The Tennysons sat down for dinner, a normal dinner much to Ben and Gwen's relief.

After they ate Max started the conversation he wanted to have with the kids.

"I want to start by telling you some stories about when I was a plumber."

Ben was momentarily tempted to crack a joke...Warning, old man reminiscing...But thought better of it. Grandpa seamed to have something more important than a trip down memory lane in mind.

"I told you two earlier about your grandmother. I was always faithful to her...but there was one time when I was tempted, She was a Uxorite named Xylene. She often worked with the plumbers and was considered an honorary plumber herself.

She and I hit it off immediately and quickly became much more than friends."

"And," Gwen asked, "You were already in love with grandma when this happened?"

Max nodded. "I actually met Xylene before I met your grandma. For a while I might have chosen either of them. I guess the only reason I choose Elizabeth was the fact that I wanted a family. Uxorites are reptiles, they lay eggs so we aren't genetically comparable.

Xylene knew I wanted a family although she couldn't understand a desire to raise children, she accepted that humans often do have it."

"Did grandma know about her?" Ben asked.

Again Max nodded. "When things got serious between us we decided that we needed to lay or cards on the table about past relationships. She told me about a couple of past boyfriends and I told her about the alien woman that I had feelings for. But that the relationship would always be limited by...genetic incompatibility; and I told her that I had already spoken to Xylene about it. She was sad but said we'd always have Roswell."

"Roswell?" Ben interrupted, "Do you mean..."

"Yeah Ben, that Roswell.

I'm telling you about her so you'll know that I get the idea of..unusual, relationships. In fact," Max digressed for a moment. "My nephew Joel is going to marry an alien soon. I was going to tell you we've been invited.

But that's not the point." He paused for a moment. If he was misreading them they might get very angry with him when he said this...But it was rare that he misread these two. "Kids, I've noticed the growing relationship between the two of you.

It seams to be going beyond what you usually see between cousins, at least in this country. What are your feelings for each other? Are you close cousins or is there more to it?"

"I..um..well.." Ben stammered while rubbing the back of his neck. That all but confirmed it for Max. Then Gwen answered.

"I've kind of been avoiding facing that question for a while now. I know that I've been feeling some pretty strong feelings for Ben and kind of knew what they were, but I also know it's not likely to go over very well with, well, anyone."

"Yeah, same with me grandpa." Ben said. "I guess I shouldn't feel the way I do but I can't convince myself that I don't...Sooo, what should we do grandpa?"

"Uh, yeah." Gwen echoed Ben's sentiment. "I mean, should we try to, I don't know, get past it. I...I don't know if I can."

"I can't answer that for you." Max answered. "Relationships like this are allowed in other parts of the world, and the galaxy for that matter, but not here in the states. I wouldn't expect a very good reception from your families." He paused. "On the other hand, some of us are more open minded. I think you'll hit it off with Camille when you meet her."

"Camille?" Ben asked.

"Yes, Joel's fiance. Maybe you just need to keep it under wraps just like she and Joel will have to. Except when you're around people who understand."

Gwen was momentarily lost in a romantic fantasy about a secret love. Ben snapped her out of her reverie.

"Kind of hard to do that." He interrupted his own thought, "Can Camille look human?"

"Yes she can. She can take on almost any appearance."

"So she can just be Joel's human wife to most of the world. We would have to pretend that there's nothing going on, that we're just to average cousins...And what about when people start to notice that we aren't going on dates. The big man on campus ask Gwen out and she says no, or the girl that is driving all the guys crazy is looking at me and I turn her down."

Gwen thought out loud about their options. "Either we go on decoy dates, and I don't think that would go well very long, OR we just let people wonder...and speculate...about why two teenagers aren't interested in dating...but sure do seam to hang out together a lot."

"Yeah," Ben agreed. "With the decoy dates I, I hate to admit it but I think jealousy would get to me sooner or later; and Gwen, I really think the same would happen to you."

"You're probably right. Then what If a decoy date got too serious. The best case would be blowing the act by turning them down."

Max had an idea where this was going but thought it best to let the kids get there on their own.

"So," Ben continued, "We will probably have to just tell people the that we haven't found anyone we want to go out with. They'll talk and speculate and every kind of rumor will start but we just can't let it bother us...And hope we can keep up the act until we're grown and then we don't really need to worry about who doesn't like our choice."

Gwen added, "Unless we find a boy and girl we can trust with our secret to play along with fake dates." As she said it she thought it sounded silly. She added, "Not likely I guess."

Max took a more serious tone. "I also want you two to remember that first loves are rarely life long ones. Not many marry their childhood sweethearts. Not saying that it doesn't happen, just that it usually doesn't happen. I want a commitment from you that, if this romance doesn't last you will still care for each other as cousins."

Max couldn't believe he was making a statement like that. The whole idea did seam strange to him and he wasn't sure it was right; but he had been involved with a reptile. Had family not been impossible with her, she would have been his wife before he'd met Elizabeth. So he felt it would be hypocritical to refuse to give them a fair chance.

The two kids answered his request in unison. "We'll do that grandpa."

"Okay good. And I have a surprise for you. We're going to spend a few days at a resort owned by a friend of mine. It's an under water resort."