Disclaimer: I bet you all really wish that I would stop sharing now, don't you? Anyway, like I've said before, they're not mine, blah blah blah no sure yada yada yada....

This is a response to Fez's challenge on Ditch The Logical, about changing up the healer and healee.

Backstory: I don't clear things up tp well in the first chapter, so I'm gonna give you a little history lesson in this funny little world I made up. Tess, Michael and Isabel all grew up together. Michael and Isabel are brother and sister, and Tess grew up in foster home. Maria and Alex are best friends, but they don't know Liz very well, except as the girl whose father owns the Crashdown where Maria works. Ladedade...I think that's about it. So, without further ado...

Tess Harding shifted in her seat and tried not to stare. Staring was not polite. Staring was wrong. Staring wouldn’t do anything but tip her best friend, Isabel Evans, off to what—to who—she was thinking about. And that would only lead to Isabel frowning and sighing and rolling her eyes, trying to make Tess feel worse then she already did about what she happened to be feeling at this point in time. So staring was a bad thing. She didn’t need to stare.

Even if he was the cutest thing she had ever seen.

The curly haired blonde dropped her gaze to the half eaten plate of fries that sat in front of her. She picked one of them up, and swirled it in the ketchup-Tabasco sauce mix beside them. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was aware of the fact that Isabel was talking about something, but she wasn’t sure what.

Before she could stop herself, her eyes darted up from the plate and over to where he was standing, talking to one of the waitresses—Maria or Marie or something like that. He was leaning up against the counter, his arms crossed over his chest, a wide, friendly smile splitting his handsome face. Bright blue eyes seemed to sparkle under the fluorescent lights of the Crashdown Café, long legs crossed one over another.

“You can stop drooling over Geek-boy at any time now, Tess.” Isabel’s icy voice cut through her mind, and the petite blonde snapped to attention, swallowing hard at the expression etched on her friend’s face.

“What? What are you talking about…I wasn’t drooling…” Tess trailed off, biting down hard on her bottom lip and wishing that Isabel would magically disappear, or…something, if only for just a little bit.

“Oh please. You drool anymore, and I’m going to need a rowboat to get out of here.” There might have been a hint of teasing in the Ice Princesses tone, but it was lost on Tess, as her eyes subconsciously found there way back to the object of her affection. “Are you even listening to me, Tess?”

“What?” The girl asked before she could stop herself, and winced.

Isabel sighed loudly, to the point that it might have been considered a groan, if Isabel Evans, the Elle McPherson of the sophomore class of West Roswell High, would ever do anything as indelicate as groan. Her non-groan was accompanied by massive eye-rolling, and shoulder stiffening, a sure sign that Isabel Amanda Evans Was Not Happy.

“What?!” Tess asked again.

“What, exactly, is it about Alex Whitman that you find so inexplicably fascinating? He’s just a badly dressed…computer…chess playing…geek. A human geek.” Isabel’s voice dropped seven octaves as she hissed the final part of her list of reasons for her friend not to be staring at the blue eyed boy

“Isabel…” Before Tess and her leggy blonde friend could get into another discussion on the pros and cons of Alexander Whitman, a loud crash made the entire café freeze.

“I want the money today! Not tomorrow!” A fat, slightly balding middle aged man raged, leaping to his feet faster then someone that old real had a right to, one beefy arm slapping the flatware on the table to the floor.

And then the entire world slowed down to the speed of molasses, as Tess watched, frozen in place. She saw the other man jump to his feet.

Saw him draw the gun.

Saw the two men fight over it.

Saw it shoved to the side.

Saw it go off.

Saw the bullet head directly for the little blonde waitress Alex had been talking to before.

Saw Alex shove the girl so hard she went flying into the table.

Saw the bullet hit Alex dead center in the chest.

And then, before she could think, before she even remembered to breathe, she was moving, running across the floor. She vaguely heard Isabel call out to her, but it didn’t register. The only thing she knew was that she had to get across the room, she had to get to Alex…she had to save him. She had to try.

She hit her knees when she reached his side, acting on instinct alone as she ripped his shirt open, revealing his chest. One small part of her brain decided to remind her of all the times she had dreamed about doing just that. Of course, he hadn’t been bleeding to death when she had fantasized about it, but still…

The bright red blood pumping out of his chest snapped her out of her slightly hazy thoughts, and her mind reeled. What the hell was she suppose to do now!?

The blood. She had to stop the blood from getting out, she had to…

She pressed her hand down over the source of the blood, willing it to stop, trying to find the connection that she somehow knew was suppose to be there. She couldn’t find it, and her heart dropped to her feet, tears filling her eyes as her mind presented her with images of a world without Alex’s beautiful blue eyes and beaming face.

“No…” She whispered, determination filling her. “Alex…Alex…you have to look at me. Alex, please, you have to look at me!”

And then, miraculously, he did. Those baby blue eyes Tess had gotten lost in the few times she had gotten up the nerve to talk to him fluttered open, and he meet her gaze, his throat working like he wanted to say something, anything.

And the connection was there, like a beam of warm light.

Flash

Strumming a guitar, smiling to himself as he hit the notes he wanted.

Flash

Beating his dad at chess, his mother laughing and clapping her hands

Flash

Watching Maria and Liz play from across the playground. Happiness when the asked him if he wanted to join in.

Flash

Looking up at the stars as his mother’s soft voice whispered stories about them to him.

Flash

Watching them lower his mother’s coffin into the ground.

And then the barrage of images was over, and Tess fell backwards onto her rear, her eyes staring at the once again whole Alex Whitman. Baby blue eyes meet hers, wide and unblinking and wondering. She stared back, her stomach rolling and clutching, as her mind fought for something, anything to explain what had just happened.

“Tess!” And then Isabel was there, grabbing her arm so tightly that it hurt, dragging her to her feet, before heading for the door and the relative safety of outside and her car. But Tess couldn’t drag her eyes away from Alex’s bright gaze; even with the knowledge that in saving Alex’s life, she had probably just killed her self.

Oh God. What was she going to do?! How was she going to explain this to him, to everyone?!

Isabel was going to kill her. Michael was going to kill her.

She was going to get taken away from everything and everyone she loved, just because she couldn’t bare the thought of a world without Alex’s blue eyes.

It was worth it.

And then, just like before, the world seemed to slow down. Before she could blink twice, Alex had grabbed a bottle of ketchup off the shelf he had fallen next to, knocking the top off the bottle as he did so. Quickly he dumped the thick red liquid over his shirt, effectively hiding the blood stain. His eyes meet hers again, and Tess couldn’t have broken that gaze if the fate of the free world rested on it.

For just a second, they were alone in their own world, as Alex staggered to his feet, his eyes never leaving hers.

Then, the rest of the world decided to remind them that it was still here.

“ALEX!” Maria or Marie or whatever’s voice shattered the link between them, and the dark haired young man moved his eyes to her. The breaking of the eye contact between them was all it took to jump start Tess into action, and before she knew it, she was running out the door and jumping into Isabel’s Jeep, her mind frozen on the memory of a pair of brilliant blue eyes staring at her in wonder.