izzyalienqueen | Roswell, Thursday evening

Clayton Wheeler was a man accustomed to getting what he wanted, when he wanted it. When he didn't get it, when he had to wait, he tended to get unhappy.

Right now? He was a very unhappy man.

Sipping slowly at his whiskey, he waited for the report, wondering if the time and money he'd invested in this project were finally going to pay off.

****

Andrew Richards had long since resigned himself to giving his boss bad news. It had happened the previous spring, when they first received the FBI files from the Special Unit, only to have the subjects of those files suddenly disappear without a trace. They turned up again at some point in the fall, but by the time the appropriate arrangements had been made, they were gone once more.

There was a brief visit over the holidays, one Andrew hadn't mentioned to Clayton. But he'd gotten a lead then, on a possible alternative solution to the problem that his boss faced. He'd studied the situation, anticipating actions and reactions, and made certain all the pieces were in place.

Even then, he'd waited until things were actually in motion before informing his boss.

Now, for once, he was going to be able to give him good news.

"Tell me," Clayton bit out, before the door to the office had even shut behind Andrew.

"Good news sir," Andrew smiled, handing over a slim folder. "It's as the Special Unit suspected, she's one of them. If you'll look at the first two pictures, you'll see images of the blood samples from both Max Evans and his sister. They're the same. And definitely not human."

"Aliens in Roswell after all, wouldn't people be surprised." Clayton took a sip of his whiskey as he studied the pictures. "How did you get the sample?"

"Miss Evans had an unfortunate accident," Andrew explained, his tone making it clear that it wasn't particularly accidental. "It landed her in the emergency room. When blood was drawn, it was immediately given to my associate and brought back here to be analyzed. For the proper and surprisingly inexpensive incentive, another sample was substituted for Miss Evans' blood before it even reached the lab.

He waited a minute for the impact of the images to sink in. "I think you'll be even more interested in the next pictures."

Clayton put the blood images away and set the next two pictures side by side on his desk. "Don't play coy. What am I looking at?"

"The first is obvious," Andrew said. "It was taken in the ER. According to her records, she had several stitches in her forehead, and was expected to be rather battered and sore today. Notice the bandage on her forehead."

"The second picture," he continued. "Was taken several hours ago. Notice the lack of the bandage and no sign of injury. My contact also said she moved easily, with no sign of any injuries."

"So she can heal."

Andrew nodded, watching his boss, knowing what he was going to say.

"We need her."

"Plans are already in motion," he promised. "It's just a matter of time."

[NFB, NFI, OOC is love!]