That was Joey’s first waking thought. She opened her eyes, quickly scanning the bedroom.

Everything was quiet and still.

She sat up. Her window was open. She sucked in a quick breath. It had been closed.

Joey flinched as a dark figure appeared beside the bed. Then her arm shot out, slamming her intruder in the stomach. He bent over with a groan and she brought her elbow down on his neck as hard as she could.

The pain from the blow shot up her arm but she ignored it and scrambled over the covers away from him. She jumped off the bed started juicing up her powers, just in case, when a strangled voice said, “Joey, it’s me.”

She froze.

“Justin?” She didn’t know whether to be relieved or angry. Fear wasn‘t an option, even though his last words to her had been that she would be sorry for rejecting him, or some such crap like that. She went with anger. “You can‘t just break into someone‘s house and make them fall in love with you. You do know that, don‘t you?”

He wasn’t answering, but he did straighten up and face her. His eyes squinted as he spoke. “I have to leave town. They‘re looking for me.”

Joey stared back. “Who?”

He shoved off the wall and paced to the open window. “It’s so stupid. I just happened to be spankin’ cows on the night that two people croaked at the Crashdown under shall we say, mysterious circumstances.” He pulled the window closed as Joey tried to absorb his words. “The whole place went crazy and I skipped out before they could take me in.”

“But why would they take you in? H- How did they die?”

He turned around to face her, his eyes intense. “Food poisoning. Maybe. Could have been something else. Something that would make them literally puke up their guts.”

Joey grimaced as he continued pacing and talking.

"Look, I’ve only been in town a week. Add on to that the fact that I took off tonight right after it happened. Who do you think they’re going to blame this on? I’ve gotta’ be the number one suspect.“

Joey stepped over to him, and grabbed his arm. He stared at her hand, then looked up at her. She held his gaze with her own. “Did you have anything to do with it?“

His incredulous face quickly turned angry, but kept his voice low. “You think I could actually do that to somebody?“ He jerked away from her. “Yeah, well, okay, maybe if I ever catch the bastards who took Kate, I’ll do somethin’ worse to ’em. But not an old couple who was doin’ nothin’ to nobody.”

Joey believed him, but she was struggling hard to keep her mind together with so many questions running through her mind. “We should call Max.”

“Look, I don’t need King Arthur to tell me to go on the run. I know when it’s time to take off.”

Panic swept through Joey. “No, we have to stick together, Justin.”

He looked at her for a long moment and stepped closer. In the semi-darkness, his eyes were just shadows. “You mean you and me?”

Joey fought herself to stand her ground, feeling power begin to coil as he moved even closer. “I’ve already told you how I feel, Justin, but yes, it‘s important that we stay together as friends. We‘re stronger that way.”

“Why are you being so stubborn about this,” he said from clenched jaws. Then he grabbed her.

Power shot out and caught him in the chest. Justin jerked, but still held her arms. He leaned forward, obviously in pain, but determined to finish what he started.

Joey started to panic; she didn’t want to really hurt him, but her instincts were kicking into overdrive.

Before she could decide what to do, his lips moved onto hers harshly. She looked at his face so close to hers; his eyes were closed. Warmth washed over her.

Suddenly- they were connected.

FLASH

Kyle and herself talking- very close to each other, laughing, making Justin angry

FLASH

Watching the flashing lights approach the Crashdown; she could feel his fear.

FLASH

Seeing the old couple collapsed in a pool of vomit and blood; horror overwhelming her.

FLASH

Watching herself sleep peacefully.

Then the images stopped and Joey felt only passion from him. She wanted to pull away, to try to put this all into some perspective, but the connection was too strong.

Now, a landscape was forming in her mind, and a strange scene. A building, with spires up to the sky, stood in the center of a large city. The people that walked the streets looked human, but Joey just knew they weren’t. They were walking, talking, laughing, becoming smaller. Joey was pulling away from that golden street, that happy world. She was farther and farther away, suddenly realizing that Justin was still with her, holding her hand. And they were flying... looking down on the muddy orange sphere from the stars. The sphere was tiny now and still they kept going, objects in space whizzing by at incredible speeds. Joey started to get dizzy as they went even faster. Her mind couldn’t even register all the shapes that flew by. Then she gave a great gasp as Earth suddenly loomed up and there was a green land mass directly ahead. They slowed suddenly just as the land took on the shape of deserts, then cities and then roads winding away in all directions. Joey gasped for breath and felt Justin do the same beside her. They were now standing in the desert, still holding hands. There was a presence behind them and they slowly turned around. Ten glowing bodies stood there. They were almost too intensely bright to look at. But the more Joey looked, the more familiar they became.

“Max,” she whispered. One of the beings stepped forward. He reached out a hand and she could do nothing else but reach back. The glowing hand that stretched out in front of her couldn’t be her own- but it was. She looked down to see that her entire body was pure energy, the humming and buzzing sounding familiar, yet strange to her. She knew without looking that Justin was transformed, too.

“Max, what does this mean?” Then with a rushing roar of power, she was once again standing in her room, Justin’s lips pressed to hers. They broke apart with a fierce gasp. His wild eyes met hers.

“What the hell was that,” he breathed out.

“I don’t know.”

A glow was coming from the corner of the room. Joey looked over to see the orb lit up again, like it had been that night she’d first dreamed of Justin. “Of course, it sent us that vision.”

“Okay, I’ll buy that,” Justin admitted hesitantly. “But what did it mean? Why were we all glowing?”

“I think- I think if we can get all of us together, all twelve of us, maybe we’ll find out.” The more she thought about it, the more that sounded likely. Yeah, the orb wanted them all together.

But then again, the orb wanted she and Justin to be mates.

Oh well.

One out of two ain’t bad.

******

5:45 a.m.

Kyle was starting to feel light-headed from weariness. He sipped his coffee and looked up at the ever-growing throng of panicked Roswellians. There were news crews here now, just local stuff for now. They were questioning every yellow-suited crank they could get their grubby mitts on. Not that any of the “2 Neon Crew” were talking. They were so good at not answering questions, you’d think they were running for office. The concerned family and friends of the victims had already been interviewed, as well as the head CDC guy, whom Kyle had taken to calling “Smoking Man.” Something about the silver hair and way he always had his poker face on reminded Kyle of that character of the “X-Files.”

A guy from the State Health Department had finally arrived, and he and Smoking Man were busy swapping papers and stealing glances around like they were tryin’ not to get caught with test answers. They might as well paint “I’m plotting something evil” across their foreheads. Maybe a nice “666” would do just as well.

There were other newbies to the ever-growing throng. In the past half an hour, his Dad had made amazing progress in rousting Roswell’s head honchos. Mayor Briggs was fiddle-fartin’ around with a bright red face, spouting things about calling for federal aid and blockading Interstate 285 until the crisis was over.

What an idiot.

Kyle couldn’t help but seriously hate the man right now. He lived for that camera crew following him around. Rounding out the troop was the hospital head honchos, Dr. Moore and Dr. Schiffly. At present, they were too busy reassuring themselves the publicity thus far was good to actually bother to check out the incidental ICU that had been set up. Where had these jokers been all night, and who the hell was paying ‘em off?

Kyle couldn’t watch any more. He stood stiffly and walked back over to the plastic divider that “protected“ the hospital from the virus. He frowned when he saw commotion in the farthest room. Voices were carrying all the way back here, but he couldn’t see what was happening.

Then several yellow men appeared in the long, tubed hallway, escorting Jeff Parker to the entrance.

“Oh man,” Kyle whispered, tossing his coffee in a nearby trash can. He was automatically awake now, the possibility of getting some answers sending adrenaline flooding through him.

Mr. Parker looked freaked and way beyond tired. The men were making sure that he exited, and Kyle couldn’t figure that one out. If Mr. Parker had been exposed to a kick-ass virus, then wouldn’t the whole point be that they needed to keep him in there?

Obviously, Kyle had missed out on the “how-to-behave-like-a-moron-during-a-crisis” seminar that everyone else had attended.

Then the men halted Mr. Parker and the Smoking Man himself walked over. Mr. Parker’s appearance seemed to take him by surprise. In fact, his wrinkled face was tight with anger as he spoke through the opening to one of the men. Kyle started to edge closer, but his Dad was already there.

Smoking Man turned and faced his Dad with an unfriendly look. “Yes, Sheriff? Is there something I can do for you?”

“Well, I was just wondering if there was a problem, Dr. Garrett. Something you might like to share with the class,” he grinned and gestured to the news cameras and crowd of people edging nearer.

Kyle grinned. His Dad was the ultimate smartass.

Smoking Man/Dr. Garrett turned to face the growing crowd, fixing a smile on his face. Everyone was ready, cameras rolling. “Mr. Parker is one of our control study members. We are pleased to announce that he has developed no symptoms and is free to go. Hopefully we will be able to release others soon.”

As he hesitated, reporters started shouting questions. The skinny guy in the front was the loudest. “The Ebola virus doesn’t show up for four days. Isn’t it true that anyone who was exposed to this virus should be contained at least that long?”

“I assure you,” the smugness of Garrett’s voice irritated Kyle, “as Chief of Special Pathogens of the Division of Bacterial Diseases, that the situation is being contained. We don’t want to hold anyone unless it is necessary. Mr. Parker’s condition will be monitored for at least seventy-two hours.“

“How many cases do you have versus controls in this study of yours,” his Dad grabbed everyone’s attention next. Kyle looked over at him with severe amazement. Cases versus controls? What the hell did that mean?

Smoking Man’s smile was brittle. “Well, there were originally ten victims. Only one has been cleared by our Division of Quarantine. There are four known cases of contracted disease in our study. So that leaves five controls or unaffected victims left, isn’t that right?“

He started to turn away amongst loud protests, but the Sheriff stepped in his way, holding him back with one hand. “And who would those known cases be?“ Smoking Man hesitated, poker face in place. Kyle‘s Dad pressed him. “Two have already died. Who are the other two?“

They studied each other for a silent moment, then Smoking Man looked away. “Well, we have been advised to wait until the arrival of the family of one of the victims, but the first is Liz Parker. Her parents, of course, have been advised of her condition and that she is currently in the best care possible. But she has developed severe symptoms and is being kept in a separate room as a result. We are doing everything we can.”

It had to be Alex. The Whitmans hadn’t shown up yet.

Had to be him.

Kyle cursed a blue streak under his breath. Liz and Alex were dying from some mumbo-jumbo disease and all he could do was sit here and listen to the geriatric face-man blow smoke up everyone’s ass.

Mayor Briggs jumped in then, “Now, Sheriff. I know you want to keep the masses informed, but let‘s let Dr. Garrett do his job.”

Kyle caught the glimmer of anger on his Dad‘s face just before he stuck his hat on his head and stalked off. Kyle knew that look. “Dad, hey Dad!” Kyle jogged to catch up. “What was all that about?”

His Dad stopped and laid a hand on Kyle’s arm. “Just leave it alone, Kyle. This is serious-”

“Dad, they have two of my friends in there. I am going to be in on this.” He looked his Dad straight in the eye.

There was a tense moment, then his Dad relented. “Alright, I have three problems with this situation. First off, that guy’s a jackass,” the blue eyes were lit with fire. “And there’s nothing that pisses me off worse than a jackass in a three-piece suit. Second, they got here and threw this thing together way too fast, as if they were expecting it. Third, he’s deliberately provoking panic and I want to know why. It’s a good sign that he was forced to release Jeff, which he obviously didn’t want to do. The situation‘s unraveling on him. Now, Kyle, that’s all you’re gonna’ hear from me. But I want you to keep your eyes and ears open. And especially, keep an eye on Mr. Parker. I’ve got to call for back-up.” He brushed a hand across his chin. “I’m tellin’ you, this situation is going to unravel and I’m gonna’ be here to arrest that son-of-a-bitch when it does.”