Again - Chapter 48 - 09/22/2025
Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2025 1:08 pm
No one knew where it was going. But everyone wanted it to be over. Kyle more so than anyone because then he might know what his future would look like. Instead of being in this state of suspended motion while he waited for all this to be over. Because it was becoming a lot. More in the last few days. And even though he loved Isabel, and I do, and he did like helping her with Ella and Noah. But he had jumped into it, thinking that it would be a short-term patch, while they figured out how to get Max. But now they were on month three, and there was a lot of consequences so far. Even though he got what he wanted in the first place. Isabel looking at me with some commitment in mind, but he knew it was all a façade because it could go up in smoke tomorrow if Max came home.
And Isabel wants to go back to our old status Kyle murmured. And if she did, then he did not know what he would want. So, it was all becoming a bit much and he wanted some clarity to the situation because he could see the real-life consequences at the house with the twins. So, he needed a break, and he was seeking one. Even though he knew that he probably should have stayed at the house and supported Isabel with telling Ella, he just needed to be away from it. And with his stepmother, Amy away visiting her sister for a few days. Jim was home alone.
Which meant he could go over to the family house despite it looking vastly different than when I was living here, he thought, Amy has brought a lot of domestic touches over the years. But it allowed the men to watch the game.
With the station slow. And even if it weren’t, his father Jim was spending more time at home with his wife. As he approached retirement age. But he still had too much fire for the job to totally stepdown and have someone take over. But on this day, nothing was happening. And that pesky side business he was involved could not be dealt with at the station anyways, and yet that was quiet for the moment. So, he was taking the chance to be at home.
And enjoy the game.
Even though their favorite team was down in the game, and it did not look like it was going to be a win on this day. But miracles do happen but instead of being glued to a losing game, it led to having more time to talk. As they held out hope that that the game would turn around.
A parable to our current situation Kyle wondered. “Thank you for holding out on our punches, and the fire” he was say.
“I was glad too,” Jim smiled. “I had the job to keep me in check,” he said. “Protocol” he sighed. “And truthfully son, if it was anyone else, then I might have been more concerned and put more effort into it. But somehow, I knew that this was the likely result,” he said as he glanced over at his son. “I know you wanted to find her. But somehow, I knew that Max was behind it.”
“He should have left her alone” Kyle muttered. “Until he was willing to come back and claim his life, and deal with the state of his marriage, and the whole situation.”
“Something tells me that she was not that unwilling,” Jim sighed. “They have a connection.”
“Yeah,” Kyle murmured. “One that we never had.”
“Do you wonder?” Jim asked of the tone in his son’s voice.
“Hell no, I know I am a lot happier with Isabel” Kyle murmured. Most days he sighed. “Sure, we have been doing this dance of ours for a long time now, but I know she is the one. And it was very apparent from day one that Liz never saw me like that, and once Evans came into the picture than it was hopeless,” he said softly. “But I hate how he screws with her, and with his life, and we have to cover for him, and in the end, she will always go back to him.”
“Love is sometimes like that” Jim said softly. “But this time was not like the other times” he sighed. “He did not ask for what happened to happen.”
“Not everyone is like that” Kyle muttered. “You and Mom weren’t.”
“Your mother and I did not work out for a lot of reasons,” Jim sighed. “I wish we had, and especially because it would have you an easier life when you were growing up.”
“You were always there for me,” Kyle said softly with awareness that life had not been so easy for them, because Jim had been working all the time, and then the alien fascination too over once Grandpa went down that rabbit hole with his son trying to hold out, and every once awhile there, he would slide down the same path once everything changed in 1999. “Mom wasn’t.”
“I am sorry son,” Jim said softly. I don’t know what Michelle was thinking back then he thought of his ex-wife’s wish to start over, away from them, and their son.
Leaving me the sole caregiver.
“Again, you were there. We might not have seen eye to eye like many fathers and sons, from time to time, but you raised me. And you helped me when you did not have too.”
“It was not easy,” Jim said softly. “But I eventually found Amy and she gave me a family, and happiness,” he murmured. “I want that for you too son, because…”
“Because I know it’s been going on for a long time now,” Kyle said. “Playing house with Isabel?”
“You don’t think she will want more if we are able to end this, and Max comes home and the kids…” Jim asked, because he could see that Isabel did love his son. She is just needing some time he told himself. They are still young enough…
“I don’t know what will happen,” Kyle murmured. “It has been easy to be together because the kids needed us” he said realistically. “But Isabel has always been wary, and I am not sure she is anymore there now, then she was three months ago.”
“As you said, it has only been three months” Jim said softly.
“A long three months.”
“Maybe force the situation. Because you love her. Then maybe fight for her and show her.”
“I just want Max to come back and take back his life,” Kyle muttered. “Isabel won’t think of anything until this ends, and her brother comes back.”
“We all do” Jim said softly.
“I know, but Yvonne” Kyle said softly. “Anymore from Deluca?” he asked. “This has been going on for a long time for there to be nothing. Dad, he has to know something.”
“I am trying son,” Jim said softly.
“Try harder,” Kyle muttered, ever so softly.
And as if the heavens opened up and were trying to be cooperative this time. The phone rang, just as Kyle had gotten up to go and get a beer for him and his father. Allowing his father to pick it up, because Kyle recognized that this was not his home anymore.
When he came back with the cans, all he could hear was “Well, it took you a long time to call in”.
“Sorry,” was the only answer Sean Deluca could give as he stood at the window of his balcony and looked down. He and Yvonne were taking the night apart, and he knew she was down at the pool, enticing other saps. Which was fine. We are not exclusive, but he knew that he should be careful given what Yvonne was accused of doing prior to leaving Roswell. And there is so much I don’t know about her track record he thought, I am sure, she is very capable of anything because he did not know much of her prior lives.
He had gotten the many messages from Jim to call, when he returned to his room. And he knew he could not hold out much longer. So, he needed to check in. Otherwise, they might come here he thought. And that would not be wise.
I like my situation down there, he mused. I would like it to continue.
Everyone else wanted it to end.
But he knew what to say to his uncle by marriage. “I am keeping my eyes on the situation,” Sean muttered. “I would have been checking in if I knew anything, but I don’t, so I haven’t” he muttered. “Nothing is unusual or changed,” he said. “She is trying to move onto new targets and just having fun” he murmured. “Blowing the money, she got from the house, and whatever accounts she cleaned out.”
“Are you sure?” came Jim from his side of the conversation, in Roswell.
“I am sure,” Sean murmured.
“How sure?” Kyle asked as his father had put the conversation on the speaker phone, and now he was entering it. And therefore, he was privy to what was being said. “This is Kyle,” he said softly as he looked at his father, who nodded his approval. “How can you be down there for three months and not get us anything more?”
“What can I say,” Sean murmured. “She’s crafty, you people certainly knew this more than I did” he said as his back went up at the entrance of Jim’s son into the conversation, Great, this is the last thing I need is to deal with a member of that little gang he thought. Valenti might not be married to Evans’ sister, but they are close to it. “I have to pick my battles.”
“Or are you getting too personally involved?” Kyle asked as he glanced again at his father. “Is that the reasons why you have not called in?” he asked, because he had to know the situation. Sean Deluca on the department dime, down south on some beach, that has to be not something he would want to give up even if he is trying to draw out a snake.
“I resent that” Sean muttered.
“Do you?” Kyle asked. “Or am I close to it, aren’t I?” he murmured as he glanced at his father who frowned.
Because of course Jim knew have been a possibility given Yvonne’s looks and Sean’s desire to live on the edge even if he has not gone off it in many years he would think as he knew his wife’s nephew’s track record. Because if you put two attractive people down there together… So, he now had to wonder if his son was correct. “Deluca?” he asked without giving an opinion on his son’s theory. “Be careful, because this is a live one” he sighed. “She has the capacity to hurt you” he said because he knew this job was off the books, and away from the station, mostly, so there was only so much official capacity that he had for it. Because everyone had to be careful. The station might be paying for Sean’s stay, but only up to a certain amount because Sean was on the books as an official investigator. Because it was the same when he dealt with Michael. But Michael is not down there in the land of sand and sea.
Michael would be a hell lot more dependable when he’s working for me Jim thought. But Michael is not working on this case, because he needed Michael to keep Max in line.
Although he is not doing such a good job on that right now.
But that situation is a lot more dealt with than this one that I am dealing with Amy’s nephew he thought of Sean. And he was beginning to wonder if this situation was way too much for his wife’s nephew.
“I know, I know” Sean said softly. “You don’t have to remind me okay I know what she is like.”
He is definitely getting too close was the impression that Jim and his son were thinking as they glanced at each other.
“You don’t know what she is like,” Kyle muttered.
“I think I do” Sean countered.
Well, that tells me something Kyle would think. It does not help Max a whole lot, but you never know but he knew he had to a duty to warn Sean of the kind of woman that he was dealing with. “We have word that she has conned many men, more than we even know about before. And we now have to wonder how legal her marriage to Max is” Kyle said softly, and Jim looked up with surprise. “Therefore, she is liable to do anything…”
“What are you talking about?” Sean asked as if he were a little too interested.
“She had other husbands, and she might not have divorced the last one” he said softly. “The previous ones are all dead, but the most recent one is still alive. Although it came close, but he has not died, nor had she checked up on him when she left town with his money” he said. “So, yeah, there are questions about how legal things are…” he said as he glanced over at his father who looked surprised, and even a little intrigued that it might be encroaching on his territory as Sheriff, actionable crimes to deal with? Jim thought.
“Okay, yeah, that is interesting” Sean murmured. Unsure of how he would be able to use that morsel. “But I am sure it will make Max and Liz happy; I am sure.”
If they knew Kyle muttered. Because they are a little too preoccupied in their world. “We have not told them,” he would say.
“Because you have not been able to find her?” Sean asked. “What is this about Liz going missing?”
“How would you even know about that?” Jim with concern on his face. “Nothing official is on the books. And you have not been checking in and only locals are talking about it here at town.”
“How do you think?” Sean muttered. “Your worst nightmare. Yvonne has been checking in back there, and I gather on Liz, and therefore she has been informed of Parker’s whereabouts are unknown,” he said softly. “So far, she is not terribly concerned, but one of these days she is going to wonder…” he allowed. “And maybe poke her head into it. So, what is going on with that?” he would ask. “Do you know where she is?”
“It’s nothing for you to worry about” Kyle said. “Since things have gone personal. Keep Yvonne occupied.”
“I am trying, but as you said the woman is unpredictable” Sean would say. “If Yvonne does become involved than we might have something to worry about.”
“Then as I suggested. Make sure that she does not, and that she stays there and if she does leave. Warn us immediately” Jim maneuvered. “And Sean, please be careful around this woman. Because from the sounds of it, she is very dangerous. And given what we know, she is definitely someone to be wary of and treat carefully. Do I need to remind you that your mother and aunt love you, and they don’t want you to get hurt” he said softly. “If you don’t listen to anyone. Think of your mother and aunt. So, check back in, within 24 hours or we will come looking…” the Sheriff warned.
“Tell them that I am thinking of them too,” Sean said. “But you don’t have to worry about me, because I can handle myself” he said softly as he quickly placed the phone down and instantly forgot the deadline to call in, as he went on spying.
But at the same moment, Yvonne looked up, as if she knew he was there. And smiled.
Shit
While back in Roswell, Jim had new worries.
And Isabel wants to go back to our old status Kyle murmured. And if she did, then he did not know what he would want. So, it was all becoming a bit much and he wanted some clarity to the situation because he could see the real-life consequences at the house with the twins. So, he needed a break, and he was seeking one. Even though he knew that he probably should have stayed at the house and supported Isabel with telling Ella, he just needed to be away from it. And with his stepmother, Amy away visiting her sister for a few days. Jim was home alone.
Which meant he could go over to the family house despite it looking vastly different than when I was living here, he thought, Amy has brought a lot of domestic touches over the years. But it allowed the men to watch the game.
With the station slow. And even if it weren’t, his father Jim was spending more time at home with his wife. As he approached retirement age. But he still had too much fire for the job to totally stepdown and have someone take over. But on this day, nothing was happening. And that pesky side business he was involved could not be dealt with at the station anyways, and yet that was quiet for the moment. So, he was taking the chance to be at home.
And enjoy the game.
Even though their favorite team was down in the game, and it did not look like it was going to be a win on this day. But miracles do happen but instead of being glued to a losing game, it led to having more time to talk. As they held out hope that that the game would turn around.
A parable to our current situation Kyle wondered. “Thank you for holding out on our punches, and the fire” he was say.
“I was glad too,” Jim smiled. “I had the job to keep me in check,” he said. “Protocol” he sighed. “And truthfully son, if it was anyone else, then I might have been more concerned and put more effort into it. But somehow, I knew that this was the likely result,” he said as he glanced over at his son. “I know you wanted to find her. But somehow, I knew that Max was behind it.”
“He should have left her alone” Kyle muttered. “Until he was willing to come back and claim his life, and deal with the state of his marriage, and the whole situation.”
“Something tells me that she was not that unwilling,” Jim sighed. “They have a connection.”
“Yeah,” Kyle murmured. “One that we never had.”
“Do you wonder?” Jim asked of the tone in his son’s voice.
“Hell no, I know I am a lot happier with Isabel” Kyle murmured. Most days he sighed. “Sure, we have been doing this dance of ours for a long time now, but I know she is the one. And it was very apparent from day one that Liz never saw me like that, and once Evans came into the picture than it was hopeless,” he said softly. “But I hate how he screws with her, and with his life, and we have to cover for him, and in the end, she will always go back to him.”
“Love is sometimes like that” Jim said softly. “But this time was not like the other times” he sighed. “He did not ask for what happened to happen.”
“Not everyone is like that” Kyle muttered. “You and Mom weren’t.”
“Your mother and I did not work out for a lot of reasons,” Jim sighed. “I wish we had, and especially because it would have you an easier life when you were growing up.”
“You were always there for me,” Kyle said softly with awareness that life had not been so easy for them, because Jim had been working all the time, and then the alien fascination too over once Grandpa went down that rabbit hole with his son trying to hold out, and every once awhile there, he would slide down the same path once everything changed in 1999. “Mom wasn’t.”
“I am sorry son,” Jim said softly. I don’t know what Michelle was thinking back then he thought of his ex-wife’s wish to start over, away from them, and their son.
Leaving me the sole caregiver.
“Again, you were there. We might not have seen eye to eye like many fathers and sons, from time to time, but you raised me. And you helped me when you did not have too.”
“It was not easy,” Jim said softly. “But I eventually found Amy and she gave me a family, and happiness,” he murmured. “I want that for you too son, because…”
“Because I know it’s been going on for a long time now,” Kyle said. “Playing house with Isabel?”
“You don’t think she will want more if we are able to end this, and Max comes home and the kids…” Jim asked, because he could see that Isabel did love his son. She is just needing some time he told himself. They are still young enough…
“I don’t know what will happen,” Kyle murmured. “It has been easy to be together because the kids needed us” he said realistically. “But Isabel has always been wary, and I am not sure she is anymore there now, then she was three months ago.”
“As you said, it has only been three months” Jim said softly.
“A long three months.”
“Maybe force the situation. Because you love her. Then maybe fight for her and show her.”
“I just want Max to come back and take back his life,” Kyle muttered. “Isabel won’t think of anything until this ends, and her brother comes back.”
“We all do” Jim said softly.
“I know, but Yvonne” Kyle said softly. “Anymore from Deluca?” he asked. “This has been going on for a long time for there to be nothing. Dad, he has to know something.”
“I am trying son,” Jim said softly.
“Try harder,” Kyle muttered, ever so softly.
And as if the heavens opened up and were trying to be cooperative this time. The phone rang, just as Kyle had gotten up to go and get a beer for him and his father. Allowing his father to pick it up, because Kyle recognized that this was not his home anymore.
When he came back with the cans, all he could hear was “Well, it took you a long time to call in”.
*
Down south,
Paradise,
Paradise,
“Sorry,” was the only answer Sean Deluca could give as he stood at the window of his balcony and looked down. He and Yvonne were taking the night apart, and he knew she was down at the pool, enticing other saps. Which was fine. We are not exclusive, but he knew that he should be careful given what Yvonne was accused of doing prior to leaving Roswell. And there is so much I don’t know about her track record he thought, I am sure, she is very capable of anything because he did not know much of her prior lives.
He had gotten the many messages from Jim to call, when he returned to his room. And he knew he could not hold out much longer. So, he needed to check in. Otherwise, they might come here he thought. And that would not be wise.
I like my situation down there, he mused. I would like it to continue.
Everyone else wanted it to end.
But he knew what to say to his uncle by marriage. “I am keeping my eyes on the situation,” Sean muttered. “I would have been checking in if I knew anything, but I don’t, so I haven’t” he muttered. “Nothing is unusual or changed,” he said. “She is trying to move onto new targets and just having fun” he murmured. “Blowing the money, she got from the house, and whatever accounts she cleaned out.”
“Are you sure?” came Jim from his side of the conversation, in Roswell.
“I am sure,” Sean murmured.
“How sure?” Kyle asked as his father had put the conversation on the speaker phone, and now he was entering it. And therefore, he was privy to what was being said. “This is Kyle,” he said softly as he looked at his father, who nodded his approval. “How can you be down there for three months and not get us anything more?”
“What can I say,” Sean murmured. “She’s crafty, you people certainly knew this more than I did” he said as his back went up at the entrance of Jim’s son into the conversation, Great, this is the last thing I need is to deal with a member of that little gang he thought. Valenti might not be married to Evans’ sister, but they are close to it. “I have to pick my battles.”
“Or are you getting too personally involved?” Kyle asked as he glanced again at his father. “Is that the reasons why you have not called in?” he asked, because he had to know the situation. Sean Deluca on the department dime, down south on some beach, that has to be not something he would want to give up even if he is trying to draw out a snake.
“I resent that” Sean muttered.
“Do you?” Kyle asked. “Or am I close to it, aren’t I?” he murmured as he glanced at his father who frowned.
Because of course Jim knew have been a possibility given Yvonne’s looks and Sean’s desire to live on the edge even if he has not gone off it in many years he would think as he knew his wife’s nephew’s track record. Because if you put two attractive people down there together… So, he now had to wonder if his son was correct. “Deluca?” he asked without giving an opinion on his son’s theory. “Be careful, because this is a live one” he sighed. “She has the capacity to hurt you” he said because he knew this job was off the books, and away from the station, mostly, so there was only so much official capacity that he had for it. Because everyone had to be careful. The station might be paying for Sean’s stay, but only up to a certain amount because Sean was on the books as an official investigator. Because it was the same when he dealt with Michael. But Michael is not down there in the land of sand and sea.
Michael would be a hell lot more dependable when he’s working for me Jim thought. But Michael is not working on this case, because he needed Michael to keep Max in line.
Although he is not doing such a good job on that right now.
But that situation is a lot more dealt with than this one that I am dealing with Amy’s nephew he thought of Sean. And he was beginning to wonder if this situation was way too much for his wife’s nephew.
“I know, I know” Sean said softly. “You don’t have to remind me okay I know what she is like.”
He is definitely getting too close was the impression that Jim and his son were thinking as they glanced at each other.
“You don’t know what she is like,” Kyle muttered.
“I think I do” Sean countered.
Well, that tells me something Kyle would think. It does not help Max a whole lot, but you never know but he knew he had to a duty to warn Sean of the kind of woman that he was dealing with. “We have word that she has conned many men, more than we even know about before. And we now have to wonder how legal her marriage to Max is” Kyle said softly, and Jim looked up with surprise. “Therefore, she is liable to do anything…”
“What are you talking about?” Sean asked as if he were a little too interested.
“She had other husbands, and she might not have divorced the last one” he said softly. “The previous ones are all dead, but the most recent one is still alive. Although it came close, but he has not died, nor had she checked up on him when she left town with his money” he said. “So, yeah, there are questions about how legal things are…” he said as he glanced over at his father who looked surprised, and even a little intrigued that it might be encroaching on his territory as Sheriff, actionable crimes to deal with? Jim thought.
“Okay, yeah, that is interesting” Sean murmured. Unsure of how he would be able to use that morsel. “But I am sure it will make Max and Liz happy; I am sure.”
If they knew Kyle muttered. Because they are a little too preoccupied in their world. “We have not told them,” he would say.
“Because you have not been able to find her?” Sean asked. “What is this about Liz going missing?”
“How would you even know about that?” Jim with concern on his face. “Nothing official is on the books. And you have not been checking in and only locals are talking about it here at town.”
“How do you think?” Sean muttered. “Your worst nightmare. Yvonne has been checking in back there, and I gather on Liz, and therefore she has been informed of Parker’s whereabouts are unknown,” he said softly. “So far, she is not terribly concerned, but one of these days she is going to wonder…” he allowed. “And maybe poke her head into it. So, what is going on with that?” he would ask. “Do you know where she is?”
“It’s nothing for you to worry about” Kyle said. “Since things have gone personal. Keep Yvonne occupied.”
“I am trying, but as you said the woman is unpredictable” Sean would say. “If Yvonne does become involved than we might have something to worry about.”
“Then as I suggested. Make sure that she does not, and that she stays there and if she does leave. Warn us immediately” Jim maneuvered. “And Sean, please be careful around this woman. Because from the sounds of it, she is very dangerous. And given what we know, she is definitely someone to be wary of and treat carefully. Do I need to remind you that your mother and aunt love you, and they don’t want you to get hurt” he said softly. “If you don’t listen to anyone. Think of your mother and aunt. So, check back in, within 24 hours or we will come looking…” the Sheriff warned.
“Tell them that I am thinking of them too,” Sean said. “But you don’t have to worry about me, because I can handle myself” he said softly as he quickly placed the phone down and instantly forgot the deadline to call in, as he went on spying.
But at the same moment, Yvonne looked up, as if she knew he was there. And smiled.
Shit
While back in Roswell, Jim had new worries.