Isabel closed her eyes and pictured Alex's face to herself. It was the same face she saw every night when she went home to her daughter, and sometimes that pain was almost more than she could stand. After all, she could remember when her life had been happy.

Blissfully happy, almost.

And then the one thing she had hoped for her whole life had happened.

****

December 24, 2002
Roswell, NM After some discussion, Alex and Isabel had chosen to go home for Christmas. Since her mother's reaction to the recent turn of events in Isabel's life, Isabel really would have preferred to stay in Iowa, but she took one look at Alex and realized that he was homesick.

Oddly enough, Isabel had never suffered from that affliction.

So they drove home in Alex's rusty Pontiac, taking the scenic route through the mountains of Colorado. It wasn't the most comfortable ride for Isabel; she was almost eight months pregnant. She could feel every bump and jounce reverberate through her body. It was about a day trip if they drove straight through, and Alex spent more time looking worriedly at her than watching the road. It got to the point where Isabel was about to scream at him.

Near sunset, Alex pulled over at a scenic overlook whose sole features were outhouses and a breathtaking view of the mountains. Isabel hurried gratefully into one of the smelly stalls.

When she came out, Alex was standing at the fence in front of the dropoff, his profile outlined by the setting sun. All the other gawkers had left, apparently not pleased with the bitter cold. Alex had tucked his bare hands into the corners of his arctic coat, necessary in Iowa but something rarely considered in Roswell.

Isabel shivered in her lighter coat. It was difficult to find clothing to fit a pregnant woman of her height, and especially difficult to find inexpensive outerwear. So she made due with an old jacket from Goodwill.

"Do you see that?" Alex asked, pointing at the darkening sky.

"See what?"

"Those dark clouds? That's a snowstorm building."

Isabel shivered again. "Then we'd better get going, huh?"

Alex was silent, and then said, "Yeah. I guess so."

Isabel touched his shoulder gently. "What's on your mind, Alex?"

He turned around to look her in the eye, looking hesitant. He took one hand out of his pocket to wrap it around hers. "You're cold, hon."

Isabel shrugged. "I'll be fine."

"Yeah...ummm, Isabel, I have something to ask you."

"What's that?"

He bit his lip, looking adorably young and uncertain. "Isabel, will you marry me?" He took the other hand from its pocket and revealed a jewelry box, which he then opened. It held a delicate ring, an opal surrounded by tiny accenting diamonds. Isabel blinked, shocked by the question for a moment. Thick, heavy snowflakes began to fall, landing in Alex's dark hair and eyelashes. He blinked them away.

"Isabel?"

Isabel blinked again, and whispered, "Why would you want to marry me?"

"Why? Isabel, I love you. I've loved you since tenth grade. I love you more than anything in the world."

She closed her eyes and sighed. "It isn't because you feel a responsibility to the baby?"

"I do feel a responsibility to the baby...how could I not? But it's not why I'm asking you. I'm asking because I love you."

"I love you too," Isabel whispered.

"Is that a yes?" he asked, wrapping her in his arms to share his warmth.

She smiled. "Yes, that's a yes. I'll marry you, Alex."

Alex grinned and kissed her happily.

Isabel closed her eyes and leaned into him. She could see over his shoulder, and she watched as the falling snow gradually obliterated the view of the mountains behind them. "Alex, we had better go."

"You're right. We've gotta get out of the mountains before the blizzard hits." They were too late. Alex was forced to drive them through blinding snow unlike any he had experienced before. Finally, at around midnight, they were forced to pull over.

"Jesus Christ," Isabel moaned, shivering in the cold. Even the heater at full force couldn't calm her shaking.

"Maybe I should go get help," Alex said, reaching for the door handle.

"No!" Isabel yelped, reaching for the door handle. "Isabel..."

"You can't just leave me here! You don't even know where we are!"

"We're somewhere near Taos. There's gotta be a town around here somewhere."

Isabel pulled out the worn atlas defiantly. "No, there's not, Alex. Not for a long, long ways."

Alex sat back, frustrated. "I can't just let you stay out here in a snowstorm all night! What if you freeze?"

Isabel shrugged. "You won't let me freeze. I know you, Alex."

He buried his face in his hands. "I just worry about you. And the baby."

Isabel leaned over and kissed him, wincing as she pressed down on her swollen stomach. "Come on."

They climbed into the back seat together, pulling a worn blanket that Isabel normally used for quick naps in the car over themselves.

"Ma'am? Sir? You all right?"

Isabel groaned and buried her face under the blankets. She had been warm, but now that the door was open, she was freezing cold. Not only that, but she'd been sound asleep.

"I think we're all right, officer," Alex said. "We just got caught out in the snowstorm."

"Y'all on your way to somewhere?"

"Yeah, home for the holidays."

The cop looked around in amusement. "Well, I think you missed Christmas morning. But if we can dig that car of yours out of the snow, then you'll be on your way in no time."

"All right, sir. Thank you."

"Can I just stretch my legs? How cold is it?"

"Not too cold, ma'am. You should be fine."

Isabel climbed out of the car clumsily. She rubbed her stomach and stomped her feet, a morning ritual that caused Alex to snort in amusement. The cop, however, looked amazed.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a pregnant lady in here? Why, I coulda had you on your way already!"

Isabel shrugged. "I'm all right, really. Can you just pull us out of here?"

"Well, ma'am, I can't really leave a pregnant lady out in the cold."

Alex and Isabel looked at each other.

"Tell you what. I'll give you two a ride to wherever you're going, seeing as it's Christmas."

Isabel sputtered, "No, officer, really..."

"I won't take no for an answer, you two. So where are you headed?"

Alex looked at his fiancé. "Roswell."

****

2010 "Isabel Evans!"

Isabel snapped out of the fog she'd been in, and looked up at her boss. "Evans, we don't pay you to sit there. You didn't get this job out of the goodness of my heart!"

"Yes, sir..." Isabel mumbled, and stared at her desk. If she had to sort through any more old files, she'd go insane. She had only gotten a job at all through the begrudging respect of several of the Masters. She didn't care for the work from the start, and she suspected it had been chosen specifically to punish her. Occasionally she would run across the file of an old friend from high school or college, and it hurt her to read of their fates.

But she had never come across Alex's file. In the three years she had had this job of sorting resistance workers by their final punishment, she had never seen Alex's face in a file. And he had led the Resistance, along with her, for nearly three years. When she agreed to come over to the Masters' side, the main agreement had been that Alex would remain unharmed.

As far as she knew, for the past three years, that had been the case. Now Nasedo had told her that he had been in one of the camps. They didn't send resistance fighters to the work camps.

They sent them to the torture camps. Nasedo claimed that her father could arrange a meeting, but why would he? Her father was the one who had ordered them imprisoned in the first place! No one else had the courage to lock up the Head Master's daughter.

Didn't this mean, that if the Masters had lied to her, that the whole deal was null and void? That she could leave, and they couldn't stop her?

Not necessarily. They didn't know she knew.

Isabel sighed and rubbed her face. Could she risk her daughter's life to take her from a society that would forever despise her for what she was? Would her life even be worth living in this place?

She closed her eyes again and got a flash of her daughter's face, and the laughter in the little girl's eyes when she discovered that she could make her favorite teddy bear move across the room without looking at it.

She could remember the astonishment, and the adoration, in Alex's eyes when Kirsten proudly showed Daddy what she could do.

And now Kirsten couldn't even remember Alex.

Her decision was made by that in and of itself. She could not let her daughter grow up without her father.