Baby,
It’s You………
Max woke up to find himself sleeping at the observatory
with Tess in his arms. He stared down at her for a moment, his eyes dark and
unfathomable. Tess slowly woke to find him staring at her intently.
“Hey,” she said softly smiling.
“Hey,” Max responded watching her go back to sleep. A
while later, they woke again, and Max drove Tess home. It was late, very late.
Going into the house, they woke up Kyle who was sleeping on the sofa. He looked
up when they came in, but quickly laid back down.
“I guess I'll see you at school.” Tess said not able to
read his face or even guess what he was feeling.
“Yeah.”
Kyle glanced up again from his eavesdropping to see Max and
Tess kissing.
“Is everything ok?” Tess asked.
“Yeah … yeah great,” Max told her, his voice neither
reassuring nor convincing. They both jumped apart in surprise and guilt when Jim
suddenly appeared, obviously upset.
“Where the hell have you … ?” Jim demanded of Tess,
until he noticed who she was with. “Max!” Jim’s eyes moved over the two
teens seeing more than they liked as both of them pinked up in embarrassment.
“Go to your room.” Jim ordered Tess.
“Yes, sir,” Tess hurried off, not wanting to be on
Father Jim’s bad side. Vegas had been a learning experience.
“Sheriff …” Max began, but Jim was too tired from
staying up all night worried about his alien charge to deal with it now.
“Go home, Max.” He told the young man. “We'll talk
about this later.”
“Right,” Jim waited until Max left to turn around
seeing Kyle watching, awake on the sofa.
“Hey, Dad,” Kyle piped up. Jim groaned. God save him
from teenagers.
~~~
Tess was preparing to go to bed to get a few more hours of
sleep when she stared at herself in the mirror wondering if finally sleeping
with Max changed her. Was it apparent on her face that she just took a step in
life? Looking at herself in the full length mirror she felt something. Placing
her hands on her stomach, her mouth opened in wonder.
“Oh, my god!” She was pregnant.
~~~
Liz knocked on Maria's window. It took a few moments, but
Maria finally opened it. She stared at her friend in confusion.
“Liz, do you know what time it is?”
“I need to talk to you.” Liz begged desperately. Maria
nodded backing up to let Liz into her busy room.
Liz stopped when she noticed that Michael was in Maria’s
bed fast asleep. “Oh, God! I’m sorry! I should …”
“Stay right here, and tell me what’s going on.” Maria
suggested.
“Maybe we should go …” Liz gestured to the door.
“No. Here is good. We won’t wake Michael. He hasn’t
been sleeping. When he gets that look on his face, it would take a nuclear blast
exploding next to his ear to wake him, and even then he would just grumble
irritated, tell me to answer the damn phone, and roll over going back to
sleep.”
Liz shook her head. “You have a very strange relationship
with him.”
“Yeah, well, I do strange real well, and so does he.”
Maria turned on a light real low covering it with a red cloth to keep it from
being too bright and disturbing Michael. Both and Maria and Liz sank to the
floor to talk quietly together. They slowly went through the pictures that Liz
brought.
“Alex and his supposed girlfriend Leanna standing in
front of some building in
“Ok, I'm so creeped out right now.” Maria confessed
rubbing her arms. “So who's Leanna then?”
“You know she could be some girl that Alex never met, put
in these photos with him, just like the buildings.” Liz suggested.
“Or she could be an alien killer.” Maria said, her eyes
narrowing as she got into the investigation. Hmm. Alien killer … Topolsky had
been a Special Unit person. “So wait, if Alex never went to
“I don't know! That's what we’ve got to find out. I
can't do this by myself. I really need your help.”
“Mine and Michael’s,” Maria offered.
“No!” Liz glanced up at the bed making sure that
Michael was still asleep. “No aliens, Maria. I know Michael didn’t do it,
and I trust the others. I just don’t trust them to rationally look for the
evidence, especially if it looks like I’m right. Max … he turned against me,
and no matter what, he’s still their leader. I can’t let Max stop me, so I
can’t afford him finding out in any manner.”
“Michael wouldn’t tell, Liz. He could help us.” Maria
licked her lips nervously. Michael was right. If Liz was correct, then this was
dangerous, and the two of them … two defenseless human girls were no match for
a homicidal alien.
“Maria, swear to me that you won’t tell him. Or anyone.
Not until we have more proof.” Liz knew she was putting Maria into a hard
spot, but she had no choice. “I need irrefutable evidence, so even Max can’t
turn a blind eye.” Liz held Maria’s hand tightly. “It’s not just for
Alex, Maria. It’s for the aliens too. I think they’re in trouble, and
because Max refuses to admit it, they could be caught defenseless.”
Maria looked up at the bed, then at Liz. Reluctantly she
nodded, agreeing with her friend. She would do anything to keep Michael safe, to
make sure he survived to see his dreams of home realized. She loved him that
much … even if that dream took him away from her forever.
~~~
Max walked into the Evans kitchen to find Isabel up early
stretching before her early morning jog.
“Morning. You-you're going for a run?” Max asked the
obvious trying to find a way through the silence between them. “That must be
up to
Isabel then stopped her exercises, pulled a chair from the
table, slamming it down in front of Max, she sat glaring at him.
“Well, it's not easy to say, but uh, especially to my
sister, but uh, you know that Tess and I have been giving a long and kind of
cross and last night, we … things … something came up between us …
something happened.”
“You slept with her?!” Isabel said in anger. Oh, sure,
he can live his life any frickin’ way he saw fit, but the rest of them? A veil
was ripped from Isabel’s eyes. But then, he always did as he pleased … like
saving Liz Parker no matter how much danger he put them in. Bastard.
“Yeah.”
Isabel made a face of disinterest. “Wow. Congratulations,
Max. You lost your virginity.” Isabel unenthusiastically applauded.
“Is …”
“Oh gee, I'm sorry.” Isabel asked sarcastically, her
anger making her voice hard. “Were you looking for some sort of comfort or
sympathy before you went off and washed her dried sweat from your body? Or hey,
did you guys do it in the shower?”
Max couldn’t talk to her. “Forget it.” He went to
leave, more than willing to be out of his sister’s vitriolic personality.
“His Majesty will now retire to his room!”
“We didn't plan it, alright?” Max told her angry at her
attitude. “It just happened. I'm feeling a little weird about it right now and
… I'm just hoping …”
“You were wrong.” Isabel told him. She had no support
for him, because he had no support for her. “I don't care about your morning
after anxieties, or your delicate feelings, because my feelings sure as hell
don't matter to you!” Isabel stomped off leaving Max alone.
~~~
Tess was in front of the school pacing, waiting anxiously
for Max. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him finally.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Max said stopping next to her, still a bit
uncomfortable with how far their relationship had progressed.
“Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Tess
said almost desperate, not sure how to tell him about the pregnancy.
“Oh …”
“Yeah.”
Michael walked up to them as Maria rushed by, hurrying her
completed Alex project to the yearbook committee. She stopped long enough to
give Michael a thank you peck on his cheek, barely waving at the others.
“Yo.” Michael said to Max.
Max was undone. Acting a little hyper and off he greeted
Michael, “Hey, Michael.” Then remembering Tess wanted to talk, he tried to
tone it down. “Hey.”
“Hey?” Michael lifted a brow at the two, catching
something … off.
“Tess and I were actually just talking.” Max told
Michael as he glanced at Tess and nodded.
Michael caught the gist. Get lost. “Alright, later.”
“Great!” Max answered heartily, in false enthusiasm.
“Fantastic.” Michael walked off talking to himself.
You’d think he would be used to totally strange and bizarre occurrences since
he had spent the evening with DeLucas, but no. That was definitely different.
“We can talk about it tonight.” Tess told Max letting
him off the hook for now, especially since he seemed so … flustered by it all.
“Are you sure?” Max asked not happy with how he was
treating her, the morning after.
“Yeah. There's no rush.” Max and Tess looked over at
Michael, Isabel, and Kyle watching them.
“Max, if it's better for you to keep all this between the
two of us right now …” Tess offered.
“No, no it's not.” He wasn’t going to treat her like
she was something he was ashamed of. Max reached down and took Tess' hand in
his, intertwining their fingers. Tess smiled as they approach Michael, Isabel,
and Kyle, passing them.
Maria was walking up behind the group, having delivered her
project in overwhelming relief of a
job now done. As Max and Tess passed her, so obviously … together, her mouth
fell open. She kept walking not watching where she was going until she
accidentally bumped into Kyle. Michael reached out and straightened her, pulling
her away from the other boy.
“Okay, no one told me that the circus freak show was in
town,” Maria commented, her eyes still following Max and Tess as her arm went
around Michael’s waist.
“You have no idea,” Isabel said bitterly.
“Michael,” she continued, not taking her eyes off her brother as he walked
away. “I never thanked you properly for being against destiny and thinking it
was crap.” She stared at Max and Tess’s backs. “Thank you from the bottom
of my heart.”
~~~
Isabel was sitting alone on the bleachers at the football
field, staring at Alex's memorial, as Kyle suddenly sat down next to her.
“So, how do you feel about this whole Max and Tess
development?”
Isabel shrugged. “Well, I'm not speaking to my brother,
so if you have something you want to know, you'll have to ask him.” She
sighed, staring at what was left of a memory of Alex. “God, I hate this place,
do you think I have to just sit here and rot for the rest of my life?”
“You know what? You aliens are the most pathetic group of
people I’ve ever met.”
Isabel glared at him. “Goodbye, Kyle.”
Kyle started whining in a high annoying voice simpering for
Isabel, ‘Oh, we've got to keep our secret safe; we've got to be boring and
brooding’. If I had one tenth of your power …”
“What would you do?” Isabel asked, finding something
interesting for the first time in forever, or what felt like forever.
“I'd have fun!” Kyle proclaimed his eyes dancing full
of mischief. Isabel laughed at his antics and his enthusiasm. “You know, fun?
Enjoying myself, getting away from this whole doom and gloom thing you guys
wallow in, especially you lately.”
“Shut up.” Glancing at him, she smiled. “What's your
idea of fun?” Kyle laughed rubbing his hands gleefully. What wasn’t his idea
of fun?
~~~
Kyle pulled out an issue of Playboy from his ever growing
magazine collection.
Isabel put her hands up looking at the magazine with
apprehension. “I'm not touching
that.”
Kyle flipped through to a place he had earmarked from
constant … um, use. “Jody Ann Paterson likes long walks in the rain,
unicorns, and funny guys.”
Isabel glanced over his shoulder reading. “A playmate?
Are you serious?”
“Oh, man, she's not just some playmate, she's playmate of
the whole freakin' year!” Kyle informed Isabel with deference, not liking that
the girl had no respect for true talent.
“Mmm-hmm.”
“All right, are you sure it's going to work?” Kyle
asked not wanting his hopes dashed. Hell, he deserved this. He just had one of
the all time worst birthdays ever recorded in human history.
“Well, it has in the past, but of course that was a
life-and-death situation.” Isabel said thinking of how she took Liz with her
on the dreamwalk to find Max.
“Well, then I'll die happy.” Kyle had to stop rubbing
his hands joyfully, it was creeping Isabel out.
“Oh, good.” Isabel and Kyle touched Jody Ann's picture
in the magazine for the dream sequence as they showed up in the dream exercising
with her.
Kyle rode his exercise bike with vigor his eyes on the
prize. “Hey, make her dump her water on her top.”
“I'm gonna have to read Backlash twice after this!”
Isabel said in disgust. “Why don't you just go talk to her?”
“I can? Really?”
“Yeah.”
“This is … what do I say?”
“Talk to her about unicorns.” Isabel told him as Kyle
gave her two thumbs up and went to talk to the supermodel playmate of the year.
“Hey, Jody Ann...”
The woman didn’t spare Kyle a glance. “This is a
private gym.”
Kyle looked around and spotted cake. He reached over and
offered to feed the girl cake. She licked the leftovers off his fingers.
“Who are you?” She demanded.
“I'm the towel boy.” Kyle said with the award-winning
Valenti smile. “The showers are this way.”
Isabel ended the dream waking in disgust.
“Ohh!”
“No!” Kyle cried waking from the journey.
Isabel looked at Kyle in disgust. “Oh, this may come as a
surprise to you, but I really don't need to see that!”
“Well, then bring a book, let's go back.” He held the
magazine out to Isabel.
“No dice!”
Kyle tossed the magazine. “Oh well, that was good for me,
what can we do for you?”
“Have I mentioned that I hate my brother?”
“We can blow him up,” Kyle offered.
“You really have a sick little mind, don't you?” Isabel
was delightfully pleased.
“Isabel, Buddha teaches us that some of us are born with
stones and some of us are born with jewels, but the most fulfilled of us are
those who were born with stones and turn them into jewels.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Kyle sighed. Spiritually aware chicks were so hard to come
by. “You wanna get back at your brother, right?”
“Yes.”
“Ok, then bring your powers to the party and I'll
drive.”
“All right,” Isabel followed Kyle, and for once, she
felt like part of a Michael and Maria type team.
~~~
Maria worked on a computer to uncover an e-mail Alex sent
to her while on his trip to
While she waited for him to access things, she had a little
talk to herself. “I can’t tell him, I promised. But, if I don’t tell him,
he’ll be upset, think I am holding back on him. No. No. I promised Liz. This
is important. Okay. Okay then. I’m not going to tell him.” Maria nodded to
herself. Without thought, she took out her phone and called Michael’s number.
“Michael, hey, it’s me. I can’t tell you what I’m doing, but I need to
… well I should talk to you. Um, do you want to go for Mexican? My treat,”
Maria hung up. “Damn.”
The computer geek glanced up at the colorful girl in an
incredibly short skirt, killer legs, and lip gloss that made him blink. She was
… He just stared.
Maria noticed that he stopped typing. “I uh, I need you
to tell me exactly where this email is sent from.”
“You're Liz Parker's friend, right?” Derek asked.
“What? Why?”
“Talking to yourself, and wanting to know everything
about computers. Difference is that you’re … um, different. I wasn’t
sure.”
“Maria Deluca, it's really nice to meet you, so …”
She gestured to the email.
Derek looked at the email carefully. “Um, the origination
point has been encrypted.”
“Obviously,” Maria said sweetly putting her hands on
his shoulder and bending real close. “I-I need you to do your computer nerd
stuff and figure out exactly where this email came from.” She informed him
sweetly.
Derek cleared his throat nervously by the closeness of the
girl. Maria DeLuca. Wasn’t she Michael Guerin’s girl? She was … “Um, you
wouldn’t want to, um … you know … go out with me sometime?”
“Hmm...” Maria said appearing to give it some thought.
“Um, no. The email?”
“You're asking me to do something illegal.” He informed
her.
Confusion moved over Maria’s face as she tried to discern
his point. “And …?”
~~~
Max and Tess were sitting on a bench in a park talking
about the "truth".
Tess was concerned about him. “You seem quiet.”
“I'm not.” He denied.
“Max, this just isn't the time to feel you pulling away
from me.”
Max put his hand around Tess. “It's just … what
happened between us … it has all these … implications.” He looked at Tess.
“What did you want to say to me before?
“Oh, I don't know if it was such a good time.” If he
was having doubts, what she needed to tell him might not be something he could
stand to hear.
“That's okay.”
“Well, something sort of came up.”
Max frowned. “Came up?”
“I'm not sure how to say this.” Tess just went for it.
“I'm pregnant.”
~~~
While Maria was working over the computer angle, or at the
very least the computer geek, Liz was trying to find information that could
break the case. For that, she needed Tess. Ringing the Valenti doorbell, she
practiced what she was going to say.
“Liz.” Tess said in surprise.
“Hi, Tess.”
“So, are you here about me and Max?” Tess guessed.
“No, um, I … well, I wanted to talk to you,
actually,” Liz said. The last thing she wanted was to talk about Max and Tess.
She’d rather not think of them at all.
“Oh, sure.” Tess invited Liz inside.
“Um, I just um, you know I have questions about your
powers, mind control especially.”
Tess frowned her eyes suddenly bright. “What kind of
questions?”
“You know, um, anything that you can tell me, but um,
like …” Liz didn’t get to finish as Max came in through the door that Tess
had left open.
“Hey, your door's …” Max stopped when he saw Liz with
Tess. Liz. He was not very happy to see his ex-girlfriend. “What are you doing
here?” he asked coldly.
“Um, nothing, you know, we were just … we're
talking.” Liz informed him staring at his cold emotionless face. “I should
go.”
“Talking about what?” More Alex being alien, or did
Tess tell her about the baby?
“Nothing.”
“Max, you know, it's ok, forget about it.” Tess begged
not liking the energy between Max and Liz. The anger was shocking.
“No, I wanna know.” Max told Tess.
“We'll just talk later.” Liz told Tess.
“No, please don't go on my account.” Max insisted.
“Go ahead and ask your questions.”
“Max, she's just had a few questions about my powers,
that's all.”
“New theory?” Max sneered.
Liz’s face paled. “I just wanted to know some things
about mind control and I thought …”
“Oh, so Tess killed Alex. Is that your theory?” Max
demanded.
“No.” Liz said solemnly, suppressing a need to cry.
Tess saw how pale Liz was, small and vulnerable against the
tirade of Max. “Max, she didn't say that.”
“That's what you're thinking, why don't you just ask
it?!”
Liz shook her head denying it. “Max, of course that's not
what I'm thinking!”
“Tess, did you kill Alex?” Max demanded.
“Max...!” Tess pleaded for him to calm down.
“What were you doing on the night that he died?” Max
interrogated.
“Will you stop it?!” Liz yelled at him.
“Go ahead!” Max told Tess. “What were you doing?!”
“She was with me.” Kyle said quietly from the doorway
having heard the loud voices. “We were watching Gladiator on video.”
“An alibi. From one of your own,” Max said nastily to
Liz.
“Can I leave now?” Liz asked quietly her face pale and
blank of emotion.
“Yep,” Max told her not even flinching despite the
obvious betrayal in Liz’s eyes. Liz quickly left and Max shut the door.”
Kyle stared at the angry Max unable to believe he could
treat Liz so viciously. “Is everything ok?”
“Fine!” Max demanded turning away as Tess put her hands
on his shoulders that were still shaking in rage.
Tess nodded. “Yeah, yeah everything's fine, Kyle.”
~~~
Liz was on her balcony lying on a lounging chair when Maria
came in through the window. She was staring off across the way, her face blank.
Her whole life, all her dreams, they seemed so far away. Future Max was nothing
more than a dream because whatever was of that world, it had slipped away. Max,
her Max … the man she married was dead.
“Liz! Liz!” Maria called to her friend.
“What?” Liz’s voice lacked any emotion or life. She
was tired. So tired working hard for everyone’s survival, working for Alex,
and every step forward, she took two back.
“I was thinking to myself, right.” Maria said pushing
Liz’s legs aside to sit on the edge of the chaise. “How is it that Alex sent
these emails from
Liz sat up. “Are you telling me that Alex never left
“No, he … he did, he just … he didn't go far.”
Maria grabbed hold of Liz’s hands. “The emails were sent from a dorm room
from the
“
Maria searched her friend’s face. “Okay, you look
terrible. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Liz shook her head. “I can’t talk about
it.”
“Oh, no. You and me,” Maria made a gesture between
them. “We’ve been out of sorts lately, and I do not like! I love you, Liz. I
love you with all my heart, but you talk to me, or I will … I will take you
down. Lay you out!”
“Tough girl!” Liz said her eyes sparkling with mirth.
“You betcha, baby! I can take down the alien baddie! Mr.
Guerin, he is putty in my hands. So scootch.” Maria moved on to the lounge
with Liz lying back as Liz laid back on her. “So tell, Maria everything. Who
hurt you? I’ll get Michael to give them an itch in a place that can’t be
scratched.”
Liz was quiet lying on Maria, hugging her hard. She shook
her head. It was so good to feel Maria near again. She had been out there alone
for so long. Liz began to cry.
“Max,” Maria guessed. “Shh. It’s okay, you can tell
me.”
Maria waited and let Liz tell her in her own time, in her
own way. For the first time since the entire alien conspiracy spiraled in their
lives and altered it forever, Liz did not even try to excuse Max’s actions.
Maria answered her cell phone quickly when it rang. Liz was
asleep, and she didn’t want to take a chance on her waking.
“Hey. Do not bullshit me. Where are you?”
“Spacebum. Liz’s balcony. Come find me if you dare.”
Maria disconnected. She waited for ten minutes before Michael’s head came up
the fire ladder.
Michael stopped when he saw Maria with Liz, both of them
sharing a lounging chair. Liz was asleep, her face concentrating as if sleep was
all she could handle.
“She finally crashed, huh?”
“Yeah,” Maria looked at her friend. “You bring a
crowbar? Want to extract me?”
“Sure.” Michael lifted Liz a bit so Maria could slide
out. They put the sleeping girl back on the lounge in a more comfortable
position. Maria covered her with a throw, turning off the lights, but leaving on
the twinkle lights. Michael frowned. “Should we leave her there?”
“I don’t think it will rain. I’ll stop and tell Mr.
Parker that she’s out here. He’ll let her sleep and then take her inside.”
“I could …” Michael offered to carry Liz. It wasn’t
like she was huge or anything, and lately she looked even more diminutive than
usual.
“No. It’s best we don’t risk waking her. She needs
sleep more than anything.” Maria bit her lip. “Did you get my message?”
“Every incoherent line. I got the part where you’re
buying me dinner at Senior Chows, so all I want to know is what did you do or
are about to do that requires you to pay me off with dinner?” Michael asked
wisely. She chose Mexican, his favorite, so it had to be something he wouldn’t
approve of.
“Michael,” Maria grabbed him by the waist and rest her
head on his chest. She couldn’t do it. Liz needed her, and she couldn’t take
much in the way of betrayal right now. “Michael, I almost accepted a date from
a computer geek.”
Michael stepped back. “No.”
“Yeah. He wanted to explain technical journals to me and
everything.”
“Ewww! You want me to pound him in the ground?”
“Nah, he’s harmless, but I’m obviously suffering a
brain tumor. Do you think I need to see a doctor?”
“Oh sure,” Michael said leading her to Liz window so
they could find the Parkers. “Every day that I’ve known you.”
~~~
Liz and Maria were in a hurry. They had their bags packed
and escape velocity was hitting maximum. Maria was in more of a hurry than Liz.
She had a certain window of Michael avoidance before he suspected something.
“Got everything?” Maria asked.
“Hmm-hmm.” They opened the door to find Michael
standing in front of them.
“Michael.” Maria squeaked, her face looking guilty as
sin.
“Where are you going?” Michael asked his eyes
immediately going to the bags.
“
Michael’s eyes narrowed. Liz Parker was the world’s
worst liar, and Maria, she could lie a blue streak, but not to him. “What's in
“Uh, Alex's … grandmother, she couldn't make it to the
funeral and so they’re having a memorial service.”
“Right.” Michael held open the door. He all but told
Liz to scram. “Let me talk to Maria for a second, it's personal.”
“Ok, sure, uh …” Liz went through the door looking
back at the quiet Maria.
“You could take this.” Maria said handing Liz her bag.
“Yes, I'll...I’ll just be in the car.” Liz said
making eye contact with Maria.
“Okay.”
Liz exited as Michael entered the DeLuca house and closed
the door. “Where are you going?” He repeated.
“
“Maria,” Michael’s voice took on a firmness. “Where
are you going?”
“Michael...” Maria pleaded. She was in a terrible
situation, caught between her two best friends.
“Liz doesn't want us to know because she and Max are at
war,” Michael said knowing full well this was Liz’s doing, “so here's the
thing: I'm not going to tell Max, but I need to know, because if wherever you're
going turns out to be dangerous, I'm sure as hell gonna be there to protect
you.” Michael bent his head a little. “So, where are you going?”
“We're going to
Their eyes met, and Michael nodded. Friends. Maria had few
of them, and their number was getting smaller all the time now that Alex was
gone. He sighed. “First sign of danger - you contact me. Promise?” Maria
nodded her head smiling slightly at him. “Absolutely
promise?”
“Yes.” Maria promised crossing his heart with her hand.
Michael leaned down and kissed her before opening the door to let her go. He
watched them drive away.
~~~
At school Max and Michael were lining up for yearbooks.
“Liz and Maria aren't in school today.” Max observed suspicious that if
anyone knew where Maria was, it was Michael. If he knew where Maria was, then he
knew where Liz was as well.
“Yeah, I noticed.” Michael said signing for two
yearbooks, one for him and one for Maria.
“Have any idea where they are?” Max asked.
Unlike Liz and Maria, Michael had no problem lying,
“Nope.” He flipped to the picture pages. He couldn’t believe he let Maria
talk him into turning in an actual picture. He looked at the one she selected.
He looked … normal.
Max shook his head. “Like I don't have enough to deal
with already.”
Looking through yearbook pages, Max turned to the page
where his picture was located and saw that his class photo had been replaced
with a picture of an alien. “Look at this!” Max demanded.
Michael didn’t even glance at it. “Mine sucks, too. I
blame, Maria. Why did she choose that shirt?” Max and Michael glanced over at
Kyle and Isabel who were watching with giant smirks on their faces.
Michael lifted a brow at the two conspirators, and having been told the
nitty-gritty on the Max and Liz latest fight, he glanced at his friend. “So,
what else are you dealing with?”
“I’ve got to get outta here.” Max said.
“Let’s play some B-ball.” Michael suggested. He could
use the exercise. Max shrugged. It would be nice to just let go for a while and
play a game.
Michael took the ball out. “So are you going to tell me
what is going on with you?”
Max tried to block Michael and he went around and sank the
ball. “Just stuff, you know?”
“Relationship stuff,” Michael guessed.
Max bent over, breathing hard as Michael tossed the ball to
him. “Well, Tess and I are sort of …”
“Yeah, I know.” Michael watched as Max made a shot from
the free throw line. It swooshed the hoop. He caught the return and tossed it
back to Max.
“The thing is the other night, things between us kind of
… advanced.”
Michael stopped playing, his eyes narrowed. “How far did
they advance?”
Max went over and sat down on the bench taking a towel and
wiping off. “I would say they advanced just about as far as possible.”
“You and Tess actually had …” Michael paused. Maybe
he didn’t want to know.
“Hot alien sex, yes.”
Michael made a face. Okay, so maybe he did want to know.
“How was it?”
“Well, it's probably a lot like human sex. Except the
point of culmination.”
Michael made another face. His ‘What the fuck you talking
about?’ face. “The point of what?”
“You kinda feel like you're floating and this … this
hot electric energy courses through your body.”
“How long does that last?”
“About an hour,”
Michael made a remark under his breath. Great, overkill. A
ten minute orgasm would be incredibly sufficient for most people … there was a
reason the French call it the ‘little death.’ An hour? After the initial
rush, exactly what was the point unless it came with this drug euphoria?
Max interrupted Michael’s thoughts. “The thing is,
there's been a complication.”
“What?” Michael slid a little away from Max. “Alien
herpes?”
“No, nothing like that.”
Michael breathed a sign of relief. Hey, he gets infected it
better come with some rewards. “Whoa, clearly, you didn't have any performance
problems, and other than getting Tess pregnant, which you're too smart to do,
what else could there be?”
Max just looked at Michael.
Michael’s mouth opened in shock. “You got Tess pregnant?
Holy crap!”
“She says it's growing fast. Nasedo said alien
pregnancies take about a month.”
“What's inside her?” Michael asked, not taking the
information as good news. “I mean, is it human? Is it alien?”
“Well, we can't exactly go get a sonogram.”
“You're actually going to go through with this?”
Michael couldn’t see this as a good thing. A teenage pregnancy was never a
good thing, but an alien one?
“I don't know if I have any choice here. This is out of
my hands. I can't tell Tess what to do!”
Michael made a snorting noise. Since when? He told everyone
else what to do. “Why not? You're the king.”
“Which makes her the queen.”
Michael needed Max to think about this … to really think.
“Maxwell, if this thing comes out green with four fingers and three eyes,
that puts a major cramp in our hide-in-plain-sight strategy.”
“So, what are you suggesting?”
“I'm suggesting you point out to Tess how this could
screw up our lives … forever. She's gotta know - this affects all of us!”
“I don’t know that I can do that.”
“Why the hell not?! You can tell Liz not to investigate
because it will ‘expose’ us and she has a responsibility to us. You tell
Isabel she can’t leave
Michael stood up and grabbed his stuff. “You’ve been
exposing us for years at your whim, and this is just a bunch of the same old-
same old crap.” He picked up his bag. “You know, you won’t even listen to
Liz. You hurt her. Treat her like she’s the threat, but what if she’s right?
Something is not right here. I knew Alex, and there wasn’t a suicidal bone in
his body. He loved life. He loved his life, his friends, his parents, and his
music. As far as I could see, he had everything to live for and nothing to lose.
I can accept an accident, but never suicide. So why aren’t we asking the
questions?”
“Alex was not murdered.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that, and while you’re chanting
it, keeping your head buried so far up you ass, like you always do … take a
look around and see if you can find yourself, Max. My friend would’ve never
treated Liz like this, and he sure as hell wouldn’t have slept with anyone but
her. You keep trying to create the perfect illusion of a perfect world, but I
suggest you look for pods, because I swear someone bodysnatched you.”
Michael started to leave.
“Where are you going?”
“To find Maria,” Michael snapped, not bothering to tell
him where. “She usually gets in trouble if I leave her alone too long.”
Max sat there as Michael stomped off, all alone. All he had
now was Tess.
~~~
At the University in
“Probably empty,” Maria guessed. They must not have
placed a new student there.
“Nothing.” Liz said shutting another empty drawer. They
kept searching until a student came by.
“Excuse me?” The student called to them. “Can I help
you with anything?”
“Uh, yeah, um, actually we are looking for a friend who
stayed in this room for a while.” Liz told the student.
“Ray.”
Maria tilted her head. “Ray?”
Liz nodded quickly. “Yes, Ray.”
“He was here for a couple of months; hardly said a word;
very weird guy.”
“Did he see what he was doing here and maybe like why he
came in the middle of the semester and all?” Maria asked.
The student shook his head. “You don't understand. Ray
never left the room. The only time he opened the door was when they delivered
his Thai food.”
Liz stood up straighter. “Thai food?”
“Breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Food fetish, if
you ask me.”
Maria held up a hand. “So, wait, you mean he literally
never left the dorm?”
“Well, at least not in the daytime.” The student
confirmed. “There was this one night I was out partying. I came back pretty
late. I saw him coming out of the Litvack building. It was, like,
Maria frowned biting on a nail. “Yeah, sounds it.”
Alex, what had he gotten into?
“So what's in the Litvack building?” Liz asked.
“Computers. I mean I'm not really into that kind of
stuff, but apparently the University has this incredible super computer.”
~~~
Inside the pod chamber, Max and Tess looked for information
they had about their past lives.
“What are we doing here?” Tess asked looking around the
old pod chamber.
“This is everything we have from where we come from.”
Max took the alien book and flipped through it. “This book … if we knew how
to read it, it would probably have all the answers for us.”
“What answers are we looking for?”
“I guess answers about what exactly we're getting
ourselves into.” Max admitted. “Tess, this is my child, too and I fully
accept that, but I also want you to know that this is your decision and I will
respect whatever you decide …” It was a good thing neither Isabel nor
Michael was there. They both would’ve mutinied over him giving Tess the right
to decide the fate of her own body and life.
“Max, I'm having this baby.”
“Okay.” Max put the book away and stood up.
“Thanks for the support,” Tess told him looking up at
him.
“I said I would stand by you.”
Tess face altered for a moment, going not anger, but
resigned. “Don't sound so excited about it.”
“Hey, my entire life changed overnight and I think I'm
entitled to get a little freaked!”
“And I'm not? Don't you think I'm a little flipped out by
this whole …?”
Max didn’t want to argue with her too. “That's not what
I meant, I …”
Tess started to feel pain. She doubled over. “Max.”
Max went to her quickly, his arms supporting her as she
sat. “What is it?”
“The baby.”
Max pulled up Tess' shirt and saw the red handprint glowing
from inside Tess' stomach. He put his hand over it. In flashes, increased
respiratory rate, Max started to hyperventilate.
Tess watched him, her eyes worried. “Max?”
“I … saw the baby. It's a boy.”
~~~
At
“Hey. Me. Listen, this is like the sixth time or so.
We’re onto something, and I think you need to be here. It’s getting majorly
creepy.” Liz pulled on Maria’s arm. “Gotta go. Find me. And Spaceboy,
could you bring my leather mini that I left at your place? There are some
seriously hot boys on this campus.”
“Maria!” Liz said trying to get Maria off the phone.
“We’re investigating!” Sighing, Maria hung up wondering where Michael was.
“We're so close, Maria. We're so close to figuring this all out.”
“I hope so.”
Liz and Maria both stopped in their tracks when they heard
a familiar voice coming from an all campus party and the bandstand. They turned
towards Nelly Furtado who began performing her song “I’m Like A Bird” as
Maria hung on Liz in excitement.
“Oh my god, it's Nelly Furtado.” Maria exclaimed.
“Please, one, one song?”
Liz was excited too. “Okay, one song.”
“Ok, okay.”
Maria and Liz rushed over to join in the crowd for just one
song by Nelly Furtado. Maria was mouthing the words and dancing to the music,
excitement and color giving her a vibrant look. Liz smiled at her friend before
looking around in the crowd. Her smile faded as she saw Leanna … Alex's
‘Swedish babe’ grooving to the music about 30 feet away.
Liz took Maria’s arm to get her attention. “Oh, my
gosh. Maria, that's her! That's the girl with the blond hair, that's Leanna,
that's her!”
Maria shook her head. “Wait a minute, no way, no way.
Let's see.” Maria and Liz looked at Leanna's picture to make sure. The girl
must’ve sensed their interest, Leanna stared back at them.
“That's totally her. It's the girl from
“We have to go talk to her.” Liz said ready to go over
and talk to the girl.
“N-n-nooo, this is getting too dangerous.” Maria told
Liz. “We have to call Michael …”
“She's leaving, we gotta go get her.” Liz insisted.
“Come on, come on.”
Left with no options, Maria ran after Liz. They cleared the
crowds and stood on the roadside searching for the girl. Maria and Liz started
to run as they saw Leanna on the street.
“Right there.” Liz said pointing to the other girl.
They started to chase after Leanna, but unfortunately they
weren't fast enough when they tried to get across the street. Maria yelped as a
car almost hit her. She and Liz hurried to the other side of the street under a
blast of loud horns. As a bus passed by, Leanna disappeared. The two girls
looked around helplessly as they lost their prey. Suddenly, a hand grabbed Liz's
shoulder. It was Michael.
“I wanna know everything.” he told Liz, his eyes
wandering to Maria. He pointed a finger at Liz, “You, tell me everything, and
you,” he pointed at Maria, “big trouble!” She gulped when she read the
look in his eyes. It was his, ‘Lucy, you have some ‘splaining to do…’
look. Dammit, this was so not her fault!
~~~
Michael, Maria and Liz got rooms for the night. They paid
for two large bedrooms with a connecting door. Both rooms had a king size bed.
They left the door open between the two as they sat on the large bed with all
the information that Liz and Maria had gathered between them.
Michael went through it all, piece by piece, quietly
listening to the two girls. He was surprisingly silent, but Maria could feel his
attention. They ate food they ordered as the three of them talked about what
they should do the next day. Finally, the lack of sleep caught up on Liz. She
was running on nothing but bad pizza and fumes.
“I’ve gotta go to bed.” Liz went to go to the other
room, she paused looking at Maria. “Maria?”
“I …” Maria glanced at Michael. “Give me a
moment,” she told Michael. Following Liz, she closed the door slightly.
“Look, I think you need rest. I’ll stay with Michael.”
Liz had expected that. “I know, Maria. It’s okay. You
finish explaining everything to him. Make sure he gets it.” Liz looked over at
Michael on the bed reading. “I know you two like to be alone.”
“No. It’s nothing like that, or anything. Just …”
Maria cleared her throat. “Since Alex … well, since Alex, I … Michael, if
he’s there I sleep better. That’s all.”
“It’s okay, Maria. I’ll talk to you in the
morning.”
Maria closed the door between the two rooms softly, resting
her hand on the door.
“You okay?” Michael asked.
“Yeah. Getting better,” Maria went to rejoin him on the
bed as he kept going through the photos and evidence. “It’s been so hard to
be so far out of sorts with Liz, especially with Alex gone.”
“I told you to call me. You promised.”
“I did. Check your machine. I left message after
message.”
“I was on my way here.” Michael lay back on the bed. He
was warm, he was full, and he knew where the hell Maria was. Life was pretty
good. Add in the fact that Max’s life was for crap, and for once his was
looking pretty good in comparison.
“So what happened to get you here?”
Michael shrugged. “They passed out yearbooks today. I
picked yours up, and the Alex memorial pages look good.”
“Really?” Maria smiled.
“They do. My picture was whacked.”
“Oh, do not start on me. That shirt was excellent. You
looked sexier than hell in it.” Maria reassured him.
“Great. Now you want me to model men’s clothes?”
Maria hit him on the stomach. “Hey! We get you to
exercise more, lay off the pizza and burgers, and you could make money. I’ll
put you in on the list for when we move to
“Modeling?”
“Well, I know you’re leaving … someday, but it’s
not like you invested in your education. I think I mentioned it a few times that
you should take your future seriously, more like preparing to be here forever in
case they don’t come for forty more years.”
“Oh you mentioned it … a few times.”
“So, since you don’t want to be a mental giant, we can
just pedal your boytoy looks.”
“Thanks.” Michael pulled her hair. “I get my picture
taken in my underwear, then so do you.”
“Michael!” Maria sniffed. “I was going for nude.”
Michael sat up a bit. “Really?”
Maria laughed loving how gullible he could be at times.
“So what got you heading this way?”
“Imagining you almost getting run over by a car.”
“Oh! It barely …”
“… missed you! I know. I saw.” Michael shook his
head. “I told you to stay out of danger, to call me, and then I walk around a
corner and see you and the Parker running out into a busy street without
pausing.”
“I … I couldn’t let her go alone.” Maria defended
herself and her actions. “I told her we had to call, but Leanna was getting
away, and …”
“And … Liz couldn’t let that happen so she risks her
life and yours without pausing or even noticing.”
“It’s not like that, Michael. She was right.”
“I know, but this stops, Maria. Right now. You stick with
me, and we go home together. If Parker wants to get herself killed, well then
she can. I’m not going to let her take you with her.”
Maria stared at him. He was deadly serious. She noticed a
long time ago that when Michael got serious, his soldier’s face … the
Commander came out, and he didn’t take much in crap from anyone.
“What happened, and don’t flub it off again. Something
got you here fast. What was it?”
“Max. He’s acting …” Michael didn’t know how to
explain it, but there were too many things that had a edge of being off.
Alex’s death, Max’s newfound irrational tyranny, the breach between Max and
Liz, and now Max’s uncharacteristic relationship with Tess that happened in a
blink. It had to be more than him remembering their planet. Or maybe it was.
Maybe it woke his internal Zan, and in truth, that alien king was a real serious
jerk.
“Something is off. I can’t figure it out, but I don’t
believe in so many strange circumstances happening at once.”
“Strange circumstances?” Maria asked, curious by news
that Michael thought Max was acting out of character.
“Max and Tess, they’re a thing.”
“Yeah, I saw that.” Maria admitted. She hated to see
it, but in a way, it was the very end that Future Max came to create; it was the
cost Liz paid for the world. She hated it, but it was hard to say that this
wasn’t meant to be.
“Things advanced.” Michael said glancing at the closed
door hoping Liz couldn’t hear the conversation.
“Advanced?” Maria’s brow creased in a frown. Then
understanding dawned, and Maria’s mouth opened as a slight blush ran up her
cheeks. “Sex! They …”
“All the way.” Michael confirmed.
“Eeeeck!” Maria made a spitting noise.
“There’s been a complication.”
“Complication?” Maria lifted a delicate eyebrow. She
moved away from him a little. “Alien herpes?”
“Worse.”
“What could be worse?” Maria scoffed. Then it happened
again. She figured it out. “Pregnant!” She hissed as she made a hacking
noise.
“Can you get that hairball out by yourself, or you need
some help?” Michael asked watching her reaction.
“I’m telling Liz.” Maria said. That bastard! He went
two years barely beyond holding hands with Liz, and now two minutes after he
gets with Tess … she was pregnant? “Damn. I told you alien girls are
easy.”
“I know! I really wish I knew what chicks on Antar look
like.”
“You’re whacked.” Maria slid off the bed to go talk
to Liz when Michael hooked an arm around her middle and dragged her back.
“Michael! Stop.”
“No. You stop. I told you. Not Liz.”
“She’s my friend. She has a right to know.”
“True.” Michael agreed. “She does have a right to
know. Not from us. Max is responsible for telling her. She deserves to hear it
from him.”
Maria stopped wiggling and settled. “You’re right.”
Michael smiled. “Did you just say that I was right?”
“Shut up.” Maria sniffed. Maria glanced at him her face
taking on a bit more pink. “So did he tell you how it was? You know the whole
alien mating thing?”
“Hour orgasms.”
Maria rolled her eyes snorting. “An hour? Oh, leave it to
aliens to have to overdo everything … not that it wouldn’t be
appreciated.” Maria gave Michael a speculating look, intense enough to make
him squirm.”
“Stop it,” he told her. His luck, she was thinking of
how instead of modeling for money, they could start an escort business with him
as the main menu.
“Think of all the repeat customers.” Maria suggested.
Michael threw his pillow at her head, and Maria dodged it
laughing as Michael dove for her. After a scuffle that had all the pictures and
papers on the floor and totally wrecked the bed, they both laid back exhausted
and panting for breath. Maria rolled to her side to look at him again. Her eyes
kept dropping to his hands.
“So when you’re …” her eyes stared at his beautiful
hands, “alone, doing it … you know, for yourself, do you get that hour
release?”
“That’s it.” Michael’s eyes darkened and he went to
tackle her again. Maria eluded him dancing away.
“Michael … I was just … inquiring minds and all that.
Michael!” Maria squeaked dancing out of his arm length.
~~~
At school, Kyle and Isabel played another prank on Max.
Kyle pulled the fire alarm switch for a fire drill. Everyone got up to get in
line. When Max went to get up and his shoes were stuck to the floor.
“Okay, everyone, this is a fire drill. You know the
procedure … go to the nearest exit in a quietly and orderly fashion.” The
teacher instructed. “Okay, people, let's keep going, come on, keep moving.
This could be for real, keep moving. Moving, people.” The teacher paused at
the door when Max remained behind. “Care to join us, Max?”
“That's a classic.” Kyle told Isabel from where they
observed Max’s humiliation.
“Mr. Evans, I do not find this amusing. You can ever be
certain when a fire drill is an actual emergency.”
“I'm coming.” Max told the teaching, bending down to
use his powers to alter his melting shoes.
~~~
Liz split up with Michael and Maria. They took the
assignment of trying to discover who and where Leanna was while they left her
the science geek stuff. Heading towards the Litvack Computer Sciences building,
Liz talked to a professor who agreed to help her.
“So, what exactly so special about these computers,
anyway?” Liz asked.
“Nothing yet,” The professor admitted. “Right now
they’re just multi-million dollar toys. The greatest potential's in the field
of cryptography. In theory, a quantum computer can break just about any code.”
Sitting at one of the computers, he attempted to find
something.
“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. He was definitely
trying to decode something; something major.”
“Is there any way of finding out what he was doing?”
“Maybe, I'm not sure if what we did can penetrate.”
Liz bit her lip. “Wanna try?”
The professor smiled. He loved a good challenge.
“Right.”
~~~
In the Valenti living room, Max and Tess were sitting on a
couch. Max was going through classified ads on apartments.
“What are you doing?”
“I've been thinking. If we're gonna have a baby, maybe we
should get a place of our own.”
Tess put down what she was doing. “You mean that?
Really?”
“I don't know how practical it would be. I don't even
know if you want to.”
“I want to start planning our future.” Tess reassured
him. “I just wonder if that future is gonna be in
Max stopped looking at the ads. “You want to go somewhere
else?”
“I always thought the ultimate plan was to go home. Our
real home.”
“It is. Someday.” Max told her, the very thing he told
Michael for years. “But we don't know when that's gonna be. I think we had
enough to deal with the in here and now. Don't you?”
Tess face was blank for a moment. “Yeah, you're right,”
she agreed without too much conviction.
They continued to look through the alien book, with Max
putting away the newspaper for now. They were in Tess’s room having vacated
the living room before Kyle was due home. They were going through what they had.
“You want something to drink?” Tess asked Max.
“Sure.” Max said without looking up.
“You want regular or diet?”
“Regular.” Max said glancing up at her. “Thanks.”
Max put down the book and went back to the newspaper. He
saw that Tess drew a heart with an arrow through it and written Max underneath.
Suddenly, the sound of breaking glasses and Tess crying out came from the
kitchen.
“Tess?” Max hurried to the kitchen. “Tess, what is
it?” He asked as he went to her, his arms around her. She was on the kitchen
floor, having fallen there in pain.
“The baby...” Tess said breathing out in pain.
“Something's wrong.”
Max put his hand on her stomach, like a sonogram. He could
see the baby wobbling and feeling pain inside. The strain registered his face.
Suddenly he fell back, with a sharp intake of breath, with fear.
“Max, what's wrong with him?”
“He's sick. It's the atmosphere. This planet is poisoning
him!” Max’s eyes met Tess’s. “Our son is dying.”
~~~
“We’re supposed to be looking for Leanna,” Maria
reminded Michael as he started working on his second burger at the Student
Union. She grimaced as he added extra
“We looked all morning. It would help to know her name.
This wandering around campus with the hope of seeing her sucks.”
Maria opened her burger pulling off what she didn’t want,
shoving it on Michael’s plate. Onion. No thanks. “Pass me the mustard.”
Michael gave her the mustard and watched as she wrote something on her meat
patty before closing the bun and taking a bite.
“What did you write?”
“None of your business,” she told him with her mouth
half full while chewing. She waved a fry at him. “You’re going to be no use
to us if you keep shoving grease down your gullet. I’m thinking we should
consider the Atkins’ Diet for you.”
“Over my rotting corpse,” Michael stole some of
Maria’s fries since he had eaten all of his. “You want to prostitute me …
fine. These are the goods.” Michael belched elegantly.
“God! We’re going to starve!”
Michael was chuckling when Maria looked around and found a
stack of the Campus newspaper. “Hey, they had Nelly Furtado last night. You
think they have anything else interesting scheduled?”
“You think Nelly Furtado is interesting?” Michael asked
his expression indicating that he thought her taste was lacking.
“Oh, please! You love her. You just are afraid to admit
to liking someone that’s a ‘chick’s’ thing.”
“I’m not going to the Lilith Fair, Maria. Don’t even
start on me.”
“A little Sheryl Crow might do you good.”
Michael snorted taking more of her fries. He picked up a
newspaper too. Flipping to the social calendar, he quickly found what he thought
would be interesting, immediately mentally thinking of excuses to get out of the
ones that Maria would like and he would not. Turning to the sports page, he
stopped chewing when he saw a picture on the sport page. Taking out the picture
of Leanna, he put it next the photo.
“Maria?”
“Hmm?”
“Found her.”
~~~
Liz and the professor were still working when Michael and
Maria found them. They were watching the computer screen as Maria and Michael
knocked on the door to get Liz's attention.
“It'll be in for just one second.” Liz said to them
through the door. Maria put the newspaper with Leanna’s picture on the glass.
Liz came out the door.
“We found Leanna. Her real name is Jennifer Coleman.”
Maria told Liz.
“Yeah, well, I'm onto something, too.” Liz told them.
“You guys shouldn't be here. I'll meet you in the quad.”
“I got a better idea; we're going back to
“Did Maria tell you what we found?” Liz couldn’t
imagine that he didn’t understand everything they showed him last night.
“Yeah. I got it, Liz. I’m not an idiot. That’s why
we’re going back to
“And you still don't believe anything's going on?”
Unreal! How could he just want to walk away? They were close. So close.
“Forget it. Let's get out of here.” Michael told her.
This was real, very real. The girl wasn’t in
“We're too close to the truth.” Liz told him
stubbornly. “I'm not leaving.”
Michael grabbed her wrist.
“Liz.” Maria begged. She agreed with Michael. It was getting too
dangerous to be out there on their own. She was standing with her two best
friends, and losing either of them wasn’t something she could take.
“This isn't optional. You're coming back with us.”
Liz pulled her arm away. “You can't tell me what to
do.” Liz was sick of it, the aliens and their dictatorial attitude over
everything and everyone. She wasn’t their damn servant or follower.
“Liz,” the professor called to her, “I found Ray's
source material.”
Liz glared at Michael before going back to the computer as
Michael and Maria followed. Maria whispered heatedly to Michael. “Could you
not provoke her!”
“I should’ve brought duct tape. She’s …” Michael
didn’t finish as he saw the computer screen.
“Pretty strange looking stuff,” The professor said.
“It's some sort of language. Looks kind of Native American.”
Michael looked at it closely, receiving flashes from the
time he'd seen the symbols while ill. He was on the dream plane … the Balance.
A flash of him with Maria kissing, and a rush of symbols moved through his
brain. They were alien symbols from the book.
Michael pushed Liz aside. “Where the hell did this come
from?”
“This is what Alex was working on while he was here.”
Liz told him.
“What was he doing?” Michael asked the professor.
“Decoding whatever this language is.”
“Translating it into English?” Michael asked staring at
the symbols he knew, but could never
understand.
The professor nodded, “Exactly.”
“Was he able to do it?” Michael asked as the two men
ignored Maria and Liz as they worked on the translation.
“Well, he deleted all the results. The last day he was
here, he created this huge text file. He emailed it to another address: jcoleman@ulascruces.edu.”
Liz took the paper with Leanna’s picture. “jcoleman.”
She looked at Maria. “He emailed to Leanna.”
“Then we need to talk to Jennifer Coleman,” Maria said.
She smiled politely at the professor. “I don’t suppose you have a student
directory? A green sheet?”
“Sure.” The professor went to his desk area and took
down the current student green sheet for the school year. Maria thanked him
looking for the name Coleman.
“We’ve got an address.” Maria told the others.
~~~
Liz, Michael, and Maria went to Jennifer's dorm room.
“I'm sorry. Jennifer isn't here,” Jennifer, aka, Leanna’s roommate told
them.
“Well, do you know when she's gonna be back?” Michael
quizzed her.
“Probably not for a few days. She had to go home all of a
sudden.”
Liz’s eyes became suspicious. “All of a sudden?”
“Yeah, she got a call this morning, her mom's in the
hospital, so she just packed up some stuff and went.”
Michael talked to Maria under his breath. “Do your thing,
baby.”
Maria pushed the amateur hour out of the way, her elbow
sinking into Michael’s stomach as she placed herself in front of Liz.
“That's just terrible because I know that Jen and her mom are pretty
close.” Maria said smoothly and full of sympathy. “Listen, before she went,
did she happen to give you notes from physics class she said that I can
borrow?”
“No, she didn't say anything about it.” The roommate
said shaking her head.
Liz joined in picking up Maria’s cover story. “Oh, you
know, they're probably in her room. You don't mind if we just, you know …”
Michael and Liz pushed passed the roommate before she could protest with Maria
on their heels.
“Well, actually, she just …” The roommate followed
them flustered by their actions.
Liz and Michael were in the room first going through
collected mail, etc. and putting it in their pockets, while Maria turned quickly
in the doorway blocking the roommate’s view and distracting her.
Maria was big in the door, which was a surprising task
given her slight body. “Do you remember what hospital her mom's at?” Maria
asked not even waiting for an answer. “I would just love to send some flowers,
'cause I really think the support of others, you know, friends, can really help
someone through a hard time.” Maria oozed in sympathy. “Like, there was this
time when my … my grandfather died. He did, and I was … I was just so
wrecked, I … I couldn't stop crying,” Maria sighed wiping away an imaginary
tear, “and then I received this
basket of cookies from … from everybody in my English class, and it just put a
smile on my face for the first time in weeks.”
Liz came through the door waving a small shelf of papers at
Maria. “Here we go. We got the notes.” Michael quickly followed as Maria
smiled pleasantly at the roommate.
“Thanks so much.” They all vacated the dorm room
quickly. Outside the door, Michael put his arm around Maria’s waist.
“Grandfather? You need to practice your distraction
techniques. You’re rusty.”
“Hello? I was brilliant! Plus, am I the one that forgot
the duct tape? Be glad I can think on my feet.”
“Such a good little soldier.”
Liz ignored them as they walked down the stair staring at
the mail she took. They stopped outside the dorm to go through Jennifer, aka,
big fake Swedish hottie’s mail.
“So Leanna did see us last night. She knew that we were
onto her and she skipped town.” Liz concluded.
“God, who knew we were so intimidating, huh?” Maria
said congratulating herself and Liz on their powerful presence.
“Me.” Michael said distractedly as he read the mail he
had. Yeah, those two human chicks scared him all the time. “Magazine renewal
notice, credit card application, bank statement, something from Open Sky
Property Management. This is a bill for renting a property outside
Maria’s arm was around his waist as she read over his
shoulder. “I'll drive.”
~~~
They found the rental address outside of
“Guessing not a party pad,” Maria observed as she and
Liz walked together holding on to each other, both careful of what scared them.
For Maria it was rats, and for Liz … spiders.
“Why would anybody rent this?” Liz asked careful to
walk around a pile of something.
“Because they got something to hide,” Michael told them
walking quicker than the girls, not so squeamish about the décor.
They searched the place. Liz and Maria discovered a
computer in the room off the kitchen and when they went in, it sets off a
security device … a glowing, red, pyramid shaped object that started to beep
faster and faster, building speed to explode.
“Liz!” Maria screamed. Michael, who was in the other
room, rushed to them. Seeing the explosive, he used his powers to propel it out
of the window, just before it exploded. Michael reached out and pulled Maria
into his arms as he breathed harshly. He had barely made it from the other room
in time.
“Thank you.” Liz said.
“Yeah, no problem.” Michael said not even looking at
her. He was too busy looking Maria over, then pulling her into his arms hugging
her tight. “What did I tell you about wandering too far?” God, Amy DeLuca
would kill him if anything happened to her precious daughter, and he would never
forgive himself.
Liz went to sit at the computer. Maria pulled back and
pointed it out to Michael. “Computer, Michael.” He nodded but kept hugging
her.
Liz started to type up as Maria slowly untangled herself
from Michael. “What was that?” She asked him.
Michael glanced at the broken window where he propelled the
explosive. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“It’s garbled.” Liz told them. “I can’t … I
think it’s encrypted.”
Maria went to stand beside Liz. “Try the string of
numbers Alex wrote out. Derek told you it would only have meaning to the
application of the program it’s part of. What if it’s the key to break the
encryption? The supercomputer broke the encryption, right?”
“Right,” Liz quickly typed in the string of the binary
code. Maria and Liz watched as the unintelligible alien script suddenly altered
into English.
“Print.” Maria said as she hugged herself. They needed
out of there before they wander across another alien trap.
Michael was searching the room. He found a small box with a
crystal.
“Oh,my god.” Liz said in wonder as she picked up the
printed pages scanning them. “This is it. The translation. It's here.”
“What is that?” Maria asked Michael.
“I don't know.” Michael held the crystal in his hand
wondering what it was for.
“Michael.” Liz called giving Michael the printed page
of Alex's translation of the book.
Maria stood next to Michael, her hand on the small of his
back as they read together. “All the answers, Michael. Even if Leanna has them
now, so do we.”
Michael glanced at Maria, and nodded. He bent down and
kissed her softly on the lips. “Thank you.” he told her. He glanced over at
a quiet Liz who was watching them. “Really. Thank you.” He said to Liz too.
“I would feel better if …” Maria suggested gesturing
to the door.
“We got the hell out of here.” Michael said. He nodded.
“We leave once the entire translation is printed. No wandering. I don’t want
us to trigger any more traps.”
They got back to the hotel and Michael’s bike. Michael
had the translation and the crystal. They hadn’t found Leanna, or found the
truth about who killed Alex, but they were close to a truth.
Liz went to check them out while Maria stood next to the
driver’s side of the Jetta. “Michael, I think …” She cleared her throat.
“I think that it was too easy to break what Alex was doing.”
“What are you saying?”
Maria looked to where Liz went. “What if we were supposed
to find the translation? Say whatever or whoever was controlling Alex lost
control, and he encrypted his work with that binary code. They … Leanna had
the translation, but couldn’t crack the encryption. She needed us to find it
… to open the encryption.”
“Like from Alex’s death to here are breadcrumbs?
Someone who needs the translations helped us along the way to make sure it was
found?”
“Yeah,” Maria licked her lips nervously as she watched
Liz coming back. “All the negative pressure on Liz, it only served to make her
more determined, and I can’t swear that something or someone wasn’t working
her … making her as obsessed as she became.”
Michael thought it over. Liz’s insane investigation, the
way she accosted Maria with the mutilated picture of Alex, the way she never
truly mourned. “Okay, I need you to stay with me, Maria.”
“Michael, I’m fine.”
Michael looked at the Jetta, and then at Liz. No. No way
was he letting Maria alone with Liz again, not while she could be under unknown
control. “Un-uh, she charged in without watching, or caring what happened to
you … to Sean when he helped her.”
“What’s going on?” Liz asked.
“Can you drive?” Michael asked.
Liz nodded. “Sure. Why?”
“Good.” Michael tossed the keys to the Jetta to Liz.
“Maria’s with me.”
“Michael …” Maria said seeing the flash on Liz’s
face, a look she couldn’t explain.
Michael and Liz faced off, both of them poker faced, but
they understood it well. Michael was staking his claim. Maria was his, and he
didn’t want to leave her unguarded with Liz.
“What are you saying, Michael?” Liz asked her voice
dry.
“I’m saying that last night I got here in time to see
you pull Maria with you into traffic that barely missed hitting her. Today? If I
hadn’t been here, you would’ve triggered that explosive, and neither of you
would’ve survived.” Michael pointed out. “I told you it was dangerous.”
“You wanted to follow the leads as much as I did.”
“Not at risk of Maria. You want to know what I’m
saying?” Liz nodded. “I’m saying you’re dangerous, and you have been for
a while. You barely notice that Maria is alive when she is with you, and I
can’t take a chance you’ll get her killed. You might have enough friends to
bury them one by one, but I don’t. Maria comes with me.”
Liz’s eyes met his, and she met what Maria liked to call
Michael’s Commander’s face. Her jaw clenched. “Fine.” She smiled at
Maria. “I’ll meet you at the Crashdown.”
“Liz …” Maria said helplessly caught between the two
of them.
Michael gestured her to go. “Hey! Don’t put a dent on
the Jetta. Mrs. DeLuca hates it when we do, and she’ll blame me.” Liz
huffed. Getting into the Jetta, she headed home.
Maria watched before turning back to him. “Did you have
to be so mean? Everyone’s been against her lately, and she was right.”
“Yeah, she was right, but how right, and with what extra
help … I don’t know.” Michael caught Maria’s arm. “You go nowhere
alone or with anyone without me. You understand?”
“Michael, Liz isn’t going to …”
“Maria. An alien killer is out there. It could be like
Brody … someone that they reach out and take control of, and we might never
know who is who. Not even Liz. Only person I trust with you is me.”
He was deadly serious. “Okay.” She agreed.
“Good soldier.”
~~~
Max picked up Tess and took her back into her bedroom.
Lying her down on the bed, he went to get a wet towel and cold water for her.
She was hot … to hot. He sat there watching over her as she slept. She was
pale, and had a fever. When she woke up, he had her drink a glass of water.
“You slept for a few hours. How are you doing?”
“Better.”
Max smoothed down the covers over her. “You warm
enough?”
“I'm okay. How it's going with the book?”
“I have no idea how to read it, that's the truth. I
thought how I wish what I think I thought. I feel like I'm letting you down.”
“You're the one person I know I can count on in this
world. I have faith in you, Max. I always have.”
Max smiled at her and kissed her on top of the forehead.
“When that happened before - when you fell - I guess I suddenly realized that
I could lose you. All this time I thought of you as this person that just would
always wait for me - forever. I've been taking you for granted. I'm sorry about
that.”
~~~
At the Crashdown, Kyle approached his new partner in crime,
Isabel about more pranks on Max.
“Hey,” he said sitting down across from Iz. “I'm a
guy and I know what freaks guys out. Max wakes up tomorrow - one testicle!”
“No, thanks.” Isabel said, still remembering the look
on Max’s face after today’s prank. She was angry at him, but humiliating him
was … it felt wrong.
“What?! What are you talking about? We're in an alien
joyride, sister. Sky's the limit.”
“This just isn't making me feel any better.” Actually,
it was making her feel worse. Max was her brother, and despite their differences
… she loved him.
Kyle sat back giving it up. “Well, can we like dreamwalk
Jody Ann again?”
“I'm going.”
Kyle wasn’t happy about losing his nice spiteful party on
a person that burned his ass more than one. “But what about getting back at
Max?”
“I'm over Max.” Isabel told him.
“You know, Buddha teaches that this is …”
“Kyle, if you quote that fat, bald man to me one more
time, you're gonna wake up, one of these mornings …” Isabel pointed to Kyle
crotch, the place where he lived. “ZAP!”
Kyle watched her leave reflectively tightening his legs
closed. Those aliens … they had a mean streak.
~~~
At the Valenti's, Max was putting out the trash after
cleaning up the mess from the broken glass. The can was overflowing and the
trash keeps landing on the ground. After picking it up a couple of times, Max's
frustration took over and he started kicking the cans and throwing the trash
around. Sliding to the ground against the wall, Max started to cry. Isabel, who
had come to find him, found him there seeing it all. She approached him, concern
etched on her face.
“Max?”
Max glanced up at his sister miserable. “Tess is
pregnant.”
“What?” Isabel shook her head. One time. One day. How?
“She's pregnant and the baby's dying because it can't
live in this atmosphere.” Max told her.
Stunned, Isabel sat next to Max. He looked bad. This had to
be one of the worst days of his life, and she hadn’t helped.
“And … I don't know what to do because I … I'm so
scared. And I don't know what to tell Mom and Dad because I … it's like what
would I even tell them. They don't know who I really am. I feel so
irresponsible, and stupid and … I know this is supposed to happen, because
it's our destiny.” Max held his head in his hands. “Oh my God, what am I
gonna do?”
Isabel stood up and held out her hand to Max. “Max, come
with me. Come on.”
He looked up at her looking exactly what he was. A young
boy, too young to handle all the responsibility pushed on his shoulders. Wiping
his tears, he took her hand. Isabel took him to a stream at a park and they
stood on the bridge over the stream.
“Do you remember Bigfoot?” Isabel asked him gently.
“My guinea pig?”
“Yeah.” Isabel said. “Do you remember what
happened?”
“Sure. Mr. Martinelli's dog got into his cage and killed
him.”
“Do you remember what happened the next day?”
Max shook his head. “I don't.” Isabel waved her hand
and it began to snow. “It snowed.” Max said finally remembering. It was like
a miracle.
“It was the first time we ever seen it. It snowed for two
days. Biggest storm to hit in
“We built snowmen.”
“We made angels.” Isabel reminded him.
“And pelted Michael with snowballs,” they both laughed.
Isabel smiled remembering a time when things had been so
much simpler. “It was magic.”
“Just like this.”
“Max, I had no idea what you'd been going through. My
problems are really nothing compared to this, so I'm sorry.”
“No, they're not. Your problems aren't nothing. They're
important. Your life is important.” Max told her, not wanting her to take all
the blame for their fight, especially since it was his. “I'm sorry for not
realizing that.”
“We'll figure something out. We'll figure something out
for you and Tess and your …” Isabel realized that she didn’t even know
what the baby was. “Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?”
“A boy.”
“Wow. You're having a son.”
“Yeah, a son. A son!” Max allowed himself to be awed by
that information for the first time since he found out. Isabel hugged her
brother, and both of them turned as Michael’s bike came towards them over the
bridge.
Michael took off his helmet as did Maria, who was holding
on to him. “A little public, isn't it?”
“It's a freak storm, you know, who cares?”
“Oh!” Maria looked around in wonder. She shoved the
helmet at Michael and climbed off the bike to watch the snow. She ran off the
bridge and was on the grass twirling in circles, her tongue out trying to catch
snowflakes.
Michael shook his head at Maria. “Not me, I got bigger
things to talk about.” He turned back to Max and Isabel. “Maxwell, there's
two things I need to tell you. First is, I've been lying to you about Maria,
Liz, and the whole investigation. Instead of stopping 'em, I've been helping 'em.
Second thing is, it was worth it.”
Michael pulled the translation they found from where he had
it shoved up his leather jacket in the back, and the crystal. He handed Max the
translation and Isabel the crystal.
“What's this?” Max asked.
“It's everything we've been looking for. It's a
translation to the book. You know - the
book.”
Isabel’s mouth opened in shock. “You're kidding!”
“Not even a little.”
Isabel leaned into Max to stare at the translation.
“Well, what does it say?”
Max read through a few pages. “It's the way home. We can
go home.”
Michael got off his bike and stood on the bridge watching
Maria dance in the snow laughing. His face was dark. “Yeah, we can go home.”
