AUTHOR: Devil Kitty
DISCLAIMER: Don’t own them, just borrowing them, blah, blah, blah.
CATEGORY: Max/Liz + CC
RATING: ADULT
SUMMARY: This is the sequel to my story The Evil Within. I advise reading TEW before attempting this story, as the incidents in it directly lead to this story, as well as containing new characters that were introduced in TEW.
To read The Evil Within just click on the link in my sig
We pick up just about a month after TEW. This interlude will be shorter than TEW, dealing with the gang taking a summer trip before college. (I’m already thinking about a possible threequel )
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Evil Takes a Holiday
Chapter 1
The first Saturday in June dawned bright and sunny; hopefully as bright and sunny as the futures of the students gathered in the hallway, adjusting their caps and gowns. Inside the school’s auditorium the noise level rose and fell as the proud parents, family and friends of the Senior Class of West Roswell High waited for the beginning of commencement exercises.
Max Evans and Liz Parker walked into the staging area hand in hand, Liz carrying the note cards with her speech on them. “Liz!” She heard called and looked to see Maria near the girls restroom, waving her over. Max squeezed her hand before letting go so she could walk over to join Maria, Isabel and several other girls who were doing some last minute primping. Max saw Alex in the crowd and joined him as they waited.
Maria smiled at Liz, “Times running out, babe, speech finally finished?” Liz nodded feeling nervous at giving her Salutatorian speech before the large assembly. Liz had initially been disappointed that she had fallen short of Valedictorian, but Maria reminded her (while sharing a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream) that James Baldwin had not spent the last few months being bedeviled by a couple of evil space aliens.
As they overheard one of their schoolmates comment, “Can you believe we made it? We’re actually graduating.” Maria looked at Liz and Isabel with a raised eyebrow and sotto voice, “For a while there I wasn’t sure we were actually going to live, much less pass our finals.”
Just as the girls returned to the hallway, Mr. Seligman called out in his dry voice, “People, please take your places. We want this ceremony to move forward as calmly as possible, and then I’ll never have to see your faces again.” A rare smile cracked over his face when a voice in the crowd called out, “We love you, too, man.”
At the first strains of “Pomp and Circumstance”, the auditorium quieted as the graduates marched down the aisles.
Jeff and Nancy Parker beamed with pride when their Liz stood at the podium and gave her Salutatorian speech. After she finished, Liz smiled at her parents and as she returned to her seat on the stage she looked out at Max, blushing when he blew her a kiss.
Finally the moment of the day came when the School Board Superintendent began to call out the names of the graduates as they came forward to receive their diplomas. There was applause for all the participants, but when the name of Michael Guerin was called out, Kyle Valenti and Alex Whitman stuck their fingers in their mouths to whistle shrilly as his other friends cheered. Maria Deluca was smiling and crying at the same time as she watched Michael self-consciously walk across the stage and shake hands with the Superintendent before accepting his diploma. Looking over at the faculty seating section, she caught the eye of the school counselor, Ms. Gresham. It had been Ms. Gresham who had gone to bat for Michael; taking on the school principal and Michael’s teachers to insure that Michael was given the opportunity to pull his grades up so he could graduate. Noting that Ms. Gresham was also wiping at her eyes, Maria gave her a big grin and a thumbs up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was rare for the Crashdown Café to be closed on a Saturday, but the sign posted on the front door explained, “Closed for Private Graduation Party”. Inside friends and family gathered in celebration. Max and Isabel’s grandparents had driven down for their only grandchildren’s graduation, and Max proudly introduced Liz as his fiancée. Although his grandmother raised an eyebrow in surprise, “Fiancé? Phillip didn’t say a word to me about this,” she was gracious. And the elder Mr. Evans gave Liz a peck on the cheek and welcomed her to the family. In turn, Liz introduced Max to her aunt and uncle, who had flown in from Florida for the occasion.
Liz slipped around the counter to fill several glasses with Cherry Coke and one with Orange Crush. She smiled as she saw her mom, her aunt, Mrs. Whitman and both Mrs. Evans sitting at a table talking while their spouses were stationed near the coffee makers shooting the breeze.
She placed the drinks on a tray and carried them to one of the booths where Max sat with Isabel and Alex. Taking her seat, she looked over to a table where Maria and Michael sat with Kyle, Sera, and Mrs. Deluca as Sheriff Valenti and Tyler sat nearby on the bar stools. Michael grinned while watching Maria talking animatedly, Liz commented, “I can’t remember ever seeing Michael smile so much.”
Isabel turned to look, “I know, I can’t believe we never realized how much getting his diploma meant to him. I really feel bad about that.”
“Me, too.” Max agreed. “He never seemed to care about studying or classes. From the time we found Michael again, all he ever cared about was finding a way back home.”
Liz leaned her cheek on her hand, “I don’t think so, I think that deep down what Michael really wanted was to belong.” She looked at Max, “Sure, he wanted to know about your planet just as much as you did, but what he really wanted was a family.”
“Wait a minute,” Isabel objected, “Belong? What about me and Max?”
“Of course you cared about him, Isabel, but you and Max grew up with parents who love you.” Then with a look of distaste, “and Michael ended up with Hank.” Looking back at Michael who sat between Maria and Amy, she smiled as he leaned over and gave Maria a kiss on the cheek, “Michael needed to belong to a family, and now he has one.”
As she saw Kyle laugh at something Michael said, her mind wandered back to just a month earlier. Prom night, when Max had surprised her with one of the most romantic nights of her life, only for morning to bring horror when Tess and Nasedo snatched her away leading to a deadly confrontation at the pod chamber.
After Max, Michael and Tyler had disposed of Tess and Nasedo’s bodies, they had all begun the process of putting their lives back on track. Max and Liz were both relieved that Tess was finally out of their lives, and knowing how much she had hated Liz made it difficult to feel any regret at her death. But what haunted Liz was the memory of Tess’s charred body. She knew that it was in self-defense, but it was her electrical burst that had flung Tess against the Granolith, trapping her against it.
Max was also haunted by the knowledge that if Nasedo had not been bound by the encoding to protect Liz, he would have murdered her; just as he was willing to carry them all back to Antar to their deaths. Being the cause of such hatred was disconcerting, and both Max and Liz had spent several sleepless nights keeping the nightmares at bay. Max still snuck into Liz’s room most nights and stayed until dawn, holding her close and making sure she was safe.
In spite of Tess and Nasedo’s betrayal, Isabel couldn’t help but also feel a sense of loss for what Tess could have been; another female alien to share her feelings and fears with – like a sister. She remembered how excited she had been when she first met Tess, how she was immediately drawn to her, only to learn that it was all manipulated by Tess’s abilities. It had helped that she and Sera had grown closer over several long talks at the mall.
While Alex understood Isabel’s feelings of loss, his opinion leaned more closely to that of Michael and Maria. And for Michael and Maria the situation was clear-cut – Tess and Nasedo had been traitors and had reaped their just rewards. Good riddance to bad rubbish Maria had declared.
Tyler had felt sadness and anger that a Protector would turn against his charges and actively plot their deaths. Sera, having never known Nasedo and barely knowing Tess based her feelings on her knowledge of their betrayal and Tess’s use and abuse of Kyle; and she couldn’t regret that they were dead.
While it had been the Granolith that had rendered final judgment against Tess, it had been Kyle who had fired the lethal shot that had killed Nasedo that day. He knew it was something that had to be done to save his friends, and he would have done it again, but after the initial adrenaline rush faded, the fact that he had taken a life began to weigh on him.
As the days passed, they all began to slowly settle back into a normal routine of school, work and hanging out together. But Kyle remained quiet and withdrawn. Whenever his dad or Sera tried to talk with him about what happened that day, he shrugged them off denying anything was wrong. But Sera had been worried enough that she had gone to Max and Liz for advice. Max knew the one person who could relate to what Kyle was going through – Michael, who had been forced to kill Agent Pierce and had battled his own inner demons.
So Max had asked Michael to talk with Kyle. Michael had gone by to see Kyle and had found him parked in front of the TV set. He’d tried to talk about what had happened, but Kyle had denied anything was wrong. When Michael got up to leave, Kyle commented on a strange sound he’d heard in Michael’s motorcycle engine when he had pulled up. Their mutual love of engines led to them working together on Michael’s bike or sometimes on Kyle’s car. Before long Kyle listened when Michael talked about Agent Pierce, and finally Kyle opened up to Michael.
Isabel had teasingly dubbed them “The Odd Couple”, but they were both smiling nowadays, and that made the rest of them smile.
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As Maria sat proudly with Michael, her mother suddenly cried out, “Oh, honey, I forgot, a letter came for you this morning from Las Cruces. Let me get my purse.”
As her mom dashed off, Maria’s heart began to skip. Everyone else planning to attend Las Cruces had already received acceptance letters. Max, Liz, Isabel and Alex had all been accepted to other colleges, but they had already decided even before mailing out their applications that they would all try to get into Las Cruces. It was close enough to Roswell that they could return quickly should a problem arise, but far enough away from home to give them a feeling of some independence. An added plus was that by attending college instate, their parents would save on tuition expenses.
As the days had passed, Maria had just about given up on Las Cruces and was afraid she’d be forced to attend Roswell Community. Michael didn’t plan on attending college, he had already told her that wherever she went, so would he. He figured he could get a job as a fry cook just about anywhere. But as much as she loved Michael, the thought of not being with Liz and Alex was disheartening.
When Amy handed her the envelope, Maria carefully opened it up and eased the paper from inside. She took a deep breath and slowly opened the letter reading the opening lines. As soon as she saw the word “accepted”, she jumped up, her chair falling over as she squealed. “I’m in, I’m in.” She threw her arms around Michael as everyone in the café looked to see what the commotion was about. While hugging her mom, she looked for Liz, “Lizzie,” she waved the letter in the air, “Las Cruces, here I come!”
Liz rushed to hug her and Alex came over to wrap an arm around both of his girls. They had been best buds since the fifth grade and now all three were heading to the same college. Standing in a three-way hug, he was glad he didn’t have to lose either of them. Max and Isabel, who were also heading for Las Cruces, joined in the congratulations.
Kyle smiled and gave Maria a hug, but inside he felt a pang. He hadn’t even bothered to apply to any colleges - he had been so sure that he would receive a sports scholarship. When he spoke to his coach wondering why he hadn’t heard from any colleges, his coach sat him down and gave him the bald truth - he was just hadn’t been deemed a strong enough player for consideration by the scouts. The college football scouts thought he was too small, the basketball scouts felt he was too short and his recent funk during the Regional baseball playoffs had been the final blow to any athletic offers. So here he sat, Roswell Community bound, where anyone with a diploma from a Chaves County high school was automatically accepted. He just hoped that his dad wasn’t too disappointed in him.
Then he saw his pretty green-eyed, auburn haired girlfriend give Maria a hug. Sera attended Roswell Community, and he knew that he didn’t really want to go off to some strange town and leave her behind. And leave her behind he would have had to do, as she and Tyler would be remaining in Roswell since Max and Company were headed off to college. She and Tyler would be in charge of guarding the Granolith in Max’s absence.
As Sera returned to Kyle, she noted the solemn look on his face. “Feeling a bit left out?”
He shrugged and she looped her arm through his, “It’s okay, Kyle, I feel the same way. I’ve found all these friends, and now they’re going away.” She looked up at him, “and I know it’s selfish of me, but I’m glad you’re staying here in Roswell.”
“Not selfish.” He brushed his lips across hers, “Cause if I were going off to college I think I’d have to take you with me, and the Granolith be damned.” He looked over at Max and Liz who were laughing at something Alex had said, “I’m going to miss them, even El Presidente’. Roswell will pretty quiet when they leave.”
“At least we have all summer to hang out with our friends.” Then Sera ran a finger around Kyle’s ear and leaned over to whisper enticingly, “This fall, I guess I’ll just have to come up with something else to entertain you with.”
His full attention back on Sera, he asked, “Is that a promise?” Her response was just an enigmatic smile.
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Mr. Parker came through the back doors of the café and announced. “The barbeque is served.”
Liz looked at her father, “Uh, Daddy, when did you have time to cook barbeque?”
He shook his head, “I’ll probably never live it down, but I had it delivered, all I had to do was heat it up.” When Liz grinned at him, he held up his hand. “Hey, I refused to be tied up in the kitchen on my daughter’s big day.” Then he called out, “Everyone come on back and fill up your plates."
After everyone served themselves barbeque and all the fixings, the teens migrated towards each other, pulling a couple of tables together. As they ate, Kyle looked over at Max and asked, “Are we still leaving on our road trip next Sunday?”
Mr. Parker overheard as he passed by their tables, “A camping and hiking trip to Colorado just doesn’t sound like the usual Senior Class trip. I thought most of your classmates were headed off to the beach somewhere.”
What Mr. Parker didn’t know was that the purpose of their “trip” was to visit the spaceship that had brought Tyler and Sera to Earth. A spaceship they had left hidden in a cave somewhere in the mountains of northern Colorado.
Kyle looked over at Michael and Maria and winked, he then looked around the table and said, “Hey, Mr. Parker’s right, maybe we should ditch camping and just go to the beach. Tommy Johnson’s brother graduated last year and went with a bunch of the graduates to Brownsville, and said it was wild.”
Playing along, Michael asked, “How wild?”
“Well, there’s plenty of booze. He said you could cross over into Mexico and buy beer without ID.” Then with a big grin, Kyle continued, “Oh, and they even had naked limbo contests.”
“Nekkid limbo?” Maria laughed as she wiggled her eyebrows, “Hey, Lizzie, how low can you go?”
When Liz shrugged, “Well, if you guys would rather go to the beach…” Mr. Parker paled and he interrupted, “You know, I hear that Colorado is lovely this time of year, and hiking is a great healthy activity. Camping it is.” They all laughed as he walked off.
“But seriously, folks.” Alex grinned, “When are we going to finalize our plans?”
“How about tomorrow night?” Isabel suggested. “We can all meet over at Michael’s and order pizza.”
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After everyone had eaten, the tables were pushed back and the jukebox cranked up for dancing. During a slow number, Max held Liz tightly in his arms as they slowly moved to the music. With her arms wound around his neck, Liz admired the new golden bracelet that encircled her delicate wrist. “My bracelet is beautiful, Max, but you’re not supposed to get a gift for someone who is graduating in the same class you are.”
He gazed into her large brown eyes with a glint in his own, “Does that mean you want me to return it?”
She looked at him in mock horror as she hid her arm behind her back, “Oh, you just try, mister.” Wrapping her arm back around him, she gave him a cute pout, “But now I feel bad, Max, I didn’t get you a present.”
Nuzzling her temple with his nose, he whispered into her ear, “Actually, I was hoping you might have a little something special for me later tonight.”
Feeling the reaction that dancing so close was having on his body, she gave him a mischievous grin, “Hmmm, it feels like you have something special for me, too.”
Just before his lips touched hers, he smiled, “Always.”
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TBC ~
Don't worry, that last chapter was as close as we get to parental nookie. LOL
so apologies to those of you in the Colorado area for any inaccuracies) 
)
