Kyle didn’t know whether to laugh or barf. His Dad was sitting on the edge of the desk, frozen in thought. It had been almost... three minutes of silence now and man, was it getting tense.

Kyle had spilled the beans. Oh yeah, he’d served up the whole enchilada with the half-serving of refried truth on the side. And judging by the silence, he was thinking maybe he should have held the transformation on that order, or the hunters at least.

But it wasn’t like he knew exactly how much truth would win his Dad over and how much truth would send him screaming to the loony bin. He had no freakin’ idea how to divide the truth into easily digestible portions. He’d had it all crammed down his throat at once by an alien hunter with a hot little hand. And that was before they knew about the twelve and the going home and the transformations.

Damn. Kyle pressed his fingers to his temples. I GOT to get me some new friends.

“I believe you, son.” Kyle looked up to see open admiration in his Dad’s eyes.

“What?”

“I do. And I’m proud you’ve stood by them and tried your best to help.”

Kyle was amazed, and he narrowed his eyes, waiting for the “but.” “But, dammit, if you put yourself in danger one more time, I’m going to-” He reached out and pulled Kyle in his arms roughly. He sniffed and held him tighter. “I’m going to wear you out, boy, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Kyle pulled away. “Right, Dad. So, you’re not gonna’ go postal on me? I mean, this is some pretty intense stuff.”

His Dad nodded. “That it is. That it is. Did Max ever tell you about Everett Hubble?”

“The UFO guy who got shot just outside of town?”

“Yeah. He was investigating Max, wanting revenge for the death of his wife whose murderer just happened to leave a silver handprint.”

Kyle raised his eyebrows at that.

“Now Hubble swore up and down that Max was an alien. Held him up at gunpoint, screaming about Max having proved it by a show of power, or something like that. If I hadn’t shot Hubble, Max would have been killed. ”

Kyle shook his head. Where had he been when all of this went down? Oh yeah. Drooling after Liz. He had been pretty out of it, he had to admit. “So you knew, then, that Max was an alien?”

“Suspected. I watched him, and his sister. Eventually, I added Michael Guerin onto that list. But they were just normal kids. Every now and then there’d be some trouble, like when Tess disappeared, or when Doug Shellow turned up missing. I’m glad to hear the explanations behind those cases. I guess I did the right thing in pushing suspicion off the kids.”

Kyle stared at his dad. “You did that? Without even knowing the truth?”

There was a moment of silence before the Sheriff answered. “For a while there, I was on the wrong side. I guess I was trying to repay them, in a way, for my suspicion.”

“Wow.” Max probably had no idea how much his father had known. And Kyle found himself wanting to tell him. “So, does this mean you’ll help us find Liz and Alex?”

The steel that slid into his father’s eyes left no doubt. “Those son-of-a-b*tches have messed with the wrong kids, in the wrong county. I have no idea why they think they’re so far above the law. But I have news for them- they’re not!”

The door behind Kyle opened. “Uh, Sheriff, something‘s happening out here. You might want to see this.”

Hansen was wide-eyed. Kyle followed his Dad out to the main waiting room. The ICU had been completely taken down now, but the room was filled from one side to the other with reporters. Why were they all here now?

Kyle started to get a bad feeling about this.

“What’s going on,” his Dad asked Hansen.

“Dr. Garrett’s going to make a statement. That’s all I know.” Hansen stood beside them, shifting nervously.

“Is this guy a media hound or what,” his Dad muttered.

Kyle’s feeling of dread got worse when Garrett stepped up to the microphone at a podium in the back of the room.

“Well, ladies and gentlemen, I want to ask for your ears just one more time. Ever since I came to this fair town of Roswell, I have had strict orders to divulge only the necessary truth- one piece at a time. That has resulted in several misunderstandings between the hospital, the families of our victims, our law enforcement officials and myself. It was unfortunate that we felt like the truth should be concealed, that the greater good was served by acting covertly. We were wrong. I am now prepared to tell the whole truth now, and damn the consequences.”

Oh sh*t.

“I’ve got him now,” his Dad whispered to Kyle. But Kyle was shaking his head. He was having a hard time getting his breath. Garrett couldn’t do this. Sh*t.

The smoking man continued. “The whole truth is often something we don’t want to hear, or something that we initially refuse to believe. This may be such a time. But I assure that this is the truth.“ A hush spread over the room at the tenseness in his voice. No one moved a muscle. “There are aliens among us.”

Kyle’s jaw fell open. No.

“This group of extraterrestrials has been under surveillance for years, and had been deemed harmless by the government. But I stand before you ready to risk the wrath of the federal government because you need to know the whole truth, to not only know about their existence, but also know of a heinous new development that changes everything.”

Kyle was moving in an instant. Someone had to shut this guy up. He started pushing through the crowd. “Get out of my way. Get out of my WAY!”

“One of your town’s innocent daughters, a favorite with all knew her, was made the first victim of the aliens’ agenda. She was transformed into one of them.”

Gasps were heard all around. Kyle reached the edge of the crowd and shoved two camera-men aside. He ran the final five steps to Garrett. Garrett‘s eyes snapped to Kyle and he backed away from the podium. Two security guards were on the move, but Kyle was too quick. He tackled Garrett and got one good punch in before security guards hauled him off.

“You BASTARD!“ Kyle yelled. “You’ve killed them! You’ve KILLED THEM!“ He struggled against the guards.

Now that people knew, there would be nowhere for them to go; they’d never be safe again. Oh God. And all he could do was stand and watch.

Finally, his Dad was there, getting him freed. “Kyle, what the hell are you thinking? I’m sorry, I have control of him now. I’m sure there won’t be any charges.“ After the guards left, his Dad gripped his arm fiercely. “That is not the way to do it, Kyle.”

Kyle just stared at him helplessly. “Then what do we do?” His Dad looked back over to the podium.

Dr. Garrett was bleeding from his nose, but he waved away the guards, straightened his coat and continued on. “We have taken Liz Parker for her own protection, to make sure that the transformation hasn’t harmed her in any way. She is receiving excellent care and we should be able to release the findings of our tests in a few days.”

Kyle’s eyes sought out Mr. Parker, who was standing with an open mouth toward the front. Mrs. Parker was beside him, clutching his arm and weeping openly.

“I urge my fellow Americans to get behind this effort to rid our planet of these invaders. There are ten of these known aliens. The names and photos will be released within the hour as we gather all our research, and we expect full cooperation from the authorities in rounding up these dangerous interlopers. Again, we regret not sharing this information sooner, but now you can see why I went to such great lengths to ensure the smooth removal of Liz Parker from her circumstances. She is much better off in our care. Thank you.”

Kyle felt numb as the silver-haired man stepped back from the podium. His friends had been just been handed over to the mob. Stick a fork in ‘em. They’re done.

“Well, Kyle are you going to stand there all day?”

Kyle looked over to his Dad with irritation. He opened his mouth to speak, but he never got a word out. “We have exactly one hour or less to help these kids. We are not going to bail on them now.”

“Dad, what are we going to do?”

Blue eyes met blue eyes, with a fierce understanding between them.

“Whatever it takes.”

******

“What do you mean, he’s there?” Isabel was getting hysterical. “He’s in that place, with Liz and Alex? You just sent him in there alone?”

Nasedo’s lean face was so blank she wanted to strangle him. “I didn’t send him in. I simply helped him connect with her. He did that on his own.”

Isabel couldn’t believe it. “So is he okay? I mean, will he be able to help them, or will they just- just hurt him?” She covered her mouth with her hand. How many nightmares had she had about Max getting captured and tortured? NO!

“This is ridiculous,” Delia’s voice broke through Isabel’s haze of grief. “He’s fine. He’s the king, right?” The tremor in her voice betrayed her confident words. “If anyone messes with him, he’ll just kick their ass, right? I’m just pissed off that I don’t get to see it happen.”

Isabel turned to see tears in Delia’s eyes. Michael walked over and put his arm around her, but she shoved him away and turned from the group. Michael sighed and looked at Nasedo. “Send me. My connection with Liz is gone, but I can find her if I try hard enough.”

“The orb is not willing.”

“And neither am I,” Christopher stepped forward. “Michael, you need to stay here to lead us. You’re the next in line, since your brother isn’t here.”

Isabel blinked in confusion. “So, just write Max off because he’s not here. Nice loyalty. God, what is wrong with you people?” Then she turned to Nasedo. “I’ll go. Send me.”

“The orb is not willing.”

Isabel’s immediate fury sent her power into a whirlwind inside of her. She was going to-

Isabel felt an unfamiliar hand on her arm. “Whoa, there, you fiery-goddess-type, you.” It was Tug standing beside her. She jerked her arm away as he continued. “I think the orb usually knows what it’s doing in situations like this. We’ll be there in about three hours. I think the best way we can help him is to get back in the cars and-”

Isabel nodded and stalked over to the car. “Fine! Let’s go then!”

She was not going to waste time talking about options. Tug was right. Three hours in that place was bad enough, but they wouldn’t just kill him right off the bat. They would want to study him first. Tears stung her eyes. “NOW!”

Finally, she heard voices and the others coming behind her. She climbed in the driver’s seat. It smelled like Max. Tears flooded her eyes and she jerked the key in the ignition.

“We’re coming, Max,” she whispered. “Hang on.”