"Hi, honey," he called.

She gave him a wide smile as she entered the den. She was a tall girl, blond, with gorgeous blue eyes and perfect teeth. Sometimes Alex was amazed that he'd found her among the staff at MIT - she looked like she should be gracing the cover of a magazine instead of instructing students. Sometimes he was even more amazed that she'd married him.

Lynn bent to plant a kiss on him, handing him the mail she'd brought in. "Hello, Love," she greeted. Alex dropped the mail and held her stomach in both hands, putting his ear to the bulge. Lynn laughed lightly.

"How's my boy?" Alex asked, rubbing her tummy.

"It's a girl, Alex Whitman," Lynn said firmly, kidding, as she moved away from him and into the kitchen. "Tea?"

"Mmm." Alex watched her move about the kitchen and his heart swelled with the love he felt for her.

"Feeling better?" she asked as she ran water into the teakettle.

"I don't know," Alex began. "Might need a little tender loving care to help me get through…"

She stopped in front of the stove, her affection showing on her face. "Something tells me you feel better - something to do with that horny look on your face." She put the kettle on the burner, then turned to the refrigerator. "It seems like you always have a cold."

Alex swiveled back and forth in his desk chair, his feet planted on the floor. "You're right. It seems like I haven't been warm since I left New Mexico…like 14 years ago."

Lynn started chopping some vegetables to go with dinner. She motioned to the stack of mail with her chin. "What did we get?"

Alex sighed and picked up the bundle, fanning through it "Ad, bill, ad, bill, junk, junk, bill, what the…"

Lynn stopped chopping. "Honey?"

Alex had sat straight up, a letter in his hand. He cautiously opened it, then sat back in the chair.

Lynn wiped her hands on a dishtowel and came into the den. "You okay?"

Alex looked up at her. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." He gestured to the letter. "Just my, uh, class reunion."

She picked up the invitation, wondering why he suddenly looked pale. "That's nice. Do you want to go?"

Alex almost looked cornered. "Honey, I don't know. You know, with you being pregnant and all - it's a long way from Boston to New Mexico."

Lynn smiled. "This baby is a long ways from coming, Alex. I'm sure I could travel." Her face softened when she saw his worried expression. "But we don't have to if you don't want to."

Alex simply shook his head. "I don't know." He attempted a smile as he squeezed her hand. "We'll talk about it later, okay? How about if I help you with dinner?"

He got up and followed her in to the kitchen, worry clouding his mind. He'd never told her about certain parts of his life in Roswell, about the people he was friends with. Only Liz and Maria because he still heard from them occasionally. Nothing about the other three, about what they were and the struggles they went through together. Certainly nothing about Isabel. If he had, he was sure Lynn wouldn't have married him - she would have thought he was a nut case.

So engrossed was Alex in his reflection that he hadn't noticed Lynn stealing worried glances in his direction.

_____________________________________________________________________

"Jesus, I told you you couldn't wear that," Maria said, shaking her head at her daughter Kelsey.

"Dad said I could," Kelsey returned, arms defiantly crossed over her chest.

"Of course he did," Maria replied, rolling her blue eyes. "When has good taste ever stopped him from anything?"

Maria walked away from her daughter and out the back door of the house. In the back yard, Michael was flipping burgers on the grill, Max seated in a chair nearby.

"Michael," Maria started sternly.

Michael glanced at Max and rolled his eyes.

"Did you tell Kelsey she could wear that bathing suit to that party?"

Michael shrugged. "Yeah, why not?"

"Why not? Because it's a thong, Michael. She's 12."

Max put a hand up to hide his grin.

"No 12-year-old daughter of mine is going to go to a pool party with her ass hanging out!"

Michael flipped a burger, wondering what his response should be. "Why not? That's how I met her mom."

Maria's eyes flashed, then she turned on her heels and marched into the house. Shortly thereafter, Kelsey emerged from the house, tears in her green eyes. She'd pulled on a pair of jean shorts over the offending bathing suit. Sniffling, she crawled onto Max's lap.

"Uncle Max," she began. "Mom won't let me wear this."

Max put an arm around her and smoothed her long blond hair. "Then I guess maybe you should listen to her."

"But I paid a lot of money for it - all of my savings."

Michael glanced her way. "They should have given you half off since half of it is missing."

"Daddy!" Kelsey broke into sobs.

Max pulled her slight little body into his, shushing her. "It's okay, Kelsey," he soothed. "I'll take you out this afternoon and buy you a new one."

Out of his daughter's line of sight, Michael threw his hands into the air. There wasn't much sense in disciplining her when "Uncle Max" lavished so much of his affection on her.

"And Dad will just have to live with it," he added, catching Michael's actions.

Kelsey pulled away from Max's shoulder, wiping her tears. "Do you mean it?"

Max nodded. "Of course I do. Now go change out of that before your mother has another fit about it…and put it away until you're 18." Max smiled as he watched her bound away from him.

After Kelsey had disappeared into the house, Michael turned to Max. "She works you, you know."

Max only smiled. "Of course."

Michael flipped the last burger, then sank into the lawn chair next to Max. His dark eyes looked to the kitchen window where he could see Maria and Kelsey embroiled in another argument - he couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could see lots of hand movement. Kelsey had every demonstrative quality her mother had - and better control of her powers than her father had. Soon - Michael guessed some time this afternoon - Maria was going to push her too far she was going to vent the Michael way. Something was going to get broken without ever being touched, or Maria's makeup would suddenly all turn black. They'd done well keeping Kelsey's powers under control, but when she was really pissed…

"Did Isabel fight with your mom like that?" Michael asked, sipping his soda and pointing to the window.

Max shook his head. "Never. She fought with me like that, though."

Michael sighed.

"So listen," Max started, looking away from the duel in the kitchen. "Did you get that reunion invitation?"

Michael nodded. "Yeah."

"You going?"

"I don't know. Kelsey's such a handful any more. I think Maria's afraid to leave her alone that long."

"What? One night?" Max laughed. "You know Mom would watch her."

"Yeah, but…" Michael glanced at Max. "Are you going?"

Max looked to the cloudless sky. "I don't know."

Both of their thoughts had gone to the same place - Liz.

Michael decided to leave that place. "What about Is?"

Max was grateful for the salvation. "I think she might, yeah. It would do her some good to get out and see some familiar faces. She's been so…isolated since Jonathan died."

Michael nodded his understanding. "I can understand that." He heard a crash inside the house, then a door slam. "Welp, that's my cue. Watch the burgers, will you?"

______________________________________________________________________

Liz Parker moved around her bedroom, packing her suitcase. She was very methodical in the way she folded each piece of clothing, trying to minimize the wrinkles. Her stomach fluttered every now and then at the thought of what she was doing - she hadn't been in Roswell in 12 years, since she'd gone there for Kelsey's birth. It had been too painful to stay there, with all of the memories haunting her. Alex had fled also, but much farther than she had.

Liz sighed as she folded some socks together, turning the cuffs over so they wouldn't get separated. It had been so long, but she could still remember her last visit "home." She'd been at the hospital talking about the delivery with Maria. Max had walked in, his expression turning from joyous to stunned at seeing her, and she had known right then that she couldn't occupy the same town Max Evans did. The pain she felt at seeing him again was too great.

But here she was, loading up a suitcase and getting ready to hop on a plane. I must be mad, she thought. But 12 years was a long time. Maybe things had changed. Maybe she wouldn't feel that way about seeing him again. And she did want to see Maria and Michael, and Alex if he showed up. She's heard that Isabel's husband had died suddenly, so she wasn't sure if she'd be there or not. But seeing Isabel would be nice. She wasn't sure what seeing Max would be like.

The doorbell buzzed and Liz knew the taxi must be outside. She quickly snapped the suitcase shut and went to the door.

The sky had turned an ominous green color. It was something that had taken her a long time to get used to - in South Dakota the weather had a way of turning on a dime. Sun one minute, hail the next. And the eerie part was that you could see the storms coming over the plains, and sometimes the anticipation was more frightening than the actual storm. Sort of like maybe the anticipation of seeing Max would be worse than actually seeing him.

"Where you headed?" the taxi driver asked, tossing her suitcase into the trunk.

"Airport," Liz replied. She hopped into the car, then watched as the storm rolled in.

"Probably a delay," the driver laughed. "But then again, what's new?"

Liz allowed herself a little smile. "Well, at least the storm hit before the plane went up this time."

The driver nodded. Only commuter planes out of Rapid City's airport - and that could provide for a bumpy ride in one of these storms. "So, what do you do?" he asked as he put the car into gear.

"I'm a geologist," Liz explained. "I'm working on the mammoth dig in Hot Springs."

"Interesting work, I hear."

Yeah, and enough to keep me out of Roswell, she thought. "Yeah, it is. You never know what you are going to dig up."

They spent the rest of the drive in silence. When they got to the airport - sure enough - there was a delay in her flight. Liz wondered if this was God's way of trying to tell her something.

_____________________________________________________________________

Diane Evans knocked on Isabel's door. "Sweetie?" she called. "Are you in there?"

The door opened, and Isabel tried to put on a smile for her mother. "Hi, Mom."

"Hi, honey." Diane was always taken aback at Isabel' appearance these days. Not so much physically, but there was something lifeless about her eyes. "Are you eating with Dad and me tonight?"

Isabel didn't feel like it. She wanted to crawl into her bed and never come out. But her parents had been kind enough to let her move back in after Jonathan's death so she wouldn't be alone. The least she could do was show a little effort. "Sure, I'll eat. Need help?"

The cry of a baby behind Isabel interrupted Diane's reply. "Sounds like someone else is hungry, too. I'll get dinner, honey. You take care of the baby."

Isabel softly closed the door and crossed the room to the bassinette. She looked down at Hannah, only three months old - Isabel had found out that she was pregnant after Jonathan had been killed in the line of duty. He'd never even know he was going to be a father - and he would have been so proud. Isabel scooped up the little bundle with one hand, deftly unbuttoning her shirt with the other, and brought the baby to her breast.

Isabel sat down in the rocker as she nursed her small daughter and could feel the tears start to form in her eyes. They'd had so many plans, she and her handsome husband. He'd taken the news about her being "different" amazingly well, and Isabel believed he'd loved her with all of his heart. Jonathan had become like a brother to Max, like a son to Philip and Diane, and the love of Isabel's life. All she had now was this wisp of a girl in her arms.