ROSWELL on PLANET-SF

Chapter One

"She wanted to come." Isabel stood holding Sloane's hand outside the condo door the following morning.

"Hi sweetheart!" Liz bent down and hugged her daughter. She looked to Isabel and nodded. "Come in."

Isabel walked in as Sloane ran past them to her room carrying her overnight bag. Liz watched Isabel with trepidation as she sat at the dining room table; she reached under the table and felt fort he signatures as she always did. Liz sat across from her and waited.

"You should have been told, I'll agree with that now. At the time, I didn't think Max should tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because he screwed up and wasn't thinking. I know, what's new? Anyway, it wasn't a big deal. He wouldn't have even said anything to me if it weren't for Sloane. I know he won't tell you this part, so I will. After it happened he came home and Sloane told him he didn't 'feel like mommy' and he freaked out. Sloane knew something was wrong and I pushed him until he told me."

"Sloane knew?" Liz glanced down the hall to her daughter's room. "She's so amazing."

"I know. I think she's got a lot more talent than any of us know about." Isabel smiled. "I think she's got some power like Leia, she's just not as forthright about it."

"I guess we'll wait and see," Liz smiled. Her daughter was the warrior. "You should have told me; if I would have known I wouldn't have doubted Max like I did."

"You doubted his innocence?" Isabel looked shocked.

"Yeah, I did." She shook her head slowly. "I didn't have a choice. Deep in my heart I knew he could never force himself on anyone, it just took a while to find that place. This hit me out of nowhere, Iz, I didn't know what to think."

"Well, now we have to find a way to fix it."

"Fix it? How?"

"I don't know. First off, the two of you have to make a united front about it. You kicking him out isn't going to look good. Let him come home, soon. Next we have to figure out what happened. I need to know why this girl is saying this about my brother."

"Now you sound like me," Liz chuckled. "Always has to know the truth no matter what."

"Well, I can't help it. This is my brother we're talking about. This is Max." She shrugged.

"Do you have a plan?"

"First I want to talk to Michael and ask him what the hell he was thinking by arresting him."

"It's his job, he had to."

"I don't know," Isabel looked thoughtfully at her sister-in-law. "Michael should have seen through this alleged rape story and this girl. He's not stupid. Anyway, I want to talk to the girl."

"No way." Liz shook her head. "You can't. That is like against the rules."

"Who would know besides me, her and you?"

"Whoever she tells. That's all Max needs, his sister threatening the high school girl who accused him of rape. Not the path to take, Iz."

"Well, okay, maybe you're right about that. That might not look so good." She threw her arms in the air. "I don't know what to do! This is really bad and it's killing me knowing that there is nothing I can do."

"Be there for Max."

"Because everyone else deserted him?"

"Michael and I haven't deserted him. I don't think anyone has except maybe my parents." She shuddered thinking about the new message on the machine from her mother telling her the name of a divorce lawyer.

Isabel thought about telling her how upset Kyle was but decided against it. Maybe it'd blow over. Right. "Fine. Will you ask him to come home?"

"Yeah, I will. For two reasons only. I don't want to upset Sloane anymore, she doesn't understand and to make it look good."

"Are you going to divorce him?" Isabel asked bluntly.

"I don't know," she sighed. "I love him, I always will, but this is devastating. I just started this new job with the city and you know there's so much talk even though I haven't been there the last two days. Sloane's life is disrupted; everyone's lives are disrupted. I actually don't know what I'm going to do from one minute to the next."

"You're not going to get all flaky like Maria, are you?"

Liz smiled and told her about Maria's visit. She left out the pregnancy theory, which was none of Isabel's business.

* * *

Maria walked from room to room with Leia holding onto her leg. The little girl had not detached herself from her mother since she had gotten home from school.

"Leia," Maria stood with her hands on her hips. "Did something happen at school today?" Leia shook her head. "Then why are you not letting me go?"

Leia shrugged and held on tighter. Maria sighed as thunder cracked and the windows shook. She jumped as she felt a sharp pain run through the centre of her abdomen. Shocked, she touched her stomach and thought about calling for an ambulance, then thought again. What if she was right and this was some type of freaky alien thing? She would never risk exposing Michael or the others.

She dragged Leia into the kitchen to start dinner as lightning ripped across the sky. She wished Michael were home. She wanted to tell him about her theories on the phantom pregnancy.

* * *

Michael parked in front of the third house on the tour of five. He jogged to the front door as rain whipped around him. Dark clouds moved overhead bringing thunder and lightning with them. He wished he were home. Taking cover underneath the eaves of the front porch, he knocked on the door. It was answered at once, he had called ahead and they were expecting him. A teenage girl answered and invited him in. Her name was Jesse Jones and she was a friend of Lindy Franks.

"Thanks for seeing me," he smiled and accepted her offer of a seat at the dining room table. "Don't your parents want to be here for this?"

"I'm eighteen," the small brunette said. "By a week. I'm not in any trouble, am I?"

"Not at all, I just wanted to ask you a few questions." He set a tape recorder on the table. "I'm going to tape this instead of writing everything down, I tend to lose things that way." He smiled at her and knew when she smiled back blushing she was going to be honest with him. "You are friends with Lindy Franks, correct?"

"This year we became friends." Jesse nodded. "She only started school here the year before, but we got close this school year."

"Did Lindy ever say anything to you about a teacher named Max Evans?"

"Mr. Evans, everyone loves Mr. Evans!" She grinned. "He's got the best classes and they are so much fun. He's my favourite teacher!" She looked a the tabletop. "At least he was before he got arrested. Lindy liked him, too. She gets good grades in his class and she was always talking about what he said. I think he really made an impression on her. She'd go out and buy whatever book he suggested to read."

"Did she ever talk about him aside from teacher relations?"

Jesse bit her bottom lip. "Well, she thought he was cute. But almost all the girls do."

"Anything else?"

"Well...At one time she said she was going to get him."

"Get him?" Michael leaned forward.

"Yeah, like get him to like her." Jesse looked uncomfortable. "We told her he was married, but she said she didn't care. I think she was getting obsessed with him."

"Do you know if they was any physical contact between them?" Michael felt the beads of sweat on his back and under his arms.

"Not really. She used to talk about things, but no one believed her." Jesse shook her head. "She said she kissed him but none of us believed her. Sometimes you have to take Lindy with a grain of salt, if you know what I mean."

"Tell me."

"Sometimes she exaggerates. She tells stories about living on the East Coast and partying with all these celebrities and stuff. I can't see Mr. Evans doing anything to her, Sheriff."

Michael thanked her and ventured back out into the storm. Out of the three friends of Lindy Franks' that he had conducted impromptu interviews with, he found Jesse Jones to be the most credible. Besides the fact that he didn't have to skate around with parents, he liked her. He told her he might want to talk to her again and she had agreed. As he was walking down the steps into the rain she had called to him from the door that she'd do anything she could to help Mr. Evans.

As Michael got back in the 4x4 he was beginning to put together a picture of Lindy Franks, a very unflattering picture of her. He drove to the next two homes and was scrutinized by a mother at the first and a father at the second. Both girls said Lindy would never lie about anything like that; and both parents said that it was a horrible thing for the school district to have employed such a monster.

He drove home after the last house to type up the transcripts and deliver them to Max's lawyer along with his own analysis of the five girls.

* * *

Liz was silent when Max came on the line on his parents' phone.

"Liz?" he asked again after getting silence the first time. "Are you there?"

"I want you to come home." She said and cleared her throat. "It doesn't look good for you to not be here."

"Oh."

"And I think Sloane needs you home, she doesn't understand all this confusion."

"She misses me?"

"Yeah, she does. Can you get a ride or should I come get you?"

"My parents can bring me home Liz, thank you." His voice broke as he told her he'd be there soon.

Liz hung up and felt worse than she did before. She didn't really want Max around her yet, but she had to do what was best for everyone else. Max needed to know he wasn't alone and Sloane needed her daddy home.

She walked to Sloane's room and was surprised to find the little girl curled up on the floor asleep. She picked her up and put her on the bed and kissed her cheek.

"You are an angel, Sloane." She pushed long strands of hair away from her small face. "Everything's going to be okay." And she left the room. Knowing Max, he would be there within the hour.

Thirty-four minutes later Liz heard a key in the lock. Her husband walked in and dropped his overnight bag on the floor. He took two steps towards her and waited.

"I hope you know that just because I asked you to come home doesn't mean that everything's okay between us," she said and he nodded. "You're here because it looks a lot better to the public and Sloane needs you."

"You don't need me?"

"Right now? No, Max, I'm sorry. I don't." She watched as what was left of his confidence shattered. "You haven't told me the truth about anything yet and I need to know. How am I supposed to believe you or trust you again if I don't know what's going on?"

He sat at the other end of the couch and tried to capture his wife's eyes, he couldn't. "Okay, I told you I was intimate with her. Three times, three separate occasions. Once in my classroom I kissed her. Once behind the library and once when I gave her a ride home."

"Did you touch her?" she asked as her leg began to bounce;. He nodded. "Did she touch you?" Another nod from Max; more leg bouncing from Liz. "How far did it go Max?"

"Her breasts. I touched her breasts and she touched me, once."

"Hand or mouth?"

"Liz -"

"Hand or mouth?" she tried to keep her voice under control for fear of waking Sloane but it was so hard.

"Her hand, my mouth." He looked to the floor.

Liz stood and paced in front of him. "Why?"

"Why?"

"Why did you do it? Am I not good enough for you? Are you not happy?" Liz laughed cruelly. "You know I always say that you and I are the last people that would ever have an affair after all we had to go through to be together."

"You and Sloane are the most important people in the world to me. I can't give you an answer as to why I did it. I don't know. She came on to me, plain and simple. She's pretty and I'm stupid."

"I'll agree with that. Was it worth it? Was your little infidelity worth losing everything for? The School Board called, you've been put on administrative leave without pay until this is resolved," Liz spat out. "But please, feel free to inquire about another teaching position if you are cleared."

"They called?" His voice was hoarse.

"After the arraignment yesterday." She walked away and then back towards him. "I thought we'd be together forever."

"Liz -"

"Now I don't know if we'll make it through the end of the week." She started to walk away but was drawn back by a pounding at the front door. She answered and Kyle nearly bowled her over to get in.

He saw Max on the couch and went to him, pulling him by his collar. "You're a fucking pervert, Evans!" Kyle spoke from behind clenched teeth.

"Kyle!" Liz ran over to him. "Let him go!"

"Liz, he's a loswer." He slammed Max back against the couch. "He was fucking around with a student. He doesn't deserve you!"

"Kyle -" Max said quietly from the couch.

"You!" Kyle pointed at him. "Shut the fuck up! You don't have a right to say anything!"

"Kyle, calm down." Liz took his arm and escorted him to the dining room and sat him down at the table. "Keep it down, Sloane's asleep."

"Get rid of him Liz, he's dragging you down." Kyle motioned towards Max. "He's never been good enough for you."

"Kyle, I know this is hard -"

"Not hard to understand, don't say that," he interrupted her. "It's actually easy to understand. He was fucking around on you with one of his students. Cut and dried. After everything else he's ever put you through, he does this and breaks you heart again. Where does it end Liz?"

"Actually, this is none of your business. This is between me and Max and you don't know the full story so I'd appreciate it if you didn't voice accusations."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yes, I am. Max is still my husband and I can't tolerate you coming here, to our home, and treating him like this."

"But Liz -"

"No, that's it Kyle. I'd like you to leave until you can come in here and not attack Max."

Kyle stood up and looked between Liz and then Max. "Well, then, I don't know if I'll be back." He walked out the door and slammed it shut behind him.

* * *

Leia was hearing sounds coming from her parent's bedroom; she was worried, she heard them all the time. She knew her mommy wasn't telling her daddy things and she was scared. She sat up in bed and looked at the opposite wall.

"I'm scared," she whispered.

"Don't be scared, be strong." She heard Sloane's voice in her head. "She's going to need you. She's going to need everyone."

"But she's my mommy." Leia wiped away tears on her round cheeks.

chapter two / back to the top

STORY OF LINES:
7 - TREADING LIGHTLY

CHAPTER ONE

WRITTEN BY BECKY W

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CHAPTER TWO

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THE BEAT GOES ON: CHAPTER TEN