Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 15 - Completed - 06/10/2020

This is the place to post all your General Roswell fanfiction. Any Canon fics, which pick up directly from any episode of the show and that focus on Max/Liz, Michael/Maria, Isabel/Alex or Isabel/Jesse, Kyle/Tess, or all the couples together! Rule of Thumb: If Max healed Liz in the Crashdown in September 1999, then your fic belongs here. If it picks up from the show in any way, it belongs here.

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Parker1947
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Holding out for a Hero - Chapter 7 - 05/15/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

“He signed those papers” Isabel mumbled as she stood aghast and staring at her fiancé. Never did would she think she going to hear what she was hearing from Kyle of all people. Telling her that her brother’s divorce might be null and void. It was taking some time to process the implications of the news. “Are you telling me that it might not be legal?”

“If it is not, well, it could be taken to court and questioned” Kyle muttered. “Or one of them could ask that it gets thrown out… and if they did, well, they would have a compelling case to make,” he murmured as he glanced at the shock on his fiancée’s face. “Isabel, during this time in question. You were not even here in Roswell. You had moved to Boston, and you and Jesse were settled and together and you were not here when it came time for Max to sign those papers. Heck Liz was not even here, as it was all done via fax because email was not as standard as it is today to conduct transfers of those kinds of documents. So, you cannot know what was going down with your brother at the time he was debating whether to sign the documents. One of the signatures is there, but the other isn’t, so he might have forgotten it, and no one thought to look.”

“I would think it would be a pretty big signature to miss Kyle” Isabel sighed. “So, okay, no, I wasn’t here at that time. But I know from Michael that Max was tortured by the decision but ultimately did it because it was what Liz wanted. She was the one who sued for divorce. She is the one who started to proceedings here in New Mexico because she did not have standing in Boston yet, and because the marriage took place in the part of the country. She is the one who wanted it. Just like Maria is the one who is suing Michael now for divorce” she sighed. “Michael was here Kyle. He would know if Max signed or not. And come on, Liz has since remarried so she must have thought that the divorce is legally binding otherwise no other state would issue a marriage license, right?”

“Right,” Kyle muttered as Isabel had him there…

“Max and Liz would both have copies of the signed agreement, if it was filed, and approved, right?” Isabel asked as from the little she knew of the legal system and what she knew from Jesse’s work as a lawyer who had done the odd divorce or two during her time with him. “I can’t believe the system wouldn’t have noticed if the divorce papers weren’t faulty” she asked. “This doesn’t make sense. Maybe it’s just a copy?”

“Why would your father have squirrelled it away in a locked file cabinet and told no one, and especially not me…” Kyle asked. “I was a partner, and why didn’t he tell me?”

“Maybe he forgot her put it somewhere safe. You know how Max and Liz were sought after in the wake of everything that went down. The media, and everyone was after for every little tidbit of information on them, so their divorce would be a big-ticket item to try to get their hands on. Maybe dad was trying to protect them?”

“Oh, I am sure he was trying to protect them,” Kyle muttered. “Isabel, I don’t know what I am thinking because this doesn’t make any sense. Everything I know of the case, is that this was the filed one so the official papers. Why it was not red flagged, I have no idea. Maybe it fell through the cracks. I have no idea.”

Isabel still was hung up on aspect of the insanity. “Liz got remarried Kyle. It would be different if both were single. But Liz married again, and for that marriage to be legal. She would have had to show her divorce papers, right?” Isabel asked. “Just like when it comes time for us, to get our license before our ceremony next summer. I will have to show proof that my husband is deceased, and therefore I am legally entitled to get remarried, right?”

“Right?” Kyle muttered.

“I can’t believe Boston overlooked mistakes in their filed divorce agreement…” Isabel asked. “They got married in the State of Massachusetts?”

“All Liz would need is to show her divorce degree. Not the actual papers. Just the official paperwork,” Kyle asked. “The decree could be legit. But if it is true that there were errors in the filed papers, then of them, and most likely Max could get it stuck down…”

“And that means?” Isabel muttered as she thought she was watching some made for television Hallmark movie, and not her brother’s real-life reality.

“It means he could get it declared null and void, which nullifies Liz and Carl’s marriage… now, Liz could go to court and try to prove she thought the marriage was legally binding, and for the court to declare it binding, assuming if she wants to be tied to Carl in that way…” Kyle asked. “Given what he’s just done to her, landing her in the hospital and to Natasha and the new baby…”

“Children, there are children Kyle” Isabel said stunned at the remembrance of Natasha and the little tiny baby fighting for her life. “What does it mean for them?”

“Well, if Max and Liz were declared to still be married. Incredibly Max could claim paternity of the kids, because they would have been born during his and Liz’s union. He would have a claim of paternity. Carl would have to prove in court that Liz had every belief that the marriage was legitimate, and it was not simply a long-standing affair. and that he is the rightful father of the kids. They would have to prove paternity. DNA testing and such. Even if it were proven that Carl is the father of the kids. Natasha could be declared to be old enough to decide which parent she wants to live with… And given what Carl just did. No judge is going to rule against her, and the baby whose birth was the direct result of Carl’s assault.”

“Jesus Christ…” Isabel murmured.

“I know…” Kyle murmured. “Look I know, so, believe me because I am not saying any of this lightly because I do understand the consequences that do come if Max and Liz were to still be married”

“Would Liz even allow Max to do that…” Isabel asked.

“Well Carl just tried to kill her and Sarah Rose,” Kyle muttered. “She’s likely to be very angry?”

“Still Max…” Isabel asked as she tried to imagine what her brother would think of all this or even what he might do, although she did know he would go to his grave protecting Liz if given the choice, and did for a time, because he had loved his ex-wife so completely.

“I know,” Kyle nodded. “So, I guess I better go talk to him, right?”

“Right,” Isabel muttered because if given the choice and the potential of what it meant for him to still be married to Liz. Then any day of the week he was going to take the option that Kyle had just outlined if it meant that he was going to be able to protect Liz and the children from Carl. Even if it also meant a life full of child support payments if Max and Liz ever did divorce legitimately and if he were to have been declared the legal father of those kids.


*


“Why do you say that?” Max was asking of Maria’s observation that he was a glutton of punishment after she had gotten off the phone after a long discussion with her own lawyer out in Los Angeles. She had forgotten to tell them of her relocating, and especially back to New Mexico, and so now the phone call was concluded. “Speaking of gluttons of punishment. If that was your divorce attorney. Why haven’t you dealt with Michael before now?”

Maria laughed. “This isn’t about me right now; this is about the fact you’ve taken a personal interest in the daughter your ex-wife has with another man. And you have gone to incredible lengths to instill yourself as that child’s personal bodyguard. I understand why you are concerned. Anyone would be. But becoming attached isn’t helping you?”

“Someone had to be because it’s obvious Liz pushed herself so far away from her parents. You weren’t here, so someone had to be concerned for Natasha…” Max muttered. “She came into my emergency room and I was on duty.”

“I thank you, and I am sure Liz has thanked you… But still, you’re asking for a lot of pain by getting attached to Natasha or letting her get attached to you” Maria asked as she remembered how clear it was that the little girl was smitten with Max, or how Max clearly was with the child as well. “You know you’re a little insane, right?”

“Why do you say that?” Max sighed because he knew what she was getting at…

“Most men wouldn’t take it so personally. You have always been compassionate and would do anything for anyone who needs your help. I love that about you, and I know that was a big part of why Liz was so taken by you. But you are asking for pain, and not just a little, but a whole lot of it…”

“It’s Liz, and therefore I can’t help it” Max muttered. “As I have said, she was wheeled into my emergency room. You should have seen Natasha? She was so devastated, and the black eye as you can see and that was before I realized her arm was injured. She was so scared. She might talk a good game, but she was crying out for help. And knowing the hell she and her mother had to have gone through. I can not just walk away from that. Not if I can help. Natasha needed the support, and I am glad to have given it.”

“Oh Max, you’re just asking…” Maria sighed.

“I know, okay, I know what I am risking…” Max muttered because he knew it. I have got to be insane. Maria is right. To know Natasha belongs to someone else. Even if he was a mad man who should be in prison. Still, she is not my daughter. But he also knew Liz risked so much by helping him years before.“It’s Liz” he whispered. “How can I not help her? I promised her once that I would help her, because I know that she sacrificed everything to help me back in high school with the search for my son, and even before that when I betrayed her with another woman. We weren’t together, I know that, and she knew that, but I stepped on our love, and she still came back to me and sacrificed everything and including potentially her freedom and that burned her in numerous ways. So, I can’t not help her now.” he asked. “So, if it calls for me to look after Natasha for Liz than I cannot not do it?”

“I do get that, and I admire it because Liz does need people in her corner, and I am not discouraging you from being her friend. But you are allowing Natasha to get attached. You didn’t have to do it,” Maria asked as she couldn’t but see how the little girl was looking up at Max. “You are doing more than what is being asked of you?”

“Someone has to do it. You were not even here. As you said, you had your life to lead. And it is obvious for many reasons Jeff and Nancy could not be there for their daughter. Hell, they did not even know they had a grandchild. Now they do, but they did not until yesterday. I know life happens. But if Natasha does not have the support system. Someone needs to be one for her until she has it in place.” Max asked and Maria shook her head. “Which gets me asking. What on earth happened there because Maria. I know how close they were back in the day. And how Jeff went to hell and back for us,” he asked. “So, what happened?”

“They didn’t like Carl,” Maria sighed.

“I approve. But something more had to have happened for Liz to walk away. I know how hard it was for her to walk when we left in the first place. Unfortunately, she was in danger, which is why we had to flee… But it was different later, when were able to come back and she was reunited with her parents. She was happy to be back, with them. So, what happened?”

“It doesn’t matter Max,” Maria sighed. “It’s Liz who made that decision and therefore is Liz story more than me, just know that in those days. The adjustment to coming home, was brutal not only for you, but for her too. When she left for Cambridge. She thought it was her ticket to a new life. Only for her to meet Carl. And it was obvious her parents did not approve, and he did not even attempt to get them on his side. And therefore, by eloping with Carl, her relationship with her parents fractured, and she did not even try to repair it because they were not trying either. They both said things, things you can’t unsay…”

“Still…” Max wondered because it still did not make sense and yet it did, as he could not help but sigh. “But then I guess I do know what it means to say things you wish you could unsay…” he asked because if only he could go back unsay some of those things he had said to his wife, or said, no, when she had wanted the divorce. If only I had asked her to come back to me?

“I know you do,” Maria said. “We all have done it. Therefore, it is not easy to bridge that gap at the end of the day to who you do say those words. She had to make a new life. It was not easy for her, and she tried to go on, and make do with the decisions she has made. Including being there for Natasha when she was born, when she knew by then that Carl was no Prince Charming” she sighed and the realization that was dawning on her that she gave up on her chance with her Prince Charming or her Romeo for that matter Maria mused to herself. A Prince Charming who is willing to take responsibility for the protection of a child who was fathered by someone else she asked only herself.

“I guess,” Max sighed.

“We all have to make do with our choices. The good and the heartbreaking ones. We are no longer sixteen. Our choices have consequences to them.” Maria muttered. “We can’t go back to redo the past, and therefore we have to live with what we have said and done?”

“Maria…” Max asked because he wanted to say the dreaded words.

“Don’t Max, please don’t because I am back here in Roswell only to deal with Liz and Natasha. Anything else can be something I deal with tomorrow…” Maria muttered because she knew what her friend was going to get at, and she didn’t feel ready to get into that kind of conversation.

“How are you?” Max asked. “That is all I was going to ask,” he murmured as he wanted to ask so much more, but he knew it was obvious that Maria was not ready for him to ask those questions.

“I am fine. I have seen better days. But when I do compare situations, I know I am a lot better than where Liz is right now, and that is all I can worry about today and tomorrow. Anything else that might be wrong with my life is gravy compared to what is going on with Liz. Because I know that my life will work itself out at the end of the day and I am not stressing it…”

“I am glad,” Max nodded as he meant the words “You deserve only the best. Just like Liz does. I mean, I know how many sacrifices you made back then. All of us took it for granted, and I am sorry for it, so I want you know that I am forever grateful that we had your help. Just thinking of some of those scrapes. If we had not had your help, we might not have made it through?”

Maria muttered Yeah, we got lucky and not everyone did to herself as she moaned in the knowledge that they had lost Alex and a lot more on their journey.

“To know our history. It should make us all grateful for what we were able to have, because we are fortunate at the end of the day” Max muttered as he thought of Liz in the hospital bed. “Liz does need a lot of hope and a lot of prayers but Maria, I am not going to let her down and if helping Natasha gives her some peace, I am going to give that to her…” he mused. “Because it’s the least I can do for her, given she gave me so much at the expense of her own dreams…” he muttered because he did know how much his ex-wife had given up by loving him.

Maria sighed at the fates of her friends and could not help but nod with a simple sigh. “You’re special Max, if only she mused to herself. “One day I hope you do get what you deserve…”

“Well I would only want that if Liz is able to have the same ability,” Max muttered as Maria like everyone else knew what sacrifices Max had made, in the name of Liz, and so much was tied in his love for his ex-wife and she probably shouldn’t be asking Max to think of himself when she knew her friend needed a champion, and if Max wanted to be that champion, maybe she shouldn’t be one to talk?

Because to Maria, it could only make her think of her own life. And the husband that was out there, and the marriage that she was in, if only on paper. “Max, I really don’t want to know but I do need to know, so I guess I have got to ask, how is he?” Maria finally asked the dreaded question that they both knew was coming. “Is he okay?”

Hell no, Max wanted to say but did not “Yes,” he lied.

And Maria knew he was lying. “Max…”

“What can I say Maria. Like you cannot tell me too much about what is going on with Liz. I cannot tell you what is going on with Michael. Is life the way he wants it to be, no, but something tells me it has not been that way for you either. You both deserve the peace that comes with figuring out what happened next. Why have not you come back before now? He’s been stalling the divorce for six months now, which I know has to annoy you, but you don’t do anything to get him to sign those papers or anytime in these last eight years?”

“What can I say, it annoys me. But some reason I was stalling it myself until I finally came to the realization that we can not do it anymore. And that is why I sued for divorce, and then the last six months has been one annoyance after another, until now, I am back in my hometown, still married despite not having been with my husband for eight years.”

“What happened?” Max asked.

“What do you think happened, life” Maria muttered as she did not want to discuss what had happened in the past. She just wanted to move on, and deal with the future. And the present that involves helping Liz and Natasha start a new life with the new baby.

“I am sorry…” Max sighed. “Life sucks…”

“Yeah it does,” Maria muttered as the door opened and in walked Natasha. “Baby Doll, what is it?”

“Max, can we go see Mommy?” Natasha asked.

And a sudden reminder that they all had something vastly more important than their personal lives to worry about as Max nodded and looked at Maria. “Do you need a lift?”

“Can I, the car is at the shop. I need to go over there later, to see what the status of it is…” Maria muttered as she thought of one more expense she didn’t have the funds to pay for, but coming back, and driving all the way was not something she regretted. “I guess we can get going?” she muttered as Max’s cellphone rang, and he answered and frowned. “Yeah, we can meet…” he said moments later and then hung up.

“What was it?” Maria asked. “Liz?”

“No,” Max was quick to assure both Maria and Natasha who was looking at Max with fearful eyes. “It was Isabel. She and Kyle want to meet with me at my place. So, I can drop you both off at the hospital and go see what they want, and then come back. And anyways, you probably want to visit without me… I can meet you there…”

“Don’t you have to work?” Maria asked.

“I am taking a few days off,” Max muttered. “I have worked so many double shifts because my life has lacking in Isabel terms, substance” he laughed. “So. people owe me. But really, I took a leave for a few days, because I needed to because I couldn’t be effective as a doctor and while my Chief will likely be out for my head when I do go back, still, he wouldn’t want me to be working when my head is other places…” he sighed because he knew his Chief would be on the war path when he did go back to work even if he was the resident with the most hours, and was always working, and rarely had taken time off, with the only exception before now was bereavement leave due to the death of his parents. So, he knew Dr. Lang would calm down in the end. “Do you need anything, before we go?”

“I’ll grab my purse and jacket and leave a note for Mom” Maria asked before disappearing from the kitchen.

“Max, my Mom is going to be alright, right?” Natasha asked as for a minute, the worries came back onto her face, and Max could see it. She could not be a normal seven-year-old, with no worries except growing up. Natasha had too many others to think about, and Max wished he could make her forget.

“I promise,” Max muttered even though he knew he shouldn’t be promising such a thing to a small child about her mother but he also knew that he would do anything to make sure Liz came out of the hospital in one peace, and knew he had the ability to make sure that did happen, and he planned to use it, if he had to. “So, how about we get your jacket, and we’ll get going?”

Natasha nodded as five minutes later; they were leaving the house.


*


Michael was feeling the hungover he was left with after his actions the previous night and he had woken up for the first time in a long time without someone else in his bed as he remembered how Isabel had made sure he had gotten home, and had pulled the blanket over him as he passed out. How he missed having someone at home when he got home. Now he lived for the endless bar hoping and poker games. Waking up in the cold light of day had quickly reminded him of the life he was screwing up.

Now he was standing in the hospital, looking through the glass window of Liz’s hospital room and getting a reminder of that someone people had it worse than he did. And that he should be grateful he got out from under Hank’s violence and was able to make something of himself. He didn’t know what kind of life he was making, but still it was a hell of a lot better than it could have been in his younger years, and now rage filled his eyes as he saw how some guys didn’t get that you don’t slap around woman, or young kids.

Especially those who were innocent, and those who could not defend themselves. Now he did remember that Liz was not powerless, but he also remembered how she did not want to associate with the gifts that had come as side effects to Max saving her life. Still, you did not strike someone like Liz. Or her daughter, for that matter and it made him full of anger to know that this time that landed them in the hospital probably had not been the only time.

He was standing guard. Because of when he arrived at the hospital, he had found out that Max had gotten Natasha discharged and disappeared somewhere, and Liz was still sleeping when he arrived outside her hospital room. She looked so bruised, and there were so many bandages.

And then he noticed Liz was waking up and squirming her discomfort in her hospital bed as she looked around, as if to reassure herself that she was somewhere safe. Michael hated that feeling. He had too much of it living under Hank’s roof. And it had taken awhile when he was living on his own to get over that feeling, of worry.

Liz’s eyes came towards the window and she seemed startled to see him. So, Michael knew he had to go in, and so he did. Opening the door, he went into her room. “I don’t want to intrude, so I was watching from the outside…”

“What day is it?” Liz asked softly, as he could see she was still hooked up to the IV and she seemed happy to have the drugs, taking away the pain.

“It’s still morning, and you slept all night” Michael murmured. “If you need a doctor or a nurse, I can go get them?” he asked. “If you’re feeling any pain?”

“No,” Liz said looking around, but she waved a doctor because she knew she had to get used to the pain she was suffering because she felt like she deserved it for not leaving as she glanced back on Michael. “It’s been a long time?”

“Yeah,” Michael acknowledged. “I wanted to come and see how you were doing…”

“I could be better,” Liz muttered. “I must look terrible?”

“You’ve looked better,” Michael smiled, and Liz chuckled. “Sorry…”

“No, it was the truth and I should hear it. I wish I could have made better choices” Liz sighed. “If only…”

“Don’t we all,” Michael muttered as he knew his life was not to be used a gold standard of what one should be looking to accomplish in their life. Only Max could be as seen as coming close to his goals, although Isabel was starting to get to that point. “It’s not your fault you got it wrong…”

“I should have seen it, and I still saw it and I stayed, so that is not very heroic” Liz muttered. “You got out of your situation, I didn’t…”

“Not because I left,” Michael remembered. “Only because someone else took it into their hands to deal with Hank their way,” he sighed as he remembered how that came back to burn him when bones got dug up and implicated him when they were identified to be his thought to be long dealt with foster father whose house he left back in Sophomore year of high school to move out on his own, and to be officially emancipated thanks to the legal help of Max’s father, Phillip.

One more reason to be grateful of Phillip Evans.

“I likely would have been forced to stick in that home if Nascedo hadn’t dealt with it like he did,” Michael murmured as they had long figured out who was the guilty party was as the bones were dug up once they were back in Roswell after their time on the road. “You might not remember?”

“I think I heard,” Liz murmured as she faintly did remember hearing of the legal troubles that Michael had gotten into briefly after Maria had left Roswell. The gossip did manage to leave Roswell and travel to Massachusetts and California. Especially when she did see some of Isabel in those early months before she cut off herself off from her former sister-in-law.

“Right, Maria?” Michael asked of his estranged wife. The someone that meant the world to them both, and someone he had not been able to see in many years. While Liz had been more fortunate in that regard. Michael not so much…

“Probably,” Liz confirmed. “I am sorry…”

“I never had any love for the man, but he did provide me a home, however limited it was at the time. He used me as a punching bag, and I did not fight back even though I had the physical abilities because I do not know what my life would have been if I had not gotten out when I did. You only can do what you can do. I don’t blame you for staying Liz, although I never pictured you to be someone who would have stayed, no matter how good of a situation it might have been in the beginning.”

“Me either,” Liz muttered. “But of course, I never pictured my life to have gone the way it did, so my judgment has always been screwy, ever since those days after high school, when I made choices that I now have to live with…”

“We all do,” Michael admitted.

“We do,” Liz nodded as flashes of that time flooded her brain. “In the beginning, I was as messed up Carl was. In the wake of everything that happened. School was not the answer I thought it would be, or least not in the beginning. I met Carl at a bar, and I could drink him under the table, as if it were a contest, but when I found out I was pregnant, I cleaned up my act. Carl didn’t, and I should have taken the hint and left, but I didn’t, and I guess I didn’t want to admit I screwed up yet and walked away from something good, and so I tried to make it at least tolerable for Natasha. I regret it, now. I know I should have left?”

“You have that chance, now”

“Too late,” Liz muttered.

“It’s never too late,” Michael murmured as he heard the door creek and he twisted and was stunned to see his past staring him in the face It is never too late, yeah right? he mused.

“Mommy!” Natasha cried as she rushed into the room, in a whirl of hurricane speeds and past Michael and right to the bedside of her mother.

“Oh god Natasha,” Liz whispered as she winced at the sight of her daughter with the black eye, and the arm in a sling as she looked up and saw how Michael and Maria were staring at each other as if in a trance. Yeah I know that experience she muttered to herself That was me and Max, alright but she didn’t want to think about Max, and so she concentrated on the person she should be concentrating on, now and in the future, her daughter.

“Mommy, you look so hurt…” Natasha murmured as she gasped when she got a clear view of her mother, for the first time in many hours.

“I am, but I am way better now that I see you…” Liz murmured.

While Liz concentrated on her daughter. All Michael and Maria could look at, were each other… Like they were in a trance. Damn it, why does he have to bring this out in me Maria muttered as she tried in vain to stop herself from reacting to her estranged husband. Michael on the other hand was trying to stop looking at Maria. For so long she had been out of his eyesight, and he could almost forget what she looked like. But there was no forgetting Maria now, and Michael hated that she was something he could not forget.

“Michael,” Maria asked as she was the first one to break.

“Maria… long time” Michael allowed.

“Yeah,” Maria nodded as she glanced over at the reunion between mother and daughter. She winced too at the sight of her best friend. “Oh god, Liz…”

“Don’t say it,” Liz sighed. “I know I look like hell…”


*


“Are you kidding me,” Max was muttering as he let himself his home for the first time in twenty-four hours. He figured her would be coming home after doing a double and would be dead tired. Well, he was dead tired, but he hadn’t pulled a double and now he had his sister and her fiancé on his doorstep wanting to know if he had a copy of his divorce papers from the end of his marriage to Liz. I should have burned them and he had come close because he didn’t want any memories of the dissolution of his marriage during those low days after they ended, but he talked himself out of it, and so yeah I have a copy of it. “Why?”

“You won’t want to know,” Isabel muttered I did not even want to know what I now know she muttered to herself as she looked at Kyle who only shook his head.

“Well you’re going to have to tell me if you want to dredge up the worst of my nightmares,” Max muttered as they walked into the living room and looked around and saw how much this was his home, and yet it wasn’t a home… just a place where he spent the nights, he wasn’t working at the hospital.

“And we wish we didn’t have to force you into that,” Kyle muttered.

“Then why are you wanting me to do this?” Max muttered as he stood in a face off with his sister and soon to be brother-in-law, and the fact he was also Liz’s ex did not plan into his frustration with this moment.

“Because we have some questions about your divorce” Kyle admitted. “And it’s better to see your copy of it…”

“Why?” Max muttered. “Because you know it is not a subject I want to ever revisit if I have a choice, and especially not in light of recent events. Guys, I do not need the memories. I rather think of what was positive, and not how it was in the end…”

“And we understand that,” Isabel muttered as she glanced at her boyfriend. “But Kyle here has some concerns about the process that led to the divorce.”

“What concerns?” Max muttered. “Liz wanted out, and I gave her that out. She filed our separation papers while she was still here in New Mexico and then eventually converted it to a request for the dissolution of our marriage once she had been in Cambridge a few months. I eventually did sign the papers and used Dad as my representative, and eventually it got finalized, and she remarried, and moved onto her life” he muttered. “Guys, she wanted it, and I wanted her to be happy.”

“I know,” Isabel sighed.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t last. Which is not surprising since happiness rarely lasts” Max muttered and then realized what he said and knew that his sister and Kyle were planning on a life of happiness together. “Sorry, I didn’t mean like it sounded. I know you two will be incredibly happy. Liz and I didn’t have that same fortune, unfortunately but I don’t wish her any ill will.”

“We know,” Kyle nodded.

“So, what is this about?” Max asked.

“We need to see your copy of your divorce agreement that you signed with Liz, because we have concerns whether it’s valid” Kyle blurted out and Max could have fainted because this was not what he was expecting to be said. “We know you want to say?”

“No, you don’t” Max whispered… “Because simply, are you freaking out of your minds?”

“I told you he was going to take it badly,” Isabel muttered as she did not relish to see her brother head into such a tale spin that was about to occur.

Which it did.
RoswellFan68
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Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 7 - 05/15/2020

Post by RoswellFan68 »

I think Maria means well, but she should let Max make his own decisions about Liz and her daughters.
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Superman86
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Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 7 - 05/15/2020

Post by Superman86 »

I'm glad that Kyle and Is told Max, now it's time to tell Liz. I hope that blood work come soon too; Max needs to know he's a father
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Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 7 - 05/15/2020

Post by Stefuh »

That must be so hard on Max... knowing that he might not really be divorced. I'm glad that Michael went to see Liz in the hospital but now I'm wondering what will happen since he finally met with Maria.
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Holding out for a Hero - Chapter 8 - 05/17/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

Badly was an understatement really as they dealt with a epic freak out for the next fifteen minutes before Max calmed down enough as Isabel and Kyle just sat and waited for the anxiety and the panic to drop to more acceptable levels in her brother before they went any further. When it looked like Max was calming down, Isabel took a step. “We know how this looks. I didn’t even believe it when Kyle first told me…” she sighed. “And mostly, I still don’t.”

“Then go with that first instinct because if you believe what you are saying than you are truly crazier than I could ever imagine you being. Because I don’t believe it because it’s simply not true…” Max stammered.

“Max…” Kyle tried to say but was shot down.

“No, don’t,” Max quickly muttered with a rare death glare. “As much as I would love there to be some issue with the divorce. But no,” Max muttered. “Dad didn’t bend the rules for me…” he asked. “We both know Dad, as he was not one to bend the rules, and especially not if was about the rule of law?”

“I know,” Isabel sighed.

“We both know,” Kyle sighed as he knew Phillip Evans as a lawyer even more so than his own kids did except for Max’s debacle in Utah. He knew Phillip Evans was not one to break the rules, or knowingly bend the law for the sake of his kids. The reason Max got out of the debacle in Utah with Liz was because he found evidence and was able to blackmail the government into releasing Liz, and that only led to estrangement between their son and his parents because of secrets Max was not able to reveal at that time. And later, Phillip used his knowledge of the law to get his daughter-in-law out of state control. The idea he would knowingly invalidate his son’s divorce was ludicrous, but to Kyle, it made a weird kind of sense.

Still, it was not something he wanted to think would have happened even if by a terrible sense of happenstance that it might be the thing that kept Liz out of the clutches of a mad man. Still, there were children involved.

“Dad was always about the letter of the law,” Max muttered. “The idea he would knowingly file a faulty agreement, and really it was Liz who sued for divorce. It all started with her because she is the one who wanted the divorce. I only went along with her wishes. Otherwise we might be in the situation Michael and Maria are in today… Marriage on paper only…” he sighed because he knew he would never have wanted to divorce or willingly end his marriage. But he would if it meant Liz was happy.

“We know,” Isabel sighed.

“Then the only way to settle this is if you do have a copy of your divorce agreement,” Kyle asked.

“Upstairs, I think… or it might be in some boxes that I never unpacked when I moved in here upon my return to town” Max conceded. “I spend most of my free time working so unpacking wasn’t a priority, so I never got the office up and running…”

“Can you look?” Kyle asked.

“Fine, only to prove to the two of you that this has to be some kind of elaborate joke or something you’ve cooked up to distract me from what is going on with Liz or from what is happening with her daughter,” Max muttered as he walked away, and headed upstairs to the office where he had his computer, and his cabinets that had paperwork and everything official, which was very disorganize as he came to realize.

Once he was gone, Isabel and Kyle stayed downstairs as Isabel turned to face her boyfriend. “I told you he was going to take it badly.”

“You were right,” Kyle conceded.

“It was the worse day in his life when he lost his marriage to Liz and signed those papers, and that is after going through what he had to go through back in high school” Isabel muttered. “Triggering those memories is never good with my brother. Especially when he now must deal with Liz, and what it means for her to be back in our lives.”

“And yet if the divorce…”

“Yeah you don’t have to finish that because I know… It might help Liz, but it will only hurt my brother in the long run if we give him hope, and he ends up losing her again especially after he grows attached the possibility of having a chance at a miracle.”

“I know,” Kyle conceded.

“I don’t want to give him that hope Kyle…” Isabel muttered.

“Neither do I,” Kyle allowed. “I was actually here in town, remember. I know what it took for Max to get over losing Liz, and a part of him still hasn’t which is why he’s reacting the way he is to Liz’s return…”

Isabel nodded.

“The last thing I want to do is give him hope,” Kyle allowed. “And then to snatch it away from him…”


*

Michael was the first the blink in the trance contest between the estrange spouses. He reacted in the only way he knew, he removed himself from the room. Allowing Maria to break from the spell and return her attention to her best friend, and goddaughter. “Chica my goodness, what happened to you…”

“I got myself in a bad spot,” Liz conceded as Natasha had gently jumped upon to her bed and sat by her mother’s side. Liz felt an immediate sense of relief and peace to have her daughter next to her. She only wished she could see her newest daughter. This is not how she had wanted Sarah Rose to be brought into the world and it did not help to see the injuries inflicted to her eldest either.

“You’re safe now,” Maria murmured.

“Carl is still out there…” Liz asked, and Maria nodded.

“I know you told me to run Mommy,” Natasha said quietly. “I let Daddy get away. I stayed and called 911.”

“You were very brave, my goodness, you are my brave strong girl” Liz murmured as she looked at Maria who had tears in her eyes. “It’s alright Maria. I will be fine,” she said as she soft pedaled her predicament”

“I wasn’t here when you needed me,” Maria asked.

“You’re here now,” Liz murmured. “That is what matters. Yesterday does not matter and I do not care whether it was immediate or right now, and Natasha. I know you were trying to cover up for what your Dad had done to you, and you should have come to me.”

“I knew Dad would get mad,” Natasha muttered as she had experienced too many nasty fights between her parents, and she knew if her mother knew her father had been physical against her, than hell would released, and it was... “I usually could handle him but got it out of me that we went to that funeral for Max’s parents. I slipped, and he pounced”

Liz winced at the wording. “I should never have told you to keep it a secret. You should never have been forced to handle your father. I should have been the one to be upfront with him. I am the adult. You were a child. It shouldn’t have been our secret and I am sorry for that but still you know you can come to me for anything, you know…”

“I know,” Natasha nodded. “Max has been great…”

“I am glad,” Liz murmured at the adoring tone that came from her daughter.

“I am thirsty,” Natasha asked.

“How about you take this and go the pop machine down the hall, and get something for the both of us” Maria smiled as she handed some bills to Natasha as the little girl got off the bed and headed for the door. “Come right back…”

“I will Mommy,” Natasha smiled.

Once gone. It only left Liz and Maria in the hospital room together. Sighing, Liz could not help but be reminded how grown up her daughter was becoming at seven years old. Soon to be eight. “I screwed up Maria.”

“She doesn’t hold it against you…” Maria murmured.

“She should. I should have been her hero and instead I let Carl hurt her, and I did not see the signs. She kept me in the dark, and I did not see what was going on with her when I should have. I thought he was only hurting me, Maria. I never thought he would go after such an innocent child, our child.”

“Obviously, he felt threatened” Maria muttered at her hatred for the man only grew. If she could get a hand on the creep. “You shouldn’t doubt yourself Liz. You are her hero. You survived a brutal attack. She loves you and that won’t change.”

“You should never marry someone you meet over drinks in a bar,” Liz muttered. “Or someone you got drunk with on the first night,” she sighed. “So, how close has she been to Max?” Maria asked.

“Speaking of hero worship, your ex-husband is one to her” Maria muttered. “She’s totally smitten. I guess mother, like daughter…”

Yeah Liz murmured. Like mother, like daughter. “He knows he doesn’t have to do it, right?” she asked of her ex-husband.

“It’s Max,” Maria observed. “He can’t help himself because it’s you. And he will always want to save you, and Natasha is yours, and so to him, that brand of protection is reserved to her as well. So, yeah, he can’t help himself.”

“I screwed up…” Liz whispered.

“So, what are you going to do about it?” Maria asked.


*


“Are you kidding me?” Michael asked as he arrived at his friend’s home after getting to SOS from his best friend. And needing the distraction for memories of Maria, and the corresponding dreams. He took the door open him to distract himself when Isabel called saying he was needed at Max’s home.

Max was still upstairs, looking through his mess of a filing system and so it was just Kyle and Isabel waiting for Max to come back when Michael arrived. “You know you sound insane, don’t you?”

“We know,” Isabel muttered.

“To even think Phillip Evans might have spearheaded an effort to thwart his son’s divorce. When we know Liz eventually married that asshole of a husband. I doubt Liz would have gone through with her second marriage if she had any doubts about the legality of her first divorce. Whether she was pregnant at the time. She wanted it to be over. If this is what you think it is. Wouldn’t it make her, what, a bigamist if…”

“If she knew,” Kyle muttered. “All I am going on is my copy of the agreement, that was filed with the State of New Mexico,” he sighed. “Which is why we are dependant on Max’s copy of his divorce.”

“Which doesn’t help him or us…” Michael muttered. “If you give him a choice, he’s going to grasp on any chance to be there for Liz…”

“We know,” Kyle conceded. “We shouldn’t be giving him the hope, but if this ends up helping Liz fight Carl…”

“Those children are still his…” Michael asked.

“Biologically maybe, but if she is still legally married to Max, and has been for the last ten years since they took their vows than Carl wouldn’t be considered the legal father. Max could be declared the father or have more rights in a custody hearing than the biological father.”

“But we know differently” Michael muttered as he never considered these implications of a long separation and children being born in that span of time if you got involved with anyone in that period of time even if both spouses agree that they were over…

“And a court might rule differently in the long run,” Kyle asked. “But given what Carl has done. If he tries to get at the kids in the legal system. Liz has recourse to thwart him…”

“Only if she takes it,” Isabel muttered.

“Something tells me she has found her rock bottom,” Michael muttered as he thought of his recent visit with her. “She’s not going to want to go back to him…”

“Max legally being her husband gives her protection” Kyle muttered. “And something tells me that he’s not going to want to give that up, this time.”

“So, we want the divorce to be faulty?” Isabel asked.

“You can say that” Kyle murmured as Isabel and Michael could only look at each other and wonder where this would lead for their brother and friend. Because they both knew Max would go to great lengths to protect Liz if given the chance. And that meant even risking his heart once again on a chance he didn’t want to lose at when they were younger, and now he had a rare chance to go back in time and correct the worst period of his life. When he lost his wife.

What they didn’t know was Max had overheard them as he was coming downstairs as he had taken time to stare into space up in his office as he had almost tossed the office looking for his file related to his divorce. Memories were evoked by finding the file. Opening it, and memories of passion, only merge into ones of tears and unhappiness as he remembered the day, he had signed the papers.

Coming down the stairs, he had overheard the last segment of the conversation with no context related to it. It had made him stopped and listen and forced to try to piece the pieces together. “Biologically maybe, but if she is still legally married to Max, and has been for the last ten years since they took their vows than Carl wouldn’t be considered the legal father. Max could be declared the father or have more rights in a custody hearing than the biological father.”

“But we know differently” Michael muttered as he never considered these implications of a long separation and children being born in that span of time if you got involved with anyone in that period of time even if both spouses agree that they were over…

“And a court might rule differently in the long run,” Kyle asked. “But given what Carl has done. If he tries to get at the kids in the legal system. Liz has recourse to thwart him…”

“Only if she takes it,” Isabel muttered.

“Something tells me she has found her rock bottom,” Michael muttered as he thought of his recent visit with her. “She’s not going to want to go back to him…”

“Max legally being her husband gives her protection” Kyle muttered. “And something tells me that he’s not going to want to give that up, this time.”

“So, we want the divorce to be faulty?” Isabel asked.


“Max,” Isabel said softly as she looked up and saw her brother frozen on the steps as she slightly cursed and wondered how much he had overheard. “How much did you hear?”

“The last bit,” Max said coming out of his trance. “What were you talking about?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Kyle muttered as he saw the file in Max’s hand. “What did you find?”

“I signed all the necessary lines,” Max muttered as he had been faintly hoping that Kyle’s joke had some merit, and the divorce was faulty even though he knew his father would never breach his ethics like that. Still the power of his love for Liz wanted the hope to be there… just like his sister feared.

“Can I look?” Kyle asked.

“All you want,” Max muttered as he treated the file as it was radio active and didn’t want to touch it longer than he needed to as Kyle took it from Max, and glanced through it as he walked away from Max and Isabel to peruse the contents of the file. Michael could see his friend was full of emotional conflict. So did Isabel.

“So, whoever told you that the divorce isn’t final, then they were playing a joke of you because it is…” Max muttered as he walked into his kitchen and grabbed a beer from his fridge despite the hour.

“I am sorry Max,” Isabel said softly. “I didn’t want to reawaken the memories in you…”

“The memories are always there Isabel…” Max muttered. “There will never be a moment that I don’t remember what I had, and what I lost…” he sighed as the memories started to bombard his brain once again and he didn’t try to switch them off because he lived to be tormented by the memories because it was the only way he could remember that he once was blessed to have the love of someone special, and someone who was his miracle. “I don’t ever want to forget Liz…”

“One day it will get easier…” Isabel murmured.

“I don’t want it easy. I only want it easy for her…” Max said softly.

“Then let me want that for you” Isabel sighed as Kyle who had spent time looking at the file. “Anything?”

“You are right, the copy you have is signed, and all the t’s are crossed and dotted” Kyle confirmed. “In fact, you would think this was the one who should have been filed, instead of the other one.”

“We’re divorced Kyle. Thinking anything else is stupid…” Max muttered. “And a waste of valuable time…”

“You might well be,” Kyle sighed. “But I still need to do some glancing at both documents. This one does not have the stamp that makes it official. The other one does, which makes it the one that was filed with the State of New Mexico. So, I still have some questions regarding the validity of the document.”

“Leave it alone Kyle” Max advised. “It does no one any good to dredge this up…”

“I would love to leave it alone,” Kyle admitted. “I know it does nothing for it to awaken old dreams, and memories of a life that vanished years ago, but still are you willing to give up on your chance of helping Liz…”

“What are you talking about?” Max said softly. “How would this help Liz?”

“If you’re legally her husband. It gives some leverage in any fight with Carl. It means her marriage would have been taken to court, to be granted legal and binding. If you are legally her husband, and you want to revoke your permission for the divorce. You and Liz would have to go to court, and prove that you two have been apart, and that she’s not entitled to any of your assets accumulated over these seven plus years, and same with her…”

“We have signed agreements to indicate we were separated.” Max asked as he felt blown away by the possibility. “Any court is going to see that and uphold our separation… or our divorce for that matter…”

“But your divorce might not be legal, and therefore you will have only been separated these last seven years. Which means you have been legally married during the time she has been with Carl. And therefore, it leaves open the possibility that Carl could renounce the children…”

“He’s not going to do that” Michael murmured. “It gives him leverage against Liz…”

“To assert that leverage then he will have to go to court to prove paternity…” Kyle murmured. “And Max can make it hard for him by claiming the kids.”

“Which is going to be very easy to prove,” Max muttered as he had dreams that the children were his, but he knew that was only a dream. And his child with Liz had died because of the government… “Even if I tried to say they were mine, any blood test will tell them the truth. And any claim by me would be overruled because any judge will see that we led very separate lives. Until six months ago, I hadn’t seen her since the day she left.”

“You still would be married. Your marriage supersedes any contract she entered with Carl, legally or spiritual, and therefore because you will have married. You could be legally declared the father of any children she had within the time of your separation, as they would be classified as a result of an affair, and still you would be considered their father if you were still legally married. Biology does not mean a whole lot if your marriage is still legitimate, and has been ended, officially. So, it could be a way to thwart Carl’s attempt to get at the children” Kyle murmured as Max looked up at the mere thought “Otherwise, Liz might have a difficult case…”

“What are you talking about. Carl just about killed her, and if Natasha had not called 911 when she did, Liz and the baby would have died before help could have gotten to them. Carl did that” Max glared as revulsion at the suffering his ex-wife and her daughters had to go through, and to know it wasn’t over, the fallout was only just beginning…

“We have only Liz and Natasha’s word for it. And while she has records to indicate that this wasn’t the first time and will backup Liz’s claims and therefore she’s unlikely going to lose on that point but they aren’t going to take Natasha’s word for it because children lie when they want to protect a parent,” Kyle admitted to the disgust of the group in the room. “You all know that a seven-year-old will not be a reliable witness to the behavior of her parents. Even if she has been on the other end of that violence on this one occasion, or whether there were more… So, Liz is going to need more on her side. And then you might see that Carl will go nuclear as well…”

“What could he do?” Isabel asked.

“If they won’t give him custody, assuming they can prove paternity than he could give the court reasons why Liz would be also an unfit parent and while Natasha will want to stay with her mother, the court might not give her a choice if the court decides that Liz could have and should have left and by staying, she exposed Natasha abuse, and likely would have put the baby in harm’s way if this most recent incident happened once the baby was born…”

“God,” Max admitted, and Michael looked sick because he knew the system more than his best friends who got adopted into a loving family while he had spent ten years in the system upon their discovery. He knew firsthand how brutal the system could be in the name of trying to protect children, and Liz would have to prove that she was a loving mother and even if she were to prove it, there was no guarantee that Liz would come out of the battle with both of her children, or in one piece…

“So…” Kyle sighed.

“So, what?” Max asked.

“If you’re legally married, well, then you have a way of protecting Liz” Kyle reasoned.

“But it shows Dad to be a shoddy lawyer you bended the rules in unethical means…”

“In a way that benefited you in the end. He might have hoped that you and Liz would come to your senses and reconciled, and when you did not, he might have just forgotten that he had done it. Given it was not in his daily files. He had put the file in a locked drawer, and maybe he had forgotten about it, but we will never know. Unfortunately, because he is gone, so you’re not harming him…”

“We’re harming his reputation” Isabel muttered as she held the same concerns as her brother Blaming a dead man is not any easier, even if it gets Max his miracle.

“But he’ll take it if it means you two are safe and sound. And happy. You know he will want Max and Liz to work it out if they can. At the end of the day, he is dead, so the dings will not hurt him in the end.

“Did he know Liz remarried?” Michael asked.

“I have no idea,” Max admitted. “I never talked about Liz after we ended. And Mom and Dad stopped asking about her, because it was the one subject, they knew they would get nothing from me on. It is possible they talked to the Parkers because I know they did talk, but given that once Liz moved away, she distance herself from her old life here in Roswell to such a extent that she didn’t even talk to her own parents, who have been in the dark about a lot of things in their daughters so I grant you Kyle that Dad might have just plain forgotten…”

“What if you had met someone and wanted to get married?” Isabel muttered.

“Which will never happen Isabel. Even if our divorce is upheld and we are officially over. I am never remarrying,” Max stated quite firmly. “Dad knew that, and it’s the truth… That time in my life is over. You might not believe me sis but I am happy with my life and my career, and Mom and Dad knew that by the time they died that I was more content with what I am achieving at the hospital than in my personal life, and so, they stopped pushing.”

“This is a mess” Isabel muttered as she did not like knowing her brother had cornered off such an essential part of himself.

“So, are you going to clarify the mess Max?” Kyle asked as he knew the pressure, he was putting on his friend, but he also knew this might be start of a lot of lives getting a little happier by the end, if this played out right. “Do you know what you are going to do?”

“I don’t know…” Max said softly as his mind was full of Liz and wondered if he could get back his dream girl… But what if she does not want me anymore? Could he handle the rejection, a second time? “I have to think about it.”
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Holding out for a Hero - Chapter 9 - 05/20/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

Max was still thinking about his predicament as he arrived at the hospital and saw Jeff Parker walking across the parking lot to the front door of the hospital. As much as Max wanted to work on nullifying the divorce if indeed his father filed the wrong documents. Yet, he did not know whether he could handle if Liz did want to go back to her life. A life that did not include him. But one just of her children. As much as he wanted her to be happy. He knew he could not take it if he lost her again and yet he wanted to protect her from Carl. She and Natasha needed him to protect them. So, he was in a quandary about what to do as he saw Liz’s dad coming his way. “Jeff,’ he said softly. “Nancy?”

“Back at the Crashdown” Jeff Parker murmured as Nancy was back at the Crashdown and would be joining him when Amy arrived to take over for her, but Jeff couldn’t stay at the restaurant despite the fact he hadn’t seen his daughter. “Max?” Jeff murmured as he saw his former son-in-law. “Where were you?”

“Meeting my sister and Kyle,” Max sighed. “I was here earlier,” ignoring the fact that he had slept in the hospital the night before.

“How is my daughter Max?” Jeff asked.

“I was going to find that out myself because professionally I am off the case. Would you want to come and see her for herself?” Max asked and could see the conflict in his former father-in-law. “I think she would want to see you?”

“Max, you don’t know how bad it was between us,” Jeff said softly. “She stayed away because of how bad it got. How can I go in there like nothing happened?”

“Because I can,” Max said softly. “I am only her ex-husband. Jeff, you are her father?” he murmured as wanted to forget for that matter that Kyle of all people was trying reopen old wounds by asserting that he might not really be her ex. “She’s your daughter. At the end of the day, you share blood, and she loves you. Sometimes, you can go home again. I do not have that chance with my parents. Because they have been taken from me, and still we had some rocky days, and I was able to go home again. Your daughter needs to know that you support her?”

“I will always love her…” Jeff admitted

“So, take that step, and take that chance” Max encouraged because she knew it was what Jeff needed, and what Liz would need to be able to start the bridge that gap, and win a round against Carl. “You’ve been given a sign Jeff. Because when you think about it, well, you could have lost her,” he said matter of flatly and Jeff winced. “I saw her when she came Jeff so yes, I know when I say it that it was bad. She got incredibly lucky. She and Natasha both did. So, yeah, maybe the time has come to calm some of those troubled waters?”

“Yeah, maybe…” Jeff acknowledged as he didn’t like knowing how close he had come again to losing his daughter as it had taken him so years before he found out that his daughter had almost died when she was fifteen, and how it opened a new world for his daughter, and one that led him to lose it all over again. But knowledge that she was out there in the world was better than it would have been if she had not been saved by Max that and she had been instead six feet underground in some grave. It gave prospective, but still it is never easy trying to bridge gap that were wounds left untreated. So, maybe Max was right? Jeff mused. Maybe it was time to try to rebuild that bridge. “Can I ask a question?” he asked as they walked through the front lobby of the hospital.

“What is it?” Max asked.

“Why help my daughter after how bad it got between the two of you. She left you. She wanted out. So, why help her now?” Jeff asked because he had seen how awful it had been in those days for his daughter and Max.

“Simple,” Max said softly. “I love your daughter Jeff,” he said honestly as they got into the elevator that would take them to the floor that held the Intensive Care Unit. “To the day I die, I will always love her. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how bad it gets or how angry we get at each other because I will do anything for her, and yes, she could end up leaving this hospital tomorrow and it could be the last time I see her, and still, if I helped her at all, even a tiny bit, then I will have known that I would have done my best by her…” he murmured. “She matters too much to me not to help her, even if it never does lead to anything...”

“Max,” Jeff sighed.

“I hurt her back when were teenagers. I know we were too young for how intense it was between us, and we both made choices we would come to regret. But I do not regret loving your daughter or for the fact for a moment of time, I could call her my wife. If I can help her now. I will do it because she did so much for me once upon a time. She made sacrifices for me and I took her for granted. I expected that she would always be there for me. And she was until she was not. As a result, she gave up a lot on her journey, and I will never forget that, or forgive myself for allowing her to, and so, if I can help her now, then I will do it. She and Natasha need all the support they can get…”

Why did she have to walk away from you Jeff mumbled to only himself. As much as he hated those challenges when his daughter was a teenager. He knew Max genuinely loved his daughter, and would protect her at his own expense, and to know his daughter walked away from that, was hard to handle.

“I wish things had turned out differently,” Jeff muttered.

“Don’t we all,” Max nodded as Jeff walked further down the hall towards the ICU and he stopped and thought about the past, and the present as he did not realize someone was watching him. “Oh,” he muttered. “So, you heard?”

“Couldn’t help it.” Maria smirked. “I was giving Liz and Natasha some alone time, and I was taking a little walk when I saw the two of you.”

“And…” Max murmured and could see from the smirk on her face that she had something to say to him.

“So, you really can’t stop being some saint, can you?” Maria asked with a sigh and a laugh because she could sense that Max had been trying to patch things up between Liz and her father. Max is one of those special ones. Liz is so lucky to have him in her corner “You can’t help but be a hero, huh?”

“It was only right thing to do” Max muttered. “I am sure Liz would have done the same if the situation was reversed,” he sighed as the pain of never seeing his parents faces again dug deep as she would never get over how he had taken them for granted and how much he wished he could see their faces once again, and know their love was unconditional, which he had known it was so if he could only a little to make sure Liz had that ability to reconnect with her family, because she needed someone in her corner, and he knew she needed her parents for the moral support in the days to come, and maybe even longer as she truly tried to recover…

“If only…” Maria muttered because she knew how Max had wished thing could be different. If only she mused to herself as she and Max continued their trek towards Liz’s hospital room, albeit a little slower…


*

Meanwhile, Liz was watching Natasha rattle off all of what she had seen since she had been in Roswell. It still felt surreal to know she was back, and that she didn’t have to fear Carl and yet she knew he was out in the world and could come back at any time, and therefore there was a tiny kernel of fear that this was all a dream, and she would wake up and face the true reality of her life, which had been a nightmare by the end. Since she woke up, it had been one experience after another, and she did not know if she could take anymore but she could hear the chatter of her daughter any day of the week. Natasha brightened up her existence and had made her life worth living when it had truly gotten bad with Carl. Otherwise, who knows where she would be today if she hadn’t had her daughter to focus on, even as she wished she could have woken up sooner, and gotten out of there and taken her daughter to safety and that the situation hadn’t escalated to the point where she was bound to this bed and that she was recovering from life threatening injuries.

She was leaning back against her pillow, and about to tell Natasha to go and find Maria when out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure standing by the door and staring at her. She wanted to think that it was the medication she was on, and she was only dreaming, and yet she refocused her eyes, and knew it was not a dream and that it was reality. Because it had been eight years since she had seen this figure, and she didn’t know what to say except “Dad” as she whispered a name, she had long to say but hadn’t because she had been too stubborn.

“Lizzie,” Jeff Parker whispered at the sight of his daughter for the first time in many years. “Can I come in?”

Can he she mused. She did not feel good knowing how she had moved on with her life and ignored her parents. When she knew she had been so close to them at one time, and all they wanted was for her to be okay. Now that she was a mother, she had gotten a up-close look at all kinds of parental worries and she didn’t like knowing how she practically disowned her parents because her husband had a bad impression of them, and her parents didn’t much like her husband and how they had been very vocal in their hatred for the man, and how they had wished she had chosen someone else, or that she hadn’t allowed that someone to get away.

Which is rich because they would have given anything for her to have broken up with Max when she was in high school and up to her neck in many antics that had only caused angst, and a high danger level. To here them sprout the virtues of her ex-husband wasn’t almost as bad to her as hearing their hatred for Carl, and maybe more because she hadn’t been happy with herself to know she had walked away from Max, knowing how much he had loved her, and if they had only tried harder than maybe they might have gotten over those bad times. I did not want to hear my doubts in their wishes

If only so much was different, she sighed as she glanced at her father and he glanced at her as the both dealt with conflict feelings.

“Grandpa,” Natasha asked as she broke the silence as the little girl smiled as she bounced off the bed and ran to see Jeff who smiled. “You came…” as Liz was stunned to see that her daughter now knew of her grandfather.

“It’s nice to see you” Jeff said unsure what to say as his eyes did not leave his daughter as he winced at the damage done to his little girl.

Liz knew it and looked for a out. “Honey, Natasha, why don’t you go and find Maria for me, okay. Tell her that I want to talk to her if she has the time before she has to leave?”

“Sure,” the seven-year-old smiled as she glanced back at her mother, and then back at her grandfather, and then the bubbly and seemingly unaffected young girl skipped out of the room. It was obvious seeing and talking to her mother had lifted her spirits.

Once gone, it left Liz and Jeff in the same room for the first time in nearly eight years. “Liz…” Jeff tried.

“So, you know my daughter?” Liz asked softly, unsure of how to respond and knew the words spoken had come out a little gruff.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Jeff asked as he surveyed his daughter for the first time and winced at the injuries she was suffering from. “We met last night. I don’t want to be a burden, so, if you need of rest, and if this is too much, then I can go…”

“No,” Liz murmured softly and in almost whispered tone. “Don’t go…”

“Liz,” Jeff murmured as he knew he could not stop saying her name. “Your mother wanted to be here, and she’ll be in a little while…”

“I am glad you know of Natasha,” Liz said finally as she nodded. “I am sorry that you had to find out his way. I wish I could have told you, but you know…” she almost whispered because she had many regrets about her conduct these last years and many of them included how she had treated her parents. Sure, words had been spoken, and she had been angry, but she should have been able to go home again, and she allowed Carl a victory in how she had treated her mother and father.

“Yeah,” Jeff nodded. “Look honey, I am sorry… if I said anything” he murmured as he had a lot to regret with what he did say to his daughter back in those days as he couldn’t wrap his head around what she would have suffered at the hands of the federal government. Only in the years since her departure, and knowing more about Max, Michael and Isabel did he realize just what kind of raw deal they had gotten and how much his daughter had been trying to help and suffered as a result.

“We both said things we wish we could have taken back,” Liz allowed. “I wish I would have acted more maturely about it. But back then, things were raw, and I could not handle it, so I just ran, and that meant running from you and Mom. If only I could go back, and revisit that time because if I could then I would find that I would be doing everything so differently…” she sighed as she wished she could get into a time machine and go back into the past, and prevent so much, if only she had things different and yet then she wouldn’t have Natasha she felt, and she definitely wouldn’t have Sarah Rose.

“I am sorry too Liz,” Jeff sighed as he reflected back on those times when his only child had come home from being in captivity, changed, and she was no longer the daughter he had known, and he knew now that it had been the same for her and Max. Jeff had seen the pain, and the raw emotion in his daughter but he didn’t see it at the same time “We knew you were hurting from what those monsters did to you,” he whispered. “If only we could have gotten you free sooner…”

“I am sorry too Dad,” Liz murmured as she winced as she flashed back to those time when she really did think the government would treat her different than how they had treated her husband when they had captured him. Only to be brutally reminded that things were different, and they felt she was no longer the human she had been before because she had loved a alien, and let him touch her, and therefore they had poked and prodded, and the invasiveness had left scars on her, and unlike Max, who could simply heal himself, well, she didn’t have that power, and she hadn’t wanted Max to help her when they had been able to reunite and be in each other’s arm once again. Which had left a lot unsaid between them as they both let the experience drift them away from the other, and ultimately that had done in their marriage. And now she reflected on those times and how it had affected her relationship with her parents “We might have said things we both regret but I stayed away. When I should have stayed in touch or at in the very least, let you know I was okay. You didn’t know about Natasha, and that is on me, because it shouldn’t be how you found out you and Mom have a granddaughter?” Liz said with remorse in her voice. “If only I had stayed in touch,” she sighed. “Then maybe it would be different today?”

“We’ll never know,” Jeff murmured and knew this meeting of the minds was tentative and awkward. “Just know that we only wanted the best for you, and for you to be happy…”

“I see that now,” Liz acknowledged. “Being a parent myself, I can see why you and Mom reacted in some of the ways you did…” she sighed. “It’s never easy to know a innocent life relies on you to make the world safe for them, and as they grow up, and when they want independence, and sometimes it’s contrary to what you want for them?”

“Yeah,” Jeff couldn’t help but agree with his daughter’s assessment because he knew it is very easy to say you would do things different when you are a parent but when you have someone whose very life depends on you to make the right decisions, than you are liable to make some questionable ones and pray that it will work out in the end and for your child and therefore Jeff would always regret that he had missed out on his only child for all these years. If only I could have done things differently he mused to himself because he had known he had a rough life before he had met Nancy and had Liz, and had wanted things to be different and therefore it had been a nightmare to watch her travel town similar roads to ones he did face, and yet to know she had very different worries than he had, and regretted so much because of that when he didn’t see how she was crying out for help. “You have trust that they will make different choices, and yet you find that don’t want to let go, and I am sorry that I didn’t see that back then, because if only I had done differently too, we might not have driven you away?”

What they didn’t realize that they had company as Max and Maria watched the reunion from the doorway, unable to walk in because they didn’t want to intrude while the seven year old in Natasha was smiling, wildly, as if she felt instant relief that things might work out. Mommy will be alright “I knew it…” she whispered softly as Max and Maria were the only ones to be able to hear the child.

“Knew what?” Max murmured as they walked away from the door to give Liz and her father more time to spend to together

“That they would reunite,” Natasha smiled. “I had a dream you see that they would…” she murmured as she was all smiles as Jeff came out a moment later and nodded at Max. “Maria, Liz would like to talk to you…” he asked. “I think she’s getting tired and needs to sleep, so you might want to make any talk quick?”

“Sure,” Maria nodded and pointed at Natasha. “Come on Baby Doll, let’s go in and say good-bye to your mother so that she sleep, and we can let Max and your grandfather talk” Maria said as she could only smile as she went back into room with Natasha, while leaving Jeff and Max to talk among themselves.

“Thank you,” was all Jeff said.

“You’re welcome,” Max nodded as Jeff walked away which left Max to glance through the glass and stare at Liz, and he was about to leave when he saw her eyes reaching through the glass at him, as they felt the power in the stare…


*

“Can you handle it?” Liz was asking even thought her eyes could not help but stare out of the room, through the glass window and at her past. Max still stood guard, as if he could not tear himself away even though he knew she was needing to rest, and he had other things he should be doing. Maria could not help but see the stares, and she smiled innerly at the bond those two shared, and she only wished they could have some semblance of happiness, as Natasha was oblivious as she was babbling on…

“What?” Maria murmured as Liz came back to their conversation.

“I assume you’re staying with your mother and Jim?” Liz asked as she was aware of the marriage of Maria’s mother to the town Sheriff.

“It’s new, but yeah, but I don’t know how much longer I will be there…” Maria sighed. “Of course, financially I am little parched.” She muttered as she thought of her financial situation which was on it’s last legs and how she had depended on the cruise job to even things out there, but now that she was back in Roswell, she might have to resort to some of her old jobs to make ends meet.”

“Your landlord was always a slimeball?” Liz observed.

“So he was, but I though his son was decent enough, but I guess not,” Maria sighed as she thought of the last conversation they had before she heard the news. “I was headed down south when I got the news?”

“Florida?” Natasha pipped up, intrigued.

“Nope, a cruise ship to the Caribbean” Maria muttered. “It wasn’t my style, but it would have provided a roof over my head, and steady employment. I had called and left you a message, inviting the two of you along for a portion of it. But then I heard what happened, and I rushed back here…”

“I am sorry if you have to give up on that job” Liz quietly asked and wondered what she would have done if she had gotten the call. She had reached her rock bottom in her marriage, but she had not left in time for the last few days not to have happened. She wanted to believe she could have left, but then, she had not… she did not know why she could not, but now, everything was different, and she would have figure out what to do next…

“Don’t think about it, Liz,” Maria smiled. “I chose to come back because I do want to be here and I don’t regret it because it does allow me to be closer to mother, and to the two of you” she sighed because of what she had given up on many fronts. “So, maybe I’ll take this time to figure out where my life is going with this detour into the past,” she sighed as she sighed as she looked knowingly at her best friend “I was going places Liz, unfortunately not everything is singing at the Pizza Pan or Cow Patties.”

“We both thought we were going places,” Liz whispered. “and yet we ended up falling…” she stopped herself because she knew she had dozens of regrets, but she would never regret having love and been loved by Max. Max was a moon shot she mused to herself. She only hated that they could not have gotten what they wanted for their lives, which was being together in their pursuit of their dreams. For a moment there, we thought we had everything

“Them…” Maria muttered as she smiled as she remembered how neither had been prepared for what it meant to fall in love with their aliens. “But I wouldn’t trade it for anything, how about you?”

“Who?” Natasha asked.

“You’re too young to know,” Liz muttered as she exchanged a rare smile at Maria, who smiled back “No, I wouldn’t trade those years for anything” she admitted to her friend because there had been a lot of good times with their aliens. “Anyway, back to what we were originally discussing. I know you are staying with Amy and Jim. Would they mind if Natasha stayed with you, for a few days at least…”?

“I would love it, but I would have to ask Mom and Jim” Maria acknowledged. “We do have the other room because Kyle is living with Isabel these days”

“If it’s too much, I can think of something else?”

“You don’t have too many other options,” Maria acknowledged because she knew she had to do this because the alternative was nothing she was willing to risk “So, you shouldn’t stress about it, I’ll work it out, I promise,” Maria assured her friend. “And plus, Natasha will be in the safest house possible, the town Sheriff’s home” she laughed and Liz’s nodded because she knew Carl was still out, and was liable to do anything out of hatred for her, and she knew she had to protect the one daughter who will be out there, in the world unprotected. “Mom and Jim will understand”

“I would appreciate it,” Liz murmured.

“She will be safe in my hands,” Maria promised as they soon left as Liz drifted off to sleep almost as soon as her friend and daughter left her alone.

*

“Have you seen this man?” Michael was asking a short time in an old haunt of his that he had not visited much in all his bar hopping. Memories prevented him from coming here when he was down and out. Being somewhere where no one knew his name of story was more appealing than being a in a place where someone was always known to find him. And especially not a blue eye, blonde hair beauty who had made this her place of singing as she got older and was able to command the stage. Sometimes with Jim, and then later, on her own.

But at least on this day, he was on a mission and not one that would lead him to finding a card game or getting drunk. This time he needed answers. If only to keep Max from going insane, and so he was pursuing a normal calling for once, and one that was remarkably cheaper. “I am told he comes here?”

“Can’t say I have,” said a waitress as she glanced at the picture. “But men like that only come at night, and this is the day shift, you know?”

“I know,” Michael muttered because he wasn’t the kind to come during the day either because he was either doing other matters or trying to sober out from the night before, so he knew exactly what she was saying. “Still, he’s capable of changing his routine.”

“Who wants to know?” the waitress asked.

“Let’s just say the Sheriff of this town will be very happy if you do recognize him…” Michael muttered despite knowing that Jim would not be thrilled to know he was hearing again asking questions. “He’s wanted for questioning?”

“What did he do?” the waitress asked.

“Put his wife in the hospital,” Michael muttered simply to the wide eye of the girl “So, this guy has one nasty violent streak,” he muttered. “One that also gave his daughter a black eye, and broken bones, so if you know anything then you might as well tell me?”

“Check with Rhonda,” the waitress said. “She’s been working the night shift all week, until today…”

“Thank you,” Michael muttered as he left to find this other waitress.


*

“What is this place?” Natasha was asking as she and Max walked up to the front doors of the Crashdown. With Liz was taking a well deserve rest, Max hadn’t yet left the hospital when he had run into Maria and Natasha, and Maria asked if he minded keeping an eye on the child because she had to do a errand to conduct that wasn’t appropriate for a child, and Max readily agreed, and because Max knew the little girl had to be hungry because she been full of energy, and raring to go all morning, and it was one thing after another, and she hadn’t stopped to eat. So, he took the chance and decided to bring Natasha to a place that had history and child appropriate food. It was not only on his part to decide this place as Maria had also suggested it too because Liz had commented on it, and if Liz commented on it, then Max knew it was something his ex-wife wanted, and he would never not give Liz something she wanted right down to her request to end their marriage so he chose to come to a place he had rarely been to since his return to town. The memories were too prevalent for him to come here, but he would do anything for Liz and that meant coming back and facing his past.

“The Crashdown Café” Max murmured. “It is your grandparent’s restaurant?”

“They have a restaurant?” Natasha looked up and the flying saucer that showcased the name of the place. “Cool.” The seven-year-old murmured as she looked around. “Does Mommy know of this place?”

“Yes, she does because she grew up here,” Max said battling the memories that flooded his memory of all his memorable encounters, and they had always been memorable for one reason or another, good and bad. “She knew this place well”

“Why didn’t Mom bring me here?” Natasha asked as she looked up at Max, and he could not resist the little girl who looked so familiar, and so like the girl he first met when he first showed up at school. A girl who took his breath away, years before he was old enough to know what it all meant to have a dream girl.

“You will have to ask your mother that,” Max murmured as he opened the door and they walked through it as he noticed that Nancy was at the ordering counter and she froze when she saw her former son-in-law and grandfather walk into the establishment. A moment she had not seen in many years and as she saw Natasha, she rushed into the back, and moments later Jeff Parker came rushing out.

“So, I see you have a welcoming committee?” Max cracked because he knew it wasn’t for him as he saw the patrons looking at the two strangely because the Crashdown was such a establishment that everyone knew everyone’s business, and therefore secrets were not going to be buried for long, and therefore everyone knew the history of Max, and the owners daughter. A daughter who had not graced her parent’s establishment in many years, and he had not either despite being a constantly presence before Graduation 2022 occurred and changed many of a life in town. Natasha’s strong resemblance to the prodigal daughter of Jeff and Nancy started to bring the buzz throughout the establishment. A few even were convinced they saw a resemblance between the girl and the man who had brought her into the restaurant, but none would openly say it.

“You think,” Natasha asked.

“Yeah, I think” Max muttered. “We might as well say hello?”

Jeff and Nancy could not believe that Max would bring Natasha to their place. Jeff could not help but wonder if the gods were trying to return things to normal. “Jeff, she looks so much like our daughter” Nancy whispered as they saw Max and Natasha talking before, they began their approach.

“She does,” Jeff confirmed but he also swore he saw someone else in their granddaughter.

“Max,” Nancy murmured as they watched as Max and Natasha approached. “What are you doing here?”

“Natasha was hungry. So, I took the chance, but also Liz wanted me to bring her here. Maria is busy and is meeting us here in a little while,” Max murmured. “I couldn’t help but think that Natasha deserved one of your burgers for lunch?”

“How are you doing today?” Nancy asked Natasha as they both saw that the black eye was now fading into a more bruised color but had her arm still in the sling.

“I am fine,” Natasha murmured as she glanced around at the giant restaurant that had colorful walls, and an alien theme. “The pain is easy to manage. And plus, Mommy is awake and that is all I want…”

“I am glad,” Nancy smiled even though she did not relish knowing their granddaughter had known pain. “After the lunch rush, I am going to go over and see if I can see her.”

“I think she’ll like that,” Max murmured as again he was forced to think of Liz in her hospital bed. “Why don’t you go and find us a table,” he motioned to Natasha who nodded and went and found a booth.

“Thank you, Max,” Jeff muttered as they watched as the girl went and found a table quickly as patrons were starting to empty out. “How is Liz doing?”

“She needed some alone time, to rest…” Max murmured. “She’s handling everything with a lot of grace…”

“You didn’t have to do it?” Jeff asked.

“I am only helping out Maria,” Max sighed because he knew he was doing it as more than a friend. He knew because it was Liz who was her mother, he would do anything else. “Liz at one time did a lot to help me, so I am only returning the favor. Natasha is going to be staying with Maria while Liz is on the mend.”

“I am glad, but if she needs any help?” Nancy asked as she longed to be involved. “You can ask us…”

“I’ll make sure to mention it.”


*

Maria walked into an old establishment that held memories. Cow Patties had gotten a lot of her business before she left town. When she was singing and clashing with Michael. She spent plenty of nights here, drinking and working. And now she was here for a whole other reason. She needed a job.

Fortunately, when she arrived at the mechanic shop to check on her car. She had found it fully tuned, and full of gas, and the bill payed by her stepbrother. She knew she would have to personally thank Kyle the next time she saw him. But it meant, she didn’t have to shell money that she didn’t have for her car, and she had something to drive around town which was good because she now was supposed to be a reliable caregiver to her goddaughter, who would be depending on her, and especially her best friend who was trying to recover from a near fatal attack was looking at her ease her burden.

“Layne, still here, huh?” Maria cracked as she saw someone she knew upon arrival and she glanced around and it all seemed so different, and yet the same. Maybe it was her that was different. Being on the road, and then in California changed a person while you wanted to change or not, but she was a very different person who had run out of this place because she had been noticed, to the determent of her relationship with her mother, and her marriage.

“It’s a job, that brings more money than I can make elsewhere, and I don’t have to take off my clothes” smiled Layne Thomas who saw Maria enter the establishment. “So, you’re back in town. What, Hollywood didn’t pan out?”

“It panned out, just not how I wanted it to, but I am in town to help a sick friend” Maria sighed. “I’ll be heading on out of this town one day.”

“So, what are you wanting now?” Layne asked.

“A job,” Maria said simply. “Who is in charge these days?”

“The same guy as it was last time. Jed,” Layne admitted as they knew that Maria had run ins with Jed in the past. “Do you need to arrange a gig or something?”

“Nope, unfortunately, I am in need of something that pays” Maria sighed. “Do you think you guys have any openings?”

“Not that I know of, but I don’t run the place. So, you’ll have to check with Jed like always…”

“Good,” Maria nodded as she relished the chance. “Where can I find him?”

“In the back like always,” Layne said as she pointed to the back room and Maria nodded, and gave her thanks, and walked off…

“Do we think we’ll have to tell her that her husband is around the place, asking questions?” came a passing waitress, Josie of Layne.

“She’ll find him, soon enough” Layne murmured as she walked towards her table. “He won’t be hard to miss because he’s making a spectacular of himself”


*

“I don’t know long how I will be around, but I need a job” Maria muttered as she looked at her old boss, and couldn’t help but reflect how she was back in this town looking for work, but this time she wouldn’t be using her talent to use. “A friend of mine needs my help, so it’s open ended how long I am to stay here. But I need the money?”

“If it’s only short-term?” Jed Walters asked of his former singer and waitress. “I thought you were making waves in Los Angeles?”

“So, did I” Maria muttered. “I might only be able to give you short-term, still, you know I had the talent for this job, and I can handle the crowds?”

“That you can,” Jed muttered as he knew of one person in the crowd that always knew how to make a presence when a certain blonde was working or singing for that matter. “But if you’re husband is going to be around causing waves, then I don’t need you…”

“He’s not a factor,” Maria said too quickly as she thought of her husband and the many conflicting feelings just hearing the name Michael stirred up in her, and she hated feeling that by being back in Roswell that the past was rearing it’s old self once again, and she didn’t know how to stop it. “Michael won’t be a factor,” Maria sighed. “We have gone our separate ways,” and they had she reflected. They just had not signed the papers to make it official. “I can’t promise he won’t show up, but it won’t be because of me so I promise you that you won’t have to worry about him,” she muttered as she remembered how Michael would make his presence and annoy the men who would flirt with her as she tried to gain tips. This place had been always been different for them then how it was between them at the Crashdown anymore, and Cow Patties had a different clientele, who had different expectations. Michael could not handle it.

“It so happens Julia quit and so I need someone to start tomorrow. Are you game?” Jed asked.

“Sure,” Maria said.

“Same pay, but if you’re willing, you can add it to by singing on Friday and Saturday nights?” Jed asked. “We lost our entertainment, and I need to book someone new.”

“That works,” Maria sighed. She had not been thinking about singing but if it gave her money. With Natasha being her responsibility, she was going to need as much money as possible. She would have to find a babysitter or leave her with her parents those nights, but she needed the money and she figured she could handle it.

“Tomorrow, 4 to closing…” Jed said. “We can call it a trial and see how we are after a few weeks, if you’re still around these parts, okay?”

“Sure,” Maria nodded.

“Now go out there and do something with that husband you say won’t be my problem” Jed muttered because he had been looking for a excuse to get out of hassling with Michael Guerin, as they he had one too many run ins over the years, and using Maria was a perfect “go to” to get out of that particular hassle.

“What are you talking about?” Maria asked, surprised.

“He’s been asking questions about some guys named Carl. And in that regard, he is hassling my waitresses, and now he has gotten pulled into a card game in the back. I don’t need it Maria, so do something with him, otherwise, I will call the cops.”

“Jesus,” Maria muttered. Perfect. As much as she supported the notion of getting answers, but she knew Michael’s way of finding answers did not serve anyone.

“I don’t know how you fell for that guy!” Jed muttered.

“You have to know him,” Maria acknowledges And you had to be fifteen and falling for the bad boy who was rough around the collar, and who eventually gave you the best sex you have ever had she muttered to herself of the hallucinogenic drug like experience of being with someone like Michael. And it was it hard to quit that kind of addiction. You always tended to have relapses. So, yeah, I’ll deal with him.”

Relapses were what Maria was afraid of as she left the office, and found herself knocking on the back door, and she walked in and saw Michael, fully into the game, and coming off as a jerk How I missed jerkish Michael. “I was told I would find you here…”

“Damn it” Michael muttered as he looked up from the table and saw Maria glaring at him. First, I am losing, and now I get rescued by her of all people… he mused. “I don’t need you…”

“Yes, you do, fold your hand Michael, and let’s go” Maria sighed.

“What makes you my boss…” Michael muttered as he was not ready to give up the game or the battle, which always served them well…

“Our marriage license” Maria muttered.

“So, you use that when you want to use it, but then you go and sue me for divorce” Michael muttered, obviously having one two many beers having been lured into the game on the promise of answers about Carl.

“Let’s go home?”

“We don’t have a home together anymore,” Michael muttered to the amusement of the other players. “You don’t want me anymore, so why should I want you?” Michael asked.

“You don’t need me, but I need you…” Maria murmured as she hated knowing the weight behind those words. “And as it so happens, Liz needs you too, so come on and let’s go…” she said as she grabbed his cards. “He’s out guy” she muttered to the fellow players and knowing her husband’s track record. “Obviously, he can’t pay off so his losses will be made up from my tips for tomorrow night’s shift,” she sighed at the missed money she could use. “Come and collect them on Monday” she mused as she looked at his cards that she made him fold on. “Although maybe not because I just saved you guys a boat load of money because he was going to win a bundle on this next hand and would have been able to pay off, so, on second thought, let us, call it even and be glad you didn’t lose that pot on the table” she called to the room as their was a pile of money on the table, and she knew it likely would have been a good night’s haul”

“I don’t need your help…” Michael muttered as he was annoyed that he was called out on his winning hand. So, close to all his financial worries being over at least for the minute, before he spent it all, and created new debts or had to pay off Max for future rent.

“Yes, you do…” Maria muttered. “So, let’s go…”

“I don’t need you rescuing me…” Michael muttered as they walked out of the bar and once, they were out in the cold air, she turned on her husband and could not help but remark.

“That was some show you gave in there?” Maria mused out loud. “How I miss drunk and patronizing Michael?”

“I had to make it believable, didn’t I?” Michael asked suddenly very sober as he had learned that his powers could make for very elaborate shows, and con games. “You were good in there, playing the concerned wife…”.

“You make it so easy,” Maria muttered. Because it is not an act, because I am always concerned about you Michael. What did you learn?” Maria asked because he had known what he was up to, and needed the same answers he did…

“Carl was here…”

“Shit!” Maria muttered because the idea that Liz’s husband was this close to town was not good for anyone. “Any idea, where he is now?”

“No, but he’s trouble, and apparently he has a girl on the side…”

“That asshole…” Maria cursed as she thought of the bastard. “And he accused Liz of cheating on him, when he’s the one doing someone else?”
RoswellFan68
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Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 9 - 05/20/2020

Post by RoswellFan68 »

I'm glad the Parkers are trying to rebuild their relationship with their daughter. Liz is going to need all the support she can get.

So Carl is a cheater and has been accusing Liz of infidelity.
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Parker1947
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Holding out for a Hero - Chapter 10 - 05/24/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

“I suppose the fact he has been cheating on her, that he’ll just slink away and let Liz forget him, and raise Natasha and Sarah Rose on her own” Maria muttered as she drove Michael into town, because he had taken a taxi because his motorcycle wouldn’t start, and he figured if he did get drinking, than he shouldn’t be driving. It was enough that he was sitting next to the one that got away as she had rescued him from the bar, even if had only been making a show of it at the time but still he rather be drunk than have to look at her sober, which was what he was forced to do now as they were dealing with the information he had gotten out of a the regulars to the card game, “We couldn’t be that lucky, right?”

“Nope, afraid not” Michael muttered as he was feeling disoriented by the proximity to Maria as they drove, and he was trying to focus. “The information I have is the mistress is some tart he picked up at bar, and her name is Billie or something like that, and in terms of his wife, he’s looking for payback…”

“What kind of payback?” Maria asked fearful.

“Enough to make her pay,” Michael muttered. “Since practically the beginning I am told… He went in hoping to get his hands on that big fat settlement she got out of the government. Max allowed her to have all of it when they split up, and therefore Carl knew she had money going in, and apparently that was a big draw for him, but fortunately for her, Liz had the good sense to put the money into investments and a trust fund once Natasha came, so it’s out of his grubby little hands if they break up,” he allowed. “But…”

“But what?” Maria asked. “Isn’t it good that it’s investments or set aside for Natasha one day?”

“It’s awesome. That little girl deserves every penny of it,” Michael nodded. “But if anything happens to Liz while they are still married, and even if they are split up, as her father, Carl controls Natasha’s inheritance. So, as long as Liz is alive…”

“Fuck,” Maria seethed. “You mean to tell me that if she’s dead, Natasha is too young, so he gets custody, and controls the trust fund or any other investments?”

“Something like that,” Michael allowed. “And it probably why he was egging on Liz distancing herself from her family because why would he encourage a reconciliation if there was no one to take in the kids if the worst happened, and by him being their legal guardian as well as their father, than he could make all the decisions and get his hands on the money, and spend it for all we know before Natasha becomes of legal age to take over her trust fund?”

“Michael,” Maria sputtered. “Seriously?” she murmured. “I mean I could have taken her in, and I believe it’s in Liz’s will if she were to ever die that I am the guardian of Natasha?”

“He has more rights than you would in the situation, as the biological father” Michael muttered “Biology trumps what Liz would have wanted for custody of the kids” as he thought darkly and the more he was learning of the bastard that Liz was married to, well, he couldn’t help but fall into Kyle’s thinking that he might be on the right track in that the only way to save Liz was for Max to find a way to get a judge to allow him to revoke their divorce, and claim the kids somehow. As Liz’s husband, Max has first claim on the kids, and would be able to protect their inheritance if somehow Liz did not survive until the kids were old enough to access their trust funds.

“How did Carl know about the money?” Maria asked.

“We made national news, remember. Of all of us, it was she and Max who got the lion share of the media and of course the settlement was also big news because it meant the little guy had beaten the government. So, anyone in Massachusetts would have known her reputation when she arrived at school, once Harvard rescinded their acceptance and it could have led to unsavory types trying to lure her in. She has even admitted to me that she wasn’t thinking straight back then, so she was a sitting duck?”

“And she has lived everyday to regret that weakness,” Maria sighed as she pulled up in front of his side of the duplex he shared with Max. “Natasha and Sarah Rose are the only good things to come from that association to the tell you the truth, and which is why she was hesitant to leave…”

“Yeah,” Michael muttered as he thought of the kids and then though of the quandary his friend was in. “Maybe Max should swing in and play hero, after all…” he sighed as he got out of car after stumping Maria with that comment.

“What are you talking about?” Maria wondered. “How could Max help?”

“Ask your stepbrother,” Michael sigh as he was in no condition to spend anymore time with his wife than he had to because it hurt too much to spend time with her, and know how much he missed being with her, and having her in his life I’m just as hopeless as Max. “Thanks for the drive home…” he admitted “I know you do want to talk. That call from the lawyer is clue enough, and one day we will deal with our other baggage, but not now, especially not when you have too much on your plate?”

“Yeah, sure…” Maria muttered as her mind could only bat around that Kyle knew something that she didn’t know as she drove to the Crashdown to meet up with Max and Natasha as she let her own baggage with Michael to slide into the back and try to ignore the fact it seemed to normal to be in the same car with him, and she didn’t like that feeling.


*


“You look like sleeping beauty sleeping there,” Max was saying a few hours later as he arrived in Liz’s hospital room after she had been moved out of ICU into a regular hospital room. Max had been unnerved when he arrived back to the hospital only to see her hospital room empty but was told that she had been moved into the regular population. So, he took that as a reason to be positive about her overall condition.

“More like Cinderella who had a run in with the Wicked Witch of the East…” Liz muttered. “And her goons.”

“Wrong fairy tale,” Max laughed.

“Its not so different,” Liz said as the bruises were appearing, and so she was looking blotchy under the bandages, and elsewhere.

“Obviously, you’re mending since they moved you…” Max sighed. “How’s the pain?”

“Extreme, but manageable” Liz admitted.

“If you need any help, you know I can help with that…” Max said offering, and Liz nodded but shook her head. “Ask me anytime?”

“I have to heal normally,” Liz sighed. “Otherwise they will have more questions?”

“Everyone knows what I can do, here, I mean” Max admitted as he was reminded of how his secret was not such a secret anymore. Everyone in the world knew of his special gifts. Most of the time, he kept it on the level, and official, but he knew people looked at him at times, especially when they had an especially tricky case that he had been assigned to…

“And you don’t get the questions?” Liz asked as it still amazed her to know that he ended up being a doctor. “I guess, I didn’t figure you to go the official way, with the healing, I mean?”

“I was directionless back then, and I found myself studying, and one thing led to another” Max admitted. “I was surprised to, but I was curious about how to use my powers in different ways, and I ended up learning enough to get me into medical school. I have constantly surprised myself, and to know that I am here, because it was always supposed to you…”

“Max…” Liz sighed.

“Don’t think you have to respond to that,” Max said honestly as he sat next to her bed. “It’s the truth though. It was always supposed to be you,” he murmured. “I just wanted to be able to stay on this planet, and to love you…”

“Max…” Liz sighed, not ready for the inflex of memories.

“Sorry,” Max said simply.

“How can you handle the fact you can’t save everyone?” Liz asked. “I know you Max, and I know how hard it is for you to face the fact that people leave us, and with your talents, how can you handle not saving everyone?”

“My batting average is pretty good,” Max sighed as he thought of his reputation here at the hospital. “But seriously, I deal with it. Those days, are nights I am unable to sleep, and I find myself drinking too much, but then I also know that I couldn’t save everyone, even before I became a doctor, and just had my powers to back me up. We lost people.”

“Yeah, we did, didn’t we?” Liz asked, as she remembered Alex.

“So, knowing that makes those days easier to get through, but still the families stay with me and the knowledge of what they have lost doesn’t make it easier and I just concentrate harder the next time, a tricky case comes back way, and usually I am stronger as a doctor in that case.”

“I am happy for you,” Liz murmured. “I know how hard it was for you, back then.”

“Yeah,” Max acknowledged. “How about you?”

“How about me, what?” Liz asked as if she did not know what he was referring to her…

“I know you had Natasha, but what do you do?” Max could not help but ask. “Did marrying Carl keep you from your dreams, like marrying me did?”

“You didn’t keep me from dreams,” Liz muttered softly. “You were part of my dreams. I just we were able to achieve them together. I managed to make it to medical school,” she sighed.

“You did?” Max asked.

“Yeah,” Liz admitted. “Its just Carl started to get controlling and he prevented me from doing anything else once I graduated. I kept telling myself I was going to wait until the baby was born, and then I could figure out where to go next with my degree. I want to think that I could have done something with my knowledge, but I also don’t know…”

Max nodded.

“You must wonder, why I stayed?” Liz asked.

“That is your decision. It doesn’t matter to me” Max sighed.

“Honestly, I wish I knew…” Liz muttered It is not like I loved him, like I loved you she mused to herself. “I guess I didn’t want to admit to myself I screwed up. And when Natasha arrived, then I knew I had to be there for her, and I did not think I could handle being a single mother because I was still a mess. I might have cleaned myself up from the depths that I was in when I first arrived in Boston, but still, I couldn’t handle doing it alone.”

“You were always stronger than me,” Max sighed. “I always found myself off the cliff when we weren’t together, and I tended to screw up.”

“You didn’t screw up this time, did you?” Liz asked. “You’re a successful doctor, and I am… I am…”

“A mother, and still as special as you were years ago?”

“You always had me on a pedestal Max, and I don’t deserve it. I screwed up. I left the best thing in my life, for the worst time in my life…” Liz muttered as if she wondered sometimes if she had screwed up so royally because Max had loved her so completely, and she hadn’t been ready for it despite those complication and unreal three years. “If only…”

“We always wondered what if. But you are a mother, and you have something special in Natasha. She is sweet, and very much like her mother. And I am sure Sarah Rose will be that way one day too…”

“Who was born too early, and that is on me…” Liz muttered as she was forced to remember that she had a preemie struggling to survive.

“She’s strong, and she’s like her big sister, and her mother” Max murmured. “You’re not to blame for her being too early. Carl is…”

“I am for staying?”

“You probably shouldn’t be getting out of bed so soon,” Max sighed but knew it didn’t help his ex-wife any to stay in a bed, and away from her baby, and worry about what she had done to bring her children in the world. “I’ll wheel you to see Sarah Rose…”

“Would you?” Liz asked, if she could not believe it.

“I would do anything for you…” Max admitted.

And once more Liz was reminded of what she had given up eight years before, as Max went to get a wheelchair to push her to go see her newborn daughter, a baby she had with someone else.


*


Faith watched as Max wheeled Liz down to the NICU, to see the baby. Sighing at the knowledge that Max was hopeless for someone who was taken. And even if Elizabeth Armstrong’s marriage ended due to what was going on with her recent hospitalization still there was so much to unpack in it, and Max was going to get himself hurt if he became hung up on his ex-wife again after spending so much time removing himself from her life, and trying to get over that time in his life with some success. It was not going to end well but she knew her friend deserved happiness, and if going after a hopeless case got it, then who was she to fight it because it was not her marriage, or her love life. She just prayed her friend did not get hurt in all this. So, she concentrated on her patient as she went into their room and moments later came out again and she saw Nurse Jackson as the nurse was coming out of a fellow patient’s room. “Max took his ex to see the baby?”

“That might help her mood. She was awfully depressed when I saw her earlier,” came the response as she also smirked. “And about that other part of it, well, what can I say, that is one devoted man?”

“I know,” Faith murmured as she thought of her friend as she prayed once again that Max wasn’t setting himself up for a fall by associating once again with his ex-wife, and now her daughter and yet if her hunch paid off then that might be the only good that came out of any of them other than bring back Max into the life of someone he clearly still loved. “Has there been any luck on those blood tests?”

“Everything came back clear for Natasha to be released, but that last one is still outstanding. There is a backup in the lab, so it could be tomorrow” the nurse muttered as she knew that wasn’t what the doctor wanted to hear but given the surge of patients lately, the lab was overwhelmed and there was only so much pushing one could do to get the results of a simple test.

“Put a rush on it, will you” Faith asked because to her it was not a simple test because a lot of lives could rest on the results.

“What does it matter if it’s tomorrow…” Nurse Jackson asked. “Armstrong is still going to be here today, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future as she recovers.”

“It might change everything,” Faith muttered simply as she went into a patient’s room and got back to her duties as Nurse Jackson nodded as she went back to the front desk on the floor, and went about her other duties.


*


“What do you know?” Maria confronted her stepbrother in the back of the boutique that Isabel worked in. Max had wanted Natasha to get fitted with new clothes because her home was barricaded by cops, and police tape and so she thought why not go and do shopping and it would keep the little girl occupied, and it would keep her mind off marriage, and the fact seeing Michael had woken up too many memories, and memories she had tried long ago to get over. So, why am I on Max’s case for clearly not being over Liz, when simply seeing Michael and interacted with him again set my heart racing again as to Maria it felt she was fifteen again, and she should too old for this. I am no teenager anymore. I should be over him, and I should want to move on away from him.

She had gotten permission from her mother and stepfather to have Natasha stay at the house in the short-term. It would keep the pressure of Liz and allow the girl to be safe. So, now they were checking out clothes in the small boutique that Isabel helped run, while she went to school and study business and fashion.

Isabel was currently helping Natasha try one some new fashions. Kyle had stumbled by, and Maria had pulled him into the store and was now interrogating her stepbrother because it kept her mind off, and her mind was also trying to unravel what Michael had spilled too.

“What do you mean?” Kyle asked as she looked around the store, pleased by what his fiancée was doing with the place since she got the job before his glaze was forced back on her stepsister. He still was amazed how far they had come over the years. Years before, he knew she was not his biggest fan and had been actively championing Max for Liz’s heart. It is not like Kyle did not know he was on borrowed time with Liz. They were a high school romance. Max and Liz were something real.

Too intense for its time. And ended in heartbreak despite a romantic wedding. He should know he had been at the wedding, and seen how in love they were… Only for it to turn into a nightmare, and eight years later, well, the dust still had not settled.

Despite the existence of two small children.

“Snap out it Valenti, what do you know?” Maria asked as she knew all of them were plagued my memories. Memories they wanted to be in the past and yet Kyle was able to successfully merge his memories into what he had always wanted in the first place, Isabel Maria mused.

“Why do you think I know something?” Kyle asked even as he knew his stepsister was on the hunt for something and the truth was going to come out one of these days. Clearly Maria was given the scent, and now she was using the opportunity his arrival at the store had provided for her.

“Because I have been advised that you do” Maria muttered. “So, spill?”

Knowing that Max was unlikely to have spilled the news, especially to his maybe ex-wife’s best friend, and given Isabel wanted to deny it almost as much as she wanted to believe it, Kyle didn’t think his fiancé would spill to his step-sister of all people, so it left only one person who was in the know, and it was someone who Maria clearly had a history with, and someone who his stepsister had been trying to get away from for these last eight years, and even served him with divorce papers. “It’s not anything for you to know because it doesn’t involve you…”

“If it’s not my place to know then why it seems does my no-good husband know this piece of information?” Maria asked. “If this is about Max and Liz, then I should know it…”

“It’s nothing important,” Kyle lied.

“Now, I know it is something important, so spill Kyle otherwise I have other ways of finding out” Maria muttered as she was dreaming of ways to get Michael to spill the news he obviously knew and wasn’t sharing with her. “Which you know I do, so you might as well come out of it because I am tired of the truth being kept from me…”

“It doesn’t concern you,” Kyle muttered.

“Then who does it concern?” Maria asked with a simple smile. “Tell me, for goodness sake” she muttered as she glanced over at how happy Natasha was to be picking out new clothes with Max’s sister. Isabel was in her element and she seemed to very warm to the child and Natasha was basking in the positive attention that was as far away from her home life as possible, and Maria was happy to be able to give that to her goddaughter as she faced down her stepbrother who obviously was evading the situation and didn’t really want to tell her what was going on. “Tell me, please Kyle?”

“It’s best we leave it alone for now,” Kyle muttered as Maria didn’t take that well and she pushed him out of the store, and onto the sidewalk, away from the what was going on inside the story. “Okay, we’re away from prying eyes, and ears. What’s going?’

“It’s not our place to gossip?” Kyle asked.

“Isn’t it?” Maria muttered. “That is all we do around here Kyle, gossip about each other’s lives. Goes back to being on the run together and knowing everyone’s business whether we wanted to or not” she laughed. “You and Isabel knew way too much about Michael and me, or Max and Liz, during that time…” she smiled because there weren’t many memories from those months on the road that they all wanted to keep except maybe Max and Liz’s wedding.

An event long deserved. Beautiful and romantic despite the circumstances, and maybe despite the life they were living. Yet they were vows that weren’t able to sustain them for the brutal days to come as they came to live the reality of being on the road, and away from their families, and everything they knew, and how they had to be on the look out.

Separating helped, but it had not helped Max and Liz in the end because it ended them, and neither of them were ever the same.

She had her own memories because she had some good times with Michael before everything fell apart for them, so she did look back at that time with some fondness because it did allow them to gel as a group, and to be closer, but it also forced them into closer quarters, and they knew way too much about each other’s lives and that is why Maria knew something was up with Kyle.

“Ask Max,” Kyle said as he simply walked back in the store. Not prepared to go into anything more of the situation because he did not know what it meant for Max and Liz, and he did not feel like speaking about it out in the open.

Maria grunted and groaned, but went back into the store and got caught in the glow on Natasha’s face as she selected a new wardrobe, and Maria even found time to splurge and buy something for herself even though she didn’t really have the money to spend. That is why she knew working at Cow Patties would be good for her, because she was suspecting that her time in Roswell would last longer than she was probably hoping.

And if she ended up staying, what would she end up doing?


*


“She’s too small,” Liz whispered as she glanced into the incubator unit into the NICU where Max had pushed her into, and she felt awed when she first entered the room and saw the bundle of units, and then as if she knew, Max had pushed her to the one that had Sarah Rose Armstrong on the name tag, and Liz felt she wanted to rip it up, and leave the name off but she knew she couldn’t do it because she was married, and because Carl was her father, whether he was a good man or not.

And he certainly was not a fine man, as the best man in the world was the one who was pushing her into the room and allowing her the ability to meet her daughter for the first time. In a situation she had not prepared herself for and felt robbed of the traditional way a mother should meet her newborn daughter. Yet here Sarah Rose laid, fighting for her life. The nurse in the room encouraged her to put her hand in, and to feel and touch her daughter.

Liz had grabbed onto that ability. Max felt a weird sense of life righting itself as he witnessed this moment for his ex-wife. Yet it reminded of moments he had dreamt of, and allowed him to hope for, and moments he had been denied because of choices he had made, and choices Liz had made for their life, and neither proved compatible for what their dreams had been at one time. A life together. Loving each other, and maybe children together.

It made him miss the child that could not be, because its time was not meant to be, ten years before now, and it only made him feel robbed because of what he had been denied. “She’s a fighter, just like her big sister and especially her mother?”

“It shouldn’t have been like this?” Liz whispered as she glanced at her daughter. The nurse had told her that Sarah Rose was stronger than most babies born before their time, and at that stage in development. Max knew he would do everything in his power to bring Sarah Rose to the point of being able to go home with her mother and big sister. “If only…”

“Sometimes babies have their own idea’s of when it’s time,” Max sighed. “She’s hanging on, and she’s showing remarkable fight, as you heard the nurse tell you herself” he sighed. “Some babies don’t get to this point, but Sarah Rose is, and you should be proud.”

“This is not how it should have been,” Liz whispered again as Max nodded as they ended their visit, and he pushed her back to her hospital room, and she stayed in the chair instead of moving back into her bed because she felt like she had been spending too much time in the bed. Weight of the world was on her shoulder, and Max was wondering if he should have taken her to see the baby because it only made her know the choices she made.

“Liz…” Max sighed.

“Don’t,” Liz murmured as if she knew what he was going to say, and she shook her head. “I don’t regret it, seeing her, because I needed to see her” she remarked. “I had dreams for that moment, and none of them were for her to be born at this moment in time?”

“We all have dreams. Sometimes reality has other ideas,” Max murmured as he glanced at the love of his life.

“Yeah,” Liz murmured as if she could see so much in her ex-husband’s words and it made he want to reflect on the past and she did, and she couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like if things hadn’t gone so badly once upon a time. “I am sorry, you know…”

“Sorry for what?” Max said unsure of what she was referring to as they sat in her hospital room as they were looking outside at the late afternoon sunlight because it was a beautiful day and it was a shame that Liz wouldn’t be able to get out and see what the world could offer, and instead she was in here, reacting to her injuries.

“Seeing me in there, you know, with the baby. It has got to get to you…” Liz asked softly because he had known how it must have been for Max to be in there knowing that she had moved on. “I do think about it too, you know…”

“About what?” Max asked.

“Our baby,” Liz could not help but murmur. She often thought that pregnancy and how she regretted how it had ended. A dream that had come up short. She knew Max blamed the government and their treatment of her, but at that point, she also knew she could not know whether they were truly to blame for the miscarriage. Because miscarriages did happen. Although the stress of her capture did not help matters and therefore, she blamed herself and still she knew her pregnancy had ended too soon to know, or to give out blame. Because she had only figured it out when she lost it. Still she allowed herself to get down in the dumps when she did release, and return home to Max. She hated herself for not being strong enough, but she also knew if she had the pregnancy continue. That wouldn’t have the safest option either when in captivity, and knowing they would have used it for the achievement of their goals even more than they had done in their abuse of her, and she hadn’t wanted that also on her conscious, still she couldn’t help but think about that time “I often wonder, what if…”

“You did nothing,” Max murmured as if she didn’t go down that road of, the road not taken, or the events not allowed to happen still though he had many regrets about that time in his life and the weight he had on Liz’s shoulders. While they might have been able to love each other, still to know that time had been so perilous and the danger he had put her in, and still it gave him many regrets even if he’ll never regret having that chance or being given that opportunity “I put you in that position by you being with me, and not being there when you needed me most…”

“You couldn’t always be with me?” Liz murmured as she knew that was Max’s biggest issue with that time. She never blamed him. Still neither of them could have been prepared even having gone through what they had gone through during their high school years “We were just too young, and it’s not either of our faults, and I don’t blame you because I married you, and by then I knew what I was in for, and I wanted to be with you, and to love you” she murmured. “I had a chance to walk away back in the beginning, but I didn’t…”

“You didn’t know what it would be like?” Max muttered.

“Neither did you, and we were both unprepared and that is what did us in,” Liz murmured. “We were too young, and they were too strong. We thought we were prepared, but we weren’t, and even then, it’s not like we can’t say we weren’t warned.”

“Still I can’t help but imagine sometimes what it would have been like?” Max asked as he knew his dreams during these years had been full of what it might have been like to have a child with Liz. “It gave me something to dream about,” he sighed. “I only wished that dream could have come true…”

“Given the circumstances,” Liz sighed because she thought back to that time. “It was not the most ideal situation to have raised a child, when we were on the run,” Liz murmured. “And always looking behind our shoulder.”

“But we would have been together?” Max sighed. “It would be better than the alternative” he asked as he concluded their visit, and allowed Liz to stay and look out the window and imagine more “what if” she hadn’t killed everything by leaving Max Then I wouldn’t have Natasha and definitely not Sarah Rose she murmured to herself as a nurse came in and helped Liz back into her hospital bed.


*


There new clothes would be delivered to Jim and Amy’s place the next day, with Natasha taking with her a bag and a new book to read after Maria stopped by the bookstore and they would something for the little girl to read. They were headed back to the hospital to see Liz before they headed back to her mother’s home. Maria didn’t have to show up to her first night at work until the following day, and she was grateful to spend some time with her goddaughter, but to use work when she did show up as a way to divert her attention from Michael.

Her suspicions of what Kyle might know was also on her mind, and so she was not paying close enough attention to her driving, as before she knew they were sideswept by another driver, into a ditch that was no ditch. “Hold on” she could only scream into the back seat where Natasha was sitting and glancing through a comic book that she picked up for her amusement. Natasha had not been watching the road either, or so neither knew what they had been hit by…

All they knew they were forced off the road, and they were going down an embankment, and finally they hit a tree, and Maria head was knocked against the wheel, and she was rendered unconscious…

“Maria,” was the last thing she had heard before she fell unconscious…

Ten minutes later, she became conscious again only to pick her head up from the steering wheel, and feel the giant headache forming, and to look around to see if she could see if the child was injured, but she was alarmed when she didn’t see anything but a door fully ajar…

And no Natasha

“Natasha” she screamed but she only saw stars of dizziness, and the massive migraine forming as she once against rendered unconscious as her head hit back against the wheel, and only the beeps of the horn could be heard.
RoswellFan68
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Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 10 - 05/24/2020

Post by RoswellFan68 »

Oh no, looks someone took Natasha. I don't trust Carl. I think Max is going to need to contest the divorce to protect Liz and the kids.
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Parker1947
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Holding out for a Hero - Chapter 11 - 05/26/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

“Hold still,” was all Michael heard thirty minutes later as he pulled up on the scene and all he could see was his wife being told to stop moving as she was being fitted on a back board. Naturally Maria had been protesting that this wasn’t needed that she was fine, but the paramedics on scene told her that she could have a head injury, and back injury and they weren’t taking it lightly, still she was squirming on the back board and Michael didn’t know if that was good or a bad thing for whatever injury she might have accrued.

Michael had not been prepared for this as all he could think on the drive was that Maria would not have called if it had not been emergency. Not him at least. And even an emergency would be dubious for his wife to reach out at her unofficial husband. Michael knew he probably had to be the second or third even call, but it didn’t bother him because he figured she had car trouble and needed his help when he got the call, and because he was close by because he had been out looking for Carl Armstrong and or his floozy. It kept him busy from looking for ways to get rid of the little money he had, and way to keep his thoughts from his wife, only for his wife to reach out to him, and he hadn’t know what to expect, but he had come, because he knew he would always come, when Maria called.

As he had decided, why not, Maria must have a reason to call him but now he saw that it was not for the reasons he had assumed. Maria was hurt. “How hurt is she?” he said gruffly at the paramedic as he walked up and glanced down at the scene.

“Natasha is missing,” Maria cried at sight of Michael. There was no relief that her husband had come running when she called, because all she could think of her goddaughter, and how she could be in danger. All her mind could think of was the seven-year-old in danger and as her mind was full of fear ever since she woke up to the paramedics poking and prodding to make sure that she was alive. She had sobbed when she realized Natasha was no longer anywhere close to the crash. “They grabbed her…” she said over and over, and Michael’s heart stopped. “These idiots won’t believe me,” she gasped.

“We told you to hold still,” came the paramedic at the obvious pain the patient was feeling.

“Shit Michael told himself

“She’s been talking nonsense since we arrived,” the paramedic muttered. “There was no evidence of a child in the car,” he sighed. “Cops are on the way?”

“I am telling you Michael,” Maria gasped in pain but talked her way through it. “They have her, please you have to believe me. I think Carl grabbed her to get back at Liz. Either him or his mistress, you must find her, please…”

“I believe you,” Michael murmured because he had known Natasha had been with Maria and that his wife was her guardian until Liz recovered. “Did you try Max?”

“You were my first call,” Maria sighed softly at Michael’s shock. “You are my husband, aren’t you?” she sighed at the amusement on his face. “You’re my proxy for medical care, whether I want you to be, and this time, I do want you” she admitted at her loaded wording. “I trust you Michael. You need to find Natasha, please, for me…”

“Of course,” Michael muttered as he tried to stop himself from react to his wife’s words by telling himself that she has a head injury and was not thinking rationally. No one who wants to divorce wants me to be their proxy for medical decisions “I am on it.”

“Thank you, Michael,” Maria whispered before she was loaded into the ambulance.

“You’re her husband?” came the paramedic question.

“Yes,” Michael confirmed without going into specifics on their dubious marriage. “How serious was it?”

“She admits to losing consciousness twice,” the paramedic commented. “It could just be a severe whiplash, or it could be more, because the car is over there, and she ended up with a head wound” he murmured as she showed Michael where the crash occurred. “It was quite the accident.”

“There was no evidence of a child?” Michael asked as he winced at the sight of the crash. “Because a child was with her,” he said softly as he thought of Natasha. “A seven-year-old girl. Name is Natasha Marie Armstrong. She has brown hair; small stature, but she is quite the handful and is vocal. She knows how to be demanding although she has a previously fractured arm, and her arm was in a sling?”

“You mean your wife was telling the truth?” the paramedic asked.

“Yes,” Michael nodded as he reflected on his wife and while they might not know the people, they were today but he knew one thing. “Maria doesn’t lie.”

“There were no children found at the scene or by the first responders to the scene, and there was no evidence of blood in the backseat, so that has to be good, right?” the paramedic asked.

“Yeah,” Michael muttered as he allowed the ambulance to head off, and she dialed Amy because he had a feeling that Maria had been letting her head injury talk when she wanted him there for her, because he had a child to find. So, he knew Amy would need to know. “I wish I did not have to make this call,” he said to his mother-in-law. “It’s about Maria?” he murmured as he went onto tell a frantic Amy about the accident as he finished up the call and walked to the scene of the accident.

And swore, and knew it could have been so much worse…

So much worse, and yet Natasha was unaccounted for, and that meant scary times?


*


Max was heading home when he received Michael’s call and his heart stopped when he heard that Maria had been in a car accident, and that Natasha was missing, No, please, god no…he whispered when he was told that no one could account for the child. Michael was still at the scene of the crime, when Max swerved his car and headed for the scene, and gasped when he found the scene, Michael, and the bruised car. “Is Maria okay?” he asked first thing as Max got out of his car and approached his friend who was now accompanied by Jim.

Max could see that Jim’s people were searching for Natasha to see if the child had run into the woods, to get away from the crash, but so far nothing…

“Hit and run,” said Michael with a curse as he walked around the abandoned car. “The first people on scene were a car driving by when they heard the blasting of the horn, that Maria hit when she fell unconscious. She eventually woke up and was insistent that Natasha had been in the car with her. But when she woke up, the car’s door was fully ajar, and there was no evidence of the child when rescue crews came.”

“Fuck,” Max muttered.

“Yeah,” Michael sighed. “The paramedics were thinking Maria was talking crazy, but she wasn’t, was she?”

“No,” Max nodded as his heart seized because he had known of the plans that Maria held for her, and Natasha, and he did not want to think Natasha was now in trouble. How am I going to explain this to Liz? he asked himself. “They had gone shopping at Isabel’s boutique, and we supposed to be headed back to the hospital to see Liz before heading back Amy and Jim’s…”

“Maria called her mother and said she would be at our place,” Jim muttered as felt the fear in his wife’s voice as he had talked to her as she rushed to the hospital. Since seeing her daughter, Amy’s fear had diminished a little because Maria was very vocal and they were able to put stiches in the gash on her face, and she was under concussion protocol so she was sticking in the hospital for the night, but there was no evidence of any serious head trauma. “We knew they were headed for the hospital?”

“The car looks nasty,” Max asked as he wanted to curse himself.

“It looks like it was sideswept, and forced down the ravine, and thankfully the bang into the tree wasn’t as severe as it could have been, as it was only enough to give Maria a nasty headache,” Jim confirmed.

“Sheriff,” came a deputy’s voice as they all stopped stalking and turned to focus and pray that maybe they had found Natasha, and that she had been hiding, but it was not to be…

“No evidence of the child anywhere in the woods,” came the deputy.

“Thank you,” Jim nodded. “We’re headed to the hospital. Stay until the toe truck comes, and make sure it shows up that the mechanic shop, okay?” he asked, “Full escort, as I want a full run down on the car, and if there was any sign of engine trouble?”

“Yes sir,” the deputy nodded as he walked back to the car.

The Sheriff, Max and Michael could only think of one thing as they stood glancing at the car once more, and worry increased for the safety of the little girl, and they all had only one thought that came to mind Carl Armstrong.

“Do we think Carl has her?” Jim asked.

“It’s a thought,” Michael confirmed as he thought of the bastard, and what he knew of the situation “I haven’t been able to find the bastard but I know he has made it a habit to visit Roswell lines, and it’s bars, and he has someone on the side, and it would be in his interest to use her to try to gain leverage to use against Liz.

“How would he do that?” Max whispered as fear gripped him for the little girl who had a piece of his heart even know he was not her father. No one should treat a child this way, or her mother for that matter, but especially not a child.

“It’s only beginning of a hunch that I was thinking,” Michael allowed. “But there is evidence that Carl was only after Liz for her money?”

“What money?” Jim asked. “I wasn’t aware that Liz has any significant wealth?”

“The settlement from the government,” Michael confirmed and Max’s heart broke as he remembered how he had given up his rights to half of the settlement they got from the government for their treatment of them, because he had know his wife had gone through worse torment then him, and he wanted her to use the money to better herself, as she deserved it more than he did…

“Oh god,” Max whispered. “I gave it all to Liz?”

“You did?” Jim asked.

“Yes,” Max admitted. “I didn’t keep any of it. Not even a portion to pay for school. It all went to Liz in our divorce. Mom and Dad paid my tuition when I started at Las Cruces. I didn’t want the money, so I allowed Liz to have it because she earned it more than I did with how she had to withstand what they did to her”

“Apparently, she’s put it into investments and into a trust fund for Natasha,” Michael allowed. “So, if anything happens to her, that little girl will be worth a lot of money?”

“Liz did not die?” Max whispered.

“She almost did,” Michael sighed as he was aware that there were still scars for his friend in what he had witnessed having been done to his ex-wife. “But he knows how much that little girl means to his wife,” he allowed. “So, I could see her grabbing Natasha, especially given he is on the lam or using his mistress to grab her, and to try to blackmail Liz into giving up the money in exchange for custody of her daughter.”

“Oh god,” Max whispered because it made sense.

“And if Liz had died prior to the events in question then as her father, and Liz’s husband, he would claim custody of the girl and control any trust funds and any estate left to the children that they may have had” Michael answered as he glanced full on Max as if it was a sign to him about what they had discussed with Kyle. All of this is moot if you and Liz are still married Max felt was the warning to him. You could claim the kids.

Max felt the weight of the glance. That bastard will not win.

I will do anything to protect that little girl, and her mother Max swore.


*


“We can’t tell Liz,” Maria whispered as Max walked into the hospital room that had been assigned for the night of observation that Maria clearly needed. Both Max and Michael winced at the clearly gash on her forehead. Amy was sitting by her daughter’s bedside and promised to take care of any of her daughter’s medical bills because she knew her daughter could not pay for the car she needed. Maria wanted to resist and say she could handle it herself, but she knew she could not, and so she had to take the charity from her mother.

And continue to feel lousy that she had been such a neglectful daughter during these past years. She could regret many things, and most of all how she treated her mother was number on the list because of the state of her marriage was on her, but she should have been here for her mother, and now she was seeing that, but wished she didn’t have to think of her marriage.

Seeing Michael walking through the doors was a wakeup call that she could run to California, and sleep with her share of her guys but none could take her breath away by the simple movement of his feet coming through the door. Amy could see the affect Michael still had on her daughter, and she could only shake her head and hope the best would come for both her daughter and Michael.

Michael had taken the long road to Amy’s acceptance. It was hard earned, as Amy had seen how much he had loved his daughter, and knew he didn’t take her absence lightly, and it was a large part of why Michael treated his life in the manner he had over these last years. She knew from the stories that Jim told her because of the reports that would come to the Sheriff’s department. A large amount that Jim had to tamp down, which was even unknown to Michael how much Jim had assisted his ability to get out of trouble.

“Shouldn’t she know?” Amy asked her daughter.

“She nearly died,” Maria muttered. “I don’t want to give her something more to worry about if we can help it, and right now, we can?” she sighed. “She still has a long road to recovery, and she doesn’t need this…”

“She’s her mother, and she should know her daughter is missing…”

“If we can find Natasha, then she doesn’t need to know, right Max?” Maria asked as she could see the conflict on Max’s face, and know she was asking a lot from her friend but also knew if they could find Natasha quickly, then why should they give Liz more to worry about when she already had one daughter fighting to survive. “Please say that you agree with me?”

“We don’t know where she is Maria?” Max said softly. “I am the first one to say we shouldn’t give Liz more to worry and to complicate her recovery, but there no guarantee we will find her, because Carl is still in the wind, and the child could be anywhere…”

“I know we’ll find her,” Maria muttered. “We can’t let Carl win.”

“No one is saying he will,” Michael muttered.

“Has anyone thought to check the little girl’s cell phone?” Amy asked. “All kids these days have one, right?”

“Right,” Jim admitted. “It’s been out of service, or range, so it’s hard to get a location on it”

“She has to be so scared,” Maria whispered at Max who had the same thought. Because Natasha might be a very impressive and unique seven years old, but still, she was still only seven years old, and that means she could be in a world of trouble. “We have to find her?”

“We will find her,” Max promised because she knew his ex-wife could not lose one more thing, and especially not the only reason why she stayed in that marriage. Her main will to get through the days, as Natasha held a lot of attachment for his ex-wife, and Max was determined to bring the girl back to her mother.


*


Max right, because Natasha knew she was in a lot of trouble as her eyes opened and she saw that she was in a small space. Like a coffin she told herself, but it did not have the smell of a coffin. She had more room to maneuver she knew, but still it felt too small for the seven-year-old. She remembered back to her ability to play unconscious when she was grabbed from the backseat of Maria’s car. Please let Maria be okay? the child prayed. But then she remembered the bang of the car, and how they were rolling down the ravine, and then the boom of hitting the tree, but not at full speed because Natasha felt they would both have really been in a coffin if that had happened.

But when Maria passed out, she felt her door being pry open, and then she grabbed and roughly carried up the ravine and then thrown in this place, and then she truly fell asleep and now she was awake, and wondering where she was…

Her arm was still in the sling, as she roughly moved her free arm to take the sling off and fling it down by her side. I told Max I didn’t need the thing, as her arm just needed time to get better, and it was feeling a lot better than it had yesterday, as she knew she healed fast, and to allow it to heal even faster, hands started to exhibit a soft glow and she put it on her arm, and moments later, she had even more movement of her arm, despite the cumbersome cast.

She checked her watch on her arm, and it was glow in the dark one, and she saw the time. It was getting late. She had known she was in this place for several hours. She felt something on her face, and she took off the mask, and saw that it was putting air into her, and she knew she had read about those machines called oxygen tanks, she felt the tubing attached to something at her feet. Taking off the mask.

She knew who had taken her. One of her father’s women. Mommy was in the dark, but Natasha seen her father with multiple women. One of the reasons she grated on his nerves because she saw too much.

And she tended to be able to hold her own with her father, despite her age. She did not know why she spilled about her mother going to Max’s parent’s funeral, but he got out of it, and he had yanked her too hard, and hence her arm issues. She in the past was able to stand up to him, but that time she had not been able to, and that he tended to be rougher when he was drinking.

She racked her mind with ways to get out of this place. She knew she still had her phone, but she could not reach it. She knew her legs were tied, but she had use of her hands, and she knew a way of getting out of this place. I will use one of my trusty powers she told herself because she had long known she had been special. She did not know why because her father was an idiot and was not special in the least except to be a jerk and abusive.

And her mother had ability, but she mostly left it to herself, but Natasha had seen enough but she did not know why she could do the things she did. She did not think it was because her mother was special. It had to be some other reason Natasha told herself One day I will find out.

Finally finding herself enough strength, she got her legs free, and then she started making a hot melted mess of the ceiling that was above her, and then finally she started kicking, and she knew she shouldn’t be able to do this, but if no one was coming to find her, than she would save herself, and be her own hero.

Kicking the ceiling many times until she nearly exhausted herself but finally it became loose, and she used her hands to open, and then she hopped out.

And making a run from after it became clear that she had been in car trunk.

She ran miles it felt, but it wasn’t that far as in the darkness, and despite the fact her arm felt weak not from being injured but for her display of power, she climbed a tree high, and she sat on a long hard branch.

And picked up her cellphone, and started dialing…
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