Roswell Fanatics

Title: Welcome to My World
Author: Taffy
Email: bstuller@splis.com
Category: Liz & Son
Rating: TEEN – er, okay, I got carried away in part 1, make it - MATURE.
Disclaimer: Don’t own them, just borrowing them. Promise to return them only slightly used.

Notes: This is mainly a Liz story and what happened to her life after Destiny, but with a couple of changes, which you’ll read about in more detail than I had planned (hence the MATURE rating). And how it changed everything.

Nothing after S1 is applicable, so throw it out the window. You’re in my world now.

~

Part 1

~

March 2014

He bit into the sandwich with gusto. He loved Mom’s cooking. She always knew just how he liked things. No one else knew to add the Tabasco or jalapenos. He remembered in fifth grade Tommy Johnson stole his lunch, saying it was his. That had been the first fight he’d ever gotten in and his first trip to the principal’s office too. Mom wasn’t real happy about missing work, but she’d laughed too when Tommy bit into the peanut butter, jelly, and Tabasco combination while in the principal’s office to prove it was his. The look on Tommy’s face was worth the three-day suspension and week of detention that he got for fighting. But Mom had missed work.

It had always been just Mom and him. Always. A friend of Mom’s came to visit once, a long time ago. He sort of remembered him. He had dark hair. But he didn’t stay and Mom had cried when he left. He was pretty sure Mom called him sometimes, usually when times were tight. Mom worked all kinds of jobs to make ends meet but sometimes, no matter how hard she tried, they just didn’t.

He thought the man sent Mom money but he wasn’t sure. He’d often wondered if the man was his father. He’d almost asked her once but he’d chickened out. She always got upset when he asked about his dad. She’d just say that he had had to leave and she didn’t know if he’d ever be back. Afterwards, he would hear her crying later on when she thought he was asleep. He’d never met his dad, never seen his picture, nor even knew his name. His dad was a mystery to him. There were lots of mysteries in his life, like why he liked Tabasco so much, why he sometimes just knew things, why they moved so much, why it was just the two of them, why they couldn’t go home. He wished he knew the answers.

“Hey Jamie, wanna play shortstop?” Eric yelled from the pitcher’s mound at the boy in the bleachers eating a sandwich.

“Yeah, okay,” he yelled back and shoved the last Tabasco drenched bite into his mouth and chugged the remainder of his Cherry Coke before shoving the garbage back into the paper bag, and pulling his baseball mitt out of his backpack. He caught two fly balls and stopped a line drive before the lunch bell rang, calling them back to class.

“Oh, hey, the coach wanted me to give you the signup info for the Spring League. You gonna make it, right? I mean the team really is counting on you.” Eric told him as they walked back to class. Jamie had only been here since Christmas but he was an excellent shortstop. He could even pitch some, and his hitting was solid. The coach had been dying to get him to sign up, and since his dad was the coach and Jamie was sort of his friend…well, they really needed him on the team.

Jamie glanced at the sheet in his hand and frowned. A $75 signup fee, $80 for uniform plus new cleats, which means a $155 total due by next Friday. He already knew it wasn’t happening. Friday was the last day of the month and rent was due by the 5th. He shoved it in his backpack. “I’d like to, but…”

“Great! I’ll tell my dad you’re in!” Eric cut him off as he took off down the hall towards his class.

~

Mom was at the kitchen table studying when he got home. Mom was always studying. She loved school and was always picking up a class here and there. Someday she might actually get her degree. But mainly she worked and took care of him. She’d done everything under the sun to put a roof over his head, anything from waitressing and cashier to administrative assistant, her current position. “Hey Mom,” he greeted her as he walked in and dropped his backpack in the chair.

Liz looked up and gave him a smile. “Hey Jamie. How was school today?”

“Okay,” he replied as he stood in front of the open refrigerator trying to see if there was anything good to snack on. He finally pulled out some string cheese.

“That’s good. Honey, you’re… I’m afraid you’re going to need to catch the bus for a while. We both are. The car crapped out today on the way home. The mechanic said something about a lifter collapsing.”

He sighed. No Spring League this year, that’s for sure. No use even mentioning it. He shrugged and tried to hide his disappointment. “Okay, no biggie. I take it home already.”

“Thank you, honey.” Liz told him with a sad smile. Jamie was a trooper. He had to be unfortunately.

“What’s for dinner?” he asked, wanting to change the subject.

“Sandwiches and macaroni and cheese,” she told him putting on a brave front, much like her son did. Their groceries had to make it until her next paycheck, more than a week away. Liz sighed. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. She was going to go to Harvard and become a noted microbiologist. She and Max were going to get married after college and have careers for a while, a two-story house, two cars in the driveway, and then start a family. That had been the plan, her dream. Instead she had a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment that she could barely afford in the so-so part of town, a nowhere job that she hated, her ten-year old Pontiac was in the shop, and her thirteen-year old son has never known his father. And she slept alone at night. Where had it all gone so wrong?

~

June 2000

Liz sat on the closed toilet seat and stared at the little blue + sign. She closed her eyes for a moment and wondered how this had happened, then snorted. She knew damn well how it had happened. That night in the van when they were on the run for their lives, they needed each other, to touch, to reaffirm their love and their hope for a life together…

Max couldn’t stop the tremors that racked his body, his mind, and spirit. They had stripped everything away from him and turned it on him, used it against him, but they hadn’t broken him. He had held on to hope, to her. He shook his head, refuting her self-recrimination for ruining his life. “No, that was the day my life began. Liz, when I was in that room, and they did what they did to me. You're what kept me alive. The thought of you. The way your eyes look into mine. Your smile. The touch of your skin. Your lips. Knowing you has made me human. Whether I die tomorrow or fifty years from now, my destiny is the same: it's you. I want to be with you, Liz. I love you.”

Her heart melted as she looked into his tortured eyes. She knew he meant every word. She couldn’t deny it, couldn’t deny him. “I love you.” Their kisses were sweet and gentle. She could feel his hands shake as they touched her face, her hair, and eventually wrap around her to hold her tight. They stayed that way for several minutes, just holding each other. When he finally loosened his hold on her she leaned back and brushed his wet hair out of his eyes. She felt a new shiver go down both of them. Her mind tried to convince her it was from the cold wet clothes but her body knew it was otherwise. “Max, we need to get out of these clothes before we get sick.”

He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. His brain was already on overload. All he could do was nod numbly in agreement. His arms dropped to his sides as she peeled his damp jacket off and hang it over some old broken table to dry. He silently watched her bend down to remove his muddy shoes and socks. He felt his heart pounding as she rose and slipped her fingers under the hem of his t-shirt and pull it over his head. He could feel himself stir with need and grabbed her hand as it reached for his belt buckle. “Liz…”

She froze and looked into his eyes. She saw his desire and incredible need, not just physical need but emotional, love. He was nervous and uncertain. She removed her hand from his and slowly slipped off her own jacket and then shoes. Her eyes never left his as she pulled her top over her head. She saw his Adam’s apple quiver when he swallowed as she slid the zipper down and her slacks fell to the floor. “Your turn. Stand up,” she instructed.

That was easier said than done, he thought. He slowly rose and fumbled with his belt. He gave up and finally let Liz do it. The sound of his zipper coming down seemed awfully loud for some reason. He grabbed the waist of his pants to keep them from falling. “Liz… I… um, Liz…I can’t… control… everything my body does. It… uh, it can have a mind of its own sometimes… like now.” She just gazed into his eyes. He got so lost in those large dark pools that he didn’t realize he’d let go of his pants. He was startled when she broke eye contact to pick them up. He watched in amazement. For some reason the memory of him and Michael sneaking a peak at a Frederick’s of Hollywood catalog came to mind. They were something like ten or eleven at the time. They had it all wrong. All that red and black lace was nothing. Somehow there was nothing sexier than the little white cotton bikini panties and bra that were standing before him right now. God, he was in trouble. He moaned as she pushed him back down on the old sofa.

“Lay down. You need to rest,” Liz told him. She was doing her best not to look below his waist as he stretched out on the sofa, but it wasn’t easy. It was quite hard in fact. And it wasn’t the only thing. She wondered what it looked like, how it felt in her hand, in her. She glanced down. That was a mistake. It was even larger now. She couldn’t take her eyes off of it. It was fascinating. “How does it fit,” she thought she said silently.

“What?” He was having difficulty getting enough air for some reason. He closed his eyes and prayed he wouldn’t loose it and embarrass himself. He almost did when he felt a very tentative touch on him. Gulp. “L-Liz… uh… w-what are you doing?”

“I don’t know.” she replied honestly. The sight of him there, needing her so much, and her needing him, wanting him. How could she not? He was her soulmate, but only if he wanted it too. “Do you want me to stop?”

With a slight shake of his head, he answered ‘no’. He fought for control as her fingers continued their exploration, ever so delicately through his boxers. It was driving him insane but he never wanted it to stop. His eyes were growing heavy with desire as her delicate touch began to make its way along his abdomen and chest. He saw her pause and frown, at the red gash running down his chest. “I can heal it once the drugs wear off. It… it’s okay,” he tried to assure her. She finally nodded and then kissed each breast before her lips found his. Their kisses fed their hunger for more, more kisses, more touching, more everything, everywhere. More. His lips caressed her lips, her cheek, her neck, and her shoulder, then to the valley between her breasts, off to the side. He felt her breasts contract and her nipples harden through the fabric of her bra. He heard her moan and looked up at her, his eyes asking if she wanted him to continue.

She kissed him in reply and then she slid down his torso and settled just past his hips. He felt so warm to the touch as her lips planted kisses and love across his chest, careful to avoid the indignity done to him. Then lower. She felt a shiver run through him as she kissed just below his navel, but if anything he felt even warmer to the touch. She could feel his manhood pressing against her, straining to be free of the boxers. She hooked her thumbs on either side of the restraining garment and slid them down past his hips. Fascinating, she thought as she stared at him. A finger lightly ran down his length and elicited something between a moan and a groan from him. She couldn’t help a slight smile. She loved how his body was responding to her slightest touch. As she watched his manhood stand even prouder, an earlier concern resurfaced. “How’s it going to fit?”

He laughed. After everything he’d been through these last twenty-four hours, she actually made him laugh. God, he loved her so much. “Actually, I’m not sure but I’m pretty certain we can figure it out if we put our minds to it.”

She slid back up, settling just above his sex. She plopped her elbows on either side of him and gave him a grin. “Actually, I understand that it isn’t our minds that we have to put together to make this work.”

His laugh turned husky as he felt her hot, soaked panties rubbing against him. “You sure? I suppose you read some books on the subject,” he joked as his fingers played with her hair.

“Um hum. And you? Do any studying?” she teased back as her body rubbed against his, trying to ease the ache building deep inside her.

“Oh yeah, Michael had some magazines. Did some intense late night studying,” he managed to choke out as her every movement increased his pleasurable agony. He’d reached his breaking point and his hands grabbed her hips, stilling her movements and bringing her up to meet his lips. His hands slipped underneath her panties and peeled them away as they kissed. All movement ceased as they stared long and hard into each other’s eyes, communicating their desire, their need to complete their union. He kissed her hard once then shifted out from under her. He hovered over her for a moment, his knees and hands supporting his weight, and gazed into her eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she said and reached up to meet his lips. She felt him shift as he positioned himself at her entrance. Her nails dug into his shoulders as she felt herself stretching to match his size. His movements were slow and gentle as he eased further into her. Her hips instinctively matching his movements, and building on them, until he reached her barrier and froze.

“Liz, look at me,” he gasped out. It was taking every once of control he had left not to hurt her. His powers hadn’t returned so there was no way for him to make this pain-free. Her eyes met his and his head bent to kiss her deeply. He nipped at her bottom lip, a little harder than usual. He felt her legs shift up and push against his hips, urging him deeper. With one hard thrust he broke through and again froze as he saw the pain etched on her face. “Liz?” God, he’d hurt her. Should he stop? Withdrawal? Go slow? Fast? “Liz?”

She bit her lip at the first shot of pain and closed her eyes. They both lay perfectly still. ‘Liz?’ she could hear his worry. As the pain subsided she opened her eyes and gazed into his fearful ones. She moved her hips a little, slowly building the intensity with his movements matching hers. He felt incredible. She still felt some pain but she pushed it back, determined on feeling him, feeling his love. She could feel the walls around him starting to contract and pulse, her climax taking her by surprise. “Oh God! MAX! Oh God!”

Her words spoken in the heat of passion did it for him. An anguished moan escaped his lips as a sheen of sweat covered him, his body tensed and his love spilled forth, filling her. He moved a few more times as he released the last of his essence. He was still panting for breath as he dropped to his elbows and scooped her up in his arms.

She would never forget the feel, the smell of him. It surrounded her and filled her as they lay in each other’s arms that night. Their one and only night together.

“Liz! Liz, are you ready? Come on, I want to get going before the mall gets too crowded!” echoed in from the hallway, snapping her back to her present situation.

“Coming, Mom!” she called back as she shoved the test back into the box and into the brown paper bag. Now what was she going to do with it? If she threw it away here, her mom might find it. Same thing if she tried to hide it. She hid it behind her back as she peeked out the bathroom door to make sure her mom wasn’t right there on the other side. Phew, coast was clear. She quickly crossed over to the bed and grabbed her purse, shoving the paper bag inside. She’d throw it away at the mall.

“Liz, come on. We’ve got a ton of things to buy before you leave tomorrow for Florida. Your Aunt Donna is so thrilled that you’re coming for the summer,” Nancy reminded her.

Liz plastered a smile on and wondered what her mom’s reaction would be if she suggested stopping by the maternity shop to see the latest summer fashion for pregnant teenaged daughters. Somehow, she didn’t think her mom would be too thrilled. “I know. I can’t wait. Come on, let’s go!” Might as well fit into that bikini while she still could, she decided.

~

It was past midnight and she was still packing. She’d chosen mostly comfortable clothes with stretchy fabric. She knew her mom was a bit surprised at some of her choices. She hadn’t been expecting some of the flowing tops and loose fitting pants and shorts. Liz figured she might as well get things she could wear for a while. She wondered how long she was going to be able to wear the bikini that she was currently packing. Maybe with a t-shirt over it, it would do for the summer. She looked up in surprise at a tap on the window. Max. At her request, he had stayed away so she wasn’t expecting him. As she neared the window, she could tell that he was upset, very upset.

“Liz… I… we… we need to talk,” he rushed out as soon as the window slid open. He glanced in her room toward the closed bedroom door, but he still didn’t want to take the chance of being overheard. “Can you come out?”

She shook her head affirmative and took his offered hand of assistance. We certainly do have something to talk about, she thought.

He just stared at her. He’d caught glimpses of her here and there but he had dutifully stayed away as she had asked, and now… now he wished more than anything that he could have these last three weeks back, if he’d only known. He realized that she looked kind of pale. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. What’d you want to talk about?” She figured she’d let him go first before she dropped the pregnancy bomb on him.

He didn’t know how to say it other than just saying it. “I… I’m leaving. We’re leaving.”

“What? As in leaving Roswell? Leaving New Mexico? The U.S.? Earth? What?” She asked in alarm.

“All of the above,” he confirmed and began to pace the small balcony. “I don’t want to. None of us do. Nesado came to see me today. That signal we triggered last month was heard. Our people sent a ship. It’s here… well, technically it’s hiding out on the dark side of the moon. It’s sending a shuttle to pick us up. We… people are fighting and dying in my name… my predecessor’s name… they… they have an actual chance of succeeding, of being free. They need my help.”

This was unbelievable. Now? He’s leaving now? “Help? You’re a seventeen-year-old high school boy from Roswell. How are you going to help?” How could he leave me? Leave the baby? How could he go off with her, with Tess?

He stopped pacing and looked at her. He could see how upset this was making her. He hated this. “I know. I won’t be much more than a figurehead. But they need someone to… to rally around. A leader, even if it is in name only.” She was blinking back tears now. “Millions of people have a real chance to be free. How could I not do whatever I could to help them? But…” He took a step closer to her. His hand brushed along her hair to her shoulder, and finally to her cheek. She looked up and met his eyes through her tears. “I already told them that I wouldn’t stay. I’m coming back. No matter what I have to do. I’m coming back. I… “ He was fighting the tears now. “I want you to be happy, Liz. I want you to live your life. Go to Harvard and get your degree. I won’t lie. It most likely will be years before I can get back. But maybe I can see you graduate.”

“What about Tess? She’s your wife. Won’t she have something to say about that?” she bit out through angry tears.

“No. She can have the crown and anything else the galaxy has to give her. This is home for me, wherever you are, is home. When I’m done, I want to come home,” he assured her.

She swiped at her eyes. “What about the Special Unit, the FBI?”

“Nesado has to come with us, but he’s already shut the most active parts of the Special Unit down. Once we leave… well, even if they question you, there’s nothing they can learn really. You’re human. There’s no reason to hold any of you. Nesado’s assured us of their procedures and he’s given the sheriff contact information of people that can… well, light some fires if things get nasty. But there’s no aliens left. Nothing to find. You’ll be safe.”

“When are you leaving?” she asked shakily as her world was rapidly spinning out of control.

“Tonight… as soon… as soon as we’re done … saying good-bye,” his voice trailed off.

“Then… then y-you shouldn’t keep them waiting,” she stuttered in defeat. She couldn’t keep him. If she told him, he’d stay. If he stayed, people would die. She couldn’t live with herself knowing that. She saw him staring at her through the tears. It seemed forever before he made a move for the ladder. He just reached it and was about to swing his leg over when something snapped in her. “WAIT!” she shouted and he froze at her call. She ran to him and wrapped her arms around him. Kissing him over and over. “I love you. I love you. Remember that. I love you.”

His tears mixed with hers, his kisses with hers, and his soul with hers. She was his everything. “I’ll remember. I’ll remember it always. And you remember how much I love you too. I crossed a galaxy once to find you, and I’ll do it again. I love you, Liz Parker. I will always love you. And I’ll come back. I promise.” His departing kiss was long and hungry. He had to force himself to tear himself away.

She watched him drive away with Michael and Isabel and Tess. She curled up in a ball on her balcony and cried until she couldn’t cry anymore. She watched the dark blue of night fade to twilight as a new dawn broke through. A new dawn. A new dawn where she was an unmarried pregnant teen, whose boyfriend was long gone, and because this was Roswell, it had to have an alien twist. She ran her hand over her belly. Max had been wrong about it being safe because only humans remained. He’d left her his child, his part alien child. It would be up to her to keep it safe. She slowly rose to her feet and started making a plan. Money. She needed money to leave on. That’s what she had to do, leave Roswell. Once people found out that she was pregnant, they’d know that Max was the father. And with Max gone, they’d be after her and the baby. She had to leave before Max was discovered missing and before anyone found out about the pregnancy. She had to leave as soon as possible. She went in and took a shower, dressed in comfortable traveling clothes, and then repacked. She took a smaller case, one she could more easily carry. She put her essentials in an overnight bag. Out were bathing suits and party clothes. In were running shoes, extra jacket, jeans, t-shirts, a sweatshirt, sweats, anything that she thought she might need while on the run. She’d head to the bank and take out every dime she had, a little under two thousand. She’d buy a prepaid cell phone. One that was impossible to trace. She’d take her address book and her journal. She might have to burn those but better to take them than leave them. No doubt her parents were going to go nuts when they discovered her missing and would be ransacking her room looking for any clues about where she’d gone and why. She’d go along with the plan of taking the bus this afternoon to Florida, just as she had planned. But she’d be watching to see if anyone was following. If they were, there were lots of busy bus terminals that she could get lost in along the way. A calm settled over her. She knew what she had to do. She had a plan.

~

Part 2

March 2014

“Mom! Did you see my notebook? I can’t find it. It’s not in my backpack!” echoed out to her from her son’s room.

Liz looked around the tiny, neat little kitchen without seeing it, but that wasn’t surprising. After two and a half cups of coffee, she still wasn’t completely awake. Getting up an extra hour early to take public transportation sucked. God, she didn’t want to be doing this for too long. She didn’t want Jamie to have to do it either. She spotted the missing notebook half shoved underneath the sofa. “It’s out here in the living room,” she called back as she bent to pick it up. She noticed a loose sheet of paper hanging out and being a mom couldn’t help but see what it was.

“Mom?” Jamie asked from the hallway as his mom was standing there reading the paper that he didn’t want her to see.

“Spring League signups end next Friday,” she stated as she read. Baseball, Jamie loved baseball. She blamed it on Kyle. Jamie was only a day old when Kyle showed up with that tiny little mitt with the smallest little soft baseball velcroed to it that she’d ever seen. It was all Kyle’s fault. “I’ll give you a check next Friday. Make sure the coach doesn’t stick you at shortstop the whole season, though. I want to see you on the pitcher’s mound a couple of times,” she smiled at him. He had a pretty good pitching arm.

“Mom, that’s okay. I don’t need to play. I… I play it in school already. That’s enough,” Jamie told her. Mom had enough to deal with and he didn’t want to add anymore to it.

“No, no it’s not enough,” she told him and shook her head. “Jamie, you’re good at it. You love it. And you’re going to play. Don’t worry about the money. We’ll work it out. We always do somehow. Besides, with practice and games, I’ll know where you are and no need for a babysitter. So see, it’s cheaper already,” she teased.

Jamie rolled his eyes. “Mo-om, I’m way too old for a babysitter,” he lamented but then turned serious. “But what about the car?”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure it wants you to play baseball too. Don’t worry about it. It’s not going anywhere,” she told him and mentally added the ‘unfortunately’ at the end. She hated the bus. She’d ridden enough buses to last a lifetime.

~

June 2000

The three of them stood in a discreet corner at the Roswell Greyhound Bus Station. They were a sorry looking lot. Maria was an emotional mess. She’d been crying all night and it showed. Alex looked miserable but was trying to put on a brave front. She doubted she looked any better. She’d told her parents that she wanted Maria and Alex to take her to the bus station. She was so tempted to tell her best friends her plans and about the baby. But she knew that they would hop on the bus with her if she did. No way would they let her do this alone. She couldn’t let them do that. They had lives out there waiting for them, ones that didn’t involve aliens and running from the FBI. They would never forgive her for this but it was for the best.

“I can’t believe they actually left,” Maria sobbed. “I mean, he always said it, didn’t he? He was going to leave someday. I just… I just….” She couldn’t go on. She felt Liz’s arms wrap around her, and another pair of arms go around the both of them.

Alex finally loosened his grip in the group hug and cleared his throat. “So, um, I talked to the sheriff today. He’s pretty sure that there’re three or four agents hanging out in Roswell keeping an eye on things, probably on us too. He’s already got a call from the Evans today, wanting to know if he’s had any sort of reports, you know, accidents and such. Valenti figured another day and the Evans are going to be going bonkers looking for them.”

Liz shook her head in confusion. “Wait, didn’t they tell them they were leaving in a note or something?” Her and Max hadn’t gotten that far in talking last night. She’d just assumed they had.

“They mailed it. They’ll probably get it tomorrow. You know the Roswell Post Office. Mailed locally two or three days minimum, everything else wait a week and it will show up eventually. They didn’t have a lot of time for goodbyes. They just told them they were leaving without much any explanation. I don’t think either knew what to say. I imagine we’re all going to be getting calls from them for any information,” he further explained.

‘See Mrs. Evans, your son left the Earth to fight in a war on his home planet, which he’s the ruler of, but don’t worry, he promised to come back. Did I mention he’s part alien? Oh, and he sort of left me with a little something, like your grandchild. With luck it won’t be green and three feet tall and have antennas for ears, especially if they’re anything like the size of his ears,’ Liz mentally rehearsed and rolled her eyes. What a hell of a conversation that’d be.

Alex’s eyes narrowed with concern. “You okay, Liz?”

“Yes…no, no, I’m not. None of us are and we won’t be for sometime. I think my parents were right. A change of scenery will do me some good.” She was doing her best to convince them of that, and maybe herself as well. Guilt crashed into her as she thought of her parents. They’d given her five hundred dollars this morning for spending money, sort of a bonus for being such a good daughter with straight ‘A’s and for always pitching in at the Crashdown. A good daughter. Right. A good daughter, sixteen and pregnant, and getting ready to run off to have the baby, forget about high school and college, being a microbiologist, comfortable house, exciting job, your soulmate by your side. Forget all about that. She felt the tears start to pool. Damn, this was so unfair. She felt Alex’s arm slip around her and hold her tight. She was leaving them all behind. She probably would never see them again. She hugged Alex tighter. She was going to miss him so much! And Maria. God, Maria is going to come unglued. No more late night phone calls to talk, no more ice cream binges or sharing clothes, or covering for each other. No more being a sixteen-year-old high schooler with a bright future. Stop it! She sniffed and dried her eyes. “Alex, you take care of Maria while I’m gone.”

“You know I will. And you take care of yourself. Have a great time. Say hi to Mickey for me when you’re at Disney World. And you know if you need anything… anything at all, just call,” he told her and hugged her again.

“I know,” she told him and then turned to her other best friend.

“Oh Chica!” she sobbed as they fell into each other’s arms. “You call me when you get there.”

“I will,” she lied. She heard them calling her bus. “I have to go. I love both of you so much. Take care of each other while I’m gone,” she told them as she headed towards the bus. She found a window seat and just stared out at her two best friends. They’d been the Three Musketeers while growing up. She didn’t know how she was going to do this without them but she would, somehow. She had to. She noticed her friends’ expressions changed and followed their line of sight. A man was making a mad dash for her bus. A man dressed in a suit and tie with shiny shoes and hair a little too short and perfect. He looked right at her as he boarded the bus and took an aisle seat near the back. She could feel his eyes on her as the bus pulled out.

Just across the New Mexico/Texas border, they stopped at a truck stop with a McDonalds. The thought of fried greasy fast food turned her stomach. That’s all she needed, morning sickness. She skipped the fast food for the gas station with a Quick Stop Market. Everything the traveler needed at double the price. She didn’t need to turn around to know that Mr. Suit was following her. She could feel him. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She made sure she stayed with a group of people, the bigger the group, the better. The fist place she went was the restroom. It’d been a long ride and she had to pass Mr. Suit in order to reach the bus lavatory, something she didn’t care to do. She’d been holding it for a while and her bladder felt like it was going to bust. Mr. Suit was browsing the magazine stand when she came out of the restroom. She did her best to pretend to ignore him while keeping a close eye on his every move. She picked up some cheese and crackers and a banana that wasn’t too brown along with some juice and bottled water. She needed to eat healthy. She had a baby to consider. She also grabbed a road map of the United States and paid for her purchases.

She took the seat behind the driver when she reboarded the bus. Mr. Suit was four rows behind and to her right. She tried to be a circumspect as possible as she pulled out the U.S. map and carefully folded it to reveal the state of Texas. “Um, sir,” she directed toward the driver, “Sir, what route are we taking? What’s the next major city?” she asked.

The driver quickly glanced back to see who was talking to him. It was that pretty little brown haired girl. He gave her a quick smile. “We’ll be staying on US-84 East to Abilene. I guess that’s the next decent sized city, then I-30 East to Dallas-Ft. Worth. That’s the end of the line for me. Where ya headed?” He figured that his daughter was about the same age. Nice girl. Polite. Her parents must be proud.

Liz found the route on the map. Dallas. Dallas would be large and busy. Hopefully busy enough to get lost in. Besides, she had to change buses there anyway. “Oh, uh, St. Petersburg, FL, to visit my aunt for the summer,” she answered while mentally planning on how she was going to lose Mr. Suit in Dallas.

She was the first to step off the bus at the main bus terminal serving the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. It was large, noisy, and chaotic. Perfect. She looked at the main board at all the arriving and departing buses. The one that would take her to St. Petersburg would be leaving at 4:35 p.m. from spot twenty-three. Spot twenty-one had a bus arriving at 4:30 and was leaving for San Antonio at 4:45 p.m. Spot twenty-two was arriving at 4:25 p.m. from Galveston and leaving at 4:40 p.m. for Wichita Falls and then on to Oklahoma City. Twenty-four spot arrived at 4:15 p.m. and left at 4:30 p.m. for St. Louis. And they all shared the same waiting area. Okay, she could do this. Somewhere between 4:30 and 4:45 p.m. today she was heading out either to San Antonio, Wichita Falls/Oklahoma City, or St. Louis. All she needed was the right ticket and a lot of confusion in order to give Mr. Suit the slip. All those arrivals and departures should do for the confusion. Now all she needed was a ticket, which she couldn’t buy or exchange hers for, too easy for Mr. Suit simply to go ask the ticket person what she had done. Nope, she was going to have to wait and watch for an opportunity.

Opportunity came in the form of two teen girls talking a mile a minute to each other and on their cell phones probably to their boyfriends. Miss Opportunity was brown with blond streaks, medium height and oblivious to her ticket sticking out of her purse. At 4:30 Miss Opportunity headed toward the restroom with her friend, both had cell phones glued to their ears. Liz entered the stall farthest away from the door and unzipped her suitcase. She pulled everything she could out and stuffed it in her carry-on and then zipped her half empty suitcase, stepped out and preceded to wash her hands, brush her hair, and check her makeup, anything to kill time next to Miss Opportunity and her open purse.

“Oh Tiffany, can you hold the door for me. This lock isn’t working!” Jody complained to her friend.

“Oh sure, no prob,” Tiffany replied as she finished reapplying her lipstick and turning to help her friend.

This was it. Liz carefully put her gloss back in her purse and picked up her carry-on and purse. She looked in the mirror to make sure Tiffany was still talking to the door she was holding closed, completely forgotten was her purse, still sitting on the sink just a few feet away. Liz gave her one last look in the mirror and then slipped two fingers into the purse and grabbed just the ticket. She tucked it in the side pocket of her carry-on and calmly proceeded to her bus that was about to depart. She picked up Mr. Suit just outside the ladies room. She quickly checked her bag along with a throng of other last minute boarders. She made sure to stand in front of some very large people as they prepared to head up the bus steps. She quickly checked the ticket she had lifted and sighed. She supposed there had to be something worth seeing in Oklahoma City since people lived there. People paused and gawked as a lady became very upset about having to check her very large suitcase. This created the diversion she needed and she ducked away.

By the time Mr. Suit turned back around from gawking, the line to board was moving again. He made sure that he was the last to board in case his subject tried to run back off at the last minute. He assumed that she had boarded the bus since she was just about to when he’d turned to look along with everyone else. He took the last seat available near the front. As the bus started to pullout he stood and looked back, she was so damn small that it was hard to spot her in the high-back seats. But he was sure she had gotten on the bus.

Liz sat in the back near the lavatory, the farthest away from the windows that she could get and scrunched down, pretending to read a magazine. She watched the bus heading toward Florida pull out and caught a brief glimpse of Mr. Suit standing in the bus and scanning the passengers for her. Her attention was drawn in the other direction to the drama of Tiffany screaming that she couldn’t find her ticket and of the driver not letting her on nor willing to wait for her to go buy another ticket. She would have to wait for the next bus in four hours. Liz felt bad for stealing Tiffany’s ticket but this was about survival, her baby’s survival. They pulled out at exactly 4:40 p.m. Oklahoma City, here I come, she thought to herself.

~

“Miss. Miss, you need to wake up. Miss?”

Liz forced her eyes open. She moaned when she tried to straighten her neck. “Yeah?” she replied while trying to rub the crick out of her neck.

“Miss, you’ve been asleep since we pulled out of Wichita Falls, we just pulled into Yukon, Oklahoma, just outside of Oklahoma City, our final destination. We’ll be heading on in just a bit and I wanted to make sure you’re okay,” the bus driver told her. He’d been watching her for a while now. Anyone, especially a youngster like her that could sleep that soundly on a bus worried him. It just wasn’t normal and he’d been driving a bus for over twenty years.

Liz blinked several times trying to clear her head. She’d fallen asleep? How’d she managed to do that? God, what if Mr. Suit followed? She glanced around but there was no one but her and the driver. Where were they again? Yukon, Oklahoma? Where the hell was that? Did it matter? Should she continue on to Oklahoma City or get off here? “Thank you. I’m fine, but you know, I think I’ve had enough bus rides for a while. I’m pretty worn out. I have some friends here in…Yukon…” It was Yukon, wasn’t it? God, she hoped so. “I think I’ll give them a call to come pick me up and call my folks from their place,” she told him. She collected her carry-on and purse. “Thanks again,” she called back to him as she walked off the bus and looked around. Now what?

There wasn’t much here, she thought as she walked the main street. She saw a motel in the distance, The Chateau Inn. As she neared, it became obvious that it had seen better days but there didn’t see much of anything else around. Besides, some place more…reputable might ask too many questions. The sun was just rising as she walked into her room and bolted the door. Cheap worn carpet, twenty inch TV bolted to the dresser, bed with a burgundy print bedspread that matched the strip of wallpaper that hung over it, a sink in the little dressing area, and a tub/shower combo next to the toilet. Cheap but functional and pretty clean. She dropped her bags in the dressing area and looked into the mirror. She was pale with bloodshot eyes and dark circles underneath them. She looked over at the bathtub. It called to her. She scrounged in her bag until she found her one luxury item that she had brought, her Sweatpea bath gel and salts set from Bath & Body Works. She stripped her clothes off as the warm water filled the tub. It felt like heaven as she slipped into the warm fragrant water. She closed her eyes and let the warmth seep into her skin.

‘HOOOONNNK! HOOONNNK!’ jolted her awake as a semi rolled by and made her swallow some now barely lukewarm water that tasted awful. With a sigh she let the water out and started the shower running. A short time later her hair was still wet as she sat on the bed in a pair of boxers and a tank and went over the plan. She had apparently been successful in giving the agent the slip. She had four hundred and eighty-seven dollars of her parents money gave and one thousand, nine hundred and eighty-eight dollars from her savings account, two thousand, four-hundred and seventy-five dollars all told. She had the barest essentials as far as clothing since her suitcase was somewhere on its way to Florida. She was in some dump of a motel somewhere around Oklahoma City. And she was alone. She dumped the remainder of her carry-on and purse on the bed. Her eyes immediately went to her journal. It told of her very short life with Max Evans, resident alien King of Roswell, NM, and her soulmate. Her hand slipped across her still flat stomach, and father of her child, she now added. She opened the back of the book and pulled out the strip of pictures of her and Max. They were taken last March at one of those little booths at the mall before the Special Unit closed in, before Tess came, before everything fell apart. They were so happy. She lay back on the bed and ran her fingers lovingly over the pictures. “I wonder where you are now, Max?” Her eyes slowly closed as she drifted off to sleep.

~

She was feeling better the next morning, more rested and ready to get moving again as she walked into the greasy spoon restaurant for breakfast. She took a seat at the counter and dropped her bag and purse in front of her feet, and grabbed a menu. Healthy, she needed to eat healthy. She was considering some bacon and eggs and to hell with the grease when she glanced over at the plate being plopped down in front of the guy next to her. He must have weighed over three hundred pounds and it was no wonder when looking at his plate. She wasn’t sure what all was under it but everything seemed to be swimming in gravy, biscuits, eggs, even the bacon and sausage. She blanched when the guy broke the yokes on his over easy eggs. She could not, not watch as he mixed the gravy and yoke together. “Oh God,” she exclaimed as she grabbed her bags and made a mad dash to the bathroom.

“Over here, honey,” greeted her when she emerged from the bathroom ten minutes later.

Liz looked around to see who was talking and to whom. She was surprised when she spotted the waitress looking at her and then nodding to the empty spot at the counter, one that was far away from her earlier spot. There, a bowl of oatmeal, toast, milk, and juice awaited her. “I didn’t order this,” she stated but sat down anyway.

“No, you didn’t, but you should have. You need to keep your strength up. Don’t worry, a couple more months and the morning sickness will stop,” the middle-aged waitress told her. She’d been young and alone once, and in trouble. She recognized it in the girl. She grabbed the coffee pot and made her rounds while the girl started in on her oatmeal. She waited until the morning customers cleared out and the girl had eaten most of her meal before coming over to talk to her. “I take it you’re alone. The daddy skipped out?”

It wasn’t exactly what happened but the results were the same. She nodded her head ‘yes’ as she ate her piece of toast.

“Figured,” she remarked and then looked hard at the girl. She was clean and well groomed, and clear-eyed. Not some street kid. “What about your parents? No matter how mad they might be, take my word for it, you’d be better off with them than off on your own.”

Liz shook her head. “No, that’s not possible,” she stated firmly.

The waitress let out a snort and shook her head. “Yeah, back in my day you were sent to a home for unwed mothers. Never got to see the baby before they took it away to be adopted by strangers, and you went home and were supposed to pretend it never happened.” She shook her head again. “Yeah, I couldn’t do it either. My Tommy graduated this last May from OU with his engineering degree. Wasn’t easy though. Slinging hash was a hard way to put him through school, but I did it though.” She smiled suddenly. “My mom was there snapping away with her camera as he picked up his degree. Amazing. She’d forgotten all about not talking to me for the first ten years of Tommy’s life. Dad never did. He died when Tommy was five.” Her trip down memory lane came to an end and she appraised the girl again. “What’s your name, honey?”

“Beth,” Liz answered.

“Beth. Well Beth, you ever wait tables?”

Liz smiled. “My dad owned a diner. I grew up helping out and waiting tables.”

“Okay then. You come here tomorrow morning at 6:30 and be ready to work. It’s only minimum wage plus tips but you’ve got to start somewhere. Make sure you eat a little something beforehand. Soda crackers in the morning help. John’s been looking for a good waitress, I’m sure he’ll give you a shot. He’s not too picky about paperwork either,” she mentioned lastly to the obviously underage girl. She knew how it was.

Liz looked around the place. It was busy. She could probably make some good tips here. Oklahoma wasn’t exactly what she had in mind but it would give her a chance to make some more plans and maybe get ready for the baby. “Okay,” she finally agreed.

“You got a place to stay?” she asked.

“Just the motel across the street but I checked out this morning,” Liz told her.

“Naw, that ain’t no place for a young girl, and it sure ain’t a place to bring a baby home to. You go right down the main street two blocks, turn right and go three more blocks. About mid-way down the third block on the left is an old white two-story farmhouse. It used to be out in the country but… well, it’s been a while. Betty Winston owns it and rents rooms, pretty reasonable too. You can’t miss it. It’s not fancy but it’s clean and safe. And you won’t need a car to get to work. You just tell her Susan sent you and she’ll get you all situated, ‘kay?” she asked with a smile.

Liz really smiled for the first time in two days. It was a place to start.

~

Part 3

March 2014

‘Can you stay late tonight? We really could use your help with planning the convention booth,’ they’d asked and Liz had agreed. Overtime, she needed the overtime. She glanced at her Timex, 6:43p.m. and at least another hour to go. She picked up the phone and dialed home. He answered on the third ring. “Jamie, everything okay?” she blurted out anxiously. She hated leaving him alone this late. He kept telling her that he wasn’t a baby anymore, but he was still her baby.

Jamie rolled his eyes. “Mo-om, I’m fine. I heated up some mac’n’cheese and had some chips. My homework’s done, and I was just watching TV… and yes, I bolted the door,” he told her before she asked. She was so lame about things like that. Like he’d actually open the door to someone he didn’t know.

Liz breathed a sigh of relief. She could just picture him there rolling his eyes at her. He was growing up so fast. She’d done her best to get them in a decent neighborhood and school. Just a few blocks down the road and they’d be ducking bullets and have bars up to the windows and so would Jamie’s school, and just a few blocks away was the park that you didn’t go to after dark. But they’d been lucky. She’d found a place just within the boundary for the ‘right’ school district and those few blocks made a world of difference. She still hated leaving him alone, especially after dark. “Okay, honey. It’ll probably be after 9:00 or so before I get home.”

Jamie frowned. Stupid car breaking down, he thought. “Be careful taking the bus. Maybe someone from the office can give you a ride home?” He hated it when Mom got home after dark. He hated how some guys would look at her. He worried about her.

Liz smiled into the phone. “It’d be nice but I don’t think anyone lives out our way. Just keep the door locked and I’ll be home soon, honey. And don’t stay up too late. You have school tomorrow,” she reminded him before hanging up. She shook her head. When did he become the one sounding like the concerned parent? She pulled out the booth layout for the convention and began to double-check the arrangements. They’d be serving a light buffet at noon. She checked the food details. Her head shot up as she realized something. Macaroni and cheese… and chips? For dinner? She shook her head. “And to think of all the things I gave up when I was pregnant so he’d be healthy,” she mumbled and got back to work.

~

June 2000

Betty Winston’s place wasn’t much but Susan was right, it was more ‘homey’ than the cheap motel, and quiet. Mrs. Winston hadn’t been overly enthused about renting to a single teenager, afraid of wild parties and such, but then she’d mentioned that Susan had sent her over and continued with the assumption that her parents had disowned her when they found out about her pregnancy and that the baby’s father had also skipped out on her. After that Mrs. Winston agreed to rent her a room and board for two-hundred, sixty-five dollars a month and began to fuss about her some. She gave her the upstairs room that looked out the front yard and was right next to the bathroom. That was important in her condition, Mrs. Winston had told her. Liz liked the white lace curtains on the window and the view. The room had a double bed, night table and dresser. The closet wasn’t too large but then she didn’t have a whole lot to put in it. Mrs. Winston said she could bring in a TV but would have to pay an extra $10 for the cable connection. She could live without TV for a while. She wanted to conserve her money and she wasn’t in a hurry to accumulate a bunch of stuff. There was no telling how long she’d be there. Mrs. Winston invited her to go to Wal-Mart with her that afternoon, which Liz, now called Beth, took her up on. Wal-Mart was a major deal in this town, and it was right off Garth Brooks Avenue. Beth was suitably impressed by this and wondered again exactly where Yukon, Oklahoma was. Garth Brooks Avenue? Good grief.

She put her new alarm clock on the night table and curled up on the bed with her newly purchased throw blanket and her new What to Expect When Expecting book and the cup of herbal tea that Mrs. Winston said helped with digestion and some soda crackers. She knew some of this from health class but…hemorrhoids? Was her belly button really going to pop out like that? Mood swings? Stretch marks? This was going to be fun – NOT! “When your dad keeps his promise and comes back, he and I are going to have a few words about what he did to me, “ she commented to the life growing inside of her while munching on a cracker. “I’ll show him mood swings alright,” she promised and continued to read until Mrs. Winston called her down for dinner. Just like home.

She sat around the main dining table with Mrs. Winston and a Mitch Taylor, one of the other boarders. Mitch was in his late-twenties and already balding, which he tried to compensate for by doing the comb-over thing and a good thirty pounds overweight. And he kept leering and winking at her when Mrs. Winston wasn’t looking. “So, Mrs. Winston, I was wondering if it would be alright if as my time got nearer to get one of those little refrigerators and maybe a small microwave for my room. That way we wouldn’t wake the whole house when the baby wakes up at all hours of the night.”

“Baby?” Mitch paled. That hot little thing has a kid?

“Yep, if I figured it right, due end of February,” Beth confirmed with a smile. Jerk.

Damn, Mitch thought.

“Yep, but the father took off on me. Bastard. So I’m just going to have to find a new one. Know anyone interested in helping with 2:00 a.m. feedings? Diaper changes? Rashes? Late night runs to the emergency room? By the way Mitch, didn’t you mention that you were single? And have car? What about gainful employment? Babies cost money. How’s the bank account?” Beth asked and did her best not to laugh when Mitch announced he’d finish his dessert in his room and almost knocked his chair over in his mad rush to get away from her.

Mrs. Winston had the good manners to wait until she heard Mitch’s door close before giving in and busting up laughing. “Beth, my dear, I think you are safe from Mitch. You scared that boy half to death!”

Snicker. “He deserved it,” Beth agreed and took a bite of incredible apple pie. Man, they knew how to cook around here. She was going to have to watch it or end up weighing two hundred pounds by the time she gave birth. She briefly wondered what Max would think if she did? He probably would be in too much shock over the birth part to notice, at least at first. She took another bite of pie. Last piece and then healthy, applies instead. Damn, this pie was good.

~

It was 6:35 a.m. the next morning and Beth stood in the entranceway by the register and stared at her well broken in work shoes and tried not to hear the rather loud conversation going on in the kitchen.

“Why in the hell would I hire a sixteen year old kid? A pregnant one at that!” John, the owner, shouted at his head waitress. “Of all the lamebrain ideas! Jesus, what the hell am I gonna do with her? She’ll be sick half the time and too pregnant to work the other half. I don’t need no charity case!”

Susan’s eyes narrowed and her finger wagged at her boss of fifteen years. They had a history and she knew just how to use it. “Now you listen here. That girl is a hard worker, I can tell. She’s polite, clean-cut, and experienced. And you are down a waitress already. You keep it up and you’ll be down a few more before the day’s out!” she warned. “’sides, I’m the one doing the training and I’m tellin’ ya, she’ll do just fine,” Susan stated confidently and dared him to dispute her.

“Ah HELL!” John yelled, ending the discussion, and stomped toward his cramped office in the back.

“Umph,” Susan snorted in reply before picking up Cindy’s old uniform. Cindy was pretty close to Beth’s size, she figured. She gave the girl a smile as she came around the counter. “Okay, honey, you’re all set. You can change in the restroom and then help me finish the prep work, and I’ll show you which stations are yours. You can fill out the employment paperwork this afternoon. I can give a hand with that, don’t you worry,” she told her with a wink.

By mid-morning John ceased his grumbling about the new kid being a charity case. Susan had been right. The girl knew her way around a diner and had a pretty smile. “Bet she makes more in tips than salary,” he grumbled from behind the grill.

“Yeah, well with the wages you pay, she has too,” Susan shot back at him. “You forgot the side of grits on this one,” she told him and handed the plate back. She ignored John’s growl. His bark has always been worse than his bite. John had sponsored Tommy’s Little League Team every year Tommy was on it, and given him a summer job every year since he was old enough to bus tables. John was a softy.

“Where she staying?” John asked as he passed the plate, now with a side of grits, back to her.

“Sent her over to Betty Winston’s,” Susan informed him. “I gave her a call yesterday to make sure the kid was all taken care of. Betty was fixin’ to take her down shoppin’ when I called.”

“Good, don’t let that old battle ax take advantage of the kid. She better not be chargin’ her more than a couple hundred. She don’t need no ‘board’. The kid can eat here for free,” John said and watched as the Granger boys came in and immediately zeroed in on the new little waitress. “You make sure those boys mind their manners,” he told Susan.

She turned to look and noticed how Beth was standing tall and firm when Justin Granger tried to pinch her, she simply grabbed his hand and bent his finger backwards. Susan smirked when Justin yelped in pain. “I think she might know a thing or two about keeping boys in line. Bet Justin’s brothers give her a hell of a good tip… along with their phone numbers.”

“I bite too,” Liz warned the jerk and finally released his finger. She noted the jerk’s companions were roaring with laughter. “Coffee?”

“But I’ll pay ‘em a visit. Oh, and you might want to talk to Betty about them board charges,” Susan told him as she took the plate of food to her customer and stopped by the Granger boys’ table. “Mornin’ boys. Beth getting’ ya’ll taken care of?” she asked.

“Mornin’ Susan. Just fine. Where’d ya find her? She’s a doll,” Brent Granger said and smiled as the new girl came with their coffee.

“Beth, hun, I’d like to introduce you to Brent, Justin, and Charlie Granger, some local boys. Their mama and me go way back. Come to think of it, it’s been a spell since I visited with their mama, just might need to stop by and see how she’s doin’. Maybe play a game or two of canasta. Now you boys don’t be given me and your mama too much to talk about, ya hear?” she warned them and gave them a friendly wave as she moved on to take care of her customers. Message delivered.

Liz took out her order pad. “So, um, what would like?” she asked and gave them a smile. They were jerks but they suddenly seemed much more polite, at least they were keeping their hands to themselves now.

An hour later, Liz found a ten-dollar tip for an eighteen-dollar tab at the now vacant Granger brother’s table.

~

Lunchtime found Liz and Susan in the closed section of the restaurant filling out paperwork and eating salads, a welcome change from all the greasy stuff she’d been consuming lately. Liz frowned. She didn’t like lying, though through necessity made her better at it than she’d like to admit, but this was different, this was in writing. She suddenly became eighteen. And she was very uncomfortable about using her real social security number. How closely would they be checking that, she wondered. She decided to change a couple of numbers. She could always claim she got confused or something.

“Okay, hon, now we’ve got the medical insurance. It ain’t much coverage but it’s better than nothin’, I supposed,” Susan told her and helped her with the forms. She too frowned when it came to ‘pre-existing conditions’. “Hmm, looks like pregnancy is pre-existing. I don’t suppose you’re able to use your parent’s coverage?”

Liz shook her head and sighed. “No, not likely. Don’t…don’t most states have some sort of state programs that do?”

“Mmm, yeah, they do, but…well, it’s not the best. And you’ll have to go to the county hospital to have the baby,” Susan said and paused, thinking about it a bit. “Beth, I know you said the baby’s daddy skipped out on you but what about his family. Any chance they’d be willing to help you? It’s their grandchild after all.”

Liz knew that Philip and Diane Evans would bend over backwards to help, but then so would her parents, if they knew. She just couldn’t risk it. “No, they wouldn’t have the money even if they wanted to,” she lied and shook her head.

“Well, county it is then. Let me get a phonebook and let’s see how we go about this. It’s been a while and I’m sure things have changed.” She left to get the book and the phone.

This was the part that Liz was dreading the most. How was she going to be able to go to the doctor? How long before the county found out that she was runaway teen and contacted her parents? How was she going to dodge blood work and exams that might expose the baby’s alien parentage? What if the pregnancy wasn’t exactly normal? What if the baby wasn’t? How would she explain it? But what kind of choice did she have? She didn’t think she could have the baby on her own. What if something went wrong?

Susan watched all the emotions playing across Beth’s face and her heart went out to her. Poor thing was really working her self up into a panic over all of this. Susan shook her head sadly and wondered for the millionth time how parents could turn their backs on their child just when they needed them the most. After twenty-five years, she still didn’t have the answer. “Okay, hon, everything’s going to be fine. You’ll see, and with luck, we’ll find a doctor close by that can take you as a patient. Now, have you been to the doctor yet?” She asked and opened the phonebook to the City and County section.

“No, not yet. I’m… I’m only about four weeks,” Liz told her.

“Okay,” Susan said and started looking down the listing. She stopped when Beth put her hand on hers.

“Will they have to tell my parents? I mean, if they found me, they’d… they wouldn’t let me keep it and I…”

“Beth, hon, no one can force you to give the baby up. Not even your parents. With a little luck, we might be able to keep you at age eighteen, but you have to go to the doctor,” she firmly told her. She knew how scary all this was but there were some things that you just had to do.

No one but the FBI’s Special Unit, they’d take him from her in a heartbeat, she knew. But she nodded in reluctant agreement, anyhow.

~

A week later she’d filled out all the required paperwork, after subtracting two years from her birth date and changed the same two digits on her social security number, and conveniently forgot her driver’s license when asked. The aid worker was real nice about it and just said to bring it in as soon as possible while continuing to process her paperwork. She sat in the crowded waiting lounge to see her new OB/GYN. It was noisy and crowded, and filled with frazzled mothers trying to cope with the children that were running around.

“Beth Parker,” the nurse read from the form. She gave her a smile and handed her back her temporary county medical card as she escorted her to be weighed and have her temperature and blood pressure taken. Liz was surprised to see that she’d actually lost a couple of pounds. She was led into an exam room, handed a disposable hospital gown and told that everything had to come off, and that the doctor would be in a moment. She hated those disposable gowns.

Doctor Taylor and a nurse that she never did catch her name, came in almost an hour later and pronounced Beth officially pregnant. Everything seemed fine and her due date was set for March 2nd. She was handed all kinds of forms for additional blood and urine tests, given a lists of do’s and don’ts and told to make an appointment for the next month. It was quick and businesslike and the doctor was off to his next patient in less than twenty minutes. Okay, so far so good. Minimal interest, minimal care, but for once Liz was glad. The less questions the better. She made her appointment for exactly thirty days later, and then tore up and tossed the test forms in the garbage on the way to the bus station. She was working the dinner shift tonight.

~

That night she stretched out in bed, too tired to move but too awake to fall asleep. Her mind kept wondering what was happening back home. Her parents would know by now that she never made it to Florida. For a moment she wondered if her suitcase had made it. Her parents would be panicked. She imagined that her room would have been thoroughly searched. All of her friends would have been called. The missing person’s report filed. The sheriff would have handled that. That must have been a hard one for him, and coming right on the heel of the two that she was sure the Evans had filed, maybe even three with Michael’s. At least the sheriff knew what happened in those cases. She wondered if knowing had made it easier or harder for the sheriff. She wondered what Alex was doing. ‘Probably trying to help Maria keep it together.’ Maria would be a basket case, first Michael and them, and now her. She missed them so much. She could close her eyes and picture Maria squealing, both in horror and delight, at the news of the pregnancy. Maria would be dying to go shopping for baby things, all while tell Liz how she couldn’t believe that she’d gotten pregnant. She’d probably be bitching about how irresponsible all guys were, even sensitive ones like Max. Liz sat up suddenly and reached for the prepaid cell phone she’d put in the nightstand and dialed the number by memory.

“Hello? Hello?” came the raspy greeting of her best friend. Liz quickly slapped the phone closed. Maria was upset. If she talked to Maria, let her know what was going on, she would be putting her friend in a very tough spot. She had no doubt her parents, and probably even the sheriff, were grilling all of her friends on her whereabouts. Even if Maria managed not to tell them anything, there’s no way she could hide her emotions. They’d know that she knew something and eventually she’d break.

What about Alex, she wondered. She shook her head. No, no she couldn’t tell him. She couldn’t put him on the spot like that. Maria would never forgive him if he’d heard from her and didn’t tell her. And we’d be right back to square one. She looked at her phone with longing once more before slipping it back in the drawer. Of all of them, she’d give anything to talk to Max. Just to hear his voice again. She ran her hand over her baby, their baby. In a way, he hadn’t completely left her at all.

~

Part 4

March 2014

A sleepy, “Mom?” welcomed her when she walked into the darken apartment.

“Go back to bed, Jamie,” Liz said as she put an arm around his shoulders and walked him back to his bedroom.

“I bolted the door, just like you told me to,” he yawned as he crawled back under the covers. He couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer.

“I know. I saw. Thank you, sweetheart,” she softly told him as she straightened the blankets out a little. He was already back asleep. She couldn’t help sitting on the edge of the bed and just looking at him. When he was like this, curled up in bed, sleeping peacefully, she didn’t see that new teenager that proclaimed he was too old for this or that on a daily basis. No, tonight he was just her baby once again, sweet and innocent, and quiet. She lightly ran her fingers through his hair before giving him a kiss goodnight and letting him sleep in peace.

She walked into her room and kicked off her heels and stripped off the slacks and sweater that were her work norm. She threw a robe on, grabbed her nightclothes and headed to the bathroom. While the tub was filling she went to the kitchen and grabbed the bottle of cheap blush wine that she thought wasn’t too bad and poured a glass to take back to the bathroom. She used a rolled towel as a bath pillow and sipped her wine while she soaked. At times like this she could shut out the world and nothing else mattered but her and Jamie. He was her world. He had been from the moment she realized that she was carrying him.

Oh there had been men in her life that she would flirt with, but none that she was really interested in, none that she would bring home to her bed, none that she would share her life with, nor share her son’s life with. None were Max. After all these years, he was still her first and only true love. He was the only one that could touch her soul, make her heart pound and made her body tingle. For what had to be the millionth time, she wondered were he was, and if he was happy. She didn’t even know for sure if he still lived, if any of them did, but she refused to believe otherwise. There had been no word from any of them for fourteen years. A lifetime had happened in those fourteen years. A son was born and was growing into a fine young man, though she could tell the teen years were going to be challenging. Jamie needed a father to teach him things, to listen to him, to understand. But he didn’t have one…well, technically he did but it wasn’t his real father. He did the best he could by Jamie, more than she had ever asked of him actually, but he had his other family, his real family and son. She couldn’t begrudge him that. He was happy. And Jamie was happy, mostly.

She had thought she found someone that she might have cared for last year but she was only fooling herself. They were living in San Diego, had been there for almost a year when she’d met him. His name was Dan and he said he worked for JPL as a contractor. She was a little nervous about seeing anyone even remotely connected to the government but he’d been charming and sweet. He’d taken her to dinners and out dancing, and taken her and Jamie to the movies and Sea World. He’d acted like the perfect gentleman and had been considerate and caring toward Jamie. He’d always ask about him, how he was doing in school and how his games were going. Dan was always offering to take him to Little League games, or take him fishing or to a Padres game. She never would let him though, not without her. It was just something she didn’t do with Jamie. Jamie either went with a group of kids or with her but never alone or with someone else. Jamie was special.

They didn’t really talk about it much but sometimes Jamie would just know certain things. Like the time in Chicago four years ago when he told her they had to leave that store right now, and thankfully she’d listened. They were still in the parking lot when the shooting started inside. And there was the time that Jamie said not to rent that little cottage, that it felt too hot, which she thought was strange since it was the middle of winter in Des Moines. Come to find out the electrical was bad and it burned down three weeks later. Fortunately they’d passed on it when they found a nice little duplex closer to her work. Jamie knew things about people too. He knew not to trust Joey’s dad. Joey had been his best friend in the first grade. His parents were divorced and Joey’s dad always seemed to be picking Joey up at the same time she picked up Jamie. He always seemed friendly and they’d talk for a bit. He’d ask her out for coffee or drinks but she never found the time. At first she didn’t think too much about their running into each other so much, after all the kids were friends that played together and were in the same class. But Jamie was adamant about her not being around him. They’d already moved away but the murder of Joey’s mother by his father had made the national headlines because of the brutality of it. There had been other things, like knowing not to trust a landlord because he was lying about something, or that the cashier was going to short change her. He also knew that Mrs. McNally was good and would make a wonderful babysitter for him, even though she’d appeared a bit gruff at first. She spoiled Jamie rotten for almost two years before they had to move away. And he knew that Mr. Tikata only wanted to be a friend. She didn’t tell him that she already knew that because Mr. Tikata was more interested in Kevin who lived two apartments over, and who liked to take the garbage out in just his briefs. She didn’t blame Mr. Tikata, since she thought Kevin looked pretty good in those briefs too. Of course she didn’t tell Jamie that. He just so would not want to know that. So when Jamie said that Dan wasn’t what he seemed, that he was bad, she listened. But it was close, almost too close.

~

November 2013

Dan had said they were going whale watching. But it was starting to rain, and Jamie kept complaining from the backseat, saying he didn’t want to go. When Dan stopped at the gas station to fill the tank, that’s when Jamie had told her the truth.

“Mom, he’s bad. He’s not taking us whale watching. He’s taking us somewhere else. He wants… he’s afraid, Mom. He’s afraid of me. Mom…” he fell silent as Dan glanced into the car with a smile while the gas pumped. He had never felt easy around Dan but he had made Mom smile and laugh. He wanted his mom to be happy… but not with him. His feelings about Dan had started getting sharper this morning when he showed up to take them out for the day.

Liz smiled back at Dan as she waited for him to go check on the gas before reaching for her purse. She fumbled around until she found what she was looking for, one of those metal nail files that you couldn’t carry on an airplane anymore. She was careful that Dan couldn’t see what she was doing as she wrapped it in a ten-dollar bill. She handed it back to Jamie. She had to get Jamie out of the car without raising suspicion. And she had to stop Dan from taking them any further. “Jamie, I want you to get out. I’ll tell Dan you went to go get me something to drink and go the bathroom. When you get out of the car, I want you to drop the money near the rear tire. When you bend down to pick it up, puncture the tire as many times as you have to. Then go into the station and lock yourself in the men’s room,” she whispered to him. “You understand, honey? Stay in there, don’t come out for anyone but me,” she reiterated sternly.

Jamie nodded but he was scared. He didn’t want to leave his mom but he knew that she knew best. He took the money-wrapped file and zipped his jacket up before getting out. It was easy to pretend to drop the money since his hand was trembling so hard he had a hard time holding it. He bent down in the rain and picked it up, careful to keep the sharp, pointy part of the file out and used all his might to jab it into the tire, again and again, until he could hear the air start to hiss out. He stood and gave his mom another look. She smiled because Dan was looking and gave him a little wave, just like nothing at all was wrong. He walked past Dan without a word, picking up speed as he neared the station and locked himself inside the men’s room, just like Mom said to do. He scooted back as far from the door as he could and curled up, trying to make himself as small as possible. He kept swiping at his eyes as the tears fell. “Mom?” he cried softly.

“So where’d Jamie go?” Dan asked when he climbed back in the car.

“Oh, he’s not feeling too well this morning. I think that’s why he’s been so cranky. He needed to use the restroom and I asked him to pick me up something to drink and get some 7-Up for himself. It might calm his stomach a little,” she told him a calm friendly voice. She needed to keep up the pretense that nothing was wrong. If Dan were part of the FBI then he’d have back-up somewhere, watching. If she made it too obvious then they’d swoop in on them. She waited until it became obvious that Jamie wasn’t coming out anytime soon. “I’ll go check on him. He might really be sick,” she finally announced and started to get out.

“No, here let me,” Dan offered.

Liz shook her head and held her hand out, signaling him to stop. “No, I know my son. If he’s sick, he’s not going to want anyone but me.” She opened the door, grabbed her purse and walked around the side toward the restrooms and her son. She glanced back at Dan once and then knocked on the restroom door. “Jamie, it’s me. Open up,” she told him. The door swung open immediately. She stepped into the restroom and locked the door, with Jamie firmly entrenched in her arms. She held him tight for a few moments then looked at him. “Jamie, listen to me. You’re sick and I’m going to take you home. Do you understand? I’m going to tell Dan that you’re sick and need to go home. I need to go out there and tell him that. I’m then going to notice the tire and tell Dan that I’ll just call a cab and take you home. Okay? You stay here and only let me in. I don’t care who else bangs on that door, only me. Got that?”

“No, no Mom, please. Stay with me. We’ll go together,” Jamie was starting to panic. He had always known that people were after them and that Mom always kept them safe, he’d just known it. But this was the first time he’d actually been all caught up in it like this. He was scared.

“Jamie, listen to me. I don’t want you near Dan or anyone else right now. You stay here. Understand?” She told him a little more strongly than she should have. All she wanted to do was hold him and rock him, tell him that everything was fine, but she had to make sure it was first.

“Okay,” he barely got out. She held him again for a moment and kissed him and then walked out the door. He locked it again and curled back up in his ball.

She took a deep breath then stepped on the other side of the door. She could do this. She could do this. She had to do this. She would do this. She squared her shoulders and marched over to the driver’s side of the car and waited for a second while Dan rolled the window down. “Dan, he’s really sick. I’m sorry but there’s just no way I can take him on a boat today. I need to get him home in bed as soon as possible.”

“Oh… sure, okay… of course. I totally understand. It’s early in the season. We have plenty of time,” he’d replied in a sympathetic tone. Inside he was furious. Everything was set. They were waiting just down the road.

Liz smiled regretfully at him and then stood up and pretended surprise. “Dan, what’s wrong with your car?” She asked.

“What?’ he looked around trying to see what she was seeing. He finally got back out and noticed the tilt. He walked around and saw the completely flattened tire. “Damn!”

“You know, maybe the Gods are just against us today. I think I’ll just call a cab and get Jamie home, “ she told him and pulled out her cell. She always had the number of the local cab companies in her purse for just such an emergency.

“Don’t be silly. I’ll have this changed in no time and take you home,” Dan replied. Once they got back in the car, he’d have to think of something to explain why he didn’t turn around but it would only be for a few more minutes.

“No, that’s okay. Besides, as sick as Jamie is, I’d hate to have him throwing up in your sports car. Better it be a cab. Thanks for the outing. I’m sorry it didn’t turn out the way you’d planned,” she said and started walking back toward the men’s room while dialing the cab company that she knew provided the fastest service to this part of town. She had made it a point to make sure she knew such things whenever she came to a new town. “Yes, I need a cab as quick as possible. Uh, the gas station at 1114 Del Rio Dr. Please hurry! Just pull in by the restrooms, the name is… Bethany. Thanks.”

“Jamie, it’s me. Open up,” she said as she knocked on the door. She was careful to keep an eye on Dan. See if he used his cell phone to alert anyone. When Jamie opened up, he was a mess. It wasn’t hard to pretend that he was sick. Instead of going back in restroom, she just held Jamie in her arms, there next to the door while they waited for the cab and watched Dan change his tire. She almost jumped for joy when the taxicab sign appeared on top of an older sedan. “Come on, honey, let’s get out of here,” she told him and helped him into the cab.

“Where to lady?”

“Self Storage on 17th street and Corning,” she told him as they pulled out. In the rearview mirror she saw Dan pullout his cell phone. They never went back to their little house that had been their home for almost sixteen months. They left everything behind. All they had was what she had stashed away incase they needed to leave in a hurry. A couple of suitcases of clothes and personal items, a little money, some special mementos, Jamie’s birth certificate and other documents, some forged and some real, they’d need to re-establish themselves somewhere else, and her journal which she’d managed not to have to burn after all. This had been a close call, she was sure.

~

March 2014

Jamie was special, like his father. Both his fathers, actually, she thought, as she turned the hot water back on to warm her bath up a little, so she could soak some more and sip her wine.

~

March 2001

She waddled. God help her, she waddled. She wanted to cry when they weighed her, one hundred and thirty-nine pounds, five more than two weeks ago. Blood pressure was up just a tad but nothing out of the ordinary and well within norms. Her feet swelled a little due to water retention but not overly so, she could still get her shoes on at least. Couldn’t necessarily tie them but that didn’t matter since she couldn’t really see them either. She was nine months along and the baby was taking its sweet time about things. She made an appointment for next week.

She waddled to the elevator and took it to the hospital cafeteria where he was waiting for her. The waiting room with all those pregnant ladies and rug-rats, as he called them, running around was just not his scene. She found him sipping a Dr. Pepper and reading a magazine and waddled over to him. “Hey Tommy.”

Tommy looked up and smiled at his very pregnant friend. She was such a tiny little thing, even now, about to give birth, so tiny. “So what’d he say?”

Tommy was Susan’s son and very much his mother’s son. He was kind and charming and always wanting to help. They’d met when he stopped by to take his mom out to lunch to celebrate his new job. He was six foot, three inches, with blond hair and green eyes, and had the cutest Texas twang when he talked. He was like a big brother to her. “Not yet.”

“Mmm, how much longer?”

“Not sure but the doctor doesn’t want me to go more than two weeks after my due date,” she explained with a sigh. So far everything had been normal, as far as they could tell. She knew that the doctor was getting bent out of shape about never getting blood work results, no matter how many times he gave her the paperwork. She’d just shrug and say it was too crowded, or she couldn’t get off work, or didn’t have transportation, anything. But the baby wasn’t giving any indication of wanting to be born yet and today was March 3rd, one day past her due date. It had taken over forty years for its father to be hatched, so it wasn’t totally surprising that this one might take a little longer than normal. Tommy helped her with her coat and held onto her elbow so she wouldn’t slip in the snow and ice.

Liz listened to the country music that Tommy was playing as they swung onto I-40 to head home. The roads were slick with ice and they had to go slow which gave them plenty of time to talk. “Tommy, can ask you something? Do… do you regret that your dad wasn’t a part of your life?”

Tommy glanced over at her for a moment and gave her a knowing smile before turning back to his driving. “Mom’s been at it again with the guilt trip, huh? The old baby should at least know its father.”

“Yeah,” Liz said softly and wished more than anything that it were possible. Max would be head over heels in love with it, she knew. She noticed that Tommy was quiet and was beginning to think that he wouldn’t answer.

“I know my dad. Wish I didn’t,” he slowly began. “He wasn’t around much, not at all until my fifth birthday. He showed up at my party with a bunch of cronies, a bunch of good ol’ boys, braggin’ about ‘his’ son and slammin’ down beer after beer. Mom had to call the cops to get him to leave. I guess you could say that it wasn’t a great first impression. The second and third ones weren’t much better. He’d send a birthday card with five dollars occasionally, when he remembered my birthday. He’d show up every now and then and want to do something, fishing or take me to a park. Went fishing once. I had to drive the boat back in because he was too drunk to steer it. I had to wait for two hours for Mom to come and pick me up. I was nine. She never let me go with him again after that.”

Liz didn’t know what to say to that other than, “I’m sorry.”

Tommy shook his head. “Nothin’ to be sorry about. It’s just the way things are. He lives over in El Reno. He called me when I was about to graduate in May, wanted to know where my party was going to be so we could celebrate. I hung up on him and haven’t talked to him since. No loss.”

“But didn’t you miss not having a dad?”

“Maybe… sort of… I don’t know. I guess it’s hard to miss what you’ve never had. There were a few… potential step-dads, I guess, that were pretty good to me, and my mom’s brothers did take me places and do things with me when I was older, so I had that. Liz, I know it wasn’t easy on my mom, but I knew that she did the best she could for me, and that she was always there for me. And that’s what I really needed, what was most important,” he explained and glanced over her again. God, she was so young. Had his mom really been that young when she had him? “But I do think Mom’s right about one thing. He did the deed. He should own up and pay up. If he doesn’t want the responsibility, well, I guess it’s best not to force him. But that doesn’t mean he should be able to just walk away and never look back. You should go after him for financial support.”

“I can’t… at least not until I’m really eighteen,” Liz said. It was an old excuse to an old argument.

“Fine, when you’re eighteen, go after the deadbeat,” Tommy concluded as they pulled off the highway on to Garth Brooks Ave.

“Oh, and before I forget, thank you again for the mini-frig and microwave. They’ve really come in handy,” Liz told him again. He’d dropped them off a couple weeks ago.

“No problem. It’s not like I was using them anymore since I moved out of the dorm. ‘sides, my new apartment has the full-sized models,” he told her as they pulled in front of the restaurant. “How much longer are they going to let you work?”

“As long as I feel up to it,” she answered as they walked in. She needed to make as much money as possible. She didn’t know exactly how long she could afford to take off once the baby was born, or if she would even still be here.

“So?” Susan asked the minute Beth walked in.

“So…not yet,” Beth replied as she walked around the counter to get her apron. She still hadn’t decided if it was better to tie it above or below the large belly sticking out in front of her. She decided below for today.

“Not yet, huh? Not even born and already stubborn,” she commented and eyed her critically. “It’s a boy. You’re all baby and upfront,” she observed. “Picked a name yet?” she asked and got back to work putting out fresh salad mix.

“Nope, still no clue. Nothing sounds right,” Liz replied and started chopping up some fresh tomatoes to add to the salad mix.

“Mmm, what’s his daddy’s name? Maybe you should use his?” she suggested. Beth had been very closed mouth about the father of her baby. At first she thought he might had been abusive because of her reluctance but she some how didn’t think so. Beth would get all misty eyed whenever the subject was brought up. Whoever he was, Beth had loved him, still did.

‘Yes, and then I can paint a big bull’s-eye on him for the Special Unit,’ Liz remarked to herself. “No, I don’t think so… maybe Jeffrey… I don’t know,” Liz said.

“Well, that little one had better pop soon. You’re just so tiny!” Susan commented.

“Tiny? God, I’ve put on over thirty-five pounds and can expect another five for each week I go. I’m huge!” Liz complained.

Susan laughed. “Hon, you weigh less than I do now and I ain’t had a bun in the oven for more than twenty-five years. Huge, my Aunt Fanny!” she laughed again.

~

Two weeks later, she almost cried as the metal weight kept sliding farther and farther to the right, one hundred and fifty pounds even. She didn’t put on five pounds a week for a total of ten but eleven. This was so unfair. If the baby only weighed seven or eight pounds, and give the placenta another ten or fifteen, then where the hell did the other twenty plus pounds come from? It just wasn’t right.

The doctor frowned some as he examined his patient. So far the baby had a good strong heartbeat and seemed to be fine, just not in much of a hurry to come out. He looked his patient over again and came to a decision. “Beth, I’m going to make an appointment for next week on Monday…” He checked his calendar, “the nineteenth. If you haven’t gone into labor by then, I want to induce. The baby is fine but it’s getting to be pretty good size and if it gets much larger… we’re looking at a cesarean. I don’t think either of us want that.”

Liz automatically clutched at her gown in worry. “O-okay, but…its healthy, right?” She felt tears starting to form.

“Yes, yes, it’s fine, just a bit lazy and might need a bit of push to get started. Don’t worry. It’s not that unusual especially with the first one,” he assured her.

She was a bundle of nervous energy when Tommy took her home. John had insisted that she take off work starting this week. He was too nervous about her going into labor at work. So she had cleaned and rearranged, and recleaned and re-rearranged her little room. Mrs. Winston had found an adorable used port-a-crib, a full sized one took up too much room. She had a month’s supply of diapers, six receiving blankets, a dozen ‘onesies’, four pairs of size zero-to-three months booties, one diaper bag, a box of cloth diapers to use as burp rags, five blanket sleepers, size zero, eight tiny regular sleepers, same size, three baby blankets, two sets of crib sheets that didn’t fit right, a mobile, four teddy bears, two rattlers, one baby car seat, good for up to twenty pounds, various bath wash, shampoo, rash ointment, and baby powder, and nothing left to do. Everything had been washed with fabric softener added in and was neatly folded and put in the correct spot. She looked at her overnight bag sitting by the door and dumped its contents back out on the bed. Maybe she’d missed packing something, maybe she should pack more… or less? She didn’t know and began repacking everything again. Maybe she should have jumped on that damn spaceship and gone with him that night so he would be there with her so she could yell at him for… for… EVERYTHING! She burst into sobs and fell on her bed. This was just so GODDAMN UNFAIR!

After crying until she couldn’t cry anymore she curled up with one of the baby’s teddy bears and fell asleep. It was sometime after midnight when she felt a good kick and then wetness between her legs. She groaned as she rolled out of bed, just what she needed, the baby playing kick mommy’s bladder game. It usually enjoyed it most in the middle of the night. She felt the pressure building as she did her best to hold it until she got the bathroom, once more thanking Mrs. Winston for giving her the room closest to it. She had just stepped into the bathroom when a rush of water gushed out and soaked her gown. “Oh boy,” she mumbled and stared at the floor. This was it.

~

Part 5

March 2014

Jamie could have sworn he smelled breakfast cooking when he awoke. But that didn’t make sense. It was a school day and Mom had to go to work. He was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he walked into the kitchen. He rubbed them again when he saw breakfast, pancakes, sausage, and fruit salad. “Mom, what’s going on?”

“Oh, good morning, honey,” Liz said with a spatula in hand and flipped the pancakes.

“G’morning. Um, Mom don’t you have to work today?” he asked in confusion.

“Yep, but I thought since I’ve been working late that if I couldn’t be home to fix you a good dinner, then the least I could do was start you off with a good breakfast. What do you think?” she asked as she removed the last of the pancakes from the griddle and sat the plate down on the table next to the Mrs. Buttersworth and Tabasco. “Jamie, sit down, eat up, eat up,” she encouraged and then took a seat herself and joined him.

“You’re weird, Mom,” Jamie observed as he sat down and fixed his plate. “Weird but you make good pancakes,” he amended after a couple of bites.

“Thank you,” she replied as she worked on her own plate.

“Are you going to work late again tonight?” he asked.

“Probably. Are you okay with that? I mean it won’t be as late as it was last night. Maybe 8:00?” she answered and hated every word.

“Yeah, yeah that’s fine. No problem…um, what about tomorrow night?” Jamie almost hated to ask.

Liz smiled. “And miss my son’s opening game against Howard Jr. High? Don’t be ridiculous,” Liz assured him. She’d already asked for the afternoon off as soon as he came home with their schedule two weeks ago. Her son was the star shortstop on the Madison Jr. High softball team. There were some things that were just more important to her than any paycheck.

“Oh,” Jamie said with an embarrassed smile. Mom never missed his games but he wasn’t sure with the car in the shop and everything. He smiled at a thought. “At eight, huh?”

“Yeah, why?” Liz asked slightly suspicious.

“Oh, no reason,” he said calmly but couldn’t quite hide a slight smile.

She eyed her son for a moment. “Jamie, make sure you stay in the apartment, especially after dark, and keep the door bolted,” she stated firmly. November hadn’t been that long ago.

“I will, Mom. Don’t worry,” he assured her.

She still worried.

~

At seven o’clock that night Jamie put the hamburger in the microwave to defrost while reading the directions on the back of the Hamburger Helper box. Looked simple enough and he’d seen Mom do it a hundred times. He could do this, no problem. What’s that smell? He looked over at the microwave. “Oh crap!” he said as he opened it. “Okay, so five minutes on high was a little too long,” he mumbled as he reached for it. “Hot! Hot!” He grabbed Mom’s new dishtowel to take it out with. Well, at least the dishtowel soaked up most of the grease that cooked out. As he plopped the hunk of hamburger into Mom’s biggest skillet and wondered what happened to the plastic wrap that had covered the hamburger when he first took it out of the freezer. Maybe he took it off and just didn’t remember doing it? He shrugged and used a knife to breakup the partially microwaved hamburger hunk and let it cook. Halfway was medium heat, right? Must be, he decided. Add two cups of hot water, half a cup of milk, rice bag and the seasoning mix. Okay, he can do that. He opened the cupboard where they kept the cups and wondered which one to use. He figured a coffee cup was a cup, wasn’t it? He turned the tap on hot and carefully filled it. “Oww!” He’d spilled some on his hand. “Oops!” It kinda splashed when he dumped it in the skillet. He repeated the process for the second cup, then refilled the cup halfway with milk and added that in, and finally the rest of the stuff and stirred. He

then double-checked the box to make sure he didn’t forget anything. Browned hamburger, check, drained grease… he looked at the pan simmering. “I wonder how important that part was? That towel probably took care of that…I think,” he pondered then shrugged, too late now. “Bring to a boil,” he read and then looked. “Yep, boiling. Now what? Cover and reduce heat to low and cook for fifteen minutes. Sauce will thicken as it sets. Okay, got it,” he finished reading and then carefully followed the directions and set the stove timer for exactly fifteen minutes, next the salad. By 7:45 he was done and the table was all set. He looked back in to the kitchen and figured Mom would probably be a bit upset if she saw that and started getting things cleaned up. He wasn’t too sure what to do about the pan though. It was kinda black on the bottom. He stuck it in the sink and ran water in it, like Mom did when things stuck to it. He then decided he’d better take out the garbage.

He frowned when he opened the door and saw that it was already dark out. He hated Mom coming home in the dark. He rounded the side of the building and headed toward the parking lot where the apartment dumpster was. He was just tossing the bag in when his hand touched the dumpster and it hit him, fear, anger, determination, love, longing, fighting, gunfire, rage, energy, violence, and finality. He turned white and quickly looked around. A fight. A big fight was going to happen here. They’re coming for him. They’re watching them. He’s watching them, watching Mom. He’s coming for Mom. He wants to take her away. He wants to take his mom away. The tears start to fall. It was dark out. Mom told him not to go out after dark. It was dark out. He started to run but fell, scraping his elbow and tearing his pants. He heard a car coming. They were coming. He got back up and ran for the door. He slammed it shut, locked it and bolted it. He ran to the bathroom and curled up in a ball in the tub. Mom told him not to go out after dark.

Liz walked in the door a few minutes after 8:00 and the first thing she noticed was it smelled like something had burned. She looked in the kitchen and saw their little table was set and the skillet soaking and then looked around for her son. Not seeing him she called out, “Jamie?”

Jamie’s heart almost leaped from his throat when the he heard someone at the door. He wanted to take his mom away. He wanted to take his mom away. That’s all he could think of. And now He was here. ‘Jamie?’ he heard in his mother’s voice and let out a gasp, “Mama? Ma-ma!”

She heard the terror and a chill ran down her spine. Jamie hadn’t called her ‘mama’ since he was little. “Oh God,” she hissed out and ran in the direction of his voice. Her baby, something’s happened to her baby, she couldn’t breathe. She ran into the bathroom and threw open the shower curtain. He flew into her arms, pulling her into the tub with him. She held him tight as he cried.

“I’m sorry, Mama, I’m sorry. You told me not to. You told me not to, but I did it anyways,” he sobbed.

“Shh, shh, it’s okay. Whatever it is, it’s okay. You’re here, and I’m here, we’re together, that’s all that matters. That’s all that matters,” she soothed and continued to rock him. She rocked him until her legs cramped, until her back was killing her, and until she was certain he had gotten it all out. Very slowly she got out of the tub and helped him out. She helped him get ready for bed, and then she slipped on some sweats. He was curled up on the sofa and she heard that stupid canned laughter coming from the TV set when she came out from changing. She took a seat on the opposite end of the sofa and threw a pillow on her lap. “Come here,” she told him and patted the pillow. He lay down with his head on the pillow in her lap. She took the TV remote from him and turned it down. She ran her fingers through his hair as he stared that set. A half hour passed before she could tell he was ready to talk. “Tell me what happened, Jamie,” she said gently.

“I wanted to surprise you with dinner,” he said and clutched at the pillow.

“I saw that. That was very sweet of you, honey,” Liz told him as her fingers continued to play with his hair. His hair tended to curl a bit at the ends, like his father’s. If she let it get too long it was almost unmanageable. He’d need a haircut soon, she thought absently.

“I was cleaning up afterwards and I… I was taking the garbage out. But it was dark out. I didn’t think about it. You always told me not to go out after dark. To keep the door bolted. But I went out anyway,” he said as his eyes started filling with tears.

“Well, we can talk about that later. Don’t worry about that right now, just tell me what happened when you took the garbage out,” she gently coaxed.

“I… a fight. There’s going to be a fight. Here, around here.” His head hurt. He’d been trying to sort it all out. Everything was all… jumbled.

“There was a fight or you felt that there was going to be a fight?” she tried to clarify.

“There’s going to be one. A big one.” He turned on his back and looked up at her. “Mama, They’re coming. They’re going to be coming for me… but… but there’s something else…” He tried to swallow but his mouth was so dry. “Mama, He’s coming for you. He wants to take you away. He…” Jamie closed his eyes. The feelings were so strong he could almost picture it. “Mama, he’s going to take you away from Them… or… or die trying to.”

Liz sat there stunned as she tried to get a grasp of what he was saying. “Jamie, who’s He? Do you know?”

Jamie shook his head with frustration. “No, I don’t, but… I can feel his… anger. He’s furious at Them.”

“By Them, you mean…Dan?” she asked tentatively.

Jamie thought about it. “I… I think so. I’m sorry, Mama. Everything is so…confusing. There’re so many emotions and images all happening at once.”

“Images? Jamie, did you see this happen?” Liz asked in surprise. He’d never said he’d actually seen things before.

“I…” He wasn’t sure. Did he see it or just think he saw it? He closed his eyes and tried to picture it. “Kinda… I don’t know.”

“Jamie, tell me what you think you saw. Did you see Him?” She tried again.

He closed his eyes and tried to picture it, tried to slow it all down so he could see it clearly. After several tries he gave up. It was all just a whir of actions and emotions spilling on top of each other. “I’m sorry. I can’t do it,” he sobbed. He had failed.

“No, no that’s fine. You did fine,” she told him as she held him close. “Jamie, this fight. It sounds like it’s not something we should be here for, huh?”

Jamie thought for a moment and tried to clear his own panic and fear over what he knew was going to happen. One sense became very focused. He looked at his mom. “It won’t make any difference. It’ll happen no matter where we go,” he stated very clearly and calmly.

Liz swallowed and did her best not to freak out. “When?”

“I’m not sure but…soon… a few days, a week maybe? Just… soon,” he proclaimed.

Liz nodded. The rest of the evening was a blur of putting Jamie to bed, going through the motions of putting away the uneaten dinner Jamie had made and cleaning up the rest of the kitchen. Anything to keep her busy while her mind wandered over everything. Jamie had never been this freaked out before. He’d never panicked like that. The closest was with Dan last November, but that was in response to something that was actually happening to them, not something he’d felt in the future. But what unnerved her the most was the clarity of his final pronouncement that it didn’t matter what they did. They couldn’t prevent it, couldn’t run from it, couldn’t hide from it, which meant that the only thing they could do was prepare for it.

~

March 2001

She was prepared for this. She could do this. She had to. There really wasn’t any choice in the matter, she thought and took a deep cleansing breath.

“That’s good Beth, another couple just like that and we’re there,” Dr. Taylor told her.

“You’re doin’ fine, honey,” Susan coached and held onto her hand, letting her squeeze it as tight as she wanted. Beth had a hell of a grip for such a little thing. “Find something to focus on, a spot on a wall or something.”

Right, focus. She needed to focus on something while trying to push her insides out. No problem. Focus. She stared at a spot on the wall and pretended it was Max. She would focus on Max. Max, who caused all of this. Max, who wasn’t there. Max, who’s fault all of this was. Max, who’s NEVER TOUCHING ME AGAIN, SO HELP ME GOD! Her mind yelled as another contraction hit.

“That’s it, just one more good one,” the doctor encouraged.

“Right,” Beth gasped and bore down again as the contraction racked her body. One more, just one more, she told herself. Max, you are so going to pay for this!

She let her breath out as she felt something finally give way. She heard a slight almost mewing sound. She watched as the doctor suctioned out the baby’s mouth and nose, angering it and suddenly the lusty cry of a newborn was heard. The tears were streaming down her cheeks as a nurse wrapped him in a receiving blanket and handed him to her and told her, “Congratulations, it’s a boy.”

She was totally enraptured with her son. She smiled as she noted that he had the ears, and maybe Max’s nose. He had a tuft of dark brown hair and the dark eyes of a newborn, and was so incredibly soft. He just kept looking around, checking everything out. “Hi, honey. Welcome to the world. Mommy loves you so very much,” she told him and silently added, “And so does Daddy.”

It was mid-morning when she finally got settled in her room, or more precisely, her corner of the room. County meant four to a room. It was noisy with all the other visitors seeing the new additions to the other families, but she didn’t care. She had her own and she just couldn’t get enough of him. She was exhausted but she didn’t want to put him down. He weighed a healthy 7 lbs, 15 oz., and was 21 inches long and his little card read Baby Boy Parker. She still had that name problem, but now it had multiplied. The administrator person had dropped off the birth certificate paperwork. So far, other than her information, it was blank. What was she going to name him? And what did she put down for his father? No matter how badly she wanted to put Max’s name down, she couldn’t take the chance.

“Hey hon, you’re lookin’ better. Get any rest?” Susan asked as she came in and closed the curtain for a bit more privacy.

“Not really,” she admitted.

Susan glanced over at the paperwork sitting on the table next to her partially eaten lunch. “Haven’t figured out his name yet, huh?”

“No, not yet,” she sighed.

“Haven’t figured out his daddy’s name yet either,” she said dryly.

“I don’t think…”

“Now listen hon, no matter how much of a bastard he was for leavin’ ya, you need to give this baby a father. You’re all alone in this world, ‘cept for that little one there, and if somethin’ happens, that baby’s gonna need a family. And from what you tell me, it ain’t gonna be yours. Maybe he wasn’t good father material, but you picked him, and maybe he’s got some parents or brothers or sisters that would step up to the plate and take care of him. You wouldn’t want strangers raising him, would you?” she pointed out.

“No, I wouldn’t want that,” Liz admitted. They visited for an hour or so before Susan had to head back to work. She put the baby down in his little acrylic bassinet thing for a nap and picked up the paperwork again. An hour later, it was still blank. She just couldn’t do it. She couldn’t use Max’s name. But Susan was right. He did need a father, someone that knew who he really was. If something did happen to her, and the Special Unit didn’t get him, then her parents would take him in a heartbeat, but they wouldn’t understand if his hand started to glow. The same held true for the Evans. No one would be there to tell him. If she filled out the father’s information at all, there were only two likely candidates. And one of them, her parents would never in a million years believe was the father. Alex was just too much like her brother for them to believe that… well, you know. The other one… yeah, they’d believe it. They’d be stunned, but then they’d be stunned anyhow. But could she do this to him without telling him? She shook her head, no. He’d need to be prepared. She gingerly moved off the bed to grab her overnight bag with her address book and cell phone. Cell phones were a no-no in the hospital, but screw that. She didn’t want the call to be traceable. She quickly dialed the number.

He was on his way out the door for baseball practice when the phone rang. He wasn’t going to answer it but… something just told him to pick up. He got it on the fourth ring. “Hello?” Nothing. “Hello? Come on, say something or I’m hanging up.”

“K-Kyle,” Liz stammered.

Stunned. Kyle dropped his sports bag. “Liz? Liz where are you? Are you okay? Did you go with them? Are they back?”

“With them? No, no, not with them. Kyle…”

“Liz, your parents are totally panicked. And Maria and Alex… God, do you have any idea? Liz, what’s going on?”

“Kyle, I… Kyle, I need a favor, a huge, huge favor,” she told him. Her eyes were starting to fill with tears. It had been such a long time since she talked to anyone back home.

“Name it. I’m there,” Kyle told her, ready to do whatever she needed.

She couldn’t do it over the phone. She needed to see him, talk to him in person, and let him meet the baby. Give him a chance to think about it. “Kyle, can you come meet me?”

“Just tell me where and I’m on my way,” he said without any hesitation at all.

“Is it safe?” She asked.

Kyle swallowed and nodded into the phone. “Yeah, they’re still hanging around, but they’re mainly dogging Maria and Alex and your parents, waiting to see if you turn up. Dad and me sort of slipped off their radar.”

“Oklahoma City County Hospital, room 465 D,” she stated.

“Hospital? Liz, what happened?” Kyle asked, ready to panic.

“It’s… I’m okay. You’ll see when you get here,” she assured him. “Kyle, you can’t tell anyone though, not even Alex or Maria, not yet.”

Kyle sighed. “Okay, Liz. I should be there tomorrow morning sometime. Liz… I… care about you… a lot. I’ll be there.”

“I know, Kyle. I care about you too. Thank you,” she said and then started to cry softly as she hung up.

~

Kyle pulled into the parking lot of the large hospital. He’d driven all afternoon and all night to get there, but he was surprisingly still wide-awake. Adrenalin will do that to you, he figured. He’d packed a quick bag, stopped by the ATM and withdrew five hundred, the card maximum, from his and Dad’s joint account, he hope the car payment or mortgage or something didn’t bounce because of it, gassed up the Mustang and was on the road within a half hour of Liz’s call. He had no idea what he was walking into, but he had no doubt it was all because of Max Evans. “Damn, the dude’s not even on the same planet anymore and he’s still screwin’ with my life,” he lamented as he slipped his jacket on and got out.

There had been a late winter storm pass through a few days earlier and there was still snow on the ground and still cold out. He slipped his hands into his jacket pockets to keep warm and was surprised to find his cell phone in his pocket. He’d forgotten about it. He flipped it on and was startled to hear it start ringing. He paused in the parking lot to answer. He knew who it was. “Hey Dad.”

“Kyle, mind telling me where you are?” the pissed off dad said.

“Meeting a friend,” he replied carefully since he saw that Dad was calling from work.

“A friend, eh? Anyone I know?” Jim asked.

“Yeah, Dad. You know how it is, when an old girlfriend looks you up. You gotta go see how she turned out,” he replied and hoped he didn’t give too much away.

Liz Parker. He glanced up as Deputy Hanson knocked on his office door then walked in. “Okay Kyle, but next time you take off to see an old flame, I want to know about it beforehand. And no more using the ATM or credit card!” he stated in a raised voice. They could track those transactions. “You call me at home tonight and let me know where this joy ride of yours ended up, got that?” he said sternly.

Kyle looked at the phone with raised brow. Obviously someone must be listening. “Yeah Dad, I got it.”

“Kids!” Jim said for the benefit of his deputy. “Now what can I do you for, Hanson?”

Kyle walked into the hospital and stopped by the gift shop. You were supposed to bring flowers when someone was in the hospital, weren’t you? He settled on a bouquet of white and yellow carnations for the total rip-off price of twenty-five bucks. He headed to the elevators and pushed the button for the fourth floor.

The older woman watched the young man push the button for the fourth floor and saw the flowers, and gave him a smile and patted his arm. “Congratulations, dear,” she told him before stepping off on the second floor.

“Uh… thanks…” he replied hesitantly, totally confused. Two floors later and he stepped out on the fourth floor. 401 – 435 to the left, 436 – 480 to the right. He turned right and followed the corridor around to the right and came to a screeching halt at the large windowed room with a bunch of people looking in it and making stupid faces at the rows of tiny screaming little rug rats. He almost dropped the flowers. This was the maternity floor. “Oh shit, Evans, what the hell did you do?” he mumbled. This was bad. This was very bad. No wonder Liz ran. He continued on in a trance. He couldn’t believe what had happened but he was sure he was about to find. He couldn’t believe it. He stepped into room 465 and found it full of new mothers and babies with nervous fathers, and bratty brothers and sisters running amuck. He checked the bed numbers and figured Liz’s was the one in the far corner with the curtain closed. He nervously stood in front of it and wondered how to knock. He finally squeaked out, “Liz?”

“Kyle! Just… hold on a second,” came the familiar voice.

Kyle heard rustling and someone he didn’t know talking to Liz. Abruptly the curtain swung back and a very, very large nurse stood in front of him. “Hi?”

“Hi, she’s all done nursing. Your boy’s a good eater,” she replied with a smile as she left, giving the new family time alone to bond with their new son.

Your boy? YOUR BOY? WHAT THE F*CK? His face was ashen as he turned to look. God, she really had a baby. This was real. This was really happening. “Liz?”

“Kyle, come on in and close the curtain so we can talk…and… and I want to introduce you to someone,” Liz softly said. She’d had a day to think this over and decide what to say. It was still the best solution she could come up with.

Kyle took a seat next to the bed after closing the curtain. He still felt like he was in the twilight zone but he couldn’t take his eyes off the small bundle laying on Liz’s arms. “Liz, is that… that’s… Evans’?”

“I go by Beth here, Kyle. And yeah, it’s his,” she admitted.

“Oh shit,” he blurted out at the confirmation.

“Yeah, my feelings exactly nine months ago,” she agreed.

“Christ, he left you… he left you carrying his child? How could he do that?” Kyle was still getting a grip on this unbelievable situation and the easiest thing to do was blame it all on Evans.

Liz shook her head. “He didn’t know,” she said very softly.

Kyle was quiet at that. Evans had never been his favorite person but Kyle didn’t think he would be the type to run out on a situation like this, alien war, or no alien war. “Did you?”

She chewed her lip and nodded. “If I told him, he’d stay and more people would die. They needed him. I couldn’t keep him,” she reasoned.

“Jesus!” he said and ran his hand through his hair. The baby gurgled, drawing his attention. “What’s his name?” he finally asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know yet. I… I sort of needed to talk to you about that.”

“Me? Why me?” he was getting a really bad feeling about all of this. An hour later he had to go for a walk and think. He didn’t know where he was walking. He didn’t care. His mind was still reeling from everything. Max Evans, alien king extraordinaire, had gotten Miss Destined to be Class Valedictorian, Liz Parker, pregnant, and then left the planet to fight in an alien war. In the meantime, the remnants of the FBI Special Unit were still hanging around Roswell, looking for said alien king or any other alien. And Liz, carrying a part alien baby, has no choice but to run. Now the baby’s here, she’s alone and scared, relying on strangers for help, and no father for said part-alien baby. No one to protect it if something happened to her, which it very well might.

He found himself wandering around the aisle of some store. A Target store, maybe. It didn’t matter. He found himself heading toward the infant toys. He stared without seeing. Liz needed a name to put down as the baby’s father, someone who knew the secret and would protect him, if needed. Someone that people might actually believe could be the father. Alex would do it, but no one would believe he was the father. That left him, Kyle, taking responsibility for Max Evans’ kid. True, Liz said she wasn’t looking nor expecting anything other than a name on a document, but legally he would still be that baby’s father and his dad, its grandfather. “Damn, Evans.” He blinked when he spotted it, a little terrycloth mitt and baseball, something for a newborn to drool on, something that he would buy for his son, if he had one. He grabbed it off the shelf.

Liz was asleep when he came back. The paperwork was sitting at the foot of the bed. He sat in a chair and stared at it. Mother: Elizabeth Parker, 345 Cedar St., Yukon, OK. Father… he took the pen and started to write.

Liz awoke and was surprised at the site she found before her. Kyle was sitting there holding the baby and this little baseball mitt and telling him all about the game of baseball. “Kyle.”

He looked over and gave her a smiled. “So what do you think of Jameson Valenti Parker? Jameson… James for my dad and grandpa. We can call him Jamie for short,” he suggested.

“Kyle…I love it. Thank you,” she said with tears in her eyes.

“Aww, now don’t do that. No waterworks, ‘kay?” he asked and then got a mischievous smile.

She sniffed and dried her eyes, and noticed his look. “What?”

“Oh just picturing the look on Evans’ face when he discovers his son’s name and who’s listed on the certificate. Somehow… I think I’d enjoy seeing that,” he grinned earnestly at the thought.

“KYLE!” she bit her lip. Max would be thankful for Kyle being there for… Jamie, but she knew what he meant. Kyle and Max had been sort of rivals since the shooting and everything. She allowed herself a little smile at how pleased Kyle was looking.

“Liz, if you need me, for anything, I’m there. My dad too.” He looked down at the little bundle in his arms. “We’ll both do anything to help, after all, he’s a Valenti now,” he proclaimed.

~

Part 6

March 2014

“No, I’m sorry. I just can’t. We have a personal emergency and I have to be with my son,” Liz almost yelled into the phone. “No, I can’t come in and bring it home to work on. I have to deal with personal stuff. I’m sorry,” she stated again. “Look, I don’t mean to leave you in a lurch like this but I have no choice. My family comes before any job,” she stated even a little more loudly. She was beginning to get really steamed now as her boss droned on in her ear about how much they needed her. “You know what? I quit,” she said and slammed the phone down in anger.

“Mom?” Jamie said from his spot in the hallway.

Liz sighed and looked over at her son. “Hi honey. How’d you sleep?”

“Um, so-so, I guess. Um, Mom, you…uh… you just quit your job,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, I sorted noticed that. Come here,” she said and held out her hand to take his. “Sit down, honey.” He looked so young in his pajamas and sleep tousled hair. He shouldn’t be dealing with anything like this. He shouldn’t even know about being hunted and fights and losing parents. He shouldn’t know any of this… but he did. “Jamie, I want to ask you something. Last night, you said that the fight was happening soon. Do you know… do you feel it happening today?” she asked him, careful to keep her voice very calm.

“No, not today,” he said and shook his head for emphasis.

“So today it’s still… safe?” she asked.

He closed his eyes to see if anything he felt had changed or intensified or anything. He opened his eyes and shook his head. “Yeah, it’s okay.”

“Okay then. I want you to get ready for school,” she told him.

“School? Mom, I wanna stay with you,” he proclaimed.

“Jamie, if you don’t go to school, you can’t play in your game this afternoon and I want to watch you play today, that… that’s important to me. Will you do that for me? Please?” she pleaded. She had things to do and wanted some time to think about things, and she wanted, and it’s true, she wanted to see her son play. It might be the last time for a while if things went bad. It was important to her that he has this opportunity.

Jamie nodded his head. “Okay, but I have a geometry test that I didn’t study for last night. I’ll probably flunk it.”

Liz smiled. “Well, just do the best you can and don’t worry about it. I’ll meet you at the game this afternoon, ‘kay?”

“Okay,” he told her, and gave her a hug and a tentative smile. Mom wanted to see him play ball. That was his mom.

After getting Jamie off to school, she pulled out an old box that she had kept underneath the bed. She had been thinking of putting it in their new storage locker, like she did last time but she just hadn’t done it yet. Now she was glad that she hadn’t. She brought the box to the dining table and pulled out her old address book. She still could help but flipping through to the ‘E’s and looking at Max Evans old phone number, and cell number. How she wished he would answer if she dialed it. She kept flipping until she was at the ‘V’s. She pulled out the new prepaid cell phone. She would always buy a new one either once a year or after arriving in a new town. She pushed the work number. It was answered on the third ring. “Sheriff Valenti, please,” she said.

“Hello, Sheriff Valenti here. How can I help you?”

“Hello Sheriff, it’s…Beth,” she spoke into the phone. She’d often wondered why the sheriff hadn’t retired yet. He’d certainly earned it. But she had a strong suspicion it had something to do with protecting his ‘grandson’, as well as keeping an eye out for any more spaceships that might decide to land.

Jim Valenti got up and closed his office door and then took a seat. “Hi Beth, is everything alright?”

“Yeah… for now. But… I was wondered how things were going there? Any… old friends stopping by?” she asked.

“No, not that’s been reported. Should I be expecting some?” he asked as he kept an eye on the frosted window on the door. He wanted to make sure no one was listening on the other side.

“I don’t know. The message I got wasn’t very clear but… I thought it could be,” she stated with a hopeful tone.

“Well, I’ll be on the look out then. Is everything else okay?” he asked. He knew that Liz only called if they were either already in trouble or preparing for trouble. The last time had been right before Thanksgiving when he’d gotten a rushed call from a train station. They’d gone on the run again and were low on funds. He’d had Kyle wire her some cash at their destination, enough to get them a used car and get established somewhere. Where, he didn’t know, only Kyle knew. They’d agreed a long time ago that no one in Roswell would know their location. It was just too dangerous. So Kyle had moved to Tucson, AZ right after that to go to school. Kyle had seen Jamie only a handful of times; the last one was Jamie’s seventh birthday. He’d gotten to see him then too, for the first and only time. They’d taken him to a spring training game for the Diamondbacks. He was a great kid, a kid any parent or grandparent would be proud of. He still carried his 2nd grade school picture in his wallet. It saddened him to think that neither the Parkers nor Evans knew what a great grandson they had. It felt odd that he carried Jamie’s picture and they didn’t… maybe someday.

“At the moment yes, but I expect that to change shortly,” Liz explained as best she could. She knew that Kyle and the sheriff were aware of Jamie’s gift and didn’t question it when Jamie said something was going to happen.

“Need anything?” he asked.

She hated doing this but she didn’t have much of a choice, not when her son’s life depended on it. Didn’t mean she had to like it though. “Yeah, whatever you can,” she admitted, “And thank you.”

“No problem. That’s what we’re here for,” he assured her before hanging up. He’d make a call this afternoon and wire the money to Kyle, who’d wire it on to Liz. He’d have to talk to Kyle about Liz’s suspicion about them returning. If true, he’d come to Roswell first and probably freak out when he discovers that Liz took off right after he did. He’d have to keep his eyes open, keep watching the Evans house and the Crashdown and Parker’s apartment, and maybe make a few trips out near the pod chamber.

Liz had become an expert packer. She could pack a bag in less than three minutes and make sure to include all the essentials. Fortunately, she had a bit more time today and carefully went through their belongings. One large suitcase each full of clothes and extra stuff, something they could leave and easily replace if they had to. One small bag a piece that they could carry on a train or bus or a couple of times, a plane. In those were any documents they needed, cash, two changes of clothes and the basics for hygiene and grooming, along with a hat and sunglasses and one or two mementos if they could make them fit. She lived the last fourteen years with a bag packed, ready to run on a moment’s notice. It was the only way Jamie knew how to live.

~

March 2001

Liz groaned from the backseat. It should only take a half hour, even in bad weather to get home from the hospital. They’d left forty-five minutes ago and still hadn’t reached the turn off from the highway. “Kyle, is there something wrong with your car? Gas pedal stuck at twenty-five miles an hour or something?”

“Liz! The roads froze over last night. Jesus, you don’t want me to skid off the road taking you and Jamie home for the first time, do you?” Kyle protested. He could just see him explaining it all to his dad while in a body cast.

Liz smiled again. It was so cute when Kyle asked if he could bring her and their Jamie home. But God, could they just get there already? She looked down at her precious little bundle all wrapped up snug in blankets and sound asleep in his car seat. She glanced up ahead with relief. “Kyle, this next exit is it. Turn right and keep going.”

‘Garth Brooks Ave? You have got to be kidding me?’ he thought. “Right.”

Liz rolled her eyes and groaned five minutes later when Kyle not only took the correct exit, but then kept right on turning into the Wal-Mart parking lot. Were they ever going to get home? “Kyle, now what?”

Kyle put the car in park and took a deep breath and let it out before turning around to face the back. “Marry me, Liz,” he blurted out.

Liz blinked. And blinked again. She opened her mouth but closed it again without saying a word. And blinked once more. “Huh?”

“I thought about it and this could work. You and I get married. We can go back to Roswell. I’m the father and your husband. We can say something about Max taking off because he discovered that you and I were still seeing each other. And then when you found out you were pregnant with my baby, you panicked but when the baby was born you called for me to bring you home and…” He could tell she wasn’t buying it, “And we got married on the way…No?”

Liz wanted to cry. It was just so, so sweet, dumb, but sweet. “Kyle, what about the fact that Jamie happens to look like his dad a little already and will even more as he gets older. Don’t you think Evans will be just a tad bit suspicious that our baby just happens to look an awful lot like their son? And if they are, won’t the Special Unit be as well? I can’t go back to Roswell.”

“Then we can go somewhere else,” he offered. He just couldn’t see how he was going to leave Liz and Jamie to fend for themselves, not to mention being hunted by the FBI.

Liz sighed heavily. She felt a wave of sadness descend upon her. “Kyle, thank you, but no. You’ve done enough, more than enough, more than I really had the right to ask of you.” She took a deep breath and continued, “Kyle, you’re a great guy, an incredible guy, and you deserve a girl that’s just as incredible and who… who’ll love you for you. We’d… we’d never work because it would never be just us. There’d always be…”

“Max Evans,” Kyle finished for her. He knew she was right, but biology or no biology, his name was on Jamie’s birth certificate and damn it, he agreed to be responsible for him! “I could… live with that,” he choked out half-heartedly. It was a lie and they both knew it.

“Kyle, thank you but the answer is no. You deserve to have someone love you the way that I love Max. I won’t ruin your life by saying yes…but thank you,” she told him as she barely held back her tears.

Kyle sagged a little. He had hoped that she’d say yes, despite the obvious, but he hated to admit that he was also relieved when she didn’t. He turned back around and put the car in gear. “Okay then, let’s get you home.”

Kyle bristled at the scrutiny Mrs. Winston gave him, like she wanted to smack him. Of course he knew that it was because they all thought he was the baby’s dad and had skipped out on her, but… well, okay, yeah, he officially was the dad but he hadn’t skipped out… so he wasn’t this deadbeat that deserved these death-ray stares, that was Max Evans… but how in the hell could he explain it? He couldn’t so he just stared at the floor or Jamie and ignored all the, ‘tsk, tsk, tsk’, that followed Mrs. Winston every time she came to check on how Liz… er, Beth was doing. Do these people not know the meaning of privacy, he wondered as the bedroom door once again popped open.

“Oh, Beth, I forgot to hand you some mail that came yesterday,” Mrs. Winston said and shot a glare at the young dark haired man holding the baby. “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” she said while shaking her head as she closed the door.

“Does that damn thing have a lock?” he finally spat out in frustration.

“Kyle…” Liz giggled a little. Well, it was sort of funny and went to turn the lock. “She’s been very good to me,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, I know, but she keeps… never mind,” he sighed.

‘I’m sorry, Kyle,” she told him sincerely and leaned against the door.

“So what are your plans now?” Kyle asked as he put the now sleeping boy in the port-a-crib. “Are you staying here?”

“I’m not sure. As long as I can, a month at least to regain my strength,” she said as she flipped through the mail. ‘Department of Social Services’ on one of them caught her attention and she ripped it open and skimmed it and paled. “Or maybe not,” she amended.

Kyle was at her side in a heartbeat and read over her shoulder. “Oh shit. Social Security number invalid, and need to supply picture ID. Not good. So what’s Plan B?”

“I don’t know yet. I mean, I just had a baby. I need a few days at least to recuperate,” she explained as she read through the letter more thoroughly. “I have thirty days from the date of the letter to supply a valid number and ID. So thirty days from…” She scanned the letter date. “Crap from the first. It’s already the seventeenth. I have thirteen days.’

“Liz, do you think the Special Unit is looking for things like this?” Kyle hesitantly asked.

“I… I don’t know… maybe… probably but… I can’t be the only one that has… vague ID,” Liz tried to reason. “I mean how many resources does the Special Unit have?”

“Enough to catch Max,” he pointed out and looked at the baby sleeping so peacefully in the crib. “Can you take a chance with him on a guess?”

Liz looked at her precious boy, so little, so innocent. No, she couldn’t take a chance. “I have to leave,” she stated firmly.

“Okay, how much cash do you have on you?” Kyle asked as he pulled the wad he’d gotten from the ATM before leaving Roswell and counted, four hundred and twenty-nine dollars left.

Liz reached in her underwear drawer and pulled out all the cash she had been hording for the last nine months. She’d spent very little and had actually added a little to it from her tip money. “Just under twenty-six hundred,” she told him.

“Okay, so about three grand. Let’s take a couple of days for you to rest. We tell them here that you’ve agreed to come back home with me, and that we’ve agreed to try and work things out. And my dad is willing to take you and the baby in,” Kyle suggested.

“And go where? I can’t go back, you know that,” Liz restated. “Besides, you can’t go running off with me. That’s not what I want.”

“I’m not…exactly. Only until you’re a bit more… recuperated. How long until the Birth Certificate is ready? Did they say?”

“I don’t know. A month maybe?” Liz guessed.

“Okay, I’ll go ask. Say that we need it rushed for… say I’m thinking of joining the army or something and might need to go overseas,” he thought quickly. “Hell, I don’t know. I just think you should have a copy before we leave. You might never get a chance to get it otherwise,” he reasonably pointed out.

“Okay. But where are we going?” Liz asked.

“Don’t know. Got any suggestions?”

“No.”

“Well, I guess I should buy a map so we can do some planning,” he said with a yawn. It’d been a long day. “I should go see about getting a motel room for the night.”

“No, Kyle…I… stay here. Please?” she asked. She suddenly didn’t want to be alone. “I can ask Mrs. Winston if we can use the rollout. It’d be a little crowded but…”

“Yeah, that’d be good,” he agreed. He wanted to be there too, just in case they had less time than he’d imagined. “Besides, it’d save the cost of a motel room.”

~

Kyle slammed the trunk of the Mustang closed. Damn, you sure needed a ton of crap for a kid. He watched as Beth said goodbye to everyone here. They all had told her that she was doing the right thing, going home, if not to her family, then at least to his. He wished that were true.

Traveling with a kid was fun – NOT! Every two hours they had to stop so Jamie could nurse, and so Kyle could turn the other way and not look. Liz did her best to try to cover up while Jamie nursed and Kyle intently studied the map. “So where are we?” she inquired.

“About two hours from Topeka. You know, when we were dating I had used to have dreams of us running off together… somehow this wasn’t exactly how they went,” he mentioned.

“Kyle, I’m so…”

“Don’t Liz. No more ‘I’m sorry’. We agreed. I’m here because I want to be. Besides, think of all the fun I’ll get to have in summer school,” he told her with a snort. He chanced a glance and saw that Jamie was done. “Here, I’ll take him. He needs a little air anyway. He’s been cooped up in the car too much,” Kyle said as he reached for him.

Liz watched as Kyle walked around the car and burped him, while she adjusted her nursing bra. She slipped a jacket on in the early spring afternoon and joined him walking around the rest stop. “You’re good with him. You’re going to be a good dad,” she observed.

Kyle grinned. “I already am, remember?”

Yeah,” she smiled back. “What’d your dad say this morning. You never said.”

“We were right. They’d been going back through bus schedules from last June, trying to find anything weird and then following up. The social security thing tipped them off. Liz, my dad’s pretty certain that by now they know about Jamie and probably that we’re together,” he informed her.

“So then we should split up,” she said calmly but inside she felt crushed.

“Yeah, but not until we’re in a good spot to do so. I won’t leave you in a lurch. We’ll find someplace that you can be safe,” he assured her.

Liz shook her head. “There is no such place.”

“Well, safer then. To start you need a new ID. One that can hold up for a while,” Kyle told her.

“How are we going to do that?” Liz asked.

“Dad gave me the name and address of a friend of his in Michigan. We’re heading there. Dad’s already sent him some cash to hold for us. He… uh, well, a cop knows a lot of seedy characters and he’s one that owes Dad a favor. I guess there’s honor among thieves or something. Go figure,” he commented.

“And then what?” she asked. It was good to have some help from someone that actually knew the truth and had a shared history.

“Then we find you someplace nice and quiet to see how things go and give you some time to get situated, then…”

“You leave,” she knew.

“Unless you want me to stay,” he offered once again. The thought of Liz and Jamie being out here alone… it just went against everything he believed in.

Liz shook her head adamantly. “No. You need to go live your life. We’ve already been through this,” she reminded him.

“What about your folks? And Maria and Alex? They’re going to know. No matter what story Dad gives everyone about me visiting some relatives, Alex and Maria aren’t going to buy it,” he pointed out to her.

“I know. I guess you’ll need to tell them. And…and for my parents… I’ll write them a letter. If you or your dad can have it delivered. There can’t be any post marks on it,” she stated.

“Okay. Are you going to tell them about their grandson?” he asked.

“I’d like to. They’d love him so much… but it’d cause too many questions. Make it look a little too… suspicious about your sudden disappearance and then… I just can’t take the chance,” she said sadly.

“Okay, Liz. It’s your decision,” he relented.

~

Her heart lurched as the Mustang pulled out of the driveway. She turned a little and took Jamie’s little hand to wave bye-bye to Daddy. That’s been what Kyle had been for the last four weeks, Jamie’s daddy, in everyway but blood. He’d taken care of them and kept them safe. They’d arrived in Michigan exhausted and tired from the road. Kyle had found them a decent enough motel that first night, double beds of course, and the next morning gone to meet his dad’s ‘friend’. What this ‘friend’ thought, heaven only knew, the guy just smirked when he saw the sheriff’s son with her and a baby. Kyle hadn’t wanted them there for the first meeting, but he wasn’t too enthused about leaving them at the motel alone either, so they’d went along. It took two more visits, one for pictures and prints, and another one to pick up the final product before they were done with the guy. Liz now had new respect for the law enforcement and the type of people they had to deal with.

Jim Valenti had been a godsend. He’d wired almost fifteen hundred dollars. Where he got it from, she didn’t want to know but she wrote him a heart felt note thanking him for it and promising that she’d pay him back someday. The money went for first and last plus a deposit for Ann Karner’s new one bedroom apartment that was just down the road from the daycare center where she got hired on immediately. Liz figured at least that way she could watch Jamie at the same time. Jim had insisted that she always hold onto at least a grand to run on. More was better but at least a grand. She had carefully stashed a grand of her money away. Kyle had taken three-hundred for gas and food for the return trip, and they’d used the last of the wired money shopping at second hand stores for furniture, and groceries, and had bought a few things for Jamie, including a stroller, something they’d overlooked earlier and had to immediately remedy as they walked from store to store. They were the idyllic young family pushing the stroller with the cute baby in it. But it was all an illusion.

Kyle had asked her last night to marry him again. He said it would be the last time, that his fragile ego was reaching its limit, he’d said with a smile. She played along and joked back, but she knew he was also serious. As good as Kyle was to her, and as good as he was with Jamie, Kyle wasn’t Max no matter how hard he tried. Kyle deserved better. He deserved to be the first true love in someone’s life and he’d never find her if she said yes. And she didn’t want to take Kyle away from his own family either. After everything Jim Valenti had done for her, how could she take his son, his only child from him? Enough parents in Roswell had already lost their children to the alien abyss. She wasn’t going to let it happen to any more, maybe because she was a parent herself now that seemed so much more important.

Kyle carried with him letters, one to her parents letting them know that she was indeed alive and well and how sorry she was for everything but that she wasn’t coming home. She didn’t offer any explanation. She simply didn’t have any to give. And she still thought it best not to mention Jamie. Kyle had already gone through enough and he didn’t need her parents badgering him. Jim was going to deliver the letter to her parents and just say that they’d been dropped in his mailbox, she’d included a note that he could show her parents where she asked him to give them the letter. The other two letters were to Alex and Maria. In a way those were harder because they were in the alien-know. She didn’t include anything in writing about Jamie, but she did ask Kyle to tell them somewhere safe and private. It was the best she could do.

Kyle would be under some scrutiny from the FBI but Jim had already gotten a hold of that contact Nesado had given him. The contact was high enough placed to have Kyle knocked off the radarscope but not her. She had what they wanted, an alien, only one-quarter alien to be exact, but that was close enough.

She watched until the Mustang turned the corner and disappeared before heading in. “Come on Jamie, time to start our new life.’

~

Part 7

March 2014

“WOOHOO!” Liz stood up and cheered as Jamie struck him out. She could tell that her son was embarrassed by it, but she didn’t care. He was her little boy and he’d just struck out their top hitter for the third time. “That’s my boy,” she announced proudly to the other mom sitting there quietly reading a magazine and barely glancing at the game. Why the hell come if you weren’t going to enjoy it? Beside, how could any mother pass up an opportunity to not only cheer but also embarrass their child and leave lasting scars? It was a mother’s God given right! That’s what she always told Jamie, anyway.

Jamie glanced over at his mom and pleaded with his eyes for her to behave and not embarrass him any further, but he knew it was futile. Mom was Mom, period. He picked up some sand to keep his hand dry. Softball was a bit harder for him because he had a tendency to do a windup, like when he played baseball, which is a no-no in softball. He had to really concentrate not to do it. He felt the ball in his hand and kept turning until it felt right. He’d allowed only three guys on base the whole game and this was the bottom of the fifth, and hopefully the third and final out. “No windup, no windup,” he mutter to himself and released the underhand ball. He heard the crack of the bat and the ball seemed to be coming right back at him. He was pretty sure he heard his mom’s voice yelling, ‘DUCK,’ but that didn’t quite register quick enough and he held his mitt out and braced for impact. The next thing he knew was how blue the sky was as he stared up at it. He blinked a few times as his coach broke into his view and stared down at him for a moment. “I forgot to duck.”

The coached grinned at that and bent down to help him up. “Yeah, but that’s okay. At least you remembered to hold onto the ball,” he told him with a slight chuckle.

“I did?” he replied with shock and looked at his mitt. Sure enough there was a softball wedged in there. That could explain why his hand was starting to tingle and burn. He slipped his mitt off and his hand really started to throb. He looked over at his mom, who was standing at the edge of the dug out ready to come running. That would be so embarrassing. He figured he better get up and get over there and let her know he was okay before she freaked. He shook his sore hand as the coached walked him over to his mom.

“Are you alright?” she rushed out as soon he reached her. It had taken everything in her power not to go running to the mound when he went down and didn’t get up immediately.

“Yeah, my hand’s a bit sore, that’s all,” he said trying to downplay it, as his mom carefully turned his quickly bruising hand over in hers, examining it.

She pushed a little here and there, noting when Jamie winced and when he didn’t. “Do you think you broke anything?” she asked.

“No, it just stings,” he answered as the coach arrived back with a bag of ice and a towel.

“Does he need to go to an emergency room?” the coach asked as he wrapped the bag of ice in the towel and then the towel around his hand.

“No, it’s just bruised. Mom, I’m fine. Besides, you know what a fast healer I am,” Jamie mentioned.

Liz caught her son’s eyes. “You sure nothing’s broken?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Just bruising,” he reiterated.

Liz sighed. Jamie had his share of bumps and bruises over the years, fortunately nothing that required anything more than first aid, which was good because Jamie was indeed a very fast healer, another example of his father’s genes. “Can you move your fingers?” she asked and watched as he complied, he winced a little at first but didn’t seem to have much difficulty moving them. “Well, if you’re sure?’

“Mo-om,” he groaned.

“Well, okay,” she finally relented.

“Jamie, you feel up to joining the team for pizza? You certainly deserve it,” the coach asked and glanced over at his mom to see if it was okay. Ms. Parker just studied her son to see if he wanted to go.

“Jamie?” Liz finally asked.

“Yeah, if it’s okay, Mom?” Jamie wanted to go but… how would they get there and back home?

Liz turned to the coach. “We’d love to but… unfortunately my car’s in the shop. Do you know someone that might have a bit extra room for us to tag along?” she hated bumming rides but for her son, she would.

The coach smiled. Ms. Parker was a pretty little thing and probably one of the youngest mom’s he’d seen of a teenager. She must have been a baby herself when Jamie was born, and no wedding ring on her finger. Give her a ride? Jesus, half the dads on the team were divorced or wished they were, she’d have them clamoring for the opportunity. “I’m sure we can take care of that,” he said with a smile.

~

Jamie scowled as he sipped his Coke. Mom was sitting at the table with some of the other parents talking and splitting a pitcher of beer. He hated it when his classmates’ dads gawked and fawned over his mom. That was his MOM, for Pete’s sake. His friends all had their own moms, why couldn’t their dads’ leer at them instead, like they were supposed to? He silently fumed.

Liz sipped her beer and made polite conversation with the fathers sitting around her. There was a sprinkling of moms around, who were dutifully ignoring her and acting as if it was her fault that some men were idiots.

Frank Tamessitti had promised his son, Carl, that he’d be there at his first game. He didn’t remember promising it, but Wendy, his wife and Carl’s mother, insisted that he had and had assured him that his life would be a living hell if he didn’t live up to that promise. So he had been expecting the normal sitting on the uncomfortable metal bleachers watching his son’s team get slaughtered like they had last year, and then going for crappy pizza, listening to the other dad’s bemoan how they’d been robbed, and look at a bunch of overweight softball moms while they talked diet tips while shoving pizza in their mouths. Ms. Parker was a pleasant surprise. He waited until the table cleared of mothers chasing after kids or more pizzas, and fathers were engrossed in sports to let his eyes let her know that he was interested as he poured her another glass of beer. “So Ms. Parker… Liz, your son is a hell of a pitcher.”

“Yes, he is. He loves the game,” Liz said politely with more than just a bit of motherly pride.

“I’m surprised that his father’s not here to brag about it,” he hinted and made sure to double-check her ring finger.

Liz caught the look. She knew the game, played it more times than she’d care to remember, and was totally bored with it. “Ah, but he’s here in spirit. Trust me.”

“Well, I don’t see him laying claim to anything,” he commented and tried to take her hand.

Liz laughed a little. “Ah, but I understand someone has claims to you, like your wife,” she pointed out and attempted to remove his hand from on top of hers.

“But she doesn’t understand me. I have needs, needs that she doesn’t understand. But I’m willing to bet that you do. You must get awfully lonely at night,” he pressed while she tried to move her hands away, and him to hold onto them, such delicate and nimble hands. “Let me make your nights less lonely and more exciting.”

She yanked her hands free. “Ah, excitement. It’s been a while. Let me see how exciting I can make your evenings.” She turned purposefully and looked for her son. He was staring and frowning, just about what she thought he’d be doing. She motioned for him to come over, which he immediately did. “Jamie, sweetheart, you know Mr. Tamasetti’s son, Carl, I think it is?”

“Yeah,” he cautiously replied.

“That’s good. Could you go ask him for his home phone number, please?” she asked with a wink and patted his hand.

“Okay, Mom,” he responded and gave the man another dirty look before going to find Carl.

“I thought since you plan on keeping my evenings from being lonely, the least I could do was call your wife so she won’t worry. What’d ya think? Enough excitement for you?” Liz smiled and blinked innocently at him.

“What?! No… I… f*ck you!” he said angrily and rose from his seat.

Since he was standing, she had a bird’s eye view of his crotch and made a point of looking. “No, thank you. Not exactly up to my… standards.” She smiled sweetly at him as he stormed off, collected his son, who had already given Jamie their home phone number, and promptly left.

Jamie watched him leave with relief. He wasn’t sure what his mom had done but he was glad she’d gotten rid of him. He was bad news and he didn’t need any special gifts to figure that out. He watched the pizza parlor’s front door swing closed and walked over to his mom. “Mom, everything okay?”

“Hmm, fine, sweetheart,” she assured him and then reached into her purse. She’d picked up her final paycheck today plus stopped by the Western Union place for the eight hundred Kyle had sent. They had their run money, if needed. But she could maybe spare a few dollars. She pulled out a ten and handed it to Jamie. “Go get a roll of quarters and have some fun at the arcade.”

Jamie eyed the ten before finally taking it. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I want you to have fun. Now, go on, get,” she said and swatted him on the butt.

“Okay,” he smiled and reached in his pocket for a scrap of paper. “Here’s Carl’s number in case you still need it.”

~

Liz lazed in bed reading, trying to make her eyes tired enough to close. It was already well past midnight but she wasn’t overly concerned. It’s not like she had a job to get up for in the morning, and since tomorrow – scratch that, today was Saturday she didn’t have to worry about getting Jamie off to school either. Tonight had been fun in spite of Mr. My Wife Doesn’t Understand. She scoffed, more like my wife’s not interested with good reason. She heard the light knock at the door. “Come in.”

“Mom,” he said rubbing his eyes.

“Come here,” she told him and he crawled in along side her. “Trouble sleeping?” she asked but she already knew. Jamie did this when he was upset.

“Yeah,” he said and made himself comfortable on his side looking at her. “Mom… why’d Carl’s dad act like a jerk tonight?”

Liz put the marker in the correct spot, closed her book and turned off the light. She could still see him through the moonlight shining through her open curtains. “Because he is a jerk.”

“But why you? Why… do guys look at you… well, not how they look at other kid’s moms?” he tried to explain.

She ruffled his hair. “Because I’m single and pretty young to have a thirteen year old and because they’re jerks.”

“Oh,” he replied. He’d never thought about his mom being young and attractive. “How old were you when I was born?”

“Seventeen, just barely,” she told him and watched his reaction. He didn’t disappoint. He had his father’s expressive eyes. “Surprised?”

“Yeah, how come so young? I mean, why didn’t you and…my dad wait?” he asked innocently. Mom had explained the facts of life to him a few years ago, and they’d had health ed. in the fifth grade, so he did know some things and wasn’t totally clueless.

“Because we were young and in love and not thinking with our heads but with our hormones. But I don’t regret it, not for one second, because he gave me you,” she told him and fussed with his hair some. His bangs kept getting in his eyes. “Is everything okay? I… have you felt anything else?” she hazard to ask. She was dreading what was to come but if she was right…God, if she was right.

Jamie closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated. He did feel something different, something he hadn’t been expecting. His eyes flew open in shock. “You… you want this to happen. You want Him to come and take you away!” he accused. He was trying hard not to freak out.

Liz was surprised that Jamie had picked up on the feelings that she was only barely aware of having herself. She grabbed his face with both hands and forced him to look her in the eye. “Jamie, stop. I want you to listen.” She waited for a moment to make sure he was before releasing him but maintained eye contact. “You’re father promised me

he’d return. What you said about him being furious at Them and fighting Them… that… that is something I know he would feel and do.”

“But he’s going to take you away… not me. He only wants you! And… and he’s my father?!” he sobbed at the incredible hurt that caused.

“Jamie, he would only think of me because he doesn’t know about you. He… I didn’t tell him that I was going to have you before he left. If he’d known he wouldn’t have left and I couldn’t let him do that. People’s lives were at stake. He had to go… oh, sweetheart, I know without a shadow of a doubt that he’s going to fall in love with you the second he lays eyes on you. I know he will. Please believe me,” she begged as she took him in her arms and held him for a long while.

“He didn’t know about me?” he finally asked after a long while, wanting the pain of the earlier thought to be banished for good.

“No, sweetheart he didn’t,” she confirmed and kissed the top of his head.

“He knows about Them, though,” he stated.

“Yeah, too well. They caught him once but he escaped,” she told him.

“They caught him? So… so he was…”

“Different,” she supplied.

“But how do they know I’m his son? I mean, I always, kind of thought that… the one that took me to the ballgame, and he’d came on my birthdays a couple of times… I thought that he was…”

“Kyle Valenti. Kyle was a friend who… he knew your dad and that he was different, and when you were born, he agreed to… claim you legally as his, that way if… if something happened, legally he would have a chance to take you and protect you. At least that’s what we hoped. And his dad, Jim… James Valenti, whom you were named after, was a godsend. He’s a sheriff and knew lots of people and contacts that have helped us over the years. You met him once,” she informed him.

“I did?” he asked, not at all remembering.

“He went with all of us on your seventh birthday to the baseball game, remember? He had sandy brown hair and wore a baseball hat,” she described.

Jamie closed his eyes and pictured that day. He and Mom were moving again but it was his birthday so they’d met some friends at a coffee shop, and then went with them to the Diamondback’s spring training game. He remembered the dark haired man better because he’d seen him a few times before, Kyle. But now that Mom mentioned it, he did sort a remember Kyle and Mom talking in the car on the way there while someone else drove, someone with light hair. He opened his eyes and smiled a little. “He drove, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, that was him and technically he’s your grandfather and he carries your second grade picture in his wallet. He’s very proud of you. So is Kyle. And so will your dad when he meets you,” she assured him.

He closed his eyes and tried to picture the man he’d felt wanting to take his mom away to see if he felt any different. He didn’t feel so scary now. He seemed anxious, worried. He could almost see his shadow or outline standing there by the dumpster with the rain pelting down, drenching him. Jamie took a couple of deep breaths and let the image go. It was too taxing to concentrate so hard. “Mama?” he yawned.

“Yes, sweetheart?” she answered.

“What’s his name?” he asked.

“Max Evans,” she told him as he drifted off to sleep, something that was still eluding her. Eventually she turned the small TV in her bedroom on low and watched the twenty-four hour news station, figuring that would do the trick. And it did, before she knew it her eyes were closing. The last thing she remembered before drifting off was that the local forecast called for a major storm to move into the area starting tomorrow afternoon and to expect heavy rain by tomorrow night.

~

March 2003

Liz fanned herself. It was too hot and sticky to even think of sleeping. She didn’t know how she was going to deal with it come summer. God, what was she thinking moving here? Heat she could take, after all she was born and raised in New Mexico, but this humidity! She rose to check on Jamie, who was sound asleep in their bedroom with a fan blowing and stripped him down to just his diaper. He was almost potty trained but not quite. She grabbed a cold soda out of the frig, checked the freezer for ice – still out, then headed back to the chair and flicked on the TV set. The evening news was on, showcasing all the nuts downtown at Mardi Gras, drinking and partying and having a good time. All things you did when you were young and stupid without a care in the world other than school, friends, and the opposite sex, or maybe same sex depending one’s preference. It didn’t matter though. It’s not like she was getting any. Nope, one night equals one kid. She looked back through the open bedroom door and smiled. It was worth it though.

They arrived here just after New Years. Someone had complained about the daycare center where she’d worked since Jamie was a newborn to immigration. Apparently an applicant who’d been turned down for a job was angry and decided that there were too many people working there who spoke with accented English, and thus felt that they were taking ‘their’ jobs. While Liz wasn’t suspected as an illegal alien, she knew her days were numbered when the center announced that all employees, both new hires and existing, would be subject to thorough background checks. Something she knew her fake ID couldn’t stand up to no matter how real it looked. To make it seem normal, she gave her two weeks notice and told them that she’d be moving back home so her family could help with Jamie while she went back to school. She’d always wanted to see New Orleans. It had so much interesting history to it, so she figured why not? Because it’s too damn humid that’s why not, she told herself. She watched the party revelers drink and carouse with their friends and wished that she could do that. Okay, maybe not lift her top to the camera, but have a good time with her friends. She missed them.

A knock at the door woke her from a sound sleep. It was instinct for her to first check on Jamie, who shared a room with her. He was still sleeping peacefully. She quietly got out of bed and slipped a light robe over her sleeping t-shirt and flicked on a light in the living room. She noted that it was almost 1:00 a.m. as she passed by the VCR. She could hear voices outside her door. She was wary of visitors, especially those calling in the middle of the night, hence the baseball bat she kept by the door that she was reaching for as she peered out the peephole. She dropped the bat and couldn’t get the deadbolt undone fast enough when she saw who it was. “OH. MY. GOD!” she said as she flung the door open.

“CHICA!” Maria said as she rushed in.

Liz was a blubbering idiot as Alex and finally Kyle filed in behind Maria, part of her noted how Kyle kept checking the area before finally deciding it was safe and coming in and closing the door. She couldn’t stop the flood of tears. “Oh, my God! What… what are you guys doing here?’ she sobbed as Alex wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight.

“Mardi Gras. You know how I love a good party. How ya doin’ Liz?” Kyle asked, as it was his turn for a hug.

“Oh Kyle,” she was sobbing.

“Mama,” a sleepy two year-old said as he stood there in his diaper clutching his teddy bear and wondering whom all these people were who’d woken him up and were hugging his Mama.

“Hey, there’s my boy!” Kyle said with a grin. Damn, Jamie looks just like Evans, he thought. Jamie was still sleepily rubbing his eyes as Kyle picked him up and sat down with him on his lap. “Sorry for waking you, Champ.”

“Wow!” Alex said when he saw the little boy, the splitting image of Max. What shocked him the most was how Kyle acted like Jamie really was his son. He, of course, knew the circumstances behind all of it. Kyle had told them both what was going on two years ago when he’d gotten back from ‘visiting a sick uncle.’ But…damn.

“Oh God, Chica, he’s beautiful,” Maria said as her eyes got all misty. She knew it was illogical but part of her had been jealous when she’d found out about Liz having Max’s baby. While she knew how hard Liz’s life was likely to be with a baby on the run, Max had at least left her something to love, something warm and wonderful to cuddle up with at night, something of himself. She only had memories and a couple of pictures, and now looking at him, and how much he looks like Max…God, a little piece of Max was standing right there, looking at her with his light brown eyes and dark hair, and even those ears. He was proof that something of at least one of the aliens still exists on Earth. He was just beautiful.

Liz smiled as Kyle pulled out a Nerf baseball and was showing Jamie how to hold it. This was the third time that Kyle had showed up in the last two years out of the blue to visit but the first time he’d brought anyone with him. She walked over toward where Kyle was sitting with Jamie.

“Okay, and here, hold it this way to throw a three-finger fastball,” Kyle was telling him as he moved little pudgy fingers into the right position.

“Kyle, I think he might be a little young for that,” Liz admonished lightly and chuckled.

“Ah, you’re never too young to start learning the finer points of baseball,” Kyle replied and was pleased to see Jamie holding it the way he’d showed him for a moment.

Liz bent down closer to her son. “Jamie, I want you to meet some people, baby.” The minute she made eye contact the ball was dropped and little arms reached up for her.

“Mama,” he said again and wanted to be held.

Liz picked him up and walked over to Maria and Alex. She could tell that Maria was just itching to get a hold of him, and something close to ‘wistful’ was etched in Alex’s expression. “Jamie, this is your Auntie Maria and your Uncle Alex,” she said and showed him each as she said their names. “Can you say hi?” she cajoled. She knew she was pushing her luck here. One in the morning was not a time for a two year-old to be up and he was going to be one cranky little boy in the morning, but at least she didn’t have to work tomorrow, and no day care for him.

“Hi,” he said and rubbed at his eyes before wrapping his arms around Mommy’s neck and yawning.

“Aww, he needs to go nighty-night,” Maria said. “Do you think he’d let me?” she asked hopefully.

“Probably not. He’s not too used to strangers visiting and he’s so tired. But maybe you can give me a hand?” she suggested.

“Oh sure, anything.” Maria was then introduced to the joy of trying to get an overly tired two year-old back to sleep. “He looks so much like him,” she observed a half hour later as Jamie finally slept peacefully in his bed.

“Yeah, he does. He’s a good boy most of the time but they weren’t kidding about those terrible twos,” Liz mentioned as they exited the room, she left the door cracked a little so she could hear in case he woke up.

Liz turned around and smiled at her friends. “Okay, what’s going on? How’d all of you get past the Special Unit?” she asked as she saw Kyle pull out a bottle of wine from brown paper bag. She didn’t have any wine glasses, so she grabbed three plastic cups. Fortunately Kyle had a wine opener on him as well. “You’re certainly resourceful,” she mentioned dryly.

“Boy Scout training,” Kyle grinned.

“You see, we’re just three friends that met up to go to Mardi Gras, which is totally wild! Can you believe that four girls flashed their boobs at us within the first hour we were there?” Maria told her as she sipped the wine and got comfortable.

Liz looked over at Kyle and then Alex, both just grinned. “Yes, I can see where that might be upsetting. But that doesn’t tell me how you gave them the slip.”

“Mmm, we waited until a good fistfight got going…” Kyle began.

“Waited? I didn’t see any waiting. You snuck up behind a guy and hit on the head then got out of the way before he turned around. The guy thought this other guy had hit him and it just snowballed from there,” Maria elaborated. Kyle just shrugged.

“Anyway, our shadows got caught up in the melee and we slipped away. Ran down some interesting alleyways,” Alex mentioned.

“I bet. God, it’s good to see all of you. Tell me everything that’s going on back home,” Liz demanded as she sipped her wine.

“Well, Alex here is in his freshman year at Las Cruses, majoring in electrical engineering,” Maria said proudly. “And me, you’re looking at the most recent graduate of Roswell’s famous beauty school,” she said somewhat less enthusiastically.

“Beauty school?” Liz raised her eyebrow.

“Tell me about it but it was something other than waiting tables at the Crashdown,” she replied and then paused, not sure how Liz would take that. She wanted to kick herself when she saw a cloud come over her friend.

“How’s the Crashdown doing?” Liz asked and tried not to think how she’d give anything to be back there and wearing that stupid antenna headband.

“Busy as usual… which is good since it keeps your parents busy,” Maria told her.

“How… how are they?’ Liz ventured hesitantly.

“They’re… coping I guess. They were hurt and angry and confused. They’re convinced that you ran off after Max. They… they blame the Evanses,” she told her and felt the tears swelling.

“The Evanses don’t… well, they stay away from the Crashdown. They… they’re pretty sad. I guess the letter Max and Isabel mailed them didn’t really explain any more than the one you sent your parents. They’re all just sort of… lost and confused and want someone to blame. So your folks blame Max and the Evanses think you did something to make him leave. It just sucks, “Alex supplied when it was obvious Maria couldn’t go on.

“Yeah, that’s part of why I wanted something other than working there. It just… hurt too much,” Maria added and swiped her eyes. Clearing her throat, “Okay Chicca, tell us about that little one in there? Is he just the smartest most adorable little thing ever?”

“Yeah, any glowing hands or anything?” Alex added in.

“No, no glowing but yes, he’s absolutely the smartest and most adorable little boy ever. I thank God everyday for him,” Liz told them and beamed with maternal pride. She looked over and saw Kyle peeking into the bedroom and then slipping in.

“He loves him,” Maria stated as the bedroom door closed behind Kyle.

“Yeah, he’s been great to him, to us, the sheriff too. God, I don’t even want to think about what might have happened if they hadn’t helped.” She paused and looked again at the bedroom door where her son slept. “I never imagined that Kyle would… I mean, I never expected anything of him unless…something happened.”

“Jamie’s your son, and you’ve always been special to Kyle and to us. Liz…” Alex paused, as there was something that he needed to get off his chest. “Liz, I would have done it too, you know. Come and helped when you had him and… and given him a name.”

“Oh Alex, I know. You were my first choice in fact. But no one would ever believe that you were really the father,” Liz pointed out and then hugged him.

“Yeah, that would have raised some eyebrows. But Liz, if… if something happens and Kyle does have to take Jamie… he won’t be alone in raising him,” Alex assured her.

“That’s right, Chica. He’s going to have Auntie Maria and Uncle Alex spoiling him rotten,” Maria emphasized. “And doing whatever it takes to keep him safe and sound,” she added.

Liz eyes were moist. “Thank you guys,” she told them, and rolled her eyes when Kyle came back in with a sleeping boy in his arms. “Kyle, you’re going to wake him and I guarantee you that there will be hell to pay if you do,” she warned.

Kyle just grinned and sat down with him in his arms. “Him? A hell raiser? Never, he’s perfect.”

“It won’t be him raising the hell,” Liz stated dryly. But she couldn’t stay miffed at him. He adored Jamie. He’d made a point to go ‘ice fishing’ Jamie’s first Christmas and brought him a little plastic t-ball stand with a plastic ball and bat, along with a complete baseball outfit. Last Christmas, he’d shown up with a tricycle and a ‘real’ miniature baseball glove. Despite everything, Kyle had done what he could to stay in Jamie’s life as much as possible, tried to be some sort of dad.

Maria couldn’t take her eyes off of the sleeping bundle in Kyle’s arm. “So any other men in your life besides him?” Maria asked and scooted closer to Kyle, wanting a turn at holding him.

Liz sighed. “A few nibbles but nothing… nothing even close. What about you three?” she asked.

“A few but they… well, they reminded me of Isabel. When I’m with them I keep picturing her and eventually I’ll blow it and… well, they don’t really appreciate being called Isabel, you know?” Alex asked and took a long sip of wine.

“I can see where that might be detrimental to a relationship,” Liz acknowledged. “What about you, Maria?” she asked as her best friend finally pried her sleeping baby from Kyle and into her arms.

Maria ran a finger down his cheek. He was so soft. He snored slightly for a moment then rolled over in her arms so he was cuddling her in his sleep. God, she wanted to take him home and just spoil him rotten. “Oh a date here and there but nothing… no one that I would want to make one of these with, no one that’s special. Not like Mr. Footloose and Fancy Free of Tucson, here.”

“Hey, I resent that remark,” he joked and then sighed, turning more serious. “I don’t know. I guess I just want to have some fun and not be serious at the moment.”

“Mmm, yep, can totally understand that one. So what brought you three to Mardi Gras, a little fun, eh?” Liz remarked.

“Yep, decided to see what Fat Tuesday was supposed to really be like,” Alex said with a grin. Mardi Gras was only an excuse though. They’d come to see their best friend. Mardi Gras had just been the cover. “So how’s life in New Orleans?”

“Hot and sticky. But I do enjoy going on the walking tours and all the history and incredible architecture. I put Jamie in his stroller and we’ll walk all day on my day off, stopping for a picnic at a park or something. I do love that. During those times I can almost forget…everything else,” she told them. “At least for a little while.”

~

Part 8

March 2014

“So I thought we could walk to that donut shop around the corner this morning and get a little fresh air before that storm moves in this afternoon,” Liz suggested while she poured her first cup of coffee.

Jamie was still in his nightclothes and not completely awake yet as he came in for some orange juice. “Okay,” he replied with a shrug.

Liz sipped her coffee as Jamie grabbed a glass and reached for the juice. “How’s your hand this morning?” she asked as he poured his juice.

Jamie put the juice back in the refrigerator and then regarded his hand for a moment. There was some yellowish bruising but nothing like the purple-blackish bruise it had been yesterday. “Okay. It’s almost gone. Not really sore at all either,” he said with a dismissive shrug. To him it was normal for a bruise or a cut to be healed within a day or two.

Liz let out a sigh of relief. It had been a pretty nasty looking bruise. “Well, good. Go get dressed and let’s go get our daily allowance of fat and sugar!” She said dramatically and smiled when Jamie rolled his eyes at her.

~

They decided to sit outside in the cool crisp morning and drink coffee or hot chocolate and dine on the finest donuts in town. “Mmm, these are so good,” Liz commented as she took another bite and then licked the milk chocolate frosting off her fingers. She glanced over at her son who was emptying a second miniature bottle of Tabasco on his breakfast. “You never cease to amaze me,” she commented.

Jamie bit into his bear claw. “Mmm, perfect,” he grinned and took another bite.

Liz felt a chill and wrapped her jacket around her tighter. She caste a glance up at the sky and saw the dark billowy clouds, laden with moisture heading in from the west. “Looks like we need to eat up or we might get wet if we take too long.”

Jamie followed her line of sight and noticed the clouds. It was going to rain soon. He sat his donut down and tried to think why that seemed so important. There was something there, some little tidbit, he could feel it, but it was just out of reach.

“Jamie?” Liz asked as she saw him become pensive.

“I don’t know, Mom. I don’t… there’s nothing new exactly, just… something I’m not quite getting yet,” Jamie explained the best he could and looked up at the clouds again. They’d be coming in soon. It meant something. He just wished he knew what.

Liz looked up at the clouds with him for a moment and then at Jamie. He was growing up so fast. She knew she should have told him everything a long time ago but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. She couldn’t tell him what would happen if she screwed up and got him captured. Of how he’d be experimented on and tested. How he’d be isolated from everything he loved, including her most likely. How can she tell her son her worst fears? She knew he’d sensed some of her fears already. But he needed to know. Whatever happened, he needed to know what he was and what to do in case… in case He did die trying to take her, and him, away. “Come on Jamie, hurry up. We need to be getting home.”

~

Jamie was surprised that Mom had all these old pictures. There weren’t that many really but more than he’d ever known about. They curled up on the sofa and flipped through the pages of their lives as the rain started to splatter the windows. “That’s him, isn’t it? That’s Kyle,” Jamie said excitedly as the picture of the dark haired man of his memories holding him, while Jamie was still in a diaper.

Liz smiled. “Yep, that’s Kyle. He and…” She flipped the page to another picture, a group shot, “And this is Alex Whitman and Maria De Luca. Them along with Kyle’s father, Sheriff Jim Valenti of Roswell, NM, are the only people on this Earth that know for sure who your father is,” she explained and smiled at the memory of that night so long ago in New Orleans. It had been the last time all of them had gotten together.

She’d seen Alex only once since then a few years ago in Denver when he was attending a seminar. It’d been all too brief though since she and Jamie were on the move. It’d been in a hotel lounge and she didn’t think Jamie even realized that it was Alex she’d come to meet.

Maria she hadn’t seen since, but she had talked to her a few times over the years. She knew that Maria had married, had two kids, and then divorced. Liz could remember her both cursing how the aliens had ruined it for them and then defending how incredible they were in the next breath. Liz understood. Maria wanted Michael but had to settle for second best and was miserable. It made Liz glad that she had turned down Kyle’s numerous proposals over the years. At least her and Kyle were still friends.

She smiled as she looked at the picture of Jamie sitting with Kyle and Jim. They were at the ballgame and Jamie was stuffing a Louisiana Hot Link in his mouth and loving every minute of it. “And this is Kyle and his father, Jim,” she confirmed for him. She took a deep breath and explained, “Jamie, if something ever happens and we get separated. You need to call Jim and tell him where you are. He’ll come himself or send Kyle or maybe even Alex or Maria. Jamie, this is important. These are the only people that I want you to go with if they tell you to, the only ones I trust with your life. Do you understand?”

“Yeah,” Jamie nodded. He understood all too well after Dan. “But how do I get a hold of Jim? Or what if he’s not home?”

Liz grabbed her old address book and cell phone. “This is a prepaid cell that can’t be traced to a location. If you can use it, but if you can’t use whatever phone you have to.” She opened the address book to the ‘V’s. “You can call Jim at work and tell him you’re Beth’s son. He knows my real name but we’ve always used Beth since…you were born. Just tell him you’re my son and where you are and that you’re alone and then do what he tells you to. Okay?” She waited until he nodded. “Good. But if he’s not at work, go ahead and call his home but be careful because someone might be listening in. Jim knows that so if he says something kind of strange, just play along with it.” She could tell that this was disturbing him but if something did go wrong… he had to know. “Okay, and if you can’t get a hold of Jim, call Kyle directly. Understand?”

Jamie frowned. “But if Kyle’s my dad, technically, then why don’t I just call him first?”

Liz shoved his bangs out of his eyes so she could look into his eyes as she said and that he understood that she really was okay with it. “Two reason, Jim is a sheriff and has more resources, and also… Kyle has a wife and two sons, Jack, age three, and Tyler age one. His wife knows that he has an older child that he used to see on occasion but…well, she believes that he and I had a falling out and that I’ve kept you from him. It was the easiest way to explain why he didn’t see you a whole lot or why you’re not there for a month in the summer and every other holiday.” Liz took a deep breath. “I understand that’s she’s very supportive of him seeing his other son and if… well, she’d welcome you. Kyle’s always assure me of that. But depending on what happens, there’s no guarantee that it would be safe for you to go there.”

“Wait, Mom. Where’s there?” Jamie asked. His mind was playing catch-up as he took all of this in.

“Tucson, AZ,” she told him and showed him the other phone numbers and addresses. She then took a big breath and let it out. “And if… if you can’t get a hold of either Jim or Kyle, call Alex. He’ll do whatever it takes to get you to safety,” she told him and showed him the number.

It would be hard on Alex to pick up and leave his career, but he would, for her… or her son. Alex worked in security at the State Department. He would know better than anyone how to keep Jamie safe, but it would cost him everything he had worked so very hard for. Alex had helped them, given them tips when things were getting too hot, or how to avoid certain things and slip away. He was an expert at new identities. Liz had used a variety of them over the years but had gone by her real name for the last five because Alex would generate new social security numbers and driver licenses and other ID’s when she needed them. Same name just different numbers, and it was the numbers that they’d track since there were thousands of Elizabeth or Liz or Beth Parkers out there. She tried not to ask him too often since he was jeopardizing his career, maybe even his freedom, by doing this but he’d say it was the least he could do and manage to get a complete set of new ID’s forwarded to Kyle, who’d send them on. She kept one spare set with her emergency supplies.

“And last but not least, Maria De Luca. She still lives in Roswell, NM. She and Alex and I were the Three Musketeers growing up.” Liz sighed. She loved Maria but Maria was a divorced mother of two struggling to make ends meet. As much as Maria loved Jamie, she couldn’t be expected to sacrifice her own children’s welfare for him. “If you can’t reach anyone else, call Maria and tell her what’s going on. Ask her to get a hold of one of them. She… she’ll do what she can but she’s a single parent with two small children.”

Afternoon had turned into early evening, and after they’d gone through the picture album and the numbers to call in case of emergency, she’d told him about her childhood, the Crashdown, Alex and Maria, dating Kyle, and how Max saved her life and then changed it. The lights flickered off and a moment of panic took hold but then she realized that the whole building was out, as was the one across the street. The storm had knocked out the power. It was by candlelight that she picked up her journal. Maybe someday she’d let him read it but not today. He’d enough to absorb already. But there was one more thing she wanted him to see. She carefully opened the back and slipped out a strip of four pictures. They were old and beginning to fade but she could remember it so clearly. They’d spent the afternoon just hanging around the mall over in Hobbs. Just two teens checking out various stores and the arcade, having lunch at the food court and were about to leave when he’d spotted the picture booth. “Come on, we don’t have any pictures of us together. Don’t you want to be able to show our kids that we really were that young once?” he joked. ‘Yeah, I do. You were right,’ she thought. She tilted the strip so he could see it better in the candlelight. “That’s me and your father. He had just turned seventeen and I was sixteen,” she said and watched her son’s expression.

Jamie studied it. It was a little hard to see but in the pictures he could tell that his mom was smiling and happy. His dad had made his mom happy. He bent closer to the light, trying to make out his father a little better. He had dark hair and light brown eyes, and the ears. ‘So that’s where I got them,’ he remarked to himself. His father. He lightly ran a finger over the miniature image in the picture to try to get a better ‘feel’ for him and closed his eyes. He could almost feel the man’s eyes staring at them, at their home through the rain. A car pulling up, men getting out, running, anxious, another car coming from behind, more men, a flash of light. Jamie jumped and looked around, not at all sure where he was.

“Jamie, what’s wrong? Can you tell me?” Liz asked worriedly when she saw the panicked and almost wild look in her son’s eyes. Maybe they should leave? Maybe staying was a mistake. But Jamie said it wouldn’t matter and this… this was home ground. If something was going down she wanted to be around the familiar. “Jamie?”

He was staring out the window watching the wind whip the rain and pelting it against the window. He jumped again at the loud thunderclap. He knew what he had been missing this morning. “Mom, it’s tonight. It’s happening tonight.”

~

March 2008

‘God, would it ever stop raining,’ she wondered as the wipers flipped back and forth across the windshield. They’d actually been in New Mexico, not Roswell, but close enough. They left Arizona after visiting Kyle and even got to see Jim for a bit, and were now heading north and then west. She was thinking Seattle maybe. Kyle had told her about Alex’s seminar in Denver and if she could manage it to swing by his hotel. It might be the only opportunity to see him again and she wasn’t going to pass it up. She glanced over at Jamie. He still had his autographed Diamonback’s hat on and was practicing different ways to hold a baseball. “ I’m glad you had fun at the game, honey.”

“Yeah, it was totally cool, Mom,” he said and looked up and was surprised to see it raining. “Where we goin’, Mom?” All he knew was that they had to move again. He didn’t really like it, all the moving around. It was hard to make new friends and then just leave. But if Mom said they had to, they had to.

“Seattle, I think. But right now we’re almost into Denver,” she explained. She kept glancing in the mirror. She didn’t think they were being followed but she wasn’t sure.

“Hey, you think we can see a Mariners’ game in Seattle?” Jamie asked. He didn’t exactly have a favorite team. He just loved the game.

“We’ll see, honey. If we can, okay?” Liz replied and glanced at the map. It should be the next turn off, go three blocks and on the right hand side. She hoped. It sounded easier than it looked, especially in the rain. But soon enough the large sleek hotel was on her right and she pulled into the valet parking. Not doubt her old Dodge was an eyesore but the attendant remained polite and they didn’t have any problems taking her money, what little she had.

They walked into the lobby. Kyle had set up the meeting before they’d parted company and if everything went right, Alex would be in the lobby ‘s lounge reading a paper with two cups of coffee. She scanned around and saw the lounge, and an open paper, and in front was two cups of coffee on a table. Alex. She wanted nothing more than to run over and hug him but she had to be careful. They’d picked up her trail as they were leaving Arizona. She’d double backed a couple of times, even made a big detour into Las Vegas, where she thought she lost them, but wasn’t sure. And then back, almost casually through Arizona and New Mexico, then north to Colorado. She should keep going but she had to do this. She felt a tug on her arm and looked at her son.

“Mom, can I get a soda?” he asked and pointed to the snack booth.

She slipped him a five. “Okay, but stay where I can see you, okay? I’ll be right over there,” she pointed.

“Okay,” he said and took off.

Liz looked up again and almost cried. Alex had put the paper down and was watching them, and smiling. He looked so good. She tried to remain calm as she hurried over but the second she sat next to him the tears came. “Oh Alex,” she sobbed as their arms flew around each other.

“Hey there Liz,” Alex said as he hugged her tight. All the while he made a point to keep one eye on Jamie at all times. “You look good. Cut your hair,” Alex observed as they pulled apart. “Here, two sugars, no cream, right?” he asked as he handed her the coffee.

“God, you remembered. Thank you,” she said and turned just enough to keep an eye on Jamie standing in line for his soda.

“He looks just like him. Kyle said he’s really into baseball,” he told her as they sipped coffee. His eyes kept glancing around, looking for anyone that may be taking too much notice of two friends sitting and talking.

“Yes, and I blame that on Kyle,” she said and watched her son select a giant cookie to go with the soda. She looked around for a moment at the large impressive hotel. “So a security convention?”

“Yep, every industry has to have a convention. Got to see the latest and greatest in James Bond gear, ya know,” he joked. He touched the paper that he’d laid on the sofa between them and pushed it a little toward her. “When you leave, take the paper and what’s underneath it,” he told her very softly.

Liz almost choked on her coffee. “What… what’s…” she began to ask just as softly.

“New ID and some cash. I have some… pull in the right places. They’re after you. They know you were headed in this direction. You… you need to leave, Liz. I wish you could stay and catch up but…they weren’t that far behind,” he warned.

She felt the tears threaten but she nodded and rose, taking the paper and envelope with her. She gave him one longing look and then intercepted Jamie, who was curious whom she’d been talking to, and headed back out into the rain. She’d paid fifteen dollars for a thirty-minute visit. It had been worth every dime.

Alex watched them walk out the door, mother and son. He wished there was more he could do, some place he could take them that would be safe, but there wasn’t. Maybe, someday all of this would be over and Isabel and Max and Michael would return and pick up their lives and they’d all live happily ever after, just like in a fairytale. But in the meantime, he’d watch out for them as best he could, a new ID that could live up to scrutiny, and five grand in cash, nothing larger than a twenty. He didn’t tell her that he’d made arrangements for an account that the sheriff could access when needed. There was never more than a one or two grand in there at a time, and he was careful to turn that money over every now and then, so nothing would seem unusual about a sudden withdrawal. The account was small enough not to be noticed but enough cash to get her out of a jam. It was the least he could. Besides, what was he going to do with the cash? It was just himself, and you could only buy so many toys and things.

An hour later Alex nursed a beer at the hotel bar, the one with the view of the large two-story tall front windows, and watched as a boxy, dark blue sedan pulled up and three men climbed out. They could be just any other businessmen but somehow didn’t think so, especially not when he saw them hassling the parking attendant. Alex sipped his beer and hoped someday would get there soon.

~

She drove all day and all night. She drove in the torrential downpour and lightening. She drove up high snow packed mountain passes and down into lush valleys, and she kept on driving. Her eyes were blurry when she finally pulled into a little motel in some little town near the Idaho-Washington State border. She could barely see to fill out the registration slip. She was already asleep when Jamie carried their bags into their room.

“Mom. Mom? You okay?” Jamie asked with concern and a cup of coffee in his hand.

Coffee. She smelled coffee. She needed coffee so bad. Her puffy eyes slowly opened and she smiled gratefully at the cup of steaming coffee he handed her. “Thank you, sweetheart.” She leaned back against the headboard and sipped her coffee while getting her bearings. It was dark out, the TV was on low, and the other bed had obviously been slept in. She could see where her blankets had been pulled around her, and she noted that she was sleeping in her street clothes. “What time is it, honey?”

“Almost eight,” Jamie said as he sat by her bedside and studied her carefully.

Liz took a deep breath and tried to wake up. She felt so out of it. “Only eight, huh? It feels like I’ve be out for hours but it’s only been a couple,” she commented.

“No Mom, it’s almost eight the next night. You slept all night and all day. The owner came by and wanted to know when we were going to be checking out. I told him you got sick and were sleeping and to come back tomorrow,” he explained and the started to get upset. She’d told him not to ever do it but… but…”Mama?”

‘Over twenty-four hours, I’ve been asleep for over twenty-four hours,’ her mind was reeling. Anything could have happened to her and Jamie, God, Jamie. She’d left her little boy to fend for himself for over a day. What kind of mother was she? She stopped berating herself when she heard the ‘Mama’. Something had happened. “What, honey?” she said in her calmest tone possible.

“I…uh… um… I left the room. I… there’s a Burger King down the street and I…I was hungry and… and everything in the vending machine was real old and I’d had that for dinner last night and… and nothing happened. I… I even got you a Whopper…but… um, it’s cold now…and…Mama, I’m sorry,” he stammered out and felt himself get more upset with every word. He knew leaving the room without Mom was a major no-no but he didn’t know what else to do.

“Oh baby, no, I’m the one who’s sorry. I hadn’t…I should have made sure we had a cooler with food and drinks and stuff. I should have been taking care of you. I shouldn’t have pushed myself so hard.” She was once again back to berating herself. “So a Whopper, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s not too cold. You want it?” Jamie asked and grabbed the Burger King bag.

No cold hamburger had ever tasted so good to her. “So what else have you been doing?” she asked between bites.

Jamie shrugged. ”Nothin’, just sleepin’ and watchin’ TV.” He glanced over at the envelope that was sitting on the dresser. “Mom, how come that man in Denver gave you all that money?”

Liz paused in mid-bite. “Money? Jamie what are you talking about?”

“I saw you. He put the paper down and you picked it up along with the envelope. That man in Denver, at the hotel,” he accused. Of what he was accusing, he wasn’t quite sure but something funny was happening.

Liz quickly rose, grabbed the envelope and dumped its contents on the bed. “Oh my God!” She was stunned. The money was all very used looking, all in tens and twenties and all neatly bundled. There was another envelope with a Washington state driver’s license, social security card, and a new birth certificate for Jamie showing he’d been born in Wyoming, along with a social security card under his name. She even had a copy of her recent credit report. Damn, she’d been late on a few things. She couldn’t stop the tears as she thought of all Alex had done for her. He’d given her everything she needed for a new start and even the cash to do it. “Oh Alex, I wish we could have talked more,” she sobbed.

“Mom, who was he?” Jamie persisted.

Liz used the corner of the bed sheet to wipe her tears. “Our guardian angel, sweetheart. Our guardian angel.”

~

Part 9

March 2014

They had sandwiches for dinner and played Monopoly afterward by candlelight while listening to the battery operated radio. Power was out throughout much of the area and wasn’t expected back on until sometime Sunday or possibly Monday in some parts.

Liz smiled when Jamie walked into her bedroom to go to bed. He didn’t want to be away from her either. She didn’t say anything, though, at the baseball that he brought with him and dropped next to the bed, just in case they needed it.

“Mom, everything’s going to be okay, right?” Jamie asked, needing the reassurance.

“Of course, sweetheart,” she replied automatically and prayed that it was true. While part of her wanted this to happen because she thought it meant that Max had finally returned and would be putting an end to all the running and they could settle down into a nice normal existence and raise their son. That was her dream, her hope at least. But she didn’t really know. She was assuming that the man Jamie felt was Max, it certainly sounded like Max, but she had no way of knowing. She also didn’t know if he wasn’t going to ‘die trying’. She didn’t realize that she’d been playing with Jamie’s hair until he spoke, breaking her musing.

“Mom,” Jamie said as a shiver ran down his spine. A feeling had finally broke through. “He’s here.”

Liz froze. “H-He?”

“Yeah, I… I think He’s been here for a little bit but I just now picked up on it. I…I think He can block me and just now his guard went down for a moment and I could feel him,” Jamie told her. His eyes were as huge as saucers and he clung to his mom. He wanted to protect his mom, and he would too, but at the moment all he wanted to be was her little boy and let Mom make it all better.

“What about the others?’ Liz asked as Jamie was firmly ensconced in her arms. “Can you feel Them?”

Jamie buried his face in her embrace and closed his eyes, seeing what else he could pick up on. There, just on the outskirts of his abilities he could feel others entering. “Not yet but they’re on their way.”

Liz held him tighter.

~

He didn’t feel the rain. He didn’t feel the cold. He didn’t feel anything at all. He couldn’t, not now, later. Later, he could let it all come crashing into him. Later, he could think about it. Later, he could allow himself the possibility of a future. Earlier, he’d slipped for just a moment but he was back in control now. He kept waiting and watching. For him there was only one way for this to end and he was waiting for it. He didn’t feel the rain.

A clap of thunder foretold the streak of lightning that lit the dark sky and that’s when he saw them, shadows. Shadows that moved meant only one thing. It was Them and it was time to put an end to Them.

~

Jamie shuddered again. “I’m cold,” he complained and Mom held him tighter. They were here.

~

He watched them take up positions. He’d let them do that. He didn’t want to act too early. He wanted to wait until everything was set. He wanted to wait for backup, but when one of the shadows made a move to go up the stairs to the second floor apartment, he had no choice. His blast that sent the shadow flying backwards revealed his hiding spot by the dumpster and all hell started to break loose. “Damn it, Maxwell, where the hell are you?”

~

“Mom!” Jamie shouted when they heard what could be a loud thunderclap but he knew wasn’t.

“It’s okay, baby, it’s okay,” Liz anxiously told him and held him as tight as she could. But it wasn’t okay. God, what was happening out there?

~

“Shit!” he growled. They just weren’t giving up. Not that he had expected them too, not after chasing a woman and a kid all over the damn country for the last fourteen years. He blasted the far stairs. One of the shadows fell back but one moved forward. “F*ck!” he shouted into the rain. He heard another car approaching from behind. A truck came barreling at him. He knew this truck. He’d been looking for it. As it rapidly neared, he hoped to hell it had working anti-lock brakes. He cringed as he heard said brakes applied and the truck turned sideways.

The truck had barely stopped when they piled out while returned bullets punched holes in the truck bed, and joined the other behind dumpster.

“Jesus F*cking Christ, took you long enough!” he greeted them with, and then turned and fired again as three more took off up the far stairs and turned back, but they’d be trying again soon enough. “One got up there. These near stairs I got covered but the far one is too far away. My best blast is barely a slap on the wrist,” he said by way of bringing them up to speed.

His eyes glanced up at the apartment. “Liz.” Movement on the ground brought his attention back to ground level.

“Maxwell, cover me while I move over there in the center by the carport entrance,” Michael told him.

“Got it,” he replied, took aim, and let his energy fly in a constant stream. He didn’t aim for anything, just kept releasing energy and forcing them to keep their heads down.

Kyle looked up at the little corner apartment. Liz and Jamie were up there. He’d felt responsible for them for the last fourteen years, and some things just died hard. “I’m going up there,” he said and clicked the safety off of his gun.

“Kyle,” Max started but didn’t know what else to say.

“One of us has to and right now you and Michael can do more good down here. I doubt they’d kill Liz but they sure as hell could hurt her and her boy.” That argument finally got a nod in agreement from Max. When Max laid down another ferocious barrage of cover fire, he made a mad dash up the closest stairs.

~

Jamie jumped when he heard the door. With all the noise going on outside, it was amazing he’d heard it but to his ears, it was the loudest sound he’d ever heard. He slowly let go of his mom, who was reluctant to comply at first. He silently picked up the baseball bat and crept to the side of the closed door. He did his best not to tremble as he raised the bat, ready to strike.

Liz wasn’t sure if she was breathing.

~

Kyle snuck through the open door to the apartment. Everything was pitch black with only lightning illuminating everything on occasion. He heard a creak of a door hinge but couldn’t see and couldn’t take the chance, what if it was Jamie?

~

Jamie gulped as the door slowly opened. He suddenly had to pee so bad.

A flash of light from outside.

A barrel of a gun.

Jamie brought the bat down.

~

The gun was knocked out of his hand and clanged to the floor. He had wondered where the boy was when he opened the door and saw only the woman. His training took over and he instantly reached out and grabbed the bat out of the boy’s hand before he could level again. He then grabbed for the boy.

~

His eyes had adjusted to the dark and Kyle could just make out the outline of someone standing in the doorway. He knew it was too large to be Jamie or Liz. He took aim and fired.

~

Max looked up with dread when the shot rang out. God, he prayed it was Kyle taking care of the one that had slipped past them.

~

The shot galvanized them. This was their last chance and they knew it. So far it had been something of a stalemate but no longer. From all points, they made a dash for the stairs, firing their silenced weapons as they ran.

~

Michael couldn’t see a damn thing, just the muffled flash of gunpowder firing. He returned fire with equal ferocity. He missed and two more reached the upper stairs.

~

“Liz!” Kyle shouted as he pushed the door open and stepped over the still breathing body. He reached down and grabbed the gun. He looked up and in a flash of lightning he saw Liz pull Jamie toward her. “I’ve got to get you two out of here before any more get past them,” he told her as he grabbed Liz by the arm with her holding onto Jamie, ready to make good their escape. His world suddenly went blank with a blow to the head.

~

“JAMIE!” was screamed in the night.

~

Max’s head jerked up, searching for the source of the plea. He knew that voice, heard the anguish and panic, and could not, not respond. He glanced once over to his second, who he saw was expecting his reaction and gave him a nod.

~

Michael fired everything he had as his friend and leader ran up the flight of stairs, and kept firing.

~

Max’s heart was pounding as he took the stairs three at a time. He came to a stand still just outside the open front door. He could hear her pleading with the would-be abductors.

~

“He’s just a boy! Just a little boy! Don’t… don’t hurt him. Please…” Liz begged as she struggled with the monster that had her around the waist and was dragging her to the door, while another one struggled with her son.

“NO! NO! MAMA!” he cried as the man kept trying to drag him from the room but he wasn’t letting go of the doorframe no matter how hard the man tried to pull him free. He felt the man’s grip loosen a little and thought it was his chance to get away but suddenly something hard slammed down on his forearm. Snap. “ARGHH!” he screamed in pain and lost his grip.

“JAMIE!” she cried out in response to her son’s scream and redoubled her efforts to break free. She bit, scratched, kick, scratched, anything and everything. She had to save her baby.

~

It took every once of willpower Max pocessed not to go charging in. Instead, he stealthy slipped in the door and waited for the one who had Liz to reach him. Part of him noted the fierce struggle Liz was putting up. He waited, and waited, just a little bit more. Finally. He released all his anger and from behind shoved the man to the side and to the ground, taking Liz with him but forcing him to release his hold on her. He pounced on him and dragged him away from Liz.

~

Liz had the wind knocked out of her and heard the fighting, things smashing to the ground, grunts of pain, growls of anger, and in another flash of power lighting the sky, she saw them. They were outside, at the railing, one leaning on top o the other one. And in one final release of rage, one was shoved over the railing.

“MAMA!” Jamie sobbed as he still tried to struggle and protect his injured right arm.

“JAMIE!” Liz answered and stood to face her son’s abductor. A shiver ran down her as she felt a presence stand next to her, one she hadn’t felt in too long. Max.

“Let him go. He’s just a boy. You can have me,” he offered as he saw the gun go from pointing at them, to pointing at the boy he held tightly on to.

“Yeah, right. Like I can control you. You’ll fry me the second I let go of the kid. No, I’m taking him and then my associates will finish you off. I guess we’ll have an alien autopsy for real to film this time,” he said as he angled around to the door while continuing to hold the gun at the boy’s head. He didn’t dare let go of the kid. He was the key to controlling the father.

“Let him go,” Max told him in a much too calm, a deadly calm, voice.

He was at the door now. The father took a step closer. “Nuh-uh, stop, or we’ll have two autopsies to perform. Not our first choice but easier in the end,” he threatened.

Liz’s heart caught in her throat. Her baby. He was taking her baby.

Max’s eyes never left the abductor as he started to drag Liz’s son out the door. There was a flash of lightning and suddenly he saw him. He wanted to smile but didn’t. He pretended to start to rush him, hoping to catch the abductor off guard.

He started to raise the gun, shocked that he’d risk his son’s life like that. Autopsies would really be easier, he decided. He never had another thought.

A sickening SNAP echoed in his ear and suddenly he was free. Another man, the one that had saved Mama came rushing forward and grabbed him. He could feel the shock that shot through the man’s body when he touched him.

Max saw Michael reach from behind the abductor. One massive arm around the shoulders, the other against the head, and a quick jerk and SNAP. It was over. Max grabbed the boy as death released the abductor’s hold. He was grateful that Michael simply dragged the abductor away without a word. The kid had seen enough, no need to see anymore. Then it hit him. The moment he touched him, he knew. The boy was familiar. The boy was part alien like him. The boy was… his. All time stopped. All thought stopped. He saw without seeing as Liz came over and grabbed the boy and held him. He heard without hearing both of them crying.

Liz was crying and hugging and kissing Jamie, her baby, her little boy. He was still here with her. She heard a moan from behind and looked behind. “Max. Max, the other one, the one Kyle shot. He’s waking up,” she warned.

“What?” he asked in a daze and then he heard it too. The desire… the need to, not only protect Liz, but his…son hit him full force. He was at the agent’s side in two strides and knocked him unconscious and started to pick him up when he spotted Kyle laying there as well. Damn, he’d forgotten about Kyle. He quickly reached over and his hand glowed briefly. A concussion, nothing too major, he’d heal him when he got back. First thing’s first, secure the area. He slipped his arms underneath the agent’s shoulders and started to drag him out. He paused and gave Liz a solid look. “I need to finish helping Michael and making sure everything is…secure, then I’ll come back. Kyle’s okay for now, what about…” Damn, what was son’s name again?

“Jamie. His name’s Jamie and…” she looked at Jamie again. He was in pain but not life threatening. “His arm’s broke, but… make sure he’s safe first.”

He nodded then remembered it was almost too dark to see. “Okay, I’ll be back,” he assured her and finished dragging the agent out and down the stairs.

~

It was almost a half hour later when he and Michael hefted the last agent into the dumpster and closed the lid. They both gave a quick look around to make sure no one was watching then both touched the dumpster. Their hands glowed bright and hot. Inside, the dumpster became an incinerator, cooking everything there inside until nothing but a pile of ash remained. Max waited by the dumpster as Michael retrieved the agent’s van. Together they melted any weapons into the asphalt and toasted any documents or anything else they found inside. They then wiped all prints and melted all ID tags they could find on the van and changed the color to red and removed and melted the license plates. Michael then retrieved the agent’s other car and they repeated the process and parked it at the curb. Max was walking back toward Liz’s apartment when Michael used his powers to make the now stripped and unidentifiable van slam into the dumpster with such force that it burst into flames.

~

The living room was bathed in candles when Max walked back in. Kyle was conscious but looked like he wished he wasn’t as he held an ice pack to the back of his head. Liz was sitting on the sofa with Jamie, who was cradling his arm, also with an ice pack. He slowly walked over to them. “Liz.”

“Max. He…” she had so much to say but didn’t know where to begin. She looked at Jamie again and kissed his head. It was easiest to focus on her son. “His arm. Do you think you can take a look at it?”

He wanted to take her in his arms and never let her go. His heart ached for her. But she was a mother now and it wasn’t just them anymore. He turned his attention to her son, their son and knelt down and looked at him. He could clearly see the pain etched in his face.

She kissed her son’s forehead again.

“Jamie, I can fix your arm but you have to look at me, okay?” His heart pounded as his son looked him in the eyes. He gently placed his palm over the injured arm and concentrated. He fought the instinct to go deep and form a connection. He didn’t want to freak his son out. His hand glowed and he could feel the bone knitting itself back together. He gulped some air as he finished. “H-how does it feel?” he asked.

Jamie tentatively flexed his fingers. No pain. He nodded again and then buried his head in his mom’s embrace. He was at his limit and he couldn’t think anymore, didn’t want to think anymore.

Max forced himself to look away and spotted Kyle looking absolutely miserable, and sighed. “Hey Kyle, let me take a look at that,” he said.

“Okay Evans, but no peeking around in there while you’re doing it,” he mumbled and tried to smirk, only to have it turn into a grimace. He felt a hand on his head and the lightest of touches on his brain as the sore spot started to fade until it was completely gone. “Ah Evans, you do have the touch. I’ll give you that,” he quipped and took in a big calming breath and let it out.

“I try,” he smirked and looked over at Liz and Jamie. His smirk faded. Jamie was still clinging to Liz and crying. He moved back over to them and knelt down again. He glanced at Liz and his eyes asked her for permission. She nodded slightly in assent. Max gently reached up and stroked Jamie’s hair with calm even strokes. “Shhhh,” he whispered and saw Jamie watching him out of the corner of his eye. Max began to hum a soft nameless melody. It was no song in particular, just alternating the pitch a little. It had a strange hypnotic effect.

Liz watched Max closely. She knew he was doing something to calm Jamie. She could feel Jamie relaxing more and more in her arms. She felt herself slipping too and had to jerk herself awake. She glanced at Jamie and realized he was sound asleep. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Max continued to stroke the boy’s hair. “He’s beautiful,” he commented wistfully.

“He’s yours,” she confirmed for him, though she was certain he’d already figured that out. Her attention was drawn to another figure entering and fixing her front door. In the distance she could hear sirens. Her heart started beating faster. “We should go.”

Michael closed the door and shook his head. “No point. They’re gone. It’d look more suspicious if we upped and left in the middle of the night. People would wonder if it was related to the… fire. Best to stay and see how it plays out. We can leave in the morning,” he told her and then gave her a rare smile. “How ya doin’, Liz?” he asked.

Liz took a deep breath and returned the smile. “Better, now.”

“Yeah, aren’t we all,” he agreed and his gaze shifted to his friend still kneeling before the boy in Liz’s arms. Somehow he wasn’t surprised to see that the boy looked an awful lot like Max. “Looks like someone needs to be tucked in.”

“Here, I’ll do it,” Max eagerly volunteered and scooped him into his arms. He knew he was unlikely to wake since he’d taken his time and made sure to put Jamie into a deep restful sleep.

“In my room,” Liz directed. “I want him with me.”

He followed her in and waited while she straightened the blankets and pulled them back so he could lay Jamie down. He knew how Liz felt about not leaving him alone. He didn’t want to either and just sat on the side of the bed watching him sleep. He had been shocked when Kyle had told him Liz had a child, but he hadn’t said anything about the child being his. He looked up when Liz lit some candles. She was gorgeous as the candlelight danced giving her an unearthly-goddess like glow. “Liz.”

She slowly turned and looked at him. Her breath caught at the longing and desire she saw in his eyes, clear down to his very soul. “Max, there’s so much I have to tell you, so much to talk about…” she began.

He shook his head and put a finger to her lips, silencing her. “Not now. In the morning,” he told her and planted the lightest of kisses on her lips.

~

Part 10

March 2014

The first thing Jamie noticed when he opened his eyes was a hand draped across his shoulder. It was the hand from last night, the one that had been laid upon his arm and glowed, and the one that had healed, his father’s hand. He slowly shifted onto his back and looked over. His mom was next to him and next to her, very next to her was his father. In fact, Mom was lying on his father’s other arm and was wedged right up against him. He grabbed his father’s hand and pinched, and was rewarded when his father jumped a little and then opened his eyes.

Max flexed his hand as he opened his eyes and smiled. How could he not smile? How many times had he dreamed of waking up with Liz in his arms? Okay, the teenaged son scowling at him was a new twist but a welcomed one. “Good morning,” he said as his tongued raked across his teeth, and he hoped he’d remembered his toothbrush.

“Mornin’,” Jamie replied in a cool tone.

Max sighed. Somehow he got the impression that Jamie wasn’t going to be easy to win over. He was distracted when Liz took the opportunity to roll over and stretch out in her sleep. God, she was so beautiful. He carefully slipped his arm out from under her and started to get up.

Jamie’s scowl intensified when he realized that his father had to slip his pants on. Damn, he’d only been in his boxers and a t-shirt.

Max could feel Jamie’s glare burn into his back as his zipped up his jeans, but he refused to feel guilty for not having pajamas. He was an adult and didn’t have to answer to a child…right? It seemed right. Damn that kid had a hell of a stare. “Let’s go see what the others are up to,” he whispered and motioned Jamie toward the door. He gave Liz one more longing look and wished more than anything that he could curl back up with her, but he was pretty sure Jamie wouldn’t take that too well. Instead he settled for pulling the blanket back up over her shoulder and planting a chaste kiss on her temple.

After a required pit stop at the bathroom they headed over to the kitchen to see what was going on in there. Max could hear the hushed voices as they neared.

“That’s enough damn Tabasco. There are two of the non-E.T. variety present, ya know,” Kyle growled at the tall grumpy alien.

“Whimp,” Michael growled back but sat the Tabasco bottle down before returning to stir the scrambled eggs. One thing they’d learn right away fourteen years ago was that their taste buds were totally alien. Damn, their food had been flavorful these past years. Now it was back to cardboard unless it was spiced right.

Max leaned against the wall and chuckled. Kyle had been as antagonizing as ever but now he included Michael as his target as well. It’d been an interesting drive from Tucson yesterday. His good mood soured, though, when he saw how Jamie’s eyes lit up when he spotted Kyle.

“Kyle!” Jamie shouted in delight. It felt good to recognize and know at least one of them.

Kyle turned and grinned from ear-to-ear. He didn’t miss Max’s frown but he was mainly happy at his warm reception from Jamie. He hadn’t even been certain Jamie would know him. “Hey, Champ!” he replied with equal delight and wrapped the boy in a good hug. “How ya doin’? How’s school? Did Mom sign you up for Little League?”

Max’s frown took on new proportions.

“No, but she was going to sign me up for Spring League next week. And I’m on the school’s softball team. We won our opener Friday night, three to zip and I was pitching!” he excitedly told Kyle as they walked into the living room to sit down and catch up.

Max glared into the living room for a moment then walked over to the stove and dumped the rest of the Tabasco into the egg mixture.

Michael smirked but remained silent as he took out more eggs for an omelet for Liz. Kyle could have scrambled.

~

Liz watched as Kyle gasped, choked and reached for water after his first bite. She was certain she heard a snicker slip out from Michael. She shot a glare in Max’s direction and sure enough, he was biting his lip and doing his best to look like that innocent seventeen-year-old boy he used to be. “I don’t believe it. What the hell did you two do to his breakfast?”

“Um, Liz, you really shouldn’t swear around a kid,” Michael pointed out and wondered how hard Liz could hit. SMACK! “Shit!” He got his answer.

“Don’t swear around my kid!” she warned and heard a garbled snort come from Max.

“Owww!” Max found out she could kick pretty hard too.

“I don’t remember her being so violent,” Michael observed as he rubbed his shoulder. “You think it’s a normal part of the human female aging process?” he joked.

“If it is, you won’t survive Maria,” Max replied.

Livid. Liz went to get a frying pan.

Hands raised in defeat. “It was a joke. It was just a joke. I SWEAR we were just joking!” Max quickly proclaimed when she returned armed with said frying pan.

Kyle had tears in his eyes as he laughed his ass off, along with Jamie. No one messed with his mom. Eventually they all joined in laughing. It’d been too long since they’d all laughed together as friends.

~

Later that morning Max watched Liz look out the bedroom window. He could hear the hydraulics of large garbage truck outside, obviously picking up the burnt out wreck of the dumpster. “Liz?”

“What did they find in that dumpster, Max?” Liz asked the question even though she already knew the answer.

“Nothing. They didn’t find anything. There was nothing to find,” he told her as he approached her from behind.

She felt his arms slip around her waist and felt his warm breath on her neck. She could smell his scent. “Ash. They would have found the ash. They’d be able to identify it as human.”

“Maybe, but they’d never know who’s,” he assured her.

“What about the van, and the other car? The one parked at the curb. What about those?” she continued asking the obvious questions that she already knew the obvious answers to.

“The van is a burned out hunk of metal. No prints, no paperwork, no traceable numbers, and nowhere to go with it. As for the car, no registration inside, numbers and prints wiped clean, changed license plate and color, again a dead end,” he assured her.

“How can you be so certain? I’d thought I’d covered all my tracks a few times only to find that I’d miss something. I almost lost Jamie last night and I won’t take that chance again. I won’t let the Special Unit get that close again,” she stated matter-of-factly.

He pulled her close into his arms as the garbage truck chugged away. “There is no more Special Unit in the field. And the… assistant director is an old acquaintance of mine, yours too,” he told her.

“Nesado,” she knew. It stood to reason.

“Nesado,” he confirmed.

“How long has been back?” she asked.

“A month, more or less,” he told her.

“And you? How long?” she wanted to know.

“Only a few days. I sent Nesado in first to find out what the situation was,” he paused and turned her around to face him. “Liz, I had no idea that they’d been chasing after you all these years. You can’t imagine how shocked I was. I didn’t understand why. The only thing I could come up with was the healing, that it had somehow changed you and they found out,” he told. The pain and worry over those thoughts, and the guilt of leaving her to a life like this, was etched on his expression.

“When did you find out about Jamie?” she asked as she rested her cheek against his chest and felt the rhythm of his heartbeat.

“Kyle told me that you had a child but he clammed up right afterward. I had no idea he was mine,” he explained.

She shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t. He knew that I wanted to be the one to tell you. Max, Kyle’s been very good to me and Jamie.”

“Yeah, I kind of gathered that. I’m glad you had… that you had help. I just wish I had been here with you, for you, for Jamie,” he told her. His eyes closed as guilt over the thought that he had abandoned not only Liz, the love of his life, but his son as well flooded through him.

“I want him safe,” Liz stated firmly. “Happy and healthy and safe. Is that possible for him? For us? Does such a place exist? Or a time?”

He held her tight as he felt the exhaustion and frustration of life on the run well up in her. It’d taken a toll on her, as well as Jamie. It’d taken a toll on all of them. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s here. Most of the Special Unit’s assets have been reassigned already. These were the only agents left and their time was coming to an end. That’s why they decided to take you last night. It was a now or never type of deal. People were starting to question the funding, started demanding answers and results. Nesado pushed that along as a way to shut them down but hadn’t foreseen this final… stand until it was almost too late. He wouldn’t have seen it even then if it weren’t for a certain security person on loan to the FBI from the State Department,” he mentioned with a sincere smile.

“Alex,” Liz grinned too.

“Yeah. Nesado recognized him immediately and knew he could trust him. Together they figured it out,” he told her.

“But what happens when they don’t turn up? When someone figures out they’re missing?” Liz worried.

“Technically they’ve already been disbanded last week and reassigned to other agencies. It won’t be a group of agents missing, but various agents preferring to retire or take extended vacations before starting new assignments. By the time anyone is all the wiser, you and Jamie will be long gone from here,” he stated.

“We will? Where?” she asked. She assumed they’d be leaving again but she hadn’t realized that Max had already had things planned out. For some reason the idea of him making plans for her and Jamie without even discussing it with her, annoyed the crap out of her and the look she gave him reflected it.

Max grinned. She was cute when pissed. “Wherever you want to go… but if you ask me where I want to go… home, Liz. I want to go home to Roswell to see my family and let my parents get to know their grandson, and yours too. I want to put down roots and build a home and a family. I want to see our son grow up being healthy and happy and safe. I want to make you smile everyday. That’s what I want. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Her tears dampened his shirt as she tried to get her emotions back under control. It’d been a long time since any man had evoked such powerful emotions in her. “I want that too. But can it really happen? What about…what about your people and the war?”

Max smiled, and pulled back to look at her, “My people are free and living their lives. They don’t need a hybrid King to lord over them, just one to rally behind. They don’t need me anymore and I couldn’t be happier.”

“What about… Tess?” she asked. Did she dare to believe that all her hopes and dreams maybe, just maybe are about to be coming true?

“Tess wanted to stay. She’s a queen, one with no real power, but a queen nonetheless. It’s what she’s always wanted, the throne. And she can have it too,” he stated with more than a little relief.

“A throne needs an heir. How’s she going to accomplish that without a king?” Liz asked and held her breath for an answer.

Max thought he saw a flash of jealousy, and gave her an amused grin. “Last time I saw Tess, she had one already and another on the way.” He wanted to laugh at her stricken look but knew she’d kill him where he stood if he did. “The oldest, a daughter, had a little patch of blond curl on top and light eyes, like her mother. They thought she might be a little taller than normal, about four and a half feet, when fully grown. Oh and she has what’s considered the prettiest little slits for ears, which everyone agrees she got from her father,” he told her and tried his best to remain serious.

It took effort for Liz to pick her jaw up from where it’d dropped. “Slits for ears?”

“Yes, I’m told the smaller the slits the more desirable,” he said and frowned. “I’m afraid I didn’t exactly… fit in there too well,” he commented in mock seriousness.

Liz smacked his chest. “You’re teasing me,” she accused.

“Partly. Tess married a distant cousin of mine, a full-blooded alien, when I announced my intention of renouncing the thrown. Seems a cousin was royal enough to be able to continue the royal line,” he explained.

“So that part of your life is…”

“Over,” he finished for her. “There’s nothing for me out there. Everything I want is right here on Earth.”

“Max,” she breathed and allowed herself to believe that just maybe her dream of a future for them just might come true after all. Her eyes focused on his lips as they came closer, ready to claim hers. “Max.” Contact. Her lips parted, eager to taste his, eager to explore and be explored, eager to take this as far…

“MOM!” Jamie called out from the doorway. She’d said she wanted to be left alone to think about things. She was hardly alone. He glared, as they broke apart.

Max cleared his throat as his hands dropped to his sides and got his breathing under control.

“You said you wanted to be alone, Mom,” he accused.

“That’s right I do. I want to be alone with your father. Now close the door. We’re not done talking,” she told him pointedly.

“Talking with your tonsils you mean,” Jamie remarked and shot another glare at his father. That was his mom!

“Jamie, that’s enough. I will not have you taking that tone. Close the door and go to your room!” she yelled. She understood that he was upset and this was all new but she had never tolerated such insolence and she wasn’t about to start today. She pointed. “Your room. NOW!” she commanded and took a calming breath when he finally obeyed.

“I don’t think he likes me being here,” Max observed.

“He doesn’t like anyone around. This is all new to him and I’m afraid it’s going to take some time,” she told him. She’d hoped that Jamie would just go running into Max’s arms and call him Dad, and they’d all just be one happy family – Not!

“He’s not the only one. I… I’m not exactly sure what to do with a thirteen-year-old son. I feel like a fish out of water around him,” Max admitted.

Michael sat on the sofa with Kyle and tuned into the Braves/Giants game. But he couldn’t miss the yelling and Jamie running to his room. “Trouble in paradise so soon?”

Kyle ignored him and waited for a moment but when neither door opened he rose and knocked at Jamie’s door. “Jamie, it’s me, Kyle,” he said and turned the knob. Jamie was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling. Kyle followed the gaze. “You should paint it. At least that way it’d be interesting to stare at.”

“I hate him!” Jamie bit out angrily. Mom had yelled at him and it was HIS entire fault!

“Evans? Yeah, I’ve had those same exact thoughts from time to time,” he told him and took a seat at the foot of the bed.

“Why can’t he just leave my mom alone?” he spat out so angrily that he could barely stand it.

“Because he loves her. He came back across the galaxy for her. And he risked his life last night to save her and you,” Kyle pointed out.

“Why couldn’t you be my dad? You are on paper already. And you’ve been around and helped us when we needed you. Mom told me. She told me about you and your dad helping us. You at least gave me your name!” As the tears fell he grew even angrier with himself.

Kyle sighed. Damn. “Jamie, as much as I care about your mother, we both knew that it would never work between us. Your mom loves your dad just as much as he does her. You need to give him a chance.”

“Why?” he bit out through angry tears.

“Because he can make her happy. Don’t you want her to be happy? Don’t you think she deserves it?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Jamie acknowledged quietly. He did want his mom happy. She certainly did look happy sucking-face with him earlier.

“Okay, just keep that in mind next time you think you hate him. Trust me, it helps,” Kyle assured him.

~

It was late afternoon and Kyle and Michael were getting anxious to get going. Michael was dropping him off at home in Tucson and then heading on to Roswell to drop his dad’s truck off. But there was one thing he wanted before he left. Payment. “Okay Liz, I wanna see it.”

“Excuse me?” Liz asked with arched eyebrows. She noted that all eyes were now on her and Kyle.

“Thirteen years ago I told you what I wanted in payment and now it’s time to pay the piper,” Kyle reiterated.

“Kyle, what the hell are you talking about?” Max asked as he looked between the two.

“Kyle, this is really childish. I can’t believe that you still want this,” Liz told him with her arms crossed.

“Would someone please explain what’s going on?” Max asked again with growing impatience.

“Fine!” Liz hissed out and walked back into the bedroom.

“Liz?” Max was clearly confused and started to follow her while shooting a death glare of his own at Kyle, whom was smirking back at him. “Liz, what’s…” He almost tripped over himself as he tried not to knock her down as she suddenly reappeared right in front of him.

“Max, sit down.” She ordered him tersely.

Max kept looking at them, hating Kyle’s deepening grin by the minute, and sat down.

“Here,” she said as she handed Max the paper. She should have prepared him, explained it, but she was too damn pissed at Kyle to think straight.

Max glanced once more at her and then started to unfold the tri-folded document. “Certificate of Live Birth…State of Oklahoma?” He looked up again at her in surprise.

“Long story,” she said but her fury at Kyle was starting to fade and turn into concern for Max. She chewed her bottom lip. “Max, wait. Let me explain…”

“Jameson VALENTI Parker?” Max shot a glare at a smug looking Kyle.

‘Too late,’ Liz thought and sighed at the inevitable.

“Keep reading,” Kyle instructed, waiting for the grand finale. So sue him. It was mean, but so what? He’d been picturing this for thirteen years and damn if Evans didn’t disappoint as he obviously got to the last part of the certificate.

“FATHER: KYLE VALENTI?!” Max’s jaw dropped.

“Yep, that’s what I’ve been waiting for,” Kyle informed him. “Well Guerin, times a wastin’. Let’s get a move on. I wanna sleep in my own bed tonight,” he said as he slapped the tall one on the back.

Michael’s jaw had joined Max’s. “You’ve got to be fu…”

“Michael! Frying pan, remember?!” Liz warned him.

Max was still dazed and trying to come to terms with the fact that Kyle Valenti was officially Jamie’s father. Kyle Valenti was listed as HIS son’s father. Kyle was Jamie’s dad. Kyle was…so dead.

“Maxwell, we’re going to be shoving off. I’ll be in Roswell tomorrow afternoon. You got the cell number. Call…” No response. “Maxwell?” Nadda. He slapped him hard on the back. That snapped him out of it, sort of.

“Huh?” Max looked up, still not totally getting it.

“Leaving. Roswell. Phone. Tomorrow,” he tried. Nope. Not quite there yet. “Ah, screw it. I’ll call you when I get there.” He looked over at Liz and gave her a raised eyebrow and smirked. “You certainly are full of surprises.”

“Michael, about…” Liz wanted to explain…needed to explain.

He cut her off. “No worries. I got a twelve-hour drive with the glib one over there. Plenty time for me to pound…er, us to talk. Hope to see you and the kid back in Roswell soon.” He glanced at his best friend for a moment. “And see if you can revive him. A little mouth to mouth would probably work,” he said with a wink. He glanced over at the young teen, who reminded him so much of a similar one so long. “Hey kiddo, I’ll see you soon. Take it easy on the old man. He ain’t gettin’ any younger,” he said with a smirk and was glad to see at least a slight smile on the brooding teen. ‘Did all teens brood like that?’ he wondered as he gathered his things and left, dragging a still smirking Kyle with him. He was heading home and hoped to catch up with a former waitress turned beautician. She had two kids, damn. He’d never figured on that, but kids were okay…except when they turn into brooding teens. Hopefully they’d have more time before that happened.

~

Part 11

March 2014

The little apartment had been quiet for most of the afternoon, too quiet, in fact. Jamie had disappeared into his room and remained while Max learned the details behind his son’s birth certificate. ‘Was it wrong for him to still want to murder Kyle, even after all he did for Liz and Jamie?’ Max wondered.

“Max, you should go talk to Jamie,” Liz told him.

Max looked over his shoulder at his son’s closed door. “I don’t think he wants to talk to me. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’d prefer if I stayed away,” he commented dejectedly.

“Max, he needs to get to know you. You’re the first man in his life that’s going to be sticking around. He needs to know that. He needs to know that you’re going to be around for the long haul,” she told him.

“I don’t know what to say to him,” he admitted.

Liz sighed. Why did she feel like she had two kids to deal with now? “Max, why don’t you start with ‘I love you’ and see where it goes from there?” she suggested.

He still looked dubious.

She pointed toward the room. “GO!” she yelled.

Max hung his head as he slunk toward the closed door. ‘She yelled at me. I can’t believe she yelled at me already over him,’ he grumbled as he reluctantly knocked at the door.

Liz shook her head and grabbed the open bottle of wine out of the refrigerator. If there was ever a day that she needed a drink, this was it.

~

After waiting for a long enough period with no answer, and after glancing back at Liz, whom he saw now had a very large class of wine in her hand, he swallowed his pride and opened the door, and entered the enemy’s camp. “Jamie?”

Jamie didn’t look up as the door opened. He continued to work on conditioning his new mitt.

Max stood there for a few minutes until it became clear that Jamie wasn’t going to invite him in. He finally took a seat at the desk chair anyhow and watched Jamie work on the glove. “Y-you know, my dad told me that if you fold it and stick it underneath your mattress and sleep on it, you’ll break it in faster,” he lamely offered when nothing else came to mind.

Jamie paused and looked at him critically for a moment. “Did it work?” he finally asked.

“Well, after sleeping on it for a week, either it was broke in or I was.” His bad attempt at a joke didn’t go very far. Jesus, what the hell was he going to say to him?

“I didn’t know you played ball,” Jamie finally said. He was curious about his dad, in spite of himself.

“Yeah… um, Little League when I was about your age,” he filled in.

“What position?” Jamie asked.

“Oh, uh, left field or sometimes third base,” he replied.

“I play shortstop and sometimes I pitch,” Jamie said with just a touch of smugness.

“Yeah? That’s great! I… uh, sort of heard that you pitched last Friday,” Max tried. His heart was pounding as he hoped this might be an opening.

Jamie smiled at the memory of Friday on the pitcher’s mound. “Yeah, but that was for school, not Little League, and it was softball. But yeah, we won!” he said proudly.

Max smiled proudly in return. His son had pitched a winning game. “I wish I’d seen it. Maybe your next game,” he offered.

Jamie’s smile faded. “Not sure if there’s going to be a next game. Mom got me this for my birthday. I was going to use it when I started the Spring League. Sign ups end this Friday, but I bet we won’t be here for it, huh?” he asked accusingly.

Max sighed. “No, probably not. We… your mom and me want to go back to Roswell, New Mexico. Maybe… maybe you can sign up there?” he suggested. Damn. Why’d he feel like a first class heel?

“Probably be too late,” Jamie said disappointedly. “What’s in Roswell anyway?”

“It’s home. It’s where both your mom’s and my families live. Your grandparents are there, both sets. And my sister, your Aunt Isabel, who’s also just come back, is there. And um, Michael was heading back there. He was hoping to connect back up with Maria…uh, she’s your mom’s friend. She and Michael…um, well, they were close. And I bet Alex will be showing up eventually. He’s also your mom’s friend,” he rushed out, hoping to stir some interest in Jamie about going to Roswell.

He finally sat the glove down and looked at his father. “We can go home now? For real? What about… what about Them? Aren’t there more out there?”

Max shook his head. “No. There aren’t. Those were the last of… Them. A… friend was helping to get them to stop. Those were the last that refused to stop and… and now they’re… gone,” he carefully explained.

“Gone?” he asked.

“Yeah, gone,” Max assured him.

Jamie had to think about that. Home. They could go home. He had grandparents and an aunt, he had… family. He knew of course that Mom had to have parents but somehow it never dawned on him that they were his grandparents. He glanced at his father again, two sets of grandparents. He supposed it’d be kinda nice to meet them but then what? “So…what happens after Roswell?”

It was Max’s turn to pause and think for a moment. “Your mom and me haven’t quite figured that out yet, but… um, we’re hoping to find a place and settle down. You know, put some roots down?”

“You and Mom?” Jamie had been afraid of that.

“Yeah, me and Mom. Jamie, I know… I mean it’s pretty obvious that you and I need to take some time to get to know each other, but I want you to know that I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be sticking around to help your mom and you. Jamie, I love your mom very, very much, and I love you too. I… I just wanted you to know that.” He held his breath, waiting for some sort of reaction but all he got was an unhappy nod. He let his breath out and decided to change the subject. “Okay then. How about we go out to dinner. Do you have a favorite place?”

“Yeah, but it’s downtown. Too far on a bus,” he told him.

“Bus?” Max raised his brow at that. Liz didn’t have a car?

“Yeah, Mom’s car’s in the shop and she hasn’t had the money to get it out yet,” Jamie explained.

“Oh, well, I guess we’ll stick to something close by for now then. Know some place?” he asked.

“Well, Miguel’s isn’t too far, if you like Mexican food,” Jamie suggested.

Max grinned. “Yeah, I do. The spicier the better.”

Jamie gave him a reluctant smile. “Yeah, me too.”

“Okay, let’s go get your mom,” Max told him. Upon entering the kitchen and seeing an empty wine bottle and almost empty wine glass in her hand, he realized that might be easier said then done. “Um, Liz?”

“Yeah?” she asked as she took another long sip from the glass.

“Uh, we were thinking of going to…” He looked over at his son. “Miguel’s, right?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Jamie confirmed and gave his mom a funny look. Mom didn’t really drink often, maybe a glass or two of wine or beer. But he was pretty sure that wine bottle had been about half full.

“Sounds great. I could use a margarita,” she said and polished off her wine.

Max frowned a little at that. Maybe the walk and fresh air would help her to clear her head. “Okay, let’s go.”

It was a cool evening and they walked briskly the ten blocks to Miguel’s. Max smiled as a plate of cheese enchiladas and beef tacos were place in front of him. His mouth was watering. It’d been a long time. “Oh, Miss, could you bring a couple more bowls of salsa please?”

“Si Senior,” she said politely and wondered where the other five bowls had vanished too.

“Oh and some more jalapenos too, please,” he added politely as she was departing. Jamie and him had gotten into a jalapeno-eating contest earlier and so far it was still a tie. “So Liz, what’s wrong with your car?” he asked, careful not to mention the Cadillac Margarita she was sipping.

“Don’t know other than it’s a little over a grand to fix it. The mechanic mentioned something about a lifter I think,” Liz told him as she made sure to pace her drinking. It was having the desired effect of helping her to relax after all the stress of yesterday and today, but she didn’t want to get wasted. She had other plans for tonight that didn’t include praying to the porcelain god. Plus she made sure to order a hearty meal. She’d need the fuel to burn later on, and plowed into her chimichanga.

Max watched her eat. He was glad to see she had a good appetite. It was amazing that someone so little could put away so much. “I know I’ve been gone for a while but a collapsed lifter shouldn’t be that much. What kind of car is it?” he asked as he dumped half of a bowl of the newly arrived salsa on his enchiladas and popped a jalapeno in his mouth.

“Convertible,” Liz supplied.

“Convertible?” Max asked tentatively.

“How should I…”

“Chevy Impala, ’72, with a V8. And I don’t believe it’s a collapsed lifter. The engine wasn’t making any knocking noise or anything. I think the mechanic is trying to rip you off, Mom,” Jamie told her again and popped two jalapenos in his mouth. He loved it when Mom would bring home a jar of super hot ones from that Mexican market. He’d eat the whole jar in one night.

Max grinned and gave Jamie and impressed nod. His kid knew cars.

“Well, it doesn’t matter what it is. I don’t have the cash to pay him and he’s not going to do the work until he knows he’s going to get paid. Right now he’s charging me forty dollars a day in storage fees and by tomorrow it’ll be five days,” Liz said and took a long drink of her margarita. Stupid mechanic and his condescending attitude, she fumed.

Max took a few bites of his meal and another couple of jalapenos. Forty dollars a day in storage fees was high and he was beginning to agree with Jamie’s assessment, Liz was getting ripped off. “I think we should go down there tomorrow and pick the car up. I can cover any fees and get it running…one way or another.”

Liz looked over at Max. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, where are you getting your money and clothes and stuff? And… you can’t possibly have a valid driver’s license or any credit cards. You’re going to need to reestablish yourself somehow.”

Max grinned. “Yep, the same way you did these past years, with a little help from some friends. As for cash… Nesado had this little bank account in the Cayman Islands. It’s been sitting there, collecting interest for the last fourteen years. It’s well more than adequate to take care of all of us. Nesado was waiting for us when we arrived with some cash and the basics. Shocked the crap out of him when the sheriff just happened by wanting to check on things.” He paused as he thought of something. “The sheriff didn’t seem overly surprise to run into us Friday evening out at the pod chamber.”

“I called him that morning and told him to be looking for possible visitors,” Liz told him.

Max’s jaw dropped. “How’d you know we were coming?” he asked in shock.

“I didn’t, Jamie did. He can…feel things and sometimes know things that are about to happen. He’s helped us out of sticky situations more than a few times. Jamie got a premonition Thursday that a He was coming to take me away and would be fighting to stop Them. From what Jamie told me about the…feelings he got when he touched the dumpster…it just sounded like you,” she explained and gave her son a proud, grateful smile.

Max looked at his son. He was stunned. Those were some of the strongest powers his alien race could produce and his son, his one-quarter alien son, had them. “Wow… that’s incredible. Jamie, can you do anything else? Can you…” He looked around for a moment to make sure no one was paying attention. No one was. “Can you do anything else? Can you heal or change objects?”

Jamie wasn’t sure what his father was talking about and shook his head. “No.”

“Have you ever tried?” Max asked.

“No, why would I?” Jamie asked back in confusion.

“Why…” He stopped and looked at Liz.

“He doesn’t know that part, Max. But I’ve never seen him doing anything like that. I’ve never seen his hand glow,” she told him softly, so as not to be overheard, just in case.

“Oh.” Max didn’t know what else to say and picked up his fork again. “Well, we’re looking at a good drive across the desert in the next few days. Looks like we’ll have a lot to talk about,” he commented between bites. He wanted to talk more to Liz, find out what she’s told him, find out what she suspects he already knows, and figure out how best to inform his son that he’s a little green around the gills.

Jamie sucked on a jalapeno and wondered if he wanted to know what his parents were thinking, but weren’t talking about. He was leaning more toward the better of not knowing option.

~

Later that night, Jamie had already turned in for the night and Liz was taking a bath, he’d already grabbed a shower and was currently standing in the small hallway trying to figure out what to do. He glanced toward Liz’s bedroom and then over to the sofa. He knew what he wanted but he wasn’t entirely sure about Liz. So much has happened. He’d just shown up after fourteen years, and he couldn’t really expect for them to pick up where they’d left off that night in the van. Okay, he more than wanted to do just that, but did she? What right did he have to even ask? He jumped when the bathroom door opened and spun around to watch as she stepped into the hall. She didn’t say a word to him as she walked by. His nostril filled with her smell mixed with some sort of flower, gardenia, maybe? He didn’t know. She wore a light blue cotton nightshirt that came almost to her knees and short white socks. His mind said that she must be trying to tell him ‘no’ by her very modest dress, but damn, his body thought she was the sexist thing in the world and reacted as such. As his mind and body fought it out, he stood there like an idiot. She just stood there and regarded him as she slathered some sort of crème on her hands and arms. His mind finally won out but it was by the narrowest of margins and his body was not letting him forget it either. “I… I…uh…um, I was…just…going to ask…’ She walked over to the dresser for more crème and lifted her leg to the bed and began slathering the crème over her tiny feet, up her well-defined calf, and slid her nightshirt higher. “Going to ask…uh…” Was it hot in here, or what? “Is your thermostat working?”

Liz’s head shot him a look and sly grin slowly crept into place. Those old sweat pants that she had bought three sizes too large, and which he was currently wearing, sure didn’t hide too much. “Um-hum,” she answered and switched legs.

He clamped his jaw down tight so he wouldn’t moan as she began that crème thing again. His whole body was throbbing and his mind was seriously trying to remind him that it had been the winner. “Right,” he mumbled and immediately realized his mistake, unclenching his jaw and an almost moan slipped out before he could stop it.

Liz’s hair fell forward enough to hide her grin at the sound and she continued to apply her crème, moving her nightshirt even higher so she could get her thigh.

God, he was hot. Hot. Blanket. Pillow. Sofa. That was it, his mind told him. He blurted out before he could forget again, “Do you have an extra blanket and pillow for me…for… for…” For what? What was he saying? He kept his hands fisted at his sides. He was afraid what he might do if he let go.

Liz glanced at her bed and then back at him and gave him a languid slow smile as she finally finished her nightly routine and approached him. She made a point of looking him up and down and her smile intensified as it remained on a certain part of his anatomy.

“I… I… uh…” Jesus Christ! She’s checking me out. She’s…God, she smelled incredible. “S-s-sofa. I… could s-sleep on the sofa,” he finally choked out and wondered how long he’d have to spend in the bathroom in the shower before he had any hope of actually sleeping.

She smiled at him, part innocent, and part seductress.

Max tried to swallow but it got stuck in his throat. “L-Liz?” he squeaked.

Her hand shot out and grabbed his waistband and pulled him into her room. Her foot caught the door and closed it behind him. “No, I don’t. We’re just going to have to share. Is that a problem?” Her nostrils flared and her eyes dilated as she drunk in the sight of him, all hot and bothered. She glanced down again and her smiled widen, make that very bothered.

Problem? What problem? He had all sorts of problems. Starting with one very obvious problem that was growing well past the point of uncomfortable and was well on its way to downright agony. Problem? “No, no problem,” he finally managed to get out. He bent to kiss her but she avoided him at the last second. But her hands were busily running along his abdomen.

Every nerve in her fingers felt as if a thousand volts had just shot through them as they touched. They were so alive as they roamed the solid curves of his stomach and further up to his chest. He was so hot. Every breath he took caused a new curve to be exposed or hidden. She felt his rigid manhood strain against her and felt the tension as he fought to maintain control. “Take your shirt off,” she told him, but her hands were already lifting the t-shirt up and over his head. She thought she might have heard it rip a little. Her finger traced along his strong chest. She felt the course hairs that lightly dotted his chest now. That was new and she wondered what else she would fine new. There was a slight scar off to the right side, about three inches below his armpit and a small rough patch of skin, scar tissue of some sort lower down on his side. But mainly she felt hard muscles that were underneath the mostly smooth skin. Those muscles were larger than before but not overly so like some bodybuilder. That seventeen-year-old boy was gone and in its place now stood a man. His muscles and his scars told of his strength, his will to survive and to come back to her. And his increasing need told of his love and desire for her. She looked in to his eyes and finally allowed his lips to find hers.

He was afraid to touch, afraid he’d lose all control if he did. But he was more afraid to let her slip away. His hands lightly caressed her arms as he allowed her free reign. He was in her hands now. It was where he’d always wanted to be. Finally she looked up at him and breathed his name. Her lips called to his and they responded eagerly. His arms slipped around her and drew her close, so close, but not close enough. His fingers did a quick dance of gathering her nightshirt up until he finally felt the bare skin underneath. A slight grin tugged at his lips as he felt the soft little cotton panties that he remembered from fourteen years ago. He was glad that some things hadn’t changed. He slowly inched his touch upwards, taking the nightshirt with it. She was soft and had all the curves in the right places. His fingers lightly ran along the curve of her breasts and a shutter ran through both of them. He swallowed and prayed he wouldn’t lose it too soon. It had been a very, very long time. God, she was beautiful.

The way he looked at her made her heart beat so hard she could hear it reverberating in her ears. Her hands had to touch, had to make contact. She needed the contact. She had to have it. Her hand roamed down to his waistband of his sweats and boxers, and in an instant they were gone and he was kicking them out of the way. Her breath caught as she saw him clearly for the first time in the light of the full moon. He was beautiful. “Max,” she moaned. She needed him now.

She didn’t have to say it twice. He immediately wrapped her in his arms and couldn’t stop the groan as she wrapped her legs around his waist. The heat coming through those little cotton panties and rubbing against him were almost his undoing. As his mouth hungrily devoured hers, he carried her to the bed, laying her back and covering her with his body. He suddenly paused and stared into her eyes as his fingers slipped under the sides of those panties and in a second they were on the floor. Now there was nothing but her, just her. He slowly began kissing his way down her, taking his sweet time in caressing her breast, noting how they contracted and responded to his touch and kisses. Down further to her navel he kissed as his fingers brushed against her heat. His fingers lightly touched and explored. He thought he heard a slight moan but it was hard to tell. His heart was pounding so loudly. He finally kissed his way down until he was on his knees and could finally taste his love. He felt a shutter run through her and he was pretty sure another moan that encouraged him further to the new delight.

Have you ever had an itch that you just couldn’t scratch? Well, she had one hell of an itch and Max was driving her nuts making it itch worse. She moaned in both pleasure and aggravation as he continued to love her in a way she’d never experienced before. Her hand clinched and unclenched at the bedding and she moaned again. “MAAAXXX, s-s-stop…” Her eyes popped open when suddenly she felt cold air where it had been so incredibly hot just a moment ago. She was confused for a moment then saw him rise above her and look down at her with worry.

“Stop?” he asked, confused and horribly terrified he’d done something wrong. Had he hurt her? She didn’t like it? He thought…weren’t women supposed to like…did he do it wrong? “Liz…”

She looked at his confused look and his worried eyes and her heart melted. She reached up and pulled him close and kissed him. She wasn’t exactly sure if she liked the new taste on his lips, but she’d enjoyed how it got there. “I… I need more…I need you…now,” she whispered into his ear.

His confusion and worry vanished in an instant. He nuzzled her neck for a moment before pulling back just a bit to position himself. He didn’t want to hurt her, and he wanted to do this right, and not like some clumsy teenager. As carefully and gently as possible he slowly felt her walls surround and welcome him.

She marveled at the heat coming off his body, it surrounded her, and it was in her. Him. She’d wanted him for so long, had missed his touch, his feel, and his chemistry. She felt a slight stretching a first but no pain, not even for a moment, and then just him. Her heart raced to match his building rhythm, her body moving in sync with his. How had she lived without this for the last fourteen years? Without him? She had to have him. Have more of him. Him. Her heart pounded in time with his. Him. Blood rushed through her veins. Him. Breathing came in gasps. Him. More. Her legs wrapped around his thighs, pulling him closer, farther, deeper. Him. Her body tensed in unison with his. Together they climbed. Her fingers dug into his shoulders. He never noticed. She heard his strangled cry, or was that her? Maybe both? It didn’t matter, as they tumbled over the precipice together.

Hours later she lay in the nook of his arm, her eyes were half closed as her fingers lazily run across his chest. They both were relaxed and sated, very sated. They had fourteen years to make up for and they’d made a good start tonight, three times to be exact. There was just one minor detail that they kept neglecting. “Max?”

“Mmm,” came the nasal reply.

“Max, I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but…um, I haven’t had to worry about birth control for a very long time and uh…okay, here’s the thing. I just had my period last week, which means that this is my most fertile time. Max…I have no way to know yet but what if we…” She waited for his response and when she didn’t get one she finally looked up at his face. She smiled.

“Ssssnnnnnnnzzzzzz,” was heard.

Liz bit her lip to silence the giggle that threatened. She snuggled back down to that comfortable little nook and smiled in delight at the thought that she’d worn her lover out.

~

Part 12

March 2014

Jamie glanced up at the clock as he crunched his Coco Puffs with Tabasco sauce breakfast and looked over toward the hall that held the closed doors. It was a quarter to ten and his mom was still asleep so was his dad…Dad? Yeah, Dad, he supposed, had finally gotten up and was currently in the shower. He took another bite of his breakfast and hoped he didn’t get in trouble over not going to school this morning. What was the point? From the sound of things, they’d be gone again by the end of the week anyhow.

Max had never been so glad to be an alien hybrid with healing powers, as he was that morning when he attempted to get out of bed. Man, and he thought he was in shape! He obviously used some muscles that he hadn’t used in quite some time, fourteen years to be exact, and man, was he sore or what this morning. He made sure he ran a gentle, healing warmth over Liz this morning as well while she slept, before heading for the shower. He hung his towel up and slipped his boxers and jeans and t-shirt on, and raked a comb through his hair before heading out in hopes of finding coffee. He certainly needed it even after a long shower. “G’morning,” he sort of mumbled as he walked past Jamie sitting at the table eating some cereal.

‘”Morning,” Jamie replied as he watched his ‘Dad’ look around the kitchen. Obviously he didn’t find what he was looking for because he started checking the cabinets.

Coffee. Where the hell did she keep the coffee? He didn’t spot any canisters sitting out like he remembered his mom had. He found the paper filters easy enough. Shouldn’t the coffee be with those? Apparently not, he concluded. Tea. He found the tea bags but no coffee. He rubbed at his eye as lack of enough sleep threatened to catch up with him. He looked over and saw Jamie just watching him. “Where’s your mom keep the coffee?” he finally asked.

“Freezer,” Jamie replied.

“Freezer, right,” he repeated and wondered why coffee needed to be kept frozen. Two minutes later he was standing over the Mr. Coffee watching it brew. Coffee. He so needed coffee. Fortunately cups were easy enough to locate and he had already spotted the sugar earlier, he was finally all set as he joined his son with a cup in hand at the table. “So…”

“So…” Jamie said back. He absent-mindedly rubbed his neck and shoulder and twisted his neck around in an attempt to loosen some protesting muscles. His dad hadn’t been joking about it either ‘breaking you in or the mitt in’ thing after all.

“What’s wrong with your neck?” Max asked as he sipped his coffee.

“Um, stiff. That mitt made a hell of a lump to sleep on,” Jamie informed him.

Max’s eyebrow shot up at the language but he couldn’t completely suppress the delight that Jamie had taken his suggestion. “Here, let me take a look at that,” he told him as he rose and place a glowing hand on his son’s shoulder. The kinks were gone instantly. Max’s hand lingered just a bit longer. He hadn’t had a chance to hold or even touch Jamie and he wanted to so badly. But he didn’t want to freak Jamie out either and his hand finally dropped away. “Better?”

Jamie moved his head around and then his shoulder. “Cool. Yeah, much better, thanks,” he told him with a grateful smile.

“You’re welcome,” Max smiled back and patted him on the shoulder as the phone started to ring. He was up already so he headed over to answer. He hoped Liz was okay with him answering the phone. “Hello.”

Jamie watched as various expressions played across his dad’s face as he listened on the phone. Surprise, doubt, and Jamie didn’t miss the guilty look his dad shot him. He had an idea who it was on the other side of the call, the side that was doing all the talking. He had already heard from other kids about their crackdown on truancy.

“Yea, I apologize for that. Jamie is home today. We had a family emergency over the weekend and I’m afraid that we’re getting a bit of a late start today. We’ll be by later today. Excuse me? Oh, I’m Jamie’s father.” He scowled and his jaw clinched as he listened. “Yes, that’s right. This is Kyle Valenti,” he ground out and quickly hung up. “I so need to talk to my dad about getting that fixed,” he growled at the phone and glanced up at the calendar hanging above it. “Jamie, what’s the date today?” he asked.

“The twenty-sixth,” he answered and kept his head down, hoping he wasn’t in trouble.

“So a Monday, a school day. And the reason you’re not in school is?” Max asked pointedly.

Jamie shrugged and then glanced up at his dad. “We had a family emergency this weekend and I got a late start?” he tried and could tell by his dad’s crossed arms stance and glare that it hadn’t gone over very well. “What’s the point? We’re just leaving in a couple of days anyhow, aren’t we? Besides, by the time I get there by bus it’ll be lunch period and I only have two classes afterwards and then another hour long bus ride home,” he amended.

Max rubbed his eyes in tiredness and aggravation. Jamie was right but that didn’t mean he had to like it. “Well, okay, I guess.” He tried to think what his dad would have done. Made him go anyhow? Maybe taken him fishing, wanting to spend some quality time? Ballgame? Jamie would like a ballgame, he decided as he looked around. “You guys get the local paper?” he asked.

“No. It kept getting stolen,” Jamie told him. He still wasn’t sure but he thought he was in the clear, at least with his dad. Mom was going to be a different story.

“Oh, well, do you know if there’re any games being played today?” he asked.

Jamie carefully took a spoonful of cereal to try to hide his grin. “Um, only on ESPN… but, um, we only get basic cable.”

“Oh…um, what time is the game?” he asked. He wanted to do something with his son, even if it was just watching a baseball game on the TV with him. That was a good thing, wasn’t it? After all, it wasn’t like they would be keeping the channel, just borrowing it for a few hours. Liz would understand. Father and son bonding was more important, right?

“Three-o-five,” Jamie told him and wondered what his dad was thinking.

“Okay,” he said as he poured another cup of coffee and found the Coco Puffs. He was just sitting down to his bowl when Liz appeared from the bedroom. “Good morning,” he greeted her and grinned broadly as he remembered last night. She was so incredible, even in a nightshirt and barely awake, just beautiful.

“Good morning to you two, too,” she greeted them back and kissed both on the head on her way to coffee. She closed her eyes as she relished her first sip of coffee of the morning. “Mmm, I so needed that,” she said with a smile. She slowly turned to ask what the plan for the day when she spotted the clock on the wall and the mother in her instantly realized something was amiss. “Jameson,” she started.

Crap. It was never a good sign when Mom called him Jameson. He was in trouble, Jamie knew. “Yeah?” he asked as innocently as possible.

“Would you care to explain why you’re not in school?” she calmly asked and pinned him with a glare.

Gulp. Jamie had to think fast as to what he could tell her that she might buy. Overslept? No, never worked in the past. Moving, so why bother? Nope, she’d probably smack him for copping an attitude. Wanted to spend time with his dad? That might work, probably, but she’d probably point out that we would have plenty of time on the way to Roswell. But the Dad angle might work if he stretched it a bit. “Dad said it was okay. He even talked to the school already.”

Cough. Max’s jaw dropped. “Huh?” He definitely did not like the look that Liz was now giving him. It reminded him of his mom when he young and was about to get grounded.

“I see,” Liz coolly stated.

Max wondered if he was grounded.

Jamie knew he was grounded.

“Jameson, go get dressed while your father and I have a chat.” Her tone left no room for doubt.

Max watched in disbelief as Jamie quickly disappeared into his bedroom. He couldn’t believe it. He sold him out. His own kid sold him out.

“Max, care to explain why you think it’s okay for Jamie to cut school?” She asked as she took a set next to him.

Max wondered how all moms had that tone that made you want to shrink back in a corner like a seven year old and swear up and down that you had no idea how the vase broke or who left the water running and flooded the bathroom. It gave him the willies, especial to have Liz do it. His sexy, playful, goddess from last night woke up and turned into his mom this morning. He was certain there would be major damage to his psyche if he continued thinking along those lines. “Um, well, uh…” This wasn’t working. Jamie was his kid too, right? So why isn’t it okay for him to let Jamie stay home? “Liz, we’ve got a lot to do today and we need to pack and get everything ready, I just thought it’d be easier with him here then worrying about being home when he gets home or… I mean, I’m sure we’ll need to run errands and stuff and…well, what’s wrong if he missing a few days of school? It’s not like we were angels that never cut school,” he defended.

“I never cut school until I hooked up with you. Miss Honor Role and destined to be class valedictorian, remember?” she shot back.

“Oh,” Max answered with since he couldn’t think of anything better.

“Max, I’m not that upset about Jamie staying home with us today. I just don’t… Max, think back, how many times did you play Mom against Dad to get your way?” she asked. She could almost see the light bulb going off in his brain.

“He played me,” he realized.

“Yep, welcome to Parenting 101. God help us if we have a girl because you’re never going to be able to say no,” Liz commented and shook her head, but a slight grin played at her lips as she thought of what a daughter of theirs might look like.

Max blinked and wondered if something had happened to his hearing. “D-daugh-ter?”

“Mmm, don’t panic. I don’t know but…well, we’ll need to be careful, which we don’t exactly have a good history on, I might point out. I’m just saying…maybe… someday… possibly in nine months, but let’s not worry about that now,” she kept babbling on because he was just sitting there with his jaw hanging open. “Max, say something,” she finally demanded as he continued the shocked silent response.

Daughter? Kids? All these years none of them had been certain if it was even possible. Obviously Jamie answered that question. But he’d never allowed himself the chance to dream about it, at least not in the last fourteen years. It would have been painful enough to never see Liz again. But to dream of their children, to imagine what it would be like to hold them and watch them laugh and play, and even bicker and fight, and then have to let that go too… it would have been more than he could bare, so he’d never let himself imagine it. He glanced toward his son’s room. His son. They had one son and he absolutely, positively wanted more, anytime, anyplace, but there was just one thing. “Fine, but just so we’re clear on this, there is no way in hell that the name Kyle or Valenti will be appearing on any more birth certificates in which your name also appears. Deal?” he tried to ask in a serious tone but he couldn’t hold back the huge grin.

His grin was contagious and hers quickly matched his. “Deal, and I am sorry about all of that. Kyle was…”

“Being Kyle. I know. And I know that I owe him a lot for what he did and I’ll be sure to thank him… right after I have my dad help me get Jamie’s birth certificate corrected,” Max told her and gave her a kiss.

“Mmm, Coco Puffs and Tabasco, just the way I like my men,” she joked.

“Then I’ll be sure to keep Michael away from you,” he joked back.

She crinkled her nose and shook her head, “Nope, he might meet that requirement but not the other.”

“And what’s that?” he asked.

She purposefully turned his head from one side to the other, “Oh, one, or rather two, prominent features,” she teased and then kissed his lips when he pouted. “I think I better go get dressed.”

“Yeah, before I drag you back to bed,” he only partly teased.

Liz shook her head, “Nope, that’d do too much damage to Jamie. Imagine having to wait around while your parents…”

“Stop! Okay, some things you never want to imagine let alone know for a fact. Not even when you’re grown. Go get dressed. We have a car to pick up, a school to stop by, and some packing to do,” he reminded her. Damn, he’d love to get her back in bed though.

~

It’d been a good twenty years since he road a bus, and that had been a school bus. He couldn’t recall if he’d ever ridden an actual city bus before. He quickly concluded that he hadn’t missed much, especially when some rather unsavory kids came on and took up residence in the back of the bus, accompanied by their music. Did kids really listen to crap like that nowadays? When a young pregnant girl got on but remained standing, Max looked around and realized that there were no more seats. He quickly stood, “Miss? Miss, would you like to sit down?” he asked.

“Thank you,” she replied gratefully as she finally was able to get off her feet.

A few stops later an elderly lady with a cane got on, and once again there were no more seats. As he held onto the bar in front of his son, Max looked down with a frown at him as he remained seated. He finally gave him a little kick to get his attention. He looked at Jamie and then over at the elderly lady, who was doing her best to hang on as the bus pulled out into traffic.

“How come I have to give up my seat? No one else is?” Jamie complained in a low tone.

“I don’t care about anyone else. I only care about what you do. Get up, now,” Max ordered him in a firm but likewise low tone. He could remember how lame he thought it was as a kid when his parents had forced him to mind his manners. Now he was thankful that they had taken the time and effort, and was determined to pass it on to his son as well.

Liz smiled with pride as Jamie helped the elderly lady over and into his seat. Max had beaten her to the punch by seconds in making sure Jamie knew how to be a gentleman. She was also glad to see that Max wasn’t going to be completely gullible with Jamie. Fifteen minutes later she was wishing someone would teach those hoodlums in the back some manners. That racket they call music was giving her a headache. Their stop was next, and not a moment too soon.

Max watched as the punks in back cajoled and bragged to each other about how tough they were. Max wondered how tough they’d be in outer space, in the middle of a battle, in a damaged ship that was quickly losing life support and their only options were death, either by asphyxiation or the cold of space or at your enemy’s hand? For a long time he’d wished he’d chosen to stay on the ship. Kivar wanted him dead all right, but slowly, very slowly. It was a long time before he was able to escape. And it was years before he could sleep peacefully again. He looked at the punks again and shook his head. They didn’t have a clue. As the bus pulled to a stop, he made sure they exited at the rear door. And just before he stepped off, his hand touched the metal of a handrail and glowed slightly for a moment. He grinned as he heard a series of ‘f*ck, shit, and what the hell?’ follow him out. He also noticed how much quieter the bus was without the music blaring, as the door hissed shut behind him. The turned and walked down a couple of blocks to Al’s Auto Repair & Towing.

Max surveyed the establishment. It was fenced in and he was pretty sure he heard a couple of dogs barking somewhere. Probably guard dogs. Probably large, vicious guard dogs. The lot was partially filled with cars, mostly older ones in need of work parked next to each other.

“Hey there’s ours,” Jamie said as he pointed.

Max followed the look and point and spotted an old Chevy convertible. The body looked okay but in need of some paint. The ragtop was up but he thought there might be a tear since it seemed to sag a little. “Come on, let’s go take a look,” he said as he guided Liz and Jamie over.

Liz was heartbroken. It had been a fun car and she had been proud of it even though it had needed some work, which she never got around to or could afford, when she bought it. But now… “Look at it. The top’s ripped and…” she stuck her head in the partially rolled down window and sniffed, “God, it stinks like…like mold and urine. And the seats! There had been a couple of tears before but nothing like this,” she lamented and wanted to cry.

“Dog pee,” Max said. “Hear those dogs? My bet is they let them free at night and they ripped the whole in the top and got in to get out of the rain the other night and did some chewing,” he guessed. But it was a pretty accurate guess he was certain. He also noticed something else, The Club that secured the steering wheel. While they didn’t give a damn about any added damage that may occur, it was pretty obvious that the owners of this place weren’t about to let any car leave without being duly compensated. It was too bad too, since with a little work this would be a pretty cool car. “Come on, let’s go get ripped off,” he joked and headed toward the office and shop area.

The guy behind the counter smiled at them as they entered. No doubt pleased to see another sucker, Max mused to himself. His eyes were drawn to an old sign hanging in the back and the small print on it, too small for many to read he was sure, but him and his alien eyesight.

“So Little Lady, you’re here to make arrangements to get your car fixed,” the owner stated smugly. They always came back. This business was a win-win situation. Either the owner ponied up for the repairs or the tow and storage charges, or after thirty days, he would sell the car usually for parts or scrap, since most cars he saw really weren’t worth fixing but he wasn’t about to tell their owners that.

Max could tell that Liz was seething at the tone of the guy and he didn’t blame her, but they’d agreed earlier that he would handle things here. “Actually we just want the car back,” he informed him.

“Ah, boyfriend’s gonna fix it. Well, let’s get your storage and towing bill,” the owner said a little sadly. The girl was pretty and he had been looking forward to maybe seeing her a few times more. Maybe work something more…interesting out as partial payment. He pulled out the bill and quickly added in all the charges and slid it over to the guy, “That’ll be $410.80,” he said smoothly.

Max gaped at him for a moment. “Excuse me, how the hell do you figure that?” he asked in astonishment. He’d been expecting an outrageous amount but he hadn’t figured on it being that high.

“Well, forty a day for storage for five days, one hundred and forty-five for the tow, eight and a quarter sales tax and ten percent auto tax, equals four hundred and ten and eighty cents,” he explained smoothly.

Max wanted to punch him. He pointed to the obscure sign on the far wall. “Your posted rates are fifteen a day in storage and eighty-five for a minimum tow of two miles which this was, and storage and service fees such as these aren’t subject to tax and I’ve never heard of an ‘auto tax’. This should only be a hundred and sixty,” Max pointed out.

“Nope, four hundred and ten and eighty cents, if you want the car back. Oh and cash only,” he advised and smiled as his three hundred plus pound cousin strolled in from the back office.

“Fine,” Max seethed and pulled out his wallet. The wallet hid how his hand glowed for a moment and four ones suddenly became hundreds. He’d been prepared to pay any reasonable fees but this was ridiculous. He added a ten and another one and laid it on the counter. “I want a receipt showing paid in full. And go tell Bubba there to unClub the car,” he bit out angrily. He knew there was no use arguing, these guys were thieves, pure and simple. While ‘Bubba’ went to go remove The Club, Max didn’t say a word as the other guy carefully examined each hundred, checking for the watermarks that proved them real, but he wasn’t one bit worried. The watermarks were there since they were real… real one-dollar bills. Satisfied, he watched the owner open the register and shove the bills in underneath the tray and get the twenty cents change. Once paid, the owner seemed much more accommodating and neatly stamped, dated and even signed the bill, ‘PAID IN FULL – CASH’ followed by the date and his name and signature. Max was just slipping the receipt into his pocket as Bubba came back in and tossed Max the keys.

“Of course, you now need to remove the car from our protected lot by noon or pay forty for another day of storage.” He glanced at his watch, “And it’s 11:53 now. Do you need a tow?” he asked.

“No thank you, we’re quite done here,” Max told him. Before leaving, he made a point to brush up against the register and inside it, four one hundreds reverted back to their original one’s status. “Come on, let’s go,” Max said as they walked out of the office.

Jamie didn’t say a word but he hadn’t missed a thing. He saw his dad’s hand glow, making those bills change, and then again his hand glowed for an instant against the register before leaving. He bet there was four one’s sitting in the register now. His dad had ripped off the rip offs, but how? And why had his dad asked him last night if he was able to change things. And didn’t Mom mention something about glowing hands? And how was Dad going to get the car running and out of here? Could he do that with a glowing hand too?

“Max, that wasn’t right,” Liz whispered as they walked.

“Nope, it wasn’t, but it’s what they deserved. Now get in and pop the hood. See if it’ll start,” he instructed.

The two guys stood in the window and prepared to watch the show. They were certain that their services were going to be needed soon. If for nothing else than some electrical tape to try and fix the crack in the distributor cap, he figured another twenty, plus tax, for that service would be about right.

Liz almost puked as the smell hit her full force when she opened the door. “Oh God, Max can you take care of the smell?”

He came around and got a whiff and quickly waved his hand about. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jamie watching everything he did. No doubt that they’d be having a conversation tonight. “Better?”

“Yeah,” she said and gave him a quick kiss before climbing in and popping the hood.

Liz tried to get the engine to turn over and start but it wasn’t cooperating. Max looked things over and listened closely. It’d be easier and less draining and faster to fix just what was broken so they could get out of there quickly, before anyone decided to open a certain register and check the day’s take. It wasn’t rocket science to figure out what was wrong with the car. The crack was clearly visible. “Hold on a second, Liz,” he called out and waited for the ignition to be silent. His hand came up and was about to fix the distributor cap when Jamie grabbed his arm.

“Dad, they’re watching,” he warned.

“I’m sure they are, and I’m sure they’re going to be wondering how I fixed the distributor cap without their help. And I know they’ll really be wondering later on what happened to those hundreds. But you know what? I really don’t care because they can’t really see anything. But do me a favor and continue to keep an eye on them for me. I don’t want them to get too curious and decide to come over and help. ‘kay?” he asked and was please when Jamie seemed okay with it and nodded ‘yes’ in reply. While Jamie played lookout, Max’s hand glowed over the distributor cap until it was as good as new. “Okay Liz, give it a try,” he called out and the car started right up with the engine purring right along without a knock or a ping to be heard. “Okay, let’s get going.” Max smiled and gave the two thieves a friendly wave as they pulled out of the lot. By nightfall, the car had a new coat of paint, the hole in the top was fixed, the upholstery was shiny and new, the crack in the dash was repaired and the dash looked like it’d been Armoralled to within an inch of its life and under the hood it had never sounded so good since it rolled off the factory line. And it had only taken Max a little over an hour to do it, while Jamie watched in fascination. Plus, they still had time to catch the game on TV.

~

“Ah man, they were robbed! That should have been a home run!” Max lamented as the ball hit the foul post and bounced out of bounds. It’d been a long time since he’d been able to sit back and enjoy a game. Damn, it felt good, especially getting to do it with his son.

“Yeah,” Jamie agreed. He’d been impressed by his dad’s abilities today. He’d seen him do some pretty amazing things, including tapping into the cable and getting the right ESPN station. He’d thought it was hysterical when Mom laid into Dad about setting examples, and in this case the wrong example, for him. Dad had tried to sweet talk her but her lip never quivered. Dad waited until Mom went shopping for an ice cooler and stuff for the trip before messing with the cable. But he did have questions, tons of them. “Dad?”

“Yeah?” Max answered as the next batter struck out ending the inning.

“How’d you do all that stuff today?”

Max looked at him and sighed. He and Liz hadn’t talked yet but he had been using his powers in front of Jamie and was expecting the question. “Because I have certain powers, like you do. I can change the molecular structure of objects and make them into other things and I can heal, as well as defend myself…and my loved ones.”

“Is that why I can…do things? Like sense what’s happening or if people are lying and stuff?” he asked. He’d never really thought too much about it. He had always assumed it was sort of a freak of nature. Not that he was a freak, no, just that it was one of those things. He’d never thought that he might have actually inherited them.

“Yeah, you got those from me, or at least the ability. I can’t do those things myself. What you can do…that’s very rare,” he told him.

“Oh,” he said and grew silent as the game came back on and he thought about things. It was because he was different that he and Mom had to move so much. And Mom said Dad had to leave or people would die. “Dad?”

“Yeah?” Max answered once again.

“Where’ve you been all this time?” Jamie asked.

Max took a deep breath and let it out. This was the question he’d been waiting for but that didn’t mean he knew what to say. “Away,” he said simply, and then added, “Fighting a war for another world, a world that is finally at peace after much too much bloodshed and sorrow.”

“A world?” he asked not entirely certain that he understood. What an odd way to phrase it too. “Where is this world?”

“Billions of light years away in another galaxy, the Whirlwind Galaxy to be exact,” Max answered very calmly and waited to see how Jamie took it.

“A-a-another galaxy?” Jamie asked, stunned.

“Yeah,” Max replied and just watched his son, to see if he would make the leap and figure it out.

“But how’d you get there?” Jamie asked, still not quite getting it.

“A ship. We triggered a signal a month earlier and when the signal was received, they sent a ship for us, for Michael, my sister Isabel, Tess, and me. They needed our help to fight the war, to help bring it to an end. We had no idea that it would take fourteen years to do it. And I had no idea that I was leaving your mom… pregnant with you. I thought that she’d be safe because… because she wasn’t different like me, that she was… completely human,” he finally told him.

“She’s completely human? What does that mean? That you’re…not?” Jamie asked and then sat back. What was he thinking? His dad couldn’t possibly mean… could he?

“No, I’m not, not completely. Only about half, which means that you’re three-quarter human and one-quarter…not,” he carefully explained.

“Not what?’ he asked though he wasn’t entirely sure he was going to believe the answer.

“Alien.” There he said it. He said the word. He told his son. He watched Jamie open his mouth as if to speak and then promptly close it. He did this several times. The routine was finally interrupted by a knock at the door.

It’s always disquieting to open the door to the police, even when you were expecting it. “Officers, is there something wrong?”

“Yes, we’re looking for a man fitting your description that was with a Ms. Elizabeth Parker that lives at this address that was at Al’s Auto Repair & Towing earlier today to pick up a car?” one of the officers told him. “Is that you?”

“Yes, why?” Max asked very calmly and he mostly was, but there was a little tiny bit of nervousness there, a hold over from his youth.

“A Mr. Al Carlson claims that you slipped him one dollar bills for one hundred, that you committed forgery. We’re here to investigate his claim. Would you be willing to come down to the station, Mr….” he asked.

“Evans, Max Evans, and to the station? No, not without a lawyer, but I’ll be happy to answer any questions right here,” Max told them.

“Okay, did you slip them ones instead of hundreds?’ the officer asked.

Max supposed lying to the police was another one of those bad examples Liz had lectured him about earlier, but there was nothing he could do about that now. “No. In fact… Mr. Carlson, was it? Made a point to check each and every bill very carefully before he accepted them for payment.” Max reached for his wallet, that had a healthy amount of cash, all in twenties, fifties, and hundreds, and made sure the officers noticed that as he pulled out the receipt. “As you can see, I have no reason to cheat them. If anything, him and that big guy working for him are probably ripping each other off. Since I paid cash, I wanted to make sure I got a properly signed receipt.”

“Well, Mr. Evans, you certainly do have that, along with a nice wad of cash, especially for this neighborhood. Mind telling us where you got all that cash?” the officer inquired.

“Sure, I’ve been out of the country and just returned to my girlfriend and son. I don’t have a bank account here yet. No point in getting one until we move back home,” he told them.

“And where’s that Mr. Evans?” the officer asked.

“Roswell, New Mexico. We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon,” he answered.

“Is there a number that we can reach you at for any additional questions?” the office then asked.

“Sure, 502-559-9874, that is my father’s work number. He’s Philip Evans, esq.” Max told them with a slight gleam. Let them call his dad, the lawyer. He knew his dad would take one look at the receipt and slap Al’s Auto Repair & Towing, with a nice little fraud lawsuit if they made too much trouble. “But we probably won’t be there until Thursday or Friday at the latest,” he added with a smile.

The officers looked at each other for a moment. They’d patrolled this area for a while now, they knew the area and had a good feel for the people and local establishments. Al’s Auto Repair & Towing had a unsavory reputation with numerous complaints lodged against them with Auto Repair Board. The guy had a receipt showing paid in full and there was no proof that this guy had done anything wrong. If anything Al’s was the one that should be worrying. “Well, thank you for your time, Mr. Evans. Have a good drive.”

Father and son watched through the window as the police car pulled out and onto the street. “Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“Aren’t you worried about them figuring it out?” Jamie asked.

“Figuring what out? That I’m half alien and can change ones to hundreds and back again?” Max asked in return.

“Well, yeah,” Jamie answered.

“And how do you think they’ll come to that conclusion?” he asked and shook his head. “No, I’m more worried about something else.”

“What’s that?” Jamie inquired.

“Explaining to your mom why I’m setting another bad example for you,” Max admitted.

“Didn’t you and Mom do anything…um, well, that you had to lie about? Couldn’t you remind her of that?” Jamie suggested and half hoped that his dad would tell him some stories.

“Well, there was the time Michael and I broke into the sheriff’s office, and the one where we faked Maria getting run over at the Crash Festival, or we took off to Marathon without permission, or the…” He stopped his musing and gave his son a sharp look. Shit, he was being played again. “Never mind. Let’s see how the game’s going.”

~