Missing Pieces
A Roswell New Mexico Fanfic
(For RNM Week - When we were young)
She is seven. There's a woman with a kind face smiling at her and her brother where they're hiding in the corner. The other boy is trying to communicate with the beings who found them. He's drawing a symbol over and over and she knows it means something. No not something - someplace. There had been a man earlier asking questions in a language she didn't understand. She had picked up a notion of what he wanted to know, but not only can she not use their words - she can't remember the answer to the question. The other boy can't speak their language either, so he's trying to write the answers on the walls. It doesn't seem to be working. Those around them don't recognize the writing. She knows it's important - this symbol he's drawing - but she can't remember the place.
Someone is missing. More than one. She feels their absence like an ache inside her, but she cannot recall names or faces. She cannot recall the words to say to explain this to those around them. All she can do is cry for those who are not there. Her brother holds her through her tears and the woman with the kind face smiles and approaches them.
-----
She is nine and now knows her name is Isobel. Her brother's name is Max. The woman with the kind face is now her mother. She knows she's not their real mother, but sometimes she likes to pretend she is. She doesn't tell Max. She's not sure what he'd think of her feeling that way. Max calls the Evans "mother" and "father" in the language they've learned, but he never seems to embrace them the way she does. He loves them, she knows he does, but there is hurt there as well. Anger. Resentment.
Their brother wasn't brought with them to their new home. Because they couldn't speak the language at the time they were separated, she does not know what his name is. She's come to think of him as "our missing brother" for lack of a name. She can't recall if he's truly her brother like she knows Max is, but it's the most reasonable explanation. They started this journey together so it only makes sense that they're a family.
She feels his absence keenly. Like an emptiness. A yearning for something just out of reach. Sometimes she feels flashes. Loneliness. Fear. Anger. Once when she fell asleep thinking of him she awoke in pain only for it to disappear the next moment.
There is no way to explain it to their adopted parents. This absence; this ache. He's meant to be with them. They are not meant to be alone. Isobel doesn't know how she knows that, she just does. They should be together.
-----
Isobel is eleven and she can go inside people's minds. She can make them tell her the truth. Sometimes that's good and sometimes that's bad. People lie a lot. Isobel knows she lies, too, but she doesn't think it's the same thing. She doesn't think not telling she's an alien is the same as people saying they like her when they don't. Or saying It's sweet their parents care for them so much when they're thinking she and Max are pampered spoiled brats.
Today is different, though. She's not interested in the human minds around her with their endless lies and confusing thoughts. She feels something else. Something other. It thrums through that familiar ache inside her, and she grabs Max's hand in excitement. "He's here." She breathes out, glancing over at her brother.
Max seems to sense it too, because he squeezes her hand and pulls her forward. They barely remember to wave back at those calling out greetings. They're set on their goal, and Isobel feels her eyes water when she recognizes the curly haired boy sitting on the wall on the side of the playground.
He turns when they skitter to a stop beside him, eyes wide as he takes in the sight of them and they do the same. "You're here." He seems relieved.
Isobel throws herself forward to hug him. He tenses under her arms for a moment before relaxing and patting her back awkwardly.
The ache inside finally eases.
Fini
