Roswell Fanatics

hello everybody, here I am with another new part!

As always, thanks to my lovely beta for her great job!

and now on with the new part!

enjoy


25, The ‘IKAA-Club’ keeps growing, 08/11/2000, Friday 6.00 pm
The members of this discussion had accepted the news in their own individual way. The girls had already heard about Jean Batiste Dubois and his wife Kathy and had had enough time to mull over the need of this training and had all come to the same conclusion: a resounding yes, they did indeed need help in that department!
*~~*~~*
Jim reflected on it for a moment and then wholeheartedly agreed. They all could use all the help they could get. Just looking at himself Jim realized that he knew how to behave but that was just about it. After all, he was a simple country boy at heart and he had raised his son accordingly.
*~~*~~*
Kyle, after asking for some divine guidance, came to the same conclusion; he could need all the help offered. After all, he was a jock and a country boy at heart.
*~~*~~*
Michael didn’t need to waste any time thinking about such useless and shallow pursuits. After all he was a warrior and good manners would be wasted in his line of work. Anyway, it didn’t matter what everybody else thought, he knew what was best and also what he had to do. As he was mulling over the unjust treatment he was receiving at the hands of the group, he suddenly had a very strange thought pass through his mind.

Maybe the others were right, at least partly right he amended quickly. After all, they used to be his friends, they had always been there for him, especially Max and Izzy. Maybe he should think more about it when he was alone. Maybe he should make one of those damned lists that Liz swore helped her make decisions, with columns on it with rights and wrongs, write down everything and then he might see the evidence clearly. But right now wasn’t the time for it, right now he had to stay alert!
*~~*~~*
Jeff, after having thought this through, figured they could learn all that by themselves and almost started a riot as he innocently exclaimed “Johnny? FBI-Johnny? Why do we need him? We don’t need teachers; we can do it without his help!”
*~~*~~*
The ensuing panic attack from Michael wasn’t pretty to watch, but after some threats and power play on Jeff and Jim’s part and some motherly no nonsense from Nancy he agreed to wait and see, all the while grumbling “just like I said, Max doesn’t know what he’s doing, he’ll land us all in the white room!“
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
All about connections and baby Zander, 08/11/2000, Friday 6.25 pm
After the emotions had cooled down Isabelle stood up and grabbed her notebook. In prospects of the volatile tempers in their midst the women had taken special care to prepare for this meeting. So, for once they had been glad for Liz’s penchant for writing lists and preparing everything to the last dot.

Thus fortified with Liz’s notes, Isabelle started to explain “As Nancy already mentioned, we were able to bring everybody into the Max/Liz connection and it was absolutely amazing.” Smiling apologetically at the men in the group she continued, “It’s true, we saw and heard those leaders and it was interesting, but nothing important was happening.”

After taking a calming breath Isabelle said “what really needs our attention right now is that little boy. Right now he’s safe, but as soon as Max has to officially acknowledge him, he will be sent to us. We’ll have to get him and protect him because, because...” Isabelle started to cry as she went into an emotional overload.

Maria went to her friend, hugged her and started to cry too. Liz joined the group hug and got all teary-eyed as well. Nancy was able to keep her composure and picked up where Isabelle had left off. “…because he’s Alex’ son! And his name is Alexander James Whitman, Zander for short.”

“Now I know that can’t be true, Tess and Alex? No, never, impossible. Tess and Max, yes that I can believe. After all, she is the queen, meaning she would only mate with the king, as it’s her right and duty, right?” after his outburst Michael got the distinct impression that he had said something wrong; the horrified expressions on everybody’s faces seemed to be an indication for it.
*~~*~~*
Jim and Kyle saw this situation more realistically and knew that under normal circumstances Alex would’ve never had any interest in Tess. In light of her mind-warping abilities it was more than likely that Alex had been seduced under false pretences; everything else was absolutely impossible. With this in their minds the Valenti men kept quiet and waited for more information.
*~~*~~*
Jeff had no idea what to think. Alex had been almost like a son to him and Jeff found it hard to see the tall, lanky and slightly naïve friend of his daughter in any sexual situation, much less fathering a son. And Michael’s outburst didn’t make any sense to him at all.
*~~*~~*
Severely Nancy admonished Michael “you can keep these kinds of comments to yourself, Michael. Besides being crossly untrue and unfair, nobody here is interested in hearing them.”

Addressing the whole group Nancy continued “for your information, once Tess understood that she wouldn’t get anywhere with Max she had to change her plans. So while Tess had Alex under her mind-warp thingy, she actually pretended to be somebody else.”

“Now I know that something’s wrong because people don’t remember what happened while they’re warped!” Michael triumphed. “What did I tell you? Huh, huh? I was right, he can’t be…!”

“Michael, shut up!” Liz was getting angry at Michael, listening how he maligned her best friend. “Even you should know that it’s possible to break out of a warp. Which is what Alex did, but to satisfy your distrust of all humans, Tess was bragging about it to Alex, to Leanna and to Nicholas! Can you believe it now?”

Liz was becoming aggressive. Shooting Michael a nasty look she barked “I don’t know how the others feel, but I would appreciate it if you’d think first before mouthing off!”

When Michael opened his mouth with a belligerent look on his face, Liz could see that he was out for trouble. She would have none of it and pointing her finger at him told him off “Michael, enough, this is the last warning I’m giving you. We have important things to discuss and decide and all you do is interrupt and delay things.” Catching her breath and trying to calm down she added, “as long as you’re polite and have something constructive to say you’re welcome here, otherwise you know where the door is!”

After giving this warning to Michael Liz turned back to Isabelle, but before she could utter a word Michael made fun of her “Uuuhhhhh, am I supposed to be scared of you? I think not! And for your information, I have every right to be here and to have my own opinions. Also, YOU don’t tell me what I can or can’t do, not you, you’re just a human!”

Obnoxiously grinning he admonished her “You know Lizzy; you shouldn’t hand out threats if you can’t follow through with them!” Insolently crossing his arms over his chest he added “It’s your turn now, what are you going to do? Hmmm?”

Thinking it was best to ignore him, Liz asked Isabelle to continue with their topic. Michael had other plans and mocked her “Look at that, little Lizzy is backing off!”

Liz had had it, enough was enough and with fury burning in her eyes she faced Michael. She was so furious, she had a hard time containing her anger; so she just stood there staring at him for a few moments. She could feel the energy coursing in her body and desperately tried to keep it down.

Kyle recognised what was happening with his friend and, trying to give Liz some time to cool down a bit, decided to rile Michael. The big alien finally had it coming! Kyle mocked, “Hey Mr. Act First, Think Later, just keep it up and you’ll get more than you’ve ever bargained for.”

It seemed that this time Liz won against her anger and decided to talk herself “ok, right now we don’t know how much time we have to get ready for little Zander, but I have a strong feeling it will be sometime within the next 48 hours. Max said that was when they were expecting Khivar and his entourage to arrive. So, we thought we share all the info we have concerning Zander, afterwards we do some brainstorming to find a solution.”

And then she remembered an important piece of information and added “Oh, and you should also know that the Granolith has accepted Nicholas in his circle. This means we’ll be working with him, closely.” Looking at everybody she asked, “can everybody agree to this?”
*~~*~~*
Jeff suddenly decided to come up with a different topic and said, “Wrong, if you want to discuss babies, why don’t we discuss yours? I’d say that would be more important to us, or have you decided to get rid of them? Then of course we can discuss this little Zander boy.”

Impatiently Liz replied, ”There’s nothing to discuss, dad. For the last time, we’re keeping these babies and until Max comes back, we don’t decide on anything at all!”

Jeff just couldn’t let it go that easily and raising his voice he scolded his daughter “You can’t just make these kinds of decisions by yourself, you’re still a minor…”

Nancy interrupted her husband with a sharp “that’s enough Jeff, the babies stay right were they are, end of discussion!”
*~~*~~*
After having brought everybody up to date Nancy said “Now, we have to decide when to include the Evans’ in all of this, and I think the sooner the better. The other thing is, do we trust Alex’s belief in his parents and tell them so we can bring the baby to them right away, or do we start to integrate them slowly into our group, and let them meet their grandchild without telling them who he is?”

“I’m against it! I won’t allow any more people being dragged into our group,” Michael’s gaze settled on Jeff and Nancy and he scathingly added, “Already too many people know!”

“Are you saying that we brought the Parkers in?” Maria was livid, “you’re quite something, you know? You truly remember things only when and how you want to! That’s a really very convenient trait!”

Isabelle straightened her back and stepped up to Michael and said “You don’t get to make those decisions by yourself, all of us have a stake in this, so we make this decision together and include Alex’s last wish too!” Seeing everybody else’s nod of approval she started to relax a little as a sullen Michael slid down in his chair.

The alien beauty used the quiet moment and went on “like Nancy, I think that we should tell my parents as soon as possible. Otherwise they will be very disappointed if the Parkers know and they don’t!”

Isabelle’s last statement was the deciding factor and so they set up a meeting with the Evans’…
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
The group, minus Jeff and Michael, had decided to inform the Evans’ as fast as possible. Isabelle had the honour of setting up the time for this meeting. They had been given two possible dates for it: later this day or tomorrow. They had decided on ‘later this day’.

After the time for the next round of discussion had been determined, they all went their separate ways. All were in dire need of some down time. Liz and her mom returned to the hotel to relax, Maria decided to show her face at home and the Valenti men went home to unwind with some chips and sodas in front of the TV.

Michael didn’t really trust Jeff to keep quiet and so the two men went to the CrashDown to make sure everything was in order and then they sat in one of the back booths and enjoyed some coffee while reading the newspapers.
*~~*~~*
The Evans’ home, 08/11/2000, Friday 7.45 pm
In the meantime Isabelle was sitting on pins and needles; she was a nervous wreck. Suddenly she was very sympathetic to Max and Michael, who, up until now, had been dead-set against letting the Evans’ know about their origins. After leaving the Parkers, she had gone straight home and started to prepare for the get-together a little later.

To mask her fears she kept on organising everything. Right now she was arranging and rearranging the seating arrangements in the living room. Then she checked all the cupboards in the kitchen for the snack supply; cookies, chips, popcorn, salted peanuts, cherry coke, and fruit and mineral water for the health nuts amongst them. After she found everything, Isabelle started to dish up everything she could think of.
*~~*~~*
Diane and Philip were very curious about the reason for this mysterious gathering, but their daughter stood firm and didn’t reveal anything at all. Something was up; they could feel it.

Diane started to get very suspicious and was wondering what terrible things where hidden in her kids’ pasts that had her usually so confident daughter in a near panic. Trying to talk to her beautiful daughter, Diane started again “Isabelle, sweetie, please calm down. You know your dad and I both love you and Max very much. You’re our children. We chose the two of you. We’ve loved you from the moment we found you on the old highway.”

As Isabelle tried to make a quick escape, Diane grabbed her by her arm and continued, “There’s nothing you can’t tell us. We will understand and help you in any way possible. Why don’t you tell us now, then you won’t have to worry any longer? And why do all these people have to be here for this?”

Sadly Isabelle replied “Oh Mom, I love you too, you know that, but believe me it’s better to wait for everybody else to be here for this meeting. You’ll be only too glad to hear everybody’s opinion because it’s a very strange story you will hear. So please, just be patient and wait a little longer, ok mom?”

Reluctantly Diane gave in to Izzy’s demands and with a heavy sigh she left her alone. Isabelle continued her preparations. Since cleaning and organising calmed her in any stressful situation, she cleaned the living room until everything was neat and clean and then cleaned some more just to be sure that nothing was out of order.

Half an hour before everybody’s arrival Isabelle was ready to climb walls. She was jumpy and nervous. Her parents were getting more and more stressed by all the tension that was radiating off Izzy and left her to her own devices. When finally the ringing of the doorbell announced the first arrivals, Isabelle walked on very shaky legs to open the door.

Nancy was first to arrive, with Liz and Maria in tow, and before they could enter the house, the sheriff and Kyle showed up too. Everybody was conscious of the seriousness of the situation and their grim expressions showed it.

Isabelle ushered her guests in to the living room and called her parents. Upon entering the room the Evans’ found the atmosphere very solemn. They greeted their guests, offered them drinks and snacks and made some polite small talk, but everybody was much too tense so Liz cut in and announced “Everybody, Mrs and Mr Evans, please, we’re all very tense right now, and I’m sure you want to know what this is all about, so I suggest we get down to business.”

She looked at all her friends and one after the other, they all gave their consent by nodding at her. Then she turned to Diane and Philip and began with her explanation “Since what we’re going to talk about concerns all of us, some more and some less, and Izzy is much too upset to talk, we decided that I should be the one to start. When the time arises everybody else will pitch in too. Also, I too am very tense and nervous, because a lot rides on the outcome, so please, be patient.”

She waited until the Evans’ gave a nod and then continued “for you to understand everything I have to give you some background information. That’s why I will tell you a story that eventually leads to the present. It may sound crazy and outrageous, but please, believe me; I’m not making fun of you. This is way too serious for jokes, ok?”

With that said Liz sat up straight looked one more time around to be sure the group was ready, then she closed her eyes and began to recount The Antarian Legend.


TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic.

Take care

Chula

And here is the next part, enjoy


26, Crash course in Antarian History and Prophecy, 08/11/2000, Friday 8.00 pm
“In a far, far away place in the Whirlwind Galaxy, the old people used to tell a story that in later years led to the prophesy about the Dark Ages of Antar and the Whirlwind Galaxy and the following golden times. It was said that at the very beginning the creator, Mother of All Things, looked down on her people and saw their struggle to survive. She saw that her people were good, hard-working and god-fearing. One day she decided to ease their lot in life and created the Granolith. Everybody could go to the Granolith and ask for help and guidance. Her people were grateful, worshiped her and respected the Granolith. And so for a few centuries everything was well in the Whirlwind Galaxy.”

Diana was listening intently and even though she didn’t understand why Liz was recounting this story, she was fascinated. Philip, to the contrary, started to lose his temper, turned an unbecoming red and interrupted angrily “What the hell are you talking about? This farce has gone far enough. We’re not here to listen to fairytales; I thought you were seriously going to let us in on your secret. I really don’t have to listen to this… this… this… I’m leaving!”

“Philip, please honey, just listen for a bit longer. Then I’m sure we’ll start to understand, please” his wife tried to bring him around.

Stubbornly Philip refused “No, they’re making fun of us, don’t you see that? I don’t need this, I’m getting the hell out of here!” he stood up and turned to leave.

During this dispute Liz hadn’t moved, but watched her friend Izzy becoming very distraught. She closed her eyes and telepathed to Philip **Mr. Evans, look at your daughter, is she having fun? I don’t think so, please just sit down and listen. Everything you need to know will be revealed in time. If you can’t do this for yourself, then do it for Izzy!**

Philip wasn’t quite sure about what had happened, but he was quite shaken. Unsure if his legs would carry him he decided to sit back down beside his wife, before falling flat on his face.

As soon as Liz realised that everybody was quiet she continued. She didn’t know where the words were coming from, but she let them flow through her “After centuries of living in harmony and abundance, some people started to become greedy and power-hungry. They started to misuse the Granolith for personal gain and became corrupted. They struggled for power and wars ensued. The creator sent several warnings to let her people know how displeased she was and for some time the corrupt leaders ignored them. They continued on their path of greed and destruction. For a while life was very hard and difficult for the common folk of Antar. But when the deity began to punish the families of the leaders, they started to repent and swore to abide by the laws of the Granolith. When the creator thought she had punished them enough, that her people had learned their lessons, she appeared to several good and honest people.

She called the old and wise women of the Queens convent and the oldest and wisest shamans on the planet. Together they decided to establish the holy order of the Granolith with a Council of Elders. Also the Granolith should nominate one keeper. That one keeper, male or female, was to work closely with the King of Antar, his advisers, the abbess of the order of the Granolith and the grandmaster of the shamans. The common folk too could come before the keeper of the Granolith with their questions and pleas and would be heard.

But at the beginning of this new cooperation, the Mother of All Things spoke a warning. She said, if ever they should have the same kind of problems again, where people were subjugated to the whims of a few power-hungry families, she would refuse all help and the Granolith would remain silent. That would be the beginning of the dark ages. The hard times would be of a long duration and could only be overcome when the Granolith would choose a new king and a new keeper. She set down a few conditions:

1. The new king had to be born of the royal line of Antar
2. He had to be of pure heart, innocent and filled with love and compassion for all
3. To make things more complicated she added some difficulties: the new king had to die twice. The first time he would be
recreated and sent to a far away place. He would grow up free of all the strife and corruptness that would reign on Antar at that time. The second time he had to die he would be brought back to life by his great love, a native girl from that planet.
4. The Granolith would remain quiet until the young king proved himself to be worthy. Only then would the Granolith offer his help and guidance.
5. Sworn enemies would change sides and help bring peace to the entire universe
6. Until the new king and the new keeper of the Granolith would be in charge again, the youngest member of the Queens convent would be entrusted with the secrets of the Granolith, to pass on to the new king and the keeper

Word of this prophecy spread like a fire over all of Antar and the Whirlwind Galaxy. It was told to the children, embellished as a fairytale. The people of Antar were happy again. This new way worked well for a very long-time and Antar began to prosper again. There was enough for all to live in abundance, the atmosphere was very harmonious and happy. But alas, this didn’t last forever and the people began to forget all about the prophecy.”

Liz opened her eyes and looked around, to find everybody in the room was captured by the story she was telling. She reached for her glass of water and took a sip. She put the glass back on the table, changed her position to sit more comfortably and closed her eyes again.

The words started to come to her again, all she had to do was to speak them “You must know that the Whirlwind Galaxy used to consist of six planets, together five of them formed a V with Antar at the point of it. The sixth planet was a lot smaller than the others and to the left side of Antar. While the people of the five planets in the V-formation were on friendly terms and traded with each other, the people of the sixth one kept to themselves. That’s where the skins come from. About 300 years ago, that planet started to die. The planet’s temperature started to rise and the atmosphere began to suffer. When the people in charge realised that this was leading towards the end of the planet, they started to communicate with the King of Antar, who was also the high king of the Whirlwind Galaxy, and asked for help for their people or they would be doomed. After many discussions and after their King agreed to submit to the King of Antar, the people were evacuated and brought to live on Antar. For 2 ½ centuries there was peace and harmony on Antar, the skins integrated well and were accepted by all.”

“Then about 100 years ago, a descendant of the royal family of the skins wasn’t happy with his lot in life. He was jealous of the crown prince of Antar and started to plot against him.” Liz paused for a moment, but didn’t move. She felt like she was in trance and didn’t want to interrupt her concentration; she just needed to pause for breath. Everybody was getting antsy and they weren’t sure what to make of her behaviour. They looked at each other, to see the others reactions. As they realised that Liz didn’t move, the kept quiet and waited.

After a moment Liz picked up her storytelling “Now this is where the prophecy started to play a role in the Antarian history. The keeper of the Granolith, the wise women, and the shaman knew that at some point in history, there would be a big revolution that would bring the dark ages in its wake. Over the years they had travelled the universe to find a place where they could send their king when the bad times should begin. So, when the unrest and the riots began and the reigning king suddenly and mysteriously died, they realised that the time had come to prepare for the beginning of the prophecy. They contacted young King Zan and his mother and informed them of their visions and knowledge of things to come. The Queen mother was a passionate scientist and as such had been involved in the cloning processes. As they all where preparing for the worst to come, they simultaneously started to work on cloning the four royals, namely Zan the new king, his young bride Ava, his sister Vilandra and his friend and second in command Rath.

They put the clones in incubator pods and sent them with the Granolith and some protectors and teachers to earth. What nobody knew was that they had a traitor on board of the spaceship. As he manipulated the aircraft, to change its destination, they crashed. Some of the protectors and all but one of the teachers died on impact. The others managed to hide the pods in the cave they had prepared on their last trip to earth. The teacher was captured by the FBI and held captive until he died three years later. One of the protectors became a famous movie director in Hollywood and the other one, the traitor, roamed earth to learn as much as possible about its inhabitants and their way of life. By the way, this was the crash from 47.

As the years went by, the clones were left alone to grow in their pods until about forty years later three of them hatched. They looked like six year old children. They left the pod-chamber and walked across the desert. Two of them were found by a young couple, which adopted them later. The third one was so scared by the car lights that he ran away. A few years later these three kids found each other again in grade school.”

Liz looked straight at Mr and Mrs Evans and said “that’s why you found them wandering in the desert. They had just left their pods. That’s also the reason they had to learn everything from scratch!” After that, she looked at Mr. Evans and said, “We can prove a lot of it, things like their powers and the pod-chamber. Their blood is the only thing that’s different from us humans and the powers actually are human, just much more advanced, you know like a few hundred years advanced.”

Mr. Evans started to laugh and said, “you’re good, really good, and you almost had me believe your story. Nice touch about being able to prove things, but you shouldn’t say things like that unless you’re prepared to follow it up!”

Isabelle started to lose her cool and stood up, walked over to her dad and with a touch of her fingers changed the colour of his shirt from a pristine white to fire-truck red. “Here’s your proof, dad!”

Shock was written all over Phillip’s face while he watched his daughter pick up a small statue from the bookshelf, then she dropped it on the floor where it broke into many pieces, with a wave of her hand she put it back together again “here’s some more proof, and here and here” Tears of fear and frustration ran down Isabelle’s cheeks, while she started a fire in the fireplace and changed her mothers hair from ash blonde to black and back to blonde.

“Dad, we are very serious, this is the truth, a small part of it for sure, but the truth none the less. To tell you everything we know would take much too long and would be too much information at once. We are prepared to answer all your questions and tell you all we know. To show you how serious we are we brought Jim and Nancy along. Jim has known the truth for quite some time now. Nancy learned it the hard way two nights ago. There are still more things to talk about, but to really understand the situation you needed to know the basics.”

She looked to Jim for help and he reacted immediately “Philip it’s the truth, we all have seen the pod-chamber with the four empty pods in it. And we have to tell you about the things that have happened in the last few years and how we all became members of this incredible circle of friends.”

While Liz listened to Valenti talk she decided to take a break because she was exhausted. She stood up and said “um… em… everybody, listen, I’m really tired and I need a break. So I’m going to lie down on Max’s bed and you all can bring Mr and Mrs Evans up to date, ok? When you’re ready please come and get me, but give me at least 30 minutes! Please.”

With that said she turned and walked down the hall to her boyfriend’s bedroom. She crawled under the covers and curled up. His scent surrounded her and she inhaled it deeply. She could feel all the tension drain away as she calmed down and was able to relax. While closing her eyes she reached for Max through their connection and was able to let go of all the frustration from the meeting. As Max was sleeping and dreaming of her, Liz joined him in his dream and let herself fall into a relaxing slumber.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Meanwhile in the living room, 08/11/2000, Friday 9.30 pm
Maria stood up and said “since Liz was the first person to know about our Czechs I think I should start with this round.”

Everybody nodded their consent and so Maria inhaled deeply and started the strange tale of “how she became a member of the ‘I Know an Alien Club’. With tears in her eyes she recounted how Alex was brought in to the group and suddenly she was overcome with grief for her deceased friend that she had to stop.

Nancy went to Maria and embraced her. Isabelle started to cry too and Kyle was very close to tears also. Jim became quite emotional but was able to continue with all the adventures of their shared past. He only touched the most important experiences to make Philip understand just how serious the situation was.

After a while the teens were able to participate and filled in all the bits and pieces that Jim didn’t know about. These captivating stories riveted the Evans’. They were shocked to hear of all the dangers the kids had been in, and they hadn’t known a thing about it.

As the discussion continued, Diane zoned out and let her thoughts wander. She realised that there had to be a special reason for all of this. The kids had waited this long, they could have waited for Max’s return. She thought about all the eventualities. Obviously Max was ok or the discussion would be a different one. Did they have to leave to go somewhere? She didn’t think so, they wouldn’t need to inform them of their past for this nor would they need all their friends here. Were aliens coming? Since they didn’t inform them of this event in the past, Diana didn’t see the necessity for this either. A certain thought started to form and the more she turned it around in her mind, the more convinced she became. She remembered Max asking for a meeting upon his return, a very important meeting. Nancy being here reinforced it for her, Max and Liz expected a baby, she was sure of it.

Without attracting attention she signalled to Nancy and walked out to the kitchen. Nancy waited a moment and sneaked after Diane. Upon arriving in the kitchen she was almost attacked by her very impatient friend. “Nancy, I think I know the reason for this strange meeting, but I want to be certain of it…”

“Diane I can’t tell you, it’s not my place to do it, you just have to wait until they’re ready.” Nancy stood firm and didn’t budge.

She underestimated her new friend, who by now was on a mission “Ok, Nancy, let’s do it this way. I’m going to tell you what I think and all you have to do is to confirm it. You see; if it’s what I suspect, then I better know, so I can steer Philip’s reactions. I’m sure you can understand that.” Raising her brows at Nancy she waited until she got her answer by her friends very reluctant “go ahead!”

Diane was almost afraid to voice her suspicions because it would be so much easier to stay ignorant. “Ok, here we go! Nancy, I’m quite sure that Max and Liz are expecting a baby, that’s why they have to tell us all about their background. I’m right, aren’t I?” With bated breath she waited for her answer. Nancy replied with an affirmative nod and answered, “Twins, they’re expecting twins!” Diana exhaled with a big, heartfelt sigh.

For a moment both of them stood there, mulling over the upcoming problems. Then they sat down on a stool at the kitchen-table and Nancy brought Diana up to scratch on baby matters and on the whole situation with Michael being so difficult. Nancy was relieved to find Diana so accepting of this new situation and asked her why.

Diana just smiled and said “It’s already too late to prevent anything, so we best start to think about how we can help the kids. They’re up for some very difficult times, without us being against them.”

“I know!” Nancy cried, “That’s exactly what I think too. I for one have every intention of helping them any way I can and I already told them so. Jeff, I’m very sorry to say, is furious and being absolutely unreasonable! I just hope that he’ll come around soon, or I fear for his relationship with Liz. At this very moment it is standing on very rocky grounds.”

“I understand you completely Nancy, I hope to avert this same reaction with Philip! What amazes me to no end is, that he can be so understanding with other kids, but when his kids make the same mistakes he can be so unreasonable.” “I know that goes for Jeff too!”

Quietly both women were reconsidering the situation as Nancy felt the need to see her daughter, to make sure she was all right. Diane led her to Max’s bedroom and let her know that she wanted to assure Liz of her acceptance and offer her unrestricted support.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Upstairs, 08/11/2000, Friday 10.00 pm
The two women entered Max’s bedroom quietly and saw a dozing Liz. While they discussed the pros and cons of waking Liz, the young woman on the bed opened her eyes surreptitiously and observed them curiously. After watching them for a moment Liz coughed to get their attention and sleepily asked, “What’s going on?”

Nancy moved to the bed and sat down beside her daughter. She gently brushed her hair off her forehead and answered, “it’s time get up, sleepyhead! We have to go back to the meeting.”

Diane joined them on the bed, picked up one of Liz’s hands and held it between hers and let her know “sweetie, I guessed your secret and I just wanted to tell you, that you and your babies are always welcome! I too will help you any way I can, ok?”

Becoming all teary eyed Liz sniffled and replied “thanks Diane, you don’t know how much this means to me.” After enjoying what she was sure were the last moments of peace, Liz got up and walked to the bathroom to freshen up.

Liz felt so much stronger and reassured now. Seeing her relaxed and happy expression in the mirror Liz mumbled to herself “Amazing, what a little love and reassurance from the two moms and a splash of cold water can do for a girl!”
*~~*~~*
Refreshed Liz joined the moms and together they descended the stairs. As they reached the bottom of the staircase there suddenly was a loud banging at the door that made them all jump out of their skins…


TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic.

Take care

Chula



I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been asked to do an ‘Author’s Chat’ at Roswell Heaven.
So far I have the date, but not yet the time.
On June 23, 2007, please meet me there.
As soon as I know the time, I’ll let you know!

As always, thanks to my beta for her great work, I really love it!

And here we go...

have fun!


27, The Queen’s second in command, 08/11/2000, Friday 10.15 pm
Isabelle went to open the door with her father right behind her. They found Michael and Jeff standing on their doorstep. Michael was very nervous and aggravated. On seeing Izzy he forgot himself, as was his usual habit lately, and blurted out the first thing that came to his mind, “So, what’s going on? Have you told your parents everything? Are they calling the FBI or what? How did they take the baby news?” And sarcastically added as an afterthought “I bet they’re thrilled!!”

Isabelle tried to stay calm, realising that Michael was out of control and causing trouble she said, “Michael, you’re way out of line, so, please, let’s just stay calm and join the others. Then we can continue with our talks, ok?”

Suddenly Michael saw some movement by the stairs and looked up to see Liz standing there with the two moms. He still felt wronged and climbed up the first step, pointed at Liz and growled “do the Evans’ know about the little bastards yet? They might not love you anymore once they know!”

Listening to Michael’s cruel ranting, Liz’s hormones started to flare up and hit her full force. With cyber speed little Lizzy Parker, smallest of small town girls, turned in to a raging mama bear defending her cubs. After slapping him hard across his face Liz tried to push the tall man out of her way, but he didn’t budge. This enraged her even more and she yelled, “Right now you’re the only bastard that I know, now get out of my way and leave!”

Unimpressed Michael stood firmly on the steps below her, stuck his face right up to hers and sneered, “make me!”

Liz could feel the energy level rise inside of her and hissed through clenched teeth “for the last time, get out of my way!” Michael’s only answer was a haughty “or?”

Enough was enough, Liz raised her hand and threw a flash of blinding white energy at her adversary that sent Michael flying through the air until he landed in a undignified heap at the feet of Mr. Evans.

Shocked Mr. Evans used this chance to be heard over everybody’s stunned exclamations and he raised his voice and yelled “Michael, what little bastards are you talking about?”

With the exception of his pride the alien was unhurt. At this point even Michael realised that he had gone too far, but he was too proud (or too stupid?) to acknowledge his mistakes and rushed headlong into disaster with his eyes wide open! Angrily he got up and refused to answer any questions, while a wildly gesturing Mr. Evans had moved to stand beside Jeff Parker, wanting answers, and wanting them now!

Maria tried to reason with the angry mob but nobody was listening to her.

Isabelle was mortified; how could Michael do that? She truly didn’t recognise him anymore and hoped that the Granolith would soon bring back their ‘old’ Michael. She understood that things had to play out the way they did because they couldn’t let anybody know that they knew about the warps. By now nobody had any doubts that Michael had been warped the most of all of them, except maybe Michael himself. Isabelle realised too, that Nacedo and Tess sure had known the group very well indeed. They used Michael’s volatile temper, his insecurities and his mistrusting nature when they picked him and enhanced these traits. ‘I truly hope those two will rot in hell!’ Isabelle wished.

The sheriff had moved over to the stairs and asked Liz if she was ok. He really didn’t want to get mixed up in a brawl with his angry friends and hoped that they would calm down by themselves.

Liz, Nancy and Diane were still standing on the stairs, watching the disaster develop. The moms both had tried to call the men to reason, but to no avail.

Kyle had held himself back and observed the chaos in front of him. Suddenly and resolutely he planted himself into the middle, stuck his index-finger and thumb into his mouth and gave a shrill whistle. “That’s enough, you’re behaving worse than hooligans, aren’t you ashamed?”
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Kyle steps up, 08/11/2000, Friday 10.25 pm
Everybody stopped whatever they were doing and faced Kyle. The three women, Liz, Nancy and Diane, were agreeably surprised and it clearly showed on their expressions. Liz sat down on a step and decided that for once she’d be the audience and observe. The moms watched her, determined to follow her example and took their seats on the steps right behind her.

Isabelle and Maria too were surprise and stood besides each other, waiting for the outcome. Both of them were already impressed with the reactions Kyle had gotten so far; it was definitely more than either one of them had received, which was none at all.

Jim was very surprised: his easygoing son Kyle taking charge of a situation that had nothing to do with sports; well that was a new development.

Mr. Evans, Mr. Parker and Michael all were outraged, who dared interrupt them? Mr. Evans was the first to react and changed his performance from an irate parent to a cold prosecutor “Why should we be ashamed, young man? We have every right to express our sentiments. If anybody should be ashamed it’s you for interrupting your elders.” Scathingly Philip added, “You, young man, have no manners, no manners at all!”

Jeff figured that Evans had said it just right and decided to stay out of it, at least for now.

Michael too decided to keep quiet. He was only too happy to let somebody else be the voice of reason. He’d wait until the important stuff was being discussed, before expressing his opinion again.
*~~*~~*
Kyle raised his voice and sincerely said “Since, besides Liz, I was the first one on the scene when everything went to hell, I’m also the one who can evaluate the magnitude of all that’s happened. Let me assure you, it’s on an unprecedented scale! Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, that any of us has ever seen, has prepared us for what’s coming. So, my advice to all of us is, STOP QUIBBLING about everything you hear, because you haven’t seen anything yet!”
*~~*~~*
Jeff yelled, “Are you telling me that my daughter being pregnant is insignificant? That I don’t have the right to be upset and outraged? Especially in view of Max’s absence? He just took off, leaving her all alone to face the consequences. And you expect me to trust him to do what‘s right?”

Irritated Jeff added insult to his repertoire and sneered, “You’re too young to judge this situation and to hand out any advice, you’re nothing but a boy. Have you even started shaving yet?”
*~~*~~*
Philip had his say too and yelled at the same time “I still don’t know what baby? Who’s pregnant? It better not be Izzy!” Realizing that nobody was answering he bellowed, “Will somebody answer my questions?”
*~~*~~*
This time Michael wasn’t to be left out and he too yelled, “Who the hell do you think you are! You’re not one of us, you have nothing to say, and much less reason to order me around!”
*~~*~~*
Straightening up to his full height, which wasn’t more than average, Kyle solemnly stated “Right here and right now I’m appointing myself as the queen’s second!”

As it seemed everybody had been shocked into silence he looked at Liz and continued, “only until this is over and things have calmed somewhat. Afterwards you can choose anybody you want.”

And as an afterthought Kyle added “That’s if you want me to be your second, I’d be honored!”

Michael was outraged, what would Liz need a second for? He was sure that the jock had ulterior motives, like working his way up the ladder, first the queen’s second, then the king’s. Well, not as long as he, Michael Guerin was watching.

He marched right up to the human, showing off his superior size by standing as tall as possible and ridiculed Kyle “You want to be a second? To the Queen?” Becoming down right angry he admonished “Forget it, she doesn’t need you. After all, I’m the king’s second, that’s all that we need. Nobody will listen to you!”

Before Kyle could respond to this statement Liz was at his side and proudly smiled “Kyle, I’m very honored to call you my second. Thank you for thinking of it!”

Michael was having none of it, he tried a new approach and addressed Maria “Blondie, don’t you see what he’s doing? He’s going to take your place as her best friend, at least…” he was rudely interrupted by his on again/off again (and right now very, very off again) girlfriend’s laughter.

As soon as Maria was able to talk she answered, “Michael, you’re such an idiot.” Seeing his confused expression she added, “Liz and I are and always will be best friends and nobody can change that. Oh, and by the way, stop calling me Blondie, got that?”

Turning to Kyle she smiled gratefully and informed him “You’re right Kyle, Liz does need a second, and since HE” nodding in Michael’s directions she continued “isn’t capable of doing his job properly for his king, I have grave doubts he’d be able to do it for his king and his queen!”

Maria sincerely looked at Kyle and continued, “You’re perfect for the role as her second. You don’t have to worry about me. I know my limitations, I’d be a lousy second, trust me, but I’m a fantastic best friend!” she finished with a big grin.

Isabelle felt the time had come for her to add her point of view and succinctly said “What Maria said goes for me too! Thanks Kyle, for thinking of it! You’re a true friend.”
*~~*~~*
The moms were still sitting on the stairs and smiling proudly, it looked like these remarkable kids were growing into their roles; well, most of them anyway. Now they had ‘only’ three problem children to worry about, namely Michael with a chip on his shoulders the size of an elephant. Jeff, angry dad number one; and last but not least Philip, angry dad number two, who wasn’t only angry but also confused.

Nancy looked at Diane and whispered, “let the three of them stew for a bit longer. The others are doing great, I can really see the way they grow stronger.”

Diane followed Nancy’s observation and replied, “you’re right, I can see it too, and look at Jim, he’s almost bursting with pride, you’d think they all were his children!”

”Well, that’s exactly how he thinks of them all. You wouldn’t believe the things they have been through since the shooting.” Nancy informed her friend sadly and added “on the positive side, I’m just glad that they had Jim there to guide and help them through the rough patches.”

Seeing her feelings mirrored in Diane’s eyes Nancy sighed “I just wish they’d told us sooner, you know?” “Yeah” was all the answer she got.
*~~*~~*
Jim Valenti was beaming with pride, his son was just remarkable. He realized that he must have done something right when raising him. What he couldn’t figure out was where Kyle had gotten the ‘responsibility gene’ from, because he himself sure as hell hadn’t been like that as a teenager; quite the contrary, he and Jeff Parker had been regular hell-raisers, yes sir!

As an afterthought he wondered if Buddha was at the root of this more responsible behavior of young Valenti. He came to the conclusion that the ‘why’ didn’t matter, he was just proud and decided to embarrass the heck out of Kyle by letting him know that in front of everybody.

Letting actions follow his resolution, Jim crossed over to Kyle, grabbed him in a bear hug and emotionally said, “Kyle, I’m so proud of you son!” and for good measure kissed him on the cheek.

Jim was glad to notice that Kyle still was a kid, as he wiped his cheek with the back of his hand and quite undignified whined “Daaad!”
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Fortified with his friends’ trust in him Kyle took the floor and started “ok, I don’t mean any disrespect, but this is no way to hold a meeting. All this yelling won’t get us anywhere. So, I’d say we move to the living room and begin to talk seriously. If you don’t want to have it here, we can also move to the quarry. Mr. Evans, Jeff, you two can decide.”

The two men looked at each other and simultaneously turned towards the living room, with everybody else trailing them. Diane and Isabelle checked the refreshments and organised the refills. After everybody had had enough time to calm down Kyle planted himself into the middle of the group and started his first official meeting.

In a very decisive manner Kyle began “Before Max left I too promised him to watch over everybody and keep us all safe.” Ignoring Michael’s derisive snort, young Valenti added “At the time I had a long talk with him and I know for a fact, that Max and Liz had already planned to talk with all the parents.”

“Now though” he threw a nasty look Michael’s way and went on “plans have changed and things are in shambles.” Pointing towards Jeff and Michael, Kyle continued, “My suggestion is that we begin from the moment just before those two arrived.”

Philip agreed, ”Yes we most certainly can do that, but before we start I still want to know who’s pregnant!”

Liz stepped forward and informed him proudly “I am!” and before he could respond she added, “Max is the father and we’re keeping them!”

”What? When did this happen? Why weren’t we informed sooner?” Mr. Evans wanted to know and added, “You trapped him, didn’t you? We taught Max right from wrong, and this most definitely is wrong!”

Philip started to figure out things (but sadly the wrong way) and asked, “All this alien shit you told us about, was that just a ruse to let the baby news sound better? Well, for your information, it’s not working!”

”Mr. Evans, we did use protection, it just didn’t work.” Liz informed Max’s father and added, “You know, this is actually alien related…”

Phil had heard enough ”oh no missy, you can forget that ‘alien related’ excuse. My son is a good son, always has been. We raised him right. And then you come along and deceive us all. Imagine, I actually thought you were a nice girl. But I saw that Max was getting way to serious with you and I was glad when he started to see Tess. Now that’s a nice girl.”

When Liz opened her mouth to say something, Mr. Evans cut her off “Whereas you,” looking at her derisively he continued, “You go and seduce my poor unsuspecting boy and ruin his future!”

Working himself into a righteous anger Mr. Evans decided, “You’re going to get rid of that brat and you won’t get one cent out of us. Do you understand me?”

Diane tried to intervene and called “Philip, stop this, you don’t know all the facts!”

But he would have none of that and stated, “I know all I have to know!” Mr. Evans pointed at Liz and raising his voice ordered her “get rid of the brat, stay out of my boy’s life and now take your family and friends and get the hell out of here. Don’t ever come near any of us again or I’m handing you a restraining order to keep you away!”

Deceptively calm Maria entered the fray and sweetly addressed Max’s dad “Sir…, Mr. Evans, please forgive me for butting in your speech, but I strongly feel I have to!”

Impressed with Maria’s demeanour, Mr. Evans answered her benignly “Maria, don’t worry about that, you can tell me anything you want, go ahead.”

Maria followed his kind request and informed him “Mr. Evans, you’re right, Tess is a ‘nice’ girl and I really don’t understand why everybody is treating her like the enemy, really, Sir.”

After putting in a short pause she added pensively “…hmm, unless maybe they couldn’t forgive her for doing her best to break up Liz and Max. Possibly that’s not the real reason behind their bad behavior towards her. Maybe we just couldn’t forgive her for killing our very good friend Alex?” by this time Philip realised what Maria was doing and tried to stop her but she refused him by angrily poking at his chest.

Her voice started to rise in volume and Maria furiously gave Mr. Evans the coup the grace “Maybe it was just to much for us when she got pregnant by somebody and then made Max believe it was his? Ohhh, and let’s not forget her lie that their baby couldn’t survive here on earth, that they all had to return to Antar, where unbeknownst to any of us she would’ve handed Max, Isabelle and Michael over to their archenemy to be publicly executed!”

Looking Mr. Evans straight in the eyes Maria very politely ended her monologue “I’m sure that aside all of this and a few other minor incidences she was a really nice girl, Sir!”
*~~*~~*
Common ground...
Philip’s accusations didn’t sit well with Jeff and he joined the yelling, “How dare you accuse my daughter. She didn’t do anything wrong. It was your boy, always hanging around the diner, always sniffing after my girl.”

Jeff started to get going and threw in some insults of his own “So, your boy knows what’s right? Well then Philip, tell me, where is he now? He gets my Lizzy in trouble, disappears and lets her face the parents alone! Yeah, I’d say he knows what’s right, right for him anyway!”

”What are you insinuating?” an enraged Philip wanted to know.

Jeff was having none of that and corrected him ”I’m not insinuating anything, I’m telling you, your son’s a selfish coward and…!”

A sharp ”Jeff, stop it right now” from Nancy brought his ranting to an abrupt end. Before Philip could respond in kind, his wife stopped him too.

His always nice and docile wife stood there, anger radiating off of her and icily admonished her husband “enough, your behavior isn’t acceptable!” and to finish her tirade she added “and apologize to Liz, and her parents.”

”Diane, you can’t mean that seriously? Don’t you realize that this, this, this girl is ruining our son’s life?” Philip asked, offended by her dressing-down.

Quietly Liz spoke up “Mr. Evans, you don’t have to apologize…”

“Damn right I won’t, I don’t see any reason for it!” Phil interrupted her.

Jeff joined the melee and growled at Philip “I admit that both kids did wrong, sex at their age, what were they thinking?”

“They weren’t and that’s the problem,“ Philip agreed.

Suddenly the two men recognized that they did indeed have some common ground and Philip added tentatively “I guess we have to decide what to do about it. How far along is she? Is there still time for an abortion? That would be the best solution, what do you think, Jeff?”

Liz’s father agreed wholeheartedly “that’s what I keep saying, but Liz and now even Nancy are against it!”

Liz pushed herself between the two fathers and ordered them “stop it, both of you stop talking like I’m not even here! Also, you might have forgotten, but I’m not stupid. I’m seventeen and a half years old and if you keep this up, I will take you both to court and win.”

Shocked Jeff and Philip just stared at the young woman and couldn’t figure out what to say.

But Liz was on a roll and went on “Max and I have already looked into different options and came up with several possible solutions, but Michael’s meddling messed up all our plans. But I want to talk clear text with you two; we will keep these babies, that’s not up for discussion! Everything else we’ll see when Max comes back.”

Close to tears by now Liz gave the two men a very disappointed look and informed them “Right now I need to get out of here and calm down. I feel very much let down by the both of you, but that won’t change anything.” Turning on her heel Liz left the sitting room and returned to Max’s bedroom.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Kyle takes charge…
”Well done, well done!” clapping his hands Kyle mocked Jeff and Philip “You two are behaving like first class asses! You both have heard the whole background story about the aliens and you have been told that the FBI is after them, in fact, you know too, that they already had Max and tortured him for a whole weekend before they were able to break him out!”

Becoming really angry Kyle added, “You two should know your kids well enough to realise that they are very reliable and responsible people. They have everything planned, they think and re-think all their options, you know that’s how they are. And now tell me, do you really think that they would risk their promising careers, their dreams by being careless? Most definitely not!”

”Now something else you have to think about, since Max healed Liz, she started to change, as you both have been able to witness. It’s a slow progress, but now that she’s pregnant the changes are really fast. So you better remember that under no circumstances can Liz ever see a doctor, a midwife or go into any hospital. That would be her ticket to the white room for sure.” Kyle waited a moment to let this news sink in.

”As you all heard we’re keeping the babies, oh, I don’t know if you’ve already heard it, but we’re expecting twins!” as Kyle imparted these news he grinned from ear to ear. He added “I keep saying we, because the whole group is involved and we feel part of it, am I right?” he looked at the others, demanding an answer. They all nodded very enthusiastically in agreement.

Becoming more serious Kyle addressed the fathers again “You see, whether you’re going to be a part of it or not, they have a lot of help!”

All businesslike, Kyle talked to whole group now “I don’t know if you noticed, but Liz is worried, even though we know from the Granolith that everything will go smoothly, she is still worried. She knows perfectly well that she won’t be able to see a doctor or anybody else…” “But Kyle, we have Max, he’ll take care of her!” Isabelle inserted.

Nodding his agreement Kyle replied “I know, and he’s the best, that’s for sure, but just imagine what will happen if Max is stuck somewhere and can’t get to Liz on time? Has anybody ever thought about that?”

Looking at all of them shaking their heads he said “No? Well I have. That’s why I was missing a few times last week. Anyway, first I ordered some DVDs and books and after checking them out, I ordered several more for all of us. They are about pregnancy and about giving birth.”

Seeing everybody’s shocked faced he defended himself embarrassed “What, can’t a jock be smart and sensitive? Anyway, I suggest that everybody looks at the DVDs as often as possible, you know, to get used to it because it gets pretty tough and gory!!”

Kyle tried to remember what he had forgotten, and suddenly he knew it again “Oh, and just so you know, I contacted Riverdog through one of the deputies and asked him for help. He’s really great, he agreed immediately and he offered to monitor Liz throughout the pregnancy.”

Still awed by Riverdog’s offer of help he added seriously “Since we’re out of school for the summer vacation I can visit him at the reservation and he’ll teach me how to help Liz. You know, watch out for anything unusual and just help her. Also, since she can’t use any ordinary medications, he’ll teach me about herbal medicines and everything else I need to know.”

By the end of his speech Kyle started to blush furiously, feeling rather self-conscious about all the attention he was getting.

Maria jumped up, ran over to Kyle and hugged him tightly, all the while crying “Oh Kyle I’m so proud of you! My mom can marry your dad anytime, you know, I’ll be proud to call you my brother!” Sniffing loudly she hiccupped “can I come with you to visit Riverdog? I’d really like to be a part of it, you know?”
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Coming around…
After Kyle took charge of the situation and explained all he had done for Liz’s comfort and safety, Jeff and Phil started to feel very foolish and embarrassed about their bad behaviour.

They retreated to side of the living room, leaving the floor to a deserving Kyle. As they watched the young man explain his actions in detail, the two men became very impressed. Amazing how one so young could be so thoughtful and responsible. And suddenly, Jeff and Philip started to feel very old, seeing the young generation growing into young adults right before their eyes.

After self-consciously looking at each other Jeff and Philip joined the cluster around Kyle and quietly offered their help too.
*~~*~~*
Michael felt torn, in some ways he realised that he wasn’t quite himself, that something was seriously wrong, but he couldn’t change his attitude. He felt left out, knew it wasn’t really his own fault, but he just didn’t know how to come around. Maybe he should take up their offer and go to the Granolith with them as soon as the worst problems were over and they were sure that Nacedo had left. So right now, he stood there, all-alone, on the sidelines and observed the action around him. He saw Mr. P. and Mr. E. cave in and join the masses and felt truly alone…



TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic.

Take care

Chula




I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been asked to do an ‘Author’s Chat’ at Roswell Heaven.
So far I have the date, but not yet the time.
On June 23, 2007, please meet me there.
As soon as I know the time, I’ll let you know!

Michael friends, I’m sorry to say that you most definitely won’t be happy with me and this next part! Please don’t kill me, I promise it will get better soon, just bear with me. Things will clear up and everything will be explained. Only a very few more chapters before the big moment!!

Enjoy the next part!!!



28, Clearing the air, 08/11/2000, Friday 11.15 pm
A new sense of family…
The crowd in the living room had split into two groups and an outsider. The Parkers, the Valentis and Maria were sitting together on the couch and the loveseat. Michael had moved closer, not quite joining them, but close enough to be a part of them, if he wanted to, which he didn’t, at least not right now! He was slightly preoccupied with his thoughts though, but managed to listen to a big part of the discussion.

Maria and the Valentis were relating some of the adventures they had lived through in the last years. Michael was surprised just how well they were accepting it. Nancy by now was taking it like an old trooper. Jeff was still a bit wary, but was able to listen and acknowledge it as the truth.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
The Evans family, minus Max, stood by the sliding doors which opened toward the backyard. They were all very emotional, Diane hugged Isabelle and Philip had his arm around both his girls.

Isabelle…
A teary eyed Isabelle was wondering just how everything had suddenly happened so quickly, and even though she had always been convinced that her parents loved them unconditionally, she had to admit that having had to face them today had been the scariest thing she’d ever had to do. She’d rather face a pack of skins head on than to go through all this anxiety ever again!

Admittedly, her mom surprised her, usually she was the emotional one, she wouldn’t really explode like her dad did just a while ago, but she’d interrupt and worry and talk up a storm, she’d even shed some tears. But today it seemed that her parents had switched their roles.

When her father had started to get irrational, Isabelle concentrated more on him than her calm mom. So, when her mother left with Nancy, Isabelle had noticed it, but it hadn’t really upset her. She was far too busy with her dad’s reaction and knew her mom usually had a very good reason for doing things the way she did.

But now, being embraced by both of her parents, Isabelle felt accepted and loved and this gave her a sense of security and strength for whatever was to come.
*~~*~~*
Diane…
Well aware that her zoning out during those revelations had not been very supportive of Isabelle, she had been torn between staying and supporting her daughter, or getting all the information of the true reason for this talk at this moment in time. She knew that something big had to be going on, otherwise Isabelle would’ve waited for her brother’s return; after all, it was also his heritage they were revealing.

Now she was glad that she’d had this talk with Nancy, because Phil had not been very understanding, in fact he’d been downright impossible on hearing any of the news. Of course Michael’s storming in and loudly broadcasting the baby news had not helped matters at all! And then Jeff, behaving as he did, was just absolutely impossible. When she’d observed her husband with Jeff and Michael she couldn’t help but think that they were spurring each other on. It almost felt like a contest of who could be the biggest idiot!

As it was, all of this afternoons’ wild and outrageous actions ended in this moment, where Diane stood in her living room, holding her daughter tightly in her arms. She assured Isabelle of her love and full support with anything that would come up; she’d be there every step of the way, unconditionally. The only thing that had changed for Diane was, that her feelings for her kids had intensified to a degree that she’d though impossible, and woe betide anyone who dared to threaten her babies ever again!

For Diane, this night her biggest dream had come true: her kids had finally opened up, confided in their parents, come clean with their secret; and what a secret it turned out to be! This night would go down in the family history as the night the walls the kids had built around themselves had come tumbling down and a new closeness had been established amongst the Evans family. Indeed, the family history had just been rewritten…
*~~*~~*
As Diane looked over her family and friends, her eyes landed on Michael. The news that he was an alien disturbed her less than the news that he’d been out in the desert the night they found Isabelle and Max. Just knowing that little Michael had been left behind made Diane feel guilty, especially in view of the ‘special treatment’ he had received at the hands of one Hank Guerin. In her mind she understood that they hadn’t done anything wrong, but in her heart, it was an altogether different matter.

Mrs. Evans started to pay particular attention to the young man who was rigidly holding himself apart from the others. She was glad that she knew Michael pretty well; otherwise she might’ve been scared of him by now. Her knowledge that Michael was basically a ‘good’ person, even though he was out of whack at the moment, let Diane stay calm, or else she would’ve panicked. The blasting power seemed to be an awfully dangerous and destructive one, and thankfully Michael had enough control over it. So far he had ‘only’ yelled, insulted everybody, been bad tempered and thrown his weight around, but no blasting. Plus, at the moment Michael seemed to be in a very thoughtful mood, sitting quietly near the others, mulling things over. Diane decided that she could be cautiously optimistic in her concerns about Michael.
*~~*~~*
Philip…
Shocked and upset because of his uncharacteristic behavior today, Phil quietly held his daughter and his wife in his arms. He was at a loss for words. How could he explain his actions to Isabelle, when he couldn’t explain them to himself? Philip Evans, Attorney at Law, prided himself in taking the most outrageous situations in stride and putting on a ‘poker face’. In his line of work you couldn’t flip out the way he’d done at this meeting, or you would lose your case before you even started.

But today, today had been a very disturbing and new experience for Philip. As he thought about it, he could actually see the funny side of it: Diane, with the tendency to mindlessly panic in any extraordinary situation, had stayed cool, calm and collected, while he, the cool and reasonable one, had flipped out completely. He hoped that in the future he’d revert back to cool, calm and reasonable, but after this experience Phil knew that everything was possible, but he could hope…

Right now he was thankful that Isabelle still talked to him. As it was, Phil cherished the moment of closeness they shared and contented himself with the thought of doing better with Max, when he finally returned…
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Michael…
The situation had calmed down considerably. Michael observed how everybody started to work together. It worried him a lot to be the odd man out and he started to question his sanity. While everybody else was occupied he started to listen to his inner self and suddenly became aware of the fact that he felt controlled, like he had felt when he’d had the seal and been king. What he couldn’t understand was why? Why was he feeling this way, since Max was alive and the twins secured the succession? Now he was watching the others interact with each other and couldn’t find a way to fit in with them, and that hurt, he’d never admit to it out loud, but it did indeed hurt, a lot.

’What the hell is wrong with me?’ he questioned himself. ‘So far Max has always been the best friend anybody could wish for, in fact he would get me out of all the trouble I managed to get into. And, even though Liz hasn’t been my favourite person, she’s proved herself a good friend, always helping everybody in the group; in fact she helped me a few times too! So, why am I behaving the way I am? Are they right? Did Tess tamper with my brains? And suddenly the most uncomfortable question of all popped into his mind ‘Why am I even defending Tess all the time?’

Michael started to get really worried with his own thoughts and was glad when Liz joined the group again. He really, really didn’t like the direction his thoughts had taken because guilt was rearing its ugly head; even being in the same room with Liz was better than that! With all these thoughts on his mind, Michael decided to take things more calmly, to wait and see before acting, like he had been accused of doing on several occasions. With this new plan in mind he figured ‘that can’t be too difficult now, can it?’
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Meanwhile in Max’s room…
Liz was too upset to contact Max. She knew he would be able to tell her mood and would start to worry about her and that would only distract him from the summit. She had to deal with this situation by herself.

After moments of thought she remembered the breathing exercises Kyle had taught her and so she settled down on Max’s bed, surrounded by his scent, and slowly closed her eyes. She let her mind go blank and started to inhale and exhale and inhale… and suddenly she found herself in the chamber of the Granolith.

There was such peace radiating from the beautiful cone, it was a real blessing. Liz gave herself up to the Granolith and was immediately filled with strength, freedom and harmony. After she had calmed down and was at peace the Granolith informed Liz of what she had to do. She promised him to fulfil his wishes and came back to the ‘here and now’ in Max’s room.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
In the living room...
Surprised Liz stopped at the entrance leading from the hallway into the living room. Everything was peaceful; everybody was quietly talking with each other. The exception was Michael who was calmly observing the others.

Stretching to her full-size (which was still shorter than average), Liz entered the living room and silently joined the moms, who by now were sitting on the couch. At Liz’s approach they moved apart and created a place between them, which she graciously accepted. The moms hugged her in welcome and support. Gratefully the young woman accepted the show of affection and began to observe the discussions around her.

Her friends did all the talking and Jeff and Phil put in some questions from time to time. Sometimes they brought the sheriff or Isabelle in for reinforcement or to clear up a very touchy recollection. But most of the time Isabelle just sat there in her father’s embrace, basking in his acceptance of her. The sheriff just monitored everything, making sure that they would stick only to the important facts; the rest could be dealt with some other day.

Unobtrusively, Liz let her gaze wander over to Michael. She was worried about him, she could feel that something was very wrong with the tall alien and she wished that she could help him. As she observed him, she realized that Michael wasn’t watching the others any longer, no he was mulling over something that seemed to weigh heavily on his mind.

Liz knew for a fact that the Granolith would help Michael, but she didn’t really know how to bring up the subject without upsetting him any further. As she was contemplating this problem she became aware of a bigger one, namely how to bring Michael to the chamber to get the help he needed. Her instincts told Liz that everything would be explained and set right, as soon as she had fulfilled the Granolith’s wishes…
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
The Granolith’s wishes, 08/11/2000, Friday 11.35 pm
As soon as there seemed to be a break in the discussion Liz used the quiet moment. To get everybody’s attentions, she stood up and launched into her unrehearsed speech “ok, everybody, I need to pass on some important information.”

After looking at each person to assure herself of their attention she jumped right into delivering her message “The Granolith asks us to bring in Amy DeLuca and the Whitmans and inform them of the most important facts…”

Michael, completely forgetting his intension from before, exclaimed furiously, “What! No way, that’s not acceptable, I absolutely forbid it!”

Trying hard to keep her calm, Liz attempted to reason with Max’s second and said “Michael, I’m aware of your dislike of this situation. I also realise that you don’t want any more people knowing about you, but you have to understand, this is not my decision, it’s the Granolith’s and I have to follow his wishes.”

“Well, you can forget that again! Why would the Granolith contact you? You’re not one of us, you’re just a human. So just tell the damn thing no!” Michael issued his order in no uncertain terms.

Liz’s annoyance started to rise and her patience was slipping really fast. “For the last time, Michael, so far I’ve talked to you as your friend, but you won’t listen. So now I talk to you as your queen,” looking straight at her opponent Liz continued “and as your Queen I ask you for the last time to stop interrupting all the time, please be reasonable, think before you yell and insult any of us. Who knows, you might even agree with some of the decisions! But know, this is the last warning, one more uncalled for disruption and I will be forced to shut you up!”

“Hey, this is a free country; you can’t forbid me to speak my mind!” Michael huffed and Liz shot right back “No one forbids anyone to speak their mind, only to interrupt for no reason and to behave like an ass!”

Tuning her back on Michael Liz addressed all “It’s really important to bring Amy and the Whitmans up to date as soon as possible, because the Granolith wants to see all of us very soon, like tonight or at the latest tomorrow. So I…”

Suddenly Michael stepped threateningly in front of Liz and growled, “No, I won’t allow this! The Granolith is ours; you have absolutely no business to…”

“Michael shut up and go!” Liz ordered. Upon hearing Michael’s contemptuous “Make me” Liz pointed her hand at him and, with her powers, forced Michael to walk towards the door.

Of course he wasn’t too happy about that and yelled, “what the fuck are you doing? You can’t just kick me out! I won’t…” and after Liz pointed her other hand towards his face Michael lost his voice in mid sentence.

“You want to stay here and listen?” Liz, the Queen, asked Michael and at his answering nod she stopped pushing him and gestured toward a chair and ordered, “Sit!”

In shock the tall man walked to the chair and dropped into it. He wasn’t sure if he should be scared or not, but decided to play by her rules for now, just to be on the safe side. So Michael just stared at Liz rebelliously but, thankfully, mutely.

After thinking for a moment Liz informed him “Since I can’t trust you to behave Michael, I won’t give you back your voice until after the meeting! Maybe next time you think before behaving like a jackass!”

Turning to face everybody else, Liz noticed the shocked looks on the fathers faces, some others, mainly the youngsters, just smirked and gave her the thumbs up.

Addressing the fathers, Liz explained “Dad, Mr. Evans, this doesn’t mean that you can’t tell us your honest opinion, but with all of Michael’s disruptions we wouldn’t be able to hold this meeting and we don’t have much time left.”

After seeing the dads’ nod of understanding Liz picked up where she had left off before the disruptions. “The time of deciding if we bring in the other parents has passed. The Granolith requests their presence too. Now we have to find a way of passing on all the pertinent information to them and that has to be done as soon as possible.” Sighing deeply she looked at everybody and asked “Any ideas?”

Laughing nervously Jim blurted out “You really don’t do easy, do you?” This remark elicited apprehensive snickers from almost everybody in the room, while Michael rolled his eyes, curiously waiting to find out how long it would take Liz to show her true bossy colours.

An hour and forty-five minutes later the group had come to the decision that the whole group would inform the Whitmans. Diane would call them and asked them to come over for some very important information.

Amy, on the other hand, wouldn’t get that much time before the meeting in the chamber, since everybody knew just how volatile she could become. Also, Jim as her boyfriend and the town’s sheriff and only grownup with all of the information, would get the honour of picking her up, delivering the news and then bringing her to the meeting or the Granolith, depending on the latest wished from the Cone.

Maria bravely offered her help to the sheriff but heaved a sigh of relief as he gratefully declined.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
continued next post

Continued Part 28


Diane has an Idea, 08/12/2000, Saturday 1.20 am
All these news had everybody exhausted, but their heads were spinning. Tiredly they all agreed that enough was enough and they needed a long break.

Before breaking up the meeting, Diane and Nancy offered everybody a nightcap, which was thankfully accepted by all. Michael, not realizing that Liz had freed his voice almost right she’d blocked after it, just nodded, grateful that at least Diane was still talking to him.

After the drinks had been dispersed, Michael automatically said “Thank you Mrs. E.” and was surprised to find he had his voice back. All the members of the ‘IKAA-club’ wound down and a few yawns could be heard here and there.

Suddenly Diane had a thought and was so excited, she almost couldn’t contain herself. Turning to Liz she asked, “Do you think it’s possible for me to join this connection thing?”

This got the other ladies all keyed up again, all talking at the same time, telling her of their experience this morning. Kyle and the sheriff started to look at Liz, really hopeful until she laughingly declared, “If Izzy can bring you all in then of course you can. You’re our most trusted friends, practically family!” With a nod to Isabelle the smaller woman handed the final decision over.
*~~*~~*
Isabelle needed a moment to think seriously about the situation, assuming if she brought in the Valenti men, and Diane, the others might want to come along too. The two fathers had behaved really well for the last few hours but Isabelle wasn’t sure just how far she could trust Jeff, Michael and her dad, to keep to the rules and stay quiet while in the connection. Especially Michael seemed to be a loose canon, completely unpredictable.

Finally coming to a decision Isabelle began her explanation “You’re welcome to join the connection, I can bring you all in…”

Before she could explain any further Jeff broke in and said “Isabelle, not that I don’t trust you, but I don’t think that I’m quite ready to have someone in my head today. I’d like to take a rain check and do it some other time. I hope you can understand that.”

Philip agreed with Jeff wholeheartedly and added “Izzy, sweetheart, my head is so full with all this alien stuff, I think I too prefer to wait before joining this connecting thing. I hope you don’t mind?”

“No dad, I don’t mind, we can do it anytime you’d like to, ok? That goes for you too, Mr. Parker.” was Isabelle’s relieved answer.

“And? What about me? I deserve to be in this connection, in fact, I deserve it more than them!” Michael demanded. When he saw Isabelle’s hesitation he insisted “You know how long I have been waiting for a chance like this! And anyway, it’s my right to be a part of this. After all, I’m the second in command, Max needs me, I have to make sure he doesn’t fuck up!” and under his breath he whispered “somebody’ got to tell him what to do!” When Izzi didn’t answer fast enough Michael nodded towards Liz and persisted “even if she won’t, it’s your decision, because you’re the one to bring us in!”

Sadly, the alien girl looked at her childhood friend and replied, “Sorry Michael, I truly am sorry, but your behaviour just now proves again that you’re unpredictable. I can’t trust you right now, so, no, I can’t bring you into the connection.” Seeing his anger rise Isabelle quickly added, “If you’re honest, you’ll agree with me, because lately you have been completely unpredictable. But as soon as possible I’ll bring you in, I promise. That’s the best I can do for now.”
*~~*~~*
Five people, she had to bring in five people. How in the world was she supposed to arrange that? And how to keep Michael from doing something stupid was another problem that had to be dealt with.

After much thought Isabelle had figured out a plan and gave the orders to the five participants. She had already brought Nancy and Maria into a connection, so these two knew how it worked, they didn’t need to be in the same room with her. Isabelle didn’t need to watch them.

While Isabelle was still mulling over the problem, Nancy finally offered the best solution and said “Ok, I think this is the best arrangement: Maria go to her home and sleep, then Liz, Isabelle and Diane can share the master bedroom at the ‘Desert View’ and the Valentis take the other one. For the connection, you use the arrangement we had this morning. What do you think Isabelle?”

Coming to a decision Nancy smilingly added “since I was already in a connection I won’t join you this time.” After Isabelle agreed the group split up and went their separate ways.
*~~*~~*
After a short moment of thought, Maria came to the conclusion, that she should just go home and spend some quality time with her mom. ‘Yeah!’ she hoped that that might do the trick. Maria was well aware of the fact, that her mom could hear the fleas cough and had eyes at the back of her head, at least that’s what it felt like, because she seemed to see and hear everything, especially if it concerned Maria.

Regretfully Maria called Isabelle before they separated and spoke up “Izzi, I think I should just go home. My mom most likely will wake up and since I’m much too late she’ll pretty sure have a fit.” Sighing dramatically she added “I think I just have to try to calm her down and maybe have a good old-fashioned heart to heart talk with her. That might soften her some, but I think I could use one of those myself too.” Turning pensive Maria informed her friend “you know, these can often turn into the best talks we have but they tend to become looong. So, Izzi, I think I’ll pass on the connection thingy this time. I hope that’s alright with you, because I would really like to join some other time again!”

After Isabelle accepted Maria’s decision, the two girls split up, Maria went to her old, battered Jetta and Isabelle joined the others in the Sheriff’s cruiser for the short drive to the hotel.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Jeff was confused and wanted to know “Nancy, why are you inviting these people to the hotel? I mean, how can you be so sure that they have enough rooms for all of them?”

Suddenly Nancy realised that her husband still didn’t know about her work at the hotel and her part ownership of the penthouse. Hoping he would understand she informed her spouse “Jeff, I realise that I have a lot to tell you, but, honestly, now isn’t the time. What do you say if we talk about everything when we get home?”

After seeing Nancy’s serious but open expression Jeff agreed to wait until they were alone and nodded, thinking prudently to avoid more disgrace. Once a night was more than enough…
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Desert View Hotel, Penthouse, 08/12/2000, Saturday 1.50 am
Curiously Diane, Jim and Kyle followed Liz and Isabelle into the apartment. As soon as everybody was comfortable Isabelle explained the ways of the connection and after drinking another nightcap they all moved to the master bedroom, organised the beds, pillows and blankets, and arranged themselves on it and relaxed.

At first it was a bit awkward, having to share the beds with the Valenti men, but soon they were used to this new situation and everybody drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Like before Liz was the first one to meet Max. She informed him of the next batch of visitors. He took this news in stride and said that they were having a break soon and then would be a good time for everybody to join.

Hearing of his mother’s plan to visit with the next round pleased Max very much, but at the same time he was feeling tense and above all curious about seeing his mom under such unusual circumstances. This would be their first meeting after his mother’s joining of the ‘IKAA-club’.

Isabelle had promised Liz to give them some alone time and the young couple was only too glad to use this moment for a little cuddling and catching each other up on the latest news.





TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic.

Take care

Chula




I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been asked to do an ‘Author’s Chat’ at Roswell Heaven.
So far I have the date, but not yet the time.
On June 23, 2007, please meet me there.
As soon as I know the time, I’ll let you know!

And here it is.....

enjoy


29, The Chosen Ones, 08/12/2000, Saturday 2.15 am
Picking up mom…
First Isabelle picked up her mom. She found her nervously waiting, looking around expectantly, trying not to miss anything. When Diane spied her daughter she began to laugh and said **Well, sweetie, this is something else, isn’t it?** Looking around big eyed she added **I didn’t know what to expect, but not this, this nothingness.**

Isabelle chuckled at her mom’s observation and answered **you know mom, this nothing has one big advantage. As long as we don’t go dream-walking we can imagine any background we want.**

**Really? Like what?** Diane wanted to know. Since they had a moment to themselves, Isabelle decided to humor her mom and created the most beautiful English rose garden, knowing well how much she loved them.

**Oh, Isabelle, look at that! It’s so beautiful, look at all these roses, and their fragrances, mmhhhh, just smell!** Smiling brightly at her daughter Diane said full of wonder **This is just incredible.** Suddenly she had another idea and questioned Isabelle **Do you think we could visit the Buckingham Palace?**

Isabelle just shook her head at her mom’s antics and answered **mom, hold that thought, maybe we can try that some other time, ok?** Looking over her mother’s shoulders she noticed Max and Liz approaching and added **right now I think you’d prefer to turn around and greet your son.**

Excited Diane turned around so fast that she almost lost her balance. Joyously laughing with her arms wide open she ran towards her son, grabbed and squeezed the daylights out of him.

**Mom, mom, I can’t breathe!** Max wheezed surprised by the strength his mom seemed to suddenly develop.

Teary-eyed Diane pushed her son to arms distance, looked at him, assuring herself he was all right, and roped him right back into her tight embrace. **Max, I’m thrilled to finally know your secret. I’m so relieved, because now I can help and support you!** Squeezing him a little harder she added **Oh Max, you’ll always be my little boy, nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, can change that!**

With twinkling eyes Diane let go of her son and curtseyed very dignified before him saying **Your highness!** only to spoil the effect by squealing **My son the king, wow!**

Embarrassed, Max rolled his eyes at his mother’s outburst and bravely swallowed any comment that came to his mind (and there were quite a few of them). Instead he thought ‘here I am, King of an entire planet, High King of the Whirlwind Galaxy, and my mom still calls me her little boy! I only hope that the other leaders won’t find out about this or I’ll never live it down!’

A few moments and many squeezes and kisses later Max finally put an end to his mom’s actions and told her **Mom, mom, I’m really happy you know our secret. You don’t know what a relief it is, not to hide this part of my life any longer. I love you mom, you’re absolutely fantastic!**

Trying to escape his mother’s embrace Max added **Mom, Izzy is picking up the Valentis and then we have a few moments before I have to go back. We’re meeting with Larek and Nicholas to discuss the next steps we have to take concerning Zander. You know, a little while ago Khivar contacted Nick and discussed the preparations for his arrival.** Laughing Max added **Khivar and Tess want a grand entrance, you know, to put me in my place!**
*~~*~~*
Jim and Kyle are next…
A long time ago, Jim had learned to give special attention to first impressions. Right now he didn’t know what to think of this one; after all, how could he interpret his first impression of… nothing? He was glad to see Kyle join him soon after; his son distracted him from this… nothing!

Right after finding his dad Kyle realized that there was nothing at this pick up station. Absolutely nothing... He didn’t have time to dwell on it because Isabelle arrived just then.

The moment Isabelle saw the two Valentis, she could tell from the confused looks on their faces that they didn’t know what to think of this place. Deciding to help them through their insecurities Isabelle informed them “Everybody who comes to this place for the first time feels confused, just like you two. That’s ok, though, because you have to know that you can choose the background here. Just let your imaginations do the work!“

Seeing their incredulous expressions Isabelle added “Next time you’re here you can try it out, right now we have a meeting to go too, ok? “

Excitedly Kyle announced, “wow, I already know what I’ll want, Isabelle, when can we do it? “ The tall girl smacked him on the side of his head and shattered Kyle’s dream with one short word, “NO!” and seeing that her friend wanted to protest her verdict, she answered decisively, “find someone else for your pubescent fantasies!”

Proud daddy Jim Valenti just shook his head at his son’s one-track mind and chuckled. **I guess some things just never change, do they?** he asked of no one in particular.
*~~*~~*
Wow…
After meeting and greeting Max and voicing their opinions on this place, which still was a beautiful English rose garden, everybody calmed down considerably and expectantly turned to Max.

Once Jim and Kyle had been brought up to date, Max added “this meeting with Larek and Nicholas is very important. We need to orchestrate bringing Zander home and Nicholas’ official desertion from Khivar’s camp and joining ours. But as you can imagine, Zanders’ safe return to earth has top priority! “

Since everybody just nodded their agreement, Max continued “Larek already knows of my connection with you and I will inform Nicholas at this meeting. So, if you have anything to say you can speak up anytime after I tell him. Actually, I would really appreciate any ideas you have, just don’t you all talk at the same time!“
*~~*~~*
For a moment Jim quietly observed the young man in front of him. By now he knew Max really well and was able to sense his unease about something. Worriedly the older man wanted to know “Is everything OK?” Surprised Max turned towards Valenti and wasn’t quite sure what to respond, mostly because he wasn’t quite sure what was bugging him. Idiotically he finally replied “uhh, sir?” hoping his friend would leave it alone.

’Yeah, the poor kid is worried alright!’ Jim thought and decided to broach another important topic, “Max, are you sure you can trust this Nicholas? I mean, after all he was your biggest alien enemy here on earth!”

The young alien leader mulled over this question for a moment before seriously replying “as strange as it seems, yeah, I’m convinced we can trust him. Of course, having the Granolith’s input helps too!

After looking nervously at his companions Max decided to voice one of his many reservations and said “I just don’t know what will happen when all of this is over.” Seeing the strange looks he was getting Max clarified “Well, you know, I mean, isn’t he something like a war criminal? And does that mean that I have to take him to court, of course not the UN Security Council, but something like it?”

“I see, you’ve got a good point there, Max.” Valenti responded and Isabelle added “can’t you ask the Granolith about that?”

After considering Izzi’s suggestion, Max heaved a sigh of relief and agreed “thanks Izzi, you’re right!” and giving an embarrassed smile he added “This whole concept of the Granolith is still somewhat mind-boggling to me!”

Before Max could say anything more he heard a knock on the door and he was reminded of the secret meeting with Nick.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Nicholas’ room before the secret meeting…
Nervously Nicholas paced the length of his room, wondering when he would be called on his past crimes. Before he had changed sides, Nick had been well aware of the fact that the day would come when he’d have to ‘pay the piper’.

What surprised him the most since coming to this summit was Max and Larek’s willingness and acceptance to work with him; at least after they worked through the first shock of learning Nick’s intentions.

Seeing that the time for the secret meeting with Max and Larek was fast approaching, Nick decided to put his worries about what awaited him after the summit aside and concentrate on what was really important: to bring Zander to his family and then get rid of Khivar for good! He would hear soon enough about his punishment, there was no reason for him to waste time second guessing the verdict.

Having come to this conclusion Nick checked his appearance in the big mirror on the wall in his room and then strode purposefully through the door into the hallway…
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Royal chamber, secret meeting, 08/12/2000, Saturday 2.30 am
Nicholas was the first one to arrive and Max invited him into his quarters. Shocked, Jim remarked “That’s Nicholas? That, that BOY had you all scared?” This comment took Max by surprise and he answered out loud “Oh yeah, we were scared alright!”

Entering, Nicholas heard this remark and he eyed his host curiously but decided to wait and see. After taking a seat on the couch he waited for Max to join him. Max had barely closed the door when Larek knocked and entered. After their greeting they joined Nicholas and started to talk business.

Nervously Nick began to recount all he had learned “Khivar contacted me about an hour ago. He wants to make a grand entrance with Tess by his side, carrying little Zander. To humiliate you as much as possible, he wants every member of the summit present, to show them that he is the one in control.”

Looking at Max, the little man continued “Khivar also wants your quarters for himself.” And seeing Max’ confusion he added, “This is the Royal Chamber of the Granolith, not to confuse with the royal chamber. The other one is actually a very pompous suite, whereas this one is relatively small and simple. But this one is the chamber that is controlled and protected by the Granolith. This means that the Granolith decides who can stay here and who can’t. That’s why I’m completely shocked to be here in these chambers, you know, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I hadn’t been let in. Coming from the enemy camp and all that, you know?”

Smiling, Nick informed Max “Larek can attest to what I’m about to tell you, Max. You’re the first King in many generations that the Granolith has opened this door too.”

“Ok, now I understand why Khivar wants these quarters!” Max replied and laughed and asked, “Does Khivar think I’ll just leave because he says so?” Seeing Nicholas’ nod Max asked, “Did Khivar ever try to enter this room?”

Nicholas nodded again and said “the doors stayed closed and he was in a foul mood for days after that!”

Max had the next question ready “why does he think he can enter now?”

Laughing, the little general just shrugged his shoulders and answered, “Khivar is not too bright. He’s mean, unpredictable, knows how to use people and he most definitely doesn’t trust anybody. The people that are loyal to him are loyal only for two reasons; first: they are like I was, they too become powerful and greedy, of course not as powerful as him, but enough; second: in many cases he threatens their family’s and loved ones.”

Looking at Max and Larek, Nick added, “So you can imagine that most of his followers will abandon him the moment they know you’re back!”

Larek nodded, he had heard many stories concerning Khivar’s legendary temper and his punishments. Curiously he asked their new ally “Do you have any ideas about how to get Zander away from them?”

After thinking about his previous ally, Nicholas said, ”Well, let me tell you something. I know I just said that Khivar is unpredictable, but then again, in some ways he’s very predictable. Like, he lets us wait by coming too late to the meeting. Like, he’ll want a great entrance, a show of his power and his beauty. Also, he’ll expect everybody to fall in with his wishes because anything less is just not acceptable to him.”

Seriously Nick continued “I’ve been thinking about this moment since Alex asked for my help and I’ve come to the conclusion that until the little one is safe, I have to keep on playing Khivar’s lackey.”

Surprised, Nicholas saw that Max and Larek were willing to trust him. He had been afraid that after this statement they would blow up and accuse him of false play. Gratefully he smiled and continued, “So, until he gets here, I‘ll tell Khivar that you’re just a teenager who doesn’t really know what he’s doing. That you’re crying for your son and that you told me you wanted him back. I let him know that Liz isn’t happy about your son at all. This last bit will give Tess a feeling of power and security. She’ll think everything will go the way she wants it to go.”

Taking a deep breath Nick imparted his latest news and hoped that Max would be able to accept it without getting too upset “Max, when I told Khivar and Tess these lies about you, they looked very pleased. They informed me that they weren’t surprised to hear that. Apparently Nacedo had just contacted them again and let them know that your people seemed to be in the midst of a major crisis and very much at odds with each other! It seemed that Michael was being shunned by the others and he wasn’t too happy about it.” Tensely Nicholas waited for Max’s reaction and the one he received stunned him.

After taking some time to let the ramifications of Nick’s statement sink in, Max could hear Liz’s surprised gasp. The two looked at each other and suddenly they knew why things had to stay the way they were. Max nodded and calmly said to the skin “Yeah, that explains a lot”

Nicholas and Larek waited for Max to elaborate his statement, but as he kept quiet Larek brought them back to the topic of Zander and said “Guys, let’s come back to the little one. Any ideas on how to proceed?”

Since Nick had spent some time mulling over this, he was finally able to voice his thoughts “Max, since you’re the one who has to acknowledge Zander, I think you should try to get to hold him as soon as possible. After all, to Khivar he is your son and you have missed him and you want him back, badly, right?”

He waited for Max’s nod before continuing “Also, you can tell Khivar that you want the baby to get used to you, since you don’t want him scared or crying when you have to officially recognise him in front of all the summit members!”

Again Nick waited for Max’s nod before going on “We make sure that as soon as you have him, Leanne will move beside you and stay there, under the guise of being the nanny. While you two are fussing over Zander you can walk over to the Granolith and when you’re there you hand him back to Leanne and accept Zander as Alex’s son. After that you send the two of them back to earth. What do you think, can we work with this…” he couldn’t finish his sentence because suddenly Max held up his hand to stop Nick’s telling.

Curiously the little man observed the young king and after a moment looked to Larek for information, but all he got was a grin and a shoulder shrug. So, Nicholas decided to wait and see, if only he were more patient!
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Nicholas learns new secrets…
After watching Max’s strange behaviour for a while, Nicholas was glad to see the faraway look leave his eyes. Max seemed to return to ‘normal’. Expectantly he looked at the young leader, hoping to get an answer, but also knowing he really didn’t have the right to expect anything.

Max wasn’t about to disappoint Nick. He was well aware of the fact that the moment he had decided to accept the skin’s help and loyalty, he had to be open and honest too; after all, the Granolith had confirmed Nick as an ally. If they wanted to bring Zander back to earth and after that stop Khivar’s reign of terror on Antar and in the Whirlwind Galaxy, they couldn’t afford to keep secrets in their own group, because that would give Khivar and Tess the upper hand.

So Max grinned at Larek, then turned to Nicholas and revealed his secret “Sorry, but I had to stop you there for a moment. What you don’t know is that Liz and I share this connection and we also can communicate telepathically. In this instance Liz and Isabelle brought some trusted friends along.” Seeing the skin’s shocked expression, Max stopped talking and waited for his reaction.

”What? I mean what did you just say?” shaking his head to get his bearings Nicholas began again “Did you just say that you are talking with Liz telepathically? All the way from here? To there?”

Max nodded his head and clarified “Well, right now we’re not just talking telepathically, not really.” He searched for the rights words to explain this strange connection clearly and then added, “It’s more, you know; when you talk telepathically you don’t see each other, you only hear the other one. This now, this is more like she is in my head, and this way she can see and hear everything I see and hear too. And when I close my eyes and can concentrate on our connection, I can see everybody who is there. Well, it’s just like they’re here, but you can’t see and hear them, only I can.” Seeing Nick’s confused look Max tentatively asked, “does this make any sense to you?”

”Not really, but when we were kids the elders would tell us about it, and we never really knew if they were joking or seriously expecting us to believe them. Later, I heard some wise man say that that was absolutely possible, but only if you were accepted by the Granolith. The Granolith could make this possible, and that it was very rare for it to happen. Like once every few centuries or so!” Seeing Max’s nod he weakly added, “Oh boy, am I glad I’m already sitting. Suddenly I feel very weak. I don’t think I ever felt this faint in my life.”

As he started to feel stronger he suddenly remembered some other bomb Max had dropped and asked “did you say that Liz and Isabelle brought others into this connection?”

Seeing Max and Larek nod he inquired confused “How is this possible? Not to brag, but my powers are very advanced, and even I couldn’t do that!” but before Max could reply Nicholas answered his own question “The Granolith” and with an awe-filled voice he addressed Max “That’s it, it must be the power of the Granolith that supports you! The elders were talking about you!”

After hearing Max’ “Yeah…” Nick jumped up and started to cheer, he even went so far as to leap on the small table between them and boogie a victory dance, all the while boxing in the air and yelling woo woo, sounding like a train-whistle!! Max and Larek just sat there, staring at the short man, wondering if he had lost his wits.

After a few minutes Nicholas became aware of the curious stares his little dance was gaining him and he calmed down rather fast. He needed a moment to come back from his high, but then Nick jumped of the table and landed right in front of Max. He kneeled down and grabbed the teenager’s right hand.

Reverently holding onto the young alien king’s hand Nicholas ceremoniously proclaimed “By all that’s holy, Max, you and Liz must be the Granolith’s Chosen Ones!”

Shocked Max and Larek yelled “What?” At the same time in Max’s head was an endless echo of loudly yelled ‘what’ to be heard. This had the young king’s head spinning so fast he was in grave danger of falling out of his seat.

”Quiet!” Max stated loudly and forcefully and Nicholas, who was afraid that he had somehow upset the Chosen One, said “Sorry Max, but it’s true, I’m very positive that you’re the Chosen ones, really…”

”No, not you Nicholas, I meant the ones in my head!” Max grinned and clarified his statement to a puzzled Nicholas.

“Are you telling me that they are in there right now and they know what we’re doing?” Nicholas inquired.

“Yep, they hear and see everything I hear and see. According to Liz it’s like they use my ears and eyes and just now, they yelled all together and that was a bit too much for me!” Max explained and almost choked on hearing Liz’s “and what lovely ears they are too!”

After Nicholas’ proclamation, Larek sat there quietly, thinking about it all and he remembered that as a child he had been told this story as a bedtime story. Later he had heard some people refer to it as a prophecy and right now he started to wonder if it could be true. He looked at Max and let his cousin’s previous and present lives pass through his mind, looking for facts that could actually have been foretold at the beginning of time.

Larek began taking account:
1. Zan had been born of the royal line of Antar
2. As Zan and as Max, he was innocent and filled with love and compassion for all
3. Zan had been killed on Antar, and was cloned to be reborn as Max Evans. Liz had saved his life after they fell from
the forth floor of her boarding school in Wyoming, meaning he had died twice and the second time he was brought
back to life by his great love, a native girl from earth
4. The Granolith had only now become active again, and so far only Max and Liz could contact it
5. Also, Nicholas, a sworn enemy, had changed sides
6. And Leanne, also known as An’Alena, the youngest member of the queen’s convent, was involved in all of this too

”Oh my goddess,” Larek whispered and looked ready to pass out. “Oh, my goddess, by all that’s holy, Oh, my goddess, I praise thee, my Lady of grace.” Larek couldn’t stop himself from repeating this mantra over and over again.

Max looked really worried at his friend, grabbed his shoulders and gave Larek a few good shakes until he seemed to come around.

”Nick is right!” was the first coherent thing out of Larek’s mouth. Seeing Max’s uncomprehending look, he clarified for his cousin ”Max, Nick is right, you and Liz must be ‘The Chosen Ones’. I just thought about it very carefully and everything that has been foretold has happened to you.”

Max couldn’t believe what he was hearing and began to shake his head vigorously saying, “No, no, no, you must be wrong. I’m not a prophecy, really I’m not. I’m just a normal human/alien hybrid teenage boy, nothing else!”

But Larek wouldn’t have it and insisted “Max, my friend, there is no mistake. Peace for our Galaxy is just around the corner, I can almost smell it, it’s so close.”

He could see that Max didn’t look very reassured, quite the opposite, he looked downright scared, ready to faint and so Larek consoled his young cousin “Max, you know that I would never ever lie to you. Even Nicky here is part of the prophecy, he’s ‘the enemy that changes sides’. Now everything will be all right, things start to fall into place, we are going to work together and all will be well!”

In trying to calm down Max, Larek forgot about Nicholas who, by now, was too shocked and kept repeating, “Holy shit, I’m part of the prophecy! I’m part of the goodnight-story I was told when I was a kid, wow!”
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
No more destiny…
The five people lying across the beds of the master bedroom were suddenly thrown out of the connection and wide-awake. Four of them were staring at Liz, like they’d never seen her. The young woman started to feel very uncomfortable under such close scrutiny and began to squirm.

Defensively Liz asked “What? Why are you staring at me like that? Stop it, they’re wrong, they’re wrong, they don’t know what they’re talking about. I’m most definitely not a chosen one. I don’t want to have another destiny, I don’t, I don’t!” and hysterically she yelled, “I refuse to have a destiny!” before she broke down and cried her heart out.

For a moment everybody sat there, frozen in shock, before Liz’s breakdown registered. Jim was the first one to somewhat recover his composure and he moved to sit beside the crying girl and carefully pulled her into his warm embrace. Not really knowing what to do with a weeping female he just held her close and let her cry until her tears dried up. Valenti murmured “It’s going to be ok, don’t worry, it’s going to be ok. We’re all here to help you, you’ll be ok.”

After Liz had calmed down, Isabelle gently brushed her hair from her forehead and reassured her friend “Liz, I don’t really know if this is another destiny, but as I understood it, Nick and Larek said you and Max were meant to be together. I think this means that most of the danger is over. Since the Granolith is with you, Max and with most of the summit members, peace is becoming a real possibility.”

Smiling serenely Izzy added, “You know Liz, we all are with you. We have your back. We support you and Max, and I think with Nicholas on our side we have a big advantage over Khivar.”

And as Isabelle was searching for the words to convey her thoughts to the smaller woman she suddenly started to feel very confident and with the brightest smile possible she informed Liz “I can’t really tell you why, but I suddenly feel very confident that all this will be over very, very soon and all will be well!”

”You’re right Izzy, I feel it too!” Kyle agreed relieved and Diane added “Yes, I’m very positively sure you’re right Izzy. It’s really strange, but I’m absolutely sure of it.” Turning to Liz, Diane reached out her hand and gently stroked the younger woman’s cheek saying “Sweetheart, cheer up, all will be well!”

After Diane’s last words everybody calmed down. They felt a closeness with each other and they all were reluctant to brake out of it. The five of them just huddled together and drifted off into sleep.

Just before they the fell asleep Isabelle said on a lighter note “Oh, by the way Liz, I guess this practically makes you my sister in law!”
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Royal chamber…
Suddenly Max jerked on the couch, he was staring straight ahead and yelled “Ahhh, what the heck is going on?” Shocking his cousin Larek and Nicholas with his outburst.

Larek and Nick were out of their chairs and by Max’s side in seconds and asked, “What happened?” “What did you do?” They worriedly observed the young man, trying to figure out what the problem that was obviously plaguing him.

When Nicholas realized that Max wasn’t coming out from wherever he had gone, he hesitantly suggested to Larek “Do you think we should slap him? Or maybe throw some cold water into his face?”

After thinking over these options Larek replied “Yeah, sounds good” and then he waited for Nick to proceed. But the little man had other ideas and informed him “I think you should do it, Larek. If I hit him, he might think I’d be committing treason, don’t you think so?”

Realizing that his companion was too scared to do the job at hand Larek raised his hand to his high king and delivered a sharp slap across Max’ right cheek.

”What happened? What’s going on?” Max asked confused. Holding his stinging cheek he looked around the room and tried to find out where he was. Relieved Larek informed, “Well, Max, you just left there for a bit. Where did you go?”

Shaking his head to clear out the last cobwebs Max responded, “Well, you see, we were all shocked by these news and it knocked my companions right out of the connection. Then I could feel Liz’s confusion, but now she’s alright, the others calmed her and she’s resting!”

”Holy shit!” Nick’s exclamation surprised the other two men and they looked at him pointedly. “Sorry, but you can feel how she’s resting? That she’s calm? Do you realize just how extraordinary this is? I’ve never ever heard of anybody else having a connection that strong!” Seriously looking at Max he added, “There truly is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you and Liz are indeed the Chosen Ones!”

On a relieved note he added “Max, you can’t imagine just how glad I am that I decided to join your court before I knew this. Otherwise I think I would’ve been too scared to even try contacting you!”
*~~*~~*
The three men sat together for some time and discussed how to bring Khivar’s fall about…


TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic.

Take care

Chula

Hey! it's really happening!



I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been asked to do an ‘Author’s Chat’ at Roswell Heaven.

Now I finally have the date and the time!
Saturday, June 23, 2007, Swisstime 9pm-10pm CET/MEZ (21.00-22.00 Uhr) or 3pm-4pm EST
Please meet me there, I would love to chat with you!

'till then

Also very big thanks to my lovely beta for the fabulous job she's doing!

this time we’ll meet an old acquaintance

here is the next part, enjoy


30, Return to Roswell, 08/12/2000, Saturday
Meanwhile, Cal’s musings, 08/12/2000, Saturday
After landing in the Albuquerque airport, Cal drove the rented black four-wheel drive directly to Roswell’s ‘Desert View’ hotel. Of course he knew what major part Nancy Parker plaid in the recent success of the establishment. Now that had come as quite a surprise: smart, beautiful Nancy Parker with her fiery red hair always seemed so in control, so correct and also so very secretive. In spite of her fiery-coloured hair, she was the quiet one in that family, in fact, she almost became invisible besides her husband. ‘Yeah, she really was a surprise’ Cal smiled.
*~~*~~*
His thoughts wandered to Jeff Parker. Now he was the more interesting person in that partnership, at least that was what everybody thought. He was outgoing, easygoing, open, intelligent, helpful, the kind of guy who was good to know when you were in a tight spot.

In his youth he’d been a veritable hell raiser, there hadn’t been any misdeed in ‘Chaves County’ that the Parker boy hadn’t been in the heart of. And now, with a lot of imagination and devotion, he had built himself a nicely going business, the CrashDown. Thinking of the CrashDown, Cal had to shake his head, what a tourist trap that was. And the girls in those uniforms, now never in a million years would he have imagined his future queen would be wearing such uniforms and antennas. If that wasn’t irony!

But Jeff’s easy and outgoing character and the fair prices in the diner encouraged the high school kids to use his establishment as their meeting point. And Jeff made sure that as long as the kids where in his diner, they wouldn’t get into any trouble. He took this responsibility very seriously.
*~~*~~*
Cal mused about all the things he’d learned after he’d found out about the podsters’ involvement with those human kids. Now that was something he couldn’t understand! Anyway, Cal had all the families discreetly but thoroughly investigated and learned all he needed to know. They were all just your average run of the mill Americans, nothing more, nothing less. Of course you had to make some allowances for the town they lived in. Roswell, with its rumours of aliens and UFO-crashes, had made the most of it, and turned those tales into cash by cleverly making it the town’s attraction.
*~~*~~*
So, he wasn’t really surprised by what he had found out through his investigations. The sheriff’s father had become quite ‘loco’ over his convictions about ‘aliens living among us’. He’d been ridiculed and had to quit his job in shame. This of course clouded Jim Valenti’s outlook on life considerably. He had set out to prove that aliens existed to clear his father’s name (and to gain confidence himself in his father), and for a while and for a while he had become a dangerous nuisance for Max and the kids. Luckily, on finding out about Max’s alien status, and the way the FBI treated him, Jim had changed sides. It seemed that just knowing that his dad hadn’t been crazy was enough for him to know, and now he was able to do what was right, but not always lawful, namely help the kids stay safe.

Yeah, Jim Valenti was a straightforward kind of guy; you got what you saw. He was honest and, with excusable exceptions, a law-abiding citizen, doing his best to keep his town safe.
*~~*~~*
Then there was Kyle Valenti, who walked in his father’s footsteps. Usually he did what was right, with the exceptions of occasional pranks that teenagers participated in, like drinking or illegal parties at the soap factory.

After the initial panic on finding out about the aliens in such a spectacular way (being shot was difficult to deal with under normal circumstances, but then being healed by an alien was quite an other story!) Kyle had found his place in the group. Anyway Kyle was a great sportsman and now he seemed to have found his peace and strength in Buddhism.
*~~*~~*
The Whitmans now were a very unpretentious family. They were well liked in their neighbourhood, quiet, helpful, nothing out of the ordinary. Until you looked closer, then you found out that Charles Whitman was a passionate and brilliant computer programmer and he seemed to have passed on this special gene to his deceased son.

Claire Whitman too was of the quiet kind. Her family had been her one and all. In her spare time she worked in different committees and liked to help the less fortunate ones.

Their son’s death had been a big blow to both parents. They felt Alex’s loss keenly and living in this town made it all the more difficult, because everything reminded them constantly of what they had lost. They realised that they weren’t really living anymore, they just went along. Both were well aware of the fact that Alex never would have wanted them to grieve endlessly and to practically give up on life. That was the reason for them to seriously think about moving away, they just hadn’t been able to find a place they liked yet.
*~~*~~*
Then there was Alexander Whitman, best friends with Liz Parker and Maria DeLuca. He had been a passionate hacker and musician. But above all else, he had been very protective of his two girls. He’d paid the highest price for knowing aliens; he had paid with his life.
*~~*~~*
Next of course were the DeLuca women. Both of them were very outspoken, temperamental, flamboyant and crazy, but very lovable in their own unique ways. They both loved a good fight and were excelled at it too - not many people got the better of them. Amy was a brave woman, raised her kid all on her own, and did a remarkably good job.

Now it seemed that the two women had found partners brave enough to take on a DeLuca firecracker. Amy was seeing Jim Valenti, and if the reports were correct, they were getting very serious indeed.

Maria too had found someone, someone named Michael Guerin. Both of them were very volatile and loved to fight, only to make up afterwards. But Cal had heard that, for some time now, things weren’t good between Maria and Michael and apparently a reconciliation wasn’t expected any time soon, if ever. ‘What the hell happened with these two, I wonder. From all accounts their fight appears to be serious.’ Cal wasn’t sure what to think of the Maria/Michael situation but decided to look into it more closely.
*~~*~~*
And then, of course there was Liz Parker. The love of his king’s life, all 5’2” of her. She was smart, maybe even brilliant; she’ll go far, he was sure of it. She approached life in a scientific way, always wanting to know the why’s and where’s of things. She liked to be prepared and loved to write her notes and lists. But from what Cal had heard, little Liz Parker had gotten the group out of trouble a few times.

Liz seemed to be the most levelheaded one in the group of humans surrounding his podsters. And as short as she was, she was the one with the most endurance and courage. Chuckling Cal murmured ‘That one is one tough cookie!’
*~~*~~*
The closer Cal Langley came to Roswell, the more thoughts of his charges plagued him. He was well aware of the fact that he had been a lousy protector, but nonetheless he had always kept more or less close tabs on his king and friends.

After Max’s unexpected visit, Cal had done some serious soul-searching and came up with very bad results concerning his own conduct. True, Max had surprise the hell out of him when he suddenly stood in his very own backyard in Hollywood. The party had been going on for some time and was in full swing when Max decided to show up as an uninvited guest!

His king’s stubbornness had also surprised him; a mule had nothing on him! Cal just didn’t know how to deal with his highness. His big mistake had been not to talk to Max and explain things to him, but to refuse him out flat. Not having all the facts, Max, who’d been desperate to find his missing son, ordered him to man the spaceship and Cal had had no choice but too obey! Damn encoding, didn’t leave him any way out! What a fiasco that had been. He sincerely hoped that Max could forgive him and would grant him a chance to redeem himself. ‘Yeah, right, why should he…’ were his self-deprecating thoughts.

Reflecting on his position Cal looked at his past actions concerning his king and, if he was brutally honest, he had to admit that he had failed miserably. In the first few years on earth he had been all fired up to take action, he couldn’t wait for his king and his entourage to hatch from the pods. But as the years went by he realised that something must have gone wrong with the programming, because the royals should have come out of their pods five years after the landing. There were two possible reasons for this delay. One possibility was that the timers were damaged in the crash, or the other one, which also was the more likely one, was that Nacedo had tampered with them to suit his own purposes.

Anyway, as the time passed and Cal realised that his stay on this planet would be indefinitely longer, he decided to make the most of it. And when he discovered the world of filmmaking with all the glitter and glam, he was immediately drawn to it. He had decided to give it a chance and started his career, first on a small film crew as an odd-job man, than working his way up until he was the big-shot producer he was now. Nowadays he called the shots and people bowed before him. They searched him out for advice because now he was somebody. He was on the top of the ‘who’s who’ list in Hollywood and he liked it just fine.

Much too late Cal realised that in order to further his career he had completely neglected the royal four. Of course he’d hired people, discreet people, who would check up on the kids from time to time and pass the information onto him. He had become much too comfortable in his human way of life and Cal regarded his charges as nothing more than nuisances. And Max finding him in Hollywood only managed to reinforce these feelings and the poor kid got a full dose of his alien anger.

Trying not to dwell too long on those very uncomfortable facts, but recognising them for what they were, Cal acknowledged that THAT had been a turning point in life. Not right away, but after he’d calmed down enough to assess the situation with his charges, Cal did the aforementioned heavy soul-searching and swore to better himself.
*~~*~~*
And now here he was in Roswell checking into the ‘Desert View’s’ penthouse suite. Briefly Cal wondered who occupied the second penthouse suite and hoped they were nice and quiet people because he liked his peace. As Cal entered the suite he remembered the last time he’d been here.

It had been the beginning of June when he’d checked into the same penthouse that he’d just entered. Cal had come to Roswell with the best intentions and had everything planned. First he would check on his charges, find out as much as he could, then he would approach Max first, apologise and offer his services, then he would meet everybody else do his very best to teach them all they needed to know. But alas, as it often goes with the best laid plans…
*~~*~~*
Cal remembers: Bad vibes, 06/01/2000, Thursday
As a first action he had come to Roswell himself and checked on his charges. But after two days in town he felt another shape-shifter arrive and had to leave in a hurry. Thanking his lucky stars and the fact that he’d been one of the best trained and developed shifters, Cal was able to leave undetected. He’d had just enough time to recognise Nacedo’s vibes. This knowledge worried Cal and that was something he wasn’t used to and he most definitely didn’t like these feelings.

Langley had been so sure that Nacedo had left and he knew that the other shifters’ presence in Roswell didn’t bode well for the kids. He was wondering what the traitor was up to, but couldn’t follow him, damn those vibes, they could be a blessing but in this instance they were a curse, damn, damn, double damn!

Going over his options Cal came to the conclusion, that there was no point in having somebody follow Nacedo since he could change his appearance and stay undetected. That was why he did the next best thing and sent his top notch private eye to keep watch over his charges and have him report back on a daily bases. The reports didn’t sound too good, there was some tension amongst the kids. Michael seemed to be the odd one out, behaving completely irrational, while the others had bonded very strongly.

Langley tried to come back but Nacedo’s vibes sent him right back to California. It most definitely wouldn’t do for Nacedo to find out that he, Cal Langley, had had a change of heart and belatedly started to take responsibility for the kids. The less THAT one knew, the better off everybody was.
*~~*~~*
Hollywood, 08.08.2000, Tuesday
But today when he had received the news of Max’s disappearance, his worry-level had reached new heights. What the hell had happened to his king? Where did he go? And the biggest mystery of all was why weren’t Liz and the others more upset about it? The only thing out of the usual was Michael’s behaviour, and he almost started to look on this as normal.

”Shit, shit, shit!” Cal yelled and added for good measure “fucking shit!” and to his everlasting surprise he found out that, even if cussing didn’t change a situation, it most definitely lightened the tension. This fact distracted Cal for a moment and he followed this string of thought ‘Hmmm, I always thought cussing and swearing was so very primitive, vulgar and most decidedly human. But now I find it relieving too! What a surprise, maybe I just have to use it in moments of stress? Hmmm, I’ll have to think about that some more at a later time.”

Noticing his thoughts were straying, Cal came back to the problems at hand and wished for the Granolith’s help. When they had left Antar, they all had hoped that their precious cargo would bring peace and prosperity to the Galaxies, but later, after everything that had gone wrong and he’d been left alone (the bloody traitor didn’t count!), he’d lost all hope of this ever coming true.

Right now Cal wasn’t even sure why he was thinking of the Granolith. It hadn’t been active in centuries and with everything out of whack as is was, chances were truly meagre. But then again, since swearing did help, maybe it was time to try out some another human customs called hope, belief and trust. He started to think about how to gain one of those. How did he find out which one he needed? Or did he need all three of them? This was more than confusing, but his gut told him it really might help him. Doing the next best thing and yelled “Mercedes!” and went in search of his Hispanic housekeeper.

”Señor Cal, there is no need to yell, my hearing is quite good, I assure you!” Mercedes informed her boss after he almost ran into her. Regaining her composure she inquired more serenely “Señor, what can I do for you?”

”Mercedes, I need to know how I get hope, belief or trust?” Cal was feeling quite embarrassed and hoped his long-time housekeeper wouldn’t laugh at him.

Incredulously looking at Cal the Mexican woman asked “this is what you’re wasting my time for?” Turning away she mumbled “Getting hope, belief and trust, hmpf! You don’t get it, you just do it!”

Before Mercedes could disappear, Cal caught her by her left arm and held her in place “Hey, hey, hey, don’t just leave like that! I was being perfectly serious, you know? What do you mean when you say ‘just do it’?” he wanted to know.

Mercedes looked at her boss, trying to find out if he was truly serious. Not that he was a big joker, in fact, her jefe had no sense of humour whatsoever, but then again, he’d never asked her such strange questions before either. Finding him perfectly serious she tried to explain “Señor Cal, for all those feelings, you know, hope, belief and trust you have to listen to your heart, or I guess what you call your gut. You just have to feel it very strongly.”

Seeing his confused expression Mercedes thought of a way to explain things better. After a while she asked Cal “Señor, when you find a project that you want to make a movie of, do you think ‘it’s probably going to be ok if I do it this way, and than maybe I do this that way, I guess I add this too, because it might be good for it?’” Seeing her boss’ attention on her she continued “or do think ‘I know this is a good project. I’m sure with this and that it will be a success!’”

Noting that Cal still paid her attention Mercedes stated “I’m sure it’s the second one, isn’t it?” at his nod she added “You feel it in your gut, don’t you? It’s a feeling that you have, even when nobody else believes in the same thing and calls you crazy, you just know!’ isn’t that how you feel?”

Again Cal nodded and waited for his employee to continue “Well then, Señor Cal, you can always hope for something to happen, and then if you’re sure and really convinced, you believe and trust that it will be just like that or better! Most of the time it’s going to work, but sometimes it doesn’t and then you have to find a new and better way to get whatever it is you’re hoping to achieve!” Seeing Cal’s understanding nod Mercedes just smiled and left him to his own devices.
*~~*~~*
Cal had a lot of thinking to do and to do that he retreated to his sanctuary, his office. Sitting in his well-used leather chair he leaned back and put his feet on his desk. And as always when he had things to mull over he had a cigar in his right hand and a drink in his left one.

Remembering Mercedes’ explanations, he chuckled ‘isn’t it strange that for my movie ventures I have been doing something akin to what the humans call hope, belief and trust and it’s worked for me for a long time’. Deciding to go with his trusted gut Cal asked himself ’Hmmm, what does my gut tell me about the Granolith, about my king, about his entourage here on earth, about what the hell is going on?’

Relaxing, Cal decided to reach out to the Granolith and hoped that if he believed strong enough and put his trust in the Granolith that he would receive an answer that told him what to do...
*~~*~~*
And now Cal Langley, big Hollywood mogul, had reached Roswell’s ‘Desert View’, waiting for the elevator to take him up to the penthouse where he could wait for more instructions…



TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic.

Take care

Chula



Hello everybody!

My Author's Chat at Roswell Heaven has been postponed.

The new date is:
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Swiss-time 9pm-10pm CET/MEZ (21.00-22.00Uhr) or 3pm-4pm EST



Please come and say hello, I'd like to chat with you!

As always a big Thank you to my beta for all her help. By the way, my beta agreed with you, it was a short part! And the next part is the same. So, today you will get two parts for good behaviour


Enjoy…


31, Another difficult Day ahead, 08/12/2000, Saturday
Desert View, penthouse, 08/12/2000, Saturday 8.00 am
After waking up around 8.00 am and finding themselves in such close quarters with each other, the five in the master bedroom awkwardly got up, some faster than others, prepared themselves for the day and met up in the living room.

The Valenti men were the first ones to arrive and they sat down on the couch, prepared for a long wait, since everybody knew, females just didn’t understand the meaning of ‘getting ready fast’.

Amazingly enough, they didn’t have to wait very long. The first one out was Liz, right after her came Diane and Isabelle brought up the rear. As they joined Jim and Kyle, Diane informed them all of her plan. “Everybody, I decided it would be best if we all went to our house, and, while I call the Whitmans to meet with us, you can prepare breakfast for everybody.”

Turning to Liz she smiled and said “You of course should go home and see how your parents are doing. As soon as I know when the Whitmans are coming I’ll let you know. Of course, you and your parents are welcome to join us before that too, just let us know when you’re coming, ok?”

Letting her gaze wander from Jim to Kyle, then to Liz and last but not least to her daughter Isabelle, Diane asked “or does anybody have a better idea?”

After they all agreed to this simple plan they left the suite together and walked over to the elevator. Just as they reached it, the doors opened and out came a middle aged man. He had a very commanding presence that let anybody know that, this was someone who knew what he wanted and knew how to get it too.

Curiously five sets of eyes followed his walking down the hall and they realized that this man must have booked the other penthouse.

After the group had entered the elevator, they noticed that Liz was still standing in the hallway, staring at the now closed door of the other suite.

Jim stepped back out and approached Liz “hey, you ok?” he inquired. “Huh, what?” for a moment Liz was lost in thought, she tried to figure out the strange feelings she felt from this man. He seemed familiar, even though she knew with absolute certainty, that she had never met him personally. Even stranger was that she knew that this man was no danger to anybody in their fast growing group. Seeing Jim’s expectant look on her, Liz replied “Oh, yeah, I’m ok!” only to add “well then, lets be on our merry way!”

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Desert View, second penthouse…
”Well, that sure was a close call!” Cal exclaimed as soon he closed the door only to continue his monologue “I wonder what’s going on? Why are they all here without Nancy?”

After pondering that problem for another minute Cal decided to let that slide for the moment, since he couldn’t do anything about it. But he would have to watch the other penthouse on top of everything else too!

Sighing deeply Cal Langley crossed to the suite’s mini-bar and looked into it, trying to decide what to drink...
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Rekindled passions, 08/12/2000, Saturday 2.20 am
Returning home after the eventful hours at the Evans’, Nancy and Jeff decided by silent agreement to get comfortable first before meeting in the kitchen, where Jeff started to brew another nightcap.

Cautiously he kept glancing at his wife, not really sure what to think of her newly developing attitude. These changes were downright scary, really, and he didn’t know how to deal with it. As he kept glancing her way, he began to feel intrigued by her and the longer he looked the stronger his feelings grew.

Watching his wife mull over what she had to tell, he found himself getting turned on, actually after a moment he corrected himself and admitted to being as horny as he had been in his best days. Who’d have thought it, Jeff Parker was getting a hard-on just from finding out his wife had developed a badass attitude. This was just too much and Jeff Parker burst into hysterical laughter.

Nancy was torn out of her thoughts by her husband’s laughter and uncomprehendingly stared at him. He looked so funny and something else, something that she hadn’t seen in quite a while, it just left her breathless. Her thoughts strayed from the serious topic of her ‘big secret’ to the more serious one of her husband. Her husband, who suddenly sported a certain glint of excitement in his eyes; one that had been missing for some time. It looked like her man appreciated her sudden forcefulness. This warranted some very serious thinking, hmmm…
*~~*~~*
Jeff and Nancy, hours later…
After Nancy’s unexpected but very welcome overtures, they christened their old kitchen table in a frenzy, in ways that it hadn’t been seen yet. After a glorious finale they ended up in their bedroom, snuggling and whispering like newly-weds. They lay cuddled in bed, relaxing, keeping reality at bay. Contently Jeff mused ‘Who’d have thought that after such a long time, I can still get off, just watching my wife?’

But the time came when they had to face the present and Nancy explained her involvement with her friend and her hotel. Succinctly Nancy recounted how she had gotten involved in the business part of the Desert View. How, after her husband Walter’s death, Iris was swamped with running the hotel, how they tried to hire a manager, but he had different ideas than she. So, knowing about Nancy’s education in Business management, Iris asked for her friend’s help and to their everlasting joy the two women discovered they completed each other perfectly. Together they led an almost bankrupted business to great success.

Ashamed of his past behaviour, Jeff apologised profusely to Nancy and said “Nance, you can’t imagine just how sorry I am that my boorish caveman attitude forced you to lie about something that was obviously very important to you. Can you ever forgive me?”


Revelling in the moment and feeling very forgiving Nancy just smiled and nodded, letting her husband know that everything was as it should be.

To his surprise Jeff discovered great pride in his successful and resourceful wife and beaming he at her, he praised, “Wow, Nancy, you really take my breath away, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m so proud of you!” and chuckling he added, “I always felt so threatened by your higher education, but now… wow!”

A few moments later he added “I think you’re sexy as hell!” and following his words with actions, Jeff lunged on his wife and showed her in different ways just how strong his newly discovered feelings were...
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Certain sparkles and eeewwww’s, 08/12/2000, Saturday 8.30 am
Liz was in good spirits when she came home the following morning. She noticed a big change in her parents. At first she couldn’t pinpoint the difference. Her parents did their daily routines like always, but not quite like always. She just couldn’t put her finger on it. After observing them for a while she found out the very disturbing news; her mom and dad had brought back romance into their marriage! Weren’t they too old for THAT?

While setting the kitchen table Liz scrutinized them closely. They were sneaking glimpses at each other and even worse, they would look at each other and then turn meaningful glances toward the table she was setting for their breakfast. What worried her the most was the certainty, that she was missing something here.

All of a sudden Liz realised exactly what those looks and glances meant and she burst out with “The kitchen table?” and seeing her parents faces flush in a betraying bright red, Liz exclaimed “Mom, dad, on this table? Eeewwwww! And now you expect me to eat my breakfast here?” Conveniently forgetting the fact that Max had done some amazing things to her too, on this same old table.

Her parents managed to turn an even darker shade of red and Liz blurted out “You two are worse than we are!” and realising her mistake she corrected herself quickly and said “I mean, worse than any teenager that I know!”
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Evans Residence, 08/12/2000, Saturday 8.30 am
On their way back to the Evans’ home, Isabelle called Michael and Maria and invited them for breakfast and last minute discussions about bringing in the Whitmans and afterwards Amy DeLuca too. Upon arriving at their home Izzy grabbed Kyle and Jim and dragged them to the kitchen. Together the three of them began with the breakfast preparations.

While the three of them were busy in the kitchen, Diane ran upstairs into her bedroom to greet her husband, quickly changed into some fresh cloths and then sat down to call the Whitmans.

Dialling nervously their number for the second time Diane mumbled “come on, come on, Charles or Claire, come on, answer this darned phone call!”

As Phil walked out of the master bathroom he heard his wife’s monologue and walked over to Diane, put his arms around her and tried to calm her down.

Distracted Diane smiled at her husband and jumped when she suddenly heard a deep voice in her cell answer calmly “Hello”

Agitatedly she replied “Hello, Charles Whitman? This is Diane, you know Diane Evans?”

“Hi Diane, how are you and your family? I hope all is well!” Charles Whitman replied and after hearing Diane’s stuttered “Yeah, eh, yeah, everything is fine” he added seriously “Diane, what can I do for you?”

Realising that she wasn’t making much sense if she couldn’t talk in whole sentences Diane pulled herself together and said ”Please excuse my manners Charles, but something has come up and I’m still reeling from it.”

A very hesitant ”Okaayy?” was Mr. Whitman’s clueless response. He was growing very curious and he wasn’t quite sure how to react to Diane’s strange behaviour. What was complicating matters was that he and Claire both didn’t know the Evens’ all that well. Sure they had met the Evans’ offspring’s a few times, but the parents they mostly met at social functions. So, here he was, confused and wondering why Diane Evans would contact them.

Deciding to go straight to the heart of the matter Diane inhaled deeply and informed him “Listen Charles, this is very difficult to say, so I’m going to tell it to you straight, ok?” While waiting impatiently for Mr. Whitman’s response, Diane tried to formulate her next sentences, but nothing came to mind, so she decided to stick to her first plan, to come out and give it to Charles straight.

Meanwhile Charles Whitman was beginning to wonder what the heck was going on, because as far as he remembered Diane Evans, she had always seemed so normal, but right now, well, he did wonder what the heck was going on? Suddenly remembering Diane’s question he answered “ok, Diane, tell me straight whatever it is that you have to tell me.”

”Ok then, as I already said, something important has come up and it concerns Alex.” “What? Is this a bad joke? If it is, then, then…!” Charles Whitman was beside himself and lost for words but he could hear Diane assuring him that this was no joke, so he listened again.

Panicked, Diane raised her voice and kept on talking “No, Charles, this is most certainly no joke! Please, just let me explain it to you, ok? We’ve learned something tonight and it has something to do with Alex, I swear this is very serious but we can’t discuss it on the phone. Now we would like to invite you and Claire over to our house, where we can sit down and talk about this in peace. The Parkers and all of Alex’s friends will be here also. So, could you two come over around ten? By then we all should be up and ready?”

After a moment’s hesitation and a short discussion with his wife Claire, Charles Whitman accepted the invitation.
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Parker Residence, Liz’s bathroom...
After the very embarrassing moment before breakfast Liz was not really sure how to handle the ‘parental situation’ and decided to leave the grown ups as soon and as politely possible. Diane’s phone call gave her a very good excuse and mumbling about needing a shower before facing the next round of confrontation, Liz disappeared into her bedroom.

Once there Liz walked towards her closet when she caught her reflection in the mirror. She was very grateful to Isabelle for fixing it so flawlessly, and not just the mirror, no Izzi had put her whole room back together again.

As she was standing in front of the mirror Liz stared at her breasts ‘Yeah, it’s just like I thought, my tits are growing bigger, now I not only feel it, no, now I can even see it when I’m fully dressed’ Pulling her t-shirt off she observed her bust closer and mumbled ‘wow, I’m developing a cleavage! I’ll soon be spilling out of my bra!’ Suddenly she started to laugh and said “Max, Max, Max, you’re going to get quite an eye full, when you come back. Oh, boy, I can see you, big eyes and read ears, trying to stay polite and not to stare too much! Yeah, right!”

Broadly smiling Liz let her gaze travel down her bare front, at her tummy. If you looked really hard, you could see a very small bulge there. ‘Hmhmm, I thought so, getting bigger there too, no wonder my jeans start to pinch me around my waist.’ Liz swiped her hand over her jeans and changed them enough to accommodate her growing belly, at least for now.

Staring a little longer at her slowly changing figure she remembered Tess’ words and said to her mirror image “One month pregnancy, huh? Maybe that applies only to full-blooded aliens and hybrids.” Reflecting more on the facts she had Liz continued “Yeah, that must be it. I’m small, expecting twins and I’m 21/2 month pregnant and I only start to show a little. I guess I can safely say that my pregnancy most definitely will be quite a bit longer than one month, I’m thinking it’ll be more like a human one or very close to it.”

After one last look into the mirror Liz grabbed some fresh underwear, her favourite jeans and her red t-shirt that Max liked to see her wear. With her arms full, she walked into the bathroom to take a shower and prepare for the coming day.


Next part in next Post

here's the next part, just like I promised

enjoy...


32, Claire and Charles Whitman, 08/12/2000, Saturday
Evans’ Residence, the Whitmans arrive, 08/12/2000, Saturday 10.00 am
Everybody was assembled in the living room, waiting nervously for the Whitmans to arrive. Diane looked around, observing the seating arrangements; the grownups sat on the chairs and the couch, leaving the loveseat for the Whitmans, the kids had plopped down close to each other, on the floor.

Nervously and uptight Diane checked the room and its occupants, controlling one last time if everything was in order, when the doorbell rang, sounding a lot louder than usual. After throwing a look for help at her husband, Diane turned and walked down the hall towards their entrance door. Just as she reached for the door handle, Philip joined her and together they opened the door and greeted the very nervous Whitmans.

After some tension-filled ‘hello’s and how are you’s’, the Evans’ ushered the Whitmans into the living room. Seeing the serious faces of the other guests, Charles and Claire quickly greeted everybody and sat down on the loveseat. Diane returned to her seat and Philip remained standing.

After offering coffee, tea or soda to the newcomers and assuring himself that they’d settled as comfortably as possible, Phil addressed the Whitman’s by looking at them in turn, saying “Charles, Claire, you must be extremely curious about what is going on, and I.., well, actually we all are very glad that you came, even after such a cryptic invitation.”

Taking a deep breath Philip continued “please, you two, bear with me and just let me say my piece.” And after seeing Charles and Claire’s confused countenances, he chuckled and added “Well, we all know exactly how you’re feeling, because most of us parents have been there. Anyway, since yesterday we have heard and seen such incredible things that our heads are still reeling, but we just don’t have the time to go slowly.”

Seeing the Whitmans go from confused to alarmed, Phil knew his time had just run out and he had to come straight to point. “Ok, as Diane said this has something to do with Alex but before we can come to that, we have to explain the situation to you, give you as much background as possible. If I should omit things, it is because either I forgot them since I’m so damned nervous, or because it would be too time-consuming to go there at this moment. But never fear, you will learn the whole truth eventually, ok?”

After seeing the Whitmans hesitant nods, Philip Evans began to tell the incredible tale of his children’s life on earth. He started with the moment that set the whole alien abyss in motion, with the shooting at the CrashDown and how Max had healed Liz, then he went on to the consequent chase that Valenti gave and to the following persecution by the FBI.

While Claire became more and more upset, Charles became angrier by the minute and finally exploded “Is this some sick joke? What has any of this to do with our son? Do you take pleasure in hurting and upsetting us? Is that it?” Throwing everybody a nasty look he got up, grabbed his wife’s hand and turned to storm out the door.

They were just entering the hall, when suddenly the coat rack moved to block their way out. Shocked they stopped and turned to see Isabelle standing there with her right hand stretched out in their direction.

With tears in her eyes Isabelle begged them “Please, Mr. and Mrs. Whitman, this is all very serious. What my dad just told you is the truth. We aren’t making fun of you and we don’t want to hurt or upset you, but we have no choice. So, please, come back and take your seat.”

After the Whitmans sat down again, Isabelle continued “I realize that you don’t know me very well, but you have seen me with Alex. You also know, that we had just started dating when he died, so you can believe me, that whatever we’ll tell you is the truth. Also, Liz and Maria were your son’s best friends for a very long time. They did everything together, so these two most definitely wouldn’t accept anything less than the truth. Then the Parkers, they too knew Alex very well, he was almost like a part of their family. And then we have Jim Valenti; long before he became a trusted friend to us all, he was the town’s sheriff and could always be trusted.” Isabelle paused for a moment and smiled at her mom and dad and continued “And then of course there are my parents. They didn’t know Alex very well, but they liked him a lot because he made me happy and he wouldn’t accept any nonsense from me.”

Turning back to the Whitmans, Isabelle sincerely said “now, you see all these good people here, they all were in the same situation that you’re in now. The Parkers were the first ones to be roped into this fiasco two nights ago,” smiling at Jeff and Nancy, Izzi added “…and I think they’re still wondering what planet they landed on!” this remark got her a few chuckles.

Becoming serious again Isabelle went on with her explanation “Anyway, yesterday afternoon my parents got involved too. So you see, this is a very difficult situation filled with tensions and anxieties, for everybody, not just you two!”

Taking a deep breath Izzy continued shakily “and then of course there are Michael, Max and I, who have always been petrified of letting anybody into our secret because every time we tell our story we put our lives on the line.”

Seeing the Whitmans’ unbelieving looks, Isabelle clarified “Well you see, if they don’t believe us, they just think we’re crazy. But if they do believe us, it’s possible they get scared and call the FBI’s Special Affairs Unit, and those guys are only too happy to get us. In fact they once abducted Max, held him prisoner for a weekend, until we were able to free him. In the time they had him they tortured him and made all kinds of crazy test on him. He still has nightmares from that experience.”

Beseechingly Isabelle looked first at Charles and then at Claire and implored them “Alex befriended us after knowing the truth about us, you know, that we’re aliens. He helped us a lot and kept our secret. Now I’m asking you, please, whether you’re getting involved with us or not, please, please, keep what we tell you a secret too. We don’t hurt anyone, we just want to live in peace!”

Slowly realizing the seriousness of the situation, Claire was the first one to speak “I can see that you’re all very serious about this. So, as crazy as this all seems, for Alex’s sake I will keep your secret. But I don’t understand why you involve us into your lives at all?”

Charles listened to his wife’s comment and agreed wholeheartedly and he inquired “Yes, I too wonder why we’re here; so far nothing has been said that has anything to do with us, so I’m guessing that there’s more to this story, isn’t there?”
*~~*~~*
All kinds of Tears…
As soon as the Whitmans realized just how serious these informations were, they decided to be open-minded for new and strange happenings. After all, nothing was written in stone.

They sat there, holding each others hands, and waited patiently for whatever was to come. Emotions in the room were flying high and from time to time sniffles, sighs or embarrassed coughs could be heard as the original ‘I know an alien Club’ roughly recounted the most important events since Max had healed Liz.

The kids told the Whitmans of the teacher Ms. Tupolsky and how Alex helped Liz to unmask her as an FBI undercover agent; of meeting Riverdog and how the old shaman showed them the cave with the alien symbols; of the fight with the skins in Coppersummit; of the FBI following them and catching Max; Nacedo and Tess coming into town and some of the complications that ensued; and then everybody grew quiet, for the moment of truth had finally arrived and couldn’t be delayed any longer. Alex’s death…
*~~*~~*
Suddenly they all became quiet, everybody was hoping that somebody else would approach the worst moment in their lives; the death of a dear friend and the following and almost complete break-up of the group.

Jim Valenti decided that as the only adult of the original group he should be the one to deliver the sad information to the Whitmans. Also, in his line of work he’d had a time or two where he had to be the bearer of bad news, so it was easier for him than for the kids.

By the way everybody suddenly looked everywhere else than at the Whitman’s they concluded, and quite rightly so, that whatever was coming next was going to be bad. These feelings were reinforced when the sheriff sat down in front of them, on the little table, carefully avoiding the glasses and coffee cups on it.

Lost for words, Jim stared at his folded hands that were resting on his thighs. Realising that the telling wasn’t going to get any easier by stalling, he inhaled deeply and sighingly said “Claire, Charles, as I can see, you already know that what I have to tell you now is going to be bad, very bad.”

After seeing the Whitmans worried nods Jim added “this concerns Alex’s death, and since there’s no easy way to tell you, I’ll just give to straight.”

Nervously coughing Valenti scratched his right ear and then calmed down and apologetically stated “As you know, the investigations said that Alex committed suicide…” he stopped as he saw Claire rapidly twitching her eyes, trying hard to stop the tears from falling. Charles sat up straighter, stoically looking at Jim but tightening his grip on his lifeline, his wife’s hand.

”You don’t know how sorry I am to bring such grief to you again, but something has come up, and before we can tell you about it, you need all the information on Alex’s passing. And to make matters worse we don’t have the time to ease you into this situation. So, please forgive me for seeming so insensitive, but I don’t have any choice, really, I’d give anything if it meant not bringing you anymore sorrow.” Jim begged them.

Feeling just how badly Jim felt for hurting him and his wife, Charles answered gravely “I know Jim, I understand that you don’t have any other way to do this. We’ve known you for some time now, and you’ve never willfully hurt anybody. So, please, just tell us how it was, Claire and I will deal with it.” Loosing her battle with her tears, Claire sniffed “It’s ok Jim, we know!”

Admiring the Whitmans for their composure, Jim picked up where he’d left off and gently said “You have to understand that we would’ve never said anything about this, because we were hoping to keep you two out off this alien madness, but things have changed…”

”Anyway, our Liz here never believed the story of Alex’s suicide and so she started an investigation of her own. Very quickly she realized that things just didn’t add up and soon she had proof that it was alien related. By that time Maria started to help Liz and then Michael joined them too. Together they found out that they had traitors amongst the group. It had been Tess, the girl whom my son and I opened our home to.”

Noticing the shock on the grieving parents’ faces let Jim stop for a moment. “How?” was all that Charles said, but it was a loaded question.

”Well, Tess had been raised by an alien enemy who didn’t value human life at all, and as a result she felt the same way. But, if it’s alright with you, I’d rather tell you all about Tess later, when you have had a little time to absorb this.” Looking searchingly at Claire then at Charles, Jim waited for their reaction.

As he saw their nods of approval Jim went on “oh boy, oh boy, this is just so crazy!” Thinking of how to proceed he looked around and found everybody staring at him, all were encouraging him to continue, and that was just what he did.

Turning back to the Whitmans Jim announced decisively “My friends, what I’m about to tell now is going to sound even crazier than everything else you’ve heard so far, but let me assure you, it’s the truth and also the reason why we don’t have more time at our hands. Max had to go to a very important intergalactic summit. There he met somebody trustful who informed him that Tess’ baby was Alex’s and…”

”What? No way! Isabelle was his first girlfriend and he was just crazy for her, he’d never have done that to her, never!” Charles exploded, and Claire added “We taught our son right from wrong, he wouldn’t have done that to his girl, not ever!”

After hearing these statements Isabelle spoke up “I know, but you have to understand that Tess had the ability to make people see things that weren’t there. She let Alex see me, so you see, he wasn’t unfaithful at all. He thought he was making love with me…” openly crying Isabelle ran out of the room.

Unsettled Claire addressed Jim “Is that really true? Could this girl do that?” “Bull, that’s bullshit!” Charles angrily yelled “no one can do that, no one! I don’t care what you say!”

By now Maria and Liz who were crying too, walked over to the Whitmans and kneeled down in front of them, “It’s true, really, as much as we hate her and saying anything good about her, the truth is, she actually saved our lives with that power sometimes too.” Maria said and angrily added “the gerbil did everything to go back home!”

Hiccupping through her tears, Liz supported her friend “I’m sorry to say so, but it’s the truth. And now we have to decide about what we’ll do with Zander.” Seeing the inquiring faces in front of her Liz quickly added “Alexander James Whitman, called Zander. That’s what Alex named him as soon as he found out about the baby being his. Also, Alex hoped that you, as Zander’s grandparents, would raise him, with our help, of course.”

Up until Liz said it out loud, the Whitmans hadn’t registered the fact that they were Zander’s grandparents. As it was they looked suitably shocked and let the news sink in before simultaneously exclaiming ”Grandparents, us? Really?” Claire was the first one to recover her voice and inquired “Why didn’t Alex say anything about it?” and added with her next breath “We would’ve helped him; he must’ve known that, no matter what, we would’ve helped him. Right, Charlie?” Still speechless and upset Charles only managed to nod his agreement.

Tearfully Liz answered, “you have to understand that, when Alex learned about his son, he was in no position to let anyone know. It was right before he was killed. We just learned about it ourselves, and only because Alex managed to make a friend with one of the enemies that surrounded him…”
*~~*~~*


due to posting troubles continued in next post

keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best!

this should be the rest


*~~*~~*
Deep murky mush…
Well aware of the fact that everybody in the room was staring at them, some more and some less worried, but staring nonetheless, the Whitmans started to feel like bugs under a microscope. Charles dimly realized that they were all waiting for some kind of reaction from him, but his mind just seemed to have turned to some deep murky mush.

While he sat there on the loveseat beside his wife in the Evans’ living room, Charles began to wonder ‘have I now completely lost it?’ That brought the next question ‘what was IT?’ He risked a look around the room, and seeing all the worried, expectant faces he decided that it was safer to just stare straight ahead; at least until he could figure out what the heck was going on.

After a few more minutes he glanced at his wife and not for the first time in his life Charles thought ‘how can she be so calm? I wish I was more like her; she’s always so well grounded and strong. Even in a crisis she can open up to people, listen carefully and then she comes straight to the point!’

’Straight to the point!’ that thought brought him back to reality, ‘what’s essential, I have to find out what’s essential, that’s it!’ By now Charles could hear the others murmuring amongst each other but he knew he had to clear things in his head first, before he could respond to them.

”I need a moment to talk with my wife” Charles informed them all and added “privately!” then he grabbed Claire’s hand and led her through the sliding door onto the patio.
*~~*~~*
The Whitmans private discussion…
After carefully closing the sliding doors Charles turned towards his wife and tried to think of something smart to say. As nothing fitting the occasion came to mind, he silently cursed his bad luck. He knew he was brilliant in all things to do with computers and programming; then he could talk everybody’s ear off, he could spout off idea after idea, hold speeches and all that jazz. But in any normal everyday situation, or when dealing with aliens or grandchildren, he just somehow bumbled along, became so shy and incompetent that people who didn’t know him felt sorry for him.

Even now, Charles was searching for anything meaningful to say but in the end he just blurted out, ”Oh boy, Claire did you hear all that? Did you? Right now I can’t tell you what’s harder to believe, that aliens do exist or being a grandpa!”

“I know!” cried Claire and added “my head is spinning, my thoughts are all muddled, but through it all, I feel like we are given this incredible gift, you know, like Alex isn’t completely lost to us”

Teary-eyed she looked at her husband and snivelled “I mean, this baby won’t replace Alex, but he is a part of him. And just imagine, if Alex wants us to raise his son, he must’ve been happy with us, you know, with the way we raised him.”

“Don’t you think we’re a bit old to raise a baby? Just think about it, Claire, our son was already a teenager, actually almost out of high school. Now, to start with a baby again; are we up for it?” Charles felt insecure and started to worry, remembering the times when his son had been very young. As much as he loved Alex, he had always felt helpless, never really knowing what to do with him. It was only in the last few years that he and Alex had found a lot in common. They both were computer freaks; there was nothing they couldn’t hack their way into.

Voicing his fears Charles said “Claire, do you really, honestly think we’re up to raising a baby? I mean, I can see you doing it, but I don’t know about myself. I’m sure you remember how I was with Alex, I was really awkward and you know it!”

Soothingly Claire replied “I remember Charles, you always thought it was much more difficult than it really was. You always tried too hard, but now you have been given another chance. WE have been given another chance.” Trying to ease her husband’s fears she added “and this time we will have a lot of help. You heard them in the there, they all offered their help.”

Taking a moment to reflect on his wife’s words Charles came to a decision and suddenly found himself resolutely stating his thoughts out loud, “You’re right Claire; we can do this, especially with all the help we’re getting. And, just imagine, this time around I want to be more involved, take more time for our little one. I’ll be there every step of his way!” Hearing his own words strengthened his resolve and Charles Whitman declared “We were trying to give a new meaning to our lives, now we are given the greatest chance possible!”

Grabbing his wife’s hand he pulled her toward the living room and said “let’s go in and find out what we have to do to get our grandson” and with a new sparkle in his eyes he added “come on, grandma!”

Brimming with new found hope, confidence and purpose Charles and Claire strode, hand in hand, to meet the others and into a brighter and more exiting future…



TBC

Thank you very much for reading my fic.

Take care

Chula


Hello everybody!

My Author's Chat at Roswell Heaven has been postponed.

The new date is:
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