“I guess first I should start with introductions.” Liz said nervously. Deciding to start with the Roswellians she directed her words toward the members of Mutant X. “The blonde is my oldest and best friend Maria Deluca, the guy next to her with the scowl on his face is Michael Guerin, then Kyle Valenti, Isabel and Jessie Ramirez and then Max Evans. As you guys know Max, Isabel and Michael are the ones the GSA were after.”
“Who…” Michael started to ask but Liz raised her hand. “I’ll get to who the GSA are Michael in just a minute.”
Michael was actually quiet, a reality that surprised everyone but he figured if he kept talking that he’d never get the answers he wanted. Maria looked at him then back at Liz, “Wow, I’ve never got him to do that before.”
“You were never able to fry him with your hand Maria.” Kyle stated.
“Okay you guys, getting off topic.” Liz said. “Back to introductions. The brunette there is Emma, the blonde is Shalimar, then there’s Jesse in the right front pilot seat and that’s my brother Brennan, in the left seat.”
“He’s your brother?” Maria asked. She wasn’t surprised by the fact that Liz had a brother since Liz had told her about him when they had talked on the phone but Liz had never told her how good looking he was.
“Yep, that’s him.” Liz said smiling at him. She still got giddy when she was talking about Brennan, she thought it was great having a brother even with the previous argument. And she had a feeling there would be another one about taking off when they got back to Sanctuary.
“Hey you’re the two that came in to the shop to get some work done on your car about a month ago.” Kyle said interrupting and pointing at Shalimar and Brennan.
“Yup, that was us. We were looking for Liz.” Shalimar answered. “It was a pure coincidence that she happened to be at the garage when we got there. As soon as she introduced herself we knew who she was but Brennan waited until he told their father before he told Liz who we were.”
“It’s a good thing they showed up when they did since that was around the time my abilities decided to show themselves.” Liz commented. She looked directly at Max and said, “You see what was happening to me wasn’t because of you healing me well not exactly. These abilities were already inside me, in my DNA, but your healing helped them to speed up development.”
“So you’ve always had these powers?” Maria asked.
“Yep, I got the electrical stuff from my dad just like Brennan, and got the flashes from my mom. You see I’m, as well as the others, are what called New Mutants. We’re humans, just with an added bonus.” Liz explained.
“Years ago, a company called Genomex did some experiments on ordinary people but the experiments caused the mutations that led to what you saw. Some new mutants are from those experiments others are offspring of them.” Emma said interrupting. “The four of us, as well as Liz for the last month, help new mutants from being captured by Genomex or the GSA. You see they’re trying to clean up evidence of what they did. So when they capture a mutant they take them back with them and imprison them. We’re called Mutant X.”
“So Genomex thinks we are some of these mutants.” Max stated. “Then what do we do?”
“That’s why we’re taking you back to Sanctuary. So that you will be safe while we figure it out.” Liz said then Brennan interrupted. “Come up on Sanctuary and be ready for landing.”
They all held on again while Brennan flew the Helix into what looked like the side of the mountain only to see a cave opening only it turned out to be the hanger. Once they were landed, the group moved to leave when Liz grabbed Max’s arm. “Max, Jessie already knew about you guys right?”
“Yeah, since not long after you left. Why?”
“Because I think it’s a good idea if you tell my friends and brother about you. I wouldn’t normally ask but you can trust them. And it’ll help them to help you if they know the whole truth. They think your mutants like us.” Liz explained.
“I’ll think about it but I don’t know about Isabel and Michael.” Max agreed. He looked her over as he changed the subject, “How are you Liz?”
“I’m good.” Liz said smiling. “Really good actually. I’ve got control over my powers and everyone here is really cool.”
“Cool?”
“Yeah, I guess Shalimar has been rubbing off on me.”
“I’m happy for you, I really am.” Max said as they walked behind the others down the ramp of the helix. He noticed Brennan glaring at him and he couldn’t help but feel intimidated. Despite the fact that Max was six foot, Brennan looked to have a few inches on him and looked like he lifted weights. Liz’s brother looked like he would be a good fighter without having to use his powers. Max looked over and saw an older man standing there to meet them as Liz introduced them. “Guys, this is Adam. Adam this is Max, Maria, Kyle, Michael, Isabel and Jessie.”
“Welcome to Sanctuary.” Adam greeted. “Make yourselves comfortable while we talk.”
They all took seats, Kyle stared at the small waterfall and Liz smiled, “You know the first time I saw that I thought of you. I knew you’d love it. It’s become one of my favorite spots to meditate.”
“You meditate?”
“Yeah, Emma taught me. It helps to focus my Psionic abilities.” Liz said.
“What’s Psionic?” Maria asked.
“We use Psionic to refer to mental abilities. The people who have them are called Psionics.” Liz explained. She went more into detail explaining the different mutants along with help from the others. The group sat there in rapt attention through the whole chronicle.
When they were done Adam said, “So what abilities do you have?”
Max could see how much Liz trusted these people and decided they could as well. “Well I have an energy shield that the others have seen. And I can heal. Isabel can enter peoples dreams and see what’s in them. Michael has an energy blast like Liz and Brennan’s streams.”
Adam’s brow creased in thought. “They sound like Elemental and Psionic abilities but I’ve never heard of a mutant who could heal others.”
“Well that’s because we’re not mutants.” Max said.
“Max…” Michael warned.
“Michael, we can trust them, and maybe they can help us.” Max said. “You see our abilities or powers do stem from our DNA but not for the same reason as yours. Our DNA consists of a mixture of human and alien DNA.”
The five members of Mutant X were quiet for a minute before Adam said, “The three of you are aliens?”
“I know it sounds out there but it’s true.” Liz reiterated.
“You were dating an alien?” Brennan exclaimed looking at Liz. He knew that he should be more concerned about the fact that he had just found out that aliens did indeed exist but he was more upset that his sister had been involved with one. Call it brotherly protection.
“Hey, what do you expect? I’m from Roswell.” Liz joked. Shalimar couldn’t help but laugh at that or at Brennan’s expression after.
“Can we get back to the whole aliens among us thing, please?” Jesse asked from his seat next to Emma.
“Well it so happens that we were in the ’47 crash.” Max said starting. “We were in these incubation pods until 1989 when we came out looking like six year olds. But we couldn’t talk and didn’t know what was going on. We wondered out of the cave where our pods were and out into the desert. Isabel and I got picked up by the people who adopted us while Michael got sent to social services. A few years later we met back up with Michael and the three of us became friends. We knew that we were different and knew to keep it secret.”
“Skip ahead Maxwell.” Michael griped.
“In 1999 Liz and Maria were waitressing at the Crashdown when there was an argument between some of the customers. One of them pulled out a gun and Liz got shot.” Max explained.
“You were shot?” Brennan exclaimed again.
“Yeah and I almost died. That was when things got really crazy.” Liz said.
Part 13
Taking turns between all of them but Jessie the Roswellians told their story of what had happened over the last few years. Everything from the days after the shooting up to right before Liz left. Brennan tried not to fry Max when the story started to turn in the direction of when things started going bad for Liz. Once they were done, the mutants could tell that Adam was thinking over things. “Liz was right, putting them into the underground would not work.”
“What should we do with them then?” Brennan asked.
“You don’t have to do anything with ‘them’?” Michael snapped. “We’ve been doing fine on our own and if these GSA guys come looking again then we’re take care of them.”
“It’s not that simple Michael, Genomex is a large operation.” Liz said. “Their headquarters are huge and have information on every mutant they’ve come into contact with, including you. They’re never stop coming.”
“So why don’t you guys take out the building?” Jessie stated. They all looked at Isabel’s husband at his words.
“What?” Kyle asked.
“Well couldn’t you all team up and get into the building? Destroy their database or something?” Jessie elaborated. “Isabel told me that you’ve done something like that before and now you’ve got more firepower.”
“You know, that idea isn’t half bad.” Brennan said. “Adam’s knows a lot of about the layout and where would be the best places to hit.”
“Have you guys ever tried it before?” Max asked.
“Not with that big of a target.” Jesse answered. “Usually just to gain access to a small part or some data.”
“Perhaps it is possible.” Adam stated. “But it would take quite a bit of planning, and time spent in the simulator to get it just right. But everyone would have to agree to do it.”
Shalimar was the first to speak up, “If it means the GSA is gone, I’m in.” Everyone else agreed even the ones who had no powers offered to help in any way they could.
“I’m going to go search the database to gather all the information I have.” Adam said as he excused himself and went into one of the labs to see what he could arrange in the way of the layout of Genomex for the group. Meanwhile the mutants told the group more about their encounters with the GSA hoping that they’d get something out of it.
As they talked Brennan couldn’t help but notice how Liz was sitting close to Max. Too close for his taste but not on top of each other. He also noticed that despite the fact that they had not parted on good terms and that they had not seen each other in over a month, they still moved in sync. It proved to him that his sister and Max would be getting back together.
Jesse offered them a tour of Sanctuary and they were all happy to look around. Everyone went but Brennan halted Max behind while they all kept going. Once they were alone Brennan started, “I just wanted to talk about Liz.”
“I figured.”
Brennan started walking around trying to keep Max on edge. “I know about how things have gone between the two of you. She’s opened up and I’m pretty sure that I know most of it, like Tess and your son. Now a lot more of it makes sense now that I know the whole alien angle. But that doesn’t change the fact that you hurt her, hurt her deeply.”
Max hung his head, “I know I did. And I know she'll should never forgive me but I’ll do what I can to make it up to her.”
“You’re right, you will make it up to her. Rather you to get back together or stay just friends.” Brennan stated. He moved so that he was standing only inches from Max’s face. He brought up his hand and within a few seconds sparks ignited and four small streams danced from his thumb to his finger tips. “Because if you don’t, I’ll shoot enough electricity in to you that you’ll be able to light up all of New Mexico.”
Max gulped as Brennan brought one finger towards him and he felt a shock course through him. It wasn't overly painful but enough to scare him. He just looked at Brennan and nodded, “I will, I promise.”
“Good, glad we understand each other.” Brennan said. He kept his hand there for a moment more before lowering and cutting off the streams. “Because if I didn’t do enough damage to you, then Shalimar would get you. Her and Liz have gotten close so she wouldn’t want Liz to be hurt either. And she really gets into the whole cat and mouse game.”
Their conversation ended none too soon because everyone returned from their tour to the main room. They sat down again and just chatted about nothing.
As they continued to talk Liz noticed Emma, who was sitting right next to her, staring intently at Max. She wasn’t jealous, she knew Emma wasn’t interested in him and she knew why she was looking at him. She was reading him with her powers, scanning him. Liz leaned over slightly and whispered in her ear, “What is it?”
Emma turned her attention to Liz and smiled a little at being caught. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to. But his emotions are just screaming at me.”
“And what’s it feel like?” Liz asked.
“On the surface he’s happy to see you, and desire to remedy this situation. But there’s more. Everything is so jumbled up, complete chaos. Almost as if some are not his own. It’s hard to explain but it’s not a new thing. Whatever it is, it’s been going on for awhile.” Emma explained.
Liz’s thoughts were in chaos as well as she absorbed what Emma was telling her. Could Max’s mind have been manipulated? By Tess? And to what degree? “Can you get a deeper reading to see what is going on?”
“I don’t know, what about you?” Emma asked. “I know your powers aren’t that strong but I was wondering if you picked up on anything when you touched him?”
“No, although.” Liz trailed off.
“What?”
“When Max and I were first together, when we’d kiss I’d get flashes. But once we got back together, they were gone. I wonder if that might be the reason? Something blocking me.”
“I don’t know, I’m not used to reading aliens so I don’t know what could be going on. But I think you should talk to him, maybe you could figure out more.” Emma said.
“Yeah, well. Max and I have a lot of stuff to talk about.” Liz said thinking about exactly how much they had to talk about. Adam announced that they were moving into the lab to go over schematics on the computers. Everyone got up to go while Liz grabbed Max’s arm. “Um, Max and I will join up with you guys in a little bit.”
They all nodded except Brennan who looked uneasy about leaving the two alone. Liz smiled at him as she said, “Brennan, we’re just going to talk.”
“I know,” Brennan stated but still didn’t move until Shalimar came back in and pulled him away. When they were gone Liz turned her attention towards Max and saw that he too had been looking at her brother and Shalimar. “You know ever since I came here I’ve been slowly trying to get those two together.”
“I thought Maria was the matchmaker?” Max said smiling slightly.
“Usually but I can’t resist with those two, there’s just something there between them that I think they need help with. Brennan hasn’t had the best luck with women, and Shalimar is great.” Liz explained. “I think she’d be good for him.”
“You seemed to have gotten close to them.” Max said.
“Yeah, well although we do go out, we spend a lot of time here. Gave us lots of time to talk. And they’ve spent a lot of time with me helping me learn how to use by abilities.” Liz said as she brought up her hand.
Max watched as the electricity sparked again from Liz’s fingertips and danced for a minute just like Brennan’s. By the display he could tell how comfortable Liz was with her abilities. If she wasn’t, he knew she wouldn't risk the little display. He tore his gaze from her small hand and towards her face. “So it’s time to talk, huh?”
“Yeah,” Liz said uneasily. “I guess we’ve been putting it off for long enough.”
Liz sat down on one of the couches and tried to think of what to say next. Where did she begin? She looked at Max who had sat down next to her. “Max, over the last month I’ve thought about a lot of things. Stuff I should have thought about before we started dating again. About myself, you, TTTess. Do you know how much it hurt to see you kissing her at the prom when I was your date?”
“I can’t imagine how you felt, seeing that…” Max started to say but Liz interrupted.
“And I just can’t understand how you could tell me for so long that you loved me, that you could never love Tess but you ended up sleeping with her.” Liz stated, “Can you explain it to me? So I can understand.”
“I know it sounds like I’m avoiding it all but I don’t know. That period of last spring is really fuzzy.” Max said. “I mean I remember it but it’s like looking at someone else.”
Thinking of his answer Liz decided to broach the subject of what Emma had said. “Max, Emma told me something that I want to tell you. You see, she’s a Psionic, and with those abilities she can read people. Like their emotions and how they feel about stuff. Well most people, she has a hard time with me and other Psionics but others she can do easy. I’m getting off track, you see she’s been getting some strange things off of you. And I think I know why.”
“What do you mean?” Max asked, wondering what she was getting at.
“I don’t how much but I think Tess mindwarped you.”
Part 14
“You think she mindwarped me?” Max asked. Liz could see from his expression that he was in shock.
“It’s not like we don’t know she could do it. And it’s the only thing I can’t think of as to why your thoughts could be so frenzied. Kyle said he remembered Alex yelling at Tess about how she messed up his head and his thoughts. And that he was acting weird, not himself. Just like you were last spring.” Liz explained.
“But why didn’t I break out of it like the others?” Max asked. “Everyone else got their memories and broke out of the warp, why didn’t I? I’ve never showed any signs of it.”
Liz thought on it for a minute, trying to base a theory on what she had read about Psionic powers considering she didn’t know anything concrete on the aliens’ powers. “I don’t know, only Tess knows for sure. Maybe since aliens use more of their brain than humans it took Tess more energy to keep up the warp with you. That could be why she lost control.”
Liz tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, “Think of the facts. Alex was fine when we were in Vegas, so something happened after it to pull some of her energy away from Alex’s warp. That’s was when Brody took us hostage and she mindwarped Ms. Deluca. But maybe Ms. Deluca wasn’t the only one who was mindwarped. Maybe you were too, at least in the days following.”
“So you think that Tess started warping me then?” Max asked
Liz shrugged, “I don’t know. You told me the day we decided to go to prom together that you had remembered something. Maybe Tess decided to mindwarp you to work off those? Like maybe make you remember feeling more than you really felt? It would explain why suddenly you seemed to care more for her than just a friend.”
“And after you …kissed her, she had her claws into you and wasn’t going to let you go. Look at the funeral, you started to act so different. Before it I had mentioned to you that Alex’s death was caused by an alien, you would have been the first one next to me in finding out what happened. And you never would have acted so cold to everyone else.”
“We never really did find out the extent of her powers, it was only when she mindwarped Ms. Deluca did we find out she could mess with peoples memories. It makes me wonder what all she did to you,” Liz turned to look at him as if the answers were on his face.
“I’d like to know that too.” Max said. He didn’t like the idea that Tess had messed with his head. That she had meddled in it and he ended up acting in a way that turned everyone against him, and with good reason. He had been repulsive to everyone, demanding that they bend to his will.
Liz could see how much he wanted to know and decided he needed some help. “I might have an idea, I’ll be right back.”
Liz hurried out of the room and to the lab. She tried to be as quiet as possible as she entered, not wanting to interrupt. Luckily Emma was facing her and with a small motion of her hand, Emma excused herself and came out to meet up with Liz. When she did, Liz said, “Thanks for coming out here.”
“What’s going on? I thought you were talking to Max.”
“I was, still am. And we found out some major stuff. But I need some impute from you.” Liz stated.
“What can I do?”
“Come on.” Liz said as the two women walked back to the main room where Max was still sitting. When they sat down Liz started to explain. “I told Max about the reading you got from him and I came up with a theory as to why. We think it’s because of Tess, the other alien we told you about, mindwarping him. We’re not sure of what all she might have done and I was wondering if you might help us find out. You know a lot more about Psionic powers than I do.”
“I’ll do what I can, tell me what you know about Tess’s powers.” Emma said. Liz and Max both told of the times they had seen Tess use her powers and described what they knew.
When they were done, Liz asked, “Is there anything you can do? Try to get a better reading?”
“I don’t know, like I said before I’ve never read an alien before. But I’ll try.” Emma said. She looked at Max and concentrated, again she felt the chaos within him. She felt anger, grief, confusion, loss, fear, but the biggest was his overwhelming love for Liz. It was very much ingrained in every part of him. She couldn’t find what they were looking for so she stopped.
She saw Liz looking at her anxiously. “Anything?”
“No, I’m sorry. I could feel his emotions and stuff but nothing to help figure out what is wrong.” Emma said.
Liz and Max both sighed in frustration, both wanting to know what had happened. Max looked at Liz, “What if we connected? Maybe you would see what’s going on.”
Liz thought it over, what would happen with the combination of the connection and her own abilities? But she wanted to know. “Let’s do it.”
Emma looked between the two of them, she remembered when they had explained what happened when Max and Liz connected. Liz got bits of memories like she did when she used her abilities. Abilities that Liz didn’t have complete control over and uneasily said, “Liz I don’t think this is the best idea.”
“Emma we don’t have another choice. And if Tess did something to him then I have to help Max find out what it is. Because it didn’t just effect him.” Liz argued.
“Then let’s go tell the others, see what Adam thinks.” Emma stated.
“Yeah, Liz we can wait.” Max added.
“No, Brennan would just try to talk me out of it.” Liz said. “Please Emma.”
Emma heaved a sigh of defeat. “What do you want me to do?”
Liz smiled at her as she explained. “Just sit there and watch us, just in case someone comes in, you can stop them from trying to separate us. It shouldn’t take that long.”
“Okay.” Emma agreed.
Liz turned back to Max and concentrated on using her Psionic abilities. She looked into Max’s eyes as he reached out to take her hands. But he didn’t get a chance to connect with her because as soon as his fingers touched hers she was sucked into flashes. The flashes whizzed by her and she couldn’t get them to slow down. She saw all of Max’s memories from the day he came out of his pod. Including what they were looking for.
In the end Liz’s head felt like it was going to explode, she had used her abilities too much and she was on overload. Somewhere inside her mind her survivor instincts kicked in as well as her Elemental powers. She didn’t realize what she was doing as she shocked Max enough that he dropped her hands. Once the flashes stopped her mind decided she needed a break to rest and she passed out.
Emma had been watching the two the whole time, reading them as well and felt the dread Liz had been feeling over whatever she was seeing. Then suddenly she saw sparks come out of her hands and Max jump back. Emma was as surprised as he was but got over it as she caught Liz as she slumped backwards.
“Liz…Liz…” Emma said trying to wake her but it was obvious that she was unconscious. She looked at Max who was pale and shaken, “Max are you okay?”
It took Max a few minutes before he answered in a whisper, “I remember, she did it. Liz did it.”
He looked over at Emma who was holding the still lifeless Liz. He inched his way over slowly before he pulled her into his arms from Emma. He looked up at the older mutant as he asked, “Is she okay?”
“I think everything was too much for her, these abilities are still new for her and she lost control and it took too much out of her.” Emma explained although she didn’t know for sure.
Just then everyone walked in, Brennan saw his sister lying unconscious in Max’s arms and was next to her in a heartbeat. “What happened? What did you do to her?”
“Brennan, calm down. Max didn’t do anything to hurt her. She was trying to use her Psionic abilities to help him and it was too much for her.” Emma explained.
“Help him how Emma?” Adam asked as he came up and started examining Liz.
“I told Liz that I was feeling something strange from Max earlier and she and Max were talking about and thought they found out why.” Emma said.
“Liz thought that Tess had mindwarped me and that’s why Emma was getting strange feelings from me. I suggested that we connect so that maybe she would see something. But I didn’t get a chance to because as soon as she touched me, I felt something strange and then flashes hit me. The next thing I know is Liz shocked me and she passed out.”
“I think she’s going to be okay but I want to get her into the medical lab so that I can monitor her.” Adam said. Max moved to pick her up only to have her whisked away by Brennan. He was sure that if he had his hands free that Max would feel himself getting zapped. He got up to follow but everyone else stopped him with their questions. He’d answer them quickly then get back to Liz.
Part 15
Brennan carried Liz into the medical ward and laid her on the center bed. Adam was right next to him as soon as she was settled, placing the different medical equipment on her to monitor her. Brennan pulled up the nearest chair and took sentry duty next to her. To him, she looked like she was just sleeping instead of unconscious. But looks could be deceiving, she could be slipping into a coma at that very moment and he would know nothing. He couldn’t help but be worried about her, she had been fine the last minute he’d seen her and now she wasn’t. He felt more anger towards Max at that moment but Adam’s words filtered through it, “Brennan, I don’t have to be Emma to know how upset you are but you have to calm down. It’s not going to do her any good if you’re hovering over her when she wakes up.”
“So she is going to wake up?” Brennan asked.
Adam turned to study the monitors; “Everything here says she’s fine, just exhausted. She’s still not prepared to go full strength with her Psionic abilities and that’s just what she did. Give her a little bit of time and she’ll come out of it, of course her head will probably be hurting quite a bit when she does wake up.”
“Do you think Max healing her has anything to do with her powers coming out full strength?” Brennan asked.
“Well not being able to study both of them in-depth I can’t say for sure. But if I had to make an educated guess, yes. I think that if Max hadn’t healed her gun shot wound then her abilities would have appeared and gradually became stronger. But I do think that he added to her strength as well.”
Brennan nodded before turning back to watch Liz. She laid asleep for a few hours while he watched over her. Adam moved around him whenever he checked on her whenever he came into the lab and the others came in every fifteen minutes to see if there was in change. Which there wasn’t. Night began to fall outside but Brennan was oblivious to it.
Brennan rotated his head, trying to get the kink out his neck before he felt a pair of small but strong hands massaging it. He looked up to see Shalimar behind him. She gave him a small smile of reassurance as he said, “Thanks that feels good.”
“No problem.” She said as she continued to rub his neck. “Maybe you should get out of here for a little bit, go for a walk. There’s plenty of people here that care about her to watch her for a few minutes.”
“No, I want to be here when she wakes us.” Brennan said.
Shalimar knew she couldn’t talk him out of it, so she asked, “Do you mind if I sit with you then?”
“I’d like that.” Brennan said. Shalimar pulled up another chair and sat down next to him. “You know Max is sitting out there miserable thinking that she’s seriously hurt because of him.”
“Good.” Brennan couldn’t help saying.
“Bren,” Shalimar chastised. “Neither one of them knew what was going to happen, Emma said he tried to talk her out of it and wait for us but she was stubborn and said no. Something else you two have in common, hard headness.”
Brennan just rolled his eyes at her as he asked, “What was she thinking?”
“She was thinking that she was going to help someone she loved recover something he’d lost.” Shalimar explained to him. “I guess last spring when her friend died, Max was acting strange. The opposite of himself. And the two figured out that he had been mindwarped, his memories Psionically changed, and she wanted him to recover the memories. It worked. You would have done the same thing.”
“No I wouldn’t.”
“Yes, you would.” Shalimar reiterated. “Friendship is very important to both of you.”
She took his hand in hers and squeezed tightly. He pulled her into a hug and realized how good it felt for her to be in his arms. He knew that he’d been denying it to himself but Liz had been right. He cared about Shalimar as more than a friend, but because they had been friends first, he was scared that if he made a move on her it would ruin things. His thoughts were interrupted by a small voice, “Is this a private party or can I get in on this too?”
Shalimar and Brennan looked to see Liz’s eyes open and watching them with a weak smile on her face. Brennan’s face lit up as he released Shalimar and embraced Liz. As he did, Liz squeaked out, “Brennan, you’re going to make be pass out again from lack of air.”
He released her, “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Liz said as she looked around, “Where is Max and everyone else?”
“Just outside,” Shalimar answered, “They were too scared of your big bad brother to come in.”
Liz’s eyes flickered back to Brennan, “What did you do?”
“What did I do? You and Max were the ones who tried to fry your brain.” Brennan stated.
“I was just helping Max. And I’m glad I did it. It gave us a lot of information about what Tess did to him.” Liz said then she saw Brennan’s confusion. “It was all fake, after he kissed her at prom none of the physical stuff of their relationship happened. She mindwarped him to believe that they had sex, but they didn’t, he’s still a virgin and there’s no baby. He was searching for nothing. And she implanted something in him, like a reaction whenever someone would disagree with him. She did it so he would think she was the only one he could depend on. The list of crimes against Tess just grew.”
Brennan thought it over and realized that at least Max hadn’t betrayed Liz, but he didn’t want her to stubble back in with Max just like nothing had happened. “So now what? You and Max are going to forget about it all and be fine?”
Liz’s eyes flickered to Shalimar, “Can I talk to him alone for a minute?”
“Sure.” She answered, as she passed by Brennan she whispered; “Now you’re in for it.”
Once the two siblings were alone in the lab Liz started again, “Brennan, just because we found out the truth doesn’t mean that everything is fine between Max and I. It just means that the biggest obstacle that was between us just disappeared. Max and I have a lot of things to work out. I’m not going to jump back into a serious relationship with him at least not before we have some time to get used to things, like my being a mutant and the fact that what happened last spring wasn’t real. So if we do get back together, it’ll be after a long time. ”
Brennan could see that she was going about this with logic and not jumping in blindly so he nodded, “Just be careful.”
“I will,” Liz said smiling. “I wanted to talk to you about something else besides Max and me, too.”
“Okay…. why do I not like the sound of this?”
“Sorry, I didn’t want to scare you. What I wanted to say is that you shouldn’t waste anymore time evading how you feel about Shalimar.” Brennan tried to say something but Liz held up her hand and continued, “Don’t patronize me and say you don’t care about her like that, I know better. That’s why I’m giving you this advice. If I’ve learned anything in the past few years is not to take time for granted. Alex and Isabel wasted time they could have been together longer before he died. And I don’t have to tell you how much time Max and I have wasted over the last few years. Things are so uncertain in the way our lives are that you should be with the person you most want to be.”
Brennan thought over her suggestion but before he could say anything Adam appeared at the door with Max behind him. He could see Max looking ecstatic at the prospect of seeing Liz and knowing she was awake. He squeezed Liz’s hand before saying, “I’m going to go while Adam looks you over and you and Max talk. But I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay.” She said softly.
Brennan headed for the door passing Max and Adam as he did. He saw Max approaching Liz tentatively and knew that they would soon be talking. He looked in the main room and saw that Shalimar wasn’t there, after asking Emma where she was he went after her. He needed to talk to her.
Part 16
Liz remained on the exam table as Adam took readings from the monitoring equipment. She glanced at Max periodically and saw him staring at her with concern. She smiled a small grin of reassurance while Adam finished up. “Well Liz, it looks like everything’s normal. I just wouldn’t use those particular abilities for a little while. Just stick to the Elemental ones until you can work more with Emma.”
“Thanks Adam. Sorry I’ve caused so much trouble.”
Adam smiled affectionately at her while he said, “I’ll leave you two alone and go find you some food. You need to keep your energy up.”
Adam headed towards the kitchen area leaving Max and Liz by themselves. She suddenly felt nervous sitting there in front of him and started to play with her hair.
Max smiled at her and said, “I’m so relieved to see your okay. I thought I did something serious to you and I couldn’t connect so that I could try and heal it.”
“I’m fine. Just don’t know my own strength, or how to control it. I should have known that it would be strongest with you.” She said looking embarrassed.
“Don’t feel self-conscious about what happened. I shouldn’t have suggested what I did.” Max said.
“No, no. I don’t care about that. I figured out what was wrong, that’s what’s important.”
“No, Liz. You being okay is what’s important.” Max said firmly. “The other stuff is secondary to that.”
“But what I found out is important. Do you remember it? What happened?”
“Yes, I remembered it. I can’t explain it how but right before you shocked me, it all came back.” Max explained. “I am so sorry that I wasn’t stronger to fight her off. To stop her from mindwarping me and putting you through all of that.”
“Max, you didn’t know. You trusted her and didn’t think she would do it. You didn’t know how twisted and sick she was, if you did then we would have stopped her. The only thing you’re guilty of is kissing her at the prom. The rest of it is Tess’s influence.” Liz said then something he said hit her. “Wait a minute, I shocked you?”
Max smiled at her as a look of astonishment came over her face as he said, “Yeah, I think it was your brain’s way of telling me that I was overloading you. It’s okay though, it was just a small shock, nothing big.”
But instead of being worried, Liz did something he didn’t expect. She started giggling. She giggled until it turned to an all out laugh, one which Max joined in with. They continued for several minutes until Liz was gasping for breath. “I’m sorry for laughing, it just hit me right.”
“It’s good to hear you laugh, it’s not something I’ve heard enough of lately.”
“You’re right, I haven’t.” Liz said. “That brings up something I wanted to talk to you about, us.”
“Us?” Max said.
“Yeah, us. While this does clear up a major obstacle between us, it doesn’t fix things right away. It’s going to take a while before we can even remotely think about being anything more than friends.” Liz explained. “I mean for right now, I’m not even living in Roswell.”
“Friends.” Max said as he thought over what she said. He knew she was right. While finding out about Tess’s mindwarp fixed some stuff, it was only the beginning. So much had happened over the past year and a half, it was going to take some time to wade through and sort it out. “I think that would be good. To be friends and get to know each other again.”
“And if we get back together, then we do and if we don’t, at least we’ll still be in each others lives.” Liz added as she smiled. Max nodded and the two started talking more about what had happened since she had left Roswell.
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Brennan went straight to the computer lab where he found Shalimar and Jesse hovered over a computer. As he walked in, they looked up and Jesse said, “Shalimar told me that Liz woke up, how’s she doing?”
“Fine, she’s back to her old self.” Brennan answered. “Adam’s in with her and Max. Shalimar, can I talk to you?”
Shalimar nodded and followed him out into the corridor. Once there she saw that Brennan looked nervous and was surprised, he was never nervous. What was going on with him? “Brennan is everything okay? You seem on edge. How did the talk with Liz go?”
“Nothing’s wrong. And the talk with Liz went fine, we discussed that her and Max are going to take some time to work things out. And she just wanted to give me some advice.” Brennan said.
“What kind of advice?”
“About not wasting time. To seize the moment and act on my feelings.” Brennan explained. Before Shalimar could question him, he grabbed her waist and pulled her towards him. She was caught by surprise and didn’t fight him. He planted his lips on her and put all of his emotions into the kiss. He felt a spark flare between them when he did and for once, it was not caused by his powers.
He took it as a good thing that she didn’t push him away and began to return the kiss. His lips moved smoothly against hers, massaging them softly. His tongue swept her bottom lip asking permission which she seemed to eagerly give him. Their tongues clashed and dueled against each other as they explored each other mouth’s. This was the first taste they had of each other and they weren’t going to waste anymore time. They only broke away when their lungs burned from lack of oxygen.
Shalimar smiled as she said, “Remind me to tell Liz to give you more advice, I like what happens when she does.”
“So you don’t mind that I just grabbed you and kissed you?” Brennan asked. “You weren’t just caught up in the moment?”
“Uh huh, I kissed you back because I wanted to.” She said licking her lips.
“So what happens now?”
“You’re the one who finally made the first move, why don’t you tell me?” Shalimar asked.
“Well how about once this whole thing with Liz’s friends is done, you and I go out? See where it goes from there? I’ll admit this is different for me. I’ve never lived and worked with someone I dated.” Brennan answered.
“Neither have I but we’re about to see if it works.” Shalimar stated before they leaned in for another kiss.
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