Room 406, after First period

[izzyalienqueen]

Isabel returned to her room after Political Campaigning, still somewhat amused by Josh's glee. With a yawn, she sat down and leaned back against the wall. She had managed to doze off after last night's dream, she supposed having Greg to hold on to had helped. But it was an uneasy sleep, and despite what she'd told him, Isabel still had her fears about what was happening to her.

	There was no change in the air. No big 'woosh' or even a flicker of the curtains. One moment no one was there, the next a young, darkhaired man was standing in front of her. He tilted his head and studied her for a moment before speaking. "Hey Isabel. How's it going?"
	It took a moment for the voice and the words to register. Opening her eyes wide, Isabel stared as happiness brushed aside all her worries of the past few days. "Alex?"
	Alex smiled. "The one and only!" He looked around consideringly. "So this is your new school, huh? Lots of people like you?"
	For a brief moment she wondered how he was there. But it was Fandom and in a way, a visit from a dead and sorely missed friend was much easier to deal than the idea that her morally bankrupt previous self was trying to come out. "It's not so new now. It's been almost year," Isabel smiled. "As for everyone else, they're not quite like me. But they are pretty special."
	"No, no one is quite like you," he agreed. There was something slight off in his tone of voice.
	"Alex?" she asked, her tone suddenly cautious. "How are you here? Why are you here?"
	He smiled at her. "Does it really matter?"
	"No," Isabel said quietly. "It doesn't. I'm glad to see you. I've missed you."
	Alex looked around her room, looking at all the things in there that said 'Fandom'. He stepped a little closer to the bed, looking at the photos -- Xander and Isabel at the prom, Greg rafting, Greg at Homecoming -- and then turned his head to look at her again. "Have you really? From what I remember, you left us all behind and ran away. "Left us all behind," he repeated, frowning a little. "Do you remember us?"
	"I remember. And I regret." Tentatively she reached a hand out, not certain if she could actually touch him. "I'm sorry. I wish I'd taken a chance with you. But I thought there was still time."
	He jerked away from her touch before she could make contact, then regarded her with a sympathetic look. "There's never enough time, Isabel. Don't you know that by now? Doesn't your dreams tell you that?"
	"I'm learning," Isabel said, as her hand stilled, then dropped in her lap where it clenched into a tight fist, nails digging into her palm. "How do you know about my dreams?"
	Alex shrugged. "Where I am, you can see all sorts of things." He gave her a sudden sharp look. "There's two of you, and they're both you. Why should that be so confusing?"
	"Everything?" she asked, thinking of the previous night's dream. "She might have been me, once. But not now. I'm not like that. I wouldn't do that."
	Alex looked at her. "No?"
	"No!" Isabel said, horrified at the thought. "Why would you think that?"
	"You're both made of the same," Alex pointed out. "What's in her, is in you, even if you won't admit it."
	She opened her mouth to protest and then stopped, because in all honesty, Alex was only saying everything she'd been worried about ever since she first found out about Vilandra and what she had done. "Why are you doing this to me?"
	"Someone has to help you see the truth," Alex said, evading the question a little. "Denial isn't good for anyone." He pointed at her collection of photographs. "What do you think they will say when they find out?"
	"Max and Michael are going to hate me," Isabel admitted, her eyes filling with tears. "My friends here will understand. Everyone has things they regret."
	"Some regrets are greater than others," Alex said gently. It looked like he was really sorry he had to say this to her.
	Isabel buried her face in her hands. "But what am I supposed to do? How can I tell them? How can I deal with this?"
	Alex watched her for a moment, smiling slightly, and then he was gone. Just as suddenly as he'd appeared, he'd disappeared.

[ooc: Preplayed with i_am_the_1rst aka courier_gavin. Thread with time_agent is locked. The visit by the First is NFB. It's okay to say Jack and Isabel had a fight, but the specific topic is also NFB.]

Comments

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack had shown restraint. He'd waited a whole day before going in search of Isabel to make her tell him what was going on. Not that he could make her do anything she didn't want to. But he was confident all he needed was a bit of time to convince her that sharing whatever was bothering her was what she wanted to do.

Which was why he was knocking on her door.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Still confused and upset by what the ghost? had told her, Isabel was completely unaware of anyone at the door.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Maybe he heard some slight noise, maybe it was just a sense of her, but Jack was sure Isabel was in there. So he knocked louder, and called her name.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

The knocking finally registered. "I'm busy," she called shakily. "Come back later."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

There was no way that was going to happen, not when he could hear her voice shaking. "Umm, no. I think you should let me in now."

Jack tried the door and grimaced when it proved to be locked. "Isabel, unlock the door."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Jack, please? Not now..."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Hearing that, he had no doubt that - right now - she didn't want anything to do with him.

But she sounded so lost, and he'd spent most of his life disregarding other people's wishes in favour of getting what he wanted. And what he wanted right now was to be on the other side of that door and he had the tools to do it. He spared a moment to wish he'd practiced with them, then dismissed it. If he couldn't pick the lock, he'd seen a jigsaw in the garage.

"Isabel," he called out. "You either tell me that you're one hundred percent okay - so I believe it - or you open this door. And if you don't, I'm coming through it, one way or another."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel believed him, and she really didn't want to see exactly what he would do to get through the door. She unlocked, but did not open the door, and quickly retreated across the room to stare out the window.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Surprised - because he hadn't actually expected that to work - Jack tentatively opened it and slipped inside. "Glad you unlocked it," he leaned on the door, brow furrowed as he studied her, "I'm not good with the lock picks, and you'd be mad if I cut through it."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I figured you'd try something like that," she said quietly. "It would be a hell of a mess to clean up."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Yeah." Jack walked across the room and stopped behind her, pressing his palm gently against the small of her back. "Isabel, what's going on with you?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel flinched every so slightly and hugged herself. "Nothing, Jack. Really." Inwardly she sighed, even to herself it sounded hollow.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack snatched his hand away like it had been scalded - Isabel never pulled away from him - then shifted to stand in front of her. Keeping his hands by his sides, he bent down so he was looking right in her eyes. "Isabel." It was almost a whisper, and he kept his tone light as he searched her face.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

She ducked her head and covered her face with her hands. "I think I'm losing my mind," she whispered. "I’m me, she’s me. Alex is right."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

One second, maybe two, he hesitated before pulling her into his arms. "It's okay, it's all right," he soothed, even though he was pretty sure it was anything but.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

This time there wasn't any flinching; instead Isabel clung to him, burying her face into Jack's shoulder. "It's not alright and I don't know what to do."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Selfishly, he was gratified when she didn't pull away. "We'll figure it out," he told her, holding her tight, one hand cradling the back of her head. "Think you can tell me what's going on?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I'm having dreams, nightmares almost because they scare me so badly," she explained. "About Vilandra."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack put it together with what she'd said before. "She's you..." he said slowly. "You don't think they're just dreams." This was not good. This was definitely not good. "Isabel? Who's Alex?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"They're real. I feel what she feels. I've woken up angry, smug, ar...Oh it doesn't matter what. I just know it's not me, I've never felt anything like that." Isabel pulled away and unconsciously reached up to rub her shoulder. "Alex is, was, a friend of mine back in Roswell. But he’s dead.”

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Dead." His voice was completely flat. Anywhere else, he'd check for a head injury. But this was Fandom. Different rules applied. "And he was talking to you," he said carefully. Start with the simple things . "Does your shoulder hurt?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Yes, no, I don't know anymore. In the dream last night it did," she said quietly. "I swore that I would see a mark, a bruise or something, because it felt so real. But there's nothing there now."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"And this has never happened before? You've never," he searched for the right words while he sat down on her bed, "remembered her before? Here, Isabel, come sit down and tell me when this started."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel followed him, picking up her pillow and hugging it to her as she sat on the bed. "I'm not remembering," she said. "For that little bit of time, I was her. I could feel the stone wall she was leaning against, I could feel how angry she was. The next time she was so smug. She'd, I'd, done something, something that was going to cause trouble." Looking at the calendar posted on the wall she shook her head. "Since the weekend. I had a fight with Max on Friday. These started Saturday night."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack gritted his teeth, undirected anger tightening his jaw - this long, and she hadn't told someone? - but he put it aside. "Her, not you. You are not her," he said forcefully, not a trace of doubt in his voice. "Even if you're reliving her life, it doesn't make you her. You're not Vilandra."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"But how can I be sure?" Isabel asked, frustrated. "All I know is they took some part of her, her alien essence whatever the hell that’s supposed to be, and mixed it with some human DNA and here I am. Maybe I was supposed to be her, to remember from the beginning and the crash just screwed it all up. No matter what you say, somehow, some way, she's inside me. And now she's trying to come out."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack sighed, suddenly frustrated. "You can be sure because you're not her. It's not complicated, Isabel. Even if you were supposed to be her, it doesn't matter, because you're not." He stood and paced across the room, turning to face her. "And just because you're remembering things - or even reliving them in your dreams - doesn't mean she's trying to come out. Maybe the fight with Max just triggered something. Maybe you're just ready to process those memories. Maybe - " Maybe you're imagining things, but he wouldn't say that out loud. Not yet.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Maybe, but how can I be sure? I could go to sleep me one night and wake up the next morning..." She pulled the pillow close, using it to hide behind. "I just wish I knew how to stop it."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"And what? You think you're going to wake up one morning and not be Isabel anymore?" Jack stared at her, then leaned on the wall. "You think you'll be transformed into Vilandra?" He couldn't quite suppress a snort of bitter amusement. "Isabel, whatever's happening is all in your head - whether it's real or not, it's all in there. You can stop it, you just need help figuring out how." Shoving his hands in his pockets, he muttered under his breath, "Which you would already have if you'd told someone when it started."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"It's a possibility," she said. "And don't you think I've tried to stop it? But I can't. And it's only getting worse." A lack of good, solid sleep was making Isabel frustrated and angry. "What was I supposed to say? I'm plotting my brother's downfall in my dreams? Or even better? I apparently like semi-violent sex?"

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack's eyebrows climbed into his hair at her last comment. "No," he said, slowly, as if speaking to a child. "You were supposed to say, 'Jack, I need help. I'm having weird dreams that scare me,' and yeah, tell me what they were - brother's downfall, semi-violent sex, all of it - and I would have found a way to help you. There's nothing you can't tell me, you know that." The brief lash of anger he'd felt earlier was back. "Or did you think I wouldn't understand being afraid of something you don't remember doing?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Don't patronize me," she said, glaring at him. "I was handling it. And I'm sure you understand. I also know that you know exactly why I kept it to myself. After all, it's why you went traipsing off without any back-up and wound up needing to be rescued."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

And that had him glaring back at her. "Yeah, but at least I learned from my fuck up, something you don't seem to have managed."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Just tell me this," Isabel said, knowing even before she opened her mouth she was out of line, but finding it easier to focus on hurting Jack then on what was happening to her. "Are you mad because I didn't tell anyone? Or are you mad because I didn't tell you?"

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

He stared at her. "What?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"What was I supposed to do? Run to you in the middle of the night and play damsel in distress?" she asked. "You'd have loved that wouldn't you? Being the hero and saving the princess."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

She thought this was about him? That he was angry because… And there it was. Proof that, deep down, she didn't believe he'd changed.

No matter how much it hurt, it was good to know where he stood. He could feel his anger settling into a long absent but oh so familiar coldness, and he welcomed it.

Very slowly, he closed the distance between them and laid his hand against her cheek. "I'm sure you believe that. Isabel," he said, voice incredibly gentle. "Do you know how many people have thought they were special to me over the years?" he asked. "Who thought they were my princess? More than I can count, more than I can remember." His grin was mostly smirk, and it was cold, his eyes were cold, hiding how deep her words had cut. "What makes you think you're any different from them?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

And deep down, that hurt. Without thinking, Isabel slapped him. "Just leave then. I don't need your help."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

The slap rocked his head back, but that was his only reaction. Face and voice devoid of expression, he finally said, "Wisdom at last," then turned on his heel and strode towards the door.

He didn't look back, and he didn't slam the door, just let it swing shut behind him. It closed with a gentle click that echoed loud in his ears.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

She clenched her fist, which still stung from the force of the slap and stared blankly ahead for a long minute, before finally walking to her bed and lying down. Isabel took a deep breath and wondered when everything had gone so wrong.