Electricity

By: Deah
Written: April 24th 2000
Copyright: 2000
Disclaimer: Original Characters and Storylines are the property of Warner Bros, Jason Katims Productions, Twentieth Century Fox, FOX, Regency Television and Melinda Metz.

Kyle stood up, surveying his desk. Pictures were lined up of his wife and three sons. His eyes fell on his oldest son's photo. Jimmy was a Junior this year. He remembered being a Junior. It had been a wild year. He didn't expect Jimmy to have that type of year...or at least hoped he didn't have that kind of year. He had found out the secret his dad had been keeping about Max Evans. Kyle frowned. Water under the bridge.

What bothered him now had nothing to do with Max Evans and everything to do with Jimmy. There was something that ate at him about his son. He wasn't like Kenny, even though they were only a year apart in age. Kyle knew that kids were different, but Jimmy worried him. He had tried to have a relationship with Jimmy. He attended every football game, basketball game, wrestling match that his son participated in, yet they were strangers. He had no idea what went on in Jimmy's head.

Maybe he was more like his mother, Kyle considered. The memory of Jen was as clear as if it happened yesterday. It seemed like light-years had passed since college when his only concerns were how much beer he could consume, how many women he could test his charms on and football. Football. Boy, was that a dream. After Jen his whole life had changed. She had came to him one day before a game and said that she was pregnant. He didn't handle it well. He had accused her of being with everyone on campus. She disappeared that day and so did his ability to play football.

The next time he heard her name was six years later. He had gone back to Roswell and joined the force. Something he had sworn would never happen. It was a matter of acceptance. He had married Karla, his girlfriend after Jen had taken off. They already had one son, Kenny, and another on the way. Then he got the news- Jen had died in a fire. Kyle had been listed as Jimmy's father. He immediately sent for the five year old.

He was embarrassed to admit that he had still hoped that Jimmy was not his son, but when he set eyes on the boy there was no doubt that Jimmy was his. From that day forward he had tried to make amends for the childish mistake he had made. The memory of Jen plagued him. If he had have just accepted it instead of running away...

He loved Karla with every part of his soul. He never thought it was possible to love someone that much. What if Jen had felt that way about him? Guilt pulsated through his body. No wonder Jimmy was screwed up.

Kyle walked to window and looked out of his office. Sometimes it hit him how weird it was that he stared out this very window when he was sixteen. Back when his dad had an interest in what happened to Roswell. Now, his dad sat around and occupied his days with things like bowling. Bowling? Anytime, he broached anything close to police business his dad would change the subject.

That was another thing. The first time his dad had meet Jimmy he had taken Kyle off and told him that Jimmy wasn't right. He knew what he meant. Looking into Jimmy's eyes could turn a man cold. There was deadness there. No emotion. When Jimmy was young Karla refused to leave the other children in the room alone with him. The few times she had the boys had ended up with cuts and bruises no one could explain. What if he was making a mistake, again? What if he was...

"Sheriff?"

Kyle turned around to see Deputy Young. He was anxious. "What's wrong, Deputy?"

"There's been another one of those incidents."

Kyle sighed. Another incident. Another murder he meant. This was the third this month. He closed his eyes. Roswell had never had much crime, now it had it's very own serial killer. "Another elderly woman?" He questioned.

"No, sir. Fifteen year old female. She appeared to know the killer. No struggle like the others."

"He's targeting women," he paused, "same means of death?"

"Well, we just found the body, but it appears so."

Kyle nodded. He was getting braver. He practiced his skill on older women, but now felt confident enough to move on to the young. "I'll be right down, Deputy. Don't let anyone touch the scene until I get there."

"Sir, there's something else you should now."

"Yes?"

The deputy looked down. "It was Sheryl Whitley."

Good God. Jimmy's exgirlfriend. This just kept getting worse. "I'll notify her parents."

When Deputy Young had left, Kyle leaned against his desk. There was no rhyme or reason to the killings. That bothered him less than the way they had died. Affixation. It was as if all the oxygen in their body had been sucked out. The autopsy had revealed that their lungs had actually withered. How was he doing it?

***

The announcement had came over the intercom. Sheryl Whitley was dead. School dismissed. Well, it hadn't been quite like that, but close enough. Beth shoved her books in her locker. Sheryl had been one of her best friends in grade school. When they had reached Junior High they had went in two different directions. Sheryl became a cheerleader, leader of the pep squad, organizer of Roswell High dances...Beth became student council president of the Sophomore class, leader of the International Affairs Club, organizer of Roswell High charity drives. They were the forces in Roswell High that balanced each other.

"How you holding up?" Ryan asked from the locker next to her. The lockers went by last name order so the chance of seeing Ryan a billion times a day was pretty high.

"I'm fine." She wasn't. She was numb. How did Sheryl die and why?

She glanced over her shoulder. Jimmy Valenti walked by with a group of his wrestling buddies. He winked at her as he passed. Not exactly the way a guy should act when he just found out the girl he dated for two years had passed away. She shivered. Did he have any emotions at all? Ryan was right. He was a threat to all of them.

***

Parker stood next to Matthew and Mariah's car. Lexi had taken off without him. No big surprise there. She did it almost everyday. 'The Court' would pile in their car and take off to the mall, leaving him to catch a ride. Well, it's better than listening to them, he conceded. Whenever one of Lexi's friends opened their mouths he imagined chickens clucking. 'Oh this guy put the moves on me and I was like...cluck, cluck, cluck.'

He looked around. Where were they? Matthew was usually the first one out here. He remembered last spring when the Guerins had been the only Freshman driving. It was hell having everyone squeeze into their rusted out Cavalier. Mariah and Matthew would fight about who was going to drive while the rest of them were about to hyperventilate in the backseat.

Matthew came out of the school flushed. "I can't find her." He announced when he got closer to Parker.

"I'll go look." He shot back, heading towards the school. Where would Mariah be? He checked her last class, it was empty. Not at her locker. He hesitated outside the girl's bathroom, squeezed his eyes shut and opened the door. "Mariah?"

"Who is that?!" Mrs Ripley yelled back. "Look, you little pervert, you better be gone when I get out of here!"

Parker let the door shut and jogged away from the bathroom. If old Mrs Ripley thought anyone was interested in catching her in the bathroom, she was delusional. She had to be at least a hundred years old. If 'the court' sounded like chickens, Mrs Ripley was definitely their mascot.

One quick sweep of the second floor and he was outta there. He wasn't gonna get caught by Mrs Ripley. It wasn't like Mariah didn't know where the car was.

He walked along the hall, glancing in classrooms. No Mariah. Ok, time to... huh? He thought heard someone crying. He turned around. Where had it came from? He listened for a minute. There. It was someone crying and it sounded amazingly enough like Mariah. He walked to the eraser room door. Yeah, it was coming from the other side.

Wait. What the Hell was she doing in the eraser room? She's crying, you nitwit, she's not in there with anyone. He knocked on the door. "Mariah? Are you in there?"

"Go away, Parker," She called.

He tried to open the door. Locked. He placed his hand in front of it. It glowed and the lock clicked. Parker swung the door open to find Mariah sitting against the wall. Lines marked where tears had ran down her cheeks. This couldn't be from Sheryl Whitley. Mariah hardly knew her. Sure, they had been friends in grade school, but that was years ago.

"I can make it home by myself, you know." She sniffed, looking away.

Parker sat down next to her. "Matthew isn't leaving without you. Besides, he might pick up a bunch of loose women if you're not there to stop him."

A fresh flood of tears rolled. He felt totally helpless. This wasn't like Mariah. Yeah, she was emotional. She cried at all those chick flicks or when animals got hurt or kids got separated from their parents...ok, yeah, it was like Mariah. But had she taken this whole thing with Sheryl that hard?

He was sitting maybe an inch away from her. He wanted to put his arm around. Would it be too weird? Since he had found out that she liked him they were never in the room together more than a few minutes. Mariah would always find an excuse to leave. It was his fault. He should talk to her. Tell her that he just thought of her as... what did he think of her as? Not friend, they were more than friends. Not like a sister, Lexi was enough to fill that quota. He trusted her. He relied on her. He loved it when she goofed on the rest of the group and when she told him what she honestly thought.

He couldn't say he never thought about kissing her. Last summer he had went over to her house, looking for Matthew, but he wasn't home. He and Mariah had watched old movies. She had thrown popcorn at him when he started joking about the plot. The popcorn fight turned into tickling and the tickling had turned into wrestling. He had gotten her pinned on the ground and for a minute he locked his eyes on her lips. It was like they were begging him to kiss them. He might have too if Matthew hadn't walked in. Later, he had been glad. It would've crossed a line. You just couldn't kiss a girl without them wanting to claim you as their boyfriend.

"Mariah, what's wrong?" He put his arm around her and drew her close. He couldn't just let her keep crying like this. She was making herself sick. "Is it about Sheryl?"

"Kind of." She choked out. "I just got to thinking. Sheryl was here yesterday. She was laughing and practicing her cheers. She was alive, you know. Then she wasn't." A tear welled up. "What if something happens to one of us?"

She looked into his eyes. This he understood. There was always that threat hanging above them. One of them could slip up and it would be over. "Nothing's going to happen to any of us." He promised.

"You can't say that. You don't know."

New tears cascaded down. He leaned in and brushed his lips against her forehead. A shot of electricity hit his body so hard he shook. What was up with him?! He kissed her forehead again. Uh huh...this was from kissing her. If he felt like this from kissing her forehead then what about her lips? He looked down at them then into Mariah's face. She was breathing hard. Had she felt it too?

"What's going on in here?!" Mrs Ripley shouted as she jerked the door open.

"We...I...We..." Parker stuttered, getting to his feet.

"Mr Whitman, I've got a pretty good idea of what you were doing!"

"Really, Mrs Ripley, nothing was happening!" Mariah insisted.

"When the bell rings, you leave school, Miss Guerin. You do not make school property your own little...little love haven!" She walked up to Parker and wagged her finger in his face. "Mr Kieser will be getting a full report about this. I have a good idea to call your parents."

"Please don't do that! My mom will freak out." Mariah begged. Parker imagined the vials and vials of cedar oil this lecture would take.

"I'll leave it up to Mr Krieser." She turned towards the door then looked back. "Well?!"

They shuffled out the room ahead of her. "Honestly, do you think I was born yesterday?!" She called from behind them.

"Is it me or does she remind you of a chicken?" Parker whispered as soon as they were out of her ear shot.

Mariah giggled and grabbed his hand. "She is kind of beaky."

"Exactly!"

The End