THE SERPENT BENEATH THE FLOWER, Part 5
By Bernice Low
Anyway, I was getting a little tired of the way the E2 series writers kept sticking Julia with an image of her as this purer than driven snow, goodie-goodie two shoes greenhorn naive little girl while Alonzo was this intergalactic Casanova with a track record equal only in sci fi to the 'great' William T Riker[nuff said!]. What a Barbara Cartland style romance... so, I decided to err, turn the tables a bit... . Oh yeah, and again, please will somebody out there write an e-mail programme that supports Italics??
Comments as usual to drteong@pc.jaring.my
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Julia led Alonzo to a nearby stream where the colonists had collected their water supply from. She was pretty sure they were assured of privacy since she had supervised the collection of the water supply by Walman and Baines earlier in the morning.
They took off their shoes and socks, rolled up their jeans to their knees and sat down on some rocks at the edge of the stream - Julia leaned against him and he wrapped his arms around her. Their feet dangled in the cool waters of the fast flowing brook.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to..." Alonzo said after they had sat in silence for some time. He hadn't sensed any reluctance on her part, but all the same, he didn't want her to feel she had to tell him whatever it was that was bothering her.
"It's ok Alonzo. I think it's time you knew." she said, her arms clasped to his and wrapping his arms more tightly around her.
"OK - I'm listening." he said quietly. Julia turned her attention to the flowing water and wiggled her toes. She took a deep breath - how many times had she rehearsed this? What to say? How to say it? What to tell him first?
There were so many things he had to know and she really didn't know where to start. The thoughts tumbled around in her mind - like a washing machine with an open door, she thought and wondered which bit of dirty laundry would fall out first.
"Alex..." she started and felt Alonzo's arms tense slightly. "... was the first guy I ever kissed." she finished. She looked up at him to gauge his reaction.
He looked down at her, his expression serious. "Just kissed?" Was there a faint note of hope in his voice? Alonzo wasn't sure himself.
Julia looked back down at her feet again. "No."
That single word seemed to hang in the air forever, echoing in the space around them. He pulled Julia closer, instinctively.
"Alex was the first guy I ever... ..." Julia struggled to find the right words "... . had a serious relationship with." she said tactfully.
"You mean..." he growled.
"Uh-huh." she nodded her head.
"The first guy you ever..." he left the sentence unfinished. "Yes." she affirmed, looking down at the rock they were sitting on. He pulled away from her abruptly and stood up. Julia watched him as he waded into the brook and stood in the fast flowing water, his back to her. She looked back at the flowing waters, and felt slightly worried. She hadn't quite expected him to take it this way. He looked, shocked, for lack of a better word.
Alonzo stood in the middle of the little brook, feeling the smooth pebbles under his feet and the water sloshing against his legs. He didn't know what to think - what to feel.
He tried to reason it out logically - reminding himself that it was rather ridiculous for him to walk around with the idea in his head that Julia had led a completely 'uneventful' life before she met him.
Haven't you kissed a guy before?
What in the world prompted him to ask that question? Come on Alonzo - she's beautiful, intelligent, and looks even better when she's mad at you - what do you expect? That's she's some soap opera heroine, waiting all these years for you to step into her life?
Perhaps you've overestimated your importance in the grand scheme of human events... .
Owch.
He winced as Julia's words reverberated in his ears.
Face it Solace, you're jealous, said a little voice in his head. He shook his head. Hold on a second. Me?
Jealous?
I've never been jealous in a single day of my 100 year existance. That's not it. That *can't* be it.
That's because you never had to be, replied the little voice. Bess was right - you know you're every woman's type. You've always known that all you had to do was send them a smile and they'd be fighting for a piece of you. Besides, you never hung around long enough to become the jealous lover.
Alonzo had to concede that was a relevant point. You know that this guy is serious competition. Not much personality, but definitely the handsome brooding type that women fall for.
By the way, did I mention?
He's Julia's ex.
Alonzo scowled at the thought. He felt threatened by Alex, more so now with Julia's bombshell than before.
Hey Solace, we've got a little wager going here - wanna join us? ... . we're betting on how long before the Dr Daniels and Dr Heller start sharing more than just the MedTent space...word has it back on the stations, Dr Daniels was a regular ladies man - we're betting it's just a matter of time before he and the pretty doctor acquint themselves...the boys and I are just wondering how long before Daniels turns the heat up and melts the ice princess...
WHAM! Alonzo remembered the satisfaction he felt when his fist connected with the Tech's nose and the crunch that followed. Danzinger had been right - it had been a jealous punch - but also the punch of an insecure lover.
"Alonzo?"
Julia's voice brought him back to the present and he became aware that he had been standing in the brook, ignoring her for some time while he puzzled out his feelings.
He turned around to face her. She still sat on the rock but her face was a picture of anxiety. He waded over to where she sat and slipped his arms around her.
"You're not still...well...carrying a torch for him are you?" he asked, almost sheepishly. He felt foolish asking her - after all, wasn't he the one going on about trust in their relationship? But he felt the need to be re-assured by her, he needed to hear it from her...just the words...
No, it's you I'm crazy about.
Or something to that effect.
Julia stared at him incredulously. Did she detect a faint hint of insecurity in Alonzo's voice? An impulse to giggle welled up in her throat and she valiantly resisted the temptation.
Doctors after all did not giggle.
It was unbecoming and undermined authority. She did however permit herself to smile - knowing that if she tried any harder to stop giggling, she would end up laughing even more.
"Well?" he asked impatiently, his hands tightening around her waist. Julia tried to stop the smile that was tugging at the corners of her mouth and failed miserably. He looked so serious. And tense - she was pretty sure he was hanging on to her every word at this point.
She reached up and kissed him.
"I thought I was the insecure one in this relationship." she murmured. "Julia?" His dark eyes looked at her intently and he stood unmoving in front of her.
She ran her fingers through his curly dark hair and smiled gently at him. "You're the only guy I'm carrying a torch for." she said as she rested her hands on his shoulders.
Alonzo felt a tremendous sense of relief come over him and suddenly, everything seemed OK again. He hugged her tightly. Never, he thought, in a million years am I ever going to know what the hell came over me for the last five minutes.
A beautiful ride?
Lydia you crazy babe.
What I've just gone through was worse than flying a ship through an asteroid belt without navigational equipment. Probably the most gut-wretching experience of my life.
A beautiful ride?
In the distance, he heard the water running through the rocks in the river, felt the current brush against his toes and the wind blowing, rustling the leaves in the trees nearby. He thought he could hear Lydia's voice... . whispering to him in his ear... .
Oh that's all there is... . the seconds, the minutes, the hours, the years. Believe me it's a beautiful ride love... . better, better than any flight you've taken.
He breathed Julia's clean, distinctive scent. Felt the warmth of her body pressed against him. The softness of her hair as he ran his fingers through the long blonde strands. And the weird wonderful feeling of knowing that... ...
I'm her flyboy.
He sighed softly.
A beautiful ride?
Oh Lydia, he smiled to himself.
The best.
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"Alonzo?"
"Hmmmmm?" They had waded out of the stream and were now sitting on a grassy patch near the stream. Julia was leaning back on her arms while Alonzo had his head on her lap and his eyes closed.
"Alex..."
That single word was enough to make Alonzo open his eyes and sit up. "There's more?" he asked, then realised how dumb he sounded. They had come out here to talk about Julia's fears, specifically, her fears about Alex. Instead, they'd spent the last 15 minutes getting through his insecurities.
"I'm sorry Doc." he said immediately after that. He lay back down on her lap again. "So who's this guy who's bothering you then?" he growled, feigning bravado.
She looked down at him and smiled but it didn't make what she had to tell him any easier on herself.
"Alex was two years ahead of me at Med School. All the girls were crazy about him" she started.
"And was Julia Heller?" he teased.
"Well, he was very intelligent..." she tried vainly but gave up when she saw Alonzo's eyes twinkling.
"OK - I thought he was very good looking too." she admitted. She was glad that Alonzo was trying so hard to make it a little bit easier for her.
"Hmmmmm..." he murmured doubtfully and she gave him a playful smack on the arm.
"He had the right background, the right connections - my mother approved of him. He was witty, charming and he swept me off my feet. I thought I was in love." she said, her tone becoming more serious, and distant.
"It was more than that. Alex and I seemed to share a mutual destiny - his father had him genetically skewed towards medicine too - and I found someone who I thought understood what it was like growing up with a parent who always put the rest of the human race first before you." She tilted her head back and looked at the bright blue sky.
"I guess one thing led to another." she said, looking back down at his handsome face. "Maybe I felt being with Alex was more appealing that having the Council pick and chose someone for me to produce genetically perfect children with. Alex was definitely offered a lot more than some nerd I was sure they had picked out for me."
She paused, collecting her thoughts. "Being with him made me feel a little more accepted, a little less lonely. Maybe I just needed to fly by the seat of my pants for a bit and do something reckless."
Alonzo smiled and tried to imagine a reckless Julia Heller. "Though thinking back, I suppose there's nothing really reckless about going out with someone your mother entirely approves of." she added wryly.
"She would have been crazy about me I bet." he joked. "Hmmm - I don't know about that. You may have this Heller convinced but something tells me you'd have to do a lot more than break your leg and smile to convince my mother." she said, her eyebrows raised.
"So what happened?" he asked quietly. "Alex graduated from Medical School and started work in one of the Council's research facilities. For a while, I never really knew what it was that he did. I never asked - it never occured to me to question what it was exactly that he did. Until he told me."
Her mind wandered back to that day when Alex took her to the research facility where he worked. It was easy enough for Alex to get her in. It was then that she found out Alex spent his time experimenting on criminal offenders. Genetics had been his primary area of interest and the Council, to Julia's horror had given him a free hand to conduct his research.
At first, she thought perhaps Alex had no choice in the matter. She knew that the Council controlled and decided their destinies - where they worked, and what they did. But when she listened to the enthusiasm in his voice as he talked about his latest experiments, the excitement and when she found out that he even worked with child offenders, she knew otherwise.
He had chosen to abandon his ethics, abandon all principles in pursuit of what she perceived then to be his scientific ambitions. Later on she realised that it was Alex's belief in the Council, and his loyalty and devotion to their ideals which drove him - anything and everything to achieve the greater good. While Julia simply accepted her destiny as one of the Council, Alex embraced his association with the Council with open arms.
Despite her loyalty to the Council, Julia found his actions impossible to condone and accept. It shocked and horrified her to know that Alex had managed to keep this darker side of him hidden from her all this time - and that she had entirely misjudged him. Her skin crawled at the thought that she had spent many intimate moments with a man who had no qualms about who or what he experimented on and whom she realised, she knew nothing about. There was nothing valiant or patriotic about what he did in her eyes.
"My mother found out that Alex had been drawn into the more radical factions of the Council. But I had already stopped seeing him - I just couldn't see him anymore. Not after all that I knew about him - everything about him on the surface, was just one big disguise."
She paused and took a deep breath.
"That's not all is it?" he said, sensing that there was more to Julia's deep unease than knowing that Alex was a fanatical devotee to the Council's ideals.
"Alex couldn't...wouldn't let go. He was convinced that we were destined to be together. He picked me because I was the most..." She made a face "...genetically compatible person. He became obsessional - following me constantly around the stations. Everywhere I went, I could feel his presence, watching me."
Again her mind wandered back to the day when Alex had cornered her in a particularly quiet part of the station.
"Going somewhere?" he grated as he pinned her up against the wall of the corridor.
"Let go of me." she said firmly and tried to squirm out of his grasp. "Funny - you used to like being this close to me." he said softly, keeping his grip on her shoulders.
"It's over Alex. I don't want to see you anymore." she said, trying to keep her voice from shaking. She didn't want to know what Alex was capable of.
"So cool. And calm. They really got it right when they made you didn't they?" he mocked. "I can't Julia."
"I don't understand." she said, confused. "Not see you. Not be with you." he answered. "Yes, I think I might have even fallen in love with you - whatever that is."
She looked at him, stunned.
"Don't you understand? It's our destiny to be together - we're genetically and intellectually perfect for each other. You're mine Julia - we were made for each other. The second I saw you in that lab, I knew that our futures lay together... You and I - together we'll lead the Council into the next century."
"Did he hurt you?" She could hear the concern in his voice as he sat up. "No - oddly enough as it is, that's probably the only time I can remember being glad that the Council meddled and interfered in everybody's affairs. My mother was concerned about Alex's involvement in the more radical factions of the Council and she wanted to make sure that I didn't get drawn in. She had someone following me too - a little more discreetly than Alex though."
"I never saw him again after that. It was like he just disappeared into the woodwork - without a trace. Till now." She shuddered at the thought of knowing that if things hadn't turned out the way they had, she would have been stuck on G889 with the one person she never hoped to see again.
He grasped her hand firmly in his.
"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" he asked seriously. She lowered her head.
"I guess I didn't really know how to tell you - I was worried about how you would think of me after you knew..."
He looked her in the eye and squeezed her hand hard. "Never." he assured her. She smiled shyly at him. "Besides, it was a long time ago. I thought I'd be able to handle being in the same room with him alone again. But just being near him makes me nervous, and I can't ever look him in the eye and not think about all those things he's done, and just how dangerous he can be." she continued.
"Do you think he followed you here?" Julia plucked a blade of grass and examined it. "Maybe." She threw the blade of grass away frustratedly. "Nothing about his presence here makes sense Alonzo. Why would the Council send Alex to spy on me? Even if he wasn't sent to spy on me, how can they expect us to work together well knowing what happened between us. The only logical explaination is that he's here because he followed me here."
"So Reilly was telling the truth then." Alonzo remarked. "Possibly." she conceded, though Julia thought it was highly unlikely that her last conversation with Reilly had a high content of truth - the man was practically programmed not to tell the truth.
"He must be really crazy about you to follow you half way across the universe." he murmured to her.
She looked down at the ground.
"Alex loved the idea of a genetically perfect couple, genetically perfect kids. I don't think he could ever comprehend what it was to love somebody... I know I didn't. I don't think he ever loved me."
Alonzo reached out and tilted her head up so that she looked him in the face.
"I do." he said simply and leaned closer, his lips meeting hers.
Author's Chapter Notes:
A tad bit of background here, and a super soppy warning - beware those who fear drippy, cheesy scenes - this is a long one!