WHO: Michael Guerin and Kyle Valenti WHAT: A meeting on the street WHERE: On the street WHEN: Today WARNINGS: Nah STATUS: Closed/Completed Gdoc
It seemed that more and more people from his world were coming to Madison Valley. That was okay, really, because so far they’d just been the good ones. Sure, there was Liz from another world, but he had to admit that he felt like a little bit of a big brother to her, and he kind of liked it. Kyle Valenti...well, he had been a dick in high school, but that was a decade ago, and they’d all changed since then. Not that he loved the guy, but he didn’t mind him being here.
Michael was heading home from Hinkles with a big bag of burgers when he noticed Kyle heading towards him. For a split second he considered crossing the street, but decided not to be an immature little shit and instead acted like an adult and offered him a smile and a wave.
“Valenti.”
***
Kyle wasn’t sure which was weirder - meeting a Liz from a different universe who was a decade younger or Guerin and DeLuca being from his past. It was all weirder than dealing with aliens and when he discovered those really existed he’d thought that was the weirdest thing ever.
On his way to the clinic for a shift, he spotted Guerin and offered him a smile and a nod. “Hey, Guerin. What’s up?” They hadn’t exactly been besties, but Kyle liked to think they were at least friends now, even if the other man didn’t remember the scientific breakthroughs they made together.
***
“Not much. Just getting food. Hinkles has great burgers if you haven’t been there yet.” There, he’d passed on his little bit of knowledge about Madison Valley, just like a cool, friendly person did.
“You settling in okay? I mean, this place isn’t as shitty as Roswell, but it definitely has its moments.”
***
The tip about the burgers was appreciated, even if Kyle tried to avoid that sort of thing most of the time. Abs like his didn’t happen by magic. “Yeah, it’s not bad,” he said. “I got a job at the clinic and I’ve met some cool people.”
Speed dating had actually been fun and he was planning to follow up with a few of his dates to see if there might be anything more there.
“How’s it going with you and DeLuca?” he asked.
***
“Good,” he said. He didn’t like to talk about his relationships much, they were personal and private and dating Alex had convinced him that it could be physically dangerous for him. One night stands? That was different. Relationships were something you held close to your chest.
“Already working at the clinic, huh? Guess they’re always desperate for real doctors. I’ve got a job at a garage. Pretty much like back home.”
***
“Less alien autopsy, I assume,” Kyle joked. “The clinic is pretty advanced considering the size of this town.” He understood why the hospital wouldn’t hire them, even though it sucked a lot. At least they had something.
It didn’t surprise him that Guerin was working at a garage. He knew the other man well enough to know that he preferred to keep his brain under wraps.
***
“Yeah, and I’d prefer to keep it that way.” Especially since his family were the only aliens here now. “Hopefully we won’t be getting ourselves into any trouble that would end up needing something like that.” It had been a joke from Kyle, maybe, but it wasn’t all that funny to Michael.
“Have you met baby Liz?”
He didn’t know what else to call her, since she was just a little kid compared to the Liz he knew back home.
***
Kyle chuckled at the description. “Yeah, she’s a good kid,” he said. “Lot of similarities with our Liz, but… not exactly the same.” Which, in his opinion, was a good thing. Hopefully this one wouldn’t become obsessed with using alien technology or DNA to solve all the medical problems in the world. He didn’t think Michael knew too much about what their Liz had been up to though, since he was from an earlier point in time.
“I feel bad for her that we’re all here and none of the people she knows are,” he admitted.
***
“She says we have similarities though. Which is weird, really. I think it’s weirder than the ways we’re different. Because it means like there’s some...ideal Michael Guerin upon which all others are based.” It was weird multiverse theory stuff, but he couldn’t help but be fascinated by it. After all, he was a lot smarter than he seemed.
“It’s probably me.”
***
Of course Guerin would think that. Kyle laughed. “How could anyone surpass you?” he asked. He was mostly joking, though he did like the guy much better than he used to after they spent so much time working together on the heart transplant thing for Max.
“Apparently I’m a jerk across the multiverse,” he added, though he hoped that the other versions of him would learn like he had. He knew that he wasn’t a hopeless cause.
***
“Well, at least some things stay constant,” he said dryly, although there was a bit of amusement in his tone. He’d hated the guy in High School, but really, most people were shits in high school and it wasn’t really fair to hold it against him. They’d both grown up and learned things, and if he expected people to give him the benefit of the doubt, he needed to give it back.
“Has she...spoken to you about...things?”
He didn’t want to give away what Liz had told him, but he did want to see if there was any way Kyle could help.
***
“About her… abilities?” Kyle asked. That was the only thing he could think of that Michael would be referring to in such an oblique way. “Yeah, she’s been having a hard time, so I told her that I could run some tests and see what I find out.”
Now that he was established at the clinic, they’d be able to do that and he shouldn’t put it off any longer. “I, uh… how much do you know about what’s happened?” he asked. “Like, with Rosa?” Kyle didn’t want to tell him more about the future than he wanted to know, but it seemed like what Liz here was dealing with was pretty similar to what Rosa was going through back home. It was interesting that it hadn’t happened to their Liz too though.
***
“Not much at all. I know from the others what happened, but not any of the details.”
There was so much he didn’t know and it was annoying as hell. He hated being left in the dark.
“Care to fill me in?”
***
Kyle really didn’t want to be the one who told Guerin what he’d missed, but since he was worried about the Liz here, he figured he at least needed to share a little. “Well, you knew that you guys found her in Noah’s old pod, right? Max decided to use his mojo to bring her back. Except it took a little too much out of him and he… died.” He was pretty sure Michael knew at least that much, but figured he should start at the beginning.
“After that, Rosa started to display some of the same abilities you guys have. Mostly the electrical stuff? Like, light bulbs exploding when she’d get upset and stuff,” he explained.
***
“So...Max’s stuff. Is that because he put so much into it to bring her back, or what?”
He had heard about Max dying, but to be honest he really didn’t want to think about it. He got furious at the man sometimes but he also loved him deeply and he didn’t deal well with loss.
***
That was the working theory, though it was impossible to know if it was true. “That’s what we assumed,” Kyle said. “But Isobel’s also been working on her abilities a lot since everything with Noah and she’s gotten pretty good at the TK stuff and the electric stuff, so I think it’s possible you can all do all of the things. Or at least have the capability of learning to.”
They were dealing with so many unknowns that it was impossible to say anything for certain. “We did manage to get Max back too,” he said, though he thought Michael knew that as well since they’d discussed the heart transplant that Kyle performed with his assistance.
***
“Great. Bet I’m stuck with just the telekinesis and will be the most pathetic of the bunch.” It was always what happened to him. They got the family, he didn’t. They got all the powers, he didn’t. Made sense, didn’t it?
“Yeah. I know. Is he okay? No weird side effects or anything?”
It was hard to believe that someone could be brought back from the dead like that, without any sort of weirdness.
***
“Far as I’m aware, yes,” Kyle said. He knew that there’d been a bit of… difficulty… when they first brought him back, but from what he’d heard, all was good now. Max seemed like himself when Kyle saw him.
He frowned a little at Michael putting himself down. “You should talk to Isobel,” he suggested. “She can probably help you figure out the other stuff. I don’t think she’s managed healing yet though.”
***
“Yeah, she probably won’t want to waste her time on me.” Most people didn’t, and Michael was used to that. He wasn’t having a pity party for himself. Really. “I mean, I’m okay at the telekinesis. It’s enough for me.” He wasn’t sure if he wanted Isobel’s brain stuff. That had always seemed to screw her up a little, and he was already screwed up the way it was.
“So...is this actually a thing we can do? Bring people back from the dead?”
***
Kyle wrinkled his nose. “I wouldn’t recommend it,” he said. “I mean, I guess like what Max did with Liz was okay, because it was immediate? But what he did with Rosa, I would say no.” And there was no telling what kind of long term effects any of it would have on them.
***
“Recommending it and being able to do it are two different things, Valenti. You’re saying we shouldn’t do it. Not that we can’t.”
That was a very big difference and it made Michael terribly curious about whether, with enough practice, he could bring people back from the dead too.
*** Of course Guerin would have to be pedantic about it. “I’m saying that if you tried it and died like Max did, I don’t have a stash of alien hearts lying around to do another transplant,” Kyle said. He wasn’t even sure if Liz had died at the Crashdown or if Max had been able to heal her before she did.
“So be careful,” he said. “Because I don’t want Maria kicking my ass if you do something stupid.”
***
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” he said, rolling his eyes a little. “You can’t save my ass if I fuck things up. You don’t have to worry, I can’t even heal a splinter yet so bringing people back from the dead is still a ways off.”
He wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to. He was just thinking it sounded cool.
“Anyway, I’m off. See you around, Valenti.”
***
“Later, Guerin,” Kyle said. He glanced at his watch and realized he was going to be cutting it close making it to his shift on time.