Author's note/Disclaimer/All that jazz: Yeah, we all know who Roswell really belongs to, and it's not me (Hi, WB, Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, etc!), so don't bother suing me. It's not worth it.

Takes place in the future arc, about three weeks after "Confessions."

Dedication: For my radish sisters, who wanted to see the conversation between Jamie and Nikki. :) And for Dani, for letting me play in her world. *radish hug*

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

"So, Jamie, umm..."

"Nik--"

The two laughed, blushing slightly at their joined hands.

"Jamie, um...I know we're best friends'n everything, and we've been best friends since we were eleven, and I could ruin everything by saying this, since Mama never dated Uncle Alex cuz they never felt that way, but--"

"Nik, d'you wanna go out or something?" Jamie's voice cut across her long DeLucan ramble, but it sounded as nervous as hers.

She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him. Jamie was finally beginning to catch up with her in height, and Nicole was beginning to think that she'd stopped growing at 5' 7. She was the tallest of the cousins now, taller even then Claudi, who was three years older. But Stephen, Leo, and Mattie showed every sign of passing her up in a few years.

His blue eyes were almost on level with hers. She had to look up slightly to meet them. She smiled. He had those really pretty Valenti blue eyes, just like the sheriff and Mr. Jim had. She was kinda sad that all of her cousins but Mattie, even little baby Josh, had the dark Czechoslovakian eyes. Maybe if she had babies someday...

"Yeah, that'd be cool." She smiled at him. And he smiled back.

And neither of them noticed that their interlaced fingers began to glow softly again.

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

Three weeks later:

"Honey?"

Kyle looked up from the video game he was playing, still his favorite way of relieving stress after a long day at the office. "Yeah, babe?"

His wife sat on the arm of his chair. "What do you know about the Guerins?"

He froze. Even years after the greatest danger had passed, and they didn't have to worry about being hunted anymore, he froze. "Why, hon?" He kept his tone casual, something he picked up after sixteen years in law enforcement, and more than three decades of living in Roswell.

Bethany ran her fingers through his hair. "Because our son has a date with Nicole tonight."

"Jamie?" He looked at her, game controller forgotten. "But I thought they hated each other."

She smiled. "Because they fight all the time?"

"Yeah." And then he remembered when he was fourteen, and how he had finally realized that the way to a girl's heart wasn't through teasing and punching after all. "Just like Maria and Michael used to." He groaned.

"Were they the ones who...?"

And he grinned. "Mr. Raddish's breakdown? Not completely. I was a little brat then too."

Bethany's arms came around him, and she rested her chin on top of his head. Deputy Bethany Valenti. His wife, and mother of his son. Jamie was nearly fifteen, and she hadn't left yet. Neither had he. Maybe the Valenti curse was lifted.

"So our son's going on a date, huh? A date-date?"

His wife pulled back and smiled. "He's picking Nicole up at seven, and they're going to the Crashdown for dinner."

So it was already planned. And his son didn't tell him.

"Relax, cowboy. Jamie and Nicole just decided this afternoon."

He relaxed against the back of the chair, settling Bethany better in his lap. "Nicole Guerin, huh? If she has a punch anything like her mother's..." He grinned, remembering all the fights he'd gotten in with Maria DeLuca.

"Maria Guerin? That tiny thing?" Beth's voice was surprised.

Kyle laughed. "She had a better right hook than Tommy or Paulie did." They had gotten closer to the Guerins, Whitmans, and Evanses over the years because of Jamie and Nicole's friendship, and since his dad still dated Amy DeLuca on occasion, but there was still a lot of history that Bethany had never heard. She hadn't grown up with them, known them all their lives. She realized now that the three families came in a pack, but not why. Even Kyle wondered sometimes why he was chosen to know. He'd always been on the outside of their little world, but voluntarily or involutarily, he'd always orbited on the same path as they had.

But Bethany had lived and worked with him for so long that she could almost read his mind. "What bothers you about our son dating Nicole Guerin?"

For a moment, he wondered if Jamie remembered Max's glowing hand putting breath back into his body, and if little Nicole would ever explain what it meant. Was it the fact that she was half alien? Or the fact that she was Michael Guerin's daughter? He couldn't decide which. Or it could be as simple as the fact that she represented everything he had hated in that group since they were eleven years old, even though they were friends now. The six seemed to bond closer than anyone Kyle had ever seen, and he still envied that. "Old jealousies, I guess."

That was a safe answer. It killed him to keep secrets from Beth, but he had to sometimes. She knew all about the rumors that surrounded his dad and grandfather. She knew that aliens were connected to the Valenti name. It was just now that people were finally realizing that the third Valenti sheriff wanted nothing to do with Roswell's famous secret.

She kissed the top of his head. "Are you finally over Liz Parker yet?" There was a hint of old jealousies in her voice.

So all thoughts of aliens and half-aliens and his son left his mind, as he proved to her once and for all that he was over Liz Parker.

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

Nicole glared at her reflection in the mirror. She hated skirts, but the long blue one that she wore was the only thing in her closet without paint on it. She had her dad's habit of wiping her paint-smeared hands on whatever was handiest--her clothes, her hair, her face, the wall... At least the bright sweater she wore matched her skirt. Even Auntie Izzy and Claudi had approved.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?" Claudia sat perched on her bed with Molly and Anna on either side of her. Nicole's sister and her two girl cousins had jumped at the chance to help her get ready for her big date. "He's a nice boy, Nik, but he's Jamie Valenti." Her cousin and best friend grinned mischeviously, looking just like Auntie Liz for a minute.

Nicole reached out and thwapped her cousin--lightly, of course. "Y'know, some girls actually do like to spend time with guys, Claudi." She knew her cousin's heart had been broken a while ago. Claudi had even kind of dated the boy briefly. Because of that experience, and maybe because of her innate shyness, Claudia seemed to have a fear of the opposite sex. Nicole didn't have that fear. Maybe it was because of all her brothers and the fact that Mattie practically lived at her house. Or maybe it was growing up so close to Jamie. She felt kinda giddy inside. She was finally going out with Jamie, after they'd kinda talked about it for almost a month.

Claudia's eyes met hers in the mirror as Nicole continued. "Being with him just makes me feel like I belong, y'know? Like I'm completely..."

"Human?" Her little sister's voice piped up. At nine, Molly was the quiet Guerin, the philosopher that Michael swore had been dropped on the wrong doorstep. Auntie Isabel said sometimes that Molly reminded her most of Uncle Max, she was so introspective. She was best friends with Anna, who was only a month younger than she was. Anna and Molly had even kinda started a band, with Molly singing and writing the songs, and Anna playing guitar and piano.

"Yeah, human." She sat on her bed between her sister and her cousins, taking Molly's hand in one of hers, and Claudi's in the other. The four girls sat in a circle, hands glowing softly. "It's cool, that we can be here, like this--"

"But we don't belong to one world or the other," Anna finished.

"But it's better than when our parents were growing up, because they were even more clueless than we are," Claudia reminded them, always the voice of reason and wisdom. "We're not hunted."

It was true. They'd lived relatively normal lives. There were no FBI agents following their every move. The Guerins and Whitmans had been raised on the old stories, and on how cautious they had to be with their powers. But Nicole slipped sometimes, and she knew that Anna did too. And Claudi hadn't even known about their extraterrestrial heritage until seven years ago. She'd always known about her powers, but not the fact that they came from the stars...

"We belong here, with each other. And we'll find lovers someday, like our parents did, who understand us." Nikki felt very grown up all of a sudden, since that talk with Auntie Izzy three weeks ago. Like she was beginning to put her childhood behind her. She grinned at the girls who meant most to her in the entire world, throwing her arms around all three of them. "If Mama and Daddy survived long enough to find each other, we can find soul-mates."

And there was a knock at the door. "Nik? Jamie's here."

Nicole hopped off the bed and began to panic. "Ohmygod, he's here, but my hair's not done, and I don't know what to do about make-up, and my sweater's all wrinkled, and what if he doesn't like what I'm wearing?" And then, lifting up her hair, she noticed a streak of red paint that she had somehow missed on her neck. She shrieked.

Claudia's calm arms came around her. "Chill, Nik. You'll be fine." Her cousin stroked Nicole's flyaway short curls. As her cousin's hand touched her hair, it smoothed down to lie flat, pushed back from her forehead by a sparkly headband. Anna stood in front of Nicole, and at a wave of her small hand, the creases fell out of her skirt and sweater.

"Mom taught me that." The small blond brunette blushed. "And you don't need make-up, Nikki. You're pretty just the way you are." Her dark eyes danced. "Jamie likes you in your painting clothes anyways."

Nicole grinned at her youngest and second-favorite cousin. They shared a special bond, being the troublemakers of the family. "Thanks, Annabeth."

After a little more hand-waving and enough special powers that would've made each one of their parents age ten years, Nicole was finally ready to walk down the stairs. Jamie looked especially handsome, his curly brown hair falling naturally into the bright Valenti blue eyes. In some ways, he looked like his dad, but for the most part, he was his mother's son. He definitely had her hair, which made Nicole glad, because sometimes Sheriff Valenti's hair reminded her of a chia pet.

"You sure you wanna do this, Nik?" Her dad caught her by the hand as she stood at the top of the staircase. His dark eyes seemed sad for some reason.

She reached up, making the yellow paint that streaked across his nose disappear. "Yeah, Daddy. I am." And for a minute, she was a little girl in her daddy's arms again, hugging him harder than anything in the world. "You'll always be my dad. Always first in my life. You know that, right?"

He tugged lightly on one of her curls and the grin on his face matched hers. "You'll always be my favorite assistant." He leaned down and kissed her gently on the forehead. "And if Valenti lays a hand on you, I'll make sure he never wakes up from his dreams."

"Daddy!"

*******

Maria stared up at the top of the staircase, watching her husband and daughter walk down slowly, hand in hand. She knew how hard it must be for Michael to let his first little baby walk off with the son of one of their oldest enemies. Of course, there were a number of times when she thought that that oldest enemy could become her step-brother... Their family was confusing enough without adding Valentis into the mix. Though from the way her daughter looked at Jamie, Maria had a sneaking suspicion...

"Wow." Jamie was staring at her baby girl too. "She's...not covered in paint."

Maria fought the urge to laugh. "She's beautiful, isn't she?" Her tall, thin baby was finally growing into her arms and legs. There was still a bit of a gangly look about her, that Maria remembered Michael had when they were that age, but she could see the beginnings of the woman that Nicole would become too.

Sometimes she wished that her father could see his granddaughter. Or that Michael's family, whoever they were, could be as proud. Thank God for the Evanses, who were willing to treat the Guerins the same as Claudia, Anna, and Matthew. Thank God for bringing all of them together--Valentis included.

And finally her daughter and husband reached the bottom of the stairs. Maria had a brief flash of this same moment in some future time, of Michael walking Nicole down the same staircase, gowned in something flowy and white, glitter streaking her golden hair. She wondered if this were one of Michael's flashes, which she saw as he did from time to time, or just a mother's wish for the future. Time would tell.

"Hey, Jamie." Her daughter blushed.

"Hey, Nik." To Maria's delight, she noticed Jamie blushing too. And when he held out his hand to her, Maria swore that she saw some sort of spark jump when the two hands met.

Michael slipped his arms around her waist as they watched the two walk off. "Jeff and Nancy are working tonight. If anything happens, Jeff will call, and then I can go and beat the crap out of the little brat."

She reached up to run her fingers through her husband's still spiky brown hair. "Our baby'll be fine, spaceboy. He isn't half as obnoxious and foul-smelling as you were."

He chuckled, kissing her neck softly. "But you loved me anyways."

She drew his face to hers, kissing him. "It was you, spaceboy. It was always you."

And above them on the stairs, three young half-human girls watched and wondered when their counterparts would find them.

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

As they walked along, Nicole was quiet for once. It astonished Jamie. Knowing her mom, and her grandma Amy, he was kind of surprised that she could keep quiet.

It was only two blocks to the Crashdown, but it seemed to go by too fast. As always, all Jamie could focus on was Nikki. For some reason, he was drawn to her, with her endless energy, her intensity, her non-stop action. He never knew how she would react, or what her mood would be. She was constantly mercurial. His dad said that she got all the bad parts of her parents' personalities, but Jamie thought that Nicole was just perfect the way she was.

He wasn't quite sure who she was, all clean and dressed in a skirt though. Her legs looked longer, and her face older, without a smear of paint on her forehead, or her curls falling into her face. He missed his best friend, the girl he'd fought with since they were five years old, and she decided that he was hogging the fingerpaint during Art time. This new grown-up Nicole made him feel things, like what her mouth would taste like, and how soft her skin was when there wasn't any paint splattered all over it.

She caught him looking at her out of the corner of her eye and smiled slightly. Their first date-date. The first date for either of them. They were both kind of loners in school, Jamie because the kids teased him for his dad and mom both being sheriffs and deputy sheriffs, and Nikki just because of what she was. She had her family, and that was all she really needed. With them, she knew where she belonged. And somehow, with Jamie, she knew who she was. She wasn't some half-breed weirdo from outer space, with freako powers. She was just...Nik.

But she wondered, sometimes, how he'd react when he knew the truth. She knew her mom had spazzed at first, and even calm Auntie Liz had had a momentary breach of faith. At least Nicole was half human. Half like him.

Jamie tugged at one of her curls with his free hand. "What's wrong? We're supposed to be all happy. We're on a date." He grinned at her.

She playfully smacked his hand away. "None of that on our date though. Only Mama and Daddy do that."

He lightly grabbed one of her curls again. "None of this, you mean?"

She grinned, and for a moment, she looked exactly like her dad, which kind of scared him, since he knew that Michael Guerin wasn't too thrilled that he was dating Nicole tonight. Nicole dropped his hand and turned to face him, her dark eyes dancing in the light of the setting sun.

"And none of this." She reached up with her hands and started to tickle him, since she knew his weakest spot.

"Stop it!" he shrieked. "Nik, that's not fair!" He grabbed at her hands, and wrapped her arms around herself, pining them to her side with his. They stood nose to nose, and for a moment, Jamie swore that he felt a shock of electricity leap from her body to his. It reminded him of the day that her Uncle healed him. But Dr. Evans' glowing hand was forgotten as he leaned in and touched his lips to hers...

He saw fireworks. Literally. Nicole tasted like chocolate and cinnamon and something incredibly spicy. He felt like his knees were melting, like he was falling into a bottomless pit. And overhead, the streetlight flickered and went out.

"Uh oh," Nikki moaned against his lips. She pulled back and looked around nervously. The streetlight began to scatter sparks. So there really had been fireworks. "Umm, let's get out of here." She grabbed his hand again, and began to run. Jamie followed at her heels, still reeling from the kiss, and wondering how Nik could be responsible for making a streetlight explode.

When they got to the Crashdown, they were still panting. Nikki looked more like herself now, with her blond curls creating a golden halo around her face. She grinned as she smoothed her hair back under her headband again, then took his arm as they opened the door to the Crashdown.

Nothing had changed much in the cafe. The murals had been redone by Michael, so that the aliens looked a little less cartoonish now, but the tables still had the same retro look, and the jukebox still sat in the corner. Nicole led Jamie to the last booth, where a reserved sign had been set on the table. Jeff Parker himself came out to take their order, smiling indulgently. Nikki wondered if he was remembering the first date he had watched her parents go on, years and years before.

"What can I get you tonight? The Close Encounter Platter? Blood of an Alien smoothie? High in the Sky Moon Pie?" He grinned.

Jamie pretended to study the menu, even though he knew it by heart. He'd eaten here every Thursday night since he was seven, since that was the only night a week that both of his parents were off. "I'll have the usual, Mr. Parker."

Then Jeff turned to his pseudo-granddaughter, memories of his second daughter and her 'friend with the hair' in his eyes. "And for you, Miss Guerin? Saturn Rings and a Czechoslovakian Mud Burger?"

Nicole grinned. Her whole family had had way too much fun when her mom renamed a lot of the old dishes on the menu five years ago. The special sauce on the mudburger was a nice mix of A-1 sauce and Tabasco, though, under her mom's management, Tabasco had become a fixture on every single table. She wondered if Mr. Parker had ever noticed how fast the restaurant went through the industrial sized bottles...

"Yes, please, Uncle Jeff." She smiled charmingly at him, the same smile that her mom used whenever she wanted out of a shift.

Jeff Parker groaned. "Don't use that look on me, Nicole. You know I'm immune to it after all these years." He ruffled her hair. "And a coke and a special cherry coke coming right up."

Jamie gave her an odd look. "Special cherry coke?"

Nicole blushed. "There's a certain way that I always have it. With a secret ingredient." She didn't crave Tabasco like her dad and aunt and uncle did, but she and her cousins were partial to it, especially on Death By Chocolate cake. And in cherry coke, for some reason.

He grinned. "Your family has weird eating-habits too? Mom said that when she was pregnant with me, all she could eat was tunafish and potatoes au gratin. And Cookie Dough Ice Cream with sardines."

"I think with Mama it kinda hung over onto us though, especially since she was pregnant so often. And Daddy's just weird, period." Nicole smiled up at Mr. Parker when he slid their drinks onto the table. "Thanks, Uncle Jeff." She sipped at it, testing the mix. The ratio of tabasco to cola was off slightly. She looked from the Tabasco to her drink, and then to Jamie. "Um, you won't get grossed out if I do something weird, will you?"

"Of course not." He reached across the table and took her hand. "I've seen you do weird things already."

"Jerk." She stood up and smacked him upside the head, grinning at him. Then, looking around quickly, she leaned over and kissed him quickly on the mouth again. The light overhead flickered slightly. Jamie wondered briefly if the Crashdown was having power problems. But then, he concentrated on the feel of Nikki's lips on his. She tasted sweet and spicy. Whatever the special ingredient in her drink was, he liked it.

They both blushed. Nicole thumped to her seat again, and took the bottle of Tabasco. Jamie watched in fascination as she poured a little dribble into her glass, tasted it, and then poured in a little more. Finally, she was satisfied.

"You're staring at me, James Andrew Valenti." She looked up at him through her long eyelashes.

He stuck his tongue out at her. There was something about Nicole Guerin that just kinda sucked him in. He'd been drawn to her since he first saw her on the playground in kindergarden. And then, when she'd painted a purple stripe down his face during art time, he decided then and there he'd either marry Nikki, or kill her. She was the only one who never laughed at him for wanting to draw houses and buildings, and who never made fun of him for liking math and science better than sports, which he knew still bothered his dad sometimes.

"You just look so different tonight." He grinned at her. "There's no paint anywhere."

She laughed so hard that she choked, and cola shot out of her nose. "Jamie! Look at what you made me do!" She looked down at her sweater, that familiar look of horror on her face. "My new sweater!" A large stain was spreading across the bright blue. She grabbed a napkin, dabbing at it, while Jamie was preoccupied with cleaning up the spill on the table. When he looked up again, the stain was miraculously gone.

"What'd you do, use magic?" He grinned at her, leaning across the table to wipe her face with the clean edge of the napkin. To his surprise, she blushed again. And the half-forgotten memory of her uncle's silver handprint on his chest rose up from the back of his mind, and how the hand that saved him had glowed...

"Hey, how exactly are you related to Claudi? Is it cuz your mom and her mom are best friends? Or is your dad her dad's real brother?"

Nicole looked a bit flustered, but answered his question as she chewed on the straw in her soda. "Auntie Liz did some blood tests when we were all little, and she figured out that Uncle Max and Daddy aren't brothers. Y'know that Uncle Max and Auntie Izzy were adopted, right?"

He nodded. The whole town knew that. Just like everyone knew that Matthew was adopted too.

"Well, since no one knows where Daddy came from either, Auntie Liz decided to test everyone to see if there were any similarities. But Grandma Diane's always called Daddy her third child, and since Daddy and Auntie Izzy and Uncle Max all grew up together, and since they're a lot alike...they're all my family." She smiled softly. "We're kinda weird, but they're my family, and they understand me, and I love them."

He knew that Mr. Guerin was a foster kid, because he'd heard enough of the stories growing up as much as he had with Nikki. And if no one knew where Nik's dad came from, or her aunt and uncle, maybe they had glowing hands too...

Jamie watched Nicole intently. Maybe she was one of those psychic healer people that still popped up in places, like up on the Indian reservation north of town. It's not like she was an alien or something. He still had to live down his grandfather's preoccupation with little green men. Luckily, most of the town had forgotten Sgt. Martian.

"I always envied you." He gave her a shy smile. "You always seemed to know where you belonged. And you had so many people to care about you." He got kinda lonely sometimes, being the only kid. He had cousins that lived out in California, but he didn't see them a lot. And no one knew where his grandma Michelle was. She'd walked out of Roswell more than 25 years before, never to look back.

She touched his hand, and he felt that cool little spark run up his arm to his heart. "Yeah, but in my house, there's never a moment's peace either. No privacy. I can't hear myself think." There was a bit of sadness in her smile. "I have to go outside under the stars to think. It's the only place that I can put all my thoughts together."

He stroked the top of her hand with his fingers, still surprised not to find the usual dried splotches of paint on her knuckles and under her nails.

"It's nice, having Claudi, and Anna, and Molly. They understand me a lot better than Mama does. And Auntie Izzy's great too. I just wish I was like everyone else though." There was a lonely look in her dark eyes, something he'd never seen before. Nicole was usually and endless burst of passion and energy, either raging about like her dad did sometimes, or talking faster than warp speed like her mom did.

Jamie got up and squeezed next to Nicole on the bench. He put his arm around her, drawing her close, just like his dad did sometimes. "You'll always have me as your friend, Nik. Y'know that, right?"

And she looked up at him, that familiar smirky grin on her face. "Duh, Valenti."

He leaned in to kiss her again, when someone coughed. It was Jeff Parker, bearing two plates.

"Dinner is served."

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

When Jeff walked into the employee lounge, the phone at Maria's desk rang. "Crashdown Cafe, how can we beam you up?"

"Did they make it? Are they still there?" The voice on the other end of the phone was rushed and excited.

"They're fine, Michael. Jamie hasn't laid a hand on your daughter yet." Jeff grinned as he looked out the round window into the Cafe, watching the two young teens sit side by side, wolfing down their burgers.

"If he does..." Nicole's father's voice was ominous.

"She'll be fine, Michael. If she's anything like her mother, I'm more afraid for Jamie. Besides, I let you take out Maria."

There was a heavy sigh on the other end. "Yeah, but I was a perfect--"

"Jackass, I believe is the word, Mr. Guerin." Watching the two sitting in that booth brought back years' worth of memories--his daughter's first date with Kyle Valenti, the time he caught Michael carving his and Maria's initials into the formica of the table... "They'll be fine. I promise." Then, as Jamie Valenti snuck in another kiss, barbeque sauce smeared all over his chin, the lights flickered again. "Are you having power trouble over your way?"

***********

When her Uncle Jeff cleared away the plates, Nicole looked down at the tabletop. She ran her fingers over the smoothness, noticing a heart that someone had carved into it, years and years ago. She traced the initials, finally realizing whose they were after all these years.

"Jamie, look." She poked him with her elbow. His fingers ran lightly over the initials. MD+MG, surrounded by a heart. "M&M. My mom and dad."

Touching the letters again, she had a sudden flash of her father sitting at the same booth with her aunts and uncles, carving with a steak-knife as Uncle Max and Auntie Liz snuck little kisses, and Uncle Alex told Auntie Izzy a story, waving his arms about just like Anna did sometimes. And an image of her mother running out of the back room, still wearing the ugly old Crashdown uniforms, being swept up in her father's arms and kissed. She shook her head as the flash faded. "This was their booth."

Jamie grinned at her. "Well, now it's ours too."

But as he leaned in to kiss her again, something they'd been doing a lot of tonight, she pushed him away. "Jamie, we need to talk…"

He nodded.

After Jeff brought them the bill, Jamie silently paid with the money he'd saved from his paper route. He left a good tip on the table, and held out his hand to Nicole again. She looked at it for a long time before taking it, and again he was amazed at the rightness that he felt, just holding his hand. Like they fit together or something. But they weren't even fifteen-too young for all that mushy love crap.

As they walked outside, Nikki's face immediately lifted up to the stars, searching out one of the most familiar constellations in the heavens. With one finger raised to the night sky, she traced the graceful line of Aries until she found the v-shaped formation between the Ram's horns. Her dad had taken her outside when she was three years old, the night after she made her truck explode, and pointed their constellation out to her. He said that if she waved hard enough sometimes, someone would see her waving and send her a shooting star of love back. She opened and closed her hand three times, her own private signal, and waited. Then, as if it was a sign, a small spark shot across the heavens.

"Make a wish," Jamie whispered.

And she did. To belong.

"That's the Radish Constellation. Uncle Max and Auntie Liz found it when they were eleven on the campout with Mr. Raddish." She took a deep breath, gently releasing his hand. "Jamie…there's something I gotta tell you."

She stepped back from him, a sick feeling in the bottom of her stomach. He looked at her expectantly. "Umm, y'know how you asked if my dad was Uncle Max's brother?" Jamie nodded, looking slightly perplexed. "He's not, but they're from the same place as Auntie Isabel. And since you've been my best friend forever, and since I don't know what we are…before we take this any farther, just so that you know…" She bit her lip. "Dad's not…from around here."

Her possibly ex-best friend gave her an odd look. "Where's he from?" He stood with his arms crossed, his back to the streetlight.

Nikki looked around, swallowed, and then pointed up.

Jamie was quiet for a very long time. "I'm guessing you don't mean that he's Canadian," he said finally, his voice soft.

She nodded once. Her throat was still too clogged for her to say anything.

"So you're like half…"

"Czechoslovakian," she supplied, a slight smile on her face. "That's what Mama calls it. We…we don't actually know what it's called or anything, so…" Nikki trailed off. She watched Jamie's face intently, for any sign of what he was thinking. But Jamie had inherited his grandfather's poker face, so sometimes he was incredibly hard to read.

"And you guys can do stuff. Like heal'n stuff." His face was still blank, his eyes looking up at the stars. "And the Radish Constellation…that's where….?"

"Where we're from," she finished, closing her eyes. She could feel tears prickling at her eyelids, and swore she wasn't going to cry. She hadn't cried in front of Jamie in almost four years.

And then she felt a hand on her cheek-one that made her skin feel a warm prickle kind of like whenever she touched one of her cousins, or brothers or sister. It wasn't the Czechoslovakian spark. It was something else.

"Nik, look at me." Jamie's voice was soft.

She opened her eyes and looked into his, just inches from her own.

"I knew."

"What?"

He smiled slightly. "Remember when I had that asthma attack and your uncle healed me?" She nodded. "I saw his hand glow. And he left this-"

"Silver handprint on your chest?" Nicole smiled back. "Mama had the hardest time for a while, explaining why we'd all leave silver handprints on people when we were babies."

He chuckled softly. "Dad never said anything to me about it, but I think…I think he knows too." Jamie's face grew serious. "Who else knows?"

"Aside from my family? Grandma Diane and Grandpa Philip, your grandpa Jim, and I think Uncle Jeff suspects, because of things he says sometimes." She gave him a pleading look. "You can't tell anyone though. Mama and Daddy and Sheriff Jim through off the FBI a long time ago, but it's still dangerous for us, even though I use my powers when I shouldn't…" She blushed, suddenly wondering how many times Jamie had noticed things, like tonight, with the lights…

"Nicole…" It was the first time Jamie had ever used her full name. He never called her Nicole. No one did, actually, unless it was one of her relatives, and they'd found out about the latest stunt she'd pulled, or the new use she found for her powers… "Nik…"

She looked into his eyes again, searching for that fear that should be there. But for some reason, all she saw was the same old Jamie she'd always known. Like maybe he'd always suspected, since he practically lived at her house anyway. He touched her cheek gently, trying to let her know that everything was okay. And when she sighed in relief, he hugged her as hard as he used to, after the fights she used to get into, when someone would tease her about some part of her bohemian family. She felt safe in his arms-safer even then when her dad hugged her after the nightmares she had sometimes, just like he did. Jamie hadn't run away. He hadn't spazzed, like her mom and aunt did, or gone into shock, like her uncle did. He stayed.

And after they let go, he took her hand in his again, smiling. "So you did make the lights go out?"

She grinned the famous Guerin grin, that each of her brothers and sister had too. "That's nothing. You should've seen the truck I made explode when I was three…"

**********

Michael stalked over to the window, peering out into the darkness. "Where are they? Jeff called and said they left the Crashdown over half an hour ago." He began to pace again, wearing a tread into the carpet in the hallway.

"C'mere, spaceboy." Maria patted her lap. He knelt at her feet, resting his spiky head against her knee, as if he were Stephen or Leo. "She'll be fine. They both will." She ran her fingers through her husband's soft hair.

"She's my baby. And she's out with Valenti...what if he finds out? I know Kyle already suspects something, after Max healed Jamie that day, but what if he finds out this?" He buried his face in her lap, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Everything we've built here, our family..."

But that was the risk they took, staying in the only place they knew as home. "Kyle and Jim have been off our case for years, Michael. And we're careful. We're always careful." She used the same soft voice that she'd use with the twins, or with Michael after the nightmares he still had sometimes.

He looked up at her. "I just don't want to lose my baby. Or you." There was no question of going back to whatever planet he came from now. In some ways, he'd become like Max--the protector, the natural father. She could see it in all the love he gave to his students, and to the children she'd been lucky enough to create with him.

Maria gathered him close again, leaning down to kiss him softly.

"What was that for?"

And she grinned at him. "To calm you down."

He chuckled. "Cheesehead."

She kissed him again. "Dorkbutt."

He began to nuzzle at her neck. "Y'know, since Molly Kylie's nine, we can legally kick her out in nine years..." He gave her that old rakish smirk. "You and me, honey. It'll be the nookie motel all over again."

She pushed him back with a grin of her own. "So it's over then, huh?"

He leaned in and gave her a heated kiss that ignited that old feeling of vertigo in her stomach. "At the end of time, maybe."

As he began to nibble down her neck, she heard a scuffling on the porch, and Michael immediately leapt to his feet. She grabbed his hand, pulling him back down. "Oh, no. Our daughter is going to be allowed one kiss with Jamie before you throttle him."

He tugged at her. "I'm just going to say goodnight to him, Maria. Make sure she's okay."

"Michael." Her voice was stern--the same tone that she used on Anna and Molly when they decided to see how many colors they could turn the dog's fur.

"But--" he whined.

"He's her Michael Guerin. Don't you see?" She traced the strong line of his cheekbone with a light finger. "She needs him to fill all those lonely places."

"But she's my little girl." His voice was soft.

"She's old enough, Michael. We were sixteen."

And he smiled, that shy, sweet smile that belonged only to her. "We were eleven, actually."

"Ex astra," she whispered. "Ex astra, amor."

He kissed her lips gently with each word. "Ex astra, vita."

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

Jamie and Nicole stood on the porch, peering in through the window. "I can't believe they're still kissing," Nicole muttered with a moan. "They're worse than teenagers sometimes."

Jamie's hand rubbed at the back of her neck. "They're cute, Nik. In love."

"And us? What are we?" She looked him straight in the eye, ignoring the pitfalls of fear that gurgled in her stomach.

He touched her face with a hand as light as a butterfly. "We're Nicole and Jamie. And if we get there someday, we will. For now...you're my girlfriend--if you don't mind." He smiled shyly. "Sally Jesse said that kids our age should take things slow anyways."

She grinned at him. "You and your dad need to stop watching the talk shows."

Jamie grinned back. "It keeps me in touch with my feminine side." He looked at his watch, then at her. "So, umm...do I get a kiss goodnight?"

"You still wanna kiss me? Even though I'm...not of this earth?"

He moved closer, giving her as intense a look as her dad gave her mom sometimes--the 'look into my eyes' soulmate thing. "You're standing here with me, aren't you?"

She nodded, her eyes not leaving his blue ones.

And he smiled. "That's enough of this earth for me."

And this time, when they kissed, they both saw fireworks--a galaxy worth of stars going nova, dying in one final burst of incredible light. And this time, the porch light didn't explode.

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

"Do you think they know?" Maria leaned against her husband's chest as they watched their daughter and her first boyfriend macking on the front porch.

"When they're old enough." Michael's voice was morose. "I don't think I'm old enough though. And we still have three more after her."

And the mother of his four miracles smiled a secret smile. Three more, and then she'd have him to herself again. And they could refill all those lonely places, taking comfort in the love that would always sustain them.

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