Disillusionment
Disclaimer: Nothing's mine, so don't sue.
Rating: Hard R, for sexual and adult themes, controversial topics, and cursing.
Word Count: 2396
Summary: Pre "To Serve and Protect." Isabel's pregnant. Hers and Alex's worlds have been completely turned upside down and inside out, as have the lives of their friends. Friendships are holding by a thread, relationships are distant, and loyalties are tested. Can a group of friends truly come together when it's needed most? Through thick and thin? Predominantly A/I, but involves all characters.
Alex walked into the Crashdown, dressed in a pair of black slacks, a solid black
tie, and a crisp, white shirt, his Best Buy name tag gleaming in the florescent
light of the restaurant. By his facial features, any one person could tell he was a
troubled, fatigued young man, as if the world had sat on his couch and told him
to be her Psychiatrist. Many knew that his entire world had been turned inside
out in the matter of a few minutes when a couple months ago his girlfriend had
told him she was pregnant, and the two people to which he thought he could
count on had turned their backs to him and distanced themselves from not only
him, but Isabel as well (not that she had been good friends with them in the
first place). Alex's priorities had changed the moment Isabel had informed him of
their incoveniently timed, premature parenthood, and as the whole town
acknowledged it, so did Liz and Maria, with pained expressions and cold
shoulders.
Sitting down on one of the counter stools, he used his elbows to lift himself up
to see if Liz or Maria were waiting on customers tonight, but he didn't see them.
Alex understood and did not blame them for their reactions. It wasn't that they
were angry at him or disapproved of his and Isabel's predicament, but the
transformation he had gone through in the process had destroyed their
perception of him. Liz had come to his house the other night after he had
returned from his trip, stomping into his room and close to tears at hearing he
had dropped out of West Roswell High. He had attempted to explain his
reasons, but deciding it would be a losing battle, he had let her ream him out,
her small frame shaking and cheeks red when she had left, slamming the door
on her way out. Maria, on the other hand, had heard of a different rumour,
which (unfortunately) happened to be true, that he had begun smoking
cigarettes. The next day after Liz's outburst Maria had come charging into his
work and had given him a lecture as to the evils and health risks of smoking,
refusing to listen to him when he tried to inform her that he was a casual
smoker, and that one to two cigarettes smoked in a day to a month's time did
not constitute a health risk, in his eyes. Again, she wouldn't understand his
reasonings behind it.
The day Alex returned from his excursion to California, he stared at himself hard
in the mirror, disbelieving the effect of knowing that a being (not sure if it were
human) was growing inside Isabel and the fact that his whole life had been torn
apart by this knowledge. Though, he felt fortunate for having an understanding
father and stepmother who were willing to help him out in this difficult time.
Unfortunately, he could not say the same for Isabel.
Isabel's entire home life was shattered, as was the illusion that the Evans were
the perfect family, the moment "I'm pregnant" slipped so softly from Isabel's
lips. Her father had went into a blinding rage, screaming that Alex was no longer
welcome into the Evans home, and was close to having a quadruple bypass
while Diane, Isabel's mother, continued to sit at the table, in denial and
repeating "no" over and over, not wanting to believe her 'baby girl' was going
to have a baby of her own. Then there was Max, the wild card in the whole
thing, sitting there in disbelief and shock, appalled at hearing that his sister had
got herself pregnant, knowing that they were in deep as it was, with all the
recent alien activities and whatnot. Max's brotherly protection had went into
overdrive, and all he could do nowadays was give Alex a blank stare and force
out an inaudable "hello."
Alex ran his hands in reverse through his hair making the black strands fall over
his forehead and covered his eyes with the heels of his hands. He prayed to
whatever higher power existed that the lack of alien oddities and invasions had
not been a fluke, and that it would continue up through Isabel's labor and
delivery... that the baby would at least have a normal first year of life. Though,
Alex believed his wishes for his kid to have a normal life to be an impossible
dream of unreachable proportions. The child's mother was an eighteen-year old
human-alien hybrid sent to Earth from a planet light years away hidden
amongst a whirlwind of stars and black holes, for Christ's sake.
Before Alex could continue to wallow in the pitfalls of his life, a hand clapped him
on the back. A bit out of breath, Alex looked up to see the blue eyes and wide
grin of Kyle Valenti greeting him.
"Oh, God! Kyle, do you always have to startle me like that?" Alex caught his
breath.
Kyle sat down at the counter to the right of his good friend. "Yeah. I do." He
stared at Alex momentarily and bluntly replied, "You look like road kill."
"You're kidding me, right?" Alex stared at Kyle like he had grown an extra head.
"You cannot be clueless as to what's going on in my life. You had to have heard
through the grapevine that I got Isabel pregnant. The whole flippin' town
knows!"
"Duh, Alex. Of course I know! And, from what I've heard, Isabel's dad went
nuclear."
"That's an understatement," Alex corrected. "Her dad went atomic. I'm talking
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Kyle. I'm no longer welcome in the Evans home. Well,
Isabel said 'I'm not welcome when he's home.'" Alex sighed. "This whole thing
blows."
Kyle nodded. "Anyway, can I ask you something?" His eyes glistened with
curiosity.
"Shoot."
"How long have you and Isabel—"
"Nope! Na-uh! I am not answering that!" Alex stopped him.
Kyle threw his hands up: "How'd you know what I was gonna ask?"
Alex shook his head in disbelief and said, "I've already had four people attempt
to ask me. Isabel's already pregnant. I don't need the details of our sex life all
over town, let alone the high school."
Kyle then said, "Not that you go to West Roswell anymore . . . . Care to
explain?"
Alex exhaled loudly and replied tiredly, "Not tonight. In the past three days I've
been practically interrogated by everyone. I go into work and nosy people keep
coming up to me, asking if the rumour's true. It's like no one thinks Alex
Whitman can have a sex life, like they think it's their business to know what
Isabel and I did in some of our free time . . . ."
"Fine," Kyle said. "We won't talk about it, but you know you'll have to give us an
answer."
"Us?" Alex queried.
"Yeah, us," Kyle spoke sternly. "Me, Tess, Liz, Maria, Michael, and Max. No
offense, but there were enough secrets at one point in our lives. We don't need
more."
Alex saw Liz's dad, Jeff, heading over with an orange soda and Alex's favorite
Crashdown dish, and smiled when Jeff set it down in front of him. "Thanks Mr.
Parker," Alex said, glad for a distraction from the downhill conversation he and
Kyle were having.
"No problem, Alex." Jeff smiled, but Alex could tell there was an apprehension in
doing so. Jeff of course would know what was going on, as he and Isabel's dad
were acquainted.
Alex watched Jeff Parker walk away and scoffed, "Dammit."
"What?"
"With Isabel's parents and Liz's parents being friends," he used the term
loosely, "I'm going to be getting a lot of bad publicity."
"I thought Liz's parents loved you, though. They wouldn't totally disown you
just because you impregnated Max's sister," Kyle assured.
Alex took a bite of his sandwich and a sip of orange soda and swallowed. "No,
Kyle, you're not understanding. Both families are extremely well-known.
Everyone comes to the Crashdown and Phillip handles a lot of legal crap that
goes on within the town. Isabel's told me that if you ever push her dad's
buttons too far, that you will never forget it. I crossed that line, Kyle, as has
Isabel. Her dad's not speaking to her, and if he sees me within 100 feet of his
daughter, he will murder me." Alex paused to take another bite and continued.
"The only reason he didn't strangle me was because Gloria, my dad, and
Isabel's mom were in the room to stop him."
Kyle nodded in understanding and patted Alex on the back. "You're screwed,
Alex."
"What the hell were you thinking?"
"Michael, I—"
"Save it! This is going to put us all in danger!" Michael exasperated in his usual
stubborn manner. "What are you gonna do when this baby pops out and is
green with three eyes and five arms? How are you gonna explain that to your
parents?" he interrogated.
"That's ridiculous, Michael! We are part human! What kind of survival mechanism
would that be if the baby didn't come out looking human?" Isabel countered,
rubbing her temples.
The headache that was creeping up on Isabel was only worsened by the 'Aliens
Only' meeting her, her brother, Michael, and Tess were having, yet again
discussing her unborn baby. Her life for the last two months had been
consumed by her pregnancy, and now that her family and the entire town knew,
she wished she could hide and never have anyone find her. It had taken her
almost the entire two months she knew she was pregnant to tell her parents
and Max, and before that, a week to inform Alex. Before he had left for California
to tell his own mother (at the request of his father), Isabel had invited Alex's
parents and himself over for dinner, so to get the entire thing over.
Isabel had anticipated her parents’ reactions, but had definitely underestimated
how huge of a reaction they would have, and Max's had been a wild card. But in
the middle of dinner Isabel couldn't hold in her emotions any longer and had
burst into tears, spilling everything to her parents and Max. She had stopped
her crying long enough to see her father's face turn beet red and reach across
the table for Alex's neck while her mother sat still and had silently begun to cry.
And Max had just stared at her in disbelief, not saying a word, but had
reprimanded her later for being so irresponsible and reckless and getting into
such a situation.
"We're also part alien, don't forget that."
"We're not getting anywhere with this," Max interrupted, looking pointedly at
Michael. "We need to think about this rationally. And Isabel's right. The reason
we're here is for survival purposes and they wouldn't have made us look human
if not that." He scanned the room, avoiding Isabel's eye, and came to Tess.
"Tess?"
Tess's eyes were stony, and she didn't look happy. "I don't understand how you
can even consider going through with this. Also, Nasedo said that our
pregnancies are only supposed to last a month," she said matter-of-factly,
"Obviously, yours isn't," and she pointed to Isabel's very slightly rounded
stomach, though only Isabel noticed the subtle change in her body.
Isabel sighed, continuing to try to alleviate her headache. "Maybe Nasedo
lie—"
"He didn't lie!" Tess got defensive. "This is not the way things are supposed to
be."
Isabel was getting frustrated. She hated that they were arguing over
her pregnancy. She understood that it affected all of them, but the truth
was that in the end it was her problem, not theirs. She and Alex
would be the ones ultimately taking care of the child, not them.
"Well then," Isabel said exasperated, "Maybe Nasedo underestimated how
much reign our human bodies have over us. Also, why would he have never
informed me of that fact? I am of the same species as you: Why only inform
you?"
Tess struggled for an answer. "I don't know why, but maybe he never expected
you or I to go off and get ourselves pregnant by some human," Tess's eyes
widened, realizing after-the-fact that she had said the wrong thing.
"Excuse me?" Isabel stood up and asked, "Some human? That
human happens to be a very important asset to our little group and has
been loyal to keeping our secret. He's also kind, sweet, a gentlemen, and is
very open and friendly to you, even if his best friends aren't. He's not just
some human. His name is Alex, and excuse me if I don't consider the guy
who impregnated me just some human."
Isabel opened the door to leave, but looked around the room, tears forming in
her brown eyes. "Don't think that I asked for this to happen." She revealed,
"This may be too much information for you all to process, but don't think that
Alex and I just suddenly had sex and automatically this baby was made. No,
that's not what happened. We've been in an intimate relationship for a while,
and there were times when we were too casual and not careful, and it just so
happened that last time cost us." She brought her hand up to wipe the wet
droplets flowing along her cheeks. She then emphasized, "This is mine and
Alex's issue. And before you interrupt Michael," she said looking to him, "I
know this affects all of us, but you have to realize that we do not all need to
involve ourselves in each other's business. Alex and I can handle
ourselves."
Isabel looked around one last time. "Now if you'll excuse me, I am very tired and
going to bed. Oh, and Max," she gazed up at her brother, "If you dare wake me
before ten tomorrow, I will hurt you," and with that, she left.
Tess shook her head, an angry glint in her blue eyes. "I can't believe she's
going through with this."
Michael went and sat on Max's bed, looking to Tess. "Ditto . . . . So . . . got any
books on alien babies?"
Max placed his face in the palm of his hand and shook his head. God help us
if this all goes to shit.