The Pathway is Broken (CC AU, TEEN) Outline - 3/31 (WIP)

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cardinalgirl
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Post by cardinalgirl »

AN: You didn't believe me, did you? :wink: Also, happy 4th, my fellow Americaners.

nibbles2, I apologize... I did get the joke, then I forgot I got the joke, then I got confused... :lol:

Part of this is super-trasitional, so I hope that it ended up working out... there's also a confrontation (no, not THE confrontation :wink: ) that we all, or at least I have been waiting for for quite some time...


Part 19

“Alex, you have to talk to him for me. You have to. You have to explain things to him somehow.”

“Tess—” Alex started, in a tired voice, but she shook her head, cutting him off.

“No, he’s not taking any of my phone calls, and I know you don’t want to get involved and it’s none of your business or whatever but I just really need you to—”

“Tess,” he said, more insistent this time, but she turned to him, fiercely.

“Don’t you dare refuse to do this for me, Alex Charles Whitman, or so help me, I’ll—”

Tess!

Shouting her name at the top of his lungs finally got her to stop stalk still in her frantic pacing across her bedroom floor, where Alex had knocked on the door a few minutes before. He’d been regaled by her words ever since.

“What?” she snapped at him, as soon as the startled look fell away from her face.

He gave a half-mock impatient huff, and then sent her an amused, but encouraging smile. He jerked a thumb behind him. “Kyle’s downstairs, he wants to talk to you.”

Tess opened her mouth to yell at him once again when she finally processed what he’d said, and then she snapped it shut.

“What did you just say?”

Alex barely smothered a chuckle. “Uh, Kyle is downstairs?” he repeated, trying to keep a straight face. “He wants to talk to you?”

Most nights a childishly-giggling Alex would be just cause for a verbal lashing and possibly even a small bout of angry mind warping, but tonight she simply stared at him, opening and closing her mouth a few times before she managed to speak. “But what do I say to him? What do I—I mean what can I even—”

“Why don’t you tell him what you told me earlier?” Alex prodded, most of the humor gone from his expression now. “Explain to him that there’s something going on here that you don’t understand.”

“But I don’t even know what it is. I mean all of a sudden I can’t control my actions around Max, and I don’t even know that I’m doing it until someone else tells me what a moron I’m making of myself? Like he’s really going to listen to that.”

Alex shrugged. “He’s put up with a lot of weird stuff in his time. Besides, you’ll never know until you try,” he said, gesturing towards the stairs as if inviting her to go down. “Good luck,” he said, as she huffed a breath and went past him.

Tess tugged on the bottom of her shirt, making sure it was straight. This was so ridiculous. She hadn’t been shy in front of Kyle Valenti since she was eight years old and she’d started to notice the fact that he was a boy, and even that hadn’t lasted long. Come on, he was Kyle. She’d known him virtually as long as she’d known Alex, thanks to the three weeks he’d spent at their house when they were six, only a few months after Tess had been adopted. She’d cried the day the sheriff had taken him home—she’d thought at first that he was another brother.

But Alex had explained to her why it was good that he was going home, and it hadn’t separated them too much—Alex and Kyle had become virtually inseperable over those three weeks.

And those brotherly feelings she’d had towards Kyle? Well they’d disappeared a long time ago.

She’d been walking slowly, and as she finally rounded the corner to stand at the top of the stairs, she could see him sitting on her mother’s white leather sofa, her pride and joy. He was sitting on the edge, his broad shoulders hunched up in his favorite brown jacket and one knee bouncing quickly up and down in front of him as he stared at his feet.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one who was a little nervous about this talk.

As she watched his strong, familiar frame wound tight with apprehension, tears pricked at her eyes for a moment. She could not mess this up. She had a very bad feeling that if this conversation went badly, she could lose Kyle, maybe forever, and that just wasn’t an option.

As she blinked the moisture in her eyes away, he looked up at where she stood, about halfway down the stairs, and his leg-tapping came to a stop.

“Hey,” she said, glad that it was a short word and that it wouldn’t let her voice waver much.

“Hey,” he said back, a little brusquely, but not in a cold way, just in a Kyle-nervous way.

She continued her descent down the stairs and came to perch on her dad’s big, overstuffed chair. She placed her hands on her legs, almost holding onto her knees. “So,” she said, barely able to look at him, though her eyes kept flitting to and away from his face.

Kyle took a deep breath and blew it out. “So,” he repeated. “Look, Tess, I know I probably overreacted a bit earlier today,”

“I’ll say,” she said, a little huffily, but she snapped her mouth shut, looking repentant when Kyle looked at her sharply, his eyes narrowed.

“Anyhow,” he started again. “What I was going to say is that I’m sorry for snapping at you like that, I just…” He shook his head, a completely baffled look on his face. “Just tell me what exactly that was today.”

Tess bit her lip, her grip on her knees tightening. “See, Kyle, that’s the problem. I have no idea what happened at lunch today.” Kyle’s eyes shifted mutinously, and Tess rushed on to explain herself. “No, I’m serious.” She put her hand over his as they were seated near enough to each other to allow her to do so, and she didn’t think until the action was done that he might jump away from her touch like he had earlier, but thankfully, he didn’t. “Kyle, I don’t know what’s going on with me. These last couple of days, every time I’m around Max, it’s like, I feel like everything is normal, like I’m acting normally around him, and then as soon as he’s gone people start telling me how I really did act.”

Kyle snorted, not looking convinced. “So that’s your excuse? You just can’t control yourself around him?”

Tess flinched. That was exactly what she was saying, but when he put it like that… “I mean that I feel like I’m controlling myself, but then I find out I’m not,” she said, the explanation barely making sense, even to herself.

He eyed her, but shook his head, shortly. “You gotta give me something better than that, Tessa.”

Tess flopped back in the chair in frustration. “I don’t know what to tell you, Kyle,” she said, taking small consolation in the fact that he’d called her by her pet name. “All I can say is that I was not flirting with Max at lunch today. According to Alex it really looked like I was flirting with him, but I swear, I wasn’t.” She watched him for a reaction, but he didn’t even move. He was obviously listening to her intently, but his face still looked more than skeptical.

In desperation, she moved to sit next to him on the couch, pulling both of his hands into hers. “Kyle, have I ever given you any indication that I wanted to be with anybody other than you?”

He shifted a little in his seat, but didn’t pull his hands away from her. “No,” he said, finally. “It’s just… he’s like you,” Kyle mumbled.

Tess pulled back, surprised. “You really think that just because Max may be from my planet I’m just going to forget everything and fall head-over-heels for the guy? Kyle, you’re the one who accepted me before I even knew that there was a reason why you shouldn’t. You’ve always known I was adopted, you even knew me when I could barely speak and you didn’t mind it. I mean, most people would freak out a little bit if they found out their best friend’s sister had mind-control powers, you know? But you, you just went along with it.” She touched his face, willing him to look at her. “Kyle, it’s always been you for me.”

Kyle started to smile, and finally looked like he was really starting to believe her, but then he stiffened up again. “Do you think Evans is… doing this to you?” Kyle asked suddenly, sitting up a little straighter in his seat.

A frown creased her forehead. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, do you think he’s using some kind of alien mind voodoo on you?”

The frown got deeper. “I didn’t even think of that,” she admitted. “But why would he? Do you really think he’d try to use his powers to turn me into some kind of weird, lovesick dog? Are you forgetting this is Max ‘I-heart-Liz-Parker” Evans?”

“Oh, yeah, that.” Kyle’s shoulders sagged, as if he’d almost been hoping Max had been manipulating her. Probably because then it would be his fault, not Tess’. And then a definite frown formed on Kyle’s face. “This probably is something alien, though. What if—What if you’re only… compatible with somebody of your own…” Kyle clamped his mouth shut, and Tess closed her eyes. It was so weird to have to talk about stuff like this. “I mean, biologically,” he finished, in a croaking voice.

She forced herself to smile at him, though she couldn’t deny the fact that the thought had occurred to her before. “Kyle, I know we’ve never gone that far, but… I think we should both know by now that we’re… ‘compatible,’” she said, using her fingers for air-quotes.

Kyle rolled his eyes, but a smile was starting to tug at the corner of his mouth, and Tess giggled softly, pulling one of his hands up to her mouth and kissing it lightly. “Look, if you want, I’ll try to stay away from Max. As much as I can. Until we can figure out what this thing is, okay?”

Kyle sighed, his hand gripping hers now, as if he was holding on to something he didn’t want to lose. “I don’t know that I can ask you to do that, Tess. I mean, you just found Max and Isabel. You guys are all in this thing together now. I can’t just take you away from that. But at the same time if I see you like that in front of him again, I don’t know what I’ll do, Tess.”

Tess frowned, knowing he was right. This wasn’t going to be easy, any way they played it. “We’ll find a way,” she promised, leaning in to give him a soft, sultry kiss.

In the middle of the kiss, though, she got a distinct flash of Max Evans, sending a shiver down her spine.

She was starting to wonder how much of a choice she really had in the matter.

*************

“Why the hell would you tell some random stranger all of that?” Michael demanded. He’d been understandably edgy ever since she’d started telling him about the phone call.

Liz sighed. Lately it felt like she was living her life in repeats. Every new piece of information that came up, she had to go through the same conversation twice, once with Max and the others, and once with Michael. Sitting on the edge of the lawn chair on her balcony, she watched Michael pacing in front of her as he processed the news about the mysterious phone call.

“I didn’t tell him anything, Michael,” she reminded him. “Not really. I just gave him opinions on things… I’m sorry, it just didn’t seem like there was any harm in it until he actually said my name at the end. We don’t even know whether we even have to worry about it or not—”

“You don’t know? Lizzie, a random freak knows your name and calls your house to ask you about aliens? You don’t think that’s something to worry about?”

“Well if anything, if he even did come after somebody, he’d come after Max and the others. Don’t act like you’re the one in danger here, Michael.”

“Aren’t I? Anybody could do a little bit of digging and find out that all four of us were found and adopted in the same place the same summer.”

“Except no one ever has. I just—I wish you would open your eyes a little. I don’t think any of them can do what you do, Michael, and that must mean something. You must have all been sent together for a reason.”

“So then what was the ‘reason’ for us to all get split up? If we were so meant to have been together all this time, why weren’t we all together, Liz?”

She stood up, her hands raised, palms out. “I don’t know, okay? But it’s something you should figure out, together. The sooner the better, Michael.”

Something in her tired, nearly-impatient tone made him turn towards her, sharply. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Liz tucked her hair behind her ears. “I’m not saying I’ll give you up to them. You know I would never do that, I just… Do you know what this is like for me? To have to look them in the face, and lie to them? And act like all of this is totally new to me, when it’s not? To have to stop myself from being able to say things because I’m not supposed to really understand what they’re talking about?”

Michael had a frown on his face, the frown he wore when he was thinking something over, but kept coming to the same conclusion, no matter what. It was a familiar look to Liz, and it did not bode well for their conversation, so far as her argument went.

“Liz, I know what I’m putting you through,” he said, finally. “And I know if you were anybody else, you would’ve given up on me by now.”

That made Liz sigh, heavily, as she leaned against the brick guarding wall, next to where he stood. “Michael, please don’t say things like that.” He didn’t look at her, and this was something she’d tried telling him over and over again, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Look, I know that saying your experiences with most people haven’t been the best is an understatement, but I swear, the world is not full of Hank Whitmores and stupid teachers that don’t understand the fact that you’re smarter than they are. You just… you just have to have a little faith in people.”

Michael didn’t answer her for a moment, and when he turned to her, there was a seriousness in his eyes that made their usual intensity go up a notch. “I have faith in what I know,” he said, clearly, “and what I know is you. It’s always been you, Liz.”

Liz swallowed, thickly, shifting a little under his gaze. She wasn’t sure exactly when the air had shifted, but it definitely had, and suddenly she was in uncharted territory.

She thought she’d known everything there was to know about Michael Guerin. She’d thought that after the week she’d just had, nothing could surprise her. But she was wrong.

“I’m sorry I found out about Tess and her rock,” he said, suddenly, and Liz jumped, looking at him, confused.

“What?” she asked, not sure what he was talking about.

“Tess and her freaky alien rock? You were going to hold it over my head so I’d have to talk to them, weren’t you?”

She shook her head, “No, Michael, it wasn’t like—”

“Liz, I know you better than that. That’s what I’m trying to say. I know you.”

Liz shook her head, trying to get a handle on the situation. What was it she’d been trying to tell him? “Mi-Michael you can’t just expect me to live my life like this,” she started, fumbling over her words. “Max and the others—”

“Screw Max and the others. This is about you and me, Liz.”

Liz swallowed dryly, and suddenly she could hear the blood rushing through her ears. “You and me?”

She blinked against the rush of blood to her head, and stumbled a little, trying to get a grasp on the situation. Before she fell Michael reached an able hand out to steady her, and she was struck with another little wave of dizziness.

“Liz look at me,” he said, his voice different than she’d ever heard it.

She tried to look away, to step away from him, but she was almost to the point of passing out. This couldn’t be happening to her. He couldn’t be saying what she thought he was saying.

He held her steady, and then, to her agony, he leaned forward so that their foreheads touched. “I love you, Liz. You’re the only person I’ve ever belonged with, and you belong with me, too.”

In a moment everything snapped back into clarity, and the sudden transition was too much for Liz. This whole thing was too much. Her throat burned as she forced herself away from Michael, just a little. When she started speaking her voice was small, and shattered, and she was blinking away tears. “Michael… you are like my best friend in the world. And you know that I would never, ever want to hurt you. I mean, I would die first, Michael…” She trailed off, helpless. She couldn’t even think of a single word more to say.

Michael’s hands dropped from her sides, and she watched as he swallowed harshly, as her tears started to fall down her face and panic clawed at her from inside. Why this? Why now?

“Michael,” she started, but he held a hand up, his eyes somewhere on the ground beside her, and without looking at her he turned and walked away.

*************

The next few weeks everything seemed to move in slow motion for Liz. The transition was strange, and it was starting to feel like that week in September was just a weird, intense dream. After that conversation with Michael, the crazy, life-changing carousel-ride her life seemed to have become slowed back to its normal pace. No more aliens were coming out of the woodworks, no one else had exposed their feelings to her in an unexpected way, and thankfully nothing had come of the creepy telephone calls.

The Crashdown was busier than usual, what with there being an orthodontist convention in Roswell for the weekend, and that was fine with Liz. She would have thought the change of pace would be good for her, give her a chance to catch her breath, but she’d been doing all kinds of breathing, and the fact that nothing was happening was starting to drive her crazy.

Michael hadn’t mentioned anything about his feelings again, and she hadn’t wanted to intrude on his privacy by bringing them up. When she ran into him afterwards he acted like the conversation had never happened, and was the same as ever, but there was the slightest of strains in the air, and while her heart ached over the fact that she’d had to turn him away, what could she have done? She did love Michael, just not in the romantic way that he’d been hoping for, and honestly she knew that he didn’t really love her that way, either. Michael was wholly devoted to her, that much she knew, and she could return that affection readily, but saying that he loved her, that he was in love with her… She had a sneaking suspicion that that was part of his almost-subconscious decision to never let anyone else in, ever again. After all, if he loved her, and she loved him? He'd never have to.

It just seemed universally unfair that he’d been landed with more trust issues than the other three aliens combined. Sure, Max, Isabel, and Tess were careful with who they shared their secret with, and who they befriended at all, but none of them seemed to spend every moment of their lives looking over their shoulder and questioning the motives of everyone around them. The only other people she knew of that Michael may have had even a modicum of trust in were her parents, and that’s only because they’d always had a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy when it came to him crashing on the couch in the back room when he couldn’t handle Hank.

Liz shuddered involuntarily, as she often did when she thought of Michael’s foster father. She was fairly sure she’d never hate anyone as much as she hated that man. If there was one person to blame for how skeptical of people Michael had turned out, it was him.

In true form, Michael had not yet revealed himself to Max and the others. Liz had a pretty good idea now that it had less to do with his not being sure if he could trust them and more to do with just not wanting to have anything to do with Max Evans. Not like that was easy in a small town like Roswell. Despite a mostly consensual agreement to not be seen together too much until they were sure the phone-call thing had blown over—a suggestion Max had made in Biology a while back—Max had still been coming into the Crashdown almost daily, and they’d run into each other at least a dozen times outside of the diner. She was sure Max and Michael had purposely avoided each other in the halls at school at least as many times.

As good as she’d been trying to be about staying away from Max, it was kind of driving her crazy. She didn’t know when she had become this person who spent all day daydreaming about a guy… but then Max Evans wasn’t a normal guy.

And it wasn’t just the extraterrestrial thing. The small interactions they had allowed themselves were just proving everything she’d been discovering about Max to be true. He was opening himself up a bit, at least around her, smiling more readily when he saw her, and letting himself relax a little bit, and slowly but surely, the real Max Evans was starting to make himself known. And as mysterious and… kind of sexy as she’d thought him to be when he’d been little more than the strong, silent-type classmate, the real Max Evans was something infinitely more special.

The truth was, he was simply a wonderful, caring human being. Well. With some debate as to that last part.

But he was funny, and smart, and even though they hadn’t had much chance to interact over the last few weeks, every time she saw him and he gave her that slow smile of his, her day seemed that much brighter, and her life that much better.

Which made the fact that she hadn’t been able to be around him much that much more frustrating. She saw it as penance for the mistake she’d made, saying so much to a complete stranger over the telephone, but now that nothing had come of it and things were probably safe? She was having trouble finding an excuse to be near Max again.

Not that she was trying to be that near him. Well, not that she wasn’t. The point was—it was kind of an awkward situation.

That seemed to be a general consensus, she realized, as she thought of the people who had been “brought together” over the shooting. Strangely enough, it seemed like if they were there, every time Max walked into the Crashdown, lately, Kyle and Tess would leave. She hadn’t seen either Kyle or Alex interact much if at all with Max or Isabel, and while Tess and Isabel did seem to be spending more time together, it was definitely away from everyone else.

It wasn’t all weird, though. Working with Maria had let her get to know the other girl a little better, which had been nice. It was pretty obvious that Maria had come in to working at the Crashdown not trusting her, and almost as clear that she’d thought Liz was some kind of naïve, girl-in-a-plastic-bubble. The longer she worked at the Crashdown, though, and the more she and Michael seemed to snark back and forth at each other, Maria seemed to form some respect for Liz, if only for having “put up with” Michael for so long. She’d also seemed pleasantly surprised by the fact that Liz did in fact have a sense of humor, which definitely went a long way to amusing Liz, herself.

She was also finding Alex Whitman to be as dorky-charming and funny as she remembered him being from grade school, in the moments that she’d had to get to reacquainted with him. As weird as things were, Liz had to admit that they were also kind of nice. She’d never had much time to devoting to friends outside of Michael, and now all of a sudden she was a part of something, something real. All of a sudden she had this tie to six—seven, if and when Michael made his presence known—people, all who shared a secret, and who understood how important it was for that secret to be kept.

But somehow, it was more than that. It was trust. It was a shared smile of understanding, when they passed each other in the halls. And even though they weren’t exactly a unified entity just yet, Liz felt like, in a small way, it could be the beginnings of a family.

It was because of that new bond, that in spite of everything acting to the contrary, Liz Parker was finally starting to feel safe again.

*************

“Mr. Trilling.”

Larry had been sitting outside the Nacho Hut outside of town, reading for the millionth time the cover-up story the Roswell Daily had printed on the Crashdown shooting when someone called him by name.

He’d been on edge for weeks now, awaiting further instruction that hadn’t come while forcing himself to stay away from Liz Parker, but when he looked up, the man he saw was nothing like who he’d been expecting.

The man standing before him was a skinny, older man who’d spoken with a thick Texas accent. He was wearing a cream-colored jacketed suit with matching cowboy hat, a brown vest, and boots, like he’d just walked off the set of some foofy gun-slinging movie.

“Who’s asking?” Larry said, watching the stranger suspiciously.

The older man took off his hat and mopped at his brow with a handkerchief he’d pulled from his pocket. “I don’t recall asking you anything, boy. The name’s Hubble. Everett Hubble. You were supposed to be expecting me.”

Larry couldn’t help but guffaw. “Are you trying to tell me that you’re supposed to be the cavalry? You’re the best that he could find?”

“Son, I’m the best there is. I’ve been hunting these creatures longer’n you’ve known how to put your britches on straight, and there ain’t nobody who knows their ways better’n I do. As far as I’ve heard the only value you bring to this mission is your inexplicable tendency to be in the right place at the right time. From now on kid, you answer to me.”
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cardinalgirl
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Re: The Pathway is Broken (CC AU, TEEN) Pt. 19 AN (09/12/07)

Post by cardinalgirl »

I really hate to do this, mainly because I honestly believe I have had the best readers in the world on this fic. I'm amazed at the dedication of some of you. I'm so, so sorry to be doing this to you guys, but it's really looking like I probably won't be finishing this.

I still love the idea of the story, and the relationships in it, but I'm struggling to finish an original novel at the moment and I just can't afford to put my energy into creating fanfic anymore. Roswell fanfic has been a glorious journey for me, and it really was what got me through my college experience, but the plan has always been to write original fiction, and when I say I can't afford to write fanfic anymore, I mean that literally. I plan to participate in the upcoming Healing Stories challenge, but other than that, and probably coming back for reading, I'm basically done with the fanfic world. I kind of have to be.

I hate doing this, even more so because I know so many of you feared it happening, but this is really the only choice I can make at the moment. On a more positive note, I really am very excited about my original pieces that I'm working on. I'm focusing on a Fantasy/Adventure story that I really think has more than half a shot at being published when I'm done with it, and I have four or five other prospective books. More, if I try to originalize some of my non-posted Roswell fics, but for the most part I can't see myself doing that.

I am considering taking a later storyline from what would have been the sequel to Pathway, and using it as an original piece of fiction. Possibly. :? It's not anything to do with the main gang, which is the only reason I might feel comfortable in doing that... it's a Larek/Serena storyline, who would have been introduced in that story.

Now. I know that you guys have a hundred questions as to what my intentions for this story would have been, and I could probably only answer half of them, but I'm happy to answer any that you'd like answered. Also, I do have large chunks of later scenes written, that I could either post or email you with if you'd like them, depending on the general consensus. I know this is a pathetic excuse for a door prize, but it's the best I can do at the moment.

Hopefully you guys can understand that this is really my career that I'm dealing with here, at least it's the serious hope of a career. If you're curious about how things are going for me on the original side of things, I'm trying to be good about writing about it at Marjorie Dreams of Blogging, my writing blog.

I really am sorry about doing this, and so, SO thankful to you guys for the support you've given me with this story, which seemed to have so many things working against it. I know this is a disappointment to you guys, and I really do just hate myself for having to do this, but I really feel like it's the best decision for me right now.

~Lisa
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Re: The Pathway is Broken (CC AU, TEEN) AN (01/02/08)

Post by cardinalgirl »

Ah, Roselle, behrinthecity, I adore you gals. Two of my very best readers, right there. ♥ I'm right in the middle of a ton of tax-related paperwork and stuff, so I don't know when I'll be able to get the fullness of this outline to you, but as a token of my appreciation of all your guys' support and encouragement, here's what would have come next. This is probably the last "chapter" I had actually planned out, as beyond this, like I said, is all kind of just scenes. In red are my sidenotes/explanations of missing content.


Part 20 (at least what I had written of it)

No man is an island.

John Donne, born 1572, died 1631.

Entire unto himself.

It was the first bit of poetry Michael had ever memorized.

Every man is a part of the continent.

Not that he had meant to memorize it, he was just good at that stuff.

A piece of the whole.

Whole. The lines had been looping around in his head for weeks now, but it always came down to that one single word.

No man is an island. That’s what the man said. No matter what anybody thought, everybody was attached to somebody. Even Michael, thinly-tied peninsula that he was, had always had someone. He’d always had Liz.

Entire unto himself. And he had had her, entire unto himself. She’d belonged to him, just about. Or with him, at least. For years. For nearly as long as he could remember.

Every man is a part of the continent. But did that include aliens, too? And even if it did, he was starting to lose his one scrap of a connection. He’d walked away from her. He had. But she’d turned away from him, first.

A piece of the whole.

Whole.

That was something he didn’t have much experience with, feeling whole. He wasn’t even sure that he knew what the word meant anymore, or if he ever had. He’d thought that being with Liz, convincing her to be with him, might have made him whole, but she’d given her answer, made herself clear.

Her response hadn’t particularly surprised him. She’d never done anything to indicate that she felt the same way about him as he did about her, and Lizzie had always kind of worn her heart on her sleeve, anyhow.

What surprised him is that he didn’t really feel any differently afterwards. He wasn’t upset, wasn’t even relieved that he’d finally told her. He felt the same as he always had.

Okay, so maybe he was embarrassed, and a little panicked, and a little pissed off at himself for showing weakness, but he wasn’t exactly devastated. It took him almost a week after his little declaration to realize that maybe he should be. That maybe, if he’d really meant everything that he was saying, he would have been.

But he wasn’t sure that he bought that. Because if he didn’t love Liz, who’d been there for him through thick and thin, and done everything for him, how could he love anybody? Or was love just a human thing?

Not for the first time, he wondered if he’d been sent here as some kind of punishment, or elaborate psychological test. See what the humans can have? Everything you can’t?

But there was Tess. He’d seen her with Kyle, and that… looked like love. Didn’t it? Who was he to know?

He knew Liz was right, had been right all along. He needed to talk to them. If there was any chance, any at all that they really had been sent together, sent for some kind of purpose? His chances of figuring out his existence could only go up by finally revealing himself to them. Only problem was, now that he’d waited so long it would be a little awkward to do that. And they were likely to get pissed at Liz, even though it wasn’t her fault, and he didn’t want to be the one to blame for that. So he was keeping his eyes open for an opportunity.

Of course, he might be a little more willing to recognize an opportunity if it weren’t for that goody-two-shoes Evans. It wasn’t just the Liz thing. Guys like Max had always pissed him off. In grade school, if Michael had gotten 100% on a math test he’d get called in for cheating. Max’d get a gold star. That’s just how life was. Michael had never asked for it to be fair, so long as he didn’t have to shake the freaking hand of the guy who got the prize. The fact that Max and Liz were exactly the same just made it that much worse.

Not to mention that much more annoying, somehow. Maybe if Liz were a guy she’d have pissed him off, too.

He snorted at that idea. He didn’t want to think about that too much.

“Did you just laugh?” a mock-incredulous voice asked from to the side of him, and Michael jumped slightly. Maria DeLuca was standing there next to his locker, watching him with raised eyebrows.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Michael demanded, the words coming out of his mouth on reflex.

“Oh, excuse me, was I invading your personal space by walking down the school hallway?” she asked, sarcastically. “I was just surprised to hear you laugh, okay? You’ve been walking around like this big thunder cloud the last couple of weeks. Winnie the Pooh’s got nothing on you.”

He shoved a couple of books into his backpack and stared at her. What was she talking about?

“You know, ‘I’m just a little black—’ Never mind. Forget it,” she shook her head, rolling her eyes. “See you at work later.”

Without another word, she turned and headed down the hallway, not looking back.


Michael watches her leaving and ponders on her a bit… then is maybe distracted by seeing Liz with Max? Unfortunately my plan wasn't quite as clear as you guys probably would have liked.


Scene at the Crashdown, Tess is annoyed at Kyle and Alex who are being very… guy…ish, Tess leaves their table and approaches Liz, Maria and Isabel, who are at the counter—not necessarily talking to each other, just all there, Liz and Maria working, Isabel sitting with a soda or something)




Tess made a face. “I really need some time away from the male species.”

“A girl’s night?” Liz asked, more than a little surprised.

“Sure. You know, movies, make up, hair, gossip?” Tess prompted, with a grin. “I’ve never really had one before.”

“Me neither,” Liz admitted. “When your best friend’s a guy…”

Tess rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. So you’ll come?”

Liz glanced at Maria and Isabel, almost asking permission, and while neither of the girls looked exactly thrilled at the idea of bonding, they also didn’t seem to push the idea away. “Yeah,” she said, finally, turning back to Tess. “Yeah, why not?”



All the girls agree, some more reluctantly than others.

Skip to general girl sleepover stuff happens… I think Maria was going to ask Liz about Michael vs. Max in a kind of nonchalant way, and learns that Liz really doesn’t have feelings for Michael, is just very good friends with him, but she’s afraid she’s losing him. Tess also is pressed for details about Kyle, and she gushes a bit… then the girls go to sleep.

Isabel, intrigued by something she’s heard Tess say decides to dreamwalk Alex, using picture of him on Tess’ nightstand. I didn’t write the dream but wanted it to vaguely echo the one on the show in Heat Wave, with Isabel being surprised about Alex’s true intentions towards her.

Tess has a dream where she sees herself, only she knows that it’s not really her… the dream version of herself is asking her why she’s not with Max.




Tess felt so frustrated she could scream. “I’m not interested in Max, okay, I have a boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?” the other blonde asked, in a patronizing voice. “My, my, Tessa. You’re getting a little human aren’t you?” She raised an eyebrow, then smirked. “Of course, from what I understand, you’re also getting a little human,” she said, suggestively, and she tossed her head towards something behind Tess.

Tess turned around and blushed. She saw Kyle, sitting in a chair and tapping a drumbeat on his thighs, looking forward and obviously not seeing her.

“I don’t understand the attraction,” the other Tess said, as she sauntered past Tess and towards Kyle. “What would you even want with him?” Before Tess could even react, she saw the dream version of herself walk directly up to Kyle’s chair, and plant herself on top of him, straddling him, and running her hands through his hair. Tess thought she was going to be sick. “So trusting,” she said, as if it were amusing. “He really does trust you, doesn’t he? Even though he knows that one thought from you, and you could just—”

The room seemed to spin, and suddenly Tess was looking at them from the side, and she saw the dream version of herself place her hand on Kyle’s chest, above his heart, and it started to glow.

“No!” she screamed, rushing forward, but she couldn’t get any closer.

Before any damage was done, the other Tess had pulled her hand away, and looked at her double laughingly. “You do care for the silly creature, don’t you?” And then to Tess’ surprise, the other girl looked almost curious. “I wonder how he compares…” she said musingly, and then the room spun again, along with Tess’ stomach, as her double arched herself against Kyle and started kissing him voraciously.

Watching them from behind, Tess saw Kyle’s arms wrap tightly around her double, as the two were interlocked for several moments.

When the dream Tess pulled back and turned around to face her, though, it was no longer Kyle in the chair, it was Max Evans. “Much better,” the other Tess cooed, laughing.

“Okay, just stop it,” Tess said, past disgusted and just plain annoyed. “I don’t want Max Evans. What is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me?” the other girl scoffed, climbing off of Max and turning to stare down her counterpart. She pointed behind her, towards Max. “Do you know who that is?” And then, as if an idea occurred to her, she folded her arms across her chest, giving Tess a leveling look. “Do you know who you are?”

Tess’ heart sped up at the question, because it really wasn’t one that she could answer. She opened her mouth, but closed it again, speechless.

The other Tess’ eyes narrowed, then, and she straightened her spine and lifted her chin, oozing superiority. “You want it to end, little girl? You have to do your part.”

Tess swallowed. “My part?”

“Look to the past, Tessa,” she said, saying the name in an overly-sweet, almost sneering way. “Find the stones. Find the source. Find out what you’re doing on this miserable rock of a planet. Then, if you still want that one,” she said, pointing to the chair, where Kyle was once again seated, “You can have him.” Then she smiled again, tauntingly, but also with a gleam of something like excitement in her eyes. “You won’t, though. Believe me.”


-------------

Incidentally, in answer to behrinthecity's question, each one of the four aliens had a stone (and there was one other, which I hadn't decided whose it was) and it contained the "essence" of their past selves, activated once all four of the pod squad touched it, which is why the lights flooded the Crashdown after Max touched the stone (Michael had picked it up after colliding with Tess, remember?). I think once they got a specific message to their owner, in this case to go looking for the pod chamber to find out who they are, then they'd lose their dominative power over the current aliens.
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cardinalgirl
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Re: The Pathway is Broken (CC AU, TEEN) AN (01/31/08)

Post by cardinalgirl »

Okay. Let's see how far I can get on this today. Where we left off on the outline: Michael and Maria are circling each other still. Tess at a sleepover has a nightmare about Ava, who tells her that she won't want Kyle after she learns who she and the others really are, and tells her that in order for the dreams to stop, she has to find the stones.

Tess tells Alex (but not the girls) about her dream, tells him how worried it makes her. He asks her if she’s going to tell Kyle and she can’t decide. Alex finds himself pretty caught in the middle of this, because he doesn't want to betray Tess but he feels like Kyle deserves to know about what's going on.

Meanwhile, Tess had woken up everyone up at the sleepover, and Isabel had been dreamwalking Alex, after seeing a picture of Tess and Alex on the nightstand or something. I didn't write the dreamwalk, but it was going to be very reminiscent of the one in Sexual Healing, so, things become slightly more awkward between the two of them, as that more than anything chinks her armor against him, like it did in the show.

***

Meanwhile, stuff has been going down with Larry and Hubble… Larry is frustrated because Hubble has really taken over and isn’t really letting him do anything. Hubble meets Hank Whitmore in a bar and while Hank is drunk, something he says about his foster kid catches his attention and Hank shows up the next day to investigate. Michael isn’t there, but he catches sight of Hank and Hubble talking and gets spooked.

Spooked enough to decide it’s time for him to cut out and leave Roswell. Just too much stuff going on for him to feel safe there.

He tells Liz, because he wants to say goodbye to her… and Liz freaks out, because no matter what has driven them apart lately, no matter how insane it’s been making Liz to see Michael not showing himself to Max and the others, he really is her best friend and always has been and she’s scared for him, and doesn’t want to see him go.

Remember that Liz had a much lonelier growing up experience here than she did in the show. If she seems a little pathetic here, it's because Michael really was her only friend for a long time.

Cue scene of Liz trying desperately to convince him to stay:




Liz was openly sobbing now, but she didn‘t care. She couldn’t let his happen. She was nothing without Michael, didn‘t he understand that? “Michael… you can’t just run away… you can’t leave.”

“Yeah? Why not? It’d be safer for you anyhow, you should want me to leave.”

Her mouth hung open for a moment, speechless. “How can you even say that? Michael, I can’t do this without you.”

“Liz, please. You don’t need me. You’ve got them, you’ve got your family.”

“But what about your family? Because that’s what they are. Max, Isabel and Tess are your family.” She tried to touch his arm, but he pulled away.

“Hey. I don’t have a family. I don’t belong here… I don’t belong anywhere.”

“You belong with me!” Liz cried, frantic now as he started walking away.

Her words stopped him in his tracks, and he turned around slowly, taking in her crumpled visage with narrowed eyes. “You know, a couple weeks ago when I said that same thing to you, you blew me off. So goodbye, Liz.”

He turned and continued walking, and in an act of desperation, Liz ran to him, turned him around and kissed him full on the lips, holding to him, forcing herself to put her whole self into the kiss. His hands went to her hips on instinct and she could feel him begin to respond, but he pushed her away abruptly, his whole body having gone stiff. “You don’t get it, do you, Liz? I don’t want to be the guy stuck in second place. It’s too late.”

His words shuttered her. Broken, Liz stood in front of him for a moment simply staring at his shirt. Finally she raised her eyes to his, almost timidly. “Please, Michael… you’re the only friend I’ve ever even had… please don’t leave me.”

Michael gave a heavy sigh, no longer able to be angry with her. He pulled her into a hug and held her tightly for several moments, kissing the top of her head. “Lizzie…” his voice broke, and he paused, swallowed. “Liz, I really need to get away for a few days. I can’t be here. You know what I’m like. I need some air.”

She pulled back only enough to look up at him. “But you’re going to come back, right? Promise me, Michael.”

Michael ran his hand down the side of her beloved face, wiping her tears away with his thumb. She was so tiny in his arms, and she looked like such a little girl with her wide eyes, that Michael couldn’t stop himself from lying to her. “Yeah, I’ll come back. I promise.”

Liz nodded, and then clung to him as her tears started afresh. He just held her, stroking her hair until she calmed, and then, kissing her forehead one last time, Michael left.




The next day, Liz, very wooden-faced and still obviously upset, has to explain to Maria that Michael’s gone. Maria, surprising both of them, gets really pissed off at this.





“That’s José. He usually works only morning shifts, while we’re at school, but he’s filling in for Michael for a few days.”

Maria snorted. “What happened? Guerin go missing?” When a near-wince flashed across Liz’s face, Maria halted in her tracks, actual concern starting to show. “Wait, Guerin didn’t really go missing, did he?”

“No, nothing like that. He just… won’t be here for a few days.”

“Is he sick?”

“No.”

“Okay, so then what?”

Realizing that Maria wouldn’t stop until she found out what had happened, Liz finally stopped and turned towards the other girl, looking her in the eye. “Michael left yesterday,” Liz said quietly, knowing her voice would shake if she spoke louder.

“Left? What do you mean he left?” Maria demanded.

Liz swallowed. “I mean he left.”

“Why would he leave?” Maria asked,




I think I was planning on Maria then going into abandonment-issue!thoughts. Not because she’s really in love with Michael yet—she’s not—but just generally thinking angry thoughts about men who leave when things get complicated.




After a few days of Michael being gone, Liz is pulled out of class.




“A Ms. Topolsky wants to speak with you in the front office.”

“Miss Parker, welcome. Please, sit down.” Liz moved to take the seat across from the desk, sitting down slowly. The woman reached across the desk to shake Liz’s hand, which Liz consented to. “My name is Kathleen Topolsky,” the woman said, smiling warmly at Liz. “I just wanted to ask you a few questions about your friend Michael.”

Suddenly alarms were going off in Liz’s mind at a million miles an hour. “Michael?” she asked, trying to sound as if she weren’t quite sure who this woman was talking about.

“Yes, Michael Guerin. You looked alarmed.” Ms. Topolsky tilted her head, questioningly.

Liz fumbled for a moment, looking down at her hands in her lap, but then looked up again quickly, shaking her head. “No, no. Not alarmed. I just, I don’t really know him that well.”

Ms. Topolsky smiled but said, “Now, Miss Parker, I know that’s not true. According to your permanent records, you’ve known Mr. Guerin since elementary school, and considering the fact that he works in your father’s diner, I imagine you’re still quite close.”

Liz felt her face heat up at her words, and she looked down at her clasped hands, again. “Who are you?” she asked, her voice sounding small to her own ears.

When she looked up again, the woman looked a little startled. “Oh, I apologize, Ms. Parker. I should have said earlier. I’m here with the government.” Liz sucked in a breath of air, feeling suddenly feeling lightheaded, and the feeling only intensified as Ms. Topolsky continued. “I’m from the Department of Child Services.”

“Why are you here?” Liz asked, once the surprise of the revelation had worn off. She still wasn’t sure that this woman wasn’t a spy, but even if she wasn’t, she had to be cautious. “Especially now? I mean, Michael is sixteen already, he has a steady job, decent enough grades…” Liz wanted to go on to say that he had a good home, just to drive in that he was doing well, but it was just too much of a lie. Still, she couldn’t let him get taken away.

Ms. Topolsky was watching Liz with perceptive, concerned eyes, and she glanced down at her notes for a moment, before speaking. “Liz, I understand that Michael has run away recently. I know you’re trying to protect him, but—”

“Wait, how did you even know that?” Liz asked, surprised. “Did Mr. Whitmore—?” She asked, almost amazed that Hank would go to the trouble.

“No,” Ms. Topolsky said, answering her unfinished question. “Mr. Whitmore did not contact us. In fact, that’s part of why we’re here.”

“I don’t understand,” Liz confessed.

“The school contacted us after Michael had missed three days of classes without any word from his foster father. It was only when we contacted Mr. Whitmore directly that he admitted that he hadn’t seen Michael in a number of days.” Ms. Topolsky shifted a few papers on the desk before her, an almost apologetic look on her face. “We believe it’s time to reassess Michael’s foster situation.”

That made Liz scoff. There’d been a time when she’d prayed that Michael could be moved to another home, but that had been before she’d realized it meant probably losing him for good, and either way, they were nearly a decade too late. “You want to reassess his situation? His situation has been the same for almost ten years.”

“We just want what’s best for Mr. Guerin.”

“What’s best for him is that he gets to finish school in the place that he’s lived in for as long as he can remember, where he’s with people who love him,” Liz said, her voice strong, even as a bit of guilt stabbed at her for the last part, as she remembered their goodbye.

“As true as that is, Ms. Parker, I’m afraid we can’t allow Michael to live with Mr. Whitmore any longer.”

Liz felt a lump beginning to rise in her throat, but she ignored it. “So, what does that mean?” she asked, though she was sure she already knew the answer.

“It means we need to find a new living situation for him,” Ms. Topolsky said, patiently. “If we can find another home in Roswell, we’ll of course attempt to place him there, but if not—”

“If not he just gets shipped to wherever?” Liz asked, sharply. Part of her winced at her own words. She’d all but forgotten the possibility that this was a trap, and she was letting it affect her emotions too much, but she couldn’t help herself. “Isn’t there any other way?” she asked, after she’d allowed a moment for her anger to settle.

Ms. Topolsky hesitated, but Liz felt a spark of hope at the apprehensive look on her face. “What?” she asked.

Ms. Topolsky sighed. “There is one way. But it would be very difficult, especially for a boy of sixteen years old.”

“What is it?” Liz asked again, openly curious now.




And for you plotmongers, Ms. Topolsky is really a—dun dun dun!—child services agent. Really. Haha Not FBI, not a bad guy at all. Just making a cameo so that Liz can learn about Emancipation of a Minor and later help Michael with the process. Which by the way is something I’m sure I’ve nabbed off of other authors.


After Michael disappears, Hubble mentions it to Secret Phone Man and Secret Phone Man is headed to Roswell.


Meanwhile! Alex has made another stumbling attempt at asking Isabel out, and is again shot down. Annoyed and frustrated about this, Alex confronts her:





Isabel looked up as someone sat next to her at the lunch table, and immediately wished she hadn’t.

“Alex, what are you doing? I thought I told you—”

“Listen, I’m not here to beg you to give me a chance or grovel at your feet or anything, okay, Princess? I just want to show you something.”

Isabel was shocked into silence. No one had ever addressed her with that kind of sarcasm before, with the possible exception of Maria, and she couldn’t even begin to number the reasons why that scenario was different.

“Good,” Alex said, as she just watched him.

He opened his backpack and pulled something out, handing it to her. Isabel stared at the object that now lay in her hands. It was a plain, unsharpened number-two pencil. She lifted a questioning eyebrow, but Alex wasn’t even looking at her. He too, had his eyes on the pencil.

“Break it,” he commanded.

Isabel didn’t understand where this was going, and she didn’t care. She just wanted him to make his point and leave. Isabel Evans was not seen at school with the likes of Alex Whitman.

“Alex, I really don’t see what good—”

“Just humor me for two minutes, okay, Iz?” he cut in. “Just break the stupid pencil. Snap it in half.”

Isabel rolled her eyes, but held one end of the pencil in each hand and broke it in two. “Are you done?” she asked, forcing a bored tone of voice.

“Not quite.” He reached into his backpack again, and now had a handful of pencils.

Isabel sighed in frustration. “Alex, could you please—”

“Isabel you know what?” Alex asked, annoyed. “Not enough people tell you to shut up.” Isabel blushed, but remained quiet. He handed her a group of eight pencils. “Now break those,” he instructed. “And no alien-enforced molecule cutting, either, just break them with your two hands.”

Isabel started to separate one from the group, but Alex stopped her hand with his own. She gasped slightly at his unexpected touch, was amazed that it made her hand literally tingle. “No,” he said, “Try breaking them all together.”

He pulled back, and she took the pencils and made a few attempts to break them, but try as she might, they would not be broken. She sighed, putting the pencils down and getting the picture. People were stronger when they had each other. As she had a feeling that Alex had a rehearsed moral to give her, she waited for him to speak.

She was surprised that when he started, his voice was soft. “I know letting people in is hard, Isabel. But I don’t want anything to ever happen to you where you could just get… broken in half because you don’t have enough people supporting you.”

Isabel suddenly found it very hard to breathe. “Alex…”

“I’m not done yet,” he said abruptly, and his voice regained some of its harsher tones from before. “Listen,” he said, all business now. “If you’re scared of trusting someone too quickly, because you’re afraid of being hurt, that’s okay. I can wait. If you think we just wouldn’t work together or that we just don’t make sense together, that’s okay, too. Just tell me.” He paused. “But don’t you dare push me away because you think you’d be better off on your own, or because you think I just don’t understand what it’s been like for you. I’ve been dealing with this secret just as long as you have. And yeah, maybe it hasn’t been about me personally, and maybe it’s not the same, but in a lot of ways it’s been harder for me than for Tess, even. Because everyday I have to face the fact that if anything happened to her, if anybody found out about her… then I would be virtually helpless to protect her.”

He watched his meaning sink in, as tears slowly filled her eyes at his words, and he took a deep breath, knowing that he’d almost convinced her. “I mean, she’s my little sister, Iz,” he said, swallowing hard. “I’m supposed to be the one to protect her. She’s my responsibility. But there are some things I know I could never protect her against. And there are some questions she has about herself that I can’t answer. But I try my best to support her, be there when she needs me.”

When Isabel found her voice, it was weak. Weaker than she remembered it ever being. “Alex, thank you… for saying that. But I’m not alone… I’ve got Max…” She was going to say she had Maria, too, but if she’d continued speaking, she would have broken into tears.

Alex glanced at the scene a few tables down where Kyle and Tess were cuddling, lost to the rest of the world. “Well, unfortunately for Max’s and my sanity…” he brought his gaze back to hers, and flashed his trademark grin, “woman cannot live by brotherly affection alone.”

Isabel’s cheeks flushed bright red, but she also looked over at the pair, a distinctly wistful look on her face. Alex stood up abruptly. “Just think about it, Isabel,” he said, and then he was gone.

*************

Later that night, Alex had finished his homework and was sitting strumming his guitar, lost in thought, when there was a timid tap on his window. Frowning, Alex got up slowly and walked over to glance out into the night.

He was amazed to find a golden goddess of an alien standing outside his room. He opened the window and helped her to carefully climb inside, and it wasn’t until she had both her feet planted safely on his wooden floor that he realized that her eyes were rimmed with red.

“Isabel…” he breathed, not able to stop himself from touching her face, if only to calm her down. “Isabel, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Are… are you hurt or…”

She was shaking her head, and he could see her trying to stop herself from sobbing. “I just… I needed to tell you…” She pulled away from him and began pacing for a moment, and then sat down on his bed when she was finally calm enough to speak. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said today…”

That single sentence seemed to cut his heart out, and Alex wanted to die. She was crying because of him. He had made the untouchable Isabel Evans cry. She probably hated him now.

And so he was surprised when she finished her sentence.

“And I just needed to tell you, Alex… I don’t want to only ever have my brother’s love… I don’t want to be alone, Alex…” She tried to continue, but she was overcome by her tears, and when Alex sat down next to her, and gingerly stroked her shaking back, she threw herself into his arms.

The breath left his body as Isabel clung to him. Needless to say, he’d never even imagined that Isabel Evans would ever really end up in his arms. Of course, these weren’t exactly the conditions he would have first opted for, but just the fact that she trusted him enough to be supporting her amazed him.

After a few moments her tears were spent, but she continued to cling to him, just breathing in the smell of him, while he soothed her back, breathing her in as well.

Finally she pulled back, wiping at her face. He turned quickly and reached for a tissue to give her, which she took gratefully. She looked at the wet spot on his shirt. “Sorry about that,” she mumbled, waving her hand over it so it disappeared.

“Don’t worry about it… and thanks,” he said, having barely noticed the shirt. He watched her carefully. While he’d always sort of felt like he understood Isabel, and he now knew exactly why she was like she was, it didn’t change the fact that he had little to no experience talking to her, and so he was slightly unsure of what to say. Finally he just went with simple. “Are you okay, Isabel?”

She was tearing the tissue to shreds, staring as her hands did the simple work. She laughed a little at herself. “You want to hear something stupid?” she asked, sounding very much like a child.

He smoothed a piece of hair out of her face. “Sure.”

She glanced towards him but quickly looked back at her hands. “I used to be really afraid of you,” she admitted, quietly.

Alex pulled back, staring at her. That was not what he had expected to hear. “Of me? Why’s that?”

She took a deep breath. “When you used to watch me, Alex… I’m sorry, I don’t mean to embarrass you, but I did notice…”

He knew his ears must be red with shame by now, but she rushed on quickly.

“I mean, I couldn’t help but notice you. Most guys who stare at me I can just phase out, but with you it was different. It was… I don’t know, intense.”

The ears were bright red now, he knew. “Isabel, I’m sorry about that. Really, I am. I just… I couldn’t help it sometimes,” he mumbled.

“It’s okay,” she smiled softly, but went on with her explanation. “It was just… It was like you knew something about me. Like you knew who I really was. And my whole life had been built around hiding who I really was. So you scared me. I mean, it’s stupid, but…”

He pulled an arm around her shoulders, and squeezed her tightly. “It’s not stupid, Isabel. But I’m really sorry. I would never have meant to cause you any sort of anxiety or pain.”

“I know. I know that now,” she said, smiling at him gratefully and leaning into him briefly. “Getting to know Tess… I mean, you can’t imagine what that’s been like for me, Alex. I’ve never had any real girlfriends. I mean, Maria’s been around forever and I love her, but sometimes it’s like she’s only my friend as a favor to Max, you know? But Tess and I understand each other. I think she’s going to be really good for me.”

Alex grinned. Tess was one of his favorite subjects, after all. “Let me tell you from experience, she is a good friend, Isabel. And I think you’ll be good for her, too. Besides, the more time she spends with you, the less I have to worry about her spending too much time with my dear friend Kyle.”

Isabel laughed softly, then remembered she’d brought Tess up for a reason. “She really loves you, you know that?” she asked him. At his smile, she continued. “She can’t say enough good things about you. How protective you are and funny and supportive… I’m just… I’m sorry I had you pinned down wrong all this time.”

He shrugged slightly. “Actually, you weren’t all wrong,” he admitted, not quite looking at her. “I mean… I didn’t know anything about you… but I did know that there was more to you than it seemed. I knew you were putting on a show for people… I just wanted to know what went on behind the scenes.”

Isabel swallowed delicately. “Most people would be scared by what they saw.”

He smiled encouragingly at her. “What? A beautiful girl with a beautiful heart?”

She blushed, but looked away from him. “How about an alien girl with trust issues and an identity crisis?”

He grinned. “Hey, you know… that’s even better.”

She rolled her eyes, but there was definitely the hint of a smile there.

Alex sat back, then, and swallowed, feeling his heart jump a little funnily in his chest. “Look, Isabel, I meant what I said before. I want to be there for you.

She turned back to Alex, but couldn’t quite look him in the eye. “And what if I just need a friend for now?” she asked, her eyes darting up to meet his, and then going back down again.

Alex had to restrain himself when he felt a grin attempting to break loose at her childlike question. “That’s okay, too, Isabel.”




THEN! Maria and Liz get kidnapped! (Are you starting to see why this would have eventually gotten ridiculous and over-the-top and you all would have gotten tired of it anyhow? Not to mention the fact that it would have taken me fifteen years to write this much alone, probably) Liz is snatched by Larry, Hubble, and Secret Phone Man from the alley behind the diner, while taking out the trash, but Maria, who she was in the middle of an argument with comes out to continue yelling something at her and ends up getting grabbed as well.

Btw, many of you guessed right. Secret Phone Man is indeed Daniel Pierce.


And now we've gotten to the point where there's a scene I still really want to find and type up for you, and I haven't found it yet. So I'll be back soonish.

By the by, I have about 40 pages of outline and scenes to share. We're up to page 13. *headdesks* This may take a while.

Once again, any questions brought up by this, feel free to ask them! I'll do my best to answer.

And you may have noticed the glaring lack of Dreamer going on here, yes? I wrote almost none of the Dreamer bits beforehand, as it's ridiculously hard for me to write Max Evans. :| Sorry about that. But they would have been gravitating closer, obviously. I don't even know that I ever even wrote a dreamer kiss. In a lot of ways in my head this was a Liz story, not a Max and Liz one. *shrugs*
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Re: The Pathway is Broken (CC AU, TEEN) Outline - 3/31

Post by cardinalgirl »

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Favorite Unconventional/Unique Friendship - Max & Maria

Just wanted to say thank you, m'dears. I know the voting on that part has already ended, but just the fact that this is the third (I think?) UC Friendship that has been nom'd from this fic delighted me to no end.

I'm sorry about the lack of updates. I've been out of town a lot, and working hard between times. I hope no one thought that my saying I would post a chapter of this for the Author Auction was anything like a ransom for the outline—I would have written an entirely new chapter outside of the outline for the auction. As is, if any of you are curious, my Roswell fic was won by girl afraid, so I'm working on a 5000 word Candy fic for her. And getting down to the wire, I'm afraid! That should be up in a few days, if she so wishes me to share it with the public, so keep an eye out. I'll get back to the outline as soon as possible. I think I hold off, honestly, because I don't quite want it to end, silly as that may seem. I love this story, and all the possibilities that were open in it, and I'm very grateful to you guys for the patience you have.
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