TITLE: Anywhere But Here 1/?
AUTHOR: Janelle (aka gaffergirl TTWF)
CATEGORY: M/I fic - but not very obviously. Never fear, they *will* be
together in this, just not in a traditional, actually-being-together kind of
way.
RATING: Strong R for language.
SUMMARY/SPOILERS: Ummmm... I would say anything through the Christmas ep for
spoilers, but I never understood where the sudden chumminess between Maria
and Michael came from. Was that not totally out of the blue? Who's with me
here? Anyway, summary: The Roswell girls decide to take a roadie. :)
FEEDBACK: Oh, please! *g* I love it! Helps me to motivate myself to write!
DISCLAIMER: The whole kit and kaboodle belongs to Jason Katims and all those
other lucky, creative folks, not me. Please don't sue, I work in a bagel
store.
“I don’t like this.”
Isabel Evans sighed deeply and turned around to face the only two people in the world who could really make this difficult on her - Max and Michael. She would have laughed aloud at the way they were standing there if she didn’t know exactly what was coming. She wearily took in the sight of them: standing side by side, arms folded defiantly across their chests, glaring at her. They could be so aggravating when they agreed.
“You know what? I really don’t give a shit what you like or don’t like. I’m going,” she replied tersely, tossing a suitcase in the back of the jeep that she and Max shared. Again, under different circumstances, she would have really reveled in their reactions to her unabashedly foul language. Max’s mouth actually dropped open a little, his eyes widening ever so slightly. And Michael… if looks could kill… his head dropped a little further forward, his eyes narrowed more, and he let out a sharp exhale of breath at her audacity to speak to him like that. Isabel just rolled her eyes. She had tried on more than one occasion to disabuse them of their idea of her as a sweet and innocent girl.
It hadn’t worked.
Swearing in front of them hadn’t worked, smoking in front of them hadn’t worked, letting them see her dressed like an absolute slut just begging to be fucked by her dates hadn’t worked. They were all the same age, almost to the minute, but she had been the little sister all her life. Well, it was high time little sister flew the coop, if only for a short while.
“I’m serious, Isabel, what if we need you and you’re not here? And Tess? I still can’t believe you’re dragging her into this… do you see how selfish this is?” Max delivered his speech in a maddeningly calm tone of voice, which only served to irritate her further. She blew off his remonstrations with an unladylike snort of derision. At that point, Michael decided to throw his two cents in.
“Come on, Isabel, think about what you’re doing here. Everything’s up in the air right now and you just want to take off? Like you can even afford to do that? Max is right; this is the most childish and selfish thing you could possibly do! Our enemies are out there, just waiting…”
“And they’ll be out there, waiting, always! Forever and forever and forever, they’ll always be there. We might not know their names or their faces or their species, but they’ll always be there! So what do you propose that we do, just hole up here in Roswell for the rest of our lives, just because we’re paranoid? That ought to make it easier than ever for our enemies to just wipe us out, if they always know where we’ll be and exactly what we’re going to do!” Isabel stopped her tirade for a moment to breathe and collect herself. “We won’t be living in our parents’ house forever. We’re going to have to take chances in venturing out into the world… and I, for one, cannot keep this up. It’s wearing me down, it’s wearing all of us down. We’re tired, and we’re restless, and we’re sick of each other. How much of a wonderful unit can we be together like that?”
The boys were silent for a moment. Max found something very intriguing about the pavement suddenly, but Michael never averted his eyes one centimeter. Isabel threw her backpack under the front seat and addressed them once more.
“Maybe you guys should, I don’t know… do something fun. Together, apart, whatever, just get out. Get out of the house, get out of Roswell… I don’t want to come back here ten days later and find you two still staring each other down across a Crashdown booth and eating Men In Blackberry pie.” That lightened the mood a little, and both guys chuckled a little. “Seriously, though, we’ll be just fine, I promise.” At that precise moment, a high-pitched giggle reached their ears.
“Oh, Isabel, are they going all macho on you? Sorry I let you take the brunt of that…” Tess grinned as she walked up the Evans’ driveway with a backpack and a suitcase-toting Kyle Valenti in tow. Isabel smiled in greeting.
“Is that a knowing look on your face, Tess? May I take that to mean that you had a bit of the same at the good sheriff’s house?” Tess chortled, and Kyle colored a little, speaking up to defend himself.
“Hey, it’s what any decent guy would do. You girls are all so… flighty. You could get into serious trouble, and then we’d have to bail you out… what’s so funny?” he asked Max and Michael, who couldn’t contain a snicker or two at hearing Isabel referred to as “flighty”. However, their good humor disappeared as another car drove up to the house and Liz Parker, Maria DeLuca, and Alex Whitman climbed out.
“All right, ladies: Alexander Whitman, busboy extraordinaire, is at your service,” Alex quipped as he lugged overnight bags to the back of the jeep. As Isabel suspected they might, Liz made her way over to Max and Maria sidled up to Michael to say their “goodbyes”. She thought she might be sick at any moment.
“What in the world possessed you to think of this?” an honestly befuddled Max asked Liz, who shrugged before responding.
“Well… all this stuff that’s been happening recently, with the replicas of you guys, and the secrets that have come out, and… stuff…” she glanced at her shoes when she said that, and Max grew a little more confused, but said nothing. “It’s just made me think a lot. You know, about togetherness, and bonding and stuff as a group.” Seeing Max’s lopsided grin, she laughed shyly. “I know, I know how cheesy that sounds, but really. Whether we like it or not… we’re kind of a team. We work things out together, and we all share this… huge secret, but the trust isn’t always there, and it should be. If we’re going to do this, and we’re going to win, we need to all be able to trust each other. And, as thrilling as the thought of bonding with Michael is,” she punctuated with an eye-roll, “I think this might be the best, or maybe the easiest place to start. Well, for us anyway. I mean, Maria and I obviously trust each other, but think about the other dynamics there. Isabel and Tess. We all know that you four would do anything for one another, but how well do those two really know each other? And really, Tess and I? Isabel and I? Tess and Maria? Isabel and Maria?” Liz shook her head. “There’s a lot of tension there, and a huge lack of ability to communicate, and it’s not any one person’s fault. I guess that’s what I’m hoping this trip will fix,” she finished with a sigh. Max brushed a lock of hair behind her ear.
“You’re so thoughtful,” he murmured, and Liz smirked. “No, I’m serious… left to ourselves, none of the rest of us would have ever addressed that topic, but you cared enough to.” When Liz tried to look away from him, he gently held her face in his hands and stared her down. “You have a big heart, Liz, and I don’t want that to ever change about you… but it can be dangerous. I know Isabel, and I have gotten to know Tess really well lately. As much as I hate to say this, Tess probably will be pretty open. She’s… kinda lonely. But Isabel…” Max sighed and ran a hand through his hair in distraction. “Isabel is lonely, too, but she’d die before she let anybody know that. The four of us… we don’t exactly have a lot to hold on to lately, and a lot of things have slipped out of our control. Isabel has this image that she projects, and she can control that. There’s no telling how far she’ll go to protect it,” he finished, glancing sadly at his sister. Liz pulled Max into her embrace and responded quietly.
“I know that… and you know, if Isabel decides that she needs that front up, then that’s fine with me. I have no preconceived expectations for this trip, Max. I set it up hoping that the four girls here could open up to each other without any of the pressures of home… people expect things of us here, we have obligations and responsibilities here. On the road, we’re just us and we have no plans, no duties. To tell you the truth, the simple fact that they all agreed to go gives me reason to hope. But,” she amended quickly at the concern evident on Max’s face, “if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. At least we’ll have gotten a vacation.”
“So… I just gotta ask. Why?” Michael queried, looking sideways at his
on-again, off-again girlfriend. She gave him that look… the “what the hell
kind of question is that?” look. He was forced to clarify. “I mean, when
was the last time you even exchanged small talk with Tess? And you and Iz
hate each other.”
“We don’t hate each other,” Maria retorted huffily. “We just… stand in support of the mutual differences of opinion, lifestyle, species, and social circles that keep us apart,” she finished, as if the things she had listed were very small things. Michael sighed in exasperation.
“So then why are you going? You still haven’t answered that,” he prodded, and Maria shrugged.
“It’s a chance to get out of Roswell. You know I shouldn’t be so daring as to assume that my car would survive a trip any further than, like, Albuquerque. It’s a piece of shit.”
“So… you’re going just because you can’t go alone?” Michael raised his eyebrows.
“Well… yeah, that’s one part of it.”
“What are the other parts of it?” he continued to interrogate. Maria exhaled forcefully in aggravation.
“I don’t know… I need to get away from all this,” she embellished by waving her arms about and nearly smacking Michael in the face. “It’s suffocating me. All this responsibility and all this alien stuff, it’s driving me nuts!”
“'Alien stuff'? You do realize that you’re planning on travelling long distances in a jeep with two aliens, don’t you?” he asked darkly.
“Of course I do. What’s your point? Look, I just need to get out for a while. It’s nothing personal,” she snapped, and Michael sighed.
“So where are you guys going?” Maria walked towards the jeep and answered over her shoulder.
“I don't know... wherever the wind takes us? Anywhere but here!” A disgusted look crossed Michael’s face.
“Thanks,” he muttered under his breath, “I needed that.”
“Hey,” Alex greeted Isabel casually.
“Hey,” she greeted back. A very long moment passed, during which neither party was sure what to say to the other. After a while, Isabel sighed and walked away.
“Good talking to you,” Alex said to himself.
“Okay, everyone packed in?” Isabel called out to her fellow car-mates, who all nodded. “Great. Cooler?”
“Under the back seat,” confirmed Maria.
“Emergency car kit?”
“In the back, under the suitcases,” added Tess.
“Cell phone?” prodded Michael, and Isabel shot him a look of mock annoyance.
“Right here, in my pocket,” she said, pulling it out and waving it around.
“Spare set of keys?” Isabel waved her hand over a spot on the rear bumper and a small, red lockbox appeared out of thin air. Another wave, and it disappeared.
“Gotta love travelling with aliens!” Maria enthused, and Liz grinned at her.
“Mace?”
“Michael!” Isabel growled, with real aggravation this time.
“What?!” Isabel just gave him a quick hug, followed by another one for Max.
“We’ll be fine, we’ll be safe, we’ll call you before we turn in for the night, and in case of emergencies, well, there’s always Tess.” At that comment, the small blonde girl wiggled her fingers and grinned. Isabel winked at “her boys”, and hopped into the driver’s seat. “Let’s go, ladies!”
“Shotgun!!” cried Liz quickly, and Tess looked confused, while Maria groaned.
“Not bitch,” Maria followed up without enthusiasm, which earned her a withering glance from Isabel. She giggled nervously. “Heh-heh… oops.”
The girls climbed into the jeep, waved to the guys, and sped off down the road and out of sight. Once gone, all four guys looked rather uneasily at one another, not saying anything. Turning their eyes back to the road, Michael summed up their feelings in one sentence.
“I still don’t like this.”
End part one