Thanks again all you guys who read, nom'd and vote, I'm proud, my beta is proud.... and I'm probably driving those ladies crazy these days. but here's the banner.
The Fate of Destiny Part 181E CC/UC ADULT 09/02/10 COMPLETE
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So, geez. this story won two awards. I'm... wow.
Thanks again all you guys who read, nom'd and vote, I'm proud, my beta is proud.... and I'm probably driving those ladies crazy these days. but here's the banner.
Thanks again all you guys who read, nom'd and vote, I'm proud, my beta is proud.... and I'm probably driving those ladies crazy these days. but here's the banner.
Part 149
The Fate of Destiny Part 149
Berty sat on the table in the paper gown for the second time. Her mother leaned on a counter with her eyes on the ceiling. She looked like she was going to cry. "Mom?"
"Yeah?"
"What are we going to do if I am pregnant?"
"First, I'm going to kill you and then I'm going to kill the son of a bitch who dared to knock up my daughter. I'm going to kill Alex for not telling me and I'm going to kill Jesse for thinking for one instant that I shouldn't know."
"Mom, it wasn't like that. Until yesterday, I didn't know what happened." She bit her lip. She had been a bit stunned when Beth had called back with the truth. It matched Sebastien's story… but she hadn't been in control of herself. She had been drunk, on the little bit of alcohol that Aunt Liz had accidentally spilled on her hand.
"How long has it been since you…" Isabel couldn't even say it. She couldn't look at her daughter.
"A couple of weeks, I guess."
"Well, it would be hard to tell for a human. For one of us… Dr. Davis's test should be fairly conclusive. I always knew right away."
"Mom…"
"You are too young for this."
"I know that!"
Dr. Davis opened the door and froze. "Should I give you a few more minutes?"
"No. We're ready." Isabel cleared her throat.
Sydney shut the door and sat down on the stool. "Well, your hormones are all over the place. That's from the last sample I took and from today's… but you aren't pregnant."
A wave of relief washed over Berty. "Thank God."
"But…" Sydney went on. "I hesitate to put you on birth control because of the way your hormones are fluctuating. You have low levels of serotonin. I'll refer you to your uncle for treatment. She needs to sleep and sleep well for a few weeks before we do another test."
"I don’t have a choice about birth control?" Berty blurted out.
"You've already proved that your judgment cannot be trusted." Isabel tossed over her shoulder to her daughter.
"You don't even know what happened, okay? It was all my fault but it's not like I had planned for it to happen. Se-" Berty clamped her mouth shut.
"Who?" Isabel turned to her daughter. "I thought you said his name was Teddy."
"I didn't have sex with Teddy." Berty shook and bowed her head to keep from seeing her mother look so disconcerted. "Alex kept his promise. No one had sex in Florida."
"Who was it? Bryce? Vince?"
"That doesn't matter, now, Mrs. Valenti. What matters is figuring out why her blood chemistry is so screwy." Dr. Davis cut in. "Is there some family history I'm missing?"
"Um… you know all about my history." Isabel took a deep breath and focused on the doctor. "Kyle was always pretty healthy. Towards the end, he'd had a bout of jaundice I think… because of the drinking. Um…"
"Anything. Anything at all. For Max's kids, I had to factor in that Liz had been a bit juiced. Danny's blood work up is different from Kathy's. Both of theirs was different from Davey's… and Beth's is way different. Emily, um… She's got the history with her mother."
"That's right." Isabel blurted out. "Dad has that condition. It's… he's a carrier. Maria's got flipped on but Kyle's didn't but Kyle would be a carrier, right?"
"Ah, I see." Sydney nodded to herself. "I didn't realize that Maria and Kyle were siblings."
"Half-siblings." Isabel nodded and looked to her daughter. "She'll be okay, though?"
"Otherwise, she's completely healthy. She has quite a few antibodies running around. Maybe whatever it is, is passing. Like a virus." She held up a tube from her pocket. "I want to draw some blood for more tests so that Max can see the concentration I'm talking about."
--
Max took Beth's vitals but she was just sleeping. Sleeping off whatever she had done in the van. He'd had to carry her into the house and into her bed. He couldn't help but think Serena's words were slapping him in the face. Beth had been using her powers even more than usual and whatever she was doing had pushed her to her limits. He kissed her forehead and then made his way downstairs to the kitchen. Liz had the newspaper spread out on the table. He kissed her neck before stealing a bite of her cinnamon roll.
Sitting, he held her close while she read the paper and he watched David through the window. He had a book in hand and a whistle in his mouth. Sterling seemed to be listening to the commands but ignoring them in favor of chewing on his tail. They should have been rested after sleeping in their own beds for the first time in forever but Beth occupied their minds.
--
Will wasn't wholly surprised when his assistant led Lauren into his office. "Hey, how's it going?"
"It's going, you know." She smiled at the assistant before the door closed behind him. "I… uh… I know that I got myself into a lot of trouble and I'm sorry but I wondered if…"
"Have a seat. Tell me about it."
She took a chair but stared at her hands for a long time. "Daphne and I really had it out when we talked. I think we both said more than we meant to. I want to finish school but I don't want to be wholly reliant on Serena for it. You know? I need to pay back Gia for that stunt I pulled. I have a father. He's gone but he existed and…"
"It could be very difficult to lay your hands on his money. Even if we could prove you're Mason's daughter, she has some pretty powerful ties. There would have to be some great luck on your side." Will told her earnestly.
"I know but something she said has been bugging me. She was a little scared when I showed up and she realized who I am." Lauren took a deep breath. "She said, 'Mason's dead. Forget your inheritance.' Why would she say that? If he never knew about me, if he thought I died… Why would she say that? I mean… he died right before my parents did. They found her when I was…"
"13, yeah." Will nodded that he knew the history on the subject. "And she waived you off."
"Right. Maybe she thought I wasn't really hers, genetically but… why wouldn't she… she said he would have taken me and left her with nothing."
"You're right. That is odd phrasing."
"If she had just taken me… she could have prevented him from…" Lauren shook her head and waved him off. "Sorry. Serena told Liz and David overheard. He mentioned it to me. It's been on my mind."
The fax machine whirred to life and Will planned to ignore it. He started typing on his computer, pulling up all the files he had on the Burkhardts and Lauren. "The Burkhardts were a funny bunch. They were pretty tight as a family but still had all that secret-keeping that happens with money. Your great-grandpa Burkhardt spent a lot of money hiding all the children that didn't survive. He and his wife seemed to enjoy each other very much from all the evidence I can gather. They wanted a huge family but they only had two children. A boy and a girl. The age difference between the two is rather large, I believe. Seven years. Your granddad had eleven kids."
"Eleven? So that's like. Ten aunts and uncles." Lauren breathed out. "Oh my god…" She gave a little laugh. "So like, he had all the kids his parents had wanted to have."
"Maybe. Rather unconventionally. He had a few affairs. At least three."
"Grandpa was a ho?"
"So it appears. Your dad was the oldest, born in 1977." Will read then flicked his eyes to her. "I'm gonna read this chronologically."
"Okay." She tilted her head at him and leaned on his desk.
"In '81, he got a little brother. Justin. Um, '83 was twins. Sisters. Susan and Sherrie. '86 was Mitch and… um… Robert by mistress number one."
"Go grandpa." Lauren made a face at him. "Really, what a ho. Bet Grandma was pregnant and so he went looking to score and whoops."
"My guess, too." Will shook his head at her. "In '87, the twins died. Pneumonia."
"In 1987? I mean, didn't they have vaccinations and antibiotics?"
"It probably had something to do with the blood defect. In '88, Thomas was born and later that year, Justin fell off the roof. He broke his neck."
"Oh my god." She gasped.
"Yeah, it tends to get worse after this. In '89, the mistress gave birth to a boy, stillborn." He nodded to her torn face. "In '95, with a second mistress, Bonnie was born."
"How old was grandpa at this point?"
"Forty-seven, I think."
"Gross."
"But wait, there's more. Um…" Will scanned the screen for where he'd left off. "In '96, Robert died. A drive-by I think. In '98, Mitch died. He was thrown from a horse and crushed his spinal cord. Then he took a third mistress. In 2000 she gave birth to Kevin. In '02, Devon. Then in '04, your grandfather passed on. In '07," He caught the flash in her eyes but kept going, "Thomas died in a car accident, leaving your dad as the only legitimate child and heir to the Burkhardt fortune as it stood. In '12, Devon died as a result of a blood infection. In '19, Mason spied on the Evans and kidnapped David, hoping to get some answers. His life had not gone as planned. He took his own life. Just a few months later, Kevin OD'd at a club."
"So all of my relatives are gone. That's it." Lauren shook her head and sat back.
"Not all. You still have a half-aunt. Bonnie the mathematician. From the way the records go, I'd figure your grandpa didn't know about her. Neither did your dad."
"So, what does this mean, for me?"
"You have a living relative. We can compare your DNA to hers to make a match for a lawyer. It may be enough to contest any counterclaim that Daphne makes. But I'm going to have to get my hands on a copy of all the wills. Your dad and granddad's." Will reached back to rip the paper off the fax machine and froze. "Holy…"
"Is something wrong?"
Will couldn't take his eyes off the pages as he flipped through them rapidly. "The Fieldings, their first names were Terry and Karen?"
"Yeah."
"Holy shit." Will couldn't tear his eyes off the pictures. Those images would be burned forever into his eyelids.
"What's going on?" Lauren sat up, sweat forming on her skin. She tried to fight the tremble in her voice but she couldn't control her feelings about them. "What about them?"
"They're dead."
"Good." The word was out before Lauren could stop it.
"Murdered." He flicked his eyes to hers.
"They deserve worse."
"I don't think they could have gotten much worse." He slid the second and third pictures across the desk. Lauren gasped when she saw the pictures and ripped her eyes away.
She had to force the bile down. She had wanted them dead, gone, off the planet but she never could have envisioned the torment they must have been submitted to for the gore in those pictures. Her eyes slid to Will's, which were on the photo in his hand. "What's that?"
"A murder related simply by the intensity of the act. I don't know how—" he set the picture down and closed his eyes. Before he could stop her, Lauren had that one in her hands.
"That's him." Her voice came out calmly, her eyes wide. "That's him."
"Do you know him?"
"This is the man who raped me when I was 14." Lauren put the picture back on the desk. "That's Frank Black."
"I know who it is. You're sure that's the same man?"
"Positive." She got out through clenched teeth.
"I'm calling your mother to come get you."
--
Max was checking on Beth for the millionth time that day when Liz called him to the phone. "Hello?"
"Max, we have a situation." Will whispered into the phone.
"How so?"
"I got a fax today. I don't normally get outside cases so I'm very concerned."
"Alright."
"I have three murder victims. The photos are pretty gruesome. I almost lost my lunch. I would normally pass on this but… it can't be just a coincidence."
"You're going to have to be more specific." Max pressed, very confused.
"Victim number one… was mutilated, castrated and his internal organs were ash. Victim number two was the same except, while his internal organs were burnt, they weren't ashy. Victim number three, also mutilated and her internal organs were burnt but not ashy."
"I don't understand, Will."
"I had to be sure, so I looked over the old agency files and except for the absence of a handprint and the presence of outward mutilations, the burnt or ashy organs match."
"Are you saying an alien killed those people?"
"I don't know. There is a tie though. All three victims had a hand in Lauren Allison's very troubled teen years."
"But there's no handprint."
"No but victim number one's apartment was locked from the inside. No sign of entry or exit. The neighbors heard screaming. Inhuman screaming, like a tortured animal."
--
Sebastien sat on the table and waited for the doctor. When the doctor finally arrived, he lifted his gown to show off his frightening new skin condition. "I had a burning sensation yesterday afternoon. I thought I was on fire. So I took a shower, a cold one. I woke up this morning with a huge rash."
"Oh my god…" The doctor made a disgusted face and immediately schooled his face. "Um… I'm going to take a culture and a picture… Yeah… I want my resident to take a look at this." The doctor gently used a gloved hand to explore the inflamed and irritated flesh. "Have you been sexually active?"
"Yeah."
"How recently?"
"A few weeks ago."
"Okay. Maybe it's just an STD but I'll need a list of your most recent partners, say in the last six months. We may have to have them checked out as well."
"But it just sprang up."
"Sometimes they seem to do that. Don't worry. I don't think it'll fall off."
"It really hurts… and itches."
"Yeah, I want a consult before I prescribe a treatment plan… cause, dude… you're gonna have that for a while."
--
Lauren sat at the table and ate dinner but she couldn't look at it. She kept seeing their faces in those pictures. Gia kissed Serena on the lips quickly and raced out the door, shoving a breadstick in her mouth. "David told me you put the Fieldings on the sex offender registry."
"I did." Serena nodded, working on her dinner and a case at the same time. "I couldn't let them get away with what they did to you. If I had known…"
"You couldn't have." Lauren looked up at her. "I know that now."
"Please understand, Lauren." Serena set down her pen and met her daughter's eyes. "I signed away my rights because I thought that being with a wealthy family would be better for you. I wasn't ready. I wasn't set. I was a little older than you are now. I wasn't contacted when your parents died. I wish I had been."
"You weren't?" Lauren absorbed that information. "Huh. I guess I just figured."
"Maybe…" Serena trailed off. "I don't know when it was that your parents died…"
"It was in the summer."
"It must have taken them awhile to figure out who was where and with the papers and confidentiality… It took you a long time to find me but maybe they had tried to find Mason because he's the only one who didn’t sign anything regarding you."
"I guess he did die soon before they did." Lauren ran her mind over the conversation with Will earlier that day. "Serena…"
"Yeah?"
"Somebody killed them."
"Killed who?"
"The Fieldings and…"
"The other one. Yeah. I never found him. I would have cut his penis off and mounted it on my wall."
"Funny you should say that."
"I hope he got what was coming to him. The only thing I could find on him was a list of potential victims but no convictions, no address." Serena sat there fuming. "He'd better be dead."
Lauren stood up and rounded the table; she hugged Serena hard and kissed her cheek. "Thank you."
"What for?" Serena stared up at her, bewildered.
"For being here, now."
--
Max stared at the images. It was horrific. He saw them but he didn't. It seemed like an alien had done it. The way the internal organs had been burnt to ash. The way the skin had split and not been cut by any implement a doctor could find. He hadn't allowed Liz to have even a glance and he hoped she never got a flash from him of them.
When his mother brought him a cup of coffee, he slid the pictures into a folder. "Thanks, Ma."
"Liz said Beth is awake."
"She is?"
"Just for a bit." Diane sighed and sat in the chair next to his. It was a warm night but there was a cool breeze. "She came downstairs for some water and then went straight back to bed. Did you see her hair?"
"Yes, I did. It's blue." Max fiddled with a cigarette but didn't light it. "Ma… I'm afraid for her."
"Why? I thought you said all the treatments worked and that she's better than you would have hoped so soon."
"Maybe it was too soon." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I don't like to think things like this but… she zoned out on the way home. We weren't all that far out. Maybe an hour when I noticed that she looked like she was sleeping but I could see that she was doing something. Something she didn't want us to stop. She put up a shield. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before."
"I thought you had a shield." She shook her head at her son.
"Mine… is green." Max made it appear between them. "Touch it."
"It's like a wall." Diane nodded and then it disappeared.
"We couldn’t see her shield. I could put my hand through it. It was like sticking my hand in artic ice water. My hand started tingling. The closer my hand got to her, the more it hurt. Like pins and needles but not metaphorical. It hurt." He lost the battle and lit the cigarette, drawing deeply on it. "I had to force my way into her mind and I had to have Davey knock her out. I’m very afraid to find out what she was doing."
"Maybe it was nothing."
"Then why did she have a shield up?"
--
Liz brushed the vibrant blue hair back from her daughter's face. "You're okay?"
"Uh-huh." Beth nodded, her eyes closed still. "Head hurts a little."
"Okay. Want some Excedrin?"
"No. I think I need more water and more sleep."
"You slept for almost two days, Beth."
"Hmm." She cracked one eye open. "Two days?"
"What were you doing in the van?"
"The van?"
"You don't remember?"
"Huh-uh." She smacked her mouth then reached for the glass of water.
"Gabriel called earlier. I told him he could come over tomorrow if you were awake."
"Did I talk to him yesterday?"
"I don't think so."
After a moment, Beth's eyes were open all the way. "David said that Serena said she put Lauren's foster parents on the offender registry."
"Well, I know Serena didn't tell him, so he must have overheard." Liz settled onto the bed with her daughter. "But yeah. That's what she said. They weren't good people and they never should have had charge of anyone's child."
"But they won't have anyone else's child." She gave a nod and cuddled into her mother. "Can we go shopping tomorrow?"
"What for?"
"Lauren said that her mother told her that any woman who could hold a pencil under her boob should definitely wear a bra and I'm pretty sure I can do that."
"Oh, I see." Liz stroked her hair and kissed her head. "Okay. We'll go get you some more bras. But don't get so excited. Now that you need one, you'll miss the days when you didn't."
"Oh no, did I walk in on bra talk?" Max groaned but his mother only pinched his cheek and moved passed him into the room.
"There's my blue-haired darling grandchild." Diane dropped kisses on her granddaughter's head. "We missed you. It was so quiet in Roswell without you."
"I missed you, too, Grandma."
"Ladies, out. She should rest another night before everyone comes to see her."
TBC
Berty sat on the table in the paper gown for the second time. Her mother leaned on a counter with her eyes on the ceiling. She looked like she was going to cry. "Mom?"
"Yeah?"
"What are we going to do if I am pregnant?"
"First, I'm going to kill you and then I'm going to kill the son of a bitch who dared to knock up my daughter. I'm going to kill Alex for not telling me and I'm going to kill Jesse for thinking for one instant that I shouldn't know."
"Mom, it wasn't like that. Until yesterday, I didn't know what happened." She bit her lip. She had been a bit stunned when Beth had called back with the truth. It matched Sebastien's story… but she hadn't been in control of herself. She had been drunk, on the little bit of alcohol that Aunt Liz had accidentally spilled on her hand.
"How long has it been since you…" Isabel couldn't even say it. She couldn't look at her daughter.
"A couple of weeks, I guess."
"Well, it would be hard to tell for a human. For one of us… Dr. Davis's test should be fairly conclusive. I always knew right away."
"Mom…"
"You are too young for this."
"I know that!"
Dr. Davis opened the door and froze. "Should I give you a few more minutes?"
"No. We're ready." Isabel cleared her throat.
Sydney shut the door and sat down on the stool. "Well, your hormones are all over the place. That's from the last sample I took and from today's… but you aren't pregnant."
A wave of relief washed over Berty. "Thank God."
"But…" Sydney went on. "I hesitate to put you on birth control because of the way your hormones are fluctuating. You have low levels of serotonin. I'll refer you to your uncle for treatment. She needs to sleep and sleep well for a few weeks before we do another test."
"I don’t have a choice about birth control?" Berty blurted out.
"You've already proved that your judgment cannot be trusted." Isabel tossed over her shoulder to her daughter.
"You don't even know what happened, okay? It was all my fault but it's not like I had planned for it to happen. Se-" Berty clamped her mouth shut.
"Who?" Isabel turned to her daughter. "I thought you said his name was Teddy."
"I didn't have sex with Teddy." Berty shook and bowed her head to keep from seeing her mother look so disconcerted. "Alex kept his promise. No one had sex in Florida."
"Who was it? Bryce? Vince?"
"That doesn't matter, now, Mrs. Valenti. What matters is figuring out why her blood chemistry is so screwy." Dr. Davis cut in. "Is there some family history I'm missing?"
"Um… you know all about my history." Isabel took a deep breath and focused on the doctor. "Kyle was always pretty healthy. Towards the end, he'd had a bout of jaundice I think… because of the drinking. Um…"
"Anything. Anything at all. For Max's kids, I had to factor in that Liz had been a bit juiced. Danny's blood work up is different from Kathy's. Both of theirs was different from Davey's… and Beth's is way different. Emily, um… She's got the history with her mother."
"That's right." Isabel blurted out. "Dad has that condition. It's… he's a carrier. Maria's got flipped on but Kyle's didn't but Kyle would be a carrier, right?"
"Ah, I see." Sydney nodded to herself. "I didn't realize that Maria and Kyle were siblings."
"Half-siblings." Isabel nodded and looked to her daughter. "She'll be okay, though?"
"Otherwise, she's completely healthy. She has quite a few antibodies running around. Maybe whatever it is, is passing. Like a virus." She held up a tube from her pocket. "I want to draw some blood for more tests so that Max can see the concentration I'm talking about."
--
Max took Beth's vitals but she was just sleeping. Sleeping off whatever she had done in the van. He'd had to carry her into the house and into her bed. He couldn't help but think Serena's words were slapping him in the face. Beth had been using her powers even more than usual and whatever she was doing had pushed her to her limits. He kissed her forehead and then made his way downstairs to the kitchen. Liz had the newspaper spread out on the table. He kissed her neck before stealing a bite of her cinnamon roll.
Sitting, he held her close while she read the paper and he watched David through the window. He had a book in hand and a whistle in his mouth. Sterling seemed to be listening to the commands but ignoring them in favor of chewing on his tail. They should have been rested after sleeping in their own beds for the first time in forever but Beth occupied their minds.
--
Will wasn't wholly surprised when his assistant led Lauren into his office. "Hey, how's it going?"
"It's going, you know." She smiled at the assistant before the door closed behind him. "I… uh… I know that I got myself into a lot of trouble and I'm sorry but I wondered if…"
"Have a seat. Tell me about it."
She took a chair but stared at her hands for a long time. "Daphne and I really had it out when we talked. I think we both said more than we meant to. I want to finish school but I don't want to be wholly reliant on Serena for it. You know? I need to pay back Gia for that stunt I pulled. I have a father. He's gone but he existed and…"
"It could be very difficult to lay your hands on his money. Even if we could prove you're Mason's daughter, she has some pretty powerful ties. There would have to be some great luck on your side." Will told her earnestly.
"I know but something she said has been bugging me. She was a little scared when I showed up and she realized who I am." Lauren took a deep breath. "She said, 'Mason's dead. Forget your inheritance.' Why would she say that? If he never knew about me, if he thought I died… Why would she say that? I mean… he died right before my parents did. They found her when I was…"
"13, yeah." Will nodded that he knew the history on the subject. "And she waived you off."
"Right. Maybe she thought I wasn't really hers, genetically but… why wouldn't she… she said he would have taken me and left her with nothing."
"You're right. That is odd phrasing."
"If she had just taken me… she could have prevented him from…" Lauren shook her head and waved him off. "Sorry. Serena told Liz and David overheard. He mentioned it to me. It's been on my mind."
The fax machine whirred to life and Will planned to ignore it. He started typing on his computer, pulling up all the files he had on the Burkhardts and Lauren. "The Burkhardts were a funny bunch. They were pretty tight as a family but still had all that secret-keeping that happens with money. Your great-grandpa Burkhardt spent a lot of money hiding all the children that didn't survive. He and his wife seemed to enjoy each other very much from all the evidence I can gather. They wanted a huge family but they only had two children. A boy and a girl. The age difference between the two is rather large, I believe. Seven years. Your granddad had eleven kids."
"Eleven? So that's like. Ten aunts and uncles." Lauren breathed out. "Oh my god…" She gave a little laugh. "So like, he had all the kids his parents had wanted to have."
"Maybe. Rather unconventionally. He had a few affairs. At least three."
"Grandpa was a ho?"
"So it appears. Your dad was the oldest, born in 1977." Will read then flicked his eyes to her. "I'm gonna read this chronologically."
"Okay." She tilted her head at him and leaned on his desk.
"In '81, he got a little brother. Justin. Um, '83 was twins. Sisters. Susan and Sherrie. '86 was Mitch and… um… Robert by mistress number one."
"Go grandpa." Lauren made a face at him. "Really, what a ho. Bet Grandma was pregnant and so he went looking to score and whoops."
"My guess, too." Will shook his head at her. "In '87, the twins died. Pneumonia."
"In 1987? I mean, didn't they have vaccinations and antibiotics?"
"It probably had something to do with the blood defect. In '88, Thomas was born and later that year, Justin fell off the roof. He broke his neck."
"Oh my god." She gasped.
"Yeah, it tends to get worse after this. In '89, the mistress gave birth to a boy, stillborn." He nodded to her torn face. "In '95, with a second mistress, Bonnie was born."
"How old was grandpa at this point?"
"Forty-seven, I think."
"Gross."
"But wait, there's more. Um…" Will scanned the screen for where he'd left off. "In '96, Robert died. A drive-by I think. In '98, Mitch died. He was thrown from a horse and crushed his spinal cord. Then he took a third mistress. In 2000 she gave birth to Kevin. In '02, Devon. Then in '04, your grandfather passed on. In '07," He caught the flash in her eyes but kept going, "Thomas died in a car accident, leaving your dad as the only legitimate child and heir to the Burkhardt fortune as it stood. In '12, Devon died as a result of a blood infection. In '19, Mason spied on the Evans and kidnapped David, hoping to get some answers. His life had not gone as planned. He took his own life. Just a few months later, Kevin OD'd at a club."
"So all of my relatives are gone. That's it." Lauren shook her head and sat back.
"Not all. You still have a half-aunt. Bonnie the mathematician. From the way the records go, I'd figure your grandpa didn't know about her. Neither did your dad."
"So, what does this mean, for me?"
"You have a living relative. We can compare your DNA to hers to make a match for a lawyer. It may be enough to contest any counterclaim that Daphne makes. But I'm going to have to get my hands on a copy of all the wills. Your dad and granddad's." Will reached back to rip the paper off the fax machine and froze. "Holy…"
"Is something wrong?"
Will couldn't take his eyes off the pages as he flipped through them rapidly. "The Fieldings, their first names were Terry and Karen?"
"Yeah."
"Holy shit." Will couldn't tear his eyes off the pictures. Those images would be burned forever into his eyelids.
"What's going on?" Lauren sat up, sweat forming on her skin. She tried to fight the tremble in her voice but she couldn't control her feelings about them. "What about them?"
"They're dead."
"Good." The word was out before Lauren could stop it.
"Murdered." He flicked his eyes to hers.
"They deserve worse."
"I don't think they could have gotten much worse." He slid the second and third pictures across the desk. Lauren gasped when she saw the pictures and ripped her eyes away.
She had to force the bile down. She had wanted them dead, gone, off the planet but she never could have envisioned the torment they must have been submitted to for the gore in those pictures. Her eyes slid to Will's, which were on the photo in his hand. "What's that?"
"A murder related simply by the intensity of the act. I don't know how—" he set the picture down and closed his eyes. Before he could stop her, Lauren had that one in her hands.
"That's him." Her voice came out calmly, her eyes wide. "That's him."
"Do you know him?"
"This is the man who raped me when I was 14." Lauren put the picture back on the desk. "That's Frank Black."
"I know who it is. You're sure that's the same man?"
"Positive." She got out through clenched teeth.
"I'm calling your mother to come get you."
--
Max was checking on Beth for the millionth time that day when Liz called him to the phone. "Hello?"
"Max, we have a situation." Will whispered into the phone.
"How so?"
"I got a fax today. I don't normally get outside cases so I'm very concerned."
"Alright."
"I have three murder victims. The photos are pretty gruesome. I almost lost my lunch. I would normally pass on this but… it can't be just a coincidence."
"You're going to have to be more specific." Max pressed, very confused.
"Victim number one… was mutilated, castrated and his internal organs were ash. Victim number two was the same except, while his internal organs were burnt, they weren't ashy. Victim number three, also mutilated and her internal organs were burnt but not ashy."
"I don't understand, Will."
"I had to be sure, so I looked over the old agency files and except for the absence of a handprint and the presence of outward mutilations, the burnt or ashy organs match."
"Are you saying an alien killed those people?"
"I don't know. There is a tie though. All three victims had a hand in Lauren Allison's very troubled teen years."
"But there's no handprint."
"No but victim number one's apartment was locked from the inside. No sign of entry or exit. The neighbors heard screaming. Inhuman screaming, like a tortured animal."
--
Sebastien sat on the table and waited for the doctor. When the doctor finally arrived, he lifted his gown to show off his frightening new skin condition. "I had a burning sensation yesterday afternoon. I thought I was on fire. So I took a shower, a cold one. I woke up this morning with a huge rash."
"Oh my god…" The doctor made a disgusted face and immediately schooled his face. "Um… I'm going to take a culture and a picture… Yeah… I want my resident to take a look at this." The doctor gently used a gloved hand to explore the inflamed and irritated flesh. "Have you been sexually active?"
"Yeah."
"How recently?"
"A few weeks ago."
"Okay. Maybe it's just an STD but I'll need a list of your most recent partners, say in the last six months. We may have to have them checked out as well."
"But it just sprang up."
"Sometimes they seem to do that. Don't worry. I don't think it'll fall off."
"It really hurts… and itches."
"Yeah, I want a consult before I prescribe a treatment plan… cause, dude… you're gonna have that for a while."
--
Lauren sat at the table and ate dinner but she couldn't look at it. She kept seeing their faces in those pictures. Gia kissed Serena on the lips quickly and raced out the door, shoving a breadstick in her mouth. "David told me you put the Fieldings on the sex offender registry."
"I did." Serena nodded, working on her dinner and a case at the same time. "I couldn't let them get away with what they did to you. If I had known…"
"You couldn't have." Lauren looked up at her. "I know that now."
"Please understand, Lauren." Serena set down her pen and met her daughter's eyes. "I signed away my rights because I thought that being with a wealthy family would be better for you. I wasn't ready. I wasn't set. I was a little older than you are now. I wasn't contacted when your parents died. I wish I had been."
"You weren't?" Lauren absorbed that information. "Huh. I guess I just figured."
"Maybe…" Serena trailed off. "I don't know when it was that your parents died…"
"It was in the summer."
"It must have taken them awhile to figure out who was where and with the papers and confidentiality… It took you a long time to find me but maybe they had tried to find Mason because he's the only one who didn’t sign anything regarding you."
"I guess he did die soon before they did." Lauren ran her mind over the conversation with Will earlier that day. "Serena…"
"Yeah?"
"Somebody killed them."
"Killed who?"
"The Fieldings and…"
"The other one. Yeah. I never found him. I would have cut his penis off and mounted it on my wall."
"Funny you should say that."
"I hope he got what was coming to him. The only thing I could find on him was a list of potential victims but no convictions, no address." Serena sat there fuming. "He'd better be dead."
Lauren stood up and rounded the table; she hugged Serena hard and kissed her cheek. "Thank you."
"What for?" Serena stared up at her, bewildered.
"For being here, now."
--
Max stared at the images. It was horrific. He saw them but he didn't. It seemed like an alien had done it. The way the internal organs had been burnt to ash. The way the skin had split and not been cut by any implement a doctor could find. He hadn't allowed Liz to have even a glance and he hoped she never got a flash from him of them.
When his mother brought him a cup of coffee, he slid the pictures into a folder. "Thanks, Ma."
"Liz said Beth is awake."
"She is?"
"Just for a bit." Diane sighed and sat in the chair next to his. It was a warm night but there was a cool breeze. "She came downstairs for some water and then went straight back to bed. Did you see her hair?"
"Yes, I did. It's blue." Max fiddled with a cigarette but didn't light it. "Ma… I'm afraid for her."
"Why? I thought you said all the treatments worked and that she's better than you would have hoped so soon."
"Maybe it was too soon." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I don't like to think things like this but… she zoned out on the way home. We weren't all that far out. Maybe an hour when I noticed that she looked like she was sleeping but I could see that she was doing something. Something she didn't want us to stop. She put up a shield. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before."
"I thought you had a shield." She shook her head at her son.
"Mine… is green." Max made it appear between them. "Touch it."
"It's like a wall." Diane nodded and then it disappeared.
"We couldn’t see her shield. I could put my hand through it. It was like sticking my hand in artic ice water. My hand started tingling. The closer my hand got to her, the more it hurt. Like pins and needles but not metaphorical. It hurt." He lost the battle and lit the cigarette, drawing deeply on it. "I had to force my way into her mind and I had to have Davey knock her out. I’m very afraid to find out what she was doing."
"Maybe it was nothing."
"Then why did she have a shield up?"
--
Liz brushed the vibrant blue hair back from her daughter's face. "You're okay?"
"Uh-huh." Beth nodded, her eyes closed still. "Head hurts a little."
"Okay. Want some Excedrin?"
"No. I think I need more water and more sleep."
"You slept for almost two days, Beth."
"Hmm." She cracked one eye open. "Two days?"
"What were you doing in the van?"
"The van?"
"You don't remember?"
"Huh-uh." She smacked her mouth then reached for the glass of water.
"Gabriel called earlier. I told him he could come over tomorrow if you were awake."
"Did I talk to him yesterday?"
"I don't think so."
After a moment, Beth's eyes were open all the way. "David said that Serena said she put Lauren's foster parents on the offender registry."
"Well, I know Serena didn't tell him, so he must have overheard." Liz settled onto the bed with her daughter. "But yeah. That's what she said. They weren't good people and they never should have had charge of anyone's child."
"But they won't have anyone else's child." She gave a nod and cuddled into her mother. "Can we go shopping tomorrow?"
"What for?"
"Lauren said that her mother told her that any woman who could hold a pencil under her boob should definitely wear a bra and I'm pretty sure I can do that."
"Oh, I see." Liz stroked her hair and kissed her head. "Okay. We'll go get you some more bras. But don't get so excited. Now that you need one, you'll miss the days when you didn't."
"Oh no, did I walk in on bra talk?" Max groaned but his mother only pinched his cheek and moved passed him into the room.
"There's my blue-haired darling grandchild." Diane dropped kisses on her granddaughter's head. "We missed you. It was so quiet in Roswell without you."
"I missed you, too, Grandma."
"Ladies, out. She should rest another night before everyone comes to see her."
TBC
Part 150
The Fate of Destiny Part 150
Max woke to a wet nose on the back of his neck. Gross. "Sterling. Get off the bed. Off."
The puppy licked his face before happily moving on to Liz. "Sterling, get down."
"Sterling, breakfast." David called out and the pup bounded away.
Liz rolled over to snuggle with her husband. "Ready to get up?"
"Not yet." He mumbled but hugged her closer.
"Mom, Dad! Breakfast isn't going to eat itself." Beth called down the short hallway.
"She sleeps for nearly two days but she can't sleep in today?" Max murmured into his wife's hair.
"That actually smells good." Liz groaned but was no more inclined to get out of bed than her husband.
Diane knocked on the door and peered inside. "Max, Liz, breakfast is on the table."
"Five more minutes, Ma." They called out together without opening their eyes.
Beth sat down with the last of the waffles then proceeded to dump strawberries and whipped cream on top of them. "Mmmm… where's the green hot sauce?"
"In the refrigerator." David pointed as he dropped another waffle on top of the mess on his plate, opting for syrup and hot sauce.
Diane took her seat and shook off nausea as she took a few strawberries for her waffle and a light dusting of powdered sugar.
"Ohhh…." Danny groaned as he opened the front door. "I told you I smelled waffles." Emily just rolled her eyes and shoved him through the door.
--
"You're 16 years old. You're not old enough to make decisions like this."
"But you—" Berty kept trying to explain to her mother but she wasn't letting her.
"I was 19 years old. This is not the same." Isabel couldn't stop pacing up and down the small room.
"You don't—"
"I am talking, Liberty Valenti." Isabel's voice rose.
"Isabel." Jesse leaned in the doorway. "Stop. It's done. It's over. There's nothing you can do or say now to undo it. We should just be glad the test came up negative. I think Berty will be more careful from now on."
"I'm not… It wasn't… It just…" Berty stammered before she dissolved into tears again because her mother wasn't even listening to her. "I'm sorry."
"Isabel, you've yelled enough." Jesse pulled her out of the room. She immediately moved into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. "I know you're scared for her but…"
"She's my daughter, Jesse. I don't need you undermining me."
"Fine. She's your daughter but when it's Gina we're talking about, I expect you to be much calmer and to try to listen because I'm going to be the one going out of my mind. If my heart stopped when Berty told me, I'm going to die if Gina—"
"Why did she tell you?" Isabel whirled on him.
"Because she's scared of you, Isabel." Jesse had to stand his ground. "She didn't know what to do and I'm not her family. I can't judge her and hurt her the way you can or disappoint her grandfather. She's spent the last week and a half crying and we didn't notice. Not even me. She wouldn't tell me what happened but I can tell that something's not right because all she says is that it's complicated. It has to be. We know her. She's shy and she's scared of boys but something happened if she thought she might be pregnant."
"If she was forced, why won't she say who?"
"Because maybe she wasn’t. That doesn't mean it's easy… or she can cope. She's trying to say something but you're not letting her because you're angry."
"I'm not angry. I'm scared for my little girl."
"It's coming out angry and you're scaring her more." Jesse stepped forward to take her hand in his. "I'm just a substitute for you and I'm not a good one. She needs her mother."
"How'd you get so smart?"
"Been dating this lawyer for a while."
--
Will smeared mentholatum under his nose and nodded to the medical examiner. "The skin over the sternum was brittle but not burned on the outside. When I made the incision to do the autopsy, it seemed to just disintegrate. The ribcage was charred from the inside. The heart was just ash, the lungs burned along the heart wall. The interiors smoked and coated with ash but the outside, closest to the ribcage under the arms is hardly charred. The heat seemed to sweep upward from the abdominal cavity. Ashes, all of it. There was little left of the large intestine and the pelvis was left brittle, it fractured when it was placed on the table. The penis…"
Will still gagged when his eyes followed the doctor's report. He shut his eyes and tuned out the doctor. He'd seen and heard enough. "So, obviously murder?"
"I'd like to know how it was managed without tearing or cutting into the body but I seriously doubt he did it to himself." The doctor covered the body with a sheet and slid it back into the drawer. "I spoke with the medical examiner on the other two cases. She concurs that it's the same modus operandi. We don't have a link besides the condition of the bodies. The time frame does make it difficult to narrow down your suspect list. Detective Hauser has a suspect but he can't put her at the crime scenes, either of them."
"Her?" Will looked up at the M.E. and frowned. "Why didn't he tell me?"
"He thinks it's bull that the FBI was involved in this. I think we need your input if you have any idea at all." He slid the folder to the agent.
"Thank you." He opened the folder and immediately his frown worsened. "Well, it's impossible for this young lady to be involved."
"So you know she's involved."
"She was working in a secured lab the day this happened. I was in the building with her." He set the folder down. "If he found her, he'll find the others."
"Others?"
"Dr. Chen… the man on your slab is a pedophile and rapist. We can't let this go unpunished but know that he might have deserved it. My list is longer than Detective Hauser's but I'm fairly certain this case will not be solved to local PD's satisfaction."
"Agent Goldblum… there is something really odd about this case. I'm going to fly to Illinois to retrieve the Fieldings." He set the files down next to a lock box. "I'm the expert on burns. I've assisted with the FBI before."
"I'm going to get you whatever you need to finish your end of the investigation. I will be in touch." Will left his card on the table and turned for the door, grabbing a kleenex to wipe off the mentholatum.
"I've never heard of your agency before, Agent Goldblum."
"Few have."
--
Berty sighed heavily and breathed deeply. Beth took her hand and showed her what she couldn't remember. When Berty pulled her hand away, the feelings came rushing into her mind.
Beth sat back to wait until Berty had composed herself. "Berty?"
"I knew what he said but I didn't believe him." She threw herself back onto the pillows. "And I know he was out every night that week. Jesse was always worried about him and I know how he doesn't feel about me…"
"You're right. There was… someone else." Beth admitted. "Everything's fine. You're okay."
"I don’t fell okay. I feel cheated." She rolled over to stare at the ceiling. "I know now what I felt that night but I know for him, it was empty because…"
"Berty…"
"I hope his dick falls off."
"What did it feel like?" Beth asked quietly. "I could see it but I couldn't…"
"It was okay, I guess. It kills me. How could he be so… and then not…"
"Girls! The pool is ready!" Max called up the stairs before returning to the backyard where Danny was rolling up the extra hoses to return to the neighbors. The hot sun beat down on them. It had taken all morning, four hoses and alien machinations to fill it up. Emily reached her hands into the pool and dispersed the chemicals. The second the okay was given, Gina climbed the ladder and dove in.
"You can't wait ten minutes so Kyle can get in with you?" Isabel chided her youngest. She rolled her eyes when Max stopped her so he could look over her stomach.
"Max! You're not working today." Liz called over. "Man the grill."
"I'm fine." Isabel shoved her brother away so she could monitor her little heart attack in the pool. "Dad! No drinking!"
"It's a barbecue." Jim halted with his fingers gripping the tab.
Jeff popped the top on his can and waved it toward Jesse. "Jesse?"
"I'm supporting my son's sobriety." He shook his head.
Jim tapped the top of the can but didn't open it. "How is he doing?"
"He doesn't say much. His grandma says he's struggling. She doesn't want him to go live on campus. She says he's having some sort of girl crisis but can't pull the details out of him." Jesse shook his head. "School starts soon. I hope he can make it."
--
Sebastien sat in the office for the third hour in a week. He was more than happy when his prescribed therapist was not his father's college friend but he was severely disheartened to learn a woman would hear his problems. The very action of sitting in her office made him feel guilty and he hadn't said a relevant word all week.
"Sebastien, you're 18. There are better things you could be doing with your day. I know that. You choose to seek help. I can't help you if you don't talk to me."
"I know." He took a deep breath and buried his face in his hands.
"Why don't we start with something recent?"
"I don't think that will work. I'm still coping with the recent stuff." He sank deeper into the chair. "But I have to deal with it. I can't take my time with it."
"Why not? What's going on that's so pressing?"
His leg jerked up and down as he debated on how he should start. "I was diagnosed with an STD the other day. I didn't know I had it. It's pretty bad and the doctors are having trouble getting a treatment plan for me. I have to notify all my partners in the last six months." He chewed his nail for a moment. "I called the first one this morning."
"She didn't take it well?"
"No. It took me a long time to get her to listen to me. I did her wrong. I care about her. I feel horribly that she could have caught this thing from me. She… Donna Jo… I got together with her because I saw the way she looked at me. She liked me and it was obvious. I haven't been able to trust the people in my life and with her… good or bad, it's out there."
"Why did it end?"
"I fucked up. A lot of things happened all at once and I didn't say goodbye when I left for Boston. I tried but not very hard and when I left, I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror. She broke it off. She was upfront and honest. I broke her heart and that's unforgivable. When I talked to her this morning… I managed to make her hate me. It's eating me up. She was honest with me and I wasn't honest with her."
"She's not infallible, Sebastien. Everyone tells little lies. You can't let the little lies turn into big lies."
"You're right. She's not perfect but I still put her on a pedestal. She deserves nothing less from me. She did lie. An omission of truth is as bad as a lie. My dad told me that. Still. She lied to me once. Because she's so honest otherwise. She didn't want to scare me off. I continued to use her even after she told me the truth. I still slept with other girls. I still lied. And when I was willing to be truthful, it was too late and now I'm stuck. I want her. I want to try but it's over. She won't talk to me."
"You're talking around your issues, Sebastien."
"I know."
"Your leg is shaking. Do you want to talk about that?"
"I'm… it's been a while since my last drink. I get edgy." He scrubbed his face hard with his hands. "A guy from the meeting said that I might get like this. He offered to be my sponsor."
"You're 18. What makes you think your drinking has gotten so out of hand?"
"I don't handle it. It's handling me. I'm powerless when I drink. I do things that… I've done things."
"I don't have another appointment until tomorrow. Do you need more time today?"
"I do. I think… this will take a while to explain. I've lost my dignity and I don't know how to get it back."
--
Beth saw the watery smile straight off. "What's wrong?"
"I didn't think it could get worse." Donna Jo shrugged and hugged her friend. "I missed you. Are you better?"
"So far so good."
"What happened to the casts?"
"Minor fractures." Beth sat down on the couch. "So what happened?"
"God! I'm just so stupid." Donna Jo collapsed on the couch and buried her face in her hands. "Sebastien called me this morning. His penis exploded or something and now I have to go see a doctor because he might have given it to me."
"You didn't use anything." Beth whispered and took her friend into her arms.
"No, cause I'm stupid."
"You're not stupid. You were… blinded."
"Blinded?"
"That guy sucks people in. I mean, all those girls panting over him with Dana draped all over him. And usually he's a half-way nice guy." Beth tried to make her friend feel better but she didn't think she was doing too good a job. "So he's a jerk. You didn't know he was a jerk when you… started… you know? You were blinded… cause he's pretty."
"He is pretty."
"He's too pretty for his own good."
"Very, very pretty."
"Am I pretty?" A deep voice interrupted. He had a blue haired beauty in his arms in a matter of seconds.
"I missed you." She squeezed him tightly.
"Back at you." Gabriel kissed her blue hair and tried not to get too distracted by her swimsuit. He pulled back so he could look at her. "How apeshit did your mom go when she saw the 'do?"
"She says she likes it… but Lauren worked really hard on it. I'll keep it awhile." She kissed his lips softly, then smacked his arm really hard.
"Ow. What was that for?"
"You were in the hospital and you didn't tell me."
"How'd you find out?"
"Eva." She crossed her arms and pouted for a minute. "So… what was it about?"
"I'm fine. It was nothing. Regular migraine. Not a tumor migraine. I'm all clear."
"Honey." Max called into the house. "The grandparents want to pinch your cheeks and leave lipstick on your forehead."
"Dr. Evans." Gabriel nodded and shook the doctor's hand.
"No kissing in the house." Max warned. "Donna Jo, I'm trusting you to be a bucket of ice water."
"Yes, sir. Dr. E." Donna Jo managed a smile.
"There's a good girl. Smile you guys. This is a party."
--
"Department of Microbiology, Lauren speaking." Lauren poised her pen to take a message and the other hand ready to transfer the call.
"Lauren Burkhardt?"
"Yes…" She tilted her head and listened. She had only signed her name like that to the cast list.
"Kal Langley has issued a check in your name for a photo shoot that took place a week or so ago. Do you recall?"
"Yes."
"Well, it seems that Divergent Paradise has picked up your option. They'll be using your photos on the album insert. I need an address to mail the check to. I don’t have an agent listed. What is a preferable number to reach you at?"
"I'm sorry but what?"
--
Beth floated on a lounge in the small above ground pool and let the sun soak in. Everyone had quickly gotten over fawning over her and she could enjoy herself. She could hang out in a party and not hear anything that wasn't supposed to be heard. None of Joey's gay/not gay nonsense. None of Donna Jo's insecurities. No parental worries about the offspring. Just normal noises. Sterling yapping from his dog run. Music from inside the house. Grandparents yapping. Parents laughing.
The sun sent her to a drowsy place where auras blended and merged and everyone was connected to everyone else…
Cold. Air!
Beth broke the surface of the water and tried to disentangle herself from the deflating plastic lounge. "David! Get your dog!"
"Are you okay?" Gabriel hauled her out of the pool and carried her to a chair. "It's okay. He's just a puppy. He doesn't know his own strength." He took a towel from someone and draped it over her head. "Did you suck in any water?"
"No." She shook her head and managed a smile for her father when he started hovering.
"He got the drop on you, huh." Max kissed her forehead. "Think you can still manage to party? David's putting him back in the dog run." He combed back her wet hair and then frowned. He turned over a lock of blue to find a patch of white. "Maybe the chlorine is washing out the dye."
"I'll fix it later." She whispered.
"Are you okay?"
"I'll be okay. I'll just sun for a while. Gossip with the gals. You know… be a human teenage girl."
"Oh, is that what you are?" Max hugged her to him. "Well, let me tell you. On this planet. Teenaged girls don't have blue hair."
"This one does. I’m not like all those other cookie cutter humans."
"I guess not."
Beth watched him wander his way back to the adults and leaned on Gabriel while Berty and Donna Jo loaded up plates to sit near by. Donna Jo scrambled into a chair. "Beth, is that guy Sebastien's Dad?"
"Yeah." She nodded.
"Oh my god. They were just talking about how he's got all these problems or something?" She groaned. "I want him out of my life."
"What?" Berty asked before she could see Beth motioning for her not to ask.
"Your mom's boyfriend's son may have given me an STD." Donna Jo shook her head.
"When?"
"A couple of weeks ago, right before he left."
"Oh."
"Berty." Beth saw the look on her face. "He's not worth it."
"I know." She shook her head but didn't say anything more than that.
"Sebastien Ramirez." Joey plopped down on the grass in front of them. "Man, I hate that guy. My mom thinks he walks on water. Why can't you be like that Ramirez boy? Because I don't enjoy dry-fucking cheerleaders."
"Joey!" Beth threw her towel at him.
"She's not a cheerleader. Not really. You're not one of them." He turned to Donna Jo. "If you were one of them, you wouldn't be here and you wouldn't have showed up at the hospital."
"Maybe. I had to go." Donna Jo smiled at Beth. "I had to see."
"I'm glad you came." Beth nodded and sank into Gabriel's arms. "Enough serious talk. This is a party. My Survived-a-Experimental-Brain-Treatment party. Eat, drink and be merry."
Liz stared at her daughter from across the backyard. She was smiling with her friends. Two really important friends and her boyfriend and a close cousin. Then her eyes fell on little Gina. Sitting in front of the dog-run, talking to Sterling. Then the little girl bounded to her feet and jumped in her lap. "Aunt Liz, how come Beth didn't see him coming?"
"She fell asleep in the pool, I think."
"But she didn't see him."
"What do you mean?"
"She didn’t see him." Gina crossed her arms and tilted her head up to look at the sky.
"Why aren't you playing?" Liz tried to get the little girl to open up again.
"I miss my brother."
"Oh, I see. You got used to being with Alex all summer. Did you have fun in Florida? I went there when I was younger. I had a blast."
"You cried all summer."
"What?"
Gina climbed off her aunt's lap and snuggled up to her father. Liz stared at her for the longest time, unsure of what had just happened.
--
Gabriel tilted her face up and gently kissed her lips. "You got bitch-slapped by everything at once, didn't you."
"Yeah." She moved back in for a deeper kiss. "But now they're all in the house and we're out here."
"So you're okay?" His words were mere mumbles while her lips explored his.
"So far, so good." She felt his tongue sweep over her bottom lip. "It's getting kind of chilly."
"I could warm you up."
Beth started to respond when she had to sit back. /His hands tugged at her top, her breast exposed as they fell to the ground…\ She shook her head. /His mouth slid down her throat to her chest, his fingers sliding inside her bottoms…\ Placing her hand on his chest, she reluctantly pushed him away. "I need to lay down."
"Are you okay?"
"Headache. You were right. Bitch-slapped. That's me."
TBC
Max woke to a wet nose on the back of his neck. Gross. "Sterling. Get off the bed. Off."
The puppy licked his face before happily moving on to Liz. "Sterling, get down."
"Sterling, breakfast." David called out and the pup bounded away.
Liz rolled over to snuggle with her husband. "Ready to get up?"
"Not yet." He mumbled but hugged her closer.
"Mom, Dad! Breakfast isn't going to eat itself." Beth called down the short hallway.
"She sleeps for nearly two days but she can't sleep in today?" Max murmured into his wife's hair.
"That actually smells good." Liz groaned but was no more inclined to get out of bed than her husband.
Diane knocked on the door and peered inside. "Max, Liz, breakfast is on the table."
"Five more minutes, Ma." They called out together without opening their eyes.
Beth sat down with the last of the waffles then proceeded to dump strawberries and whipped cream on top of them. "Mmmm… where's the green hot sauce?"
"In the refrigerator." David pointed as he dropped another waffle on top of the mess on his plate, opting for syrup and hot sauce.
Diane took her seat and shook off nausea as she took a few strawberries for her waffle and a light dusting of powdered sugar.
"Ohhh…." Danny groaned as he opened the front door. "I told you I smelled waffles." Emily just rolled her eyes and shoved him through the door.
--
"You're 16 years old. You're not old enough to make decisions like this."
"But you—" Berty kept trying to explain to her mother but she wasn't letting her.
"I was 19 years old. This is not the same." Isabel couldn't stop pacing up and down the small room.
"You don't—"
"I am talking, Liberty Valenti." Isabel's voice rose.
"Isabel." Jesse leaned in the doorway. "Stop. It's done. It's over. There's nothing you can do or say now to undo it. We should just be glad the test came up negative. I think Berty will be more careful from now on."
"I'm not… It wasn't… It just…" Berty stammered before she dissolved into tears again because her mother wasn't even listening to her. "I'm sorry."
"Isabel, you've yelled enough." Jesse pulled her out of the room. She immediately moved into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. "I know you're scared for her but…"
"She's my daughter, Jesse. I don't need you undermining me."
"Fine. She's your daughter but when it's Gina we're talking about, I expect you to be much calmer and to try to listen because I'm going to be the one going out of my mind. If my heart stopped when Berty told me, I'm going to die if Gina—"
"Why did she tell you?" Isabel whirled on him.
"Because she's scared of you, Isabel." Jesse had to stand his ground. "She didn't know what to do and I'm not her family. I can't judge her and hurt her the way you can or disappoint her grandfather. She's spent the last week and a half crying and we didn't notice. Not even me. She wouldn't tell me what happened but I can tell that something's not right because all she says is that it's complicated. It has to be. We know her. She's shy and she's scared of boys but something happened if she thought she might be pregnant."
"If she was forced, why won't she say who?"
"Because maybe she wasn’t. That doesn't mean it's easy… or she can cope. She's trying to say something but you're not letting her because you're angry."
"I'm not angry. I'm scared for my little girl."
"It's coming out angry and you're scaring her more." Jesse stepped forward to take her hand in his. "I'm just a substitute for you and I'm not a good one. She needs her mother."
"How'd you get so smart?"
"Been dating this lawyer for a while."
--
Will smeared mentholatum under his nose and nodded to the medical examiner. "The skin over the sternum was brittle but not burned on the outside. When I made the incision to do the autopsy, it seemed to just disintegrate. The ribcage was charred from the inside. The heart was just ash, the lungs burned along the heart wall. The interiors smoked and coated with ash but the outside, closest to the ribcage under the arms is hardly charred. The heat seemed to sweep upward from the abdominal cavity. Ashes, all of it. There was little left of the large intestine and the pelvis was left brittle, it fractured when it was placed on the table. The penis…"
Will still gagged when his eyes followed the doctor's report. He shut his eyes and tuned out the doctor. He'd seen and heard enough. "So, obviously murder?"
"I'd like to know how it was managed without tearing or cutting into the body but I seriously doubt he did it to himself." The doctor covered the body with a sheet and slid it back into the drawer. "I spoke with the medical examiner on the other two cases. She concurs that it's the same modus operandi. We don't have a link besides the condition of the bodies. The time frame does make it difficult to narrow down your suspect list. Detective Hauser has a suspect but he can't put her at the crime scenes, either of them."
"Her?" Will looked up at the M.E. and frowned. "Why didn't he tell me?"
"He thinks it's bull that the FBI was involved in this. I think we need your input if you have any idea at all." He slid the folder to the agent.
"Thank you." He opened the folder and immediately his frown worsened. "Well, it's impossible for this young lady to be involved."
"So you know she's involved."
"She was working in a secured lab the day this happened. I was in the building with her." He set the folder down. "If he found her, he'll find the others."
"Others?"
"Dr. Chen… the man on your slab is a pedophile and rapist. We can't let this go unpunished but know that he might have deserved it. My list is longer than Detective Hauser's but I'm fairly certain this case will not be solved to local PD's satisfaction."
"Agent Goldblum… there is something really odd about this case. I'm going to fly to Illinois to retrieve the Fieldings." He set the files down next to a lock box. "I'm the expert on burns. I've assisted with the FBI before."
"I'm going to get you whatever you need to finish your end of the investigation. I will be in touch." Will left his card on the table and turned for the door, grabbing a kleenex to wipe off the mentholatum.
"I've never heard of your agency before, Agent Goldblum."
"Few have."
--
Berty sighed heavily and breathed deeply. Beth took her hand and showed her what she couldn't remember. When Berty pulled her hand away, the feelings came rushing into her mind.
Beth sat back to wait until Berty had composed herself. "Berty?"
"I knew what he said but I didn't believe him." She threw herself back onto the pillows. "And I know he was out every night that week. Jesse was always worried about him and I know how he doesn't feel about me…"
"You're right. There was… someone else." Beth admitted. "Everything's fine. You're okay."
"I don’t fell okay. I feel cheated." She rolled over to stare at the ceiling. "I know now what I felt that night but I know for him, it was empty because…"
"Berty…"
"I hope his dick falls off."
"What did it feel like?" Beth asked quietly. "I could see it but I couldn't…"
"It was okay, I guess. It kills me. How could he be so… and then not…"
"Girls! The pool is ready!" Max called up the stairs before returning to the backyard where Danny was rolling up the extra hoses to return to the neighbors. The hot sun beat down on them. It had taken all morning, four hoses and alien machinations to fill it up. Emily reached her hands into the pool and dispersed the chemicals. The second the okay was given, Gina climbed the ladder and dove in.
"You can't wait ten minutes so Kyle can get in with you?" Isabel chided her youngest. She rolled her eyes when Max stopped her so he could look over her stomach.
"Max! You're not working today." Liz called over. "Man the grill."
"I'm fine." Isabel shoved her brother away so she could monitor her little heart attack in the pool. "Dad! No drinking!"
"It's a barbecue." Jim halted with his fingers gripping the tab.
Jeff popped the top on his can and waved it toward Jesse. "Jesse?"
"I'm supporting my son's sobriety." He shook his head.
Jim tapped the top of the can but didn't open it. "How is he doing?"
"He doesn't say much. His grandma says he's struggling. She doesn't want him to go live on campus. She says he's having some sort of girl crisis but can't pull the details out of him." Jesse shook his head. "School starts soon. I hope he can make it."
--
Sebastien sat in the office for the third hour in a week. He was more than happy when his prescribed therapist was not his father's college friend but he was severely disheartened to learn a woman would hear his problems. The very action of sitting in her office made him feel guilty and he hadn't said a relevant word all week.
"Sebastien, you're 18. There are better things you could be doing with your day. I know that. You choose to seek help. I can't help you if you don't talk to me."
"I know." He took a deep breath and buried his face in his hands.
"Why don't we start with something recent?"
"I don't think that will work. I'm still coping with the recent stuff." He sank deeper into the chair. "But I have to deal with it. I can't take my time with it."
"Why not? What's going on that's so pressing?"
His leg jerked up and down as he debated on how he should start. "I was diagnosed with an STD the other day. I didn't know I had it. It's pretty bad and the doctors are having trouble getting a treatment plan for me. I have to notify all my partners in the last six months." He chewed his nail for a moment. "I called the first one this morning."
"She didn't take it well?"
"No. It took me a long time to get her to listen to me. I did her wrong. I care about her. I feel horribly that she could have caught this thing from me. She… Donna Jo… I got together with her because I saw the way she looked at me. She liked me and it was obvious. I haven't been able to trust the people in my life and with her… good or bad, it's out there."
"Why did it end?"
"I fucked up. A lot of things happened all at once and I didn't say goodbye when I left for Boston. I tried but not very hard and when I left, I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror. She broke it off. She was upfront and honest. I broke her heart and that's unforgivable. When I talked to her this morning… I managed to make her hate me. It's eating me up. She was honest with me and I wasn't honest with her."
"She's not infallible, Sebastien. Everyone tells little lies. You can't let the little lies turn into big lies."
"You're right. She's not perfect but I still put her on a pedestal. She deserves nothing less from me. She did lie. An omission of truth is as bad as a lie. My dad told me that. Still. She lied to me once. Because she's so honest otherwise. She didn't want to scare me off. I continued to use her even after she told me the truth. I still slept with other girls. I still lied. And when I was willing to be truthful, it was too late and now I'm stuck. I want her. I want to try but it's over. She won't talk to me."
"You're talking around your issues, Sebastien."
"I know."
"Your leg is shaking. Do you want to talk about that?"
"I'm… it's been a while since my last drink. I get edgy." He scrubbed his face hard with his hands. "A guy from the meeting said that I might get like this. He offered to be my sponsor."
"You're 18. What makes you think your drinking has gotten so out of hand?"
"I don't handle it. It's handling me. I'm powerless when I drink. I do things that… I've done things."
"I don't have another appointment until tomorrow. Do you need more time today?"
"I do. I think… this will take a while to explain. I've lost my dignity and I don't know how to get it back."
--
Beth saw the watery smile straight off. "What's wrong?"
"I didn't think it could get worse." Donna Jo shrugged and hugged her friend. "I missed you. Are you better?"
"So far so good."
"What happened to the casts?"
"Minor fractures." Beth sat down on the couch. "So what happened?"
"God! I'm just so stupid." Donna Jo collapsed on the couch and buried her face in her hands. "Sebastien called me this morning. His penis exploded or something and now I have to go see a doctor because he might have given it to me."
"You didn't use anything." Beth whispered and took her friend into her arms.
"No, cause I'm stupid."
"You're not stupid. You were… blinded."
"Blinded?"
"That guy sucks people in. I mean, all those girls panting over him with Dana draped all over him. And usually he's a half-way nice guy." Beth tried to make her friend feel better but she didn't think she was doing too good a job. "So he's a jerk. You didn't know he was a jerk when you… started… you know? You were blinded… cause he's pretty."
"He is pretty."
"He's too pretty for his own good."
"Very, very pretty."
"Am I pretty?" A deep voice interrupted. He had a blue haired beauty in his arms in a matter of seconds.
"I missed you." She squeezed him tightly.
"Back at you." Gabriel kissed her blue hair and tried not to get too distracted by her swimsuit. He pulled back so he could look at her. "How apeshit did your mom go when she saw the 'do?"
"She says she likes it… but Lauren worked really hard on it. I'll keep it awhile." She kissed his lips softly, then smacked his arm really hard.
"Ow. What was that for?"
"You were in the hospital and you didn't tell me."
"How'd you find out?"
"Eva." She crossed her arms and pouted for a minute. "So… what was it about?"
"I'm fine. It was nothing. Regular migraine. Not a tumor migraine. I'm all clear."
"Honey." Max called into the house. "The grandparents want to pinch your cheeks and leave lipstick on your forehead."
"Dr. Evans." Gabriel nodded and shook the doctor's hand.
"No kissing in the house." Max warned. "Donna Jo, I'm trusting you to be a bucket of ice water."
"Yes, sir. Dr. E." Donna Jo managed a smile.
"There's a good girl. Smile you guys. This is a party."
--
"Department of Microbiology, Lauren speaking." Lauren poised her pen to take a message and the other hand ready to transfer the call.
"Lauren Burkhardt?"
"Yes…" She tilted her head and listened. She had only signed her name like that to the cast list.
"Kal Langley has issued a check in your name for a photo shoot that took place a week or so ago. Do you recall?"
"Yes."
"Well, it seems that Divergent Paradise has picked up your option. They'll be using your photos on the album insert. I need an address to mail the check to. I don’t have an agent listed. What is a preferable number to reach you at?"
"I'm sorry but what?"
--
Beth floated on a lounge in the small above ground pool and let the sun soak in. Everyone had quickly gotten over fawning over her and she could enjoy herself. She could hang out in a party and not hear anything that wasn't supposed to be heard. None of Joey's gay/not gay nonsense. None of Donna Jo's insecurities. No parental worries about the offspring. Just normal noises. Sterling yapping from his dog run. Music from inside the house. Grandparents yapping. Parents laughing.
The sun sent her to a drowsy place where auras blended and merged and everyone was connected to everyone else…
Cold. Air!
Beth broke the surface of the water and tried to disentangle herself from the deflating plastic lounge. "David! Get your dog!"
"Are you okay?" Gabriel hauled her out of the pool and carried her to a chair. "It's okay. He's just a puppy. He doesn't know his own strength." He took a towel from someone and draped it over her head. "Did you suck in any water?"
"No." She shook her head and managed a smile for her father when he started hovering.
"He got the drop on you, huh." Max kissed her forehead. "Think you can still manage to party? David's putting him back in the dog run." He combed back her wet hair and then frowned. He turned over a lock of blue to find a patch of white. "Maybe the chlorine is washing out the dye."
"I'll fix it later." She whispered.
"Are you okay?"
"I'll be okay. I'll just sun for a while. Gossip with the gals. You know… be a human teenage girl."
"Oh, is that what you are?" Max hugged her to him. "Well, let me tell you. On this planet. Teenaged girls don't have blue hair."
"This one does. I’m not like all those other cookie cutter humans."
"I guess not."
Beth watched him wander his way back to the adults and leaned on Gabriel while Berty and Donna Jo loaded up plates to sit near by. Donna Jo scrambled into a chair. "Beth, is that guy Sebastien's Dad?"
"Yeah." She nodded.
"Oh my god. They were just talking about how he's got all these problems or something?" She groaned. "I want him out of my life."
"What?" Berty asked before she could see Beth motioning for her not to ask.
"Your mom's boyfriend's son may have given me an STD." Donna Jo shook her head.
"When?"
"A couple of weeks ago, right before he left."
"Oh."
"Berty." Beth saw the look on her face. "He's not worth it."
"I know." She shook her head but didn't say anything more than that.
"Sebastien Ramirez." Joey plopped down on the grass in front of them. "Man, I hate that guy. My mom thinks he walks on water. Why can't you be like that Ramirez boy? Because I don't enjoy dry-fucking cheerleaders."
"Joey!" Beth threw her towel at him.
"She's not a cheerleader. Not really. You're not one of them." He turned to Donna Jo. "If you were one of them, you wouldn't be here and you wouldn't have showed up at the hospital."
"Maybe. I had to go." Donna Jo smiled at Beth. "I had to see."
"I'm glad you came." Beth nodded and sank into Gabriel's arms. "Enough serious talk. This is a party. My Survived-a-Experimental-Brain-Treatment party. Eat, drink and be merry."
Liz stared at her daughter from across the backyard. She was smiling with her friends. Two really important friends and her boyfriend and a close cousin. Then her eyes fell on little Gina. Sitting in front of the dog-run, talking to Sterling. Then the little girl bounded to her feet and jumped in her lap. "Aunt Liz, how come Beth didn't see him coming?"
"She fell asleep in the pool, I think."
"But she didn't see him."
"What do you mean?"
"She didn’t see him." Gina crossed her arms and tilted her head up to look at the sky.
"Why aren't you playing?" Liz tried to get the little girl to open up again.
"I miss my brother."
"Oh, I see. You got used to being with Alex all summer. Did you have fun in Florida? I went there when I was younger. I had a blast."
"You cried all summer."
"What?"
Gina climbed off her aunt's lap and snuggled up to her father. Liz stared at her for the longest time, unsure of what had just happened.
--
Gabriel tilted her face up and gently kissed her lips. "You got bitch-slapped by everything at once, didn't you."
"Yeah." She moved back in for a deeper kiss. "But now they're all in the house and we're out here."
"So you're okay?" His words were mere mumbles while her lips explored his.
"So far, so good." She felt his tongue sweep over her bottom lip. "It's getting kind of chilly."
"I could warm you up."
Beth started to respond when she had to sit back. /His hands tugged at her top, her breast exposed as they fell to the ground…\ She shook her head. /His mouth slid down her throat to her chest, his fingers sliding inside her bottoms…\ Placing her hand on his chest, she reluctantly pushed him away. "I need to lay down."
"Are you okay?"
"Headache. You were right. Bitch-slapped. That's me."
TBC
Part 151
an: good news. My situation is no worse than it was last week. Bad news, the improvement turned out to be swamp gas. Much kisses to LTF for informing me of the incompatibilities before I went ahead and bought the damned thing. The goal has been set for April. April is when things will be easier for me to post at will. Hopefully.
The Fate of Destiny Part 151
Max yawned as he plucked a chart from the rack. A nurse was telling him something but he hadn't had coffee yet. She rolled her eyes at him and snapped her fingers at Danny, who was pouring himself a cup. "Morning, Dad."
"Morning." When the Tabasco and sugar had been poured, Max stole the cup from his son's hand. "You just getting off?"
"I'm taking a break. I've got another two hours." Danny shook his head and poured himself another cup to prep.
"Mom wants to see you today. Maybe you come for dinner or something. Bring the wife." Max watched his son's eyes glaze over. "Or is that still too early to consider getting out of bed?"
"We'll be there. Em and I never turn down a meal." He walked with his father down the corridor to the first of the patients for morning rounds. "Hey Dad."
"What's up?"
"Who fixed Beth's scar?"
"She did. I found her stitches in the tank. I thought I told you."
"No… the old scar." Danny stopped his father. "The one on her leg." He could see he'd lost his father. "I still see it in my head, especially after all that's happened this summer. I see her sitting there, scratching through her own flesh and yesterday at the house… she didn't have a scar. Not on her belly and not on her leg."
Max shut his eyes and leaned against the wall. "I didn't think to check for old scars."
"Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's just something that happened while she was in there."
Max turned the events over in his mind. "Ask Em a question for me. Beth and Lauren dyed her hair with the stuff from the boxes. You know, the name brand stuff. That was barely a week ago or something. I thought some of it had washed out in the pool."
"In a week? If it was going to wash out, it would have been in the first couple of times she washed her hair."
"Ask her."
"Yeah. We'll talk at dinner."
--
Berty took the phone into the kitchen and dialed quickly before she could lose her nerve. It seemed like an eternity between rings. Then the pick up. "Hello?" She couldn't open her mouth. "Hello?"
"I… Se—"
"Berty?"
"Yeah."
"I was going to call you later… you know… during the day. I tried calling yesterday but I guess everyone was out."
"You're an asshole, Sebastien."
"I know."
"You can't act like everything is fine when it isn't."
"Berty… I… Nothing I say is going to…"
"I know that… I can't believe you. I thought I knew who you were… It's bad enough that we… but I wasn't the only one you screwed over."
"I'm so sorry."
"How was the phone call later going to go? 'Hey Berty, in addition to taking your virginity, failing to use a condom and running away, I'm a diseased whore and you need to get tested for STDs pretty damn soon.' Damn it, Sebastien." She had to bite her lip to keep the sobs from coming out. "My mother is out for blood and I've avoided telling her about your part in all of this but she's furious."
"Why'd you tell her anything?"
"I had to, I thought I was pregnant. Another consequence of you and your hormones and your failure to protect yourself or any of the girls you're sleeping with. What the fuck is wrong with you? Don't you care? At all? For anything or anyone?"
"I'm sorry. I can't…" His voice broke. "I fucked up. With you, with… her…"
"With Donna Jo? I spent hours with her yesterday, listening to her alternately whine that she cared about you and how much she hates your guts… but don't worry. I didn't tell her about what happened."
"Berty… I…"
"What is it? Gonorrhea? Herpes?"
"I don't know. The doctors don't know. They've been taking samples and cultures but they haven't narrowed it down."
"That's very comforting, Sebastien." She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "I just don’t understand you. You were talking about how no one tells you the truth but you lie, too. How could you touch me that way if you didn't feel that way? I know I’m not special because you touched Donna Jo the same way."
"I'm sorry."
"Go to hell, Sebastien." She clicked off the phone and stormed outside. She picked up her mitt and the softball and tossed them at the net on the far end of the yard.
Jesse watched her collapse in the middle of the backyard. He picked up the phone and hit redial. It picked up on the first ring. "Berty, I am so sorry and nothing I say is going to make it go away."
"Sebastien… shut up. If you ever think about going near Berty again, I'll kill you myself. Isabel is going to kill you in your sleep when she finds out what you did."
"I told you I was sick. I told I had to go away."
"So you sleep with Berty. She's supposed to be like your sister."
"I didn't mean for it to happen."
"How could you be so irresponsible? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I wish I knew."
--
Gabriel sat between the two Evans women, his eyes darting between his proposed budget and the kids running and screaming outside. Liz ran her eyes over the sheet of paper, making marks here and there.
Beth leaned on him, her hand intertwined with his right, stroking his thumb gently to sooth his nerves. "Mom, no pie charts."
"I promise." Liz mumbled. "So, financial aid is guaranteed, right?"
"Yeah. I also got that scholarship so it's not the tuition or books I'm worried about." Gabriel nodded.
"Scholarship?"
"Just came in because I didn't know about the honors credit until late. My dad's company gives one out to the offspring who qualify."
"Okay. But you're looking at paying quite a bit in childcare on weekends and after school." Liz tsked. "What's your day off?"
"Once school starts, Sunday."
"Okay. Sunday you'll be home with the kids but you'll be studying. Saturday, they can come over. Beth will watch them for free."
"Thank you." Beth scoffed at her mother but squeezed Gabriel's hand, assuring him that she was just protesting for her mother's benefit.
"David and the boys will have fun. Eva and I can do all the things that Beth is too grown up to do." Liz made a few scribbles. "During the week, you enroll them in the Y aftercare. It's at the school. They'll get their homework done and have a snack. They'll give you a good rate. Friday nights, you'll all come over for dinner."
"She's pushy. These are just suggestions." Beth whispered softly.
"I really appreciate this." Gabriel nodded. "I'm sorry if I was too arrogant when I first started coming around."
"I didn't give you a chance." Liz patted his left hand. "Okay. So, this learning disability."
"I have problems comprehending partial concepts. It's why my homework sucks but my tests are good. Until I put it into practice, it doesn't click."
"Okay. Okay. There's a learning center on campus. You'll have to take a few days off and test with them so you know how best to keep your grades high."
"I understand."
--
Will walked into the police station and headed straight for the meeting room in the back. He opened the door without knocking and began examining the leads and photos along one wall. A few minutes later, a harried man entered. He swept off his hat and stared at Will for the longest time. "So you're the FBI guy. You've come to take away my case?"
"No." Will shook his head. "I was called in because of the x-filian nature of the case, if you will."
"Who're you? 'Spook Mulder'?"
"Agent Goldblum, Detective Hauser. The U.S. government does not have an X-files division. Hasn't in quite some time. You do have to admit, it is odd." Will looked over the photos. "I'd appreciate it if you let me handle Ms. Allison. She learned of the murders the same time I did."
"She did, eh?"
"She and I were having a meeting when the fax came in."
"Convenient."
"Not really. She's been through enough at the hands of these people. There are of course other young women you'd contact. I have the complete list." Will pulled a folder out of his briefcase. "His ex-wife is on the list. Just verify their alibis and that will be that. I don't suspect that we'll catch this guy or guys. Gals. Whatever."
"We're going over the scene with a fine tooth comb. We'll find something."
"I trust that you are but I doubt that you will." Will took a seat and opened a case file from the table. "I'm very nervous with this murderer out there but… after meeting with Dr. Chen and the first victim… I don't think this case will be easily shut."
"Has this happened before?"
"Not in decades and not quite this way."
"So is this a copy-cat?"
"It could be."
Detective Hauser seemed to be reigning in his ire. "These other murders. Were the suspects ever caught?"
"No."
"What makes you think this isn't the same people?"
"The evidence." Will looked up, finally. "If you help me with something, I will make available to you the other records as they are needed."
--
Jim draped his arm over the back of the couch when Berty sank down next to him. She snuggled up and seemed to be watching the TV with him but he knew she wasn't really paying attention. "Wanna talk about it?"
"No. Talking doesn't help."
"I know that teenage drama is cosmic and life altering but it will pass." He wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "You should have heard your dad when he was dating your aunt Liz. Every week it was the end of the world. He talked about her like he was a grown man with a wife. He didn't know what he was doing anymore than she did and they weren't right for each other. Friends but never meant to be more, I think. Still, I'd worry about him because he was so upset."
"When does it get easier?"
"It doesn't. You just learn to handle the drama."
"Did Dad ever learn to handle it?"
"I think he did."
"Why did he do what he did to mom?"
"I don't know."
"Didn't he love her?"
"Of course he did. He loved your mother. It was a slow thing. Alex was two or three when they started dating. They dated for years. Just being friends and getting to know each other. They lived together for a while before they got married. Maybe throughout the engagement." He sighed heavily. "I think he needed someone to talk to and he didn't know who to go to. I wish he would have come to me."
"Grandpa… Can I talk to you?"
--
"No, no… Mrs. Evans invited us for dinner… yeah, I know." Gabriel nodded into the phone. "I had just called home to check the messages… Okay… Really… okay, then… Okay."
Liz looked up from the counter where she was putting dinner together. "Is your dad okay?"
He hit the end button. "Yeah. He's getting a promotion but it won't kick in for a month. He'll be around… more than he used to be."
"Do you mind if I ask about your mother?"
He set the receiver on the cradle then reached for the paper plates to set the table. "Las Cruces. She sends birthday cards and Christmas presents. We send school pictures… but we don't really have much contact. If she called, we wouldn't know what to say to her."
"So, you haven't seen her at all since the divorce?"
"I was still in the hospital when she moved." He shrugged. "The twins were six and Eva was just three. They don't really remember her."
"I'm sorry."
"We weren't close. She was always working. Eva was just a baby. I think she's just used to it this way but she needs a mother… or you know… some lady around. I don't know what I'm doing." Gabriel arranged napkins and silverware on the table. "The first time I got an inkling of how much Beth would become part of my life… was when I saw her with Eva. Eva idolizes her. I've had other girlfriends and Eva never once took to one of them."
"Had many girlfriends?"
"Not so many but… some, you know. Beth has always been different. Other girls, I was the center of their universe. Everything was dependent on how much time I could give them. Beth has her own things. I'm not the center of her universe but I'm part of it."
"Beth is the center of her own universe." Liz rolled her eyes but smiled at the sentiment. "But I'm sure you know that by now."
"She doesn't mean to be but yeah." Gabriel nodded. "Is she okay? She seems a little different since she's been back."
"She… had a bad scare. She had never really been sick before. Even when she had her… episode, she had been physically healthy. It wasn't that way, this time." Liz put together the sandwiches and moved on to chopping vegetables. "We were all scared but she pulled through. She always does."
"Hey!" Beth bounded into the kitchen. "Food."
"Call the boys in." Liz told her, then glanced around. "Where's Eva?"
"We were playing dress up. She's getting into her own clothes now." Beth bounced up onto her toes to peck Gabriel on the lips before she opened the backdoor. "Chow time!"
"I could have done that." Liz scoffed at her daughter.
--
Max tried to concentrate on making the incision but in his mind, the photos flashed over and over again. His hands worked robotically and he completed in record time but as soon as he let the intern take over to close, he lost his lunch in the prep room.
"Guess all that vacation, then work didn't agree with you." Freddy shook his head and sipped his coffee. "Head home. We don't need you this afternoon."
"I wouldn't call it a vacation." Max rinsed out his mouth and washed his face.
"Come in early tomorrow but rest tonight. I need you to help me knock out a few patients. Friends of the mayor and all that."
"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow, then."
--
"Okay." Det. Hauser stabbed at his meal with his fork. "This shiny stuff in this picture, that's residue from the activator that caused results like the ones we saw in our victs. When the shiny stuff was caught before it faded, as it always does, no fingerprints were found. Only we don't have the shiny stuff meaning no residue for a comparison analysis. What exactly does this mean?"
"It means old tricks through new means. Somehow they've administered the activator without applying it by hand… and managed to get it to a man locked inside his own home."
"So what? A contagion?"
"We haven't heard of any other mysterious deaths in this manner and believe me, every member of my team is looking." Will tossed the remainders of his meal into a trashcan. "When these photos were taken back in the '70s and '90s, they were classified. There was a special unit that dealt with them. That was put to an end in the mid-00s. Result of the whole Whittaker debacle."
"Congresswoman Whittaker? She died in a car accident before they ruled on it, right?"
"Allegedly. The whole thing was a mess and it was all way before my time."
"I was a kid myself in those days." Hauser cleared his throat and sat back. "So you're responsible for cleaning up their mess, this special unit. Right?"
"In a few words, yeah."
"Now is that fixing their messes or covering them up?"
"Depends on the mess."
"How's that?"
"It's classified." Will sighed heavily. "Don't get me wrong. I want this solved. If it can be dealt with, I want it squared away."
"And what if it just can't be dealt?"
"I'll let you know."
A few minutes later a man walked in, handed him a file. Hauser put an envelope in the man's hand and then the man was gone. He didn't even flinch at Will's interested look. "I have already assumed some of your methods are not above board. Sometimes… neither are mine. This is the data you wanted. It cost me a favor from a rat."
"So soon?"
"In this city, knowing a rat with the organization formerly known a the mob can get you some pretty interesting items. Last wills and testaments for the unscrupulous and famously rich. What's your interest in the Burkhardt's anyway? They're clean. That's why I'm getting off cheap. If they were dirty, it would have cost me more."
"These Burkhardts are clean." Will took the file and flipped through the wills. "It's the living ones I'm worried about. The ones in name only."
--
"Hmm… Park Place…" Beth tapped her chin. "I think that… I will buy it."
"I own it." David shook his head and held out his hand for her money.
"You're also broke. My measly rent fine will only last you until you clear the south side of the board. I'm willing to pay you handsomely for a transfer of title. If you invest well, you could probably buy it back from me." She gestured to the pitifully small stacks of money in front of him.
"Don't do it, David. She's a shark. She'll just pick up the other one and charge you hotel fees later." Max hissed to his son.
"Geez, when did my daughter get so cutthroat at Monopoly?" Liz shook her head.
"She's been playing Aunt Isabel. Has to be." Danny griped as he examined his own paltry stores of money.
"Well, I always beat Aunt Isabel." Max landed on Park Avenue and added it to his collection. "Try to make a block now, my child."
"Dad!" Beth screeched.
"Are we calling the game? Emily said she'd help you fix your hair." Max began sorting his pile of properties.
"I guess." Beth raised her hands over the table and everything flew into neat piles of cards, money and rows of playing pieces. She and Emily trudged up to the upstairs bathroom where Emily sat her down so she could examine the damage. "The dye must have washed out."
"You think?" Emily pulled the white strands toward the light but their ends were blue. "Do you mind if we get the blue out first? I just want to check the integrity of the roots."
"Whatever." Beth sank down on the floor to rest her head on the lip of the tub. "Em, what do you think of Gabriel?"
"Well, I haven't met him all that many times but he is cute. Very tall… and he does have a beautiful ass." Emily snorted. "But that I'm referencing from his swim shorts the other day."
"He does, doesn't he."
"What's the matter?"
"It's just… all serious right now, you know? He's worried about me and he's got school stuff going on. Home stuff. I just got done with all my serious stuff."
"Soon, he'll see that you're fine…" Emily trailed off as she realized that the white streaks were actually growing out of her head. "Once he gets that through his head, you'll have the other guy back, the fun one… but realize that you have to take the serious guy with the fun guy or you'll miss out on a lot."
tbc
The Fate of Destiny Part 151
Max yawned as he plucked a chart from the rack. A nurse was telling him something but he hadn't had coffee yet. She rolled her eyes at him and snapped her fingers at Danny, who was pouring himself a cup. "Morning, Dad."
"Morning." When the Tabasco and sugar had been poured, Max stole the cup from his son's hand. "You just getting off?"
"I'm taking a break. I've got another two hours." Danny shook his head and poured himself another cup to prep.
"Mom wants to see you today. Maybe you come for dinner or something. Bring the wife." Max watched his son's eyes glaze over. "Or is that still too early to consider getting out of bed?"
"We'll be there. Em and I never turn down a meal." He walked with his father down the corridor to the first of the patients for morning rounds. "Hey Dad."
"What's up?"
"Who fixed Beth's scar?"
"She did. I found her stitches in the tank. I thought I told you."
"No… the old scar." Danny stopped his father. "The one on her leg." He could see he'd lost his father. "I still see it in my head, especially after all that's happened this summer. I see her sitting there, scratching through her own flesh and yesterday at the house… she didn't have a scar. Not on her belly and not on her leg."
Max shut his eyes and leaned against the wall. "I didn't think to check for old scars."
"Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's just something that happened while she was in there."
Max turned the events over in his mind. "Ask Em a question for me. Beth and Lauren dyed her hair with the stuff from the boxes. You know, the name brand stuff. That was barely a week ago or something. I thought some of it had washed out in the pool."
"In a week? If it was going to wash out, it would have been in the first couple of times she washed her hair."
"Ask her."
"Yeah. We'll talk at dinner."
--
Berty took the phone into the kitchen and dialed quickly before she could lose her nerve. It seemed like an eternity between rings. Then the pick up. "Hello?" She couldn't open her mouth. "Hello?"
"I… Se—"
"Berty?"
"Yeah."
"I was going to call you later… you know… during the day. I tried calling yesterday but I guess everyone was out."
"You're an asshole, Sebastien."
"I know."
"You can't act like everything is fine when it isn't."
"Berty… I… Nothing I say is going to…"
"I know that… I can't believe you. I thought I knew who you were… It's bad enough that we… but I wasn't the only one you screwed over."
"I'm so sorry."
"How was the phone call later going to go? 'Hey Berty, in addition to taking your virginity, failing to use a condom and running away, I'm a diseased whore and you need to get tested for STDs pretty damn soon.' Damn it, Sebastien." She had to bite her lip to keep the sobs from coming out. "My mother is out for blood and I've avoided telling her about your part in all of this but she's furious."
"Why'd you tell her anything?"
"I had to, I thought I was pregnant. Another consequence of you and your hormones and your failure to protect yourself or any of the girls you're sleeping with. What the fuck is wrong with you? Don't you care? At all? For anything or anyone?"
"I'm sorry. I can't…" His voice broke. "I fucked up. With you, with… her…"
"With Donna Jo? I spent hours with her yesterday, listening to her alternately whine that she cared about you and how much she hates your guts… but don't worry. I didn't tell her about what happened."
"Berty… I…"
"What is it? Gonorrhea? Herpes?"
"I don't know. The doctors don't know. They've been taking samples and cultures but they haven't narrowed it down."
"That's very comforting, Sebastien." She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "I just don’t understand you. You were talking about how no one tells you the truth but you lie, too. How could you touch me that way if you didn't feel that way? I know I’m not special because you touched Donna Jo the same way."
"I'm sorry."
"Go to hell, Sebastien." She clicked off the phone and stormed outside. She picked up her mitt and the softball and tossed them at the net on the far end of the yard.
Jesse watched her collapse in the middle of the backyard. He picked up the phone and hit redial. It picked up on the first ring. "Berty, I am so sorry and nothing I say is going to make it go away."
"Sebastien… shut up. If you ever think about going near Berty again, I'll kill you myself. Isabel is going to kill you in your sleep when she finds out what you did."
"I told you I was sick. I told I had to go away."
"So you sleep with Berty. She's supposed to be like your sister."
"I didn't mean for it to happen."
"How could you be so irresponsible? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I wish I knew."
--
Gabriel sat between the two Evans women, his eyes darting between his proposed budget and the kids running and screaming outside. Liz ran her eyes over the sheet of paper, making marks here and there.
Beth leaned on him, her hand intertwined with his right, stroking his thumb gently to sooth his nerves. "Mom, no pie charts."
"I promise." Liz mumbled. "So, financial aid is guaranteed, right?"
"Yeah. I also got that scholarship so it's not the tuition or books I'm worried about." Gabriel nodded.
"Scholarship?"
"Just came in because I didn't know about the honors credit until late. My dad's company gives one out to the offspring who qualify."
"Okay. But you're looking at paying quite a bit in childcare on weekends and after school." Liz tsked. "What's your day off?"
"Once school starts, Sunday."
"Okay. Sunday you'll be home with the kids but you'll be studying. Saturday, they can come over. Beth will watch them for free."
"Thank you." Beth scoffed at her mother but squeezed Gabriel's hand, assuring him that she was just protesting for her mother's benefit.
"David and the boys will have fun. Eva and I can do all the things that Beth is too grown up to do." Liz made a few scribbles. "During the week, you enroll them in the Y aftercare. It's at the school. They'll get their homework done and have a snack. They'll give you a good rate. Friday nights, you'll all come over for dinner."
"She's pushy. These are just suggestions." Beth whispered softly.
"I really appreciate this." Gabriel nodded. "I'm sorry if I was too arrogant when I first started coming around."
"I didn't give you a chance." Liz patted his left hand. "Okay. So, this learning disability."
"I have problems comprehending partial concepts. It's why my homework sucks but my tests are good. Until I put it into practice, it doesn't click."
"Okay. Okay. There's a learning center on campus. You'll have to take a few days off and test with them so you know how best to keep your grades high."
"I understand."
--
Will walked into the police station and headed straight for the meeting room in the back. He opened the door without knocking and began examining the leads and photos along one wall. A few minutes later, a harried man entered. He swept off his hat and stared at Will for the longest time. "So you're the FBI guy. You've come to take away my case?"
"No." Will shook his head. "I was called in because of the x-filian nature of the case, if you will."
"Who're you? 'Spook Mulder'?"
"Agent Goldblum, Detective Hauser. The U.S. government does not have an X-files division. Hasn't in quite some time. You do have to admit, it is odd." Will looked over the photos. "I'd appreciate it if you let me handle Ms. Allison. She learned of the murders the same time I did."
"She did, eh?"
"She and I were having a meeting when the fax came in."
"Convenient."
"Not really. She's been through enough at the hands of these people. There are of course other young women you'd contact. I have the complete list." Will pulled a folder out of his briefcase. "His ex-wife is on the list. Just verify their alibis and that will be that. I don't suspect that we'll catch this guy or guys. Gals. Whatever."
"We're going over the scene with a fine tooth comb. We'll find something."
"I trust that you are but I doubt that you will." Will took a seat and opened a case file from the table. "I'm very nervous with this murderer out there but… after meeting with Dr. Chen and the first victim… I don't think this case will be easily shut."
"Has this happened before?"
"Not in decades and not quite this way."
"So is this a copy-cat?"
"It could be."
Detective Hauser seemed to be reigning in his ire. "These other murders. Were the suspects ever caught?"
"No."
"What makes you think this isn't the same people?"
"The evidence." Will looked up, finally. "If you help me with something, I will make available to you the other records as they are needed."
--
Jim draped his arm over the back of the couch when Berty sank down next to him. She snuggled up and seemed to be watching the TV with him but he knew she wasn't really paying attention. "Wanna talk about it?"
"No. Talking doesn't help."
"I know that teenage drama is cosmic and life altering but it will pass." He wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "You should have heard your dad when he was dating your aunt Liz. Every week it was the end of the world. He talked about her like he was a grown man with a wife. He didn't know what he was doing anymore than she did and they weren't right for each other. Friends but never meant to be more, I think. Still, I'd worry about him because he was so upset."
"When does it get easier?"
"It doesn't. You just learn to handle the drama."
"Did Dad ever learn to handle it?"
"I think he did."
"Why did he do what he did to mom?"
"I don't know."
"Didn't he love her?"
"Of course he did. He loved your mother. It was a slow thing. Alex was two or three when they started dating. They dated for years. Just being friends and getting to know each other. They lived together for a while before they got married. Maybe throughout the engagement." He sighed heavily. "I think he needed someone to talk to and he didn't know who to go to. I wish he would have come to me."
"Grandpa… Can I talk to you?"
--
"No, no… Mrs. Evans invited us for dinner… yeah, I know." Gabriel nodded into the phone. "I had just called home to check the messages… Okay… Really… okay, then… Okay."
Liz looked up from the counter where she was putting dinner together. "Is your dad okay?"
He hit the end button. "Yeah. He's getting a promotion but it won't kick in for a month. He'll be around… more than he used to be."
"Do you mind if I ask about your mother?"
He set the receiver on the cradle then reached for the paper plates to set the table. "Las Cruces. She sends birthday cards and Christmas presents. We send school pictures… but we don't really have much contact. If she called, we wouldn't know what to say to her."
"So, you haven't seen her at all since the divorce?"
"I was still in the hospital when she moved." He shrugged. "The twins were six and Eva was just three. They don't really remember her."
"I'm sorry."
"We weren't close. She was always working. Eva was just a baby. I think she's just used to it this way but she needs a mother… or you know… some lady around. I don't know what I'm doing." Gabriel arranged napkins and silverware on the table. "The first time I got an inkling of how much Beth would become part of my life… was when I saw her with Eva. Eva idolizes her. I've had other girlfriends and Eva never once took to one of them."
"Had many girlfriends?"
"Not so many but… some, you know. Beth has always been different. Other girls, I was the center of their universe. Everything was dependent on how much time I could give them. Beth has her own things. I'm not the center of her universe but I'm part of it."
"Beth is the center of her own universe." Liz rolled her eyes but smiled at the sentiment. "But I'm sure you know that by now."
"She doesn't mean to be but yeah." Gabriel nodded. "Is she okay? She seems a little different since she's been back."
"She… had a bad scare. She had never really been sick before. Even when she had her… episode, she had been physically healthy. It wasn't that way, this time." Liz put together the sandwiches and moved on to chopping vegetables. "We were all scared but she pulled through. She always does."
"Hey!" Beth bounded into the kitchen. "Food."
"Call the boys in." Liz told her, then glanced around. "Where's Eva?"
"We were playing dress up. She's getting into her own clothes now." Beth bounced up onto her toes to peck Gabriel on the lips before she opened the backdoor. "Chow time!"
"I could have done that." Liz scoffed at her daughter.
--
Max tried to concentrate on making the incision but in his mind, the photos flashed over and over again. His hands worked robotically and he completed in record time but as soon as he let the intern take over to close, he lost his lunch in the prep room.
"Guess all that vacation, then work didn't agree with you." Freddy shook his head and sipped his coffee. "Head home. We don't need you this afternoon."
"I wouldn't call it a vacation." Max rinsed out his mouth and washed his face.
"Come in early tomorrow but rest tonight. I need you to help me knock out a few patients. Friends of the mayor and all that."
"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow, then."
--
"Okay." Det. Hauser stabbed at his meal with his fork. "This shiny stuff in this picture, that's residue from the activator that caused results like the ones we saw in our victs. When the shiny stuff was caught before it faded, as it always does, no fingerprints were found. Only we don't have the shiny stuff meaning no residue for a comparison analysis. What exactly does this mean?"
"It means old tricks through new means. Somehow they've administered the activator without applying it by hand… and managed to get it to a man locked inside his own home."
"So what? A contagion?"
"We haven't heard of any other mysterious deaths in this manner and believe me, every member of my team is looking." Will tossed the remainders of his meal into a trashcan. "When these photos were taken back in the '70s and '90s, they were classified. There was a special unit that dealt with them. That was put to an end in the mid-00s. Result of the whole Whittaker debacle."
"Congresswoman Whittaker? She died in a car accident before they ruled on it, right?"
"Allegedly. The whole thing was a mess and it was all way before my time."
"I was a kid myself in those days." Hauser cleared his throat and sat back. "So you're responsible for cleaning up their mess, this special unit. Right?"
"In a few words, yeah."
"Now is that fixing their messes or covering them up?"
"Depends on the mess."
"How's that?"
"It's classified." Will sighed heavily. "Don't get me wrong. I want this solved. If it can be dealt with, I want it squared away."
"And what if it just can't be dealt?"
"I'll let you know."
A few minutes later a man walked in, handed him a file. Hauser put an envelope in the man's hand and then the man was gone. He didn't even flinch at Will's interested look. "I have already assumed some of your methods are not above board. Sometimes… neither are mine. This is the data you wanted. It cost me a favor from a rat."
"So soon?"
"In this city, knowing a rat with the organization formerly known a the mob can get you some pretty interesting items. Last wills and testaments for the unscrupulous and famously rich. What's your interest in the Burkhardt's anyway? They're clean. That's why I'm getting off cheap. If they were dirty, it would have cost me more."
"These Burkhardts are clean." Will took the file and flipped through the wills. "It's the living ones I'm worried about. The ones in name only."
--
"Hmm… Park Place…" Beth tapped her chin. "I think that… I will buy it."
"I own it." David shook his head and held out his hand for her money.
"You're also broke. My measly rent fine will only last you until you clear the south side of the board. I'm willing to pay you handsomely for a transfer of title. If you invest well, you could probably buy it back from me." She gestured to the pitifully small stacks of money in front of him.
"Don't do it, David. She's a shark. She'll just pick up the other one and charge you hotel fees later." Max hissed to his son.
"Geez, when did my daughter get so cutthroat at Monopoly?" Liz shook her head.
"She's been playing Aunt Isabel. Has to be." Danny griped as he examined his own paltry stores of money.
"Well, I always beat Aunt Isabel." Max landed on Park Avenue and added it to his collection. "Try to make a block now, my child."
"Dad!" Beth screeched.
"Are we calling the game? Emily said she'd help you fix your hair." Max began sorting his pile of properties.
"I guess." Beth raised her hands over the table and everything flew into neat piles of cards, money and rows of playing pieces. She and Emily trudged up to the upstairs bathroom where Emily sat her down so she could examine the damage. "The dye must have washed out."
"You think?" Emily pulled the white strands toward the light but their ends were blue. "Do you mind if we get the blue out first? I just want to check the integrity of the roots."
"Whatever." Beth sank down on the floor to rest her head on the lip of the tub. "Em, what do you think of Gabriel?"
"Well, I haven't met him all that many times but he is cute. Very tall… and he does have a beautiful ass." Emily snorted. "But that I'm referencing from his swim shorts the other day."
"He does, doesn't he."
"What's the matter?"
"It's just… all serious right now, you know? He's worried about me and he's got school stuff going on. Home stuff. I just got done with all my serious stuff."
"Soon, he'll see that you're fine…" Emily trailed off as she realized that the white streaks were actually growing out of her head. "Once he gets that through his head, you'll have the other guy back, the fun one… but realize that you have to take the serious guy with the fun guy or you'll miss out on a lot."
tbc
Part 152
The Fate of Destiny Part 152
Will handed Lauren a copy of the document. "Grandpa Burkhardt did provide for all children while he lived and he suspected but didn't find another. He allotted some money and properties but his PI never found your aunt before his death. Your father may have suspected something. I only have one PI's research but he could have hired more. He allotted for his children should one be found living."
"So he suspected… but then why did he kill himself?"
"I'm looking into it. If he had more than one PI, he may have gotten bad news on top of what happened in Roswell. He panicked. He would have gone to prison for that stunt."
"So I can contest?" Lauren fought a smile.
"Yes."
"Can I win?"
"We'll get you a government lawyer." Will cleared his throat. "Isabel Valenti would do it for free but she would only raise more questions."
"I just want her to admit she gave birth to me."
"I know."
"The money is just cream, you know? I don't want to make a media circus out of this or anything. I won't embarrass you or your unit."
"I know and I doubt Daphne would allow the media to catch wind of this."
"Thank you, Will. I really do appreciate this. You look like you've been to hell and back." Lauren tucked the files into her bag and offered him a smile. "How's the case coming?"
"It's not. It's kind of frustrating actually but… you know, up the stinky creek without an oar or a clue how I got there."
"Yeah."
--
Liz picked at her salad and glanced across the table at Isabel. "Do you think Gina is really coming into her powers? It's a bit late."
"We think she's a late bloomer." Isabel sighed heavily. "I don't know what's going on with her. Sometimes she says things that don't make sense. Like she's having a conversation that I can't hear. It's recent… the weirder stuff."
"Before or after Beth got sick?"
"Both. Why?"
"Just asking. She… said something to me the other day, when we put up the pool…"
"What did she say?" Isabel was a little startled to see the worry in Liz's eyes.
--
"So, yeah, it's really bad. It's bad. It's bad." Sebastien told his therapist. "My father won't speak to me."
"What was the last thing he said to you?"
"'What the hell is wrong with you?' and 'Don't even think about coming home for the holidays.' That about sums it up. I don't know if he'll tell Isabel but I'm already dying on the inside. I'm not sure anything matters anymore." Sebastien felt ill. He hadn't eaten in days. He'd been tempted to drink but spending the night at his sponsor's had kept him from running out to find someone to buy for him. From finding a party where it was free and where there were other distractions. "It would be really easy to fall right now."
"Why don't you? What keeps you from reverting to your past behaviors?"
"I left to get better… knowing that when it got out that it would destroy everything I had… If I don't try, I will be worse than they think. I feel like I owe everyone to be better than I am."
"Explain that to me."
"Dad didn't have a father, not really. He was 13 when his father died. So I had to be a good son. To show I appreciated that Dad was there for me or tried to be as much as he could. He's a lawyer. He got a full scholarship to Harvard. I had to do the same because there were no excuses for doing less. Grandma is sick so I had to be attentive as a grandchild. To cook for her. To clean. To keep her company because I was the only grandchild she had for a long time. My mother's parents were far away. They have higher standards. I had to be the good student and the grateful grandson from so far away."
"It's a lot of pressure to be perfect."
"And I'm not. So I kept my grades up. I kept up my responsibilities at home and when I wasn't home… I shut off my mind and the only way seemed to be beer and weed. 15 minutes in a field or a backseat or a borrowed bed with the head cheerleader or someone equally as desirable."
"How does maintaining all that stress do you any good now?"
"Because… nobody has faith in me anymore. Nobody even really likes me. I don't like me. Maybe Dad still loves me but he can't look at me. I can't look at myself. If I don't pressure myself, there is no one left to do it. I have to be a man my father can be proud of and I'm not sure he'd even admit it after what I've done."
"Sebastien, you've recognized your problem. You've taken steps to get help but you have to realize that it cannot happen over night. Even knowing all the things that you have to accomplish. It will take time, especially building back the trust of the ones you love."
--
Danny locked the door before he pulled up the scans from the sleeves. "This is neat."
"Dan… what is it?" Max rubbed at his eyes until they adjusted to the semi-darkness.
"I am Gabriel Silerio's new doctor, I did my research." Danny tapped the first scan. "He was 12 or something years old and he had this huge tumor in his head. Three days later when they went to operate, somehow not as big with less fuzzy edges. They didn't hardly have to cut into his brain at all. When he went back for his final scan, this was his brain. He was 14 at the time, I guess."
"Normal. Healthy-looking despite the scar tissue." Max agreed.
"They did all these scans to make sure his brain was working the way it was supposed to. So these images are the brain activity. Sleeping, talking, eating, doing math."
"All normal."
"Right. You have that theory that maybe he borrowed your energy or something to pull that truck off Beth. I got curious. So when he came in, I ordered the tests done. I had to make him think I was at least partially taking him serious, which I was given all the weirdness that day." He pointed to the next scan. "There is some residual stuff going on, right here."
"Residual stuff?"
"Meaning, this has been going on a while. Probably not long, maybe only a few years but he is developing other parts of his brain. I couldn't get him sleeping but talking is pretty normal and eating is fine but look at when I asked him a few math problems."
"What am I seeing exactly?"
"Increased activity. Above average use of his brain when he tackles problems."
"So…" Max sighed heavily. "Shit."
"Right. Mom says you leave a part of yourself in people who are too close to death to be saved by human means. Maybe it's like a starfish. You let go of a piece and you grow it back. But what if it's also like a worm. You cut a piece off and it can move and think all on its own."
"Would I have changed them so much that they would notice?"
"If it progresses this slowly? Then no. If they don't know about it? It's possible they will never know but they might have these heroic moments in their lives where they lifted semis off the ground to save the one they love… or keep their child at home the day of a bomb threat… or finding themselves willing someone else to feel what they feel so they don’t feel so alone…"
Max took it all in, absorbing the images. "Will Sydney consent to an MRI?"
"She has one scheduled for next month. Not just an MRI, Dad. These are brain panels. The machine can record while the subject is doing everyday things while inside a lab." Danny watched his father's face. "What is it?"
"Bending the will of someone else. That's scary. That's very scary."
--
Gabe had just sat down to eat his lunch when he heard the whistle from one of the guys. That whistle was followed by several others until a raven-haired minx entered his view. "Beth? What are you doing here? Did you dye your hair again?"
"I just wanted to see you, without my family around." She smiled tightly at him before sinking down beside him.
"Well, I hope you don't mind if I eat. I'm starving and I only get half an hour."
"I don't care. I just… need you to myself before I'm in school and you're in school and working after school."
"Are you okay?" He pulled her closer, abandoning his lunch for the moment.
"We need to talk." She admitted. "I care about you. I'm glad you're okay and you're getting things worked out at home but…"
"Beth." He tipped her face up.
"I don't like to share. You're my boyfriend but I feel like you're dating my whole family. I don't like Danny knowing things about you that I don't. And I don't like my mom making plans for us when I don't know where we're going yet. I don't like my dad giving me looks like I'm not his little girl anymore because I am… I need to be. It's been a long time since I was, you know?"
"Okay. Okay." He hugged her to his body. "It's been a long and stressful summer. Dad is coming home on Thursday. I'm taking the weekend off but maybe we can get away. Go do something or nothing together. Just the two of us. We can talk and do all the stuff that we need to do. I don't want to lose you, Beth."
"Me either."
--
Kathy rubbed her lower back while she waited for her reports to print. She let out a yelp when an arm crept around her waist. "Oh, you're home."
"Home." He murmured into her hair. "That is a word."
"And a noun as well."
"I like delegating legwork. I miss delegating legwork." Will sighed but didn't let go.
"How's it coming?" She wound her fingers through his, leaning back just as much as he leaned in.
"I know what I know and that isn't evidence. I'm going to have four police departments completely hating me and my bureau."
"Well, I'll take you home tonight and get you the full turn down service."
"What is that? A mint on the pillow?"
"Tucked into bed and put to sleep without hardly lifting a finger."
--
Lauren scribbled out the check and handed it to Gia. The chef just blinked at it. "What's this?"
"The first check in a series of royalties I'm getting to pay you back."
"Lauren, you don't have to."
"Yeah, I do." Lauren took a seat on a stool next to the chopping board. "My parents didn't raise me to steal from anyone, much less people who care about me. I have to erase six years of programming. Let me pay you back."
"You're getting checks like this all the time?" Gia folded it into her purse.
"That's three-quarters what I got for the video. Mr. Langley is sending me another set for the modeling I did. He's setting me up with an agent. I don't know how long it will take to pay you back, but I need to."
"Well, if you insist." Gia teased lightly and glanced around at everyone getting ready to impress the master chef. "Are you coming to dinner tonight?"
"Yeah, I might be late. Rehearsals."
"Okay, then I'll keep a plate warm for you."
--
The hairs on the back of Michael's neck stood up straight when he saw the pictures that Max had in the folder. "An alien?"
"Wouldn't know who to suspect. A skin? Langley?" Max shook his head. "One common factor. My donor's great-grandchild was their victim over a period of six years."
"I don't want to know what they did to her but I could hazard a guess by the look of things." Michael had to swallow back some bile as he closed the folder. "Shit. I have to admit that I pictured doing something like that to him myself."
"I know what you mean but to imagine and to see it done…"
"Right."
"It's…"
"Bad."
"Yeah."
"So, definitely aliens, huh."
"That is the word." Max scrubbed his face hard. "Will is on it but he doesn’t know what to do. If they get too close, how do we know this doesn't happen to him or one of us?"
"I think we all need to keep an ear to the ground, you know? With this Beth business and all the weird and weirder stuff. We need to know who our enemies are and who we can turn into allies." Michael stared out over his backyard. The swing set where his boys played. "I still find it hard to imagine that little girl with the power to… destroy me, you know?"
"Yeah. I mean… I took it all pretty seriously when Kal was explaining it to me but once she came out and the sun came up the next day… I didn't really give it another thought. But when she spaced out in the van… I thought… maybe that was it. The signal that the bad guys were looking for but… nothing's happened." He sighed heavily and pulled out a cigarette, he lit it and puffed slowly. "You know… I think we made a mistake… taking for granted that we were safe."
"You know how I felt about that… but I fell in with it myself… without even really meaning to." Michael used his powers to blow the smoke away from his face and Max leaned against a wall so he could keep his smoke from offending his friend. "Maybe you're right. We can't just assume that because no one has come that no one will."
"What do you think?" Max prodded. He took a long drag while he contemplated his friend. "Michael, I know you've got all kinds of stress with your own situation but as a group, what do you think?"
"I think we need to make sure that we could stand up as an army. That could mean training the kids. It would be hard with the older ones scattered. Get the little ones more aware of the situation." Michael shrugged as he thought on all the extra responsibility that he could possibly inherit. "It means trusting more people but only those we need to. It means that Beth can't just… be a teenage alien anymore. She has to be a grown up. She has to train. She has to develop her powers. If she has some that we didn't know were possible, we have to find them."
"I feel too old for this, Michael."
"We don't have a choice, Maxwell. We lived our childhood expecting a war and it never came… it could be here." He gestured with the folder. "This could be the beginning of some intergalactic Star Wars epic of the Antarian Kind. Encounter of the worst kind right here."
"Michael…" Max bit his lip and tossed the butt away. "I've been having awful thoughts." Tears filled his eyes. "Beth was… out of it at around the… estimated time of death for these people… what if she… Could she? I mean… It's not possible right? To not be physically there and do this type of damage… right?"
Michael shut his eyes. "Did you ask her?"
"A couple of times. I know Liz mentioned it to her. About how she slept so long. Beth doesn't remember anything."
"You sure?"
"That's what she said. I don't want to push her… I'm afraid to."
"Yeah, me too. I don't think we want the answer to that but… maybe we do need to assume she did it. I mean… if she's so damned important. She could go either way. Jedi or Darth… you know." Michael inhaled deeply. "Maybe you should feel her out. Sneak a connection or something."
TBC
Will handed Lauren a copy of the document. "Grandpa Burkhardt did provide for all children while he lived and he suspected but didn't find another. He allotted some money and properties but his PI never found your aunt before his death. Your father may have suspected something. I only have one PI's research but he could have hired more. He allotted for his children should one be found living."
"So he suspected… but then why did he kill himself?"
"I'm looking into it. If he had more than one PI, he may have gotten bad news on top of what happened in Roswell. He panicked. He would have gone to prison for that stunt."
"So I can contest?" Lauren fought a smile.
"Yes."
"Can I win?"
"We'll get you a government lawyer." Will cleared his throat. "Isabel Valenti would do it for free but she would only raise more questions."
"I just want her to admit she gave birth to me."
"I know."
"The money is just cream, you know? I don't want to make a media circus out of this or anything. I won't embarrass you or your unit."
"I know and I doubt Daphne would allow the media to catch wind of this."
"Thank you, Will. I really do appreciate this. You look like you've been to hell and back." Lauren tucked the files into her bag and offered him a smile. "How's the case coming?"
"It's not. It's kind of frustrating actually but… you know, up the stinky creek without an oar or a clue how I got there."
"Yeah."
--
Liz picked at her salad and glanced across the table at Isabel. "Do you think Gina is really coming into her powers? It's a bit late."
"We think she's a late bloomer." Isabel sighed heavily. "I don't know what's going on with her. Sometimes she says things that don't make sense. Like she's having a conversation that I can't hear. It's recent… the weirder stuff."
"Before or after Beth got sick?"
"Both. Why?"
"Just asking. She… said something to me the other day, when we put up the pool…"
"What did she say?" Isabel was a little startled to see the worry in Liz's eyes.
--
"So, yeah, it's really bad. It's bad. It's bad." Sebastien told his therapist. "My father won't speak to me."
"What was the last thing he said to you?"
"'What the hell is wrong with you?' and 'Don't even think about coming home for the holidays.' That about sums it up. I don't know if he'll tell Isabel but I'm already dying on the inside. I'm not sure anything matters anymore." Sebastien felt ill. He hadn't eaten in days. He'd been tempted to drink but spending the night at his sponsor's had kept him from running out to find someone to buy for him. From finding a party where it was free and where there were other distractions. "It would be really easy to fall right now."
"Why don't you? What keeps you from reverting to your past behaviors?"
"I left to get better… knowing that when it got out that it would destroy everything I had… If I don't try, I will be worse than they think. I feel like I owe everyone to be better than I am."
"Explain that to me."
"Dad didn't have a father, not really. He was 13 when his father died. So I had to be a good son. To show I appreciated that Dad was there for me or tried to be as much as he could. He's a lawyer. He got a full scholarship to Harvard. I had to do the same because there were no excuses for doing less. Grandma is sick so I had to be attentive as a grandchild. To cook for her. To clean. To keep her company because I was the only grandchild she had for a long time. My mother's parents were far away. They have higher standards. I had to be the good student and the grateful grandson from so far away."
"It's a lot of pressure to be perfect."
"And I'm not. So I kept my grades up. I kept up my responsibilities at home and when I wasn't home… I shut off my mind and the only way seemed to be beer and weed. 15 minutes in a field or a backseat or a borrowed bed with the head cheerleader or someone equally as desirable."
"How does maintaining all that stress do you any good now?"
"Because… nobody has faith in me anymore. Nobody even really likes me. I don't like me. Maybe Dad still loves me but he can't look at me. I can't look at myself. If I don't pressure myself, there is no one left to do it. I have to be a man my father can be proud of and I'm not sure he'd even admit it after what I've done."
"Sebastien, you've recognized your problem. You've taken steps to get help but you have to realize that it cannot happen over night. Even knowing all the things that you have to accomplish. It will take time, especially building back the trust of the ones you love."
--
Danny locked the door before he pulled up the scans from the sleeves. "This is neat."
"Dan… what is it?" Max rubbed at his eyes until they adjusted to the semi-darkness.
"I am Gabriel Silerio's new doctor, I did my research." Danny tapped the first scan. "He was 12 or something years old and he had this huge tumor in his head. Three days later when they went to operate, somehow not as big with less fuzzy edges. They didn't hardly have to cut into his brain at all. When he went back for his final scan, this was his brain. He was 14 at the time, I guess."
"Normal. Healthy-looking despite the scar tissue." Max agreed.
"They did all these scans to make sure his brain was working the way it was supposed to. So these images are the brain activity. Sleeping, talking, eating, doing math."
"All normal."
"Right. You have that theory that maybe he borrowed your energy or something to pull that truck off Beth. I got curious. So when he came in, I ordered the tests done. I had to make him think I was at least partially taking him serious, which I was given all the weirdness that day." He pointed to the next scan. "There is some residual stuff going on, right here."
"Residual stuff?"
"Meaning, this has been going on a while. Probably not long, maybe only a few years but he is developing other parts of his brain. I couldn't get him sleeping but talking is pretty normal and eating is fine but look at when I asked him a few math problems."
"What am I seeing exactly?"
"Increased activity. Above average use of his brain when he tackles problems."
"So…" Max sighed heavily. "Shit."
"Right. Mom says you leave a part of yourself in people who are too close to death to be saved by human means. Maybe it's like a starfish. You let go of a piece and you grow it back. But what if it's also like a worm. You cut a piece off and it can move and think all on its own."
"Would I have changed them so much that they would notice?"
"If it progresses this slowly? Then no. If they don't know about it? It's possible they will never know but they might have these heroic moments in their lives where they lifted semis off the ground to save the one they love… or keep their child at home the day of a bomb threat… or finding themselves willing someone else to feel what they feel so they don’t feel so alone…"
Max took it all in, absorbing the images. "Will Sydney consent to an MRI?"
"She has one scheduled for next month. Not just an MRI, Dad. These are brain panels. The machine can record while the subject is doing everyday things while inside a lab." Danny watched his father's face. "What is it?"
"Bending the will of someone else. That's scary. That's very scary."
--
Gabe had just sat down to eat his lunch when he heard the whistle from one of the guys. That whistle was followed by several others until a raven-haired minx entered his view. "Beth? What are you doing here? Did you dye your hair again?"
"I just wanted to see you, without my family around." She smiled tightly at him before sinking down beside him.
"Well, I hope you don't mind if I eat. I'm starving and I only get half an hour."
"I don't care. I just… need you to myself before I'm in school and you're in school and working after school."
"Are you okay?" He pulled her closer, abandoning his lunch for the moment.
"We need to talk." She admitted. "I care about you. I'm glad you're okay and you're getting things worked out at home but…"
"Beth." He tipped her face up.
"I don't like to share. You're my boyfriend but I feel like you're dating my whole family. I don't like Danny knowing things about you that I don't. And I don't like my mom making plans for us when I don't know where we're going yet. I don't like my dad giving me looks like I'm not his little girl anymore because I am… I need to be. It's been a long time since I was, you know?"
"Okay. Okay." He hugged her to his body. "It's been a long and stressful summer. Dad is coming home on Thursday. I'm taking the weekend off but maybe we can get away. Go do something or nothing together. Just the two of us. We can talk and do all the stuff that we need to do. I don't want to lose you, Beth."
"Me either."
--
Kathy rubbed her lower back while she waited for her reports to print. She let out a yelp when an arm crept around her waist. "Oh, you're home."
"Home." He murmured into her hair. "That is a word."
"And a noun as well."
"I like delegating legwork. I miss delegating legwork." Will sighed but didn't let go.
"How's it coming?" She wound her fingers through his, leaning back just as much as he leaned in.
"I know what I know and that isn't evidence. I'm going to have four police departments completely hating me and my bureau."
"Well, I'll take you home tonight and get you the full turn down service."
"What is that? A mint on the pillow?"
"Tucked into bed and put to sleep without hardly lifting a finger."
--
Lauren scribbled out the check and handed it to Gia. The chef just blinked at it. "What's this?"
"The first check in a series of royalties I'm getting to pay you back."
"Lauren, you don't have to."
"Yeah, I do." Lauren took a seat on a stool next to the chopping board. "My parents didn't raise me to steal from anyone, much less people who care about me. I have to erase six years of programming. Let me pay you back."
"You're getting checks like this all the time?" Gia folded it into her purse.
"That's three-quarters what I got for the video. Mr. Langley is sending me another set for the modeling I did. He's setting me up with an agent. I don't know how long it will take to pay you back, but I need to."
"Well, if you insist." Gia teased lightly and glanced around at everyone getting ready to impress the master chef. "Are you coming to dinner tonight?"
"Yeah, I might be late. Rehearsals."
"Okay, then I'll keep a plate warm for you."
--
The hairs on the back of Michael's neck stood up straight when he saw the pictures that Max had in the folder. "An alien?"
"Wouldn't know who to suspect. A skin? Langley?" Max shook his head. "One common factor. My donor's great-grandchild was their victim over a period of six years."
"I don't want to know what they did to her but I could hazard a guess by the look of things." Michael had to swallow back some bile as he closed the folder. "Shit. I have to admit that I pictured doing something like that to him myself."
"I know what you mean but to imagine and to see it done…"
"Right."
"It's…"
"Bad."
"Yeah."
"So, definitely aliens, huh."
"That is the word." Max scrubbed his face hard. "Will is on it but he doesn’t know what to do. If they get too close, how do we know this doesn't happen to him or one of us?"
"I think we all need to keep an ear to the ground, you know? With this Beth business and all the weird and weirder stuff. We need to know who our enemies are and who we can turn into allies." Michael stared out over his backyard. The swing set where his boys played. "I still find it hard to imagine that little girl with the power to… destroy me, you know?"
"Yeah. I mean… I took it all pretty seriously when Kal was explaining it to me but once she came out and the sun came up the next day… I didn't really give it another thought. But when she spaced out in the van… I thought… maybe that was it. The signal that the bad guys were looking for but… nothing's happened." He sighed heavily and pulled out a cigarette, he lit it and puffed slowly. "You know… I think we made a mistake… taking for granted that we were safe."
"You know how I felt about that… but I fell in with it myself… without even really meaning to." Michael used his powers to blow the smoke away from his face and Max leaned against a wall so he could keep his smoke from offending his friend. "Maybe you're right. We can't just assume that because no one has come that no one will."
"What do you think?" Max prodded. He took a long drag while he contemplated his friend. "Michael, I know you've got all kinds of stress with your own situation but as a group, what do you think?"
"I think we need to make sure that we could stand up as an army. That could mean training the kids. It would be hard with the older ones scattered. Get the little ones more aware of the situation." Michael shrugged as he thought on all the extra responsibility that he could possibly inherit. "It means trusting more people but only those we need to. It means that Beth can't just… be a teenage alien anymore. She has to be a grown up. She has to train. She has to develop her powers. If she has some that we didn't know were possible, we have to find them."
"I feel too old for this, Michael."
"We don't have a choice, Maxwell. We lived our childhood expecting a war and it never came… it could be here." He gestured with the folder. "This could be the beginning of some intergalactic Star Wars epic of the Antarian Kind. Encounter of the worst kind right here."
"Michael…" Max bit his lip and tossed the butt away. "I've been having awful thoughts." Tears filled his eyes. "Beth was… out of it at around the… estimated time of death for these people… what if she… Could she? I mean… It's not possible right? To not be physically there and do this type of damage… right?"
Michael shut his eyes. "Did you ask her?"
"A couple of times. I know Liz mentioned it to her. About how she slept so long. Beth doesn't remember anything."
"You sure?"
"That's what she said. I don't want to push her… I'm afraid to."
"Yeah, me too. I don't think we want the answer to that but… maybe we do need to assume she did it. I mean… if she's so damned important. She could go either way. Jedi or Darth… you know." Michael inhaled deeply. "Maybe you should feel her out. Sneak a connection or something."
TBC
part 153
The Fate of Destiny Part 153
The room was lit softly by the six or seven candles around the room. Beth moved from one to the other. "The smells are important. Things that are inherent to all beings would be the most important in getting to the place where you could remember the things you have in common. Remember the things that are here and there. Now and then. It's child's play, Dad. I could do this with my arms tied behind my back."
"Let's not try that out, please. I know I can do this… but I think I need help to find the way." Max took a deep breath and inhaled the scent of rainfall and the scent of sulfur and the scent of chlorine. "I've had some pretty vague impressions before and since L.A. I've had this renewed sense of self but nothing concrete like a memory."
"Or memory as you know it. Antarians think in different patterns. You have to find that pattern inside yourself. Embrace your alien side fully so that you can remember what it was like to be the ruler of a world. Of a people so very unlike the ones you've known all your Earthly life."
"So you do this often? Remembering stuff? Because as I recall… it's fairly easy for those of us with certain advantages over the rest of mankind. Photographic memory or whatever."
"I helped Berty do this not long ago. I just had to show her how but… she's not reaching into another lifetime for her memories. She was only trying to go back a few weeks. She basically sucks with her powers and she could do it." She made a face as she changed the scent of another candle to let a gentle earthy smell blend in with the other scents.
"Okay. If this is such a cake walk, why do we need all this?" He bent his legs under him on the bed.
"Because… you're going to trace your soul to another body and I have never done that."
"So… I have to what?"
"Rewind." She flicked her fingers against each other to make a spark. She climbed onto the bed and took her father's hands in hers. "This moment will pass on and go on to the next. You have to hold on to this moment and think about the moment before and the moment before and the moment before that. Move backwards. Know you can't change what you see but see it with clarity. While you watch the years fall away, study your aura. You'll need to recognize yourself in your other body. Living that other life." A candle floated between them, its heat warming their faces to an almost uncomfortable degree. "Focus on the tip of the flame, Dad. Watch it flicker. Watch it burn… now close your eyes and watch it unburn."
Max closed his eyes to focus. He opened his eyes to the flame and watched the candle being unlit. Beth walked backward out of the room. Back to that morning. Making love to Liz in reverse. Backward to California. To Santa Fe. To Roswell. To Chicago. To med school. To community college. To high school. To elementary school. To the orphanage. To the bright lights. To the cave. To the warm wet engulfing his new body and feeding it with the instructions to live an earthly life. To closing his eyes on the world outside his pod. To resting. To Nothing.
He had to make himself keep breathing while he was lost for what seemed like eons. Where was his energy? Where was his body? Where was he?
Pain. Unbearable searing pain. Not just in his body but in his heart and in his soul. Blurs of energy rushed around him. So much anguish. Calls for help. Calls for blood. Beings he couldn't see but he could feel. It was so violent but gracefully violent. He could feel that but he could not see. He didn't want to see. Not any of the graceful violence that would cause the pain he had just felt.
Max opened his eyes to his bedroom and his daughter's meditating face. He collapsed back on the bed. He fought for breath. Fought to control the myriad of emotions still coursing through his body. Every wave of pain echoing through out his limbs and in places where maybe he had limbs he still didn't know about.
"Dad. You stopped. Why did you stop? Didn't you get there?"
"I need to absorb." He croaked out.
"But you hardly got to see anything."
"I saw enough for today." He opened his eyes to the dark ceiling. He breathed out and the candles went out all over the room. "I saw how I died… I just didn't think it would feel like that."
"How did you think it was going to feel? You died."
"Enough for today, Beth. We need to get some sleep."
--
Morning shone into the library in rich, golden rays of energy. It was probably the only sustenance its occupants had while they studied their lives away. Will found the one he was looking for in the back, in the stacks where few dared to tread for fear of making their brains implode. A pair of hazel eyes lifted to the unwanted guest before they slid back down to the texts spread out before her. He stood there for a moment longer but she refused to look up at him.
"Excuse me, Miss Medlin." Will knocked on the table. "I'm Agent Goldblum. We met about eight years ago. Do you recall?"
"Vaguely." She flipped a page in her notebook and scribbled down a bunch of symbols from a book before sending her pen in a flurry of notes of some kind.
"I have some information for you. It could help in your student loans." He taunted her just a bit. He knew he had to really reach to get her attention and he figured if she was still in school after all these years, the bills were probably catching up with her.
"How's that?" She set down her pen, ready for whatever could help alleviate her schooling debt.
"Your father."
"Never gave a damn about me before." Her eyes turned hard.
"He died when you were quite young and I am pretty convinced that he never knew about you… and trust me, with the bad luck he had with kids, you would have been well off years ago."
"Keep talking." She motioned him to sit.
"He had only one surviving child aside from you. A legitimate son who had no clue you existed."
"So… what's the deal? Am I getting his money now?" She rubbed at her eyes, the strain of the numbers and symbols and the contacts she extracted from her eyes to replace with a pair of scratched glasses.
"There's a hold up. Your half-brother Mason's wife. See, this woman had a child by him but sold her before Mason knew anything about her. He thought the baby died at birth. The child is now 21 years old and she wants her name… but Daphne Burkhardt is very powerful."
"Mason Burkhardt is my father? I mean… the last one was my brother but his dad, Mason… is my dad."
"Yes, stay with me. Your half-niece would like the money but doesn't really care about it. If you came forward and challenged as the rightful heir to the Burkhardt fortune, Daphne Burkhardt loses everything she got in the settlement."
"What about my brother?"
"He died years ago. You have ten brothers and sisters in the ground."
"Ten? I had other…" She leaned on the table. "And now I'm the only one? I have a niece. Where is she?"
"Outside in the car." He gestured over his shoulder.
"Can I see her?" Her eyes sparkled with something that gave Will some hope for Lauren's venture.
"Do you agree to challenge?"
"Yes."
"Then, let's go meet her."
--
"You okay?" Gabriel nudged her. They had walked all over Roswell and ended up back at his place where his siblings were driving their father crazy, finally having him home and staying for once. One new rule Mr. Silerio had, no pretty girls in the bedroom with the door closed. They had to settle for semi-privateness. "You've been kind of quiet all day and you were the one that asked for this day."
"I know. Just… stuff you know. My dad and I kind of got into something last night and… I don't know. I expected more from him." She leaned into his arms and welcomed the warm kiss on her forehead. She'd much rather prefer a kiss elsewhere but she wasn't pushing her luck just now.
"Heavy stuff?"
"Yeah. I'm curious, you know? About where my dad came from. He's adopted and he doesn't want to know. He says he does but he really doesn't because he doesn't try to find out. Not hard, you know."
"Couldn't he get that FBI guy to find out? Aren't they friends or something?"
"They used to be friends." Beth smirked to herself. "Right now, they're just… acquaintances."
"What happened?"
"Dad caught Will in bed with Kat, and it's been pretty tense but they're getting over it. Slowly, very slowly."
"Is that weird for you?" He asked hesitantly.
"Why would it be weird for me?"
"Because… you have… designs on him or something."
"Designs? What kind of crap is that college making you read?" She sat up to look him in the eye. "Will and I are good friends. Have been since I was little."
"Oh."
"He's not competition for you… especially not while he's servicing my sister. Because I think it's good for them. They can drive each other crazy." She sighed and gently kissed his lips. "You're the only one I have eyes for."
"That's good to hear." He nodded and wished he could kiss her harder. He was a little disheartened when she pulled away. She'd been doing that a lot lately. "Beth? Are we okay?"
"Yeah." She lay on the bed, stretching and enjoying the look in his eyes as he took her in. "I have had some side effects from some of my medications. Some are obvious. Some aren't." The crease in his forehead increased. "It just means that I'm tender in places and I'm not ready to see how tender… cause when you touch me, I never want you to stop."
"I know what you mean." He nodded and reached into his nightstand. "I got you a welcome home present but I wanted it to be just you and me when I gave it to you."
"A present?" She took the small wrapped gift. It was obvious what it was but she had to rip open the paper to see for herself what he looked so nervous about handing her.
Beth opened the CD and blinked at the artwork. Gabriel watched her face and sighed heavily. "I know you don't listen to contemporary music but I saw the video for Seraphim Falling and I figured you'd be into it… even if they haven't proven their worth yet."
"I know her…" She showed him the model on the cover. "This is my friend Lauren that I told you about. Actually, I guess she's more like family."
"You know this hottie?" He teased. "Can you hook us up?"
"She's too old for you and besides… she knows you're mine." She grinned when he laid out beside her, motioning for her to stroke his ego some more. "I told her all about how hot and brilliant you are. I exaggerated, of course."
"Please do."
"Thank you." She held up the CD and tore the plastic off of it. She put the disc in his stereo and laid down in his arms so they could listen together. They hadn't done that in a while.
--
Max sat across from Michael while Michael ate his dinner. "It was scary. I couldn't stick with it. It was too much."
"Did you connect?"
"No. It's too soon. She barely trusts me now. If I sneak a connection this soon, she'll never forgive me and I can't have her running off when we don’t know what's out there."
They sat in silence for the longest time. Michael sighed and set down his fork. "Maybe the kids shouldn’t move to Lubbock."
"And tell them what?" Max groaned. "They'll be together. Emily is strong and Danny can hold his own."
"Against us, sure but against some unknown alien force?" Michael had to catch himself before his voice got too loud.
"I know how you feel. I sent Kathy to Santa Fe with one Federal agent. Neither one of them could defend themselves against this."
"I know. I know. I've got a lot of stress. Laurie's been having contractions and transfusions aren't helping that much. The kid is coming this week whether or not we're ready for it."
"Is the hotel going to open in Roswell in time?"
"That's what they say. Maybe ahead of schedule but still. Could be one month, could be two months. I won't know until someone lets me know." Michael shrugged and rolled his eyes when part of his detail waved at him and tapped his watch. "I gotta get back."
"Let me know if there's anything I can do for her."
"She's ready to go, Max. She doesn't want to but she's ready."
--
Oriel paused in the doorway. The room with filled with boxes for the move. The newlyweds were taking a break from packing up Emily's things. "A-hem. Dinner's ready. My dinner table is G-rated."
"Yes, ma'am." Danny nodded and nudged his wife off his lap.
"We only have two more days in this small town. We have to make the memories sweeter so that we actually want to come home to visit." Emily sighed and closed up one last box to tape up.
--
Bonnie cupped her hands around her glass. "You look like him."
"I'm sorry?" Lauren looked up.
"I don't know what your other mother looks like but… I did have occasion to see them once or twice, Mason III and Daphne Burkhardt. I've always been heavily involved in the university. The Burkhardts would come see the place before making their donations. I've actually spoken to him myself. I didn't know he was my half-brother but… You look like him."
"Thank you." Lauren's smile was bittersweet and thought about the odd moments in her youth when no one had told her she looked like either of her parents.
"It's nice to know that I still have family around. Mom has been gone a few years. I was an only child. She was an only child. I never knew my father but now that I do…" She shrugged. "Money can't replace what he wasn't for me. But I can be financially secure while I hate him."
"He died when you were a kid." Lauren offered. "He suspected but he didn't know."
"Mom never did like to talk about Dad. It probably ended badly." She tilted her head. "I do… genealogies in my spare time. It's how I make extra cash. People always want me to tell them that they have a long lost rich uncle or something. Never thought I'd be the one crossing my fingers and wishing and hoping." She sipped her water. "Do you mind me asking how you got a federal agent to help you out? I vaguely remember meeting him years ago and why he didn't tell me all this then…"
"I'm borrowing him from some… very distant family. It's a long story but you have an aunt who is still alive. She has children."
"I bet I could find her." Bonnie smiled. Lauren glanced out the window and rolled her eyes. Bonnie followed her gaze and all she saw were five or six men and women all dressed alike and chatting somberly. "What?"
"No, it's the woman with the dark hair. I hate her. Just on principle."
"Genevieve Seyton?"
"You know her?" Lauren sat up.
"Her family is from here. Old money and all that. The word is, her branch of the family is an offshoot from the line with the old money. They have it but it's dirty money because her grandfather or someone was born on the wrong side of the bed sheets." She sighed heavily. "We all go to the same college. They can afford Harvard and Yale and Stanford but they go here because it's tradition. She's so…" Bonnie growled. "I had her in one of my math classes when I was a TA. Years back. She was spouting off about something. Then someone asked who her father was. She gave a name and they shut up. I looked it up though. That person isn't real. She's a big phony."
"Wait. What? The person on her birth certificate isn't real?"
"Right."
"People can do that?"
"Honey…" Bonnie put her hand on Lauren's. "Your real mother paid a doctor to put some fake names on your birth certificate. It's not hard to do when you have the right doctors." Then Bonnie looked out the window again. "Look, the redhead. She's gorgeous. I remember seeing her before."
"Agent Ledford." Lauren nodded. "I'm learning their names as I go." She sighed and turned back to her aunt. "So, these people. The rich people. They all stick together, huh."
"Pretty much. It's all very incestuous. The only way you get new blood is by affairs or if someone marries a model." She studied the young woman across from her. "I know why I hate her. Why do you hate her?"
"She put the moves on Agent Goldblum."
"Are you… with him?"
"No." Lauren blushed a deep red. "Um… while I did crush on him for a whole year before I met him… No… I'm kind of close with his girlfriend's little sister."
"Ah… I see… Well. Genevieve Seyton is psychotic. A real sociopath."
"Then how'd she pass her entrance test for the FBI. Don't they test psychological profiles?"
"Because she's that good." Shaking her head, Bonnie lifted her menu. "She made me glad I never joined a sorority. Not that they'd have me. I'm poor." She shrugged and sighed. "I remember her being very disappointed when I told her that the youngest Burkhardt hadn't stopped in to contribute in a year. We were all devastated when we heard he'd died. He was a very big contributor and his wife wanted nothing to do with us when he passed."
"Why?"
"Why do the rich do anything? Maybe he had another woman and she worked at the college."
"What programs got cut after his funds were no longer available?"
"A few grants were no longer available. Genetics, biology and the business grant. I don't know the details on that one but it assisted the grad students by giving them internships at his company."
"What was her major?"
"I don't know how she got into the FBI, she was a business major when she was in my class…" Both sets of eyes looked to the window at the woman nodding to everything that Agent Goldblum said. "He wasn't screwing her unless he was into teens."
"Maybe it's a coincidence."
"In this town?"
TBC
The room was lit softly by the six or seven candles around the room. Beth moved from one to the other. "The smells are important. Things that are inherent to all beings would be the most important in getting to the place where you could remember the things you have in common. Remember the things that are here and there. Now and then. It's child's play, Dad. I could do this with my arms tied behind my back."
"Let's not try that out, please. I know I can do this… but I think I need help to find the way." Max took a deep breath and inhaled the scent of rainfall and the scent of sulfur and the scent of chlorine. "I've had some pretty vague impressions before and since L.A. I've had this renewed sense of self but nothing concrete like a memory."
"Or memory as you know it. Antarians think in different patterns. You have to find that pattern inside yourself. Embrace your alien side fully so that you can remember what it was like to be the ruler of a world. Of a people so very unlike the ones you've known all your Earthly life."
"So you do this often? Remembering stuff? Because as I recall… it's fairly easy for those of us with certain advantages over the rest of mankind. Photographic memory or whatever."
"I helped Berty do this not long ago. I just had to show her how but… she's not reaching into another lifetime for her memories. She was only trying to go back a few weeks. She basically sucks with her powers and she could do it." She made a face as she changed the scent of another candle to let a gentle earthy smell blend in with the other scents.
"Okay. If this is such a cake walk, why do we need all this?" He bent his legs under him on the bed.
"Because… you're going to trace your soul to another body and I have never done that."
"So… I have to what?"
"Rewind." She flicked her fingers against each other to make a spark. She climbed onto the bed and took her father's hands in hers. "This moment will pass on and go on to the next. You have to hold on to this moment and think about the moment before and the moment before and the moment before that. Move backwards. Know you can't change what you see but see it with clarity. While you watch the years fall away, study your aura. You'll need to recognize yourself in your other body. Living that other life." A candle floated between them, its heat warming their faces to an almost uncomfortable degree. "Focus on the tip of the flame, Dad. Watch it flicker. Watch it burn… now close your eyes and watch it unburn."
Max closed his eyes to focus. He opened his eyes to the flame and watched the candle being unlit. Beth walked backward out of the room. Back to that morning. Making love to Liz in reverse. Backward to California. To Santa Fe. To Roswell. To Chicago. To med school. To community college. To high school. To elementary school. To the orphanage. To the bright lights. To the cave. To the warm wet engulfing his new body and feeding it with the instructions to live an earthly life. To closing his eyes on the world outside his pod. To resting. To Nothing.
He had to make himself keep breathing while he was lost for what seemed like eons. Where was his energy? Where was his body? Where was he?
Pain. Unbearable searing pain. Not just in his body but in his heart and in his soul. Blurs of energy rushed around him. So much anguish. Calls for help. Calls for blood. Beings he couldn't see but he could feel. It was so violent but gracefully violent. He could feel that but he could not see. He didn't want to see. Not any of the graceful violence that would cause the pain he had just felt.
Max opened his eyes to his bedroom and his daughter's meditating face. He collapsed back on the bed. He fought for breath. Fought to control the myriad of emotions still coursing through his body. Every wave of pain echoing through out his limbs and in places where maybe he had limbs he still didn't know about.
"Dad. You stopped. Why did you stop? Didn't you get there?"
"I need to absorb." He croaked out.
"But you hardly got to see anything."
"I saw enough for today." He opened his eyes to the dark ceiling. He breathed out and the candles went out all over the room. "I saw how I died… I just didn't think it would feel like that."
"How did you think it was going to feel? You died."
"Enough for today, Beth. We need to get some sleep."
--
Morning shone into the library in rich, golden rays of energy. It was probably the only sustenance its occupants had while they studied their lives away. Will found the one he was looking for in the back, in the stacks where few dared to tread for fear of making their brains implode. A pair of hazel eyes lifted to the unwanted guest before they slid back down to the texts spread out before her. He stood there for a moment longer but she refused to look up at him.
"Excuse me, Miss Medlin." Will knocked on the table. "I'm Agent Goldblum. We met about eight years ago. Do you recall?"
"Vaguely." She flipped a page in her notebook and scribbled down a bunch of symbols from a book before sending her pen in a flurry of notes of some kind.
"I have some information for you. It could help in your student loans." He taunted her just a bit. He knew he had to really reach to get her attention and he figured if she was still in school after all these years, the bills were probably catching up with her.
"How's that?" She set down her pen, ready for whatever could help alleviate her schooling debt.
"Your father."
"Never gave a damn about me before." Her eyes turned hard.
"He died when you were quite young and I am pretty convinced that he never knew about you… and trust me, with the bad luck he had with kids, you would have been well off years ago."
"Keep talking." She motioned him to sit.
"He had only one surviving child aside from you. A legitimate son who had no clue you existed."
"So… what's the deal? Am I getting his money now?" She rubbed at her eyes, the strain of the numbers and symbols and the contacts she extracted from her eyes to replace with a pair of scratched glasses.
"There's a hold up. Your half-brother Mason's wife. See, this woman had a child by him but sold her before Mason knew anything about her. He thought the baby died at birth. The child is now 21 years old and she wants her name… but Daphne Burkhardt is very powerful."
"Mason Burkhardt is my father? I mean… the last one was my brother but his dad, Mason… is my dad."
"Yes, stay with me. Your half-niece would like the money but doesn't really care about it. If you came forward and challenged as the rightful heir to the Burkhardt fortune, Daphne Burkhardt loses everything she got in the settlement."
"What about my brother?"
"He died years ago. You have ten brothers and sisters in the ground."
"Ten? I had other…" She leaned on the table. "And now I'm the only one? I have a niece. Where is she?"
"Outside in the car." He gestured over his shoulder.
"Can I see her?" Her eyes sparkled with something that gave Will some hope for Lauren's venture.
"Do you agree to challenge?"
"Yes."
"Then, let's go meet her."
--
"You okay?" Gabriel nudged her. They had walked all over Roswell and ended up back at his place where his siblings were driving their father crazy, finally having him home and staying for once. One new rule Mr. Silerio had, no pretty girls in the bedroom with the door closed. They had to settle for semi-privateness. "You've been kind of quiet all day and you were the one that asked for this day."
"I know. Just… stuff you know. My dad and I kind of got into something last night and… I don't know. I expected more from him." She leaned into his arms and welcomed the warm kiss on her forehead. She'd much rather prefer a kiss elsewhere but she wasn't pushing her luck just now.
"Heavy stuff?"
"Yeah. I'm curious, you know? About where my dad came from. He's adopted and he doesn't want to know. He says he does but he really doesn't because he doesn't try to find out. Not hard, you know."
"Couldn't he get that FBI guy to find out? Aren't they friends or something?"
"They used to be friends." Beth smirked to herself. "Right now, they're just… acquaintances."
"What happened?"
"Dad caught Will in bed with Kat, and it's been pretty tense but they're getting over it. Slowly, very slowly."
"Is that weird for you?" He asked hesitantly.
"Why would it be weird for me?"
"Because… you have… designs on him or something."
"Designs? What kind of crap is that college making you read?" She sat up to look him in the eye. "Will and I are good friends. Have been since I was little."
"Oh."
"He's not competition for you… especially not while he's servicing my sister. Because I think it's good for them. They can drive each other crazy." She sighed and gently kissed his lips. "You're the only one I have eyes for."
"That's good to hear." He nodded and wished he could kiss her harder. He was a little disheartened when she pulled away. She'd been doing that a lot lately. "Beth? Are we okay?"
"Yeah." She lay on the bed, stretching and enjoying the look in his eyes as he took her in. "I have had some side effects from some of my medications. Some are obvious. Some aren't." The crease in his forehead increased. "It just means that I'm tender in places and I'm not ready to see how tender… cause when you touch me, I never want you to stop."
"I know what you mean." He nodded and reached into his nightstand. "I got you a welcome home present but I wanted it to be just you and me when I gave it to you."
"A present?" She took the small wrapped gift. It was obvious what it was but she had to rip open the paper to see for herself what he looked so nervous about handing her.
Beth opened the CD and blinked at the artwork. Gabriel watched her face and sighed heavily. "I know you don't listen to contemporary music but I saw the video for Seraphim Falling and I figured you'd be into it… even if they haven't proven their worth yet."
"I know her…" She showed him the model on the cover. "This is my friend Lauren that I told you about. Actually, I guess she's more like family."
"You know this hottie?" He teased. "Can you hook us up?"
"She's too old for you and besides… she knows you're mine." She grinned when he laid out beside her, motioning for her to stroke his ego some more. "I told her all about how hot and brilliant you are. I exaggerated, of course."
"Please do."
"Thank you." She held up the CD and tore the plastic off of it. She put the disc in his stereo and laid down in his arms so they could listen together. They hadn't done that in a while.
--
Max sat across from Michael while Michael ate his dinner. "It was scary. I couldn't stick with it. It was too much."
"Did you connect?"
"No. It's too soon. She barely trusts me now. If I sneak a connection this soon, she'll never forgive me and I can't have her running off when we don’t know what's out there."
They sat in silence for the longest time. Michael sighed and set down his fork. "Maybe the kids shouldn’t move to Lubbock."
"And tell them what?" Max groaned. "They'll be together. Emily is strong and Danny can hold his own."
"Against us, sure but against some unknown alien force?" Michael had to catch himself before his voice got too loud.
"I know how you feel. I sent Kathy to Santa Fe with one Federal agent. Neither one of them could defend themselves against this."
"I know. I know. I've got a lot of stress. Laurie's been having contractions and transfusions aren't helping that much. The kid is coming this week whether or not we're ready for it."
"Is the hotel going to open in Roswell in time?"
"That's what they say. Maybe ahead of schedule but still. Could be one month, could be two months. I won't know until someone lets me know." Michael shrugged and rolled his eyes when part of his detail waved at him and tapped his watch. "I gotta get back."
"Let me know if there's anything I can do for her."
"She's ready to go, Max. She doesn't want to but she's ready."
--
Oriel paused in the doorway. The room with filled with boxes for the move. The newlyweds were taking a break from packing up Emily's things. "A-hem. Dinner's ready. My dinner table is G-rated."
"Yes, ma'am." Danny nodded and nudged his wife off his lap.
"We only have two more days in this small town. We have to make the memories sweeter so that we actually want to come home to visit." Emily sighed and closed up one last box to tape up.
--
Bonnie cupped her hands around her glass. "You look like him."
"I'm sorry?" Lauren looked up.
"I don't know what your other mother looks like but… I did have occasion to see them once or twice, Mason III and Daphne Burkhardt. I've always been heavily involved in the university. The Burkhardts would come see the place before making their donations. I've actually spoken to him myself. I didn't know he was my half-brother but… You look like him."
"Thank you." Lauren's smile was bittersweet and thought about the odd moments in her youth when no one had told her she looked like either of her parents.
"It's nice to know that I still have family around. Mom has been gone a few years. I was an only child. She was an only child. I never knew my father but now that I do…" She shrugged. "Money can't replace what he wasn't for me. But I can be financially secure while I hate him."
"He died when you were a kid." Lauren offered. "He suspected but he didn't know."
"Mom never did like to talk about Dad. It probably ended badly." She tilted her head. "I do… genealogies in my spare time. It's how I make extra cash. People always want me to tell them that they have a long lost rich uncle or something. Never thought I'd be the one crossing my fingers and wishing and hoping." She sipped her water. "Do you mind me asking how you got a federal agent to help you out? I vaguely remember meeting him years ago and why he didn't tell me all this then…"
"I'm borrowing him from some… very distant family. It's a long story but you have an aunt who is still alive. She has children."
"I bet I could find her." Bonnie smiled. Lauren glanced out the window and rolled her eyes. Bonnie followed her gaze and all she saw were five or six men and women all dressed alike and chatting somberly. "What?"
"No, it's the woman with the dark hair. I hate her. Just on principle."
"Genevieve Seyton?"
"You know her?" Lauren sat up.
"Her family is from here. Old money and all that. The word is, her branch of the family is an offshoot from the line with the old money. They have it but it's dirty money because her grandfather or someone was born on the wrong side of the bed sheets." She sighed heavily. "We all go to the same college. They can afford Harvard and Yale and Stanford but they go here because it's tradition. She's so…" Bonnie growled. "I had her in one of my math classes when I was a TA. Years back. She was spouting off about something. Then someone asked who her father was. She gave a name and they shut up. I looked it up though. That person isn't real. She's a big phony."
"Wait. What? The person on her birth certificate isn't real?"
"Right."
"People can do that?"
"Honey…" Bonnie put her hand on Lauren's. "Your real mother paid a doctor to put some fake names on your birth certificate. It's not hard to do when you have the right doctors." Then Bonnie looked out the window again. "Look, the redhead. She's gorgeous. I remember seeing her before."
"Agent Ledford." Lauren nodded. "I'm learning their names as I go." She sighed and turned back to her aunt. "So, these people. The rich people. They all stick together, huh."
"Pretty much. It's all very incestuous. The only way you get new blood is by affairs or if someone marries a model." She studied the young woman across from her. "I know why I hate her. Why do you hate her?"
"She put the moves on Agent Goldblum."
"Are you… with him?"
"No." Lauren blushed a deep red. "Um… while I did crush on him for a whole year before I met him… No… I'm kind of close with his girlfriend's little sister."
"Ah… I see… Well. Genevieve Seyton is psychotic. A real sociopath."
"Then how'd she pass her entrance test for the FBI. Don't they test psychological profiles?"
"Because she's that good." Shaking her head, Bonnie lifted her menu. "She made me glad I never joined a sorority. Not that they'd have me. I'm poor." She shrugged and sighed. "I remember her being very disappointed when I told her that the youngest Burkhardt hadn't stopped in to contribute in a year. We were all devastated when we heard he'd died. He was a very big contributor and his wife wanted nothing to do with us when he passed."
"Why?"
"Why do the rich do anything? Maybe he had another woman and she worked at the college."
"What programs got cut after his funds were no longer available?"
"A few grants were no longer available. Genetics, biology and the business grant. I don't know the details on that one but it assisted the grad students by giving them internships at his company."
"What was her major?"
"I don't know how she got into the FBI, she was a business major when she was in my class…" Both sets of eyes looked to the window at the woman nodding to everything that Agent Goldblum said. "He wasn't screwing her unless he was into teens."
"Maybe it's a coincidence."
"In this town?"
TBC
Part 154
The Fate of Destiny Part 154
"Mason Burkhardt III was a meticulous man." The lawyer sighed as he ran over the document. "He fully expected that one of his children would survive infancy. He left an allotment for that child or children in his will. I think he suspected for a long time that something wasn't right or that someone would turn up. There's a clause… if you check out and I have words of good faith that you will."
"We'll check out." Bonnie nodded, her excitement rose and she gripped Lauren's hand.
"I'm not sure what to do about the fortune that Mason II left to Mason III being divvied up but I will contact the aunt." He drew in a breath.
"The aunt?"
"Mason III had an aunt but he was never close to her. She'd have anything left of her brother's will."
"Oh… her Mason's aunt." She pointed to Lauren. "My Mason's sister. My aunt. Weird."
"Right." He nodded again and cracked his knuckles. "You ladies are lucky indeed. A series of mistakes to right a wrong. It's a good thing that the Burkhardt fortunes have swelled over the years due to… um… careful investments by the wife. This is good. Very good. I'm going to hire a team of investigators, some of them will be the ones used by either Mason to look after the children they knew about."
Lauren cleared her throat. "Is there something that can be done about how records were falsified?"
"I can look into it. You really want to punish this lady? Good. But don't talk about it too much. It might hurt your case." He kept looking through the pages. "Doctor Bryce Covington… huh… shit."
"What is it?"
"Excuse my language. It's not the first case with his name on it that I've seen. He used to falsify records all the time for his college buddies. It won't be easy to trace his work… but I have friends too."
--
Beth pulled herself up on the plateau and took a deep breath. "See. I can do it. I'm not a complete bum."
"You sure can." Gabriel hoisted himself and their supplies up next to her. "And you even let me get the equipment all by myself."
"I'm sorry." Beth rushed to pull some of the crap off his shoulders. "So what? We pitch tent and make camp?"
"Yep. That's usually the way it goes." He pulled their things to his favorite spot. Ditching a day of classes would do them both some good. "I'll do the tent, you make a fire pit. Grab some rocks to put around it in a circle. Gather some dry wood, some dry grass if you find some. Make sure the rocks are at least as big as your fist."
"You put together our sleeping quarters and I'm gathering sticks and stones and digging holes."
"You'll thank me later, sweetie." By dark, she had created the pit and filled it with wood and collected some extra for later burning. When he finished the tent and built the grill over the pit, the sun was just dipping over the horizon. It had taken them all day. The hitching out to the desert, the climbing of a small mountain, the making of camp. "See. Done in time. Just enough time to get this fire going and start cooking before we lose the light."
"You got the matches?" She asked as she gathered a handful of dry grass to start the fire.
"You had them." He didn't even look up as he tested the integrity of his grill.
"Right. Sure." She had no clue where the matches were. Using her powers she ignited the dry blades and slid them beneath the wood. In a few moments, they had a small fire going. He hadn't suspected a thing. She sat back against a tree and watched him place some vegetables on the grill, sprinkling spices.
"How's your head?"
"What's that?" She furrowed her brow at him.
"Your head? I noticed that you were kind of tuning people out the last couple of days. The kids don't mean to be annoying. It's just their nature to drive anyone and everyone up the wall."
"No, they're great." Beth promised. "Just some… after effects."
Gabriel stopped what he was doing and turned to her. "After effects? You mean from your…"
"Yeah. That. I was pretty bad off. With being on the wrong meds and being off any meds for such a long time. It's… a balancing act to get back to normal… hardly any pills now."
"You didn't tell me you were so bad off." He frowned at her. "What are you on now?"
"Just a little bit when I need it. Just a dusting of powder I take with my juice to begin with. The dusting has become a pinch the last few days. No big." She had indeed noticed her father spiking her juice or milk in the mornings. She had poured it out that morning but discovered that he was doing it for her own good. It dulled things just a bit. When she was stronger, she could tune it out on her own. She knew the speech would be coming when things calmed down. She would have to learn to master her powers as well as teach him some powers he didn't know he had.
"Are you okay? Do I need to make you go home?" He stared at her. She had bullied him into the running away bit for the night and he had relented so long as she stayed honest with him about everything.
"I'm fine. Out here, it doesn't bother me. No one but you and me for miles." She gave him a little smile. He had already proved that he'd make her go home if he thought she was in any danger of becoming ill.
"What? The voices?" He looked so very concerned. "You still hear them? I figured they would have gone away after all the treatments."
"I don't hear them with you. Ever. Never with you."
"So… when you do hear these voices… is it internal?" He couldn't help but be worried. Voices in the head were never good.
"It's not really a voice as much as a picture… A mini-movie flavored with someone's personality. At home… I can see you flying off a cliff. It could be either my mom or my dad. If it's a quick thing, it's my dad. If it's… slow and you reach for the ledge… it's my mom."
"Your parents want to see me fly over a cliff?" He snickered and turned to tend to the grill. "I thought they liked me now? Saving your life and all."
"Oh sure. That lasted a good while. Then I got better and I started making out with you again. Torture fantasies are common once more."
"Seriously. Do you really think that you know what people are thinking?"
"It's why I have so many problems, Gabriel." She sighed and settled near to the fire. "The other night when we were making out, you were… imagining how I would taste if you… went down on me." She watched him still.
"I thought you said you didn't hear voices with me." He turned slowly.
"I only get things from you when you are very, very focused. I can't read your mind."
"Do your parents know about this?"
"That you want to go down on me? I hope not… but they know all about my movie-vision." It felt good to share with him. "It's why they're so weird about me."
"Okay." He took a seat next to her, his fingers flexing absently. "Does it bother you when you get movies from me about you?"
"If they were about some other girl, I'd be upset but… even though I'm not ready to do all the things you picture in your head… someday, I want to be. I want to be the girl you explore with. I want to continue to be the girl that steals your thoughts and is the star in those fantasies."
"Steals my thoughts?"
"I very, very rarely get thoughts from you. You have to be wholly focused on only one thing for me to get even a glimmer." She took his right hand in hers, kissing his stiff thumb, easing the joint pain he had from climbing. "I get things about me. About your mom. About the kids… sometimes when you've been working on a column, I see that because you feel so passionately when you write. When I talk to you, I can almost feel you shifting your focus. All the little thoughts go away… and all you have on your mind is me."
"Wow, that would be egotistical if it weren't true." He cleared his throat and felt his face warm from within. "You are special to me. When I start thinking about you, it is very hard to stop. Today, we're being bad but I can't be bad like this all the time."
"I know. I just needed it. Easing back into the routine and all. I promise. The next time we're bad. It will be your idea."
"So long as we agree." He leaned in to kiss her lips gently. "I couldn't take being banned from you for long."
--
Dr. Nichols walked up behind Max, and barely glanced up before stepping around the clinch and behind the nurse's station. "So, Max, who's the new wife?"
"Same wife." Max sheepishly straightened from his embrace. "Almost new packaging."
"Ha ha." Liz shook her head at her husband. "Which reminds me." She opened her bag and held out his dinner. "Diet starts today."
"Liz." Max groaned and peered into the Tupperware. "There's far too much green in there."
"The wife has me on the same diet." Freddy frowned at the container. "My doctor says it's for my heart. She says it's for my libido. If I don't lose weight, she won't sleep with me again."
"Don't give her ideas." Max narrowed his eyes at his wife.
"I was already thinking it." Liz teased and pressed the Tupperware firmly into his hands. "Maybe you start taking David on runs with Sterling in the mornings."
"And deprive you of your bonding time?" Max kissed her forehead and swatted her rear. "Get out of here. You're distracting me from my patients."
"Danny's leaving tomorrow."
"I know. I'll be there."
--
Gina sat on her father's desk after much drawer climbing to watch him work. He followed a line with his highlighter and every end of a paragraph he tapped her hand, leaving an orange mark. She giggled. "Daddy, stop."
"I'm just playing." He stopped working and kissed her forehead. "Wouldn't you rather be playing or something? Doing homework?"
"I don't have homework today, Daddy."
"Still. Coloring or going to Oriel's to play with the boys." He capped his highlighter and watched his little girl with her curly hair. Everyone said she looked like him but he saw Isabel when he looked into his daughter's face.
"I like watching you work. It's the only time you don't worry."
"Really?"
"Uh-huh. I like it when you don't worry."
"Oh. Okay." He grinned at her. "Did you already see your mom?"
"She's with somebody in her office." She swung her legs, hitting his drawers with her tennis shoes. "Bruce says I can't go in until after five."
"Then I guess you'll have to stay here and watch me work."
"Okay." She smiled broadly.
--
Night settled on them as they were crawling inside the tent for the night. Gabriel laid out and waited for her to stretch out beside him. There was one rule he knew they wouldn't break. There would be no disrobing in this little tent.
Beth allowed the kiss. She had missed the way he felt against her. The way he tasted when he devoured her mouth. The way his cologne and shampoo tickled her nose. The way his green eyes sparkled when he stared down at her. The tent was small so staying close was clearly a necessity.
Settling beneath him, she had to restrain herself, feeling him so hard between her legs. The smell of his body invaded her nostrils. Sweat and dirt and smoke from the fire. Pushing away all the images that threatened to fill her mind, she held him closer. Deep frenzied kisses and groping hands. His hips bucked against her. She gasped as the movement caused a jolt in her belly. "Sorry."
"No, it felt good." She breathed against his ear, biting her lip when he did it again. "Oh." Her hips rose to meet his, a sweetly intense longing curling within her body. Their mouths fought furiously as their bodies instinctively moved against one another. His mouth burned down her throat as their lower bodies collided again and again. Grunts and gasps escaped her lips without fear of being overheard for once. Then it all happened at once, his breath puffing against her neck, his hips thrusting between her legs, her hips bucking upward into his and then this tightening throughout her body that she had had once before in his arms…
Wet warmth permeated the area between her thighs and Gabriel lay heavily atop her, panting into her chest. "It's going to be impossible to stay away from you."
"Then don't."
He laughed into her neck. "Like I'm going to be allowed anywhere near you after this stunt."
--
Agustin sipped his coffee but didn’t taste it. "He never came home from classes. He called in sick to work."
"She only went to three classes today." Liz nodded into her own cup. "She hasn't called but…"
Max sat on the counter and rubbed David's shoulder where the boy leaned against the sink. "I would like to have a united front when they get back."
"They'll come here first." Agustin nodded. "He'll walk her home. I have someone watching the kids for me. I appreciate all the help you've given my boy… but I don't think he should see Beth for a while."
"I'm in agreement." Liz nodded and took a deep breath. "I can't get behind this behavior."
"Okay. I agree they should take a break but… we can't act like we're forbidding them." Max met his wife's eyes. "That will only make it more attractive to them. We don't want them running away for good and doing something stupid. We have to sit them down and talk to them like adults. Gabriel is 18 but Beth is still 16."
"She's almost 17." David whispered.
"That's beside the point." Liz sighed heavily. "After all we've been through this year, she can't keep doing this."
"I know." Max groaned and nodded David to his room. "School tomorrow, kiddo."
"Okay." David walked out of the room slowly. "She's okay."
"We know." Max nodded again.
"So… we sit them down and talk to them like adults but they could still run off again." Agustin cleared his throat.
Max felt torn. On the one hand, he could be too hard and have them all hating him or on the other… he could be too easy and they would walk all over him.
--
Michael squeezed Chuck's shoulder as they peered through the window at the newest edition to the family. She was premature and her lungs were weak. The box kept her alive. The tubes in her little nose. Sam pressed his face against the glass so he could see better. They were waiting on the doctor. For the doctor to tell them that Laurie had made it through the labor. A nurse bustled out to them with some forms. "What?"
"You need to fill these out for the baby." She pressed them into Michael's hand.
"Why can't Laurie do it?"
"Hasn't the doctor been out?"
Michael clenched his jaw and motioned for the nurse not to speak any further. He scribbled what he could and handed the forms back. "Tell the doctor, that we're waiting for him right here."
--
Oriel sat beside her son's bed and brushed his hair out of his face. Mentally, she calculated how soon she could convert Emily's room into a boy's room. She hated to take to work on it while Emily was still in town but the girl would understand. Stephen might protest but Mattie would get used to it soon enough. They had some time to figure out where they would put little Laurie Allen.
--
Max was weary. He alternately longed to yell at the kids for being stupid and to just leave them alone because he had felt that way once himself. Agustin and Liz did most of the yelling, while Gabriel and Beth sat there beside each other looking guilty but not sorry. Every time Agustin yelled, Max had the strange notion to be sympathetic to Gabriel. Then Liz would yell at Beth and Max knew he had to be sterner with her.
"Enough." He said finally. Cutting off everyone's speech. "The kids know what they did was wrong. I hope they can understand how disappointed we are. Not only for running off for the night but for skipping classes so early in the year. We are not forbidding you from seeing one another. Gabriel is an adult and Beth is still a minor in this state." He cut off her protest. "I don't care that your birthday is coming up. Running away will just make things harder." He took a deep breath and paced a bit between the kids and the adults. "I will insist on a break. No phone calls. No visits to each other's homes. If you run into each other at the grocery store. Fine. I can't stop that. Until Thanksgiving, I don't want to hear anything about it… and if you say one word, Bethany Parker Evans… I'll make it Christmas."
"I agree." Agustin chimed in, his eyes on his son. "Let's go, Gabriel."
"Beth…" Liz started and sighed. The door closed on the Silerios and still Liz had to struggle for words. "Are you being careful?"
"What?" Beth blinked at her mother. "I'm not having sex with him."
"Bethany…" Liz ground her teeth together.
Max studied his daughter and her aura. "She's not lying, Liz. Still. We're going to see Dr. Davis soon."
"Why?"
"Because you're an alien with one ovary and I want you to be healthy before you embark on a journey you can't turn back on." Max sighed heavily, glancing at his wife. "I can't control you. Not even if we were all human. I can try to protect you. I just want you to know that being with someone that way… it crosses a line that is closed off behind you."
"I know." Beth nodded, increasingly uncomfortable under her parent's scrutiny. "I'm not sleeping with him."
"Okay. And I believe you but I still want you to be safe." Liz stood next to her husband. "I have to be able to trust you, Beth."
"Okay."
"Go to your room. You have twenty minutes to get dressed before school."
TBC
"Mason Burkhardt III was a meticulous man." The lawyer sighed as he ran over the document. "He fully expected that one of his children would survive infancy. He left an allotment for that child or children in his will. I think he suspected for a long time that something wasn't right or that someone would turn up. There's a clause… if you check out and I have words of good faith that you will."
"We'll check out." Bonnie nodded, her excitement rose and she gripped Lauren's hand.
"I'm not sure what to do about the fortune that Mason II left to Mason III being divvied up but I will contact the aunt." He drew in a breath.
"The aunt?"
"Mason III had an aunt but he was never close to her. She'd have anything left of her brother's will."
"Oh… her Mason's aunt." She pointed to Lauren. "My Mason's sister. My aunt. Weird."
"Right." He nodded again and cracked his knuckles. "You ladies are lucky indeed. A series of mistakes to right a wrong. It's a good thing that the Burkhardt fortunes have swelled over the years due to… um… careful investments by the wife. This is good. Very good. I'm going to hire a team of investigators, some of them will be the ones used by either Mason to look after the children they knew about."
Lauren cleared her throat. "Is there something that can be done about how records were falsified?"
"I can look into it. You really want to punish this lady? Good. But don't talk about it too much. It might hurt your case." He kept looking through the pages. "Doctor Bryce Covington… huh… shit."
"What is it?"
"Excuse my language. It's not the first case with his name on it that I've seen. He used to falsify records all the time for his college buddies. It won't be easy to trace his work… but I have friends too."
--
Beth pulled herself up on the plateau and took a deep breath. "See. I can do it. I'm not a complete bum."
"You sure can." Gabriel hoisted himself and their supplies up next to her. "And you even let me get the equipment all by myself."
"I'm sorry." Beth rushed to pull some of the crap off his shoulders. "So what? We pitch tent and make camp?"
"Yep. That's usually the way it goes." He pulled their things to his favorite spot. Ditching a day of classes would do them both some good. "I'll do the tent, you make a fire pit. Grab some rocks to put around it in a circle. Gather some dry wood, some dry grass if you find some. Make sure the rocks are at least as big as your fist."
"You put together our sleeping quarters and I'm gathering sticks and stones and digging holes."
"You'll thank me later, sweetie." By dark, she had created the pit and filled it with wood and collected some extra for later burning. When he finished the tent and built the grill over the pit, the sun was just dipping over the horizon. It had taken them all day. The hitching out to the desert, the climbing of a small mountain, the making of camp. "See. Done in time. Just enough time to get this fire going and start cooking before we lose the light."
"You got the matches?" She asked as she gathered a handful of dry grass to start the fire.
"You had them." He didn't even look up as he tested the integrity of his grill.
"Right. Sure." She had no clue where the matches were. Using her powers she ignited the dry blades and slid them beneath the wood. In a few moments, they had a small fire going. He hadn't suspected a thing. She sat back against a tree and watched him place some vegetables on the grill, sprinkling spices.
"How's your head?"
"What's that?" She furrowed her brow at him.
"Your head? I noticed that you were kind of tuning people out the last couple of days. The kids don't mean to be annoying. It's just their nature to drive anyone and everyone up the wall."
"No, they're great." Beth promised. "Just some… after effects."
Gabriel stopped what he was doing and turned to her. "After effects? You mean from your…"
"Yeah. That. I was pretty bad off. With being on the wrong meds and being off any meds for such a long time. It's… a balancing act to get back to normal… hardly any pills now."
"You didn't tell me you were so bad off." He frowned at her. "What are you on now?"
"Just a little bit when I need it. Just a dusting of powder I take with my juice to begin with. The dusting has become a pinch the last few days. No big." She had indeed noticed her father spiking her juice or milk in the mornings. She had poured it out that morning but discovered that he was doing it for her own good. It dulled things just a bit. When she was stronger, she could tune it out on her own. She knew the speech would be coming when things calmed down. She would have to learn to master her powers as well as teach him some powers he didn't know he had.
"Are you okay? Do I need to make you go home?" He stared at her. She had bullied him into the running away bit for the night and he had relented so long as she stayed honest with him about everything.
"I'm fine. Out here, it doesn't bother me. No one but you and me for miles." She gave him a little smile. He had already proved that he'd make her go home if he thought she was in any danger of becoming ill.
"What? The voices?" He looked so very concerned. "You still hear them? I figured they would have gone away after all the treatments."
"I don't hear them with you. Ever. Never with you."
"So… when you do hear these voices… is it internal?" He couldn't help but be worried. Voices in the head were never good.
"It's not really a voice as much as a picture… A mini-movie flavored with someone's personality. At home… I can see you flying off a cliff. It could be either my mom or my dad. If it's a quick thing, it's my dad. If it's… slow and you reach for the ledge… it's my mom."
"Your parents want to see me fly over a cliff?" He snickered and turned to tend to the grill. "I thought they liked me now? Saving your life and all."
"Oh sure. That lasted a good while. Then I got better and I started making out with you again. Torture fantasies are common once more."
"Seriously. Do you really think that you know what people are thinking?"
"It's why I have so many problems, Gabriel." She sighed and settled near to the fire. "The other night when we were making out, you were… imagining how I would taste if you… went down on me." She watched him still.
"I thought you said you didn't hear voices with me." He turned slowly.
"I only get things from you when you are very, very focused. I can't read your mind."
"Do your parents know about this?"
"That you want to go down on me? I hope not… but they know all about my movie-vision." It felt good to share with him. "It's why they're so weird about me."
"Okay." He took a seat next to her, his fingers flexing absently. "Does it bother you when you get movies from me about you?"
"If they were about some other girl, I'd be upset but… even though I'm not ready to do all the things you picture in your head… someday, I want to be. I want to be the girl you explore with. I want to continue to be the girl that steals your thoughts and is the star in those fantasies."
"Steals my thoughts?"
"I very, very rarely get thoughts from you. You have to be wholly focused on only one thing for me to get even a glimmer." She took his right hand in hers, kissing his stiff thumb, easing the joint pain he had from climbing. "I get things about me. About your mom. About the kids… sometimes when you've been working on a column, I see that because you feel so passionately when you write. When I talk to you, I can almost feel you shifting your focus. All the little thoughts go away… and all you have on your mind is me."
"Wow, that would be egotistical if it weren't true." He cleared his throat and felt his face warm from within. "You are special to me. When I start thinking about you, it is very hard to stop. Today, we're being bad but I can't be bad like this all the time."
"I know. I just needed it. Easing back into the routine and all. I promise. The next time we're bad. It will be your idea."
"So long as we agree." He leaned in to kiss her lips gently. "I couldn't take being banned from you for long."
--
Dr. Nichols walked up behind Max, and barely glanced up before stepping around the clinch and behind the nurse's station. "So, Max, who's the new wife?"
"Same wife." Max sheepishly straightened from his embrace. "Almost new packaging."
"Ha ha." Liz shook her head at her husband. "Which reminds me." She opened her bag and held out his dinner. "Diet starts today."
"Liz." Max groaned and peered into the Tupperware. "There's far too much green in there."
"The wife has me on the same diet." Freddy frowned at the container. "My doctor says it's for my heart. She says it's for my libido. If I don't lose weight, she won't sleep with me again."
"Don't give her ideas." Max narrowed his eyes at his wife.
"I was already thinking it." Liz teased and pressed the Tupperware firmly into his hands. "Maybe you start taking David on runs with Sterling in the mornings."
"And deprive you of your bonding time?" Max kissed her forehead and swatted her rear. "Get out of here. You're distracting me from my patients."
"Danny's leaving tomorrow."
"I know. I'll be there."
--
Gina sat on her father's desk after much drawer climbing to watch him work. He followed a line with his highlighter and every end of a paragraph he tapped her hand, leaving an orange mark. She giggled. "Daddy, stop."
"I'm just playing." He stopped working and kissed her forehead. "Wouldn't you rather be playing or something? Doing homework?"
"I don't have homework today, Daddy."
"Still. Coloring or going to Oriel's to play with the boys." He capped his highlighter and watched his little girl with her curly hair. Everyone said she looked like him but he saw Isabel when he looked into his daughter's face.
"I like watching you work. It's the only time you don't worry."
"Really?"
"Uh-huh. I like it when you don't worry."
"Oh. Okay." He grinned at her. "Did you already see your mom?"
"She's with somebody in her office." She swung her legs, hitting his drawers with her tennis shoes. "Bruce says I can't go in until after five."
"Then I guess you'll have to stay here and watch me work."
"Okay." She smiled broadly.
--
Night settled on them as they were crawling inside the tent for the night. Gabriel laid out and waited for her to stretch out beside him. There was one rule he knew they wouldn't break. There would be no disrobing in this little tent.
Beth allowed the kiss. She had missed the way he felt against her. The way he tasted when he devoured her mouth. The way his cologne and shampoo tickled her nose. The way his green eyes sparkled when he stared down at her. The tent was small so staying close was clearly a necessity.
Settling beneath him, she had to restrain herself, feeling him so hard between her legs. The smell of his body invaded her nostrils. Sweat and dirt and smoke from the fire. Pushing away all the images that threatened to fill her mind, she held him closer. Deep frenzied kisses and groping hands. His hips bucked against her. She gasped as the movement caused a jolt in her belly. "Sorry."
"No, it felt good." She breathed against his ear, biting her lip when he did it again. "Oh." Her hips rose to meet his, a sweetly intense longing curling within her body. Their mouths fought furiously as their bodies instinctively moved against one another. His mouth burned down her throat as their lower bodies collided again and again. Grunts and gasps escaped her lips without fear of being overheard for once. Then it all happened at once, his breath puffing against her neck, his hips thrusting between her legs, her hips bucking upward into his and then this tightening throughout her body that she had had once before in his arms…
Wet warmth permeated the area between her thighs and Gabriel lay heavily atop her, panting into her chest. "It's going to be impossible to stay away from you."
"Then don't."
He laughed into her neck. "Like I'm going to be allowed anywhere near you after this stunt."
--
Agustin sipped his coffee but didn’t taste it. "He never came home from classes. He called in sick to work."
"She only went to three classes today." Liz nodded into her own cup. "She hasn't called but…"
Max sat on the counter and rubbed David's shoulder where the boy leaned against the sink. "I would like to have a united front when they get back."
"They'll come here first." Agustin nodded. "He'll walk her home. I have someone watching the kids for me. I appreciate all the help you've given my boy… but I don't think he should see Beth for a while."
"I'm in agreement." Liz nodded and took a deep breath. "I can't get behind this behavior."
"Okay. I agree they should take a break but… we can't act like we're forbidding them." Max met his wife's eyes. "That will only make it more attractive to them. We don't want them running away for good and doing something stupid. We have to sit them down and talk to them like adults. Gabriel is 18 but Beth is still 16."
"She's almost 17." David whispered.
"That's beside the point." Liz sighed heavily. "After all we've been through this year, she can't keep doing this."
"I know." Max groaned and nodded David to his room. "School tomorrow, kiddo."
"Okay." David walked out of the room slowly. "She's okay."
"We know." Max nodded again.
"So… we sit them down and talk to them like adults but they could still run off again." Agustin cleared his throat.
Max felt torn. On the one hand, he could be too hard and have them all hating him or on the other… he could be too easy and they would walk all over him.
--
Michael squeezed Chuck's shoulder as they peered through the window at the newest edition to the family. She was premature and her lungs were weak. The box kept her alive. The tubes in her little nose. Sam pressed his face against the glass so he could see better. They were waiting on the doctor. For the doctor to tell them that Laurie had made it through the labor. A nurse bustled out to them with some forms. "What?"
"You need to fill these out for the baby." She pressed them into Michael's hand.
"Why can't Laurie do it?"
"Hasn't the doctor been out?"
Michael clenched his jaw and motioned for the nurse not to speak any further. He scribbled what he could and handed the forms back. "Tell the doctor, that we're waiting for him right here."
--
Oriel sat beside her son's bed and brushed his hair out of his face. Mentally, she calculated how soon she could convert Emily's room into a boy's room. She hated to take to work on it while Emily was still in town but the girl would understand. Stephen might protest but Mattie would get used to it soon enough. They had some time to figure out where they would put little Laurie Allen.
--
Max was weary. He alternately longed to yell at the kids for being stupid and to just leave them alone because he had felt that way once himself. Agustin and Liz did most of the yelling, while Gabriel and Beth sat there beside each other looking guilty but not sorry. Every time Agustin yelled, Max had the strange notion to be sympathetic to Gabriel. Then Liz would yell at Beth and Max knew he had to be sterner with her.
"Enough." He said finally. Cutting off everyone's speech. "The kids know what they did was wrong. I hope they can understand how disappointed we are. Not only for running off for the night but for skipping classes so early in the year. We are not forbidding you from seeing one another. Gabriel is an adult and Beth is still a minor in this state." He cut off her protest. "I don't care that your birthday is coming up. Running away will just make things harder." He took a deep breath and paced a bit between the kids and the adults. "I will insist on a break. No phone calls. No visits to each other's homes. If you run into each other at the grocery store. Fine. I can't stop that. Until Thanksgiving, I don't want to hear anything about it… and if you say one word, Bethany Parker Evans… I'll make it Christmas."
"I agree." Agustin chimed in, his eyes on his son. "Let's go, Gabriel."
"Beth…" Liz started and sighed. The door closed on the Silerios and still Liz had to struggle for words. "Are you being careful?"
"What?" Beth blinked at her mother. "I'm not having sex with him."
"Bethany…" Liz ground her teeth together.
Max studied his daughter and her aura. "She's not lying, Liz. Still. We're going to see Dr. Davis soon."
"Why?"
"Because you're an alien with one ovary and I want you to be healthy before you embark on a journey you can't turn back on." Max sighed heavily, glancing at his wife. "I can't control you. Not even if we were all human. I can try to protect you. I just want you to know that being with someone that way… it crosses a line that is closed off behind you."
"I know." Beth nodded, increasingly uncomfortable under her parent's scrutiny. "I'm not sleeping with him."
"Okay. And I believe you but I still want you to be safe." Liz stood next to her husband. "I have to be able to trust you, Beth."
"Okay."
"Go to your room. You have twenty minutes to get dressed before school."
TBC
155
The Fate of Destiny Part 155
November 10, 2029
Michael answered the phone. It had been ringing all day long. "Michael Guerin."
"Mr. Guerin, this is…"
He added it to the long list of things to improve at the hotel. Guests weren't getting their wake up calls. Breakfast wasn't laid out on time. Sheets were being neglected in the washing process. There were three members of staff he had to speak to and hope the removal of at least one would get the Roswell Imperial back on track.
"Michael Guerin."
"Michael, Laurie has a cough. Should I take her in?" Oriel's worried voice traveled the line.
"How bad is the cough?" He cleared his mind of all hotel business and focused on the baby girl left to him.
"It's kind of raspy. I don't know. Maybe I should just take her in." Oriel sighed. "I don't want to take her to the party tomorrow if she's getting sick."
"The doctors say she's doing well. Maybe we should just… wait a day." Michael was worried too but if he was so overprotective now, poor Laurie would never leave his house and end up hating her guardians. "Did she eat?"
"Yes. She ate and she pooped and she ate. And she played some. She's having a good day otherwise." Oriel smiled into the phone. She liked her husband when he was concerned.
"Max will look her over tomorrow. She's probably fine."
"You're probably right. I'll see you when you get home… I'll leave the blinds open…"
"You're a vixen."
--
"Things have settled, Liz." Max rubbed her feet from where he sat perched on the end of the bed. "Why are you thinking about this?"
"Tomorrow is her 18th birthday, Max. Maybe it's not significant to Antarian math but on Earth it's a big deal. She can vote, she can smoke, she's past the age of consent in this state."
"Please don’t say that." He pinched her little toe. "I'm content in my fantasies that she and Gabriel do bible study on the weekends."
"Kind of hard when she doesn't believe in God." She pointed out the flaw in her husband's logic.
"So, she'll have her party and then what? She still has school on Monday."
"By our request. She could have finished and we'd have to worry about her away at school and this Sleeper business still scares me." She sat up and pulled her feet out of his hands.
Max didn't know what he could say to make her feel better. She had become increasing worried over the past year about Beth's progress and the potential dangers. "No one's coming. No one knows about her."
"What if they do and they're just waiting for her to leave Roswell again?"
"Liz. It's fine. She's just another hybrid. Our other two have come out just fine… jury's still out on David." He could see his words were just upsetting her more but there was nothing he could do. He didn't have a crystal ball and try as he might, he couldn't do most of what Beth could.
"She is not just another hybrid. Do you really think Kal would have said as much to us unless it was true? Do you really think he'd ever scare us that way unless there was a possibility?"
"I can't worry about what ifs, Liz. I can only worry about what is. Right now. Everything is fine. We have nothing to worry about." He took her into his arms and kissed her forehead. "Well, we just have to worry about her sticking to curfew but for now… I really think we're safe. We shouldn't let our guard down but wasting time worrying does us no good either. We need to enjoy the moments we have together."
--
Beth shifted her hips and she could feel him hard right up against her core. He should be studying. He had a test on Monday. But he was on top of her, moving against her, shifting and tasting and touching… aching just the same as her. Their shirts hung on the chair, their pants on the floor. Her bra straps around her elbows as he tasted one hard nipple and then the other. Her boxer briefs replaced with tiny, lacey panties just for the occasion.
Her hands roamed over every hard plane she could reach. Shoulders, back, arms, chest, stomach, ass… Their mouths ground together. Their tongues delving in and out of each other's mouths. "Gabriel."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely." Breathed out. Beth shrugged out of her bra and slid her panties as far down as they would go in their position. Gabriel panted against her neck, his fingers sliding up and over her curves.
"What if I'm not ready?" His breath puffed against her ear, even as his fingers were sliding between her thighs to stroke her folds.
"Please Gabriel."
"Maybe we should wait."
"No, please. I need you inside me." She cupped him through his boxers. "I need you, Gabriel. I love you and I need you."
"I love you, too." He lifted his head to look her in the eye. "Is this special enough?"
His room was a mess but the kids were gone with his dad to a movie. They hadn't been alone in weeks. Not since school had started for him. He wanted to. He loved her but he was afraid because he felt so much so strongly.
"I need to feel you." Beth shoved his boxers down his legs.
"You know…" He glanced between their bodies. "Underwear down around the knees is not a good look for either of us."
"Then I suggest some help in rectifying the fashion mistake."
"Are you really sure?" He cupped her cheek with his hand.
"I am 17 years, 11 months, four weeks, two days, 17 hours and… 12 minutes old. I'm ready." She bumped her hips against his. "So ready."
"Okay. You're ready and I'm not unready. Are we ready?"
"My equipment is primed and your equipment is poking me. I think we're ready."
"You think so, huh." Gabriel kicked off his boxers and pulled her panties off and tossed them away. Then he just stared at her in all her female glory on his bed. "You are beautiful. Do you know that?"
"You only tell me every day, four times a day." She teased but blushed all the same.
"You know you don't mind hearing it."
"I don't." She welcomed back her bed warmer. The hard parts of him pressing into the soft parts of her. "You're hot. You have to know that. I fantasize about you on Wednesdays because I haven't seen you in two days and it's two days before I see you again."
"That's good to hear. Really good. I slack off in classes enough thinking about you but now… I'll be in chemistry and I know I'll be thinking about you… I'm gonna blow up the school. You and your crazy ways."
"You think I'm crazy?"
"You are."
"Maybe."
"No maybes and that's part of why I love you."
"Well, I love your sanity."
"I think I'm insulted."
"Don't be. Lots of crazies in my life. I like you nice and sane."
--
Sebastien stepped into the small stall and knelt. His elbows propped on the ledge, he crossed himself and clasped his hands together. He whispered his prayers through the screen when it opened. Then he cleared his throat. "It's been one week since my last confession. I don't know if I've sinned since then but…"
"What is it, my son?"
"I confessed my sins. I received my penance. I make the penance every day, twice a day. I know that absolution was granted but I don't feel it. My sins still weigh heavily on my soul."
"Why do you think that is?"
"That's the same question my therapist asks. I can't forgive myself is the answer. Those I've sinned against will not forgive me. I can't forgive myself until they can accept me in their presence but… I know they won't."
The priest sighed heavily and broke the rule of the confessional. "Sebastien. Prayer and penance can only help so much. I will still hear your confession every week. I will still give what penance I think will help but I cannot heal your soul for you. I don't have this answer. Have you tried to call your father?"
"No. He sent me a card on my birthday. That was last year. I left him a voicemail on Father's Day. I sent him a present but I don't know if he got it or kept it. Gina calls me sometimes but I don't know if anyone is there to watch her make the calls… if they know she's been calling me. Grandma might let her. Grandma calls me but I always hear something in her voice. I don't know if it's pity or disappointment."
"Are you doing anything with your life here, Sebastien?"
"I go to school. I'm not rushing because I don't want to relapse. I've been sober for a year and two months. No alcohol, no drugs, no sex."
"I see. Sebastien. I want you to go out there and think about the changes you want in your life. Tomorrow, after mass, I want you to come see me in my office. I think you need more in your life than school and worry."
"Like what?"
"We'll discuss it tomorrow. Good night, Sebastien."
--
Berty tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes to relish the feel of gentle lips on her skin. Her volleyball jersey barely rested on her frame as his hands glided up and down her back. When her phone rang, they parted so she could compose herself. "Hello? … Okay, Mom… Okay… I'm coming home."
She hung up her cell and turned to Joey. He only nodded. "You have to go."
"But I'll see you at the party tomorrow, right?"
"I will be there."
"Why do you come to all the games? You hate sports."
"I like keeping score." He ran his thumb over her swollen lips. "And I like watching you score."
--
Lauren's head bobbed for the twentieth time while Kal and the managers and the producers and the lawyers and the executives and whoever else hashed out the details of her getting paid. She just wanted to sign the contract and go home so she could sleep. 16 hour days for weeks and they were scheduling more projects for her.
"We went back through the fresh-faced, bright-eyed thing in the early millennium. This dark and brooding gal is ready for a comeback. She did well in the videos. All of them were well received." Kal explained. He tapped her head with a folder to wake her up again. "This movie will put 'The Crow' to shame. Focus the whole series on her, a mostly undead defender of life."
"You don't have a script."
"I do have an idea. You used to trust me on this. I have the last half hour scripted. In the first movie. She's not dead. She's fresh-faced and darling and then… splat. She dies. When she realizes she's dead and she's not going to have her life back, she transforms. Butterfly from the cocoon as a leather-wearing, sword-toting soldier of the night."
"The series is based on this undead girl but you don’t want to kill her until the end of the movie?"
"Exactly."
"You don't think the audience will get lost in trying to figure out the point if she doesn't bite it until the end?"
"There are other characters, boys and girls. She has a guardian. There are others like her in the world already undead. They make allusions. They trip her up. You'll wonder if she was going to die anyway if they hadn't interfered. It's meant to be a brain teaser."
"We'll need to budget for a stunt-double." An executive sighed and ran his eyes over a list of figures he'd scribbled as the meeting had gone on.
"I do my own stunts." Lauren blurted out and winced, waiting for a second slap from Kal with the folder. "I'm trained in ballet, tap, slapstick. I'm active. I go moshing. I can do my own stunts."
"We'll work it out when we get the stunts scripted." Kal covered his end. "If the stunt is too risky, we'll get a double."
--
Jim looked up when Berty wandered into the house. "Hey you. I almost forgot if you were a blonde. I haven't seen you in a while." Berty just shrugged and sank onto the couch across from her grandfather. He fiddled with his shoe shining kit for a moment longer. "How did the game go?"
"We lost by a point." She pressed her face against the cushions and shut her eyes. "I can't complain too hard. Joanne Blethen got hit in the face with the ball and that's the only reason they got the point. It would have been tied by three."
"Is she okay?"
"She had a knot when I left. Trainer said the swelling should go down in a few days."
"That's good."
"Mom didn't show up."
"She was busy. She's got a big case right now."
"Jesse showed up." Berty pouted and rolled to face the back of the couch. Jim didn't know what to say to that.
--
Beth bounded up the stairs and flopped onto her bed. She could still smell and feel Gabriel all around her. Her aura still held the memory of his aura. The last languorous kisses before clothes were found lingered in her mind. A dull ache throbbed between her thighs. Shutting her eyes, she relived it over in her mind. When the phone rang, she knew who it was.
"Hey."
"Hey." She answered shyly.
"Are you okay?"
"Uh-huh. I'm great."
"So, you're okay?"
"Yes. I am very, very fine." She sighed happily. "Kind of wish I could have stayed the night, though."
"Me too but too many questions and lectures."
"I know."
"But I will try my hardest to see you tomorrow but in case I don't… Happy 18th birthday, sweetie."
"Thanks." She breathed out. "I love you."
"I love you." He sighed. "Dad's calling. Talk to you later."
"Good night. Sweet dreams."
"No dream could be as sweet as the reality."
TBC
November 10, 2029
Michael answered the phone. It had been ringing all day long. "Michael Guerin."
"Mr. Guerin, this is…"
He added it to the long list of things to improve at the hotel. Guests weren't getting their wake up calls. Breakfast wasn't laid out on time. Sheets were being neglected in the washing process. There were three members of staff he had to speak to and hope the removal of at least one would get the Roswell Imperial back on track.
"Michael Guerin."
"Michael, Laurie has a cough. Should I take her in?" Oriel's worried voice traveled the line.
"How bad is the cough?" He cleared his mind of all hotel business and focused on the baby girl left to him.
"It's kind of raspy. I don't know. Maybe I should just take her in." Oriel sighed. "I don't want to take her to the party tomorrow if she's getting sick."
"The doctors say she's doing well. Maybe we should just… wait a day." Michael was worried too but if he was so overprotective now, poor Laurie would never leave his house and end up hating her guardians. "Did she eat?"
"Yes. She ate and she pooped and she ate. And she played some. She's having a good day otherwise." Oriel smiled into the phone. She liked her husband when he was concerned.
"Max will look her over tomorrow. She's probably fine."
"You're probably right. I'll see you when you get home… I'll leave the blinds open…"
"You're a vixen."
--
"Things have settled, Liz." Max rubbed her feet from where he sat perched on the end of the bed. "Why are you thinking about this?"
"Tomorrow is her 18th birthday, Max. Maybe it's not significant to Antarian math but on Earth it's a big deal. She can vote, she can smoke, she's past the age of consent in this state."
"Please don’t say that." He pinched her little toe. "I'm content in my fantasies that she and Gabriel do bible study on the weekends."
"Kind of hard when she doesn't believe in God." She pointed out the flaw in her husband's logic.
"So, she'll have her party and then what? She still has school on Monday."
"By our request. She could have finished and we'd have to worry about her away at school and this Sleeper business still scares me." She sat up and pulled her feet out of his hands.
Max didn't know what he could say to make her feel better. She had become increasing worried over the past year about Beth's progress and the potential dangers. "No one's coming. No one knows about her."
"What if they do and they're just waiting for her to leave Roswell again?"
"Liz. It's fine. She's just another hybrid. Our other two have come out just fine… jury's still out on David." He could see his words were just upsetting her more but there was nothing he could do. He didn't have a crystal ball and try as he might, he couldn't do most of what Beth could.
"She is not just another hybrid. Do you really think Kal would have said as much to us unless it was true? Do you really think he'd ever scare us that way unless there was a possibility?"
"I can't worry about what ifs, Liz. I can only worry about what is. Right now. Everything is fine. We have nothing to worry about." He took her into his arms and kissed her forehead. "Well, we just have to worry about her sticking to curfew but for now… I really think we're safe. We shouldn't let our guard down but wasting time worrying does us no good either. We need to enjoy the moments we have together."
--
Beth shifted her hips and she could feel him hard right up against her core. He should be studying. He had a test on Monday. But he was on top of her, moving against her, shifting and tasting and touching… aching just the same as her. Their shirts hung on the chair, their pants on the floor. Her bra straps around her elbows as he tasted one hard nipple and then the other. Her boxer briefs replaced with tiny, lacey panties just for the occasion.
Her hands roamed over every hard plane she could reach. Shoulders, back, arms, chest, stomach, ass… Their mouths ground together. Their tongues delving in and out of each other's mouths. "Gabriel."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely." Breathed out. Beth shrugged out of her bra and slid her panties as far down as they would go in their position. Gabriel panted against her neck, his fingers sliding up and over her curves.
"What if I'm not ready?" His breath puffed against her ear, even as his fingers were sliding between her thighs to stroke her folds.
"Please Gabriel."
"Maybe we should wait."
"No, please. I need you inside me." She cupped him through his boxers. "I need you, Gabriel. I love you and I need you."
"I love you, too." He lifted his head to look her in the eye. "Is this special enough?"
His room was a mess but the kids were gone with his dad to a movie. They hadn't been alone in weeks. Not since school had started for him. He wanted to. He loved her but he was afraid because he felt so much so strongly.
"I need to feel you." Beth shoved his boxers down his legs.
"You know…" He glanced between their bodies. "Underwear down around the knees is not a good look for either of us."
"Then I suggest some help in rectifying the fashion mistake."
"Are you really sure?" He cupped her cheek with his hand.
"I am 17 years, 11 months, four weeks, two days, 17 hours and… 12 minutes old. I'm ready." She bumped her hips against his. "So ready."
"Okay. You're ready and I'm not unready. Are we ready?"
"My equipment is primed and your equipment is poking me. I think we're ready."
"You think so, huh." Gabriel kicked off his boxers and pulled her panties off and tossed them away. Then he just stared at her in all her female glory on his bed. "You are beautiful. Do you know that?"
"You only tell me every day, four times a day." She teased but blushed all the same.
"You know you don't mind hearing it."
"I don't." She welcomed back her bed warmer. The hard parts of him pressing into the soft parts of her. "You're hot. You have to know that. I fantasize about you on Wednesdays because I haven't seen you in two days and it's two days before I see you again."
"That's good to hear. Really good. I slack off in classes enough thinking about you but now… I'll be in chemistry and I know I'll be thinking about you… I'm gonna blow up the school. You and your crazy ways."
"You think I'm crazy?"
"You are."
"Maybe."
"No maybes and that's part of why I love you."
"Well, I love your sanity."
"I think I'm insulted."
"Don't be. Lots of crazies in my life. I like you nice and sane."
--
Sebastien stepped into the small stall and knelt. His elbows propped on the ledge, he crossed himself and clasped his hands together. He whispered his prayers through the screen when it opened. Then he cleared his throat. "It's been one week since my last confession. I don't know if I've sinned since then but…"
"What is it, my son?"
"I confessed my sins. I received my penance. I make the penance every day, twice a day. I know that absolution was granted but I don't feel it. My sins still weigh heavily on my soul."
"Why do you think that is?"
"That's the same question my therapist asks. I can't forgive myself is the answer. Those I've sinned against will not forgive me. I can't forgive myself until they can accept me in their presence but… I know they won't."
The priest sighed heavily and broke the rule of the confessional. "Sebastien. Prayer and penance can only help so much. I will still hear your confession every week. I will still give what penance I think will help but I cannot heal your soul for you. I don't have this answer. Have you tried to call your father?"
"No. He sent me a card on my birthday. That was last year. I left him a voicemail on Father's Day. I sent him a present but I don't know if he got it or kept it. Gina calls me sometimes but I don't know if anyone is there to watch her make the calls… if they know she's been calling me. Grandma might let her. Grandma calls me but I always hear something in her voice. I don't know if it's pity or disappointment."
"Are you doing anything with your life here, Sebastien?"
"I go to school. I'm not rushing because I don't want to relapse. I've been sober for a year and two months. No alcohol, no drugs, no sex."
"I see. Sebastien. I want you to go out there and think about the changes you want in your life. Tomorrow, after mass, I want you to come see me in my office. I think you need more in your life than school and worry."
"Like what?"
"We'll discuss it tomorrow. Good night, Sebastien."
--
Berty tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes to relish the feel of gentle lips on her skin. Her volleyball jersey barely rested on her frame as his hands glided up and down her back. When her phone rang, they parted so she could compose herself. "Hello? … Okay, Mom… Okay… I'm coming home."
She hung up her cell and turned to Joey. He only nodded. "You have to go."
"But I'll see you at the party tomorrow, right?"
"I will be there."
"Why do you come to all the games? You hate sports."
"I like keeping score." He ran his thumb over her swollen lips. "And I like watching you score."
--
Lauren's head bobbed for the twentieth time while Kal and the managers and the producers and the lawyers and the executives and whoever else hashed out the details of her getting paid. She just wanted to sign the contract and go home so she could sleep. 16 hour days for weeks and they were scheduling more projects for her.
"We went back through the fresh-faced, bright-eyed thing in the early millennium. This dark and brooding gal is ready for a comeback. She did well in the videos. All of them were well received." Kal explained. He tapped her head with a folder to wake her up again. "This movie will put 'The Crow' to shame. Focus the whole series on her, a mostly undead defender of life."
"You don't have a script."
"I do have an idea. You used to trust me on this. I have the last half hour scripted. In the first movie. She's not dead. She's fresh-faced and darling and then… splat. She dies. When she realizes she's dead and she's not going to have her life back, she transforms. Butterfly from the cocoon as a leather-wearing, sword-toting soldier of the night."
"The series is based on this undead girl but you don’t want to kill her until the end of the movie?"
"Exactly."
"You don't think the audience will get lost in trying to figure out the point if she doesn't bite it until the end?"
"There are other characters, boys and girls. She has a guardian. There are others like her in the world already undead. They make allusions. They trip her up. You'll wonder if she was going to die anyway if they hadn't interfered. It's meant to be a brain teaser."
"We'll need to budget for a stunt-double." An executive sighed and ran his eyes over a list of figures he'd scribbled as the meeting had gone on.
"I do my own stunts." Lauren blurted out and winced, waiting for a second slap from Kal with the folder. "I'm trained in ballet, tap, slapstick. I'm active. I go moshing. I can do my own stunts."
"We'll work it out when we get the stunts scripted." Kal covered his end. "If the stunt is too risky, we'll get a double."
--
Jim looked up when Berty wandered into the house. "Hey you. I almost forgot if you were a blonde. I haven't seen you in a while." Berty just shrugged and sank onto the couch across from her grandfather. He fiddled with his shoe shining kit for a moment longer. "How did the game go?"
"We lost by a point." She pressed her face against the cushions and shut her eyes. "I can't complain too hard. Joanne Blethen got hit in the face with the ball and that's the only reason they got the point. It would have been tied by three."
"Is she okay?"
"She had a knot when I left. Trainer said the swelling should go down in a few days."
"That's good."
"Mom didn't show up."
"She was busy. She's got a big case right now."
"Jesse showed up." Berty pouted and rolled to face the back of the couch. Jim didn't know what to say to that.
--
Beth bounded up the stairs and flopped onto her bed. She could still smell and feel Gabriel all around her. Her aura still held the memory of his aura. The last languorous kisses before clothes were found lingered in her mind. A dull ache throbbed between her thighs. Shutting her eyes, she relived it over in her mind. When the phone rang, she knew who it was.
"Hey."
"Hey." She answered shyly.
"Are you okay?"
"Uh-huh. I'm great."
"So, you're okay?"
"Yes. I am very, very fine." She sighed happily. "Kind of wish I could have stayed the night, though."
"Me too but too many questions and lectures."
"I know."
"But I will try my hardest to see you tomorrow but in case I don't… Happy 18th birthday, sweetie."
"Thanks." She breathed out. "I love you."
"I love you." He sighed. "Dad's calling. Talk to you later."
"Good night. Sweet dreams."
"No dream could be as sweet as the reality."
TBC
The Fate of Destiny Part 156
Will held the door open to let his girlfriend into her parents' house. It was early but the Evans house was notorious for early weekends and breakfasts. Still, the couple moved quietly into the house and into the kitchen where it was quiet. The coffeemaker had a full pot waiting for the returning family. They were just sitting down with their steaming cups when the front door opened to chattering and barking. Sterling loped into the kitchen and immediately barked at its occupants before sniffing them out. Kat shot out of her chair to hug her parents and her little brother.
"Where's the birthday girl?" Kat demanded immediately after greetings.
"Still asleep, I think." Max shrugged and pressed another kiss to his daughter's head. "How long do I get to keep you?"
"Just a couple of days. I couldn't miss her party but I have work to do." Kathy quickly explained.
"I promised I'd have her home in time for some presentation she has on Wednesday." Will chimed in.
"What is with all the noise?" Beth stumbled into the room still rubbing sleep out of her eyes.
"Happy Birthday!" came the chorus.
Beth nearly jumped at all the noise. Then she really opened her eyes to take in all the people standing in the kitchen. Then she was swooped up in various hugs. Then she had Will in her arms. "You came."
"Of course I did. I always come for your birthday." Will kissed the top of her head. "18. Wow. You're finally legal."
"Finally." Beth breathed out.
He looked her over. "You know, it feels like yesterday that I walked through that door and this little girl with a book under her arm was sitting in the living room, asking me all sorts of questions." He pinched her cheek. "You don't look a thing like that girl."
"She's still in here… somewhere."
"Maybe you let her out to play some time?" Liz asked, her eyes welling with tears as she leaned on her baby boy. He was the only minor left to them.
"I'm ready to take you up on that marriage proposal." Will winked at her over Kat's head. The response was an elbow in the gut from his loving girlfriend.
"You'd have to wrestle Gabriel for the honor." Beth grinned stupidly as the memory of the previous night's rendezvous flashed in her mind.
"Has he been behaving himself?" He playfully asked.
"They both have." Liz breathed out. "No trouble so far since last fall. My gray and my color haven't been warring with each other."
"Pancakes or waffles?" Max called over the din.
"Waffles!" Beth cheered out. "Please?"
"Birthday girl trumps all other requests." Max quieted David's pout about wanting pancakes. "Kat? Will? Have you guys eaten?"
"Just a jelly donut or two on the drive from the airport." Will confessed.
"Then you'll get some eggs too." Liz chimed in, a sigh of contentment at her full table, even if it was for just a few days.
"To add to my ever-expanding waistline?" Kat scrunched up her face.
"I thought you'd gained a pound or two." Beth teased and took her juice from her father. It tasted momentarily of the acidic powder he stirred in every morning but she'd long been used to the taste. "What do you weigh now? 90 pounds?"
"Shut up." Kat tossed a napkin at her sister. "I'm exaggerating. Fine. I know it… but Dad… you're looking good."
Max resisted the urge to growl. Liz pecked his lips lightly. "I've been greatly encouraged to include greens and exclude donuts and beef and anything fried."
"And joining us on the morning runs with the dog." Liz hugged her husband. "He looks just as good as he did in college." That time, Max did growl at her.
"What?" Kat didn't understand his annoyance.
"In high school, your dad was built like an athlete. He spent a lot of his extra time working out. He thinks he's going to get that fit again."
"I can do it." Max declared. "I can. I used to bench 200 without breaking a sweat."
"Sterling. Up." David ordered. The dog stood on his hind legs to place his front paws on David's shoulders. "Good dog." The youngest member of the Evans clan, panted happily while his belly was scratched. "Good dog. Sterling. Down." The overgrown pup obediently put all four paws on the floor then sat beside Beth, putting his head in her lap. "Have you been sneaking him bacon again?"
"No." Beth lied and rubbed the furry head in her lap. "He loves me."
--
Berty was lying awake in her bed when her mother peeked in. "Morning, sweetie. I thought you'd still be asleep."
"I'm awake."
"I hear the game was close."
"We lost by a point. It was my fault."
"I'm sure that's not true." Isabel closed the door behind her and sat on the edge of the bed.
"It is." Berty managed a smile. "You know Joanne Blethen. She goes to East."
"I vaguely recall that we hate her with the fury of a thousand suns." Isabel teased.
"Yeah, well. She was acting so smarmy through the whole game. Every time I looked at her through that net, it drove me crazy. We were both against the net. I scored the point, or would have if her face hadn't gotten in the way. Our point was given to them on a foul. We never did catch up but they never scored on their own again. So it ended up being 3-4, East." She picked at her sheet for a long moment. "Why didn't you come?"
"I was busy."
"Jesse came."
"He didn't have to work on my case." Isabel sighed and looked her daughter over. "Why were you out so late after the game? Jesse waited for you."
"Did he?"
"He stopped by the office after the game. When you still hadn't called anyone for a ride, I got worried."
"I was at Joey's. We were watching a movie."
"Are you going to bring him over to meet us?"
"Probably not. It's not that serious." Berty sat up and shrugged. "I like him… but he doesn't know what he wants."
"How do you mean?"
"We talk at school. We hang out in public but he only wants to kiss me if the doors are closed, you know?"
"Maybe he's a very private person."
"Last year he thought he was gay. I don't know if he still thinks he is or if he's afraid to admit he's not or… if he just doesn't want anybody to know he makes out with me on the weekends." Berty glanced up at her mother. "And that's all it is, Mom. Just kissing. I promise."
"How do you know he doesn't really like you?"
"Well, he does, I guess. I mean… he hates sports and being outside but he keeps score at my games and he'll sit in the stands and cheer me on. I just… He's my friend and I'm absolutely certain that we are friends but I want more. I want to hold someone's hand in the halls. I want to wonder if I'll get married. Not that I want to marry Joey but… do I make any sense?"
"Yeah. You do." Isabel stroked her hair out of her face and rubbed her back. "You want to know if that's even a possible path. Because if it's not and you keep making out with him… are you always just going to be the friend he keeps to have the benefits."
"Yeah."
"Have you talked to him?"
"Talking to Joey is like talking to a merry go 'round."
--
Donna Jo grinned at Mr. Evans when he leaned into the room to make sure they were getting ready for the party and not just sitting around gossiping. "It's razor, Mr. E. I'll get her to the church in time."
"Don’t joke about that." Max pleaded as he shut the door and left them to their devices.
"Your dad is still razor, Beth."
"No, he's not." Beth shook her head. "But then, I don't have the hots for him."
"Oh please." Donna Jo protested but broke into a giggle. "Okay, so maybe I have this… lingering thing for the Evans men… I used to have these daydreams that Danny would come back from school and look at me, you know?"
"You did?" Beth turned to her friend. "I didn't know that."
"I didn't tell anyone and anyway… it was mostly when… you know." She trailed off.
"When we weren't talking." Beth finished for her. "There's always David."
"He is such a cutie but I like older men."
"Me too."
"I see your smile." Donna Jo draped herself over the bed. "Spill. Your pores are smiling. What happened?"
Beth reached out just a bit to make sure no one could possibly hear their chatter. She leaned in. "Last night… it happened."
"It?" Donna Jo asked. "It-it?"
"Yeah."
"How was it?"
Beth turned a bright red. "I'm not ready to share it, just yet."
"My first-first time, sucked." Donna Jo revealed. "It hurt, it was uncomfortable and I felt like… like I just… it was bad."
"It wasn't like that."
"My first-second time… was… to date, the best I ever had."
"Donna Jo." Beth grinned and tossed a pillow at her. They fell silent. "Have you talked to him at all?"
"No." She sighed heavily. "I want to hate him. I want to play the victim but the truth was that I went after him. I pursued him pretty… yeah. I wanted him as my first and I got him. I knew he was leaving and I was still surprised when he did. He should have called and he did try but…"
"You expected more and you're thinking that maybe you shouldn't have."
"Maybe." Then she grinned. "So, was he good?"
"He was very good to me." Beth admitted. "He's always good to me."
"But did he change your world?" A smile crept across her face but she didn't answer. Donna Jo just nodded. "So, he did. I'm glad for you."
--
"So, who's this girl?" Kathy pointed to a picture. David ducked his head but didn't say a word. "Come on. You have to spill to me."
A shrug. "It's just a girl."
"Is she your girlfriend?"
Another shrug. "She's a girl. You're right."
"But is she your girlfriend?"
"And also a girl who's a friend." He hedged a bit.
"Mom says some Sarah girl calls the house. Some Betsy girl, too. Is this Sarah or Betsy?"
"Neither."
"Will, he's not playing fair." Kathy complained.
"You don't play fair either. I don't know why you're surprised." Will pointed out from where he sat reading the newspaper.
"That's April." Liz filled in. "She's sweet and she's the one I like the best out of all the girls who call the house. Penny just broke his heart. He's afraid to commit to April… and so I take messages from Sarah and Betsy, too."
"Mom." David scoffed.
"Oh and there was one more. Exotic name but I haven't met her yet. What was it?" Liz pinched her son's cheek. "Savannah?"
"Sahara. Simone Sahara." David finally relented.
"She stuffs her bra." Beth announced as she and Donna Jo appeared dressed and coiffed to party.
"I saw her doing it in the locker room." Donna Jo pinched one cheek and kissed the other, making the teen turn bright red. "She was trying awfully hard to impress someone."
"I can't let her get her hopes up." David shrugged, trying to regain some of his masculinity in front of the only other man in the room.
"Oh? Do we have someone in mind?" Liz tilted her hand at her son. Beth tilted her head but her expression was one of amusement rather than interest.
"I can't let Simone think she can take Donna Jo's place."
"Ambitious." Will cocked an eyebrow but didn't look up from his paper.
"Aw… sweetie, you're jailbait." She pinched his cheek again. "Tell you what, though. I'll let you escort me to Homecoming and we'll call it a date so the guys think you're something special. Well, you are special. You are the only Evans man available anymore."
"Wow and I thought you were going to hold out for Mike Devin to ask you." Beth snorted. She turned to her little brother. "Accept gracefully and let her plan the week. You'll be the school stud by Sunday."
"Beth." Liz sighed.
"Aw. I won't hurt him. I need an escort who will treat me like the lady I am." Donna Jo stood and pulled Beth to her feet. "We have a party to get started."
--
Lauren groaned as she sat in the backseat of the taxi. "Dude. I'm tired. I've got a party to get to."
"What's the address?"
"Don't know. Crashdown. In Roswell. Please tell me you can find it."
"Lady, if there's any one place every driver in this airport knows, that's the place."
"Why?"
"It's famous, locally." He put the car on the road and glanced in the rearview. "Do I know you from someplace?"
"Never been to Roswell in my life."
"No. I've seen you."
"I was in some music videos."
"No, that ain't it. My kid would probably tell me who you are right off the bat." He tapped the steering wheel. "Don't know where I would have seen you if that's the stuff you do. I'm mostly a CNN kind of guy." He set the car on the relatively short ride to Roswell proper. "I like the televised legal proceedings. There was this one I was interested in about six months back but they never finished airing the proceedings."
Lauren examined her fingernails for a moment. "The Burkhardt inheritance redistribution."
"That's the name, how'd you…" He took another look in the rearview mirror. "That's where I saw you. You're the girl. What happened with that?"
"I won but she's appealing the decision to reprint my birth certificate."
"What a monster. We were rooting for you the whole time. You and that uh… aunt of yours. Burkhardts, what a mess."
"Well, the mess ends with her. My aunt and I will be changing the way the family name is thought of."
"I was following pretty closely. How did you get around the custodial papers?"
"My father never signed the paper. He had passed away already. The allotments in his will state that any child of his would be allotted a trust."
"So, are you a rich woman?"
"Of my own accord. I don't get my inheritance until her appeal is overturned."
"Because you're a model?"
Lauren smiled to herself. "Because I signed a franchise last night. You'll be seeing me on the big screen in two years."
"So, what's a cutie like you doing in Roswell? Some kind of party you said?"
"A distant cousin is 18 today. I promised I'd swing by for a visit." Lauren's jaw dropped when she saw the UFO sticking out of the building. "Holy Cow."
"Yeah… our town's pride and joy."
Lauren slid some cash up front while gathering her purse to climb out of the car. The driver unloaded her bag and set it on the sidewalk for her. "Thanks."
"The party will probably be the highlight of your trip. Welcome to Roswell."
Lauren grabbed the handle on her bag and rolled it with her into the Crashdown, where there were Goth kids all over the place save for two blondes and the family. A shriek split her eardrums seconds before Beth was launching herself at Lauren. "Oh my God, you came!"
"Hi!" Lauren hugged her. To look at her, no one could ever guess that she'd been practically at death's door a year before.
"You have to come meet everyone. They're all huge fans and that was before I put in my influence." Beth made the rounds with Lauren and then stopped in front of her mother. "Mom! Look who's here."
"Hi, Lauren. It's good to see you again." Liz hugged her. "How was your flight?"
"Cramped. I forgot to book my ticket on time. Then I was on standby and then I had this guy next to me with the worst BO." She sighed and then turned to hug Max. "But the cab driver recognized me from CNN and wished my evil mother hell. So, now I feel better."
"You'll get what you deserve." Max promised and gestured to the spread. "I'm sure you're hungry and Beth will be back to maul you again after she's made the rounds."
Lauren gave Will a hug, who kissed the top of her head. Kathy gave her a warm hug. "Look at you. I didn't think it was possible for you to get thinner."
"My agent keeps me on my toes and forgets to schedule my feeding times." Lauren took a seat at a booth. "But when I go home, Gia always loads me up with the rich stuff. Sauces and creams and desserts with chocolate and raspberry syrups…"
"Falling in love with food?" Kathy laughed.
"Oh you know it."
"Here you go." Liz set down a plate in front of her. "Eat up."
"Thanks, Liz." Then she reached down and pulled a case out of her bag. "Okay. This was Kal's idea and I think it's pretty neat. This is me before I die and…" She took a minute to pop in the contact lenses. "This is me after I die."
Liz just blinked at the difference the contacts made. Lauren didn't look 'dead', she looked more like a member of the family than before. "Wow."
"Kal said it makes me look ethereal. The color is called honey but because my eyes are so dark, they kind of show through."
"It looks natural." Liz breathed out. "Stick you in a picture with us and no one could tell you didn't belong to us."
"Really?" Lauren pulled them out and set the contacts aside. She smiled sadly at Liz when she looked up. "Do you know how weird it is to miss someone you've never met?"
"Yes." Isabel nodded as she joined the table. "Liz, my daughter is in crisis. You've had two reach this stage. I need help. I need it now."
"Why?"
"Because. I do."
--
Sebastien had stood outside for twenty minutes before he made the short trek inside, shoulders hunched and hands in his pockets. After mass, Father had instructed him where to go. He felt ill as he crossed the threshold. Sister Anne guided him to the back room where there were several tables laid out with half-completed projects. "Father Destry said you needed some direction," she started. "I can't give that to you but I do need someone on the weekends to oversee this room."
"Doing what?" He looked up at her.
"Helping the kids to finish whatever project they've started." She motioned to the tables. "Sometimes they don't get to finish."
"Kids?" His confusion mounted but he knew where he was. He'd seen the sign outside.
"All the children who come here have terminal illnesses and their parents have to work to pay for the medical bills. I am short staffed for counseling sessions as it is. I can't spare a single one of my sisters to watch them. Father Destry said that you would gladly take it on."
"I can do it." Sebastien nodded even as his guts twisted into knots. "They have cancer?"
"I'm afraid so. Are you… familiar?"
"My mother had cancer… but I can't say I know what it's like to care for someone with it… she… killed herself before anyone found out."
"How old were you?" The nun was sympathetic but not comforting.
"Six."
"Young to lose a mother. Some of the children are six years old. Young for a parent to lose them. There's a lot of loss and a lot of pain. Can you handle this?"
"I will try."
"Good. They start coming in after first mass on Sunday. They'll be here soon."
--
Beth grinned stupidly to herself all day. Nothing could make her gripe. If something tempted her to snip, all she had to do was remember how gentle and loving Gabriel had been the night before. Just remember the expression on his face when he came in a beautiful eruption inside her. It would have been poetic if they had just gotten married or created life…
Occasionally she touched her tummy over her only ovary and wondered if it would be possible for her to give him a child at some later date. A child with his green eyes and her mink colored hair… a boy with his daddy's face or a girl with her bone structure. Only time would truly tell. Time and miracles.
An arm slipped around her middle and her grin turned into a smile. "You came."
"I had to." She tilted her head back to accept a kiss. When she attempted to turn in his arms to deepen it, he stopped her and broke contact. "Be careful, sweetie, or everyone will know what we did last night."
"I can't help it." She rested her head against his shoulder. "I love you. I don't care who can see it."
"Me too… which is why I couldn't stay away." Carefully, he pressed a kiss to her temple. The temptation to spin her around and kiss her senseless was overwhelming but he could see her father, brother and Agent Goldblum in his peripheral vision.
"Next Friday is forever away."
"Yeah, it is."
TBC
Will held the door open to let his girlfriend into her parents' house. It was early but the Evans house was notorious for early weekends and breakfasts. Still, the couple moved quietly into the house and into the kitchen where it was quiet. The coffeemaker had a full pot waiting for the returning family. They were just sitting down with their steaming cups when the front door opened to chattering and barking. Sterling loped into the kitchen and immediately barked at its occupants before sniffing them out. Kat shot out of her chair to hug her parents and her little brother.
"Where's the birthday girl?" Kat demanded immediately after greetings.
"Still asleep, I think." Max shrugged and pressed another kiss to his daughter's head. "How long do I get to keep you?"
"Just a couple of days. I couldn't miss her party but I have work to do." Kathy quickly explained.
"I promised I'd have her home in time for some presentation she has on Wednesday." Will chimed in.
"What is with all the noise?" Beth stumbled into the room still rubbing sleep out of her eyes.
"Happy Birthday!" came the chorus.
Beth nearly jumped at all the noise. Then she really opened her eyes to take in all the people standing in the kitchen. Then she was swooped up in various hugs. Then she had Will in her arms. "You came."
"Of course I did. I always come for your birthday." Will kissed the top of her head. "18. Wow. You're finally legal."
"Finally." Beth breathed out.
He looked her over. "You know, it feels like yesterday that I walked through that door and this little girl with a book under her arm was sitting in the living room, asking me all sorts of questions." He pinched her cheek. "You don't look a thing like that girl."
"She's still in here… somewhere."
"Maybe you let her out to play some time?" Liz asked, her eyes welling with tears as she leaned on her baby boy. He was the only minor left to them.
"I'm ready to take you up on that marriage proposal." Will winked at her over Kat's head. The response was an elbow in the gut from his loving girlfriend.
"You'd have to wrestle Gabriel for the honor." Beth grinned stupidly as the memory of the previous night's rendezvous flashed in her mind.
"Has he been behaving himself?" He playfully asked.
"They both have." Liz breathed out. "No trouble so far since last fall. My gray and my color haven't been warring with each other."
"Pancakes or waffles?" Max called over the din.
"Waffles!" Beth cheered out. "Please?"
"Birthday girl trumps all other requests." Max quieted David's pout about wanting pancakes. "Kat? Will? Have you guys eaten?"
"Just a jelly donut or two on the drive from the airport." Will confessed.
"Then you'll get some eggs too." Liz chimed in, a sigh of contentment at her full table, even if it was for just a few days.
"To add to my ever-expanding waistline?" Kat scrunched up her face.
"I thought you'd gained a pound or two." Beth teased and took her juice from her father. It tasted momentarily of the acidic powder he stirred in every morning but she'd long been used to the taste. "What do you weigh now? 90 pounds?"
"Shut up." Kat tossed a napkin at her sister. "I'm exaggerating. Fine. I know it… but Dad… you're looking good."
Max resisted the urge to growl. Liz pecked his lips lightly. "I've been greatly encouraged to include greens and exclude donuts and beef and anything fried."
"And joining us on the morning runs with the dog." Liz hugged her husband. "He looks just as good as he did in college." That time, Max did growl at her.
"What?" Kat didn't understand his annoyance.
"In high school, your dad was built like an athlete. He spent a lot of his extra time working out. He thinks he's going to get that fit again."
"I can do it." Max declared. "I can. I used to bench 200 without breaking a sweat."
"Sterling. Up." David ordered. The dog stood on his hind legs to place his front paws on David's shoulders. "Good dog." The youngest member of the Evans clan, panted happily while his belly was scratched. "Good dog. Sterling. Down." The overgrown pup obediently put all four paws on the floor then sat beside Beth, putting his head in her lap. "Have you been sneaking him bacon again?"
"No." Beth lied and rubbed the furry head in her lap. "He loves me."
--
Berty was lying awake in her bed when her mother peeked in. "Morning, sweetie. I thought you'd still be asleep."
"I'm awake."
"I hear the game was close."
"We lost by a point. It was my fault."
"I'm sure that's not true." Isabel closed the door behind her and sat on the edge of the bed.
"It is." Berty managed a smile. "You know Joanne Blethen. She goes to East."
"I vaguely recall that we hate her with the fury of a thousand suns." Isabel teased.
"Yeah, well. She was acting so smarmy through the whole game. Every time I looked at her through that net, it drove me crazy. We were both against the net. I scored the point, or would have if her face hadn't gotten in the way. Our point was given to them on a foul. We never did catch up but they never scored on their own again. So it ended up being 3-4, East." She picked at her sheet for a long moment. "Why didn't you come?"
"I was busy."
"Jesse came."
"He didn't have to work on my case." Isabel sighed and looked her daughter over. "Why were you out so late after the game? Jesse waited for you."
"Did he?"
"He stopped by the office after the game. When you still hadn't called anyone for a ride, I got worried."
"I was at Joey's. We were watching a movie."
"Are you going to bring him over to meet us?"
"Probably not. It's not that serious." Berty sat up and shrugged. "I like him… but he doesn't know what he wants."
"How do you mean?"
"We talk at school. We hang out in public but he only wants to kiss me if the doors are closed, you know?"
"Maybe he's a very private person."
"Last year he thought he was gay. I don't know if he still thinks he is or if he's afraid to admit he's not or… if he just doesn't want anybody to know he makes out with me on the weekends." Berty glanced up at her mother. "And that's all it is, Mom. Just kissing. I promise."
"How do you know he doesn't really like you?"
"Well, he does, I guess. I mean… he hates sports and being outside but he keeps score at my games and he'll sit in the stands and cheer me on. I just… He's my friend and I'm absolutely certain that we are friends but I want more. I want to hold someone's hand in the halls. I want to wonder if I'll get married. Not that I want to marry Joey but… do I make any sense?"
"Yeah. You do." Isabel stroked her hair out of her face and rubbed her back. "You want to know if that's even a possible path. Because if it's not and you keep making out with him… are you always just going to be the friend he keeps to have the benefits."
"Yeah."
"Have you talked to him?"
"Talking to Joey is like talking to a merry go 'round."
--
Donna Jo grinned at Mr. Evans when he leaned into the room to make sure they were getting ready for the party and not just sitting around gossiping. "It's razor, Mr. E. I'll get her to the church in time."
"Don’t joke about that." Max pleaded as he shut the door and left them to their devices.
"Your dad is still razor, Beth."
"No, he's not." Beth shook her head. "But then, I don't have the hots for him."
"Oh please." Donna Jo protested but broke into a giggle. "Okay, so maybe I have this… lingering thing for the Evans men… I used to have these daydreams that Danny would come back from school and look at me, you know?"
"You did?" Beth turned to her friend. "I didn't know that."
"I didn't tell anyone and anyway… it was mostly when… you know." She trailed off.
"When we weren't talking." Beth finished for her. "There's always David."
"He is such a cutie but I like older men."
"Me too."
"I see your smile." Donna Jo draped herself over the bed. "Spill. Your pores are smiling. What happened?"
Beth reached out just a bit to make sure no one could possibly hear their chatter. She leaned in. "Last night… it happened."
"It?" Donna Jo asked. "It-it?"
"Yeah."
"How was it?"
Beth turned a bright red. "I'm not ready to share it, just yet."
"My first-first time, sucked." Donna Jo revealed. "It hurt, it was uncomfortable and I felt like… like I just… it was bad."
"It wasn't like that."
"My first-second time… was… to date, the best I ever had."
"Donna Jo." Beth grinned and tossed a pillow at her. They fell silent. "Have you talked to him at all?"
"No." She sighed heavily. "I want to hate him. I want to play the victim but the truth was that I went after him. I pursued him pretty… yeah. I wanted him as my first and I got him. I knew he was leaving and I was still surprised when he did. He should have called and he did try but…"
"You expected more and you're thinking that maybe you shouldn't have."
"Maybe." Then she grinned. "So, was he good?"
"He was very good to me." Beth admitted. "He's always good to me."
"But did he change your world?" A smile crept across her face but she didn't answer. Donna Jo just nodded. "So, he did. I'm glad for you."
--
"So, who's this girl?" Kathy pointed to a picture. David ducked his head but didn't say a word. "Come on. You have to spill to me."
A shrug. "It's just a girl."
"Is she your girlfriend?"
Another shrug. "She's a girl. You're right."
"But is she your girlfriend?"
"And also a girl who's a friend." He hedged a bit.
"Mom says some Sarah girl calls the house. Some Betsy girl, too. Is this Sarah or Betsy?"
"Neither."
"Will, he's not playing fair." Kathy complained.
"You don't play fair either. I don't know why you're surprised." Will pointed out from where he sat reading the newspaper.
"That's April." Liz filled in. "She's sweet and she's the one I like the best out of all the girls who call the house. Penny just broke his heart. He's afraid to commit to April… and so I take messages from Sarah and Betsy, too."
"Mom." David scoffed.
"Oh and there was one more. Exotic name but I haven't met her yet. What was it?" Liz pinched her son's cheek. "Savannah?"
"Sahara. Simone Sahara." David finally relented.
"She stuffs her bra." Beth announced as she and Donna Jo appeared dressed and coiffed to party.
"I saw her doing it in the locker room." Donna Jo pinched one cheek and kissed the other, making the teen turn bright red. "She was trying awfully hard to impress someone."
"I can't let her get her hopes up." David shrugged, trying to regain some of his masculinity in front of the only other man in the room.
"Oh? Do we have someone in mind?" Liz tilted her hand at her son. Beth tilted her head but her expression was one of amusement rather than interest.
"I can't let Simone think she can take Donna Jo's place."
"Ambitious." Will cocked an eyebrow but didn't look up from his paper.
"Aw… sweetie, you're jailbait." She pinched his cheek again. "Tell you what, though. I'll let you escort me to Homecoming and we'll call it a date so the guys think you're something special. Well, you are special. You are the only Evans man available anymore."
"Wow and I thought you were going to hold out for Mike Devin to ask you." Beth snorted. She turned to her little brother. "Accept gracefully and let her plan the week. You'll be the school stud by Sunday."
"Beth." Liz sighed.
"Aw. I won't hurt him. I need an escort who will treat me like the lady I am." Donna Jo stood and pulled Beth to her feet. "We have a party to get started."
--
Lauren groaned as she sat in the backseat of the taxi. "Dude. I'm tired. I've got a party to get to."
"What's the address?"
"Don't know. Crashdown. In Roswell. Please tell me you can find it."
"Lady, if there's any one place every driver in this airport knows, that's the place."
"Why?"
"It's famous, locally." He put the car on the road and glanced in the rearview. "Do I know you from someplace?"
"Never been to Roswell in my life."
"No. I've seen you."
"I was in some music videos."
"No, that ain't it. My kid would probably tell me who you are right off the bat." He tapped the steering wheel. "Don't know where I would have seen you if that's the stuff you do. I'm mostly a CNN kind of guy." He set the car on the relatively short ride to Roswell proper. "I like the televised legal proceedings. There was this one I was interested in about six months back but they never finished airing the proceedings."
Lauren examined her fingernails for a moment. "The Burkhardt inheritance redistribution."
"That's the name, how'd you…" He took another look in the rearview mirror. "That's where I saw you. You're the girl. What happened with that?"
"I won but she's appealing the decision to reprint my birth certificate."
"What a monster. We were rooting for you the whole time. You and that uh… aunt of yours. Burkhardts, what a mess."
"Well, the mess ends with her. My aunt and I will be changing the way the family name is thought of."
"I was following pretty closely. How did you get around the custodial papers?"
"My father never signed the paper. He had passed away already. The allotments in his will state that any child of his would be allotted a trust."
"So, are you a rich woman?"
"Of my own accord. I don't get my inheritance until her appeal is overturned."
"Because you're a model?"
Lauren smiled to herself. "Because I signed a franchise last night. You'll be seeing me on the big screen in two years."
"So, what's a cutie like you doing in Roswell? Some kind of party you said?"
"A distant cousin is 18 today. I promised I'd swing by for a visit." Lauren's jaw dropped when she saw the UFO sticking out of the building. "Holy Cow."
"Yeah… our town's pride and joy."
Lauren slid some cash up front while gathering her purse to climb out of the car. The driver unloaded her bag and set it on the sidewalk for her. "Thanks."
"The party will probably be the highlight of your trip. Welcome to Roswell."
Lauren grabbed the handle on her bag and rolled it with her into the Crashdown, where there were Goth kids all over the place save for two blondes and the family. A shriek split her eardrums seconds before Beth was launching herself at Lauren. "Oh my God, you came!"
"Hi!" Lauren hugged her. To look at her, no one could ever guess that she'd been practically at death's door a year before.
"You have to come meet everyone. They're all huge fans and that was before I put in my influence." Beth made the rounds with Lauren and then stopped in front of her mother. "Mom! Look who's here."
"Hi, Lauren. It's good to see you again." Liz hugged her. "How was your flight?"
"Cramped. I forgot to book my ticket on time. Then I was on standby and then I had this guy next to me with the worst BO." She sighed and then turned to hug Max. "But the cab driver recognized me from CNN and wished my evil mother hell. So, now I feel better."
"You'll get what you deserve." Max promised and gestured to the spread. "I'm sure you're hungry and Beth will be back to maul you again after she's made the rounds."
Lauren gave Will a hug, who kissed the top of her head. Kathy gave her a warm hug. "Look at you. I didn't think it was possible for you to get thinner."
"My agent keeps me on my toes and forgets to schedule my feeding times." Lauren took a seat at a booth. "But when I go home, Gia always loads me up with the rich stuff. Sauces and creams and desserts with chocolate and raspberry syrups…"
"Falling in love with food?" Kathy laughed.
"Oh you know it."
"Here you go." Liz set down a plate in front of her. "Eat up."
"Thanks, Liz." Then she reached down and pulled a case out of her bag. "Okay. This was Kal's idea and I think it's pretty neat. This is me before I die and…" She took a minute to pop in the contact lenses. "This is me after I die."
Liz just blinked at the difference the contacts made. Lauren didn't look 'dead', she looked more like a member of the family than before. "Wow."
"Kal said it makes me look ethereal. The color is called honey but because my eyes are so dark, they kind of show through."
"It looks natural." Liz breathed out. "Stick you in a picture with us and no one could tell you didn't belong to us."
"Really?" Lauren pulled them out and set the contacts aside. She smiled sadly at Liz when she looked up. "Do you know how weird it is to miss someone you've never met?"
"Yes." Isabel nodded as she joined the table. "Liz, my daughter is in crisis. You've had two reach this stage. I need help. I need it now."
"Why?"
"Because. I do."
--
Sebastien had stood outside for twenty minutes before he made the short trek inside, shoulders hunched and hands in his pockets. After mass, Father had instructed him where to go. He felt ill as he crossed the threshold. Sister Anne guided him to the back room where there were several tables laid out with half-completed projects. "Father Destry said you needed some direction," she started. "I can't give that to you but I do need someone on the weekends to oversee this room."
"Doing what?" He looked up at her.
"Helping the kids to finish whatever project they've started." She motioned to the tables. "Sometimes they don't get to finish."
"Kids?" His confusion mounted but he knew where he was. He'd seen the sign outside.
"All the children who come here have terminal illnesses and their parents have to work to pay for the medical bills. I am short staffed for counseling sessions as it is. I can't spare a single one of my sisters to watch them. Father Destry said that you would gladly take it on."
"I can do it." Sebastien nodded even as his guts twisted into knots. "They have cancer?"
"I'm afraid so. Are you… familiar?"
"My mother had cancer… but I can't say I know what it's like to care for someone with it… she… killed herself before anyone found out."
"How old were you?" The nun was sympathetic but not comforting.
"Six."
"Young to lose a mother. Some of the children are six years old. Young for a parent to lose them. There's a lot of loss and a lot of pain. Can you handle this?"
"I will try."
"Good. They start coming in after first mass on Sunday. They'll be here soon."
--
Beth grinned stupidly to herself all day. Nothing could make her gripe. If something tempted her to snip, all she had to do was remember how gentle and loving Gabriel had been the night before. Just remember the expression on his face when he came in a beautiful eruption inside her. It would have been poetic if they had just gotten married or created life…
Occasionally she touched her tummy over her only ovary and wondered if it would be possible for her to give him a child at some later date. A child with his green eyes and her mink colored hair… a boy with his daddy's face or a girl with her bone structure. Only time would truly tell. Time and miracles.
An arm slipped around her middle and her grin turned into a smile. "You came."
"I had to." She tilted her head back to accept a kiss. When she attempted to turn in his arms to deepen it, he stopped her and broke contact. "Be careful, sweetie, or everyone will know what we did last night."
"I can't help it." She rested her head against his shoulder. "I love you. I don't care who can see it."
"Me too… which is why I couldn't stay away." Carefully, he pressed a kiss to her temple. The temptation to spin her around and kiss her senseless was overwhelming but he could see her father, brother and Agent Goldblum in his peripheral vision.
"Next Friday is forever away."
"Yeah, it is."
TBC
157
The Fate of Destiny Part 157
Lauren smiled around a mouthful of pancakes. It was nice to catch up with someone who actually cared. "Hollywood is crazy. If I wasn't used to crazy, I'd never get by."
"Still going to school?" Max poured Tabasco onto his own stack before smothering the lot in low-calorie-imitation-maple syrup. He only cringed on the first bite.
"In my spare moments, which means online courses that I do between photo shoots and yelling directors. I have to sleep the three or four hours I'm allotted so the studying comes with me on set."
"You need more sleep than that."
"How much sleep did you get in your residency?" Lauren hid a smile as she forked some eggs into her mouth.
"Touché."
"I'm just learning the ropes. I'm lucky that Kal has taken such an interest in how much money I can make him. He takes care of me as far as who talks to me, what jobs I get, which agents bid for me."
"Have him figured out, huh?" Liz finished her breakfast and tapped her sleepy headed son. "Gotta go, kiddo."
"Oh yeah. The minute I stop making him money, I'm out of there. Which is why I'm keeping up with the online courses where I can." She poured Max some juice and helped to rouse David who was nodding off at the table again. "I think I get more done this way than I did when I was working that cake job at the lab and doing a part-time school load."
"Could be psychological. You're in a better head space than you were when you were doing the part-timer stuff."
"Maybe. Even if I don't get the money. Even if I don't get my name as anything but registration in SAG… I got to watch her squirm and TIVO'd it off CNN so I can repeat it over and over again."
"Normally I'd say that kind of fixation is unhealthy but in your case, I'd call it improvement."
"Bethany!" Liz called up the stairs.
"I'm coming." The voice wafted down the stairs.
"Come on, Mom. Goth make up doesn't apply itself." Lauren joked.
"I'm done." Beth rounded the corner. "I'll see you after school. Mom is making me go."
"No, the state is making you go. I am simply driving you. Drink your juice. It's on the counter." Liz pointed.
"Yeah, yeah." Beth picked up the glass with its filmy skin. She stirred it with a finger, licked it, then downed the juice with a grimace. "Davey! Donna Jo is waiting to hang all over you at school."
"I'm up." David shot up straight in his chair. "And it's David."
"Next party, you go to bed when I say." Max warned him.
"Will do." He wiped drool from his mouth.
"She asked for a gentleman and you will deliver." Max gave his growing son a look.
"Always."
--
Beth rolled her eyes and yawned. She ached to put on her headphones but the substitute was staring at her like she might turn into a bat right in class. Homeroom bit.
"Donna Jo said she was going with some kid named Davey Evans. Who is that?"
The tone was unacceptable and so, Beth had to correct. "David Evans is a freshman."
"No one was talking to you." Came the retort.
"But you were talking about my best friend and my brother, so I'm kind of involved there."
"You are not best friends with Donna Jo Vaughn."
"Eight years and counting." Finally, she turned around to face the three girls who were chatting behind her. "You're Juniors. You're stupid. You need to gossip less and read more."
"I couldn't agree more." The substitute's voice rang out. "Everyone face forward."
--
Max motioned down the corridor. "That's the nurse's station but we won't go over there unless there's a chart we need."
"Why not?"
"Nurses don't like doctors. They think we're all jerks."
"Aren't you?" Lauren teased.
"Matter of opinion, I suppose." Max pulled a chart from a door and looked it over without going in to see the patient. "So, you're doing some practical research?"
"My character is a doctor or a medical student when she becomes one of the non-dead. But she's got some technical stuff to do before she dies. Anyway. I thought I should take a peek into the world myself so I don't misrepresent your profession."
"Well, I can't take you with me when I do see the patients but you can observe from the door."
"Cool."
"You didn't have to come. I'm sure you could have found something more entertaining to do with your day."
"I don't like hanging out in houses by myself." She shrugged. "Brings back memories."
"And not the good ones. I understand."
"Thanks for letting me crash for so long."
--
Beth got to the grassy knoll first. When David joined her, she barely glanced up. "I've been defending your honor all morning."
"She asked me."
"Uh-huh. Should I tell her about all your dirty thoughts? She might change her mind." Finally, she looked at her little brother. Donna Jo was currently the best of all her friends and that meant something. It meant that sometimes things were left unsaid to spare feelings. It meant there were campaigns to help out that rarely did. It meant a lot of stress to preserve the friendship. Still, Beth wasn't stupid. "Is it hard being the crazy girl's brother?"
"You're not crazy."
"But you've been getting shit?"
"Maybe."
"Okay. That's what I wanted to know."
"There's my hunk of the week." Donna Jo plopped down with her backpack. Out of it she pulled her lunch and a piece of paper. "This is my itinerary for the week. I highlighted the days and times that I need you."
"I thought I was just taking you to Homecoming."
"I'm head cheerleader, Davey my boy… I own your ass for the week." She kissed his cheek and opened up her lunch.
"Two things." Beth cleared her throat. "People don't believe David exists and that you're taking him to homecoming and also that I have anything resembling a cheerleader friend."
"Who said any of that?"
"Two junior dumbasses. I don't think they're locals. Maybe transplants."
"Or maybe just plants." David offered his sister a grin.
"There we go. I like that kind of backup."
"This is a stand-up guy." Donna Jo hugged him. "Promise me that you'll never cut your hair. I like this shaggy dog look. Mysterious vibes are going on there." She slid her gaze to Beth. "So, after Gabriel showed up yesterday, there wasn't so much of you bouncing around." She pinned her friend with a look. "You were kind of stuck on him like a barnacle for the rest of the night."
"They did it." Davey announced while focusing on his lunch.
"If you swear you don't know that, I won't tell you know who about you know what." Beth glared at him. "I swear to all I hold holy that if Mom and Dad find out from you, you will wish you had never been born."
"Just because he's six inches taller than me and older than me, doesn't mean I'm not incensed enough to want to kick his ass for defiling my sister."
"Strong words, twerp." She shook her head at him. "You have Mom so fooled. If she knew half the dirty things that go through your mind."
"He does not." Donna Jo wrapped him up in her arms. "David's a good boy."
Beth grimaced as he smirked at her while hugging the blonde back. "You're such a toad."
--
Freddy nodded to Max as he sat to enjoy his coffee while the ward was quiet. "Another long lost family member?"
"Not lost for over a year." Max offered Lauren a smile. "She's gonna play a med student in a movie and wanted to see what it was really like before she got the script."
"Superman there could tell you better. It's been a long time since I could remember being a med student." Freddy grimaced.
"Why do you call him Superman?" Lauren sat up to listen.
"Interns don't sleep much. He had two babies at home. He wasn't getting any sleep." Freddy narrowed his eyes at his best surgeon. "Somehow, he was coming to work, doing his classes and paying the bills. Somehow, not neglecting his children, his wife or his family duties."
"It was hell on Earth." Max shook his head at the memories. "Worth it all, sure but Hell."
"Have a steady man?"
"No… I have a stalker." She smiled brightly. "He's 32. He's 6'4" and he's got bleach blonde hair. He's also serving five years in Lompoc."
"When did that happen?" Max blinked at her.
"Well, it started right after the first video came out. It was letters but my agent never let me read them. Then when they became aware that he was following me, that's when they told me. The camera in my L.A. hotel room was the key to putting him away. I never said anything because I couldn't until after trial and then I put it out of my mind."
"I'm glad you're okay."
"I have people now. When you see in movies where someone says, 'Have your people call my people.' Those people exist. Mine consist of an agent, a manager, Kal's secretary and my head of security is miffed that I gave him a vacation so I could come here."
"Let me get this. You have people. You have security because you have a stalker and you felt you didn't need said people and security when you boarded a plane and crossed the country to a place you've never been before." Freddy put a hand to his head. "I'm suddenly glad I don't have children."
"Explain to him." Lauren turned to Max, who was frowning.
"Well, she has friends in high places." Max shrugged. "I know a little about it. This friend has access to federal agents who keep track of her every move as a favor. If her people and security fail, then the back-up agents step in and take over. They probably tipped her agent to the stalker in the first place."
"You are one lucky young woman, Ms. Allison."
--
"Mom, stop." David glanced around and pushed his hair back into place.
"You need a hair cut."
"No, I don't."
"Are you embarrassed of your mother?"
"Yes!"
"Then what are you doing crashing my classroom?" Liz crossed her arms.
"I came to ask permission to stay after school." When she arched an eyebrow at him, he sighed. "Donna Jo says I have to help with some of the stuff because she's head cheerleader and she's running for Homecoming Queen. I gotta stay after to do signs or something."
"Okay. Call me or Dad when you're ready to go. I might still be around because the tests from Friday were pitiful." She called out over her slowly filling classroom.
"Why can't I just catch a ride from someone?"
"You're thinking your hot date is going to drive you home?"
"Well…" He scoffed and dropped his gaze to his feet.
"Sweetie." Liz placed her hands on his shoulders. "I know you like her. She's a pretty girl. Very sweet. She adores you but she's 18 years old. Chances are high that she has plans after the after school stuff and she might not have time to swing by the house to drop you off. I think it's good that you're going to honor your commitment and help with the decorations but don't get your hopes up too high."
"Okay."
--
Berty's head nearly hung off her desk. Study Hall was boring and she was done with her homework already. Beth seemed to be in the same condition beside her. "Psst."
"What?" Beth picked up her head.
"You have to help me out."
"With what?"
"Joey."
"Why are you messing with him? He's such a mess. He's my best friend but he's a mess." She looked her cousin over. "I just want you to keep a few things in mind. He's kissed more boys than he has girls but he hasn't slept with either."
"Yeah, I know that." Berty groaned and hid her face on the desk. "I'm not even sure I want to sleep with him but it kills me not to know if he's even interested. Is that stupid?"
"Yes."
--
Liz straightened up as she walked through the house. She picked up Davey's tennis shoes and almost tossed them into his room before she remembered that he'd moved upstairs to Danny's old room. She peered into the small room. It still had a bed in it but all his things were upstairs. She had attempted, several times, over the summer to transform it into a fitting guest bedroom but she never got far with it. Backing out of the room, she trudged around to the staircase.
Beth's room was as it always had been. Since the day she had been moved from the downstairs nursery, a few weeks after she had found out she was pregnant with Davey. Now, the girl had turned the entire room into her closet. Clothes and shoes everywhere. Danny's room had been gutted of its Jessica Alba pictures and been replaced with some girl Liz couldn't recall her name. Kathy's room stood as it had been. She rarely came home and when she did, she often stayed with Will at the hotel.
"Liz! You home?"
"Upstairs!" She called back. She tore herself away from the view and felt incredibly old as she descended to meet her husband.
Max watched her plod down the steps. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." She took a deep breath. "Will and Kat should stay here when they're in town. It doesn't make sense for them to pay for a room when we have a perfectly fine room to spare."
"The house would be so crowded. You complain as it is with just us four. Now we've got Lauren staying with us and you want to add two more?"
"The house feels empty."
"Liz, you can't get empty nest syndrome until they are all gone." He pulled her to him. "Just focus on the good points of an empty house."
"There aren't any."
"Sure there are." He rubbed her back while he thought. "When was the last time we had sex anywhere but the bedroom?"
"Danny's wedding."
"Precisely. We risked a ticket or jail time. With all the kids away at college, we could have full reign of this house again. A little couch time. Maybe some den time in front of the fireplace in winter. It's only about four short years away."
"Only four years. Max… Davey's my baby and he's graduating in four short years." Liz pouted.
"I hate to break it to you but Davey is not a little boy. He's 14 years old. His voice is changing. He has pubic hair. He's taking an 18 year old to Homecoming."
"No. He's my baby."
"I'm sitting him down for the sex talk soon."
"No."
"Yes. It has to be done."
"He's a good boy."
"Danny was a good boy, too. He still lost his virginity while under this roof and before he was 18."
"No shit?" Lauren asked. "Ooops. Sorry. I'm just passing through." She stepped around them to the room she'd seen Beth disappear into the night before.
"Mom! Dad!" A voice called from the opening door. "Oh. There you are."
"Hi, sweetie." Max turned with his wife to greet his eldest daughter and her boyfriend. "Run while you can. Mom wants to move you both in and lock you upstairs. I think she's thinking of installing a dumbwaiter for meals."
"Mom." Kathy sighed. "You worry too much about your empty house."
"Mom!" Davey walked in shouting. "What's for dinner?"
"See. Black hole for another four years."
--
Isabel frowned as Jesse turned his back to her when she walked in. He leaned against the windowsill. "I'm glad that you're getting help… No… I'm proud of your progress… I'd like to talk to Father Destry sometime. He sounds like a good influence…" He cleared his throat and tried to relax but he could feel Isabel boring holes through his skull. "How is your gpa?"
"Jesse." Isabel crossed her arms. He only flicked his eyes to her but he didn't do more to acknowledge her.
"Well, keep it up… I don't know about that, yet… It could be a long time… I know, I know. I can appreciate that but… right… I know… Me, too. I'll talk to you later." He hung up the phone and stared at it for the longest time. "Before you start in, remember the amiability between me and Alex after he broke up with Lynnette. I did that for you. Lynnette is blood."
"What is he doing calling you?" Isabel took a deep breath to control her anger.
"I know you're pissed at him. I'm pretty pissed at him but I'm taking Berty's cue on this one. She was the one who was… I don't even know. She won't talk about it except to say that it's complicated. It's her grudge. Not ours." He met her eyes. "He wants to come for Thanksgiving. I'm going to talk to Berty. If she says she doesn't want him there. I'll tell him not to come. That's her decision. Not yours."
"You'll just let him come. After what he did."
"We don't even know what exactly he did. I don't understand. Not any of the alien business. I don't understand him… but I've chosen to treat it as I would any of my cases. Until I have proof or a confession or a statement… I can't… He's my son. He's sick. I'm going to talk to Father Destry and listen to what he has to say. Then I'll tell you what I think. Whatever my decision regarding my son, I'm going to hold on Berty's decision. It will be up to her."
"Well…" Isabel took a long moment to weigh the damage her son had inflicted on Lynnette with the damage that Sebastien had done to Berty. She had been very upset with her son for his treatment of Lynnette after he'd moved to Florida. "Thank you for that consideration."
"Let me talk to Berty. Okay?"
"Fine."
--
"No, no. It's not like that." Lauren waved her hands around. "They pick out the donor from a catalog. Just some basic info. Physical stats at time of the sample. Any blood traits, or family diseases or conditions."
"It's still a test tube baby."
"No. No test tubes. They get a syringe full of the stuff, and they squirt it inside. It's up to her egg to make nice with the sperm."
"They're trusting that method?" Beth frowned.
"Gia is young and healthy and there's no reason it won't work. Short of having sex with a man, this is the best way."
"Hold on." David cut in. "She won't have sex with a man but she'll—"
"Shut your mouth, David." Liz warned. She took a deep breath. "It's a medical procedure. Creating life is no joke."
"It's best planned, well after marriage." Kathy, Beth and David chorused.
"Make fun but I lived with my in-laws for several years after getting pregnant right out of high school. Your—"
"Actions have consequences, all of which, you may not be prepared for." They nodded and recited from memory.
"Fine. You know the story. I don't have to say it again."
"You are so funny, Mom." Kathy sat back with a cup of coffee. "You keep touting all the waiting for marriage business. Be protected and aware. What was it you said a year and two months ago? 'Oh Max, I want blue-eyed, blonde-haired grandbabies.'"
"I didn't sound like that."
"You are just waiting for me to have one of these accidents you keep telling us to protect ourselves against."
"I wouldn't say that." Liz shook her head.
"I would." Beth snorted, her eyes flicking to the window where she could see her father and Will. "I'd say you're counting on it. Danny and Em aren't giving reports and Kat's the closest to the brass ring."
--
Max shared a smoke with Will in the backyard. "Leaving in the morning?"
"Yeah. She's got a meeting." Will nodded to the dark.
"Nothing big on the radar?"
"Getting a lot of flack for those unsolved murders but the noise has died down. I threw a classified stamp on it for now. If we learn more, I'll tell someone what I can but ultimately… classified." Will took a deep breath and let Max have the rest of the cigarette. "I've been meaning to talk to you about something."
"What's that?" Max finished it off. Idly, he wondered when Will would be back so he could indulge in another half a cigarette a night. The cravings were killing him but he was trying… for Liz. "Something wrong?"
"No… just…" Will faced the older man fully. "I want to ask Kat to marry me."
TBC
Lauren smiled around a mouthful of pancakes. It was nice to catch up with someone who actually cared. "Hollywood is crazy. If I wasn't used to crazy, I'd never get by."
"Still going to school?" Max poured Tabasco onto his own stack before smothering the lot in low-calorie-imitation-maple syrup. He only cringed on the first bite.
"In my spare moments, which means online courses that I do between photo shoots and yelling directors. I have to sleep the three or four hours I'm allotted so the studying comes with me on set."
"You need more sleep than that."
"How much sleep did you get in your residency?" Lauren hid a smile as she forked some eggs into her mouth.
"Touché."
"I'm just learning the ropes. I'm lucky that Kal has taken such an interest in how much money I can make him. He takes care of me as far as who talks to me, what jobs I get, which agents bid for me."
"Have him figured out, huh?" Liz finished her breakfast and tapped her sleepy headed son. "Gotta go, kiddo."
"Oh yeah. The minute I stop making him money, I'm out of there. Which is why I'm keeping up with the online courses where I can." She poured Max some juice and helped to rouse David who was nodding off at the table again. "I think I get more done this way than I did when I was working that cake job at the lab and doing a part-time school load."
"Could be psychological. You're in a better head space than you were when you were doing the part-timer stuff."
"Maybe. Even if I don't get the money. Even if I don't get my name as anything but registration in SAG… I got to watch her squirm and TIVO'd it off CNN so I can repeat it over and over again."
"Normally I'd say that kind of fixation is unhealthy but in your case, I'd call it improvement."
"Bethany!" Liz called up the stairs.
"I'm coming." The voice wafted down the stairs.
"Come on, Mom. Goth make up doesn't apply itself." Lauren joked.
"I'm done." Beth rounded the corner. "I'll see you after school. Mom is making me go."
"No, the state is making you go. I am simply driving you. Drink your juice. It's on the counter." Liz pointed.
"Yeah, yeah." Beth picked up the glass with its filmy skin. She stirred it with a finger, licked it, then downed the juice with a grimace. "Davey! Donna Jo is waiting to hang all over you at school."
"I'm up." David shot up straight in his chair. "And it's David."
"Next party, you go to bed when I say." Max warned him.
"Will do." He wiped drool from his mouth.
"She asked for a gentleman and you will deliver." Max gave his growing son a look.
"Always."
--
Beth rolled her eyes and yawned. She ached to put on her headphones but the substitute was staring at her like she might turn into a bat right in class. Homeroom bit.
"Donna Jo said she was going with some kid named Davey Evans. Who is that?"
The tone was unacceptable and so, Beth had to correct. "David Evans is a freshman."
"No one was talking to you." Came the retort.
"But you were talking about my best friend and my brother, so I'm kind of involved there."
"You are not best friends with Donna Jo Vaughn."
"Eight years and counting." Finally, she turned around to face the three girls who were chatting behind her. "You're Juniors. You're stupid. You need to gossip less and read more."
"I couldn't agree more." The substitute's voice rang out. "Everyone face forward."
--
Max motioned down the corridor. "That's the nurse's station but we won't go over there unless there's a chart we need."
"Why not?"
"Nurses don't like doctors. They think we're all jerks."
"Aren't you?" Lauren teased.
"Matter of opinion, I suppose." Max pulled a chart from a door and looked it over without going in to see the patient. "So, you're doing some practical research?"
"My character is a doctor or a medical student when she becomes one of the non-dead. But she's got some technical stuff to do before she dies. Anyway. I thought I should take a peek into the world myself so I don't misrepresent your profession."
"Well, I can't take you with me when I do see the patients but you can observe from the door."
"Cool."
"You didn't have to come. I'm sure you could have found something more entertaining to do with your day."
"I don't like hanging out in houses by myself." She shrugged. "Brings back memories."
"And not the good ones. I understand."
"Thanks for letting me crash for so long."
--
Beth got to the grassy knoll first. When David joined her, she barely glanced up. "I've been defending your honor all morning."
"She asked me."
"Uh-huh. Should I tell her about all your dirty thoughts? She might change her mind." Finally, she looked at her little brother. Donna Jo was currently the best of all her friends and that meant something. It meant that sometimes things were left unsaid to spare feelings. It meant there were campaigns to help out that rarely did. It meant a lot of stress to preserve the friendship. Still, Beth wasn't stupid. "Is it hard being the crazy girl's brother?"
"You're not crazy."
"But you've been getting shit?"
"Maybe."
"Okay. That's what I wanted to know."
"There's my hunk of the week." Donna Jo plopped down with her backpack. Out of it she pulled her lunch and a piece of paper. "This is my itinerary for the week. I highlighted the days and times that I need you."
"I thought I was just taking you to Homecoming."
"I'm head cheerleader, Davey my boy… I own your ass for the week." She kissed his cheek and opened up her lunch.
"Two things." Beth cleared her throat. "People don't believe David exists and that you're taking him to homecoming and also that I have anything resembling a cheerleader friend."
"Who said any of that?"
"Two junior dumbasses. I don't think they're locals. Maybe transplants."
"Or maybe just plants." David offered his sister a grin.
"There we go. I like that kind of backup."
"This is a stand-up guy." Donna Jo hugged him. "Promise me that you'll never cut your hair. I like this shaggy dog look. Mysterious vibes are going on there." She slid her gaze to Beth. "So, after Gabriel showed up yesterday, there wasn't so much of you bouncing around." She pinned her friend with a look. "You were kind of stuck on him like a barnacle for the rest of the night."
"They did it." Davey announced while focusing on his lunch.
"If you swear you don't know that, I won't tell you know who about you know what." Beth glared at him. "I swear to all I hold holy that if Mom and Dad find out from you, you will wish you had never been born."
"Just because he's six inches taller than me and older than me, doesn't mean I'm not incensed enough to want to kick his ass for defiling my sister."
"Strong words, twerp." She shook her head at him. "You have Mom so fooled. If she knew half the dirty things that go through your mind."
"He does not." Donna Jo wrapped him up in her arms. "David's a good boy."
Beth grimaced as he smirked at her while hugging the blonde back. "You're such a toad."
--
Freddy nodded to Max as he sat to enjoy his coffee while the ward was quiet. "Another long lost family member?"
"Not lost for over a year." Max offered Lauren a smile. "She's gonna play a med student in a movie and wanted to see what it was really like before she got the script."
"Superman there could tell you better. It's been a long time since I could remember being a med student." Freddy grimaced.
"Why do you call him Superman?" Lauren sat up to listen.
"Interns don't sleep much. He had two babies at home. He wasn't getting any sleep." Freddy narrowed his eyes at his best surgeon. "Somehow, he was coming to work, doing his classes and paying the bills. Somehow, not neglecting his children, his wife or his family duties."
"It was hell on Earth." Max shook his head at the memories. "Worth it all, sure but Hell."
"Have a steady man?"
"No… I have a stalker." She smiled brightly. "He's 32. He's 6'4" and he's got bleach blonde hair. He's also serving five years in Lompoc."
"When did that happen?" Max blinked at her.
"Well, it started right after the first video came out. It was letters but my agent never let me read them. Then when they became aware that he was following me, that's when they told me. The camera in my L.A. hotel room was the key to putting him away. I never said anything because I couldn't until after trial and then I put it out of my mind."
"I'm glad you're okay."
"I have people now. When you see in movies where someone says, 'Have your people call my people.' Those people exist. Mine consist of an agent, a manager, Kal's secretary and my head of security is miffed that I gave him a vacation so I could come here."
"Let me get this. You have people. You have security because you have a stalker and you felt you didn't need said people and security when you boarded a plane and crossed the country to a place you've never been before." Freddy put a hand to his head. "I'm suddenly glad I don't have children."
"Explain to him." Lauren turned to Max, who was frowning.
"Well, she has friends in high places." Max shrugged. "I know a little about it. This friend has access to federal agents who keep track of her every move as a favor. If her people and security fail, then the back-up agents step in and take over. They probably tipped her agent to the stalker in the first place."
"You are one lucky young woman, Ms. Allison."
--
"Mom, stop." David glanced around and pushed his hair back into place.
"You need a hair cut."
"No, I don't."
"Are you embarrassed of your mother?"
"Yes!"
"Then what are you doing crashing my classroom?" Liz crossed her arms.
"I came to ask permission to stay after school." When she arched an eyebrow at him, he sighed. "Donna Jo says I have to help with some of the stuff because she's head cheerleader and she's running for Homecoming Queen. I gotta stay after to do signs or something."
"Okay. Call me or Dad when you're ready to go. I might still be around because the tests from Friday were pitiful." She called out over her slowly filling classroom.
"Why can't I just catch a ride from someone?"
"You're thinking your hot date is going to drive you home?"
"Well…" He scoffed and dropped his gaze to his feet.
"Sweetie." Liz placed her hands on his shoulders. "I know you like her. She's a pretty girl. Very sweet. She adores you but she's 18 years old. Chances are high that she has plans after the after school stuff and she might not have time to swing by the house to drop you off. I think it's good that you're going to honor your commitment and help with the decorations but don't get your hopes up too high."
"Okay."
--
Berty's head nearly hung off her desk. Study Hall was boring and she was done with her homework already. Beth seemed to be in the same condition beside her. "Psst."
"What?" Beth picked up her head.
"You have to help me out."
"With what?"
"Joey."
"Why are you messing with him? He's such a mess. He's my best friend but he's a mess." She looked her cousin over. "I just want you to keep a few things in mind. He's kissed more boys than he has girls but he hasn't slept with either."
"Yeah, I know that." Berty groaned and hid her face on the desk. "I'm not even sure I want to sleep with him but it kills me not to know if he's even interested. Is that stupid?"
"Yes."
--
Liz straightened up as she walked through the house. She picked up Davey's tennis shoes and almost tossed them into his room before she remembered that he'd moved upstairs to Danny's old room. She peered into the small room. It still had a bed in it but all his things were upstairs. She had attempted, several times, over the summer to transform it into a fitting guest bedroom but she never got far with it. Backing out of the room, she trudged around to the staircase.
Beth's room was as it always had been. Since the day she had been moved from the downstairs nursery, a few weeks after she had found out she was pregnant with Davey. Now, the girl had turned the entire room into her closet. Clothes and shoes everywhere. Danny's room had been gutted of its Jessica Alba pictures and been replaced with some girl Liz couldn't recall her name. Kathy's room stood as it had been. She rarely came home and when she did, she often stayed with Will at the hotel.
"Liz! You home?"
"Upstairs!" She called back. She tore herself away from the view and felt incredibly old as she descended to meet her husband.
Max watched her plod down the steps. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." She took a deep breath. "Will and Kat should stay here when they're in town. It doesn't make sense for them to pay for a room when we have a perfectly fine room to spare."
"The house would be so crowded. You complain as it is with just us four. Now we've got Lauren staying with us and you want to add two more?"
"The house feels empty."
"Liz, you can't get empty nest syndrome until they are all gone." He pulled her to him. "Just focus on the good points of an empty house."
"There aren't any."
"Sure there are." He rubbed her back while he thought. "When was the last time we had sex anywhere but the bedroom?"
"Danny's wedding."
"Precisely. We risked a ticket or jail time. With all the kids away at college, we could have full reign of this house again. A little couch time. Maybe some den time in front of the fireplace in winter. It's only about four short years away."
"Only four years. Max… Davey's my baby and he's graduating in four short years." Liz pouted.
"I hate to break it to you but Davey is not a little boy. He's 14 years old. His voice is changing. He has pubic hair. He's taking an 18 year old to Homecoming."
"No. He's my baby."
"I'm sitting him down for the sex talk soon."
"No."
"Yes. It has to be done."
"He's a good boy."
"Danny was a good boy, too. He still lost his virginity while under this roof and before he was 18."
"No shit?" Lauren asked. "Ooops. Sorry. I'm just passing through." She stepped around them to the room she'd seen Beth disappear into the night before.
"Mom! Dad!" A voice called from the opening door. "Oh. There you are."
"Hi, sweetie." Max turned with his wife to greet his eldest daughter and her boyfriend. "Run while you can. Mom wants to move you both in and lock you upstairs. I think she's thinking of installing a dumbwaiter for meals."
"Mom." Kathy sighed. "You worry too much about your empty house."
"Mom!" Davey walked in shouting. "What's for dinner?"
"See. Black hole for another four years."
--
Isabel frowned as Jesse turned his back to her when she walked in. He leaned against the windowsill. "I'm glad that you're getting help… No… I'm proud of your progress… I'd like to talk to Father Destry sometime. He sounds like a good influence…" He cleared his throat and tried to relax but he could feel Isabel boring holes through his skull. "How is your gpa?"
"Jesse." Isabel crossed her arms. He only flicked his eyes to her but he didn't do more to acknowledge her.
"Well, keep it up… I don't know about that, yet… It could be a long time… I know, I know. I can appreciate that but… right… I know… Me, too. I'll talk to you later." He hung up the phone and stared at it for the longest time. "Before you start in, remember the amiability between me and Alex after he broke up with Lynnette. I did that for you. Lynnette is blood."
"What is he doing calling you?" Isabel took a deep breath to control her anger.
"I know you're pissed at him. I'm pretty pissed at him but I'm taking Berty's cue on this one. She was the one who was… I don't even know. She won't talk about it except to say that it's complicated. It's her grudge. Not ours." He met her eyes. "He wants to come for Thanksgiving. I'm going to talk to Berty. If she says she doesn't want him there. I'll tell him not to come. That's her decision. Not yours."
"You'll just let him come. After what he did."
"We don't even know what exactly he did. I don't understand. Not any of the alien business. I don't understand him… but I've chosen to treat it as I would any of my cases. Until I have proof or a confession or a statement… I can't… He's my son. He's sick. I'm going to talk to Father Destry and listen to what he has to say. Then I'll tell you what I think. Whatever my decision regarding my son, I'm going to hold on Berty's decision. It will be up to her."
"Well…" Isabel took a long moment to weigh the damage her son had inflicted on Lynnette with the damage that Sebastien had done to Berty. She had been very upset with her son for his treatment of Lynnette after he'd moved to Florida. "Thank you for that consideration."
"Let me talk to Berty. Okay?"
"Fine."
--
"No, no. It's not like that." Lauren waved her hands around. "They pick out the donor from a catalog. Just some basic info. Physical stats at time of the sample. Any blood traits, or family diseases or conditions."
"It's still a test tube baby."
"No. No test tubes. They get a syringe full of the stuff, and they squirt it inside. It's up to her egg to make nice with the sperm."
"They're trusting that method?" Beth frowned.
"Gia is young and healthy and there's no reason it won't work. Short of having sex with a man, this is the best way."
"Hold on." David cut in. "She won't have sex with a man but she'll—"
"Shut your mouth, David." Liz warned. She took a deep breath. "It's a medical procedure. Creating life is no joke."
"It's best planned, well after marriage." Kathy, Beth and David chorused.
"Make fun but I lived with my in-laws for several years after getting pregnant right out of high school. Your—"
"Actions have consequences, all of which, you may not be prepared for." They nodded and recited from memory.
"Fine. You know the story. I don't have to say it again."
"You are so funny, Mom." Kathy sat back with a cup of coffee. "You keep touting all the waiting for marriage business. Be protected and aware. What was it you said a year and two months ago? 'Oh Max, I want blue-eyed, blonde-haired grandbabies.'"
"I didn't sound like that."
"You are just waiting for me to have one of these accidents you keep telling us to protect ourselves against."
"I wouldn't say that." Liz shook her head.
"I would." Beth snorted, her eyes flicking to the window where she could see her father and Will. "I'd say you're counting on it. Danny and Em aren't giving reports and Kat's the closest to the brass ring."
--
Max shared a smoke with Will in the backyard. "Leaving in the morning?"
"Yeah. She's got a meeting." Will nodded to the dark.
"Nothing big on the radar?"
"Getting a lot of flack for those unsolved murders but the noise has died down. I threw a classified stamp on it for now. If we learn more, I'll tell someone what I can but ultimately… classified." Will took a deep breath and let Max have the rest of the cigarette. "I've been meaning to talk to you about something."
"What's that?" Max finished it off. Idly, he wondered when Will would be back so he could indulge in another half a cigarette a night. The cravings were killing him but he was trying… for Liz. "Something wrong?"
"No… just…" Will faced the older man fully. "I want to ask Kat to marry me."
TBC