Of Mice and Men
Part 2

By Prestor John

Disclaimer: All of the standard: Don't own 'em, just borrowing 'em.
Summary: Sequel to “Best Laid Plans”. My AU diverges when Max kisses Tess in Heart of Mine. Tess Left town, Liz told everyone about Future Max to explain why they have to find her, Liz and Max start reconciliation, and Isabelle dream walks Tess, but then can’t contact her causing the group to think Tess is dead.
Category: Other
Rating: R
Authors Note: The continuation of my first fiction. Today is 5/23/01. I started Best Laid Plans right after CYN. I started Of Mice and Men after OTM. Now that Departures has come and gone I’m rethinking the entire direction of this story. I’m going to try and tie the revelation from Departures into the story. Hope you like the way it flows. Many thanks to Fadre for reading and correcting my numerous grammatical mistakes.

Tess awoke again with the same strange ‘thick’ feeling in her head. Then in a flash she remembered: she was in the White Room. Her eyes shot open and looked around. What she could see of the room was the same as before, white tiles covering the floor, ceiling and walls, all white, and all glowing with diffused light. The difference was before the bed she had been strapped to was lying flat, now it was at a 45-degree angle and there was a chair and small table between her and the wall.

Suddenly with hiss of pressurized air, a door opened to Tess’s left and a man entered. He looked to be in his late 30’s, a little over six feet tall, in good shape physically. He had light brown hair that was close cropped and a trimmed goatee. He was dressed in a suit and a vest and carried a folder in one hand. He looked over at Tess and said “Good morning Tess, I thought maybe we could do this face to face, and avoid all the histrionics that forced us to knock you out again.”

Nasedo’s training came back to Tess, remembering the name and story she had concocted for her brief stay at Carlsbad. “My name’s Theresa, not Tess. Where am I? Who are you?”

The man gave Tess a patronizing smile as he sat down in the chair and sat the folder down on the table. “Please, Tess. Let’s not start that again.” He let out a sigh as he opened the folder and pulled out a drivers license “I must say you did do a good job on your paper work. ‘Theresa Hardy’. Full background, very complete. I’m guessing your guardian had quite a few of these set back for you and your friends, hum?” with out waiting for a reply, he dropped the license on the table and reached in his pocked and pulled out a Palm Pilot. Flipping it open and pressing a button he started talking. “Alright Tess, how about this, I’ll tell you some of what I know and then you fill in the rest.” A two by two tile behind him flickered and became a screen performing a slide show of her life in Roswell. “You moved to Roswell on April 24, 2000, with your ‘father’ who was actually some sort of guardian for your group. You met up with Max and Isabelle Evans, Michael Guerin, and your human friends at West Roswell High.”

He continued, keeping pace with the slide show and described Max’s capture by the Special unit of the FBI. Tess noticed that he did mention many personal events but completely skipped over the entire incident with the Skins. He did mention Max and Tess’s trip to New York and the Dupes, and had several pictures of them in there, but no mention was made of the summit nor were there any pictures of the warehouse where the summit took place. Tess noticed a theme of the narrative and the slide show. All the pictures of her and the others were outside shots or ones that could have been taken through windows. None of the pictures were of them in the desert at the quarry or near the Pod chamber. He did seem to know stuff that they had talked about in private, and a few pictures of various people using their powers, including one of Max taken in Fraser Woods creating his force shield.

“Then,” he was concluding, “you had an, ahem, altercation with young Mr. Evans at your prom, after which you went back to the Valenti’s house, packed and left for Carlsbad. Where you got a job under the name of Theresa Hardy, and then left in the middle of the night and disappeared. Or at least, disappeared as far as the world is concerned.” The slide show froze on the last picture of Tess leaving the employee housing at Carlsbad.

“Now, you probably have some questions.” He said, “I will answer some of them. No you are not being held by the Special Unit. You all managed to mind wash Agent Pierce well enough that he destroyed the unit completely. I do have some of the former FBI agents and doctors working here, but this is a private enterprise.”

“Who are you?” Tess whispered, shocked by all of these revelations.

“I am Jonathan Summers, owner of Summer Electronics. You might have heard of my company, we make quite a few computer games that people of your age group like. I believe that you are acquainted with a former business friend of mine; Brody Davis. Like him, I have been abducted by aliens. Unlike him, I did not go public and try to track them down. I kept my obsession private. My company also designs some software for military simulations. Through these contacts I was able to discover the Special Unit, and upon its demise most of its members came to work for me. We then picked up where the Special Unit left off. We however learned from their mistakes, and thus were able to keep you all under observation for the last year.”

Looking at Tess, Jonathan continued, “You see, Tess, like Brody, I want answers. And you’re going to give them to me.” Breaking eye contact he pulled some pieces of paper out of the folder her driver license had come from and started scanning them. Tess decided she had to try something so she began to try to reach out to him with her mind warp.

She tried concentrating on him, but couldn’t! The strange thickness in her head was keeping her from reaching out! Jonathan looked up from the papers. “Trying some of your mind tricks? Not working, is it? The doctors have made some improvements since the FBI had Max. The nuro-supressent drug is now an aerosol. This entire complex is flooded with it.” He smiled evilly at Tess, causing her to shudder. “You’er probably wondering how we made these improvements without any of you captive. Well that’s not quite the case.” Jonathan reached out and clicked another button on his palm pad. The wall screen started up again. “We also had some trouble with the tranquilizers at first. Unfortunately Rath and Ava didn’t survive capture.” The screen was showing pictures of the Dupes, first scenes of them in New York walking around, then pictures of Rath and Ava on slabs being opened up for an autopsy. Tess fell the bile rising in her throat and had to look away.

Jonathan was still talking “Lonnie, however survived the initial procedure and we were able to perfect the aerosol. Unfortunately, she managed to seduce one of the night guards, and was killed in the escape attempt.”

He leaned forward and stared at Tess with a penetrating gaze and a face devoid of emotion. “I’m telling you all of this for one reason only: You are not going anywhere. Ever. You are going to stay here and answer all my questions.” Leaning back he folded his hands in his lap and said, “Now, shall we get started?”