Family Matters (CC, Mature) - Chapter 88 - Completed - 01/10/2024

[Parker1947]

Meanwhile,
The Roswell Sheriff Department

“You have reached the Sheriff’s department, how can I help you?” came the voice of Crystal Holmes as she sat in the receptionist’s chair because she was taking over for the deputy who had a medical appointment, and by some lark, it was decided that she could pick up the phone when it rang because she and Tripp had not come here looking for this to happen. And they did not know what was going on up the street.

Because it has not risen up to their level yet.

And because Archie was not wanting company, and Crystal was liking the time she was spending with Tripp. It was better than finding the next bus to go home on she thought because she was not confident that she could stay onto Monday. The way my brother’s life is going she thought, I might be on the next bus home she muttered.

It did not matter if the next one to leave his town was not onto Monday. Archie would think of something she thought. If he put his mind up to it. So, she decided the better policy was to stay away from her brother, and plus, he is annoying when his in a funk she thought and it was not like she could deny him the period of funkiness, he has earned it.

Because I would not want to wonder what was going on Crystal thought. Because my life is much simpler, she thought. So, she and Tripp had toured around town. And found themselves stopping at the station to take his grandfather for lunch. Even though he was supposed to be seeing his grandparents that night.

Tripp had told him I am not convinced it will happen she thought. Crystal did not know enough to know whether to believe him or not. Because Tripp felt something was happening, and it was colliding towards them.

So, checking in with the Sheriff’s department was a wise.

But Jim Valenti did not have time for lunch. He was busy on some case or something. Which Tripp found amusing because if it does not have origins in the alien human case file, this town is very tame he muttered but he did not know what his father went through each day. Yes, it was calm, but there were days like this, one thing after another.

And one more reason he was looking at retirement.

But that day was not coming yet.

When there were days this one, and he did not even know what was transpiring up the street. “Are you sure you know what you are doing?” Jim asked as he stood by his grandson, and looked at the new receptionist for the day, as he looked at his grandson who he had drafted to help with the IT, because the computer system was on the fritz, and it was as antiquated as ever, Grandpa you need to modernize Tripp would constantly tell his grandfather when he was drafted into matters like this, but for some reason Tripp Valenti was able to deal with the old technology better than his grandfather.

At least they are not computers that were around back at the end of the last century Tripp would think. As Jim would only laugh at his grandson, and tell him, it is a lot better than it was once upon a time.

Tripp believed him, but he had to believe there were other people who could help out. But it kept him around, and when Crystal picked up the first phone call, she was drafted into helping until the deputy returned.

Crystal was finding she was a people person. She liked talking and taking messages. Tripp only laughed, and continued to work on the computer that was on the fritz. And when his grandfather asked him the latest question, he looked up, “Of course, I know what I am doing” Tripp murmured.

Of course, he had doubts about it, but he was not about to voice them to his grandfather. Like his father, you only present a side that does not add to the questions, “Crystal needed a friend,” he muttered. And plus, it is better than crushing on someone who is taken, and in in the middle of a break down he muttered as he thought of Claudia.

“Is she really headed home on Monday?” Jim asked.

“That is the plan,” Tripp muttered as he put his head down and focused on the task at hand, “Come on Grandpa, you really need to upgrade these computers” Tripp muttered. ‘I don’t know how keeping the office in the old way helps this new world we are in?”

“It is hard to change,” Jim muttered. “Maybe you are right, but what is working is working right now,” he sighed. Remaking this office will be the job for the next guy he would think. But he was not ready to call it a day.

Although that day would come.

“I am not sure about that,” Tripp muttered as he finished up. “If you got new computers, you would not need to draft me into this work?”

“Then you would not get the extra money for that college fund of yours,” Jim said with a laugh. Knowing the one thing his son had done was getting that college fund going from birth, and fortunately he has not had to dip into it he thought, unlike me with Kyle he thought. Not that Kyle had much of a college fund because of the times, and they believed if he would go, it would be in sports they both would think.

Unfortunately, an alien invasion changed that they both knew although Kyle knew he could not totally blame that because his life changed a lot before graduation, and any money he did have for college had to be spent to keep the roof over their head, and why I had to spend senior year working he muttered. At a job I hated.

“I can find money elsewhere. And I do work for Dad you know.”

Thankfully. “But it’s slow, right?” Jim asked.

“At the moment,” Tripp acknowledged. “But there is always business coming in, but it is slow right now. And that is assuming Dad can get the Crashdown job, then there might be work coming. But they are still in the talking phase,” he muttered. All they are doing is talking on that one he thought. “And then there is talk about some kind of work at Kyla’ grandfather’s place.”

“Max’s place,” Jim muttered, a completely bizarre situation he knew. He had not talked to Max about it in a few days, and therefore he did not know if Max was holding what he had known of Liz’s situation against him, but he doubted it, I knew, but I also did not know at the same he sighed.

The fact that it was quiet made him hopeful. But he also knew it was going to change one of these days.

It always does.

“Right,” Tripp murmured. “So, there are jobs, but they are not solid at the moment.”

Jim nodded.

“So, you have more time on your hands to spend with Crystal Holmes?” Jim asked. Because he had not seen his grandson with too many women since he had broken up with his former girlfriend. And he did not know how his grandson was looking at the new girl to town. “She does not live here.”

“I know,” Tripp smiled. “Relax grandpa. I can handle myself,” she sighed. “Crystal does not want to spend too much time with her brother at the moment,” he sighed.

“Is that not why she came to town?” Jim asked as he was just staring down at some paperwork that he had to do. And because he hated paperwork, but it was needed. Which is why he could not go out with his grandson and Crystal for lunch. And with his deputy out of the office, and his secondary out of the office, ill, he had to stay put to take any calls, if they were to come in, he thought.

Little did he know.

“Her brother is in a funk,” Tripp murmured. “Crystal is giving him space.”

“What’s up?” Jim asked, curious.

“Trouble with his girlfriend,” Tripp muttered as he thought of just who his girlfriend was, and how memorable she was, “Claudia Evans.”

Jim looked up at that, “Really?” he was asking.

“Yes,” Tripp nodded. “They knew each other back in Boston, apparently, although he does not live there anymore. He lives in Colorado,” he sighed. “He came to visit his girlfriend, and because everything has happened with her, they have found a cold spot in their relationship” he muttered, I don’t know how cold it will remain. “It does not help matters…” he sighed, but stopped…

“What does not help matters?” Jim asked.

“It does not matter to us,” Tripp muttered, and knowing they were all apart of it, in some way even when we are not. “You probably don’t want to know.”

“What don’t I want to know?” Jim asked of his grandson. “Is it something I should know?” he was asking. There is always a level of this drama, I am not in he thought.

“It’s just I know you don’t like thinking of Tess Harding,” Tripp muttered. Because he while he was in a dark about so much, he did know both his father and grandfather had bitter feelings about Tess Harding. And there is so much I don’t know he thought.

And he was right about that…

Tess Harding Jim shuddered. Because the memories were deep. Of that betrayal and how it caused problems for both him, but more so my son he thought. Kyle is very lucky that there is so much we kept under the table he thought. It did not make him happy to know how Tess had used his son and pawn in it, even if some of it might not have been her intended actions, but still, she willingly used my son to try to cover up for her actions he muttered, and it still dug on him, even today, nearly two decades later.

And had sent him on a spiral that took him a lot of time to dig himself out of. We believed that girl Jim thought.

So, the memories were still bright in his mind.

Thankfully, I was off the job Jim thought. At that time, he muttered, I don’t know what would have happened otherwise he murmured. But then he knew there was a lot that was wiped under the carpet, but the carpet had been lifted up for a moment there, and some of the dirt was exposed, and it cost me he thought. But I will take losing the job to save my son, and his friends.

Because his son would not be still in this world without them, but it did not mean he liked everyone one of them, and some of them were bad apples.

Unfortunately, they were right there in our midst, and we should have bought a clue, but we did not, so certainly, yes, Tess Harding brought back a set of complicated memories to the Sheriff, and he sighed, and Tripp knew this, even if he did not know everything but he knew enough to know just what Tess Harding meant to his family.

Without knowing everything, and the very something his father was trying to deal with currently. “Grandpa,” Tripp asked.

“I am fine son,” Jim sighed. “What is this about Tess Harding?” he wondered because he suspected it was something not that good.

Um, Tripp was not sure of what to say. Or should he tell his grandfather, it is going to come out, anyways he was thinking.

And so, he was prepared to tell his Grandpa. “It does seem as if…” but he was stopped by the presence of Crystal in the door. “Crystal?” he asked as he saw the newcomer.

“Ms. Holmes,” Jim asked. “Is there something?”

“Sheriff, you better take the call that came into the reception, because apparently your phone is offline, because they tried it first” she murmured as they all looked and yes indeed Jim’s office phone was off the hook.

Damn Jim thought, What calls are not getting through to me? “Those reporters were getting me pissed with their insistent calls, so I forgot that I took it off, to take a break,” he sighed, as he put the phone back into place, “What is it?” he asked. Knowing that his deputies were out, and it was just him. “Did they ask for the department, or just me?”

“Just you,” Crystal murmured. “So, you might want to take it,” she sighed. “It is your son.”

“Kyle?” Jim asked.

“Dad?” Tripp asked as he became alarmed. Not because he his father knew he was here, he does not because no one does he thought. Because he and Crystal had come here on a spur of a moment decision.

“What line?” was all Jim said, because he knew his son would not call the station unless it meant something, and was bad he thought, because I do have a cellphone he muttered, one of the old fashion types, that get the job done he thought.

But he knew his son knew how to contact him, if it was personal, he thought. “Crystal, what line?”

“Two,” said Crystal murmured.

“Thank you,” Jim said as he punched on the phone, and got to second line, “Kyle, son, what is it?”

And Tripp knew it was bad the longer his grandfather was on the phone, “Are you sure?” he was asking, “What did you see before hand, and after?” he asked, “Okay, I understand. Stay there. Keep Max and Liz there too, because I don’t need Max going off all alien on us until I know more of the situation,” he sighed, this is bad he was thinking, and there was no chance this would end well for any of them. Michael might not be here, but Max is no slouch he thought as he was pondering the situation as he got up from this desk, and reached for his hat, and his badge as he looked at Tripp.

“What is it?” Tripp asked as he looked at Crystal when his grandfather said the word, alien and he did not know if she was reacting to the odd choice of word or not but that was not his biggest concern, because something obviously was going on “Grandpa, what is it?”

“Claudia Evans was kidnapped,” was all Jim could say. “From the Crashdown.”

“What?” Tripp squeaked, and Crystal went pale.

“And Kyla was taken too,” Jim said. “I have to go over to the scene now,” he sighed. “Tripp, can you stay here until the Deputy Collins comes back,” he was asking.

“I want to come…” Tripp asked. “You might need me,” he asked.

“I don’t know what you can do,” Jim murmured. And it is not like you can help because like his son, his grandson was normal. Kyla was different.

But she was taken too, and therefore he did not know what was taken, two were taken he was thinking when considering Claudia Evans.

“I know we don’t talk about it, but come on, Kyla is my sister. I need to be there for Dad at least, and who knows what I can do…” he demanded. “Crystal…”

“I have to go find my brother,” Crystal murmured. “They might not have been talking, but he loves her, and I need to go tell Archie.”

“Go,” Tripp said as Crystal was pale and ghost like and ran off.

“Her brother…” Jim asked as his mind was elsewhere, but he was conscious enough.

“Claudia’s boyfriend,” Tripp murmured. “Archie Holmes,” he muttered, and any other thoughts of telling grandfather more of the situation was lost in the moment.

Jim nodded, “If you are coming, then let us go” he sighed, as he went and drafted a under seasoned deputy to take over, and he and his son went out to the company truck.

And drove up the street.

Unsure of what he would find.

*

They were not the only ones. Because while Jim and Tripp were heading to the scene, Crystal headed back to the motel. She jumped into the taxi she saw nearby, and she did not care if she did not have much, instead she charged it to the card. What Dad does not know won’t kill him she muttered to herself, and it is not like he won’t get the bill until next month anyways, so she did not care what her father was thinking…

While she drove across town towards the motel.

While across town, at the Deluca-Guerin household. Once Liz and JJ had gone off, Maria had gone back to work on setting her music set up in the basement while Lucy was zooming with an old friend from Nashville.

And when she was finished, she made herself down to the kitchen and was taking a brownie off the plate that was on the counter. She was starting to wonder what would be for dinner, or whether she should cook something because when her mother was in the zone, that was her music, even if it was just uncluttering boxes, and making sure everything was getting into the right spots, she can not come back and think about dinner and stuff like that she thought.

She usually had her father for those details, he is an awesome cook she thought. She supposed that was from his time as a fry cook at the Crashdown. That adventure had come up in many of a conversation over the years with her parents, as they told her that sometimes it takes many attempts to find the right path for yourself.

She also knew, the time at the Crashdown as an employee was more about making the rent on any given week. And not always being successful she thought. Of course, she knew she had a different life. She had a lot more freedom, and was able to more her father, or her mother and she should be grateful that they want her to take the opportunity they were able to provide for her, but I need more she thought.

Claudia has the right idea she thought. She wants the year off, to see more of the world. Of course, I am sure she wanted to spend more of that time in Colorado with Archie.

Lucy sighed, one more reason to know its wise not to get involved with anyone she muttered to herself, as she got out of her phone, and was surfing it, and getting ready to dial up her friend and see if she wanted to go to a movie or something.

“Good you are still here,” Maria murmured as she came into the kitchen. “I was thinking you might have gone somewhere.”

“Where was I going to go?” Lucy asked with a smile.

“Smart Alec,” Maria sighed with a smile. As she once more looked at her daughter and saw how grown-up Lucy was becoming. Talking to Liz before reminded how far they had come since their time last here in town. And now her little girl with blonde pig tails, was grown up, and very independent, and she was worried constantly about the future her daughter would undertake.

I don’t want it to go down the path I did, or Michael did she murmured as Maria wanted it to be easy.

Or easier.

“I don’t know,” Maria sighed. “As you have told me. You know this town.”

“Yes, I do” Lucy said with a smile. “Don’t worry, you won’t have to worry about me Mom,” she sighed. “I was just thinking about dinner, what do you have in mind? With you know Dad gone, it’s all on us” she asked, because she knew so many times, they had depended on her father to do the cooking.

I know how to cook Maria said in weak defense. It just was easier to have Michael do it, so I could stay at the studio longer, or do the odd errand after a studio session she thought.

Yeah, now it’s a different life she thought.

“I am not in the mood to cook,” Maria murmured.

“What a surprise,” Lucy said with a laugh. “It is always like this if Dad was on a case, and you happen to be home” she muttered.

“I was not that bad, was I?” Maria asked.

“No,” Lucy said automatically, as not to make her mother feel bad, but mostly yes, she knew. But she liked her life. She knew she had a radically different life than some of her friends, namely Claudia she knew, so she knew not to take it for granted.

And she wasn’t, I am not going too she sighed. “Where?”

“You pick,” Maria smiled.

“Chinese?” Lucy asked.

“What a surprise,” Maria said with equally smile. She knew her daughter’s favorite food was Chinese. While I tended to deal with more Italian cooking when I was young and having to cook, which is why I know how to cook she thought. Because I had to do it so many times when my mother was working at odd jobs, or out with the line of inappropriate men she would attract before she came to her senses and found Jim she muttered of her stepfather.

A man, who had she had not always liked. Those were the times she thought. We did not know what we were getting into back when this all started, she sighed. And started down a mess of a road, but one she did not regret, because it brought her today.

To her daughter, and to Michael.

She did not regret it.

Her mother found the right man for her. And she had found hers.

“Tell me when you want to eat,” Maria smiled. As she checked her own phone. “Downstairs is almost all ready.”

“Starting the music things already?” Lucy asked.

“No, just playing with it at the moment. It will be there when I ready,” she sighed. “It’s all so new being back here in Roswell again, after so many years, so I want to enjoy it some more. And be glad we have it as well as we do.”

“That we are not Claudia and her mother?” Lucy asked.

“Something like that,” Maria sighed. I so want things to be better for Liz she thought.

As she looked down at her phone, when alert came on. An Amber Alert because of the age of one of the missing, that was being sent to neighboring phones, uh oh she muttered. What now she sighed, because she usually just silenced these alerts, even though they are useful but when have we ever known anyone or can help the person.

“Shit,” Lucy muttered because she got one too. Damn it. “Mom, look” she said as she pointed down to the alert. “It is from Roswell?”

Oh god Maria whispered. Sure, she usually murmured that she knew most of this town, and sometimes that felt true because of her past with the Crashdown Café, but still, it was a different town today than it was back in the early 00’s so there was so much that was different.

Be on the look out for 15-year-old Mikyla Anderson, and an older teenager 18-year-old Claudia Evans, both of Roswell as they have been reported missing from outside the old Crashdown Café, after being spotted being forced into a car, and headed away from the main street. License plate unknown at this time.

More information to come…

“Liz,” Maria said with an utter cry. Shit

“Damn,” Lucy murmured. “I was just planning on reaching out to Claudia.”

Maria wordlessly picked up her phone and dialed a very familiar voice. “Are you okay?” she was asking of the person she had reached on the phone. “Thank god,” she whispered. “We will find them. But first, please, let me speak to her Kyle,” she said as she had called her best friend’s cellphone as they faced every parent’s nightmare, and even though Kyle was not father on record, still he is Kyla’s father she muttered.

“Are you okay?” Maria was prepared to ask, but she knew she was not talking to her best friend. “Max where is Liz, and why can I not speak to her?” she asked as Max’s voice came on the phone. “Where are you guys?” she murmured as she was trying to get a read of this situation.

“Okay,” Maria whispered. “We are coming over,” she declared as she hated to be told that Liz was too emotional to come to the phone. “But before that happens, has anyone reached out to Isabel or Michael?” she asked, “They might still be on the road,” she asked. “I think Michael was annoyed enough that they were trying to get as far as they could before stopping for the night,” she sighed as she hated now that Isabel was going to be so far away from Roswell. As Maria could only sigh when she was told, no, they were not able to reach either of them. “Probably than on the road. Michael hates to answer the phone when he’s driving” she muttered as she hung up and looked at her daughter.

Grateful to have Lucy at home. So, that she knew where she was. I was so worried about her; I was not thinking of the other two in their very limited gene pool she thought. And because Claudia and Kyla who were they were, she was hopeful this could all be mitigated without any life altering damage.

Although so much has been life altering, can anyone predict any of this Maria sighed. “They are over at the apartment, at the Crashdown,” she sighed as she faced her daughter. “I am going over there to be with Liz.”

“I am coming too,” Lucy declared. “I need to know what happened.”

“So, do I” Maria murmured as she and her daughter raced to get ready, and soon they were out of the house and heading over the apartment.

*

While Archie was in the dark. Literally, because he had been sleeping. Because he could not think of anything else to do. He was annoyed by life. And he wanted this to go away. And thankfully his sister was off on her own pursuits. He did not know how good it was for Crystal to grow attached to this town because he was prepared to maybe lose this town as soon as it became possible because as the hours went by, he was not sure Claudia would be coming around to his view on the state of their relationship.

Even though he wanted to call her. But something was preventing himself and so he was in the darkness, but finally ready to see daylight, when he got up and picked up the remote for the television. Because it was an old fashion motel. The television did not have a lot of channels, and you had to pay for anything more to be connected and he did not know how long he would be here, so he was not about to shell out for anything he did not need. When he had booked the place, he had been hoping that he and Claudia would patch things up.

But he was growing more and more away from that idea, and so he just wanted to stew and watch some television before he called for some takeout to be delivered.

But that was before he turned on the television and found himself staring in shock, at the breaking news.

Two teenagers taken from outside the Crashdown said the headline. As the reporters were starting to accumulate on the scene, but the camera was being trained on the now defunct restaurant. 15-year-old Mikyla Anderson, Kyla to her friends and her eighteen-year-old Claudia Evans were taken outside of the old Crashdown restaurant. A place that has been closed for the last year as the owners closed things down in the wake of the pandemic, and toll it was taking on the business and moved to a retirement community in Arizona, and it remained empty until recently when the owners, Jeff and Nancy Parker who were planning to sell it, and were unable too, chose instead to turn things over to their only child; daughter, Elizabeth Parker formerly of Roswell.

There has been talk of renovating and reopening the business under the management of their daughter.

Ms. Parker known as Liz to her friends had spent the last nearly two decades in various locations. Most recently, in Boston Massachusetts where she was raising her daughter Claudia, and her younger son Jeffrey James, nickname JJ. They had recently moved into the apartment above the restaurant. Which was her childhood home. But she and her son had more recently moved over to a local motel for various reasons, leaving her eighteen-year-old daughter, Claudia alone in the apartment to care for the place. A decision was made by the daughter, I am told.

Claudia is the product of her former marriage, to local resident Max Evans, high school sweethearts who broke up when their daughter was a baby. Mr. Evans is not considered a suspect in the disappearance. The young son, JJ is not connected to their marriage. As he was adopted after…

And it has turned out that the other girl taken is the eighteen year’s cousin, from her father’s side, and who would be 15-year-old Mikyla Anderson. She lives in town with her mother, Isabel Evans and until a year ago, her stepfather, Neil Anderson who unfortunately passed away at the start of the pandemic, of a sudden unrelated illness. Since his passing, she has lived with her mother and younger sisters. While also she had spent the most recent school semester studying overseas until recently, where she returned home.

It is unknown the reason for the kidnapping. And if they were targeted.

If anyone has any information to the whereabouts of the girls, please, call us… Or the local Sheriff department asks that you notify them as Sheriff James Valenti Jr. has taken a personal interest in the case.

And then the scene retreated from the reporter on scene as went back to watch of the old Crashdown Café, and the surrounding crowds. And Archie could not help but be in a state of shock and was staring at the screen, with his jaw dropped open, as he was willing the screen to tell him that this was all some kind of prank reality show, and that this was all a hoax when the door to his motel room burst open, and he twisted his head to see that it was his sister Crystal running in.

Not Claudia, saying it was all a joke.

Despite the room still be in darkness, Crystal could see the television was on now, and the channel was on the news, and she knew that her brother now knew what was going on. “You know?”

“Is it true?” Archie asked, as he prayed this was all some silly reality show.

“It’s true,” Crystal murmured.

“How do you know?” Archie asked.

“I was at the Sheriff’s Department when the call came in,” Crystal murmured, and she did not seem to see the strangeness of those words.

“You were at the Sheriff’s department?” Archie asked as he pondered that development. Mom and Dad won’t be happy to know that, especially Dad he muttered to himself. “What was wrong?”

“Nothing,” Crystal smiled. Oh “Nothing,” she promised. “Cross my heart,” she insisted. “I was with Tripp, and we were visiting his grandfather, because Tripp wanted to go out to lunch with his grandfather, but that did not happen, because the station was busy, so we were drafted into different jobs at the station as it was undermanned,” she sighed “Then the call came in.”

“So, it is true?” Archie asked.

“Yes,” Crystal nodded. And she sighed, because she knew how much her brother had wanted to think it was all some kind of cruel joke. “The call came from the Sheriff’s son, Tripp’s father; Kyle Valenti” she whispered. “Archie it’s true. Claudia was taken.”

Oh god.

“What happened?” Archie asked.

“I don’t know, because I left almost immediately and came here to be the one to tell you,” Crystal murmured. “Although it looks like the television was the one to tell you.”

Yeah, I was in the dark until the television did the duty Archie muttered. As he accessed his younger sister.

“How did you get here?” Archie asked, as he knew they were a serious walk from the main drag of town where every resides in this town, of course, “How did you get here?” he asked on loop. “Please don’t tell me you walked, or hitched?”

“Of course not,” Crystal muttered. “I am not that stupid,” she smiled. I am many things, but I don’t take rides with strangers she sighed, most of the time “Seriously Archie, I took a taxi.”

Oh, great Archie muttered. “You don’t have any money?”

“Some,” Crystal muttered, “But I used my credit card.” In this day and age, you can change to your hearts content.

“You mean Dad’s card,” Archie sighed. I am sure he is going to like that, but he had different problems. Bigger problems than what his father might think of his daughter’s actions, although she might get more of a pass he sighed. She is his princess.

Most of the time.

“Does that matter to you, now?” Crystal muttered.

It should Archie knew. But he had bigger issues. “Claudia,” Archie muttered.

“She is gone,” Crystal murmured. “I don’t know where, or how but she is gone” she sighed. “I think everyone is gathering at the apartment,” she sighed. “Because I am going by what Tripp had texted me.”

Archie nodded.

“What do you want to do?” Crystal asked, as she looked at her big brother.

“I need to go over there,” Archie asked.

“Are you sure?” Crystal murmured.

“I need to know what was going on, and how this happened” Archie said as he got up from the bed he had been sitting on. Because obviously he was a newcomer to this tale and did not know what it all meant for Claudia’s family. All he knew was, “I need to find Claudia” he sighed as he thought of what it all meant. “I guess we better call that taxi again?”

Crystal sighed, and nodded, and soon they were getting into the taxi, and was headed back across town, and wondering what was going to happen next.

[RoswellFan68]

From the hint a few chapters back, I think Nicholas' son is involved. He said his father and sister had dealt with Claudia's mom in the past. I don't know who else it could be.

I'm wondering if Archie has any of his mother's abilities. What are Lucy's abilities? Max doesn't have much help with Michael and Isabel away.

[Parker1947]

Meanwhile,

All the while the gathering forces were starting to become aware and move towards the restaurant. So that they could get some information. At the Crashdown. It was pure hell for Max and Liz. To be sitting alone, or it felt like we are alone and having not a clue as to what was happening. Or where their little girl was. Because Kyle had been too far away to get a license plate, and the people around on the bursting street did not have a clue to what they had seen happen, of course not, because it would have helped immensely if they did notice what was going on… and it was not like we were much better they were thinking to themselves as they had only happened on the scene at the tail end.

But still, on any other day than this one, they would have liked the oblivious nature of their town. Because it had allowed them to be able to live with Roswell with their remarkable set of secrets, and even after the events of two decades before, the town was blissfully aware what for some of their citizens, was a daily occurrence.

And even though it had for last bulk of years had been quiet, still, there was always risk. And that was why Liz had done what she was doing. And she could barely contain herself or to sit here when she knew she was at fault, I never should have come back she thought. I never should have put Max and everyone else in danger she thought as she thought of Kyla.

A fifteen-year-old was now out there in the wilds with a mad man. Although truthfully, they had no idea what was going on, but Liz figured this was all set-in motion with her decision to come back. Even though like this town. She had so many years of freedom. To have her career, and to have a normal life.

And to be a mother without risk of everything falling apart, and then she had decided to come back, and it had been one thing after another since she did come back to town. And now she was learning that the government was always watching. She knew it could be anyone. Absolutely anyone could have taken the girls.

I know there are enemies among our midst Liz thought I certainly saw them during my first stint in this town she muttered to herself as she sat grief stricken waiting for Jim’s arrival, when she would hopefully get some answers. But she knew, this was about her, and her decision to come back. Because as much as they did not know for sure who had taken the girls, she certainly knew why she had left this town in the first place.

And the deal she made. And that it had to do with the government not being happy that she had come back to town. Even though it was two decades later, almost and she had taken those years away from her former husband. But she had been warned, and I did not listen she thought, I try to reason it away and fall back under the spell of my intoxicating ex-husband, and the hold he still has on me.

But this is all my fault Liz sighed and said it once more out loud. “This is all my fault,” she whispered into the quiet of the room.

No one was paying attention to her mumblings…

Because no one was saying anything. Even though the television was on, and the same channel that Archie had watched was now on, and there was nothing new although Liz did not like nor did Max like having their lives all over the news.

But if it helps find Claudia and Kyla Max thought. As he heard the knock on the door, and he got up. And he walked to the door, and opened it, and found his father. “Dad?” he asked, and then he saw Jim. “Jim?”

Phillip and Jim who had only arrived within seconds of each other, and come up from downstairs together, neither discussing the matter at hand. After Max had known that he had needed to call Phillip and Phillip had come running because he had sensed there was trouble because of his in-progress call with his granddaughter, a call that had gotten interrupted, and Kyla was someone they both knew Max’s sister had trusted them to take care of her daughter.

And what do we do he thought. We let her get taken they both thought, as they knew this was not about their personal war with each other, because that was trying to have some peace in it, but this was different.

This was about family. And family was missing.

“Come in,” Max murmured.

“Have you called Isabel?” Phillip asked softly as he walked into the apartment over the Crashdown. And looked at the down faces, and the devastated face of his former daughter-in-law. And he knew she had to be thinking about how this all had begun, and that she had come back.

“We have tried,” Kyle said as he walked into the conversation. Still feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. I should have been there and seen more he thought because he had not been close enough, I was not able to see the license plate “Dad, Phillip” he said softly. “We have not been able to reach them…”

The two men nodded.

“We might not be able to tell them until they reach the first motel?” Kyle said softly.

“Oklahoma City?” Phillip asked, as he knew of his daughter’s plans.

“No, the latest thinking is that they were going to drive until they could not stand it anymore to be in the car…” Kyle said with a sigh. “They wanted to get as close to the destination as possible,” he sighed. “We have been trying their cellphones. Isabel usually does not have it hook up in the car, and it is usually in her purse.”

“Michael?” Jim asked.

“Probably not,” Max sighed. “He finds driving enough of a pain,” he thought. “Jim, do you know anything?”

“My people are looking downstairs, and around” Jim sighed. “As limited as we are the moment. Because we are understaffed at the moment. But my deputy should be here any minute,” he said, “Tripp is downstairs, having a look.”

“Is that wise?” Max asked of the teenage boy. Sure, while he did trust Kyle’s son. Still, this should be something that the professional deal with, not that we want so much of our lives open to the world he knew. The fact this is Jim’s town still helps greatly, Max thought And it is why we are not looking forward to the day that Jim eventually retires, officially and finally from the department.

Not that Jim has not earned his peace and quiet after years of taking our gruff Max sighed, But then there are days like this one.

To have a inside track who does not look at us with suspicion and doubt.

“I am understaffed at the moment,” Jim sighed. “My deputy should be here anytime now, and my other one was home sick. And because of the regulations. You cannot come into the office when you are sick, any kind of sick.”

Max nodded. The last year has changed daily working lives.

When there was a knock on the door, and Jim opened it, “Tripp?” he asked of his grandson. “Did you find something?”

“I found Kyla’s cellphone,” Tripp said softly, as he had it in his hand, but with his gloves on. “I know it could be evidence, but…”

“I will deal with it,” Jim sighed as he put his gloves on and took the phone. “Did you notice anything down there?” he asked. “Where was the phone?”

“Just that it was dropped with Kyla speaking with someone…” Tripp murmured. “It was in the back way, near the door.

The easy exit everyone in the room knew. A way to easily leave the restaurant back in the door without having to raise attention.

“It was me,” Phillip said as he came into the conversation. “I was talking to my granddaughter when our conversation was interrupted, by a sudden ending of the conversation. I think I heard some kind of shout in the background, but I cannot say that for sure, and then the conversation ended, and I thought maybe she had to run to catch the bus or something because she was over here at the restaurant talking to Claudia.”

Talking to Claudia Max and Liz thought as they worried for their daughter. Why?

As far as they knew Claudia had not wanted to know her Evans family.

Even if Claudia was eighteen, and able to handle herself, as Liz knew firsthand and was thanking for the self defence classes but still, she is so young she thought.

She could be anywhere.

They could be anywhere.

And it frightened everyone in the room as the door rang once more, and Phillip went to the door to open it, and found Maria and Lucy. As the forces were obviously gathering, or approaching…

“What is going on?” Maria asked as she walked into the apartment.

“Come in,” Phillip murmured.

“We don’t know anything,” Max murmured.

*

“But what do you know?” Maria was asking as she walked into the apartment. And it was unsettling to see the apartment full, but for reasons that none of these people wanted. Because two of their own were missing. And she knew they wanted answers, and desperately needed them too, as she had her own daughter by her side. Which was not what Liz had now, or Isabel, assuming she knew, and because she knew her husband was still on the road with Isabel.

Which meant that Michael and Isabel were blissfully unaware. To be unaware.

“Anything?” Maria was asking.

“I wish we knew,” Max asked.

“Anything Jim?” Maria asked of her stepfather. “Surely, you know something?”

“I was too far away from the car. All we have is second car that they attempted to use, but Claudia and Kyla gave fight, and he had to steal a second car, and put the girls in the vehicle, and sped away. I was too far away to do anything,” Kyle murmured with despair at not being quicker, or thinking more, I was so in my head, and I was not responding to the danger right in front of me.

“Sometime tells me that you would not have been able to do anything the people on the scene would have been able to do,” Maria asked as she glanced over at Jim, who nodded. Because they all knew this was set in motion, and there was little anyone could have done, unless they were right there, in the middle of it.

But we were not, the adult would mutter.

“Anything on the license plate?” Maria asked. “The alert did not have it included.”

“We did not have it right away, but once we had, we found out that they abandoned the car about a half an hour ago, outside of town, and moved onto a new car. Which means, they are god knows where,” Jim sighed.

“Damn it,” Maria sighed. But they cannot be that far, right? “And I assume you have not told Isabel and Michael?”

“We still have not reached them,” Max sighed.

“The one time we need to get a hold of them, of course, he choses to be out of range,” Maria muttered. “How is she?” she whispered as she looked at her friend, who was sitting on the couch. Staring into space, like a zombie. As if nothing interested her anymore.

“She is saying it’s all her fault,” Kyle sighed.

“It’s none of our faults,” Max muttered. Even though he did not really believe it. And wanted to take the blame for it himself.

“But it is mine,” Liz said as she could vaguely hear the people surrounding talking, and she wanted to ignore the talk until she knew where her daughter was. Where Kyla was, but she could not do it. She heard them say it was not her fault, when I know it is my fault, she insisted to herself. “If only I had not come back to this town.”

Phillip hated to think how they would have been if Liz had not come back to town. Max also hated to think of that idea, despite having more than enough thoughts on the subject of her original departure. “You could not have known this would happen,” Phillip sighed as he looked at his father. I would have been still lying to my son. “And we don’t know who took the girls. This could be a garden variety criminal undertaking,” he muttered. Not that makes it any easy to know he thought. As a former lawyer, he had seen all types despite his specialty staying mostly in the business realm.

But being the father of his son and daughter, yes, I know there are many shades of people out there in the world even if I never truly faced them in my practice he sighed, and there is so much I don’t know of my children’s upbringing he sighed.

But Liz was not going to take that as consolation because she knew this was not some local nutcase, deciding on a lark to kidnap two local girls, and run off to lord knows where. No, this has to do with me.

“It is all my fault,” Liz muttered for what was like the millionth time.

“Will you stop saying that?” Max asked softly as he turned to the woman who he loved, and someone who had his heart even if it was not perfect, and they were not together now, but they had a hold on each other, and it was a hold that was not going away, not anytime soon he muttered, we share a daughter together he would mutter to himself.

And she will be coming home Max murmured.

“You did not know this would happen,” Max sighed. So much has happened in the last week he muttered, has it been a week?

I don’t know if it has been… Max thought to himself, but it felt like a year, or an eternity.

“I knew this was a possibility,” Liz said softly as she got up from the couch and tried to resist the touch of her former husband. A man who had a hold over her, and an incredible touch, and magical hands, in more ways than simply being gorgeous she muttered to herself.

“How?” Maria asked, giving in to the idea that Liz could have stopped this, not that any of them really believed this she thought. This was a freak incident, right?

Of course, they had no knowledge of what happened. Or the events that led to this, or why Kyla had come to be here in the first place.

“They warned me, and I did not listen” Liz muttered.

“What do you mean?” Max asked as he glanced at the woman he loved. “How did they warn you?”

“There were two break-ins at my old house in Boston” Liz sighed.

“What?” Jim asked, as his eyes went up. How am I just hearing about this now? he wondered. Boston might not be his jurisdiction, but still, an escalation in events that would maybe lead to the abductions.

“Your old place?” Max asked.

“I rented it out,” Liz said softly. “Or that is the intention.”

“You did not sell it?” Max asked, not sure he liked the idea that his former wife might have a backup to go back to if she should leave this town.

“No, I kept it, mainly as investment property,” Liz sighed. “I did not know what would happen with coming back here, and really, I foolishly had this idea that Claudia might need a place to stay assuming I could get her to actually attend university next year,” she muttered. “It might get her to pick a future, and an education if she had a house to stay in,” she said with a laugh. “Even if it meant going back to Boston, because the Boston area had Harvard or some other esteem college. So, I found a renter, a couple, but they don’t move into the place until next month.”

“So, it has been empty since you and your son left?” Jim asked. “I understand Claudia had been staying with Jeff and Nancy in the Phoenix area?”

“Yes,” Liz sighed. “Since Christmas,” she sighed. “JJ and I have been living in Boston until I quit my former job, and started the move here,” she sighed. “And yes, the house has been empty, but I had my neighbors look in on it. And I was paying their teenage son to do any yard work, and the maintenance that he would not need his father to do,” she sighed. “Anyway, that was working fine, and then I got a call yesterday, and there was a break-in at the house.”

“Really?” Max asked.

“Yes,” Liz sighed. “And it unsettled me, to put it mildly” she sighed, and that is an understatement as she thought of her freak out the previous night, one freak out that should have taught me a lesson. “I tried to think that it was just a prank, because the house was empty, but there was a note left on the mirror, in red lipstick.”

“Is that not a little too made for television?” Maria asked with a mutter, as she listened.

“Go on,” Max asked even though he tended to agree with Maria’s assessment, but it was also starting to clarify a few things about his former wife’s conduct the previous night yeah, it tells me a lot he would think.

The message was, “You thought we were not watching, but we are, and you cannot protect them by going home,”

“Jesus,” Max thought as the other winced at the foreboding threat “But, I thought you had your freedom?” he asked. “That insane deal you had made was over with?” he asked even as he hated to think of the deal that had taken his wife and daughter away from him.

“It was,” Liz sighed. I was free she muttered. Why did they have to come back into the scene? “The last decade has been freedom,” she muttered. “I thought I was free. But they must have been watching?” she sighed. “I guess it’s this confusing world we are in,” she muttered even as she knew that was the kind word she could say about this world, whatever your beliefs were, this insane world, and it is growing more and more insane by the day.

“It does not mean that it was the same loons” Maria muttered. “Right?” she asked of her stepfather.

“I can’t say” Jim murmured.

Liz wanted to believe there was no connections, but she knew the reality of her situation. The eight years she had lived under the threat of the deal. “I want to believe it was some prank because it was an empty house, and some kids were having fun with it,” she sighed. “And I almost had myself believing it, and Max knows that I was spiraling last night.”

“Just a tad,” Max muttered as Jim and Phillip looked with their eyebrow raised as it was clarifying to them that Max had spent time with his former wife. Not that Phillip had not already had a little suspicion when he did not come home, there are so many places he would think.

“Claudia had a night to regret at Cow Patties and got a little drunk.” Liz sighed. I should have known it was happening, but she knew that it would not have helped the situation if she had, because it might have made things worse because of the tentative nature that was her relationship with her daughter, and how rocky it has been since coming here…

“A little,” Maria murmured. “A lot I would say,” she sighed as Lucy’s eyebrows now raised. Because she had not been told this little side plot. “And that is something I don’t want you doing, okay?”

“Don’t you wish I would,” Lucy muttered with a laugh. Because I would love to cut loose.

Maria could only sigh and shake her head. “Max, and I were there. Michael joined us for a little goodbye drink at the bar,” she sighed. “I had something to tell Max…”

“What?” Lucy asked.

“You already know what it was,” Maria said. “But I did not get a chance because of Claudia’s conduct,” she muttered. “Claudia ran out, and Max went after her.”

Max did not want to believe that might be the last memory he had of his daughter, It cannot be, right? “I had to rescue her, although she was only asleep outside on a bench, although she had some words for me before she fell asleep, trying to flee from me,” he sighed, “All I could do for my daughter was make sure that she got home safely,” Max sighed. “Which I did, which is why I knew she was in this apartment, safe and sound” he muttered. And that is the last memory that I have of my daughter he muttered in despair. “I went over to Liz at the motel, and we got to talking, and I told her what went down with our daughter, and I could see she was spiralling, and I was afraid she was going to run.”

I should have. “I was considering it,” Liz acknowledged. “Then Max told me about our daughter, and I got side tracked by dealing with her, and I almost forgot about the house in Boston,” she sighed. “And when I thought about it, I almost had myself believing that it was some prank,” she sighed. “And then Max, JJ and I were at lunch together.”

“Really?” Maria asked. That is interesting she thought. Speaking of JJ, where is he?

As if Liz could read her best friend’s mind. “JJ is in the bedroom, watching television,” she sighed as she wanted to believe it, but at least her son was staying away from this little scene. As she hated how she might have set up this scene but moving to the motel she sighed. I gave them a chance to grab my little girl she thought. Why did I have to relocate, because if I was here, they might have grabbed me she sighed.

That would be preferable to the alternative.

Maria only nodded.

“Lunch?” Jim asked.

It was a bright spot in my day Max thought, but now. “Yes, we had lunch,” Liz acknowledged.

“I happened to run into Liz and JJ after they left your place,” Max murmured to Maria. “I invited myself to join them for lunch because I figured that was better than for them to take takeout back to the motel?”

Liz nodded. I should have said no but I did not. “We had lunch, but then I got another call from my neighbor, Annie Underhill. She had been the one to originally tell me about the break-in, anyways, the call this time was about another break-in, but in the garage, with another message, very clearly written on the wall.

Jesus Max muttered.

“Don’t these people not believe in written down threats,” Maria muttered. “Email threats or something, instead, they go with the cliché?” the old fashion.

“What was the message, Liz?” Jim asked.

“We warned you, and you now must pay” Liz muttered.

“You shut down after that,” Max remembered. “I tried to get you to tell me what was going on, but you would not tell me anything about why you suddenly closed yourself off,” he asked. “Within minutes, we came on the scene, and here we are” Max murmured. “Like Kyle, we were too far away, and we arrived too late to be of any use in preventing what happened to our daughter, and niece.”

“This is why I say this is my fault,” Liz said. “I should have left town.”

“That would not have worked,” Jim sighed, I know Max, he would not have let you leave he sighed, and Maria had the same thought, now that Max has a chance, he was not going to let you leave she sighed, but she hated this situation for her friend.

“It would have prevented this…” Liz sighed.

“You don’t know that” Jim sighed. “Obviously, they had flunky deal with Boston, and were already in town, so they could do this, because the chances were that they were not going get between the two places that quickly. “They wanted to send you message, a warning, to make you believe you could have stopped this.” he sighed. “I have been dealing with this type of thing for a long time. Because we might be a small town. But I have been in this business a long time.”

“Regardless, I should have known that they would have been watching me,” Liz sighed. “I took the freedom they gave me these last ten years as way to move on, and to get back to some semblance of normalcy,” she sighed, If I thought this was not over, I might not have brought JJ into the family she murmured, and that would have been a great loss she murmured at all her son had brought to her and Claudia. “I thought I could raise my kids, and let them have normal upbringings, or as normal as I could,” she would mutter as she glanced at her former husband, who could only nod.

Because they knew their daughter was different.

“I doubt that would have made any difference,” Phillip sighed.

Liz did not want to accept that “This is because of me,” Liz sighed. “Today happened because I did not do what they wanted?”

Max was not having it, and he erupted “Hell with them, Liz, because you did what they wanted for eight years, and even another decade beyond that” Max muttered as he took his former wife’s hands, and glanced into her eyes, her beautiful eyes he murmured. “You stayed away from me, from Roswell, your parents, and you raised Claudia not to know her heritage or any of her backstory,” he muttered, and Liz bristled and winced, and withdrew her hands. “That is not a criticism for you,” he sighed, not in this instance. “You took them at their word that they would stay away, if you stayed away,” he sighed. “You have done more than what they asked of you, and you are not to be blamed.”

“But I came back,” Liz murmured. “I should have stayed away,” she sighed even as her former husband shook his head in annoyance “Even if I became burnt out by my life in Boston. The country is big one, and I could have gone anywhere other than this place?”

“And thank god you did,” Max muttered. “That you did not pick somewhere else. Because I have got to know my daughter, even if we were only in the beginning stages, but most of all, I got to know the truth about why my life blew up the way it did,” he muttered. Why I lost my marriage. “This is not on you. Because I would have come after you if you had tried to run away last night, or even at lunch, and today was not going to stop anything, because obviously, whatever was going to happen was going to happen because the world is too crazy, and things have been quiet on our front for far too long.” And we have been taking that for granted.

Liz wanted to protest.

Phillip shut that down. “They did not like that you fell in love with someone who was different,” he would sigh. “Your love for my son was something special, and he deserved your love,” he murmured as he glanced over at his son “You were protecting him at the time, and I admire that, even though I should have told my son the truth long before I did,” he sighed, “But these people don’t like that my son is different, and that you two have Claudia, and that she also might be different too. And they likely would have not been stopped even if you had left last night. Because this was in the water, and this was going to happen” he sighed before adding. “And we can talk about the connections to the break-ins back in Boston, but we really don’t know if that is why they took Claudia?”

“But it feels like they are connected,” Liz murmured. “And it is why I should not have come back,” she sighed. I was setting this motion.

“You were not going to stay away for long,” Maria murmured. “If it was not last week, it was going to be sometime soon. And with Claudia now eighteen, chances are she would not have stayed away,” she sighed. “You could not have prevented this…”

Liz still felt guilty.

“But how does Kyla come into this?” Tripp asked. “They have not cared about any of us, and I doubt they care now, but they still took Kyla?”

“I am thinking she might have been an unintended victim in this,” Jim was thinking as he was trying to understand more of the story. “The witnesses to the abduction could not remember much of anything, but from the statements I was able to take, we know Claudia was taken first, and Kyla came out of the Crashdown, and saw what was happening, and she tried to prevent it, and they took her too.”

“But why was she here?” Kyle murmured.

None of them knew, except maybe for Liz and Maria as they looked at each other and looked at Kyle. A look that Kyle could see but he did not want to deal with, as he walked to the bathroom, to try and reach Isabel one more time. And once he was gone, Liz and Maria could only look at each other and sigh because they did remember their discussion at the house, but it is not something to get into now they thought, because it does matter, they would think. But Kyla did walk in on it.

But that was before, there was a knock on the door.

“Is there anyone not already here?” Maria muttered. I mean those who are not already on the road.

Maybe not, as the door was opened, and they spotted Archie and Crystal standing there. Uh oh, as Liz immediately noticed Archie from the back of the room as she was pacing and blaming herself. “Archie?”

“Ms. Parker,” Archie murmured. “I heard.”

“Come in,” Liz sighed, Shit, I forgot about Archie she sighed. “So, you have heard?”

“Yes, I did, and I came along with my sister Crystal to find out what happened, and if I could be of some help?”

“I don’t know if you can do anything,” Liz said softly we are still waiting for some kind of answer, and to know how we can find the girls she thought to herself as spotted Kyle coming out of the bathroom, Shit she murmured. This is not what we need right now, but we are in this now. “But thank you Archie for coming over… Claudia would want you here.”

Kyle froze.

[Parker1947]

This is Archie? Kyle was asking moments later as he was come out of the bathroom. After another wasteful attempt to get through to the car. Why does Michael not answer the phone when he’s driving, he thought, but he also knew it could be Isabel who was driving, and her phone would be elsewhere, but Michael should be answering he muttered as he came back and saw two new people in the room.

Archie was said, and Kyle froze. Shit he would think. As he immediately saw the lanky young man but built out in more than his own son. Dark hair, and a little bit taller than either he or Tess had been as teenagers. My height has not changed that much he was thinking. Because on the surface, there was no real evidence to say this was Tess Harding kid, and maybe mine too Kyle could not help but think.

As the boy walked into the apartment. Kyle did not know how to respond. Why now? he was thinking. We don’t need this he murmured.

Liz was thinking the same thing. She was feeling overwhelmed, and couped up and with any real information I need some fresh air she muttered. But she admired that Archie had indeed come, it shows how much he cares. “Thank you, Archie, for coming, but don’t take it personally, but I need some fresh air,” she sighed as she rushed from the apartment…

And of course, Max went after her…

Which left Phillip, Jim, Maria, Tripp, and Crystal in the apartment together.

This is not the time for this Kyle told himself. We have to find Claudia and Kyla because who knows where they are he was thinking. As Maria was looking at him, as if she knows Kyle muttered.

Of course, she does Kyle muttered. Liz probably went to her because there is no way she would keep it in her confidence and he knew it was probably right that people did know, even though I have yet to fully understand it.

“Do you know anything?” Archie asked, anyone he could see.

“Unfortunately, no” Jim sighed. As he was trying to get an assessment of the newcomers in town, and I know Crystal, so I don’t have to wonder about her he thought as he looked at the older teenager, next to his sister.

“Sheriff,” Crystal murmured.

“I see you that you went and found your brother?” Jim asked as he noticed how his grandson had walked over to where Crystal was in the room. But his eye was the other teenager, someone I don’t know. “My name is Sheriff James Valenti Jr, but everyone in this room calls me Jim.”

“Sheriff,” Archie said. “My name is Archie Holmes,” the teenager murmured. “I have been dating Claudia,”’

“So, I have been told” Jim said. “You are over at the motel?” he asked, suddenly that place has gotten crowded.

“Yes,” Archie murmured. “But until yesterday, I was here in the apartment with Claudia,” he sighed, and grief was on his face. I should have been here he murmured. “I should have been here…”

“Why weren’t you?” Jim asked. “How long have you been in town?”

“A few days,” Archie sighed. Not caring if he was being interrogated or not, if this helps find Claudia, I will take it. “I live in Colorado. Doing odd jobs around the state in the off season, and I had a break in my schedule and so I came to pay a visit, and I was staying here at the apartment,” he murmured. “With Claudia?”

Interesting Jim thought. While Phillip found it also interesting, and given I know what I know he was thinking. This situation is bound to get very dramatic at any moment he thought, and almost was glad for his son not to be here, to witness it.

“Did her mother know?” Jim asked.

“Not at first, but she did become aware of it, but Claudia is eighteen, and can choose what she wants for herself, and because her mother was not staying here…”

You took the opportunity huh Jim asked. And knew most men would probably do the same thing if given a chance to visit their daughter. “How old are you?”

“Nineteen,” Arche murmured.

Only slightly older, okay “So, what happened to make you move over to the motel?” Jim asked.

“Claudia and I unfortunately had a fight, or she was mad, and I thought it would be better if I give her some space, and unfortunately, I was giving her a little too much space” he murmured. “And this happened” he muttered, “I should have called her.”

“Why didn’t you?” Jim asked.

“Dad,” Kyle said softly at the interrogation that his father was putting the younger man under. “Give him some space. I doubt that he has anything to do with the events of today.”

Archie bristled, of course not and was almost wounded to think that someone could have thought that he would have hurt his girlfriend. “I would never hurt her, I love her.”

“A lot of people hurt those they love,” Jim asked, suspicious of this newcomer. Maybe he should not be, but when you have known this clan as long as I do Jim thought New people are suspicious by nature of it, and especially if they have been involved with someone who had now gone missing.

“Dad, come on” Kyle murmured. “This is not going to help us find Claudia, or Kyla” he sighed as he could not help but look at Archie with different eyes, and Maria could not help but notice, and now she had new information, this is damn messy she thought, and no place for uncomfortable truths to come to light.

“Seriously, Sheriff” Archie murmured. “I love Claudia, and I have no reason to mess with her, because I know how much she wanted to be here, even if emotionally, it was tearing her apart, and still, I would have done nothing to hurt her,” he sighed. “We had a simple misunderstanding, and unfortunately, I gave her too much space.” Okay, it was more than a simple misunderstanding he knew. But he wanted to believe that it could be solved.

As much as Maria liked that Jim was putting Archie through his paces, everyone new coming into his story should be give his due she thought. We were certainly once upon a time she knew. Archie is normal. But not normal if you know the truth of the situation she thought, and she knew the Sheriff did not know the truth. Boy, this is going to be an awakening for Kyle and his father but still he looked at the young man and knew he was only doing what Claudia had been asking, she needed time. “You were doing what Claudia wanted,” Maria confirmed. “Jim, I was there for the unpleasant encounter, and it was all on the up and up” she sighed. “Liz was aware of the fact that he was visiting, and they have been dating for two years, and Liz has done her homework, and she trusted Archie.”

Jim nodded, as if he was believed his stepdaughter.

He did.

Years have taught him too…

“What was this misunderstanding about?” Jim asked.

“Jim, this might not be the time” Maria murmured. Because she knew this was the last thing that needed to happen, was for truth to be outed, and for more people to know, and Jim to know she sighed. Because she did not know what it would mean, because of our history.

But Archie was not about to be not trusted by the Sheriff of this town, and she had no reason to stay quiet.

“We had a slight misunderstanding because she became aware of information about me that surprised her, and she did not take it very well” Archie murmured. “And before you can accuse me of anything more. I was not trying to hurt her, or keep anything from her, but I just did not care to deal with it, until it blew up in our face, and blew a hole in our relationship,” he murmured as he looked around the room. “It so happened that I am adopted, and she found out who my birth mother is?”

“And that is?” Jim asked.

“Tess Harding,” Archie murmured.

Holy hell, that certainly brought the room to a standstill, as the name uttered brought curses from Jim.

And it was the response the teenager would think he would give, even if I don’t know much about my birth mother he murmured, but she is ghost around here…

*

Outside,

The crowds were not dissipating, and instead they were increasing which meant Liz could not go out front, instead, she stayed in the back of the family restaurant. A place that began a life altering journey and was the center piece in another drama. One that was beginning to unfold as she was feeling queasy and nauseas because of nerves and worry for her daughter. A baby that she had taken when she had fled from the love of her life she thought, as she knew what she probably was leaving behind upstairs, with the arrival of Archie. And the knowledge that Kyle was in the same apartment.

That is another story she thought, I just want some information she thought. I need something, anything.

I need to know where my little girl is she thought. This uncertainly was causing upheaval in her, and she did not know how to handle. When this is my fault, and I know the others are right, this was probably in the works. The only thing that might have prevented it from happening if I had not come back in the first place.

But in this political climate, who knows she thought.

Because anything goes these days, and it was a nightmare for her. It cannot seem right that the 90s were a better time she thought. But every generation has its own difficulties, and this was one she was in, and it was all coming back to haunt her.

I let them win by leaving in the first place, and now they have my little girl Liz sighed because she did not believe this was an ordinary abduction because Claudia has not been here long enough to rouse any local lunatic, this has to be about the past she murmured.

“Liz,” came a familiar voice.

Oh god Liz whispered. I don’t need to deal with him she thought of the man she left, the man she still loved.

“Liz?” came the voice as he came to her side, “Are you okay?”

“Am I okay?” Liz muttered. “Our daughter is missing, and it’s all because of me, no Max, I am not alright.”

“You are not at fault,” Max said as he could see the emotion on his former wife’s face, and he felt it too, this is inconceivable he thought. “You could not have known.”

“But I did know,” Liz sighed. “I knew they did not like this town. They did not want me with you, or our daughter, and I came back here, and I dared them to act,” she sighed. “I should have known that they would not have given me my freedom without putting a watch on me, and I walked right into their trap. And therefore, they are now making me pay.”

“What is their goal?” Max asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it” Liz sighed. “If only I had gone somewhere else…”

“And if you did, and Claudia still decided to come back, then we would have been in this situation Liz, because our daughter is eighteen, and has a mind of her own, and if it was not today, then it would have been eventually,” Max said. “Still, I am grateful you did come back, and you gave me a chance to see you again, and to know our daughter.”

“We might have lost our daughter because of my choices?”

“I don’t believe that we have lost her,” Max said softly. I cannot believe that he murmured. “I believe we will see her again. She’s our daughter and that makes her have a chance,” he murmured. “She might not have been raised around here, still, I know if she is anything like you than she will come out of this perfectly fine.”

“She is so much like you” Liz cried, as Max took her in his arms and hugged her. “She was so much like you.”

“No was okay,” Max said softly as he stepped away from the woman who had captured him so long ago, when they were so young, and he had not known any better except to know that there was something about that small brunette in the playground, and how she captivated him from that day on, even when I did not have stand a chance he muttered. “She will come home. Same with Kyla,” he muttered of his niece. “They are smart and strong, and they will come out of this okay, and you cannot let any negative thoughts into your mind, okay?”

Liz was unable to speak because she was afraid.

“Liz, come on, please allow me this belief?” Max asked. “Please believe me.”

“I want too,” Liz sighed. “But how can you be so positive?”

“Because I need to believe she will come out of this okay. Because hope is all I have. And I am expert at it because I had to deal with it before. Because you left me once upon a time. And I let you leave. I did not come after you except for the cursory look, still, I knew you guys were out there, probably safe, and that kept me going. And ultimately, you guys came back. And I got to see my daughter, and I know the kind of girl she is now, and while it might have taken eighteen years, I know that Claudia is part of us, and she has a chance.”

“Max,” Liz sighed.

“Don’t okay,” Max asked. “We will get our daughter back.”

“I hope so,” Liz sighed. Because she wanted to believe it with all of her heart.

“Good,” Max said softly as he held her hand, “Because Liz, they think they have won, but they have not, because will get her back okay, and this will all be over.”

“They have already won,” Liz muttered.

“No, they haven’t” Max murmured. “They think they have, and maybe we have allowed them too. But we are in this together, and we will find our daughter, and she will come home to us, and no matter what happens from now on, this is not twenty years ago. This is us now, and we can deal with it, because we know more than they do, and they are outnumbered okay,” he said softly. “I cannot know what the future is, but we have a chance here…”

“I hope so,” Liz murmured.

“Believe it,” Max said softly, as glanced into her eyes, and held her hand. “Believe me,” he said. “We will make it through this,” he said softly, as he and the woman he loved leaned in for a kiss, a simple kiss…

But there was nothing simple for these two, and it grew passionate, and it grew explosive…

*

Far from the city street that everyone was gathering, putting down flowers and candles. With hope that the two missing teenagers would come back to their family. Several hours outside of town, things were taking a very different and explosive turn as the missing teenagers were fighting a battle for their lives, and they were putting up a fight, and they were not going to be beaten as they raced through the woods. Miles from their homes, and where their parents were…

A car was stopped. After the initial car that was used for the escape broke down, I wonder why that was and therefore they found another one, and moved onto that one, and went more into the distance, and away from Roswell. And initially the girls had been drugged, and tied up, but they would not stay drugged for long, especially not if they were the people they were. Two very special young woman, who had abilities.

That only one of them really knew how to use. But the other knew enough to be able to use it, for self defence, because she had grown up figuring it out as she went, and she knew enough that she was not going to let the monster’s win.

And now they were running for their lives…

“Bitches,” screamed the man who had abducted them forcefully under the disguise of threats against their family, and other loved ones. “Come back.”

“Hell, we will,” Claudia murmured as she and the younger teenager raced through the woods, and she saw a clearing and a wooden house, with a chimney that had smoke coming out as the day was ending. The coldness of the day was starting to appear, in more ways than simply being about the temperature but they were red hot.

They had to be, because they knew how tenuous this was, and they were not going to let the bad men win…

“Come on, we are almost there…” Claudia murmured as she saw the clearing, and Kyla did too, and she started to increase the speed they were running, as they had to get over the barriers of nature, that already almost sent them tumbling.

And then there was a gun shot, and one of them down…

“Claudia,” Kyla screamed at her fallen cousin. As the older teenager fell the ground, and blood started to come out.

“I did not want to do it, but you made me,” came the man as he got closer to Kyla, and Kyla knew any escape was now going to have long odds of succeeding…

[Parker1947]

Thirty minutes before,

The running had started because the younger man got sloppy and did not see what his captives were capable of, and he foolishly had taken a second victim when his mission was only to pick up the older one.

Because the younger one was not their goal.

Claudia Evans was their goal.

And so, their captive had every incentive to want to get herself free, not only for her own safety, but for her companion’s sake, she is younger than me she knew. She should not be here she thought because she knew Kyla was only here because she had seen what they were trying to do to her, and they abducted her too.

And that meant Claudia had every reason to want to be free.

And she was too smart to let them get their way for long. She was not going to let them to get to her, as the car had stopped finally because she had been trying to use her abilities to slowly bleed the car of its roar, and she was succeeding, because she had gotten her hands free, and Kyla was making a show of it, too even though she had gotten herself free also. But once of them had to look like the man was getting her way.

And when the car finally stopped, and he had gotten out to look, and see they were unable to continue. So, he was on his phone, trying to get in touch with his partner.

Or the one who was issuing all the orders.

And he had to do the hard part.

Of getting to Point A to Point B in one piece. But it was getting to be pain because he had done this as a spur of the moment act, and had not really planned it, and it was going bad from day one.

Damn it the man said as he could not get through to the order man. And he was not looking as Claudia used her abilities to open the locked doors and get out of the car, and Kyla slid over as well and preceded to get out the same way, and they had run for their lives.

And had been spotted.

And the man had dropped his phone and raced after them.

*

Now,

The gunshot rang through the air. And their pursuer had used his gun as a last-ditch effort to get his mark. And the younger man never liked to use, it is the hazards of the job if you are working for Dad he muttered. He sometimes wondered why he put up with all demands, but he had done what his father had asked for, even though the old man had become more erratic with age, and the younger man had to wonder if he was all that competent.

But he used the gun, and the shot ran out and it hit its target, Shit he thought.

I am in this now he muttered. As if I was not already, he sighed because had abducted two females, and escorted them out of town limits, if not state lines.

Which saved him. But only marginally.

“You should not have run,” the younger man muttered as she caught up to his captives. Because Kyla was not going anywhere once Claudia was down on the ground. But she quickly could see the truth of the injury.

It was only a graze, in in the leg, hopefully she sighed. She did not have a lot of medical knowledge, but enough to know Claudia was likely just dazed, and would be alright. Still, she was not going to save herself at the expense of her cousin.

She was thinking of her family.

She was thinking of her mother, and sisters. Even Kyle. She had to figure this out. So, she stayed, and made it seem like the guy was catching up to them, and he was. “You should not have run?”

“No, I should have done this instead” Kyla muttered as she kicked the man in the privates and twisted out of his clutches, as the sessions of self defence was working, and she watched at the man yelled in fury pain, “This shows you that you picked the wrong people to take…” she sighed, as the touch of her hands brought out the electricity, and the man went down like a lump of coal.

Smiling.

“Perfect,” came the weak voice of the fallen. And Kyla leaned down and accessed her cousin. “Are you okay?”

“It’s only a graze,” Claudia muttered, with the same assumption as the younger teenager. But she had enough medical knowledge of years of being in the same house with her mother, a medical doctor if not in the end, as she ended her career as a researcher she sighed, I read the text books the daughter would think.

“You sure?” Kyla asked.

“Yes,” Claudia said, “Help me up,” she sighed as she ripped off a piece of sweater and tied it around her leg, “It’s just a leg wound, it’s survivable” she muttered. “Mom taught me a lot in her studies.”

“She did?” Kyla asked.

“She was a doctor in her past life,” Claudia quipped about her mother’s old profession. “Therefore, she had to go to medical school when I was young, and in the house when she studied,” Claudia sighed of her unorthodox childhood. “I learned a lot through osmosis,” she muttered. “From being in the same house, and going to some of her labs with her, when she could not get a babysitter” she sighed as she was helped up, and she found herself able to stand, but her leg was weak. “Hell, that hurts,” she grumbled with a wince. “Never been shot before?”

“I don’t think most have,” Kyla murmured.

I would not be too sure of that in this family of ours Claudia muttered. “Mom was,” she sighed. “It is how this all began,” she sighed. “I think your mother was too, although that incident was not elaborated on in Mom’s journal,” she muttered of the book that told so many stories but was quiet on so much of it.

“She was,” Kyla asked, surprised.

Clearly, they were not in on the many death experiences the older generations had faced in their lives as they looked down at their captive, who was like a light because of the electric shock he was given.

And our parents worry about us they both thought, maybe for good reason but we are still very capable. “How strong are you?” Claudia asked. “I am only going to be of so much use with this bad leg,” she muttered as she looked down at her leg, which she had steamed bleeding. It kills she thought.

“Strong enough,” Kyla murmured.

“Good,” Claudia murmured. “There is that house down the way, and I have a suspicion that it is empty,” she muttered, or I hope it is because it needs to be because I don’t have the energy to go much longer. “Let’s get him there, and we can deal with him there.”

“What are we going to do?” Kyla asked. “Once we get there?”

“I don’t know,” Claudia muttered. And it is the truth she knew. Her mind was muddled, and she needed to think, and she needed to be clear headed, and somewhere out of the realm of danger. “But I only have so much adrenaline left in my system to deal with this leg,” she sighed. “So, we better get going.”

Kyla nodded, as they with all their mite, dragged their captive the five minutes, or it was more thirty minutes by the time they got to the cabin because there was only so much strength Claudia had in her, and Kyla could only do so much.

And finally, Kyla busted through the door, using her own leg power, and thankfully, it was empty.

Thank god they both thought.

“God, I need to sit down,” Claudia muttered, as they dragged the guy into, the cabin and left him passed out on the floor, and the older teenager found the first chair, and sat down, that was a lot of work she thought. A lot of effort.

As she looked around and spotted the cabin, looks a little a little modern than rustic, she murmured out loud. “Check if the phone works.”

“Gotcha,” Kyla said as she picked up the phone, and found it working. “It works.”

“Good,” Claudia sighed as she took the phone, from Kyla and started dialing…

And before they could, the door opened, and someone familiar came in, and was shocked by who she found.

“Claudia?” came the shocked voice of someone who had recognized the older of the girls.

Any ordinary time, it would be a oh shit moment, but this time, they knew they were safe. At least for the moment.

“Ava?” Claudia asked, are you kidding me she asked. Of all the places to find ourselves breaking into she muttered.

“What are you doing here?” Ava asked with her jaw dropped down because she could not believe it. Of her plans for the night, this was not one of them.

“What are you doing here?” Claudia asked.

“This is my cabin,” Ava murmured. “I came up to get it ready for the weekend I am planning on having,” she sighed. She saw the trail of blood, coming from the door, shit she sighed. “Are you okay?” she asked of the teenager.

It was clear that the girl was wounded, Damn it.

“I got myself kidnapped,” Claudia muttered, and saw the shock on Ava’s face. “I know, I know,” she sighed. “We both did,” she sighed as she referred to the other girl in the cabin. “This is Kyla Anderson?”

“Isabel’s daughter?” Ava asked. And Kyle’s?

Ava clearly knew the lay of the land, and the gang biggest secrets. But Kyla did not know the resident black sheep in the fraternity of alien human hybrids.

“And you are?” Kyla asked as she was not sure if she knew Ava or not. She knew she had heard those in her family talk about her, but she was not around, and therefore, she had not seen her for herself, but I know she owns a bar she sighed that Mom and her friends tended to go at times. Still, she was tentative with the woman she did not know.

“Tess Harding’s duplicate,” Claudia muttered. As if that makes it any easier.

But it was a quick identifier, right or wrong.

“Yes, that is one of the things I am,” Ava muttered, as she could not deny the connection to Tess, not to those who already know it she muttered, and of course Kyla was of the alien human hybrid generation and she knew enough to know about the duplicates, and yes, it is very bizarre to be honest with you she would think.

Knowing she had hit a sore spot with the older woman. “Sorry, the name Tess is a little radioactive with me, right now” Claudia muttered.

“So, you know?” Ava asked. Clearly, she knows she murmured to herself. Yeah, this was a moment I knew was coming.

“Obviously I do, and you did when I showed you his picture,” Claudia muttered. “You knew Archie was Tess’s kid?”

“I knew the chances were high, yes” Ava murmured. Not that I was totally sure, she thought, not until Michael confronted me with it.

“Enough of this,” Kyla said. Because they did not have time for this. We might be safe because this is Ava’s cabin, but who knows what is coming for us she thought. We don’t know if this man got in touch with whoever he was trying to reach she sighed, his phone might get pinged she thought. “We were kidnapped, and we got free, and the lunatic that did it could wake up at any time, and we have to call our parents.”

“She is right,” Claudia murmured. Archie can be for another time. “I have to call my parents.”

“You were kidnapped?” Ava asked softly, this is not some story she asked. Damn it. “I think I heard some reports on it, on the news, coming up here, but I don’t remember if I heard the names,” she sighed. “This was the man who did?” she asked as she looked at the stone-cold guy on the floor. “Who put you in this condition?”

“Yes,” Claudia sighed. “He had it coming because he shot me, and Kyla got the upper hand.”

“Shit,” Ava muttered. “Are you okay?”

“I might need a little first aid,” Claudia acknowledged because the wound was becoming painful, and the bleeding was seeping through the sweater, “Shit,” she said. “I never have been shot before.”

“It’s not very advisable,” Ava muttered as if she had some experience with it. “Let me help you,” she sighed as then she noticed the captive on the floor. “This is the man who took you?”

“Yes,” Kyla said softly.

“Fuck,” Ava muttered out loud.

“That is common expression,” Claudia was saying as she was feeling faint, and she knew was because of the blood loss.

“Chase?” Ava asked.

“You know him,” Kyla asked. “You know the man who kidnapped the two of us?” she wondered as Claudia was growing more and more faint, and she fell towards the back of the chair, clearly unconscious. “Damn it,” she screamed as she looked her fallen cousin. And knelt and checked for a pulse, which was there, but it was faint. “We need help.”

“We need Max,” Ava muttered as she got her phone out of the purse and dialed a familiar number.

[RoswellFan68]

I'm glad Claudia was only glazes by the bullet.

[Parker1947]

But the phone was busy. Because Max was on his cellphone, standing at the back of the Crashdown and having a very difficult phone conversation, while Liz was just sitting down. Neither liking that they were unable to go out front, but the town was out there, and would looking at them weirdly, and Liz was still coping with both the sizzling kiss she had experienced with her former husband, and her daughter’s abduction.

She was not responding well to either. She hated how she responded, and this is a crisis she thought. I should not be responding like this she thought. I should be thinking of our daughter, but she was not, she was acting like a teenager instead of a mother, but she was coming back to earth because Max was doing something that he did not want to do, and therefore tying up the lines, and she did not have her phone with her.

“I am sorry Isabel,” Max was saying.

*

Tulsa, Oklahoma
Roadside motel,

They did not need anything more. But finally, they had stopped, and they had gotten something to eat, and it was when they got back to the motel when they realized they had not heard from anyone in hours, and she realized she had put her phone on silent, accidentally and it had been in her purse. And therefore, she saw the many messages from many in her family. She did not know what that mean, but she knew enough about her family that Isabel knew it could not be any good. While Michael was in his motel room having a shower. Isabel was in hers, making a call to Max, because his phone number was first on the list to call back.

And she was looking incredulous at the mirror. “What do you mean my daughter is missing?” she asked of her brother. “You must be joking,” she asked as she was incensed. “When did this happen?” she asked, and she was angry. “And no one thought to call me?” she muttered as she stocked of her room and banged on door of Michael’s room.

“Guerin, open up” Isabel muttered, and when Michael did not come to the door, she banged on it again. “Open up, emergency.”

“God Isabel, what is it?” Michael asked, as he was still wearing a towel.

Any other day Isabel would be amused. But she was angry, and therefore short tempered. “Claudia and Kyla were abducted.”

“What are you talking about?” Michael asked as the cold Tulsa air started to come in, “Get in here, and I can close the door,” and so Isabel walked into the motel room. “Who is telling you this?

“I am talking to Max?” Isabel sighed as she showed her phone.

“Let me talk to him,” Michael muttered as he grabbed the phone, and walked into the bathroom. “Maxwell, what is this about the girls?” Michael asked, where he shut off the shower taps, and closed the door. “And no one thought to call us when we could have turned around and come back?” he asked. “I know Isabel has to pick up Poppy and Katy,” he muttered. “We would have found another way,” he muttered. “How bad is it?” he asked, “Shit,” he muttered as he gave the phone back to Isabel.

“I am getting dressed,” Michael muttered.

“And I am going back to my room,” Isabel sighed. “Come when you are finished,” she ordered her travelling companion, as she took her phone back from her friend. “How bad is it Max, tell me the truth?” she asked, as she did not know why if her phone was out of commission that they could have tried Michael’s phone. Kyla cannot not be in danger she murmured.

“Holy hell,” Isabel muttered as she let herself back into her motel room. “Where was Kyle?” he asked of her friend. “I cannot believe this,” she muttered when Max told her that Kyle had seen it but was too late to stop it.

While it was consolation that it looked like her daughter was not the intended target, but it still did not make her happy because it meant that they were coming after her niece.

Claudia.

Her brother’s child. Damn it she thought. “How are you doing?” she asked of her brother. He just got his daughter back in his life…

Even if their connection is still tentative.

Now this…

“I know,” Isabel murmured as she took a deep breath. “What do you want me to do?” she asked, “We can come home. We are only in Tulsa, about nine hours or so away, depending on traffic,” she sighed. “Are you joking,” she muttered at being told to continue on her journey. I cannot sit in the car and not help find my daughter. “Max, I cannot sit here and do nothing,” she sighed. But Max was telling her that there were people on the look out. “What if something happens?” she asked. “I know, I know” she sighed. “But when you do know something, call me, okay?” she asked of her brother.

And she hung up just as Michael barrelled into the room. “My phone is acting up,” Michael cursed. “But I got it working enough to know that Maria and Lucy had been trying to get a hold of me.”

“Shit,” Isabel muttered. “What are we going to do?”

“What do you want to do?” Michael asked.

“I don’t know if I have any more driving in me?” Isabel said honestly. “Not tonight,” she sighed because she was not used to driving long distances. We have spent most of our lives in Roswell she thought, and when I was Jesse and Neil, well, they would do the driving and Neil has only been gone for a year.

“Me either,” Michael sighed.

“What if something happens?” Isabel asked. “And I am not there…”

“Well, you definitely cannot do anything from here,” Michael reasoned as he looked at the time. “It is getting late. So, how about we wait for anymore information and if we don’t get any, then we put you on the first train or whatever to Roswell, okay?” he asked. “And I can continue the journey and pick the girls up. The Andersons know me and trust me.”

Yeah, but…

“We will figure out a solution that works, okay?” Michael asked as he saw the wariness on his friend’s face. “But we are not going to do the situation any good if we drive right now, and we would not get there until morning anyways, and maybe they will know something more by then…” he asked. “Kyla will be fine,” he said softly. “Seriously Is, you don’t have to worry.”

“But I do, because she’s my daughter” Isabel sighed. ‘

“Yes, she is your daughter. Which means that she will be fine,” Michael insisted.

“But it does not help if they went after Claudia and got Kyla too,” Isabel muttered. “What if it was the government who came after Claudia?” she asked, fearing for their family. “What if they did not like Liz coming back to town?” she asked, because she was not in Roswell at the moment, she would not know any of what Liz had confessed too or taken on as a burden in this situation.

“Then they can go to hell,” Michael muttered. I might have many feelings about Liz’s actions and sometimes I wish she had stayed away he muttered, but I am not going to sit and applaud the government he sighed. “Because they don’t know what we are made of because Isabel, the girls will be fine, both of them, and we will make the government rue the day the mess with us.”

Isabel sighed, and wanted to think that it was possible.

“Kyla will be okay, I promise” Michael murmured.

“You cannot promise me that” Isabel muttered, because she was scared for her eldest child. A child who was on any day was confident and independent, and yet, she was still only fifteen and too young to be dealing with this…

She should not be dealing with this she thought.

Neither of them should.

“She’s strong,” Michael sighed. “She is your daughter. And really, from what I know of both of them, they are both very strong, and we have to take comfort in that, and because Claudia is older, she will be able to take care of the situation,” he murmured. “And there is a plus Isabel, in that neither of them is an average abductee.”

Isabel wanted to believe that…

*

Neither Claudia nor Kyla were average abductees that was true. And while Claudia helped with the initial situation. Unfortunately for them, she was a little out of commission, because while at Ava’s cabin, Ava had quickly moved the injured girl to the bedroom, and redressed the wound, and hopefully for now had stemmed the blood loss I am not Max she sighed, I don’t have the capacity to heal she knew, not a wound of this size she sighed because all aliens had some capacity to heal, but Max had the super healing ability, and none of them could come close to what he could do. And this was his daughter who was needing his help, and Ava could not reach either Max or Liz.

Claudia fortunately was through the worse, and was conscious but laying down, to keep the pressure of the leg so it did open up once more, and make the situation worse, or start an infection. Which would make things dire.

Ava had managed to keep it at bay, but she did not know how long that was going to last. But she had other issues.

Because the girl’s captive was starting to come too, and she was dealing with that…

“Man, the old man will be upset,” Chase was mumbling as his eyes opened and he saw he was in a strange cabin. Shit, he murmured to himself. “Where am I?”

“My cabin,” Ava murmured.

“Ava?” Chase asked.

“Yes, Chase, I am Ava” murmured the red hair, “What are you doing here?” she asked. “Why did you kidnap these two girls, and shoot Claudia Evans?”

“That was not me,” Chase mumbled.

“I was there, I saw you shoot my cousin” Kyla muttered as she stood and glared at Chase, “You kidnapped her, and took me too, I know who you are.”

“No, you don’t” Chase muttered. “You are one of them,” he slurred.

Immediately Ava was taken back. This is not going to be good she sighed. I am one of them too she sighed, not that she put that on her calling card, I am not that crazy she sighed. “What are you talking about?”

“You know,” Chase muttered. “You know what my father is like?”

“Richard?” Ava asked.

“Yes, who else would be my father?” Chase murmured. “We only have one,” he murmured. “Except maybe you,” he pointed at Kyla, who winced. “Which is why we did not want you,” he sighed, “You could not leave it alone, could you?”

“You were taking my cousin,” Kyla muttered.

“Because she is the one, we wanted, not you” Chase muttered “You could not leave it alone, could you?”

“No,” Kyla muttered.

Ava was still in shock. “Are you telling me your father is behind this?” she wondered as she was slowing putting the pieces together and trying to comprehend it. All she wanted was to make sure the cabin she bought several years before was ready for a date she was planning on having the following weekend, with Richard she muttered,

She believed she found a good one in Richard. Maybe it’s not true love she thought, but what is in the beginning?

Not everyone is Max and Liz she muttered. Even she doubted Max and Liz were Max and Liz in the beginning.

“He would be the one calling the shots, yes” Chase muttered.

“Why?” Ava asked, still slightly stunned. Because she did not get it, why? she thought. “Are you telling me you are behind the end of Max Evans’ family?” she asked, as she was putting two and two together.

“It would have only been the end, and a success if she had not come back, and by doing that, that made dear old Dad angry, and he wanted payback.”

“And that payback was for you to go after Claudia Evans?” Ava wondered. That is seriously sick she muttered. “It’s eighteen years later, who gives a shit whether Max has his family or not, because he got denied for most of his daughter’s existence.”

“But that was not good enough for Dad,” Chase muttered, “So, yeah,” Chase muttered, as he got out from the couch. “I am out of here, none of you are keep me here because if you do, I can go to the authorities, and I will expose all your little secrets, and nothing will be the same for you guy, and I don’t think you want that do you Ava?” he asked. “Do you want to lose your bar?” he threatened, “Or have people look at you different, or your parents,” he said pointing to Kyla who wanted to kill him. “I think not, so you will let me leave and you will not tell anyone what happened or what I did to your friend,” he demanded of Kyla.

Seriously Ava asked. He thinks we are going to sit back and be blackmailed?

“I think we have a deal,” Chase muttered.

“Hell no, we don’t have a deal” came a weak but angry voice from the doorway that had led to the bedroom. Claudia was now looking at them, with anger in her voice, as she leaned against the door for support. “You cost me my father,” she said.

“You can thank my father for that,” Chase muttered. I cannot take the credit he thought.

“I won’t,” Claudia muttered as she slammed energy, and the young man was thrown against the wall, and then onto the floor, and then Claudia preceded to collapse to the floor, before anyone could respond to what she did.

And she laid unconscious.

Shocked, Kyla looked to Chase on the floor, as Ava rushed over. “Is he dead?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Ava muttered as she knelt and felt for a pulse. “He’s just unconscious once more,” she sighed as he looked at the fallen teenager, and admired her, even though should not, but in this case, I will applaud her. “Claudia has a lot of power in her.”

“And mostly it’s untapped,” Kyla commented. She does not know what she is truly capable of

“Yes, it is” Ava muttered. “She lost out on a lot of it because Chase’s father,” she muttered. “Richard Delaney is going to have a lot to answer to, if I ever see him again.”

“Are you going to see him again?” Kyla asked as she could not believe that Ava of all people would date someone who might be their greatest enemy, to this point.

Ava did not have a good answer for that one, but she had a pressing matter. Because she was seeing how weak Claudia was. And despite the fact she was who she was. We have only have so much energy to hold on without help she sighed. “We have to call Max,” she sighed as she raced Claudia, and fortunately for everyone, Claudia was still breathing, but was more in shock and weak, and she could see the worry on the younger teenager’s face. “I am sure she will be fine, but we need to find her parents.”

They were not responding Kyla thought. “Maybe we should call my grandfather?” Kyla muttered, voicing he role that Jim had that no one of them really had voiced so far… “He’s Sheriff.”

Ava sighed; I like to keep away from Jim Valenti if possible because she knew of her duplicates’ history with the town Sheriff. But she knew it might be the only way to get to Max and Liz and inform them of the change in the situation.

And to get Max here so that he could save his daughter as she went to her phone, and dialed a phone number, and sighed, “Sheriff, this Ava, and we have to talk.”

[Parker1947]

Meanwhile,
Apartment over the Crashdown,

“Are you telling me son that this kid might be your son?” Jim was asking, and it felt like a lot was missed. Jim certainly felt this because it was almost like they were in suspended air, and while his deputies had shown up on the scene and was making sure they had not forgotten anything, and truly, there was not a lot of investigate. Because no cameras had seen it happen, because Crashdown was now defunct. The surveillance capabilities had not been upgraded in more than a year, and the service had been shut down except for the odd visit from Max who had taken over the security as a personal favor to his former in-laws.

Jeff and Nancy had move on, and there was no need to keep an eye, because no one was in the apartment.

Until they were.

But it was early days and that meant that the surveillance surrounding, and the restaurants around did not have any camera facing the restaurant.

Roswell was too small of a town.

And now that was coming back to haunt them. So, yeah, there was only so much that could be said and done about the situation. And it was frustrating for the Sheriff as his deputy had gone back to the station to write up the paperwork.

While Jim stayed here on the scene. But he had not bargained to be told Claudia Evan’s boyfriend was very likely Tess Harding’ child. A child that had been put up for adoption just prior to the conclusion of his son’s senior year of high school. It was a development he could not believe but then he still had a lot of PTSD because of that time.

That experience took a lot out of me he thought.

And experience that had Tess using them to provide her shelter, and ultimately used her son as pawn in her plans to get off the plans. Although he wanted to believe that in the beginning, it was being grateful. But that would change he muttered. She used us.

She did and maybe in other ways too, but Jim did not know this, until he did. So, the announcement of who Archie’s birth mother might be sunk in like a led weight on him, because he had a lot of bad memories attached to that time.

And knew the others had just as many bad memories, in particular Liz and Maria he thought as they still mourned the loss of Alex Whitman, and how my son was used in a way to make that possible.

It created a lot of burdens. And lot to get over, because he had always upheld his duty to serve and help the town. And they were used. And it did not help his conflicting feelings about his duty to his town, and to his son’s friends.

And because of his marriage to Amy Deluca, which made him a stepfather, and now grandfather in more than simply Tripp and Kyla.

He had a lot on the line.

It started with, “You are Tess Harding’s son?” Jim was asking not too long ago, even though it did seem like a long time ago.

“Not anymore,” Archie muttered. “I was adopted, and therefore I became a Holmes, but to Claudia it mattered,” he sighed, “And I do get why it mattered.”

“Because of her father,” Jim sighed. It stunned me to know all that happened during that time.

Or as much as he knew happened of course. Jim certainly knew like the others that Max was not the father of the child that Tess would have.

It should have come out sooner than it did. But it did.

“Yes,” Archie murmured as he looked around the apartment, and was seeing it with different eyes now that Claudia was not here, it is all so weird to be here he thought, without her being here. “Do you know anything?” he asked. “About were she and Kyla are?” he sighed, “I heard on the television that both of them were taken?” he allowed, and for Kyle it was it was a reminder of there were so many pieces to this story, and they don’t always make sense he thought of the fact that his daughter was.

And Archie might be his son. This is a trip.

He could only laugh, if not for the seriousness of the situation. “Yes, Kyla is missing too,” he voiced even though he did not have the strength too.

“This is craziness,” Archie muttered. “Why?” he asked. “Why, would anyone want to take both Claudia and her cousin Kyla?”

“We think they were really after Claudia, and unfortunately Kyla got mixed up in it, because she was to help her cousin” Maria said, softly, as she knew how crazy this was. This is all too much she sighed.

Lucy stood beside her and knew this was all more than enough. Why cannot there be some peace and quiet she thought.

Everyone in the room thought that…

“Unfortunately,” Maria sighed. “There are so people who have it out for us, and Claudia’s parents, and we think she got swept up on some past grievance…”

Why? Archie asked.

“A lot happened before Claudia was born,” Jim muttered. And that is beyond an understatement they all know. Too much has happened…

“And she was in the dark about it,” Archie muttered. “I don’t get it, what is it about this town that reduces everyone to I don’t know, what it is,” he muttered. “I thought this town was supposed to be small and be primarily about ‘aliens? he asked. “What could there be that would brings us to today, and allow Claudia to get taken?”

Aliens are why this is all happening most of those in the room could say as why this had happened, because they don’t think they are human.

And are using Claudia as a way to get to her parents.

“Family,” Jim muttered.

And you don’t know the half of it, Maria muttered to herself. “It is a lot to think about,” she sighed. “Sorry that it is….”

Archie nodded. “I wish we knew where they are…”

“We will find them,” Kyle muttered. As he was not sure what to think about this conversation. It is completely surreal he was thinking.

He was not far off…

“This might be inappropriate to ask,” Archie muttered, “Especially now, but there is so little I can do, but I understand she lived with you before she passed away,” Archie asked. “I did my research years ago when my parents told me that I was adopted and who my birth mother was,” he sighed. “So, I went looking, and I found that she was dead, but her address for a year was with you and your son,” he asked.

“Yeah, so” Jim asked, neutrally, because there was very little that he could do, because he already had his ears going, and in this day and age, his office would be able to reach him anywhere, but he almost wanted to be out looking for the girls, and hitting a dead end than being here, and having to deal with this…

Because the memories were not pleasant. And it is worse for my son he thought.

“So, do you know who my father is?” Archie asked. “If it’s not Max Evans?”

“It’s definitely not Max,” Maria quipped. Thank god.

Yeah, thank god Archie would mutter to himself. It still gives me a chance with Claudia, that is assuming we can find her. “Then who is?” Archie asked. “Not that I am curious you know. I just want to know so I don’t have to wonder. Because I have had a good life. I cannot complain. And it is not like I am trying to find a missing piece of myself. Because I do know that I am lucky, and I am lucky, but I guess I just need to know the name. For my peace of mind. If she lived with you for that year, who is my father?” he asked. “Do you know?”

Shit Kyle muttered.

Maria could only sigh. And Lucy was next to her mother, and even she knew the answer, and she looked among the adults, really, this is too much she thought. “Just tell him guys,” Lucy muttered. “I mean, Kyla even knows.”

“What?” Kyle asked as he stopped in place. “What does Kyla know?” she asked, “How would she know?” he asked, and he stopped and looked at his stepsister.

Maria was not confirming or denying anything.

“I think you know what she knows,” Lucy muttered. As Tripp was looking on, and did not know, and Crystal was just amused by this whole conversation. Although she hated it for her brother.

“Lucy, that is enough,” Maria muttered as she glared at her daughter.

But Lucy was not going to be stopped. This is all so juvenile when the world is full of more serious drama. “Really, guys, this is more than enough. My two best friends are missing, and it’s like we are in a time loop or something, and in the middle of this drama. Tell him already,” Lucy muttered. And when no one was going to say anything. Lucy was not stop herself. “Archie, Kyla’s birth father, Kyle Valenti here might be your father, but he does not really know, because never actually confronted your birth mother about the head games she was playing with him, and all the other guys in this town” she sighed. “Not that I would know anything, of course.” she sighed as she blurted or more than she should, and all the adults looked flummoxed.

Truly flummoxed.

And once she had a moment to see what she had started. Lucy knew enough to know that she had stepped into it, and she was a little regretful Not a tons, because this is all so easy at the end of the day. Claudia and Kyla are dealing with more dangerous matters she muttered. This is all so simple. “Sorry, it just spilled out. I am upset. My best friend is missing because some government agent does not like who we are and does not think that we are as normal as anyone else in this world. So, what if we are special,” she sighed. “I have had enough of this. JJ has the better idea because he’s watching television. So, before I am kicked out of here, I will go in and join him, because that would be a lot better than dealing with any of this.”

Lucy was seventeen, and so close to be adult, and she was finding she was not ready to be an adult. As she stormed into the room that JJ was in and slammed the door behind her.

Leaving the room trying to recover from her spilling of the truth.

A totally inappropriate truth to be spilling when it was not her place.

Therefore, Kyle did not know what to say.

Neither did Archie as he was trying to piece together the rant of Lucy’s, yeah, it does not make any sense he muttered, what on earth. Although he looked at Kyle, and wondered if he was his father, is he? he wondered.

While Maria wanted to strangle her daughter, yet applaud her finally getting the truth out there, in not very good fashion she would admit. But it has an air of dramatic in it she thought. “Sorry because my daughter has a mouth, and she does have a way of words.”

Jim was first to react, what he wanted to think. My son and Tess.

That does not make sense.

But does it.

Certainly, they had lived in the same house. And Jim knew that they had been friends, before Tess betrayed us, he muttered. And that they ran in the same circles, so they spent time together. Alone.

Damn it Jim muttered. And then he remembered that his son had asked Tess to prom.

A night that had not gone very well for many except maybe Michael and Maria, and by the end of the night, it started truly and forgettable, the saga of Max and Tess. And there would be a lot more heartbreak to come.

And consequences.

But truths that were not known until we know, and some not to this day.

“Are you telling me son that this kid might be your son?” Jim asked, and Kyle was forced to react.

Kyle did not know how to respond, because he was speechless as everyone was looking at him. And he saw the look of astonishment on his son’s face. The son he knows of in Tripp whose jaw had dropped open at Lucy’s little truth burst.

Are you kidding the fellow seventeen-year-old was saying. Dad is Archie’s father?

That does not seem true Tripp was thinking. And just like his grandfather had as asked a incredulous question. Tripp also needed to know the truth. “Dad?” he was asking.

And Archie was getting that this was indeed complicated.

He did not know what he had been asking for once he asked the question, and now he was getting more than he bargained for. As a diversion to the fact his girlfriend was missing. Wow, this is not what I thought I was getting.

But Kyle was speechless, and unsure of how to speak. But before he could say anything, even if he wanted to. A call came on his cellphone, and he grasped it as if it was a lifeline and saw that it was Isabel. Just great. But it was a lifeline indeed and a needed diversion to be able to get his answer to his father and son’s question. “It’s Isabel” he muttered. “I have to answer this,” he said.

Everyone nodded.

And Kyle stepped away and walked away, to answer the call. “Hello Isabel,” he was saying, and almost held the phone away, at the crying over the line. “Yes, I know” he said softly, unable to be there for her, and he hated it.

Once gone. “Wait, Kyla is Kyle’s daughter” Archie muttered. Not even thinking about what it all meant for him, I have not even process this.

That is the important statement in all this? the sentiment in the room. But it was always easier to go with the part of the story that did not make you feel crazy, or sad.

“Yes,” Maria muttered.

Whoa Archie murmured.

“Maria?” Jim asked because it appeared that his stepdaughter might know about whether his son was Archie’s father. “You know?”

“I know Jim, but I also don’t know” Maria sighed. “It’s really your son’s story,” she sighed. “But we have more pressing matters right now,” she sighed as she knew they had to get back to this search for Claudia and Kyla. “Claudia, and Kyla”

Jim nodded and looked at his clock. “Should someone check on Max and Liz?”

“They are together,” Maria muttered. “It’s best not to get in the middle, unless we have too” Maria sighed. “Let them deal with this together,” she sighed. “Because it is unimaginable what they are facing. “No one wants to be dealing with this,” she sighed. Thank god I know where my daughter is.

She might make me want to strangle her, but I know where she is.

Jim nodded, and then got stopped by his own phone call. And the room stopped because of course Jim was town Sheriff, and they all were worried about who might be behind the call.

“Sheriff Valenti here,” Jim muttered.

And he stopped, and everyone stopped.

“Ava?” Jim asked.

Ava Maria murmured. Ava, of all people? She asked. Why is she calling Jim she muttered. She knew Ava tended to stay away from all aspects of their lives, and really only interacted with them because we tend to populate the bar for our amusement.

Even though she had spent most of the last two decades in another state all together, but she knew enough to know Ava was not about to go near Jim if she had a choice, given what Tess was guilty of doing.

“Why are you calling?” Jim asked as he stopped and listened. “Tell me more,” he said immediately. Fuck he said. “How bad, okay,” he sighed. “Send me your exact address, and coordinates to find this cabin of yours. ASAP,” he demanded as he got off the phone and faced the room and said simply. “Ava has them.”

That little disclosure turned the room upset down. “What do you mean, she has them?” Maria asked.

“They showed up at her cabin,” Jim said. “About two hours north of us,” he sighed. “Kyla is fine.”

“Claudia?” Maria asked, fearing for the answer. Because he would have just said she was fine, along with Kyla she said. Although she liked that Kyla was fine, but it did not allay her concerns, like at all.

“That is a little more complicated,” Jim murmured.

“How complicated?” Maria demanded as Kyle came back from his conversation with Isabel. Which had taken place outside. It had been long and difficult, but was needed, finally I could speak to her, and he was not totally back when she heard fateful news. “Kyla might have been found.”

“What,” Kyle asked as he had to do a double take, “Wait, what did you say?” he asked, fearing that this was all some hoax. Not that I would expect it from this group he muttered, but you cannot be too sure.

No, you could not.

“Ava just called,” Maria said simply.

“What does Ava have to do with this?” Kyle asked. Wondering what Tess’s duplicate had to do with this situation. Not that he had anything against Ava. But still…

“She has them at her cabin up north,” Jim said softly. “Kyla is fine.”

“She is,” Kyle asked, and he felt like he could breathe once more, please be true. But he was conscious of the fact his father had not included Claudia in that… “Claudia?”

“I have to find Max and Liz,” was all Jim could say.

And there were curses in the room, and a lot of fearful faces, and Jim simply left the apartment and headed downstairs.

*

Downstairs,
Outside,

Max and Liz hated this. They hated having to fear for their daughter. They hated how they could not advertise their child’s abduction more than it was already on the news. Because there were facts they could not let out. For fear of what would be unleashed to get back at them. And really, neither knew what kind of situation was. They were hoping. They were praying it was not like what they were thinking. And yet they knew they could truly broadcast things for fear of what being exposed on social media would bring.

A lot is being hidden they would think, as they could not bear to go inside yet. And they were out in the cold night air. Trying to console each other, even as the crowds were starting to dissipate, and therefore, they had taken a walk.

Simple.

And Liz had even let Max hold her hand, and it was a brief sense of normalcy, as if they were a normal couple.

But they both knew that they were not a normal couple.

Not at all.

Not even a little.

That is even if you could discount that they had a signed divorce decree saying they were no longer bound to each other and had no reason to be wanting to be bound to each other. Other than being parents of a child together. Still though, there were no expectations or boundaries. And it should be so simple.

But it was never simple with the two of them.

Which is why trying to gain any courage with each other, so that they did not have to fear for their daughter. Because the more time went on, and the little information they had. It made those fears grow.

And it was starting to drag them down.

“She could be anywhere?” Liz said softly as they walked along the street. “What if?” she asked and she felt the grip of Max’s hand grow tighter. “Max, it’s been hours, and we have not heard anything.”

“You cannot think like that,” Max said even though it was not only his former wife that was fearing the ultimate word that would come to them, as hours go by, and nothing comes our way he sighed to himself. I need not to fall into that trap. “We have to think positively.”

“I want too,” Liz sighed. “But it’s my fault.”

“No, it’s not,” Max said softly as they stopped walking. And were not that far from the Crashdown because they did not want to be gone too long, in case, there was word. “You need to stop with that burden because you did what they wanted. But they changed the rules of the game. You took them at their word that it was over. And therefore, you could do anything you wanted with your freedom. Which means that you have every right to do what you wanted to do after they gave up the reins.”

She wanted to believe him. She really did, but it felt like it was her fault. And yet. “They never told me I could not come back here,” Liz sighed. I just took it as a reason not to come back she thought. “They never said the words. It was me. I was weary for so in case something happened,” and look what has happened now she thought, now that I have come back, but she also knew the truth of it, “And I had already been gone so long?”

“You could never be gone too long,” Max muttered.

“Max,” Liz sighed. Because they were both feeling the effects of the kiss, and how explosive and yet tender it was. And the fact that it had always felt so simple when they were in each other arms, but once out of it, the world took them over. And she did not know what it meant for now, I cannot do this.

“I am not asking for anything more than you want to give me,” Max said, and he glanced into those beautiful eyes. So beautiful, but somber. “You have already given me so much by coming back to Roswell and bringing my daughter back to me.”

“But I could have cost her,” Liz sighed, fearing that this would be the ultimate move to completely destroy them.

“I gave you an incredible burden by bringing you into this world back in high school,” Max murmured because as much as Liz brought to his life. He knew there also been a great burden given to, and by being the one who brought her into this, by not only saving her, but also answering her questions when she came to him on that day after it changed for her. “I asked you to believe in something that was way bigger than I even knew at the time. I might not have known what I was doing. But I forced you to come along for the ride without much of a choice by saving your life. I took your chance of a normal life from you,” Max said softly as they were staring soulfully into each other eyes.

“You gave me a chance at life Max,” Liz sighed. “We have said this before, and it’s even more true now,” she murmured as she flashed back to that time. “I would have died that day. You saved my life. You gave me a chance at life, and a chance to live my dreams. I will never forget that or fault you for that. Sure, it might have been different than they were before that day in there, and the path to today was full of potholes, but still, you gave me a chance at life, all because you saved my life” she said softly as she pointed to the Crashdown.

The place where their lives were changed, forever.

Nothing would be the same for the two.

Right or wrong.

Better and for worse.

I will never forget that day Max swore. When everything changed. “You could have stayed away. But by coming back, you gave me a chance to love you even more than I already did, and know that our daughter in this world, and who she is as a person” Max said softly. “I am grateful for that,” he said softly. “And I know we won’t lose the potential for the future. We are not that unlucky,” he sighed, even though their courtship had been full of unlucky moments.

A lot of unnecessary pain and regret.

“I worry for her,” Liz said softly.

“Me too,” Max said with a squeeze of her hand. “I don’t know what is going to happen, but I know my life is better with you in it, and I know what my life these last eighteen years was like, and I don’t believe god will be that cruel to take her from us.”

“You don’t believe in god,” Liz murmured. I did she sighed. And look what has happened to me she sighed.

“I believe in you,” Max said softly.

“Max,” Liz murmured, as she desperately wanted to believe in that, and maybe she did, because there is reason she was here, on this day, with Max, and they were leaning in for a kiss, but they heard a cough, and they looked, and they saw Jim.

And by the look on his face. They both knew, what they dreaded had come true.

We have word on Claudia they both thought. And we are not going to like it. “What is it, Jim?” Max asked as he and Liz held hands, tightly.

“We know where they are.” Jim said softly.

“Where?” Liz whispered.

“Ava’s cabin,” Jim said.

What the hell both Max and Liz said together and looked at each other. Of all the places they had imagined the location of their daughter, including Ava in the assumption, had not been one of them. “What is going on Jim?” Max asked.

“The girls have been found,” Jim said softly. “Kyla is fine.”

“Claudia?” Liz whispered. Because she was grateful that Kyla was okay, but Claudia, she dreaded the answer, but she knew it was coming. Whether she wanted it too or not.

“Her condition is a little more complicated,” Jim said with regret because he knew how it was going to sound. “She needs you Max,” she sighed. “She needs both of you,” he amended in his words. “She has been shot.”

And with that Liz fainted…

…into Max’s arms.

[Parker1947]

Thirty minutes later,

Once Liz had become conscious and the situation was suitably explained to the devastated parents, they all jumped into individual cars. Only four of them that is, scratch that, five of them. Max and Liz got into one, and Jim and Kyle and in an awkward moment Archie jumped into the Sheriff’s vehicle, and even though Jim knew he would not have jurisdiction once out of town. Still, he used the official siren to help move along the traffic, and the drive.

While Maria and Lucy stayed behind to babysit JJ because he would not be able to go. He was already confused by what was happening and his mother did not want to make things worse when they did not know what they would be finding once at Ava’s cabin. And how bad the situation was, or how dire it was.

Tripp drove Crystal back to the motel.

Phillip stayed to help Maria and Lucy, and really, he had not wanted to go home because if his daughter had called, he did not have any answers for her.

As they all thought back… only a few minutes.

*

Once Liz had fainted upon hearing the news of location of the girls. Max picked his former wife up into his arms, and carried her upstairs, to the apartment. And everyone was aghast to see them come into the apartment, where he laid Liz down on the couch. And only moments after laid down on the softer surface, It is better than the city street, Liz’s eyes opened, and she saw the concern on the faces of those in the apartment.

JJ had come running out, “Mom?” he whispered.

“I am fine,” Liz said weakly.

“Is it true that they found Claudia?” JJ asked, of his sister’s situation. A situation he did not get. Why would anyone want to abduct my sister he thought of his family. Certainly, he knew his sister had her oddities, but she was just his older sister, and he did not get why someone would have it out for her, for being who she was, and the abilities she might be able to have. So, inside the room, instead of the movie he was supposed to be watching. He had been watching the local news, and his sister’s abduction was all they wanted to talk about.

And Lucy had not said much when she came into the room and saw what the boy was really watching instead of the movie, he had told his mother that he wanted to watch. So, we just sat and watched the talking heads talk about nothing she thought, endlessly.

And then she had heard the commotion outside, and phone ring, and she heard her grandfather’s words, and unfortunately, JJ was up like a light and needing answers.

And when Max had come into the apartment with Liz in his arms, JJ had been worried.

They were quick to reassure the boy, Liz just had a shock Max had said to reassure the boy. She is fine.

That is what they said about my sister too JJ muttered.

But then he had seen her mother’s eyes open, “Mommy?” the ten-year-old asked as he needed reassurance that this was going to be fine.

“Honey, I am fine” Liz said, as her mind was swirling, and a little numb and then she remembered what she had been told. “Jim?” she asked as she sought out the town Sheriff in he room. “Is it true?” she asked.

“Yes,” Jim said. “The girls have been located,” he said with a soft voice, not to upset Liz any further. Because this was a sad situation, all around.

“What is this about it being Ava’s cabin?” Max asked. Because he still did not know how to comprehend that part of all this, but he had more to concentrate on for the last five minutes or so with the fainting of his former wife Ava better not be in the middle of this he muttered. We thought she was not Tess.

“The girls showed up there,” Jim said simply. “I don’t have it all. But all I know is that the girls made a getaway from the person who grabbed them, and they found an empty cabin, and only once there, did they find out that it was Ava’s and therefore she had been helping them,” he said softly. “Kyla is fine,” he said, to reassure his son.

And the others.

“Claudia?” Liz asked, as a gunshot rang out in her mind. Flashes came to her, not of her daughter’s, but her own, and she was reminded of how this all started, with a gun shot she thought, shit.

“She’s been hurt?” Max asked, not wanting to say those dreaded words.

Which was something the others had not been informed of before Jim had vanished from the apartment. “You said, she was shot?”

That made impact on the room, as there were tears, and even in Archie. “How bad?” Max asked as he continued and needed answers. “How bad is it, Jim?”

“I am not sure,” Jim said softly. “I am told it is not life threatening, but it is more significant than what it first appeared,” he sighed, and tears were coming to Liz’s eyes. “Ava only impressed on me that we need to get there as quickly as we can.”

“Which is something we will do,” Max said softly as he helped his former wife from the couch, and looked into his eyes, “We will get to her.”

“I need to see her,” Liz said softly.

“The four of us will go,” Jim said. “I probably won’t have jurisdiction to do any official work there, but I will be there as assistance,” he said because he knew his jurisdiction ended at their town line, “Son, I figured you will want to go with me to see how Kyla is?”

“Of course,” Kyle muttered. Isabel would not forgive me if I did not, he thought, And I would not either he sighed.

“Maria?” Liz asked as she got of the couch and was testing her legs. “Can you stay with JJ,” she asked of her best friend.

“Certainly,” Maria said automatically. “Lucy and I will stay until you come back, and if it gets too late, then we will take him back to our house, and you can come collect him in the morning,” she said with supportive reassurance of her friend for what she is going through. “I am so sorry guys.”

“I need to know what happened,” Liz said softly. “JJ, you will be alright, right?” he asked. “If you want to take a nap, you can use my room.”

The boy nodded, and wanted to say that he would be fine, and did not need a babysitter. But I know that will be a no go with Mom he thought, so he wisely kept quiet. “Please make sure Claudia comes home safely.”

“I will,” Liz said softly as she went in for a hug with her son. “I promise.”

The boy nodded, but before any of the adults could leave. Archie stepped forward. “Ms. Parker, Mr. Evans,” the teenage asked. “I know it should only be you guys going. But would you mind if I went too?” he asked. “I love your daughter,” he said. “I know things were tense between us, and I don’t know what it means for our relationship, but I know I care, and I want to show to her that I care.”

“She will know,” Liz said softly. “I will tell her,” she sighed because she knew how complicated this situation was. And how inside the circle they needed to keep this, so to have Archie there, brought the unknown into the situation, and that was something they did not need.

Not at all.

“I love her,” Archie said. “I am going to crazy back here not knowing. And she needs to know I care, and I want to be there for her, whatever that means for us in the long run, I don’t know, but I need to be there, please, can I come?”

“We will take you,” Jim said as he gave his son a look, and Kyle only nodded, because this was such a unique situation. “Max and Liz should be on their own,” he said softly. “But you don’t mind uncomfortable seats, you can ride in the backseat of the truck,” he muttered.

“Thank you,” a relieved Archie said, not even caring what it meant for the elephant in the room, which was not being talked about.

“No problem,” Jim said.

“Whoever is going, we better go” was all Max said to the situation. And of course, he did not know about the latest bombshell, but his former wife did.

And it did not escape notice of the look his ex-wife shared with her best friend, and Kyle before they rushed out of the room.

Uh oh Lucy muttered out loud once the room was quiet.

“It’s going to be fine,” Maria murmured.

“Are you sure?” Lucy asked.

“No,” Maria was not sure of that at all. But we have to deal with what we deal with…

“So,” Crystal was asking Tripp.

“Yeah, so” Tripp murmured. Unsure of what to say, or what he could say. “I will drive you back to the motel now, I guess” he said as he was feeling slammed by the idea that he might have another sibling, an older brother he was thinking, that is big.

Crystal was not going to push, as she followed Tripp out of the apartment, and Phillip could only look at Maria, and they both shook their head.

This is so big and so complicated.

*

Northern New Mexico,
Cabin,
In a Mystery location.

There was no known location to Ava’s cabin. It was in the middle of nowhere. And she wanted that way. Given who she was, when she went to her cabin, she wanted to unwind, and not let anyone in, or find her. So, she did not even have an official address to the cabin I don’t really get mail anyways.

The only look of any person was a little store down the way. Where if Ava did not bring up the supplies, she could get it there. But she tended to go for the rustic charm of the cabin, even though it was stock with a little more modern convenience than some of places in the miles around her, but it was exactly what she was looking for.

Except for when you have an injured teenage girl, who was suffering blood loss, and was in and out of consciousness. Fortunately, Claudia was finally listening to Ava and lying down, and staying that way.

Ever since her little show, she had not been speaking to anyone, when she was conscious, and Kyla was worried for her. “She does not look good” she was voicing to the older woman. Chase, their captive that Claudia not so subtly subdued was tied to a chair, with a gag in his mouth so he could not shout anymore unpleasantness about the quality of Ava and Kyla’s people.

Ava had thought she had kept that to herself, and from Richard.

But now she was having second thoughts to what her supposed boyfriend knew, and what he was doing about it. This is not what I was bargaining for she thought. And definitely not what I need to bond with Max and his friends she thought. If they think I am responsible.

She already knew Michael was suspicious of her relationship. And it was the truth as she had known it at the time. She had not talked about her life, or her friends, and associates. And Richard had not asked any questions. Or she had not heard them, and now she questioned it or was it Chase just being rogue.

But she doubted it, because Richard had not owned up to have a child in the first place. She had only known that because she had down her research. You don’t date someone who is older without doing a solid search she knew. We are in this day and age for a reason and might as well use the conveniences of modern life to check on your potential dates she muttered. It had always served me in the past.

And she thought it was now, so I knew he had a kid, and maybe a second one but that was little fuzzy according to my search.

But she did not care. Lots of people had sordid personal lives, so why get upset.

I am divorced after all.

But that was pretty tame when I consider how it went for Max and Liz she thought, “She is tough,” she said softly, as she thought of Claudia. “She’s resting.”

“Can’t you do anything?” Kyla asked.

“I have done all I can,” Ava murmured. “There is so much we can do,” she sighed. “We need her father.”

“Because of his expertise,” Kyla asked, in case Chase who was nearby was listening. Which he was, so Ava knew the coded wording was appropriate. And Kyla was not going to fault it. Because she knew this situation was so big. And they had to be careful.

Because Chase was listening.

“I wish Uncle Max would get here,” Kyla murmured.

“Me too,” Ava murmured as she looked over at the amused look of Chase. “Don’t even think of it,” she murmured.

Because she knew he was almost daring her to do something.

But we can counter anything you do Ava thought.

*

Meanwhile,

“How can we find it,” Kyle murmured in the truck with his father, and the third passage, Archie. Which made the whole trip awkward. “If there is no fixed address,” he muttered at the fact Ava had only really sent coordinates to the location, and description of how to get there once they did reach the nearest town.

“We will find it,” Jim said. Because he was also not that happy to not have a easy way to get to the cabin, but we will deal with what we have he thought, as the drive was help clear his mind because it had gotten so muddy back at the apartment. “All you have to know is Kyla is safe,” he sighed, and that was the important part of this.

That is a giant relief he would mutter, And I am grateful that although I won’t truly be settled until I hold her in my arms he thought, of something he had never really gotten a chance because of the deal he had with Isabel, and he had never wanted to breach it.

But that was yesterday he thought. Today was a whole new ballgame. “That is great, but we don’t know if Claudia is” Kyle murmured, and he did not want to think of that other subject that had yet to be discussed, not really, but it was hanging there in the elephant. “Did you call Amy and tell her?” he asked of his stepmother.

“Yes,” Jim sighed. “We can hopefully reschedule that dinner until a different night,” he sighed of the original plans for the night. “When we all can get together.”

“I hope so,” Kyle sighed. Because he wanted to believe that it would happen.

All the while Archie was in the back and knew this was weird. And completely awkward, the fact they were not discussing the issue among them, but he knew it was not the time. He did not even care about it I have never been about my origin story he thought. Sure, I wonder but it does not define me, and it just clarifies a whole lot at the same time he would mutter to himself. I just want to know Claudia is okay he thought as he sat and worried that there was more to this than what was being told to them.

There is always more than meets the eye in this story he muttered.

So, he sat in silence as they drove.

*

The drive was becoming tedious for the other car also, a little further behind than the Sheriff’s truck because they did not have the ability to have a siren. Thankfully, they were on mainly single roads, and therefore, they could make their own speed, up to a reason Max thought as he drove. It is nighttime he murmured as the drive was letting him not think, But unfortunately for his companion, the drive was just making her worry all the more. “I want to get there,” Liz said softly as she was sitting in Max’s car. Because she had not wanted to drive. And Max was taking the leadership of this moment. Neither had talked much in the last hour since they left the Crashdown. Neither knew what to say, or if they were getting closer to where their daughter was. “Who does not even have an official address?” she muttered softly at the annoyance of not having a fixed address to find.

“Someone who wants to hide,” Max muttered. I cannot fault Ava he knew. “It allows you to be off the grid, if you are the only one who knows how to get the house,” he sighed. “I have thought about it once or twice when I was on my own,” he would think but that was for a whole other reason he thought of those years when he was on his was on his own and having to deal with having lost his wife and daughter.

And not wanting to live at home he thought, That would change he murmured.

“Before you moved in with your parents?” Liz asked. Because she knew how eventually Max would move in with Phillip and Diane, which made her request of Phillip all the more painful, but necessary or so I thought at the time.

“Yes,” Max said softly as he remembered back to the time he was on his own. Something I did not do well he thought. “I did not always live with my father or my mother before she died,” he sighed. “I wanted to be on my own,” he sighed. “Unfortunately, Mom got sick, and they needed my help.”

Liz nodded.

As she also knew that it was a sore point with the two of them over the fact that she had asked his father to keep vital information from him, I did not ask Phillip to keep it from Max, she said in her defence, but I know that was the implication she sighed. I did not tell him what to do when he asked his son to come home she thought. All I wanted was Max to come back to Roswell.

To be able to be by those who loved him and had not left him.

And to come back to Roswell.

And Liz also knew that it was past time to apologize, and she had already done enough of it, she was not about to do it now. We both know how we feel on the subject she thought. We have agreed to disagree.

And now we have to move on.

And even if they could talk about it, this was not the place to do it. Not in the car, not when they did not know what they were driving too. So, she wisely stayed quiet, and just watched the road as they drove on, towards the cabin that hopefully would have answers.

The darkness had settled in, and she was not seeing anything, but it was almost calming. So, that she did not imagine what they could be facing once they were at the cabin.

“It helps that Ava is there, I suppose” Liz said softly. “To have an adult there,” she sighed. “I know you guys have had some trust issues with her… But she was always a friend to me, and I was once to her, I hope.”

She thinks highly of you he knew. It is one of the redeeming qualities to who duplicate business he was thinking. “I was never against Ava,” Max said softly. She has been good to us, at the bar he muttered. “It just a unique situation, given who she is related too…”

Liz sighed, as they both voiced the same name under their breath, without voicing it, Tess they both thought.

As they both thought for the same but also different reasons, Tess left a giant shadow, and a giant mess.

Max could only sigh because in his own mind was whirlwind of emotion and he needed a diversion. With the music turned off because he was not in the mood for it. But he needed something to unwind his mind, so that he did not imagine what condition his daughter could be in. “Liz?” he asked as he glanced over at the woman who was the love of his life.

And the mother of his only child.

“Yes,” Liz asked, as she took her eyes off the road and brought them back towards her former husband.

“Can I ask, what was that glance between you, Maria, and Kyle?" Max asked. “Back at the apartment?”

Shit Liz thought. And knew exactly what he was thinking of…

I don’t want to deal with this she thought, I almost want to deal with that leaving Max in the lurch and using Phillip Evans she muttered. Because it had to be a better conversation than this one, because she did not know how her former husband was going to respond, because Tess brings out a lot in him.

“Liz?” Max asked, sensing his former wife’s silence, and it was not all about the fate of their daughter. It is something more. “What is going on?”

“Nothing,” Liz tried, but she knew that was not going to be that successful. He needs to know Liz she sighed. Everyone else now knows.

Except maybe if they are on the road Liz thought.

And because she knew that from the text messages warning that on her phone, in her purse as she had looked at them as she sat in the car, earlier in the drive.

“I think it’s something,” Max said something. “Come on, tell me” he asked. “It will give me something to think of something other than the danger our daughter could be in, and whether we will be too late.”

“Don’t think that” Liz murmured. “Please, don’t think that when I am thinking of that.”

“Then tell me,” Max asked. “Please?”

“Fine,” Liz murmured. Because it might relieve his mind. “It’s about Kyle and Tess.”

Tess, what Max muttered to himself. What on earth… he would think, why would Liz be thinking of Tess of all people because he knew how much the blonde had hurt his former wife, and it was just a messy time, really messy and in ways we would not know until well after her death he muttered to himself. “Tess and Kyle, what?” he asked. “What could have been up with the two of them?” he wondered.

“I am not sure you want to know,” Liz murmured. You definitely don’t want to know.

“Now you have gotten me curious,” Max asked as they kept on driving, and getting closer to their ultimate destination. “I now need to know.”

“Fine,” Liz said with a sigh, and frown. “Kyle and Tess might have had a thing,” she thought, because she did not know how either of them would want to classify it, a fling, a moment she thought, I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. “Back in the day.”

And I really don’t want to know Liz thought to herself. Except that it gets me away from the worry that they were being lied too and Archie was really Max’s.

But for the sake of their daughter, she knew god would not be that cruel, right? she mumbled to herself. God, you already done a number on us.

“A thing?” Max asked, “Excuse me?” he asked as his mind was trying to get around the concept of it. “I know he was interested in her when she first came to town.”

“And putting a number over on you,” Liz said softly, and saw the frown on Max’s face. “Sorry, that was an instant reflex,” she muttered because she did not have only memories of how it went bad for her and Max, and how it had drawn Max to Tess even though I had engineered it Liz knew, yeah, yeah, she thought to herself, my burden to bear she thought.

But it was the beginning of their insane drama with Tess, she was playing games from the beginning, so why could we not see her for what she was? She asked herself.

“But it’s the truth,” Max sighed, because he knew he had been fooled way too much because of Tess. And it started from the very first moment to the last moment he knew. She had a capacity to get under my skin.

In ways that I did not particular relish he knew. My heart was with Liz.

And still was… But Tess was fond of mind games[/i] he muttered, and she took too much of an interest in it because of her abilities he thought, so no wonder she would use it for her gain, and not simply to help the situation of her destructive powers which had it’s purposes but Tess tended to use them in ways that were not needed, to achieve a goal both would think, and we were fooled for so long they knew.

He remembered the beginning, and the way she had made him feel, something he had not relished and still did not. I did not see what was happening until the end he thought, and too many consequences came from that town.

Even if Archie is not my son, still, too much was done during that time Max knew. So, he could not believe something would have happened between Tess and for his former wife’s high school boyfriend.

“That does not make a lot of sense,” Max muttered as his mind was trying to get around it.

“Because she had only eyes for you?” Liz muttered.

“Liz,” Max sighed.

“It’s the truth,” Liz sighed. “We might as well accept it and move on,” she sighed “I have had to accept a lot.”

“I know you I have had to ask you accept a lot,” Max sighed. “And I am sorry about that,” he sighed. “I wish it could all be so much easier.”

“I know, so do I” Liz muttered. “But it still does not mean that Kyle and Tess could not have had something during that time, because they were living in the same house, and for that time, Kyle had even given up his bedroom.”

Max surely knew this but kept quiet.

Liz could only sigh. A lot of water is under the bridge.

She also knew this was a difficult subject, but it was one that had to be addressed. “All I am saying that it’s possible, and I know that because Kyle told me it happened,” she sighed, and Max looked over in a surprise. “Don’t look so shocked.”

“Well, I am,” Max sighed. A little he knew. “What did he say happened?”

“We don’t have to get into that,” Liz sighed. “All he said was that it happened, but because Tess is known to play mind games, then he is not all that certain by what it all meant,” she sighed. And that I can believe she sighed, because she always had her doubts about that time, because all Tess was capable of.

“Really?” Max asked as he went back to concentrating on the driving because they did not need accident, or for him to cause one in their quest to get to a cabin that had no fixed address.

“Yes, really” Liz murmured.

Max nodded, “If they did, what does that matter now?” he asked as he was not getting it. And Liz could only shake her own head because she knew it this was all a bit much.

“Liz?” Max asked.

“It means that it is possible that Archie might be Kyle’s,” Liz said, there I said it, and now Max knows.

“What?” Max asked. “Are you sure?”

“No, no one is” Liz sighed. “But if Archie is Tess’s son, then the chances are pretty high because we all know you are not the father, and Kyle would be the only known candidate” she sighed at the flabbergasted nature of Max’s reaction. “He is not yours, right?”

“Of course not, no, we know he is not” Max sighed. “I have blood tests to verify that…”

“Then he would be likely Kyle’s, but still with Tess, then we are unlikely going to know one way or another.”

“Unless Kyle has his own blood test,” Max sighed. “Why did he not speak up back then. Why put me through all that crap?” he asked of all the emotions he had gone through back then, to believe that he was the father, and than to have that taken away to have that known ripped away he thought. Not that I wanted to be the father, but…

“Archie is nineteen now,” Liz sighed. “I doubt it will be that important,” she muttered. “So, we might never know, and I don’t know about the other thing. The way he explained it to me is that he never thought about it,” she sighed. “When you and Tess you know…”

“I know,” Max muttered.

“He believed like the rest of us, and you did that you were the father” Liz sighed. “It was only after you found out the truth that it made him wonder, and by then, the adoption was finalized and he was not in a place to want to mess with that, or to find out one way or another. It did not really matter,” she sighed. “Archie had his home. And parents who loved him, and there was no reason to know one way or another, especially if he was not going to do anything about it.”

“Yeah, but…” Max muttered.

“I know,” Liz sighed. “A lot could have been different.”

“Right,” Max said softly. “So…” he sighed. “Kyle might be Archie’s father?” he asked, as he was testing out the notion.

“It is better than him being yours,” Liz sighed. “Because for our daughter’s sanity, we should want it to be Kyle.”

Claudia Max thought, yes, he thought as they became quiet, too quiet and the drive descended into worry.

Until finally they hit the town that Ava had told them to watch out for, and that meant they were only minutes away. “We are almost there.”

“Thank god,” Liz sighed as she knew that she was getting closer to her daughter

[Parker1947]

At the same time,

Claudia was drifting in an out of consciousness. She did not know why a simple graze wound could make her feel this woozy and out of control. She knew she was not dying, but she also knew she was not getting better, and the blood loss was continuing, despite Ava’s attempt to manage the first aid herself, and the more she was learning that there were obvious drawbacks to being who they were, and only certain people know how to make things all better she thought. She could hear through the fogginess of her condition that they were waiting for her father; “Max will help her” she would hear Ava tell Kyla who had been sitting by her bedside in shifts, during the hours of this ordeal.

She did not know why. Because her mind was cloudy because of the pain, and even though Ava had some pain medicine. But nothing to take into consideration when you are treating a bullet wound that was causing blood loss, and this was not a hospital where they could give her hydration. She could tell even if the last year had not already told her, being in a hospital would be bad news.

She could hear Kyla asked that of Ava, but Ava said there was no hospital nearby, and a hospital would ask questions.

And they could not have that…

Of course, not Claudia was murmuring to herself, as she was drifting in and out of consciousness. Not that I want to be in a hospital anyways she muttered. Not right now she thought, although I don’t want to feel this pain she thought.

She wanted to dream. She wanted to dream of a better world. A world that gave her everything she wanted. She did not know why she was in the world where it was so complicated and painful.

She then could hear through the fogginess of her pain, the bursting through the front door. She prayed it was not bad news. But she did not have enough energy to get off the bed, and go for the door to try to protect, as she had done before.

She had expended too much of her dwindling energy with that, even though it had felt nice, because she could hear the venom being spewed, and she knew what it had cost her, it cost me a father she thought.

But she could hear the frantic words in the other room, the direct inference to a fight occurring with a bang of someone being knocked down, being heard, not that she could understand the threats and the curses, because the fogginess was taking over, and she was losing consciousness again, and this time it was not from the pain, or being too tired.

It was the other kind of consciousness; she could hear the demanding of someone to see her. She could not make it out, but it felt nice.

Comforting, and she knew she was going to be alright.

Please take me home she thought as the door to the room she was in burst open, and unfortunately, she was unconscious and unable to see that it was both of her parents, and Jim and Archie, because Kyle stayed in other room, with Kyla in his arms for a hug that he treasured. But in the other room, Archie rushed over because he had arrived first. “Claudia,” he said softly. “What is wrong with her?” he demanded of Ava.

“She was shot,” Ava said.

Claudia could not hear this, as then Max rushed in, “Let me see my daughter,” he demanded of the crowd. “I need to see her.”

Claudia would not hear the cries that came, although she would distantly feeling the heat of the burning of being healed, and the feeling of the brightness of the room lighting up. The gasps of someone seeing the unexpected.

And being lifted up into his father’s comforting arms and being lifted and carried out of the cabin and being placed in the back, laying down.

And the car moving again.

While all this was happening. She was in her dream world…

Because in this world, she was walking downstairs, and finding both her parents in the kitchen, with JJ at the table.

Smiles all around. Like they were a real family.

Could this dream come true?

Three Days later,

Eyes opened and she looked around and found herself in a very different room that did not look her room in the Crashdown, or her mother’s motel room. Or even her old bedroom in Boston, it almost looked like the room in her dream. So, she wondered if she was dead and was in heaven or hell for that matter. But what mattered was that she did not understand where she was, or what was happening.

She felt much better. Freer, different than she did. She did not feel in pain anymore. She felt like she had a chance now. Sitting up in a bed that had old fashion sheets, but it was a room that felt welcoming. She looked around and did not see anything that identified where she was, she pulled her legs around to the edge of the bed, and she stopped.

And she looked down.

She did not see a scar. Nothing to indicate that she was shot, not even a handprint. “What is going on?” she asked to herself. She wondered she was still in her dream world. Because she had imagined this kind of life.

But she felt alive. But she did not know what was going on, or why she had no traces of her recent ordeal except for the location she was in, was different.

Getting up and standing on her two feet, she looked around and saw a robe next to the bed, and a small suitcase with clothes in it. Clothes that were hers, and stuff she knew, so she reached for a sweatshirt of hers, and her jeans.

She looked at the mirror and saw herself.

That is promising.

She opened the door, and walked out into the hallway of a house she did not recognized, and she would not, because she had only been there once.

And she found the stairs and walked down.

She walked through the doors and found a kitchen that was like in her dreams. What is going on here, she thought. Am I in heaven? she asked herself as she walked into the kitchen. And said as much. “Am I in heaven?”

“We hope not,” came the answer as her mother was standing at the stove, and moving food around in the pan, as she turned and smiled when she saw her daughter coming into the room. A feat not certain only days before. “Hello, honey.”

“Where are we?” Claudia asked. “Which cued my question about heaven,” the eighteen-year-old asked as she looked around and the room looked oddly familiar, but it was not like their old one back in Boston or maybe over the Crashdown. This was different. Older, but she had seen it before, but she could not place it.

“My house,” came the voice of someone over at the table, and she looked and saw her father and her brother JJ.

“Yes, your father and grandfather has graciously offered to let us stay with them for a few days while you recovered,” Liz said with a smile, at both her daughter and at the table that held both her ex-husband and her son.

Gee these two Claudia muttered. Even in my new reality, they cannot keep their eyes off each other she sighed, and is that not what I wanted she asked herself.

Maybe she told herself.

“How long have I been out?” Claudia asked.

“Three days,” JJ murmured.

“You gave us a scare,” Liz said softly as she looked with relief to see that her daughter was down here for something to eat. “Mostly,” she said, “You were in and out.”

Claudia nodded, although she did not understand this new status of the family. “Where is Kyla?” she asked of her cousin. “Was she not staying here?” she asked.

“She is staying with Kyle,” Max said simply.

“Really?” Claudia asked. “Her mother did not come home?”

“It was decided that Kyla was in safe hands, and her mother could continue on with her trip to pick up Kyla’s sisters,” Liz said softly. “Although I am sure the turn around and return trip might be faster than it might have been before,” she sighed, with relief. And knew Kyle was quite happy to have Mikyla at his place. And was bending over backwards to make it work and it was working out for all involved.

“This is too bizarre,” Claudia muttered as she was taking in the atmosphere of the whole scene. Because she did not know what to think about all this. “About you know…”

“We can talk about it later,” was all Max said as he looked at his little girl with a smile. And with happiness in his heart, and a lot of relief mixed in.

Claudia nodded.

“Do you want something to eat?” Liz asked as she carried a plate of food to put in front of her son.

“Sure,” Claudia murmured as she sat down at the table for a truly bizarro breakfast. Having something she had never in her life had before, a family breakfast she thought, and she did not know what to make of it, and she saw the lightness in her mother, and the happiness in her father, and she did not if she could take this, did I fall into a rabbit hole and go into a dream land? She asked.

Am I still at the cabin, dying Claudia thought to herself as she silently ate her breakfast, and she picked up her plate and went back to the sink.

“If this is for real,” she Claudia muttered “Can I ask, how long are we staying?” Claudia asked as she turned back and faced her parents and asked the question.

“As long as you guys like,” Max said as he took Liz’s hand and smiled before Liz was able to speak up, and Liz was not speaking up because she personally did not know how long this would last. “As long as you want,” he said with all genuineness.

Unbelievable Claudia thought as she turned her focus on her mother and asked for her opinion on her question. “Mom?”

“We will talk about it,” Liz said softly, as that was all she was ready to commit to at the moment. I really don’t know what is going to happen now.

The breakfast was an experience unlike any of them had experienced before. And for someone who had just come out of the land of unconsciousness. Claudia could only shake her head because it did feel like she was living in another version of her life. “I think I need some fresh air,” she murmured. “JJ, do you want to come with me?”

“No, I am zooming with Seth,” JJ said.

“Oh,” Claudia said. I don’t know what is happening she thought to herself, and muttered something like that as she left the kitchen.

Liz could only watch as her daughter walked away. “She has questions,” she murmured as she looked at her former husband, and her son.

“Don’t we all?” Max said with a smile.

Liz could only laugh.

Yeah, this is a bizarro world JJ thought, as she got up, and picked up his phone. “I am calling Seth,” he murmured.

“Go ahead,” Liz sighed as JJ walked out of the kitchen too, and all Liz could do was glance at her former husband. “Max?”

“Don’t worry,” Max said softly. “You can stay as long as you want to stay,” he tried. “I have loved having you here, all of you,” he sighed as he thought of the drama of the last few days, as out in the living room. Claudia was looking around and found it really bizarre to be in her father’s home, and have her parents act like they are together.

Are they together?

Claudia did not know.

There is so much I don’t know she muttered as she there was a knock on the door, might as well be me, who answers it she thought to herself. So, she walked to the door and found herself looking at a part of her old life. “Archie?” she asked with surprise. “You are still in town?”

“Claudia?” Archie asked with relief. And yes, I am here, because I cannot leave. “You are awake?”

“Yes, apparently I am” Claudia murmured with a laugh “Although it feels like I have landed in alternative reality,” she sighed. “How did you know I was here?” she asked.

“I have come to visit,” Archie murmured. “I needed to see you.”

“Oh,” Claudia murmured. Unsure of what to say. Because the last time they had seen each other, so much angst was filled with their encounter, and now he was here, and she did not know what to say.

“Can I come in?” Archie asked.

“Actually, I need some fresh air,” Claudia murmured. “Because it feels like I have been couped up for so long,” she murmured as she took a step out into the fresh and the light of day. I guess I have, she thought. “They tell me I have been out for like three days, give or take” she sighed. “This is truly bizarre,” she murmured. “I don’t know what happened?”

“I don’t know either,” Archie sighed. “You scared me.”

“I am sorry,” Claudia sighed. And she was. She was truly sorry as she was looking at Archie, and she did not know where it was leaving them.

*

“I am sorry too,” was Archie could say as he had not known why he had come. Or why he was in town still. Because the last three days had been mind blowing. Oh, I know why I am still here he thought because Claudia was still sleeping, he thought. Like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White without the poison he murmured. But what I have seen, I don’t know what to make of it which is why he had not gone back to Colorado.

When given the numerous discoveries he had made in this town. I should have gone running.

But he was still around.

And his sister Crystal was still around too, because she had not wanted to leave with her brother not knowing what end was up and had gotten permission from their mother and even their father to stay in Roswell.

Because their father had been unusually fine with both of his kids being in Roswell. That had weirded us out he knew. He still did not know what to think of it or am I looking at it all so different now that I know more about my origins he thought. Not that I have really talked about it with anyone, and not even Kyle.

It has just been hanging over us…

As he thought of his sister, and how she was currently with Tripp, as they were seeing each other more socially. Archie did not know what it meant, or whether it should be happening at all, given all he knew, and he had yet to deal with that stubborn little side plot that got dropped at him at the last possible moment, it really did not do anything, but it changes a lot too he thought.

“Are you okay?” Archie asked.

“Sure,” Claudia murmured, as she stopped down the stairs, and looked around. She did not know this house. She did not know this neighborhood. Sure, she had been here once before, but that was as a lark when she was investigating matters. Now, everything has changed she thought. I don’t know who I am.

What else is new.

Archie nodded.

“It feels like I woke up in a whole different life,” Claudia muttered. “I don’t know how I ended up here, and my parents are acting as if they are together, but I know they are not at the same time,” she sighed. “How did we end up here?”

“They needed a place to take you,” came a voice from nearby, and they looked and saw Lucy walking towards them. “Wow, you are awake” she said with a smile. “You are sure some fresh air right there,” she sighed. “You scared all of us when you would not wake up.”

“Why not?” Claudia asked. Why did it take me three days to wake up? “I never been sick before.”

“But you were never shot before,” Lucy murmured and looked at Archie, and knew Archie was still coming to terms with a lot.

“It hurt like hell” Claudia remembered; I do remember that she sighed. But her mind was still foggy about anything else. “I don’t have any scars” except maybe mental.

“Thanks to your father,” Lucy murmured and could tell that Archie was still unsure of all he had seen, and how to take it But he’s still here she remarked, that is half of the battle. “I was not there, but I heard” she sighed. “You really scared them. Because apparently, you could have gone either way when they got there, but no, there was no explanation for it either, still isn’t, but your father helped greatly, and your condition improved.”

“Obviously,” Claudia murmured. “I am standing here,” she remarked as she looked down and how remarkably unscarred her legs were… And no pain.

“Yes, you are” Archie asked. Because it still was rocking his mind just what he had seen up at that cabin. And it still swam through her brain, and he knew he could have ran, and he was amazed that he had not run back to Colorado and was still here.

“You…” Claudia asked, because Archie sounded subdued. Even more so, because she knew his moods, and this was something different. She could not immediately put her finger on it.

“He knows,” Lucy murmured as she could see the conflict in Claudia’s boyfriend. It often happens when someone comes into the secret she murmured, not that I know that really, because I have not let anyone in, she knew but she also knew that Archie did know.

“Knows what?” Claudia asked. “You could know many things.”

That I do know Archie murmured.

“Everything,” Lucy said helpfully. Because she sensed the awkwardness between Claudia and Archie. Neither knows what to make of the other, now.

“I know what you are, and what you can do” Archie murmured.

“Oh,” Claudia murmured.

“Oh, is right,” Archie sighed. I have yet to fully comprehend what I saw the other night.

“You have missed out on a lot,” Lucy sighed.

“Apparently,” Claudia murmured as she looked around and saw that life seemed so normal, and like any other day, and yet it feels so different.

“And you missed out on the fact the big bad of our story is my biological grandfather,” Lucy said with a smirk. “Think about that for a minute, why don’t you?” she asked with a laugh, at the jaw dropping of her best friend. Although it is not a laughing matter to Mom, she sighed at the discovery that changed everything in her family.

“What?” Claudia asked.

“You heard me,” Lucy murmured.

“Have I stepped into a different story or something?” Claudia asked.

You have to wonder, don’t you?

*

Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Quite the cliffhanger, huh. I had to figure out how to end things without creating another dozens of chapters of potential mayhem.