something from the archives - after vegas - part 9

and so it ends. hope you enjoyed it. i've certainly enjoyed re-visiting this one.

and there's more to come. i have to look and see what i'll post next in this series. i have quite a bit of material to get through. and i just would really like to have it all in one place.

anyway before we can move on, we must close this story out after the jump. links to all chapters in the story can be found here: parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Part 9 - Epilogue

*Tess’s journal*

You’d think that people would appreciate destiny. Choices are easier when they are preordained.

But Max is still so unhappy. We’ve been together for six years. We have a precious baby boy and a baby girl on the way. But he just pines for Liz. 

I don’t fight it anymore. I don’t ask for more than what he gives me. I’ve found that it’s easy enough to get more from other sources. I suspect that my children aren’t really his children. I suspect that he knows this. But he loves them just the same. 

Six years. It’s a long time to pine for someone. It’s a long time to be unhappy. 

Max still won’t commit to me. He has never mentioned marriage in all the time we’ve been together. In every way, even in a previous life, I am his wife. But he's never let it be anything official in the life we live now. I’ve come to accept that he will never let go of her. I will always come second to her in this life.

But I have him. He isn't mine, but I have him all the same. 

Honestly, she doesn’t even want him.

In the end I’ve won. I have what I want. The point was to fulfill destiny. Not be happy.

*Kyle’s journal*

Could my life be anymore perfect? I’ve got the best job (high school coach). The best girlfriend (Isabel Evans), who happens to have alien powers (let me tell you that getting zapped is an all-time favorite activity). So I wanted to do something real special for her today--she’s finally graduating law school and deserves something big. 

So I proposed. And she said yes.

My Ice Princess said yes.

This is the happiest man on Earth. Who happens to be marrying his favorite Martian.

*Maria’s journal*

Oh my God!! We just won a Grammy…after eight years of hard work finally it comes to this.

Alex and I had to go solo…The Whits were dragging us down so we became the Alien Blast…who’d of thought that naming ourselves after a fountain drink would make us cult favorites.

And now a Grammy. All our hard work finally being recognized. 

I couldn’t be happier. My dreams have all come true. I have a beautiful family, a wonderful husband, and a career I love. Life is good.

*Max’s journal*

I think I’ve become a father for the first time. I mean I love Kane and Abby, but I don’t think they’re mine biologically. Emma is my baby girl. The poor thing even has ears that stick out like mine. 

I don't even remember how Tess and I could have conceived. Maybe I was drunk. Maybe she was too. Most nights she finds somewhere else to sleep, someone else to fuck. Not that I am one to talk. I’ve been a bastard to her as well. In our ridiculous sham of a life together Lord knows how many women I’ve screwed. I just want to rid my mind of the memory of one. 

Liz. Even after all these years the thought of her still makes my heart beat a little faster. How Michael got so lucky I will never understand. 

So many regrets. I feel like I’ve wasted the past ten years. 

But Tess and I finally figured out how to get back home to Antar. 

We sifted through our past memories and connected everything together. I can’t say I remember loving her much. I think I loved her then the same I love her now. Duty. It’s a bitch.

So I think we’re leaving tomorrow. I offered Isabel a ride but I don’t think she’ll take me up on it. It’s useless to mention this to Michael.

I just wonder if I should say goodbye to Liz. I wonder if she’ll care if I stay or go. 

I don’t think I figure into her thoughts much though.

*Isabel’s journal*

I’m pregnant.

I don’t know what to tell Kyle. I don’t think he will be repulsed by the idea of having children that will be part alien. But what if he is. What if he never meant to get me pregnant. Obviously this is a conversation we should have had before we got married. Or before we started having sex? I don't know why this is freaking me out so much.

He loves me.

He is the perfect husband. I must say his practice of Buddhism and the culture of moderation just makes him the perfect person to be with. When Max left for Antar, he offered to take me with him and his family. But I’d found where I belonged in this life, destiny or no destiny. 

Kyle is the one person I was meant to be with. He centers me. He melts the core of ice that I store within myself. The ice I used to need to keep my heart safe. I know it is safe with him. He's proven that to me so many times over.

I miss my brother often. And my nieces and nephews. 

I think Kyle misses them as well, he liked having the kids over. 

I’m being foolish. My husband will be delirious when I tell him we’re pregnant.

He loves me.

And I love him.

*Alex’s journal*

A piece of my heart is gone forever. 

My muse, the song of my heart, has been silenced. In such a stupid, careless way. I’ll miss her laughter, her beautiful green eyes, her panic attacks, her loyalty, her unwavering support, the way she’d hold me in her arms after we made love.

I loved Maria my whole life. I have no idea what I’ll do without her. She was my best friend. My lover. My partner. My life.

And all it took to part us was a stupid, senseless accident. A tour bus skidding across the icy road into a ravine. I should have been with her.

But I got tied up on a conference call. So they set off ahead of me, I’d take a plane and catch up later.

At least I got to tell her how much I loved her before she left. At least we had one last kiss goodbye.

At least I’ll have a piece of her with me always, in our two girls, Marta and Marguerite. 

The lights of my life. They’ll miss their mother, especially as they’re about to hit puberty. I see a lot of sleepless nights in the future. But my girls will be okay. They have the best of Maria in them. And I will do what’s best for them.

I’m retiring from the music business. I’ve got an idea for a software company. I think it’s computers for me again. Moving back to Roswell. I‘ll be close to Michael and Liz and their brood and Kyle and Isabel and their kids will be close by as well. Better people for my girls that the paparazzi and celebrities that surround us in LA. Back in Roswell we'll be surrounded by people who loved Maria, people who love me.

I won’t miss being a rock star. That was the life Maria loved. Not me. 

Coda

Michael watched as his wife of sixty-five years lay on their bed. He knew it was time to let go. 

They’d had a good life together. A brood of children, three girls: Tamara, Samantha, and Charlotte, known to all as Mara, Sam and Charlie. And twin boys: Adam and Trevor. They’d been a handful to raise, but Michael had loved every minute of it. Liz had become a high school biology teacher and he had helped Jeff Parker with the Crashdown until eventually taking over when his father-in-law retired. Their children were all married, and they had a gaggle of grandkids. And there was so much laughter and love that overcame the tears and the pain of life.

Lately he’d been called upon to heal his wife more and more. But he knew this time would be the last. For seventy years, his heart had been in time with Liz’s. He knew the heart attack was coming, and he knew it would kill them both. But they’d loved so much, so well through the years, they were the last ones standing.

Michael smiled as he neared the bed where Liz lay. And he took her in his arms and lay next to her.

“Baby, it’s time.” Was all he said. 

And they kissed, entwining the love, the very essence that had kept them alive so long. Liz understood what Michael meant and let go at the same moment that he did.

Do you want to know what happens when two souls who love die together? They race the wind and dance, bound together for all time. They whisper love in the ears of the young, they whisper peace in the ears of the anguished, they help flowers bloom and birds fly. The soul is spirit and spirit is all around us. Spirit never dies.

The End