Of Mice and Men
Part 5

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.

Max knocked on the Sheriff’s door. It was almost a full minute before Jims voice yelled out “Come in”.

Entering with Liz at his side, Max began talking right away “Sher.. Jim, we need to talk…” he stopped abruptly when he came around the corner and saw into the living room. Jim was tied down in one of his kitchen chairs in the middle of the room. A strange man with a portable oxygen tank and hose leading to his nose sat on the edge of the coffee table right behind Jim. Max reached out and pulled Liz behind him and threw up his hand… and instantly fell to the ground with a crushing migraine.

“Max!” Liz cried dropping to Max’s side.

“He’s alright.” Said the stranger; “He’ll just get a massive migraine if he tried to use his powers.”

“Who are you?” asked Max through gritted teeth as Liz helped him to his feet.

“No one you want to know.” The stranger replied, “However, we do have some things to talk about.” Getting up he exposed a small but powerful pistol he had been holding behind Jim’s back. He slowly backed over to the easy chair and sat down. “Max, why don’t you turn Mr. Valenti’s chair around and you and Liz take a seat on the couch.

“Let Liz go and I will.” Stated Max positioning himself between Liz and the gun.

“No. You all need to hear this. I have no intention of shooting anyone of you Max, unless you make me, so sit down.” The stranger said. After Max and Liz turned Jim’s chair around and sat down on the couch, the man continued. “First off, my partner is watching and listening to our little conversation.” He said nodding to a video camera Max hadn’t noticed set up in the corner of the room. “My partner has Jim’s son and will kill him at first sign of trouble from any of you. Go ahead and untie Jim, Liz, I don’t think he’ll try anything.” As Liz was moving to do as he asked the man continued “My partner and I are members of a team that have been watching you for well over the last year. We work for an individual who is currently holding your friend Tess prisoner. We want to help you break her free.”

“Why should we believe anything you say?” asked Max “You’re holding us at gunpoint, your threatening Kyle, if you want us to help you why not release Kyle and put away the gun.”

The man smiled “You always do go right to the heart of the matter, don’t you Max?” He reached over and turned the valve on the oxygen tank beside him, then reached up and took the hose off his head. Getting up, and still holding the gun he reached walked over to the porch door and opened it letting a gust of air in. Retaking his seat he said “You’re right. Trust is something we have to develop. The reason you couldn’t use your powers Max was that before you got here I exploded a gas grenade that has the same gas in it as this tank.” Indicating the oxygen tank beside him. “It blocks your powers the same as the injections the Special Unit gave you while you were in the White Room.”

Liz let out an involuntary gasp and grabbed Max’s arm. The White Room. She remembered the flashes of what Max went thought there. Max opened his mouth to ask a question but the man interrupted him. “No, I’m not with the government. I work for a man named Jonathan Summers. He was a close friend with Agent Pierce. After you all brain washed Pierce - Summers words not mine - he became obsessed with finishing the Special Units work. He is very wealthy and was able to hire most of the people from the Special Unit, and some outside people, like me and my partner.” Tilting his head to one side he raised his voice and said “Come in Kyle, I know you’re out there.” Reluctantly Kyle appeared from around the side of the patio and came in and went over to stand by his dad. They both embraced each other in a manor to assure themselves that the other was all right. Only Max noticed the other man coming in the door behind Kyle.

The first man spoke again. “As you can see Jim, we didn’t harm your son. This is my partner Frank. You can call me Jessie. Now it’s time for trust.” Working with familiar ease both Frank and Jessie worked the actions on their pistols, first ejecting the clip then removing the bullet from the chamber. The empty pistols were placed on the coffee table and slid down toward Jim. “The gas should have dissipated enough for you to use your powers Max.” Max nodded not giving any sign of doing anything to test the statement.

Jessie nodded. “When Frank and I signed on with Summers, we didn’t know what was going on. We were hired to be part of a team watching you all. The rest of the team is following your friends that left town an hour ago. Frank and I just discovered what was going on and decided to act. We don’t hold with kidnapping, and torturing people. We don’t know what you are Max, but in the 3 months we been working for Summers, we’ve never seen you do anything that struck us as wrong. You seem like a good kid.”

“He is” said Jim softly. Max blushed slightly at this praise and looked at the two strangers. “So what exactly are you proposing?” he asked.

“Summers is an animal” Frank said with controlled anger in his voice. “We think that between you… powers and our knowledge we can shut him down permanently. We’ll take care of the other watchers, and getting into the compound. Once there we get Tess out. Interested?”

Max turned and looked at the others. Liz squeezed his hand. He felt her faith in him flow through their link, which had reopened when the gas had dispensed. Kyle looked at Max for a second then nodded. Jim just looked at Max waiting for his decision. Max turned and looked at the two men. “Lets talk about some details.”