there…she could still feel him dimly across the lines of the connection they had formed in order to save her son’s life. She wasn’t stupid. She knew that he felt this too…this heat. But she was still afraid of being burned.
Liz jumped a little at the sound of something stirring behind her.
“Damn girl, you’re up early! Anymore coffee?” Isabel’s voice was bizarrely perky for someone who had only just woken up.
“Um, yeah, there’s some in the pot. Why are you up? I thought today was your day off.” Liz motioned towards the coffee maker on the counter.
“Oh, well, I had to pee and then I was just, well, awake. Serena’s still asleep though,” Isabel replied, sighing a little as she said her girlfriend’s name.
Liz smirked gently at her friend and shook her head. “Oh Izzy, who ever would have guessed that you would end up being such a sap with this girl. I’m glad that everything seems to be good between you two now, considering…”
“Yeah, me too. It’s just such a relief though, now that everything’s out in the open, you know? Kinda like when I finally told my parents that I dated girls and they took it so well. Although I suppose that after you find out that your daughter is an extra-terrestrial everything else kinda pales in comparison in terms of shock value,” Isabel’s voice tuned to a humorous tone towards the end of her little speech.
Liz laughed along with her. “Um, yeah, I guess so. Speaking of your parents, I’m glad that they didn’t find out about Max being gone until we’d already gotten him back. They would have totally freaked out. I still need to come up with a better explanation for my parents…”
Isabel looked at Liz seriously then, “Hon, you know that if you ever want to tell them about the whole alien thing, it’s just up to you. We’ve all agreed that it’s OK.”
“Yeah, I know.” Liz squirmed slightly.
“For one thing, if they ever meet Zan, there are definitely going to be some questions,” Isabel gave Liz a pointed look as she spoke.
Liz looked at Isabel open-mouthed and wide-eyed.
“Oh, don’t even try and act surprised with me Missy. Everyone knows that there’s something going on there, or there would be anyway if you would just get over it and call him.” After she finished speaking Isabel turned her attention to the cup of coffee that she had just poured for herself and sat down at the table next to Liz, putting up her fuzzy slipper clad feet on the neighboring chair.
Liz started to speak slowly, knowing that she was headed into dangerous emotional territory for both of them, “Oh, Iz, it’s just so hard. I…I guess there’s some part of me that feels like if I let it happen then it means really admitting that Max is dead and he’s not ever coming back.”
Isabel put down her coffee cup and raised a hand to cover Liz’s on the table, looking into Liz’s eyes as she said, “Oh sweetheart, I know. Look at me Liz. You know that I, of all people know. After Alex died I…” Isabel’s voice trembled ever so slightly. “Well, you know how much that tore me apart. And maybe I didn’t deal with it in the best way possible. I know now that I rushed into my marriage. Not that I didn’t care about Jesse but you know - I wasn’t ready. But the thing is Liz, you have waited and you are ready now. The final step is just admitting to yourself that it’s true.”
Liz looked up at her friend with imploring eyes, almost on the verge of tears.
Isabel grasped onto Liz’s hand even more securely as she continued, “Now if there is one thing that I know in this life, it is that my brother loved you with all of his heart.” The tears that had been waiting on the precipice began to slide down Liz’s face at Isabel’s earnest words. “And Liz, we both know that Max was a good man, or he was growing into one anyway, and his love for you was pure. He wanted you to be happy and I have to believe that he still wants you to be happy, to have a full life. And that means that you don’t need to be alone for the rest of your life.”
“I’m not alone Iz, I have you and my son, and Michael and Maria…”
“You know that’s not what I meant. You’re right you do have us and we love you. But you need to have passion in your life. You need to take the plunge. It’s true, your first love only happens once and nothing can ever replace it. And Max was your first true love, just as Alex was mine. But just because they’re gone doesn’t mean that it’s the end for us. I can’t imagine my life now without Serena and I don’t want to either. But that couldn’t happen for me until I realized that I deserved to really be loved again. You, Liz, deserve to love again too.”
At this point, Liz was full on crying and Isabel pulled her friend into her arms, rocking her as she sobbed.
“I love you, Iz,” Liz said through the haze of her tears.
“I love you too and I just want you to be happy,” Isabel murmured as she continued to comfort Liz.
When the tide of Liz’s tears finally subsided she sat up, wiped her now reddened face and picked up her mug once again. “Ack, it’s all cold now,” she exclaimed.
Isabel laughed, her own eyes a little damp, “So nuke it. You’re going to need it. Judging by the clock the little whippersnapper’s going to be getting up pretty soon.”
As Liz got up to put her coffee in the microwave Isabel spoke again, “So you’re going to call him, right?”
Liz turned around to face her as she closed the door to the microwave. “Something like that,” she said softly.
“Mommmmmeeeee,” the sound of little Max’s voice approached just before he did, bounding into the kitchen and attaching himself to Liz’s leg.
“Hi baby, you’re awfully energetic this morning,” Liz smiled indulgently, gratefully, at her son. When he looked up at her from where he clutched her pajama pant leg, she felt her heart rise up in her throat. Every minute with him was so precious ever since they’d almost lost him. She reached down and brushed his dark hair over his forehead, smiling down at his little face into those rich amber eyes.
“Are you OK, Mommy? Your face is all red.”
“I’m fine honey. Really. Now why don’t you go brush your teeth and I’ll make you some toast and eggs before we get you dressed for school.”
He scrunched up his face petulantly. “Ah, OK, but I want mine scrambled with cheese.”
“OK,” Liz said. As soon as she was done speaking, he scrambled off, his pajama feet sliding on the linoleum floor as he made his way towards the bathroom.
Isabel was pouring a second cup of coffee but she looked up at Liz and smiled. “So glad to have the little prince back. OK, I’m just gonna go take this to my girl. You have a good day, OK Liz? Don’t forget what I said.”
“I won’t.” Liz watched Isabel saunter gracefully out of the room carrying her two cups of coffee and trailing her red silk robe behind her. She sighed as she went to get eggs and bread out of the fridge. Things were really changing. There was no doubt about it.
********************
Are you bringing me coffee, lover?
Isabel smiled as she heard Serena’s voice in her mind. Impatient, are we?
No, just groggy. You tired me out last night.
Through the lines of their newly cemented connection, Isabel could detect the lustful vibe in Serena’s words.
Hmmm, better wake you up then.
Isabel turned the corner and stepped up to her bedroom door. Since she was using both her hands to carry coffee mugs, she used her powers to open the door.
“Good morning, Sleepyhead,” she cooed as she approached the bed.
Serena raised her head from the pillow, her long black hair tangled and wild. Isabel held out the mug to her and she took it gratefully, drinking almost half the cup at once. Isabel laughed.
“I love you, you know,” she said as she sat and watched Serena happily drink the rest of her coffee.
Yes, I do know…now.
Isabel looked into Serena’s brilliant green eyes when she heard the gentle caress in her mind. After Serena and Isabel had finally revealed their secrets to one another and completely opened up, a miraculous thing had happened – they had fully bonded. It made every minute feel shiny and sexy and well, free.
And when they made love!
Isabel’s head spun just thinking about it. Now that they were no longer holding back, the flashes came so easily, as did the accompanying pleasure. A little smirk crossed Isabel’s face as she thought about it.
The taste of love and sweat mingling on her tongue.
The hoarse little moans and cries coming from both of them harmonizing together in a symphony of love and desire.
The rush of pleasure flowing from her body to Serena’s and back again like the ebb and flow of the tide.
Knowing that Serena could see and feel every Isabel she had ever been…and that all of them were acceptable in her eyes.
The feeling of utter safety and completion she found in Serena’s kisses, in her eyes, between her legs…
Serena’s face lit up with a wicked little grin. “You know I can feel all of that, right?”
Isabel blushed minutely. “Yeah,” she said huskily.
“Then come over here and say good morning properly,” Serena replied seductively as she pulled Isabel down to her on the bed.
********************
Michael loped up to the garage slowly. He sighed. This wasn’t going to be easy for him. Talking about feelings and shit had never been his strong suit as it was. He’d gotten a lot better - after years with Maria it was necessary for survival basically. But still, this was different.
He knocked as he approached the door. “Anyone here?” he grunted.
Zan emerged from out of a shadow in the corner, wiping grease from his hands on a small cloth. He squinted his eyes into the sunlight and when he saw Michael his mouth almost dropped but he kept his cool.
“Whazzup?” he said, eying Michael with curiosity.
“So this is where you work, huh?”
“Yeah, it’s aight. My boss is pretty chill.” Zan took a couple of steps closer and stood with his arms folded across his chest. It was Saturday and they were closed so instead of wearing his standard work shirt he was just wearing a wife beater tank top and a pair of old Dickies, both dusty and stained with grease.
Michael blinked. It was still hard to get over how very much like Max, and yet how very different this man was.
Michael nodded toward the motorcycle in the corner. “That your bike?” he asked.
“Yeah. Just giving her a tune up,” Zan replied.
“She’s a fucking beaut. I used to ride a bike back in the day. Been thinking about getting another one. Maria will probably hate it but whatever. Do you do all the work yourself?” Michael eyed Zan as he spoke, knowing that this exchange of common interest would act as a peace accord between them.
“Yeah.” Zan’s eyes lit up a little bit as he responded.
After a minute he cleared his throat. “So what are you hear to talk about man? ‘Cause I know you didn’t come over here just to admire my bike. She is fuckin’ beautiful and all but I know there’s got ta be more. Is everything OK with Liz and the kid?”
“Yeah, they’re fine. Still shaken up but fine.” Michael coughed nervously. “Ah, actually Liz is what I came here to talk to you about.”
Zan’s eyes squinted a little, preparing for some kind of onslaught or warning. But none came.
“You need to go for it man.”
Zan was stunned. “Are you serious, dude? Don’t you want me to stay away from her out of loyalty to your boy or what have you?”
“OK, I’ll admit it. I didn’t trust you at the beginning. Can you blame me? After what Rath and Lonnie tried to pull I didn’t know what the fuck to think. And Liz and that boy, they’re part of my family now, alright? But after the other day, I’m willing to admit that I was wrong.” Michael looked down at his Chuck Taylors and kicked the dirt a little before continuing. It was never going to be easy to admit that he was wrong but he was willing to do it if it was warranted. “You really came through for us…for her. And I’ve been thinking in the last couple days about how hard it’s been for her. She deserves more. She deserves whatever the hell is going on between you two to really happen.”
Zan looked at Michael with a question in his eyes.
“Don’t even try to play it like it’s not there. And it’s not just that crazy mumbo jumbo you guys pulled to save Max. It’s something else and any fucking fool can see it. So don’t fuck up buddy. Geez, I can’t believe I’m doing this. I’ve been married to that Maria girl for too long. Her meddling tendencies have worn off on me or some shit.”
Then Zan started to laugh, a deep belly laugh that echoed throughout the concrete walls of the garage. It lit up his features and made him look a little younger than his usual hard façade.
“What?” Michael began indignantly.
Zan just cocked an eyebrow at him and kept laughing although he tried to muffle it in his hand.
Finally Michael cracked a smile as well. “Alright fine.”
Zan clapped a hand over Michael’s shoulder. “You’re a lucky man, you know that right? Your wife strips and shit.”
“Hey, watch out there dude!” Michael warned, but he was laughing too. Then his tone turned serious, “You could be lucky too man.”
Zan looked down at his boots. “She hasn’t called. I’m giving her space or whatever.”
“She’ll call…and if she doesn’t you should call her you pansy-ass.”
Zan shrugged but Michael could see that his message had gotten through.
Zan cleared his throat. “So, you guys are leaving today, right?”
“Yeah, Maria’s off shopping or something with Ava. I gotta meet her at your guys’ place pretty soon.”
Zan raised his eyebrows. “You better watch out then. Aves is into some pretty kinky shit.”
“Really?” Michael couldn’t tell if he was excited or worried at the prospect.
Zan grinned. “Don’t worry bout it. I’m sure you’re man enough to handle it.”
“Hey, fuck off,” Michael said good-naturedly. “Well, I gotta go but it was good to meet you, I mean it,” he said as he shook Zan’s hand. “And I assume I’ll be seeing your ass the next time we come to town, alright?”
“Aight,” Zan replied.
He watched silently as Michael loped off before trudging back to where his bike was parked inside the garage.
He had only been back at work on his bike for about half an hour when he heard the sound of footsteps once again. These ones were lighter, more delicate than Michael’s had been.
Zan whipped around and found himself speechless, staring at Liz as she walked purposefully in his direction.
His hands dropped to his sides as their eyes met. He could feel his heart beating and the blood rushing to his face…and other places. She was so goddamned beautiful. Her hair was down and the light from outside picked up on the stray reddish highlights in her dark brown hair. In jeans and a white T-shirt, she looked to him like an angel come down from heaven to turn him on and fill his heart with the most indescribable ache.
As Liz set eyes on Zan, she realized that she had no choice or rather that she had already made hers - her heart had made it for her. Briefly she looked him up and down, taking in the perfection of his musculature, the strength in his grease-stained hands, and the sensual curve of his mouth. But it was the look in his eyes that made her body flood with rightness – he was looking at her like she was the most precious thing he had ever seen and it made her feel alive in a way that she had almost completely forgotten that she could feel.
“Zan, I need to talk to you about something,” her voice sounded almost foreign to her, coming out resolute and tinged with something…desire?
“Yeah, Liz, I…” his voice came out in a lower register than his usual speaking voice.
“Oh fuck it,” she exclaimed and ran across the dusty, concrete floor.
In a heartbeat she had flung herself upon him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She took one look in his golden eyes, just a slightly different shade than her son’s, and saw her own emotions reflected there. The next thing she knew their lips had collided in a flurry of passion and just fulfilled longing.
As her body filled with heat, Liz thought to herself, “I deserve this.”
Part 14
OK folks, this part is a bit on the short side (but not as short as those first couple parts, can't you tell that this is my first fic? lol) and it's all about Liz and Zan. Hence, the, ahem, rating change. We have wandered into "adult" territory peeps. So I had a bit of performance anxiety considering how you've all been waiting for this so I hope that it doesn't disappoint!
elfangel01 - Hiya! Hope is definitely an important aspect of this fic. Yup.
Ellie - Thank you! I guess I couldn't keep it "mature" I don't know, better be safe than sorry. As for Ava's love life, well, stay tuned.
LovinGuerin2much - What lovely feedback! Wow, you not only quoted but used bold.
K.S. - I love how you always seem to pick up on the places in canon that inspire me. It must be because you're hanging out in my brain with those cabana boys of yours.
Orphyfets - I'm back! Thanks for the FB.
magikhands - haha, I was a little evil leaving it there I suppose. It's fun to toy with you people. j/k As for little Max, one thing to keep in mind with him is that he never met his father so Zan doesn't have the burden of actual comparison. Plus he's a smart kid, I think. He wants his mommy to be happy.
Dreamy J - I love how I can practically hear your responses. heehee. Yeah, I'm a smidgeon evil. Hopefully you'll forgive me after this part.
Earth2Mama - Thanks for joining me here as I spin out this tale. As for your worries, things aren't over yet but I'm not giving anything away. Fear not though.
Lilmisspolarwhore - Hey thanks for reading!
S&M - Hey honey, glad you came out of lurkerdom. We do love our Zan, don't we? So since I'm posting you can wait a few days to harrass me in chat sweetie. lol
Part 14
Zan had never waited for a woman before; he had never had to. But this time was different. He wanted to wait for Liz, to savor this madness of anticipation as they got closer every day.
It was delicious. It was excruciating. It was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him.
Zan had known lust before – the quick delirium of heat and anonymous bumping and grinding in the night that came on with intensity only to fade away with the dawn. But he had never known love before, not like this. And he had never felt desire in such a way that it coursed through his veins into his soul, rattling his buried secrets.
Yes, he wanted to fuck her. He often got hard just by looking at her. No, his body was definitely not quiet in its instructions to him.
But it was so much more than that for him with Liz.
When their eyes met he felt like he was falling and despite his habitual need for control, somehow this did not bother him. Rather, it excited him in every possible way. When he kissed her he felt himself surge with joy – it was heady and intoxicating. But not in the blurry, disorienting way of a drug – being with Liz, touching her made everything seem clearer, edges sharper, colors brighter.
His life was like a lucid, waking dream ever since that day when she had come to the garage and changed everything with a kiss.
She had nearly bowled him over when she rushed across the concrete floor and kissed him like that - hard and insistent with the sweet taste of need clinging to her lips as they met his. Without thinking he had felt himself wrap his arms around her, running his hands up and down her back. Just as he thought his heart would burst out of his chest she pulled away from him slightly and stared into his eyes. The inches of air between their faces seemed to pulsate as he stared into her lovely face, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, breathing hard. A few seconds passed as they stood there with passion like electricity passing between them silently. Then his lips attacked hers in return, sealing the deal.
They stood there, making out like hungry teenagers with the sun filtering through the open door, illuminating the particles of dust in the air. Each kiss seemed to bring Zan closer to a rapture he had never before known existed. He felt awed and electrified all at once. As their lips came together, he felt their souls touch, whisper-soft and he knew then that he wanted her to know him – to truly know him in a way that he had never allowed anyone to before.
Every journey begins with a single step.
And so it was a simple thing that Zan chose to do first.
“Liz?” he said as their lips broke apart.
“Hmmmm?” she replied dreamily, eyes languid from the kisses.
He cleared his throat. “I want to show you something. I mean, I wanna show you lots of things but I want to take you somewhere – my favorite place in New York. Do you have class or anything?” His tone was soft and deep; he felt mildly perplexed at where thisl was coming from all of a sudden.
“Are you asking me out on a date, Zan?” Liz cocked an eyebrow and smiled up at him.
“Well, I guess so. I hadn’t thought about it. I just…I want to share something with you.”
“OK then, let’s go,” she grinned, feeling an easiness in her heart that surprised her. She didn’t really know much about this beautiful man in her arms but she knew that she wanted to, and that she had felt his soul and knew that it was somewhere she wanted to be.
Without further ado, he tossed her a helmet and grabbed his own. “You ever ridden on a motorcycle before?” he asked.
“Um, no,” she replied, suddenly feeling awfully square.
“Just hold onto me and lean your weight the way that I do and it’ll all be fine. Don’t worry, I won’t go too fast.” The grin he flashed her then was infectious and she felt one like it sneak across her own features.
As they made their way through the city on his bike, Liz felt like she was on some kind of adventure. She gripped his chest over the leather of his jacket and felt oddly safe. “Where is he taking me?” she wondered to herself. What was she getting herself into exactly? She wasn’t worried though, just happily curious as to what kind of place would be Zan’s favorite in all of the city.
She had to admit that she was rather surprised at where they ended up. Not a tattoo parlor or a punk club but...a book store?
It was a hole in the wall really, with bookshelves from floor to ceiling and piles of books cluttering nearly everywhere one looked. There were chairs intermittently scattered amongst the literary rubble and a white haired proprietor who looked up and nodded at Zan with a smile when they talked in – clearly this was indeed a place that Zan frequented often.
Zan reached for her hand and looked at her nervously after they entered the store. “This is where I come,” he started, “this is where I go when I need to escape.”
Liz almost laughed to herself out loud. This tough “bad boy” was a bookworm! This was too good.
As they began to wander into the next room Zan continued speaking, softly and passionately. “It might seem weird to you that I really wanted to take you here all out of the blue like but after the crazy ass way that we met, I just wanted you to see something about my normal life. I wanted you to see something that makes me happy, because… because I want you to know about that stuff for some reason,” he trailed off.
Liz squeezed his hand then. “I think I get it, Zan,” she said softly.
He sighed lightly. It lit up his handsome features and in that moment a kind of child-like wonder seemed to shine through his rough edges. Liz was able then to see the uncanny resemblance - not so much to Max (the elder) but rather to her little son.
After a pause, she added jovially, “You do actually read books, right Zan? This isn’t just where you take the girls to impress them?”
Zan laughed. “Ah, no. I’d have to say that you are the first girl I’ve ever taken here.”
“Well, don’t I feel special now?” Liz replied, amusement dancing in her brown eyes as they met with his amber colored ones.
“You should,” he replied, moving closer to her, causing a sharp intake of breath on her part. The innocence of his expression shifted abruptly as his gaze became heated. Checking to see if the old man at the cash register was looking in from the next room, Zan took the opportunity to lift Liz’s face to his and kiss her lightly. Their lips barely touched but Liz felt herself go ablaze in that moment.
“You certainly are a mystery, Zan,” she said, shaking her head.
“Oh, ya?” Zan replied teasingly, pairing a cocked eyebrow with a mild smirk.
“Yeah, one that I’d like to spend some time figuring out.”
That was two weeks ago.
Since then Zan had become a near fixture at Liz and Isabel’s place and everyone involved seemed to take this development in stride. Liz occasionally caught Isabel and Serena giving each other little knowing looks when she and Zan touched hands in passing or snuck kisses on the couch. And she didn’t even retort or pull away – she was just too damn happy.
She taught him how to bake chocolate chip cookies and he taught her how to change the oil in her car.
While she studied he kept her son occupied, reading him stories, playing with blocks and giving endless “airplane rides.” Watching the two of them together made Liz’s heart contract with joy. There was something about seeing rough and tumble Zan play so easily with her gentle little son that nearly overwhelmed her with its sweetness. Max had never had a steady adult male figure in his life before (both Kyle and Michael lived far away) and he seemed to revel in all the attention he got pretty much daily from Zan. He was an open and loving little boy and Liz was happy to see that his horrific experience with Nicholas hadn’t caused him to shut down too much. He still had nightmares from time to time but he always quieted down when Liz came to his bedside and rocked him in her arms. And for some reason her usually inquisitive little boy (wonder where he got that from!) didn’t seem to question Zan’s increasingly common presence in their home.
With each day, Zan and Liz got closer as they basked in the simple pleasures of being in one another’s company. They ate take out and watched videos after Max was asleep. Once Liz tried to explain some of her biology homework to him until he scrunched up his face and replied that he’d stick with novels and leave the science mumbo jumbo to the geeks. She tossed a pillow at him then and he retaliated by tackling her to the floor. That of course led elsewhere…
Both of them were acutely aware now of how lonely they had each felt so very recently and so each day felt like a miracle to them.
The intensity was building between them. It was undeniable. Each heated make-out session raised the ante yet another flesh-quivering notch. Early on Zan had said to Liz that he wanted to give it some time – he didn’t want this to be even remotely like the other times. He wanted it to be right.
But as they laid there tangled up in the dark on her couch, their breath ragged and her bra bunched up in a ball beneath the cushion, Liz thought to herself, “Ahhhhh, I need to get laid.” Inside her mind she giggled to herself a little bit at the way that would sound to others. People would be surprised at prim and proper Liz Parker if they had access to these thoughts. It was Zan that made her wild.
All hints of hilarity exited her mind as she became increasingly aware of the presence of Zan’s hard cock against her thigh. She could feel him through his pants and it was making her crazy with need, almost as much as the touch of his tongue against her ear and the feeling of his warm breath against her neck.
When the flashes came, Liz welcomed them. As the weeks had gone by the flashes as well as their accompanying sensations had become increasingly intense and these ones were the most vibrant yet. In her mind, she saw Zan emerging out of his pod in the sewer as a little boy. Saw him teaching himself to read, curled up in those same sewers with pilfered library books. Felt his pain and confusion after his sister and Rath’s betrayal. And suddenly in a moment of clarity she realized something that she could hardly believe hadn’t already occurred to her – in addition to the rest of Max’s memories he had acquired those of him and Liz making love. She could feel the carefully hidden uncertainty in his heart about how he was taking someone else’s place, how he would be second best - a replacement.
Liz pulled away from Zan then but reached up with her hands to cradle his face. She could see in his eyes that he knew what she had felt from him and he tried to look away. But she would not let him.
“Zan,” she whispered quietly. “I want you to make love to me.”
He stared back at her with looming questions in his eyes.
“It’s time to make new memories,” she replied to his silent protest. “I want you now, you and only you.”
Zan looked up at her once again with hunger in his eyes. He wanted to believe her.
Liz continued to meet his gaze head on. “I loved Max,” she stated matter of factly. “I loved him and I lost him. He will always be in my heart but I’m a different person than I was 5 years ago. Somewhere along the way little Liz Parker grew up into a woman, a woman with needs. And you are the man that I choose. If you want to be with me, it will be your place beside me, yours and noone else’s. Do you want to be with me, Zan?”
His answer to her final question reverberated through his body, assuaging his fears enough for him to reply to her query with a hard, passionate kiss on the mouth. As their tongues tangled and their breath intermingled, she heard him whisper gruffly into her mouth, “I do want to be with you, Liz.”
“Oh yeah?” she replied as they paused briefly from devouring one another.
“God yes,” he hissed as his hands stroked her body, running over her hips, across her stomach, touching lightly on the sides of her breasts. Liz arched her back as his caresses became even more insistent, practically shoving her breasts into his trembling hands.
“Then what are you waiting for?” she asked breathily as she moved.
Zan gulped as his hands stroked her breasts, his thumbs playing lightly with her nipples. “Right now I have no fucking idea,” he mumbled.
Liz laughed and pulled him back up to kiss her. She caught his lower lip in between her teeth and felt more than heard his sigh of pleasure. “Come with me,” she said as she abruptly jumped up off of the couch, grabbing his rough hand in her soft one.
“You wish is my freakin’ command,” Zan joked as she began pulling him down the hallway to her bedroom. When they reached the door she turned the knob quietly, for fear of waking up her son or Isabel and Serena. Once inside her bedroom she turned to face him, suddenly mildly but excitedly apprehensive about the step they were taking.
The smoldering heat in her gaze as she looked him up and down caused Zan to lose any inhibitions he had been entertaining, to let go of the grip on his passion for her that he had been holding so tightly. He rushed towards her, lifting her up by the ass of her jeans and holding her up flush with his own body, kissing her roughly and she answered back in kind. With her arms wrapped around his neck and her thighs squeezed tightly around his torso he began to walk towards her bed, continuing his loving assault on her mouth all the time. When they reached the bed he bent over to lay her down gently but she pulled him down with her. They kissed and rolled around on the bed in a jumble of limbs and lust until they landed with Liz straddling Zan. With her hair framing her vision Liz looked down at him and felt her thighs get even weaker than they had already been. She couldn’t stand not seeing all of him for a minute longer so she quickly started to pull up at the bottom of his white tank top. When he took over, she yanked her own shirt over her head freeing her breasts for his gaze. He looked up at her breathless and slack jawed, his dark hair sticking up at odd ends. Holding her gaze, he sat up and slowly brought his mouth to her nipple, suckling her and watching as her face contorted in unabashed pleasure.
Everything began to merge into a swirling mass of sensation for Liz as Zan’s mouth and hands explored her body in a way that noone had for years. Trails of light and heat followed every touch, every lick and she felt as though she were melting into a puddle.
When he pulled her jeans off she let out a sigh of relief, feeling the cool air on her heated skin. She lay back against the bedcovers wearing only her cotton panties with her hair splayed out around her. Had she known that this was going to happen today she might have worn a different pair but Zan didn’t seem to care. They were soon gone anyway; Zan pulled them off with his teeth, causing her to giggle at his playful grunts and groans as he did so.
But then she was naked, completely bare assed naked before him yet she didn’t feel afraid like she had feared she might after so long. Instead she simply felt beautiful.
“Zan,” she breathed as he stood back for a moment and caressed her with his eyes.
He gulped and trained his gaze on her face, looking down at her lips and then back up at her eyes as she spoke. “I need you,” was all she said.
And then she grabbed him by his perfect, toned ass and pulled him closer, pausing for only a moment before she undid his leather belt and unzipped his fly. Her eyes grew wide as she pulled him free of his pants and boxer shorts revealing the evidence of how much he wanted her. He let out a rush of air when she first touched his penis and this further proof of his arousal only turned her on more.
The time that it took to grab a condom from the nightstand and sheath him in latex seemed like an eternity. She could feel her body ripple with excitement as their joining became more and more imminent.
When he pushed inside of her, biting his lip as his cock entered her body, she felt a rush of joy. She lifted her knees to cradle his torso as he rocked inside of her, his every movement causing sparks to go off deep inside of her stomach. Raising her arms above her head, she surveyed him as their bodies formed a rhythm together. He was so beautiful and now he was hers. Just as this thought crossed her mind his lips moved down to meet hers, massaging her mouth gently as he folded his hands in hers.
Wanting to see him even better, she moved to flip them over, landing on top. As she rode him she watched his reactions, loving the effect that she had on him, feeling powerful and sexy and free. She felt the tension in her body building as she ground herself against him. Just before she was about to come, she looked down into his eyes and saw such amazing love reflected there that she felt overcome with emotion. Her happiness flooded through her just as her orgasm did and it spilled out in the form of tears. The tremors in her body moved quickly from hers to Zan’s and he came hard, clutching her back as he shook in release.
Looking up, Zan saw the tears in Liz’s eyes and asked her worriedly, “Are you OK?”
“Yes, Zan. I’m fine. I’m more than fine. These are happy tears.”
“Good,” he breathed in relief as he pulled her close, surrounding her in his warmth and the comforting smell of their lovemaking.
elfangel01 - Hiya! Hope is definitely an important aspect of this fic. Yup.
Ellie - Thank you! I guess I couldn't keep it "mature" I don't know, better be safe than sorry. As for Ava's love life, well, stay tuned.
LovinGuerin2much - What lovely feedback! Wow, you not only quoted but used bold.
K.S. - I love how you always seem to pick up on the places in canon that inspire me. It must be because you're hanging out in my brain with those cabana boys of yours.
Orphyfets - I'm back! Thanks for the FB.
magikhands - haha, I was a little evil leaving it there I suppose. It's fun to toy with you people. j/k As for little Max, one thing to keep in mind with him is that he never met his father so Zan doesn't have the burden of actual comparison. Plus he's a smart kid, I think. He wants his mommy to be happy.
Dreamy J - I love how I can practically hear your responses. heehee. Yeah, I'm a smidgeon evil. Hopefully you'll forgive me after this part.
Earth2Mama - Thanks for joining me here as I spin out this tale. As for your worries, things aren't over yet but I'm not giving anything away. Fear not though.
Lilmisspolarwhore - Hey thanks for reading!
S&M - Hey honey, glad you came out of lurkerdom. We do love our Zan, don't we? So since I'm posting you can wait a few days to harrass me in chat sweetie. lol
Part 14
Zan had never waited for a woman before; he had never had to. But this time was different. He wanted to wait for Liz, to savor this madness of anticipation as they got closer every day.
It was delicious. It was excruciating. It was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him.
Zan had known lust before – the quick delirium of heat and anonymous bumping and grinding in the night that came on with intensity only to fade away with the dawn. But he had never known love before, not like this. And he had never felt desire in such a way that it coursed through his veins into his soul, rattling his buried secrets.
Yes, he wanted to fuck her. He often got hard just by looking at her. No, his body was definitely not quiet in its instructions to him.
But it was so much more than that for him with Liz.
When their eyes met he felt like he was falling and despite his habitual need for control, somehow this did not bother him. Rather, it excited him in every possible way. When he kissed her he felt himself surge with joy – it was heady and intoxicating. But not in the blurry, disorienting way of a drug – being with Liz, touching her made everything seem clearer, edges sharper, colors brighter.
His life was like a lucid, waking dream ever since that day when she had come to the garage and changed everything with a kiss.
She had nearly bowled him over when she rushed across the concrete floor and kissed him like that - hard and insistent with the sweet taste of need clinging to her lips as they met his. Without thinking he had felt himself wrap his arms around her, running his hands up and down her back. Just as he thought his heart would burst out of his chest she pulled away from him slightly and stared into his eyes. The inches of air between their faces seemed to pulsate as he stared into her lovely face, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, breathing hard. A few seconds passed as they stood there with passion like electricity passing between them silently. Then his lips attacked hers in return, sealing the deal.
They stood there, making out like hungry teenagers with the sun filtering through the open door, illuminating the particles of dust in the air. Each kiss seemed to bring Zan closer to a rapture he had never before known existed. He felt awed and electrified all at once. As their lips came together, he felt their souls touch, whisper-soft and he knew then that he wanted her to know him – to truly know him in a way that he had never allowed anyone to before.
Every journey begins with a single step.
And so it was a simple thing that Zan chose to do first.
“Liz?” he said as their lips broke apart.
“Hmmmm?” she replied dreamily, eyes languid from the kisses.
He cleared his throat. “I want to show you something. I mean, I wanna show you lots of things but I want to take you somewhere – my favorite place in New York. Do you have class or anything?” His tone was soft and deep; he felt mildly perplexed at where thisl was coming from all of a sudden.
“Are you asking me out on a date, Zan?” Liz cocked an eyebrow and smiled up at him.
“Well, I guess so. I hadn’t thought about it. I just…I want to share something with you.”
“OK then, let’s go,” she grinned, feeling an easiness in her heart that surprised her. She didn’t really know much about this beautiful man in her arms but she knew that she wanted to, and that she had felt his soul and knew that it was somewhere she wanted to be.
Without further ado, he tossed her a helmet and grabbed his own. “You ever ridden on a motorcycle before?” he asked.
“Um, no,” she replied, suddenly feeling awfully square.
“Just hold onto me and lean your weight the way that I do and it’ll all be fine. Don’t worry, I won’t go too fast.” The grin he flashed her then was infectious and she felt one like it sneak across her own features.
As they made their way through the city on his bike, Liz felt like she was on some kind of adventure. She gripped his chest over the leather of his jacket and felt oddly safe. “Where is he taking me?” she wondered to herself. What was she getting herself into exactly? She wasn’t worried though, just happily curious as to what kind of place would be Zan’s favorite in all of the city.
She had to admit that she was rather surprised at where they ended up. Not a tattoo parlor or a punk club but...a book store?
It was a hole in the wall really, with bookshelves from floor to ceiling and piles of books cluttering nearly everywhere one looked. There were chairs intermittently scattered amongst the literary rubble and a white haired proprietor who looked up and nodded at Zan with a smile when they talked in – clearly this was indeed a place that Zan frequented often.
Zan reached for her hand and looked at her nervously after they entered the store. “This is where I come,” he started, “this is where I go when I need to escape.”
Liz almost laughed to herself out loud. This tough “bad boy” was a bookworm! This was too good.
As they began to wander into the next room Zan continued speaking, softly and passionately. “It might seem weird to you that I really wanted to take you here all out of the blue like but after the crazy ass way that we met, I just wanted you to see something about my normal life. I wanted you to see something that makes me happy, because… because I want you to know about that stuff for some reason,” he trailed off.
Liz squeezed his hand then. “I think I get it, Zan,” she said softly.
He sighed lightly. It lit up his handsome features and in that moment a kind of child-like wonder seemed to shine through his rough edges. Liz was able then to see the uncanny resemblance - not so much to Max (the elder) but rather to her little son.
After a pause, she added jovially, “You do actually read books, right Zan? This isn’t just where you take the girls to impress them?”
Zan laughed. “Ah, no. I’d have to say that you are the first girl I’ve ever taken here.”
“Well, don’t I feel special now?” Liz replied, amusement dancing in her brown eyes as they met with his amber colored ones.
“You should,” he replied, moving closer to her, causing a sharp intake of breath on her part. The innocence of his expression shifted abruptly as his gaze became heated. Checking to see if the old man at the cash register was looking in from the next room, Zan took the opportunity to lift Liz’s face to his and kiss her lightly. Their lips barely touched but Liz felt herself go ablaze in that moment.
“You certainly are a mystery, Zan,” she said, shaking her head.
“Oh, ya?” Zan replied teasingly, pairing a cocked eyebrow with a mild smirk.
“Yeah, one that I’d like to spend some time figuring out.”
That was two weeks ago.
Since then Zan had become a near fixture at Liz and Isabel’s place and everyone involved seemed to take this development in stride. Liz occasionally caught Isabel and Serena giving each other little knowing looks when she and Zan touched hands in passing or snuck kisses on the couch. And she didn’t even retort or pull away – she was just too damn happy.
She taught him how to bake chocolate chip cookies and he taught her how to change the oil in her car.
While she studied he kept her son occupied, reading him stories, playing with blocks and giving endless “airplane rides.” Watching the two of them together made Liz’s heart contract with joy. There was something about seeing rough and tumble Zan play so easily with her gentle little son that nearly overwhelmed her with its sweetness. Max had never had a steady adult male figure in his life before (both Kyle and Michael lived far away) and he seemed to revel in all the attention he got pretty much daily from Zan. He was an open and loving little boy and Liz was happy to see that his horrific experience with Nicholas hadn’t caused him to shut down too much. He still had nightmares from time to time but he always quieted down when Liz came to his bedside and rocked him in her arms. And for some reason her usually inquisitive little boy (wonder where he got that from!) didn’t seem to question Zan’s increasingly common presence in their home.
With each day, Zan and Liz got closer as they basked in the simple pleasures of being in one another’s company. They ate take out and watched videos after Max was asleep. Once Liz tried to explain some of her biology homework to him until he scrunched up his face and replied that he’d stick with novels and leave the science mumbo jumbo to the geeks. She tossed a pillow at him then and he retaliated by tackling her to the floor. That of course led elsewhere…
Both of them were acutely aware now of how lonely they had each felt so very recently and so each day felt like a miracle to them.
The intensity was building between them. It was undeniable. Each heated make-out session raised the ante yet another flesh-quivering notch. Early on Zan had said to Liz that he wanted to give it some time – he didn’t want this to be even remotely like the other times. He wanted it to be right.
But as they laid there tangled up in the dark on her couch, their breath ragged and her bra bunched up in a ball beneath the cushion, Liz thought to herself, “Ahhhhh, I need to get laid.” Inside her mind she giggled to herself a little bit at the way that would sound to others. People would be surprised at prim and proper Liz Parker if they had access to these thoughts. It was Zan that made her wild.
All hints of hilarity exited her mind as she became increasingly aware of the presence of Zan’s hard cock against her thigh. She could feel him through his pants and it was making her crazy with need, almost as much as the touch of his tongue against her ear and the feeling of his warm breath against her neck.
When the flashes came, Liz welcomed them. As the weeks had gone by the flashes as well as their accompanying sensations had become increasingly intense and these ones were the most vibrant yet. In her mind, she saw Zan emerging out of his pod in the sewer as a little boy. Saw him teaching himself to read, curled up in those same sewers with pilfered library books. Felt his pain and confusion after his sister and Rath’s betrayal. And suddenly in a moment of clarity she realized something that she could hardly believe hadn’t already occurred to her – in addition to the rest of Max’s memories he had acquired those of him and Liz making love. She could feel the carefully hidden uncertainty in his heart about how he was taking someone else’s place, how he would be second best - a replacement.
Liz pulled away from Zan then but reached up with her hands to cradle his face. She could see in his eyes that he knew what she had felt from him and he tried to look away. But she would not let him.
“Zan,” she whispered quietly. “I want you to make love to me.”
He stared back at her with looming questions in his eyes.
“It’s time to make new memories,” she replied to his silent protest. “I want you now, you and only you.”
Zan looked up at her once again with hunger in his eyes. He wanted to believe her.
Liz continued to meet his gaze head on. “I loved Max,” she stated matter of factly. “I loved him and I lost him. He will always be in my heart but I’m a different person than I was 5 years ago. Somewhere along the way little Liz Parker grew up into a woman, a woman with needs. And you are the man that I choose. If you want to be with me, it will be your place beside me, yours and noone else’s. Do you want to be with me, Zan?”
His answer to her final question reverberated through his body, assuaging his fears enough for him to reply to her query with a hard, passionate kiss on the mouth. As their tongues tangled and their breath intermingled, she heard him whisper gruffly into her mouth, “I do want to be with you, Liz.”
“Oh yeah?” she replied as they paused briefly from devouring one another.
“God yes,” he hissed as his hands stroked her body, running over her hips, across her stomach, touching lightly on the sides of her breasts. Liz arched her back as his caresses became even more insistent, practically shoving her breasts into his trembling hands.
“Then what are you waiting for?” she asked breathily as she moved.
Zan gulped as his hands stroked her breasts, his thumbs playing lightly with her nipples. “Right now I have no fucking idea,” he mumbled.
Liz laughed and pulled him back up to kiss her. She caught his lower lip in between her teeth and felt more than heard his sigh of pleasure. “Come with me,” she said as she abruptly jumped up off of the couch, grabbing his rough hand in her soft one.
“You wish is my freakin’ command,” Zan joked as she began pulling him down the hallway to her bedroom. When they reached the door she turned the knob quietly, for fear of waking up her son or Isabel and Serena. Once inside her bedroom she turned to face him, suddenly mildly but excitedly apprehensive about the step they were taking.
The smoldering heat in her gaze as she looked him up and down caused Zan to lose any inhibitions he had been entertaining, to let go of the grip on his passion for her that he had been holding so tightly. He rushed towards her, lifting her up by the ass of her jeans and holding her up flush with his own body, kissing her roughly and she answered back in kind. With her arms wrapped around his neck and her thighs squeezed tightly around his torso he began to walk towards her bed, continuing his loving assault on her mouth all the time. When they reached the bed he bent over to lay her down gently but she pulled him down with her. They kissed and rolled around on the bed in a jumble of limbs and lust until they landed with Liz straddling Zan. With her hair framing her vision Liz looked down at him and felt her thighs get even weaker than they had already been. She couldn’t stand not seeing all of him for a minute longer so she quickly started to pull up at the bottom of his white tank top. When he took over, she yanked her own shirt over her head freeing her breasts for his gaze. He looked up at her breathless and slack jawed, his dark hair sticking up at odd ends. Holding her gaze, he sat up and slowly brought his mouth to her nipple, suckling her and watching as her face contorted in unabashed pleasure.
Everything began to merge into a swirling mass of sensation for Liz as Zan’s mouth and hands explored her body in a way that noone had for years. Trails of light and heat followed every touch, every lick and she felt as though she were melting into a puddle.
When he pulled her jeans off she let out a sigh of relief, feeling the cool air on her heated skin. She lay back against the bedcovers wearing only her cotton panties with her hair splayed out around her. Had she known that this was going to happen today she might have worn a different pair but Zan didn’t seem to care. They were soon gone anyway; Zan pulled them off with his teeth, causing her to giggle at his playful grunts and groans as he did so.
But then she was naked, completely bare assed naked before him yet she didn’t feel afraid like she had feared she might after so long. Instead she simply felt beautiful.
“Zan,” she breathed as he stood back for a moment and caressed her with his eyes.
He gulped and trained his gaze on her face, looking down at her lips and then back up at her eyes as she spoke. “I need you,” was all she said.
And then she grabbed him by his perfect, toned ass and pulled him closer, pausing for only a moment before she undid his leather belt and unzipped his fly. Her eyes grew wide as she pulled him free of his pants and boxer shorts revealing the evidence of how much he wanted her. He let out a rush of air when she first touched his penis and this further proof of his arousal only turned her on more.
The time that it took to grab a condom from the nightstand and sheath him in latex seemed like an eternity. She could feel her body ripple with excitement as their joining became more and more imminent.
When he pushed inside of her, biting his lip as his cock entered her body, she felt a rush of joy. She lifted her knees to cradle his torso as he rocked inside of her, his every movement causing sparks to go off deep inside of her stomach. Raising her arms above her head, she surveyed him as their bodies formed a rhythm together. He was so beautiful and now he was hers. Just as this thought crossed her mind his lips moved down to meet hers, massaging her mouth gently as he folded his hands in hers.
Wanting to see him even better, she moved to flip them over, landing on top. As she rode him she watched his reactions, loving the effect that she had on him, feeling powerful and sexy and free. She felt the tension in her body building as she ground herself against him. Just before she was about to come, she looked down into his eyes and saw such amazing love reflected there that she felt overcome with emotion. Her happiness flooded through her just as her orgasm did and it spilled out in the form of tears. The tremors in her body moved quickly from hers to Zan’s and he came hard, clutching her back as he shook in release.
Looking up, Zan saw the tears in Liz’s eyes and asked her worriedly, “Are you OK?”
“Yes, Zan. I’m fine. I’m more than fine. These are happy tears.”
“Good,” he breathed in relief as he pulled her close, surrounding her in his warmth and the comforting smell of their lovemaking.
Author's Chat
Hello all,
I just wanted to cordially invite everyone to my Author's Chat at the Dreaming Among Stars board (I just linked the name of the board, so when you get there just hop into their chat room at the top of the page) this Wednesday, the fourth of May at 8PM Pacific Standard Time (11 PM for all y'all on the East Coast and well, other times in other places).
This is a very cool thing that they facilitate at their board where readers can have an opportunity to chat with fanfic authors (and writers can chat with readers!)about their stories, writing, etc. Any and all of my stories are up for discussion but they are using "Second Chances" as a Fic of the Week Discussion topic next week. So, um, if you have any questions you want to ask me, now you know when and where to go.
I want to thank the DAS people for providing this forum and for asking me to participate. I'm honored and I hope that I will see some of you there.
Cheers,
Lucia aka Femmenerd.
I just wanted to cordially invite everyone to my Author's Chat at the Dreaming Among Stars board (I just linked the name of the board, so when you get there just hop into their chat room at the top of the page) this Wednesday, the fourth of May at 8PM Pacific Standard Time (11 PM for all y'all on the East Coast and well, other times in other places).
This is a very cool thing that they facilitate at their board where readers can have an opportunity to chat with fanfic authors (and writers can chat with readers!)about their stories, writing, etc. Any and all of my stories are up for discussion but they are using "Second Chances" as a Fic of the Week Discussion topic next week. So, um, if you have any questions you want to ask me, now you know when and where to go.
I want to thank the DAS people for providing this forum and for asking me to participate. I'm honored and I hope that I will see some of you there.
Cheers,
Lucia aka Femmenerd.
Well, this certainly was an example of those bumps really pushing my ass into gear. Incidentally, I apologize for how sporadic my posting has been lately. I had to find a new apartment and then I was out of town for awhile. And then I was tired (and wouldn't you be if you spend 3 nights in a hotel with Cherie, alienmom, Breathless, BelievnDreamstoo, and Applebylicious? You would, I'm telling you, lol. Fun is exhausting). I'm moving at the end of the month and then I'm going on vaca for two weeks so I'm trying to get the last two parts of "Smoldering" up before I'm offline. Hopefully I will put up a new part of this one as well.
Thanks so much for all of your feedback. It is so appreciated. And let's all give the super dreamery dreamy cherie props for being such a sweetie and reading this story despite the fact that I killed off our lover boy before it even started. lol But um, Zan's the man.
OK, so this next part is short and kind of transitiony but that's just how it wrote itself. But I had fun with it and I hope that you all do too.
Part 15
Liz can smell the scent of lilies in the air mixing with the intoxicating scent of Zan’s skin, skin that she can feel against her own, scalding her deliciously as he moves against her. As she arches her back she finds herself staring up at a blanket of stars, preternaturally bright and luminescent in a sky that is almost violet. It is beautiful and otherworldly and as exciting as he is to her. She feels the moans that pour forth from her mouth viscerally, part of the carnal tide passing through her feverish body. The air is cool in contrast to the heat of their intertwined limbs, melting together…
***
Zan watches as her eyes grow wide as her enters her. The light shining down on them seems to dance on the shiny silk of her dark hair. His heart skips a beat when he sees the way that the corners of her eyes crinkle with love as she looks down on him. With her above him, he feels safe in a way that he never has before, free to open himself up wide. It doesn’t matter that they are in an open field, with tall grasses blowing in the breeze around where their bodies are linked in a perfect embrace. He does not need to hide, not with her…
Simultaneously Zan and Liz both opened their eyes and blinked off the heaviness of sleep. They could both hear the last tone of Liz’s strangled cry…the one that woke them both up…and hopefully no one else.
It was just barely morning and the light was neither here nor there, that inbetween phase that comes at the crossroads of day and night. The bedclothes, it seemed, had made their way to the floor and they found themselves locked together, unwittingly making love already. Though they paused for an initial moment in sleepy surprise, they soon regained the rhythm they had formed in their dreams.
The pace was quick and their kisses sloppy and passionate, instinctive. In the months since their first encounter they had found many variations to this dance. Sometimes fast and hard paired with bruising kisses and other times slow and dreamlike, times to savor each moment, but this was a new experience altogether.
Thrown headlong into the crescendo of their passion they had no time to mentally assess how they had come to be in the position they found themselves in, pulses racing and bodies racked with ever increasing pleasure. As the first tremors of her orgasm began Liz found herself biting down gently on Zan’s shoulder, the sinewy place where his neck met his arm. He responded by thrusting into her harder, feeling himself beginning to get lost in her. She wrapped her legs around his torso, welcoming the flood of sensation that flowed through her body from her toes on up. She gasped and shuddered as he poured himself into her.
When it was over they laid there quietly, allowing their bodies to cool down and their heart beats to quiet down.
Slowly, Zan rolled over onto his side and propped his head up in his hand, gazing at Liz with a bemused expression on his face.
“Well! Good morning to you too, hot stuff.” His voice crackled a little bit from the disuse of a night of sleep. The amusement in his tone was obvious.
Liz giggled and covered her grin with her hand. “I guess it’s a good thing that I went on the pill. Apparently we really can’t control ourselves.”
“Ya, I guess not. But what the hell am I supposed to do when I’m in bed with a gorgeous friggin’ creature like you?” He reached over and tackled her playfully.
Liz swatted him lightly and reached down to recover the sheets and quilt that they had apparently pushed off of the bed in the throes of it all. Now that they were no longer in motion, the chill of the winter morning had become an issue.
They didn’t have much time to dwell in the afterglow however, before a booming, jovial voice could be heard echoing through the apartment.
“Where the hell are y’all? Sleeping the day away? I come all the way from Boston on a goddamn bus and this is the welcome I get?”
“Oh my god, it’s Kyle! He’s here already. Shit!” Liz frantically got up and went running for the closet and the pajamas that she had practically given up wearing since Zan had become a regular overnight guest. “He wasn’t supposed to get here until this afternoon!”
“Ya, and Ava’s gonna be here soon to take you out to breakfast, right? You told her last night to come over so you guys could celebrate you finishing your finals, remember?” Zan had put his arms up behind his head and was resting against the pillows. The covers were just barely covering his nether regions and Liz shook her head trying not to get too distracted by the sight of his sculpted abdomen as it peeked out above the bedclothes.
“Yup, I remember. And you’re going to be working with the little one on his powers.” Liz was scurrying around, clumsily trying to get her legs into her flannel pajama pants.
“Have I told you just how awesome I think it is that you and Ava have been hanging out?” Zan said then. “She never really said anything but I know that it means a lot to her to be chilling with you and Isabel and Serena. She’s never really had any girls in her life, well not any that were any good for her anyway,” he said, a tinge of anger entering his tone when he thought about the way that his sister Lonnie had treated Ava and himself. But he knew that those old wounds were being healed for both of them. Liz and Ava couldn’t be any more different but a nice kind of comradery had struck up between them. Just the fact that Isabel and Liz had been so willing to bring Ava into their little group made him love her that much more for her kindness and good heart.
Liz looked at him sympathetically but he just pushed away those dark thoughts and changed his tone, grinning and shooting her a teasing look. “You’re so damn cute, you know that?”
Liz shot him a withering glance but still marched up to where he was relaxing on the bed. When her face got close to his, Zan reached up with one hand to touch her face. “You know, I was dreaming about you, Angel.”
“I was dreaming about you too.” The expression on Liz’s face turned mischievous for a moment.
“Oh yeah? And what was I doing in those dreams?”
“Don’t you want to know! But I’m not telling you now. We have a guest.”
Zan sighed and dropped his hand from her face, bringing it back up behind his head. Liz determinedly took her gaze away from the curve of his bicep and began moving towards the door. “I’m going out there. You make yourself presentable, Mr.” she said with mock sternness.
“Sure,” Zan replied but made no immediate movements as he watched her advance towards the door of her bedroom.
As she was opening the door, Liz suddenly jumped back with surprise as she was faced with the grinning countenance of one Kyle Valenti.
“Hey there, Parker. Surprise! I’m early.”
“Um, hi Kyle. I’m so glad to see you,” she said as she rushed into his friendly arms.
“Whoops! Sorry Liz, I didn’t realize that you weren’t alone,” Kyle said in a teasing tone in an attempt to dispel the awkwardness of the situation. “You must be the Zan that I’ve heard so much about. Nice to meet you, man.”
“What’s up?” Zan nodded in Kyle’s direction. The calm look on his face made it clear that he wasn’t the least bit embarrassed by his partially obscured nudity.
Kyle coughed and smiled teasingly at both of them. “Well, clearly being tall, dark and intergalactic is still a draw for the ladies.” He chuckled to himself as Liz blushed and punched him lightly on the arm.
“Um, Kyle, let’s just go into the kitchen and get some coffee, alright? I’m sure that Zan here will join us in a minute and you two can be properly introduced. Right, Zan?” she said as she gave Zan a look that told him in no uncertain terms to do exactly that.
“Right, right,” Kyle said as Liz shut the door and led him out through the hallway into the kitchen.
Kyle chuckled as he settled into a chair at the kitchen table. “Nice one, Parker. It’s good to see you back in the saddle, so to speak.” He cocked an eyebrow at her suggestively.
Liz grimaced before she smiled back at her friend and joined him at the table. She had put the coffee pot on and the only sound for a moment was the gurgling of the coffee maker as she hesitated before speaking. “Um, so I hope this isn’t weirding you out or anything – seeing Zan. I mean…”
“You know, it’s really not. But then he isn’t the one I’ve been nervous about meeting anyway.” Kyle’s joking exterior cracked for a moment as he looked down at where his hands rested on top of the table.”
“Oh.” Liz couldn’t figure out exactly what to say. Tess had hurt them all, but she could see how meeting her dupe would be particularly unsettling for Kyle, considering how intimate the blonde alien’s betrayal had been for him, what with the mindwarp and all.
“Hey, don’t worry about it, Parker. I’m a big boy. And I’ve had some time to prepare myself. I wouldn’t have come if I wasn’t ready. It’s just…”
“Yeah, I know,” Liz said. After a pause, she spoke up again. “Ah, Ava’s actually going to be here really soon to pick me up for breakfast. We didn’t expect you until later, you see. But just remember Kyle, she’s not anything like her. I mean, Ava’s kind of in her own classification from everyone else really.”
“So I’ve heard,” Kyle said mysteriously. How was it exactly that Michael had described her to him when they were talking on the phone last? “She’s alright dude, seriously. Kind of weird. Weird and hot. But don’t tell Maria that I said that! She’s not of this world, I tell you,” Michael had said in that matter of fact Michael way of his. To that Kyle had replied, “In case you hadn’t noticed Mikey G. you’re not ‘of this world’ yourself.” Michael had simply grunted and said, “Shut up, dude. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you meet her.”
Kyle didn’t have any more time to dwell on these thoughts as the front door opened revealing the woman in question herself. And it was true, she was unlike any female he had ever seen in his life. Her blonde curls were streaked pink and piled messily up on her head and she was wearing a black leather and lace ensemble that took his breath away. Freaky, but hot. And thankfully, he was happily surprised to find that she did not make his skin crawl the way it did every time he thought about Tess. It was true, they had the same features but something about her breezy attitude and general demeanor made it clear that this was not a woman who was trying to hide or pull any evil stunts. Kyle breathed a sigh of relief. All the same though, he couldn’t help but feel a little intimidated by this tiny little person. He looked down at his checkered button down shirt and khakis and suddenly felt incredibly square.
“Hey, Ava. This is my friend Kyle. We told you that he was coming, right?” Liz quickly spoke to counteract Kyle’s stunned silence.
“Well,” Ava started in a breathy tone that was firm for all of its softness, “You were cute in your pictures Kyle, but really I had no way to be prepared for this.” Ava winked at Liz as she spoke.
“Um, ah, nice to meet you,” Kyle said, his face growing hot. But he recovered quickly and added, “You alien girls just find me irresistible. Even Isabel and Serena. Those two are just lying to themselves.”
“Is that so?” Isabel’s voice rang out laughingly as she turned the corner and entered the kitchen. As usual, she managed to look gorgeous even first thing in the morning, her fiery hair gleaming and her skin rosy and pink. “Hey Liz, is that coffee that I smell ready? I need a pick me up. Oh and is that hot water on the stove? I need to make some tea for my girl,” she said, giving Kyle a pointed look as she spoke the last words.
“Yup, it is. You know me. I like to take care of my little family.” Liz smiled at her friend. “Hey look, Kyle, it’s your favorite nephew, all bright eyed and bushy tailed.” Liz said this last part as Zan burst into the kitchen (somewhat more dressed in an old pair of black jeans but no shirt) with little Max on his shoulders, who was laughing gleefully in his footie pajamas.
“Hey Unca Kyle, I’m flying!” the little boy said as he held his arms out in a child’s imitation of an airplane.
Liz smiled happily as she poured herself a cup of coffee and looked around the room at the wealth of friends and family all around her. She felt lucky, very lucky indeed.
Thanks so much for all of your feedback. It is so appreciated. And let's all give the super dreamery dreamy cherie props for being such a sweetie and reading this story despite the fact that I killed off our lover boy before it even started. lol But um, Zan's the man.
OK, so this next part is short and kind of transitiony but that's just how it wrote itself. But I had fun with it and I hope that you all do too.
Part 15
Liz can smell the scent of lilies in the air mixing with the intoxicating scent of Zan’s skin, skin that she can feel against her own, scalding her deliciously as he moves against her. As she arches her back she finds herself staring up at a blanket of stars, preternaturally bright and luminescent in a sky that is almost violet. It is beautiful and otherworldly and as exciting as he is to her. She feels the moans that pour forth from her mouth viscerally, part of the carnal tide passing through her feverish body. The air is cool in contrast to the heat of their intertwined limbs, melting together…
***
Zan watches as her eyes grow wide as her enters her. The light shining down on them seems to dance on the shiny silk of her dark hair. His heart skips a beat when he sees the way that the corners of her eyes crinkle with love as she looks down on him. With her above him, he feels safe in a way that he never has before, free to open himself up wide. It doesn’t matter that they are in an open field, with tall grasses blowing in the breeze around where their bodies are linked in a perfect embrace. He does not need to hide, not with her…
Simultaneously Zan and Liz both opened their eyes and blinked off the heaviness of sleep. They could both hear the last tone of Liz’s strangled cry…the one that woke them both up…and hopefully no one else.
It was just barely morning and the light was neither here nor there, that inbetween phase that comes at the crossroads of day and night. The bedclothes, it seemed, had made their way to the floor and they found themselves locked together, unwittingly making love already. Though they paused for an initial moment in sleepy surprise, they soon regained the rhythm they had formed in their dreams.
The pace was quick and their kisses sloppy and passionate, instinctive. In the months since their first encounter they had found many variations to this dance. Sometimes fast and hard paired with bruising kisses and other times slow and dreamlike, times to savor each moment, but this was a new experience altogether.
Thrown headlong into the crescendo of their passion they had no time to mentally assess how they had come to be in the position they found themselves in, pulses racing and bodies racked with ever increasing pleasure. As the first tremors of her orgasm began Liz found herself biting down gently on Zan’s shoulder, the sinewy place where his neck met his arm. He responded by thrusting into her harder, feeling himself beginning to get lost in her. She wrapped her legs around his torso, welcoming the flood of sensation that flowed through her body from her toes on up. She gasped and shuddered as he poured himself into her.
When it was over they laid there quietly, allowing their bodies to cool down and their heart beats to quiet down.
Slowly, Zan rolled over onto his side and propped his head up in his hand, gazing at Liz with a bemused expression on his face.
“Well! Good morning to you too, hot stuff.” His voice crackled a little bit from the disuse of a night of sleep. The amusement in his tone was obvious.
Liz giggled and covered her grin with her hand. “I guess it’s a good thing that I went on the pill. Apparently we really can’t control ourselves.”
“Ya, I guess not. But what the hell am I supposed to do when I’m in bed with a gorgeous friggin’ creature like you?” He reached over and tackled her playfully.
Liz swatted him lightly and reached down to recover the sheets and quilt that they had apparently pushed off of the bed in the throes of it all. Now that they were no longer in motion, the chill of the winter morning had become an issue.
They didn’t have much time to dwell in the afterglow however, before a booming, jovial voice could be heard echoing through the apartment.
“Where the hell are y’all? Sleeping the day away? I come all the way from Boston on a goddamn bus and this is the welcome I get?”
“Oh my god, it’s Kyle! He’s here already. Shit!” Liz frantically got up and went running for the closet and the pajamas that she had practically given up wearing since Zan had become a regular overnight guest. “He wasn’t supposed to get here until this afternoon!”
“Ya, and Ava’s gonna be here soon to take you out to breakfast, right? You told her last night to come over so you guys could celebrate you finishing your finals, remember?” Zan had put his arms up behind his head and was resting against the pillows. The covers were just barely covering his nether regions and Liz shook her head trying not to get too distracted by the sight of his sculpted abdomen as it peeked out above the bedclothes.
“Yup, I remember. And you’re going to be working with the little one on his powers.” Liz was scurrying around, clumsily trying to get her legs into her flannel pajama pants.
“Have I told you just how awesome I think it is that you and Ava have been hanging out?” Zan said then. “She never really said anything but I know that it means a lot to her to be chilling with you and Isabel and Serena. She’s never really had any girls in her life, well not any that were any good for her anyway,” he said, a tinge of anger entering his tone when he thought about the way that his sister Lonnie had treated Ava and himself. But he knew that those old wounds were being healed for both of them. Liz and Ava couldn’t be any more different but a nice kind of comradery had struck up between them. Just the fact that Isabel and Liz had been so willing to bring Ava into their little group made him love her that much more for her kindness and good heart.
Liz looked at him sympathetically but he just pushed away those dark thoughts and changed his tone, grinning and shooting her a teasing look. “You’re so damn cute, you know that?”
Liz shot him a withering glance but still marched up to where he was relaxing on the bed. When her face got close to his, Zan reached up with one hand to touch her face. “You know, I was dreaming about you, Angel.”
“I was dreaming about you too.” The expression on Liz’s face turned mischievous for a moment.
“Oh yeah? And what was I doing in those dreams?”
“Don’t you want to know! But I’m not telling you now. We have a guest.”
Zan sighed and dropped his hand from her face, bringing it back up behind his head. Liz determinedly took her gaze away from the curve of his bicep and began moving towards the door. “I’m going out there. You make yourself presentable, Mr.” she said with mock sternness.
“Sure,” Zan replied but made no immediate movements as he watched her advance towards the door of her bedroom.
As she was opening the door, Liz suddenly jumped back with surprise as she was faced with the grinning countenance of one Kyle Valenti.
“Hey there, Parker. Surprise! I’m early.”
“Um, hi Kyle. I’m so glad to see you,” she said as she rushed into his friendly arms.
“Whoops! Sorry Liz, I didn’t realize that you weren’t alone,” Kyle said in a teasing tone in an attempt to dispel the awkwardness of the situation. “You must be the Zan that I’ve heard so much about. Nice to meet you, man.”
“What’s up?” Zan nodded in Kyle’s direction. The calm look on his face made it clear that he wasn’t the least bit embarrassed by his partially obscured nudity.
Kyle coughed and smiled teasingly at both of them. “Well, clearly being tall, dark and intergalactic is still a draw for the ladies.” He chuckled to himself as Liz blushed and punched him lightly on the arm.
“Um, Kyle, let’s just go into the kitchen and get some coffee, alright? I’m sure that Zan here will join us in a minute and you two can be properly introduced. Right, Zan?” she said as she gave Zan a look that told him in no uncertain terms to do exactly that.
“Right, right,” Kyle said as Liz shut the door and led him out through the hallway into the kitchen.
Kyle chuckled as he settled into a chair at the kitchen table. “Nice one, Parker. It’s good to see you back in the saddle, so to speak.” He cocked an eyebrow at her suggestively.
Liz grimaced before she smiled back at her friend and joined him at the table. She had put the coffee pot on and the only sound for a moment was the gurgling of the coffee maker as she hesitated before speaking. “Um, so I hope this isn’t weirding you out or anything – seeing Zan. I mean…”
“You know, it’s really not. But then he isn’t the one I’ve been nervous about meeting anyway.” Kyle’s joking exterior cracked for a moment as he looked down at where his hands rested on top of the table.”
“Oh.” Liz couldn’t figure out exactly what to say. Tess had hurt them all, but she could see how meeting her dupe would be particularly unsettling for Kyle, considering how intimate the blonde alien’s betrayal had been for him, what with the mindwarp and all.
“Hey, don’t worry about it, Parker. I’m a big boy. And I’ve had some time to prepare myself. I wouldn’t have come if I wasn’t ready. It’s just…”
“Yeah, I know,” Liz said. After a pause, she spoke up again. “Ah, Ava’s actually going to be here really soon to pick me up for breakfast. We didn’t expect you until later, you see. But just remember Kyle, she’s not anything like her. I mean, Ava’s kind of in her own classification from everyone else really.”
“So I’ve heard,” Kyle said mysteriously. How was it exactly that Michael had described her to him when they were talking on the phone last? “She’s alright dude, seriously. Kind of weird. Weird and hot. But don’t tell Maria that I said that! She’s not of this world, I tell you,” Michael had said in that matter of fact Michael way of his. To that Kyle had replied, “In case you hadn’t noticed Mikey G. you’re not ‘of this world’ yourself.” Michael had simply grunted and said, “Shut up, dude. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you meet her.”
Kyle didn’t have any more time to dwell on these thoughts as the front door opened revealing the woman in question herself. And it was true, she was unlike any female he had ever seen in his life. Her blonde curls were streaked pink and piled messily up on her head and she was wearing a black leather and lace ensemble that took his breath away. Freaky, but hot. And thankfully, he was happily surprised to find that she did not make his skin crawl the way it did every time he thought about Tess. It was true, they had the same features but something about her breezy attitude and general demeanor made it clear that this was not a woman who was trying to hide or pull any evil stunts. Kyle breathed a sigh of relief. All the same though, he couldn’t help but feel a little intimidated by this tiny little person. He looked down at his checkered button down shirt and khakis and suddenly felt incredibly square.
“Hey, Ava. This is my friend Kyle. We told you that he was coming, right?” Liz quickly spoke to counteract Kyle’s stunned silence.
“Well,” Ava started in a breathy tone that was firm for all of its softness, “You were cute in your pictures Kyle, but really I had no way to be prepared for this.” Ava winked at Liz as she spoke.
“Um, ah, nice to meet you,” Kyle said, his face growing hot. But he recovered quickly and added, “You alien girls just find me irresistible. Even Isabel and Serena. Those two are just lying to themselves.”
“Is that so?” Isabel’s voice rang out laughingly as she turned the corner and entered the kitchen. As usual, she managed to look gorgeous even first thing in the morning, her fiery hair gleaming and her skin rosy and pink. “Hey Liz, is that coffee that I smell ready? I need a pick me up. Oh and is that hot water on the stove? I need to make some tea for my girl,” she said, giving Kyle a pointed look as she spoke the last words.
“Yup, it is. You know me. I like to take care of my little family.” Liz smiled at her friend. “Hey look, Kyle, it’s your favorite nephew, all bright eyed and bushy tailed.” Liz said this last part as Zan burst into the kitchen (somewhat more dressed in an old pair of black jeans but no shirt) with little Max on his shoulders, who was laughing gleefully in his footie pajamas.
“Hey Unca Kyle, I’m flying!” the little boy said as he held his arms out in a child’s imitation of an airplane.
Liz smiled happily as she poured herself a cup of coffee and looked around the room at the wealth of friends and family all around her. She felt lucky, very lucky indeed.
part 16
Hey all, sorry about the wait. I’ve been moving so it’s a miracle that I’m getting this posted at all. Lol But I was determined to get it to y’all since I’m going on vacation for two weeks tomorrow. If any of you are wondering what Isabel and Serena are talking about in the club, it comes from one of the tags to this story, Dance With Me.
Part 16
Kyle was nursing his beer slowly on the couch as he observed with wide-eyed fascination as alien women flew about the small apartment. He had had no real idea how much commotion it took for a bunch of women to get ready to go out, having grown up with just his dad. Each time Isabel emerged from her room, she seemed to be wearing something different. Serena, as per usual, was more sedate but still he seemed to think that her long dark hair had been in at least three different styles in the last twenty minutes. Ava, however, emerged from the bathroom relatively quickly and when he got his first look at her, Kyle almost spit his beer out in surprise. She was wearing a slinky black dress that hugged her curves splendidly and tall black leather boots. Her pink streaked blonde hair was hovering around her head in an ordered chaos of curls and her eyes were smoky with an expertly applied haze of thick, black eye shadow and liner. She grinned at him and plopped down on the couch unceremoniously.
Kyle shifted uncomfortably and took a long sip of beer.
“How’s it going, handsome?” Her voice was sweet, but with a teasing edge that caught him off guard.
“Um, hi,” he said as his eyes trailed up her body quickly before searching for a safer destination. Kyle craned his neck to look in at the kitchen where a completely different scene was playing out.
Zan and Liz were in the kitchen making spaghetti with little Max at their heels. Just as Kyle looked over, he saw Zan feeding Liz a taste of red sauce. Liz’s eyes looked up at Zan adoringly and when she accidentally got some sauce on her face, she laughed hysterically as Zan kissed it away. Responding to his mother’s voice, Max ran over and hugged her knees, positioning himself between Zan and Liz and looking up at them. It was a touching scene and Kyle was happy for his friend. She had waited a long time for this kind of happy normalcy (or as normal as she was going to get with yet another alien boyfriend).
“That’s nice to see,” Kyle murmured almost under his breath.
“Ya, no kidding. Zan is way less of a pain in my ass now since Liz came along,” Ava said lightly but Kyle could tell that she was genuinely happy for them too. “It’s cool too, ‘cause she’s good enough for him, unlike some of those other chickies along the way. She might be too good for him. I dunno.”
“I forgot. You two got along way back in the day when you came to Roswell, didn’t you?” Kyle was starting to find this talking thing easier.
“She was the first person besides Zan who was ever nice to me,” Ava said quietly. The soft tone in her voice was an obvious change from her usual cheeky tone.
Kyle looked into her eyes for the first time since she sat down with him and was amazed at the combination of strength and vulnerability that he saw there. She held his gaze for a second or two but then abruptly switched gears and remarked,
“Geez, when do you think those girls are going to be ready to go out already?” She laughed then and it was music to Kyle’s ears. What in the hey is going on here? Kyle thought to himself. And what am I getting myself into going out to a club with all of these women?
“Heck, I dunno. I’m no expert on this shit. Hey, Zanny boy, are you sure you don’t want to help a brother out and come with us?”
Zan looked up from where he had been concentrating on watching Liz stir the pasta. “Nah dude, you’re on your own there. I have plans. What? You afraid you can’t keep up with the ladies? ‘Cause you should probably just accept that you can’t, and get on with it and it’ll be just fine.”
Kyle sighed and shook his head in mock frustration.
“Don’t worry, Kyle. You’re in for the night of your life. I promise,” Ava said as she smiled at him slyly.
Kyle gulped. Woah boy, he was in for it now.
********************
Liz was in the bath, luxuriating in a tub full of bubbles. Zan knew that she had been working really hard at her studies and that she was tired so he had all but forced her into the bathroom and told her that he would take care of putting Max to bed.
Prior to the last few months, Zan had never really spent very much time around children. Hell, he hadn’t even known any children before really. So he had been amazed at how easy it had been for him to strike up an easy rapport with Liz’s little son. Zan wasn’t sure, but he also guessed that Max was an unusually smart and sociable little boy compared to other kids his age. Which made it easier. Plus, there was of course the unique and well, life altering situation through which they had met – in their dreams in the course of saving the kid’s life.
It was a good thing that Max was so perceptive, Zan thought to himself, considering the heavy weight that had been dumped on him at the tender age of “almost five.” Hey buddy, you’re part alien, you have all these crazy powers and you can’t tell anyone, OK?
But the little guy had dealt with it amazingly well and they were making some great progress working on his powers. Just little stuff like changing the colors of his stuffed animals and what have you. But it was a start. In addition to being unusually well adjusted, little Max was also quite curious about the world around him, and more than a wee bit rambunctious at times. Zan had been happy to put the kid to bed for Liz’s sake, but he had to admit that he had been a little worried that Max would be in one of his “bouncy” moods and would be hard to put down.
But the dark haired child with eyes eerily like his own was being remarkably quiet as Zan took him through the rituals of getting his pajamas on and climbing into bed. Max had insisted on getting sheets with space ships on them and seemed blissfully unaware of the irony involved. When the little boy was safely ensconced beneath the sheets with his head on the pillow, Zan sat down on the bed next to him.
“You did some really good learning today, little man. Your mom’s real proud of you, you know that, right?”
Max nodded as he pulled up the sheets with his little hands so that the covers came up closer to his chin.
“I’m proud of you too,” Zan said in a slightly softer tone.
“Were you learnin’ bout the same stuff that I am when you were my age?” Max asked, scrunching his nose up into an adorably inquisitive expression. He looked so much like his mother at that moment. Zan had seen the same look on Liz’s face countless times when she was sitting at the kitchen counter with her biology books.
“Well, technically I never was your age…” Zan started, not sure how to proceed for fear that he would just confuse the little guy.
“’Cause you came out of a pod just like Aunt Izzie and Uncle Michael and…and my father,” Max finished for him. He said that last part very quietly, as if he were unsure whether or not he should.
“Yup, that’s exactly it. Man, you really can’t pull one by on Maxwell Parker-Evans, now can you?” Zan said as he ruffled Max’s hair affectionately.
“Are you in love with my mom?” The question came out of left field for Zan. He coughed suddenly and was on the verge of stuttering when he looked into the child’s clear amber eyes and knew that there was no point in beating around the bush. And it was important to him to be straight with the kid…after all, he sure hoped that he’d be around for awhile, providing Liz didn’t get sick of him.
“Yeah,” Zan’s voice went to a lower register, infused with emotion, “Yeah Max, I am.”
After he finished speaking, Zan found himself holding his breath, waiting for Max’s reply. He hadn’t realized until that moment how important it was to him that this all be OK with Max. The last thing he wanted to do was mess up the most important thing in Liz’s life.
Zan didn’t have to wait long before Max’s little face lit up into a smile. “Good. ‘Cause she loves you too. I heard her talking to Aunt Isabel the other night in the kitchen when they thought I was sleepin’.” The expression on Max’s face had gone from jubilant to very serious. Clearly, he knew that this was important stuff.
Zan could hardly contain the feelings of pure and unadulterated joy that flowed through him at that moment. He felt dazed. He had come so close to telling Liz that he loved her so many times, but always just as he was about to just come out with it, something deep inside of him had stopped him. He had never felt this way before, much less freakin’ out and told someone about it. And until this moment he hadn’t been ready to admit even to himself that he feared that maybe she didn’t feel the exact same way about him. Which was stupid he knew, considering the fact that she gave him no reason to doubt that she cared about him. It was just…
The sound of Max’s childish voice (he was just getting over his lisp) interrupted Zan’s thoughts. “Does that mean that you’re gonna to be my dad now?” His eyes were wide and staring directly at Zan’s face.
Zan swallowed. “Um, well Max, although you never got to meet your dad, he did love you. I know this because he sent me to look after you and your mom. See, the thing is, I don’t wanna take away from that. But I love your mom and I love you.” Zan couldn’t believe it – he wasn’t sure if he had ever used the word “love” so many times in one breath in his entire life. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ll be here as long as you guys want me around.”
“OK,” Max said, seeming satisfied with this answer. Zan breathed a silent sigh of relief. He hadn’t been quite sure what to say.
“Will you keep teaching me how to use my powers?”
“Yeah, of course I will.”
“And will you teach me how to ride a motorcycle?” Max added slyly.
Zan gulped. “Ah, that one you’re going to have to take up with your mom a really long time from now.”
“Well, can we go to Central Park an’ look at the birds and stuff?”
“Sure thing. You bet.”
“OK,” Max said as he opened his little mouth wide to yawn.
Zan stood up then and reached over to turn on the night light on the other side of the bed.
“Sleep tight, little dude. I’ll see ya in the morning. Your mom and I are right across the hall if ya need anything.”
But the kid was already asleep. Zan moved as quietly as he could in his steel toed boots towards the door, leaving it open a crack as he walked into the hallway.
He practically ran into Liz standing in the hallway in her towel with obvious tears welling up in her eyes.
“I love you so much, Zan,” she said and flung her arms around him, almost losing her towel in the process.
She ran her hand over the stubble on his face and when she looked into his eyes, Zan felt sure that his heart would stop right there.
But it kept beating, churning out the love that he felt for this petite little woman who had taken his life by storm.
“I love you too, Liz,” he said simply. And once he had said it, Zan felt clean - open in a way that he never had before in his years alone and on the street.
********************
From where Serena sat at the table with Kyle, she had a perfect view of where Isabel was out on the dance floor with Ava. They were clearly having a great time, dancing to a fast song with great abandon. As they gyrated and spun about, it was like a fast moving tornado of blonde, pink and red hair.
Serena took the tiny bar straw between her lips and sipped her Fuzzy Navel contentedly; she was happy just watching Isabel in that moment. Sometimes she liked being able to watch her beautiful girlfriend from a close distance, reveling in how gorgeous and full of life Isabel was, all the while knowing that she was the lucky person that got to go home with her.
She sipped her cocktail and focused her attention on Isabel, trying to ignore the strange whispers in the back of her mind. It was probably nothing and it was so faint but there was something about it that was…familiar somehow. Her nightmares about Antar had almost completely gone away since she had finally come clean with Isabel but still it was possible that this was some kind of relapse. She shook her head and it was gone so she went back to staring at Isabel’s dancing body, her green eyes turning dreamy and slightly glazed over.
“She’s something else, isn’t she?” Kyle’s voice interrupted Serena’s private love cloud.
“Yeah, Isabel really is something,” Serena sighed and toyed with the ice in her glass.
“Oh…yeah…Isabel’s great,” Kyle said, sounding flustered.
Serena smiled to herself.
“Yes well, as I always say, hybrid girls are hotties.” She giggled to herself and snuck a pointed look in Kyle’s direction. The peach schnapps must’ve gone to her head a bit – it was making her bold.
Kyle crooked an eyebrow at her, surprised at her flippant comment. He’d met Serena a few times since she and Isabel had started dating, but this was the first time since her own alien status had been revealed. She definitely seemed to have loosened up, he decided.
At that moment, the pulsing beat of the music stopped and a slower song came through the speakers. Isabel came racing over, followed by Ava. When she reached the table, Isabel grabbed Serena by the hand and pulled her up.
“Dance with me, you gorgeous creature,” she said and pulled Serena in close.
“Well, with a line like that, how could I refuse?” Serena replied and followed Isabel’s lead.
Ava tapped her heel against the hard floor and looked at Kyle with a twinkle in her eye. “How ‘bout it, Roswell, wanna dance?”
“Mmmm, that might not be good for the continuation of your species. I suck at dancing,” Kyle replied glibly but a hint of hesitancy could be heard in his voice.
It was almost unfair really, the way that she could read people’s desires, Ava thought. And this boy definitely wanted to be close to her - she probably wouldn’t even need her alien mojo to know that. And there was something about him…
“Yeah, whatever. Get off your ass,” she said and grinned as she grabbed his shirt collar with both of her hands and pulled.
Isabel watched this exchange over Serena’s shoulder as they swayed together across the floor. “Ut oh, looks like Kyle doesn’t know what hit him,” she said suddenly.
Serena turned to look also. “Well, something tells me he won’t be complaining,” she replied. “Ava’s well, Ava’s…”
Isabel smirked. “Should I be jealous?”
Serena looked concerned though her orangey peach haze. “Oh sweetheart, no. She’s beautiful but not like you. No one is like you…”
Isabel stopped her with a kiss, slow and sweet. She licked her lips when she pulled away. “It’s OK, love. I know you only have eyes for me.”
Serena rolled her eyes and Isabel laughed and pulled her in tighter, softly fingering her lover’s soft black tresses as they moved together in circles across the dance floor.
“Mmmm, you smell sweet. Like you did when I first took you here. Do you remember that?” Isabel had a devilish gleam in her eye as she spoke.
Serena blushed. “How could I possibly forget?” she replied vocally. As she stared into her lover’s eyes though, Serena made a connection and proceeded to send her Isabel flashes of their bathroom love-capades.
Bodies flush up against the wall. Pounding hearts and wandering hands. Tongues exploring…
“Ah, that is so unfair, lover girl. Now all I want to do is take you home and have my way with you but we have to entertain Kyle.” Isabel shivered deliciously at the erotic memories saturating her mind.
“Hmmmm, Kyle looks pretty entertained to me,” Serena said as she leaned in closer and surreptitiously kissed Isabel’s neck just below her ear.
Ava was surprised at how much she was enjoying herself. Dancing was what she did for a living after all but this was totally different. She was with friends, real friends who knew what she was and either were just the same or didn’t care at all.
This Kyle boy was like no other man she had ever met. There was something about his energy that was so refreshingly different than most of the other men she met. Granted, most of the men she met were paying her to shake her ass in their faces, but still.
Even the arty boys she played with here and there never seemed to really want her for her. Either they weren’t really so different than the customers in the club and were just pretending to be all sensitive, or else they wanted to hang out with her for the novelty of sleeping with a stripper. But Kyle, despite his penchant for telling jokes when nervous (although he seemed to do it when he wasn’t nervous as well), seemed to be a pretty straight shooter. Ava could taste his attraction to her and it was delicious, unadulterated and for the first time, she could feel that it wasn’t just for her body – Kyle seemed to be generally attracted to her attitude as well. The only other man that she knew genuinely appreciated her for her was Zan, and well, they were great friends and all, but Ava had realized a long time ago that that was it.
So this was…nice. To be wanted by someone who seemed to actually like her as well.
Ava decided that it would be fun to see where this went but somehow she knew that she wanted to do this differently this time.
So instead of taking him home to her bedroom, she took him to get midnight pancakes, letting Serena and Isabel go home together like it was SO obvious that they wanted to. And when they came to the front door of Liz and Isabel’s apartment, she gave him a kiss on the cheek and was gratified by the slow smile that crossed his face.
“Wanna come play with me tomorrow?” she said with a coy flutter of the eyelashes.
“Hell, yes!” Kyle exclaimed and she laughed, twirling around and bounding down the steps to hail a cab.
Kyle watched her as she bounced off in that crazy, fancy-free way that she had. He rubbed his eyes. What a woman. He stood there for a minute after her cab drove off and then turned on his heel and opened the door.
Kyle was greeted by the sight of Serena and Zan huddled together in the living room, looking serious.
God damn it! Just when this alien stuff was finally going his way for once.
TBC…
Please don’t kill me for the cliffhanger. I debated whether or not to leave y’all hanging like this when I looked at my outline and realized that this part was what was coming up. But I figured you’d rather have something than nothing, right?
Part 16
Kyle was nursing his beer slowly on the couch as he observed with wide-eyed fascination as alien women flew about the small apartment. He had had no real idea how much commotion it took for a bunch of women to get ready to go out, having grown up with just his dad. Each time Isabel emerged from her room, she seemed to be wearing something different. Serena, as per usual, was more sedate but still he seemed to think that her long dark hair had been in at least three different styles in the last twenty minutes. Ava, however, emerged from the bathroom relatively quickly and when he got his first look at her, Kyle almost spit his beer out in surprise. She was wearing a slinky black dress that hugged her curves splendidly and tall black leather boots. Her pink streaked blonde hair was hovering around her head in an ordered chaos of curls and her eyes were smoky with an expertly applied haze of thick, black eye shadow and liner. She grinned at him and plopped down on the couch unceremoniously.
Kyle shifted uncomfortably and took a long sip of beer.
“How’s it going, handsome?” Her voice was sweet, but with a teasing edge that caught him off guard.
“Um, hi,” he said as his eyes trailed up her body quickly before searching for a safer destination. Kyle craned his neck to look in at the kitchen where a completely different scene was playing out.
Zan and Liz were in the kitchen making spaghetti with little Max at their heels. Just as Kyle looked over, he saw Zan feeding Liz a taste of red sauce. Liz’s eyes looked up at Zan adoringly and when she accidentally got some sauce on her face, she laughed hysterically as Zan kissed it away. Responding to his mother’s voice, Max ran over and hugged her knees, positioning himself between Zan and Liz and looking up at them. It was a touching scene and Kyle was happy for his friend. She had waited a long time for this kind of happy normalcy (or as normal as she was going to get with yet another alien boyfriend).
“That’s nice to see,” Kyle murmured almost under his breath.
“Ya, no kidding. Zan is way less of a pain in my ass now since Liz came along,” Ava said lightly but Kyle could tell that she was genuinely happy for them too. “It’s cool too, ‘cause she’s good enough for him, unlike some of those other chickies along the way. She might be too good for him. I dunno.”
“I forgot. You two got along way back in the day when you came to Roswell, didn’t you?” Kyle was starting to find this talking thing easier.
“She was the first person besides Zan who was ever nice to me,” Ava said quietly. The soft tone in her voice was an obvious change from her usual cheeky tone.
Kyle looked into her eyes for the first time since she sat down with him and was amazed at the combination of strength and vulnerability that he saw there. She held his gaze for a second or two but then abruptly switched gears and remarked,
“Geez, when do you think those girls are going to be ready to go out already?” She laughed then and it was music to Kyle’s ears. What in the hey is going on here? Kyle thought to himself. And what am I getting myself into going out to a club with all of these women?
“Heck, I dunno. I’m no expert on this shit. Hey, Zanny boy, are you sure you don’t want to help a brother out and come with us?”
Zan looked up from where he had been concentrating on watching Liz stir the pasta. “Nah dude, you’re on your own there. I have plans. What? You afraid you can’t keep up with the ladies? ‘Cause you should probably just accept that you can’t, and get on with it and it’ll be just fine.”
Kyle sighed and shook his head in mock frustration.
“Don’t worry, Kyle. You’re in for the night of your life. I promise,” Ava said as she smiled at him slyly.
Kyle gulped. Woah boy, he was in for it now.
********************
Liz was in the bath, luxuriating in a tub full of bubbles. Zan knew that she had been working really hard at her studies and that she was tired so he had all but forced her into the bathroom and told her that he would take care of putting Max to bed.
Prior to the last few months, Zan had never really spent very much time around children. Hell, he hadn’t even known any children before really. So he had been amazed at how easy it had been for him to strike up an easy rapport with Liz’s little son. Zan wasn’t sure, but he also guessed that Max was an unusually smart and sociable little boy compared to other kids his age. Which made it easier. Plus, there was of course the unique and well, life altering situation through which they had met – in their dreams in the course of saving the kid’s life.
It was a good thing that Max was so perceptive, Zan thought to himself, considering the heavy weight that had been dumped on him at the tender age of “almost five.” Hey buddy, you’re part alien, you have all these crazy powers and you can’t tell anyone, OK?
But the little guy had dealt with it amazingly well and they were making some great progress working on his powers. Just little stuff like changing the colors of his stuffed animals and what have you. But it was a start. In addition to being unusually well adjusted, little Max was also quite curious about the world around him, and more than a wee bit rambunctious at times. Zan had been happy to put the kid to bed for Liz’s sake, but he had to admit that he had been a little worried that Max would be in one of his “bouncy” moods and would be hard to put down.
But the dark haired child with eyes eerily like his own was being remarkably quiet as Zan took him through the rituals of getting his pajamas on and climbing into bed. Max had insisted on getting sheets with space ships on them and seemed blissfully unaware of the irony involved. When the little boy was safely ensconced beneath the sheets with his head on the pillow, Zan sat down on the bed next to him.
“You did some really good learning today, little man. Your mom’s real proud of you, you know that, right?”
Max nodded as he pulled up the sheets with his little hands so that the covers came up closer to his chin.
“I’m proud of you too,” Zan said in a slightly softer tone.
“Were you learnin’ bout the same stuff that I am when you were my age?” Max asked, scrunching his nose up into an adorably inquisitive expression. He looked so much like his mother at that moment. Zan had seen the same look on Liz’s face countless times when she was sitting at the kitchen counter with her biology books.
“Well, technically I never was your age…” Zan started, not sure how to proceed for fear that he would just confuse the little guy.
“’Cause you came out of a pod just like Aunt Izzie and Uncle Michael and…and my father,” Max finished for him. He said that last part very quietly, as if he were unsure whether or not he should.
“Yup, that’s exactly it. Man, you really can’t pull one by on Maxwell Parker-Evans, now can you?” Zan said as he ruffled Max’s hair affectionately.
“Are you in love with my mom?” The question came out of left field for Zan. He coughed suddenly and was on the verge of stuttering when he looked into the child’s clear amber eyes and knew that there was no point in beating around the bush. And it was important to him to be straight with the kid…after all, he sure hoped that he’d be around for awhile, providing Liz didn’t get sick of him.
“Yeah,” Zan’s voice went to a lower register, infused with emotion, “Yeah Max, I am.”
After he finished speaking, Zan found himself holding his breath, waiting for Max’s reply. He hadn’t realized until that moment how important it was to him that this all be OK with Max. The last thing he wanted to do was mess up the most important thing in Liz’s life.
Zan didn’t have to wait long before Max’s little face lit up into a smile. “Good. ‘Cause she loves you too. I heard her talking to Aunt Isabel the other night in the kitchen when they thought I was sleepin’.” The expression on Max’s face had gone from jubilant to very serious. Clearly, he knew that this was important stuff.
Zan could hardly contain the feelings of pure and unadulterated joy that flowed through him at that moment. He felt dazed. He had come so close to telling Liz that he loved her so many times, but always just as he was about to just come out with it, something deep inside of him had stopped him. He had never felt this way before, much less freakin’ out and told someone about it. And until this moment he hadn’t been ready to admit even to himself that he feared that maybe she didn’t feel the exact same way about him. Which was stupid he knew, considering the fact that she gave him no reason to doubt that she cared about him. It was just…
The sound of Max’s childish voice (he was just getting over his lisp) interrupted Zan’s thoughts. “Does that mean that you’re gonna to be my dad now?” His eyes were wide and staring directly at Zan’s face.
Zan swallowed. “Um, well Max, although you never got to meet your dad, he did love you. I know this because he sent me to look after you and your mom. See, the thing is, I don’t wanna take away from that. But I love your mom and I love you.” Zan couldn’t believe it – he wasn’t sure if he had ever used the word “love” so many times in one breath in his entire life. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ll be here as long as you guys want me around.”
“OK,” Max said, seeming satisfied with this answer. Zan breathed a silent sigh of relief. He hadn’t been quite sure what to say.
“Will you keep teaching me how to use my powers?”
“Yeah, of course I will.”
“And will you teach me how to ride a motorcycle?” Max added slyly.
Zan gulped. “Ah, that one you’re going to have to take up with your mom a really long time from now.”
“Well, can we go to Central Park an’ look at the birds and stuff?”
“Sure thing. You bet.”
“OK,” Max said as he opened his little mouth wide to yawn.
Zan stood up then and reached over to turn on the night light on the other side of the bed.
“Sleep tight, little dude. I’ll see ya in the morning. Your mom and I are right across the hall if ya need anything.”
But the kid was already asleep. Zan moved as quietly as he could in his steel toed boots towards the door, leaving it open a crack as he walked into the hallway.
He practically ran into Liz standing in the hallway in her towel with obvious tears welling up in her eyes.
“I love you so much, Zan,” she said and flung her arms around him, almost losing her towel in the process.
She ran her hand over the stubble on his face and when she looked into his eyes, Zan felt sure that his heart would stop right there.
But it kept beating, churning out the love that he felt for this petite little woman who had taken his life by storm.
“I love you too, Liz,” he said simply. And once he had said it, Zan felt clean - open in a way that he never had before in his years alone and on the street.
********************
From where Serena sat at the table with Kyle, she had a perfect view of where Isabel was out on the dance floor with Ava. They were clearly having a great time, dancing to a fast song with great abandon. As they gyrated and spun about, it was like a fast moving tornado of blonde, pink and red hair.
Serena took the tiny bar straw between her lips and sipped her Fuzzy Navel contentedly; she was happy just watching Isabel in that moment. Sometimes she liked being able to watch her beautiful girlfriend from a close distance, reveling in how gorgeous and full of life Isabel was, all the while knowing that she was the lucky person that got to go home with her.
She sipped her cocktail and focused her attention on Isabel, trying to ignore the strange whispers in the back of her mind. It was probably nothing and it was so faint but there was something about it that was…familiar somehow. Her nightmares about Antar had almost completely gone away since she had finally come clean with Isabel but still it was possible that this was some kind of relapse. She shook her head and it was gone so she went back to staring at Isabel’s dancing body, her green eyes turning dreamy and slightly glazed over.
“She’s something else, isn’t she?” Kyle’s voice interrupted Serena’s private love cloud.
“Yeah, Isabel really is something,” Serena sighed and toyed with the ice in her glass.
“Oh…yeah…Isabel’s great,” Kyle said, sounding flustered.
Serena smiled to herself.
“Yes well, as I always say, hybrid girls are hotties.” She giggled to herself and snuck a pointed look in Kyle’s direction. The peach schnapps must’ve gone to her head a bit – it was making her bold.
Kyle crooked an eyebrow at her, surprised at her flippant comment. He’d met Serena a few times since she and Isabel had started dating, but this was the first time since her own alien status had been revealed. She definitely seemed to have loosened up, he decided.
At that moment, the pulsing beat of the music stopped and a slower song came through the speakers. Isabel came racing over, followed by Ava. When she reached the table, Isabel grabbed Serena by the hand and pulled her up.
“Dance with me, you gorgeous creature,” she said and pulled Serena in close.
“Well, with a line like that, how could I refuse?” Serena replied and followed Isabel’s lead.
Ava tapped her heel against the hard floor and looked at Kyle with a twinkle in her eye. “How ‘bout it, Roswell, wanna dance?”
“Mmmm, that might not be good for the continuation of your species. I suck at dancing,” Kyle replied glibly but a hint of hesitancy could be heard in his voice.
It was almost unfair really, the way that she could read people’s desires, Ava thought. And this boy definitely wanted to be close to her - she probably wouldn’t even need her alien mojo to know that. And there was something about him…
“Yeah, whatever. Get off your ass,” she said and grinned as she grabbed his shirt collar with both of her hands and pulled.
Isabel watched this exchange over Serena’s shoulder as they swayed together across the floor. “Ut oh, looks like Kyle doesn’t know what hit him,” she said suddenly.
Serena turned to look also. “Well, something tells me he won’t be complaining,” she replied. “Ava’s well, Ava’s…”
Isabel smirked. “Should I be jealous?”
Serena looked concerned though her orangey peach haze. “Oh sweetheart, no. She’s beautiful but not like you. No one is like you…”
Isabel stopped her with a kiss, slow and sweet. She licked her lips when she pulled away. “It’s OK, love. I know you only have eyes for me.”
Serena rolled her eyes and Isabel laughed and pulled her in tighter, softly fingering her lover’s soft black tresses as they moved together in circles across the dance floor.
“Mmmm, you smell sweet. Like you did when I first took you here. Do you remember that?” Isabel had a devilish gleam in her eye as she spoke.
Serena blushed. “How could I possibly forget?” she replied vocally. As she stared into her lover’s eyes though, Serena made a connection and proceeded to send her Isabel flashes of their bathroom love-capades.
Bodies flush up against the wall. Pounding hearts and wandering hands. Tongues exploring…
“Ah, that is so unfair, lover girl. Now all I want to do is take you home and have my way with you but we have to entertain Kyle.” Isabel shivered deliciously at the erotic memories saturating her mind.
“Hmmmm, Kyle looks pretty entertained to me,” Serena said as she leaned in closer and surreptitiously kissed Isabel’s neck just below her ear.
Ava was surprised at how much she was enjoying herself. Dancing was what she did for a living after all but this was totally different. She was with friends, real friends who knew what she was and either were just the same or didn’t care at all.
This Kyle boy was like no other man she had ever met. There was something about his energy that was so refreshingly different than most of the other men she met. Granted, most of the men she met were paying her to shake her ass in their faces, but still.
Even the arty boys she played with here and there never seemed to really want her for her. Either they weren’t really so different than the customers in the club and were just pretending to be all sensitive, or else they wanted to hang out with her for the novelty of sleeping with a stripper. But Kyle, despite his penchant for telling jokes when nervous (although he seemed to do it when he wasn’t nervous as well), seemed to be a pretty straight shooter. Ava could taste his attraction to her and it was delicious, unadulterated and for the first time, she could feel that it wasn’t just for her body – Kyle seemed to be generally attracted to her attitude as well. The only other man that she knew genuinely appreciated her for her was Zan, and well, they were great friends and all, but Ava had realized a long time ago that that was it.
So this was…nice. To be wanted by someone who seemed to actually like her as well.
Ava decided that it would be fun to see where this went but somehow she knew that she wanted to do this differently this time.
So instead of taking him home to her bedroom, she took him to get midnight pancakes, letting Serena and Isabel go home together like it was SO obvious that they wanted to. And when they came to the front door of Liz and Isabel’s apartment, she gave him a kiss on the cheek and was gratified by the slow smile that crossed his face.
“Wanna come play with me tomorrow?” she said with a coy flutter of the eyelashes.
“Hell, yes!” Kyle exclaimed and she laughed, twirling around and bounding down the steps to hail a cab.
Kyle watched her as she bounced off in that crazy, fancy-free way that she had. He rubbed his eyes. What a woman. He stood there for a minute after her cab drove off and then turned on his heel and opened the door.
Kyle was greeted by the sight of Serena and Zan huddled together in the living room, looking serious.
God damn it! Just when this alien stuff was finally going his way for once.
TBC…
Please don’t kill me for the cliffhanger. I debated whether or not to leave y’all hanging like this when I looked at my outline and realized that this part was what was coming up. But I figured you’d rather have something than nothing, right?
Last edited by femmenerd on Thu Jun 02, 2005 10:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.