On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 65 - Completed: 12/18/2019
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RoswellFan68
- Obsessed Roswellian
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Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 43 - 10/09/2019
I think Beth really needs to tell Serena the truth. She really needs someone to talk to. Serena would keep her secret to protect Beth and her girls. It would be hard for Serena to understand what Beth is going through without the truth.
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Parker1947
- Obsessed Roswellian
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On the Razor's Edge - Chapter 44 - 11/12/2019
Three days turned into three weeks before Max and Grace were seen in Roswell again to the surprise of everyone. Stopping in Las Cruces, they stayed at a hotel and Grace viewed the university and was impressed with her parent’s university and knew she could likely get in as a legacy student, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go somewhere so close to home. Max didn’t want to think of his daughter as being so far from home but knew Liz hadn’t had the chance because she chose him and chose Roswell.
He knew Liz didn’t regret it, but he wanted the best for his little girl, so they ended in Los Angeles where they ended up doing an impromptu university tour. Touring UCLA and University of California… They ended up in San Francisco where she saw Berkley and loved it immediately.
Max was impressed. This was the first time in the state since his stupid mission to find Kal back during senior year of high school. So much was different from back then, and now he was felt liberated to be back with his daughter as he tried to forget Liz. To forget Beth.
But he couldn’t forget her, but he felt he needed to figure out of a life that didn’t include her in it. For so long he had been mourning the love he lost, and instead of being six feet under ground, well, she was now in Connecticut trying to move on herself.
And the longer she stayed away from Roswell and focused on her patients and watched as Alexandra and Carrie finished their school years; she thought she might be successful in finding something in a hybrid approach to her life. She wasn’t the Beth she was before she found the truth, but she wasn’t Liz either… yet the knowledge her patients needed her, well, that allowed her to focus on something she could control.
Alexandra and Carrie were mystified why Max and Grace had disappeared and their first glance that something was amiss was when they got postcards from both their father and sister from Los Cruces and while Grace did send emails, she was pretty vague about what was going on and so she was only giving her sisters advice or saying hello to her mother without really giving them anything worthwhile. Beth was surprised too at the first postcard and talking to Michael and Maria in Roswell hadn’t elicited any added information except to sense that they were being careful with what their way saying as almost they didn’t trust her, because she had left. Why shouldn’t I be surprised. I am not one of them, am I?
“Alexandra, set the table for dinner, okay?” Beth asked her daughter’s room as she passed the bedroom one day three weeks after returning home. School was finishing up within days, and summer plans were already being formed. She needed to talk to Max when he got home to set up a time for the twins to go and visit Roswell. She knew they had their summer camps to go to in August and until then had plenty of free time which would put pressure on her as her trip had used up all her vacation time.
Carrie had joined Serena’s summer dance class and Alexandra was going to be volunteering at the library and doing an unpaid one-day a week internship at Keith’s law office but that was another day’s worry as Beth had just gotten home from the hospital and was now preparing dinner.
“Sure, thing Mom,” Alexandra said coming into the kitchen with a stack of unopen mail. Putting it down on the counter and went to work on the table as Carrie rushed into the house after getting home from dance class.
“Hi guys,” Carrie said gasping for breath. “Whoa, so, out of breath.”
“Why,” Beth asked of her daughter. Since returning from Roswell, and with the school year dwindling down she had decided to give the girls more freedom, which is not to say they didn’t already have that ability given her hours at the hospital, but it gave them pride to know they could be even more independent even if it was nerve wracking for Beth. Therefore, Carrie was now taking the bus home most days from the dance studio, which made for less rides from Serena after class.
“I rushed from the bus stop,” Carrie smiled. “What’s this?” she asked as she saw the mail on the counter. Picking it up and seeing her name, “Cool… a postcard and a package” she murmured as she saw one for Alex too. “You too… Our luck they came together.”
“Yeah,” Alex nodded as she took it from her sister and smiled as she saw the beautiful location. “Looks warm.”
“Yeah,” Carrie said as she read hers as she looked at her mother. “Oh, mine is from Grace.”
“Mine is Dad,” Alexandra admitted.
“Where are they?” Beth asked, looking up with interest. She knew the girls were always curious about where on the travels Max and Grace were as they gotten postcards from Las Cruces, Los Angles, and San Francisco.
She knew they weren’t back at home yet because the machine was still full. After being emptied by Maria after 10 days of being gone, and now it was full again.
“On a cruise. They stopped in Hawaii, and this one is from Maui” Carrie remarked as the girls opened the packaged that was marked with their names Alexandra and Carrie Evans and had their father’s name. “I guess they boarded from San Francisco.”
“Wow,” Beth thought as she wondered what possessed Max to go on the cruise. It didn’t seem to be something Max would want to do… Why doesn’t he want to be home? she wondered as Alexandra and Carrie freaked out at the lovely earrings with Hawaiian stones for Carrie and a pendant at the end of a delicate chain with a similar yet different stone for Alexandra and book on Hawaiian history and customs which geeked Alexandra out as Beth watched and knew that Max was someone special.
And she was blowing it.
Roswell
Well Max was indeed home, but only had been home for about twenty minutes or so. He and Grace had walked through the doors of the home he hadn’t seen in three weeks, since the day Beth had left their home, and his bed. Why did I think being away for three weeks would be any easier when coming home he murmured to himself as Maria had stopped by to water the plants and rely any messages to him as he knew his father had picked up the slack at the office when he elected to be gone far longer than his initial plans… Thanks Dad!
Immediately Grace had gone upstairs because being away from home had allowed him the privacy to aide in her recovery. So, while at home she would have to be careful with how she walked, and she was still not 100%. But enough to be able to get upstairs, and now she was up in her bedroom and calling Elizabeth and Jake. And he wouldn’t be surprised if they had visitors, and he was right with the knock on the door and the ring of the doorbell.
“Why am I not surprised?” Max quipped at the sight up the dynamic Guerin duo. “Grace is upstairs…” was all he said as they walked into the house and looked around. Bags were still downstairs as Grace were as she didn’t have the strength to take hers upstairs.
“Really?” Jake asked, wide eyed at the knowledge that Grace had recovered enough to be able to be upstairs and, in her bedroom, instead of being stuck downstairs.
“But she has to be careful, no rushing okay” Max asked as she didn’t answer Jake’s surprise. “She’s in her bedroom.”
“Thanks Uncle Max,” the duo rushed upstairs. He sighed at one more reminder that they were back to reality and back in their normal environment as she concentrated on another figure looming in front of him. “I shouldn’t be surprised, and I guess I am not” he remarked by the third person who had come running once her kids had rushed into the house, and up the stairs to go find Grace.
“Well you called…” came the voice.
“No, I didn’t” Max reminded Maria as his friend came into the house and looked around at the disarray. “But since I knew who Grace’s first calls would be to, I knew one of you would be along before too long.”
“Well you did go and disappear on us for three weeks and didn’t call. We had no idea where you guys were Max. You could have left the planet for all we knew,” Maria smirked to Max’s frown. “And given Beth is just as mystified… we knew you guys didn’t go to Madison, so we had wait for those postcards because you weren’t answering our emails.”
“Okay that is fair, but no we didn’t go to the moon or back to Antar. It was all impromptu and was without any plans. We went with the flow.”
“Which is very much not like you Max and your daughter is very much like you, and like her mother. You love plans and you love being in control which is why being with Liz was a match made in heaven. When you’re out of sync than you are liable to go off the cliff, which you did…”
“No, I don’t,” Max sighed. “Going on a vacation is not going off the cliff.”
“Yes, a vacation is when you make plans and let us when you would be back…” Maria pointed out. “You vanished on us Max. We checked the cabin, and you didn’t make it up there and then you didn’t call anyone to say where you ended up, so you vanished.”
“We checked out universities and we ended up in California. It’s not like we went to Antar Maria,” Max pointed out as he picked up the pile of mail Maria had brought into the house while he was gone as Maria could only shake his head as he sorted out the envelopes from the junk mail. “I was with my daughter. We needed some space and we took it and now I am back.”
“Space is always nice, but when you disappear and don’t tell us” Maria asked as she sensed the tension in her friend. “So, are you back?”
“We’re back,” Max muttered as he didn’t relish coming back to reality. “Unfortunately.”
“There you go…” Maria murmured. “Making me worry about you. What happened with you and Beth that night. Something had to have happened to make you disappear.”
“Nothing,” Max murmured as he saw a letter from his daughters, as he opened and smiled at the handwriting of his other children who he missed every day while he was gone and wished they could have been here when they returned home.
“I know something did, now you’re checking out universities in California?” Maria asked. “As if you want to leave Roswell. Do you Max, do you want to leave Roswell?”
“Are you serious?” Jake asked upstairs as Grace relished being in her bedroom after being gone for several weeks and dealing with having to spend days and nights downstairs as she dealt with her recovery, but now she could be back where it felt right. Her bedroom. While she smiled when Elizabeth came bursting through the door minutes before and saw Jake a little more gingerly because he now wore a brace on his knee but was back on his feet.
She realized she missed much. After a laughing “Gross” comment when Elizabeth saw her brother and Grace exchange a kiss hello as she sat down on the other bed with glee, “Really guys, there is enough time for that…”
Grace could only giggle because she realized how much she had missed Elizabeth and Jake, and normal life here in Roswell. Stopping, Jake took a seat at a chair he pulled from the desk. “I am glad to see you.”
“You were seriously in California checking out universities?” Elizabeth asked as her eyebrows rose at the news. Jake went quiet at the news.
So, with a lot of happiness, Grace told all about her adventures “Yes, California is fantastic. Berkley is fantastic. So warm and inviting, and well Dad was even impressed” Grace thought as she liked everything about San Francisco. It’s so different from here in Roswell and we had a lot of time to sightsee before and after the cruise.”
“You talk like you are moving there?” Jake asked warily as he found it funny she ended up in California and was talking glowing about a university in that state when he had his own battles with his university decision and finally had come to a decision to the disapproval of his parents, but he felt confident and now he didn’t feel confident.
“No, we’re not,” Grace promised but then she slightly changed her mood “But then I am not so sure Dad wants to stick around here if I am being honest” Grace muttered. “Maybe it will be different now that we’re back, and we can get back into the groove of being home and back to real life for him and his clients and everything, but I am not sure he really wanted to come home again.”
“Why not?” Elizabeth asked.
“Mom,” Grace thought as she saw how free her father acted when they were anywhere other than Roswell, which was very different from his normal way of life. “I think something happened and it’s like Dad wants to create new memories away from places that carry memories of Mom.”
“Your mother was only here for a couple of weeks?” Elizabeth asked. “How could your father be so different?”
“I know,” Grace sighed. “But then even a day can be life changing, but I was surprised when he wanted to stay gone, and then we ended up on an adventure…”
“You could have come back,” Jake asked as they had been surprised to see Grace looking so tan and comfortable with life when they first saw her.
“I didn’t think so at the time, but I think I needed the time away. With so much happening over the last month or so, well, it was all so overwhelming, and therefore I needed to be away to gain prospective into my life, and accept the changes that had been going on, and make peace with it and plus it allowed me a chance to get a look into the future, and set some goals… so that I work towards them in the coming year or more…”
“Like you didn’t already have them” Jake asked. “At least you are now back. We’ve missed you because it hasn’t been the same without you around to talk to…”
“It’s true and gossip central hasn’t had any red meat thrown at them” Elizabeth quipped. “Sure, they have Dave Holmes DUI but come on, it’s not the same as your soap opera that comes with the perfect love story and a dead mother and long-lost siblings”
“Whoa,” Grace asked. “Really?”
“Yup, and they found drugs and Tyler Davis in the same car and so it was a real mess and lots of material for school, but nothing has been the same but of course some were thinking you were on your death bed.”
“That is crazy.”
“Well, you disappeared after being seen at West Side Story so of course we tend to err on the side of the dramatic” Elizabeth quipped as Jake only shook his head. “Of course, the DUI happened the next day and so that quickly vaporized” she murmured as she had experienced amusement over how depressed his brother was without Grace and then she had Finn, which to the irritation of her father and brother still going strong as she looked down at her phone and saw that he had indeed called. “I have to return this call from Finn, so I’ll be right back” she quipped as she walked out of the bedroom to return to the call.
“She and Finn are still on?” Grace asked as she realized how much she had missed while she was gone. She had been so out of the loop that she didn’t know where things were…
“Unfortunately,” Jake mused as he had to admit Finn made his sister happy and for now, that was enough but still he didn’t like his sister becoming so serious about someone at her age.
“It couldn’t have been that bad” Grace murmured as he took her hands as they exchanged a small kiss, and she leaned back once they were officially alone and her bedroom door was closed. “I am sorry I vanished on you.”
“You could have called me,” Jake asked. “You and your dad just disappeared. We thought you were headed to the cabin and when it became obvious you hadn’t gone there, well, we didn’t know where you had gone. So of course, Mom got Dad on the job.”
“Seriously?” Grace laughed. “All we were, was in Las Cruces for a few days,” Grace smiled. “Dad needed it. I needed it…”
“Did you?” Jake asked. “I know you worry about your father, but I thought you were handling everything pretty well…”
“It allowed me to unwind. Also, I got some education in while I was gone. Toured some universities. As I said, it allowed me to focus on my future and to start to make plans.”
“You really liked San Francisco?” Jake asked.
“Jake, it was fantastic. So lively,” Grace smiled. “Even Las Cruces and UCLA, they made me dream about the future and reaching for my dreams. It became more of a reality and I think Dad even approves if I were to go to one of those schools. I think he would want it to be Las Cruces but then he knows I might want to go elsewhere…”
“I am glad,” Jake sighed.
“What’s wrong Jake, because when I was talk about university there for a moment, well, I saw you frown. So, what’s going on. Did you get your acceptances and given I was gone for three weeks…I would have expected you to have by now…?”
“Yeah, I did,” Jake admitted.
“Where?” Grace asked, trying to prepare herself.
“It doesn’t matter where I was accepted because I have decided to take next year off and work…” Jake said of his decision he had made while she was gone, which was official with no take backs… “I am going to reapply next year… as I wasn’t that crazy anyways with the schools and so it will give me the opportunity to stay around here and make money…”
“WHAT!” Grace screamed. “Are you crazy…”
“Well she knows,” Maria asked glumly she said as she though of the decision her son had laid on her and Michael the day before, hours before the deadline to confirm his acceptance to one of those schools. “My fool of a son.”
“She knows what?” Max asked as they heard the shouting.
“My idiot of a son is taking next year off despite getting full rides at two wonderful universities all because he didn’t get into one that matters…” Maria muttered. “I could have strangled him and yes don’t say it; I know I said I would accept any decision he makes. But I can’t, he had a chance and he blew it.”
“Wow,” Max whistled as he hadn’t thought Jake would do it especially given the natures of the scholarships he had received. Sighing at the prospect that he might have done it to be close to his daughter. Given he had done the same thing, he couldn’t judge but he could judge how serious they were getting because love sucks.
“I know,” Maria muttered glumly as she thought of her son’s decision. “I really though he would change his mind and having Grace gone for those three weeks would allow him the prospective he would need to choose one of the schools.”
“Well obviously he did,” Max muttered.
“Yeah,” Maria sighed. “But not the decision I would have made for him.”
“Well he has to live with it,” Max smiled. “Grace on the other hand seems determined to go to university and be as far as possible from Roswell.”
“Really?” Maria asked.
“She loved it Maria. I mean loved it. She fell in love with every university we saw, and even more so with Berkeley” Max thought of the tour of universities and how much he saw the love on his daughter’s face for the academic institutions she saw, and he knew that she was going to go to one, and likely away from him and away from Roswell and it made him decide he needed to come home and accept that life was out of his control.
“Of course, she comes homes after my son threw away his shot at California” Maria muttered.
“It will work out Maria, and it might not be how we would like it, but it will, but life has had too many chances to throw us for a loop and we just have to deal with it”
“Easy for you to say when you disappear after you get your heart broken when the girl you like goes home…”
“Maria,” Max muttered as he didn’t relish reality. “She wasn’t some girl…” he sighed at the memories of the gorgeous brunette. “She was my wife… or is my wife,” he muttered as that was never sorted out their marriage he mused as he had never declared her dead, so they were married, and yet they weren’t…
“Have you talked to her?” Maria asked.
“No,” Max admitted. “We sent postcards and packages and I know Grace has sent an email or two to the twins early on, but we kept our minds on our travels.”
“Right,” Maria sighed.
“She went back to her old life,” Max demanded.
“Only because you told her too,” Maria reminded her friend. “She might have stayed if she knew you wanted her here…”
“I wanted her here, and she knew it, because I told her I did, but she chose to go. And speaking of why she had to go, has anything come of Nicholas while I was away…”
“While you skipped town?” Maria asked.
“Maria, come off it” Max groaned. “Has there been anything?”
“Michael is on it, and I am sure he’ll come around later because he was off on a case when I told him that you were home. I don’t think so, but then he doesn’t always tell me everything when our families are threatened.”
“You guys weren’t threatened, my family was… So maybe it was good that I and Grace got out of town for awhile…”
“That is rationalizing,” Maria laughed as she saw Elizabeth come walking downstairs as she hung up. “Yes,” she asked of her daughter who was happy and that worried Maria, but one worry was all she could handle.
“I am going to meet up with Finn, and given Jake just laid the bombshell about university next year, well, I figure I don’t need to be in that battle. So, I am off to meet Finn at the Crashdown as he’s finished at work.”
“I am out tonight,” Maria reminded her daughter. “Book signing in Las Cruces so it’s your father with your siblings, so I want you there to help out. Jake has to work in a little while.”
“Yeah I know,” Elizabeth muttered. “Finn and I might head back home if I can get Dad to invite him for dinner…”
“That is for your father to decide so talk it over with him,” Maria laughed. “I am meeting my agent for dinner before the signing.”
“Yup,” Elizabeth said as she rushed out of the house.
“So….” Max said.
“Teenagers suck,” Maria smiled. “So thank you for taking your daughter away from my son…” she murmured although she hadn’t relish the funk Jake had been in because Grace was away but as much as she hated it, she knew her son’s decision would have the same even if Grace had been in the same town.
“Didn’t you just say you wished she was around to sway him…” Max asked.
“I am just being a mother,” Maria muttered. “I just want him to be okay…”
“I can promise you Maria that he will make you proud,” Max assured his friend who could only smile as she prayed Max was right.
“You gave up two great schools and free rides to both of them for a year of nothing” Grace asked as it boggled up her mind that Jake would give up on university and elect to stay home. “Are you absolutely crazy?”
“I may be, but it’s the right decision” Jake tried as he knew he deserved the look he was getting from Grace, the one that he was a lunatic. “I am not saying UCLA and NYU aren’t great schools and they are… but I wasn’t too enthused about them and I need to like the school I go to or even be happy that I am attending.”
“Jake, that is crazy. I remember when you were working up your list of schools to apply to and you wanted to go to them when you applied” Grace murmured because she remembered when he was applying to the schools and they were only friends then and not thinking of each other in any other way because he was still with Camryn, but she knew he wanted to go to UCLA or NYU so she didn’t understand the change.
“But I didn’t have one dream school,” Jake tried.
“You don’t have to have a dream school. Not everyone does. It would be unusual to have one or to even get into that university,” Grace asked and knew from the look he was giving her that he didn’t believe her… “Fine, we both know my dream schools but I might not get in and hell would I give up on the chance at a great university if by some chance I get into another school. You got the chance at New York or UCLA and you gave it up.”
“I am not you Grace,” Jake said. “You know what you want to do, or at least you’re going to try your hardest to go in that direction, but I don’t and I figure that I need time to know where I want to, and where I want to do. It’s not fair for or my parents to pay money for me to stay in one of those cities if I change my mind in a year.”
“But they are free rides…” Grace murmured.
“Still it costs money to be in Los Angeles or New York” Jake sighed as he knew it wouldn’t jive with Grace’s approach to life. “I might still end up there, but I want to know what I want to do when I do go to a university and having a year to work and make money is not a bad option.”
“No, it’s not” Grace admitted as she knew her dreams were very different than how Jake saw his own life which was only natural but she hated the notion he was giving up on something that he did want “I just don’t know if you made the decision about you, or did you make it because of me and because of us?”
“No,” Jake said adamantly. “I know you could be gone in a year or two, so it was just a case of doing what was best for me and only me”
“Your parents can’t be happy?” Grace asked because she knew how much Maria and Michael wanted university for their son because as much as Maria was confident and loved her life, and found success… still she wished life could have been a little easier back when she graduated and she wanted the best for her kids, and Jake was the beginning of that chance.
“Nope,” Jake said. “Life goes on, and eventually I’ll get to university. I am not planning to give up on it, but I just want to find my own way…” he murmured as he sat on Grace’s bed, next to her… and saw the lack of a wheelchair within the room “So, you don’t have your wheelchair?”
“No, I don’t,” Grace smiled as she enjoyed being home and being back in a familiar environment. “Being away allowed Dad to assist in my healing. But I do have a cane to make a show of trying to recover according to what is normal. I just have to be careful”
“Would prom be out of the question. It’s Saturday night,” Jake asked. “I got tickets in case you came back in time. So, would you want to go with me?” he asked as tenderly as possible. “If you don’t, I understand.”
“Prom…” Grace asked surprised because prom hadn’t even come to her mind.
“Yes, it’s coming up this weekend, and normally I would stay home but I couldn’t resist.” Jake asked. “But only if you’re there with me. Although Mom and Dad would like me to be there because Elizabeth is going with Finn, but I would stay home if you wanted to stay home. I know you’re only just getting home.”
“I am,” Grace sighed. “Although Prom is a big deal…”
“It is,” Jake smiled. “But if you don’t think you want to go, well, I would understand and maybe can do something else Saturday night.”
“I need to think about it,” Grace sighed as she struggled to deal with the weight of what prom meant although they had their date before going still going to prom meant a lot more and would signify more to their classmates. Did she want to go to that level? “I wouldn’t mind going but still I am still adjusting to being home can I have some time.”
“Sure, think about it all you want, and I have the tickets, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to go” Jake assured Grace.
“But they cost a lot of money?” Grace asked. “To ignore them and leave them unused?” she murmured. “That would be a waste of a lot of money.”
“I have friends who wanted to go but didn’t get the tickets in time so I can always sell them off to one of them” Jake assured Grace. “Let me know, as I think it would be a fun night. I am sure everyone will be happy to see you and if you’re worried about any pressures that the night might bring, don’t Grace. We don’t have to make it anything more than what it is, a night to have fun and to remember years from now… wherever we may be in life.”
Grace nodded.
Jake smiled and checked his watch and knew he had to get going. “Uggh, I have to get to work. I am working the evening shift until closing,” he muttered as he didn’t want to work but knew he had to…
“Did anything come up with my car?” Grace asked quietly because he knew being home brought back the unknown that led to the collision in the first place.”
“Nothing more than before, as it did seem tampered with and you know with today’s technology. It could have been from anywhere…” Jake said softly. “But I have had it fixed up, and the brakes were replaced and fuel line and it’s back to being brand new… and even more so than even before,” Jake said with a laugh. “Since you’re back, I can bring it by tomorrow if you like.”
“I would love that,” Grace nodded. “Now that I am back, I have to get really going on my end of term papers…”
“I can’t see you not having kept up on the road…” Jake murmured as he leaned for a simple kiss, and she kissed him back, and it grew into a more meaningful kiss as it brought him flutters and the bliss that things might finally be working out for them…
Stopping, she smiled. “You know me. I can’t help it” Grace murmured. “But I did have some fun.”
“How much fun?” Jake asked.
Grace only laughed.
Downstairs, Maria was trying to get a sense of where Max was and it wasn’t pretty because this was not the Max she had gotten to know so closely over the past nearly fourteen years as they strived to pick up the pieces once they lost Liz from their lives. He had worked so hard to pick up his life and to raise Grace into an amazing young woman, and they all had been so proud of who Grace was becoming and Max had rebuilt his life to something that resembled something that could be a decent life especially once Grace was out of the house and in university.
And yet now that work had fallen apart because the Max who stood before her was not the Max they had known for so long. She had to wonder if the gods should have not woken up and that Liz should have stayed dead because it no one any good for Max to feel like he was lost in life. So much of his life was depended on Liz’s life and while he was able to build it into something in the wake of the ultimate loss, still though how do you move on when the woman you love doesn’t want you? she wondered.
Maria couldn’t fault Beth for wanting the life she had built or to go back to it to try to make decisions about what life she could maneuver but she didn’t the shell of a friend she had in Max. She knew the girls had to back to school and Beth had a job. But still she didn’t like how it hurt her friend.
If they hadn’t gotten so close before she left, and Maria didn’t even know half of it Max mused as tried to get his mind back into reality of life without Liz or Beth in it. Beth was right, we shouldn’t have gone there that last night Max mused to himself. It only worsened the pain but then she ran out, like she didn’t want him.
But he had to deal with. He wasn’t sixteen anymore. That was his daughter who was bound to make mistakes and choices fueled by hormones because she was indeed sixteen. He was too old to think in those terms, and yet couldn’t help it. Still though he had to be an adult who had a life and a job that didn’t include Liz in it not so long go. He needed to go back to that he mused.
“Max,” Maria asked.
“I am fine Maria, honestly. I was always a long time so it’s just the nature of getting back to reality” he sighed.
“I am just worried about you,” Maria muttered as Jake came downstairs and they both turned as they saw Grace also walk down the stairs. Which change the dour tension of the room as Maria saw her god-daughter walking on her own. She turned to Max. “Your handy work?”
“Well my daughter isn’t your average girl?” Max said softly as he knew it was his abilities aided by her own recovery, as being away allowed them the freedom for her to recover with a speedy nature that wasn’t possible under the nose of her doctors. She just would have to put on an acting job to make her recovery less than what it was for a little longer.
“Still I don’t see her making that kind of progress on her own,” Maria said as she hugged Grace whose face spiked with happiness when she saw Maria talking to her father as Jake stood by and watched them reunite. “Work?” she asked of her eldest son.
“On my way,” Jake nodded. “You have dinner with your agent, right?” he asked of his mother’s plans for the evening. “And then your signing?”
“Yup,” Maria nodded. “I told your sister to cut things short with Finn.”
“So that is where she disappeared to,” Jake muttered. “We were wondering… Finn…does she really have to go there…” he groaned but stopped himself from really saying something…
“Jake be good,” Grace smirked at Jake who only shook her head as Maria watched with amusement at how Grace got her son to stop with his snipping as Grace concentrated on her father. “Dad, since we don’t have any groceries. Can we have dinner at the Crashdown. I want to see Grandma and Grandpa?”
“Sure,” Max nodded “You’re right that we don’t have anything of any substance or healthy calories with us being gone for the last three weeks so dinner at the Crashdown will be perfect,” he murmured despite not being ready to see Jeff and Nancy in the wake of Liz going back to Madison.
“They will be happy to see you guys,” Maria assured Max as she knew she worried about Liz’s parents. “They have been asking me almost every day I am in there if I have heard from you two…”
“I emailed their accounting stuff that I was able to get done,” Grace murmured. “But we did vanish pretty quickly so it will be nice to see them,” she sighed as she knew Jake had to get going. “Jake, I’ll let you know about prom.”
“Sure,” Jake said as they saw their parent’s eyebrow rise. “Don’t start” he warned his mother who only shook her head but kept silent as they watched Jake walk away, and moments later shut the door behind him while he allowed Grace to take questions.
“Prom?” Max asked softly.
“Yes,” Grace said. “Jake asked me, as it’s Saturday night. But I am not sure if I want to go, so I told him I would let him know…”
“Honey,” Max asked.
“Dad, you don’t have to say anything. Prom is prom and I know what it means which is why I am not sure I want to go, but it’s up to me, right?”
“Right,” Max nodded as Grace left to go back up to her room as Max and Maria only sighed as they looked at each other. Max had to remember how prom had gone for him and Liz Badly he muttered. They had gone to their junior prom together but as friends because they had been split due to Liz’s wish to be apart. Then things got muddy with Tess, and there was a lot of pain to be had that night. So, they never had a chance for a prom night to remember because senior year also got complicated in the weeks before graduation.
“Prom can be innocent,” Maria murmured.
“Since when has anything been truly innocent,” Max murmured as he looked upstairs. “I just want her to have fun…”
“I know,” Maria sighed as the phone rang. Going for it, Max didn’t get to it, in time, so he assumed Grace answered it.
“Prom wasn’t kind to Liz and me,” Max remembered.
“Yeah I know…” Maria sighed as she knew Alex died only weeks later and upended their lives and nothing was the same. She wanted a different life for their kids, and maybe they shouldn’t stand in the way of Jake and Grace trying for a normal teenage experience in attending their prom.
“Dad,” they heard coming from the stairs as they saw that Grace was coming downstairs once again. “It’s Mom!”
“Oh,” Max sighed as Maria’s eyes rose as he concentrated on his eldest child. “Does she want to talk to me?”
“Yes,” Grace nodded as she could see the pain on her father’s eyes. “I’ll talk to her afterwards…”
“Thank you honey,” Max said as he picked up the phone after taking a deep breath, he murmured softly “Beth… well, hello…”
He knew Liz didn’t regret it, but he wanted the best for his little girl, so they ended in Los Angeles where they ended up doing an impromptu university tour. Touring UCLA and University of California… They ended up in San Francisco where she saw Berkley and loved it immediately.
Max was impressed. This was the first time in the state since his stupid mission to find Kal back during senior year of high school. So much was different from back then, and now he was felt liberated to be back with his daughter as he tried to forget Liz. To forget Beth.
But he couldn’t forget her, but he felt he needed to figure out of a life that didn’t include her in it. For so long he had been mourning the love he lost, and instead of being six feet under ground, well, she was now in Connecticut trying to move on herself.
And the longer she stayed away from Roswell and focused on her patients and watched as Alexandra and Carrie finished their school years; she thought she might be successful in finding something in a hybrid approach to her life. She wasn’t the Beth she was before she found the truth, but she wasn’t Liz either… yet the knowledge her patients needed her, well, that allowed her to focus on something she could control.
Alexandra and Carrie were mystified why Max and Grace had disappeared and their first glance that something was amiss was when they got postcards from both their father and sister from Los Cruces and while Grace did send emails, she was pretty vague about what was going on and so she was only giving her sisters advice or saying hello to her mother without really giving them anything worthwhile. Beth was surprised too at the first postcard and talking to Michael and Maria in Roswell hadn’t elicited any added information except to sense that they were being careful with what their way saying as almost they didn’t trust her, because she had left. Why shouldn’t I be surprised. I am not one of them, am I?
“Alexandra, set the table for dinner, okay?” Beth asked her daughter’s room as she passed the bedroom one day three weeks after returning home. School was finishing up within days, and summer plans were already being formed. She needed to talk to Max when he got home to set up a time for the twins to go and visit Roswell. She knew they had their summer camps to go to in August and until then had plenty of free time which would put pressure on her as her trip had used up all her vacation time.
Carrie had joined Serena’s summer dance class and Alexandra was going to be volunteering at the library and doing an unpaid one-day a week internship at Keith’s law office but that was another day’s worry as Beth had just gotten home from the hospital and was now preparing dinner.
“Sure, thing Mom,” Alexandra said coming into the kitchen with a stack of unopen mail. Putting it down on the counter and went to work on the table as Carrie rushed into the house after getting home from dance class.
“Hi guys,” Carrie said gasping for breath. “Whoa, so, out of breath.”
“Why,” Beth asked of her daughter. Since returning from Roswell, and with the school year dwindling down she had decided to give the girls more freedom, which is not to say they didn’t already have that ability given her hours at the hospital, but it gave them pride to know they could be even more independent even if it was nerve wracking for Beth. Therefore, Carrie was now taking the bus home most days from the dance studio, which made for less rides from Serena after class.
“I rushed from the bus stop,” Carrie smiled. “What’s this?” she asked as she saw the mail on the counter. Picking it up and seeing her name, “Cool… a postcard and a package” she murmured as she saw one for Alex too. “You too… Our luck they came together.”
“Yeah,” Alex nodded as she took it from her sister and smiled as she saw the beautiful location. “Looks warm.”
“Yeah,” Carrie said as she read hers as she looked at her mother. “Oh, mine is from Grace.”
“Mine is Dad,” Alexandra admitted.
“Where are they?” Beth asked, looking up with interest. She knew the girls were always curious about where on the travels Max and Grace were as they gotten postcards from Las Cruces, Los Angles, and San Francisco.
She knew they weren’t back at home yet because the machine was still full. After being emptied by Maria after 10 days of being gone, and now it was full again.
“On a cruise. They stopped in Hawaii, and this one is from Maui” Carrie remarked as the girls opened the packaged that was marked with their names Alexandra and Carrie Evans and had their father’s name. “I guess they boarded from San Francisco.”
“Wow,” Beth thought as she wondered what possessed Max to go on the cruise. It didn’t seem to be something Max would want to do… Why doesn’t he want to be home? she wondered as Alexandra and Carrie freaked out at the lovely earrings with Hawaiian stones for Carrie and a pendant at the end of a delicate chain with a similar yet different stone for Alexandra and book on Hawaiian history and customs which geeked Alexandra out as Beth watched and knew that Max was someone special.
And she was blowing it.
Roswell
Well Max was indeed home, but only had been home for about twenty minutes or so. He and Grace had walked through the doors of the home he hadn’t seen in three weeks, since the day Beth had left their home, and his bed. Why did I think being away for three weeks would be any easier when coming home he murmured to himself as Maria had stopped by to water the plants and rely any messages to him as he knew his father had picked up the slack at the office when he elected to be gone far longer than his initial plans… Thanks Dad!
Immediately Grace had gone upstairs because being away from home had allowed him the privacy to aide in her recovery. So, while at home she would have to be careful with how she walked, and she was still not 100%. But enough to be able to get upstairs, and now she was up in her bedroom and calling Elizabeth and Jake. And he wouldn’t be surprised if they had visitors, and he was right with the knock on the door and the ring of the doorbell.
“Why am I not surprised?” Max quipped at the sight up the dynamic Guerin duo. “Grace is upstairs…” was all he said as they walked into the house and looked around. Bags were still downstairs as Grace were as she didn’t have the strength to take hers upstairs.
“Really?” Jake asked, wide eyed at the knowledge that Grace had recovered enough to be able to be upstairs and, in her bedroom, instead of being stuck downstairs.
“But she has to be careful, no rushing okay” Max asked as she didn’t answer Jake’s surprise. “She’s in her bedroom.”
“Thanks Uncle Max,” the duo rushed upstairs. He sighed at one more reminder that they were back to reality and back in their normal environment as she concentrated on another figure looming in front of him. “I shouldn’t be surprised, and I guess I am not” he remarked by the third person who had come running once her kids had rushed into the house, and up the stairs to go find Grace.
“Well you called…” came the voice.
“No, I didn’t” Max reminded Maria as his friend came into the house and looked around at the disarray. “But since I knew who Grace’s first calls would be to, I knew one of you would be along before too long.”
“Well you did go and disappear on us for three weeks and didn’t call. We had no idea where you guys were Max. You could have left the planet for all we knew,” Maria smirked to Max’s frown. “And given Beth is just as mystified… we knew you guys didn’t go to Madison, so we had wait for those postcards because you weren’t answering our emails.”
“Okay that is fair, but no we didn’t go to the moon or back to Antar. It was all impromptu and was without any plans. We went with the flow.”
“Which is very much not like you Max and your daughter is very much like you, and like her mother. You love plans and you love being in control which is why being with Liz was a match made in heaven. When you’re out of sync than you are liable to go off the cliff, which you did…”
“No, I don’t,” Max sighed. “Going on a vacation is not going off the cliff.”
“Yes, a vacation is when you make plans and let us when you would be back…” Maria pointed out. “You vanished on us Max. We checked the cabin, and you didn’t make it up there and then you didn’t call anyone to say where you ended up, so you vanished.”
“We checked out universities and we ended up in California. It’s not like we went to Antar Maria,” Max pointed out as he picked up the pile of mail Maria had brought into the house while he was gone as Maria could only shake his head as he sorted out the envelopes from the junk mail. “I was with my daughter. We needed some space and we took it and now I am back.”
“Space is always nice, but when you disappear and don’t tell us” Maria asked as she sensed the tension in her friend. “So, are you back?”
“We’re back,” Max muttered as he didn’t relish coming back to reality. “Unfortunately.”
“There you go…” Maria murmured. “Making me worry about you. What happened with you and Beth that night. Something had to have happened to make you disappear.”
“Nothing,” Max murmured as he saw a letter from his daughters, as he opened and smiled at the handwriting of his other children who he missed every day while he was gone and wished they could have been here when they returned home.
“I know something did, now you’re checking out universities in California?” Maria asked. “As if you want to leave Roswell. Do you Max, do you want to leave Roswell?”
*
“Are you serious?” Jake asked upstairs as Grace relished being in her bedroom after being gone for several weeks and dealing with having to spend days and nights downstairs as she dealt with her recovery, but now she could be back where it felt right. Her bedroom. While she smiled when Elizabeth came bursting through the door minutes before and saw Jake a little more gingerly because he now wore a brace on his knee but was back on his feet.
She realized she missed much. After a laughing “Gross” comment when Elizabeth saw her brother and Grace exchange a kiss hello as she sat down on the other bed with glee, “Really guys, there is enough time for that…”
Grace could only giggle because she realized how much she had missed Elizabeth and Jake, and normal life here in Roswell. Stopping, Jake took a seat at a chair he pulled from the desk. “I am glad to see you.”
“You were seriously in California checking out universities?” Elizabeth asked as her eyebrows rose at the news. Jake went quiet at the news.
So, with a lot of happiness, Grace told all about her adventures “Yes, California is fantastic. Berkley is fantastic. So warm and inviting, and well Dad was even impressed” Grace thought as she liked everything about San Francisco. It’s so different from here in Roswell and we had a lot of time to sightsee before and after the cruise.”
“You talk like you are moving there?” Jake asked warily as he found it funny she ended up in California and was talking glowing about a university in that state when he had his own battles with his university decision and finally had come to a decision to the disapproval of his parents, but he felt confident and now he didn’t feel confident.
“No, we’re not,” Grace promised but then she slightly changed her mood “But then I am not so sure Dad wants to stick around here if I am being honest” Grace muttered. “Maybe it will be different now that we’re back, and we can get back into the groove of being home and back to real life for him and his clients and everything, but I am not sure he really wanted to come home again.”
“Why not?” Elizabeth asked.
“Mom,” Grace thought as she saw how free her father acted when they were anywhere other than Roswell, which was very different from his normal way of life. “I think something happened and it’s like Dad wants to create new memories away from places that carry memories of Mom.”
“Your mother was only here for a couple of weeks?” Elizabeth asked. “How could your father be so different?”
“I know,” Grace sighed. “But then even a day can be life changing, but I was surprised when he wanted to stay gone, and then we ended up on an adventure…”
“You could have come back,” Jake asked as they had been surprised to see Grace looking so tan and comfortable with life when they first saw her.
“I didn’t think so at the time, but I think I needed the time away. With so much happening over the last month or so, well, it was all so overwhelming, and therefore I needed to be away to gain prospective into my life, and accept the changes that had been going on, and make peace with it and plus it allowed me a chance to get a look into the future, and set some goals… so that I work towards them in the coming year or more…”
“Like you didn’t already have them” Jake asked. “At least you are now back. We’ve missed you because it hasn’t been the same without you around to talk to…”
“It’s true and gossip central hasn’t had any red meat thrown at them” Elizabeth quipped. “Sure, they have Dave Holmes DUI but come on, it’s not the same as your soap opera that comes with the perfect love story and a dead mother and long-lost siblings”
“Whoa,” Grace asked. “Really?”
“Yup, and they found drugs and Tyler Davis in the same car and so it was a real mess and lots of material for school, but nothing has been the same but of course some were thinking you were on your death bed.”
“That is crazy.”
“Well, you disappeared after being seen at West Side Story so of course we tend to err on the side of the dramatic” Elizabeth quipped as Jake only shook his head. “Of course, the DUI happened the next day and so that quickly vaporized” she murmured as she had experienced amusement over how depressed his brother was without Grace and then she had Finn, which to the irritation of her father and brother still going strong as she looked down at her phone and saw that he had indeed called. “I have to return this call from Finn, so I’ll be right back” she quipped as she walked out of the bedroom to return to the call.
“She and Finn are still on?” Grace asked as she realized how much she had missed while she was gone. She had been so out of the loop that she didn’t know where things were…
“Unfortunately,” Jake mused as he had to admit Finn made his sister happy and for now, that was enough but still he didn’t like his sister becoming so serious about someone at her age.
“It couldn’t have been that bad” Grace murmured as he took her hands as they exchanged a small kiss, and she leaned back once they were officially alone and her bedroom door was closed. “I am sorry I vanished on you.”
“You could have called me,” Jake asked. “You and your dad just disappeared. We thought you were headed to the cabin and when it became obvious you hadn’t gone there, well, we didn’t know where you had gone. So of course, Mom got Dad on the job.”
“Seriously?” Grace laughed. “All we were, was in Las Cruces for a few days,” Grace smiled. “Dad needed it. I needed it…”
“Did you?” Jake asked. “I know you worry about your father, but I thought you were handling everything pretty well…”
“It allowed me to unwind. Also, I got some education in while I was gone. Toured some universities. As I said, it allowed me to focus on my future and to start to make plans.”
“You really liked San Francisco?” Jake asked.
“Jake, it was fantastic. So lively,” Grace smiled. “Even Las Cruces and UCLA, they made me dream about the future and reaching for my dreams. It became more of a reality and I think Dad even approves if I were to go to one of those schools. I think he would want it to be Las Cruces but then he knows I might want to go elsewhere…”
“I am glad,” Jake sighed.
“What’s wrong Jake, because when I was talk about university there for a moment, well, I saw you frown. So, what’s going on. Did you get your acceptances and given I was gone for three weeks…I would have expected you to have by now…?”
“Yeah, I did,” Jake admitted.
“Where?” Grace asked, trying to prepare herself.
“It doesn’t matter where I was accepted because I have decided to take next year off and work…” Jake said of his decision he had made while she was gone, which was official with no take backs… “I am going to reapply next year… as I wasn’t that crazy anyways with the schools and so it will give me the opportunity to stay around here and make money…”
“WHAT!” Grace screamed. “Are you crazy…”
*
“Well she knows,” Maria asked glumly she said as she though of the decision her son had laid on her and Michael the day before, hours before the deadline to confirm his acceptance to one of those schools. “My fool of a son.”
“She knows what?” Max asked as they heard the shouting.
“My idiot of a son is taking next year off despite getting full rides at two wonderful universities all because he didn’t get into one that matters…” Maria muttered. “I could have strangled him and yes don’t say it; I know I said I would accept any decision he makes. But I can’t, he had a chance and he blew it.”
“Wow,” Max whistled as he hadn’t thought Jake would do it especially given the natures of the scholarships he had received. Sighing at the prospect that he might have done it to be close to his daughter. Given he had done the same thing, he couldn’t judge but he could judge how serious they were getting because love sucks.
“I know,” Maria muttered glumly as she thought of her son’s decision. “I really though he would change his mind and having Grace gone for those three weeks would allow him the prospective he would need to choose one of the schools.”
“Well obviously he did,” Max muttered.
“Yeah,” Maria sighed. “But not the decision I would have made for him.”
“Well he has to live with it,” Max smiled. “Grace on the other hand seems determined to go to university and be as far as possible from Roswell.”
“Really?” Maria asked.
“She loved it Maria. I mean loved it. She fell in love with every university we saw, and even more so with Berkeley” Max thought of the tour of universities and how much he saw the love on his daughter’s face for the academic institutions she saw, and he knew that she was going to go to one, and likely away from him and away from Roswell and it made him decide he needed to come home and accept that life was out of his control.
“Of course, she comes homes after my son threw away his shot at California” Maria muttered.
“It will work out Maria, and it might not be how we would like it, but it will, but life has had too many chances to throw us for a loop and we just have to deal with it”
“Easy for you to say when you disappear after you get your heart broken when the girl you like goes home…”
“Maria,” Max muttered as he didn’t relish reality. “She wasn’t some girl…” he sighed at the memories of the gorgeous brunette. “She was my wife… or is my wife,” he muttered as that was never sorted out their marriage he mused as he had never declared her dead, so they were married, and yet they weren’t…
“Have you talked to her?” Maria asked.
“No,” Max admitted. “We sent postcards and packages and I know Grace has sent an email or two to the twins early on, but we kept our minds on our travels.”
“Right,” Maria sighed.
“She went back to her old life,” Max demanded.
“Only because you told her too,” Maria reminded her friend. “She might have stayed if she knew you wanted her here…”
“I wanted her here, and she knew it, because I told her I did, but she chose to go. And speaking of why she had to go, has anything come of Nicholas while I was away…”
“While you skipped town?” Maria asked.
“Maria, come off it” Max groaned. “Has there been anything?”
“Michael is on it, and I am sure he’ll come around later because he was off on a case when I told him that you were home. I don’t think so, but then he doesn’t always tell me everything when our families are threatened.”
“You guys weren’t threatened, my family was… So maybe it was good that I and Grace got out of town for awhile…”
“That is rationalizing,” Maria laughed as she saw Elizabeth come walking downstairs as she hung up. “Yes,” she asked of her daughter who was happy and that worried Maria, but one worry was all she could handle.
“I am going to meet up with Finn, and given Jake just laid the bombshell about university next year, well, I figure I don’t need to be in that battle. So, I am off to meet Finn at the Crashdown as he’s finished at work.”
“I am out tonight,” Maria reminded her daughter. “Book signing in Las Cruces so it’s your father with your siblings, so I want you there to help out. Jake has to work in a little while.”
“Yeah I know,” Elizabeth muttered. “Finn and I might head back home if I can get Dad to invite him for dinner…”
“That is for your father to decide so talk it over with him,” Maria laughed. “I am meeting my agent for dinner before the signing.”
“Yup,” Elizabeth said as she rushed out of the house.
“So….” Max said.
“Teenagers suck,” Maria smiled. “So thank you for taking your daughter away from my son…” she murmured although she hadn’t relish the funk Jake had been in because Grace was away but as much as she hated it, she knew her son’s decision would have the same even if Grace had been in the same town.
“Didn’t you just say you wished she was around to sway him…” Max asked.
“I am just being a mother,” Maria muttered. “I just want him to be okay…”
“I can promise you Maria that he will make you proud,” Max assured his friend who could only smile as she prayed Max was right.
*
“You gave up two great schools and free rides to both of them for a year of nothing” Grace asked as it boggled up her mind that Jake would give up on university and elect to stay home. “Are you absolutely crazy?”
“I may be, but it’s the right decision” Jake tried as he knew he deserved the look he was getting from Grace, the one that he was a lunatic. “I am not saying UCLA and NYU aren’t great schools and they are… but I wasn’t too enthused about them and I need to like the school I go to or even be happy that I am attending.”
“Jake, that is crazy. I remember when you were working up your list of schools to apply to and you wanted to go to them when you applied” Grace murmured because she remembered when he was applying to the schools and they were only friends then and not thinking of each other in any other way because he was still with Camryn, but she knew he wanted to go to UCLA or NYU so she didn’t understand the change.
“But I didn’t have one dream school,” Jake tried.
“You don’t have to have a dream school. Not everyone does. It would be unusual to have one or to even get into that university,” Grace asked and knew from the look he was giving her that he didn’t believe her… “Fine, we both know my dream schools but I might not get in and hell would I give up on the chance at a great university if by some chance I get into another school. You got the chance at New York or UCLA and you gave it up.”
“I am not you Grace,” Jake said. “You know what you want to do, or at least you’re going to try your hardest to go in that direction, but I don’t and I figure that I need time to know where I want to, and where I want to do. It’s not fair for or my parents to pay money for me to stay in one of those cities if I change my mind in a year.”
“But they are free rides…” Grace murmured.
“Still it costs money to be in Los Angeles or New York” Jake sighed as he knew it wouldn’t jive with Grace’s approach to life. “I might still end up there, but I want to know what I want to do when I do go to a university and having a year to work and make money is not a bad option.”
“No, it’s not” Grace admitted as she knew her dreams were very different than how Jake saw his own life which was only natural but she hated the notion he was giving up on something that he did want “I just don’t know if you made the decision about you, or did you make it because of me and because of us?”
“No,” Jake said adamantly. “I know you could be gone in a year or two, so it was just a case of doing what was best for me and only me”
“Your parents can’t be happy?” Grace asked because she knew how much Maria and Michael wanted university for their son because as much as Maria was confident and loved her life, and found success… still she wished life could have been a little easier back when she graduated and she wanted the best for her kids, and Jake was the beginning of that chance.
“Nope,” Jake said. “Life goes on, and eventually I’ll get to university. I am not planning to give up on it, but I just want to find my own way…” he murmured as he sat on Grace’s bed, next to her… and saw the lack of a wheelchair within the room “So, you don’t have your wheelchair?”
“No, I don’t,” Grace smiled as she enjoyed being home and being back in a familiar environment. “Being away allowed Dad to assist in my healing. But I do have a cane to make a show of trying to recover according to what is normal. I just have to be careful”
“Would prom be out of the question. It’s Saturday night,” Jake asked. “I got tickets in case you came back in time. So, would you want to go with me?” he asked as tenderly as possible. “If you don’t, I understand.”
“Prom…” Grace asked surprised because prom hadn’t even come to her mind.
“Yes, it’s coming up this weekend, and normally I would stay home but I couldn’t resist.” Jake asked. “But only if you’re there with me. Although Mom and Dad would like me to be there because Elizabeth is going with Finn, but I would stay home if you wanted to stay home. I know you’re only just getting home.”
“I am,” Grace sighed. “Although Prom is a big deal…”
“It is,” Jake smiled. “But if you don’t think you want to go, well, I would understand and maybe can do something else Saturday night.”
“I need to think about it,” Grace sighed as she struggled to deal with the weight of what prom meant although they had their date before going still going to prom meant a lot more and would signify more to their classmates. Did she want to go to that level? “I wouldn’t mind going but still I am still adjusting to being home can I have some time.”
“Sure, think about it all you want, and I have the tickets, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to go” Jake assured Grace.
“But they cost a lot of money?” Grace asked. “To ignore them and leave them unused?” she murmured. “That would be a waste of a lot of money.”
“I have friends who wanted to go but didn’t get the tickets in time so I can always sell them off to one of them” Jake assured Grace. “Let me know, as I think it would be a fun night. I am sure everyone will be happy to see you and if you’re worried about any pressures that the night might bring, don’t Grace. We don’t have to make it anything more than what it is, a night to have fun and to remember years from now… wherever we may be in life.”
Grace nodded.
Jake smiled and checked his watch and knew he had to get going. “Uggh, I have to get to work. I am working the evening shift until closing,” he muttered as he didn’t want to work but knew he had to…
“Did anything come up with my car?” Grace asked quietly because he knew being home brought back the unknown that led to the collision in the first place.”
“Nothing more than before, as it did seem tampered with and you know with today’s technology. It could have been from anywhere…” Jake said softly. “But I have had it fixed up, and the brakes were replaced and fuel line and it’s back to being brand new… and even more so than even before,” Jake said with a laugh. “Since you’re back, I can bring it by tomorrow if you like.”
“I would love that,” Grace nodded. “Now that I am back, I have to get really going on my end of term papers…”
“I can’t see you not having kept up on the road…” Jake murmured as he leaned for a simple kiss, and she kissed him back, and it grew into a more meaningful kiss as it brought him flutters and the bliss that things might finally be working out for them…
Stopping, she smiled. “You know me. I can’t help it” Grace murmured. “But I did have some fun.”
“How much fun?” Jake asked.
Grace only laughed.
*
Downstairs, Maria was trying to get a sense of where Max was and it wasn’t pretty because this was not the Max she had gotten to know so closely over the past nearly fourteen years as they strived to pick up the pieces once they lost Liz from their lives. He had worked so hard to pick up his life and to raise Grace into an amazing young woman, and they all had been so proud of who Grace was becoming and Max had rebuilt his life to something that resembled something that could be a decent life especially once Grace was out of the house and in university.
And yet now that work had fallen apart because the Max who stood before her was not the Max they had known for so long. She had to wonder if the gods should have not woken up and that Liz should have stayed dead because it no one any good for Max to feel like he was lost in life. So much of his life was depended on Liz’s life and while he was able to build it into something in the wake of the ultimate loss, still though how do you move on when the woman you love doesn’t want you? she wondered.
Maria couldn’t fault Beth for wanting the life she had built or to go back to it to try to make decisions about what life she could maneuver but she didn’t the shell of a friend she had in Max. She knew the girls had to back to school and Beth had a job. But still she didn’t like how it hurt her friend.
If they hadn’t gotten so close before she left, and Maria didn’t even know half of it Max mused as tried to get his mind back into reality of life without Liz or Beth in it. Beth was right, we shouldn’t have gone there that last night Max mused to himself. It only worsened the pain but then she ran out, like she didn’t want him.
But he had to deal with. He wasn’t sixteen anymore. That was his daughter who was bound to make mistakes and choices fueled by hormones because she was indeed sixteen. He was too old to think in those terms, and yet couldn’t help it. Still though he had to be an adult who had a life and a job that didn’t include Liz in it not so long go. He needed to go back to that he mused.
“Max,” Maria asked.
“I am fine Maria, honestly. I was always a long time so it’s just the nature of getting back to reality” he sighed.
“I am just worried about you,” Maria muttered as Jake came downstairs and they both turned as they saw Grace also walk down the stairs. Which change the dour tension of the room as Maria saw her god-daughter walking on her own. She turned to Max. “Your handy work?”
“Well my daughter isn’t your average girl?” Max said softly as he knew it was his abilities aided by her own recovery, as being away allowed them the freedom for her to recover with a speedy nature that wasn’t possible under the nose of her doctors. She just would have to put on an acting job to make her recovery less than what it was for a little longer.
“Still I don’t see her making that kind of progress on her own,” Maria said as she hugged Grace whose face spiked with happiness when she saw Maria talking to her father as Jake stood by and watched them reunite. “Work?” she asked of her eldest son.
“On my way,” Jake nodded. “You have dinner with your agent, right?” he asked of his mother’s plans for the evening. “And then your signing?”
“Yup,” Maria nodded. “I told your sister to cut things short with Finn.”
“So that is where she disappeared to,” Jake muttered. “We were wondering… Finn…does she really have to go there…” he groaned but stopped himself from really saying something…
“Jake be good,” Grace smirked at Jake who only shook her head as Maria watched with amusement at how Grace got her son to stop with his snipping as Grace concentrated on her father. “Dad, since we don’t have any groceries. Can we have dinner at the Crashdown. I want to see Grandma and Grandpa?”
“Sure,” Max nodded “You’re right that we don’t have anything of any substance or healthy calories with us being gone for the last three weeks so dinner at the Crashdown will be perfect,” he murmured despite not being ready to see Jeff and Nancy in the wake of Liz going back to Madison.
“They will be happy to see you guys,” Maria assured Max as she knew she worried about Liz’s parents. “They have been asking me almost every day I am in there if I have heard from you two…”
“I emailed their accounting stuff that I was able to get done,” Grace murmured. “But we did vanish pretty quickly so it will be nice to see them,” she sighed as she knew Jake had to get going. “Jake, I’ll let you know about prom.”
“Sure,” Jake said as they saw their parent’s eyebrow rise. “Don’t start” he warned his mother who only shook her head but kept silent as they watched Jake walk away, and moments later shut the door behind him while he allowed Grace to take questions.
“Prom?” Max asked softly.
“Yes,” Grace said. “Jake asked me, as it’s Saturday night. But I am not sure if I want to go, so I told him I would let him know…”
“Honey,” Max asked.
“Dad, you don’t have to say anything. Prom is prom and I know what it means which is why I am not sure I want to go, but it’s up to me, right?”
“Right,” Max nodded as Grace left to go back up to her room as Max and Maria only sighed as they looked at each other. Max had to remember how prom had gone for him and Liz Badly he muttered. They had gone to their junior prom together but as friends because they had been split due to Liz’s wish to be apart. Then things got muddy with Tess, and there was a lot of pain to be had that night. So, they never had a chance for a prom night to remember because senior year also got complicated in the weeks before graduation.
“Prom can be innocent,” Maria murmured.
“Since when has anything been truly innocent,” Max murmured as he looked upstairs. “I just want her to have fun…”
“I know,” Maria sighed as the phone rang. Going for it, Max didn’t get to it, in time, so he assumed Grace answered it.
“Prom wasn’t kind to Liz and me,” Max remembered.
“Yeah I know…” Maria sighed as she knew Alex died only weeks later and upended their lives and nothing was the same. She wanted a different life for their kids, and maybe they shouldn’t stand in the way of Jake and Grace trying for a normal teenage experience in attending their prom.
“Dad,” they heard coming from the stairs as they saw that Grace was coming downstairs once again. “It’s Mom!”
“Oh,” Max sighed as Maria’s eyes rose as he concentrated on his eldest child. “Does she want to talk to me?”
“Yes,” Grace nodded as she could see the pain on her father’s eyes. “I’ll talk to her afterwards…”
“Thank you honey,” Max said as he picked up the phone after taking a deep breath, he murmured softly “Beth… well, hello…”
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keepsmiling7
- Roswell Fanatic
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- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:34 pm
Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 44 - 10/12/2019
Max was not himself, the college tours were good for Grace, but a cruise to Hawaii?
He is definitely hurt more than ever since Beth left.
Now Grace faces the problem of prom. Max's prom didn't turn out well, wouldn't want Grace to face something like that.
Thanks
He is definitely hurt more than ever since Beth left.
Now Grace faces the problem of prom. Max's prom didn't turn out well, wouldn't want Grace to face something like that.
Thanks
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RoswellFan68
- Obsessed Roswellian
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- Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:52 am
- Location: Charleston, WV
Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 44 - 10/12/2019
Wow, Beth decided to call Max.
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Parker1947
- Obsessed Roswellian
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- Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:34 pm
On the Razor's Edge - Chapter 45 - 10/14/2019
They talked every day. Hearing her voice and seeing her face through Skype was like ripping off a band aid off a gaping wound. It was blatantly clear he was still in love with his wife. Grace talked to Beth several times as she thought of going to prom with Jake and even got some advice from her mother on the subject which made Beth feel more like a mother to Grace than she had in the past. It dawned on her that Grace was now sixteen and at a critical age and it made her appreciate the time she still had with the twins. While Grace knew what she could be risking as she made a show of her recovery when seen outside as she used a cane to make it seem like she didn’t have complete control of her mobility. Finn had asked and of course Elizabeth immediately had accepted and therefore she was excited about going to prom, so Grace found herself dress shopping.
“Perfect,” Grace was saying as she saw her friend eyeing a dark blue dress. “Do you want to try it on?” she asked as they stood in Splurge. They had tried other stores, but nothing struck either of them as appropriate for prom. Grace herself was still hymning and hawing about whether to go to prom.
But once she was back Elizabeth took up the option of going shopping with her parent’s credit card but without her mother. Although with the promise she had been under a certain limit to which she agreed, and that it had to be decent and prom appropriate. Grace was supposed to make sure Elizabeth didn’t get something too outrageous. It was a plea from Maria through Jake when they talked about Saturday night. Jake didn’t pressure her, and she was getting closer to a decision. Elizabeth also had her employee discount that she was using for whatever dress she ultimately ended up with…
And as she sat stood in Splurge with her trusty cane scanning the dresses. She was getting excited about the night and wondered if she really did want to go. Prom would be something different she mused. It’s a ritual for being in high school.
“You said you went to yours?” Grace asked her aunt as they waited for Elizabeth to try on the dress.
“Yeah,” Isabel sighed as she remembered back to prom night. “It ended up being my final one, and it was memorable alright.”
“Because you went with Alex?” Grace asked conscious of her recent encounters with Alex, their friendly ghost. Alex had seemed to vanish once her mother came back into their lives, and now she was left with the memories.
“Yeah,” Isabel sighed. “Things were crazy then for a lot of people, which included your parents.”
“They didn’t have a good night?” Grace asked. “I saw photos of prom night in Aunt Maria’s photo album because Dad never wanted to talk about it and given recent events, I haven’t wanted to touch raw nerves given everything with Mom.”
“Right,” Isabel sighed as she remembered prom night and how she had gone as friends with Alex, and they had shared a moment that night that only added to the “if only” questions she had once they had lost him only weeks later. “Junior year wasn’t the kindest to your parents or senior year for that matter. I am amazed they made it through to end up together to be honest with you. But yeah prom night wasn’t the easier for them.”
“Thanks to Tess?” Grace asked.
“Yeah,” Isabel murmured as she thanked the lord that her brother’s life hadn’t been destroyed by that traitor. It had come close, but the truth prevailed. Because Tess had taken enough from her brother, and she was glad Max was able to achieve some happiness, however fleeting it was… Which is very much Max and Liz’s nature she mused.
“I wish things could be easier for my parents,” Grace muttered as Elizabeth came out in the stunning navy-blue dress. “Wow, you look fantastic.”
“Don’t I?” Elizabeth asked as she looked over at Isabel. “How do you like?”
“You look gorgeous,” Isabel said approving of the dress, and felt a touch of an emotion because it was a sigh the girls were getting older and before long, she would be doing it with her own daughters. “So, how about you?”
“I don’t know if I am going…” Grace tried.
“If I am going. You’re going,” Elizabeth demanded in a joking form. “It’s something everyone should do at least once in high school. Who knows what will happen next year?”
“I guess,” Grace murmured.
“Then find something to try on?” Elizabeth asked she saw an emerald dress that she liked, and she took it into the dressing room to try on to add to the other dresses already in there.
“Go ahead,” Isabel encouraged her niece.
“I have the dress I bought on my birthday shopping spree,” Grace thought. “I don’t know if I can afford another dress since I am not working for another few weeks.”
“Then call it a gift,” Isabel smiled. “If you find something you like. I’ll treat you, because you deserve something that makes you feel pretty. You’ve gone through some traumatic moments this last month or so…”
“You’ll lose money.”
“You don’t worry about that, let me deal with it” Isabel encouraged of her niece. “It’s prom. Elizabeth is right, who knows what will happen next year and as you have seen… You can’t count on tomorrow. You have to grab today when you have it.”
Grace nodded as she knew she would be dead if she wasn’t who she was. So, she shouldn’t take anything for granted and that included love, and life as she found herself going through the racks of prom dresses.
“I don’t know why you didn’t let me get that other dress,” Elizabeth grumbled an hour later as she and Grace walked out of Splurge. Grace was carrying a garment bag with a dress in it, while Elizabeth’s choice needed some last-minute tailoring and would be ready the next day with Isabel working on it personally.
“Because your parents were never going to let you out of the house with Finn in that dress,” Grace murmured as she remembered how sexy that dress was. It made the dress Elizabeth wore to her birthday party tame in comparison. “If you wore that thing, they would never have let you out of the house.”
“I am paying for it with my own money,” Elizabeth grumbled.
“Only partially,” Grace reminded her friend as they got into the car that waited for them. She had her car back for a few days, and it’s been driving flawless. Not a problem, and she liked having the ability to drive around town in it.
“Your dress wasn’t too much different,” Elizabeth sighed.
“Still, it was no way as sexy,” Grace smiled as she thought of her dress. She was trying to get away from red, but still ended up with a velvet red dress. She felt sexy and given all she had gone through since New Years, she deserved it. “You know I am right. Can you picture your mother or father allowing you out of the house in that short dress?”
“It had a skirt wrapped around it,” Elizabeth muttered.
“But you know it wouldn’t have stayed on, and you know that would have been the point your mother would have brought up if she saw it” Grace said as she smiled at how Isabel had worked along with her to talk Elizabeth off the dress. “The one you picked is perfect, and still very sexy and Finn will love it.”
“Yeah I know,” Elizabeth murmured as they drove to the Guerin house, and she dropped off her friend and headed home and before they knew the big day was arriving and none of them would know how it would turn out because plans were being hatched, and nothing would be the same after that one night…
Lives will have been changed on prom night as in a hotel room outside Roswell, a man was on the phone.
“Plans are set for Saturday night. It’s West Roswell Prom night” the man was saying into the phone. “And they won’t even know what is coming, until it’s too late” the laughter crackled. “We have learned Evans has agreed to be there, and all the set pieces are in place” he murmured. “Yes, we have a Plan B target if we can’t get to the desired. You will get what you want, and I will get the revenge I want…”
As the madness set into the man and brewed an evil mix.
“Perfect,” Grace was saying as she saw her friend eyeing a dark blue dress. “Do you want to try it on?” she asked as they stood in Splurge. They had tried other stores, but nothing struck either of them as appropriate for prom. Grace herself was still hymning and hawing about whether to go to prom.
But once she was back Elizabeth took up the option of going shopping with her parent’s credit card but without her mother. Although with the promise she had been under a certain limit to which she agreed, and that it had to be decent and prom appropriate. Grace was supposed to make sure Elizabeth didn’t get something too outrageous. It was a plea from Maria through Jake when they talked about Saturday night. Jake didn’t pressure her, and she was getting closer to a decision. Elizabeth also had her employee discount that she was using for whatever dress she ultimately ended up with…
And as she sat stood in Splurge with her trusty cane scanning the dresses. She was getting excited about the night and wondered if she really did want to go. Prom would be something different she mused. It’s a ritual for being in high school.
“You said you went to yours?” Grace asked her aunt as they waited for Elizabeth to try on the dress.
“Yeah,” Isabel sighed as she remembered back to prom night. “It ended up being my final one, and it was memorable alright.”
“Because you went with Alex?” Grace asked conscious of her recent encounters with Alex, their friendly ghost. Alex had seemed to vanish once her mother came back into their lives, and now she was left with the memories.
“Yeah,” Isabel sighed. “Things were crazy then for a lot of people, which included your parents.”
“They didn’t have a good night?” Grace asked. “I saw photos of prom night in Aunt Maria’s photo album because Dad never wanted to talk about it and given recent events, I haven’t wanted to touch raw nerves given everything with Mom.”
“Right,” Isabel sighed as she remembered prom night and how she had gone as friends with Alex, and they had shared a moment that night that only added to the “if only” questions she had once they had lost him only weeks later. “Junior year wasn’t the kindest to your parents or senior year for that matter. I am amazed they made it through to end up together to be honest with you. But yeah prom night wasn’t the easier for them.”
“Thanks to Tess?” Grace asked.
“Yeah,” Isabel murmured as she thanked the lord that her brother’s life hadn’t been destroyed by that traitor. It had come close, but the truth prevailed. Because Tess had taken enough from her brother, and she was glad Max was able to achieve some happiness, however fleeting it was… Which is very much Max and Liz’s nature she mused.
“I wish things could be easier for my parents,” Grace muttered as Elizabeth came out in the stunning navy-blue dress. “Wow, you look fantastic.”
“Don’t I?” Elizabeth asked as she looked over at Isabel. “How do you like?”
“You look gorgeous,” Isabel said approving of the dress, and felt a touch of an emotion because it was a sigh the girls were getting older and before long, she would be doing it with her own daughters. “So, how about you?”
“I don’t know if I am going…” Grace tried.
“If I am going. You’re going,” Elizabeth demanded in a joking form. “It’s something everyone should do at least once in high school. Who knows what will happen next year?”
“I guess,” Grace murmured.
“Then find something to try on?” Elizabeth asked she saw an emerald dress that she liked, and she took it into the dressing room to try on to add to the other dresses already in there.
“Go ahead,” Isabel encouraged her niece.
“I have the dress I bought on my birthday shopping spree,” Grace thought. “I don’t know if I can afford another dress since I am not working for another few weeks.”
“Then call it a gift,” Isabel smiled. “If you find something you like. I’ll treat you, because you deserve something that makes you feel pretty. You’ve gone through some traumatic moments this last month or so…”
“You’ll lose money.”
“You don’t worry about that, let me deal with it” Isabel encouraged of her niece. “It’s prom. Elizabeth is right, who knows what will happen next year and as you have seen… You can’t count on tomorrow. You have to grab today when you have it.”
Grace nodded as she knew she would be dead if she wasn’t who she was. So, she shouldn’t take anything for granted and that included love, and life as she found herself going through the racks of prom dresses.
*
“I don’t know why you didn’t let me get that other dress,” Elizabeth grumbled an hour later as she and Grace walked out of Splurge. Grace was carrying a garment bag with a dress in it, while Elizabeth’s choice needed some last-minute tailoring and would be ready the next day with Isabel working on it personally.
“Because your parents were never going to let you out of the house with Finn in that dress,” Grace murmured as she remembered how sexy that dress was. It made the dress Elizabeth wore to her birthday party tame in comparison. “If you wore that thing, they would never have let you out of the house.”
“I am paying for it with my own money,” Elizabeth grumbled.
“Only partially,” Grace reminded her friend as they got into the car that waited for them. She had her car back for a few days, and it’s been driving flawless. Not a problem, and she liked having the ability to drive around town in it.
“Your dress wasn’t too much different,” Elizabeth sighed.
“Still, it was no way as sexy,” Grace smiled as she thought of her dress. She was trying to get away from red, but still ended up with a velvet red dress. She felt sexy and given all she had gone through since New Years, she deserved it. “You know I am right. Can you picture your mother or father allowing you out of the house in that short dress?”
“It had a skirt wrapped around it,” Elizabeth muttered.
“But you know it wouldn’t have stayed on, and you know that would have been the point your mother would have brought up if she saw it” Grace said as she smiled at how Isabel had worked along with her to talk Elizabeth off the dress. “The one you picked is perfect, and still very sexy and Finn will love it.”
“Yeah I know,” Elizabeth murmured as they drove to the Guerin house, and she dropped off her friend and headed home and before they knew the big day was arriving and none of them would know how it would turn out because plans were being hatched, and nothing would be the same after that one night…
Lives will have been changed on prom night as in a hotel room outside Roswell, a man was on the phone.
“Plans are set for Saturday night. It’s West Roswell Prom night” the man was saying into the phone. “And they won’t even know what is coming, until it’s too late” the laughter crackled. “We have learned Evans has agreed to be there, and all the set pieces are in place” he murmured. “Yes, we have a Plan B target if we can’t get to the desired. You will get what you want, and I will get the revenge I want…”
As the madness set into the man and brewed an evil mix.
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RoswellFan68
- Obsessed Roswellian
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- Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:52 am
- Location: Charleston, WV
Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 44 - 10/12/2019
What evil does Nicholas have planned for Grace and Elizabeth?
Maybe Beth's powers will give them a heads up on what is going to happen at prom.
Maybe Beth's powers will give them a heads up on what is going to happen at prom.
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keepsmiling7
- Roswell Fanatic
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- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:34 pm
Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 44 - 10/12/2019
It was such fun for the girls and Isabel to pick out prom dresses.......
But what in the world is planned by the evil folks for prom night?
Sure hope Max will be at Prom to chaperone and help out.
Thanks
But what in the world is planned by the evil folks for prom night?
Sure hope Max will be at Prom to chaperone and help out.
Thanks
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Parker1947
- Obsessed Roswellian
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- Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:34 pm
On the Razor's Edge - Chapter 46 - 10/16/2019
On Saturday night, Max was on the phone when the doorbell rang. “I am glad your end of term testing went well,” he was saying as he was talking to Alexandra back in Madison, as he was trying to talk to the twins more frequently now that he was home. He had spent most of the day at work getting caught up. He was back in court on Monday with one of his clients after his father took up most of the end prep for the case so he was getting back into the swing of things, and being able to talk to the twins kept his mood from thinking of what Grace might encounter now that she had officially agreed to go to prom with Jake. “Just wait until high school, and you will have a lot more fun with all that there is to learn”
He had seen the dress when his daughter had come home, and his eyes widened at the selection. She told him that it was a gift from Isabel, and he ended up having words with his sister who only grumbled and told him to calm down and trust his daughter that she knew her limits. He knew Grace did, but he didn’t need one more reminder his daughter was growing up and would be out of the house too soon.
Talking to his younger daughters allowed his mood to be tempered knowing they wanted to be apart of his life. They were coming in July for the month, and then headed home to their individual camps.
He was trying to think of ways to entertain them, and to make room. He had met with some contractors to think up how to make the house bigger without losing the charm of the house, so he was having to make decisions. Grace was favoring them making an apartment over the garage so that she could eventually move in there if she stayed closer to home or had somewhere to stay so that her father didn’t have to make too many changes to the house. Max wasn’t sure…
But that for another day as he opened the door and saw a gleeful Elizabeth in her dress.
Shaking his head at the sight of Elizabeth looking so grown up. “Upstairs,” he said briefly, and Elizabeth nodded and disappeared up the stairs.
“I’ve got to go Alex, tell your sister when she gets home from her party that I am proud of both of you, and I can’t wait to see you in July” he murmured. “And tell your mother when she gets home from the hospital that I’ll send her some pictures of Grace going off to prom, and yes, I’ll send some to you guys too and I’ll give her your well wishes for the evening” he sighed as he thought of Beth who had to work a few hours to cover for a colleague but allowed Alexandra to stay home.
Once off the phone, he sighed because he hated being away from the twins have basically having to act like a divorced dad who is trying to keep contact with their kids. Going upstairs, he knocked on the door. “Are you decent?”
“Come in,” Grace yelled through the door.
Opening it, he walked into her daughter’s bedroom and saw a vision he hadn’t seen in over twenty years. Grace dolled up in her red velvet dress and looking so grown up and so much like her mother. “Wow,” he smiled. “Honey, you’re simply gorgeous.”
“Thank you, Daddy,” Grace said as she saw the tears in her father’s eyes as he saw her standing there in her dress as she had been working on her hair as Jake and Finn were arriving anytime soon. “Don’t you start crying or I might and then I’ll ruin my makeup” she whispered at the tears glistening in her father’s eyes.
“I am surprised Elizabeth your parents didn’t want Finn to pick you up at home?” Max asked of his goddaughter as he tried to will the tears away as Grace was looking so grown up and it scared him to think about her out there in the world when for so long she had been his little girl growing up in this house, in his bubble.
“I think I’ll pass on that kind of parental supervision for tonight,” Elizabeth smiled. “I have enough intrusion with Jake being at prom” she muttered. “Anyways it didn’t really matter because Dad had to work so he wasn’t home, and Mom had to go to some networking gala or something for her book.”
“What is your Dad up to?” Max asked surprised Michael would be busy on the night of prom when his daughter was going. With Maria busy with promotion for her book, Michael always tried to be at home.
“Who knows, he’s been mysterious for days now” Elizabeth sighed as she suspected her father was up to something, but it didn’t seem her mother knew what it was so she let it go because she knew eventually it would fall apart. “My siblings are mostly at sleepovers, or being tended to by my grandmother tonight so I guess he doesn’t care…”
“I’m going downstairs if you need anything, but I want pictures before you go” Max reminded the girls. “Your mother wants to see you in your dress. Same with your sisters as I promised to send them some pictures.”
“Yes Dad,” Grace nodded. “We’ll be down soon…”
Alexandra was busy studying for her final test, which was to be held on Monday, which meant summer started the next day. Their school didn’t have graduation, so they would wait for their marks to be sent to them in the mail, as they were enrolled in Madison High School for the fall pending their final marks. But it was only a formality as the twins posed no risk to failing. But Alexandra wanted to be sure she aced her final test. Carrie didn’t have the same wish, so she didn’t study like crazy.
Beth saw Alexandra studying when she walked into the house. “You’re not overdoing it, right?” she asked as Alexandra’s eyes perked up when she saw her mother.
“Knowledge is power Mom,” Alexandra said. “And I haven’t been studying all the time. I talked to Dad.”
“Really?” Beth asked softly at the mention of Max, but she appreciated how Max was trying since his return. “How is he?”
“Getting ready to send Grace off to prom with Jake,” Alexandra murmured. “He said he would send pictures…”
“Great,” Beth sighed at the thought of her missing one of the major turning points of a high school career. Prom night, and she was missing it. Conversations between her and Grace had been awkward all week but better than it used to but knew that the younger girls were having warmer talks with Max, and she missed that and wondered if things would ever get there. “I am glad you got to talk to him.”
The fact I am here in Madison didn’t help things Beth thought about how things were different.
“We can still go in July, right?” Alexandra asked.
“Of course,” Beth said as she thought of all the activities, she was lining up for the month to keep busy. It would be the first time she was separated from both of her kids, and it was going to be a learning curve for her but knew the twins needed to get to know Max, and Roswell. “I wouldn’t stand in the way.”
“I can’t wait,” Alexandra said.
“But first you have to finish the semester” Beth said. “Do you know when your sister will be home?”
“Later tonight I think,” Alexandra muttered. “I guess it’s just us for dinner.”
“Why don’t we go for Chinese and see a movie, your choice” Beth said not wanting to be at home for some reason.
“You really want me to pick?” Alexandra asked strangely.
“Sure, why not” Beth said. “Unlike your sister, I usually like your choices” she laughed. “I am going to go into my office and do some paperwork. Let me know when you choose.”
Alexandra nodded.
“Be careful,” Max called out as she watched his daughter and Jake walk out to the limousine that awaited the quartet. Both girls looked gorgeous and he had taken a lot of pictures, and now watched as Grace with her cane got into limousine, with Jake getting in after her and soon the vehicle turned on and left his street.
Turning to go back into the house he failed to notice a car follow the limousine.
And another car following the other car. Instead Max went inside the house and saw Grace’s baby’s picture on the mantle. Sighing, he poured himself a whisky, and sat down and contemplated.
So, he continued to follow the car and hoped he didn’t find disaster.
Before he could refill his drink to which he was tempted because the teen years was beginning to take a toil on Max along with the other worries in his life but he was stopped by the doorbell It’s not like Grace will be home before dawn he muttered because he knew there would be after parties. Knowing both Michael and Maria were busy for the evening and his sister and Kyle were at Jim and Amy’s for dinner with the kids so he wondered who it was and so he was surprised to find his father. “Dad, what are you doing here?”
“Your mother was having dinner with some friends and so I was alone and so I came by since I knew Grace was out tonight and your sister and her family are busy” Phillip murmured as he saw the drink in his son’s hand. “I hope I am not interrupting anything.”
“Just my pity party,” Max admitted. “The knowledge my daughter is old enough to be at prom and most of all, is dating which could lead to a whole number of activities” he sighed. “And the fact I have two other children I can’t see…”
“Have you talked to them?” Phillip asked softly with a laugh. “And any other thinking in terms of what Grace might be doing only gives you nightmares, and you should just let it flow off your back and know your daughter will eventually come to you … which is how I got through it with your sister.”
“Earlier, but only Alexandra as Carrie was out with friends or something” Max sighed. “They are finishing up their final testing, before they finish with junior high. High school comes in the fall.”
“They are growing up,” Phillip acknowledged.
“And I am missing it,” Max sighed. “Grace is almost out of the house. She still has time to go, but prom is just reinforcing that she is so close to graduating.”
“They grow up,” Phillip sighed. “We faced it with you and your sister. We only had 12 years before you were out of the house. You married and in university, and your sister was meeting Kyle and moving on with him. So, kids grow up quickly…”
“How did you face it?” Max asked as memories of his wedding to Liz filled his mind.
“I worked too much, and your mother had her stuff she did” Phillip laughed of the time Diane always managed to fill in their empty nest lives.
“Well you’re almost finished with work,” Max asked as he was reminded that his father was due to retire come fall time. The knowledge he had been leaning too much on his father in recent weeks weighed on him when for so long Phillip could rely on him for help with the law firm, and now the opposite was true.
“That is something I wanted to talk to you about,” Phillip sighed as he thought of the conversation he was needing to have with his son. But knew Diane agreed with him on it and it was her idea initially, and he jumped on it because it would serve their family and help their son. “It’s something I have been talking over with your mother in recent days, and I wanted to let you know…”
“What!” Max asked as he was suddenly afraid of his father’s health because while he might have a hard time getting sick, and Grace until she ended up in the hospital didn’t get sick. “You’re alright, right?”
“Oh,” Phillip assured his son when he realized what his son had been thinking. “No son,” he was quick to reassure. “We’re both doing fine, and I am definitely doing great. Maybe not as young as I once was but still, I have my health”
“Thank god,” Max murmured.
“Anyway, I wanted to tell you that I am thinking that I should postpone my retirement for let’s say a year,” Phillip announced to the shock of Max and the outrage on in his son and put up his hand. “No son, don’t say it.”
“Dad, you and Mom have all those plans for once you finish working” Max asked as suddenly why his father was doing this came to him… “Dad, if this is about me… don’t. You and Mom deserve to spend time together, and to travel your hearts out… as you have put more than enough time at the firm and deserve time to relish your freedom because we never know how much time we have left.”
“Son, you matter, and Grace matters and my other grandchildren, well, they matter whether I know them well or not and I am not talking about keeping a heavy schedule as I’ll only have selected list of clients but I can be in the office while you figure out your life. I know over the last six weeks have not been the most fun for you” Phillip sighed.
“That would be an understatement,” Max allowed.
“Then allow me this. It will keep the total load off you while you adjust to your new situation with Beth and the girls. I know they are coming or at least the girls are during the summer” Phillip asked. “You will want to see them?”
“I do,” Max nodded as he thought of the plans he and Grace had discussed for while the twins were visiting. “We’re thinking of taking a road trip to the Grand Canyon”
“See then you need me,” Phillip smiled.
“Dad, I don’t know how it will be in the fall. Things might have calmed down and I don’t want you and Mom to lose out on time together,” Max sighed. “I can control things, so you don’t have to do this. Grace will be back to school, and back to work at the Crashdown or whatever her future holds for her and I think I’ll know how to make things work. It’s right now that is crazy.”
“I give you that, but it will also allow me to baby step myself into retirement. You can still take most of the load, but it will allow me to get out of the house before we make the final handover. If you feel you can handle things, I can stop earlier than I am thinking but it will allow you to take things as it comes.”
Max sighed. “Dad, I wish you wouldn’t do this”
“Trust me son, this is for your own good. So, have you talked to her? Have you talked to your wife?”
He had seen the dress when his daughter had come home, and his eyes widened at the selection. She told him that it was a gift from Isabel, and he ended up having words with his sister who only grumbled and told him to calm down and trust his daughter that she knew her limits. He knew Grace did, but he didn’t need one more reminder his daughter was growing up and would be out of the house too soon.
Talking to his younger daughters allowed his mood to be tempered knowing they wanted to be apart of his life. They were coming in July for the month, and then headed home to their individual camps.
He was trying to think of ways to entertain them, and to make room. He had met with some contractors to think up how to make the house bigger without losing the charm of the house, so he was having to make decisions. Grace was favoring them making an apartment over the garage so that she could eventually move in there if she stayed closer to home or had somewhere to stay so that her father didn’t have to make too many changes to the house. Max wasn’t sure…
But that for another day as he opened the door and saw a gleeful Elizabeth in her dress.
Shaking his head at the sight of Elizabeth looking so grown up. “Upstairs,” he said briefly, and Elizabeth nodded and disappeared up the stairs.
“I’ve got to go Alex, tell your sister when she gets home from her party that I am proud of both of you, and I can’t wait to see you in July” he murmured. “And tell your mother when she gets home from the hospital that I’ll send her some pictures of Grace going off to prom, and yes, I’ll send some to you guys too and I’ll give her your well wishes for the evening” he sighed as he thought of Beth who had to work a few hours to cover for a colleague but allowed Alexandra to stay home.
Once off the phone, he sighed because he hated being away from the twins have basically having to act like a divorced dad who is trying to keep contact with their kids. Going upstairs, he knocked on the door. “Are you decent?”
“Come in,” Grace yelled through the door.
Opening it, he walked into her daughter’s bedroom and saw a vision he hadn’t seen in over twenty years. Grace dolled up in her red velvet dress and looking so grown up and so much like her mother. “Wow,” he smiled. “Honey, you’re simply gorgeous.”
“Thank you, Daddy,” Grace said as she saw the tears in her father’s eyes as he saw her standing there in her dress as she had been working on her hair as Jake and Finn were arriving anytime soon. “Don’t you start crying or I might and then I’ll ruin my makeup” she whispered at the tears glistening in her father’s eyes.
“I am surprised Elizabeth your parents didn’t want Finn to pick you up at home?” Max asked of his goddaughter as he tried to will the tears away as Grace was looking so grown up and it scared him to think about her out there in the world when for so long she had been his little girl growing up in this house, in his bubble.
“I think I’ll pass on that kind of parental supervision for tonight,” Elizabeth smiled. “I have enough intrusion with Jake being at prom” she muttered. “Anyways it didn’t really matter because Dad had to work so he wasn’t home, and Mom had to go to some networking gala or something for her book.”
“What is your Dad up to?” Max asked surprised Michael would be busy on the night of prom when his daughter was going. With Maria busy with promotion for her book, Michael always tried to be at home.
“Who knows, he’s been mysterious for days now” Elizabeth sighed as she suspected her father was up to something, but it didn’t seem her mother knew what it was so she let it go because she knew eventually it would fall apart. “My siblings are mostly at sleepovers, or being tended to by my grandmother tonight so I guess he doesn’t care…”
“I’m going downstairs if you need anything, but I want pictures before you go” Max reminded the girls. “Your mother wants to see you in your dress. Same with your sisters as I promised to send them some pictures.”
“Yes Dad,” Grace nodded. “We’ll be down soon…”
*
Alexandra was busy studying for her final test, which was to be held on Monday, which meant summer started the next day. Their school didn’t have graduation, so they would wait for their marks to be sent to them in the mail, as they were enrolled in Madison High School for the fall pending their final marks. But it was only a formality as the twins posed no risk to failing. But Alexandra wanted to be sure she aced her final test. Carrie didn’t have the same wish, so she didn’t study like crazy.
Beth saw Alexandra studying when she walked into the house. “You’re not overdoing it, right?” she asked as Alexandra’s eyes perked up when she saw her mother.
“Knowledge is power Mom,” Alexandra said. “And I haven’t been studying all the time. I talked to Dad.”
“Really?” Beth asked softly at the mention of Max, but she appreciated how Max was trying since his return. “How is he?”
“Getting ready to send Grace off to prom with Jake,” Alexandra murmured. “He said he would send pictures…”
“Great,” Beth sighed at the thought of her missing one of the major turning points of a high school career. Prom night, and she was missing it. Conversations between her and Grace had been awkward all week but better than it used to but knew that the younger girls were having warmer talks with Max, and she missed that and wondered if things would ever get there. “I am glad you got to talk to him.”
The fact I am here in Madison didn’t help things Beth thought about how things were different.
“We can still go in July, right?” Alexandra asked.
“Of course,” Beth said as she thought of all the activities, she was lining up for the month to keep busy. It would be the first time she was separated from both of her kids, and it was going to be a learning curve for her but knew the twins needed to get to know Max, and Roswell. “I wouldn’t stand in the way.”
“I can’t wait,” Alexandra said.
“But first you have to finish the semester” Beth said. “Do you know when your sister will be home?”
“Later tonight I think,” Alexandra muttered. “I guess it’s just us for dinner.”
“Why don’t we go for Chinese and see a movie, your choice” Beth said not wanting to be at home for some reason.
“You really want me to pick?” Alexandra asked strangely.
“Sure, why not” Beth said. “Unlike your sister, I usually like your choices” she laughed. “I am going to go into my office and do some paperwork. Let me know when you choose.”
Alexandra nodded.
*
“Be careful,” Max called out as she watched his daughter and Jake walk out to the limousine that awaited the quartet. Both girls looked gorgeous and he had taken a lot of pictures, and now watched as Grace with her cane got into limousine, with Jake getting in after her and soon the vehicle turned on and left his street.
Turning to go back into the house he failed to notice a car follow the limousine.
And another car following the other car. Instead Max went inside the house and saw Grace’s baby’s picture on the mantle. Sighing, he poured himself a whisky, and sat down and contemplated.
*
“What are you doing following my daughter to her prom,” Michael muttered as he followed the car that followed the limousine. He had seen his daughter, son, Grace and Finn get into the limousine and hated one more reminder that his daughter was looking so grown up when he saw her walking out Max’s house all dressed up in her dress that made her look so much older than fifteen, and her hair looking so much like Maria did at that age. Elizabeth was very different from both parents but on nights like this Michael could see the resemblance and it only reinforced how he didn’t want his kids to face the horrors of the past and how confusing it was for their parents.So, he continued to follow the car and hoped he didn’t find disaster.
*
Before he could refill his drink to which he was tempted because the teen years was beginning to take a toil on Max along with the other worries in his life but he was stopped by the doorbell It’s not like Grace will be home before dawn he muttered because he knew there would be after parties. Knowing both Michael and Maria were busy for the evening and his sister and Kyle were at Jim and Amy’s for dinner with the kids so he wondered who it was and so he was surprised to find his father. “Dad, what are you doing here?”
“Your mother was having dinner with some friends and so I was alone and so I came by since I knew Grace was out tonight and your sister and her family are busy” Phillip murmured as he saw the drink in his son’s hand. “I hope I am not interrupting anything.”
“Just my pity party,” Max admitted. “The knowledge my daughter is old enough to be at prom and most of all, is dating which could lead to a whole number of activities” he sighed. “And the fact I have two other children I can’t see…”
“Have you talked to them?” Phillip asked softly with a laugh. “And any other thinking in terms of what Grace might be doing only gives you nightmares, and you should just let it flow off your back and know your daughter will eventually come to you … which is how I got through it with your sister.”
“Earlier, but only Alexandra as Carrie was out with friends or something” Max sighed. “They are finishing up their final testing, before they finish with junior high. High school comes in the fall.”
“They are growing up,” Phillip acknowledged.
“And I am missing it,” Max sighed. “Grace is almost out of the house. She still has time to go, but prom is just reinforcing that she is so close to graduating.”
“They grow up,” Phillip sighed. “We faced it with you and your sister. We only had 12 years before you were out of the house. You married and in university, and your sister was meeting Kyle and moving on with him. So, kids grow up quickly…”
“How did you face it?” Max asked as memories of his wedding to Liz filled his mind.
“I worked too much, and your mother had her stuff she did” Phillip laughed of the time Diane always managed to fill in their empty nest lives.
“Well you’re almost finished with work,” Max asked as he was reminded that his father was due to retire come fall time. The knowledge he had been leaning too much on his father in recent weeks weighed on him when for so long Phillip could rely on him for help with the law firm, and now the opposite was true.
“That is something I wanted to talk to you about,” Phillip sighed as he thought of the conversation he was needing to have with his son. But knew Diane agreed with him on it and it was her idea initially, and he jumped on it because it would serve their family and help their son. “It’s something I have been talking over with your mother in recent days, and I wanted to let you know…”
“What!” Max asked as he was suddenly afraid of his father’s health because while he might have a hard time getting sick, and Grace until she ended up in the hospital didn’t get sick. “You’re alright, right?”
“Oh,” Phillip assured his son when he realized what his son had been thinking. “No son,” he was quick to reassure. “We’re both doing fine, and I am definitely doing great. Maybe not as young as I once was but still, I have my health”
“Thank god,” Max murmured.
“Anyway, I wanted to tell you that I am thinking that I should postpone my retirement for let’s say a year,” Phillip announced to the shock of Max and the outrage on in his son and put up his hand. “No son, don’t say it.”
“Dad, you and Mom have all those plans for once you finish working” Max asked as suddenly why his father was doing this came to him… “Dad, if this is about me… don’t. You and Mom deserve to spend time together, and to travel your hearts out… as you have put more than enough time at the firm and deserve time to relish your freedom because we never know how much time we have left.”
“Son, you matter, and Grace matters and my other grandchildren, well, they matter whether I know them well or not and I am not talking about keeping a heavy schedule as I’ll only have selected list of clients but I can be in the office while you figure out your life. I know over the last six weeks have not been the most fun for you” Phillip sighed.
“That would be an understatement,” Max allowed.
“Then allow me this. It will keep the total load off you while you adjust to your new situation with Beth and the girls. I know they are coming or at least the girls are during the summer” Phillip asked. “You will want to see them?”
“I do,” Max nodded as he thought of the plans he and Grace had discussed for while the twins were visiting. “We’re thinking of taking a road trip to the Grand Canyon”
“See then you need me,” Phillip smiled.
“Dad, I don’t know how it will be in the fall. Things might have calmed down and I don’t want you and Mom to lose out on time together,” Max sighed. “I can control things, so you don’t have to do this. Grace will be back to school, and back to work at the Crashdown or whatever her future holds for her and I think I’ll know how to make things work. It’s right now that is crazy.”
“I give you that, but it will also allow me to baby step myself into retirement. You can still take most of the load, but it will allow me to get out of the house before we make the final handover. If you feel you can handle things, I can stop earlier than I am thinking but it will allow you to take things as it comes.”
Max sighed. “Dad, I wish you wouldn’t do this”
“Trust me son, this is for your own good. So, have you talked to her? Have you talked to your wife?”
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keepsmiling7
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 2649
- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:34 pm
Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 46 - 10/16/2019
Poor Max is facing the empty nest syndrome.
Good question Phillip.......has Max talked to Beth??
Good question Phillip.......has Max talked to Beth??
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RoswellFan68
- Obsessed Roswellian
- Posts: 543
- Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:52 am
- Location: Charleston, WV
Re: On the Razor's Edge (CC, Mature) - A "Reunion" Story - Chapter 46 - 10/16/2019
I'm glad Michael is being the overprotective father. Maybe he will be able to stop whatever evil is planned.