Liz stopped and looked around her. The air was standing still around her, like it did so often on these nights when the winter grumpily turned into spring, but not without putting up a good fight. Winter always had the habit of doing that.

Liz continued down the beaten path that she hadn’t walked down in so long. Everything about it was the same. The spicy smell of pine, the sharp pine needles that every once in a while tried to jump out and sting her, which she avoided with an easy wave of the hand.

The last time she had been on this path was with Maria and Alex, two years ago. After that, they just stopped coming. There was no talking about it or asking why not. They just stopped coming. It was like they had grown out of the fairy land. They didn’t need it anymore. None of them had really thought about it. It was just part of history. Like a story with no end.

As Liz trodded on the wet ground, she couldn’t help but look at the stars. They used to be these balls of light, just floating orbs, not a single one special. But now each one was different, with it’s own story that it was just dying to tell. As one winked at her knowingly she thought about the things these stars had seen, the stories the could tell. Like the little boy who broke his leg learning to ride and the first thing he did when he got his cast off was get on the bike again. Or about the woman who had a still-birth and cried for days. Or about the two lovers who made love for the first time.

Turn left at the cherry tree, right at the juniper, and go past the big rock. She was there. The old tree swooped up silently into the sky, stopping only when it made sure that your head was cocked back all the way. She jumped on the first branch easily and reached for the second one. Alex had taught her to climb trees. Take your time, he said. Don’t look down and never think about how high you’ve gotten. And the absolutely worst thing you can do is be scared. Then he would look at them with the profound eyes of a ten year old. Life’s too short to be afraid.

Liz swung up to the next branch, scrambling to get a foothold. The Earth splayed out below her, ready to break the fall. She finally settled herself in her spot. The spot that she had always come to. She liked it because it was always soft, padded with leaves and dirt and it was perfectly molded to her body. As she looked down over the branches of the tree she could almost see Alex, only a little above her, smiling his goofy smile and making some fairly obvious joke. And Maria, who was below them all, insisting profusely that she was deathly afraid of heights and lecturing her on the dangers of men.

Liz wasn’t quite sure why she had gone out there that night. The night was chilly and there had just been a rainfall, but the stars were out in all there glory. Liz needed herself tonight. She and Max had been spending a lot of time together lately.

Not that she minded it. Quite the opposite. Every second with him was bliss. But if she wasn’t with Max, she was with Maria, who had been gaining an inferiority complex, or Alex, who was insisting that they hadn’t seen enough of each other. Or worse, her mother, who still wasn’t convinced that Liz wasn’t having sex with Max and would barrel her with questions. Her dad wasn’t so bad. Partly because he liked Max. Her mom didn’t know him that well, but Jeffery had always had his eye on Max, ever since the fifth grade, knowing for sure that something more was happening between him and his daughter. And apparently he had been happy with what he saw.

And it wasn’t as if Michael was getting off so easy. Liz chuckled softly to herself. Poor Michael. Since Maria didn’t have a father Jeff seemed to have taken over the role, watching Michael like a hawk, waiting for him to slip up. He was obviously more worried about Michael than Max, but he seemed to like him. His exact words were "I like him. Maria loves him, so I really don’t have a choice." Liz laughed out loud to the memory.

"Something funny?" Alex’s voice rang through the trees.

"Had the same idea as me, Whitman?"

"We think too much alike, Parker," his goofy smile shone through the darkness, leaving Liz a little more at ease being in "their" place. He bowed at her regally. "May I come up, Lady Elizabeth?"

"That you may, Sir Alexander."

He climbed up quickly with the ease of an experienced climber and settled unceremoniously in his spot. "What, may I ask, has brought your pretty little face here?"

"Needed some me time, I guess. Something just drew me here tonight."

"Ditto."

"So I have to ask, Max says that Iz came home the other day with an unusual glow on her face and you haven’t stopped grinning like an idiot since Max and I were... found. What happened between you two?"

Even in the dark Liz couldn’t miss Alex’s ears turning his trademark shade of red. "Nothing happened," he croaked, his voice catching.

"Nothing happened, huh?"

"Nope. Nothing." Liz kept staring at him with a raised eyebrow, her scar crinkling and her eyes twinkling. Alex tried to keep looking her straight in the eye until finally breaking down. "Fine. She came over to see if she could get any information on you guys’ whereabouts."

Liz sucked in a breath. "You guys kissed!"

"Well, yeah, but it didn’t mean anything," Alex replied, his ears turning a deeper red until they were almost maroon.

"Alex, you’ve been in love with Isabel Evans since the fifth grade! You left her the sweetest love notes in the world! Well, at least from a fifth grade point of view. You start trying to act like James Dean when you’re around her and suddenly develope a Daffy Duck lisp. So you can NOT say that a kiss didn’t mean anything!"

"Thank you, Reverend Parker."

"So? Anything?"

"Did I feel anything?" he cupped his face in his hands. "Yeah."

"Explosive?"

"And dizzy. Did you get dizzy and explosive when you kissed Max?"

"Every single time," she smiled in remembrance. "I think it was the same with-"

"Me," Liz looked down, startled. Maria looked up at them, her hazel eyes shining with humor. "Coming up to the spot without me? You know that’s against the rules." She climbed up to her spot, which was only a few branches from the ground. "So you finally made it with Izzy, huh?"

"What about you, DeLuca? What’s up between you and Michael these days?"

"Oh, they just kiss," Liz said with a teasing smile thrown at Maria, who stuck out her tongue in return.

"I honestly have no idea. Michael is the most insufferable non-human being on Earth."

"But he’s the insufferable non-human being that won your heart," Alex said with his voice pitched an octave higher, batting his eylashes dramatically at her.

Maria just graced them with a rare blush and stared at the ground, for once keeping her mouth closed. The group stayed silent for a while, listening to the gentle rustle of the pines arguing and the night creatures singing softly to each other and the night-blooming flowers read sonnets.

Then, all of a sudden, everything was very silent. There was no rustle, no singing, no sonnets. Just the breathing of three individual teenagers. Liz suddenly became very aware of her own heartbeat and the high pitched hum of her nervous system. She could even just make out the sound of Alex’s beating heart, calm and even, right above her. Liz felt a feeling of peace come over her as she stopped moving, only her chest rising and falling with each inhale and exhale. Then a nighting gale burst into song and a coyote sang to the moon and the flowers began to read their love poems and the pines bickered, drowning out Liz’s own sounds and Alex’s heart beat above her.

She didn’t know how long they stayed there, listening to the forest talk to itself. Maybe hours. Then Maria stirred. Liz jumped and almost fell out of her seat. Alex also was awakened quite suddenly from his own reverie and shook himself. "It must be late."

His voice was so quiet that Liz could hardly make out the words. She only nodded and started to climb down the old tree slowly. Maria gave Liz her hand and helped her down. They tried to offer one to Alex but he ignored it and jumped limberly to the ground from the second branch.

Maria headed chirpily ahead of them on the trail, her mouth going a mile a minute, jabbering about nothing and everything. Liz looped her arm through Alex’s and they followed, listening to Maria’s constant chatter, not really hearing the words, but listening to the voice.

Liz leaned over to Alex and whispered, "It’s magic."

Alex smiled thoughtfully and nodded slowly. They lived in a world where magic and things that could never be were a way of life. But there was a magic about that old tree, and they were happy to have some magic all to themselves.

Back to Area 51 (Section II)