Author: X_tremeroswellian

Disclaimer: How depressing...yeah, yeah. Not mine. Originally created by Melinda Metz, and now Jason Katims and the WB and a bunch of others who actually make money for entertaining us. :)

Rating: R (for language, violence, and sexual content)

Spoilers: Up through "The UFO Convention" and possibly for the first five books of the Roswell High series by Melinda Metz.

Author's Note: This plot was mentioned by some people on the onelists that I belong to...as possible spoilers for upcoming episodes. I don't know, but I agree with the people who were discussing this, so this is my version of what direction things could take on the show.

Feedback: Please? Please? Thanks! :)

Part 1

Alex Whitman plopped down onto a stool at the Crashdown. He laid his head down on the coutner. When he felt a hand touch his shoulder, he looked up into the eyes of his best friend, Liz Parker. "Hey."

"Hey," she said softly. "What's up?"

"Not much."

"Oh."

Alex could hear the hurt in her voice that she tried to hide. He watched as she began wiping off the counter and he grabbed her hand. She looked at him in surprise. "I'm sorry, Liz."

She blinked. "For what?"

"For being a jerk."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

He squeezed her hand gently. "I didn't have enough faith in you. I was--I was really mean to you before and I'm sorry."

Liz's head dropped as her eyes filled with tears. "Alex, no. Everything you said ato me, all of your anger--it was all justified. You have nothing to apologize for."

He tightened his grip on her hand. "Neither do you. You were just protecting Isabel and Max and Michael."

She nodded but a tear slid down her cheek. She brushed it away with the back of her hand. "I have to ask you something, Alex, and I want you to be honest with me."

"Of course."

"Do you hate me for not telling you sooner?"

Alex's eyes widened. "No! Liz, I don't hate you."

"I just...I just want us to be friends again, Alex. You and me and Maria. I need you. I need my friend back." She lifted her face to meet his eyes and he could see she was on the verge of crying.

He quickly rose to his feet and moved around the counter. Alex wrapped his arms around her. "I'm here, Liz."

"I don't want to lose you, Alex," she whispered, burying her face in his shoulder.

He stroked her hair gently. "You won't. You haven't." He pulled away to look at her. "Liz, you're my best friend. I'm here for you." He brushed away her tears and kissed her forehead.

She hugged him again. "Thank you," she said softly.

Just then, the door to the Crashdown opened and Liz and Alex turned to look. Isabel and Michael walked in. "Uh, hey, Liz, can I go in back?" Alex asked suddenly.

Liz blinked in surprise. "Sure. Go ahead. In fact, my parents aren't home, so you can grab the key and go upstairs if you want."

"Thanks." Alex slipped away from her and went into the back.

Liz took a deep breath, wiped her eyes and then walked over to Michael and Isabel. "Welcome to the Crashdown. What can I get for you?"

Michael frowned at her formality. "Uh, the real Liz Parker would be nice."

"You're looking at her. Do you need a few minutes to decide what you want?" she asked calmly.

Isabel stood up and headed towards the door to the back room. Liz cut her off. "You can't go back there. Employees only."

"Alex just went back there."

"Alex is family."

There was no mistaking the cold edge in Liz's voice. Isabel locked eyes with her. "I need to talk to him."

"No," Liz answered flatly. Alex obviously didn't want to talk to her right now, or he wouldn't have gone to the back, Liz reasoned with herself.

Isabel stared at her in shock. "What?"

"I said, 'no.' Please go back to your table now."

Isabel, shocked, walked back to the booth and sat down across from Michael again. "Is?" he frowned.

"Who is that?" she demanded.

Michael looked over his shoulder at Liz. "Maybe that's something we should ask Max."

Maria came in through the back entrance of the Crashdown and ran directly into her friend Alex. "Hey, Alex."

"Hey. Czechoslovakians out front," he warned her.

Maria rolled her eyes. "Great." She opened her locker and then looked back at him. "That why you're back here?"

"Yeah, I didn't want to suffocate anyone." Alex turned and hurried up the stairs to Liz's family's apartment.

Maria stared after him for a moment, puzzled. Then she grabbed her order book and headed out front.

"Hey, Maria," Liz said. She bit her lip and looked over at Michael and Isabel.

"Liz, babe, chill. Alex warned me already." She smiled. "Have they ordered yet?"

"No, but I've got it," she said quickly.

Maria waved her hand. "Actually, let me. It doesn't matter. I have a date tomorrow night."

Liz's eyes widened. "With whom?"

Maria smiled mysteriously. "Actually, you, me and Alex all three have dates."

"What?"

"Details later. The foreigners are starting to look hungry." Maria walked over to their table. "Hi, Isabel. Michael. What can I get ya?"

"Saturn rings," Isabel replied, still staring at Liz.

Maria wrote it down and then looked at Michael expectantly. He was staring at her. "Take a picture. Lasts longer."

Michael blinked but he couldn't take his eyes off her face.

"Michael?" Isabel questioned. She reached across the table and touched his hand.

Michael leapt out of the booth, standing so close to Maria that her heart started beating double-time. "What's the matter with you?" she asked.

Michael turned and bolted towards the door and out of the cafe.

Maria, Isabel and Liz all stared after him. "What the hell was that about?" Maria wondered aloud.

"Max! Maxwell!"

Max sighed and sat up in bed. He stood up, unlocked and opened his window. Michael climbed in.

"What's going on? Why are you sleeping in the middle of the day?"

"I wasn't sleeping. I was thinking," Max answered, sitting back down on his bed.

"About Liz."

Max glared at him. "Yeah. I was. At least I can admit it."

Michael frowned but ignored the remark. "Something's wrong."

"What?"

"I don't know. I just came from the Crashdown and, first of all, Liz was acting really weird and then--"

"Wait. What do you mean by weird?"

"I don't know. Upset or angry or something." Max frowned but Michael continued. "But the strangest part happened when I saw Maria. I got a vision, Maxwell."

"A vision?"

"Not exactly a vision. More like a feeling. Something's wrong, Max. I can't explain it, but I think something's about to happen. Something bad."

Max studied him for a moment. "Like what?"

"I don't know. But whatever it is, they're all involved somehow."

Max frowned again and then he stood up and looked out the window. It was starting to rain. He turned back to face his friend. "You think they're in trouble?"

Michael shrugged, averting his worried eyes from Max's. "Maybe."

"We need to talk to Isabel about this when she gets back."

Michael nodded in agreement. "We need to have a meeting. All of us."

"All six of us," Max answered. He met Michael's gaze. A chill ran down his spine.

"So, wait a minute. Where did you meet these people again?" Alex asked Maria as he, Maria and Liz sat around Liz's kitchen table.

"At the aromatherapy store at the mall."

"And you just...asked them to go out with us?" Liz asked in amazement.

"Yeah. There were two guys and a girl. I mentioned to Neil that I had a couple of friends..."

"And bam! We all have dates to dinner and a movie," Alex finished.

Maria grinned. "Yep."

Just then, the telephone rang. Liz picked it up. "Hello?"

"Liz?"

She swallowed hard. "Yeah."

"It's me. Max."

"I know."

"We need to talk. All six of us."

Maria raised an eyebrow at Liz, who mouthed the word, "Max." Maria rolled her eyes and took the phone from her. "What do you want?"

Max blinked in surprise. "Maria?"

"Duh."

"I was just telling Liz that the six of us need to talk. It's impor--"

Maria cut him off. "Save it, Evans. We've got the picture. No entanglements. Wouldn't want to complicate anyone's life or throw them off balance. Now, I have to go because--"

This time, someone cut her off. "Listen, it's not about the three of us. It's about the three of you," Michael said sharply. "Is Alex over there?"

Maria glanced at her friend and then frowned. "Yeah."

"Well, then stay there. We're on our way." He dropped his voice a bit. "Please. It's important."

"Okay. Fine." She hung up the phone and turned to Alex and Liz, who were waiting curiously. "You have plenty of ice cream here, right?"

Liz nodded, her eyebrows furrowed in concern and confusion. "But why?"

Maria sighed. "Because I have a feeling we're going to need the comfort food by the time the Czechoslovakians leave."

Part 2

"What about this?" Maria asked, holding up a purple silk shirt and short black skirt.

"Depends," Alex offered. "What are you going for? Knocking him off his feet or on-the-spot-heart-attack?"

Maria made a face at him.

Liz smiled and looked at Maria. "I think it'd be great tomorrow night on our triple date. Go for it."

"Great!" Maria said, forcing herself to be cheery. "Well, now that we know what I'm wearing, we need to figure out what you're wearing." She rummaged through Liz's closet until she found a dress in the back with the tags still on it. "You've been holding out on me, Lizzie!"

"I am not wearing that to the movies."

"Just try it on," Maria urged, handing the dress to her.

Liz sighed. "Fine. I'll be right back." She disappeared into the bathroom.

Maria heard a distant knocking and she rolled her eyes. "I'll go get it."

Alex sighed as she left the room. Isabel Evans was the last person in the world he wanted to see right then. Why had he ever thought that dating her could even be possible for someone like him? And for her to know that was how he felt about her and to be told he was suffocating her...how embarrasing.

Just then, the bathroom door opened and Liz walked back in, looking a bit apprehensive.

Alex's eyes widened. "Wow! Liz, you look gorgeous!"

"Really?"

"Let's just say if you walked outside right now every car within ten miles would stop."

Liz blushed slightly and then looked around the room. "Where's Maria?"

"She's in the other room."

"Oh. Well, I'm going to go see what she thinks."

"Okay." His brain didn't process what she'd said until she'd already left the room. Then he leapt to his feet. "Liz! Wait!"

Liz plastered a smile on her face and spun around in a circle as she stepped into the living room. "Maria, what do you--" she cut herself off as she realized that Max, Michael and Isabel were standing there with Maria. "--think?" she finished, swallowing hard.

Max stared at her, his mouth open slightly. He felt like he couldn't breathe. All he could do was stare at Liz in her short, silk red spaghetti strap dress, with her long hair framing her face softly. She looked like a goddess. Even Michael and Isabel were staring.

Maria noticed Max's reaction. "A definite on-the-spot-heart-attack. I bet Max would agree with me, right Max?" He didn't answer. Maria didn't think he'd even heard her question. "But, I think it may be a bit over-dressy for dinner and a movie."

Max definitely heard those words. He froze. "You--have a date?"

"Yeah, we all do," Maria informed him, ignoring the stare she was getting from Michael.

"All of you?" Isabel repeated.

Alex smiled at Liz and Maria. "That's right."

Max couldn't take his eyes off Liz. The only thing he wanted to do right then was cross the room to her, sweep her into his arms and carry her off to her bedroom. He swallowed hard.

"I'm-uh-just going to go change now," Liz said quietly. She'd never been so embarrassed in her entire life. She turned and all but ran to her room. They all heard the slam of her door and Max jumped.

"Stop drooling," Isabel commanded. "We're here on business, remember?"

Maria flopped down on the couch. "So, what journey are we going on now, Odysseus?" she asked Michael.

He glared at her. "We're not."

Alex leaned against the wall, forcing himself to look anywhere but at Isabel, who was dressed in a red sweater and black jeans. He heard Liz come up behind him, and hesitate, knowing that she was hidden from view behind him. Then she moved until she was perched on the edge of the couch next to Maria. She was now wearing a long-sleeved green sweater and blue jeans.

She looked from Max to Isabel to Michael and then back to Max. "So, is anyone going to tell us what's going on?" she asked quietly.

Max hadn't taken his eyes off her since she'd come back into the room.

"We think you're all in danger," Michael said, getting right to the point.

Alex, Liz and Maria all stared at him. "What are you talking about?" Maria asked.

Isabel glanced at Michael and then back at Maria. "Michael had a vision. A flash of...intuition, if you will. In that flash, he felt danger for the three of you. That's why he ran out of the Crashdown earlier."

"And I thought it was something I said," Maria said sarcastically.

"This is serious," Max said quietly.

"Isn't it always?" she retorted, glaring at him.

"What kind of danger?" Liz spoke up softly. She met Max's eyes and he silently thanked her.

Michael clenched his jaw. "I don't know for sure."

"Big surprise," Maria muttered.

"Hey, look! I'm just trying to help you out!" Michael said angrily, rising to his feet and moving toward Maria.

Alex moved across the room and stepped in front of him, blocking him from Maria. "Back off," he warned.

Michael glared at him, but Alex didn't budge.

"This is ridiculous!" Michael exploded. "I'm here trying to make sure you're all okay and wonder boy here is acting like I'm the Son of Sam!"

"Alex was sticking up for me," Maria said sharply, standing up and moving next to Alex. She glared at Michael.

"Michael wouldn't hurt you!" Isabel said furiously.

"Yeah, he'd never do anything to Maria," Alex said sarcastically.

"What is this about, Maria? That I don't feel the same way about you that you do about me?"

"No, Michael, this is about you being too afraid to admit how you really feel because it makes you feel too human!" Maria replied, her eyes blazing. "All three of you! You're all cowards!"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Isabel interupted. "You have no idea what it's like to be us! You don't know what it's like to not know where you come from or who you really are!"

Maria's eyes darkened and filled with even more anger and hurt. "Yeah, I have no idea what it's like not to have a father, to not know why he left me and my mom when I was two months old! Maybe I don't know what it's like to be you exactly, but I do know how it feels to spend your whole life not knowing where you come from or who you are!"

"At least you have a real mother who loves you," Isabel said quietly.

Michael stared at Maria. He wasn't about to say anything about her family life. He knew from their one brief conversation in that cheap motel on the way to Texas that the situation was a sore spot with her.

"So do you," Maria answered just as quietly.

"My mother doesn't know who I am! She never will!" Isabel was dangerously close to crying now.

"At least she wants to know!" Maria's voice was raw with emotion. "Your mother wants to know who you are! Mine's too busy with work and boyfriends to give a damn!"

Alex wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She looked away, not wanting anyone to see her crying.

Isabel turned away from the three humans and stared out the window, blinking back her own tears.

"Don't you understand? We are the outsiders here. You don't know what that feels like!" Michael said, struggling to contain his emotions.

Maria started to respond, but Liz was quicker. "You're wrong," she said, her voice strained. "You don't have to be outsiders. And I do know how it feels. We all do, Michael. Because we try to be your friends, to help you out, to be there for you, but you push us away! You make us outsiders, not the other way around!"

"The only reason you're involved is because of an accident," Michael said sharply. He hadn't really meant to say it, it just came out.

"You mean a mistake, don't you? That's what you really wanted to say." Liz swallowed hard and she fought to keep her voice even. "I know how you feel about me, Michael. Believe me, you and Isabel have made it blatantly clear. I know you hate me because Max saved me. Well, you know what? I'm sorry that he did, too!"

Michael flinched at her words. That's not what he'd meant at all.

Max's eyes widened. "Liz, don't say th--"

"Say what, Max? The truth? You shouldn't have healed me. I've only complicated and messed up your life, and Michael's life and Isabel's life. But I won't do it anymore. I'll stay away from you..." she said, the tremor in her voice unmistakable as she gazed at Max and her eyes filled with tears. "...from all of you. You get your wish. Have a nice life. I hope you all find everything you're looking for."

She held Max's gaze for only a second before her tears spilled over and she shot out of the room and raced to the back. Alex let go of Maria and ran after Liz.

Max started to go after her, too, but Maria grabbed his arm. "I think you should leave now. The three of you did what you came here to do. Now go mess with someone else's mind for a change!" Her voice was cold, harsh.

Max blinked back tears in his own eyes. "I need to tell her--"

"No! You've done enough for one night! Just leave. If you care anything about her at all, just go and let Alex and I handle this mess!"

Max swallowed hard and his gaze dropped to the floor. He walked out the front door and stared at the star-filled sky. "I'm sorry, Liz," he whispered.

Part 3

Alex lay awake that night, staring at the cieling. He let out a sigh and then turned his head to look over at his two best friends, who were finally asleep in Liz's bed. He glanced at the clock. 3:26 a.m. He always used to be asleep by 10:30.

But not since Liz had told him about Isabel, Max and Michael. He'd lain awake night after night, just staring out his bedroom window at the stars, wondering what had happened to cause their three Czechoslovakian friends to end up here. He had gone over every memory he had of the three of them, turning each memory over and over, examining each from every possible angle, trying to figure out if there had ever been any clue along the way, but in the end, there never was. By all rights, Isabel and Max Evans and Michael Guerin had always been completely human.

And yet, they weren't.

They were different from him, different from Liz and Maria...and at the same time, they were still the same people they'd always been.

Alex wondered when he'd suddenly become a philosopher.

He looked back over at Liz, who was sleeping on the edge of the bed nearest him. Moonlight streamed in from her window, and he could see her face was still tear-strained and pale. He hated seeing her like that.

After Max, Isabel and Michael had left the previous ending, Liz had locked herself in her bedroom for a good hour while he and Maria had sat outside the door, listening to the quiet sounds of her crying. They hadn't spoken, hadn't even looked at one another. They were feeling the same way--like their hearts had just been ripped out and stuffed back in their chests. Alex didn't have to ask how Maria or Liz was feeling...he just knew. When you've been friends with someone as long as Alex had been friends with the two of them, you just know.

It wasn't fair. Liz was a good person, and she loved Max. That was another thing he knew instinctively. He'd seen her when she was going out with Kyle, and with a few other guys before that...but she never looked at Kyle or any of those other guys the way she looked at Max Evans.

And Alex felt for her. He'd always been closer with Liz than Maria. Not that he didn't love Maria, but of the three of them, Liz and Alex were the most alike. And Liz was the first person to ever make him feel like he truly belonged.

He'd moved to Roswell in the fourth grade, but he and Liz had been in different classes. He remembered meeting her once on the playground, and she had such a brilliant smile. She'd looked so happy, swinging with Maria. He'd wanted to stay and play for awhile, but the bell rang signalling the end of recess.

After that, he saw her from time to time, but was too shy to talk to her or Maria. So he'd sat alone at lunch and recess his fourth grade year at Roswell Elementary. All summer that year he'd dreaded the start of school. And on the first day of fifth grade, he'd sat down in the back of the room by himself, as usual.

But to his surprise, Liz had come and sat down next to him, flashing him that same happy smile. But this time, Alex had smiled back. And at lunch that day, she had taken his hand and sat down in the cafeteria with him, and since Maria had a different lunch hour that year, it had just been the two of them. And she'd asked him questions, and shared things about her own life. They'd been inseperable.

Liz introduced him to Maria a few weeks later, when Alex's family had gone to the Crashdown for dinner, and Liz and Maria were having a sleepover. And to his surprise, the two of them had invited him to join them. And after that, it was always the three of them. They went everywhere together, hung out, talked, watched movies, and of course, argued occasionally. But Liz had always been the peacemaker of the three of them. Anytime he and Maria would argue about anything, Liz always mangaged to get them back on track again.

And eventually, they didn't argue anymore. They were just there for one another, through anything.

When the popular guys at school harassed him, Liz and Maria were the first to jump to his defense. When Maria's mother was out on yet another date with some guy, Liz and Alex were always there to cheer her up with ice cream. When Liz's parents left her alone for weekends to go on business for the Crashdown, Alex and Maria stayed with her.

They'd seen each other through breakups, sickness, parent problems, teachers from hell, and countless other things.

And even though that was true, Alex had never seen Liz break down like she had that night, when she'd told Max that she would stay away from him. He knew how much it hurt her and he hated it.

He heard a soft sound and turned his head towards it. She was crying again. His heart ached for her. He moved quietly, trying not to wake Maria, who was faced towards the window. He touched Liz's arm. She didn't jump, didn't look at him, just slid over slightly towards Maria and Alex laid down next to her, holding her hand. He shifted and kissed her forehead lightly. "I'm sorry, Liz," he whispered.

She just nodded as she buried her face in her pillow.

Maria turned over and faced them, meeting Alex's eyes momentarily. Then she took Liz's other hand and squeezed it. "We'll always have each other," she whispered fiercely.

"Always," Alex repeated, gazing at Liz.

Liz sat up and threw her arms around them both and engulfed them in an embrace. "I don't know what I'd do without you guys," she whispered.

"You don't have to worry about that," he assured her, leaning his head against both of theirs.

Max was awake, staring at the wall when he heard the soft knock at his door. "Come in," he said quietly.

Michael sat up on the sleeping bed next to Max's bed, pulling his knees to his chest. Isabel stepped into the room, wearing her red silk pajamas. She closed the door behind her and dropped onto the edge of Max's bed. "I can't sleep."

Max sighed and sat up. "That makes three of us."

"Probably more than three," she said softly, staring at the floor.

Michael looked up at her. "What?"

"I just have a feeling we're not the only ones unable to sleep tonight."

Max stared out his bedroom window. "Do you think they meant it? That they're going to stay away from us from now on?"

"Doubt it," Michael commented. Max and Isabel both turned to look at him. "I mean, think about it. You saved her life, Max. So regardless of what got said, I don't think they'll try to stay away from us."

"She said she wished I hadn't saved her," Max whispered, shaking his head.

The three of them fell silent for a long moment. Then Isabel spoke up, her voice thick with emotion, "I think I really hurt Alex. I told him he was suffocating me. I didn't mean it."

Max put a hand on her shoulder. "You were afraid."

She pulled away. "Maria was right, you know."

"What do you mean?"

"She called us cowards. She was right. That's what we are. All three of us," she said, her voice becoming angry as she stood up and began pacing the floor.

"Hey, what does she know?" Michael demanded, standing up.

Isabel spun around to face him. "She was dead on when she said she made you feel too human, Michael. You know it, I know it, Max knows it. And if you deny it, you're a liar," she challenged.

Michael stared at her. "I am not human. None of us are."

She stepped up close to him, rage in her eyes, a rage he had never seen before. "Stop using me as an excuse, Michael. If you want to hide behind lies, do it alone. You might not want to feel human, but the truth is, we're just as human as they are. We feel things, we hurt, we cry, we get angry. We think, we talk, we hear and we see the way they do. The way we've done every day since we broke out of our pods. Nothing you can say or do can change that!"

"And nothing that you can say or do can change the fact that this is still not our home!" he exploded.

Max was glad his parents were out of town for the weekend.

"It is home, Michael! This is the only home any of us has ever known! I'm tired of sitting back and watching my life pass before my eyes! I want to live. I don't want to spend every day waiting for someone to come back for us! We crashed fifty years ago! What the hell makes you think anyone's ever going to come back for us?"

"Because Nasedo is here."

"So what? He's been here for fifty years, too! Just because he's here doesn't mean we're ever going back to wherever we come from! Don't you get it, Michael? Don't you see? We are here for good. I'm sorry that you got stuck with a raw deal. I'm sorry that you didn't take Max's hand that night! I wish you had! I love you like a brother, Michael, but Jesus, sometimes you can be so thick-headed!"

Michael looked away. "So what are you saying, Iz?"

"I'm saying...I'm saying I'm tired," she said finally, her voice flat as she dropped back onto Max's bed. "And I'm saying I want to be normal. And that we have three people who know who we are, who accept it, and who still care about us. And I for one, am tired of pretending it's not true."

"Isabel?" Max's voice rose from the darkness of his room, and she turned to face him.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm saying that I think I'm in love with Alex."

Go to Part 4-6