"Heritage"
Series: So Far Away interlude
By TaleWeaver ([email protected])

Rating: PG
Spoilers: Series breaks off from canon after the opening credits of �BiY�.
Pairing: Valentines - Jim/Kyle.  Tess/Kyle overtones.
Improv: #3 fire -- shimmer -- reckless -- inspire
Author's Notes: Takes place a couple of hours before Tess and Kyle leave Roswell.  
Muse-ic: �When you�re gone� - Matchbox twenty, �Sometimes I feel like a motherless child� -Van Morrison. (Available at Roswell Mp3�s; it�s the song playing during the Valenti/Jim Snr scene at the end of �Into the woods�)
Summary:  Missing scene from �No obligations� - knowing that Kyle now understands what it means to protect those who have placed their trust in you, Jim passes down a Valenti family heirloom.



Kyle sat in the backyard of his home and watched the sun set over the desert for the last time.

He didn�t think it was overly fatalistic to think this way; once he and Tess left Roswell tonight, he would see the sun set over the desert many more times.  They might even come back to Roswell someday; he might even sit here again.  But it wouldn�t be his home any more.  From now on, home would be someplace that he and Tess - and her baby - would make together.

He knew that going with Tess was the right thing to do.  Whatever she was to him, however he really felt about her, he knew that she needed him to back her in the days to come.  He could barely admit to himself that he needed to be beside her just as badly.  He didn�t know when it had happened, but Tess had become the most important person in the world to him, and wherever she went was where he wanted to be.

But he needed to say farewell to the last of his childhood, sitting beneath the tree he�d once hung a tyre from to swing on.  He�d kissed Liz for the first time here.  He�d curled up in a blanket and slept here the summer night after his mother left.   Kyle leaned his head against the trunk and sighed as the sky bled yellow into orange into red, looking like it was on fire.  He heard the approaching footsteps but didn�t turn to look; he knew this tread as well as his own.

*~*~*~*~*

Jim Valenti grunted slightly as he sat down beside his son and watch the sunset with him for a minute.  Mindful that Tess would be coming out soon, he nudged his son to get his attention.  Kyle turned his head and smiled at him.  The simple beauty of that smile took his breath away, as surely as the first time his son had smiled at him.  The sense that this was the right time grew stronger.

�What�s up, Dad?�

�Something I need to give you before you go.  I wasn�t sure when I�d be doing this, but now�s the time.�

Kyle just looked at him enquiringly, and Jim placed the box he carried into Kyle�s lap.  It was square, about the size of two palms placed side to side against each other, and made of lovingly polished rosewood.  Kyle slid off the lid, revealing an interior of black silk, cradling an antique sheriff�s badge.  It shone almost like new, and the colourful light sent an unearthly shimmer across the gleaming surface.

By the sharp intake of his breath, Kyle recognized it; but Jim had a speech prepared, and he wasn�t going to let it go to waste.  �That�s the badge of John Valenti - the first one of our family to be born on American soil.  He was the most successful bounty hunter in Texas during the 1860�s, and then he was pivotal in the history of the Texas Rangers, helping John B Jones rebuild the organization after the Civil War.  But he always said that the work he was most proud of was when he was Sheriff of Mahony township.  It got absorbed into Houston during the turn of the century, but his old house is still standing, as part of the Historical Register.

�You�re the seventh generation of Valenti men; out of the six before you, four of us - including John, your grandfather and me - have been lawmen.  The other two went into government.  John�s grandson - my great-grandfather - used to tell me that one thing all the Valenti men have in common besides being only children, is that we understand what it truly means to protect and to serve those who have placed their trust in us.

�I know that you don�t care for Max very much, and I can understand why.  But for me, Max Evans has brought so many good things into my life.  The knowledge that my father wasn�t crazy, and that I didn�t have to be afraid of it either.  He gave my son back to me.  Not just after the shooting, but knowing the four of them has brought us back together, just when I was starting to fear that I�d lost you.  But I know you understand me when I say that the most precious thing that Max Evans gave me - that he gave us - was Tess.  She completes our family in a way that we haven�t been since your mom left.

�It may not be macho to say it,� Jim broke off to smile at his son, who flashed him a matching smile in return, �But we both love her, and she loves us.  Although I think it�s in different ways.�  

At this, a shadow flew across Kyle�s eyes, and Jim suppressed a sigh; Tess and Kyle still weren�t ready to see just what they were to each other.  Once more, he cursed Nasedo for what he�d done to Jim�s adopted daughter - warping her perceptions of �love� and �family� so much that even after Nasedo�s death she had blindly followed his dictates, not seeing the love that Kyle held solely for her, or the love that grew for him in her own heart.  Jim couldn�t help but throw out a hint, and continued, �Tess is a Valenti, and one way or another she always will be.  As long as I live, both you and Tess have a place to come back to and call home.  I�ve told her that, but you need to make sure she really understands it. I can let you go today, because I know that you�ll both take care of each other.�

Kyle looked down at the badge, sober-faced, and Jim wondered when the reckless boy who�d broken his leg falling out of this very tree had turned into the man before him.  After he�d brought Michael, Maria and Isabel back from Tucson, Tess had told him how Kyle had censured Max.  Knowing how loyal Kyle had become to their family of three had been Jim�s first hint that this day was coming.

�When my father was judged incompetent and I got his personal effects, this came too.  But I didn�t touch it.  I just put it away in the family safe deposit box.  I didn�t so much as open the box all the way until the day after I made my first kill in the line of duty.  That�s when I felt that this was really mine, because that�s when I truly understood all it stands for.  Whenever I look at it, it inspires me to do my job that much better.�

�Remember when the Skins made everyone disappear?�  At Kyle�s nod, Jim added, �And you remember what I said - that I was in awe of you every day?  Well, I still am, son.  But never more than now, when I can pass this down to you knowing that it�s the right time; because you understand at seventeen what I didn�t understand until I was twenty-five.  The legacy that goes with this badge - understanding the responsibility and the rewards that go with protecting those in your care.  The honor it is to be chosen by others to care for them.�

Tears were shining in Kyle�s eyes as he threw his arms around his father, burying his face in Jim�s shoulder.  Jim hugged Kyle tightly in return, knowing that the next time he hugged his son it would be from one adult to another.

�I love you, Dad.�

�I love you too, son.�

*~*~*~*~*

Tess Valenti stood at the kitchen window, a silent witness to the family ritual she didn�t understand.  Her hands were placed on her abdomen, and as she stroked it, she spoke to her baby.

�See out there?  That�s your Grandpa Jim, and Kyle.  I don�t what Kyle�s going to be to us in the end - whether he�s always going to be your uncle, or if he�s going to be your daddy someday.  But either way, those two men are our family - our *real * family.  They will stand by us and love us no matter what.  That�s what a family�s for. They taught me that.�

She bent over the counter to sign the note she�d written.

�Since Kyle and I won�t be around to take care of you, I want to make sure that you have the resources to take care of yourself.  You know a little about Nasedo and my life with him.  Trust me, we�ll manage without this just fine.�

After placing it in the envelope with the cashier�s check for $30,000 she wrote �Dad� on the front, and went to Jim�s bedroom to leave it on his pillow, before she went outside to watch her last sunset in Roswell with her family.

The End