Transference challenge. CC Liz/Tess friendship.

Post EOTW Kyle tells Tess the truth (as far as he knows it) and Tess confronts Liz in an attempt to find out what’s really going on. Liz ends up telling Tess all about future Max and the two girls bond.

Kyle and Tess become closer and Kyle ends up “trimming Tess’s lamp”. Tess becomes pregnant but doesn’t know.

Everybody in the group apart from Michael, Kyle and Tess are giving Liz a hard time. Maria and Alex feel betrayed because Liz is shutting them out. Isabel is being protective of her brother. And Max is still basically having a nervous breakdown.

For some reason Liz (still a virgin) starts getting empathetic morning sickness (Tess is fine and unaware that she is pregnant) and ends up being accused of being pregnant to Kyle.

Michael catches Liz eating chocolate cake with Tabasco sauce and decides to read her journal. (Again.)

Isabel starts ripping into Liz, who really is in no state to cope with the ice princess, and Tess ends up coming to her defense by telling everybody about future Max and what really happened.

They finally work out that Liz is getting Tess’s morning sickness (you decide how/why) and must decide what to do both about Liz being sick and Tess being pregnant.

Must be at least a semi-happy ending. (For me “happy” means CC.)

Things I would like to see happen:

-Maria & Michael make up FOR GOOD.

-Grant spontaneously self-combusts/gets hit by a meteorite/turns gay/gets abducted by aliens/gets sucked into a black hole/whatever. Isabel and Alex get back together but not until she’s done some major apologising.

-Kyle and Tess walk in on Jim and Amy making out. Followed within 24 hrs by Jim and Amy walking in on Kyle and Tess making out.

-Max and Liz make up but the makeup-makeout session is interrupted by Liz’s empathetic morning sickness.

-Maria says something along these lines to Isabel: “Okay, Isabel you know I see you as a friend right? But if anybody ever slips one past the goalie don’t even consider giving me your morning sickness. ’K?”

Transference Challenge

As Max and Isabel left, Liz and I sat in an uncomfortable silence. I had to say something, so I said the one thing that had been on the tip of my tounge the entire trip.

“So...you and Kyle,” I ventured.

“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “Oh, Kyle...he told me that you two were, uh, getting involved.”

He did? What is his definition of ‘getting involved?’

“Oh, it's ok, don't worry about it,” I said, trying to sound as uninterested as possible.

“I'm sorry,” she said, with pity in her eyes. I do not need her pity. I fixed an innocent expression on my face.

“About what? All you did was sleep with him,” I said. Ha, the expression on her face as she tried to figure that one out. “How was he, anyway?”

“Oh, I, um...I...we...it was great,” she said, fumbling for words. A warning signal started to buzz in my brain. Something … off about that response.

“Noted,” I said. Let her think all I care about is sex. It certainly isn’t, but Liz doesn’t have to know that. She got Max, and now she’s got Kyle. No matter how far she distances herself from Max, he’ll always be hers. Does she think that I don’t know that? I can live with that.

But why does she have to have Kyle?

***************

Living in a house with two men is one hell of a challenge. I mean, did they clean before I showed up? Like they do know. Grumbling, I started on the dishes.

We got back from Copper Summit. I went back to the Valentis. To find a complete mess. Even though I was only away for barely 2 days.

He won’t look me in the eye. Like he’s guilty. Maybe he is. The thing is that in my heart, I know he wouldn’t – not with Liz, at least. Then again, listening to my heart is so not my style. I’m not Liz. I never will be.

Liz is smart, Liz is always reliable. Liz always knows what to do. She’s caring, she’s pretty, she’s logical, she’s …

Everything I’m not. That’s why Max loves her. That’s why Kyle slept with her. They don’t need me, they’ll never need me.

I moved onto the laundry. You think I don’t know what they call me? Hussy. I’m an alien temptress. I’m a blonde slut. I’m so not Ms Popularity around here. At least I’m not as bad as Courtney. She worshipped Michael, she actually had a shrine. I may be slightly ‘destiny-crazed’, but I do not have a Max shrine.

I picked up a pair of boxers. Calvin Klien, definitely Kyles.

*********Flash********

Kyle stood at the edge of Lizs bed. She emerged in a towel. He gave a half smile.

“This brings back memories,” he said.

She shook her head. “Kyle, we were never in bed together.”

He looked confused. “What? No. I'm talking about the towel. The "Y" pool, summer before last?”

Liz looked a little relieved. “Yeah.”

Kyle cleared his throat. “Liz...I, uh...I want you to know that, uh...uh...I meditated on this entire situation, and I'm, uh...I'm at peace with it.”

“Oh. Uh...that...that's great.”

“So shall we hop in?”

“Yeah. Um, Kyle, look...I just wanna make sure that I...I...I made it actually clear that we're not gonna...”

“Consummate. I understand.”

“Right. And when we kiss...”

“No tongue. I'm on board.”

“Yeah. Ok.”

“I'm here to help. My body's merely a vessel.”

********Flash********

I stood in shock. What the hell? I had just gotten a flash from, get this, KYLES BOXERS. And that flash told me that Kyle and Liz didn’t actually “consummate”.

Whoa.

What the hell was going on?

Just then Kyle walked in.

"What happened between you and Liz?" I'm not generally one to beat around the bush, but Kyle seemed taken aback by my direct questioning.

"Uh . . . you don't want details or something do you?"

"No! Look, I know that something weird went on between the two of you, and it wasn't sex."

"What?" I could see the 'how do you know that?' written all over his face.

"I want answers, and I want them NOW." I told him. "I'm gonna get them whether you like it or not. Now, you can tell me, or I'll get them out of your head, and THAT will not be a pleasant experience."

"I promised I wouldn't tell."

I moved towards him, reaching for his arm…

"Okay Okay! It's kind of a long story though…

Liz POV

How could I do that to him? The look on his face when he saw me and Kyle . . . I'll never forget it. I just wanna go and tell him, and cry, and say I'm sorry and I'll never leave him again . . . but I can't. Why did Max have to come to ME . . . why couldn't he go and tell Tess? Surely if she knew she wouldn't leave, she wouldn't abandon them all to die. How could I do that to Max . . .

"Tess?"

She stood in front of me, arms crossed. She looked mad, or confused … more like a combination of both. Or something.

“I wanna know what you and Kyle did.”

“Watch more cable.”

“I’m serious. You and Kyle did not have sex. Why are you faking that you did?”

How … Kyle told her. Or she found out.

“How did you find out?”

“I got a flash.”

“From what? You kissed him?”

“No, I did his laundry.”

“What?”

“I got a flash from Kyle's boxers.”

“You touched his boxers?”

“Well, if I hadn’t found out what I did, I would be under the assumption that you did so much more than just touch them!”

“God Tess! You’re acting so jealous! I practically gift wrapped Max for you, just move in on him! It’s what you wanted!”

“I am trying to find out the truth, for Kyle's sake, my sake and Maxs sake! Do you have any idea what you did to him? I thought you loved him!”

“I did! I … I do, Tess.”

“Then why –,”

“It was HIS decision! He brought this on HIMSELF!”

“What?”

I grabbed Tess’s hand, and we connected almost instantly. Images of Future Max flew through my mind, images of what he got me to do. Images of myself in tears. Images of us dancing, to our song. He … he disappeared. It was then I knew I’d lost Max forever.

That not everything is gonna be the way
You think it ought to be
It seems like every time I try to make it right
It all comes down on me
Please say honestly
You won't give up on me
And I shall believe

Tess slowly moved her hand, and the shock and guilt on her face hit me right to the core.

“Oh my god …”

******

“Liz… I am so sorry.”

“This isn’t your fault.”

“Yes don’t you see, if I hadn’t been so selfish and left none of this would ever have happened…”

I couldn’t stand the guilty look on her face.

“No, Tess, don’t you see? This is all my fault . . . if I hadn’t treated you so badly you wouldn’t have left…”

“What happened?”

“Um, it’s a long story…”

Tess POV

If you had told me 3 hours ago that I would be sitting in the crashdown talking to Liz Parker about Destiny, Max and Kyle, I would have found it ridiculous. And yet here I am.

“So this really is all my fault.” I stated

“No, Tess, don’t you see? It was my fault.”

“That’s not true, I could have stayed, I could have…"

“Tess. It’s not over yet. What matters is that this time you stay. It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for… with me out of the picture, Max is yours.”

“No he’s not, and anyway, I want you to get back together with Max.”

“What?” I watched in faint amusement as Liz almost choked on her soda. “Why? I mean, he’s supposed to be yours – ”

“But then again he’s always gonna love you anyway, so – ”

“What do you mean?”

I sighed. “Liz, Liz, Liz. Are you blind? Can’t you see the way he looks at you? Even now, when he thinks that you’ve betrayed him.” By the pain in her eyes I knew that was the wrong thing to say “He still loves you!”

She looked up at me. “You really think that?”

“I know that.”

Enough with the serious talk, I decided.

“So, do you think blue or green nail polish looks better?”

********

"Okay, so you and Kyle ..." Liz said with a grin.

"What?"

“Don’t what me. Lamp Trimming?”

“It’s … therapeutic.”

“Therapeutic?”

“Yeah. This Buddhism thing.”

“Therapeutic for you or him?”

“For both of us!”

I put a new coat of green polish on my toes. Tess has this dopey grin on her face. Please don’t tell me I look like that when Max and I are doing well… unfortunately that’s exactly what I look like, I tell myself. You, my friend, are gone.

“Are you gonna explain to Max?” Tess asks suddenly

“Huh?”

“I swear I’m not going anywhere. You should tell him.”

“Tess… I just can’t…”

“Why?”

“I can’t just barge in and apologize … besides, he might not believe me!”

“Liz. He’s Max. He’s totally and completely in love with you,” I sighed. “I wish that Kyle felt that way about me.”

“Well, here's a hint, I have never seen him like this,” Liz confided.

“Like what?”

“He was all flustered when I came over, like I’d just committed some cardinal sin.”

“We were about to kiss.”

“Oh, that explains everything.”

Liz stood up.

“Tess … I wanna show you something, okay?”

“What?”

“It’s just that everything got messed up because of destiny, and it was so easy to blame you… I want you to see that I don’t hate you.”

Smiling, I took Liz's hand. Images swum over me. Max and Liz, together. Maria and Michael, in that bizarre December heatwave. Alex and Isabel, and their sweet innocent relationship. I felt guilty. How could I destroy this?

Then a new image came. Kyle and I in the library. Kyle and I in the house. I added the image of his football jersey.

I broke off. Liz and I understood each other now.

*********

“Hey, Tess.”

“Hi Kyle.” I smiled at him. He looked like he was about to melt . . . oh, my little woozle.

“Uh, are you doing anything tonight?”

“No… why?” he was so cute when he was flustered.

“I… um, I was wondering . . . if you wanted to go see a movie.” He looked so nervous.

“Sure.”

******

“Mmm… Kyle… ”

The movie had bad reviews.

“Tess… oh… ”

“What the hell?”

“Dad?” Kyle and I sat up abruptly to see Sheriff Valenti watching us with a shocked, and slightly amused expression on his face.

“Where – I thought you weren’t gonna be back for a few hours,” Kyle stammered. I felt my cheeks turn pink.

“Well, so did we.” Amy DeLuca said as she walked into the room. What was the sheriff doing with Maria's mother? “C’mon, Jim.”

I tried to analyze this situation… she was – was she flirting? Oh gross . . . she slipped her arms around his waist and looked up at him adoringly.

“Let’s leave these poor kids alone . . . go have some fun,” she murmured suggestively.

Whoa. Does the woman have no shame?

She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Please?”

Apparently not.

“Well, Amy, the thing is…” I could see the sheriff staring at the lipstick smeared all over Kyle’s face. Obviously it was time for a lecture… like they do on TV.

“Oh, let’s just forget about ‘the thing’ for now … you can have the sex talk with Kyle later… ”

So this was what a horny Amy acted like. I was just glad that Maria wasn’t here to see this - she would have been humiliated.

“Okay, Amy. But Kyle -” the Sheriff delivered a glare at his son “Tomorrow, you and I are going to have a little talk."

3 hours later

“Hey, dad… ” Kyle and I pushed open the sheriff’s door… to see something we really didn’t need to.

“Ms DeLuca, I’m sorry, I thought you left earlier…”

Blushing furiously, I ushered a shocked Kyle out of the room.

“Did I just see what I think I did?”

“You mean your dad making out with Maria’s mom?”

“That would be it. This is so humiliating… ”

“Tell me about it.”

“What do you mean? Nothing like this has ever happened to you.”

“Remember Nasedo . . . ‘I’ve been diddling the congresswoman all summer’?”

Kyle made an adequately disgusted face.

“Oh, yeah.”

Maria POV

“Liz, WHAT is going on with you and Max?” I asked.

“Um, it’s, complicated.”

“C’mon, chica – you know you can tell me anything. I’ll get the ice-cream. C’mon. Just spill.”

“I’m sorry Ria – I can’t.”

That really hurt. Why won’t she tell me? We’ve always told each other everything. She can’t tell me, her best friend? I’ve always been there for her. Well, if that’s the way she wants it, fine.

“Fine.” I stormed off.

That afternoon at the Crashdown, I didn’t know how to act around Michael. I just couldn’t still be mad, because Courtney was the latest pile of dust. Not my opposition anymore. And God knows Michael's not happy about the fact. I mean, if she’d made it, we could’ve buried the proverbial hatchet. I’ll keep telling myself that. She died to save them. To save him. I can’t even hate her!

“Two Will Smith burgers!” I called out to the kitchen. He nodded, but didn’t look at me. He hasn’t looked at me for days. I stood by the counter and waited, hating the silence, even though there was always the noise of the Crashdown in the background.

“So,” he said quietly. I stared in shock. Trying to make conversation?

“So,” I agreed.

“How are you?”

“Good.”

“I hear you ended up saving Roswell,” he said.

“Yeah, I … guess.”

“Congratulations.”

“Huh?”

“Hero of the day.”

“Your point being?”

“Look, I’m just trying to make nice.”

“Don’t.”

“What?”

“Don’t make nice. I can’t handle it. Not when you’re still thinking about other stuff. You shouldn’t BE trying to be nice to me! You’re still messed up about Courtney, and I refuse to be a rebound girl.”

“Maria –,”

“Besides, as you love to point out, you’re an alien, I’m a human. Our lives do not mix. Maybe yours and Courtney's would mix better.”

“Why are you saying this? I mean –,”

“I can’t deal with you being nice to me when you’re thinking about her. And you can’t fix 5 months worth of crap in a second,” I said softly. I took the burgers and left to deliver them. Tess walked in, and I went to take her order.

“You look like you just lost your best friend,” she said. No, I felt like saying, that happened in about June.

“Just classic Maria and Michael. One of us always walks away,”

“Who was it this time?”

“I honestly don’t know.”

I sat down.

“You’re good for each other. All of you, Max and Liz, Alex and Isabel, you and Michael…"

“When we’re not fighting.”

“Seriously. I mean, I don’t want to break you all up. I mean that,” she said. “Actually, um, Kyle and I…"

“What? Congrats!”

“Thanks. Now, sorting out you and Michael…"

“I can’t … with Courtney…"

“I didn’t like her.”

“Neither. But I can’t hate her,” I said.

“It’s easier when you can just hate someone. You know, like you hated me.”

“Tess –,”

“Bygones.”

I sighed. "I know what you mean. She died to save all of you - I just can't hate her, even if only because of that. She was brave."

"But she was still a slut."

"You got that right."

Liz POV

I'm Liz Parker and today Tess found out. It feels so much better just to have someone else who knows - someone I can talk to. It's like this huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. And she wants me to tell Max. I want to, but I'm scared. What if he hates me? I've hurt him so much already, I don't think I could take it if I hurt him any more. But I have to tell him… I can't go on with him thinking that I slept with Kyle. If only things weren't so confusing… I just don't know

Ring Ring! The phone interrupted my train of thought. I put my journal down and reached for the phone.

"Hello?"

"Liz, stop thinking so much."

"What?"

"C'mon, it isn't that hard to guess. Look, don't think about it. Just get over there and tell him, none of this 'its too hard', 'what-if' crap, 'K?'

"Okay. Thanks Tess."

"Goodbye."

"Bye."

Just go over there, Like Tess said. I tell myself.

Grab the jacket. Put it on. Go out the door.

But what if –

Shut up.

Max POV

I sat on the edge of my bed, deep in thought. I sighed. This thought sucked. Sucked seriously. I could not believe that Liz slept with Kyle. And now, with everything I’d heard from Isabel, Kyle and Tess…

Could the guy ever be satisfied?

What a moron.

"Max…"

I looked up to see Liz knocking on my window. My heart sank. The last time she did this she hurt me so badly… and then she hurt me even more…

“What are you doing here Liz?”

“I need to talk to you –”

“About what?”

“What happened with Kyle.”

“Liz, you already told me that you did. I put you up on a pedestal? Well, that pedestal crashed and burnt the moment I saw you two in bed together.”

“I need to explain what really happened!”

“No, Liz. It was damn painful enough. I don’t need a post game analysis.”

“But Max, I –”

“It would be better if you just left.”

She looked shocked. Then she nodded sadly and disappeared out the window.

Tess POV

“And he just yelled at me,” Liz sobbed. She’d run over to my place – the Valentis place – and started sobbing her eyes out.

“He just yelled?”

“No, he was so cold, and… I felt awful…"

I narrowed my eyes. I was the one who initially broke this up, and I was gonna fix it.

TBC...

[ Fanfic ]