Author: Danilise
Email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: It's all property of the WB, Jason Katims, Melinda
Metz, etc. No infringement intended.
This story is part of an evolving storyline that currently
includes (in order): "Decisions," "Looking
In," "Christmas Envy," "From Another
Place," "Husbands and Fathers," "Claudia and
Nicole," and "Stars." More stories may be
forthcoming.
The Ethics Lesson
Isabel sighed as she watched Claudia and Nicole tear through
yet another department store. How she had gotten stuck watching
the two of them, she had no idea.
She tried to remember the convoluted chain of events that had led
up to this moment. It had had something to do with Liz’s
needing quiet time to write, that much she was sure of. And it
had also had something to do with the fact that both Michael and
Alex were out of town, Michael meeting with some curator to
discuss a new show of his paintings in Albuquerque, and Alex away
at a computer security experts conference. And then it had had
something to do with Maria’s offering to take Matthew and
Anna with her when she took Molly and the twins for their yearly
physicals at Max’s new office downtown.
To be honest, her being stuck watching Claudia and Nicole had
probably been predestined by her brother’s decision to move
back to Roswell six months ago. That would be just like her luck.
Six months ago, apparently out of the blue, Max had decided that
he could practice medicine anywhere, and Liz had decided that
although she loved research and teaching and she always would,
she wanted a change. She wanted to write a book, and a change of
pace away from the big city was exactly what she needed for
inspiration. And Max and Liz together had decided that Claudia
needed to grow up nearer her cousins. So they decided to move
away from Boston and back to Roswell.
Isabel smiled as she thought about their reasons, stated and
unstated. She knew that her brother still believed firmly in
‘better to be safe than sorry.’ And that was why she
guessed that a large unstated reason for why he and Liz had
decided to move back to Roswell was to keep an eye on all the
cousins: Michael and Maria’s four monsters, Nicole, Stephen
and Leo, and little Mikyelah, who everyone called Molly (to
continue the Joycean theme); and her and Alex’s angels,
Matthew and Anna; as well as Claudia.
Max was still trying to protect all of them. He worried, Isabel
knew, about what powers the cousins might or might not have,
about what health problems their special-ness might or might not
entail. She knew that the children were the reason Max had
specialized in pediatrics in the first place. That, and the fact
(although he would never admit it) that he could use a little bit
of his own magic on his tiny patients and not worry about having
to explain why exactly his hands glowed.
She sighed again as shouts of girlish laughter interrupted her
musings and brought her back to reality.
So here she was, stuck watching the two eldest kids, Max and
Liz’s perfect little Claudia, who was anything but perfect
when she was with Nicole, and Michael and Maria’s
paint-stained pixie Nicole.
There were just two of them, so why did she feel like she had
gotten the raw end of the deal? Maria had five children to watch,
but two of those children were Isabel’s own Matty and Anna,
who were angels. And all five children were going to see their
Uncle Max, which meant that all five of them would be on their
best behavior.
And she was watching Claudia and Nicole because they had wanted
to go shopping, and everyone agreed that Isabel was the best aunt
to shop with. And she did enjoy shopping.
But Claudia and Nicole together were hellions, to borrow a phrase
from Claudia’s grandfather. They talked a mile a minute.
They couldn’t keep still. They played pranks. They tore
through sale racks. They terrorized salesladies.
Isabel sighed again, feeling like it was the only proactive thing
she could do in the face of impending disaster. Shopping trips
like this one made her wish that all of them had decided to
remain childless. Or, at least that Max and Michael had decided
to remain childless. Or, that Max had decided to stay in Boston.
Thousands of miles should separate her two nieces, she decided as
she watched the two girls rifle through yet another rack of
clothing. Separating the two terrors was an obvious solution,
like one of those rules Max had always been insisting she and
Michael follow when they were growing up.
"Hey, Aunt Izzy!" Nicole called, holding up a low-cut,
spangled-pink top, and smirking exactly like her father Michael
did. "What do you think of this sweater?"
Isabel was speechless for a second. ‘Thank god Anna
isn’t this old yet’ was the first thought that popped
into her mind. Maybe by the time Anna got to be Nicole’s
age, Isabel would know how to handle situations like this.
Realizing that Nicole was still waiting for her reaction, she
cleared her throat. "Very nice, Nikki. But, uh, I thought we
were looking for school clothes. That’s a bit too evening
wear, don’t you think?"
Nicole and Claudia giggled at each other.
"Too evening wear!" Claudia exclaimed. "This is so
in right now, Aunt Izzy. For daytime. All the girls at my school
back home were wearing stuff like this."
"You’re teasing me, right?" Isabel asked
hopefully. She looked carefully at Claudia and recognized the
playful glint in her niece’s eyes, those dark eyes that were
so startlingly like Max’s.
Claudia gave her a saucy nod and tore off towards another part of
the store. Nicole took off after her, dropping the sweater
haphazardly on a display table as she went.
Sighing for the umpteenth time, Isabel picked up and re-folded
the garish sweater. It was going to be a long day. She just knew
it.
They had a late lunch in the food court of the mall,
surrounded by packages and bags. Claudia and Nicole were both
pretty tired from running around the various stores. And Isabel
was exhausted from trying to keep up with them.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a brown-haired boy ran up and
pulled one of Nicole’s long, blonde curls.
"Jamie!" Nicole shrieked and raced after him.
Isabel watched in amazement as her tiny niece caught up with the
much larger boy, then started kicking his shins and hitting him
on the head, calling him a "cheesehead" and a
"boogerface" in a voice loud enough to wake the dead.
The sense of déjà vu was overwhelming. Isabel felt like she was
back in fifth grade and watching Maria and Michael fight all the
time. Dropping her forehead into her hands, she began to massage
her temples.
Then Claudia gasped, and Isabel looked up, just in time to catch
Nicole’s small hand glowing against the boy’s chest as
she pushed him to the ground again.
Isabel was on her feet and running towards the two children
before she realized what she was doing.
"Nicole Maria Guerin! I can’t believe you just did
that!"
"He was totally asking for it, Aunt Izzy. He deserved
it," Nicole said defiantly.
Shaking her head in disbelief, Isabel helped the boy up from the
ground. She could tell he was already starting to itch where
Nicole had touched him. "Your name’s Jamie?" she
asked.
He nodded. "Jamie Valenti, ma’am."
Isabel swallowed. "Valenti," she repeated. It figured.
Could her life get any worse?
Knowing she needed to act quickly, she smoothed Jamie’s
shirt into place and discreetly fixed the damage Nicole had done.
Then she looked sternly at both children. "I think you both
need to apologize to each other."
They apologized in matching, reluctant, patently insincere
voices. That insincerity was underlined when Jamie ran off
immediately to re-join his friends, and Nicole stuck out her
tongue after him.
Isabel rolled her eyes. Nicole was so much like both her parents
that it was scary sometimes. She sighed. Then it occurred to her
that she was the adult in this situation, so she needed to
enforce some rules, provide a lesson in the ethical use of alien
powers, as it were.
She gave Nicole her most fearsome "Princess Isabel"
look and said, "Let’s go back to the table and your
cousin. We’re all going to have a little talk."
Nicole actually looked nervous at the prospect, and Isabel was
pleased.
Claudia picked up Nicole’s nervousness quickly, and Isabel
was even more pleased. She wanted her message to sink in.
"Look, girls. There need to be rules. You can’t just
use your powers. I know it’s exciting to do things. I know
it’s convenient. I know sometimes people even deserve it.
But you can’t let people know what we are. And if you use
your powers, you run that risk." She examined both their
faces to make sure they were listening carefully. All of a
sudden, a memory of a certain fifth-grade production of
"Snow White" and her own selfish use of her powers
popped into her head. That memory colored her next words.
"If you’re going to use your powers at all, you need to
use them for good purposes. To help humans. Otherwise, don’t
use them. Just don’t. Period."
Nicole and Claudia looked at her with twin expressions of
thoughtfulness. Then Nicole piped up: "Kind of like the
Prime Directive on Star Trek, Aunt Izzy?"
Isabel was speechless with shock for the second time that
afternoon. She frowned. "I can’t believe your father
lets you watch that show."
Nicole shrugged. "He has to. It’s payment for
babysitting the twins while Mom takes care of Molly." She
smirked. "And I tell him it’s also punishment for not
taking the twins back to the hospital after they were born like I
asked. It’s our deal."
Isabel could just imagine Michael making such a deal too. He had
about as much backbone where Nicole was concerned as Max did
where Claudia was concerned. She shook her head and returned to
the topic at hand.
"You both understand what I’m saying, right?"
Both girls nodded.
"Good. Now let’s go home."
As they were walking towards the car in the mall parking lot, it
occurred to Isabel that it was funny that she had been thinking
about Max’s rules earlier that day, considering that her two
nieces had later broken those very rules, even though they
hadn’t known about them yet.
It also occurred to her that without Max’s breaking their
cardinal rule and healing Liz, the two girls laughing and
skipping in front of her would never have existed. Max would
never in a million years have overcome his shyness enough to talk
to Liz. No way would Michael and Maria have gotten together if
they hadn’t been thrown together. And she herself would
probably never have known the joys of being a wife and mother.
Max’s breaking the rules had been the most important -- the
best -- thing that had ever happened to them.
Looking back, she realized that Max had always been breaking the
rules. The rules he always insisted everyone else follow. She
needed to talk to him about that. Maybe thank him.
But there was definitely not enough gratitude in the world to
make up for today. This was absolutely the last time she was ever
going to allow herself to be roped into shopping with Claudia and
Nicole.
The End