“Daddy I am sorry,” Elizabeth tried telling her father as she came downstairs after taking some time away from her father’s eyes upon returning from working at the Crashdown. “I know you are very disappointed in me,” she asked as she sighed at the memory of her brother’s disappearance. “Did Mom get off alright?”
“Yes, she did,” Michael said as he chopped the tomatoes for the dinner he was preparing him and the kids. “And yes, I am disappointed in you, but I also know you were only doing what your brother asked, you to and I can’t say I disagree with that decision although one of these days you’re going to have to realize that giving up relevant information is only better in the long run. Your brother is eighteen and can take care of himself in most situations, but he also has rarely been out of Roswell on his own. And going alone with Grace is a big deal and we’re just worried for both. We know he wouldn’t hurt her, but one never knows what they would find out there on their own.”
“Look I know Dad. But it’s just Jake and Grace. I made a promise.” Elizabeth said as she helped her father chop the tomatoes. “But you’re right I guess I didn’t think of it like that.”
“No, you didn’t. You were caught up in the romance of it all. Two teenagers taking off for the weekend; away from the disapproving parents and the pressures of high school and blowing off some steam and just having some fun. But it’s the real-world Elizabeth and one of these days the fun will burn, and trouble will ensue.” Michael said as he threw the tomatoes in the big pot on the stove and not trying to remind himself of how hypocritical for him to be sprouting these words to his daughter when he, Max, Isabel, Liz and Maria rarely followed the same advice and had gotten in much more dangerous mayhem.
“Do you think Mom and Uncle Max will find them?” Elizabeth asked as she moved to getting the cheese out of the fridge.
“Hopefully but we do know that the chances that they are still in Boston are one in a million at this point. It’s pretty much finding a pin in a haystack at this point unless we know where to look. So, are you ready to tell me where they are going?” Michael asked as he looked up at his daughter and saw the conflict on her face. “Isn’t it better we find them?”
“They do plan to be back tomorrow night anyways,” Elizabeth said.
“Oh, I realize that because your brother is many things, but he isn’t that stupid, but wouldn’t it be better for your mother and Max to find them and make sure they are alright. You never know what might happen far away from home. They could get into trouble. We all know Grace has abilities and she is probably pretty powerful given she is Max’s daughter but that still doesn’t guarantee she won’t get into trouble and if that were to happen, your brother will only be able to help up to a point.”
“I don’t know where they are staying. And they probably have left already” Elizabeth warned.
“Just tell us Elizabeth. What do you know?” Michael asked as he transferred the pasta from the pot and into a dish for the oven. “Just tell me. Your mother needs all the information she can get even if they aren’t there anymore.”
“Fine, they were heading to Yale University.” Elizabeth blurted.
“Yale?” Michael asked astonished as he had no idea that his son was even interested in that university. It was more Grace’s speed than his son’s,” he asked as it dawned on him. “This is about Grace, isn’t it?”
“How did you know?” Elizabeth asked as she sat down at the kitchen table and looked at her father. “He wanted to surprise her with a glimpse of her future. To show that there is something out there. That getting out of Roswell was possible.”
“Only your brother would do something so ill advised,” Michael muttered. “There are other ways to show what she has waiting for her once she’s outside of Roswell.”
“But it is Jake and we all know that he couldn’t resist!”
“Thank you honey for telling me the truth,” Michael said as he hugged his daughter and went straight to the phone and goggled the location of the university as he waited to connect as he hoped Max and his wife will have landed in Boston; dialing Maria’s cell phone, he got no answer, so he left a message. “Check out Yale University because Elizabeth told me that is where they were headed. I googled it and it’s located in New Haven, Connecticut. Call me to let me know you got there safely. I love you.”
Hanging up, he turned to his daughter and hugged her once more “Thank you sweetheart.”
Elizabeth nodded and, so she left the kitchen as she prayed her delayed silence hadn’t done harm to her brother and best friend as she headed for her bedroom to call Sue.
*****
At the exact moment, Michael was making the call to Maria’s cell phone; the plane was landing at Logan Airport in Boston. “Are we ready?” Max asked as they took their bags and walked off the plane into the airport.
“Ready as we can be I guess.” Maria smiled as they went to the rental counter to get a car as Max had arranged for a reservation before they departed Roswell, so they walked up to the counter and Max spoke to the woman in charge as she went to work on the computer. “We’re here to pick up a car under the name
Evans?”
“How long will you have the car as it doesn’t say on the reservation order?’ the woman asked.
“It’s hard to say,” Maria piped into the conversation. It could be a day or even longer. It’s an emergency.”
“Okay,” the woman said as she punched in the information and finished off the form. “Is this your credit card?” she asked Max.
“Yes,” Max said as he okayed the credit card information he had given over the phone. “We are curious. Were you working yesterday afternoon or evening?”
“Yesterday evening. Why?” the woman asked as she stared at both Max and Maria.
“Did you happen to see two teenagers come in here? It would be a boy and a girl?” Max asked. “The boy would have been renting the car.” he asked.
“Maybe. We often get teenagers in here” the woman said. “Can you describe them?”
“The girl is small in stature, long brunette hair. And the boy is slightly older and has dirty blonde hair.”
“Hmmm,” the woman though. “I don’t think so. But then I see so many teenagers come through here with families or even alone so it’s hard to say. I am sorry if that is no help. Why are you interested?”
“Our kids decided to take a weekend away from home without permission. So, we’re trying to find them.” Maria said. “Can you check if you have a certain credit card number on file? You always have them on file right if a car has been rented?”
“Yes”, the woman said. “In case there are any issues that arise over the time of the rental.”
“Can you check this number for me,” Maria asked as she recited Jake’s emergency credit card number. A credit card she and Michael had given Jake for his sixteenth birthday in case something happened, but they never imagined he would use it to finance his weekend getaway.
“Yes, that number is in the system.” the woman said after typing in the number.
“Is it possible to know where the car is heading? Did they give a destination?” Max asked the woman who shook her head. “Is there anything at all?”
“Just that the car would be returned at this rental agency tomorrow,” the woman said as she punched for more information. “Do you still want the car?”
“Yes please,” Max said as he signed for the rental as he silently cursed at the lack of information. “Thank you very much” he smiled as she he took the keys and headed off with Maria next to him.
*****
“Aren’t you out of here?” Dr. Alyssa Davis asked as she walked into the second trauma room. “Don’t you want to get out of here and spend some time with your kids?” she asked as she saw Beth was writing some notes in a chart.
“I have fifteen more minutes,” Beth said with a chuckle. “And anyways the kids are at a basketball game this afternoon.”
“Excuses, excuses.” Dr. Davis smiled as they walked out into the full emergency room just as a gurney with a teenager on it was wheeled into the emergency room. “Since you’re almost off, why burden yourself with a new admittance. Do you want me to take this one?”
“No, let me check on the patient and run the history and when I am off I’ll turn it over to you to handle,” Beth said as she rushed towards the gurney and asked the paramedic rushing into the room. “What’s wrong?”
“A teenage girl found unconscious on the campus of Yale University. She hasn’t been conscious enough to be able tell us her name,” the paramedic said. “When lucid, she’s complaining of stomach pains.”
“Are you with her,” Beth asked the teenage boy when was walking with concern on his face behind the gurney as it was wheeled to a bed.
“Yes,” Jake said.
“What’s her name?” Beth asked she took notes for the chart.
“Grace,” Jake said reluctantly. “She seemed fine. We were touring the campus and I went inside a building for a few minutes to go to the bathroom. She stayed outside and as I came out I noticed she collapsed. She woke up for a few minutes as paramedics arrived. But she hasn’t been able to speak.”
“How old is she?” Beth asked as she made notations and looked at the patients as she was moved onto a bed.
“Sixteen” Jake lied.
“Where are her parents?” Beth asked as she hooked the patient up to an IV and some preliminary machines while looking at the patient.
“It’s just her Dad,” Jake said as his face turned pale at seeing Grace unconscious. “And we’re just visiting as we’re from out of state.”
“Were there any drugs taken?” Beth asked.
“No. She’s not into that. She’s very healthy. She’s an overachiever you can say,” Jake said.
“Well overachievers have been known to take drugs, especially if they are faced with a lot of pressures and burdens within their family?”
“She’s very close to her father. He’s a great father. He doesn’t pressure her.” Jake said as he defended Max to the doctor.
“That maybe the case but your friend is unconscious after complaining of stomach pains,” Beth said as she had an intern take some blood. “How close are you two?” she asked.
“Are you her boyfriend?”
“No,” Jake said genuinely. “We’re just good friends.”
“Do you know if she is sexually active?” Beth asked as noticed her stomach was unusually tender.
“No” Jake said as he squirmed at the question as if he dreaded having to answer it. “Um, I don’t know. I don’t think so…um, well, maybe.” he said quietly as Beth looked at the boy as she assessed the situation. She could tell he was genuinely interested in the girl, but he was being honest that they were only friends.”
“Call her father?” Beth said as he scooted him out of the room, so she could make a more detailed examination of the patient as Dr. Davis came in. “Do you want to help me. A 16-year-old complaining of stomach pains. She’s been unconscious a total of twenty minutes after briefly waking up as they were loading her into the ambulance.”
“Sure,” Alyssa said.
“Be wary of the boy,” Beth said as she checked the patient over as Dr. Davis was taking notes for the chart. “He’s hiding something. Keep on him to call her father. Something tells me there is more to this situation.”
“You think they might be runaways?” Dr. Davis said as looked at the chart.
“You never know and oh, run a pregnancy test on the blood,” Beth advised as she completed the examination and turned the patient to Dr. Davis and was prepared to leave the room when the patient started muttering herself as her eyes opened as she came to… and piercing eyes stared right at Beth…
“Mommy,” Grace asked before falling asleep again.
*****
“Get out of here Tommy,” Sue said as she took a seat in the Crashdown. Elizabeth was no longer working but was at home being punished for lying to her father, so Sue was a free agent and was taking a break from studying. Although she immediately wondered if she should have stayed in her bedroom listening to music and pondering her homework as she wasn’t happy to see Tommy Ellis come into the restaurant and sit down at her booth. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Where is Grace?” Tommy Ellis a classmate in the same grade level as Sue and Grace. His father was a budding politician who would be announcing any month now he planned to seek a senate seat from New Mexico while his mother was the district attorney for Roswell and Tommy took on the fact that he was the current DA’s son to heart with his bad boy attitude in both life and school.
“She doesn’t want to talk to you,” Sue said as she looked at the menu even though she knew what she would have. “Get lost Tommy. Take the fact she’s staying away from you as an answer and leave her alone.”
“Did she really run away with Guerin?” Tommy asked.
“That is none of your business,” Sue said as she saw that Mrs. Deluca-Valenti was coming towards them.
“It is my business,” Tommy said. “We have a thing.”
“You don’t have a thing Tommy,” Sue said with a sigh. “Whatever you had with Grace that night was because you got her drunk.” she warned. “Leave her alone or I’ll go to the authorities or her family and tell them what you did.”
“They won’t do anything,” Tommy laughed. “She wanted it.”
“What is that Tommy,” Amy asked as she walked to the table. She knew her husband Jim felt Tommy was a punk and a criminal in training. And could be the one to derail any politician dreams his father had in the future with his actions. “Who wanted it?”
“Nothing Mrs. Valenti,” Tommy said before sinking away from the booth.
“Thanks Mrs. V,” Sue said as she gave her order. “He’s being a pest and has been giving Grace a lot of headaches lately, and he couldn’t help but question where she is…”
“He is?” Amy asked a little surprised as she eyed the boy as he was leaving the cafe. “I didn’t think Grace liked him.”
“She doesn’t,” Sue assured Amy. “It’s just he doesn’t take
No for an answer. If she wasn’t going to extremes this weekend, I would think her little diversion this weekend was needed away to get away from the prying eyes of Ellis.”
“Really... well, that surprises me?” Amy said as she muttered to herself as she walked away to place the order.
******
Max was driving towards New Haven. Once they had gotten into their car; Maria had checked her cell messages and learned of the message from Michael and told Max that the kids were headed to Yale University.
“Only Jake would take Grace all the way from Roswell to Connecticut,” Maria muttered as Max paid attention to the road.
“I do know Yale is one of her dreams,” Max was saying.
“A dream come true I am sure,” Maria was saying just as she heard her cell phone in her bag ring. “Just a second” she said as she reached for her cell phone. Answering it, “Hello” she asked, and her blood pressure spiked when she heard who it was, “Jake.”
Max stopped driving at the mention of the caller and thought wise to pull off the highway and stop at the side of the road as Maria took the call.
******
“Mom” Jake was saying outside the front door to the emergency room. He had been resisting calling Grace’s father because he knew the reaction; hell fire. But immediately after seeing Grace, the new doctor on Grace’s case was insistent that Grace’s family needed to be called. Jake was unsure. But he also knew that Max needed to know so he elected to call the Evans home where he received no answer. So, he went with his gut, and decided he needed to call his mother. “Do you know where Max is?”
Squirming Jake looked through the window. Grace was in a room being observed. She wasn’t awake. The doctors were running tests to determine what was going on. Not knowing what was going on scared him. Coming out after a bathroom break and seeing Grace had collapsed on the campus of Yale had scared him to death. More so than the reaction he feared would come from both his parents and especially her father.
Knowing she was now in the hands of doctors given her secret status unnerved him. But focusing on the matter at hand, the call, “What?” he asked. “You and Max are coming towards New Haven?” he asked.
I should have known they would be on the first flight to New Haven when given any information of where he and Grace were. Or maybe they’d gotten Elizabeth or Sue to crack. He couldn’t help but wonder which of them cracked.
Sue, most likely. Elizabeth would have held out until she couldn’t any longer. So, it might have been both in some way or another.
“I am okay,” Jake insisted. “But it’s about Grace. She’s in the hospital. You must get Max here quickly. We are at the New Haven Medical Centre” he said. “Grace collapsed when we were at Yale today. I don’t know what is going on. They won’t tell me anything given I am not family, but the doctors are taking care of Grace right now.” he said.
“I am sorry,” he insisted. “Yes, I’ll stay here as I am not going anywhere until I know what is going on with Grace,” he said before hanging up after being assured that they were a couple of hours away.
******
“I am going to kill him,” Max muttered as he put the car in drive as he turned a brutal U-turn and headed back to the highway and picked up speed as they headed to New Haven. He had to be sure his little girl was okay.
To make sure he didn’t lose her
too…
*****
“Mom,” Alexandra said as she and Carrie got in the car after Beth arrived at the auditorium to pick up her daughters so that Serena wouldn’t have to drive them home. “You missed a thrilling game. Jonathan scored fifteen points and was the winning point.”
“Wow,” Beth said with a smile at the twin’s enthusiasm as they drove out of the parking lot and headed for home as she marveled at how tight her kids were with Serena’s kids and she treasured that friendship as she treasured her own with Serena. She was grateful to have someone when she was in the hospital who understood her and was there as her ambassador while she recovered, and in the aftermath as she struggled to make a life for herself and her daughters “I’m sorry I missed it. But work did beckon.”
“How was the hospital?” Alexandra asked as she looked at her mother. She sometimes wondered if her mother worked too much. And had too much burden as a single mother and wondered what would have happened had the accident that now defined her mother hadn’t happened. But she also knew her mother loved her job and being a doctor was important work and a passion for her mother. Alexandra still didn’t know what she wanted to do when she was older, but she wished that it would be her passion like medicine was for her mother. She knew she still had time as anything could happen to entice her in one direction or another….
“Tiring,” Beth smiled. “There were plenty of patients and unfortunately I was working in the Emergency Room primarily for much of the day.”
“Aw...” Carrie said. “That’s a lot of death, isn’t it?”
“Fortunately, I didn’t have any patients die on me today. Although some unfortunate young people came in.” she said as she thought of the last patient she observed before turning it over to Alyssa at the end of her shift. When the teenager called her
‘Mommy’ and it had rattled her until Alyssa literally pushed her out of the room.
She told herself the reaction of the girl was some delusion due to whatever medical problem she was suffering from and not to take seriously. But it dug deeply in her subconscious and made her realized she did have a past of some kind, and she had no idea what it entailed. It scared her… Shuddering silently; she turned back to her kids. “Is that an enjoyable book?” Beth asked Alexandra.
Alexandra was reading
Shock and Awe, as they drove home. Eying her mother, she nodded. “I know its fiction. But it’s so clever and fascinating. If only life had been this bizarre. It’s crazy to think of the FBI would have the nerve to disrupt a high school graduation on the grounds of finding aliens. But luckily they were too late as the aliens had caught onto the plan and escaped just in time.”
“Crazy,” Beth laughed. “But I am sure it sells books and hooks readers.”
“They should make a television show about this,” Alexandra observed as she closed her book and looked at Carrie who had fallen asleep having had a long day of swim and dance class and then the game.
“What’s for dinner?” Alexandra asked.
“Let’s order in so you guys pick what you want.” Beth said as she felt too tired to cook anything. And leftovers felt too ordinary for tonight. “We can order dinner and then watch a movie later. Does that intrigue you?”
“Sure,” Alexandra said. “Can we have Mexican? I want something spicy.”