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xtremeroswelliaAuthor: X_tremeroswellian
Email: faithboscorelli1@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue. Song is by the Goddess of Music, Sarah McLachlan and is titled, "Black." Oh, and any and all references to Mr. Raddish are my tribute to Kara and Emily, who created him and write a wonderful series of fics called "Roswell Elementary" that everyone should read.
Rating: R for language, violence and content
Author's Note: After watching "Tess, Lies and Videotape," I realized that this story falls into place with that plot. Here's the rundown. Let's just say that in T,L and V, Max and Tess kissed but Max didn't get any visions. Liz still saw them kiss. Max went to Michael's apartment and he and Michael still fought but didn't end up finding a video camera, although for this story we'll say that Michael went ahead and kicked Max out of his apartment. Shortly afterwords, Max and Liz break up and Max starts dating Tess. This story picks up about two weeks after the M/L break up, and there is much tension among the six of them...
Spoilers: Up through Tess, Lies and Videotape, the rest is just my guess of what could have happened in the season finale, but didn't.
Dedication: To Sarah, Majik Karma, Mel, Linda and Abs for all the feedback! :)
Special Thanks to: Sarah for helping motivate me to get working on this story again! Thanks, Sarah! :) And to Majik Karma, who helped me work out the entire plot of this story by listening to me ramble on about it for three hours straight over the phone one night. :)
Other stuff: Oh, and as far as Liz and Alex's trip to California by train, Greenridge, New Mexico, to my knowledge doesn't exist, I have no idea if there *is* a train station in Tucson, Arizona, and since I've never been to California, any and all descriptions of it and the towns given in this fic are purely my imagination.
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty | Twenty-One | Twenty-two | Twenty Three | Twenty Four | Conclusion
"One may smile, and smile, and be a villain."
-William Shakespeare
You Were Meant For Me (Part 18)
"So...what exactly are we looking for?" Alex asked, glancing over at Liz who was sitting in the middle of the floor in her gradmother's office, going through boxes.
"I don't know," she admitted. She looked up at him. "But I will when I find it."
Their eyes met and he nodded.
"Where do I start?"
"Her computer?" Liz suggested. "You're much better at that sort of thing than I am."
He smiled. "Computer it is then."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Valenti waited outside the school for Max Evans, and when he finally came out, he walked out of the building with Tess Harding.
"Damn," Valenti muttered. He spotted someone else, and he quickly climbed out of his car. "Ms. DeLuca!"
Maria looked over at him, her eyes narrowing. "Sheriff Valenti. What are you doing here?"
"I need you to come with me. There's something you should know about your friend Tess."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Nothing." Alex sat back in the desk chair and stared at the blue computer screen. When he didn't hear a response, he turned to look at his friend.
She was looking through some kind of book, crying quietly.
Alex moved to sit next to her on the floor, and he realized she was looking at an old photo album.
"This was Grandma and me when we were on vacation a few years ago. She took me to Disneyland when I came out to visit her." Liz flipped the page. "Oh, and this is all of us at Thanksgiving when we had that dinner at the Crashdown in fifth grade and she showed up to surprise me. Remember that?"
"Yeah." He smiled. He remembered that Thanksgiving pretty well. Liz and Max had somehow formed this idea to have a huge, community Thanksgiving dinner...the Parker's, the Whitman's, the Evans' and the DeLuca's, and Michael Guerin all celebrated the occasion at the Crashdown.
It was so strange--how even back then--in fifth grade...all of their lives had been so inexplicably intertwined.
Will we ever do that again? he wondered. Will we ever be like one big family again?
He missed the others. Maria, Isabel...Even Max, though it was more because he knew how badly Liz missed and needed him.
Alex listened patiently as Liz told him about all the different pictures in her grandmother's photo album. He put his arm around her and she leaned her head on his shoulder. At least they still had one another. And maybe they'd get the rest of their family back soon. He wasn't ready to give up yet.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"...As the walls are closing in
And the colors fade to black
And my eyes are falling fast
And deep into me..."
Diane Evans watched as her daughter stared sullenly out her bedroom window.
"...And I follow the tracks that lead me down
And I never follow what's right
And they wonder sometimes when
They see all the sadness and pain
The truth brings to light..."
Diane shivered slightly as that tense, uneasy feeling crawled back into her stomach. "Isabel?"
"Yeah?" Isabel didn't turn around.
Diane shivered again. "Do you want some hot chocolate or tea?"
"No."
"...Cause I can't see no reason
What is blind cannot see..."
Diane stared at her. Isabel seemed so...lost. After a moment of hesitation, she walked into her daughter's bedroom and wrapped her arms around her tightly.
*I remember the orphanage. Um...I most clearly remember seeing you and Daddy the day that you came to adopt us, and you were wearing this yellow sweater. And I remember thinking that it was like the sun. That you were like the sun.*
Diane blinked back tears and held her closer. She didn't know what was wrong with Isabel or Max, but she would not lose her children. She was their mother. And God help whoever tried to hurt a mother's children.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael stared out at the empty cafe from the kitchen window. When no waitresses show up to work, you tend to lose business.
"Michael!"
He turned around when he heard Maria's urgent voice. She came racing into the kitchen, followed by Sheriff Valenti.
His eyes narrowed. "What's he doing here?"
"He's here to--"
"Tell you that your friend Max is in a lot of danger." Sheriff Valenti met his eyes.
"What do you mean?" Michael demanded.
"Tess Harding. She isn't a new girl in town."
"Who is she?"
Maria looked up at him. "She's FBI."
He stared at her for a moment and then eyed Valenti with suspicion. "How do you know?"
"Because I ran her fingerprints through the database in Albuquerque. It's a national database of everyone who has either been arrested for a crime, or works for the Federal Government. Tess Harding is an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
"Why are you helping us?"
"Michael!" Maria sounded frustrated.
"It's okay, Maria." Sheriff Valenti looked down at her. "He has every right to be suspicious. After everything that's happened in the past few months, I'd expect no less. But I am on your side, Michael." He turned to go, but stopped and turned to face them again. "And be careful. If I'm not at my office and you need to reach me, call me at home." And with that, he turned and walked away.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diane waited anxiously by the front door. It was almost 5. He should have been home by now. A few moments later she heard the key turn in the lock.
Max and Tess stepped inside, both surprised to see her standing there.
"Max, where have you been? I've been worried sick!" Diane said, her voice thick with tears.
"We were at the library, Mrs. Evans," Tess said sweetly.
Something inside of her snapped. "Max, go upstairs and check on Isabel."
Max stood still, staring at her blankly.
"Go ahead, Max. I'll see you tomorrow at school," Tess encouraged him.
With those words, Max turned and hurried up the stairs.
Diane had never been filled with such a hatred for anyone as she was now, staring at Tess. "I don't know who you are, or what you want. You're not welcome in my home anymore, and you're going to stay away from my children!"
Tess just continued to smile.
If it was possible, it made her even more furious. "I know that you've done something to them, and if you don't stay away from Max and Isabel, I will kill you!"
"Mrs. Evans, you don't know who they are--"
"Get out of my house!" Diane screamed, all of her anger and fear surging to the surface. She moved towards Tess, who quickly backed out the door and ran to her car.
Diane slammed the front door and dead-bolted it. Then she backed up against it, slid down to the floor, put her face in her hands and cried.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I don't think it's here," Liz said with a sigh as she finished going through her grandmother's file cabinet.
"It'd be nice if we knew what *it* was," Alex muttered as he started putting papers back into the box he'd been going through. They'd been searching the office all afternoon and hadn't turned up anything that seemed even slightly indicative of Liz's dream.
"I'm sorry I dragged you here," he heard her say quietly.
"You didn't. I kind of just told you I was going with you, remember?" He turned to face her and saw she was clutching onto her grandma's desk with one hand and her head with the other. "Liz!" He rushed to her side.
"I'm okay. Headache," she said, squeezing her eyes shut.
"You're really pale. You should lie down," he said quickly, taking hold of her arm.
"No, I'm all right. Really." Even as she spoke, her face contorted in pain.
"Lean on me," he instructed as he slid his arm around her. They stepped slowly towards the couch, but then she started to collapse. "Liz!" Alex quickly picked her up and carried her the rest of the way, laying her down gently on the sofa. "Lizzie, can you hear me?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You ready?" Michael asked, glancing at Maria as they stood in the back of the Crashdown.
"She'll be here any second."
"Maria?"
"Show time," Maria muttered as she took a deep breath and stepped out front to greet her guest. "Tess, hi. Glad you could make it."
Tess narrowed her eyes as Michael walked out right behind her. "What's going on?"
"Let's make this short and simple."
"We know who you are," Michael informed her, glaring at her coldly.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Tess replied coolly, folding her arms across her chest.
"We know that you've been brainwashing Max and Isabel, and we know that you're an FBI agent," Maria spat out.
A flicker of worry crossed Tess's eyes and then disappeared. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Really?" Maria looked at Michael. "You're a 29 year old FBI agent, born and raised in Pittsburg, Pennsylania. Birth date 7-22-1970. Your parents' names are Glen and Kate Harding, he's retired from the Marines, and she's a former police officer. You attended Yale University and double-majored in psychology and accounting, at which point you applied to the FBI and though a bit younger than they usually allow, you passed all of their testing with flying colors. In fact, you scored the highest on the tests of all of your peers. You have a dog named Blue and two goldfish name Spike and Spot. You take your coffee with sugar and cream. Did I leave anything out?"
Michael shook his head. "I think that about covers it."
She turned to face Tess, who had visibly gone pale. She smirked. "Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and stay there. Because if you ever show your face here in Roswell again, you're going to be very sorry," Maria warned, her voice dropped to a deadly whisper.
Tess turned around and fled without saying a word.
Michael and Maria watched her go. She looked up at him. "Well, we got rid of the FBI again."
He nodded, his eyes staring after Tess. "Yeah. For now."
"As long as we stick together, we can get through anything," she said softly.
Michael smiled the first time in a few days, allowing himself to relax a bit. Then he leaned down and kissed his girlfriend. "I think you're right," he whispered.
Email: faithboscorelli1@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue. Song is by the Goddess of Music, Sarah McLachlan and is titled, "Black." Oh, and any and all references to Mr. Raddish are my tribute to Kara and Emily, who created him and write a wonderful series of fics called "Roswell Elementary" that everyone should read.
Rating: R for language, violence and content
Author's Note: After watching "Tess, Lies and Videotape," I realized that this story falls into place with that plot. Here's the rundown. Let's just say that in T,L and V, Max and Tess kissed but Max didn't get any visions. Liz still saw them kiss. Max went to Michael's apartment and he and Michael still fought but didn't end up finding a video camera, although for this story we'll say that Michael went ahead and kicked Max out of his apartment. Shortly afterwords, Max and Liz break up and Max starts dating Tess. This story picks up about two weeks after the M/L break up, and there is much tension among the six of them...
Spoilers: Up through Tess, Lies and Videotape, the rest is just my guess of what could have happened in the season finale, but didn't.
Dedication: To Sarah, Majik Karma, Mel, Linda and Abs for all the feedback! :)
Special Thanks to: Sarah for helping motivate me to get working on this story again! Thanks, Sarah! :) And to Majik Karma, who helped me work out the entire plot of this story by listening to me ramble on about it for three hours straight over the phone one night. :)
Other stuff: Oh, and as far as Liz and Alex's trip to California by train, Greenridge, New Mexico, to my knowledge doesn't exist, I have no idea if there *is* a train station in Tucson, Arizona, and since I've never been to California, any and all descriptions of it and the towns given in this fic are purely my imagination.
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty | Twenty-One | Twenty-two | Twenty Three | Twenty Four | Conclusion
"One may smile, and smile, and be a villain."
-William Shakespeare
You Were Meant For Me (Part 18)
"So...what exactly are we looking for?" Alex asked, glancing over at Liz who was sitting in the middle of the floor in her gradmother's office, going through boxes.
"I don't know," she admitted. She looked up at him. "But I will when I find it."
Their eyes met and he nodded.
"Where do I start?"
"Her computer?" Liz suggested. "You're much better at that sort of thing than I am."
He smiled. "Computer it is then."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Valenti waited outside the school for Max Evans, and when he finally came out, he walked out of the building with Tess Harding.
"Damn," Valenti muttered. He spotted someone else, and he quickly climbed out of his car. "Ms. DeLuca!"
Maria looked over at him, her eyes narrowing. "Sheriff Valenti. What are you doing here?"
"I need you to come with me. There's something you should know about your friend Tess."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Nothing." Alex sat back in the desk chair and stared at the blue computer screen. When he didn't hear a response, he turned to look at his friend.
She was looking through some kind of book, crying quietly.
Alex moved to sit next to her on the floor, and he realized she was looking at an old photo album.
"This was Grandma and me when we were on vacation a few years ago. She took me to Disneyland when I came out to visit her." Liz flipped the page. "Oh, and this is all of us at Thanksgiving when we had that dinner at the Crashdown in fifth grade and she showed up to surprise me. Remember that?"
"Yeah." He smiled. He remembered that Thanksgiving pretty well. Liz and Max had somehow formed this idea to have a huge, community Thanksgiving dinner...the Parker's, the Whitman's, the Evans' and the DeLuca's, and Michael Guerin all celebrated the occasion at the Crashdown.
It was so strange--how even back then--in fifth grade...all of their lives had been so inexplicably intertwined.
Will we ever do that again? he wondered. Will we ever be like one big family again?
He missed the others. Maria, Isabel...Even Max, though it was more because he knew how badly Liz missed and needed him.
Alex listened patiently as Liz told him about all the different pictures in her grandmother's photo album. He put his arm around her and she leaned her head on his shoulder. At least they still had one another. And maybe they'd get the rest of their family back soon. He wasn't ready to give up yet.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"...As the walls are closing in
And the colors fade to black
And my eyes are falling fast
And deep into me..."
Diane Evans watched as her daughter stared sullenly out her bedroom window.
"...And I follow the tracks that lead me down
And I never follow what's right
And they wonder sometimes when
They see all the sadness and pain
The truth brings to light..."
Diane shivered slightly as that tense, uneasy feeling crawled back into her stomach. "Isabel?"
"Yeah?" Isabel didn't turn around.
Diane shivered again. "Do you want some hot chocolate or tea?"
"No."
"...Cause I can't see no reason
What is blind cannot see..."
Diane stared at her. Isabel seemed so...lost. After a moment of hesitation, she walked into her daughter's bedroom and wrapped her arms around her tightly.
*I remember the orphanage. Um...I most clearly remember seeing you and Daddy the day that you came to adopt us, and you were wearing this yellow sweater. And I remember thinking that it was like the sun. That you were like the sun.*
Diane blinked back tears and held her closer. She didn't know what was wrong with Isabel or Max, but she would not lose her children. She was their mother. And God help whoever tried to hurt a mother's children.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael stared out at the empty cafe from the kitchen window. When no waitresses show up to work, you tend to lose business.
"Michael!"
He turned around when he heard Maria's urgent voice. She came racing into the kitchen, followed by Sheriff Valenti.
His eyes narrowed. "What's he doing here?"
"He's here to--"
"Tell you that your friend Max is in a lot of danger." Sheriff Valenti met his eyes.
"What do you mean?" Michael demanded.
"Tess Harding. She isn't a new girl in town."
"Who is she?"
Maria looked up at him. "She's FBI."
He stared at her for a moment and then eyed Valenti with suspicion. "How do you know?"
"Because I ran her fingerprints through the database in Albuquerque. It's a national database of everyone who has either been arrested for a crime, or works for the Federal Government. Tess Harding is an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
"Why are you helping us?"
"Michael!" Maria sounded frustrated.
"It's okay, Maria." Sheriff Valenti looked down at her. "He has every right to be suspicious. After everything that's happened in the past few months, I'd expect no less. But I am on your side, Michael." He turned to go, but stopped and turned to face them again. "And be careful. If I'm not at my office and you need to reach me, call me at home." And with that, he turned and walked away.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diane waited anxiously by the front door. It was almost 5. He should have been home by now. A few moments later she heard the key turn in the lock.
Max and Tess stepped inside, both surprised to see her standing there.
"Max, where have you been? I've been worried sick!" Diane said, her voice thick with tears.
"We were at the library, Mrs. Evans," Tess said sweetly.
Something inside of her snapped. "Max, go upstairs and check on Isabel."
Max stood still, staring at her blankly.
"Go ahead, Max. I'll see you tomorrow at school," Tess encouraged him.
With those words, Max turned and hurried up the stairs.
Diane had never been filled with such a hatred for anyone as she was now, staring at Tess. "I don't know who you are, or what you want. You're not welcome in my home anymore, and you're going to stay away from my children!"
Tess just continued to smile.
If it was possible, it made her even more furious. "I know that you've done something to them, and if you don't stay away from Max and Isabel, I will kill you!"
"Mrs. Evans, you don't know who they are--"
"Get out of my house!" Diane screamed, all of her anger and fear surging to the surface. She moved towards Tess, who quickly backed out the door and ran to her car.
Diane slammed the front door and dead-bolted it. Then she backed up against it, slid down to the floor, put her face in her hands and cried.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I don't think it's here," Liz said with a sigh as she finished going through her grandmother's file cabinet.
"It'd be nice if we knew what *it* was," Alex muttered as he started putting papers back into the box he'd been going through. They'd been searching the office all afternoon and hadn't turned up anything that seemed even slightly indicative of Liz's dream.
"I'm sorry I dragged you here," he heard her say quietly.
"You didn't. I kind of just told you I was going with you, remember?" He turned to face her and saw she was clutching onto her grandma's desk with one hand and her head with the other. "Liz!" He rushed to her side.
"I'm okay. Headache," she said, squeezing her eyes shut.
"You're really pale. You should lie down," he said quickly, taking hold of her arm.
"No, I'm all right. Really." Even as she spoke, her face contorted in pain.
"Lean on me," he instructed as he slid his arm around her. They stepped slowly towards the couch, but then she started to collapse. "Liz!" Alex quickly picked her up and carried her the rest of the way, laying her down gently on the sofa. "Lizzie, can you hear me?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You ready?" Michael asked, glancing at Maria as they stood in the back of the Crashdown.
"She'll be here any second."
"Maria?"
"Show time," Maria muttered as she took a deep breath and stepped out front to greet her guest. "Tess, hi. Glad you could make it."
Tess narrowed her eyes as Michael walked out right behind her. "What's going on?"
"Let's make this short and simple."
"We know who you are," Michael informed her, glaring at her coldly.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Tess replied coolly, folding her arms across her chest.
"We know that you've been brainwashing Max and Isabel, and we know that you're an FBI agent," Maria spat out.
A flicker of worry crossed Tess's eyes and then disappeared. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Really?" Maria looked at Michael. "You're a 29 year old FBI agent, born and raised in Pittsburg, Pennsylania. Birth date 7-22-1970. Your parents' names are Glen and Kate Harding, he's retired from the Marines, and she's a former police officer. You attended Yale University and double-majored in psychology and accounting, at which point you applied to the FBI and though a bit younger than they usually allow, you passed all of their testing with flying colors. In fact, you scored the highest on the tests of all of your peers. You have a dog named Blue and two goldfish name Spike and Spot. You take your coffee with sugar and cream. Did I leave anything out?"
Michael shook his head. "I think that about covers it."
She turned to face Tess, who had visibly gone pale. She smirked. "Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and stay there. Because if you ever show your face here in Roswell again, you're going to be very sorry," Maria warned, her voice dropped to a deadly whisper.
Tess turned around and fled without saying a word.
Michael and Maria watched her go. She looked up at him. "Well, we got rid of the FBI again."
He nodded, his eyes staring after Tess. "Yeah. For now."
"As long as we stick together, we can get through anything," she said softly.
Michael smiled the first time in a few days, allowing himself to relax a bit. Then he leaned down and kissed his girlfriend. "I think you're right," he whispered.
