Roswell Fanatics

She'd felt it slipping - it had gotten so she could tell. In the ten and a half months since the accident Liz Parker - well, Liz Evans now - had gotten so she could tell when whatever part of her brain that allowed her to have self-awareness in the Abyss was getting just too fatigued to continue. She'd be lucky to get through Isabel's congratulations to the two of them

Perhaps it was all the excitement - and Liz was surprised to find just how excited she was considering it was just a dream - perhaps it was just the passionate thoughts that this event had provoked within her - even before the accident she'd had recurring daydreams of Max wandering in to the girl's locker room and catching her alone in the shower - not that she'd ever dared to see THAT dream through to its fruition. And it appeared that now she wasn't going to be able to see this one through to - to what? - consummation was the term she decided to use.

No, there wasn't going to be any consummating - certainly not on this occasion in the Abyss she thought as she felt herself slip back into the non-awareness of the coma. She had time to reach out just briefly - time for one last kiss .....


Max came awake in his bed - his last memory of his new bride standing on her tiptoes in the Abyss to kiss him. His fingers touched his own lips with a smile - remebering the softness of that gentle kiss.

He looked at the alarm clock - it was 3:35 AM - and wasn't entirely surprised when the door quietly opened.

"Hi Max," said Isabel, coming over to sit on the edge of his bed. I'm sorry that couldn't have been a little longer - I could tell Liz was getting tired halfway through the service - I wasn't at all sure she would get through it."

"That's OK, Iz," he said, smiling in the near-darkness, "... it was ...wonderful."

"It was, wasn't it? I just wish ... you know, that it could have been real."

"It was real for us ... well, for me anyway..."

"Look, tonight when we go back - I realize that you two will want some private time. I can wander off as far as I can - maybe ten or fifteen feet. I won't be able to see anything - not that I'd look anyway you understand...."

"Don't worry, Iz. I'm sure we'll work something out. Don't fret over it - OK? It's still the middle of the night and we've both got things to do tomorrow, so why don't you get back to bed?"

"OK. Max, I love you - and Liz too, I wish it could be different."

"I haven't given up yet, Iz. I have a few things I intend to try. Don't worry about me - I'll be alright."

Isabel went back to her room, hoping that Max would be alright. In fifteen minutes she was back asleep, in a dream-orb with Alex shortly after that. Fifteen minutes later, Max was driving the Jeep through the desert.

Five hours later the dying cells in Liz Evans reticular activating system had rested enough to permit the Abyss to form again, and Liz found herself alone. It wasn’t particularly surprising. Almost two out of three times she was alone in the Abyss. While Liz would have been the first to admit that her dreams of Max and Isabel had made a huge difference in her feeble existence, complete solitude still marked the majority of her self-aware hours. Although the last episode of that dreaming had been a particularly happy one, Liz didn’t expect much of this one. She wasn’t altogether sure that any subsequent dreams would be nearly as good – although she had some hope that she could perhaps at least relive parts of the last one. You see, Liz had somewhat of a history of dreaming about Max Evans.

Yeah, the real Max wasn’t as outgoing as her dream ‘husband,’ but that didn’t mean that she hadn’t felt an attraction to him. Since seventh grade actually – the first year of school there had been organized physical education classes – with a real gym – lockers – and –most especially – showers.

Although Liz didn’t precisely consider herself a prude, she also wasn’t exactly what you’d call forward either – or even flirtatious. She’d only ever told one person – Maria – about the recurring dream – a dream where she was alone in the girl’s locker room showering – and Max walked in. It was always the same – there she was – naked – wet – and he would walk up to her – his eyes somewhat surprisingly on her eyes and face rather than her nakedness. He’d kiss her and lead her away and they’d find some soft quiet place where he would lay her down...

Then his mouth would start with her lips – work its way down her neck – linger gently around her breasts for long seconds before plunging down her lower abdomen. She’d hear him sigh and feel his fingers caress her – then continue down the inner surface of her thigh as his mouth worked its way slowly back to her mouth as he positioned himself above her. Then she’d wake up. She'd always wake up.

It was incredibly erotic - in a very frustrating sort of way. She wasn't sure - but perhaps that dream more than anything had kept her from pushing her handsome friend for a more meaningful relationship than simply Sophomore Biology lab partners. Maria had recommended that she do something to get his attention for years. She'd actually told Liz to invite Max up to bottomless lake and then go skinny-dipping with him - that that would surely get his attention, and perhaps it would have. But she hadn't ever done it. Partly perhaps it was that she wasn't as outgoing as Maria - she could actually picture Maria doing something like inviting a soaking wet Michael Guerin in to her bedroom - and bed - like dream-Isabel had claimed. But apparently she just didn't have that 'hot Italian blood,' as Maria had called it. Or perhaps it was just that had she actually really tried to enrapture Max with her feminine wiles - something she wasn't altogether sure that she had - she was pretty sure the result would NOT be as erotic as that dream.

But as erotic as it had been - and as many times as she'd dreamed it - the dream had never really been consummated -even as a dream. Perhaps if she'd known that this was to be her fate - trapped in this limbo between life and death - she'd have given it a chance - pushed for a more romantic relationship with Max, despite his tendency to be distant. At least in retrospect - she thought she would have. But maybe not. After all, even in her current dream - there had been been Isabel, aka Jiminy Cricket.

Even in this dream, there had always been Isabel. And while this dream- Isabel was friendly - fun - in many ways someone she wished she'd long been friends with - her very presence suggested to Liz that her subconscious still wasn't ready to let her - well - let go. Of course, she'd never dreamed of being actually married to Max before. Marriage - and the vows she'd taken, even though she knew it was a dream - did have somewhat of a bilateral commitment to it that she'd never really factored into the equation before that. Still - she somehow couldn't see her and Max just - doing it - with Izzy hovering in the background - assuming of course that she could bring herself to do it at all - even in a dream.

"Good morning Mrs. Evans," came the voice behind her.

"Max? What are you doing here? And where is Isabel."

"Well, since it's Saturday morning, she may be sleeping in - especially if Alex is sleeping in and has a friendly dream-orb for her to visit. Otherwise she's probably getting up to breakfast about now."

"But - I thought you needed her to dreamwalk me? How are you doing this?"

"Oh, we alien-human hybrids - we have our ways...," said Max with a smile. "I only need help from Izzy to dreamwalk people from a distance. If I'm close enough, Mrs. Evans, my dreamwalking skills are perfectly adequate."

Liz smiled. Something about the way Max had said 'Mrs. Evans' to her - twice - told her she was going to get to test her ability to really go through with 'it.' Whatever else happened, this particular time in the Abyss was certainly going to be ....interesting.


It was also interesting at the Rose Haven Nursing home. Jim Valenti got out of the patrol car and walked up to the Deputy.

"This is Mrs. O'Hara, Sheriff. She's the night shift supervisor. Apparently the girl was abducted sometime between 1AM and 8:30. That's when the person bringing the girl's tube feeding noticed she was missing."

"It was a very busy night - we had several unruly Alzheimer patients - but even so - there is no way this should have happened - there was always someone around who could have seen anyone - unless they came through that back door - and that has an alarm."

"Is the alarm working?" asked Jim.

"It works this morning," said the Deputy. "But I think she's right. That back door was the only way that she could have been taken out unobserved. We are getting the videotapes from the monitor in the hall right now. That ought to tell us something."

"Has anyone let the Parkers know?" asked Jim.

The Abyss was dark and foreboding as ever - but somehow it didn't feel that way to Liz. Not as she looked in the amber eyes of the smiling face before her. Even if he was just a dream - he was an entertaining one.

"So," she said, her hands on her hips and looking up at him with a smile, "...you're still giving me the story that you are some kind of an alien - and in the real world you have spirited my earthly body off to your batcave?"

His eyes seemed to twinkle as he smiled back at her.

"I said alien-human hybrid, and that's a pod-chamber, not a batcave. I'm not the caped crusader, Liz..."

"But you do have super powers - you just can't use them...."

"They don't work in here, Liz, because it's a dream world - your dream world, and a damaged one at that. In the real world I have some special powers and if I ever get you to open your eyes - even for a little while - I'll show you exactly what those powers are."

His closeness in the dream seemed to have some sort of power over her anyway, she decided. She felt herself flushing, as her eyes passed over the shirt he was wearing - wondering what he looked like underneath. She shook her head - watching him watch her sudden interest in his pecs - and flushed deeper.

"A hybrid, huh? Did you hear the story about the genetic engineer who tried to make a hybrid of an abalone and a crocodile, Max? He wanted something that would grow fast like a crocodile, but whose flesh had the exquisite taste of abalone. He was going to call it an abadile Max, ... but what he wound up with was a crock of baloney... That's what I think your story is - a crock of baloney."

"Well, I never expected you to be a submissive wife - but I gotta admit, I expected the honeymoon to last a little longer," he said with a look like a puppy someone had just swatted with a newspaper as he knelt at her feet. She had to laugh, and she reached out to hug him to her - instinctively burying his face in her chest. She knew immediately that was the wrong move if she was going to win this argument - but somehow that didn't seem important as she felt something like a flock of butterflies suddenly take wing in the pit of her stomach ... and her areolae start to feel warm where they pressed against his face.

"Uh.... Max, about that honeymoon. You are always wearing that same outfit when you are here ... why is that?"

"Uh - I'm not sure, Liz. It's your dream after all. This is sort of the outfit you must have visualized me in when you first perceived the echo of my aura in the dream-orb. In a normal dream-orb I'd be able to manipulate things a little bit, but you'd be able to manipulate everything. But this dream-orb isn't normal. Izzy says she thinks that at this level of consciousness you have trouble accessing very many of your memories - or perhaps you just have so little consciousness that you can't store much. You are the only one in a coma she's ever dreamwalked - me either for that matter."

"Well, I'm delighted to hear that I'm your first - that you don't just marry every comatose girl in the world, Mr. Evans."

"Actually - I think the alien part of me is monogamous, Liz. I just can't imagine ever loving anyone except you - I know that humans do that sometimes - but I can't even picture that. Michael says he feels the same way about Maria."

"So what you are saying is that if I chose to wear something else - as long as it was an outfit I was real familiar with - I could probably do that?"

"Probably. It'd have to be something really familiar to you though - otherwise you'd probably get something generic to wear - like you have on now."

Liz looked at him and smiled. It was only a dream - and in this dream he was her husband after all - and her favorite outfit when dreaming about the real Max had always been....

Max felt a ripple pass through the Abyss as it adjusted to a change in the reality. Before his mind really realized what had happened Liz stood before him - looking like she'd just stepped out of a shower. His jaw slackened momentarily before he said with a smile, "Now that, Mrs. Evans, is what I'd call a great ensemble for a honeymoon. Why are you dripping wet though..? Not that I'm complaining."

"What -oh..." Liz blushed despite herself.... this wasn't real she kept telling herself ... and they had said their vows anyway. Somehow she made the drops dry up while assuming a pose somewhat reminiscent of September Morn.

She looked up at his obviously appreciative glances and said, "Your turn, mister..."

It had been meant more as a joke than anything else - but that wasn't how it turned out. With just a quick ripple, his clothes too disappeared. He was absolutely as good looking in the buff as she'd always imagined him - which something in the back of her consciousness said made sense - she was imagining him now after all.

It all seemed to move in a blur then as he held her to him, then gently picked her up. He kissed her gently and placed her on the floor - which seemed to soften beneath them.

Then his mouth started with her lips – worked its way down her neck – lingering gently around her breasts for long seconds before plunging down her lower abdomen. She heard him sigh and felt his fingers caress her – then continue down the inner surface of her thigh as his mouth worked its way slowly back to her mouth. She watched as he positioned himself above her knowing that this was where the dream always stopped.

Liz inhaled sharply as she felt him enter her and he froze instantly. "Did I do something wrong?"

"I don't think so... ," she said as she placed her hands on his back and slowly slid them to his hips before pulling him gently toward her. She'd heard that this would be painful -read it in a magazine too - at least at first. But it didn't feel painful, just - right. She swallowed several times and tilted her pelvis back to allow him even deeper penetration, closing her eyes as she felt him against her - inside her - his breath against her face.

They lay unmoving for almost a minute until Max started making gentle movements to press closer to her - deeper in her. Liz felt her rhythm quickly find his and she seemed to lose all control of her body in a way that would have been totally frightening if she hadn't seen his loving face above her. The same magazine had said that you didn't get an orgasm on your first time - that it might take months for that to happen as you became comfortable with your new mate. The magazine was wrong about that too she discovered.


Back at the nursing home, a different sort of emotional scene was playing out.

"I tell you that's Max Evans," shouted Jeff Parker. Jim Valenti nodded. It was the second time they'd run through the security tape. Jim had to admit that it did look like Evans, although the tape had been recorded and re-recorded so many times that the quality of the image was too poor for any forensic purpose. Perhaps with computer enhancement - but he thought not even then. Whoever he was he had come to the back door and somehow opened it without setting off the alarm. He'd gone down the hall to Liz Parkers room, been there only briefly, but apparently had scooped the comatose girl up in his arms and carried her out the back door and walked off into the desert behind the nursing home. There was an old road back there - at least a quarter mile away - but the time/date stamp showed that this had occurred over five hours ago. God alone knew where the guy - and Liz Parker - were now.

"We'll go question Max Evans, Mister Parker."

"Question him? Let me speak to him. I'll beat the information out of him - where he took her - what he did with her..."

Jim shook his head. "You need to calm down, Mr. Parker, and let us handle this."

It was still the Abyss - but Liz hadn't believed that anything anywhere could have been more wonderful than her dream of their first coupling there. But she would have been wrong. Apparently there was a learning curve for this too, she thought as she lay there with him - as soaking wet from their shared sweat and passion as she'd been when she had actually been in the shower-dream. Of course were she inclined to be technically correct - she wasn't - she wasn't really in the Miss Scientist mood right now - this was still their first coupling since they'd never really uncoupled.

She'd managed to hold him inside her - even though dream-Max seemed to pretty well have spent himself in his own orgasm. They'd just stayed together - giving one another soft kisses and gentle caresses. Eventually - she wasn't sure how long it had taken - it had all been very pleasant - she'd felt his presence inside her swell and they were soon exploring the depths of even greater passion. For her it had been like a roller coaster. Dream Max was a kind and considerate lover - but there were times that neither one seemed to have any semblance of control in the process. Eventually physical exhaustion seemed to have caused them to throttle back to their present status - clinging to one another in a warm moist total-body embrace - still not really uncoupled.

Unfortunately, Liz could feel it start again - no, not that - she wouldn't have thought that to be in the least unfortunate. What was unfortunate was that she felt her mind start to fatigue - and knew that soon the Abyss would dissolve again.

"That was - unbelievable..." she said.

"I sort of enjoyed it myself, Mrs. Evans."

She looked at him and smiled. 'If only it could be real,' she thought. "I read a sign in a store once," she told him. "It said, 'I know the voices aren't real, but sometimes they have pretty good ideas.' I feel sort of like that right now."

She had been happy when she said it, but she saw the brief flash of pain in his eyes as he heard it. Even in the few seconds before the Abyss dissolved she was angry with herself. It had been such a beautiful dream - and she'd spoiled it with that comment. No he really wasn't - couldn't be - Max. But that brief look of pain was exactly how she imagined Max would have reacted to that comment - which only made sense of course. Nonetheless - it had flawed what would have been a perfect dream. As the Abyss started to dissolve around her, Liz made a vow. As lovely as this dream had been, she would never again comment about Max or Izzy not being real. Even if they were only figments of her imagination - they were an illusion that she treasured. Why dwell on the fact that they were only illusion - particularly when it seemed to bother the illusion? They deserved better than that.

As the Abyss dissolved around him Liz dissolved from around him as well. The loneliness of their parting bothered him - as had the reminder that Liz hadn't considered any of this real. Of course, the first time Izzy had sleep-walked him, he hadn't believed it either. Only after she'd talked about it to him in the real world afterward did he really know it hadn't been a dream. That just couldn't be helped.

But he shook his head and opened his eyes and looked at the young lady next to him on the Aerobed.

She was pale and wasted - only a shadow of the vibrant young girl he had just left in his dreams - but he loved her just as much - if considerably less physically. He moved over and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. He needed to get up. There was much to do.

He got two bottles of Ensure from the stockpile and filled the plastic bag that fed Liz's feeding tube. He checked her diaper briefly to make sure it didn't need changing. With luck he would have time to brush out her hair and do some of her range of motion exercises before Izzy showed up - no doubt madder than the proverbial wet hen.

But that was OK, he thought. He could handle Izzy. Right now though, he had a wife to care for.

Jim parked the cruiser in front of the Evans house and walked up the driveway toward the back door. The Jeep the Evans kids drove was backed into the driveway - that at least was somewhat reassuring - but he had to agree with Jeff Parker - that had looked an awful lot like Max Evans on that video.

Jim wandered over to the Jeep and rested his hand softly on the hood. The desert cooled off quickly at night and he wanted to see if the engine were warm or cold. The hood was hot enough to cook eggs - but unfortunately so was the fender. The black matte finish of the Jeep was already hot from the morning sun. The warm hood meant nothing....


Inside the house Isabel had finally come down from her room - her parents already finished with their breakfasts.

"Aha...," said her father to her mother, with a big smile, "... the first of my lazy children makes her appearance. Now if only her brother will roust himself, we might get breakfast done before lunch. What'll it be, Iz? Pancakes or ... pancakes?"

"Pancakes will do fine, daddy. Go easy, OK? It's Saturday. Besides ... I don't think Max slept well last night," said Isabel, thinking that Max had probably wished that Liz's time in the Abyss had lasted a little bit longer after the wedding. No - he probably had lain awake wishing all night that it had lasted a lot longer than it had. But tonight would be another night - although a honeymoon for three was no doubt going to have its fair share of awkwardness. That thought was interrupted, however, by the knock on the back door.

"Sheriff Valenti...," said Diane Evans, "... do come in. "What are you doing on this beautiful sunny day?"

"Well," said Sheriff Valenti, "... actually I was wondering if I could talk to Max?"

"I'll get him, mom," said Isabel, going up the stairs two at a time. Whatever this involved, she couldn't see how it could be good. She wanted to give her brother time to get the cobwebs out of his brain, not just talk to the Sheriff while he was half-asleep. But the bed was empty. What was worse, the bed was made.

It wasn't that Max was a slob - he could be neat as a pin when he was doing an experiment in science class with his lab partner. It was just that he always considered making his bed sort of - optional. His reasoning - that it was his room, he was entitled to his privacy, and nobody should be going in there anyway hadn't convinced their parents when he was younger, but as they hit their teenage years their parents really did give them a lot more privacy. Max had won his battle over making his bed simply by perseverance. But this morning it was made - neat as a pin. That implied not only that he was gone - but that he didn't expect to be back for a while.

Isabel turned around and went downstairs.

"Uh, Max has already left...," said Isabel.

"The Jeep is outside," said Jim Valenti.

"Did he tell you where he was going?" asked Diane, looking at Isabel. "I wasn't aware he was going anywhere this morning."

"I think that Michael may have picked him up on his dirtbike this morning. Something about cleaning some of the equipment they used while they were camping, I think. Then I believe they were going riding off in the desert," said Isabel who had heard nothing of the sort, but already was starting to get a real bad feeling about the Sheriff asking after her brother.

"Is there something that we can help you with, Sheriff," asked Philip.

"Well, the situation is this; Liz Parker is missing. She was apparently taken from the nursing home she was in early this morning."

"Why would that involve Max?" asked Diane. Jim Valenti appeared to be struggling to word something just right, but her mother preempted his reply.

"You suspect our son?" asked Diane.

"We are looking at all leads, Mrs. Evans. The security video camera caught the kidnapper but the room was at the end of the hall and the quality of the picture wasn't the best. All I can say is that it certainly could have been Max, based upon the video, and we'd like to talk with him - find out where he was at that time."

"Well, I'm sure he was right here in his own bedroom," said Philip, "... I'm sure he was here all night - at least until he went riding off on that motorcycle."

"That may be true, sir, but as I'm sure you realize, we need to follow every lead."

"I understand. But I really do doubt that my son could be involved in something like an abduction..."

"In fact," said Diane, "... he's probably just going to be devastated when he hears about it."

"I'm sure he is, Mrs Evans. But we still need to check this out. I'd appreciate it if you'd give me a call as soon as you talk to him. Oh, and - please tell him to stay away from Jeff Parker. Jeff's a little distraught now, and .... well, he's pretty sure it is Max who did this. I don't want those two getting together until this is all straightened out and Liz is back and safe."

"Thanks, Sheriff. I think I understand. We'll do our best to get in touch with Max and tell him, but Sheriff - when you question him his mother and I expect to be there - if not as his parents, then as his lawyers."

"I sort of expected as much. Here's my card with my private number. Call me personally when you find him."

As she watched the Sheriff walk down the driveway, Isabel turned to her parents. "I'm going to go over to Maria's and pick her up. She and Michael go for rides on the dirtbike all the time. She may know the area that they are riding in."

"OK, dear. Your father and I will wait here - since Max hasn't had breakfast yet and Michael never turns down a home-cooked meal, they may well be coming back here soon."

"I hope so," said Isabel, who wouldn't have bet a penny on that actually happening. Still, actually picking up Maria would be a good idea. She could help watch for anyone following. She might also, Isabel decided, be able to think of a reason to stop her from wringing her brother's neck.


It took Izzy exactly seven minutes to get to the DeLuca residence. She jumped from the Jeep, almost before it stopped moving, and was quickly knocking on the door.

"Hello Isabel."

"Hi, Mrs. DeLuca. Is Maria around?"

"Sure, come right in..."

"I can't stay, I've got to go look for something. I was wondering if Maria could come along and help?"

"Hi Iz...," said Maria as she came into the kitchen. "I thought we were going to meet later at Liz's room?"

"Uh.... I lost something - I'd like you to help me look for it," said Izzy, pleading with her eyes.

"Uh, sure. I'll be back later, OK Mom?"

"OK. Just be careful you two. There are a lot of crazy people out driving the streets these days."

'Yeah,' thought Isabel, '... and that brother of mine is going to turn me into one.'

They were half a block down the street when Maria finally asked, "OK. Iz- what did you lose?"

"Two things, actually. Liz .... and my brother. Bet you a Martian Blast Sundae that the two are related - closely related."

"What do you mean - lose?"

"I mean that someone who looked a lot like Max abducted Liz from the nursing home this morning. Now both of them are gone. I can't BELIEVE he would do something this stupid. No, actually that's not true. I CAN believe he would do something that stupid. If I didn't I guess I'd be even more upset. That would mean someone else had abducted her. At least Max - whatever ELSE I'm afraid he may be doing to her - wouldn't do anything that would actually hurt her."

"What do you mean - whatever else...?"

"I MARRIED them last night. But of course - it was only in a dream and Liz didn't even really believe it was happening. But it was something I knew would cheer them both up and they had been getting kind of - frisky - but it doesn't matter. What the two of them do in a dream is one thing but if my brother... He's been obsessed with her since third grade, but after junior high school - Oh God - this can't be happening. Maybe he is stalking her - and I encouraged it. I mean of course she wanted him in the Abyss - we were the only company she had. If the two of them wanted to do a little virtual hanky-panky, I was willing to look the other way - quite literally...."

"Iz - watch out for that boulder," Maria screamed as they left the road suddenly. "Where in hell are we going?"

"To the pod chamber. Watch behind us - see that nobody has followed us. We need to get there before Max actually decides to do something like consummate the marriage ceremony that I HELPED THEM TO GO THROUGH WITH in the real world. AAGH! - my brother is insane to do something like this - to take advantage of someone who was his friend but who - before her accident and all her isolation - wasn't interested in him at all that way."

"Izzy -STOP!"

"We can't, we have to get there before..."

"Izzy, STOP!" Maria said, turning off the ignition. The Jeep engine quickly died and the vehicle coasted to a stop in the desert.

"Mariia!"

"No!" said Maria, pulling the keys out of the ignition. "You are going to listen to me - and you are going to slow down before you kill both of us. Liz was never disinterested in Max. Liz has been obsessing about your brother since seventh grade that I know of - maybe before that. She has had a running fantasy of your brother ravishing her in the girls locker room as she steps out of the shower. The attraction isn't the desperate longing of someone too devastated by loneliness to know what she's doing. She was working up to making a play for Max - even before the accident. It would have happened - eventually - she was just too damn shy."

"Well, that's no excuse for kidnapping and - my God - rape."

"Would it even be rape if Liz gave her consent? I mean - not that I think necessarily that - that -is why Max took her."

"How can she consent? She's in a coma?"

"But she married him..."

"But she thought it was a dream."

"Well, it was a dream - but that doesn't mean she didn't give her consent..."

"But...but..."

"But there's a lot of things going on that the law just never considered. It's kind of a moral and ethical knot. I've been after Liz for years to - well, make a play for Max - to at least let him know she was interested. She was too shy. It wasn't that she didn't want to - she was just too shy, and he gave her too little encouragement - and his sister always seemed to be getting in the way..."

"Rub salt in that wound. Look, I'm sorry I kept them apart - sorry I didn't believe humans could be trusted - but you can't be saying you would approve of Max kidnapping Liz and physically - consummating - their relationship? With a comatose girl?"

"I didn't say that, and you don't know that's what's happening. All I'm saying is that you need to calm down and let's go find Max and Liz and find out what the situation really is. And I don't want to die in a Jeep rollover before we do that. If you promise to calm down, you get the Jeep keys back. If you can't promise me that, I'm taking them and walking back to the road where I'll hitchhike back to town. What's it going to be?"

Isabel let out a deep sigh. "Give me the keys. I'll drive slowly. You watch carefully for anyone following us. I'm going to take a circuitous path where we can see if anyone is following. Unless they have another Jeep, they won't have the ground clearance to go where we are going anyway. The trail is pretty rough for any vehicle."

"OK then," said Maria, handing her back the keys.

"Oh....and Izzy?"

"Yes?"

"You must do one hell of a good job giving a marriage service," said Maria with a smirk.

"Shuttup, Maria. It's not funny." No, thought Isabel, it wasn't funny at all. It was kidnapping at the least, and that was a federal offense. It would drag the FBI in to this. They had grown up with the local police - heck, Kyle Valenti was in two of her classes. Maria was pretty sure that Jim Valenti was working up to popping the question to her mother - the marriage question - Maria was pretty sure they were already doing the other. But the FBI - that was another thing entirely. Roswell had come to accept her and Max and Michael as just three local kids. The FBI would look at them from an entirely new prospective. Whatever else happened, this was going to highlight Max and put them all at risk, even if she got Max to somehow return Liz safely.

'And worst of all,' Isabel thought as she slammed the Jeep down a steep embankment into an arroyo, 'this is all taking away from the time I need to figure out how to tell Alex that I'd like to make our own dreams real.'

Maria closed her eyes and said three 'Hail Mary's' as the Jeep plunged down the embankment, her hands clenched to the dashboard while she braced against the floorboards with both feet. How the Hell had Max gotten a comatose Liz to the podchamber over this terrain?' The girl would have been torn apart - even if she was buckled in - even if the driver wasn't a maniac like Iz. Somehow she figured her Spaceboy was involved - probably driving while Max held Liz in the back seat. As Isabel gunned the Jeep up the slope to pull it out of the arroyo Maria found herself hoping she lived to see Michael again - not altogether sure that was going to happen.

"Do you always drive like this, Izzy?"asked Maria, her eyes wide with terror.

"Shuttup Maria. I need to concentrate."

"Yes - please - concentrate." Maria replied, looking around. It would take a helicopter to follow them in this terrain and even that might have problems. Finally the terrain flattened out and Isabel stopped by the face of a cliff. She moved to a spot that looked - to Maria's eyes - like any other spot on the cliff and held out her hand.

"All I have to do is use my powers to open the door - right about here."

"Are you sure you are in the right spot? This place looks just like the rest of the cliff."

"Of course. It's where I was born. I can feel that this is the right spot - just like salmon returning to spawn can find their home river - God, that was NOT the image I needed to think about before I go in and confront my brother and his abducted 'wife.' Please God, don't let Max be doing anything he shouldn't be doing when I open this door."

Maria watched the cliff glow where Izzy touched it, and a circular hole about six foot wide opened beside her hand. Shaking her head in amazement, she walked behind Izzy into the podchamber.

"Are you out of your mind?" Maria heard Isabel ask. She saw Max sitting in a cloth folding chair - next to Liz who was on an Aerobed and propped over on one side with a pillow. The interior of the doorway in the rock wasn't at all what she'd expected. She'd expected - like a cave - with lots of dust and maybe a few dozen desert creepy-crawlies. It was nothing like that. It was clean - well lit - and fairly tidy, despite a rather large collection of food and water and three big pods - one of those apparently in some stage of disassembly. A tool kit was open beside it. There were also books - several dozen books - sitting in a pile by Max's chair.

Liz looked - to Maria - remarkably OK for someone who had been abducted in the early morning hours, and Max appeared to be doing the same range of motion exercises on her right arm and shoulder that she and Izzy had been taught to do by the physical therapists. Max looked up at the two of them and his eyes seemed to brighten when he saw her.

"I see we have a guest. Welcome, Maria, to the ancestral manse - such as it is. No I'm not out of my mind. Did you two walk in from the road? No - judging by the condition of your hair, it looks like Izzy brought you on the jeep trail."

"Road?" asked Maria, in disbelief. She'd just had a near-death experience. "There was a road?" she asked, looking at Izzy accusingly.

"Of course there's a road. You don't think three naked kids survived that jeep trail? We are about a quarter mile - maybe a little less - from the old road to Albuquerque where mom and dad found us. There is a break in the cliff and you have to walk through it but it's fairly flat and easy. It's worth your life to try to drive that jeep trail at night - it's hard enough during the day. I wouldn't have risked Liz's life that way. That's why I had Michael drop us off at the road and why I carried Liz in my arms."

"Max, you can't change the subject. You kidnapped Liz. Do you have ANY idea how much trouble you are in?" said Izzy.

"You carried her in your arms for a quarter mile? That's so - romantic," said Maria.

"Mariia, you aren't being any help at all. Tell him this is insane..."

"If walking from the road is that easy, why did I just ride on a road that made me damn near wet my pants?"

"Because I won't park the car on the road - someone might see it and find this place, that's why. Now let's get back to the subject. We need to get Liz back somehow, and quick."

"No."

"What do you mean, 'no', Max."

"What part of 'no' didn't you understand, Iz? Liz is my wife - you married us yourself. I'm not going to leave her in a nursing home somewhere. They didn't even have enough staff to see me walk out with her, let alone to give her the care she needs. I bet they hadn't so much as turned her since you guys left that afternoon."

"Max, you can't do this..."

"Sure I can - I already have - take a look around."

Maria looked at the supplies and shook her head. "You didn't have time to get all this stuff here before we went to Chicago, did you? Have you been planning this all along?"

"Not really. Some of this is things that the three of us put here over the years. This was going to be our hideout if somehow the secret got out and the government came after us. But a lot of it I brought in when I was staying up here working on finding out the secret to the pods - just in case. The stuff that's just for Liz - that - I brought in over the last few days once Liz accepted my proposal."

"But she doesn't even believe that you are really in her dreams, Max. She thinks that you are just a figment of her imagination," protested Izzy.

"I can't do anything about that, Izzy. Cogito ergo sum, I think therefore I am. I can't prove to Liz that she's not imagining me - it's too improbable. I mean, to the best of my knowledge she's the only girl on Earth married to an alien-hybrid - so the odds against that are astronomical..."

"Well, some of us have hopes along those lines," said Maria, drawing a glare from Isabel.

"But that doesn't change the fact that in THIS world you aren't married to Liz..."

"Yes I am, I made my vows and I meant them. Liz made hers to me. If - no - when - she wakes up and realizes the truth - well, if she doesn't want me then, I guess it's all off. But until that does happen, she is my wife - and my responsibility."

"Max, what about the Parkers? Do you have any idea what having their daughter kidnapped must be doing to them?"

"I can't help that, Izzy. You heard those doctors in Chicago - they have nothing to offer her. I'm the only chance she has left. I think if they understood that - maybe even they would approve - but they wouldn't understand. They think I'm some sort of a sex pervert."

"But you didn't have to kidnap her - Maria and I were going to help the nursing home staff take care of her..."

"She's my responsibility, Izzy. Besides - we were running out of time and things aren't going as well with the pod as I'd hoped. I needed to do this to give Liz - to give both of us - more time..."

"How does this give Liz more time?" asked Maria.

"You heard the doctors say they thought her REM sleep was keeping her alive - stimulating her damaged brain cells and keeping them from just giving up. Izzy and I have been dreamwalking her together - but probably only there for one REM period out of three. The other two she is alone in that dark lonely place. I couldn't dreamwalk her by myself from a distance - but up close I can. I'll stay up nights - take care of her - read my books on astrophysics," he said as he looked at the pile of books and grimaced, "... I've got everything the inter-library loan program could get on time stasis - and figure out how to put her in stasis to stop the deterioration until somehow there is a medical breakthrough or maybe I can think of something else. Besides, what if she wakes up just for a few moments? If I'm there, I can heal her - or at least heal what I can. What if I hadn't gotten from the nursing home this morning. What if tonight she had awakened just long enough to be healed - but I wasn't there. Hell, I bet they didn't even notice her missing until four or five hours after we were gone. How could they have discovered she was awake in time to call anyone if she was just awake for a few seconds?"

"But how does that give Liz more time?" asked Maria.

"Because I can dreamwalk her during the day and Izzy can dreamwalk her during the night. Inside the podchamber night and day is arbitrary once the door is closed. During the time I'm awake Izzy can be dreamwalking her. During the time Izzy is awake - I can be dreamwalking her. We'll miss some times when she's in the Abyss - but we'll cover twice as many as we do now."

"But Max, you can't do this..." protested Izzy.

"Yes, Iz," said Max, "I can and I will. The only question is if you will help or not."

"Bob...," said Jim Valenti, "... since this is a kidnapping, the FBI has primary jurisdiction. You are going to need to give the El Paso office a heads-up ... but tell them we don't think this is a ransom situation and it may be just a - well - an upset friend of an injured person being concerned about her care. Ask them if they'll give us a couple of days to explore that aspect before they get involved, would you?"

Deputy Bob Jacobs shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Well, I'll give it a try. Wouldn't bet on it though." There was always a certain amount of - friction - between the feds and the locals on cases where the jurisdictions overlapped like they did on this one. Recently there had been more friction than usual.


Valenti had just gotten finished with a half hour of talking with the Parkers. Obviously both were upset - and Jeff Parker was adamant that Max Evans must have been involved. The fact the kid was missing - "possibly" riding around the desert with Michael Guerin, his sister had said, had done little to calm Jeff Parker either.

It hadn't really done much to reassure Jim Valenti either, he had to admit to himself. He was fixing to pop the question to Amy before too long, and had been doing his best to get on Maria's good side. These days, that also meant getting to know one Michael Guerin.

Until recently Valenti wasn't just too sure how deeply Maria was involved with Michael, but he'd gotten to know enough about Michael to know where he lived - at least until his settlement came through from child protective services. He'd gone by the trailer immediately after leaving the Evans place, and the bike had been parked out front. Old Hank Guerin said he thought the boy had gone to bed early and been there all night, for all the good his testimony was. Hank was pretty badly hung over which meant he likely was near comatose the preceding night. But Michael had been sleeping soundly this morning and wherever Maria and Isabel had taken off to - well, they certainly weren't going to find the Guerin kid there.

Jim was very concerned that Max Evans might be involved in this - the video did bear at least a strong resemblance to him. Jim had gone so far as to actually consider that Isabel herself might be involved - but it seemed unlikely. Maria was Liz's best friend, and her acceptance of the Evans girl went a long way towards reassuring Jim Valenti that Isabel wasn't involved. The girl had been helping Maria care for Liz for many months. Besides, if she were really involved - would she have even considered taking Maria along?

No, if Max was involved, almost certainly he did this alone - and not to hurt the girl -whatever the Albuquerque PD might think. Max and Liz had been friends since third grade - he remembered them in Kyle's third grade class - and they had been partners in a prize-winning science fair project only two years ago. But Max had always been a shy kid -withdrawn - at least until Liz's accident. Clearly, the severity of Liz's injury had hit the boy hard. It had forced him away from being the largely passive person he'd always been to confront his hidden feelings of affection toward the girl. Perhaps there was an element of sexual interest in her as well - they were certainly the right age for such things. Or perhaps, Jim thought wryly, he isn't even human.

Until very recently Jim actually had wondered about that. Max - Isabel - and Michael Guerin. Their histories had been so similar - they had kept away from other kids - over the years he'd compiled quite a record about them - all circumstantial, of course, but strongly suggestive.

He might have eventually even managed to convince himself had Amy not sent him looking for a towel in the linen closet of Maria's bathroom three nights ago. There had indeed been a stack of towels in the closet, but he'd ignored the top three - two pink ones and one that was sort of a mauve - for the manly-beige one at the bottom of the pile. As he'd pulled it out the box had come with it - falling to the floor from underneath the pile where it had been hidden. He'd looked at it and put it back - the beige towel as well, and contented himself with one of the pink ones.

If his future stepdaughter needed a six month supply of birth control pills - two of them already used - to go off riding a dirtbike in the desert with Michael Guerin, well - Michael at least wasn't any alien - and likely neither were the Evans twins. Probably just felt a common bond with Michael since they too were foundlings.

Jim had considered telling Amy about the birth control pills - but only briefly. Maria was seventeen and certainly knew her own will. Besides - being in the girl's bathroom getting a towel so he could go back and crawl in the shower with her mom after a night of their own lovemaking had left him feeling that making an issue of Maria's love life might be just a tad hypocritical. At least they were using protection - which he earnestly hoped Kyle would do if he made that decision.

He took out a grainy black and white picture taken from the video screen and studied it. It did look like Max Evans.

It was only five minutes later before Jacobs got back to him.


" Well," said Deputy Jacobs, I got some bad news - and I got some real bad news."

"Please - don't make me drag it out of you - what's the problem," said Sheriff Valenti.

"The bad news is that they want immediate jurisdiction. The worse news is that they are sending that flaming asshole, Bob Phillips, to lead their team."

Jim Valenti winced - partly because he didn't like his deputies to use terms like that, mostly he admitted to himself, because he would have to coordinate with Special Agent Phillips. It really wasn't fair to call the man a flaming asshole, he thought. In fact, it was a terrible insult - to flaming assholes.

Sixteen miles away, Isabel looked at her brother, then at the girl on the Aerobed.

"You're my brother, Max ... and Liz is my friend. Of course I'll help."

"Well Liz has been my best friend since childhood. You can count me in. Whatever I can do...."

Max looked at Maria and shook his head. "Actually, I kind of didn't want you to be a part of this, Maria. I felt bad about getting Michael to drive last night, but I needed someone to get the Jeep back home - I didn't want to leave it outside where it might be seen. But I need Izzy in this because she can dreamwalk Liz from town. You and Michael don't have to be involved. Michael has had such an unhappy life until he and you - well - you know - got together. But now he's got the world going his way. He's gat a chance to finally be - normal."

"Normal is over-rated, Max. What's so great about being normal? What Michael and I have isn't just normal - it's special. Part of what makes it special is that I think his friends are pretty wonderful too. Like it or not, I'm in, and I don't think you could keep Michael out of this either. Maybe we can't dreamwalk Liz, but there is stuff we can do.If this does work you will be here for months -years maybe. Even if you had enough food, you don't have enough water. Not to drink and certainly not to wash your clothes or even yourselves," Maria said, looking around at his stockpile and shaking her head, "...although I guess you could keep going a few months if you wanted to wash yourself with Snapple."

"That was Michael's idea of emergency rations," explained Isabel.

Maria smiled and nodded. "I would have guessed as much."

"But she's right, Max," continued Izzy. "It would be simpler if there were three of us involved. We could bring anything you needed out the old Albuquerque road at night making sure we weren't followed. The tcrack in the cliff is almost impossible to see from the road and it's overgrown with brush. We could stop just long enough to unload the supplies and then drive right on. You could either be there to carry the supplies back here or we could leave them hidden in the brush for you to retrieve later. Besides - there might be some books or something you need once you've read the others. You could tell Liz what you need and she could tell me next time I dreamwalked her."

Max nodded his head. They had always stocked the podchamber for weeks - excepting Michael's Snapple cache of course - not for months. If his studies led him to need reference books he didn't now have - it would be handy to have some way to get them - without having to leave Liz for any length of time. It might work better at that.

"OK, I guess Maria and Michael are in too, but be careful everyone. I know that this is going to upset mom and dad, and I'm sure the Parkers are going to be going crazy, but I want them to blame me - not any of you guys. You guys can maybe give them some sort of emotional support, it's going to be tough on them not knowing what's going on...."

"Max, do you think we should tell them? The Parkers I mean?" asked Maria.

"What, you think it's going to be reassuring to know that instead of being abducted by a sex maniac their daughter is in a chamber with an alien who is tinkering with old machinery HOPING he'll be able to save their daughter? Do you really think that would be an improvement?" said Isabel, "I'm going out to get the extra drinks we have in the Jeep. You and Liz might as well have those too."

"What was THAT all about?" asked Maria.

Max grinned and shook his head slowly from side to side as he looked at his sister walk down toward the Jeep. "THAT, I 'm pretty sure, was really about Alex."

"Alex? What does Alex have to do with any of this?" asked Maria.

"That's kind of complicated. In a nutshell - I think Isabel would give her soul to have what Michael has with you with Alex. She's just too frightened to even give it a chance. Of course I can't talk. I was pretty much the same way with Liz - until after her accident."

"But why so paranoid? You aren't all that much different than anyone else - except you have long distance dreams and can pop popcorn without a microwave."

"Yeah, and can cave in walls with just a blast from our palms or pull things to us with telekinesis. Trust me, we've always known we were different - but you're right. We've always considered ourselves more different than we may really be.

Look around you, Maria. We were brought to Earth in these pods - in stasis. I used to think that was something like suspended animation or like frozen embryos in a fertility clinic, but it wasn't like that at all. The pods stopped time - they stopped it altogether for almost fifty years before whatever was powering them ran out. When it did, there was a fail-safe. The pods have incubators in them - advanced ones - but not so advanced I can't understand their technology. I think that the stasis was part of the transport mechanism itself - maybe a necessary part of the faster-than-light drive for the spacecraft - but at least related to it. When the stasis units failed the incubators started. I think that they were only meant to bring us to term - but it didn't quite work out that way. Since no one was here another fail-safe cut in - they just kept us alive - growing - until eventually the nutrients were running out and we were using nearly all the electricity from solar power array built in to the cliff.

At that point, we sort of hatched - naked little kids who appeared to be six or so - but who had never felt the touch of another human - the warmth of a parent's love. While you were in kindergarten learning how to - well - to play well with others - we were here," said Max, pointing to each of the pods in turn. "Me, and Iz, and Michael..."

Maria looked at the third pod - Michael's pod - and tried to imagine him there - just a potential - an oversize fetus that had never felt the beat of his mothers heart - never heard his mother's voice or felt any human touch. It did feel kind of lonely - even to her. Then she imagined him thrust suddenly out onto the floor of the pod chamber - not knowing where he was - not knowing even who or what he was. It was no wonder she and Michael sometimes had communication problems - the wonder was he was as normal as he was.

"If she'd just talk to him - just explain, I'm sure Alex would be OK with it."

"It isn't that easy. I told Liz - that was RELATIVELY easy. But she was in a coma and had no one but Iz and me and the loneliness was almost driving her insane. Kind of like - I imagine - being in a pod - only awake in there. I could feel she needed company - something to keep her sanity - and we could always deny it later - just the imagination of a girl brain-damaged and in a coma.
The real breakthrough was with you and Michael. Not that you got together - although that was sort of cool too - but that once you found out you didn't freak altogether."

Max's eyes seemed to laugh as he looked at Maria and shook his head, "I can't believe you didn't tell him that first night. You know, when you called him 'Spaceboy' and then walked off - he damned near peed his pants. He called Izzy immediately and asked if you really knew. When she told him that you knew - and apparently were OK with it - she thinks he was actually crying on the other end of the phone. I know Izzy was crying on her end.

I don't know if it's the fact that we lost some of our childhood, or that we never really had the human contact, or just whatever it is in our DNA that makes us different, but - well, somehow I bonded to Liz in third grade. I stepped off the bus - saw Liz - and knew I loved her. Michael kind of said the same about you. When he saw you he knew you were the only girl for him in the whole world."

"Michael said that?"

"Yeah, the boy of stone loner himself..., and it's sort of the same way with Izzy. She started dreamwalking Alex in seventh grade and has this great relationship with him - in her dreams. But she's scared to death of losing that and doesn't want to risk him knowing the truth - and maybe rejecting her."

"I can't picture THAT happening."

"Well, I never said we were - normal. I used to think pretty much the same about Liz - that I was at my happiest - the happiest I'd ever know - just being her lab partner. I was wrong and Dr. Worthington was right."

"Doctor Worthington in Chicago?"

"Yes," Max nodded, ",,,you need to start off on the assumption that things are going to be OK - and work to make them that way. Otherwise failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Only ... Izzy isn't quite there yet."