Turnabout

Andy Mangels, Michael A. Martin Turnabout (Roswell''-08)

For my favorite ex-Boston guy, Mike Ryan, and his partner, Ray Cox. Good friends and Grrrrreat Bears! A.M.

For Eric, J. E, and every other child who anxiously awaits the return of a parent from war and for all of those for whom the wait, sadly, will never end. M. A. M.

Acknowledgments

Without the work of Melinda Metz, the Roswell High series never would have begun, and we would not have gotten to know Max, Isabel, Michael, Liz, Maria, Kyle, Alex, Valenti, or any of the others.

Without the further work by Jason Katims to develop Roswell into a TV series, none of its characters would have come into our lives in a «living» form. Jason's vision was perfectly realized by the actors, writers, directors, and production personnel.

Without the work of editor and new mom Jennifer Klonsky and her assistant, Samantha Schutz, we never would have read the wonderful Roswell books that preceded ours, nor would we have had a chance to wrap up the saga in the best manner we could. Without the help of Marco Palmieri and Dean Wesley Smith, we might not have found our way into Jennifer Klonsky's able hands.

And without the fans who kept the Roswell TV series and the book series alive in their hearts, their homes, and their Internet sites, we might not be writing these words today.

So, we want to thank all of those people for letting us play in the desert sandbox of Roswell. We're glad we got a chance to be… «here with you.» Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin, May 2003

PROLOGUE

What Has Gone Before… 1999: «September 23. Journal entry one. I'm Liz Parker, and five days ago I died. After that, things got really weird…» Liz Parker was a relatively normal teenage girl, working at her parents' alien-themed diner, the Crashdown Cafe.

Then came that fateful fall day when a gunman accidentally shot Liz during an argument with another customer.

A boy Liz knew from high school, Max Evans, knelt beside her and put his hand over her bullet wound, healing her completely. But when Max ran away and Liz saw a glowing silver handprint on her stomach, she knew she had to find out the truth.

Max soon told her the truth, an unbelievable story that would pull Liz and her friends into danger, drama, romance, and interstellar conflict. Max and his friends were aliens.

July 1947: In the desert outside Roswell, New Mexico, an alien spaceship crashed to the ground. The government soon swooped in to quarantine the site, issuing a press release stating that the wreckage of a flying disk had been recovered. Hours later, the press release was rescinded, and the government claimed the object was actually a weather balloon.

But the government had in its possession or a short time material from the crash, including eight gestation pods containing gestating alien life-forms. Those pods were later liberated from the government by the two aliens who survived the crash. Four of the pods were placed in a desert cave along with alien technology known as the Granilith and were watched over by the alien who came to call himself Nasedo, a Mesaliko Indian word meaning visitor.

The other four pods were taken to New York by the other alien, who took human form as Kal Langley. But after Langley got involved in the film industry, he attempted to become more human, and left his pod charges to gestate on their own.

Nasedo watched over the pods in Roswell, but spent much of his time hunting down and killing those who investigated the Roswell crash. In 1989, three of the pods broke open, and a trio of seemingly human six-year-old children emerged. Wandering toward the highway, two of them were found and adopted by Phillip and Diane Evans, who named them Max and Isabel. The third child was adopted into an abusive foster family and was given the name Michael Guerin.

As the children matured, they learned that they shared uncanny powers, and the strange memories of their emergence from the pods led them to question their origins. It wasn't until their teen years that they began to discover the larger truth about themselves. And their revelation to Liz Parker of their identities started them on their path…

1999: Max, Isabel, and Michael discovered that they were members of the «Royal Four» from the war-torn star system of Antar. There, Max had been King Zan; Isabel had been his sister, Vilandra; Michael had been his second-incommand, Rath; and Ava had been his wife.

Ava was the occupant of the fourth pod, but she had been raised separately from the others by Nasedo. As a teen, she was reintroduced into their lives as Tess Harding.

Max, Isabel, Michael, and Tess were not fully human, or fully alien. Their genetic makeup mixed elements of both, giving them special powers. Max could heal others, Isabel could «dreamwalk» into human minds, Michael could wield destructive or defensive energy, and Ava could «mindwarp» others into seeing or doing what she wanted.

They all could manipulate molecular structure to some extent.

Following Max's healing of Liz, others soon found out about the existence of the alien-human hybrids among them. Liz's friend Maria DeLuca fell for the bad-boy antics of Michael, even though their relationship was rocky.

Mutual friend Alex Whitman was attracted to Isabel, though she didn't return his affection. Sheriff Jim Valenti started out as a nemesis to the kids, but soon came to understand that they needed protection more than exposure, especially after Max healed Jim's son, Kyle, preventing his death from a gunshot wound.

The Roswell teens would come to learn that they had many enemies. A classified government group known as the Special Unit went to great lengths to capture them, especially after Nasedo killed several of its top agents. And other aliens from the Antarian system had come to Earth to kill the Royal Four; chief among them were the «Skins," who could renew their essences using human bodies, which they called «husks.» Meanwhile, the second set of pods had been opened in New York, and the four alien teens there grew up bitter, angry, and tough. After Rath and Vilandra (calling herself «Lonnie») killed Zan, they brought Ava with them to Roswell in an attempt to broker an interstellar peace using Max as a pawn. Their gambit didn't work, however.

Following the death of Nasedo, Tess moved up her plan to work out a deal with Antarian forces on her own. She manipulated Max into sleeping with her, then became pregnant with his alien child. She also mindwarped Alex into helping her, eventually killing him in the process. When she was exposed as a murderess, Tess used the Granilith to return to Antar to deliver Max's heir to his enemies. The reasons behind her treachery remained a mystery.

Desperate to recover his child, Max became unpredictable. He tracked down Kal Langley and forced him to help Max try to return to Antar, but they were unsuccessful. Isabel, rebelling against Max's orders that none of the aliens get further involved with humans, married the man she had been secretly dating, Jesse Ramirez. Michael grew restless under Max's unfocused leadership and attempted to take control of the group himself. And Tess eventually returned with Max's child, which had been rejected on Antar since it was fully human.

In spring 2002, everything came to a boiling point. The Special Unit was closing in, gathering evidence against the teens. In an attempt to redeem herself, Tess blew up the nearby military base, but this caused further complications for the group. Max sent his child away so he could live safely with a human family, and the group found itself on the run from Roswell, traveling in a VW Microbus.

Max, Liz, Isabel, Michael, Maria, and Kyle now travel the country, trying to help others along the way. Max and Liz have finally married, but their happiness is tinged with hardship. They are all still pursued by the Special Unit, the Skins, and other aliens hidden among the human race.

Even though they escaped Roswell, they cannot escape the forces currently arrayed against them…

In Pursuit, the Special Unit has moved in on several fronts.

In New York City, the surviving three duplicates Rath, Lonnie, and Ava were attacked by enemy aliens.

Although they emerged victorious, the trio was captured by the police, and turned over to the Special Unit. Rath and Lonnie soon escaped federal custody in Los Angeles, leaving Ava behind in the Special Unit's clutches.

In Wyoming, the Roswell teens also faced trouble with the Special Unit, who cornered them at a mall. Forced to use their powers publicly to escape, the teens were more on the run than ever, especially when images of them hit the news.

As the Roswell teens attempted to rectify the harm their escape caused to some innocent bystanders, the Special Unit struck back at those closest to them. Jeff and Nancy Parker and Phillip and Diane Evans were taken, but not before they managed to warn the other parents. Deputy Jim Valenti and Amy DeLuca narrowly escaped town, and learned that FBI Special Agent Suzanne Duff was planning to help them. UFO Museum owner Brody Davis was on his own, though, as was Jesse Ramirez in Boston.

The Roswell teens have now come to a crossroads. Liz has seen terrifying visions of Isabel's future death, while Kyle is experiencing the awakening of strange new powers. Unaware as yet of their parents' abductions, Max and the others have come to a critical decision: They will stand their ground and fight the Special Unit, to the death if necessary, in the hopes of recovering some semblance of a normal life…

1. Newton, Massachusetts.

Uovernment agents are about to break down our door. I think they've already captured the Parkers. I don't know about the others.» Phillip Evans's voice sounded panicked and calm at the same time. «Contact Jesse Ramirez, and then go ahead with the plans I put in place.» For a fleeting moment, Shelby Tremaine didn't know what to say. She had pulled her car into a parking lot the moment she saw the Roswell area code on the special cell phone she carried with her most of the time. And then she had answered the call she never truly expected to get.

With a quick shake of her head, she asked, «Are you sure about this, Phillip?» «Yes. An unmarked black car and van just pulled up the street, right after we got a call from the Parkers.» His voice sounded more strained now.

«How do you know they're coming for " «I know," Phillip said, interrupting her. «I'm setting up the cam feed to record everything that happens in our living room. Whatever they do to us here will be recorded.

You know where the signal goes.» «I've got it in my files," Shelby said.

«Good. Get the video as soon as you can. That way, you'll know whether we're still alive. And find out " Phillip stopped speaking then, and Shelby heard a loud, splintering crash, as if something wooden had been blown up.

The door? Shelby thought just before the cell phone's connection went dead. She felt a chill coursing down her spine, and noticed goose bumps popping up on her arms.

What the hell is happening in Roswell? Shelby had known Phillip Evans since the third grade, back when both of their families were living in Flagstaff, Arizona. She was a chubby child, and was often teased mercilessly by the other kids. Phillip had come to her rescue one day when three of her classmates were holding her down behind the playground fort, trying to make her eat some bugs. She still remembered seeing him standing there, the sun behind him like a halo. After chasing them off, he had helped her up, then walked her back inside the classroom.

As they grew older, Phillip was always on the edge of being popular in school. He wasn't a jock, but he was big enough to discourage the jocks from messing with him.

He was smart enough to hang with the nerds, but not so geeky that he was considered one of the «brainiacs.» His good looks won him lots of attention from the girls, but he generally only went out with the ones who displayed more substance than style. As far as Shelby could tell, she had changed a good deal less than Phillip had since grade school; even as a high school senior, she remained chubby and victimized.

But Shelby remained devoted to Phillip through the years, and he remained as her protector. For a short time, she'd had a romantic crush on him, and they'd even dated briefly in high school, but they soon discovered that the dynamics of their friendship were immutable; they were fated to be best friends forever, and lovers never.

In college, Phillip had chosen his major early on, his fascination with the law leading him into the prelaw program at the University of New Mexico. Shelby puttered around at U.N.M. for two years, mainly taking general-ed and elective courses before deciding that she, too, wanted to take on the legal system from within. Phillip was able to help her with her studies, and she benefited from his classroom experience and natural legal talent. In the early 1970s, most women working in the field of law were legal assistants; in those early days it seemed to Shelby that very few of them aspired to become lawyers themselves. But by then, she had stopped playing the victim, and was strongly taking charge of her own life.

Though they now lived far apart, Shelby and Phillip had stayed in touch with each other over the years since graduating from law school, passing their respective bar exams, and becoming practicing attorneys. Their respective spouses understood their friendship at least until Shelby's marriage had fallen apart, prompting her to spend more time with some of her oldest and dearest friends.

Shelby very much liked Diane Evans, and she absolutely adored Max and Isabel, who had come into Phillip's and Diane's lives so unexpectedly in 1989. Phillip had confided that he and Diane had been unable to conceive children on their own; the two apparent orphans were a godsend.

Shelby had joked more than a few times that Max and Isabel might be Kryptonian children, rocketed to Earth like Superman. After all, the Evanses had found them wandering in the desert, with no knowledge of their past.

In the months that followed, after no one had laid claim to the pair, Phillip and Diane had adopted Max and Isabel.

Thirteen years later, in the spring of 2002, Shelby learned that her comic-book-oriented jests held more truth than she ever could have imagined at the time. She now specialized in family law and adoption, and Phillip had called to ask for a special professional favor. He told her that Max had fathered a child, and that he needed her help to get the child to safety and placed into a good home.

No matter how much she trusted her oldest friend, Shelby wasn't about to just take the child without further explanation. And so Phillip told her everything: about Max and Isabel's true origins; about the baby's interstellar parentage; about the government agents who were hunting for further evidence that aliens did indeed live among the humans of Roswell.

Shelby might not have believed Phillip if he hadn't shown her the videotape. He and Diane had used a nannycam to spy on Isabel, and had caught footage of her using her extraordinary telekinetic powers to levitate objects in her bedroom. The government agents had apparently confiscated the original tape, but the Evanses had duplicated it earlier, leaving the copy with Shelby, along with little Zan.

Phillip informed Shelby that they didn't want to know with whom she had placed Zan; he had even lied to Max, telling him that a male law school buddy in New York would take care of the matter. «If we ever want to know the truth about where the baby is placed, we'll ask you," Phillip told Shelby. «But this child deserves a future free from fear.» A few weeks later, Shelby had gotten a second visit from Phillip, and this one was filled with more portent than the previous one. He presented her with all the data he had gathered on the secret government intelligence group called the Special Unit, as well as every bit of information about his children and the others in Roswell who were involved in evading the government's alien-hunting conspiracy.

Shelby was astonished to learn that the Special Unit had actually invaded the West Roswell High graduation ceremony in an attempt to capture Max, Isabel, Michael, and their friends. Now, the kids were on the run, and Phillip was certain that all of the parents were under heavy surveillance.

«Exposure is the one thing that these Special Unit guys think is on their side," Phillip had told her. «They believe that our kids are more afraid of exposure than anything else. But that's not the case. Max told me before he left that if I ever feared anything was about to happen to us or the other parents, I should use this information against the Special Unit.» «How do you think this is going to help?» Shelby had asked.

«I think that now, the government is more concerned about exposure than our kids are. Think about it, Shelby.

What's the best way to get out of blackmail? All you have to do is come clean. Removing the lies and exposing the truth will blow the lid off all the government's machinations and cover-ups since 1947.» Shelby had shaken her head, trying to wrap her thoughts around what Phillip was saying. «You really think they'll give up on hunting the kids down just because you threaten to go public? And what happens if you don't go public?» He reached forward and took her hands, looking at her directly. She remembered that look from the third grade; he was at his most serious, his most sincere. «Shelby, if it comes down to this, the repercussions from revealing the truth are going to be far less harmful than just sitting on the truth. I have no doubt that if they can, they'll kill our children, or make them wish they were dead. And they will probably 'disappear' anyone who they think knows the real truth. So, the only way out of this is for everyone to learn the truth.» Shelby had stared at him for a long moment then, her mind whirling. «Do you really think that the American public that the world is ready to learn that aliens have been living among us for more than fifty years?» His smile was gentle. «I think the public won't be nearly as shocked as you might think, Shelby. This is a generation that's grown up with El and Star Trek and Men in Black and all the science-fiction films and TV shows and books.

This is a generation that uses cell phones the size of business cards, and computers they can slip into their pocket.

They'll adapt.» Before she could stop herself, Shelby snorted. «And what if the populace decides that the aliens among us are really here to steal our water, eat our mice, or blow up the White House?» Phillip grinned ever so slightly. «I don't think it will get to that point. I think the Special Unit won't let things go that far.» «What, you think they're going to back off just because I threaten to blow the whistle? What's to stop them from paying me a visit in the dead of night with a very silent gun?» «What do you want me to do, Shelby?» Phillip pulled back from her, settling into one of her office chairs. «This is my family we're talking about. This is not an abstract 'someone.' This is Max and Isabel you used to read to them when they were younger. And it may be Diane and me they come after.» He paused, his brow furrowing. «You won't have to carry this burden all alone. Call Jesse Ramirez, and follow the other instructions I'm leaving with you.» His next sentence had chilled her to the bone. «They won't be able to stop all of us, Shelby.» Now, twenty minutes after she got the fateful telephone call, Shelby pulled her Toyota into her driveway and let herself into her modest house. Her hands trembling by the time she'd reached the kitchen, she poured some sherry into a glass. The cell phone hadn't rung again since Phillip's previous call, the one that confirmed that his worst fears had finally been realized. She was certain that he had destroyed his phone before they took him. But how long will it take for them to reconstruct it and find a way to determine who he called last? How long until they figure out where those nanny-cam pictures went? She didn't know at this point whether Phillip and Diane or the other alien-affiliated parents in Roswell were dead or alive. But she did know that now she was involved. Phillip had saved her, not only on that long-ago day on the playground, but also many times since. Now she was determined to do whatever she could to return the favor, both for Phillips sake and for that of his family.

Shelby went to the kitchen and opened a cupboard that held a pull-out spice rack. She tugged it forward off its tracks and gingerly placed it on the countertop. Reaching in, she depressed a small button in the back of the cabinet, and the back paneling popped free. Inside the recessed space were all the files and information Phillip had given her.

On the first page was the Boston number of Jesse Ramirez. Since Shelby lived in Newton, she could meet with Jesse in less than an hour if everything went smoothly.

Ij they haven't gotten to him already, she thought with a shiver.

She picked up her cell phone and dialed Jesse's number. One ring. Two rings.

«Hello?» The voice was male, but she didn't recognize it; she had never actually spoken with Ramirez before.

«Jesse Ramirez, please," she said as calmly as she could.

«This is he.» «Mister Ramirez, my name is… Denise Prinze, and I'm a lawyer.» She wasn't sure if Jesse's phone was bugged, so she played it safe by using the fake name Phillip had given her. «I need to consult with you immediately about a client I have.» «Immediately?» She bit her lip and continued, scanning the notes Phillip had made about Jesse. «It's about a Mr. Antar.» There was a brief silence before he spoke again. «Where do you want to meet?» «Antonio's Cucina Italiana on Cambridge Street.» «Across from Mass General Hospital?» «That's the one," Shelby said. «In an hour?» «See you then," he said. And then the line clicked and was silent.

Shelby hoped that it was Jesse to whom she had been talking, and that she hadn't just delivered herself or both of them into enemy hands.

When did I become so paranoid? she thought as she began to fill a bag with some clothes and a few other necessities.

She already knew the answer to her question.

It had happened the day she had learned the truth about Roswell.

Boston Jesse Ramirez hung up the phone, his eyes wide. After the earlier incident with Isabel calling and him finding out his phones were bugged, he had almost been afraid to come home. Now, he found that he was even more afraid of going out.

Whoever the woman who had called him was, she knew the name of Isabel's homeworld. Is she working with the Special Unit? Or is she the one Phillip said might call me one day? He knew that if the latter scenario were true, then something had gone very wrong indeed.

Against his better judgment, Jesse dialed the Evanses' phone number in Roswell.

It had barely rung once before it was picked up.

«Hello.» The voice was crisp and authoritative. And clearly not Phillips. Jesse checked the phone display to make sure he had dialed the number correctly He waited another beat, but the man didn't speak any further. Jesse punched the «End» button as hard as he could.

Whatever is going down in Roswell, I'm sure as hell not safe here at home, Jesse thought. He grabbed a duffel bag and put several things into it, including the gun he had carried ever since he'd left Roswell. It was the same gun he had used to kill the Special Unit agent who'd tried to make him turn on Isabel.

Making sure that the front door was locked, Jesse toggled on the television, and then slipped out the back door and into the small yard behind his apartment building.

2. Sidney, Nebraska

I hey had all sat in silence ever since leaving the Bushnell, Nebraska, picnic spot in their VW Microbus. As Michael Guerin drove, Max Evans sat in the front passengers seat, feeling more determined than ever before in his young life.

He looked back toward the others, and forced back a sudden pang of guilt.

I'm the reason this has happened. It's my fault. I was deposed as the king on Antar, and now I've been driven from my home all over again. Just like everyone I love, and everybody who's stood by me ever since all this alien-hunting crazxness started.

Liz Parker slumped in the Microbus's middle seat, staring abstractedly out the darkened side window. Though her forehead was clearly showing worry lines, she was as beautiful to him as ever. He had harbored feelings for her since the third grade, but it wasn't until three years ago that he had expressed them to her. 0/ course «expressing myself meant healing her bullet wound and revealing to her that I'm actually half-alien, Max thought with a wan smile.

Leaning against Liz was Maria DeLuca, her hair wavy and tinted a coppery red thanks to Isabel's powers. Maria appeared to be asleep, but Max wasn't sure. She was the only one of the humans Max hadn't healed, and thus was the only member of the group who had shown no sign of developing extra-human abilities. He knew that her lack of alien powers made her feel like the odd person out in the group, and that this was one of the things that fueled her temper. Michael was the other thing that got her itching for confrontation; even though Max knew they loved each other, their relationship was tempestuous at best.

Gazing toward the back of the van, Max caught the eye of Kyle Valenti. They certainly had come a long way over the last several years. Kyle had been Liz's boyfriend prior to Max, and he had been a sore loser at first after she'd left him. Max knew that Kyle's father's obsession about the strange goings-on around Max, Isabel, and Michael hadn't helped matters, even after the truth of their half-alien natures stood revealed. Kyle had been pulled into the cover-up against his wishes, and once Max healed him from an accidental gunshot wound, Kyle had become a part of the «team» for better or for worse. Lately, Kyle had been showing signs of manifesting psychic abilities of some sort, a development no doubt spurred by Max's healing touch.

Isabel Evans's head was on Kyle's chest as she attempted to sleep, but Max could see that his sister was as restless as any of them. Max didn't remember much about their past life on their homeworld of Antar, but he did know that Isabel believed that she had unwittingly betrayed the Royal Four, leading to their deaths and their genetic essences subsequently being sent to Earth.

But Isabel hadn't been the one who had betrayed them here on Earth; Tess Harding the replica of the woman who had been Max's wife during his previous life on Antar was the one who had brought their lives crashing down around them. Max was well aware that Isabel, more than any of the others, wanted to be normal, to lead an ordinary existence with her human husband, Jesse Ramirez, whom she hadn't seen during the months since the Special Unit had forced the group to flee Roswell.

Max's gaze returned to Michael, who was steadily guiding the VW down the road as the afternoon shadows lengthened. The wind coming through the open driver's side window blew Michael's long hair, creating an odd tangled halo behind him. But Max could never see Michael wearing a halo. On Antar he had been Max's or, more correctly, King Zan's second-in-command, the man in charge of the troops. As with Isabel, Max didn't remember much of Michael's Antarian past, but he imagined that to command Zan's armies of Antar meant that Michael had been as potentially violent there as he was here on Earth.

Max sometimes thought that Michael was never far from striking out against anyone and everything he perceived as a threat. Sometimes, that quality had been a definite liability. But maybe that ferocity is exactly what we need, now that we've decided to stand our ground against the Special Unit, Max thought.

«We're coming up on Sidney in another ten miles or so," Michael said, turning his head briefly toward Max.

«Unless I read the map wrong, we can find the train stations there.» He held Max's gaze for a moment, and Max saw the energy of a chained tiger flickering in Michael's eyes.

«Let's get some food before we figure out what we're going to do next," Max said.

«Should we wake them now?» Michael asked, gesturing toward the back.

Max was about to say, «No," when Maria spoke up. «I don't think any of us are really asleep. The lack of music didn't really help.» She cast a wistful eye toward her guitar case, as though wishing the van had enough room to allow her to remedy the problem herself.

Isabel chimed in from the back. «Not to mention the other problems we have on our mind right now.» Michael made a sour face, and Max leaped to his defense. «Sorry. I thought it would be better for you guys to rest without a lot of noise.» He clicked on the radio and the strains of an ancient Pat Benatar song immediately filled the Microbus. Other than «Hit Me with Your Best Shot," the next several minutes passed in silence.

Michael suddenly let out a snort. «Look up ahead," he said, pointing.

Up the road next to several small retail businesses was an old-fashioned fast-food place. Max felt himself smiling at the same thing Michael had. The neon sign that stood atop two poles had a UFO mounted on it, and bore a logo that read, ORBIT BURGERS. Just beneath it was a Coca-Cola sign.

«Looks like home," Max said. «I almost think we're fated to eat there.» The others leaned forward to get a better view as the van neared the restaurant. Maria rolled her eyes and put up her hands, palms outward, as if to push the vision away. «Tell me they don't have waitresses wearing alienhead aprons and bouncing dealy-bobber tiaras.» «Yeah, that would be too much of a coincidence," Liz said, smiling.

Michael pulled into the Orbit's driveway and parked the Microbus as far back in the parking lot as he could.

Piling out of the VW, everyone grunted and stretched to shake out their cramped muscles.

Michael walked forward, his head swiveling from side to side. «You all order your food. I'm going to get a paper from across the street.» Max didn't argue with him, nor did any of the others.

Max didn't think Michael was being antisocial; he was being proactive. Since their pictures had been broadcast on the news the previous night, Max knew they needed to find out how much of their Wyoming adventures had made it into the papers way out here in the Midwest. Were they wanted fugitives everywhere? As Kyle and Isabel ordered, Maria excused herself to use the bathroom. Max came up from behind Liz and put his arms around her, nuzzling his face into her long hair.

Isabel had changed Liz's hair color last night, before they had sneaked into the hospital.

«How you doing, Blondie?» he asked, his voice a low growl.

Liz crossed her arms over his and pulled him in tighter against her. «Much better now that you're holding me," she said, smiling.