Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me, but to
the writers and producers of Roswell
Spoilers: After Chant Down Babylon, changes happening
where Max is successfully rescued,
and
Michael was the one who broke up with Maria.
****
She walks in
beauty
Like the night
of cloudless climes and starry skies
And all that’s
best of dark and bright
Meet in her
aspect and her eyes
-
Lord Byron
****
“You’re what?” Max choked, as he set down a piece of French
bread.
Isabel had smiled cheerfully as her guests had arrived. One by one, each of the closest friends and
family she’d ever known greeted her warmly and continued to whisper amongst
each other about what the surprise was.
She hated it. All Isabel could
do was smile and pretend that she was just being mysterious and evasive.
“Max!” Isabel exclaimed through a smile and gritted
teeth. “Don’t be so dramatic! You heard what Jesse said. We’re moving to New York.”
The words seemed to come out so slow, as if she needed to
hear them again and again to convince herself it was true. Now Isabel had expected this amount of drama
from her brother. This was the
same Max who had forbidden her to go to college. But what had been unexpected was her parent’s extreme delight at
the move.
“We’re happy for you Isabel!” Mrs. Evan exclaimed between
sobs. “I know it doesn’t look like it,
but these are tears of joy!”
Mr. Evans wasn’t as vocal.
He cleared his throat, shook Jesse’s hand and nodded his head towards
his son-in-law once. This sight
unsettled Isabel. She’d expected some
sort of outburst from her father since Jesse was leaving the firm in the
lurch. Instead her father walked over
to her side and opened his strong familiar arms toward her. “This is a surprise Isabel, but I think it’s
a good one,” Mr. Evans said approvingly.
He then turned to Jesse and said jokingly. “You’d better take good care of my Isabel, young man!”
Isabel laughed half-heartedly. “Stop it Dad!”
Her gaze traversed the down the length of the table. Liz and Maria had been quiet for the
duration of the announcement, and even Michael for that matter. “So girls, surprised?” Isabel asked,
avoiding Michael’s probing gaze.
The girls stumbled over themselves trying to express their
support of the move, while subtly questioning Isabel with their eyes. “Well, uh, yes?” Liz exclaimed, the first
one to find her voice. “Of course. It just seems so sudden. Right Maria?”
The pouty blond seemed to jump in her seat as she glared at
Liz from across the table. “Uh
yeah. Definitely,” Maria
sputtered. “We’re totally with ya. It’s just…”
Suddenly Maxwell, who’d recovered from the piece of bread,
interrupted Maria. “What? Are you kidding?” he asked
incredulously. “Isabel you know
you can’t possibly leave…”
Now Jesse interrupted.
“What do you mean she can’t move?
I’ve gotten an amazing job offer and Izzy’s my wife. Of course she’s coming.”
Max pushed away from the dining room table. “There’s no way your taking her all the way
to New York…”
“Now calm down Max,” Mr. Evans coaxed. “I’m a little upset too, but it’ll be good
for the two of them. It’ll be an
adventure; a couple of newlyweds in a new city. Besides, they’ll have better opportunities there than in
Roswell.”
Isabel watched the consuming debate at her dinner
table. All she could do was close her
eyes. Her mother was sobbing on the one
side of her, Maxwell, Jesse and her father were deep in debate about it at the
other end of the table. Liz and Maria
continued to shoot each other glares, trying to comfort her with encouraging
words, and well, Michael…Michael.
He just seemed to be taking this all in.
It was all getting to be too much.
Isabel sighed and felt the onset of a headache. Quietly she excused herself from the
table. Isabel felt like she as about to
cry and she knew that it would add fuel to the already mounting fire. As Isabel entered the kitchen, pushing
against the swinging wooden door that separated the kitchen and dining room,
she sat down on a stool and collapsed on the counter.
What was she supposed to do?
Isabel ran her fingers through her perfect short auburn
hair. As she took another breath and
braced herself against the counter, Isabel felt the tears running down her
cheek. Why was this happening to
her? Why?
~~~
Michael remained quiet and aloof during Jesse’s convincing announcement. Somewhere deep down Michael knew something was wrong. The moment he’d felt Isabel’s warm and pensive embrace at the door, Michael was on edge. He’s tried to think of the reason for the hollow sinking feeling down in his gut, but none of them even came close to the idea that Isabel would be moving away. Michael watched the deterioration of the evening’s dinner. Straddled between Maria and Mrs. Evans, Michael was trapped. Normally Michael would have been the first one into the fray, but from the distraught look on Isabel’s face, he knew she didn’t really endorse the idea. And Max seemed to be handling his own against Jesse and Mr. Evan’s ‘logical’ excuses. Michael felt it best to just observe.
It was difficult. Michael could have throttled Jesse. The bastard was trying to steal Isabel away from them. Then out of the corner of his eye, Michael noticed Isabel excusing herself from the table. Everyone seemed to be in the throws of their own battle, that she went unnoticed. Michael peered over at Max, Jesse and Mr. Evans battling it out. He took Jesse’s distraction of the argument to follow Isabel into the kitchen.
~~~
Isabel stifled her cries into a lavender handkerchief. She didn’t want to leave Roswell; or more specifically, her family. In the past couple of days, Isabel found herself reminiscing about the past. Isabel went to the old park where she and Max had experienced their first snow. Then she wandered to several old haunts until she arrived at the caves in the cliffs. Isabel had ran her hads along the dusty stone chambers that held their pods. She’d never be there again.
Finally Isabel found herself in the Granolith chamber, except without the Granolith. And she screamed. As loud and hard as Isabel could, she let out every emotion that she had bottled up for weeks.
As Isabel stood looking out of her kitchen window, wiping away the torrent of unwanted tears, she steeled herself once more and prepared to go back out into the dining room. Suddenly Isabel felt a warm strong hand squeeze her shoulder. Isabel smiled and turned around expecting to see Jesse. “I’m all right Jes…Michael!” Isabel gasped.
Michael pulled his hand away and stuffed it into his jean pocket. “It’s not the Michelin man!” he joked sheepishly. “Sorry if I scared you.”
Isabel shook her head and laughed nervously, realizing she must look a mess. “You didn’t, really,” Isabel denied. She turned around and lightly touched her eyes, which were red and puffy. Using her powers she fixed her make-up and plastered a perfect smile on her perfect face.
“I’m fine Michael!” Isabel drawled. “I just got something in my eye!”
Michael frowned. “Why are you doing this to yourself?” Michael inquired. “You don’t have to go Isabel.”
Isabel felt Michael grasp her left hand, which dangled limply at her side. “Michael,” Isabel pulled away. “Stop it. I’m going because I love him! He’s my husband and where he goes, I go! It’s not an ideal plan, but I’ll live with it.”
She tried to step around Michael but he moved to block her escape. “You can’t go!” Michael stated.
Isabel looked at Michael defiantly. “And who’s going to stop me?”
Michael met her piercing gaze. “Max and me.”
Isabel looked at him incredulously. “Max is too wrapped up in his own stuff to really understand and you? Since when did you care about what I do or who I do it with?”
Isabel didn’t stick around for the answers; she didn’t want to know. She squeezed past Michael and headed towards the dining room.
~~~
Michael watched her walk away and then felt his hand automatically reach out and stop her. “I have always cared.”
There was silence.
“I care about you Isabel.”
Isabel closed her eyes. “It’s a little too late Michael,” she said stoically, her back remained turned to him. “I’ve found a decent man who loves me. Despite all the drama in my life, I’ve married an amazing guy. He’s put up with all the baggage I’ve come with. For pete’s sake, Jesse even knows I’m an alien! And he still loves me!”
Michael turned Isabel around by the shoulders. “You say that like you need to apologize for being an alien!” Michael spat. “It’s not something he should need to forgive you for, let alone have you begging for forgiveness.”
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It made Michael ill. He knew they’d changed a lot since Liz’s healing, but never have they ever felt wrong about being an alien. Was this what it had come down to? Had they decided that they weren’t worth loving because they were hybrids?
Isabel pulled away from him. He forgives me for lying to him. He forgives me for not telling him I’m an alien,” Isabel exclaimed. “I betrayed him Michael!”
All Michael could do was shake his head. “Okay, so you didn’t tell him you were an alien. Is that so horrible? Is it a crime? It’s not like you told him you weren’t one!” Michael threw his hands up in the air. “We couldn’t be sure he could be trusted. It’s not something that you just stick into a conversation and if he doesn’t get that…if he doesn’t understand that it was for his and our own good, then forget about him! You cannot let him take you away form us. Isabel, we’re your family. You need to be with us.”
Isabel seemed to hesitate. “Michael,” she sighed softly. “I’m married to him, like it or not. I’ll honor our wedding vows till the day I die. And yes, you’re family. But Michael, Jesse and I are family and I thought you understood that. You certainly did when you were at my wedding. I don’t know what has changed, but my love for my husband hasn’t.”
Michael took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. “But Isabel, what if something happens to you? We’re not going to be there to protect you.”
Isabel nodded. “But Michael, who would find me? I’ll be a normal woman following her husband who’s a great lawyer to New York. I’m walking away from this Michael. We’re not aliens trying to find a home anymore. We’re aliens with a home. Don’t you see? Things are different now that we know we can’t go back to Antar. I mean, we don’t have to live like that anymore; scared aliens on the run. If we go our separate ways, we’ll be fine. Besides, I’ll still come home for the holidays.”
Michael felt sick. He knew she had made up her mind. Michael didn’t know how or why, but she’d made up her mind. Isabel loved Jesse. There was no destiny between him and Isabel. “Max needs you…”
Isabel shook her head. “He’s got Liz and you’ve got Maria. You may have broken up with her now, but in a couple of weeks you’ll get back together,” she explained sourly. “You always do.”
Michael looked Isabel straight in the eye and mumbled, “So he’s your destiny?”
He felt vulnerable even asking it. The very thought of Isabel leaving made his stomach turn, and knowing that she thought Jesse was her destiny would tear him apart. She was the one person he could always count on. And no matter how much he denied it, Michael had loved her. He had always loved her.
If she was his destiny, she couldn’t leave, could she?
Michael felt Isabel pull him into an embrace. Isabel’s lips grazed his cheek until they rested beside his ear. “You’ll always be my destiny Michael. We belong. Another lifetime right?” Isabel whispered sadly.
He didn’t know what to say. Yes? I’ve been stupid! We were made to be? All these responses seemed wrong. How could he promise that destiny they’ve been so long denying?
“But we know,” Isabel paused and pulled away, “that it’s just not this time, right?”
Michael blinked, confused. “What do you mean?”
Isabel smoothed out a wrinkle in his shirt, patting him on the chest. “Michael, you have Maria and I have Jesse. We love them. Obviously there is no destiny, right? We love them. All of those years and never once did we even consider being together. Michael?” Isabel smiled sadly, “it just wasn’t meant to be. Why pretend to be sad about it? I spent a lifetime trying to find my destiny. I thought I knew what it was. I thought that book was right. And when Max and Tess were together, I thought, ‘Surely the book was right’, but now we know different, don’t we? I wish Tess and her stupid book never came to Roswell!”
Michael cupped Isabel’s face in his hands. “Don’t say that,” he whispered. “I’m glad she came and the book with her. She showed us who we are.” He watched as her face flinched from the memories.
“Don’t Michael…” Isabel sobbed. “I lost Alex because of her…”
Isabel turned to run away, but Michael wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her until her back rested against him. “But I found you again Isabel. I would never have known who you are, and what you mean to me. None of us would have.”
Michael hated discarding Alex’s death as a trade off. It wasn’t. But he was glad he knew the truth. It was true that Tess had accidentally killed Alex, and he didn’t know how anyone of them could forgive her, but along with the bad comes the good. “Nothing can change what happened Isabel, but I’m not willing to hate her for it.”
Isabel loosened his grip around her waist and swirled around, her eyes glaring at him. “Don’t Michael. Don’t pretend to care that way. We’re too close for that. We were never into games or lies. Is this just a ruse to get me to stay? Or do you really want me? Think carefully before you answer Michael, because I could end up hating you for it.”
Michael swallowed hard. The question seemed to hang in the air forever. How could he tell her? Maybe she didn’t want him? Maybe their chance at destiny was gone, just as Tess and the Granolith were gone. Isabel stood before him, her eyes now searching for the truth; maybe even some reason to stay.
“Isabel.” Michael began speaking, but then the kitchen door swung open.
“Isabel? Honey?” Jesse called as he walked into the kitchen.
Michael felt Isabel pull further and further away. “Yes?” Isabel answered.
Suddenly before Michael’s eyes, her teary-eyed face had a radiant glow as Isabel smiled and turned to her husband; kissing him on the cheek. Michael’s fist clenched as Jesse smirked at him. “Come back to the room? We’re all sorry for fighting. I promise we won’t do it again,” Jesse coaxed, nibbling on her earlobe.
Isabel giggled as Jesse continued his barrage of sickening kisses. “All right, but you promised!” Isabel warned, a mischievous glint shone in her eye.
She looked back in one quick glance at Michael before being ushered back into the dining room. Michael slammed his fist into the countertop as the door swung closed on the couple.
Dammit!