Personal :: Fanfiction :: Before the Beginning

Out of Roswell :: Chapter 3 :: Bits and Pieces

======================================================================================

Serena watched everyone around her with bright, curious eyes. These kids appeared younger than her, despite the fact that Isabelle was already married. Yet they carried themselves with the same determination she'd seen in her father, and, to a lesser extent, Serena herself. Serena remembered her father's suspicion that aliens could make themselves appear to be other people. Maybe they were older than they looked. And their powers! Whether those powers were some unknown technology or innate abilities, they were shocking. Isabelle, Max's sister, was leaning forward, her head between the driver and front passenger seats. She was urging Max to drive faster.

"We have to hurry! You know what they did to you, Max! We can't-" she choked for a second, her hands clenching the seat tightly as she fought for control. Liz, the brunette, turned in her seat in an attempt to comfort the distraught woman. Isabelle shrugged her off with toss of her head. "He can't defend himself! He doesn't know anything, not really, but they won't believe him! Just like they didn't believe you, Max!"

"Iz," Max tried to sound calm, but Serena could sense the tension in his voice. She settled back in her place in the rear seat. Her seat in the rear right corner of the van allowed her a reasonable view of him. He seemed to be the leader of this band of teenagers. Had he really been taken by the FBI at one point? Could they really all be aliens? "Iz, we can't go any faster. I'm breaking the speed limit by 10 miles as it is! Any faster, and we're sure to get pulled over. You know we can't afford that! It's dangerous enough we're taking major highways back to Roswell! I have no idea how we're going to get to the base..." Serena saw his face tighten with worry, then Liz reached over and touched his hand, and the wrinkles smoothed on his face. Those two... Serena shook her head. She was jealous of their ability to be so close to each other.

Isabelle leaned back in the seat with a frustrated sigh at her brother's explanation. Kyle leaned over and tried to put his hand around her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Isa-"

She forcibly removed his hand. "Stop it, Kyle. I don't need any Buddha crap right now! We've got reality to deal with here!" She scooted over in the seat until she sat at the edge near the door, folded her arms, and scowled at the back of the seat in front of her. Kyle sat back, a hurt and angry look on his face. Serena considered him. What was he doing here? For that matter, Maria seemed pretty normal too. Serena couldn't be sure, but they seemed to be completely human. These others might be aliens of some sort, but Maria and Kyle didn't seem to be anything like that. Serena turned her head to look at the couple beside her. Maria's hand was resting on Michael's leg, and his arm was wrapped around her shoulders and his head nodded in tandem with the van's movements. She could understand why Maria was here, even without powers. She and Michael were obviously a couple. But she simply couldn't fathom Kyle's reason for being here.

As she was staring at him, she saw him lean forward. "Hey, Liz, could you turn down the air conditioning? It's freezing back here."

Isabelle growled an angry, "I heard that!"

"No, really, Isabelle, I'm cold. I didn't mean-"

"Whatever Kyle. Shove it." Isabelle turned at looked out the passenger side window, effectively ending the abortive conversation. Kyle sulked silently, turning to look out his window, too.

Serena considered her situation. Everyone here had been kind enough to her. Max and Liz seemed to be bending over backward to avoid being threatening in any way. Serena rubbed her right wrist absently. Liz had been so apologetic about injuring her, as if being held at gunpoint weren't enough reason to defend oneself. Then Max had simply touched her, and the pain had disappeared! The other stuff she'd seen could be some sort of psychic powers, though she'd never really believed in them. But the healing...that was something else entirely.

"Are you all right, Serena?" Maria asked. Serena looked at her. Maria nodded down at her hand, still massaging her wrist. "It doesn't hurt, does it?" There was real concern in her voice. These people made little sense to Serena.

She shook her head. "No, it's fine." She held up her right hand and flexed her fingers. "Amazingly enough." She momentarily considered her options, then decided to take the bull by the horns. She looked forward at the driver and forced her voice into a casual, light tone. "So, Max. How'd you do it? How'd you heal my wrist?" She felt Maria tense beside her. Michael's head jerked a little as he looked up. Kyle turned around to look back at her. Max and Liz continued to look forward, as if the question weren't dangerous. Isabelle seemed too far absorbed in her own worries to even notice Serena's existence.

"I don't really know the mechanics of it," Max began, the casual tone in his voice matching her own.

"Maxwell!"

Max's eyes looked back at Michael through the rearview mirror. "What?"

"You're not-you can't-" Michael was so horrified he couldn't pull his thoughts together.

"Michael, we can trust her. Liz said so. I - er, in a way, I said so too."

"Yeah, well that guy didn't know everything. Isabelle's right. His actions caused Alex's death." Serena's eyes went to Isabelle as she heard a small gasp and saw a shudder run down Isabelle's back. "Things changed. Maybe Serena has too." These tidbits of information and strange references were driving Serena nuts. There was so much to be understood about these people, and it all seemed just beyond her grasp. Michael pulled his arm from around Maria's shoulders and crossed them over his chest. He looked at her, his brows drawn down in distrust. "We don't know who is really is, or anything about her, except Liz says we can trust her."

A touch of anger entered Max's voice. "You're not saying you don't believe Liz, are you, Michael? Because I know she's telling the truth! It happened like she said it did!"

Michael held his ground. "I believe her too. That's not the point. We don't know if this Serena is the same as the one she was told about." Serena felt hopelessly confused. What were they talking about?!?

Max opened his mouth to answer Michael, but Liz again reached out and laid a hand on his arm as she turned to face the rest of the van. "That's a fair question. We've already taken Serena in and shown her too much, though. Michael, we have to trust her...or..." She swallowed. "The alternative is too hard. I don't think any of us could just kill her."

Michael's face was closed. "I've killed before. I could do it." Serena looked at him in horror.

"Michael..." Maria whispered, then leaned over and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him as tight as she could.

Liz's eyes looked sad. "No, Michael. We all know better." A small smile crossed her face. "You may think you're a cold-hearted bastard, but we all know you better than that. You couldn't do it either." Michael blushed, his eyes widened fractionally in surprise. Serena saw Maria open her eyes and look over at Liz. She mouthed a silent "Thank you." Liz turned back around to face the front. "I think the easiest thing is to exchange stories. We tell a little about ourselves, then Serena tells us about herself. We've got a long ride ahead of us. Let's put the time to good use." Michael was too shocked by Liz's belief in him to voice a protest, and everyone else seemed relieved by Liz's idea, except Isabelle, who was ignoring the world around her.

Serena considered her options, few as they were. She could try to escape. It might be possible, but their abilities were a huge unknown, and Serena was hesitant to risk it. She prided herself on her ability to judge people, and this group really did seem to be made up of good people. Good people could still do some pretty horrible things, but...

Serena's hands became fists of determination. Now was not a time to be a coward! Especially when she was so close to what she and her father had been searching for for so long. "You've already revealed a lot about yourself. I guess it's my turn." She took a deep breath. "My name is Serena Dodie. My father was Alan Dodie. When I was about ten years old, my grandfather died. My father found an old box in the attic, full of papers, a couple of odd objects, and a series of journals."

"Dodie...Dodie...I've heard that name before." Michael was staring at Serena, his eyes narrowed in concentration. "Ah! I've got it! Rich Dodie! Was your grandfather's name Richard?"

Serena gasped. "How did you-"

Michael snapped his fingers. "That's it!" The sullen tone was gone from his voice. His eyes were bright and excited. "You guys remember that old guy I had to do that history project on? Hal Carver?"

"You knew Hal? He's mentioned in the first journal! He was a friend of Grandpa's from the war!"

"Yeah." Michael looked around. "You guys remember that?"

"You were the only one that heard the story, Michael. All you really told us was that he'd been in Roswell for the crash and he knew there were eight pods, not just four." Max said matter-of-factly. Liz was smiling at back at Michael, happy with his sudden change of attitude.

"Pods?" Serena was confused.

"Didn't your grandpa mention them?" Kyle asked. Everyone seemed involved in the conversation now except for Isabelle.

Serena shook her head. "No. Grandpa mentioned the crash site, and some very odd items...and aliens. Nothing about pods, though." She screwed up her face in concentration. "There was one mysterious item that Grandpa said he never saw. It was stolen soon after the crash, and he said all the intel guys were really upset about the loss. Maybe that was these pods?" She shrugged.

"Go on with the rest of your story," Maria urged. "We can talk about the pods later. How'd you come to be running from the FBI?"

Serena cleared her throat and continued. "Dad read through Grandpa's journals, and believed everything in them. He began to search for some of the others mentioned in the journals...others who'd witnessed things. He tried to find proof of his father's claims. I was only 10 when he found the journals, but I remember how he changed. He became obsessed; he never had time for Mom and me anymore." Serena took a deep breath. "Then, when I was 11, he started to get...well, Mom thought he was paranoid. In retrospect, he was just being smart. He began to add security to our house. He moved the family money around a lot. He watched everything so carefully. He began to insist that he drive me to school, and took different routes all the time. We didn't know this at the time, but he'd come to the attention of the FBI."

"The Special Unit?" Max's voice sounded almost cold.

Serena looked at him. His jaw was clenched, and his hands seemed to grip the steering wheel with unnecessary force. "How do you-?"

"We've run into them ourselves," Liz said softly, reaching out and snagging Max's right hand. His fingers wrapped around hers and he seemed to relax. "Could you continue, Serena?"

"Yes. Well, the Special Unit was watching us. They were calling Dad at night and frightening him, following him around everywhere, making life difficult at work. Finally he lost his job." Serena's fists tightened again as she remembered all the wrongs committed against her father. "He must have been getting close to something, because the harassment suddenly picked up. Dad sold the house and everything we had and took us into hiding. We lived on the run for two years. Mom couldn't decide if Dad was really on to something, or insane. Finally, she couldn't take the uncertainty any longer. She took me with her, and went to the Special Unit." Serena bit her lip for a second to hold back suddenly threatening tears. "I understand why she did what she did. I'm sure she thought she was doing what was best for me. But I couldn't forgive her for trying to betray my father like that."

"Trying?" Kyle asked. "Your father wasn't taken, then?"

Serena shook her head. "No. As soon as he realized Mom had run off with me, he knew what she'd have to do to get her old life back. He escaped in time." Serena sighed. "I was 13, and missed my Dad. Mom tried to give us a normal life again, but I was so angry at Mom for betraying him. I tried to track him down myself. I knew some of his contacts, and was able to get enough information to guess where he might be. I stole every last bit of cash I could from the house and went after him." She smiled. "I did find him. I got lucky, and guessed right. I shudder now to think what a big risk I was running." She shrugged. "At fourteen, everybody thinks they're so special, that the world will force itself to work the way you wish it to. I was fortunate to find Dad before some nutcase found me. I ran with him ever since."

"Where's your father now?"

Serena's eyes swam with tears at Liz's question. "The Special Unit. They got a new head agent a few years ago-"

"Agent Pierce."

"You know him?" Serena asked Max.

"Yes." He glanced over his shoulder at her. "You heard I was taken by the FBI. I met him then."

"Yeah, when he took charge, he really ratcheted up the pressure. He caught us three years ago. Dad...Dad sacrificed himself to give me a chance to get out. I'm pretty sure Agent Pierce killed him. Agent Pierce is gone, now. The Special Unit seemed to drop off the face of the Earth over two years ago. But it's recently become active again."

"Yeah, we know." Serena opened her mouth to ask what exactly the knew, since they all seemed to know a lot about the Special Unit, but then Michael continued. "Do you have your grandfather's journals, still? Were they in that suitcase you brought along?"

"Yeah, I do." Serena looked at him. "Do you guys have a computer?"

"No, why?"

"The books were too bulky to carry around everywhere. I scanned everything into a computer and saved it on CD." She shrugged. "It was so much easier to carry around."

Maria sighed. "Well, that's it, then, until we can-er-save enough money to buy a laptop."

"Is there anything else on those CDs?" Isabelle suddenly broke her self-imposed silence.

"Er, yes. Most of our notes over the years. Contacts we've made, what we know about aliens now, any information about the Special Unit, digital photos of -"

"Give me the CDs."

"What? Why? Michael said you don't have a computer. What good-"

"I SAID GIVE THEM TO ME!"

"Iz!" Max's voice suddenly had the bark of a command. "You-"

"Don't start with me, Max. I'm not in the mood." Isabelle's face was growing red with anger. She turned her angry eyes on Serena again. "Give them to me." Serena swallowed uncomfortably at the look in her eyes and nodded, then turned and reached over the back of the rear seat. Her suitcase was there. She pulled it up over the back and set it on her lap. She unlocked the combination locks and opened it. She pulled the lining out to reveal CD's lining the top of the suitcase.

"Oh! That's a cool idea!" Maria's eyes were wide with appreciation.

Serena shrugged. "Just a simple precaution. It wouldn't fool a determined search, but CDs are thin enough that people wouldn't necessarily know there's a false top. Or bottom." She looked over the top of the suitcase at Isabelle. "Which CD do you want?"

"Anything with information on Special Unit...your most recent information, that is."

Serena suddenly understood. "Oh! You're thinking about your husband!" She pulled one of the CDs out of the suitcase and held it out for Isabelle to take.

Isabelle snatched it out of her hands. "Of course I am! What did you think I was thinking?" She held the CD by its outer edges, close to her forehead, and closed her eyes. "I've never done this before, but maybe.."

"Iz! Audio CDs are totally different from data! Can you really read data that way? Besides, how will you show it, even if you do find it?" Serena was confused again. What was Max talking about? Was Isabelle...was Isabelle trying to read the CD without a computer? She swallowed. This had to be a dream. These people couldn't really exist, could they?

"I don't know, Max, but if I don't try, we'll never know. How hard can it really be, anyway?" The CD in her hand was starting to flash and glow.

"Um...Isabelle?" Serena cursed mentally at the tremor in her voice. She was determined not to show fear in their presence, but it was so difficult with all the weird shit that was happening. "I-I'm afraid that you probably won't be able to read it like that. I've compressed and encoded all the data on those CDs." She cleared her throat. "I don't really know what you guys are capable of, but I don't think many-er-people could decode those files on the fly.

Isabelle ignored her for a few seconds as the light that hovered over the CD flashed wildly. Serena almost thought she could see numbers and patterns emerging from the light, but then Isabelle dropped the CD with a sigh, and the light blinked out. "You're right. I couldn't make a bit of sense out of it." She handed the CD back. "We'll have to find a computer place as soon as possible. Max, maybe when we hit Phoenix?"

Max nodded. "Yeah. You'll have to get the cash ready for that, though."

Isabelle nodded and turned back to Michael. A little life had entered her face again. "Michael, can you lend me a hundred dollar bill?"

"Sure. Here."

"Thanks. Got any ones?" Michael handed her a bunch of them as well. She turned back to face the front. Serena couldn't see clearly what was happening, but she saw some more flashes of light from Isabelle. Then Isabelle turned around and handed a hundred dollar bill back to Michael. "Thanks." Isabelle smiled and held up 14 new hundreds. "Think this'll be enough for a good laptop, Serena?"

Serena could only gape at her. What the hell had she gotten herself into?!?

"But I'm not tired. We can keep going. I'll drive!"

Max stifled an annoyed sigh. Isabelle had good reason to be so difficult, but his patience was wearing thin. He held on to his temper. "If we arrive there totally exhausted we won't be able to accomplish anything, Isabelle. And I'm sorry, but I don't trust you to drive at safe speeds on the highway."

"Max! We-"

"No, Isabelle. We can't. Besides, I'd like you to dreamwalk Jesse again. Are you sure they're at Eagle Rock again? I don't think it's safe to just assume Jesse's where I was."

"Well, how am I supposed to-"

"You know how you took Liz with you when you dreamwalked me, that time Tess and I went to New York? I'd like you to let me go with you." Max shrugged. "I hope I can confirm if he's in the same place or not. I feel like we're walking in to this blind. I don't like that one bit."

"But-"

"Oh, look!" Liz broke in just before Max was about to lose it. "There's a sign for a motel. Let's get a few rooms there. It's already after eleven. We can start driving again early tomorrow." Liz turned around. Max couldn't believe how brave she was, taking Isabelle's angry glare full force like that. "We all want to save Jesse, Isabelle. But Max is right. It'll take another day of driving at least. I can see driving through the tomorrow night, but not tonight. We can't get any real sleep in this van, crowded as it is." Isabelle opened her mouth to protest. Max steeled himself for another verbal assault. Liz reached out and grabbed one of Isabelle's hands. "I promise, Isabelle. We will not leave him behind." Isabelle's lower lip began to tremble, and tears started to trickle down her cheeks. She yanked her hand out of Liz's grip and covered her face with her hands. She began to cry deep, tearing sobs, and it was all Max could do not to stop the van in the middle of the road to try to comfort his sister. He saw movement in the rearview mirror. Kyle was sliding over in the seat to hug Isabelle. She wrenched herself out of his grasp, but Kyle wrapped his arms around her again.

"I'm sorry, Isabelle. We're all sorry. Jesse's a great guy. A strong guy. They won't want to hurt him, they want information. He'll be okay. We'll get there." Kyle kept murmuring comforting things, and Isabelle finally collapsed against him and cried out her frustrations and fears.

Max paid attention to the road again, and suddenly realized he didn't know where he was going. "Liz, do you remember how the sign said to get to that motel? Is it this exit?"

Liz peered forward. "I don't remember. I can't recall if it was exit 104, or exit 107. Hey!" Liz raised her voice. "Does anyone remember the exit for the motel?"

"No."

"Nope!"

"Uh-uh."

"It's south of here."

"South, you said, Kyle?" Max asked. "Which exit?"

"I-I dunno, but it's south. Right now! I think it's this exit!"

Max jerked the steering wheel over and exited, waving apologetically at the honking cars behind him. "South, right? So that's...er...right, right?"

"No, it's left." Kyle's voice was a little shaky. "Those clover-leaf exits always turn me around too. Are you sure you guys aren't cold? I'm freezing!"

"Are you kidding?" Michael's tired voice asked from the back. "It was above a hundred degrees today! I only wish I were cold right now!"

"There it is, Max, right up ahead!" Max heard the relief in Liz's voice as she pointed up the road. "We can all get some rest! I know I'm looking forward to it!"

As Max pulled in to the motel parking lot, Isabelle hiccupped a few times and began to struggle in Kyle's embrace. He backed off and she began to wipe at her eyes with shaking fingers. Max opened the driver's side door. "Liz and I will get three rooms. You guys get the stuff we need for tonight and meet us in the lobby, okay?" He walked with Liz into the lobby. They quickly got three rooms, and were just being handed the keys as everyone else trooped in. Max walked up to Michael and grabbed Liz's suitcase and his bag. "Thanks, Michael. Everyone, let's drop our stuff in our respective rooms and then meet in my room before we turn in."

Isabelle was the first to enter. She flounced into the room and sat down heavily on the bed. "You guys, I'm sorry I've been so horrible. Just because my life has been an absolute hell since graduation, doesn't mean I have an excuse to rip everybody's head off."

She sounded so exhausted. "Iz, everybody understands. It's alright."

"Yeah, well...good." She sighed. "I hope everyone doesn't take too long. I want to get this dreamwalk over with!" She wrapped her arms around herself in a hug. "I'm not looking forward to this!" Just then, Michael and Kyle stepped into the room.

"No, I'm serious! That water is ice cold! I'm surprised I didn't freeze my lips off!"

"So?" Michael didn't sound concerned. "Isn't cold water better than lukewarm? That's one thing I always hated in the trailer. The damned water was never cold enough. You always had to add ice when you wanted a drink." Michael scanned the room. "Maria and Serena aren't here? You left them alone together, Isabelle?"

Isabelle looked up at him. "What?"

"You left Maria alone with that Serena chick? Who knows what she'll do? I can't believe it! Maria's the one who is least able to protect herself. You can't just leave her alone like that!"

"She'll be fine, Michael. If Serena were going to try anything-"

"She'd try it now! I can't believe-"

The door opened. Maria entered first, with Serena in tow. "Can't believe what, Michael?

Michael looked away. "Nothing."

"That's what I love about you," Maria walked up to him, a sly tone in her voice. She reached up and patted him on the cheek. "Your open and sharing nature." Michael opened his mouth for a retort, but she turned away with a teasing smile and faced everyone else. "Let's get started! I, for one, am eager to hit the sack!"

Isabelle nodded with a serious expression on her face and took a picture of Jesse out of her pocket. She lay down on the bed, resting one hand on the picture, and reaching toward Max with the other. "Hold my hand, Max. I'll try to bring you with me. This may not be pleasant."

Max saw Isabelle close her eyes as he grasped ahold of her hand, and he did the same. Suddenly, the darkness behind his lids was suffused with a grey mist. He could still feel Isabelle's hand grasping his own. He looked over, but couldn't see her. In fact, he couldn't see anything, not even his own body. Just the swirling mist. Then he heard his sister's voice, calling out.

"Jesse! Jesse! Oh Jesse, where are you? Can you hear me, honey? Please, Jesse!" The mist thinned a bit, and Max could suddenly see himself, his sister beside him, and the silhouette of someone else in the mist. He pulled Isabelle toward the dark, indistinct figure. He'd only taken a few steps when the mist cleared some more. The figure resolved itself in to some colors, but the features were still blurry. Then Max noticed a table off on his left. Max swallowed. Someone was strapped to the table. Flashes of his own imprisonment whirled through his head, but he shoved them aside and pulled Isabelle toward the table.

"Jesse!" Max and Isabelle stopped at the side of the table. There were figures, too misty to recognize, moving about the table, but the only thing they could clearly see was the table itself, and the figure of Isabelle's husband, strapped down to it. He rolled his head from side to side, mumbling something.

Isabelle screamed. "Jesse! Oh, honey, what are they doing to you?!?" She leaned over and hugged him. Jesse shook his head and blinked. His arms strained against the straps, but remained restrained.

"Isa...Isabelle? What are you...? No! NO! You're not here! They don't have you!"

"Shh, shh, honey, it's okay. I'm not in the room with you. This is a little like a dream. Remember, honey? Remember, I can enter people's minds? I'm safe, Jesse. I'm okay."

Jesse's eyes began to close again. "That's good. I'm so tired..."

"Jesse!" Max put as much force behind his words as he could. "Jesse, don't give up! We're coming for you! Don't worry!"

"Max? You're here too?"

"Yes. Jesse, we need your help!"

Jesse's eyes were still closed. He swallowed, then began to speak again. His voice was stronger. "What do you need?"

Max grabbed his hand. "I need you to open your eyes, and give me every detail of the room and the people you can determine. I need you to remember what this place looked like. We need to know if you're being held in the same place I was held and interrogated."

Jesse's eyes popped open. "You were...?"

Max squeezed his hand. "I know how hard this is. We're coming for you as fast as we can. Please, Jesse, help us help you."

Max looked around. Three of the figures became clear. Max gave them each a piercing look, doing his best to engrave their faces in his memory, then took in the room. It looked the same as he remembered. He walked up to a wall and placed his hand against it. It even felt the same. Everything agreed with his memories of the white room. He turned back to Jesse. "That's great. Thank you. Can you remember anything about coming here? Jesse?" He walked up to his brother-in-law. Isabelle raised her head off his chest and placed a hand on Jesse's cheek. He was sweating, his eyes clenched tightly shut. The room around them wavered into mist again, then the scene changed. A blurry copy of Jesse was struggling as two dark figures dragged him down a dark hall. Max caught a flash of the floor, and gasped. The seal! The same seal was on the floor. It was one of the few things he really remembered from his own time with the Special Unit. He turned around, the table was still behind him, and Jesse still lay on it. The figures from Jesse's memory faded as Max strode up to him. "Thank you, Jesse! Just hold on! We're on our way, we'll be at Eagle Rock as soon as possible!"

"Eagle Rock?" Jesse's voice sounded weak and tired again. Helping them must have sapped the last of his strength. "No...you can't..."

"Shhhhh, honey. It'll be alright." Isabelle's eyes were still leaking tears, but her voice sounded strong and determined. She kissed him on the cheek. "We're coming." She turned away from him slowly and grabbed Max's hand. The world dissolved around them, shrouding them in darkness.

"Max? Max? Open your eyes." Isabelle's voice pierced the black. Max opened his eyes with surprise and looked around. They were back in the motel room. Everyone was crowded around the bed. Isabelle was sitting up and smiling a little through her tears.

"Could you tell?" Michael asked. "Is he at Eagle Rock?"

Max nodded. "I saw that same seal, and the white room appeared to be the same. The same table and the same-er-tools." He rubbed his head. "Jesse's still fighting them. He went in to an absolute panic when he saw Isabelle, he thought she'd been taken too. We're just out of Phoenix. I can't believe how long it took us to get out of L.A. We've probably got another 12 hours of driving ahead of us. We'll get up early to grab breakfast, buy that computer on our way out of town. That way we'll get to Eagle Rock tonight." He looked around. "Alright?" Everyone nodded. "Great. Let's get to bed. We're going to have a very long day tomorrow." He stretched. He was so stiff from all that time in the van. He wasn't looking forward to an even longer drive tomorrow. Everyone began to make their way back to their rooms. Max reached out and touched Isabelle's arm as she started to get off the bed. "Iz, wait a minute, okay?" She nodded. When everyone except Liz had filed out, he spoke again. "Use your powers to secure your room tonight, okay? We all need our sleep, so we can't really afford to keep watch, but we can't let Serena run off." He saw Liz open her mouth. "No, Liz. I'm inclined to trust her, but we can't be sure. This is Jesse's life we're talking about. All I want is to make sure she can't run off and tell anyone about us." He snapped his fingers as another thought occurred to him. "Do something to phone too, okay?" Isabelle's expression was determined. She nodded.

"Yeah. I can secure the door and the windows. I suppose she could break the windows to escape, but other than that she'll be unable to get out without my knowledge." She cocked her head for a second. "I can do something about the phones too, I'm sure. Worse comes to worse, I'll just fry the wiring." She squeezed Max's hand. "Thanks, Max, for coming with me. I don't think I could have done it without you."

Max nodded. "We'll get him out, Isabelle. Whatever it takes."

She rewarded him with a smile. It was hard to see his sister hurting this much. He watched her get up and leave the room, closing the door gently behind her. Two warm hands came up and began rubbing his shoulders. He raised his head and smiled up at Liz, who was standing behind him. He winced a little. Liz wasn't that good at giving massages. He reached up and pulled her hands down off his shoulders, bringing her face down next to his. He turned his head and gave her a kiss.

She smiled softly. "Are you okay, Max? Visiting the white room had to be difficult for you."

"Yeah, I'm fine. All I can think of is how to get Jesse out of there." His grip tightened unconsciously around Liz's wrists. "We have to help him, Liz!"

She kissed his cheek. "We will, Max. We will."

Something was shaking him. Kyle groaned and swatted ineffectually at the disturbance. He was so tired. The last thing he wanted to do was wake up.

"Hey, Kyle, it's after 8. You've gotta get moving." Kyle's muddled brain was just barely able to associate the sound with Michael's voice. He muttered something under his breath and burrowed deeper under the covers. The shaking stopped. "Whatever," Michael said, sounding vaguely annoyed. "It's your ass when Isabelle comes in here to kill you for being late."

Kyle opened his eyes a little. Everything looked blurry. The sunlight streaming in the window confirmed Michael's assessment of the situation, though. If he didn't get up and ready soon, Isabelle would come in here and drag him bodily out to the van. Or worse, she might just insist they leave him behind. Kyle reluctantly pulled back the covers and rolled toward the edge of the bed. His eyes were gummy and heavy. He rubbed them as he stumbled into the bathroom. Kyle was still cold, but the chills felt more like a fever to him than anything else. He groaned to himself. Just what he needed. He took a hot shower, brushed his teeth, and changed his clothes, his pace getting slower and slower as he imagined the misery of being stuck in the van for over 12 hours while sick, then trying to play superhero and rescuing Jesse at the end of that hellish ride. When he finally emerged from the bathroom, Michael had already cleared all of his stuff out and left. Kyle hastily packed his stuff and took the second key off the dresser.

"About time!" Isabelle was standing in front of the door, her hand raised in preparation for a knock. "What took you so long?"

Kyle covered a yawn his free hand. "Sorry." He waved the key he was holding, and gestured toward his backpack. "I'm ready now."

Isabelle dragged him toward the lobby. "Good. Hurry up and check out. We're going to grab a large breakfast, buy the laptop and get out of here."

Isabelle hovered over him as Kyle checked out of the room, then escorted him to the van and practically shoved him inside. Michael turned to smirk at him from the front passenger seat, but Kyle ignored him. He picked the middle seat, ending up next to Serena. Isabelle squeezed past to sit in the back next to Max. Kyle turned to hand his bag back to Max to be placed behind the seats, but he accidentally whacked Serena in the head with it. "Oh! Sorry, Serena." Kyle felt bad. He knew how shocked and lost she must feel, having taken up with the Pod Squad. His own unwilling induction into their little fraternity had been unpleasant, and he hadn't been kidnapped across states in the process. "I'm really sorry." She rubbed her forehead, an angry frown on her face.

"Are you okay, Serena?" Max asked from the back. Serena's shoulders and back stiffened at the sound of his voice. "I can-"

"NO!" Serena yelled, jerking away from Max's proffered hand. "I'm-I'm fine."

"I wasn't going to hurt you," Max said, sounding hurt. Kyle looked at him and shook his head. Max didn't seem to understand how freaky his abilities were. Liz had accepted him and his powers whole-heartedly, so once Max had given his trust to someone, he had a hard time understanding why they wouldn't trust him in return. Max took Kyle's bag instead of healing Serena, and Kyle looked over at the angry woman.

"Are you sure you're okay? I hit you pretty hard, there. I'm sorry, that was unbelievably clumsy of me." Kyle put as much apology in his voice as he could.

She summoned a small smile for him and seemed to settle down. "No, I'm fine, really. Don't worry about it."

"Okay, where do we go for breakfast?" Maria asked from the driver's seat.

"The guy at the front desk had a suggestion," Michael said lazily, and began to offer Maria directions. Kyle closed his eyes and withdrew into himself. He still felt pretty crappy. Maybe breakfast would perk him up. As the van began to move, he felt himself slowly begin to drift off again. A soft touch on his shoulder suddenly woke him, and he realized the van was no longer moving.

"Huh? Wha--?" Kyle looked around, confused.

"We're at the restaurant," Serena said softly beside him. He looked around. Everyone else was already out of the van. Serena was smiling at him. "You were snoring."

Kyle blushed. "Oh. Sorry." He seemed to be doing nothing except apologizing this morning! "How's your head? I'm really sorry about that," he apologized again.

Serena laughed and gave him a friendly shove. "Kyle, it's all right. Stop worrying about it." Her expression suddenly became more serious. "I'm glad you're around, Kyle. I think I'd go nuts with only the others."

Kyle was confused by the sudden change of subject. "What do you mean?"

Serena looked down, her eyes shadowed. "Isabelle did something to the doors of the room last night. I couldn't open the door!" Her fists were clenched. "I had to ask for permission to leave the room! Can you believe it!?!"

Kyle was worried at the anger in her voice. "Serena...I know it's upsetting, but you have to see it from their point of view. They opened themselves up to a lot of risk in revealing themselves to you. Max is inclined to trust you. Look at how his first thought was to heal you this morning! But they can't really run the risk of putting Isabelle's husband in danger."

"Why'd they have to interfere in my life, anyway? Why couldn't they have just left me alone?"

He understood where Serena was coming from, but he was put off by her ungrateful attitude. "Because Liz saw you being killed, Serena, and she couldn't allow that to happen." Kyle hoped his voice wasn't as cold as his body as another chill ran down his spine. Serena had the grace to look abashed. Kyle tried to soften his tone. "Liz doesn't just make this stuff up. She saved our lives a little over a week ago at graduation. She saved you from being killed. None of this is easy." Kyle chuckled a little as he thought back to his own discovery of the true nature of Max Evans. "It wasn't any easier when I found out what was going on. But you couldn't ask for better friends." Kyle began to slide toward the open van door. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm hungry. Why don't we go join the others?" Serena nodded and followed him into the restaurant.

It had great food. Kyle was pleased to see Serena attempt to join in the conversation at the table. He was too busy wolfing down his eggs and pancakes to talk himself. "Eat all you want, you guys. We're not gonna stop for more than bathroom breaks and fast food from here on out," Max warned. He was speaking in a low voice. The restaurant was full of customers, but it was so noisy that Max evidently felt some cautious conversation would be safe. "We're going to Eagle Rock Military base. Isabelle, Tess and Michael got me out before, so I know we can do this. We're all stronger now than we were." A confused look crossed Serena's face at the mention of Tess, and she opened her mouth to ask something. Kyle surreptitiously kicked her under the table before she could say anything. She looked at him quickly, and he slowly shook his head, still chewing on his sausage. Serena looked at him for a second, then slowly nodded and sat back to listen again. "We'll have to depend a lot on each other, and we'll have to play it by ear. I assume their procedures have changed since the Special Unit was reformed." He looked down. "We have some new advantages, though. Serena can go through her files for any information on agents or the location for us. And the Unit's knowledge of our abilities isn't that good anymore, since Nasedo destroyed most of their records two years ago." Max looked over at Isabelle, who was staring fixedly at the table in front of her. He reached out and touched her hand. "We'll rescue Jesse, and figure out our course from there." Isabelle looked up at him with an unreadable expression for a moment, then jerked and went back to eating her waffles.

The rest of the breakfast was eaten in tense silence, as everyone mulled over their own thoughts. Kyle looked with some slight regret at his plate when he finished. He was still hungry. He rubbed his stomach. What was wrong with him lately? Everyone finished soon after him, and they filed back to the van. Kyle reached out to open the side door of the van, but yanked his hand away from the door handle with a muttered oath. It was cold! He blew on his fingers to warm them. Liz peeked around him. "What's wrong, Kyle?" She reached out for the van door and jerked her hand back with a cry. A light metallic ringing sounded on the asphalt parking lot, and the whole group stared in surprise. The handle had broken off the door. Liz shook her hand a couple times and held it in shock. "That hurt! It was so cold! I can't believe the handle came off!"

"What are we going to do?" Serena asked. She looked up at Kyle, who was still unconsciously hugging his hand, which was now back to a normal temperature. "Was the handle cold when you touched it too?" Kyle nodded wordlessly, a horrible thought running non-stop through his head, as much as he tried to ignore it.

Isabelle knelt and retrieved the handle from the ground. "Guys, huddle around me, okay?"

Serena began to splutter as everyone else crowded around Isabelle. "You're not...you won't...not in public!" She sounded absolutely horrified. Kyle reached out and touched her arm.

"Don't make a scene, Serena, please? The last thing we need while she does this is more attention."

Isabelle's voice was determined. "We don't have time to fool around with this sort of thing, Serena. Jesse needs us." A light shone under her hands as she held the handle up to the door. Kyle could see the break. It looked as if the handle had just snapped like a twig. Before his eyes he saw the metal stubs on the door begin to melt into the broken edge of the handle. He heard Serena gasp beside him as she watched it too. Within seconds the handle looked better than new. Isabelle withdrew her hand with a sigh. "That's probably the strongest part of the van, now." She reached out and pulled open the door. "Pile in, everyone. We have to get going."

As they pulled out of the parking lot Serena huddled close to Kyle, as if convinced he was the only one here who could keep her safe. Kyle paid her scant mind, however, as he held his hands before him, staring at them with a sort of sick excitement. He couldn't be completely sure, but he was convinced nonetheless. His powers had begun to show themselves.

Liz reached forward and shook Kyle's shoulder. He started and looked around. She smiled as his eyes centered on her. "We're not too far from Eagle Rock." She looked over at Serena, who was still asleep, her head resting on Kyle's shoulder and felt a twinge of regret. Serena had shown a distressing antipathy to all of them except Kyle. Michael and Isabelle had been right. She wasn't the same person the Max from the future had described to her. But Liz kept her hope alive. This all had to be frightening for Serena, and the only aliens she knew about were the real aliens, the full-blooded aliens like Nasedo. She probably had a very negative view of all of them from that stigma. Liz resolved to give Serena more time, and convince Serena, though her actions, that she wasn't a threat to her. "Could you wake her up?" Liz asked quietly. "We'll probably ask you two and Maria to remain in the van and be ready to pick us all up when we come out." Kyle nodded and shifted in his seat as he began to wake Serena up. Liz leaned back and suppressed a shudder of fear. She could feel the base looming closer. Isabelle was excited and focused, and Max was tense. Michael seemed to be almost relaxed up front.

Max suddenly brought his arm up around her shoulders. She looked up at him and smiled. His hand squeezed her far shoulder, confirming her suspicion that her fear was visible to him. "Don't worry Liz. I'll be right there with you."

She leaned against him. "That's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried I won't be able to hold up my end of the deal and help you out." She wrapped her arms around his chest, hugged him close and closed her eyes. As long as she remained like this, she felt safe and perfectly happy. She put all thought of the future out of her mind, and hoped against hope that no visions would intrude on her momentary happiness.

Liz felt Max tense, and looked up. The van was slowing down. Liz could practically feel the excited energy coming off Isabelle as the van pulled to a silent stop, its lights off. Michael turned around in the driver's seat. "Kyle," he said softly, "Come up here when we leave. Keep an eye out for any fireworks. We may need you to pick us up quickly if things go bad in here." Maria reached out from the passenger seat and grabbed Michael's hand. He gave her a kiss on the lips and ran his hand down her cheek, then turned without a word and jumped out of the van. Isabelle opened the van door and scrambled out. Liz gave Max a little shove and then followed him out. Liz spared a random thought of thanks for the moonless night as they picked their way up to the base's perimeter. Tense and worried about her place in the group, Liz tried to keep track of everything, scanning the horizon for any sign of movement. Her head jerked as she heard a small sound in front of her. Michael was standing with his hands against a chain link fence. "I don't sense anything monitoring us. How about you guys?" Max cocked his head and Isabelle turned slowly around. After a few seconds, they both shook their heads.

"Nothing."

"All clear."

Michael shrugged. "Well, alright. Let's go, I guess." The fence rattled as he began to climb it.

"Michael!" Isabelle whispered loudly, "Why don't we just-" she held her hand against the fence and it began to glow a little. Max grabbed her wrist.

"There's no reason to use our powers here. I'd like to leave as little sign of our passing as possible. Besides, let's save our strength for when we really need it."

Isabelle looked ready to protest for a second, but after a second she nodded and began to pull herself over the fence. Max gave Liz a boost up, then scrambled over himself. "Thanks," Liz whispered to her husband. He shot her a fleeting smile and nod before they began jogging along the perimeter of the old base.

"There," Isabelle whispered. "That's where we all entered when Nasedo brought us here." She was pointing at a low building that looked like a garage of some sort. "There's a trapdoor in the floor there that leads to the back end of the underground tunnels."

"Don't you think they've discovered how we entered and blocked off that entrance?" Michael asked, crouching down.

"Not really," Isabelle argued. "It was always easy to get into the tunnels. Getting into the part of them the Special Unit used was difficult, but-"

"Let's just go in," Liz urged, half out of a desire to get this over with. The butterflies in her stomach were becoming more and more violent. "They didn't know about Isabelle's dreamwalking before, there's no reason to think they do now. They can't be expecting us."

Max nodded. "Liz is right. Let's go now." He began running toward the garage entrance. Liz followed. When Max reached the garage he pressed himself up against the wall. Liz did the same, then looked back toward where they'd come from. Max motioned for Michael and Isabelle to come. They ran to the other side of the entrance to the garage and waited. Max inched up to the doorway, spun around on his toes and entered the garage. Michael followed from his side of the door, then Liz inched in and looked around. The building was dark inside, and nearly bare. The trapdoor was immediately obvious on the floor. Isabelle bumped her from behind, and Liz stumbled forward.

"Sorry. This looks different. This building was full of junk last time." Isabelle's voice sounded nervous, then it firmed. "Let's go. Standing here isn't helping get my husband back." She walked quickly over to the trapdoor in the floor and bent over to pull it open. Her tug didn't budge it. "Help me!" she hissed. Liz ran up, then Max and Michael. They all tugged and the trapdoor began to rise. Liz strained to lay it down slowly and avoid any unnecessary noise. The last thing they needed to do was attract someone's attention now! Isabelle jumped down into the dark hole they'd revealed. Liz bit back a cry. Michael laid a hand on her arm.

"It's okay, that's only a six foot jump. You follow me, okay?" He gave her a friendly slap on the back and looked slyly over at Max. "Max can bring up the rear." He jumped down. Liz swallowed, counted to five, and followed him. She landed on her feet and quickly stepped forward to leave room for Max. She heard his feet hit the floor and felt a slight breeze as he landed. He reached out to her with a hand in the darkness. She was only able to see him because the open trapdoor was behind him, and the little light that was able to sneak through outlined his silhouette.

"Is that you, Liz?" Max asked, then gasped as his hand made contact with her. A vision of young Max watching her in the schoolyard flitted across her thoughts. She heard a smile enter his voice. "Yeah, that's you." His grip tightened a bit. Liz turned her head as a faint light appeared behind her. Isabelle was holding her hand up, and it glowed, shining light wherever she willed it to.

"C'mon, let's move. Jesse's waited long enough for us," she shot over her shoulder as she began to move forward. Michael followed close behind, and Max and Liz jogged to keep up, keeping an eye out for anyone, or any clues to Jesse's location. They wandered down a couple of dark corridors, then Michael stopped.

"Wait, Isabelle." He looked around a bit, then nodded to himself. "This is the corridor that led to the morgue, remember?" Michael turned and walked back the direction they came from. He stopped at an innocuous door and reached out toward the handle.

"Wait a minute, Michael!" Max said, and walked up, his hand slowly beginning to grow brighter until it gave off light as Isabelle's did.

"Showoff," Liz heard Isabelle mutter behind her. She smiled. Just the possibility of being able to rescue Jesse made Isabelle's old strength reassert itself.

"Look at this!" Max was holding his hand close to the door and pointing at the door handle. "There's a thick layer of dust here. I'd say nobody's been here in at least six months!" He held out his hand, palm down, and shone light on the floor. "Here too. There're no footprints in this dust but our own." Max's face looked concerned in the reflected light. "Let's get moving. I just hope we didn't come to the wrong place."

Isabelle clenched her hands together, her voice suddenly weak and unsure again. "Don't even say that, Max." She turned and began to run down the hallways.

Max reached out toward her. "Isabelle!" he hissed in frustration, then ran after her. Michael cursed under his breath, grabbed Liz by the arm and followed them. Liz was pulled along, all of them hurrying their pace to match Isabelle's need.

Liz suddenly bumped into Michael's back as he came to a stop. She rubbed her nose and peered around him. Isabelle was still lighting the area, though Max's light had extinguished. Isabelle was turning around in the middle of the room, a look of horror on her face. Isabelle's light was spinning around erratically with her movement, and Liz had a hard time taking the place in. There was some high tech equipment, but it all looked abandoned or cannibalized. There was a large entrance with glass doors, and the wall opposite was peppered with gunshot holes. Michael pointed to them. "That's when we were pulling Max out of the base. They chased after us." He smiled a little lopsidedly. "They must have been pretty upset. Most of those were fired after we were gone." He frowned. "But why is this abandoned? This was their security entrance!"

Isabelle whirled to face him, red with fury. "You're only just noticing that fact, aren't you?" Her lit hand flew out to gesture at the dust-covered glass walls. "There's no way Jesse's here! This has been a damned wild goose chase!" Isabelle's voice crackled with rage.

"Should we go find the white room? Mayb-"

"No, Max! There's no way he's here. They wouldn't just abandon this perimeter. He's somewhere else." The light in her hand began to change from a cold white to yellow, then orange. Liz backed away...this didn't look good. She'd never seen Isabelle out of control, but she had a feeling she was about to.

"Isabelle, we'll find him." Liz tried to hold her voice steady, to be the voice of reason.

Isabelle spun to face her. "No! NO! I don't want to hear any more damned platitudes!" The light was a pulsing, angry red now. Max stepped in front of Liz and pulled Michael to his side. "No more empty words! I WANT MY HUSBAND!" As she yelled, the light in Isabelle's hand grew into a fireball. She raised her hands up to the ceiling and began to scream. The fireball ballooned upwards, ripping through the tunnel ceiling. Max reached up and grabbed Isabelle with one hand, raising the other to form his green shield. Liz and Michael pressed up against him as he pulled Isabelle to his side. Rubble and debris rained down on them, but Max was able to deflect the larger pieces of concrete. Liz coughed as dust rose up and began to choke them, closing her eyes. Isabelle had stopped screaming, but Liz could hear her panting heavily beside her. After the dust settled enough to let her breathe easily, Liz opened her eyes.

"I don't believe it..." she muttered in shock. She was looking up at the night sky. The faint sliver of the moon shone in one corner of the giant hole that'd just been blasted up through the ground, and a few stars twinkled in the sky. Isabelle had blown through the entire structure!

"Believe it," Max said, his voice tense and worried. "If anyone's anywhere near here, they're bound to have noticed that." Max turned to face Isabelle. Liz could just discern both their expressions in the starlight. Isabelle looked shocked, drained, and ready to collapse. Max was tense as a tightly wound spring, "We have to get out of here." Even as he spoke, some lights shone from above them. Someone was coming. Michael, Max and Liz all raised their hands in preparation for an attack as a vehicle's headlights drew near them. Liz heard the squeak of brakes and the headlights stopped bobbing above them. She tensed. Would she be able to call her power forth this time? A head appeared near the edge of the hole. With a yelp, Liz focused her powers on the shape. There was a shower of more gravel and debris as the edge of the hole exploded.

"Shit!" The figure at the edge of the hole moved quickly back. "Don't zap me!"

"Kyle?" Everyone lowered their hands.

"Yeah...uh, is it safe to come out?"

Liz laughed shakily. "Yeah, we've calmed down a bit. You're safe."

Kyle's head appeared at the edge of the hole again. Max held up a hand and created light again. Kyle shot him a slightly surprised look, but made no comment. He held out an arm and something fell down to the ground. "Wait a sec, let me tie the other end of the rope to the van, then you guys can climb out of there. Did you get Jesse? Why aren't there any agents or soldiers running up with guns?" His voice grew softer. He must have been walking to the van.

Max pushed Isabelle toward the rope. "Jesse isn't here," he called out.

"What?!?" Liz could hear the surprise in Kyle's voice. His voice got louder again and she saw his silhouette reappear at the edge of the hole. "Where is he?"

"We don't know, Kyle." Michael's voice was exasperated. "Isabelle got a little frustrated and...BOOM!" He shook his head. "And you guys say I don't have any control. Jesus."

"Stuff it, Michael. Not now." Max shot him a look, then turned and urged his sister up the rope. As Isabelle began to climb, Max turned to Liz and pulled her to the rope. "You're next, Liz. Then we have to find a way to get to Jesse." His voice lowered to a nearly inaudible whisper. "I just hope we're not too late already." Liz swallowed as she saw Isabelle's shadow disappear over the edge of the hole. She slowly began her own climb up the rope. She hoped so too.

Maria jumped out of the van when they pulled up to a large hole in the ground. It seemed to be where they'd seen the giant fireball. She was just behind Kyle, and heard him yell as something exploded in front of him. She instinctively crouched down and heard Liz give a nervous laugh and assure Kyle that everyone had calmed down enough that they wouldn't shoot alien powers at him again. Kyle threw down the rope, then walked back toward the van with the other end of it. He asked about Jesse. Everyone seemed too calm. With that fireball, Maria had expected them to be driving into a warzone.

"Jesse isn't here," Max called out. Maria gasped. Kyle had tied the end of the rope to the van's bumper, and ran back to the edge of the hole in the ground.

"What?!?" he shouted. "Where is he?"

Maria breathed a sigh of relief as she heard Michael answer Kyle with his typical attitude. Everyone must be all right down there, despite the fireworks. The rope pulled tight, someone must be climbing out. Maria turned to look at Serena-she'd been shocked at the explosion. To tell the truth, Maria had been too. She'd heard that Tess had once created a huge fireball, but she was still surprised to see it herself. She peeked in the van. Serena was sitting on the edge of the seat, her hands clenched tightly into fists. Maria shook her head. Serena'd been looking for aliens her whole life. Now that she'd found them, she didn't seem equipped to deal with it. Oh well, she didn't look like she was going anywhere. Maria shrugged. She'd be fine there while they got everyone into the van. Though, if Jesse wasn't here, where would they look for him next?

"Isabelle?" The worry in Kyle's voice made Maria spin around. Isabelle was leaning against Kyle. The headlights of the van illuminated her expression, the bright light making her face appear harsh. The line of defeat was in her shoulders and spine, as if the weight of the world were on them, and she looked about ready to collapse. Kyle's arms were wrapped around her; they seemed to be the only thing holding her up. "Isabelle!" Isabelle closed her eyes and collapsed. Kyle staggered back a few steps before he could steady himself and hold her up. Liz's head appeared from inside the hole. She took the whole scene in with a glance and turned down into the darkness.

"Max, you come next! Something's wrong with Isabelle."

"Okay. I'm right behind you," Max's voice called out from the darkness. Maria ran over and held a hand out to her friend, pulling her up.

"What's wrong with her?" Maria asked.

"She's upset that Jesse's not here."

Maria looked around nervously. "Aren't you guys worried that we're in danger here? The Special Unit could come at any time to-"

"They're not here, Maria."

"Wha-?"

"That place has been abandoned for a long time. More than a year, I bet. There was nothing down there but broken machinery and dust."

"Geez," Maria breathed. "Poor Isabelle! She had her hopes set on rescuing Jesse here. Finding out he's not here at all would make me collapse too."

Liz nodded grimly, her eyes on her sister-in-law's face. "Yeah, no kidding."

Isabelle began to stir in Kyle's grip. "Je...sse...."

Kyle held her tighter. "She's waking up. Where's Max?"

"I'm coming, Kyle." Max's head was just visible. "Give me a second."

Maria walked over to give Kyle a hand. "Put one of her arms around my shoulders, Kyle. That way you don't have to...Kyle?" Maria ran the last few steps to them. Kyle's face had drained of all color and he was staring wide-eyed off into space. Maria shook him. "Kyle, are you all right?"

Isabelle struggled again, whipping her head from side to side violently. "Jesse...no...Jesse..." Her eyes snapped open so suddenly Maria could imagine she heard them click. "JESSE!"

Kyle swallowed and blinked, then his eyes slowly focused on Maria's. They were wide open, his pupils pools of darkness, dilated so wide they didn't look natural. "Jesse...he's in...Boston." He let go of Isabelle. Maria caught her with a muttered oath, still trying to pay attention to Kyle.

"What? What'd you say?"

"What is it Maria? What's happening?" Max helped her support Isabelle's limp body when he stepped up beside her.

"I don't know. Kyle just said something about Jesse and Boston."

Max reached out with his free hand. "What, Kyle?" Kyle's expression was blank. Maria felt a shiver run down her spine. He looked so creepy. Max shook him. "Hey!"

Kyle dark eyes looked over at Max. "Look for him in Boston," he said, then his eyes rolled back in his head. Maria couldn't suppress a shocked cry as he collapsed at her feet. Michael ran up, holding the rope in one hand.

"What the hell's going on?" He was sounding more upset by the minute. Maria saw Liz walk up behind Michael, and heard the van door open behind her. She craned her neck. Serena was running toward them too.

"What's happening?" Serena asked breathlessly as she neared them. "I thought I saw Kyle-" she stopped as she saw his prone form on the ground.

Max turned to look first at Michael, then Serena. "I don't know what's going on. Kyle said something about Jesse being in Boston." He turned back to Michael. "Take Isabelle, won't you? I'm going to check and see if I can do anything for Kyle."

Serena knelt by Kyle's side as Max handed Isabelle over to Michael. She reached out with a trembling hand toward his face. As her fingers approached his head, little bolts of green electricity arced from Kyle's body to her hand. She yanked it back with a scream. "What the hell?"

Michael groaned as Max immediately knelt by Kyle's side. "Oh shit, this is not the time for this, this is just not the right time."

Maria whole-heartedly agreed, but this was not the time for his complaints, either. "Let's get Isabelle in the car. She seems to be exhausted more than anything. Max would have mentioned it if anything were seriously wrong with her." Maria suggested. Liz had walked over to Kyle's prone form and crouched low near him, whispering something in a tone of encouragement. Michael grunted in agreement with Maria's suggestion and they began to carry/drag Isabelle back over to the van. They wrestled her into the back seat of the van and laid her down. Maria turned to Michael. "What are we going to do, Michael? Do you know what we're going to do?"

Michael shook his head and, without thinking about it consciously, reached out to hug her close. "No," she heard his deep voice rumbling in his chest. "I don't know." He hugged her tighter.

Something warm and comfortable surrounded her. She felt as if she could stay happy in this darkness forever. But the comfort was wakening her mind, and as thought returned, so did memory. She tried to suppress it. Somehow she knew it would be painful. But it was relentless, washing oblivion away.

"Jesse!" Isabelle gasped and sat up. Her sudden movement knocked something away. She blinked. It was Max's hands she'd felt. He was sitting on the edge of the seat, looking down at her. He looked tired, and sweat poured down his face. Isabelle looked around. She was lying on the back seat of the van. Everyone was huddling near the side door, looking inside with concern. The van was still at the edge of the hole she'd punched through the roof of the tunnel complex. "What are we still doing here?"

"We've had a little problem," Max said, bringing his hand up to wipe his forehead. He looked as tired as she felt. She spun on the seat, bringing her feet to the ground.

"I'm sorry about my...er...tantrum." Isabelle felt herself blush. To have lost total control like that was embarrassing, not to mention dangerous! "I'm feeling more like myself now." She heard the dead tone in her voice and summoned a weak smile. "Depressed, but otherwise normal."

Max reached out and squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry, Iz. There aren't any words for how sorry I am." He looked over the back of the middle seat, peering at something. "But your collapse is the least of our growing number of problems."

"Hmm?" Isabelle leaned forward, crossing her forearms over each other on the back of the seat before her. She looked over the back of the seat. "Kyle! What's wrong with him?" His eyes were closed and his face pale. He seemed to be shivering. Shivering in the summer in New Mexico? What was going on? Isabelle reached out to feel his forehead. He must have a fever. As her fingers came close to his body, little sparks of green flickered across him, leaping to zap Isabelle's fingertips. "What the hell?" Understanding crashed over her. The thing Kyle had been fearing had finally happened. His new powers were surfacing. "Oh." She shook her head. "What bad timing." Michael barked a short laugh at that. Maria punched him in the arm. "Can you help him, Max?"

Max leaned back against the wall of the van. "I tried with Liz, remember? I even used the healing stones with her. All I did was hurt her more." He closed his eyes and sighed. "We do want him to wake up, though. He said something odd before he collapsed. He said that Jesse's in Boston."

Isabelle gasped. "It makes sense! It does! He got that great job offer, remember?" She clenched her hands into fists on the back of the seat to hold her tears under control. "He must have packed up to go there when we fled. Nobody there knew him, he'd be totally alone. It would have been easy for the FBI to..." Isabelle looked down at Kyle again. "But how would he know this?"

Liz spoke up. "We don't know. He was holding you up as you started to pass out, then he had this weird reaction, said Jesse was in Boston, and collapsed."

Isabelle cocked her head. "I had another spontaneous dreamwalk of Jesse. I felt like someone else was there too, but it was so intense and quick I couldn't be sure." Tears filled her eyes again, despite her best efforts. She bit her lip. Jesse had been so distraught and confused. He'd been happy to see her, yet was terrified that she would be taken by the authorities too. She'd begged him to tell her where he was, but he refused, saying he didn't want anything to happen to her. As if knowing he was being tortured somewhere because of her wasn't horrible enough. She fought for control, but a sob escaped. That one sob opened the floodgates, and she brought her face down to cover it with her hands. Why couldn't she get herself back under control?

Max laid a warm hand on her back. "We really can't stay here any longer. Who knows if they still watch this place? At the very least satellites are a danger. Michael pushed all the debris back in the hole, that way they may think it collapsed instead of blew outward. There's little else we can do."

"Let's go to Albequerque." Liz suddenly interjected. "There's an airport there. They're bound to have a flight to Boston, right? We can't drive to Massachusetts, it'd take too long."

"But we don't know that Kyle's right," Maria protested.

Isabelle lifted her face, wiping her eyes. She saw Liz shrug. "It doesn't matter. Isabelle says it makes sense. I think so too. We don't have any other leads. Let's get moving right now so we don't waste time. If we find out different, we'll still be near an airport. We just choose a different destination."

Maria and Michael nodded. Serena seemed withdrawn from the conversation entirely, ready to follow the group anywhere they chose. Or maybe she was just unwilling to go her own way. Max looked unsure, but smiled and acquiesced. "I guess that makes sense," he allowed.

Liz looked at him critically. "You look exhausted. You stay in the back and try to get some sleep. If Kyle wakes up you'll be able to help him then too. I'll drive."

"I call shotgun!" Michael said, turning and opening the passenger door.

Maria gasped in mock outrage and placed her hands on her hips. "Oh, that's nice. Leave me, then."

He grinned back at her. "Okay." He climbed in and closed the door. Maria spun on her heels and sniffed disdainfully, but Isabelle caught a hint of a smile on her face. Isabelle sighed. At least those two were getting along well again. Liz walked around to the driver's seat. Max slid into Isabelle.

"Sorry, it's going to be a little crowded in here until Kyle wakes up." Isabelle slid to the side, squeezing as far over as possible. Max moved over some more into the space she'd left, then Maria crawled in, and finally Serena, pulling the van door shut behind her. Liz put the van into gear and began backing up.

"Max's mention of the satellites is a good reminder," Liz said. "They might have a picture of us." After backing away from the hole a bit, Liz turned forward again and began to drive out of the military base. "When we get a chance, we should pull into some sort of garage or parking lot and change the van's color again."

Isabelle nodded. Max's head began to droop beside her, and she knew he was already drifting off. "That's a good idea, Liz. We should do it when we're not the only vehicle around, though. There's not much out here. If they see one lone van on the road in light blue in one photo, then a black one on the next they'll be suspicious. Maybe we can find a town where we can do it on the way to the airport."

Maria piped up. "We should do it before it's obvious we're heading toward the airport, if you seriously think they're trailing us. It seems a little paranoid to me, though. Why would they have noticed us?"

"Paranoid is good," Serena disagreed. "You get out of a lot of trouble with a little extra paranoia. If a satellite just happened to catch that explosion, or the van's presence on base, the Special Unit could easily begin to track this van if they attached enough importance to it. How are you going to change the color of the van, though? You can't just paint it quick in a garage. Someone will notice."

"Isabelle can do that," Maria explained, wiggling her fingers. Serena's eyes widened and she drew back, shrinking toward the side of the van.

"What's going on with Kyle, anyway?" she asked after a few uncomfortable minutes of silence. "You act as if you expected this. Isn't-wasn't he human?"

Liz looked back at her through the rear-view mirror. "I think he still is. I think I am too."

Serena stared at her. "What do you mean?"

"The same thing happened to me about nine months ago. We figured Kyle would follow approximately the same timetable." Liz looked forward as they neared the entrance gate to the base, then turned onto the road. "His-er-change happened a month or so later than expected, but other than that..."

"His change? But..." Serena turned to Maria. "Are you going to change too, then?"

"Not unless I get shot," Maria said dryly. She waved her hands up towards the front. "Space Boy up there has kept that from happening so far," she raised her voice, "haven't you?"

"Yeah!" Michael agreed, not turning around. "I'm still waiting for an adoring ‘thank you', though."

Maria snorted, but that indulgent smile snuck up over her lips again as she leaned forward and rested her chin in her hand. "You've gotten me in plenty enough other trouble, thank you."

Serena looked totally confused. "Shot, but what-"

"It's Max's healing power, we think," Maria said.

"Max's-" Serena gasped. "No! But...he healed my hand! Will I develop these...powers now too?" She looked at Kyle. It was easy for Isabelle to see what she was thinking. Would she become like Kyle? The thought appeared to leave an unpleasant taste in Serena's mouth.

Maria looked at Serena out of the corner of her eye, then sat back against the seat again. "No, I doubt it. It seems to happen when he has to do some major healing. Liz was shot almost three year ago, now. Max ran up and healed her. He saved her life and revealed his secret to her. That got the rest of us involved." Maria nodded toward Kyle. "He was shot late the next spring. Liz developed her powers last fall, two years after Max healed her. So, we couldn't help thinking that Kyle would get them too."

Max opened one eye and sighed. "I've healed people before, Serena, of small things, and never seen any side affects. You probably won't develop anything.

Serena swallowed. "What makes you think they're still human?" she asked Maria, her voice trembling a little.

Liz piped up. "The alcohol."

"What?"

"I can still drink." Serena shook her head, still confused. "They can't drink alcohol, Serena. I'm not sure why. But both Max and Michael tried it and got in some trouble over it. I'm assuming Isabelle is the same way. But I was able to drink alcohol normally after I developed my abilities."

Isabelle roused herself enough to speak. "I've never tried drinking, myself, after I heard about what happened to Max."

Michael turned around a little. "And you don't ever want to get as sick as I got. That sucked."

"You just can't hold your liquor, that's all, Michael," Maria teased.

Michael faced forward again. "After living with Hank all those years, I'd say that's probably a good thing. It's one vice I'll never have." Isabelle winced as she remembered Hank, and saw the joviality fade from Maria's face as well at Michael's comment. Max's head, which had fallen back into his dozing pose, rolled to the side and he fell against her, asleep. Isabelle felt her own eyelids getting heavier. After all this time in the stupid van it was easy for her to sleep while riding in it. Isabelle leaned against the wall of the van and allowed its irregular motion to carry her into slumber, letting the others keep on with whatever conversation they wished.

The van jumped as it hit some pothole on the road, jolting Isabelle into wakefulness. Her nap had been blessedly dream free. Most of her dreams were nightmares, lately. She was grateful for any respite. Isabelle looked around cautiously. A heavy weight against her shoulder let her know that Max was still leaning against her even before she saw him. False dawn was just beginning, painting the sky in a soft rainbow. The gray light washed the color out of everything, making the world look foggy and indistinct...almost like Jesse's mind every time she dreamwalked him since his capture. That thought seized her mind and she tensed, doing her best to suppress the overwhelming feelings that were welling up inside her.

"So these guys aren't really aliens?" Serena. She was still awake.

"No, they're really aliens. Just half alien." Maria. Were they still having this conversation? Isabelle had to have been asleep for an hour or two, at least! "They're human in many ways. They're nothing at all like the full aliens. Michael, Max and Isabelle have been raised by human parents. Badly raised in Michael's case, I suppose, but still human. Full aliens like Nasedo don't have much in the way of emotions. Nasedo was a cold-blooded killer that didn't care about anyone or anything except his duty to these three and Tess. Max met another one of the full aliens, and saw much the same thing. They don't seem to have emotions, except for self-interest and the duty imposed on them."

"I guess I can see that." Isabelle turned her head a little and looked over at the chatting girls. They didn't notice that she was awake. Serena looked a lot calmer than she had when Isabelle was drifting off. "So, if these three are so wonderful, then how come this other one turned out so bad?" They must have already talked about Tess.

Liz's voice entered the conversation, lowered a little to avoid waking those who were sleeping. "I think it's the ‘nurture' side of the ‘nature versus nurture' debate."

"What are you talking about?" Maria asked, confused.

"Er...genetic thing. Is everything about a person decided by their genes? Or by their environment and how they're raised?"

Serena leaned back in the seat. She looked relaxed. This must be the kind of conversation she felt most comfortable with. "It makes the most sense to say it's some of both. Genetics has an effect, but so does the environment."

"Yes, I think most people would agree with that. The real question is more like how much of an effect does each have?"

"What the hell does all this have to do with Tess?" Maria asked, a little annoyed.

"Tess is half human, half alien. So are Max, Isabelle and Michael. But they were raised by humans, to be human. Tess was raised by Nasedo, an alien. And she seems to personify the selfish, cold , mostly emotionless nature of the aliens. So I would argue this shows there's more influence from nurture than nature."

Isabelle remembered how she'd come to trust her brother's "bride", and how that trust had been horribly betrayed. "Not necessarily, Liz." Everyone jumped at her unexpected entrance into the conversation. She grinned maliciously. "Maybe Tess was just genetically predisposed to be a bitch." Maria laughed, and Isabelle thought she might have seen Liz's shoulders shake with a little laughter as well. Serena didn't join in the hilarity, but she wasn't on-edge anymore either. Maria and Liz seemed to have straightened out some of her misconceptions and worries about them. Isabelle heard some rustling in front of her. Michael was snoring softly in the front seat, completely knocked out, and Liz was driving, so what had made the noise? Maria must have heard it too. She leaned forward and looked over the seat's back.

"Kyle? Kyle!"

Isabelle began to push her brother's heavy head off her shoulder. "Is he awake? Does he seem okay?"

Maria looked back at her. Serena was leaning forward to look at him too, now. "He's just moving around. I'm a little scared to touch him. How much does that green electricity hurt?"

Isabelle got Max off her shoulder. He was waking up too in all the excitement. She leaned forward. "It hurts some, like the mother of all static electricity shocks." She reached out to touch him. Nothing happened when her fingers made contact with his arm.

"Wha...what's going on?" Max yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"Kyle's moving! Maybe he's waking up. When I touched him it didn't shock me."

"That came and went with me, too," Liz said, watching everything in the rear-view mirror. Michael rolled his head to the left from its resting place on his headrest and looked at Kyle, but didn't say anything. Kyle began tossing his head back and forth, then sat up with a gasp.

"Jesse!" Isabelle held the seat's back in a grip so tight she was surprised the seat didn't break in half. Why had Kyle said Jesse's name? Kyle looked around. "What's going on?" he asked.

"That what we were going to ask you," Maria said. "How're you feeling?"

Kyle raised a hand to his forehead. "Not too bad. Not so cold anymore, anyway."

"You've been cold?"

"Yeah, haven't you heard me complaining about it since yesterday?"

Isabelle shot a look at Max. Had Kyle frozen the handle off the door earlier? They'd been missing signs of this for a while, if he had. "What did you mean when you said that Jesse's in Boston earlier?" She took control of the conversation.

Kyle shook his head. "I don't know-I just knew he was there."

"How? Don't just say ‘I don't know,' think about it," Isabelle insisted.

"Well..." Kyle's brow furrowed as he concentrated. "I was holding you...then I thought I saw Jesse." He flushed a little. "It felt a bit like the time you took me dreamwalking."

Max shot Isabelle a strange look. She felt heat rise in her own cheeks and brusquely urged Kyle on before Max could ask about the little visit she helped Kyle pay to that playmate of the month. "Go on."

"When I saw Jesse, I just knew he was in Boston." Kyle frowned and stared out the front windshield for a few minutes. Then he snapped his fingers. "Like when I knew that motel was south of us. I just knew."

Maria looked excited. "That's cool! And useful too. Can you find out more about where Jesse is if you have a map or something?"

"Just a second, Maria. We don't even know if this is a new ability of Kyle's. For all we know this could be some sort of hallucination," Michael objected.

Serena was watching everything with great interest. She suddenly turned around and draped herself over the back of the seat, shoving Max and Maria over into Isabelle. "Mmph. Serena," Isabelle muttered as she was pressed into the window. "What are you doing?"

"I've got an idea." Serena said. "Ah! Got it!" She pulled her bag up and over the edge of the seat, faced forward again and sat down. She opened her bag and rummaged through it for a second. "Here's something!" Serena pulled out a scarf. "Here, try this, Kyle. Where did I get this from?"

Kyle looked embarrassed. "I have no idea."

Serena leaned forward and held the scarf out to him. "Try touching it. Here!"

Kyle reluctantly reached out and took the light blue scarf in his hands. He held it for a few seconds, then his face suddenly paled. "Seattle. You bought it in Seattle." He silently handed it back to her. Isabelle saw him swallow and look away as Serena took it from him. His forehead was shining with sweat. Isabelle leaned forward and looked at Serena.

"Is that right?" "Yeah." Serena nodded. "I bought this just before the Special Unit caught up with Father and me." Serena reached out and dropped a small item into Kyle's hand before he could withdraw it. "How about this?" Isabelle saw only a glint of metal before Kyle's fingers folded over it.

Kyle closed his eyes for a second. His fingers closed tightly over the object, then he dropped it with a gasp. "It's from...from.." Kyle started shaking. "Outer space." Max leaned forward to pick it up from the seat where Kyle'd dropped it. Isabelle leaned over and looked at it. It was a thin piece of metal, like tin foil. Max scrunched it up in his fist, but when he opened it, the strange foil unfolded itself into a flat sheet again. Kyle groaned and wrapped his arms around himself. "I-I'm getting cold again."

"Where'd you get this, Serena?" Max was staring at the metal in fascination.

"It was between the pages of Grandpa's second journal. He only kept that tiny piece, but he said the crash site was full of strange debris." She looked down. "I guess that proves that Kyle's...ability is real."

"I don't know," Maria said doubtfully. "Wouldn't anyone who saw this know it was something like that?"

"He didn't have a chance to look at it, Maria." Max closed his hand around it. "From feel, I can't tell it's not aluminum foil." He opened his hand again and watched the metal flatten itself once more. "Kyle didn't have a chance to see any of its weird properties."

Isabelle looked over at Kyle. "Is that true, Kyle? What did you-Kyle? Guys, something's up with him again!" Kyle was huddled up in a ball on the seat in front of Isabelle, shivering. As Isabelle watched, a bolt of green lightning skittered across one of his arms. Without thinking she reached out toward him. "Kyle, are you alright?" Some shocks ran up and down her arm as her fingers made contact. Kyle stiffened with a muffled cry and threw his hands out. A bright light filled the van for a split second, then Isabelle heard something like a pop, and Liz started shouting something. Isabelle squinted against the spots dancing in front of her eyes and tried to see what was bothering Liz. Her sister-in-law was, surprisingly, muttering obscenities as she pulled the van over to the side of the highway. Isabelle looked back at Kyle as the van pulled to a stop on the edge of the road. He's fallen unconscious again.

"What is it, Liz?" Max was half-standing; worry for his wife sharpened his tone. Maria turned her legs to the side and let him out. He sat on the end of the seat behind Michael and reached out to rest a hand on Liz's shoulder. Liz was heaving heavy breaths, both arms resting on the steering wheel.

"Something happened to the van. She nearly lost control," Michael answered. Isabelle noticed that his hands were falling to his lap, and sweat was dripping down his face. "I helped her pull us safely over, though.

"What happened?" There was the slightest tinge of panic around the edges of Serena's voice.

Isabelle reached forward and pulled Kyle's unconscious form against the back of the seat so he wouldn't fall over, ignoring the little shocks that snapped at her as she did so. "I think it was Kyle. He wasn't lucid, and the shock of my touching him set him off on accident."

"You mean he blew up the engine?" Maria gasped.

"No," Michael said calmly as he watched cars speed by them. Isabelle knew he was tired when he couldn't even make himself sound angry. "If that had happened we'd probably be dead. He probably blew a fuse or something." A break in the traffic game him a opportunity to open the door and get out. "Pop the hood, Liz," he said over his shoulder as he shut the door. Liz leaned forward, searching for a minute, then she pulled on something with a little exclamation of discovery. The hood popped up and Michael lifted it. Max opened the side door and ran behind the van to get off the road, then began to walk over toward Michael up front.

"I hope this doesn't mean we're stuck here," Maria fretted. "We're not that far from Albequerque. It'd be nice if we could catch a flight to Boston yet today."

Isabelle rested a hand on Kyle's forehead. "Do you really want to be in an airplane with Kyle right now?"

Maria watched Isabelle flinch as another series of shocks ran over her arm. "Maybe not...but we've still got to hurry." Her brow furrowed. "And we can't leave him behind, either."

Michael swore foully and pulled the hood shut with a loud bang. He stomped over to Liz's window and rested his arms on it. "Were you able to steer after Kyle's powers went haywire?"

Liz shook her head. "That was the problem. Not only did the engine stop, but the power steering when out. I didn't have enough strength to pull us over to the side, that why I asked you to help."

"Well, I sure as hell don't know how to fix whatever happened," Michael said with a grimace. He looked over at Max.

Max raised his hands. "I don't know either. You know who our resident car expert is!"

Michael looked over at Kyle and shook his head. "Well, we're up a creek now. What are we going to do?"

Serena pointed behind them. "I think we're going to get help!" Isabelle turned see what Serena was referring to and saw a sheriff's car pulling to a stop behind them. Isabelle held her breath for a moment, then laid Kyle's head back against the side of the van and pulled her friendliest smile over her face as she got out of the van. Michael and Max were already walking toward the sheriff as she got out.

"You folks need a hand?" the sheriff asked. He sounded friendly enough, but Isabelle was jumpy and tense behind her mask. The sheriff's reflective sunglasses hid his eyes, and memories of Agent Pierce's disguise made her uncomfortable. "Everyone all right?"

"We're fine, officer," Max said. He seemed to be at ease, but Isabelle could see by the set of his shoulders that he was wound up too. Michael just looked tired at this point. Isabelle could see why the officer had asked if they were okay from the exhausted look on Michael's face. She widened her smile a hair and stepped up next to her brother.

"Our van broke down, but we pulled over all right," she added. "We would sure appreciate it if you could call for a tow truck for us, though." She gestured back toward the van. "None of us have a cel phone."

The sheriff's head turned in her direction. Isabelle hated not being able to see his eyes. He stared at her for a fraction of a second and nodded. "Sure,...ma'am." His face was tilted slightly down, and Isabelle looked down at herself. Her wedding band-he'd noticed it. A thrill of fear ran through her. Their description was probably all over New Mexico by now. Would little details like her wedding ring be enough to give them away? Isabelle cursed to herself. She could have at least changed her appearance before getting out of the van to greet the officer. Standing here together in front of him, they were just making identification easy! Isabelle resisted the urge to glance at her brother-it would only confirm whatever suspicions the man had. After a fraction of a second of hesitation the officer turned and walked back to his squad car.

Isabelle forced movements to be calm as she leaned over and whispered to Max, "What are we going to do? He knows who we are!"

Max's head whipped around to look at her. "He does? How do you know?"

"Didn't you see the way he was looking at me? He noticed my wedding ring right away, as if he was looking for it!"

Michael snickered. "Yeah, he was looking, but not for the reason you think."

"What?"

Max cleared his throat. "He was checking you out, Iz."

"What?!?"

"That's why he was looking for your wedding ring. He decided not to say anything when he saw it."

Isabelle didn't know what to say. She looked away from Michael's amused eyes and her brother's embarrassed face and stared off at the highway. "Oh..." A flush crept over her face and she began to laugh "I guess I'm a little paranoid right now..."

"I'll say." Michael wouldn't drop it-Isabelle could tell. She'd be hearing about this for hours. They turned as they heard gravel scrunching underfoot. The officer was coming back toward them.

"I've called for a tow. You want me to take you somewhere?"

Max looked around. "I don't know. If you've called for a tow, I guess we'll be all right."

The officer looked amused. "I don't think all of you will fit in the truck's cab. There's at least five of you, right?"

Max looked embarrassed. "Oh, right, I guess I didn't think of that. There's seven of us..." He was playing the stupid, innocent teenager part to the hilt.

"Seven! There's no way you'd fit! C'mon, I'll take five of you to the best diner in town, and you can have breakfast. Then the other two can come with the truck and meet you there. Just tell the driver to drop you off at Joanne's."

Michael looked at Max. "Maria and I can wait here. The rest of you can go with the officer." His eyes flicked in Isabelle's direction and he smirked slightly. Isabelle bit down a tide of frustration. It was obvious. Her job would be to distract the sheriff during their ride into town. She gritted her teeth. She'd endure anything in order to free Jesse, even flirting with this total stranger.

Max nodded and followed Michael to the van. "I'll get the others, Iz. You don't need anything except your purse out of the van, do you? We'll just leave the bags in there."

Isabelle shook her head. "That'll be fine, Max." She watched her brother's back for a second, then turned back to the sheriff. "Thank you so much, Sheriff..?"

The man lifted his hand up to the brim of his hat. "Deputy Coleman, ma'am. No problem."

"Oh, yes, Deputy. Well, we really appreciate your help," Isabelle gushed, wincing internally. Couldn't she think of anything better to say? But whatever she said, it seemed to keep the deputy absorbed with her. He barely looked at the others as he led them to his car. Kyle was awake-just barely-and he had to be supported by Max as they walked to the car, but the deputy didn't seem to notice. Isabelle continued to keep up her inane chatter as she crawled into the front seat next to the deputy. Max climbed into the back with Liz and Serena, and pulled Kyle in next to him, directly behind the deputy, to keep him out of sight. Kyle was still pale and drawn, but conscious, and Isabelle suppressed a relieved sigh. He seemed to be recovering from this last attack much quicker than he had from the first. Maybe they'd be able to get on a plane with him after all. "About how much farther is it to Albequerque, Deputy Coleman?" Isabelle asked as they entered a small town. She was too busy keeping the deputy distracted to bother reading the sign.

"Oh, I don't know, about an hour and a half northwest of here, I guess," he answered, turning into a parking lot. A sign on top of the door was faded to a pale blue and read "Joanne's". The car stopped. "Here's the restaurant. Your friends will probably be here in half an hour to forty-five minutes." The officer pointed to the right. "The garage is down there about a quarter mile. It's not too far to walk. When you're done eating you can go down there and get your van. Hope it's nothing serious."

"I do too, Deputy Coleman. Thank you again for all your help!" Isabelle wondered if it were possible to feel any more stupid than she felt at this moment. "We really appreciate it." God, she sounded like a twit! It must have worked, though. The deputy smiled and nodded.

"Like I said, my pleasure, ma'am." He tipped his hat again and backed out of the lot. Isabelle breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't even asked any of their names. They couldn't get that lucky again, that was for sure.

"That was close!" Liz said. "We're lucky he took such a liking to you!"

Isabelle nodded wearily. Kyle suddenly spoke up. "I hate to interrupt, but I'm really hungry all of a sudden."

Liz rested her hand on Kyle's shoulder. "Whatever you did must have used a lot of energy. Let's get inside and let Kyle sit down, everyone." The restaurant was half full already, and the sun had barely risen. It was definitely a popular place. They pulled a couple of tables together so they could sit together and ordered some orange juice, then sat down to wait for Michael and Maria.

"How are we going to get these plane tickets, now?" Liz asked softly once they'd settled down. "We could buy them with cash, I suppose, but I bet they'd find that suspicious."

"We can use one of my cards," Serena said. "I have a few in different names. I think one might be suspected by the Special Unit, but I have two others that I think are safe."

"Three different names?" Isabelle leaned forward, interested. "How did you do that?"

Serena shrugged. "It's not too hard, if you know how."

"Do you think you could come up with some new identities for us?" Max asked.

"I don't see why not," Serena said.

"You're pretty useful to have around, aren't you?" Max asked, smiling.

Serena smiled back. "I guess I am."

Liz beamed at her husband. "See? I knew I was right. She's the Serena I was told about."

"Yeah, Liz, you were right." Max pulled his wife to his side and kissed her on top of her head. "You're always right."

Isabelle couldn't help feeling hopeful again. They were going to fly to Jesse's rescue. They'd succeed. They'd rescue her husband, and she'd be together with Jesse again. She ached for it, and could almost feel happiness within her grasp again.

========================================================================================