“It is a possibility,” Max allowed.
“Damn Max,” Isabel asked as she thought of how having to deal with Nicholas in the first place as it had been a real horror of a time for her as she had to come to terms with her actions regarding Congresswoman Whittaker. “I thought we were rid of that weasel, back in high school. God, I never wanted to see him again.”
“Me either,” Max sighed as he hated the thought that the bastard was who they had to deal with if they were to get to the bottom of who was after them.
“Why him, why him” Maria muttered as she walked into the living room as she and Michael joined the gathering.
“I guess it’s a better option than Khivar, but only marginally” Isabel asked. “He’s a human variety bastard.”
“That he is,” Max muttered as he thought of the little monster who had been part of the torturing squad who had hunted them in junior year of high school all so he could get back to Antar. “But he was one of Khivar’s minions, so he probably is doing whatever he’s doing under his orders?”
“I still don’t get why come after us. It’s not like we’re looking to take back Antar and destroy Khivar,” Isabel muttered although sometimes in her dreams she did have that fantasy, but she liked their life too much to go back and risk everything.
“We just wanted to live our lives” Maria muttered. “So, where is Beth?” she wondered as she looked over at Max.
“Shopping with the kids,” Max said. “I figured she wouldn’t want to hear this kind of conversation.”
“So, she doesn’t run back to Madison today?” Maria asked.
“Partly, but mostly she doesn’t remember Nicholas and right now is not the time to go into a history lesson on our enemies” Max muttered. “It’s good she’s spending time with Grace, and the girls. Maybe they will bond more…”
“She’s still determined to leave, huh?” Michael asked.
“Yup,” Max acknowledged. “She was investigating flights before she left.”
“I am sorry Max,” Isabel sighed. “Maybe she won’t be gone forever this time… Maybe she will see that life here in Roswell is the one she needs, and not on the other side of the country.”
“I am not sure of that Is,” Max sighed because as much as he wanted that to be true, and he did. Yet he knew they were two different people and he wasn’t convinced she would want the life she once had over the life she’s created for herself, and he knew he stood to lose a whole more of his heart this time if she didn’t come back.
“She surprised us by coming back, so maybe she’ll surprise us in the end with what life she chooses to accept?” Maria asked hopeful. She knew life couldn’t be that cruel to take Liz from Max again, so soon after getting her back in his life, right? Right? She mused to herself.
“So, let’s get back to our original topic. “How are we going to figure out why Nicholas is stalking and harassing us?”
“I’ll check with Jim,” Isabel asked helpfully of her father-in-law. “Maybe he can be of help?”
“Yeah maybe,” Michael groaned because he knew this could get complicated as Isabel let herself out of her brother’s home and headed over to her boutique to get to work.
“Have you found anything you want to wear for your big date with Jake on Friday?” Beth asked as she, Grace and the twins were at Isabel’s boutique. It was open but of course Isabel wasn’t there yet, but it was being operated by a trusted second in command. They had already been to several other shops, and now were at Splurge.
“Its not a date,” Grace said defensive. “Jake gave me tickets for my birthday, and we’re only going as friends… nothing more.”
“Really?” Beth asked. “It does seem you have gotten pretty close with him since your accident?”
“We’re just friends,” Grace defended. “Yes, we’ve blurred the lines, but the last thing I need right now it to be anymore than it is… friendship. I like him, but I don’t want it to be anything more than what I can handle right now.”
Beth nodded.
“It will be nice to get out and do something normal,” Grace said. “And that is all I am looking for right now because my life hasn’t been normal for a few weeks, and I need something that isn’t complicated.”
“I hope you get that,” Beth asked a few minutes later the door opened, and they saw Isabel pop in as she dashed into the boutique and smiled at all the customers, and especially when she noticed some very familiar faces, and she stopped “Good morning” she smiled at her nieces and Beth. “I am sorry to miss you when you arrived, but I had some errands to do” Isabel lied because she knew her brother was correct that Beth didn’t need to know the latest for the moment. “Are you finding anything?”
“We’re looking for Grace’s big “not a date” with Jake Friday night” Carrie quipped, and Grace only shook her head. Isabel smiled at the embarrassment blush that came to her eldest niece. “You and Jake?”
“It’s only a concert with a friend Aunt Isabel” Grace insisted.
“I never believed it before, and I am not inclined to believe that now” Isabel reminded her eldest niece. “But are you finding anything that is suitable?”
“So many choices” Grace remarked.
“What are you looking at?” Isabel asked of her niece. “What do you feel like?”
“Well, I am in this chair for the near future so it’s not like I should be showing off my legs as they aren’t my best features, or they never were…” Grace smiled. “Maybe pants and a top or something?”
“Well I think you would be surprised by what Jake finds interesting in you,” Isabel commented as she noticed Jake staring at Grace, all aspects of her in the past. “So, don’t count out anything and especially not because you’re in that contraption for the moment.”
“I guess,” Grace murmured.
“I need to check with Elaine to see how everything is running but if you guys need anything… don’t hesitate in finding me” Isabel acknowledged. “I am glad to see all of you here…”
“You’ve got a great place here?” Beth acknowledged.
“Thanks… It’s only been since my youngest was born that I created this place” Isabel blushed. “Before hand I was working out of a boutique in Las Cruces,” she sighed as she thought of all the challenges over the years. “The kids made me want to stay closer to home as the commute is horrendous at times.”
“I know the feeling,” Beth nodded. “I commute for work as we live in Madison, which is a small town about thirty minutes or so from New Haven where I work, so I am constantly on the move between the two places while at the same time a good friend of mine works where we live, and she likes the convenience.”
“How about you?” Isabel asked as she couldn’t imagine having to commute to Las Cruces now that the kids were getting older and a little more independent. “Do you like it?”
“I thought I did,” Beth confessed as Alexandra and Carrie’s ears perked up. “I love the hospital feel, but yet I can’t help but wonder if I am missing out with all the commuting I have to do for my job, and the long hours that are required because of the hospital atmosphere”
“Interesting,” Isabel commented as she left the group and went and found Elaine.
“I thought you liked your job?” Alexandra commented as her mother focused back on the girls, as Isabel left them.
“I do,” Beth said. “I am just commenting on the frustration I sometime feel” she murmured as she knew she had surprised even herself by voicing her thoughts. Until she came to Roswell she always rebuffed Serena’s attempt to seduce her into working in Madison in the practice she had set up, because she had liked the hospital life she had created in New Haven and the loyalty that she felt towards the hospital that had saved her life all the way back when she had crashed, and yet visiting Roswell and seeing the value of small time life and not just spending the hours you’re supposed to be sleeping at home, and the rest of the time at work. It now felt strange, and yet she desired to go back to Madison because she missed her home and missed her job. Her mind was constantly playing with her which is why Beth wanted to end it all and go back to where it is normal, and not feel conflicted by a life she didn’t remember.
The twins nodded and Grace looked at her mother with a strange look but quickly let it vanish as Beth tried to get their moods back on the fashion. “So, find anything Grace?”
“Right,” Grace sighed as she looked back at the racks of clothes.
An hour later they walked out with bag full of clothes for all the girls, and Beth feeling relieved that it had gone well.
“Nicholas?” Jim asked as he was meeting with Michael. Max had to get to the office, and Isabel to the boutique so Michael agreed to go to Jim and see if he could follow up on photo and see where it might lead. While he also did his own deep dive into their formal nemesis because it had surprised him to run into the bastard again. As they hadn’t seen him since he vanished in high school at the conclusion of the Alien Summit. So, to know he might be trying to create havoc was his pain.
“This is a blurry picture, as Grace is the one who spotted him and took the picture. She didn’t know who he is, and Max made the ID” Michael murmured as he handed the picture over to the Sheriff. “She was out to see a movie with Alexandra and Carrie, and felt that he was following them and while it didn’t last long… it was long enough to get an image”
“Wasn’t he a fellow alien?” Jim asked as he made sure his door was closed so no one could overhear them.
“It’s hard to describe what he was,” Michael said as he thought of the discovering of Nicholas as he had been forced to live as a skin, in a small town of Copper Summit and his youthful exterior and the need for husks. “He wasn’t the greatest fan of me, nor anyone in our inner circle.”
“He was trying to create havoc I hear” Jim asked.
“Yes, and it worked for a time. But then he disappeared and none of us had heard from him until now, and so I wonder what scheme is operating under except maybe he’s under orders of Khivar?”
“I don’t understand why they don’t leave you guys alone, as it’s not like you’re looking to go back to where you came from and take back the planet, right?” Jim asked. “You all made your life here, and like it that way…”
“I guess it’s about fearing if they leave the possibility, then it could backfire on them. Khivar isn’t the rightful leader, as he only took the throne through a coup, and so he’s worried that we’ will come back and take back that life, but we could care less about it because we like our lives here, so to mess with us or create payback for actions we might have done at one time is pointless.” Michael muttered. “And he might be pissed that we prevented him from taking Isabel back…”
Jim nodded. “I’ll look into it, so I gather you don’t know the name?”
“Just the name we knew him off, as I am going to do my look into it. But given you have more avenues for quicker results” Michael murmured. “He still has the same baby face that he had back in high school as he was poising as a young teenager despite the advance of time.”
“I’ll take a look,” Jim nodded as Michael let himself out of the office.
“Please not more of this crap,” Jim muttered as he got back to work.
“You were seen?” came an unknown voice over the speaker phone in a shabby motel room was obviously a step down from the one Beth and the girls had been staying on as the person renting the room didn’t have the income to be able to splurge on even a step up in accommodation. All the planning was coming to a head and then it all had to be at risk by reckless actions that was putting all the careful planning in danger as he had been clearly hoping for a payoff at the end of this thing, but now he had doubts whether he will get the win. “You’re an idiot.”
“You told me to follow Grace Evans,” the man said in an annoyed tone. “I saw my opportunity, so I took it…”
“But she spotted you, genius” came the voice over the speaker phone. “You couldn’t handle one thing, could you?”
“That is unfair because I got the wife out of the motel?” came the man as he tried to defend and pray this had a better outcome than some of the earlier missions.
“You pushed her right into the home of Evans, you idiot” came the voice. “I told you to do something more significant to get her out of our way, or back to Connecticut and you failed even to meet the least of my expectations.”
“Let’s face it. I tried. But to really go after them would have brought too much suspicion from the local authorities after Grace Evans’ recent wave of misfortune. So, I went another way and put a scare into her, and I thought she would leave. I didn’t know Evans would invite her to stay at his house, or that she would accept. So, it’s not my fault.”
“Well then you didn’t do the proper assessment of the situation because anyone could have told you that Evans would have done anything to get closer to his wife. He would also be adamant in wanting to protect her and those children, and even weighing in her lack of memory, well, she wouldn’t have left town that easily. So, how are you going to remedy the situation?”
“Well I got word that she is looking at flights,” the man muttered. “So, I think we should wait to see if she actually is leaving…”
“If she doesn’t leave than you are make sure she does, or make sure she is taken out… or find me an alternative that damn gives me the absolute destruction that I seek. They are to be made to pay for their sins they have committed. Take the damn gloves off if necessary. It doesn’t even have to stop with Evans, make sure everyone’s lives are destroyed, except for Vilondra’s,” he demanded. “Time is running out, because if you want back up here, you have to end them, and bring me what I seek… otherwise you’re just as useless as that whore Tess Handing, trying to pawn off a human baby on me. I am running out of time and need this is happen now.”
“Yes, sir” Nicholas murmured as stared at the phone as he disconnected the system from the phone and turned off the phone and started to make plans as he went over the surveillance pictures of Max, Beth, Grace, Michael, Maria, Jake and Elizabeth. All on his target list according to his boss. He started to access his different options went to work on them as he prayed Beth left town before he enacted any further attempts because he knew his boss wanted to see Evans without those he loved.
Hmm Nicholas smiled as he surveyed his plan of attack. “Maybe this new directive does help me out with my own need for revenge,” as he looked at Michael’s family. “Guerin, I have to say that you are way to happy. We’ll have to see about that, won’t we” he smiled as he mulled a change in the ultimate target… “Although getting Evans would be nice too… maybe I can knock off both at the same time” although he knew Grace was still Plan A?
But who was Plan B?
He cackled with excitement as it started to build as he laid down two of the pictures and wondered how he could use them as the madness built inside him.