ROSWELL on PLANET-SF

CHAPTER THREE

When Michael arrived back home he was surprised to see both Valenti cars there. He got out of the Tempo and walked nervously to the front door. He heard hammering and swearing. He pushed the door open and looked straight back into the back room. There were a few studs up and Jim was hammering on another. Michael swallowed hard and turned towards the kitchen, a new floor had taken the place of the cracked one.

"Oh my God." He said and walked into the back room. "I can’t believe you did this."

Jim stopped hammering and looked at Michael wiping the sweat from his brow. "Well, what do you think so far?"

"I um…Wow," Michael smiled. "I didn’t expect…Thank you."

"It was Kyle’s idea," Jim shrugged. "But you know Leia has me wrapped around her little finger. I’ll do anything for her."

"I can’t believe it, it looks great in here. Have you been here all day?"

"Pretty much so," Kyle answered from behind him. "We picked out the floor, hope you like it."

"It’s great."

"Everything has been baby-proofed. All cabinets and drawers and everything else we could think of." Kyle smiled. "I felt bad about leaving you with all this work."

"You didn’t have to do this."

"I know. We wanted to." Kyle shook his hand. "Don’t think you’re off the hook though. As soon as you get changed you’re helping screw in the dry wall. You’ll have to wait a day or so to paint, but you can handle that. Right?"

"Of course." Michael was still flabbergasted. "I’ll go change now. Can I call Maria first?"

Jim nodded and went back to hammering. Michael walked into his bedroom and changed. He closed the door and called Max’s. Liz answered.

"Is Maria there?" Michael asked. He heard the phone being set down and picked back up.

"Hi Honey, how was your day?" Maria asked sweetly.

"Good. Listen, Kyle and Valenti have been here all day fixing this place up, can you believe it?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I have to help now. Do you think you could come by later?"

"I can bring you all dinner in about an hour, how’s that?"

"Perfect, but Leia should stay there. It’s really dusty and stuff."

"I’ll see if Liz can watch her and I’ll see you soon. I love you Michael."

"I know," he could feel her smile through the phone. "I love you. I miss you."

"I won’t be gone long. I just want to see what’s going on over there and feed the boys," Maria said from the doorway. "Call me if anything come up, okay?"

"We’ll be fine," Liz said from the computer.

"Thank you!" Maria left.

"Won’t we be fine Leia?" Liz looked over to the happy baby in her bouncy chair. Maria had set it on top of the card table facing the computer. "You are so cute!" Liz went back to work looking at the monitor and was startled when a stuffed monkey whacked her in the back of the head. "Oh boy, you want the monkey?" She picked the animal up off the floor and set it next to Leia. "You are going to get everyone in so much trouble if you keep doing that."

Leia looked content and eventually drifted off to sleep. Liz laid her head on the desk next to the keyboard and closed her eyes. Without realizing she was tired, she fell asleep.

It was two hours that she woke up, sweat dripped from her face in the cool room. She sat up straight and looked at Leia; she was sleeping in her bouncy chair.

Liz took a deep breath and tried to regain her composure. It was the dream, the same dream she’d been having a couple of nights a week for the last month or so. It was always the same. She and Max were older and they were clinging to each other, scared. They were in a house, their house, she assumed and there was noise outside. So much noise. She couldn’t ever hear what Max was saying to her. She was agreeing with him and nodding and motioning to the door leading outside. She always looked around and saw two pictures on the mantle. One of a young boy and one of an older girl. The girl was stunning with long dark hair and a brilliant smile, it looked like a graduation picture, she seemed so happy. The picture of the boy was morose, his smile seemingly forced. His arms hanging limp at his side. Max always pointed the picture of the girl and smiled.

Liz wondered who the people in the pictures were and why Max was pointing to them. Part of her knew they were their children while the other part fought the idea. The dream seemed too real, too scary. She didn’t want to know what her children could look like, not now. She didn’t even want to know what they were going to be if she had any at all. "Warrior". That was the only word Liz ever heard Max say in the dream. She didn’t know who the warrior was or what they were at war against.

Liz stood up and stretched, it was almost eight and Max would be home soon. She didn’t want to tell him about the dream. She knew if she told him he’d find some way to rationalize it and maybe even ask Iz to dream walk her. She didn’t want to deal with either. She looked at Leia again and then went to the kitchen to try to find something to make for dinner. Spaghetti was the answer. Fast, easy and she didn’t have to go to the store for anything.

She heard the front door open and went to the living room to greet Max. She loved when he got home from work; he always looked so professional in his dress pants and white button down shirts with colorful ties.

"Hi," he smiled at her and went to Leia. "Baby-sitting?"

"Uh-huh," Liz walked to him and clasped her hands around his waist. "How was your day?"

"Typical. Everyone needs insurance, right?" He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her lips. "I missed you. I always miss you."

"Maybe we should drop out of school, quit our jobs and never leave the apartment?" Liz suggested as she felt his hands travel under her shirt. "What do you think?"

"Personally? I think it sounds perfect. Unless we win the lottery, though, we’ll be kicked out and forced to live in a cardboard box on the street." His hands roamed over her breasts.

"That’s depressing." She stepped away from him. "Not in front of the child!"

"It’s not our child."

"That makes it even worse!" Liz laughed and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. "The Valentis have been at Michael’s all day fixing it up. Maria should be able to move in a few days."

"I’ll kind of miss having Leia around," Max said sullenly.

"Me too," Liz admitted. "Hey, Leia whacked me in the head with a stuffed animal today."

"So I guess the power thing didn’t go away, huh?"

"Doesn’t look like it."

"Is Maria going to be gone long?" Max loosened his tie.

"She took dinner over there, so I don’t know. Why?" She turned around to face him; he was unbuttoning the last button on his shirt. "Mr. Evans, are you trying to seduce me?"

"Well, yeah."

"Not in front of the baby!" Liz put her hands on her hips. As if on cue, Leia began to cry in the other room. "There you go, see! Why don’t you go see if she needs to be changed while I start dinner?"

Max nodded and retreated from the room.

* * * *

Maria ordered dinner at the Crashdown and talked to Morgan while she was waiting for it.

"Are you going to be able to see Kyle tonight?" Maria asked.

"Yeah, I’m going to Michael’s after work to see if I can help then we’re going to have some alone time later," Morgan smiled. "I wish he didn’t have to go back to school."

"You’ll see him soon, he plans on coming home a lot, right?"

"Yeah and I’m going to visit down there next weekend."

"Really?" Maria was surprised. "They let females stay over in the boys dorms?"

"Hardly. Actually, Isabel invited me to stay with her."

"Really?" Maria was even more surprised. "That doesn’t sound like Isabel."

"Why do you say that?"

"Oh, I mean, she’s just a private person." Maria nodded.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Especially after that whole Bret thing, he really broke her heart."

"He sure did." Two bags were set down in front of her. "Well, better get dinner to the men. I’ll see you later."

Morgan waved goodbye and went back to waiting tables.

* * * *

The bar was close to the Mississippi River; a lot of bars were close to the water. The section was called The Landing and it was in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Two men were sitting at the bar talking about the baseball Cardinals and how much they sucked. Sometimes their voices got louder if the live band in the other part of the bar got louder.

"We have a crappy team," the one in the Dockers and blue Polo shirt said. "Why do we even bother showing up for games?"

His friend laughed and nodded in agreement. "We should move to Atlanta, they have a good team."

"Atlanta? Ha!" Dockers motioned for a couple more beers. "They suck, too."

"Doesn’t anything make you happy?" a voice came from behind them.

Dockers spun around and checked the eavesdropper out from top to bottom before laughing in his face. "Who the fuck are you suppose to be?" The friend laughed along with him. "Is it Halloween already?"

"Yo," the stranger set down his beer bottle in front of Dockers. "I’m just trying to join your conversation, that’s not against the law, is it?"

"We’re not interested, asshole." Dockers turned back around.

The stranger took the empty seat next to Dockers and looked in his face. "So, what do you think of the Yankees? They suck, too?"

"Yeah. They suck too." Dockers turned to his friend and rolled his eyes.

"Yo, I’m over here." The stranger placed a hand on Dockers arm. Dockers looked down to the spiked bracelet and laughed.

"Hey man, didn’t you know punk went out in the eighties?"

"I thought the collar up did, too," the stranger laughed.

"You’re a dick, why don’t you go find somewhere else to play?"

The stranger cocked his head to one side and walked into the crowd.

"What a fuckin’ idiot," Dockers reached for his wallet and discovered it gone. "That mother fucker stole my wallet!" He jumped off the barstool and ran in the same direction as the stranger had. He caught sight of his spiked hair walking out the door. He followed him outside and saw him turn the corner of the brick building. "Hey! You stole my fucking wallet!" He ran around the corner and felt a hand on his chest. He looked into the glassy eyes of the stranger and fell to the ground. He was dead.

The stranger whistled as he walked away into the darkness.

Dockers’ friend got worried and went to look for him. Not finding him in the bar he went outside. He turned the corner and tripped on something, it was Dockers. He knelt down next to him and felt for a pulse. Nothing. He saw something behind the fabric and pulled his untucked shirt up. It was a silver handprint.

BACK TO THE TOP / CHAPTER FOUR

STORY OF LINES:
4 - DOORWAYS

CHAPTER THREE

WRITTEN BY BECKY W

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CHAPTER TWO