FIC: Roswell New Mexico - Legacies 18/?
Summary: There comes a point when a blind eye can no longer be turned.
TITLE: Legacies
RATING: R (for language)
CHARACTERS: Alex Manes, Kyle Valenti, Michael Guerin, Max Evans, Isobel Evans, Liz Ortecho, Maria DeLuca, Jim Valenti, Jesse Manes, Mimi DeLuca
PAIRING: Alex/Michael
WARNINGS: Violence against teen-agers, Jesse Manes is his own warning.
AUTHOR: Melanie
Summary: There comes a point when a blind eye can no longer be turned.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
FEEDBACK: Please?
Legacies 18/?
They walk through what Isobel knows in painstakingly slow detail. Not that Isobel knows much, just waking up places she doesn’t remember going in the first place, people being mad at her for random arguments that she doesn’t remember having.
The blackouts are the most concerning and Michael wishes Max were there, the brain twins could do their thing and Max would maybe see something that Michael can’t see.
Though Isobel doesn’t seem to think that will be the case.
“I may have asked him once if he was noticing anything different about me,” Isobel mutters, “he thought I was talking about my hair or my nails or something.”
“We need to talk to my mom,” Michael says, the immense glee that he feels saying those words and knowing that his mom is out there and safe will not ever get old he doesn’t think. Though that glee is somewhat dampened at the fact that he wants her there so she can tell them that Isobel isn’t going crazy or spontaneously developed a tumor when they normally can’t even catch a cold.
“Is it bad of me that I’m happy for you but I’m kind of hoping that we don’t have any more family,” Isobel says, “I don’t know what we’d say to mom and dad, how do we make that choice?”
Michael is thankful he doesn’t have that problem.
The door pushes open and Max makes his way in, bag in his hand and Kyle right behind him.
“I brought you a burger, but if you get caught with it I’m disavowing all knowledge,” Max says digging into the bag to pull the wrapped burger out to hand to Michael and then pushing the rest of the bag at Isobel.
Michael doesn’t even spare him a glance, just pulls the wrapper off and breathes in the smell of greasy burger goodness, he knows that Max and Kyle and Isobel are probably all staring at him, he doesn’t care. It’s the absolute best thing he’s tasted in a while.
Max takes the wrapper when he’s done, burying it under napkins and tissues in the trashcan, though the whole room smells like the Crashdown. No one is going to be fooled.
“Do you think they’ll yell if I go back to Alex’s room now?” Michael asks, it’s been almost two hours. Long enough for Alex to not eat lunch and have a quick catnap.
“Do you nap? Or just wait for us to get back hoping we’d bring you food?” Max asks.
“Is and I were talking,” Michael says and he stares at Max hoping that he’ll get it, he thinks he does, he looks between Michael and Isobel and there’s a quick bob of his head.
They’ll talk about it later, after Kyle leaves and there’s no chance that Maria and Liz will show up, after Michael has been kicked out of Alex’s room and back to his own to have ‘restful’ sleep in his own bed.
He wonders why they didn’t just put them in the same room, it would save a lot of time and energy on Michael’s part if he just had to turn on his side to see Alex laying there.
“I’m going back to Alex’s room,” he says, “nurse said only three people should be in there at one time.”
The other three look between each other and Isobel just shrugs, “I’m going to go see if Liz or Maria has a Rosa update yet.”
Michael almost wants to groan, he doesn’t.
********************************
Maria and Liz are in the hallway heads bent together, Isobel glances over at them but doesn’t move to join them.
“I’m going to…” she waves a hand vaguely and heads in the direction of the nurses’ station, Michael stares after her, when he looks at Max he sees him already looking back at him with a raised eyebrow.
Michael just shrugs because they need to talk about it, but the also need to talk about it when no one else is around unless they want their secret to be common knowledge.
He goes to take the few more steps to Alex’s door, but stops when he glances down the hallway. Kyle’s mom and the Sheriff are walking towards them, keeping close to them are his mom and David, and his case worker as well.
He can see the warning expression on the Sheriff’s face, and he can feel the pressure on his mind that is screaming at him to ask surprised, he’s never met them before, he doesn’t know if it’s his mom or David or someone else.
“You okay?” Max asks, touching his arm then following his gaze, Kyle right next to him and now the girls are looking over as well.
“Good, I’m glad we caught you,” his case worker steps to the forefront and she still looks barely old enough to be the one responsible for him. He doesn’t even look at her though, can’t seem to look away from his mom’s gentle expression and he doesn’t think he noticed how frail she looked when she was in his room.
“Mom,” he says softly, wonderingly and he knows the case worker is saying something, Maria and Liz are talking over each other as well. Max is a quiet presence at his side, Kyle right next to him. He doesn’t really see anything but his mom and he’s seen her, but it wasn’t in the bright light of day, it wasn’t standing in a hallway surrounded by his friends so he’s not having a hallucination brought on by trauma or exhaustion.
She looks over at the caseworker, like she’s asking permission to approach him and the case worker just nods. She takes the few steps closer and then her hands are touching his face and he didn’t realize he was crying until he feels her brush away the tears with callused fingers.
He swallows thickly, it’s probably audible but he can’t care when she folds him gently into her arms and presses a hand to the back of his head.
She’s humming, that same nameless tune that she’d hummed the last time he’d seen her and he cries into her shoulder, cradled in warm arms that he remembers.
He doesn’t know how much time has passed, enough that when he remembers he’s in public and can feel the first blush of embarrassment that she soothes away with the gentle brush of her mind against his. It feels comfortable and familiar, it’s only when he pulls away that he remembers Max and Isobel. When he turns he can see it’s been long enough that Isobel has returned.
Standing right next to Max, hands clenched tightly together both of them looking apprehensive.
“You have your mothers’ eyes,” she says quietly and Isobel’s façade cracks just a little bit as his mom leaves one arm touching his back and reaches out with the other hand to cup Isobel’s face in it. “And you,” she says to Max, smile bright.
He doesn’t know what cover story the Sheriff and Maria’s mom have come up with, just a glance at his mom shows her thin and worn, David looks the same.
But he doesn’t need to know the cover story until they tell him it because he’s not supposed to know anything more then he already knows and being locked up in a prison because they’re aliens is probably not the story they’re going to tell.
********************************
“We’re going to set up some times for you to meet and get to know each other,” the caseworker says after the Sheriff has taken his mom and David away to wherever he’s hiding them out for the time being, “they’ll have to be supervised at least for the first couple as we run things up the official channels but thankfully the Sheriff has offered to supervise those visits and…”
She’s writing furiously on a pad of paper.
“A cult,” Michael says and he can’t believe they went with something so trite, though he’s not sure what would have been better.
He exchanges a look with Max who shrugs at him, Isobel has already left, going to see if she can check on Rosa. For someone professing to remember nothing about any supposed relationship with Rosa she certainly seems intent on making sure she’s okay and possibly being in the room when she finally wakes up.
He’s not sure what to make of it.
“I did some papers on cults in college,” she says absently, “they’re damn lucky they managed to get the three of you out when you were kids, just looking at them it’s easy to see that they were severely punished for it as result.”
********************************
Alex is awake, him and Kyle have their heads bent together and Alex is writing in a notebook that Michael doesn’t remember him having with Kyle tapping away on his phone.
“No,” Michael says, because really?
“Hey,” Alex says, voice light and teasing, “I was thinking maybe you weren’t coming back today.”
“No,” he says again, shaking his head and Alex grins at him, Kyle at least stands up and moves out of his chair so he can, linking his fingers with Alex’s and presses his lips to the back of his hand.
“We were just talking and…”
“You’re not going to investigate the cult that my mom was apparently stuck in,” Michael says, because he won’t be distracted by the fact that Alex looks really happy to see him.
“Of course not,” Alex scoffs and Michael’s shoulders relax just a little, “at least not yet, Kyle said she didn’t actually name the cult and there’s like a couple thousand in the US alone, so we’ll need more information before we can extrapolate which one is the most likely… why are you looking at me like that?”
Michael just stares at him in disbelief and shakes his head slowly.
“I really did think that they were kidding,” he says, he glances over at Max who is just looking resigned then over at Kyle.
“I mean we’re a little out of practice,” Kyle admits, “the M & V Detective Agency basically closed up when we hit seventh grade…”
“School took a lot more time then I think we were prepared for initially,” Alex nods. “But it’s like riding a horse, it’ll take a little bit of time but we’ll get back in the swing of things…”
“I’ve got a list of questions to ask my dad, he’s probably going to give me the run around so I’ll have to be sneaky about it that’ll take a bit more time than it should,” Kyle says, he gestures at the notebook that is laying on Alex’s tray next to his water glass.
“Why would you even?” Max starts, then stops, shakes his head.
“Michael’s mom got out and she and your uncle, I guess? They alluded to the fact that Isobel’s mom was dead, but your dad might still be in there and she didn’t have any information on Max’s family at all, at least not that she talked about while I was still there…”
Kyle looks so earnest when he’s talking, Michael is still really kind of mad that he’s going to end up liking this guy and he’s trying really freaking hard to not be charmed by the fact that Kyle is worried that his dad and Max’s family might still be locked up in the clutches of some cult that doesn’t actually exist.
“I’m sure they’ve got people looking into it,” Michael says, “Probably a full complement of alphabet soups trying to figure things out.”
“Sure,” Alex nods, “but are they really going to share any of that information with you?”
Michael just blinks at him, because he’s got a point, but there’s also no cult to investigate and he doesn’t really want Alex or Kyle drawing the interest of whatever prospective one might end up at the top of their radar.
********************************
TITLE: Legacies
RATING: R (for language)
CHARACTERS: Alex Manes, Kyle Valenti, Michael Guerin, Max Evans, Isobel Evans, Liz Ortecho, Maria DeLuca, Jim Valenti, Jesse Manes, Mimi DeLuca
PAIRING: Alex/Michael
WARNINGS: Violence against teen-agers, Jesse Manes is his own warning.
AUTHOR: Melanie
Summary: There comes a point when a blind eye can no longer be turned.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
FEEDBACK: Please?
Legacies 18/?
They walk through what Isobel knows in painstakingly slow detail. Not that Isobel knows much, just waking up places she doesn’t remember going in the first place, people being mad at her for random arguments that she doesn’t remember having.
The blackouts are the most concerning and Michael wishes Max were there, the brain twins could do their thing and Max would maybe see something that Michael can’t see.
Though Isobel doesn’t seem to think that will be the case.
“I may have asked him once if he was noticing anything different about me,” Isobel mutters, “he thought I was talking about my hair or my nails or something.”
“We need to talk to my mom,” Michael says, the immense glee that he feels saying those words and knowing that his mom is out there and safe will not ever get old he doesn’t think. Though that glee is somewhat dampened at the fact that he wants her there so she can tell them that Isobel isn’t going crazy or spontaneously developed a tumor when they normally can’t even catch a cold.
“Is it bad of me that I’m happy for you but I’m kind of hoping that we don’t have any more family,” Isobel says, “I don’t know what we’d say to mom and dad, how do we make that choice?”
Michael is thankful he doesn’t have that problem.
The door pushes open and Max makes his way in, bag in his hand and Kyle right behind him.
“I brought you a burger, but if you get caught with it I’m disavowing all knowledge,” Max says digging into the bag to pull the wrapped burger out to hand to Michael and then pushing the rest of the bag at Isobel.
Michael doesn’t even spare him a glance, just pulls the wrapper off and breathes in the smell of greasy burger goodness, he knows that Max and Kyle and Isobel are probably all staring at him, he doesn’t care. It’s the absolute best thing he’s tasted in a while.
Max takes the wrapper when he’s done, burying it under napkins and tissues in the trashcan, though the whole room smells like the Crashdown. No one is going to be fooled.
“Do you think they’ll yell if I go back to Alex’s room now?” Michael asks, it’s been almost two hours. Long enough for Alex to not eat lunch and have a quick catnap.
“Do you nap? Or just wait for us to get back hoping we’d bring you food?” Max asks.
“Is and I were talking,” Michael says and he stares at Max hoping that he’ll get it, he thinks he does, he looks between Michael and Isobel and there’s a quick bob of his head.
They’ll talk about it later, after Kyle leaves and there’s no chance that Maria and Liz will show up, after Michael has been kicked out of Alex’s room and back to his own to have ‘restful’ sleep in his own bed.
He wonders why they didn’t just put them in the same room, it would save a lot of time and energy on Michael’s part if he just had to turn on his side to see Alex laying there.
“I’m going back to Alex’s room,” he says, “nurse said only three people should be in there at one time.”
The other three look between each other and Isobel just shrugs, “I’m going to go see if Liz or Maria has a Rosa update yet.”
Michael almost wants to groan, he doesn’t.
********************************
Maria and Liz are in the hallway heads bent together, Isobel glances over at them but doesn’t move to join them.
“I’m going to…” she waves a hand vaguely and heads in the direction of the nurses’ station, Michael stares after her, when he looks at Max he sees him already looking back at him with a raised eyebrow.
Michael just shrugs because they need to talk about it, but the also need to talk about it when no one else is around unless they want their secret to be common knowledge.
He goes to take the few more steps to Alex’s door, but stops when he glances down the hallway. Kyle’s mom and the Sheriff are walking towards them, keeping close to them are his mom and David, and his case worker as well.
He can see the warning expression on the Sheriff’s face, and he can feel the pressure on his mind that is screaming at him to ask surprised, he’s never met them before, he doesn’t know if it’s his mom or David or someone else.
“You okay?” Max asks, touching his arm then following his gaze, Kyle right next to him and now the girls are looking over as well.
“Good, I’m glad we caught you,” his case worker steps to the forefront and she still looks barely old enough to be the one responsible for him. He doesn’t even look at her though, can’t seem to look away from his mom’s gentle expression and he doesn’t think he noticed how frail she looked when she was in his room.
“Mom,” he says softly, wonderingly and he knows the case worker is saying something, Maria and Liz are talking over each other as well. Max is a quiet presence at his side, Kyle right next to him. He doesn’t really see anything but his mom and he’s seen her, but it wasn’t in the bright light of day, it wasn’t standing in a hallway surrounded by his friends so he’s not having a hallucination brought on by trauma or exhaustion.
She looks over at the caseworker, like she’s asking permission to approach him and the case worker just nods. She takes the few steps closer and then her hands are touching his face and he didn’t realize he was crying until he feels her brush away the tears with callused fingers.
He swallows thickly, it’s probably audible but he can’t care when she folds him gently into her arms and presses a hand to the back of his head.
She’s humming, that same nameless tune that she’d hummed the last time he’d seen her and he cries into her shoulder, cradled in warm arms that he remembers.
He doesn’t know how much time has passed, enough that when he remembers he’s in public and can feel the first blush of embarrassment that she soothes away with the gentle brush of her mind against his. It feels comfortable and familiar, it’s only when he pulls away that he remembers Max and Isobel. When he turns he can see it’s been long enough that Isobel has returned.
Standing right next to Max, hands clenched tightly together both of them looking apprehensive.
“You have your mothers’ eyes,” she says quietly and Isobel’s façade cracks just a little bit as his mom leaves one arm touching his back and reaches out with the other hand to cup Isobel’s face in it. “And you,” she says to Max, smile bright.
He doesn’t know what cover story the Sheriff and Maria’s mom have come up with, just a glance at his mom shows her thin and worn, David looks the same.
But he doesn’t need to know the cover story until they tell him it because he’s not supposed to know anything more then he already knows and being locked up in a prison because they’re aliens is probably not the story they’re going to tell.
********************************
“We’re going to set up some times for you to meet and get to know each other,” the caseworker says after the Sheriff has taken his mom and David away to wherever he’s hiding them out for the time being, “they’ll have to be supervised at least for the first couple as we run things up the official channels but thankfully the Sheriff has offered to supervise those visits and…”
She’s writing furiously on a pad of paper.
“A cult,” Michael says and he can’t believe they went with something so trite, though he’s not sure what would have been better.
He exchanges a look with Max who shrugs at him, Isobel has already left, going to see if she can check on Rosa. For someone professing to remember nothing about any supposed relationship with Rosa she certainly seems intent on making sure she’s okay and possibly being in the room when she finally wakes up.
He’s not sure what to make of it.
“I did some papers on cults in college,” she says absently, “they’re damn lucky they managed to get the three of you out when you were kids, just looking at them it’s easy to see that they were severely punished for it as result.”
********************************
Alex is awake, him and Kyle have their heads bent together and Alex is writing in a notebook that Michael doesn’t remember him having with Kyle tapping away on his phone.
“No,” Michael says, because really?
“Hey,” Alex says, voice light and teasing, “I was thinking maybe you weren’t coming back today.”
“No,” he says again, shaking his head and Alex grins at him, Kyle at least stands up and moves out of his chair so he can, linking his fingers with Alex’s and presses his lips to the back of his hand.
“We were just talking and…”
“You’re not going to investigate the cult that my mom was apparently stuck in,” Michael says, because he won’t be distracted by the fact that Alex looks really happy to see him.
“Of course not,” Alex scoffs and Michael’s shoulders relax just a little, “at least not yet, Kyle said she didn’t actually name the cult and there’s like a couple thousand in the US alone, so we’ll need more information before we can extrapolate which one is the most likely… why are you looking at me like that?”
Michael just stares at him in disbelief and shakes his head slowly.
“I really did think that they were kidding,” he says, he glances over at Max who is just looking resigned then over at Kyle.
“I mean we’re a little out of practice,” Kyle admits, “the M & V Detective Agency basically closed up when we hit seventh grade…”
“School took a lot more time then I think we were prepared for initially,” Alex nods. “But it’s like riding a horse, it’ll take a little bit of time but we’ll get back in the swing of things…”
“I’ve got a list of questions to ask my dad, he’s probably going to give me the run around so I’ll have to be sneaky about it that’ll take a bit more time than it should,” Kyle says, he gestures at the notebook that is laying on Alex’s tray next to his water glass.
“Why would you even?” Max starts, then stops, shakes his head.
“Michael’s mom got out and she and your uncle, I guess? They alluded to the fact that Isobel’s mom was dead, but your dad might still be in there and she didn’t have any information on Max’s family at all, at least not that she talked about while I was still there…”
Kyle looks so earnest when he’s talking, Michael is still really kind of mad that he’s going to end up liking this guy and he’s trying really freaking hard to not be charmed by the fact that Kyle is worried that his dad and Max’s family might still be locked up in the clutches of some cult that doesn’t actually exist.
“I’m sure they’ve got people looking into it,” Michael says, “Probably a full complement of alphabet soups trying to figure things out.”
“Sure,” Alex nods, “but are they really going to share any of that information with you?”
Michael just blinks at him, because he’s got a point, but there’s also no cult to investigate and he doesn’t really want Alex or Kyle drawing the interest of whatever prospective one might end up at the top of their radar.
********************************