Roswell Fanatics

*Nathaniel*

Dominique puts down the photo she was holding and I notice now that it was my school picture from last year. Isn't my football photo up there? Ah well, it could have been worse. The fact that she was looking at my picture, well, that's pretty cool.

She asks for coffee so I give her a smile. "Coffee it is," I say, gesturing towards the kitchen. "Come along, if you like," I suggest, leading the way.

In a moment, I'm in the kitchen where I sit Jayden on the edge of the counter so she can watch. "Maybe we should start with the coffee, eh?" I ask Jayden. "I have a feeling your daddy's gonna want some, too."

I check the machine and find that it's already set up. All I have to do is hit the red button to get it started. I turn to Jayden. "You wanna hit the button?" I ask. I carry her to the other counter and hold her as she leans out and pushes the button. She's immediately rewarded with a gurgling sound of water flowing in and heating up.

"Well that was easy. You did a great job!" I say, moving her back to the other counter where she won't be so close to the hot machine. "Now for some Eggs and Toast."

I get out the pan, butter, eggs and bread. I open the bread and put it next to my neice and then start to put some butter in the pan. "Take out two slices so we can put them in the toaster," I tell Jayden.

*Max*

Ava doesn't respond to my comment about Drake and surprisingly, nobody answers the phone at Michael's house. Maria is usually up at this hour and Anya isn't known for ignoring the phone, either. Where's Michael? I hope nothing happened with Drake there.

"Michael? Maria? It's Max," I say as the answering machine picks up. "Ava and Jayden are here at my house, too," I say, assuming that Micah would have told them about Zan. "She needs a little help finding some space for the band to practice. I though you might have an idea about that. Give me a call to let me know how things went with Drake."

I have a feeling that wouldn't have gone easily but I'm sure Michael found a way to deal with it. I'm sure he would have called me if there was trouble.

I hang up the phone as Zan comes out of the bathroom. He looks like a character out of a 'Dark Horse' comic book. All black and punk. His shirt ripped and his eyes lined with black. The message on it isn't one I particularly appreciate, either. Not when we're facing real evil in the form of the 'people' that killed Drake's parents. I frown, but decide not to comment on it.

Ooc: I meant to post for Ava last night but didn’t get to it. Is Liz in the living room? If so I will change my post later to include her

Ava

Max hangs up with Michael and then I remember about Drake “Drake was still at our hotel. I took him with me last night. I think he is going to stick around for awhile.”

Zan comes in looking ready for the day and I’m glad he has calmed down from this morning. He puts his bag down and starts to go through it, probably looking for cigarettes. My assumptions are correct when he finds a pack and stands up as something falls out of his duffle. Something in a zip lock bag that looks like baby powder. I bead down and pick it up off the floor.

“Zander Regan Grey!!”


Zander

I walk out of the bathroom and by the kitchen and notice Dom, Nathaniel and Jayden making breakfast. It’s a very domestic looking scene that stops me from walking. Instead of saying anything I just toss Dominique’s jeans at her head before continuing on down the hall. I’m not sure how I feel about what I just saw but I don’t want to think about it right now.

I walk into the den just as Max gets off the phone with somebody. Now he brings a lot of confusing feelings that I really don’t want to think about either. I guess I should thank him for last night but that would require talking to him and I don’t think I can handle that right now. I still have a lot of questions but that would also require talking.

So instead of saying anything I start ruffling through my duffle bag looking for some ciggies. I know I had some in here somewhere. I always keep a pack at random places so I never have to do without. I finally find a pack and stand up. When I hear Ava practically screech my name I flinch back before I realize what’s happening. She’s standing there with a pack of cocaine. My eyes widen when I realize what she must think.

She made me promise no more heroine and no more cocaine before we came on this tour and I actually agreed because she threatened to cancel the tour and put me in rehab if I didn’t agree. In return she’d leave off about the drinking, pot and pills I took.

“I told you if you got off the hard stuff I would look the other way with everything else and you promised Zan. But what is this?!?!?!” she says shaking the bag in front of my face.

I’m not really sure what she wants me to say exactly so I decide to answer her question. “Well, that would be a bag of cocaine.” I say trying to keep the sarcasm out of my voice but as usual it doesn’t work and Ava looks like she’s going to explode for a second before she takes a visible deep breath and calms down and I’m a relieved she has more self control than I do. But her next words make my blood run cold.

“Fine. The tour is off and you are going to rehab.” She says too calmly as if she just didn’t just end my life.

“Ava…it’s not what you think…” I say stammering slightly. She can’t be serious, she can’t. “Listen, I haven’t touched the hard stuff since you told me I had to stop…I swear…that stuff has probably been in that bag for months.” I say willing her to believe me because there’s no way I’m going into rehab.

~Dom~

I follow Nate into the kitchen. I stand there watching him interact with Jayden. I smile. Jayden seems amused with it all. I wonder what happened in London. I also wonder if Zan had been there would Jayden have been safe. I sigh. It’s not Zan’s fault. I could have been there too. I could have protected Jayden.

My thoughts are put on hold when a pair of jeans land on my head. I pull them off smoothing my hair down. I turn just in time to see Zan’s form move into the next room. I examine my favorite pair of pants. They reeked of pot and vodka. I gagged a little. A couple of holes had been made and the button torn off. I growl. Zan will pay for this.

I take a seat at the kitchen table. I watch the black drops fall into the glass container and willed it on faster. It continued its regular pace and I growled again. I still have a bit of a hang over and the thought of coffee makes my day seem brighter.

“So what’s today? Thursday? Friday? Don’t you have school Nate?” I ask out of curiosity. I’ve never been to a real high school.

*Nathaniel*

"Friday," I tell Dominque with a smile as I start to fry up the eggs for Jayden. I check the clock before going on. "And yes, normally we'd be leaving for school in about ... twenty minutes. My dad's a science teacher so we don't miss many days but he's already called in. He's not showing up for work and we don't have to go to class. I think he called it a 'family emergency.'"

I finish my vague explanation with a crooked smile. My family's a bit bigger than it was yesterday. This is not the sort of situation that the school is used to hearing about, not that they'll ever learn the whole truth. What an understatement. Some alien baddie is out to kill us. Yeah, that's a bit of an emergency. So what are we doing about it? Frying eggs and making toast. I'm not really sure what else we should be doing but I'm kinda glad to be making breakfast like this. It gives me something to do that I can control. I may not be able to do anything about 'Duke' and his friends until they show up but I can make breakfast.

"You sure you don't want anything beyond coffee? We got cereal or oatmeal or stuff like that," I ask. I see that Dominque is still holding the jeans that Zan threw at her. She seemed a bit upset about that. "Do you want those cleaned or anything?"



*Max*

“Listen, I haven’t touched the hard stuff since you told me I had to stop…I swear…that stuff has probably been in that bag for months,” Zan protests as Ava waves a bag of cocaine at him. Cocaine that fell out of his bag.

I can't believe what I'm seeing and hearing here. Cocaine? In my house!?! His arguments about not touching the 'hard stuff' in months brings back my questions about his alcohol and drug use. Valenti was sure he was high or drunk last night and I'm certain he was right. I don't know how he manages it but I know I don't want it here.

"How do you even manage the 'light' stuff?" I ask. "Doesn't it do wacky things to your abilities?" Even as I say it, I realize that my question isn't quite accurate. I've explained it that way to the kids, but truthfully the alcohol never really negatively affected my powers, just my desire to hide it. I was doing stuff I'd always been able to do and more, just because I wasn't afraid of being seen -- and that's what made it really dangerous. Of course, Michael had had a lot more and his powers were put on overload. I have a strong feeling that Zan's done a lot more than even that.

Thankfully, I haven't had to refrain from alcohol entirely. A little molecular manipulation can eliminate the alcohol from a drink without anyone ever knowing what I'm doing. The same will work with Cocaine. "Can I have that?" I ask Ava, holding out my hand.

"If he's telling the truth, I can prove it right now."


.

Days before you came
Counting breaths inside me
Even crack cocaine
Couldn't start to hide me


Zander

"How do you even manage the 'light' stuff? Doesn't it do wacky things to your abilities?" Max asks and for a moment I had forgotten he was standing there, I was so worried about what to tell Ava.

“I think he’s done so much at such a early age his body learned to adapt.” Ava says and I wonder what the hell they are talking about but I don’t say anything as Ava hands over the bag of cocaine to Max.

"If he's telling the truth, I can prove it right now." He says and part of me wonders how exactly he is going to do that while another part of me frantically wonders if it is the truth. I search my head for any times I used since Ava told me not to. There was a party in Lisbon, did I use then? They were doing it but I was too drunk to remember if I did or not. He wouldn’t be able to tell from that little bag would he? Or maybe he wants to do a mind thingy. I really don't want him in my head, once was enough.

I swallow nervously before asking, “How exactly can you tell that?” I finally ask and Ava is now glaring at me so I try to look more innocent but I don’t think it’s working.

*Max*


I take the bag gingerly, feeling a bit disgusted. I notice Zan’s nervousness about verifying his story. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s lying or because he’s scared about the potential test methods. The bag doesn’t happen to offer any random clairvoyant flashes and I don’t search for any. Knowing if he used this bag to get high or not won’t really say if he’s clean or not – or at least partially clean, as he’s claiming.

“First off,” I say. “I know I can’t tell you what to do. I haven’t been your parent. But this is still my house and I’m not going to allow this here.” I pass my hand over the bag and re-arrange the molecular connections so that the contents transform to nothing but sugar and a bit of left-over carbon. I toss the bag back to him. “There. You can use it in your coffee now, if you like it sweet.”

“As for determining the truth, I am a science-teacher. Give me a lock of your hair and I can tell what you’ve been using.” Turning, I pull open a cabinet, revealing a small chemistry set in a laboratory hood. It’s more elaborate than what Liz and I used to use to run tests on suspected alien substances but it’s not as good as what I have at the school, with a few exceptions. I sometimes use this set-up to get ready for class and it’s enough for what we need here – especially as my powers can speed up the process, and unlike most science teachers, I actually have my own MRI machine. I’ve tried this test before, checking to see if it would be suitable for use in class but decided the legal implications of a positive test would be too tricky.

I look at Zan who still seems nervous. I say, “It’s a purely terrestrial test. Nothing weird. Are you ready to prove your claims?”

Zander

“As for determining the truth, I am a science-teacher. Give me a lock of your hair and I can tell what you’ve been using.” he says as I'm still inspecting the now bag of sugar. I've got to learn to do this kindof stuff. It would keep me out of alot of trouble.

But a lock of my hair, as in I would have to cut a peice of my hair. I definatly don't want to do that even if I knew I was 100% clean, but Max already has the microscope out and Ava is glaring at me as if daring me to back out. I start to say something but she just hand me a pair of scissors.

“It’s a purely terrestrial test. Nothing weird. Are you ready to prove your claims?” Max says. No, I'm not ready to prove my claims, in fact I'm not so sure of them now. And what exactly will that microscope show? I should have stayed in school.

"Ummm..." I say glancing at the scissors in my hand and back to the microscope. I take a deep breath and cut a small piece of my hair before handing in to Max. I realize how much my hand is shaking but I can't help that. This is not good. I'm not going to rehab, and I rather die than give up music even if it is for awhile.

OOC - I'm sure I'm missing some important steps in this test. Separations and emulsions in immissible liquids and such. *shrug* Makes it simpler for the story, anyway.



*Max*

“You don’t want that. We need something close to your scalp,” I say as Zan starts to clip off a bit of the edge of his hair. I help him clip a small section near the nape of his neck where the longer hair above it will hide it. It’s still surprisingly long for a boy’s hair.

“Your hair is like a time-line. The part closer to your head will show your more recent usage and stuff farther away is longer ago.” I can see that his hair is important to him so I use my powers to grow that bit of hair out again. That particular bit of speed-grown hair will be drug-free for its entire length – or as drug free as Zan happens to be at the moment. Whatever drugs he was on yesterday seem to have worked their way out of his system.

I look to Ava and then back to Zan. “You said a couple months? At three-quarters of an inch per month, we’ll go with an inch and a half for two months.” I take that much of the newer part of Zan’s hair, letting the rest fall into the waste-basket and then using my powers to disintegrate it. I do make an effort to be sure there’s no traces of alien DNA left lying around here, even when I don’t think the FBI is after us. Maybe it’s paranoia, but I see it as simple safety precautions.

I turn on the MRI and then pull a book off the shelf and flip through to the proper page. Then, I pour the indicated solvent into a beaker and cut Zan’s hair into tiny bits with the scissors before adding it to the solution, stirring to aid the extraction. “Our bodies work just like human ones. The differences are all on the cellular level and in the brain functions.”

Once everything is dissolved, I pour the fluid through a filter to remove the remaining solid bits of hair and I’m left with a test-tube of nearly clear fluid. “There it is,” I say displaying it before fitting it into the slot on the MRI along with a 'blank' for comparison purposes. I hit the button to start the scan. “In a few minutes, it’ll put out a graph with various peaks showing different molecular bonds. By looking at where these peaks are and how high they are, we can tell what drugs you’ve been using in the last two months.”

I pass my hand over the filter paper, using my powers to disintegrate the paper and hair fragments as the machine slowly chugs out the results graph. The new one at the school is much faster but this is what I have.

I turn back to Zan, feeling that we really should talk more but not sure how to start. He needs to know WHY our alien enemies are targeting him and his daughter in particular. I just don't know where to start.

"I see that you do have healing powers, like me," I say, starting somewhere a little safer. I add, "By-the-way, we don't normally approve of using those powers to GIVE someone a bloody nose. It attracts too much attention." Then I shrug, letting him know that's not something we need to talk about now. "What other things have you noticed that you can do?"

.

Zander

I watch as the paper slowly filters out of the machine. Is that thing going in slow motion or what? "I see that you do have healing powers, like me. By-the-way, I don't normally approve of using those powers to GIVE someone a bloody nose. It attracts too much attention. What other things have you noticed that you can do?" Max says

“Good thing I’m not looking for anyone’s approval then.” I say not taking my eyes off of the slow moving paper. Are they trying to kill me? I will be old by the time this test is done. I take my eyes off the paper and glance at Max and Ava who seem to be waiting for me to continue. Oh right he asked what I could do.

I stare back at the paper as I speak in an effort to clear my head. “When I was little stuff used to move around when I got mad. Scared the hell out of my mom so I think I must have learned to control that pretty early. My stepfather grabbed me one time…” I start and then I know I have to say something to make that sound better so I finish with “…he must have startled me or something because he got thrown against the wall.”


“But I can’t do things like you do; I usually have to be really emotional about something. Sam left the baby gate open at the top of the stairs when Jayden was just learning to walk. I turned my back for a second at she was heading towards it and…it was like the thing you did upstairs at the restaurant, but it sort of bubbled up around her before she could fall.” I finish as the paper in finally seems to be done…