The Son Also Rises
By Karen

Rating: MATURE
Disclaimer: Characters from the show belong to Katims and co. Alyssa and Nate are mine No infringement intended...er, no offense to Hemingway on the title, either
Summary: This is the sequel to His Father’s Son. Nate and Alyssa are moving to Boston to go to college, but we all know that life is never that simple for a Roswellian
Author's Note: Banner by the very talented babylisou

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Part One

Happiness was fleeting.

Saying goodbye to Alyssa Guerin was the hardest thing Nate Spencer had ever done.  They’d been inseparable the whole week that he’d been in Roswell for her high school graduation, never spending more than a couple of hours at a time apart.  They both understood that their separation was going to be short – only a matter of a couple of months – before they were reunited for the fall semester of classes at Boston College .  But that had not lessened the blow for either of them.

In fact, Nate had mused at one point that he’d rather be back in Agent O’Donnell’s torture room than to have to endure another farewell at the airport.  To him, it felt like someone had removed one of his testicles with a rusty razorblade – without anesthesia.  The entire flight back to the east, all he could think about was her tears and the pain inside of his heart.  He’d folded his arms over his thin body in a defensive gesture and stared despondently out of the oval window of the aircraft for the entire trip, refusing both food and drink when they were offered to him.

That behavior continued once he was back at his parent’s home in western New York .  He didn’t want to eat.  He didn’t want to sleep.  He took to pacing the floor until all hours of the morning.  This was the second time he’d returned from Roswell in a state of mind that could be considered unhealthy.  His mother, Emma, had tried to gently suggest to him that he might not want to go there again, that it wasn’t in his best interest.

But she couldn’t understand that it was in his best interest, because if he couldn’t be near Alyssa, if he couldn’t hold her and love her, he was sure he would die.  It wasn’t depression or trauma this time that had turned Nate into a zombie – he was simply lovesick.

Phone calls to New Mexico were frequent, sometimes ending in tears, sometimes ending in laughter.  They tried the whole phone sex thing and found it lacking – Nate could no longer find anything appealing about touching himself, not when he knew what it was like for her to touch him instead.  The few times he did try to please himself, he ended up feeling disappointed and empty in the end.  Nate’s days of solitary sex were over.

The best he could do was to try to imagine when he went to bed that he was nestled between her breasts instead of on his feather pillow; sometimes, if he closed his eyes and tried to convince himself with all of his might that he really was curled up beside her with his head on her chest, he could get himself to fall asleep.  But usually the disappointment of waking up with nothing but a bag filled with duck feathers was too much to bear.

Not that every moment was doom and gloom.  Amidst the angst, there were brief periods of joy, things worth celebrating.  Maria’s CD debuted in June at number five on the charts.  Within the week, it had risen to number one, where it stayed for six consecutive weeks despite the glut of new summer releases.  Even though her mother irked her endlessly, Nate could tell that Alyssa was pleased that after such a long absence from the music scene, the public had apparently been eager for Maria’s return.

One thing that hadn’t returned was the seal of Antar – something for which Nate was eternally grateful.  The incident at the hotel had been bizarre, to say the least.  When he’d pressed Alyssa for a decryption to her ominous “You’re the one” comment, she’d had no explanation.  In fact, she’d seemed to be kind of dazed.  Nate wanted to brush it under the rug and forget that it had happened, but he knew he couldn’t, for a number of reasons – the recurring dream of Alyssa kissing the spot on his chest over where the seal liked to appear and the feeling of being able to walk as a free people, the fact that upon seeing the seal she had called him her “king”, and the fact that once she’d touched it she’d collapsed and the seal had disappeared only minutes after having shown up on Nate’s skin again.

Surely those things were too many and too strange to be ignored.

Nate spent many hours trying to decipher them.  He told Alyssa of the dream, hoping to jar some memory of what she’d seen when touching the seal, but she’d come up empty.  It was frustrating to say the least.

One person who apparently wasn’t frustrated was young Jeremy Ramirez.  His mother, Isabel, had thought that banishing him to New York while Nate was in Roswell would be a punishment of some kind for his transgression of bringing his girlfriend to the garage loft to fool around.  What Isabel didn’t know, however, was that all she’d done was hold a door wide open for her eldest son, who’d found a whole new stomping ground where he had no reputation to proceed him, where tourists came and went by the bus load.  The young man with the olive skin and dark, curly hair managed to seduce four different girls – including Annie’s old friend Chris, who was five years his senior – before Nate even returned from New Mexico .  When it came time to return to Boston , Jeremy had asked to stay in New York for the rest of the summer, thereby unwittingly showing his mother that her “punishment” had failed and then he was quickly on a bus headed back to the east coast.

So Nate spent the summer helping his father deal with the tourist crowd, making himself work like a mad man to take his mind off the fact that only half of his heart was beating without Alyssa there with him.  When he wasn’t working, he was running or lifting weights, furious at himself for being unable to function like a normal person.  The anger and the distractions were only temporary, however, because each night he still climbed into bed alone, the coldness wrapping around him once again.

As summer waned and the start of classes loomed, Nate began packing his bags and avoiding his mother’s gaze – she couldn’t bear to see him go, knowing that this was it, that he was finally branching off on his own.  She accepted it, but it didn’t hurt any less.  Nate could see that hurt in her eyes and simply didn’t have the strength to comfort her and himself at the same time.  He had never been a selfish man, but at this point in his life, he was pretty sure his agony was greater than hers.

While he was getting ready to pack up his truck and start on the long drive to Boston , he received a call from Liz Evans, her voice sad and congested, like she’d been crying.  Max was gone again, called out to save the world from the latest threat; he wouldn’t be around when Nate reached Boston .  It was devastating news, considering that Max had to leave behind not only the wife he adored, but also their infant daughter, who was barely three months old.  Nate felt a pang in his heart, remembering his own pain and wondering how Liz managed to do this so often, for longer periods of time.  When he asked her that, she’d simply laughed in defeat and said that she only thought about being thankful for what she got that she thought she’d never have – six uninterrupted months of Max’s time before their baby’s birth and during the first few months of her life.  In all of the time they’d been married, she’d never had that and was very grateful for it.

Her simple comment about looking back and seeing what was good rather than looking forward and seeing no end in sight to Max’s absence put a whole new spin on things for Nate.  He hoped someday he could be as appreciative as Liz, that he wouldn’t be so devastated about a short summer-long separation.  But he also knew that Liz had been doing this for twenty years – at one time, she’d probably been just like him.

Nate arrived in Boston a full week before Alyssa was due to arrive.  They had talked about her coming east for the summer, getting a job in New York so that they could be together, but in the end she’d wanted to be with her family for one last summer.  Even if it had meant sacrificing her heart and part of her sanity.  Nate understood that fully.  If the option had been reversed, he wasn’t sure he could have left Emma and Jonathan for the whole summer, knowing they might never be together in the same way again.

While he counted down the days, minutes and hours until Alyssa’s flight arrived, he set about fixing up the loft above Isabel’s garage, rearranging furniture, unpacking his belongings, hanging a few pictures on the wall.  Jeremy stopped in often, usually eating something, and crashed on the couch for awhile.  Jesse had run an extra cable from the satellite dish to the loft so that Alyssa and Nate could have television, but Jeremy seemed to be benefiting from it more than anyone else.  While Nate fixed up his new home, the teen sprawled on the sofa and watched MTV mindlessly.

Not that Nate minded.  He liked the company.  He liked his cousin.  For all of his randy ways with women, Jeremy was actually a good kid.  He was respectful of others, was rarely in a bad mood and could pull a prank with the best of them.  Nate knew that he’d stolen Jeremy’s love nest, that his safe place to bring his conquests was now gone, but the boy didn’t seem to hold a grudge over it.  If asked to help move a heavy piece of furniture, he would.  If asked to turn off the TV and go back to his own room, he’d do that too.

A few days before Alyssa was to arrive, Nate finally had the loft to his liking and found himself bored.  With nothing to keep his mind from counting the seconds until she arrived, he hopped in his truck and drove across the city to where Liz and Max lived.  Once there, he found a tired Liz at the door, dark circles beneath her eyes.  But she still smiled as she gave him a hug and invited him in.

“Emily’s asleep,” she said in a hushed tone.

Nate nodded in understanding as he made sure the screen door closed without banging into the frame.  It was mid-August in Massachusetts and extremely muggy.  The cool air inside of the small house felt good against his damp skin.

“How’ve you been?” Liz asked, trying to be chipper as she sat down in her rocker.

“Good,” Nate lied.  “Alyssa’s coming on Thursday.”  Inside, he kicked himself – he’d only made it about thirty seconds without bringing her up.

Liz smiled tiredly.  “That’s good, Nate.  Bring her over when she comes?  I haven’t seen her since…”  She drifted off, thinking.

Nate knew when she’d seen Alyssa last – it was right after he’d been rescued from the clutches of Agent O’Donnell.  “Last fall,” he filled in for her.  It was obvious that Liz wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

“Right,” she said, a slow smile coming to her face.  “Anyway, you’ll bring her over?  I’ll make dinner.”

Nate nodded, but knew that Liz wouldn’t be cooking them anything – she looked like she could barely hold herself upright, let alone cook for guests.  If they came over, they were bringing carryout. 

Liz’s eyelids dropped and she quickly forced them back open, guilt-stricken.

“Liz,” Nate said gently.  “I can leave if you want to lie down.”

She shook her head.  “No, please stay.”

“You look like you need a nap,” he said sympathetically.  “Why don’t I go, let you sleep and then come back?”

Liz sighed.  “Because Emily will be up again in an hour or so and I’ll have to feed her.  It’s easier if I just stay awake than try to get back up again.”

Nate shrugged.  “So I’ll feed her while you sleep.”

One corner of Liz’s mouth lifted slightly.  “Yeah?  That’s not going to be possible – unless you’ve developed the ability to lactate.”

His brow furrowed, processing the issue, then his cheeks turned red.  “Oh.”  His eyes involuntarily went to Liz’s breasts, which did seem a little larger than normal, then he automatically kicked himself for being unable to not look.  “Do you have a bottle?  Can’t you just -?”  He made squeezing motions before his chest, turned redder and dropped his hands into his lap.  Maybe he should just end this conversation now…

Liz giggled lightly.  “Use a breast pump?  Is that what you mean?”

Nate nodded, his ears flaming.

Her smile faded away and he could tell she was seriously considering it.  He knew that Liz was a wonderful mother, but being on her own and worrying about Max was obviously taking a toll on her well-being.  The offer of help and the time to sleep might just be too tempting.

“You really wouldn’t mind?” she asked tentatively, her expression uncertain.

Nate grinned. “No, I don’t mind.  She’s my baby sister after all, right?”

Liz nodded.  “Right.”  Like every bone in her body ached, she pushed herself up from the rocker, paused and then started down the hall.  “I’ll be right back.”

For the first time in ages, Nate felt light, anticipating taking care of his little sister.  He’d only seen pictures of her off and on over the last three months when Liz emailed them to him.  He hadn’t been able to hold her since he’d done so at the hospital after she’d been born.  The thought of being able to help Liz out, of taking care of this entirely dependent creature, brought a smile to his face.  It was a good distraction, better than running or pumping iron.

After awhile, Nate caught Liz out of the corner of his eye as she walked into the kitchen.  He heard the refrigerator open and close, then she was at the end of the couch, her eyes bloodshot with exhaustion.

“I put it in the fridge,” she said.  “Just make sure it’s warm before you give it to her, but not too warm.  Test it on your wrist.”

He nodded.  Seemed simple enough.

“You’re sure about this?” she said again, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Positive.  Go rest,” he encouraged.

Liz smiled lightly, then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, causing his blush to return.  “Thank you.  You’re a sweetheart, Nate.”  Then she disappeared up the stairs and the house was quiet.

Nate listened carefully, trying to tell if he could hear Emily stirring yet.  She wasn’t, which was slightly disappointing.  He hoped that Liz didn’t sleep for a half hour or something and come downstairs before he had the opportunity to play with his sister.  Of course, Nate had never taken care of a baby before.  He should be nervous about it, but it was just a baby.  It couldn’t be that hard.

Could it?

Part Two

When little Emily Evans had been born early, underweight and underdeveloped, she’d been unable to utter a peep, denying her parents that spark of comfort and reassurance that came in the form of a newborn’s first cry.

Now, however, she was had overcome her rough beginnings and had more than an ample set of lungs inside of her small body.  In fact, she could raise the dead if she wanted to.

This is what Nate was thinking as he looked down at her in his arms, her face as red as an Arizona sunset, her mouth stretched wide enough to stuff a baseball into.  She was pissed.  Really pissed.  And Nate wasn’t really sure what to do about it.

In retrospect, he thought maybe his running into her room at the first sign of movement and jerking her out of her warm bed hadn’t been the best of ideas.  But he’d been so eager to see her after so many months, to hold her again, that he hadn’t even considered waiting until she’d called for someone to tend to her.  One coo and he’d shot off the couch like someone had poked him in the ass.

“Shh, baby,” he said, glancing toward the nursery door and hoping that Emily’s cries weren’t going to awaken Liz, who was trying to get some much-needed rest.  “It’s okay, baby.”  His tone was desperate.

But Emily continued to kick, crying until she made herself cough.  She kept turning her head toward Nate’s shirt, then she’d cry harder.  Eventually, he caught on that she was looking for a nice warm breast – something he didn’t have.  But at least that was a clue – she must be hungry.  He knew how to fix that one – there was a bottle in the refrigerator!

Smiling nervously, he gave her a pat on the bottom, trying to reassure her that food was on the way, then realized that her diaper made a sick kind of thud when he smacked it.  He froze, his smile dissolving rapidly.  She was wet…or worse.

Nate glanced around the nursery, saw a high, flat table with some supplies beside it.  That must be where one changed a baby.  The thought of poop wasn’t appealing to him and a selfish little piece of him suddenly wished that Emily’s cries would wake her mother.  But, no, he’d signed on for this task – it was up to him to change that diaper, poopy or not.

Swallowing back his hesitance, he gently laid the angry Emily on top of the table and started to unsnap her little one-piece underwear thingie.  Odd things – baby clothes.  He pulled the snaps at the crotch, then hoisted the garment up to her armpits; his eyes settled on the diaper...God knew what might be lurking in there.  Though, she didn’t stink, so that had to be a good sign.  Still pissed with him, she kicked her legs, making it hard for him to maneuver around her to undo the diaper.  Exasperated, he found a toy by the wipes and held it before her.

“Look, Emily!  Look at the teddy bear!  What a cute widdle teddy bear!”

She stopped crying briefly, watching this goofy man wave the toy before her.  Nate bumped her on the nose with it and she blinked, unsure of him.  He did it again and made a goofy face – which immediately made her cry.

Sighing, Nate quickly snatched for the tape strips of the diaper and ripped them to either side, turning his head in case poop should fly out of it.  When nothing happened, he gingerly pulled down the front of the diaper and breathed a sigh of relief.  No poop.

“You’re a good girl, Emily,” he said, pulling the diaper from beneath her body.  “You’re such a good girl that I’m going to get you something to eat once we’re done here.” 

He paused, looked down at the heavy diaper in his hand, glanced around the little pink room.  What was he supposed to do with it?  He spied a pail not far away and assumed that’s where it went…but he couldn’t reach it.  Now he had a dilemma.  Was Emily big enough to roll off the table if he walked away and left her unattended?  That would be a little hard to explain to her parents.

He resorted to dropping the diaper on the floor.

Nate hated the smell and feel of the diaper wipe – but it appeared that Emily hated it worse.  By now, she was crying so hard he feared for her health.  He frowned, worried that he was damaging her in some way.  He hurriedly dropped the wipe on top of the diaper and reached for a clean one.  He stared at it, at the little parade of ducks that marched across one side of it.

The question was – which side had the ducks – front or back?

Nate looked at the fallen diaper, tried to remember where the ducks had been.  His brow furrowed – he couldn’t remember.  He looked at Emily.

“Do the ducks go in the front or back?” he asked her, grinning sheepishly.

She looked at him like he was a moron.

He held up the diaper, turned it this way and that.  And decided the ducks went in the back.  Another round of fighting her pumping legs and he managed to get the diaper strapped to her body, albeit haphazardly.  Re-snapping the underwear proved to be more difficult, however – every time he thought he had the snaps lined up, she’d kick and he’d lose his grip and have to start over.  Once her tiny foot made contact with his face, stomping him cleanly in the nose.

The diaper debacle finally over, Nate picked up his little sister and found that he was wringing with sweat.  Good God – she was just a baby!  Why was this so difficult?  Disappointed over his ineptitude, he walked to the kitchen, bouncing her lightly while he retrieved the bottle of milk from the refrigerator.  Panic suddenly gripped him – this was the only bottle of milk he had.  If he did something asinine like drop it or overheat it or something, he was going to have to wake Liz and he just didn’t want to do that.  Unsure of himself once again, he popped the bottle into the microwave and heated it for a few seconds, tried it on his wrist, put it back for a few more seconds.  Emily hung on his shoulder, complaining softer than she had been before, sucking on her fist.

“I’m hurrying, baby,” he murmured, poking the numbers on the microwave.  “Just a few more seconds, I promise.”

 Satisfied with the temperature of the bottle, Nate took the baby and her dinner to the living room and sat down in the rocking chair.  He tried to remember how Mrs. Parker had shown him how to cradle a baby as he adjusted Emily in his lap.  Taking the bottle in his free hand, he brought it to her mouth, teased her bottom lip with the nipple.  She sucked it in – then spit it back out and immediately began to cry.  Nate got it – she was used to Mommy feeding her and this was not Mommy.  This was some rubber thing he was trying to put in her mouth and she didn’t like it.  Worse yet, she didn’t even know who he was.

Nate looked at her in surprise. Was that it?  Had she forgotten her big brother Nate already, the one she’d clung to as a lifeline when she’d been unceremoniously dumped into this world?  He curled the arm that was cradling her head and stroked her soft cheek with his thumb.  Closing his eyes, he prayed for her to remember him.

It’s me.  You remember me, Emily Marie.  Your big brother Nate.  I held you at the hospital.  I helped your Mommy know what you needed.

Silence in the room made Nate pop open his eyes quickly for fear something had happened to his tiny charge.  Looking down, he saw that she had taken the bottle into her mouth and was watching him with big brown eyes.  His mouth dropped open but he continued to stroke her cheek with his thumb as he started the gentle motion of the rocker.  It was almost as though she’d heard him, that she understood now that he was safe.  She watched him unblinkingly as she pulled on the bottle, her eyes seeming wiser than her years.

While she nursed from the bottle, Nate felt a small wave of relief wash through him.  If nothing else, the last half hour had proven to him that he was in no way, shape or form ready to be a parent.  He would be eternally grateful that Alyssa had gone on the pill, that they wouldn’t have to worry about surprise parenthood.

Nate stopped rocking the chair.  He was nineteen.  The baby in his arms was three months old.  Max had been nineteen and Nate hadn’t been much older than three months when Tess had returned to earth with him.  For the first time, Nate understood what a huge undertaking it was to take care of a baby and could empathize with Max’s decision.  Even if there hadn’t been the whole alien complication to the situation, maybe Max giving Nate up had been for the best.  No matter how much it had hurt.

Nate looked down at Emily and found her eyelids drooping again, her little mouth working the bottle in an unsteady rhythm.  His brow furrowed.  Wasn’t he supposed to burp her or something?  Gently, he tugged the bottle from her mouth and waited for her to protest.  When she didn’t, he turned her around and placed her face over his shoulder, patted her back lightly.  In a few moments, she let out a belch that made his eyebrows jump sharply.  He laughed lightly – what a little lady this one was!  Then she fell limply against his shoulder, asleep.

They sat in the chair for a long time, the house silent save for the gentle whoosh of the rockers and the little baby moans coming from Emily.  Nate rubbed her back in slow circular motions while she slept, drooling on his T-shirt.  He felt a little tug in his heart for this beautiful little girl, a life that would always be a part of him. 

Eventually, Liz descended the stairs, her long hair mussed from her slumber.  Nate smiled at her as she plopped down on the couch, still dazed.

“Feel better?” he asked.

She ran a hand through her hair and nodded, squinted at the clock.  “What time is it?  It’s three already?  Nate, why didn’t you wake me?”  She seemed horrified that she’d slept for three hours.

He shrugged.  “No need to, really.  And you needed the sleep.”

Liz’s eyes drifted to her baby, who was riding Nate’s shoulder peacefully.  “Did she give you any trouble?”

Nate shook his head.  “Nope.  She was an angel.”

Liz smiled.  “Want me to take her?”

He craned his neck but could only see the back of Emily’s head.  “She’s okay.  Unless you want to take her.”

She shook her head.  “Not yet.  Hold on.”  With that, she got up and walked on her tiptoes down the hallway.  Nate heard her rummaging around, then she reappeared with a camera.  “Can I?”

He nodded in response.

Liz grinned, then took a couple of pictures, changing her angle in between.  “I’m going to send these to Max.”

Nate grinned.  “Where is he these days?”

Liz turned off the camera and sat back down on the couch.  “I don’t know.”

Nate’s grin disappeared.  She didn’t know – or she didn’t trust him enough to tell him?

Liz seemed to be able to read his mind.  “I really don’t know, Nate,” she sighed.  “He never tells me.  He thinks that the less I know, the safer I am.”

Nate frowned.  He could see the frustration on her pretty face.  The Evanses were leading a less than idyllic life.  “How about when he calls you?  Can’t you tell from the area code?”

She shook her head.  “He uses his cell.  And he never calls at the same time of day, so that anyone who might be listening in can’t tell what time zone he’s calling from.  Max has been doing this for twenty years, Nate.  He’s good at covering his tracks.”  She gave him a weary look and tucked her hair behind her ear.  Her eyes settled on Emily’s backside and her brow furrowed.  “Nate.”

“What?”

Standing, Liz pulled at the back of Emily’s onesie, trying to see through the thin fabric, then snorted a laugh.

“What?” Nate repeated, somehow thinking she was laughing at him.

“The ducks, Nate, go in the front.”

On his drive back to his loft, Nate thought about the tough situation Liz was in.  He had a suspicion that being without Max, trying to raise a child in what amounted to a one-parent home, had been a factor in her decision to remain childless.  Sure, she probably was worried about his alien connections and the impact that could have on a baby, but she also had to have been concerned with towing the load on her own.

It wasn’t fair.  Nothing these days was fair.  It wasn’t fair that Max had to be away and it wasn’t fair that Liz had to struggle because of it.  It wasn’t fair that Emily would never really know her father, that they’d have to get reacquainted every time he returned to town.  It wasn’t fair that he’d miss her birthdays, her dance recitals, her first Christmas morning.  It wasn’t fair that Max had been born part alien.

Nate frowned.  Why was it that some people seemed to receive a much harsher lot in life than others did?  Throughout his upbringing, he’d been blissfully unaware of his origins and he’d had all of those things Emily never would.  That in itself wasn’t fair.  The world was a cruel, unjust place.

As he pulled into his parking spot alongside the Ramirez’s garage, he came to a decision – he’d never been a planner, but he was going to put together a schedule and they were all going to take turns helping Liz.  That included him, Alyssa, and that horny Jeremy, who desperately needed an occupation to take his mind off chasing skirts.  Nate would ask Isabel, too, though he knew she was busy with her store and the twins.  Nate would not ask for the twins’ help, however – simply because they creeped him out a bit.  He wasn’t sure he wanted his sister exposed to that just yet.

Decision made, Nate felt a little better as he climbed out of his truck.  In the loft, he found Jeremy slouched on the couch, eating a bag of Cheetos.  He knew he’d locked the door, but with a whole bunch of hybrids running around, there really wasn’t much point in it.

“Dude,” Nate said, drawing the boy’s attention.  “You’re first.”

Jeremy stopped mid-chew.  “For what?” he said around a mouthful of orange.

“Tomorrow, you’re going over to help your Aunt Liz with the baby.”

Jeremy’s dark eyes grew round and Nate could see he was about to protest.

“If you don’t,” he said calmly.  “I’m cutting off the MTV.”

Jeremy’s eyebrows lifted quickly as he swallowed.  “I don’t know how to take care of a baby.”

Nate shrugged.  “It’s not that hard.  But just remember one thing.”

Jeremy looked sick.  “What?”

“The ducks go in the front.  Everyone knows that.”

Part Three

“I see you’re taking care of my girls.”  Max’s voice on the other end of the line was affectionate, albeit tired.

Nate laughed lightly.  “Well, yeah, sort of.”

“No sort of to it, from what I see in the pictures Liz emailed to me,” Max teased.  “That’s a pretty happy-looking baby there.  What did you do to her?”

“Nothing,” Nate answered casually.  “Just fed her.  And burped her.  Holy cow that kid can burp!”

Max laughed, but there was something missing from the sound, making it ring hollow.

Nate’s smile slid away.  “Look, Max, I’ll do whatever I can to help Liz out.  Don’t worry about that.”

Max sighed.  “But I do worry, Nate.  Liz is my wife.  Emily is my daughter.  You’re my son.  It’s my responsibility to be there for the ones I love.  And right now I…just can’t be.”

For the first time since Nate had met Max, he heard defeat in his tone.  Usually, Max was optimistic, willing to look at the bright side and count his blessings.  But not this day.  Today he was almost sullen.

“Max, is everything okay?” Nate asked cautiously.

“Fine.”  It was an automatic answer, falsely chipper.

Nate’s brow furrowed.  “Are you sure?”

“Yep.  I’m sure.  So how’s the apartment?  All moved in?”

Nate didn’t miss the none-too-subtle switching of topics, but he had the feeling that Max needed someone to cut him a break and decided not to press him on it.  “Apartment’s looking pretty good.  Isabel has been such a sweetheart, Max.”

There was a more-sincere laugh on the other end of the line.  “She can be when she wants to be, Nate.  Is Alyssa there yet?”

“I pick her up this afternoon.”  Nate couldn’t keep the smile out of his voice.

“Well, I’ll be sure not to call for the next couple of days then.”  Nate could practically see that knowing smirk on his father’s face.

“There’s no need for that, I mean…”  His cheeks immediately burned red.

Max laughed lightly.  “Yeah, I know what you mean.  Kid, I was your age once, remember?”

Nate looked at his shoe, kicked at the edge of the rug he’d placed before the couch.  “Yeah, I know.”

“Just one question.”

“Yes, we’re using birth control.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line, like Nate had taken Max off guard.  “That’s good, Nate.  But that’s not what I was going to ask you.”

“Oh.”

“I just wanted to know if Alyssa’s father is aware of the living arrangements.”

Nate bit his lip.  In truth, he didn’t know the answer to that one.  “Well, he knows that I’m in Boston .  And that Alyssa is in Boston …”

“But you didn’t tell him you’d be in the exact same place in Boston ?”  Now Nate imagined Max’s eyebrows raised into an inverted-V.

“Alyssa was supposed to tell him.”

Another brief silence, then Max burst out laughing.  “Oh, my!  Best of luck to you, junior.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that if Alyssa is really on a plane heading for Massachusetts , then she did not tell Michael where she’s staying.  Or she did and neglected to tell him she had a room mate.”

Nate frowned.  He didn’t like Max questioning Alyssa’s actions.  “I’m sure she did.”

“Nuh huh,” Max laughed.  “I’ve known Michael for a very long time, Nate – over thirty years.  If he knew, I’d know.  And he hasn’t said a peep.  Just be careful about how he finds out.  You really don’t want that to be a surprise.”

Nate shrugged to himself.  He wasn’t worried about Michael Guerin – at least not while they were on opposite sides of the country.

“I gotta get running,” Max announced, the momentary mirth gone from his voice.  It made Nate’s stomach twist.

“Max, are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, Nate.  Good luck with school, if I don’t talk to you before then.  And thanks for looking in on my girls.  I really appreciate it.”

“Not a problem.”

They said goodbye, then Nate sat staring at the rug before the couch.  There was something amiss in Max’s general demeanor.  Maybe it was just the trauma of being separated from his baby for the first time.  Whatever it was, it made Nate uncomfortable.  He wished he knew where Max was, but some questions – especially over a phone line – were taboo. 

A glance at the clock revealed that Alyssa’s plane would be touching down in and hour and a half.  Nate jumped up from the couch and began to tidy up the apartment – he didn’t want her to walk in on a pig sty her first time there.  Jeremy had left an empty Doritos bag on the coffee table and there was a dirty pair of Nate’s socks by the bathroom door.  He disposed of both items, then quickly smoothed out the bed, couldn’t keep the grin from his lips.  It was time he and Alyssa Christened that bed properly. 

In the kitchen, he rinsed out his cereal bowl from breakfast and made sure the flowers he’d bought and placed on the table had enough water.  With the house tidy, it was time to groom himself.  In the bathroom, he fixed his hair, straightened his clothes, then gave himself a nervous grin in the mirror.  It was time.

So excited was he that he nearly tripped down the stairs.  That would be great – he could imagine Alyssa standing patiently in an airport waiting for a ride while a doctor in some hospital somewhere set his broken leg.  The rush of adrenaline moved from fear to relief to flat out excitement.  She was so close now he could practically feel her.

Driving to Logan International Airport was a nightmare, especially at one o’clock in the afternoon on a Friday.  Nate sat forever at a myriad of Massachusetts toll booths, then sat another eternity in the tunnel that ran beneath the Atlantic Ocean and out to the airport.  The excitement in his veins quickly turned to anxiety as he realized Alyssa’s plane would land in fifteen minutes and he was still in his truck.  He’d had this whole scenario planned out in his head – he’d be waiting for her at the gate, smiling widely, perhaps holding flowers he’d yet to buy, then she’d come down the jetway looking a little lost and then she’d spy him and go running into his arms.  It was a scene right out of a cheesy Hollywood movie.  He was willing to accept the cheese.  If only he could get there before the plane landed.

That wasn’t going to be possible.  As Nate finally pulled his body out of his truck and broke into a run, Alyssa’s plane should have already landed.  He was suddenly thankful that he’d spent their time apart running as much as he had because sprinting through and airport took some effort.  He dodged people with ridiculous amounts of luggage, sidestepped a flight crew debating where to have dinner, hurdled a red velvet rope at the ticket counter.  All the while, he checked the monitors to see what gate she’d be at, if her flight had arrived.

It had.

Nate pounded up the escalator, running on steps that were already moving.  He raced down the concourse as a throng of people passed him going the other way – sure sign of a DC-10 spilling its load.  Disappointment surged through his veins as he looked at their happy faces.  He knew that he’d robbed Alyssa of the same chance to be so happy – at this point she had to think he’d stood her up.

But when he finally spotted her, he saw that she didn’t look disappointed or even worried.  He saw her before she saw him and in those few seconds, he got to study her without her knowing she was being observed.  She had on that white tank top she’d been wearing the first time she’d kissed him and a short olive green skirt.  Her long hair hung loose around her shoulders, shining like spun gold as she slowly looked around for him.  Her hands were clasped before her, clutching a tiny white summer purse.  Nate’s breath caught in his chest – not a good thing to have happen considering the amount of running he’d been doing – and his heart gave one hard thump before beating a little faster.

She was really here.

As he started to jog toward her, she turned her head in his direction, her eyes met his without recognition, then a moment later she was running straight for him, squealing like a school girl.  Nate broke into a wide grin and threw his arms out for her; she jumped into them, their bodies colliding with an unexpected force.

“Oh my God!” she screamed as she squeezed him tightly.  “I missed you so much!”

Nate laughed and nodded, out of breath and sweaty.  This wasn’t how he wanted their meeting to be.  There was nothing romantic about sweating line a linebacker.

Not that Alyssa seemed to care.  She pressed her lips tightly to his and he wanted to kiss her good and hard – until he remembered Michael’s warning about respecting her in public.  So he pulled back gently, smiling at her so that she wouldn’t feel rejected, and wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Let’s get your bags and get out of here,” he said. So they could go home and he could welcome her to Boston properly.

She chatted all of the way to the baggage claim, talking about her journey and the lunatic newspaper writer who had sat beside her.  Of course, the unspoken irony there was that that reporter had a world changing story sitting right beside him and had never known it.  That fact didn’t seem to have bothered Alyssa, while Nate wondered if he’d have been as calm and collected in the same situation.

They got stuck in traffic again, but neither of them cared.  Nate had his arm around her shoulder and was stroking her skin with his thumb; he remembered oh so well how soft her beautiful skin was.  Every now and then Alyssa would lay a kiss against his cheek or his ear, which was only increasing a steady buzz of excitement in his veins.  If she kept it up, he wasn’t sure they’d make it to the loft.

“Aunt Isabel wants us to have dinner with them tonight,” he told her, trying to ignore the slight tension he was feeling in his jeans.

“Oh, great!” Alyssa squealed.  “I haven’t seen the boys in so long!”

Nate thought of the freaky twins and mused that he had only seen them twice since he’d been in Boston – and that had been enough.  Jeremy, on the other hand, seemed to always be underfoot.  He started to tell her about that, but her hand landed on his thigh and he couldn’t really remember clearly who Jeremy was…

At the Ramirez estate, Nate pulled the truck to a stop beside the garage, then hopped out and pulled her bags from the back.  As she got out of the vehicle, her mini skirt showed just a hint of white lace beneath and he found he had only one thing on his mind.  Screw dinner.  Screw the bags.  Nothing mattered at this point.  Alyssa looked over her shoulder, innocent and worldly all at once and he dropped the bags to the gravel.

Rounding the truck, he took her by the arm, stepped into the loft’s stairwell then grabbed her around the waist, kissing her mercilessly.  She let out a startled squeak, then fell into him, her tanned arms wrapping around his neck.  Undeniable need rose quickly within him and he knew they’d never make it up the stairs and to the bed.  Gently, he pushed her back onto the steps, reached beneath her skirt and pulled down her panties.

Alyssa’s dark eyes were round as she watched him.  Her hand trembling, she lifted it toward the door and it swung shut, the tumblers in the lock clicking into place.  Then she reached for his zipper, jerked it down and reached in to release him from his pants.  He groaned, then pulled both her shirt and bra aside to expose her breast.  She let out a ragged gasp as he took her roughly into his mouth.

A few seconds later, they were joined, enjoying their first quickie.  Nate noticed that every time he thrust, the top of her head banged into the facing of one of the steps.  He curved his fingers over her hair, letting the back of his hand take the abuse instead.  They were both breathing hard, the months of pent-up need bubbling to the surface.