I am in hell, aren’t I? Kate Cruise could not help but think twenty minutes as she was outside the hospital, in the darkness and in the fresh air. Because she could not handle what had just happened.
Everyone has a twin in this world, right? she could remember being told throughout her life. But she never believed it.
All of us are supposed to be unique. Kate would think.
Of course, there twins out there. Genetically linked people who were born at the same time, of the same mother, of the same parents, nine in half times out ten. But this, this did not make any sense, right,
I am in some kind of hell she asked of herself.
As she thought back to the ghost like experience of seeing her ex-husband in the eyes of Michael Guerin. She was sure it was him. And she had moved to this town after her divorce because she needed to get away from her old life. Because Randall had still been living in New York when she and Sierra had moved to New Mexico.
Why we picked New Mexico, I have no idea she thought because it came up in talking with her daughter.
New York was not panning out. Exhausted from the divorce and the battle with her ex-husband. Randall had not fought the divorce or the custody, but still he made it all more difficult so much so that by the end of it, she needed somewhere to go that did not have her ex-husband constantly in her face, given how confusing he was most days. Because the glow of the rebellious man she had fallen for had fallen off the rose, and she was left with a flowerless stem, so she needed to be away from the complications that he always brought to her and their daughter’s life.
Sierra was the one to suggest New Mexico she thought first. Settling here in Roswell, but first going to Goddard High because it was closer to their house, but it did not go well and again
Sierra indicated she wanted to move over to West Roswell.
By then she had gotten her driver’s license so she could drive when Kate did not need the car. Thankfully they lived in Roswell, and it was a small town, and you could walk most of the time. So, they were able to share the car.
Things were going fine
and then my daughter meets River Evans and things had been going downhill since then she thought.
River did seem like a good kid, but Kate was distrustful given her situation with Sierra’s father. Randall rarely was seen and definitely not heard, but she knew he sometimes called their daughter, and she was always agitated after the calls. Because there was something in the father/daughter relationship that soured over the years, and especially in the last few years. Kate did not know what had happened. All she knew was that Sierra wanted to take her mother’s name after they moved to Roswell.
Which was fine with me Kate thought as she stood outside the hospital and thought back to the collision, she had inside the hospital. She did not understand how Michael Guerin could look like her ex-husband, and not be the man.
Sure, now I see they look differently, but not that much she thought so they could definitely be twins she muttered “I am not your ex-husband,” Michael insisted once more as he came out of hospital with his wife, Maria, and the man whose name she knew as Max Evans. “And we are not long-lost twins, if that is what you are thinking?”
She was, for a split second.
“I can see that for myself,” Kate murmured. “This does not make any sense,” she would think as Sierra came rushing out of the hospital behind the Guerin’s. As Kate was trying to process the news that there was someone exactly like her ex-husband in this town, and she had been completely aware of it because they did not exist in each other’s circle,
until we did, she thought, and now blamed her daughter’s relationship
with that River kid “Mom,” she said. “Are you alright?” she was wanting to know because she had heard about the mistaken identity that her mother had when she came out of the room where River was, and Isabel had gone in.
“I am fine,” Kate insisted.
“Mr. Guerin is not Dad,” Sierra insisted even though she herself occasionally had to do a double take when looking at Mac’s father because of the resemblance, but she knew enough about her father to know that the men were completely different. “Nor is he his long-lost brother.”
Although they probably be classified as siblings to make it easier, but they were much closer than siblings.
Kate nodded.
“If you want to doubt it, well, I was just talking to him, and he’s not anywhere near here,” Sierra muttered. “He is returning to the city and wanted me to come to New York this summer for a visit.”
“What did you say?” Kate asked as she knew how combative her relationship with her ex-husband had been by the end and had left relations with the man to their daughter. But Sierra had her own issues.
“What else would I say, I said no.” Sierra muttered. “I do not want to see him.”
Kate could only nod, as she understood because she knew her ex-husband.
And was not in the mood to try to repair the father/daughter bond that had never really existed.
And it was not going to start now.
“I do not get this, because you look exactly like my ex-husband” Kate asked of Michael as Michael also had come out of the hospital. “Of course, you are not the man, and there are some differences,” she thought. “But it’s almost like you are twins?”
More like duplicates Michael thought
clones he thought.
Twins have their differences, even if they are linked, he thought. “We are not twins,” he murmured. “I do not know your ex-husband,” Michael muttered. “Okay, I mean I did meet the man once in my life, and that was how it always was, so, we are not family is any sense. I have that with my friends, and especially in my wife and our son.”
“Then, why do you look like you could be twins?”
And why do you insist you are not?
“It’s hard to say,” Michael murmured. As they did not know how much Kate knew of her own daughter’s status. Or that of her ex-husbands. Because he questioned how much Rath would have told someone he was married too, if she did not know going in. “We are different people,” he muttered.
But of the same creation. Clones are like that.
“I do not get this,” Kate muttered but knew she needed to get out of her, and go home, and get some sleep, and pray for it to all make sense once more. “Let us go home Sierra.”
“I want to stay because River has not woken up yet, and I want to be here when he does,” she insisted of her mother. “I promise I will not stay all night.”
“You better not,” Kate muttered as she did not have the energy to stay and wait with her daughter. “Fine, I will go. But call if you need a ride home,” she asked of her daughter and turned and walked muttering and cursing about her ex-husband.
Once out of sight of the group. “Thank you,” was all Sierra could say. “For keeping it simple with her…”
“What does she know?” Michael asked.
“Not a lot,” Sierra conceded. “Although she knows a bit of it, and she is trying to ignore a lion share of it, and therefore, it has hampered our relationship at times, and it is hard to keep it from her, but you can see how she feels about my father, and most of the time I feel the same about the man.”
“You know…”
“That you are his duplicate?” Sierra asked. “Yes.”
“How?” Michael asked.
“From my father, back when we were talking to each other, and I wanted to see him. He never opened up about his prior life to meeting Mom. So, as far as I can tell, she does not know about my father’s true nature. By the end, my parents had a rocky relationship, but they kept it together because of me, and Mom did not want to leave him, but he was growing discontented you could say, and when it became obvious, I was different, he started to rant to me about this town. How you guys forced him to stay on this planet.”
Oh god Michael and Max thought as they looked at each other. “So, he told me how there was this ship that you guys had control of, and how the only thing he wanted in this world was to get off this planet because life in New York was not treating him well, and he hated it, and his best friend Lonnie found this way in which they could get away from their life, but you guys denied him. Refused to give up the ship, or to take some deal that was being negotiated,” she muttered as flashbacks came instantly to Max of that time.
Of a very bad time. When they were beginning to know way too much, and he had almost died because of the man she was describing. And
his duplicate had already been killed.
I almost took the deal but, in the end, I could not leave Michael and my sister he thought. “And?” he started to say.
“He hated you guys and had a real grudge against you…” Sierra confessed.
“And you?” Michael asked as Mac came out had overheard the last bit, and he was already more suspicious about his best friend’s girl.
“It did not make any difference to me,” Sierra sighed. “But I got turned off by how aggressively my father was trying to turn me into one his pet projects. Trying to make me turn out like him. Trying to turn me against this town.”
“Yet you moved here?” Max asked as he was growing concerned for his son. “You came to our town, and immediately started to date my son. Did you think you could worm in his life, and use him?”
“I like your son Mr. Evans,” Sierra muttered. “I mean I really like him,” she sighed. “Okay, maybe I was conflicted when I first came to this town. New Mexico always stuck in the back of my mind. Even when things went south with my father, and I did not want to see him anymore. Mom wanted to get out of New York, once she came to her senses and decided to divorce my father, so she was all eager to get away, but she did not have any destination in mind because she had been born and raised in New York, and so I thought why not New Mexico?”
“So, you can come to us, with a plan to try to get revenge for your father?” Mac asked.
“No, I promise that never has crossed my mind. All I wanted to do was to know more. When I heard my father’s story, all that stuck out at me was that there were people like me in this world. You do not know how much I wanted to know why I was different. Why I could not be normal. Having my father tell me of people who were just like him, and even the story of how they had sent down two groups of hybrids, and how you guys got separated. You guys came here, and my father went to New York,” she murmured. “I had to know more…’
“We do know something about that,” Max allowed. Knowing that was what they all had been feeling, and
what I am seeing currently in Mariah he muttered to himself.
“So, we came to New Mexico, settled within Roswell, but I went to Goddard High initially. If I had been coming on some long-range plan, I would have immediately come to West Roswell.”
“Or you were biding your time because you eventually did,” Mac muttered.
“Yes, but only because Goddard was not what I expected, and I burnt through that school because it was too small, and not what I was used too, and so, I transferred to West Roswell. I did not know what I was expecting. But not to go to that New Year’s dance, and I see River, even before I knew his name, I was attracted to him. I could see he was different, and he was exactly like me,” she murmured. “Even if he was trying to present himself as something different than me. Which suited me fine.”
“You knew who we were?” Michael asked. “Because your father gave you a game plan to follow?”
“Okay, yes, sure, I knew the players,” Sierra murmured. “Because I did my
own research when it was clear I was different, and I was coming here. I never really had this grand plan. River was not about worming myself into the group. We are together because I was simply attracted to him, and I grew to like him as a person. I could see how sensitive he was. And how he also had a home life that one would consider difficult,” she muttered, and Max’s glance turned away. “Yes,” she murmured as she focused on Max. “So, you can say that we could relate to each other, but I also saw how you were trying to make up for whatever had come before,” she sighed as she knew that Max
was trying, and that was something. “Which is not something I could say about my own father,”
since he wants to use me for his purposes. “So, no, it was never about trying to fulfill my father’s wish for revenge,” she sighed. “I would never do it even if that is what he now wants me too. Because that is why he wants to see me because he knows I am in this town. So, he knows he has a way in, but I do not want to see him.”
Max nodded.
“I guess that would be believable,” Maria murmured even though she did not how to describe what she was hearing….
“Not really, it’s all clearly a rehearsed story.” Mac muttered.
“You do not have to trust me,” Sierra muttered. “I am not asking you too, but I do like River, and I am not trying to manipulate him.”
“Whatever,” Mac muttered as he walked away as Jessica came running out. “River is waking up,” she called and whatever talk they were going to have with Sierra ended with a thud, and they all rushed back into the hospital.
“What did I miss?” Jessica asked as she saw Mac was in a worst mood than even, he was in before.
“A lot,” Mac muttered as he was giving Sierra an evil glare.
Okay, Jessica thought.
What did I miss?
*
River was floating. Although he was not seeing anyone alive or dead in his dreams. He was feeling a sense of weightlessness but felt finally he felt that his eyes were opening, and he looked up and saw white walls all around him.
Perfect, he thought.
Where am I? he moaned as he saw a television on the wall but knew he was not at home, or any home that was associated to his family.
God, why do I feel so terrible he also thought, and even said it out loud.
“Because you ran into Roxy Turner,” came the voice of someone who was instantly recognizable as he looked over and saw his half-sister staring at him. With her little brother in the back of the room. “Where am I?” River wondered.
“In the hospital,” Mariah murmured. “How do you feel?”
“Oh, God, what happened?” River asked because he did not have any memory of what happened,
or at least not yet. “My mind does feel groggy and clouded.”
“You do not remember?” Mariah wondered. “I guess that is to be expected, apparently you took quite the hit?”
Still unable to truly remember, all River felt was tired, and groggy, and his brain did hurt, and he felt the aches and pains in his body,
I guess Dad did not try to heal me? “I remember I was with Sierra. We were in the park, but then it is a blur,” River admitted as he looked around, and once again saw his half-sister’s younger brother. “What day is it?”
“Still the 28th, I think, although truthfully, I have lost track of time,” Mariah murmured
It been one long day she thought. “All I know it was a fight,” she said. “Which I was not part of.”
“No, you were not,” River said as flashes came to him of the escalation.
Oh god Roxy he remembered the troublemaker, but not the kiss. “Roxy, she was there, was she not?” he asked.
“Yes,” Mariah murmured. “Although I do not know if it is my place to really say what was going on. Because Mac and Jessica were also there, although they are only owning up to some of it,” she muttered as she could not help but look over at her
other brother, who was also not talking about what had really gone on at the park. She did not need her trusty but unrefined abilities to know that her brother was bothered by something, and he was not talking, and it was not only their mother’s easy rapport with her biological father, which of course made them
both uneasy.”
“I think I will go tell them that you are fully awake,” Lex muttered as he walked out of the room. Leaving his older sister alone with her half-brother.
“What did happen?” River asked, once again. “Was there mayhem?”
“Of course,” Mariah admitted. “It is all this town is good for, I am finding” she asked. “You guys do not do tame, do you?”
“Believe it or not, things were relatively easy, and then…” River murmured.
“Then what?” Mariah asked although they both knew what he was meaning,
December they both thought, and did not say it, and they just dropped the topic as Max came rushing in, along with Sierra. Mac and Jessica came in seconds later, but it was obvious there was tension in the air, that everyone in the room was conscious of.
“How are you doing?” Max asked of his son.
“Tired,” River muttered.
Max nodded as the doctor moments came in, “I would advise everyone to leave. Only immediate family should stay in here,” the doctor murmured.
“We are all family in here,” Max muttered.
“That might be the case, but I need to be checking on your son, and there should not be all these people,” the doctor would comment.
“I will leave,” Sierra muttered.
“Wait, you should stay” River murmured as he did not want Sierra to leave.
“I am not family,” Sierra sighed as she did not stay, and instead walked right past, and saw the distrust in Mac’s eyes.
Something that River could not help but see, and once the door was closed. “What is going on?” he asked of his best friend.
Something is up he thought.
Clearly, he muttered.
“Nothing,” Max muttered as they had been warned to keep the agitation for another time because they did not know how River would respond. Which he was fine with because he knew it would do nothing son’s state of mind if he knew what was going on “Doctor…”
“Okay,” the doctor sighed.
“We will go,” Jessica muttered as she grabbed Mac by his arms. “Let us get out of here, because yeah, the room is too small.
Things get noticed she thought as once outside in the hallway. “Grow up Mac.”
“You do not know what was going on outside,” Mac muttered.
“Then tell me,” Jessica muttered.
*
Mariah left the room at the same time. She did not want to stay in and watch the examination. So, in the end on Max stayed inside. While Maria and Michael were outside talking to Liz. Mariah saw her brother, Lex off by himself. Jaime was asleep on the couch, by her father, and Isabel was standing up pacing. Waiting to know if there any permanent damage to her nephew, although she knew that if there were,
it could be rectified away from the hospital she muttered. But still, she also could help but think of Roxy.
Lex finally had enough. And needed some fresh air. And walked over to his mother, “I am going to get some fresh air.”
“Maybe you should stay inside, it’s late.”
“I cannot stay in here anymore,” Lex muttered as he felt that he had spent more than enough time in a hospital over the last few months, and the more time he was spending here, the memories of the pain he felt was resurfacing. “I promise that I will stay nearby, you will not have to worry about me going anywhere.”
“Maybe we should be heading home?” Liz asked as she knew the night was getting away from them. It had been a day to celebrate Mariah birthday, and yet so much had happened during these hours, but she was hesitant to want to go home before she knew what was going with River.
“All I want is some fresh air,” Lex murmured. “You obviously do not want to leave,” he thought
him but did not say it as he hung onto his crutches, even though he knew he probably should be resting his legs, but he did not feel like doing anymore sitting.
“I will go out with him Mom,” Mariah murmured. “We both could use some fresh air,” she asked as she offered her brother a lifeline.
“Can we?” Lex asked.
“Fine, but please be careful,” Liz murmured.
“Let us go,” Mariah sighed as she glanced at her brother, and they both left.
“What is up with Lex?” Maria asked as she was nearby.
“I have no idea,” Liz commented.
*
“I am still not grasping what your problem is?” Jessica asked as they stood near the entrance of the hospital. It seemed like all of the younger generation who was not tied down to a bed needed some fresh air. Because they were not ready to go home. Yet they could not be in the stuffy hospital corridors. So, naturally with Jessica wanting some answers had decided to drag Mackenzie outside and had finally gotten her friend to spill on what was going on. “Just because her father is who he is does not make her a bad person.”
“We cannot trust her,” Mac muttered. Annoyed that Jessica was not seeing the issue. “She is not who she says she is.”
“You are wrong because she is exactly who she says she is,” Jessica muttered on back. “She might have come here under some dubious circumstances, but nothing indicates that she is living up to her father’s mission to cause us trouble. When any of the trouble that has been coming up on us is coming from someone else entirely, who is not even connected to her,” she sighed. “Roxy, remember her, the one you kissed.”
Will you stop it he wanted to curse on his friend. “She is the one who kissed me, I thought you said you believe me?” Mac asked.
“I do,” Jessica muttered
although maybe not really. “But I still think you liked it,” she sighed. I know you did. “And you have this history with Roxy that you did not tell me?”
“Do you tell me everything that goes on romantically in your life, or with Alan?” Mac asked.
“Of course not,” Jessica muttered. “Alan is a good guy.”
You are too good for him Mac muttered knowing his thinking was irrational and was not rooted in anything,
but then I was right about Sierra, wasn’t I? he asked himself. “Let us get back to Sierra.”
“Yes, lets” Jessica muttered. As she was not wanting to deal with her love life. “I still do not get where you think she has to be her father…” she sighed. “Obviously, they have issues, and they barely see each other.”
“You are not getting it,” Mac muttered. “Because obviously her father raised to think badly of us?”
“We do not always have to be like our parents,” Jessica muttered. “I am not my mother, nor am I my father. River is not his father, and he definitely is
not his mother. You are not your own parents. As you have often told us, so why must Sierra automatically be like her father. She can see him for who he is, and not want anything to do with him…” she sighed. “We are our own people.”
“Well, we did not come to town under some disguise,” Mackenzie muttered.
“You are spiraling pal,” Jessica muttered as she was sensing that her friend was making connections that were not there. “So, fine, Sierra might have known about us, but nothing has shown her to want to do anything except get to know River better, and they are good together, because she is not exactly going around causing problems for any of us. That is what Roxy is currently doing which is the one we should be worried about. We both know that River can deal with his own life, and he definitely can handle his own damn love life.”
“I am thinking of us,” Mac sighed.
“You can do that all you want but Sierra is on the level,” Jessica muttered. “I promise you.”
“How do you know that?” Mac asked.
“Because maybe I might have said we are not our parents. But in our case. I am just like my mother in one aspect remember,” Jessica sighed. “I might not be able to go into someone’s dreams, but I have insight on people, and I know we can trust Sierra. So, you should stop thinking the worst of her, and deal with you own life for once.”
“I do not trust her,” Mac muttered.
“You are paranoid for no reason pal,” Jessica muttered.
“And you are too trusting,” Mac shot back.
“You better be glad I am so trusting because you are asking me to trust you about Roxy,” Jessica shot back.
“Enough,” came from behind them as Mariah walked out into the fresh air, along with her little brother. “I have had enough fighting for tonight,” she sighed. “Or a lifetime for that matter,”
because that is all I have been doing all these months is fighting… “I do not need to see anymore thank you,” she sighed as she asked as she felt the cool air on this March night.
“Whatever,” Mac muttered.
“Just kiss her already,” Lex muttered.
These two are worse than my mother is he thought. “You obviously want to kiss, so do it, and stop arguing” he sighed as he knew enough sighs because of having an older sibling, who had been dating back home. But since life went over the cliff since they arrived in Roswell, she had been single.
But I know the signs. But his comment totally took Jessica and Mac by surprise.
“We are not together,” they both said in unison and Mariah could not help but burst out laughing.
She also saw the chemistry she thought. But she also knew friendship was hard to bust if you were feeling something different for your friend.
“Maybe you should be,” Lex muttered. “Jaime told me you dig each other, but you just will not admit it.”
That got them stop fighting Mariah though at dumbfounded expressions on both faces.
Priceless she thought.
*
“How are you doing?” was the first question Liz posed as she saw Max come out of River’s room. “How is your son doing?” she asked as she did not know why she was still here,
why am I here? she thought.
I should be collecting my children and we should be heading home because I have no place in being here, she thought.
There is no reason I should be here she asked of herself. “River,” she asked even though she laughed at having to say it a name she knew very well by now.
“The doctors want him to stay overnight,” Max murmured. “He did not want to, but they want to make sure everything is on the up and up,” he sighed. “Thankfully there are no impairments so far from his X-rays, and he does have movement in his legs despite the slam against the tree,” he thought. “It could have been much worse.”
“Yes, it could have,” Liz smiled. “Are you going to be staying?”
“No,” Max shook his head. “River is well enough that I do not have to worry about his condition as they are going to move him up to a room, so I will stay for that, but they said I should go home, and they will call me if anything changes.”
Liz nodded.
“Thank you…” Max murmured.
“Thank you for what?” Liz asked.
“Being here, staying, because it makes it all so much easier. I know you probably want to go. And if you do, feel free too, because you do not have to stay,” Max asked. “But I appreciated that you were here, because you did not have too…”
“I wish I knew more about what happened at the park,” Liz asked.
“Me too, but so far that excuse they gave is holding because Roxy really does not want to rock the boat in this case.”
“Why not?” Isabel asked as she walked up to them as she was finally ready to collect her family, and to head home. “She wants to rock the boat any other time?”
“Who knows, but we should be happy,” Max sighed. “She either does not remember or she is planning to use it for her plans, whatever they are…” he muttered. “We probably should be hoping it’s the former not the latter.”
“Right,” Isabel sighed.
“Do you and the kids need a ride home?” Max asked of Liz who shook her head. “It’s a little late for you to be driving right?”
“No, I am fine, I am probably better than you are” Liz asked. “Maybe you yourself should not be thinking of heading home tonight?” she asked concerned for Max’s state of mind. It was also now officially after midnight, and no longer their daughter’s birthday but she remembered enough of Max to know his mind was not free, and easy on a night like this given how complicated his relationship with his son was.
“I am fine,” Max insisted. “I have been worse than what I am tonight.”
“That does not give me much confidence,” Liz said with a smile.
“Max, you can stay here in town at Mom and Dad, or with us?” Isabel asked. Because while she knew her brother could probably make it home. Still, it was late, and maybe he should not be on the roads.
“It’s too late to go to the house,” Max murmured. “I would not want to burden Mom and Dad.”
“Then stay with us. We are headed home anyways, and it will be an easier drive in the morning than trying to come back into town.”
“Maybe,” Max murmured.
“Do it,” Liz said softly. “You should stay with your sister because we will not have to worry about you.”
“You would worry about me?” Max asked stepping on her words.
She is worried about me he thought and was almost jumping for joy at the display of concern.
“Yes, I would.” Liz muttered.
Hopeless, completely hopeless Isabel was left as she could not help but wonder where they were headed next in this adventure.