Author's Note: Sequel to Falling.

***

Liz awoke suddenly to Max’s heavy breathing. “Max, are you all right?”

“Where’s Damien?” His voice was breathless, broken.

“He’s in the next room with Alex and Isabel. Calm down, Max, it’s okay.” She ran her hand up his back and gasped slightly, feeling the slickness of sweat on his smooth skin.

He got up very suddenly, and pulled on his jeans. “I have to check on him.” He rushed out the door and into the next room. Liz got out of bed, and followed.

When she got into the next room, she almost tripped over Alex and Isabel who were lying in each other’s arms on the floor. She was surprised for a second, then smiled at her friends’ happiness and content. Her eyes traveled around the dark room and stopped on the faint outline of Max, sitting on the edge of Damien’s bed. He was still breathing hard, and his face was one of utter fear. Until now, Liz hadn’t realized the intensity of the voices in Max’s head.

She rushed over to him and wrapped herself around him, trying to get as close as possible. He turned around and folded his arms around her waist, burying his head between her breasts, like a little child searching for warmth. Now she was getting scared. “Max, you’re shaking.”

He sniffled and pulled his arms out from around her. He looked at the ground with a mixture of shame and embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”

She cradled his face in her hands and looked him straight in the eye. “Don’t be sorry. Talk to me.”

He looked at her again and she could still see the faint traces of fear from a moment before. “They said they were coming for Damien. They just kept saying it, over and over.”

“Well, we just won’t let that happen. We’ll talk to him tomorrow, try to see what really is going on.”

Max listened to Liz’s calm reasoning and nodded. He stroked Damien’s face, wishing he could be that small, that innocent again. He kind of had to grow up pretty fast. After he had found that he was different. That was in the third grade, after they had found Michael. He thought of all this, stroking the boy’s cheek, bringing up memories that had long been put away. But then he felt a tiny ridge on Damien’s neck.

“Liz, did you notice this before?” He showed her the thin scar that ran down the back of Damien’s neck, then split in two when it reached his back and ran across his shoulders.

“No, I hadn’t seen it. It looks like a surgical scar.”

“Just another thing to ask him about, I guess.”

“I guess. Max, do you want to stay in here tonight? With Damien?” Liz looked at her boyfriend in worry.

“Yeah. I think Michael and Maria would rather be alone anyway.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to sleep.”

“Then don’t.’ Alex’s voice made them jump. He was standing in the doorway with four cups of steaming coffee balanced on a tray that he had stolen from the Crashdown. “Caffeine, anyone?”

“Did we wake you?” Liz asked, looking at her oldest friend with a look of amusement.

“You didn’t. But Max galloping in like an elephant and practically jumping on us did.”

“Is Isabel awake?”

“Yes, and I come bearing gifts. Donuts and pastries and pancakes.”

“Oh my!” the rest cried. Then also in unison, they shushed each other.

“He is one deep sleeper,” Max said, amazed.

“He’s tired. I would be too, if I had almost starved to death while wandering around in the desert for god knows how long,” Liz said sarcastically.

“He’s baby Moses!” Alex exclaimed, and succeeded in getting a shushed laugh from his audience.

***

Michael had awakened when Max and Liz had stepped over them and was trying to get used to the light that was beginning to shine through the windows. Maria was still asleep in his arms, and he dare not move, for fear of awakening her. He liked to watch her while she slept. Her hair fell into her face angelically, and for once her mouth was closed. Every once in a while her eyes would twitch, fighting an invisible foe. Her hand was inside his shirt, at the base of his neck, feeling his steady pulse. Her legs were wrapped around his middle and sometimes her toes would caress his thigh.

He heard voices and laughter in the next room, and shook Maria gently to wake her up. She stirred and looked at his face then settled back down again. “Cheesebreath.”

“Maria?”

“Hmm?”

“The others are in the other room.”

“Mmm.”

“Do you want to go talk to them?”

“Mm.”

She tried her hardest to get up and succeeded in getting in a kneeling position over him. She took one look at him and burst out laughing.

“What? What?” His hands flew to his unruly hair and tried unsuccessfully to smooth it down. Maria just kept on laughing.

“You’re one to talk, Booger-Butt.”

“Cheesehead.”

“Dumbo.” He tackled her around the middle and pushed her down on her back. He landed heavily on top of her and Maria was very suddenly aware of his breath, in and out. In and out.

“So, um, I guess we should just go see the others, huh?” Michael squirmed uncomfortably on top of her.

In and out.

“Yeah. I guess.”

In and out.

“All right then.”

In and out.

He still made no move to get off of her and tried her hardest to push him off, but her body was not responding to her brain.

In and out.

“We really ought to go join them.”

In and out.

With no warning what-so-ever he captured her mouth in a kiss that took her breath away. It was different than the other kisses he had given her. Not the hot, lust-filled kisses he had graced her with in the eraser room. Or the tender dream-plane like kisses that he gave her every-so-often (yes, Emily, the door). It was more one of those bruising, end of movie, okay-you-know-what’s-going-to-happen-next kisses. A kiss full of promises, not lies.

“Oh, no.” Isabel stood at the door, a donut in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. She looked at them with a mix of amusement and shock. Michael rolled quickly off of Maria and she suddenly felt very cold.

“We’ll be right in, Isabel,” Michael said, annoyed. She left and Michael and Maria could both her laughing from the next room.

Damien was awake by the time they got there. He was sitting up with a 100 watt smile on him face and a pastry in hand. Max seemed to be watching him kind of intensely, like he could disappear any second. Michael sat down and to Maria’s surprise, pulled her down on his lap.

“So, Damien, how did end up wandering through the desert and almost starving to death?” Alex tried to sound as flip as possible, so as not to scare the little boy.

“I escaped from the men. They tried to hurt me.”

“Is that what that scar is from on you back?” Max asked gently. Michael hadn’t noticed the thin line, but when he looked now, he guessed it was kind of obvious.

Damien nodded hard. “They said they wanted to make me perfect. They said that I would know everything, have seen everything.”

“Freaky.”

“I want to go back to the alien place.”

“The Crashdown?” Liz smiled at the description of the restaurant. “Sure, but we have to get you some clothes.”

“We have my old stuff. Mom never got rid of it,” Max said.

Isabel jumped up. “I’ll get them. I’ll get that really cute shirt with the matching shoes.”

“Leave it to Isabel to turn this into a fashion emergency.” Isabel hit Alex in the arm and pulled him along with her.

“You have to give me a ride.”

They left with the rest of the group staring after them.

“They are very much in love,” Damien commented thoughtfully. “They just won’t admit it.”

***

When Damien was downstairs in Max’s old things, which fit strangely well, he continued to run around studying the different alien personas. He stopped at a Men-in-Black monster. “Looks like Tao.”

“Tao,” Maria repeated. “Doesn’t that mean-”

“The way. In Chinese,” Damien finished and continued to run around the place looking for more familiar faces.

“This kid is starting to scare me. He’s ten years younger than me, yet he knows ten times more,” Alex laughed.

“I think there’s a reason for that,” Max said. “Damien! Damien! Come here, buddy. We need to talk about some stuff.”

“Okay!” He jumped into a booth energetically. Max sat across from him and looked him straight in the eye.

“I think we need a real man-to-man talk.”

“Goodie!”

“Damien, who are these men?”

“I don’t know. They never told me their names.”

“What did they do to you?”

Damien thought for a second and played with the napkin despenser. “I used to live New York. They took me when I was little. One of them was your daddy.” He nodded at Michael. “They taught me a lot of stuff, like all the languages and they did stuff to my body.”

Alex gawked at him. “They taught you *all* the languages?”

“Yeah, you know, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Spanish-”

“You can speak all of those?”

“Fluently.”

Max kept looking at him with that intense look. “What did they do to your body?”

“They said they were trying to make a human that could survive the apoc, apoca.”

“Apocalypse?!”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

Alex was the first one to recover. “Like that X-files episode?”

“Ooh! I saw that one. No. Not like that. They tried different things, like making me amphibious. I worked, so know I can go underwater.”

Liz looked shocked. “You’re an amphibian?”

“Yeah. They said that they would teach me everything, so that I can do anything. Next they said they were gonna make it so I could fly. I didn’t want to fly. They were hurting me. So I left.”

“How?”

“Pod. I flew one to earth. It crashed in the desert, then you guys found me.”

“You met my dad?” Michael spoke for the first time and he said it so quietly, the rest could barely hear him.

“Yeah. He looked a lot like you. Acted too. Big temper. He hit me when I did something bad.”

Michael tried his hardest not to cry, but was unsuccessful. Maria cradled him and half-dragged him upstairs.

“Did I say something bad?”

Max smiled at the boy. “You didn’t say anything wrong, Damien. You were perfect.”

He smiled that big smile at him and then the voices came. The first time in the day.

We’re coming for the boy. We’re coming for the boy.

Back to Area 51 (Section II)