On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 65 - Completed: 12/18/2019

This is the place to post all your General Roswell fanfiction. Any Canon fics, which pick up directly from any episode of the show and that focus on Max/Liz, Michael/Maria, Isabel/Alex or Isabel/Jesse, Kyle/Tess, or all the couples together! Rule of Thumb: If Max healed Liz in the Crashdown in September 1999, then your fic belongs here. If it picks up from the show in any way, it belongs here.

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RoswellFan68
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Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 53 - 11/05/2019

Post by RoswellFan68 »

My question is whether Beth will be sleeping in Max's bed. I wonder how Grace will feel about that.
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On the Razor's Edge - Chapter 54 - 11/10/2019

Post by Parker1947 »

She wanted to kick something. She wanted to burn down the world. She wanted to scream and shout and cry until there were no more tears. I guess I already did the shouting and the crying Maria mused bitterly in the backyard of the house. She had stormed out of her house in a fit of rage over how badly it had all gone, and yet she ended up going nowhere but her backyard and she seriously wanted to kill someone. So, she kicked the trash can and made a big racket, and then she yelled some more… What is this hell? Why did we deserve this…? The hell with this goddamn world! She shouted into the darkening skies.

“Feel better,” she heard, and it was distinctly familiar voice. She whipped around and saw Beth staring at her.

“Beth?” Maria asked as she instantly called back to their childhood when life seemed so innocent, and so easy as she didn’t want to be in this kind of world which would take out revenge on them, and use their daughter, who was innocent in all this…

“I guess you were filled with so much anger at the world that you didn’t see me arrive with Max” Beth asked as she saw a calmed down woman and yet she still was on edge and ready to hate the world for putting her in this position.

“I guess my anger got the best of me and I laid it on the one person who actually has been there for me other than my husband,” Maria sighed. “Max has given the world for us over the years and he doesn’t deserve my outburst, but I can’t help but feel angry and it all spilled out… and unfortunately Max was the brunt of it.”

“Because you fell someone who was…”

“Different,” Maria sighed with the knowledge they were outside, and the world had ears. “I do know that inside Max did want to quiet me with a ‘I told you so’ because he did tell me back when we were kids to be careful of what I was expecting and of course he told you the same thing too, that if things started than if it went wrong…”

“He did?” Beth asked.

“Yeah, he warned you that getting involved with him was just asking for trouble… especially if it went wrong. With Michael, I should have known, and I did know but I loved him anyways and was determined to make a life with him” she muttered. “To have his children”

“You didn’t ask for this…” Beth asked. “You didn’t ask for your daughter to be kidnapped by mad man bent on revenge against your husband.

“No, I didn’t” Maria agreed. “But I knew Max, Michael and Isabel had enemies. I certainty saw them in high school. But no, I didn’t think they would lash out on the kids. We’re adults, we can handle if they come after us. But to go after the next generation, our children….”

“It makes our hearts bleed if our kids get hurt and we can’t help them, which is why they go after the kids,” Beth sighed.

“You got that right” Maria sighed. “She’s in trouble Beth,” she whispered. “Isabel and Max aren’t telling me what they have seen in Isabel’s dreams or the rare vision Max is known to have but I know it’s brutal just by what I saw up in that cabin. She’s my daughter and I don’t know the child I will get back if I do get that lucky because we all know once they are finished with whatever they are doing to her, that she will be expendable.”

“You don’t know that…” Beth asked.

“I do know that…” Maria thought back to Max’s own experience. “Max experienced something like this, and it was only hours before we got him free but for Elizabeth’s its been far longer, and I suspect it will be worse for what they want to do with her…” she sighed. “Still, it took Max a long time for him to get over what they did to him, but my daughter is more fragile than Max was…”

“Something tells me she’s pretty strong and will make it through it” Beth encouraged. “No matter what they might do.”

“I want to believe that,” Maria sighed as she thought of her little girl who was such a bright light, and the inquisitive the battler that she was as a teenager and she worried that girl will be lost by the end of this, and she would never get her back. “I really do want to believe that, but something tells me that it won’t be so simple.”

“She’ll come home,” Beth insisted.

“I hope so,” Maria sighed. “This isn’t what I was expecting when I fell for Michael. Of course, I didn’t know I would ever settle down with him given the rough around the collar type of guy he was, but I never imagined the danger to be at these lengths and that is even going through what we had to go through back in high school.”

“We never know. The future is unpredictable,” Beth sighed.

“I hope to god that she has a future,” Maria sighed as she realized she was sufficiently calmed down. “I just pray they don’t win with whatever their grand plan is…” she asked as they walked back into the house just as Jake walked back into the house and saw the firing squad and she froze.

“Oh goody,” Maria murmured as she broke the moment but didn’t stop to yell at her son because she knew she didn’t have the energy, so she instead walked back upstairs and stayed there for the rest of the visit by Max and Beth.

“Is my daughter at home?” was all Max was saying to Jake as Jake’s eyes went wide when he saw Beth.

“On her way,” Jake allowed to the weariness of Max’s glance.

“Good…” Max said as he didn’t ask anything more of his god-son as he turned to his best friend “Good night Michael, if you find out anything more please call us. Otherwise I’ll check in tomorrow.”

“I will” Michael sighed as he accepted the hug from Beth as he said quietly “Thank you for being there for my wife.”

“All she needed was to blow off some steam,” Beth said carefully as he looked at Jake who looked down at the floor. “Sometimes we just want to yell at the world. I’m here for a few more days, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing you.”

Michael nodded and watched them walk away…

Shutting the door, he turned his son who desperately wanted to be upstairs in his bedroom away from the judgemental expression on his father’s face.

“Dad!” Jake sighed as he wanted someone anyone to come in and bust this little gathering. “Any news?

“Inside,” all Michael said to the living room and they walked in and Michael closed the doors behind him as he taunted his son. “Really Jake, really?” as the weight of the endless hours caught up into him as he stared at his son, so close to being a adult and here he was fearing the worst about his little girl, and now facing a son who was trying to grow up way too fast…

“Look…” Jake tried.

“No, you look,” Michael muttered as he sat on the edge of his own cliff. “Your sister is missing and from the little we do know about the horror she’s enduring is pretty simple Jake. She’s going through hell and your mother is a split second away from a massive breakdown due to the stress of all this, and I’m currently doing everything possible in keeping that stress to a minimum so she doesn’t need anything more being added to it when it comes to you.”

“It’s my life,” Jake muttered as he knew on one level his father was right, but then he needed Grace right now, and he didn’t want to have to defend himself. “We were blowing off some steam” he tried to the outrage but amusement of his father over his choice of words. “Dad…”

“God Jake…” Michael muttered Kids, God damn kids he cursed as he could only shake his head. “Yes, I know you are eighteen and you do have a right to some leeway, but you only have a tiny bit of it because look Jake at what this family is being forced to endure. We don’t need anymore being added to it, okay?” Michael sighed as he felt weighed down by the intensity of the cruelty that was being shown to their family. “Do you get me?”

“Yes,” Jake muttered.

“While you do have a right to your life” Michael muttered. “But Jake going there with Grace right now only adds to the complications in this family right now, and that isn’t something we need.”

“Grace and I are spending time together Dad, and it’s nothing more than that” Jake muttered. “She isn’t looking at anything intense, and I am not either… we have enough of that in our daily lives.”

“Jake, we all know where you were and what you were doing so don’t even try to snow me okay” Michael asked as he felt a migraine come on. “As I said, we know where you were, and how long you were there and sex is never not intense, especially if there are real feelings involved. It was the same for your mother and me, and I am sure it will be for you and Grace. When sex is in the equation, it changes everything whether it’s intended to or not, and therefore it makes me worry for the both of you, and I don’t need that worry right now when we don’t know where your sister is”

“Yeah,” Jake murmured.

“Then for god sakes be careful…” Michael sighed. “I know you are eighteen, and you do have a right to your own life but this battle we’re facing is destroying everything and the waves are swamping everything we hold deal… Jake, we’re on the edge of a wipeout if we’re not careful…”

“Dad you don’t have to say it, because I feel it. Grace and I want to spend time together because we feel guilty alright. If only Saturday night hadn’t happened, and we had been with Elizabeth and Finn then she would be home right now… and because we weren’t, then she isn’t. So, we feel guilty”

“Jesus Christ” Michael mused out loud. “And if I didn’t spend so much time outside that hotel following Nicholas and if instead I chose to confront him earlier and then I would have been in that hotel way earlier and may have stopped them from taking your sister or they might have done the kidnapping even earlier, we don’t know and the same with your mother. She wishes she was home and instead of out at that gala when your sister left for the dance. She didn’t get the chance to say good-bye because she was busy with the manuscript all day and your sister was your sister and getting ready. We all have something to regret, and it doesn’t change the fact it might not have done anyone any favors if you had been down there.”

“You don’t know that…” Jake sighed.

“No, but we both know they wanted Grace and if they had a chance they would have grabbed her as well as your sister, and they might have been any kinder than they were Finn or maybe worse because you would have fought like hell for both Grace and Elizabeth. If that were to have happened, then we could be sitting on a very different scenario. Do I wish you were with your sister in a limousine on the way home that night instead of a hotel room with Grace, yes, but you weren’t, and we all have to live with all the guilt we feel…?”

Jake nodded as he could feel the blame coming from his father, despite not saying the words, and saying all the right things and hearing If only you had been with Elizabeth, he muttered to himself.

“Grace is a very special girl,” Michael sighed as he thought of the complexities of their situation. “So, I am pleading with you to be careful Jake… If it goes bad…”

“I know, I know” Jake sighed because he saw the guilt on his father’s face because of his own feelings for his wife. A woman who was his soulmate and the only woman he could ever love. And the knowledge that the fantasy he had built over 18 years of his marriage with Maria was slipping away over from him because of who he was… If only Maria had taken Jake and met someone normal. Then I wouldn’t be on the edge of losing everything I hold dear…

“Then go upstairs and work on your last of your homework” Michael advised as he came back to reality and could only glance at the son who began this life that he had been able to share with his wife, and how it was crumbling. “And try studying for some finals will you. I know they gave the school an extension, but you are about to graduate.”

Jake nodded and walked into the kitchen as Michael deeply sighed when his mother-in-law came in the living room with a non-judgemental look on her face. The pain was intense within her, and she cried for her daughter and for her granddaughter “The kids are all settled in their rooms. Maria doesn’t want to come down.”

“I figured,” Michael nodded. “Thank you for all you’ve done Amy.”

“She’s my granddaughter, and this is my family. I will do anything to help my daughter” Amy said as her phone rang as she answered. “It’s Jim.”

Michael nodded as he listened as Amy turned. “He tried the home line” she asked of her son-in-law.

“Maria took the phone off the hook. You know since the story went national and her connection has brought in the well wishers and the crack calls” Michael explained. “I haven’t checked my phone. Does he want to talk to me?”

“He just says that you should meet him at the station if you have a chance” Amy said as she gave her husband her love and hung up. “Don’t say it, I can stay with the kids and Jake is home now and he can help.”

“Thanks,” Michael nodded. “If Maria asks…”

“I’ll tell her…” Amy said as she walked her son-in-law to the door and watched as he drove off. Sighing to herself, she turned and shut the door and locked it.

*

Grace drove into the driveway of her house and saw that it was dark. She knew her father was likely at the Guerin household or stopped in on work. So, she unlocked the front door and walked in. She knew she was asking for trouble with her conduct. The shrinks would have a field day with me she mused to herself. After a life of being cautious, I ruin that in a span of a couple of days.

I am just asking for this to fall apart she mused as she looked around the dark and empty house and didn’t hear the front door open and shut. She heard familiar steps and she turned around and saw her mother.

“Mom?” Grace stared in a state of disbelief.

“Grace,” Beth said relieved to see her eldest daughter as they might still have awkward relationship but seeing the sixteen-year-old brought peace to her, but knew it wouldn’t be so easy for Max. “Your father received a call in the car as we got back, so he’ll be in shortly.”

“Wait, how long have you been here?” Grace asked astonished.

“Since earlier this evening?” Beth acknowledged.

“Are my sisters here too?” Grace asked as she looked around.

“No, they had to stay behind and finish their final tests” Beth said. “Then told me to say hello to you, but when I heard about Elizabeth… I couldn’t help myself, so I surprised your father earlier and we just came from Michael and Maria’s house.”

“Oh,” Grace sighed as the door opened and in walked Max who could only glance between his wife and their eldest daughter. “Dad!”

“I am glad you’re finally home,” Max said in a rough tone.

Grace nodded but neither said another word as Beth could sense the tension between father and daughter. No father wants to see their daughter grow up and No daughter wants their father to know the intimate details of her love life. The fact Max knew made things difficult.

“I just got a call from Jim. He has news,” Max said and then dashed Grace’s hopes. “No, Elizabeth hasn’t been found but it’s something else so I’m going over to talk to him now” was all he said.

“I’ll stay here. Grace and I can catch up” Beth asked.

“Fine,” Max said as he turned and left the house without another word.

“I am sorry about that,” Grace sighed. “Things have been on the tense side. We did have a nice talk this morning and then this afternoon happened.”

“Right,” Beth nodded.

“So, he told you?” Grace asked as they moved into the living room.

“Yes, he did but only because I was curious where you were, and he just got the news…”

“Those pesky trackers. I hate them but because Elizabeth is gone, well, I know Dad has a right to be protective of me because I was the original target.”

“Excuse me?” Beth asked.

“Yeah,” Grace said. “They wanted me and not Elizabeth or maybe both of us if they were truly industrious and wanted to play the odds but then I was with Jake, and unavailable to them so they took only Elizabeth and we have no idea where she, so everyone is a touch stressed so I couldn’t help myself.”

“So, you found the perfect way to relieve some stress?” Beth asked as she could see the guilt that her daughter faced for her actions, but it astonished her the idea they had wanted Grace and got Elizabeth instead, or would have taken Grace too if gotten the chance and it scared her as to what was the master plan in all this.

“You can say that,” Grace sighed as she knew that sex was a powerful stress reliever, but it allowed for worries of all kinds, and she knew she was risking a lot and still she couldn’t stop herself as it was a way to take some control of her life, and but she also didn’t know what it would mean in the long run.

“Why would they want you or even Elizabeth?” Beth asked.

“They want an heir,” Grace said as she spoke the fear of the whole group. Unspoken in the rest of the family and only said out loud barely among the adults but Grace knew what they would want her for, or Elizabeth for… “We females can’t rule Antar, but we certainly can bring the heir into the world that Khivar can take and use as a pawn. That is what they wanted from Dad back years ago, but it backfired on them, so they are now using us…”

Beth’s jaw dropped.

“They wanted me because I am the King’s eldest, the natural “heir” but I am female, so they wanted to use me but because I am tainted they went with Elizabeth because they don’t say it but Michael is second in command and since they wouldn’t want any regular alien human hybrid creation. They would want to create one with premium stock, from someone who has the seal within them ready to come out of dormancy which is why I am probably screwing up my life because I know what they want from my best friend and they will do anything to get it
from her… and I fear for her because it should have been me…”
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Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 54 - 11/10/2019

Post by keepsmiling7 »

I expect both Maria and Michael to do something desperate soon......
Wonder why Beth really came back??
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Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 54 - 11/10/2019

Post by RoswellFan68 »

I'm glad Beth was able to give Maria a sounding board. Beth is probably glad her daughter was off with Jake and was not going through the same ordeal as Elizabeth.
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On the Razor's Edge - Chapter 55 - 11/15/2019

Post by Parker1947 »

Rated R for scenes of extreme violence

****

“The names are Stuart Barnes and Troy Steele” Jim was saying as he was meeting Michael and Max in his office. Isabel begged off because she wanted to spend the evening with her husband and kids and Max wanted out of the house so not to deal with his growing daughter and how she was living her life.

“Excuse me,” Michael asked as he came out of the space and back to reality. He too easily zoned out over fears concerning his eldest daughter.

“The prints from the prom dress and other spots around the cabin which continues to be cornered off and explored and in the debris of the bomb they found the prints of Stuart Barnes. The are the primaries right now in Elizabeth’s kidnapping.”

“Who is the dead one?” Michael asked.

“Troy Steele,” Jim sighed. “The spots of blood outside and in the forest near the dead body is confirmed to be Elizabeth’s” he said quietly to Michael’s flinch and wince from Max. “It puts her in the area and seems like she was scrapping herself on the rocks and branches, as she ran and trying to hide until she couldn’t hide anymore.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am sure, positive identification on all three” Jim confirmed. “Tire tracks and skin cells found in the footprints confirm that she was in the area, and her prints were found heading in the woods, but they weren’t coming out…”

“So,” Michael asked. “He caught up to her and forced her in the van and drove off. Anything on the van yet?”

“Nope, just that the tracks likely belong to a van and not a car due to the width of the tracks but because of the area… and it was in the recent vicinity of our arrival because of the rainy weather up north last night and so it was still muddy, which is why we were able to make out foot prints, but because of the location, well, we aren’t going to be the ability to check surveillance cameras.”

“Damn it,” Michael swore. “How am I going to tell that to my wife?”

“Tell her that we know Elizabeth is alive”

“But for how much longer, and what are they doing to her in the meantime” Michael raged.

“You can’t think of it like that…” Jim longed to wish they didn’t have to think like Michael was thinking, and all he could see was the laughing and the go-getter that Elizabeth was, ready to fight anyone who hurt her family and to know they might not get that girl back tugged at his heart, and to know even if they did… she might not be the same girl she once was…

“I have to Jim because it doesn’t help to think otherwise” Michael muttered. “Max told me Beth has had a vision…”

“Beth has had a vision” Jim asked as she knew that Liz’s power had been premonitions of some sort back when the kids were younger. “Wait, how do you know?”

“Beth came for a visit” Max sighed. “She surprised me earlier, and we were visiting Michael and Maria before I came here….”

“What did she see?” Jim asked.

“It was before today’s events because she saw the cabin, but a doctor of some loose ethical ability is involved, and they were telling them loosen the drugs they had Elizabeth on” Max said to Michael’s flinch. “Which is how she probably got loose, because they had reduced the drugs. Beth doesn’t know what they are planning, but it does involve a medical professional which is very worrisome”

“No question,” Jim sagged in inner despair over the situation.

“And because she tried to run and escape, they are liable to do anything to her” Michael feared.

*

Eyes opened and in a daze of drugs being pumped into her and withdrawn she knew she no longer recognized the girl she once was as she felt something break and she knew she didn’t have the energy to try to flee. She also knew her foot was messed up. Broken most likely which would put any attempt in serious jeopardy. She howled in pain the last time they had withdrawn the drugs. She sensed her throat was still tender because of the strangulation and she felt the pain all over, and knew she couldn’t try to break through the chains they had her in as she now laid on a table, and her legs were up in stirrups with a man above her…

She tried to whisper “he…l…p …” but found her throat too tender and dry, and she couldn’t get the words to make sense as the man looked up said, “Hold on, almost over”

Then he bent down and finished his work, and walked out of the room and moments later she could feel the intense pain all over and howled or crocked in pain, and pleaded in gasping tones for the drugs… and then she knew they had her, and she would forever be changed.

In the other room, the doctor told her captors “If you want to do it, she’s all ready but it has to be in the next few days otherwise you miss the opening for this month.”

“Then do it,” said Barnes.

“You’ve done a number on her…”

“She tried to flee, and we can’t have that” Barnes said. “She is dangerous”

“She doesn’t look like it. She looks like an innocent girl,” said the doctor who had been pained by the girl on the table and knew he would never forget her voice.

“She killed my partner, so do your job which you have been richly compensated for or we send that article to the medical board and you truly will have your licence yanked and lose your job and your family” Barnes threatened.

“Yes, sir…” the doctor said as he left the room and walked back to where his patient was being held. “Sorry, I have to do few more procedures on you, but you will make it through” he lied as she struggles in her pleas for the drugs as he started to feel nauseous, but he kept going. “It’s alright, you will feel no pain very soon…”

“He then got a bowl of water and forced water down her throat as she gagged and threw up most of the water because her throat was sore. So, he put a guard in her mouth and then a funnel into her mouth and poured the water in, as she tried to struggle and then when he finished he then waited a few minutes and made sure she expelled the liquid and he opened her mouth and pushed in a camera to be able to see down to the her stomach and he took out his knife and she squirmed, “It’s alright” he tried saying as he gave her numbing agent but not the strong drugs she was aching for...

He then sliced a hole in her abdomen, and placed the feeding tube in and attached it and applied the bandages around the tube to hold it in and then picked up a pillow and put her head to elevate it, and pushed the button to moved the table to a sitting position and then picked up a tubing and pushed it through her nose to more of her squirming and advising her to be quiet otherwise it would be more painful, and down her throat and into her stomach, and quickly attached it. When he was finished, she was unable to speak… as the table went back into straight laying pose. He flushed out the tubing and they were ready to be used.

She didn’t know if that was merciful or not as she laid there being treated like a piece of meat with tubes sticking out from each end.

Then the man telling the orders came out of the background and handed the doctor a large envelope, as the doctor told the man which tube for what was, and how to operate it and then he quickly left.

Once alone. “This what you get for trying to run as you won’t be able to run now without the tubing wrecking your insides…” the man sneered to the fear on her face as he put a plunger full of drugs into the nose tubing and soon, she was passed out but in a haze of drug bliss contentment as the pain slipped away…

Turning the Barnes told his flunkies as he checked his phone, “We’re going to need a new location and a new doctor to complete this…”

“Why?”

“Because our doctor friend just made himself expendable,” Barnes said as pulled the gurney that Elizabeth was strapped to into the cold cellar of the factory, and slammed the door and locked the girl in.

Unable to live with himself, the doctor drove into Roswell and reported himself to the Sheriff’s office, as Jim was summoned. Sick to his stomach as he heard the doctor’s story, but he spilled the location as he knew it, but on his way to his cell… the doctor was shot point blank by a mole in the department. As the mole was shot by Jim in response.

Which prevented Jim was checking out the location as quickly as he wanted to even though he alerted Michael and Max…

And as he did, Elizabeth was lifted off the gurney and placed on a new one with all the tubing still attached and inserted her into a fake ambulance and siren started and off they were to a new location… making it look like they were transporting a patient.

But said patient was blissed out in drug contentment and didn’t realize a thing…

Max and Michael arrived fifteen minutes too late… and Michael trashed the place at the sight of what they had done to his little girl.

*

And therefore, Max was in an extremely bad mood and Beth’s presence even couldn’t pull him out of his funk and Grace was sneaking into a dark house Wednesday night even though there was a light on, and she hoped it was her mother, but it was her father… He was sitting in the living room trying to do some legal work but that was not in his mind due to his mood.

“You missed your curfew?”

“Like about twenty minutes,” Grace sighed and knew her father knew she was coming from her motel room with Jake. She spent way too much time there and her father knew it, and they had barely talked as a result because things had gone from bad to worse at the Guerin house. Maria and the younger kids were now staying at the Valenti house, and Michael and Jake were home alone. No one could look at each other because of the guilt they felt and the fact they kept missing finding Elizabeth by mere minutes and by now they knew what the initial plan had been, and no one could talk about it. Michael and Max both suspected that the captors had to be on Plan B or Plan C by now and that made things dangerous if it weren’t already at that stage already.

No one knew the girl they would get back if they could find Elizabeth.

So, Grace saw an expression on her father’s face that she had never seen even after her stunt in Connecticut. It almost made gasp, but she didn’t…

“You know how dangerous it is to miss your curfew,” Max asked simply.

“You knew where I was,” Grace spat as she was tired and tired of feeling guilty and yet she knew she was. “It’s not like you couldn’t have come yourself and pick me up but neither of us want to go there, right?”

“That is not the point and you know it. Yes, we have trackers on your phone, but you know how easy it is to fake those things these days and how easy it for you to be picked up while walking down the street and taken away and to vanish” Max asked almost painfully.

“I didn’t think of it like that,” Grace allowed.

“No, you don’t think… You don’t think at all and that is the point. What is with you these last few days? Max asked in increasingly tone of voice that was approaching true anger which only made Grace’s back go further up as she stood guard as she felt the guilt and the burden in her father’s fury rain over with the knowledge that to her, so much of this could have prevented or masked and yet it hadn’t been because she had gone for a few hours of teenage bliss with Jake, only to have it all turn out so badly. So, her back was up and the sixteen-year-old defiantly glanced at her father as she was willing to fight…

“I was with Jake and you knew it. I was not racing cars or shoplifting or even holding up a convenience store,” Grace spat as Max flinched at the memory and weight of his daughter’s words flung on him as Utah came to his head. “I was with Jake and we were…”

“I know what you were doing,” Max spat.

“I am sixteen Dad,” Grace gritted. “I can live my own life just like you did at my age” she muttered as Beth heard the commotion and the raising of voices and she came into the room and saw two people who truly loved each other and yet were at a crossroad. “It’s my life…”

“Right, you’re sixteen and in most states including this one you’re still a minor and you are under my roof” Max murmured.

Beth knew the dangerous ground Max was walking and wanted to step in. “Okay, you two, calm down.”

“No, this is about Dad and me so stay out of it” Grace glared at her mother and then back with contempt at her father “He’s barely been able to spend two seconds with me or even look at me since Saturday night” Grace yelled. “I am not his little girl anymore and now he knows it and still he refuses to look at me.”

“How can I do that,” Max shouted. “You’re barely home. You’re always with Jake at that motel.”

“Not always…” Grace allowed.

“Last night,” Max asked. “You don’t think I didn’t know you got home two hours after your curfew but because of the deteriorating search into Elizabeth’s whereabouts, I wasn’t home, but I also know you were there practically all day today…”

“Jake is there and needed me” Grace said.

“No, he doesn’t…” Max said. “He has a home.”

“Dad, you know how bad it is for him at home. His parents are practically separated with his mother staying at his Grandparent’s place with his siblings and it’s just him and his father and Michael is someone he can barely stand to be around because there is so much anger and regret. So, he’s been leaning on the motel room and me…”

“You don’t always have to be with him” Beth allowed, and Grace turned on her mother with a mix of pain and anger, that was finally being unleased after being bottled up for too long.

“Yes, I do” Grace cried. “He misses his sister and I miss my best friend and we need to be together because no one can know how it feels to have someone in your family missing. He does, we do, and don’t say you know how it feels. You don’t… Jake is beside himself. His parents are like different people, and no one knows where Elizabeth is and the little information, we do have is a horror movie. I thought it was bad when I almost died but this is thousand times worse.”

“You were dead!” Max said in a whisper cry. “You didn’t almost die. You did die. If it wasn’t for who you were or your sisters who helped. You would be buried under a tombstone carrying your name. Of course, I know how bad it is for Michael and Maria right now. They are living my worse nightmare. I worry every single day you will vanish just like I lost your mother and very nearly lost you. Miracles of all miracles I got her back, and I got you back but knowing how close I am again to losing you if the mad men who have Elizabeth decide she’s not worth it and come after you again, regardless of who you might have been with… That is my fear Grace. You could disappear on a drive home from that motel room and no one would be any the wiser because the tracker only tells me where your phone is, and you could have your phone stolen or your purse taken, or just like the car accident…your car stolen or it could be hacked and take you someplace I can’t find you.”

“Dad…” Grace said as she saw the despair in her father’s voice.

“Honey, I will always love you. No matter what you might do and who you are with. Jake is the best alternative for me because I do know that he loves you but still it doesn’t make it any easier to know you’re almost out of the house because when you do head out into the world on your own or with Jake, I have no idea where you might be on a given day. You could call every day, and still I wouldn’t know if you would call me tomorrow. Or be alive tomorrow.”

“Dad…”

“Grace, you kept me living when we lost your mother” Max cried as he looked at Beth and Beth felt truly emotional seeing this kind of breakdown in Max. “I would have died if I didn’t have you in my life. To know I risk the greatest loss even worse than when I lost your mother eats at me every day. I don’t know if I could make it if I truly lost you.”

“You haven’t lost me,” Grace sighed.

“But I could… Today, tomorrow or two years from now when you’re truly on your own. This is a wakeup call for me, and for the whole group. Nothing like this would have come to my mind in third grade when I started pining for you Beth…” Max said turning to Beth who felt like she was close to losing it. “You as Liz changed my life and made it whole. You gave me an incredible gift when you fell in love with me and we made this miracle” he said turning back to an emotional Grace. “I can’t lose you honey.”

“You aren’t losing me” Grace murmured.

“Look at what Michael and Maria are going through. You were our enemies desired target, number one on their list because you are my daughter. Which means it could all change tomorrow…”

“They haven’t come after me,” Grace tried.

“But don’t you understand they could. They obviously were angling for you when you ended up stabbed, and who knows what they were thinking with the car accident. If you weren’t with Jake, then you would be gone today, and we wouldn’t have anymore idea than we do with Elizabeth now. I thought it was just about getting me back by taking your mother away all those years ago but no they were waiting for you to turn sixteen or come of age.”

“Yet if it was me, then I would be with Elizabeth and we could have escaped together and it wouldn’t be all on her to find a way out of that hell hole or to fall victim to whatever madness they are doing to her…” Grace asked quietly to the gasps of both of her parents as they saw the guilt in their daughter, and the burden. “They wanted me. You are right, they wanted me. But I was tainted goods even before Jake. But still if Elizabeth was going to be taken then I should also have been taken, and then we could have fought the enemy together and we would have won but no, I was with Jake and in some hotel room thinking I needed to have some fun and to take a risk because too much of my life has been too cautious and that burned me with Tommy. If only I had been with Elizabeth…”

“No honey…” Max sighed.

“They wanted me, so why couldn’t it be me? Why did it have to be Elizabeth” Grace said truly falling apart for the first time since her best friend was taken instead of her and falling into her father’s arms as Beth watched helplessly. “They wanted me…” she cried. “Elizabeth is in hell because it was supposed to be me…”
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Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 55 - 11/15/2019

Post by keepsmiling7 »

This is on BIG mess.
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Parker1947
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On the Razor's Edge - Chapter 56 - 11/18/2019

Post by Parker1947 »

“It should have been me” Grace kept repeating on loop and she meant it. If only it had been her too then Elizabeth would have someone helping her escape but she didn’t know how much of monster these creatures were Max mused and Beth feared for both girls, and to know she had stakes in this as she and Max exchanged heart wrenching looks as they comforted their daughter over the fear for her best friend. Max also shared it because he feared what it would do to his best friends in Michael and Maria. He knew only too well as a lawyer what a child missing does to the parents left behind and especially given the fact they should have seen this coming and falling for Michael, and allowing her life to merge with those of the alien hybrids meant Maria exposed her children to this life. Jake was normal. Elizabeth was a product of her and Michael’s love, and the eldest child of their union and now she was in mortal danger.

“Honey,” Max said softly, as he knew he had to do something to try to limit the carnage and to at least protect his daughter because they as parents had taken their eyes off the danger and had them on all the wrong places and people, and he knew he had to protect his daughter because they would come after her, and therefore Grace could sense that there was something different about her father’s tone as she collected herself and the tears started to dry.

“What?” Grace asked wearily.

“Your mother is going back to Madison tomorrow and she has asked if you wanted to go with her, for a long weekend or longer… until you need to be back for final exams” Max asked as he looked at Beth and she nodded as they both knew Grace needed out of Roswell at least for the time being but Grace wasn’t having it and got up and started pacing, and her parents knew the explosion that would result. “I am thinking it might be a good idea…”

“No,” Grace blurted out as she stood and glared at both of her parents. “There is no way in hell am I going anywhere until Elizabeth is found. This is about Jake isn’t it… You want me to be away from him?”

“No honey,” Max shook his head because his own history with Liz warned him to even try to separate his daughter from her boyfriend was a very bad idea because it will only lead to even more pain and misery “I just told you as much as I hate knowing you’re growing up but you are, and I know it. I like Jake. So, this is not about separating the two of you because while I may disapprove of how intense things are for the two of you and I do think you’re too young for these extra emotions you’re going to dealing with by going to that level with Jake. And I wish I didn’t know sometimes what is going on with the two of you, but in this case, I know, if you’re with him, you’re safe. Instead this is about spending time with your mother and sisters. You can get away, and, it’s mostly about being safe and giving me peace of mind so that we can look for Elizabeth without worrying about you and whether you’re going to be picked up tomorrow…”

“Elizabeth needs me to be here…” Grace asked softly.

“Elizabeth needs you to be safe. With you away from here, away from Roswell, you will be safe and hopefully during your time away, we’ll find her, and she’ll be here when you come home but you need this. You need to get away.”

“I was just away for three weeks and where did that get me?” Grace asked.

“This is different. The stakes have changed. This helps all of us because it’s about protecting this family and protecting you because you are a target in this mess. We can concentrate on Elizabeth and in the meantime you can use the time to get to know your mother and sisters and see where they live, and maybe even scout out Yale… properly this time” Max asked as he was reminded of his daughter’s prior visit to New Haven. “Use the time to access the future, and take some stress off your shoulders, and by being there, then I won’t have to worry, and I can concentrate on finding Elizabeth.”

“But… but…” Grace asked as she turned to Beth as she felt confused as the instinct to rebel against the trip started to fall away because she knew her father was coming from an emotional place as her father, and she knew he was right but she didn’t want to be away from the search for Elizabeth, and especially Jake and yet she knew that being away might calm tensions between her and her father and he wouldn’t have to have a mini heart attack every time she was out of the house, even if it was nothing to do with Jake as she turned to her mother “So, what, you’re really going back?”

“Yes,” Beth nodded as she sensed the inner conflict within their daughter. “I have lied myself into sick leave but my patients need me and I have some important patients to see on Friday, and then yeah your father is right the girls are off on summer break now and while they have things to do, they will love to spend time with you for however long you stay with us. It gives everyone the chance to find Elizabeth and concentrate on her…”

“Jake,” Grace asked.

“Jake will be fine,” Max assured his daughter. “I’ll keep an eye on him, and he’ll be busy with work and whatever else he’s doing…”

“You need me here,” Grace asked.

“I need you safe,” Max murmured. “I need to know you’re someplace safe. Away from here, and away from Roswell. At least until we know more and hopefully, we’ll find Elizabeth in the meantime because being here in a ticking timebomb waiting to go off and for my sanity as well as Jake’s I am sure, he’ll appreciate that you’re somewhere safe.”

“It’s hell for him at home right now,” Grace stubbornly stated

“It will get better and if it doesn’t then he’ll have the motel, right?” Max asked. “He’ll want you to be safe, right?”

“Yeah maybe…” Grace sighed.

“No, yeah maybes about it” Beth smiled. “That boy loves you and he will only want you to be safe and sound and he’ll understand.”

Grace nodded, but she refused to say yes or no. She didn’t want to commit to a decision. “I’ll think about it.”

“I guess that is all we can ask for,” Max sighed. “But while you think about it. You should stay in the house okay so, no more night travel which I know you have done” he said seriously and Grace knew she was busted because unable to sleep many nights, she ended back at the motel and today she didn’t come back home until just now…”

Grace nodded.

“Thank you,” Max said. “I’ll let you go to bed because it’s been an emotional day,” he murmured. “Say good-night to Jake for me, and know I expect you two to just sleep…okay?” Max said surprising both Beth and Grace with is words, but Grace didn’t say anything and only nodded and went upstairs.

“How did you know?” Beth asked as they watched Grace disappear upstairs.

“I have his tracker information, remember?” Max muttered. “I knew he was upstairs the whole time waiting for her, which is what he’s done when she’s not joined him.”

“Wow,” Beth murmured. “Sixteen is rough!”

“Which is why I want her to go with you Beth, because I need her to be safe. She’s not safe here anymore. At least not until Elizabeth is found, one way or the other…”

“You’re beginning to lose hope, aren’t you?” Beth asked as she saw the tension and the terror in Max’s face. “You don’t know if they will find her, or if she will be alive?”

“Too much time had gone by, without a clue” Max murmured in despair because each extra minute Elizabeth was missing meant less hope and especially since they learned what the doctor saw and did, which meant that things were going to get worse, incredibly worse for his god-daughter and that meant a nightmare for his friends. “Which is why Maria is staying at her mothers with the kids. Both she and Michael are beginning to lose hope and if things do go south with Elizabeth than Grace is out there as an inviting target for them to try again… Virginity won’t matter if it gets them their goal.”

“A pawn?” Beth asked fearfully.

“Grace has already proven the ability to become pregnant,” Max feared. “They will come for her if it doesn’t go well with Elizabeth, and if she becomes expendable to those who have taken her, and who are doing those horrors to her, if she’s not there already…”


*


“I heard the fight,” Jake said softly as she opened the door and saw him sitting on her bed. “There was a lot of loud voices,” he asked as she looked at him sitting on her bed. He was without his shirt, and he got off and came to her and they kissed. Taking off her jacket and shirt, and pants she got into bed and just laid with him as they knew not do anything with her parents still awake.

“It’s hell,” Grace said softly.

“You got loud there,” Jake asked as he heard most of the fighting and new a lion share was about him.

“He got loud too,” Grace sighed. “We finally had it out and we needed it. Things are much calmer, as he got his fears out and I got them out too…”

Jake nodded as they kissed and stopped, and just laid together until she said quietly. “Mom is going back to Madison tomorrow, and Dad wants me to go with her?”

“Seriously,” Jake asked as he sat up and looked down at her. “Are you going too?”

“Dad is scared he’s going to lose me,” Grace sighed as she thought of the fears her father had expressed and she was beginning to think that lessening the danger level for her family might be the answer at least in the short term.

“I am scared we’re going to lose you,” Jake said as he could only almost understand his godfather’s worries in relation to Grace as he overheard some of the conversation and knew they were deep, and he knew he couldn’t handle losing Grace after they lost Elizabeth and they still didn’t know if they will get her back and he was beginning to lose that hope, along with his parents and if the did, than Grace became an attractive target if they hadn’t caught the bad guys yet. She would be safer in Madison, even if it was hell to have her across the country. “I would miss you.”

“Me too,” Grace sighed as they kissed and just laid there, clinging together and fearing the worst…


*


They stood downstairs staring at each other. Fearing the worst and knowing the worst could very happen. “I am sorry this had to be your visit,” Max said carefully. “It hasn’t been fair to you.”

“I came into the middle of a hellish experience and I knew it was going to be bad, but I was able to know that you Grace were okay…”

“I don’t think we’re okay,” Max said softly. “But I am more accepting, if you call accepting of the fact that my daughter’s boyfriend is sleeping upstairs in the same bed as my daughter” he sighed. “I can’t have her sneaking out…”

“Are you going to be okay if she does come with me?” Beth asked. “You would be here alone…”

“I am likely going to be spending all my attention on finding Elizabeth and as I said, it will be good knowing I don’t have to worry about coming home and finding out she’s not here or fearing that her tracker marker is going to go missing on the screen of my phone every time I look at it” Max said. “I just wish things could have been different and I didn’t have to send my daughter off to another state to keep her alive.”

“Me too,” Beth sighed. “If she does come with me, would you mind if I let my friend see her… He’s a shrink, actually my shrink…” Beth asked to Max’s surprise. “Yeah that might surprise you but I have seen someone occasionally over the years when things have gotten intense and I saw him when all of this started and while I haven’t seen him since, he has been great for me to talk to him and Grace can talk to him. She seriously needs to talk to someone.”

“I have told her she should, but just like when I was a teenager. There is a confusion when talking to a shrink when you know there is a world out there that a normal person doesn’t know, and our abilities are truly out of this world but she does have a lot of human anxieties lately and it might be good for her to talk to someone.”

“I’ll set it up,” Beth said. “So, you saw someone?”

“Briefly in high school, thanks to my own experience I term the “White Room.” It scarred me and while the visible scars were able to clear up quickly because of my abilities. Unlike Elizabeth, it wasn’t another alien after me. It was the government who was after me, and they got me for a number of hours and poked and prodded me until fortunately I managed to get out away…”

“You did?” Beth said as flashes of the experience started to flicker through her brain.

“Yeah,” Max nodded. “You, Michael, Isabel and someone else we knew came for me and you guys were successful in getting me out,” he murmured wanting to forget Tess. “But things were revealed that made things unsettling and overwhelming for you, so you ended us… and went away for the summer. Once you were gone, and since I was dealing with the fallout of my abduction. I unraveled over the summer and my parents who were clueless as to what I was going through, well, they sent me to a shrink, but I couldn’t talk. The shrink soon got fed up, and the sessions quickly ended but I do want Grace the ability to talk. Especially now given the situation with Elizabeth, and yet she not going to be able to talk about everything in her life…”

Beth nodded.

‘I am just sorry this had to be your visit” Max murmured as his anxiety about the world that their daughter was growing up started to lessen with the ability to look in Beth’s eyes and know that his soulmate was there face to face with him. “I wish it could be different, but I can’t help but think you are right that you and the kids will be safer back in Madison and knowing that, it does me a world of good.”

“Given what you’re facing. Yeah, I am kind of glad they are there too…” Beth admitted. “Max, about July?”

“I want that to still be on…” Max insisted “I need something to look forward to Beth. I need to know it will happen,” he sighed. “I don’t want to let a madman get in the way of that…”

“And if this is still going on?” Beth asked. “You can’t know if it will be over by then…”

“I know you’re worried but unfortunately in these kinds of cases… answers one way or another will come sooner than later. I can’t see how it won’t be over by then as it would be truly rare for it to still be going by then… For such a plan to keep going if it’s not working…” Max muttered quietly.

“And if it’s working?” Beth asked. “For all we know, it has actually worked…”

“To have any kind of sanity amid all this… I don’t want to believe in that kind of success… I have to believe it won’t work, and by the time the kids come here in July that it will be over and that we’ll have gotten Elizabeth back…” Max murmured as he knew they couldn’t survive this situation if it indeed continue for that long because they were barely surviving it now and he didn’t think Michael or Maria could survive much longer, the uncertainty. “This can’t go on that long, can it?”

“You would know this kind of thing more than I do…” Beth said softly as she walked up to touch his arm, and he took her hand and felt it. It felt good to touch her and for her to touch him as they ended up in an embrace as they leaned in for a kiss and they grew in it’s intensity as she took him by the hand and led him down the office bedroom where she had been staying this visit. She had been adamant that she didn’t want to put out Max from the master bedroom.

Once downstairs, he looked at her and murmured. “We shouldn’t, right?”

“You know they aren’t just sleeping upstairs,” Beth said offering a fresh dose of reality to the situation.

“I know, but I don’t want to think about it” Max murmured as he took her in for a kiss and relished in them both using each other to try to forget the confusion or the horrors of their realities, as Max ached for companionship and Beth knew to be a comfort to him as they moved to the bed, and before long they were giving into a passion that was undeniable and yet wasn’t ready to be named yet as they both clung the warmth they brought to each other in the midst of the ugliness of their world, and soon they fell asleep in each other’s arms.


*


This time it wasn’t Beth getting up and leaving as hours later Beth rolled over in bed and noticed that Max was gone, yet leaving a note to tell her that he had to get over to Michael’s and talk to him about the case, and to check in with the office to see how his father was handling the influx of work, and to ask that he refer cases to other attorneys if the need did arise because he wasn’t going to be able to of service, and needed take a hiatus until further notice.

Phillip understood, and Beth did too once she woke up and got up and started to pack her suitcase. She walked upstairs and found a note from Grace saying she had to run an errand, but she was willing to go with Beth. So, Beth called the airline and changed her flights and got one for Grace and text her the information on their flights and finished packing while at the same time calling Serena to check on the kids.

Alexandra and Carrie were safe and sound which made Beth sigh with relief. She wanted that ability for Maria.

So before long she was going for a walk and ended up at the Valenti household. Knocking on the door. Amy opened the door and allowed Beth to come in. “Maria is out back with Belle,” was all Amy said.

“How is she?” Beth asked.

“Worse each day,” Amy admitted. “But she’s trying to be there for the kids and especially Belle who doesn’t understand what is going on.”

“She’s only six, right?” Beth asked.

“Yeah,” Amy nodded. “The boys aren’t much better as everyone is so confused, but they are older, so they know what it means for Elizabeth to be gone…”

Beth nodded. “Can I go back?”

“Go ahead,” Amy nodded as she went into the kitchen and finished making breakfast for the boys, as Belle hadn’t been able to sleep like her mother and had been up too early and so mother and daughter had breakfast together, and now were trying to play outside.

‘Breakfast tea party’ but Beth could tell Maria wasn’t into her as her heart was breaking with every day she didn’t know where her daughter was…

Maria dressed all in in black stopped when she saw Beth and Beth saw the fear in that she was coming to tell her something that would destroy her world.

“I don’t know anything, I promise” Beth was quick to assure the heart broken mother as she sat on the picnic bench. “I wish I could be the one to say that we’ve found her, but I can’t, and I wish I could…”

Maria nodded.

“All done Mommy,” Belle asked as she knew her mother was wanting to talk with the visitor.

“Yes,” Maria said distantly. “Belle, can you go inside and find your grandmother?” she asked of the six-year-old.

“Sure,” Belle said as she rushed into the house and Maria made sure to watch as the girl opened the door and disappear inside the house as she sat out on the picnic table. “Max is not with you?”

“He was meeting with Michael,” Beth murmured, and Maria nodded. “I wanted to come and say good-bye.”

“What, you’re headed back?” Maria asked sitting up.

“Yes,” Beth said. “I am on an early afternoon flight,” she murmured. “I have to get back to work, and Max’s asked me to take Grace with me…”

“What?” Maria asked astonished at the response of Max to let Beth take Grace back to Connecticut “He did…”

“It was actually my idea for her to visit but Max leapt on it to able to make sure Grace is safe and sound somewhere else…”

“I wish I could make sure my daughter was safe,” Maria said with pure emotion on her face. “But it’s probably the right decision. Grace is in danger, the more time they have my daughter and don’t release her, or that we don’t find her…”

“You will find her,” Beth tried.

“We both know that by now, chances are not high” Maria asked as she got up off the picnic table.

“They are getting closer, right?” Beth asked. “They have managed to find multiple hiding spots.”

“But only after they move her…” Maria cried. “And what that quack of a doctor confessed to makes me sick to my stomach, and to know my daughter who was such a fierce go-getting was put through that, and worse by now…”

“She will be found…”

“Will she be alive, or will she even be the Elizabeth we know?” Maria asked as she paced the yard. “You’re right to take Grace away from this town. I wish I could have done it years ago… or that I hadn’t come back here when I became pregnant with Jake. If only we stayed in New York or I had gone Los Angeles. I could have found work and done it the hard way and I wouldn’t be going through this agony.”

“You love Michael, don’t you?” Beth asked surprised to be hearing this from Maria.

“Yes, but I don’t love how being with him allowed this to happen and for Grace to be attacked like she was… Of course we knew there was a threat out there when it was apparent you didn’t die like we believed and was kept away from us, and then almost immediately after you came back to us, Grace is attacked, and then the car accident and then they tried you again… There were enough warnings of a threat, and we didn’t take them seriously. We thought we would see it coming but we were so damn naïve. The threat is too large and too used to winning, and we fell into their trap.”

“They didn’t get Grace, or the car accident didn’t do what they were intending…”

“And therefore, they upped their game and took my daughter. They won…”

“Elizabeth might have been taken. But they won’t win in the end. Maria, you’ll find your daughter and you will defeat the enemy.”

“Not if they have already won…” Maria muttered and knew Beth forgetting what happened in their earlier life was a good coping mechanism but it didn’t allow for the reality that Maria knew too well, in knowing what they had faced before, and what they could be facing in the future… “Beth, they won.”

Beth wished Maria didn’t have to be right.

“At least Grace will be out of sight and mind of the greater threat,” Maria murmured as she thought of her eldest son. “But Jake is not going to like it.”

“Grace tells me things are bad at the house with Michael…” Beth allowed as Maria flinched as she nodded.

“I know,” Maria admitted. “It wouldn’t be much easier here. There is too much anger and feeling defeated. I know my son feels guilty and I wish I could comfort him about it, but I am not much better. As much as Michael was gruff and rough around the collar when we were kids, still he loved being a parent and loved Elizabeth and, in some ways, she was more his daughter than mine. She was so much like Michael that it scared me because she was willing to fight a battle or an enemy than take the cautious approach and that got her in the end. Michael can’t handle what they are doing to her, and I can’t either… And that is why I figured we needed time apart because if we were together, we would do more damage…”

“You love each other…” Beth asked.

“Sometimes love doesn’t help,” Maria sighed. “As you see with Max…”

“Max and I are totally different. I don’t remember the background of our love, which makes it harder. You remember with Michael which helps, and it hurts because you have experienced all the highs and lows together, and you can’t forget. I can, and I have… But that puts me at a disadvantage because Max knows what is at stake. I don’t as much!”

“Sometimes I wish I could forget,” Maria allowed as she wished for Beth’s lot in life, the ability to forget the ugly.

Beth nodded.

“I do know Jake will miss Grace. She has been a comfort for him while his father and I are unable to be there for him…. I know how much time he’s been spending with her. For instance, I know where he was last night, and it wasn’t at home or even that motel room of his.”

“We know,” Beth admitted. “Max and Grace had it out last night about her reliance on Jake…” she murmured and of her use of sex as a stress relief which is another debate all together. “Things have calmed down…”

“Really,” Maria asked.

“Yeah,” Beth murmured. “It allowed things to come out and fears to be addressed…”

“How so?” Maria asked.

“Grace is feeling guilty just like Jake does but she almost wishes she had been kidnapped along with Elizabeth so she could be there to help her friend escape…” Beth sight the horror of Maria’s eyes. “I know…”

“That would be even worse,” Maria asked. “Yeah two is better than one in trying to get free, and maybe with Grace along, she would have been of some help when my daughter was trying to get her freedom and therefore she would have had backup but it could also have led to even more horrors” she murmured as she recoiled at the thought of having Grace missing along with her daughter. “They would have had the ability to use both of them…”


*


Which is why Beth was confident in that they were making the right decision in taking Grace back East for a visit, as they waited for their commuter flight to Santa Fe at the airport, so they could catch their connecting flight to New Haven. Smiling, Beth exchanged a simple kiss with Max who embraced her tightly as this time he knew she had to go home to Madison for the protection of their kids. So, he turned and kissed her daughter on the forehead, and hugged her. “I love you, remember that always okay… You are my heart” he whispered, and Grace nodded with tears in eyes as Max stopped back and allowed Grace to say good-bye to Jake with a kiss as they exchanged some last moments together. Once their flight was called, she turned and walked onto the plane with her mother as she prayed, they could find Elizabeth so she could come home again…

Max watched them off and sighed and turned and saw Jim watching who was frowning. He had brought Jake to say good-bye to Grace, and now Max could tell Jim wanted to tell him something “What is it, is it Elizabeth?”

“No, it’s Grace…”

“You just saw that she flew off with Beth for however long,” Max sighed but he knew it was the right decision as Jake just stood and waited for the plane to fly off.

“We have to talk,” Jim was saying as they both looked at Jake. “Can we meet at your place?”

“Sure,” Max nodded. “Now that Nicholas and Khivar have driven off my family, I have nothing else to do but look for Elizabeth and save Michael from himself”

Jim nodded as Jake walked up to his grandfather content that Grace was safe and sound. “Thanks for letting me say good-bye,” he said quietly to Max who nodded.

“Be careful, okay. We don’t know who is out there, and it’s anyone’s guess what will happen next.”

Jake nodded and walked off with Jim who was grim because his family was being run ragged and being knifed by an invisible target, and he knew…

That they had just might have saved themselves another calamity for the moment by Grace going off with Beth… because they were coming after them again, and it was obvious now that they wouldn’t rest until everyone was destroyed.

Even the humans.

And Jim feared that they just might succeed…
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Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 56 - 11/18/2019

Post by keepsmiling7 »

This is just so sad........Grace has to leave.
Michael and Maria are apart....
At least Beth was trying to stand by Maria.
Max is lucky his dad can continue with the legal practice....
When is something good going to happen??
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Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 56 - 11/18/2019

Post by RoswellFan68 »

It may be good for Grace to spend some time with her mom and sisters. Hopefully the gang will find Elizabeth soon.
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Parker1947
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On the Razor's Edge - Chapter 57 - 11/22/2019

Post by Parker1947 »

Rated R for scenes of violence and harm

*****

“Are you serious,” Isabel was asking as they stood in Max’s living room and overheard the words from her father-in-law. She hadn’t been invited but she had been waiting for Max when he arrived home from the airport because she had heard that Beth was taking Grace back to Madison with her and knew her brother would need support and plus she also was needing support, because she had been trying for days to try to dream-walk Elizabeth but nothing and that made her paranoid that they wouldn’t be able to get her back…

Or she was so heavily drugged that she was unable to penetrate her god-daughter’s mind, and that scared her too because she knew what prolonged exposure to those kinds of drugs meant for a sensitive girl or even a strong-willed girl which both could be described as Elizabeth, and knew that would make the situation even more grotesque.

She hadn’t been able to tell her brothers that, but she was suspecting they knew, and it made for a sense of urgency and urgency within the fact they had yet been able to find any clues to get them close to Elizabeth, and every lost day was a day she was closer to being lost to them forever...

“I have reason to think that they are still gunning for Grace,” Jim said to the hurt and disgust in Max’s eyes and some jaw-dropping of Isabel. “Whether they are planning on kidnapping or just targeting her, I don’t know.”

“How,” Max asked as he almost wished he could jump on the plane and head to Madison himself and get away from this mess, but he had to find Elizabeth for Michael, and for Maria and for their sanities, and for some semblance that they could end this madness.

“I had this delivered to the station today,” Jim said with the expression of forlorn as he handed the envelope to Max. “They are pictures Max…”

“What kind of pictures?” Max asked as he passed the envelope to Isabel because he had an eerie sense that he knew who the pictures were of and he couldn’t bare to see them, or to the know the depths of how they were targeting his family. “I can only imagine what kind of images they are so I rather not see them but please Isabel, you can check them out.”

“Intimate ones,” Jim allowed and Max’s heart broke. “Surveillance quality, and they were of Grace and Jake Max… when they met at the motel”

“So, they are being followed?” Max asked of his greatest fear.

“Or they knew where to find them,” Jim sighed as Isabel’s gasped when she took one of the pictures out of the envelope.”

“My god” Isabel asked.

“I know,” Jim said as Isabel looked closely at the first one. It said, “Slut!” and another one said “Whore” over pictures of Grace and Jake obviously in bed together and being intimate. What also was written on the top picture was, “It’s not over!”

“Jim,” Isabel asked. “These are two teenagers,” Isabel asked outraged. “What are people doing following two teenagers and taking pictures of them, intimate or even surveillance pictures. That is against the law”

“Someone who wants no-holds bared...” Jim said. “And there is something else, I got a tip at the same time I got the package from anonymous person who suggested I investigate Jake for taking advantage of Grace because of their age difference.”

“ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME” Isabel yelled, and Max eyes went wild at how everything was spinning out of control and he feared they wouldn’t be able to contain the fallout. “They tried to make a rape allegation against Jake?”

“They illustrated that Grace is underage, and Jake is 18.” Jim said. “That Grace is barely 16, Jake is 18.”

“But it’s legal,” Isabel asked.

“Actually Isabel, the legal age of consent is 17 here in New Mexico,” Max said quietly as Isabel looked at her brother and could tell that Max wanted to curse and explode but wisely held back, but she knew he close to an eruption. “Technically Jake is blurring the lines but given it’s only two years… and they have known each other and are dating… and I am not about to press charges.”

“No court is likely to go there… but it can be taken to court and be made to look extremely dicey for Jake” Jim said. “Because on paper it doesn’t look good. We know it consensual and didn’t start until she was sixteen, but he took her across state lines when she was still fifteen, and she had a miscarriage so the links are there even though we know he was responsible but with Tommy now out of the picture, they are going to pin that on Jake if it goes public. Even if there are no charges…”

“God,” Isabel cried as she looked at the years being added to her brother. “They are trying to destroy our lives…”

“And they are doing a very successful job at that,” Max said asked very quietly as he tried with great restraint to bite his tongue. “Jim…”

“I haven’t told Michael and Maria yet because this might truly send them both over the edges, or even Jake because I wanted to tell you that even though Grace is no longer in Roswell, you will have to prepare yourselves that the pictures might leak.”

“How is that legal?” Isabel asked.

“It’s not, but with social media… it will be very easy. They don’t have to actually kidnap her like they did with Elizabeth to destroy her reputation and make things look bad for Jake.”

“Why do they hate us?” Isabel asked as Max who was pacing the living room stopped with the footprints and turned and snapped as he looked at his sister.

“They don’t hate you Isabel. They aren’t trying to destroy your life. Just mine, just my family and Michael’s…” Max blurted to the pain of Isabel who looked at her brother and knew he was serious. “And they are winning since they are on the edge of destroying everything, we hold dear… all the while…”

“I’m off limits?” Isabel asked as she stared at her brother, and the anger in his voice. “You’re pissed at me for being off limits?” she mused “That whatever the plan they have dreamt up, that it doesn’t include me and it’s only the destruction of you and Michael that is motivating all this and those who you hold dear?”

“Of course not,” Max stopped and tried to soften his tone because he knew his sister didn’t deserve the accusation but was at a loss to stop the pain that surged through his heart at the thought of his little girl being targeted in such a personal way and knew that she didn’t even have to be taken, to be hurt.

“No, you are…” Isabel asked as she saw the pain on her brother’s face. “You’re actually are pissed that they aren’t going after me, Kyle and our kids…”

“You said it not me,” Max snapped as he found his limit and yet wanted to take it back. “Look Isabel I truly don’t wish this on you but you’re not the one who lost his wife then almost lost their daughter, and you definitely don’t have two children you can barely see after missing their childhood because the threat is too dangerous. You are not the one who has a daughter’s whose reputation is about to be shredded by her peers and the whole world. She has worked all her life to do something with her life and she’s just about there then this torpedo’s the waters and it will cause people to look down at her because she wanted to be intimate with her boyfriend when it’s likely it caused her best friend to be kidnapped. When they look at Grace, they are going to look at her as a slut like these pictures say…”

“Max,” Isabel said.

“You’re aren’t the one whose daughter is missing and apparently being used for purposes we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy, and who could be dead for all we know” Max ranted. “So, sorry if I am not going to let you make it about you… It’s about me. It’s about Liz or even Beth. It’s about Michael and Maria who could be losing the daughter they know. It’s about Grace who is facing an attack on her reputation, and most of all Elizabeth, who will not be the same girl. So, it’s not you whose life is about to be destroyed.”

Unable to respond, Isabel ran out of the out house and Max’s rant died at the pain he saw in her face, as he cursed out loud, “Damn it to hell,” he moaned as he stopped and looked at Jim who could only watch in dismay as the group got hit one by one. “I shouldn’t have unleashed on her.”

“She’ll understand,” Jim said.

“I barely understand,” Max sighed. “So, how can she. It’s not her fault that they want her untouched, all the while they are this close to destroying both of my and Michael’s lives. This is all about turning us against each other and I am helping them by going after my sister for trying to be supportive.”

“How so…”

“Targeting us might get them what they want, a pawn for Khivar to control. But it also destroys Michael and it destroys his marriage to Maria because she didn’t ask to put her kids in danger when she married an alien. She didn’t ask to lose one of them, or for the one in danger to be used in the manner that she’s likely being used to for, so that if she does come home. She’s likely to be completely different. Most of all, she didn’t ask for the son she allowed Michael to raise and adopt to be falsely accused of rape which destroys Jake’s future even if there is no basis to it, and if the press digs into some of his recent actions, there will be questions asked. Just the scope of it seriously impacts Grace’s future and because of this I am destroyed because I already lost Liz, and now my daughter is being targeted. The more we lose or have taken away from us than we start to turn on each other, especially if Isabel is left unscathed. The resentment only grows…”

“It might not be that bad…” Jim asked hopefully…

“It will be that bad,” Max advised as he walked Jim to the door. “It’s how these people operate. Nothing is too far, and they want Michael and I torn apart,” he sighed as he looked at Jim and knew how much this was costing his oldest ally “I do want to thank you for helping. All these years you have been there for us, and sometimes we take you for granted and we shouldn’t have, and I know this can’t be that easy for you or Amy given how close you are to this. You do know that we will find Elizabeth.”

“But you’re correct in that we don’t know if we do get her back that we’ll get the same girl back!” Jim wanted to curse and because never in his imagination could he have imagined a sliver of any of this. Even those danger prone early days when things were tense, and over the years when he came fully into the circle, nowhere did, he think this had the ability to happen and to know this was swallowing up the family. “And that is why I hesitate to tell Michael and Maria about the accusation against Jake.”

“I know…” Max sighed and silently cursed at the thought of Nicholas coming after his daughter and Jake in such a way as he watched Jim get into his car and drive off. Nodding, and turning around Max headed inside, and he slammed the front door and locked it from the inside and went and poured himself a large drink of bourbon... and drowned his sorrows until he passed out despite the hour in the day.

*

“I can’t believe you’re siding with my brother” Isabel asked miffed that it seemed that Kyle understood why her brother unleashed on her and it’s not like she didn’t see Max’s point, but she didn’t like be reamed out because she hadn’t suffered enough. Didn’t they know she wished that she wasn’t off the limits. She would never wish it on her husband and kids, but she wished they would come after her. She spurned Khivar all those years ago, and now her family is being destroyed. Everyone she loved dearly was being taken down methodically.

“It’s not like I don’t see your point honey,” Kyle murmured as he could see how this was tearing his wife up and felt for her, and yet he knew where Max was coming from. “But if any of what you said is true… then they are trying to destroy Max and Michael’s lives and are so far doing a bang-up job. Elizabeth is missing and is being used in a sickening fashion and it’s destroying Michael and Maria’s worlds. Liz was taken from us. She’s back, but she’s not the same. Grace almost died. Now her reputation is at stake, and Jake’s own future is in peril. Even if nothing comes from that accusation. If it leaks, it will ruin Jake because no matter how they explain it that he and Grace have known each other since she was born, and the families are fine with the match because it was almost pre ordained still they are going to leak it and make it seem like the Sheriff’s grandson is getting away with assaulting his girlfriend when she was under the legal age of consent.”

“No one is going to legitimately think like that…” Isabel asked appalled.

“Come off it. Isabel. You can’t be that naïve not to know how the world works today. You have got to know the way social media works, especially amongst the younger set and in the general public. If it leaks, it could seriously ruin any hope Jake has of reapplying to a good school next year if he wants to. We both know that an unexplored rape accusation is going to stick to him. Regardless of what the Sheriff’s department has to say about the accusation. Grace’s reputation will be mud even if none of her friends believe it because they are still going to see the pictures if they aren’t allowed to legally share them. Therefore, they are going to view her differently. Honey, I work in a high school and I see it every damn day with my students. No matter if they think one way, little by little Grace’s reputation will be in tatters and all the work she’s done to be a model student and human being will be shattered.”

“Still…” Isabel murmured.

“Max is scared for his daughter. So, he unleashed on you because he’s afraid. Think of it if it was us, and the other way around. Grace is all he has. Beth might be back, and he might have two other children he’s only begun to know but Grace is his little girl. And Elizabeth is Michael’s and they are being used against their fathers to take them out and it’s working to such a fashion that it only leaves them with ash.”

Isabel nodded.

“He’ll come around, but you give need to him some time” Kyle sighed. “They dulled us into a sense of invincibility, and they struck. We were so concerned about Beth’s return, and we didn’t see them coming for us and they were waiting in wait” he sighed. “We allowed the kids to have the freedoms they did, forgetting that we had a reason to be paranoid in high school, and we though the beast was tamed, but it was only dormant, and now it’s back and eating us whole because in a way they are after you too. Just like they are going after Grace’s reputation, they are going after your love of family. You love your brothers, and their kids and by knifing them, they are messing with you because they are making you crazy and it’s turning everyone on each other.”

“How are we going to defeat them?” Isabel asked.

“I have no idea,” Kyle muttered and that scared him.

“Kyle, there was a tape with the pictures…” Isabel revealed, and Kyle cursed violently. “I didn’t have the time to tell my brother before he started to unleash on me” she murmured. “This is bad…”

“You better tell my dad,” Kyle murmured.

“He knows, he brought the envelope” Isabel cursed. “I hate this.”

“If there is a tape then it’s definitely going to leak. They are going to for the jugular Isabel and there is no telling what is next.”

“This is unfair,” Isabel cried.

“Remind me of this the next time we have to get the girls a new phone” Kyle asked of his wife. “Or Jamie”

“This world is more lethal than when we were kids” Isabel asked. “I thought we had it bad…”

“I know,” Kyle sighed as they walked upstairs to spend time with their kids and to thank god for their family and yet they couldn’t help but wish that they had their own teenage years back.

*

“Welcome to Madison,” Alexandra cried as she jumped from the chair in the living room when she saw her mother’s car drive through the gate and watched it close and saw it was indeed her mother and Grace getting out of the car. “Carrie would be here, but she is not home from dance practice yet.”

Grace nodded a she and Beth walked into the house. Grace walked around and saw a warm house but nothing like it was at home. “It’s weird to drive through a gate,” she murmured as she continued to look around.

“You get used to it; it’s been that way since we moved in.”

“Dad would love the idea,” Grace cracked, and Beth smiled as she considered how gates had protected her daughters without even knowing it, and for that she was now grateful because if the enemies had known she was out there along with the girls, they could have been targeted at any time. They had been lucky they hadn’t been, and yet know the whole clan was under fire. What did it mean to the younger of Max’s children, she didn’t want to think about it? She wanted to believe they were safe here in Madison. “I hope you and your sister were on your best behavior for Serena and Keith, right?” she asked of her younger daughter.

“Perfect angels,” Alexandra cracked and all three laughed “The finals tests went well, and I start with Keith on Monday and the library next Wednesday.”

“Good,” Beth nodded.

“Whose Keith?” Grace asked.

“Mom’s friend Serena, her husband has a law firm and he’s allowing me to work there one day a week during the summer to get some experience.”

“Cool,” Grace said as he nodded. “Can I use a phone and call Dad and tell him that we got here safely.”

“Sure,” Beth nodded as she went over and picked up the phone off the hook and brought it back for Grace.

“Grace, I heard about Elizabeth. I don’t know what to say. I hope Dad and Michael are able to find her soon.”

“Me too, me too” Grace nodded as she quietly took the phone form her mother and started to dial her home in Roswell. “Dad…” she asked and was comforted by his voice because this would be the longest time, she would be away from her father without even seeing his face on a given day and it was a strange experience.

“Sure,” Grace nodded and turned to Beth. “Dad wants to speak to speak to you” she asked of her mother as Beth nodded and took the phone. “What’s up Max. Yes, the flights were fine and went as well as can be expected with air travel. Was there something you wanted to say,” she asked and then her face drained when she heard the news. “Yes, I’ll tell her.”

“What is it, is it Elizabeth?” Grace immediately asked once her mother was off the phone.

“It’s something else, and something you’re going to have to prepare yourself for…” she murmured. “You might want to sit down.”

Grace sat down.

*

Down in the recesses of a building near Roswell Stuart Barnes was talking to another man who in on the plan that was unfolding after being released from a jail cell over the objections of the Sheriff, but he was overruled due to his personal connection to the case. “You’re going to have to try something else, it’s not working,” the other man muttered.

“I told you we should have gone after the Evans girl,” Barnes said. “She’s a slut but she knows how to get pregnant.”

“She’s human so it was always going to be tricky, as she has too many characteristics of her mother and not so much of her father despite her abilities,” said the man. “She gives a good front but she’s too human for this to work so we’ll have to make her into what we want…”

“What do you mean?” Stuart Barnes asked.

“That is up to you just make sure the plan works because the clock is ticking down and we’re running out of time.”

“We will have the new doctor on the job tomorrow” Stuart Barnes said.

“Good,” the man said. “How is our patient?”

“Drugged,” Stuart Barnes smiled.

“You’ve created quite the addict there,” the man said. “If everything else fails, that should be for some laughs watching her family deal with it.”

“We’re checking out her tolerance level for pain,” Stuart Barnes admitted.

“It seems it got to be pretty high…” the man asked chuckling at the word usage he employed.

You would be surprised because it is already hour one and she is deliriously in the need for drugs” Stuart admitted. “So, we’re going to wait it out some more to see how far we can push her.”

“Just get the job done and you can play with her all you want” the man said with a satisfied grin that the worlds of Guerin and Evans will soon be destroyed, and they will be having nothing to lean on. “I think I’ll have a crack at her…”

Nearby Elizabeth laid in the position she had gotten accustomed since her arrival with her legs in stirrups and cuffed to the table as her arms were tied down and tubbing coming out of the same spots. New additions were a catheter attached to her bladder with a bag attached to it, so they didn’t have to move her, and they hadn’t in several days.

She hadn’t talked in days, and her feeding tubes were the only ways she was getting anything of liquid substance into her body as her brain was sending her signals of intense need for the drugs they had pumped through her system since her arrival. She tried her hardest to resist because she knew she was a science experiment to them, and they were having fun with her as the need for the drugs that would ease her pain grew more intense as it became more excruciating. The squirming she was doing only irritated the tubing and the pain grew. She cried out for help, and for home but no one heard… Help me, please. What are you doing to me, because this is not me, she wanted to whisper if she had the capacity to say the words as she wanted to sleep but she couldn’t sleep without the drugs because her brain was too fuzzy and clogged?

“Well, well, Elizabeth Guerin we finally meet?” came a voice from nearby as a man came near. Her hope that he was be her rescuer was misguided. “We wanted your friend, but I say you’re you are the best one to deliver the final blow to your father and his friends, so they realize they messed with the wrong guy.”

The pain in Elizabeth body and mind was getting overwhelming as she was crying out of the drugs. “You need your pain medication, don’t you?” he laughed. “You’re feeling a tremendous amount of pain aren’t you,” he whispered into brain and she wanted to scream yes. “Surrender to the pain Elizabeth because you know you want to do it,” he whispered. “Surrender, that is what you want most, right?”

‘You know the embarrassment you’re going to give your father when he gets a look at you” the man asked. “You were Daddy’s warrior princess weren’t you, and the mini version of him and now you’re aching for my medication to help you, while strung out doing whatever I want so that I give you the drugs you need” he whispered. “Your Dad can’t help you now and he will be so disappointed that you weren’t strong, and you will be a major disappointment to him. You might not be a slut like your friend and brother but you’re going to do a world of good for me you know because nothing is like showing the world what kind of piece of meat you are… No one can help you now. All you need to do is surrendered the pain and take the medication like a baby you are, right? A baby needs her bottle and Elizabeth needs her plunger of medicine, doesn’t she?” he seductively asked as he was holding up the plunger of morphine and other drugs that provides her a toxic mix of surrender from her abilities.

“Yes,” she whispered to her brain as she surrendered to the pain and then the medication as the man plunged into the nose feeding tube and she quickly surrendered to the bliss that the drugs gave her as her brain forgot all about the threats against her family and the science experiment they were doing with her body. She fell unconscious.

“Perfect,” the main smiled and muttered “I warned you Guerin that we will win.”

As Elizabeth laid with eyes open as if she was blissed out and strung out in the best place in the world to her, the land of no pain.

“You really hate her father, don’t you?” came the voice behind him.

“He sentenced me to life on this planet” said the man… “He didn’t give me the Granolith and let that bitch Tess Harding get it and allowed that bitch Courtney to sacrifice herself while destroying my skin. You know how hard I had to do to maintain this skin?” he asked out loud. “Now I have to do Khivar’s bidding because I can’t leave this planet. But destroying Evans and Guerins will finally get be there, if I deliver what he truly wants…”

*

“Oh my god,” Isabel woke from a startled trance in bed as she had tried and managed to make it into Elizabeth’s mind for a quick minute before she surrendered to the drugs and her brain closed to invasion.

“It’s Nicholas. He is truly behind Elizabeth’s kidnapping!” she whispered out loud.
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