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.

Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, jbangelo, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Forum Moderators

RoswellFan68
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 543
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:52 am
Location: Charleston, WV

Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 3 - 05/05/2020

Post by RoswellFan68 »

I just found this story. I hate that Liz had to go through so much at the hands of the government and the so called husband. Who knows how long an alien pregnancy last? I think Liz's daughter is Max's.
User avatar
Stefuh
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:55 pm
Location: Quebec, Canada.
Contact:

Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 3 - 05/05/2020

Post by Stefuh »

Poor Jeff and Nancy hearing this after eight years of not hearing about Liz at all.
I do hope Natasha is Max's daughter and the year difference is some weird alien thing!
I'm glad that Liz and her baby are okay... I weighted 2 lbs too when I was born, lmao.
I hope Max, Maria or Liz's parents can keep Natasha while Liz is in the hospital. :(
User avatar
Parker1947
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 642
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:34 pm

Holding out for a Hero - Chapter 4 - 05/08/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

Liz felt like she was flying in the clouds… Not grounded in a reality she had known, and she knew when she woke up, she faced a vastly different life as her eyes remained closed as she laid unconscious in her hospital room.

Unfortunately, her brain was going back into the not so distant the past…

Liz knew this day would change everything as she stood and faced her bastard of a husband. She had told Natasha to run, and now she was alone in the apartment. “What did you do to her Carl. Today was not the first time, wasn’t it?”

“That girl needs to know how to behave,” Carl muttered.

“Natasha is very well-behaved Carl and we both should be thrilled at that. She’s 7 and she’s going to misbehave at times.” Liz muttered as she looked at her husband and knew she was going to have to make some decisions because it couldn’t continue like this, and now with the new baby, she couldn’t keep this going, if a new baby was going to be coming into this home.

“Then the girl needs to know not to lie to me,” Carl muttered. “But then she takes her ques from her mother doesn’t she. You always lie to me, so of course that would transfer to your kid.”

“I didn’t lie to you Carl,” Liz sighed.

“I told you that you couldn’t accept that residency with your hometown hospital Liz. I told you I wouldn’t allow you to be at the same hospital as him”

“I don’t know who you talked to. I am not taking any such residency. I am taking time off until the baby is born, and then I plan to see where I am at and looking at other New Mexico hospitals.”

“Then why did find evidence that you have talked to Roswell Memorial?” Carl said with lethal hate in his eyes, and Liz could only sigh. “It’s always been about him, hasn’t it?”

“My father was in the hospital,” Liz lied. “I wanted to check on him without going there and talking to himself myself Carl because you know full well, I have stayed away because you and my parents don’t get along and I want us to be happy Carl. I am not looking to go to Roswell Memorial for my medical career”

“Then why did you go to Roswell six months ago?” Carl asked.

“I didn’t…”

“I got that girl to tell me the truth, finally… I know you took our daughter to that god forsaken town and you could not even be faithful to me. Is this kid even mine?”

“That is ridiculous Carl,” Liz sighed. “Fine, yes, I went. But to a graveyard which I assume Natasha told you. My former lawyer died Carl. The person who allowed me to be free and to be on my own, and to achieve my dreams of being with you and Natasha and to earn my way towards a medical career”

“But you didn’t tell our daughter that who were that alien’s whore…” Carl muttered as he walked too close to his wife “Someone who shouldn’t even be in this country or alive… Our daughter doesn’t know what kind of woman her mother is, does she?”

“I divorced Max because of you Carl,” Liz muttered as she thought of finding herself pregnant once she was in Boston, after starting to date Carl, and knowing that there was no chance of reuniting with Max even though she had doubts about her new boyfriend and she signed the divorce papers that were started by her hometown due to the fact she didn’t yet have the residency to file for divorce, so the action started in Roswell, despite the conflict in that Phillip Evans was filing the divorce that related to his only son. Once filed, and was on track to be finalized, she swallowed the dates and stayed with Carl due to the birth of Natasha, and because she did not want two strikes in marriage, and now she knew she picked wrong. “I am not with him because of you. Because of Natasha. So, do not think I do not care about our family, because I have made sacrifices for our family, and now we have our newest baby on the way…”

“When I tell you to do something, then you better believe me” Carl said lethally.

“You are not the boss of me Carl. We might be married. But I am my own woman.” Liz challenged.

“Someone who couldn’t even be faithful to me,” Carl asked.

“If I was unfaithful to anyone Carl, than it was with my former husband and you were the one I was unfaithful to him with and you know it and you pursued me didn’t you because you knew who I was, and who I was married to. You wanted to seduce me away from him.” Liz said poking at her husband. “I haven’t cheated on you Carl. You have been the only man I have been with since we married.”

“How could I have been so stupid to fall for someone like you…” Carl muttered.

“I ask that everyday Carl because this is the last straw. You are not to touch Natasha anymore. Something does tell me that was not the first time, but she was did not want to hurt me or to hurt you and so you forced her to stay silent, but I have had it. That girl is brave and strong, and someone I should be sometimes. Maybe I was once upon a time,” Liz muttered as she hated how the federal government had beat that out of her. “But I am not going to allow you to lay another hand on me, or our daughter and especially not the baby.”

“That baby is mine,” Carl said. “You will not take that kid or even Natasha away do you hear me. If you try, then I will go to court and show them how faulty your judgment is and the people who you consort with and expose our children to, should not be in this country. People who are not human.”

“Now you think this kid is yours which it is, unfortunately…” Liz sighed as she turned to leave but Carl grabbed her hand and started to twist her arm, and she pushed him and he was repelled back by a display of green power and he landed on the floor. She had long tried to suppress her inner gifts, because she had known her new husbands’ racist opinions on aliens and the type of people they were, and she wanted to forget what she had gone through. And so, she had suppressed her gifts and therefore she did not have control of them.

“You lay a hand on me? You’re what, a freak, just like that the one who you married” Carl said getting up and charging you. “I will make sure the court takes away those kids from you once I expose you for who you are, and they will never see their freak of a mother.”

“You don’t have a right to touch me Carl,” Liz muttered. “You think you will take the kids, hell no, I will take them and call the police… which I should have done years ago…”

“I’ll show you who is boss,” Carl grabbing Liz again but this time by her neck and she struggled and knew she had pushed him too far as he started to strangle her, and she pushed against him and he grabbed her arms and twisted harshly this time and then he threw her across the room and she fell into a glass table, and Carl ran out of the apartment.

Natasha had been watching and she screamed at the sight of her mother unconscious on the floor. She reached for her phone and called 911.


And now Liz slept as her eyes remained closed, and a hand took hers and squeezed it as Max sat next to her hospital room. While he had seen her come into the emergency room, he still could not help but gasp at seeing her all bandaged up and hooked to the machines as she struggled to survive. “Come on Liz, come back to me…”

“How he wanted that for more reasons than to will her to come back to life. Seeing her so hurt and so bruised made it even more apparent that he had never stopped loving his ex-wife, and to him, she would always be his wife even if it could only be in his heart. Isabel and Kyle were watching from the doorway, and they spotted Jim Valenti coming down the hallway to Liz’s hospital room. Faith had taken Natasha to her hospital room, where she was spending the night. Max had promised to follow. Jeff and Nancy were still taking stock of the newest developments and they were keeping vigil outside of the NICU, as they watched their baby granddaughter, they did not even know was a possibility until that day.

“Jim, any news?” Isabel asked as she and Kyle edged away from the door and allowed Max to sit in peace.

“I have a BOTLO for Armstrong, still nothing” Jim muttered. “But Isabel you have do something about Michael?”

“Michael, what now?” Isabel asked surprised and then the realization came to her that she had not seen her brother in hours. “What is he up to now?”

“He’s bumping heads at area bars that Armstrong has been known to frequent trying to get information, and he’s been causing a commotion. And Isabel, I do not know how much longer I can head off the owners because in some cases, he’s causing damage.”

“If he’s not finding anything?” Isabel asked.

“He’s not,” Jim acknowledged. “And as much as I would like the help because for some reason Roswell has been a bustle of criminal activity these last few days, so I am stretched thin, but it doesn’t help anyone for Michael to go rogue.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Isabel agreed. “It’s unfortunate, but I only can take a guess in that the knowledge that Liz was being abused has probably set him off,” she allowed as she could only envision how the information would piss off his friend, and would be the trigger “Because we both know with his history the way it is and then the added discovery that Liz’s older daughter is also abused and to add that too with Liz being pregnant, and the pregnancy obviously not being a deterrent for the abuse. So, yeah, we figured he was going to be up to something? We did lose focus of that fact because we have been focusing on the hospital here, but we are sorry Jim, and so, yes, I’ll definitely go and have a talk with him.”

“I appreciate it Isabel because as much I do cheer him on if he wants a piece of Armstrong. I do unfortunately, need to think also about the ramifications for the town. So, if you would seek him out, and remind him of it, then thank you,” Jim sighed as he glanced into the room and gasped when he saw Liz. “Wow, he did a number on her?”

“Yeah,” Isabel nodded. “And Max is pretty out of it”

“It was pretty remarkable that he was here when she came in?” Jim asked of the coincidence. “What are the odds?”

“And there is one more,” Kyle allowed. “Today is the anniversary of the original shooting in the Crashdown. When Liz originally fully came into Max’s life” he sighed. “And now she comes back into it, so many years later.”

“What are the odds?” Jim said again.

Yeah, what are the odds Isabel mused as she watched as her brother watched over the love of his life.


*


“She’s beautiful,” Nancy murmured as she and her husband watched through the NICU window at their granddaughter. So small, and so strong. Amazing developed for being 10 weeks premature, but still she needed a lot of time to get bigger and stronger. “We should have reached our to our daughter?” she asked.

“She didn’t want us to,” Jeff sighed as she looked at the tiny little baby struggling to survive.

“We still should have,” Nancy asked as they heard a small. “You are my grandparents?” and they turned and saw that Natasha was watching them watch the baby.

“I thought they were taking you to your room?” Jeff asked startled at how similar the child was to their daughter at the same age.

“They did, but Faith had to get home so I couldn’t sleep so I wanted to see my baby sister” Natasha muttered. “Since they won’t let me see my Mom?”

“Maybe tomorrow,” Nancy smiled. “So, you are Natasha?”

“Yeah, Natasha Marie” the child murmured. “I guess I should have known that Mommy had parents of her own because Max seemed surprised that you guys didn’t talk when we saw him.”

“You met Max before today?” Jeff zeroed in on Natasha’s tidbit.

“Yeah, Mommy took me to his parent’s funeral like six months ago or something” Natasha said softly. “We only stayed a short time because we had to get home before Dad found out we were gone” she sighed as she hated how her father had gotten out of her that they had gone to Roswell, to see Max. Usually she had a way to get past him, most days. Sometimes it did not work and today it did not, and then her mother saw, and finally hit her finally rock bottom with her husband and Natasha felt sorry that her mother ended up in the hospital. “Mommy is in the hospital because of me.”

“I am sure you didn’t do anything,” Nancy murmured. “You know you look just like your mother when she was your age. How old are you?’

“Seven” Natasha murmured. “Max said the same thing. Said he remembers Mom when she was close to my age.”

Jeff could see that Natasha had responded to Max, and clearly saw him as a hero to her and maybe she was right to think that when he obviously stepped up when he didn’t have the nerve to, and clearly would do anything for his daughter. He so wished things could be different for his daughter, and maybe there was time to rectify it. “Your mother and Max didn’t get acquainted until they were older…”

Natasha nodded as she looked through the glass. “Is that my sister?” she saw the cradle with the name, Armstrong. The tiny baby was so small. “She’s so tiny” she murmured.

“Yes, she is,” they heard Max say from behind them.

“Max?” Natasha said with a smile.

“I checked your room, and they said you disappeared. I figured out where you would head. You know you should be careful. Even if you only one working hand for now, you never know who is out there…” Max sighed as he thought of Maria’s warning about Carl.

“You found me, didn’t you?” Natasha said as she looked through the glass at her baby sister. “I always wanted a sibling?”

“Now you have one,” Max said as Jeff and Nancy again saw how Max responded to the girl and sensed something was odd, but the guy was clearly a good guy who loved their daughter and would do anything to protect their granddaughter. “Let’s get you back to your room,” Max murmured as he led the girl away from and Jeff and Nancy, and took her back to her room, and once gone.

Jeff glanced at his wife. “You see it, right?” he asked of Nancy. “I am not imagining it, right?”

“Yeah it’s pretty obvious,” Nancy murmured as they continued to watch the NICU, and their newest granddaughter Lizzie, what did you keep to yourself? he whispered.


*


“You might be wanting to go home?” Isabel asked as she walked into a bar, which was more of a diver than their usual friendly one back at home, Cow Patties. This one had a dangerous vibe, and Isabel knew it was right at home for her friend and she hated to know that as she found her target sitting at a bar, drinking one two many drinks as she nodded to the bartender who had seen her before, and knew not to mess with her because she had shown just how strong she was, once upon a time. “You’ve outlived your usefulness for tonight. Go home and take a breather…”

“I am fine Isabel, leave me alone” Michael murmured.

‘No, because I figure Liz has awaken memories for you and Jim had already filled me with gory details of you going around town getting answers, your way…” Isabel murmured. “He’s had enough of it for tonight, so he wanted me to head any more destruction off, at least until tomorrow.”

“I’ve stopped, because if Carl is out there then I won’t be finding him tonight. He’s going to stay on the down low until it calms down, and therefore I am just relaxing…my way” Michael sighed as he didn’t relish the memories of the time with Hank. One of the reasons he and Maria melted down on the road was that he could never successfully outlast the demons that plagued him. “You should leave me alone… Why don’t you go back to the hospital, and make sure Max doesn’t do anything to screw his golden life up?”

“You think he has a golden life. He’s miserable” Isabel sighed.

“Still he has a career on the rising track. He’s made for the life he’s leading, and one of these days he’ll figure out his personal life.” Michael murmured. “Just like you have. You have Kyle, and you are happy. So, you should leave me to my own life.”

“You know you gave up on a good thing,” Isabel murmured. “You’re blaming yourself?”

“Maria didn’t want me. She wanted the glory, and the fame. She left and she was right to, as she had a chance to go for it. Why did she want to be stuck with me, and the drama I bring to the table? I gave enough of it to her life while we were here in Roswell during high school. She was right to leave Isabel, and so I am perfectly fine with my life…”

“Nameless girls every night?” Isabel murmured. “Booze until you are on an edge of a blackout.”

“I don’t blackout” Michael murmured.

“Some nights I have had to clean you up Michael, so yes, you blackout.” Isabel murmured. “I wasn’t kidding earlier when I told you to clean up your act because I am scared for you and given Max’s newest dynamics in his life. He does not need the added worry when it comes to you, and I do not either. Because I expect you to walk me down the aisle in June when I marry Kyle. So, I need you there, and I need you sane.”

“I will be there. I promise you” Michael sighed as he pushed some bills down on the counter and turned and barely made it on his feet without Isabel holding him. “See, I am fine.”

“Come on Michael. Tomorrow is another day.”

“Why does she have to come back?” Michael murmured and Isabel felt her heart tighten at the knowledge that Michael’s past would be back in town tomorrow, just like her brother’s was today with the arrival of the only woman he could ever love. “Why did the two of them have to come back and mess things up” Michael murmured as he knew he was screwed. “Max and I were doing fine, without them…”

“I don’t think you were…” Isabel murmured. “And that is the point. Maybe it is time the both of you figure out what you want from life before you destroy what is left of your lives” she sighed. “You can’t keep doing what you are doing?”

“I don’t want Maria back…” Michael ranted as it was even a possibility as Isabel could only shake her head.

“Of course, you do.” Isabel sighed as she pushed Michael into her car and went around to the other side and got into the driver’s side and started the car. “You never know what you really want until you go and lose it” she sighed as she drove her brother to his home, and dragged him out of his car and into his side of the duplex he shared with Max. Pushing him onto the bed, she took off his shoes, and placed the blanket over him, and let herself out and went to her own home which she shared with her own future.


*


Kyle was doing legal work when Isabel walked into the house a short time later. “You saved Michael from himself, again, didn’t you?” he asked as Isabel leaned down to exchanged a kiss as both sighed because they felt the old dynamics reheating again in their group, and who knows where this would go, by the end of it.

“Yeah,” Isabel agreed. “But he’s home and passed out.”

“Good,” Kyle smiled. “So, I won’t be receiving any calls about representing him in court, which is always a shame since I could use the business,” he laughed as Isabel failed to see the humor in it, so he stopped. “You know I was only joking, fine, I’ll stop it.”

“I am going up to bed. Are you joining me?” she asked of her fiancé.

“A little more and then I’ll come up and join you, okay” as Isabel nodded and turned and left the kitchen of her childhood home. The only home that had truly been hers. The homes she had shared with Jesse first here in Roswell and then in Boston had not felt like the right fit, but this home was all hers. It meant something to her, and that is why she had taken it over when her parents had died. She was glad she and Kyle had a chance at a future.

She just prayed her brothers, both, would get that chance.

Because as much as it was horrible to know what Liz was facing. Still, she felt it was sign that the only woman her brother ever loved was back in town. With a child that looked too much like her brother to be a coincidence.

Downstairs, Kyle was looking over some paperwork and he noticed the file he had taken from the office hours before “Whoops, shouldn’t have brought this home” he sighed as he took the file, and was curious because he barely remembered the time when Max and Liz had divorced because of his own dynamics in his life. Having come back to Roswell and trying to make something of himself knowing Isabel had gone back to her husband. And given everything with the federal government had erupted and then barely subsided when Max and Liz ended their marriage, and Liz fled Roswell to Cambridge to attend Harvard.

Curious about the divorce agreement, he opened and started to read. Pretty standard stuff he mused. Given the circumstances and being so young there did not have much for common assets nor children and so it was matter of green lighting a simple standard divorce. And because Liz wanted to move on, it was all simple. But then he got the final paper of the final divorce agreement, and he was shocked when there was a signature missing, and a date was missing on the behalf of Max. Liz had signed it because he recognized her signature, but Max hadn’t fully. as he had signed several of the pertinent sections, but not all of them, and some were missing.

It was mandatory to sign everything, and dot all the t’s, and this was the copy that should have been filed. But it had not been filed, or if it had, they failed to register the errors. It had been stuck in Phillip’s office, “What on earth?”

“What is it?” Isabel asked as she came down for some water to take to bed.

“Nothing” Kyle was quick to say because he had to think about what he had just seen. “Phillip had to know that the agreement wasn’t valid when he filed it, he mused. “I am almost finished,” he smiled. “Just doing some reading.”

“Anything interesting?” Isabel asked.

“Yeah, something interesting” Kyle acknowledged. More like earth shattering he mused Because it meant there might be a very real possibility that Max, and Liz were not legally divorced, and therefore still legally married.

What did that mean for her union with Carl?

Or her children?


*


Max did not care if they were divorced or not as he was back in Liz’s hospital room as he watched as she slept. She had not woken yet since surgery and delivery of the baby and they had patched up her injuries. In some ways given all the angst she had to have faced, he wanted her to sleep for as long as possible so she could recharge her batteries before she awoke and faced the cruel world that will want more than she was ready to give due to her present condition.

I do, Max could not help but remember their wedding day. In that small church on a far away road, miles from the snowy mountains. Liz had been so precious in that hippie white dress that she, Maria, and Isabel had found in a thrift store when they went on a splurge when she and Max decided to stop and marry. Not wanting to wait one more minute. They had been so happy that day.

And their honeymoon as short and awkward as it was given, they were in the same vehicle with four other people, but they had stopped, and boy did they celebrate.

The passion unleashed on that one night that they got a reprieve from their traveling companions as they stopped at a motel. While Michael and Maria, Isabel and Kyle had driven off to a campground for the night. They had stayed in the motel, and boy was the passion was memorable and off the charts. One thing they had always been good at was, the unbridled passion and this time it was legally sanctioned and uninterrupted.

The one thing about their marriage that never died, was their passion for each other…

“Why did it have to go wrong?” Max murmured as he snapped back to reality as he sat and watched Liz sleep. “If only…” he murmured.

And as his head was nodding off, when he felt his hand which was touching something so precious and light as air start to move, and he looked up and saw eyes opening, and the striking and awestruck soothing eyes of the only woman he would ever love watching him as both didn’t know what to say…

Until he did…

“Liz…” Max said softly as he did not want this moment to end.

“Max…” Liz said in a haunting and very soft way as if she didn’t know where she was, as her eyes sought out something familiar as they glanced around the hospital room as if she didn’t know where she was… “I am…”

“You are in the hospital. You are here in Roswell, at Roswell Memorial…” Max said simply as Liz could only look around the room, and take in her surroundings as she could then only stare at she tried to comprehend her new reality as he took her hand and squeezed it tight, with no expectations that she would return it, but she did, as she squeezed his hand, and he felt like life was restarting itself.

“I am,” Liz murmured but could say what she wanted to say as Max smiled as he tried to reassure her. “You don’t have to worry about anything Liz. You and Natasha are going to be safe as you can be, because I will do everything to make sure you two…

“The baby?” Liz whispered as she felt and learned she was no longer pregnant.
RoswellFan68
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 543
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:52 am
Location: Charleston, WV

Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 4 - 05/08/2020

Post by RoswellFan68 »

I'm glad Max was there for Liz. The government really must of messed Liz up to fall for a guy like Carl, the complete opposite of Max.

Michael needs to grow up. Liz didn't choose to come into their lives.
User avatar
Stefuh
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:55 pm
Location: Quebec, Canada.
Contact:

Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 4 - 05/08/2020

Post by Stefuh »

RoswellFan68 wrote: Fri May 08, 2020 3:00 pmMichael needs to grow up. Liz didn't choose to come into their lives.
I agree with this, he's a mess, but he really shouldn't blame Liz for her and Maria's return.

So, Natasha is really Max's daughter I guess? I hope? I mean, it really seems this way! I knew those divorce papers were important! Does this mean her marriage to Carl isn't legal then? I sure hope so! I'm glad that Liz is finally awake and that Max was by her side when she did. :D
User avatar
Parker1947
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 642
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:34 pm

Holding out for a Hero - Chapter 5 - 05/10/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

“She’s precious,” Max said simply as he could not help but stare into his ex-wife’s eyes as she sought understanding into her new reality. “Yes, they had to deliver the baby because your condition was too unstable for the pregnancy to continue. But she is a fighter Liz, and she is hanging on just like her mother, and her big sister, she will make it” he assured Liz whose eyes were welling up in tears. “Hey, don’t be like that… she’s going to be alright”

“It’s too early,” Liz whispered.

“She’s small, but she’s showing a will to make it,” Max murmured. “Natasha is thrilled. She says you want to name her Sarah, is that true?”

“Yes,” Liz murmured as she though of her eldest daughter. “Sarah Rose…”

“That is a pretty name,” Max murmured as they stopped talking for a moment before he started up again, as both couldn’t believe the circumstances they were in, for good and for bad “Do you want me to let them know of her name?”

“Can you?” Liz asked as it seemed to bizarre to think that she was communicating with her ex-husband and talking about a baby they did not share together. “Max, where is Carl?” as she showed a hint of fear, and haunting in her eyes as she could help but look at the man who once her husband, and the love of her life and asking about the man who had his ring on her finger on this day, such a important day, the birth of a child, and to have occur in such a heartbreaking manner only made it difficult.

“Natasha said he got away,” Max murmured as Liz looked away. “Natasha is strong you know, and she’s fine Liz, and she has been a very strong advocate for you…”

“I wish I could have been one for her,” Liz murmured. “This has been my fault,” Liz murmured softly as she knew she should be feeling the pain from her numerous injuries but all she did was feel numb because she had known this day was coming and she should have gotten out and yet she hadn’t, and instead she had stayed and she knew that she didn’t have any real good reason in wanting to stay, except once she found out she was pregnant, she knew she couldn’t leave Carl. “I should have left a long time ago, and I didn’t, and I put Natasha and now the new baby in danger because I stayed.”

“No one blames you,” Max said softly as he tried to take her hand but she took it away as she didn’t want to think how she had screwed and up seeing Max’s soulful eyes only made the regrets worse... “You couldn’t have known he was going after her too, because Natasha tells me she wanted to protect you. You thought you trying to protect Natasha and the baby?”

“I delivered only pain to her, and yeah, she was obviously being brave in keeping it from me until tonight when I discovered the horrifying truth. I should not have given him the opportunity or Natasha the ability to try keep it from me. I knew Carl was bad news, and even more of a nightmare when he was drinking but I never imagined he would strike out on Natasha. I thought he had a limit to hurt he would cause, and especially he would not raise his hand to a child of all people. I thought he kept me as his target. Even though she is strong will and very stubborn…”

“Very much like her mother,” Max asked.

“Still, I didn’t think Carl would go that far. I guess I got that wrong, but then I have been wrong about a lot of things in my life these last year so why shouldn’t I have been wrong about this,” she sighed as she thought of her young daughter. “Thank you, Max, for being there for my daughter when I couldn’t be there for her,” she murmured as she looked into Max’s soulful eyes full of concern over her, and it was a little unbelievable to her. “And for me…”

“I would do anything for you Liz…” Max sighed as she thought of what Bryan’s Adam’s song, and it seemed like his calling card for his relationship with Liz. “You just have to ask me, and I would do it.”

“I hurt you…” Liz muttered.

“We hurt each other,” Max sighed as he got up as he paced around the room. “I am not going to allow you to take the blame when it’s on both of us. We both made the choices we did. You took your chance at a new start, and I ended up here…” he asked. “It was how it was meant for me except I wish your chance hadn’t ended this way, when all I wanted for you was to be happy. And that remains today as it was yesterday. And it will be that way tomorrow…”

“So, did I” Liz murmured as she took at the paths untaken. “If only…”

“We both can say that all day long, but you wouldn’t have ended up with Natasha if we had stayed together, and this newest little girl” Max murmured. “In the end the future is what we make it…”

“Well I made it only worse for me, and Natasha” Liz sighed as she ruminated over choices she had made. “I should have left that first day…”

“You look like you’ve been through the wringer, in more ways than just how you look or feel” Max murmured as he could tell how tired Liz looked. “So, how about I go and give you some time to rest because the doctors wouldn’t be that happy with me if I prevented you from getting the rest you need, and being I am a doctor myself, I should be better than this,” Max smiled as he squeezed her hand again. “I am going to be around, and you won’t have to worry because you will be safe here…”

“Max,” Liz asked.

“What?” Max murmured.

“Where is Natasha?” Liz murmured. “If Carl is gone… And I don’t thing Maria is back…”

“You don’t have to worry because Maria is coming. She will be here tomorrow” Max assured of her friend.

“Then where is she, where is my daughter?” Liz asked as she felt a sense of relief that her best friend Maria was rushing back from Los Angeles. If only she had listened to her friend and left Carl, but she had not. “Please tell me they haven’t put her in the system?”

“I won’t let that happen” Max swore at the mere thought of it. “And you don’t have to worry because it hasn’t happened. All you need to know is Natasha is safe for tonight. Because I made sure to get her admitted…”

“What!” Liz asked fearful. “How bad is it?”

“No, she’s fine Liz,” Max was quick to assure his ex. “I promise, and I am no trying to keep anything from you. Natasha is strong, and she has been very vocal, and she is more than holding her own. Unfortunately medically, she has seen better days but all she needed was a cast and sling for a fracture in her arm,” Max admitted because he knew he couldn’t hold the information from the love of his life as tears came to Liz’s eyes. “It’s precaution, and to help her heal, but because Maria couldn’t come immediately. I made sure she did get her a room for tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll figure out what happens when Maria gets here…”

“That is expensive…” Liz whispered at the thought of a hospital room for her daughter. “She already was worried about her own medical bills, added onto the fact she had a preemie that will require a lot of tender loving care by the medical staff to pull through…”

“You can take the burden off yourself regarding Natasha’s hospital stay Liz. Because I am paying for it,” Max assured his ex as her eyes went wide but he stopped her protests with a simple smile. “Liz, it’s one night, only, and I wasn’t going to let her be put up for a placement…”

“Max,” Liz murmured.

“The decision is made, and it’s final” Max assured his ex as he knew she wanted to protest but the fatigue was starting to hit her. “All you need to do for Natasha and Sarah Rose is to sleep, and to recover so you will be strong for your daughters. Sleep, and I’ll see you in the morning.”

Liz wanted to protest some more but she simply nodded because she was fading, and she knew she’d say the words because she wanted to say so much more, and she couldn’t because of her situation and because it would seem to be too unseemly given she was married to someone else. So, instead of saying the words she longed to say, she watched as Max left the room as a nurse came rushing in when she had been obviously informed that Liz was now awake as the nurse took the necessary assessment as the patient felt her eyes closing and falling asleep while Max watched through the glass as his soulmate fell back into the land of dreams, as he wished her only the best dreams, before walking off.


*

“What are you doing?” Natasha asked as she saw a nurse taking some blood from her arm. She had been watching television in her hospital room. Because had been unable to sleep and so she was flipping around the channels to see what was on television when a nurse came in.

“Taking some blood,” Nurse Jackson smiled. “Just to see how you’re progressing.”

“But I thought I was okay,” Natasha asked as knew why she was supposed to be a guest of this hospital tonight because Max had arranged it and because she didn’t have anyone to go home with on this night, because they were worried about her. And whether her father would come out of the woodwork. Dad knows better to come near me she mused especially after last time but then when her father was drinking, he tended to forget, and he was always drinking.

“You are, but this is a precaution only” Nurse Jackson admitted as she knew the blood work would allow more cover to keep Natasha in the hospital unquestioned over night. “The doctor’s just want to make sure.”

“Oh, okay” Natasha nodded as Nurse Jackson stopped, and left the room moments later and carrying the blood to the testing center when she spotted Faith. “I thought you should have been gone hours ago…”

“Can’t get out of here I guess,” Faith laughed. “My husband is busy for the evening with friends, so I can’t help but stick around and do some dreaded paperwork?” she sighed. “The life of a resident. You are never off duty, even when you are not supposed to be working… So, were you just in with Natasha Armstrong?”

“Doing some precautionary bloodwork to keep the Chief under the impression that the hospital stay is a medical necessity especially since it’s well known that the Welfare people would love to take her into their custody” Nurse Jackson muttered.

“Max would never let that happen,” Faith murmured.

“Which is why she’s staying here tonight,” Nurse Jackson. “As it hasn’t escaped my notice or anyone’s for that matter that she’s become very much smitten with Dr. Evans and the same could be said for him, as seriously Faith, I have never known any man to care so much about the child his ex-wife had with another man?” she asked. “Usually it’s my experience that they don’t want to associate with their former spouse’s new life if they can help it, but Max can’t help himself, can he?”

“No, he can’t” Faith murmured as she also couldn’t help but notice that her friend was beyond devoted to Liz, and to the little girl as divorce didn’t seem to turn off that for Max nor the fact that she was remarried. “Anyways, I need you to run one more test on that blood you just drew” she asked as she handed the nurse a new requisition with a new test on it and the nurse looked at the request with interest. “Who wants this?”

“Me?” Faith murmured.

“Is it a medical necessity?” Nurse Jackson asked in a very warily tone.

“Call it a gut feeling,” Faith asked of the request. “Tell them that an interested party wants to know the results of that particular test, okay?”

“If you’re sure?” Nurse Jackson asked.

“I am,” Faith murmured as she watched the nurse walk off, and she sighed and walked into the child’s room and kept her entertained while Max found his way back after taking a break in Liz’s hospital room, where he fell asleep.


*


The car stood stopped on the outskirts of town, at the first sighs of dawn the next morning and the driver was making a call on her cellphone, and she waited. She set out a flow of curses at her plight. A broken-down car who could not go any further, and especially not the fifteen minutes she needed. “You good for nothing piece of junk” she muttered as she waited, and hoped her SOS got through.

Finally, she saw a truck come, with a familiar sight. She knew this town but still when you are alone, in the middle of the night, you worry. Especially since she did not have the benefit of secret powers unlike her too sexy and too unreliable estranged husband. “Thank god, I was afraid I was going to be in danger if I waited too much longer. You can only linger so long in these parts…”

“You call at 5 a.m., you have to wait,” Kyle Valenti muttered as he hooked up his stepsister’s car to the hook of the truck, he got from an old friend from his old job. Doing legal work for your old mechanic does wonders when you call in the middle night and you need a truck to help make sure your stepsister makes it into town safety. “I had to get out of a nice warm bed, so you can wait…”

“Sorry,” Maria muttered. “I do appreciate this Kyle you know. I am grumpy and tired because I drove all night, ever since I left Los Angeles after getting the call. And I was so close to making it when this piece of junk gave out….” she sighed as she got into the truck beside her stepbrother and looked around her surroundings and was glad to have gotten a reprieve. “You can drop me off at Mom and Jim’s if you want?”

“They might be expecting you although probably not this early,” Kyle muttered as groaned at the time on the dashboard of the truck “But Dad has been busy at the office these days, so your mother is probably up too.”

“How is she, Kyle?” Maria asked.

“Which one. Your mother, or Liz?” Kyle asked.

“Both,” Maria asked although she supposed she should feel guilty about thinking more about her best friend than her mother. She didn’t need to be reminded by her stepbrother that she was a lousy excuse of a daughter who would rather visit her best friend when she came to the state rather than her mother who she had been extremely close to while growing up. But she knew her mother was safe and sound with Jim because Jim wouldn’t do anything to hurt her mother, or wouldn’t hurt a fly for that matter without cause, but Liz on the other hand was residing in a monster’s home and needed her attention when she did visit. “But right now, Liz…”

“I figured,” Kyle muttered, and Maria knew he had wanted to say something but restrained himself. “She woke up last night. So, she is less critical, but she’s still has a way to go…”

“The baby?” Maria asked. “Natasha?”

“They had to deliver baby. It’s a baby girl” Kyle managed to Maria’s wince. “She’s so far so good. She’s too small but if she’s anything like her mother, she has a will to her, so I am confident” he sighed. “I guess Liz wants to name her Sarah Rose?”

“I know, she did tell me that” Maria murmured as she thought of the talks she and her friend had exchanged over the newest baby” and now she felt guilty because she had tried so many times to get her friend out but these past few months but her crumbling fortunes in Los Angeles had kept her occupied and in sunny California. She had known her friend was apprehensive about the new pregnancy which she had learned about only days after the funeral and the curses she had heard out of her friend when she gave her the news, but yet she always heard the love in Liz’s voice lately when they talked about Natasha and the newest baby. She knew Liz was looking at the baby as a sign that things would work out. It was just too bad that she had not left before she got sign. But she knew her friend loved her baby and wanted to be there for her children, and would have done anything to protect them…so, she didn’t deserve this to have happened… “Natasha, you didn’t mention Natasha?”

“She’s a survivor that girl.” Kyle remarked as he thought of the brown hair vision of Liz “She’s being a little too adult in all this but she’s a trouper,” he muttered. “Unfortunately, Carl took it out on her too, and I guess Liz found out and that is how it all started...”

“Oh shit,” Maria whispered. “How bad is it for Natasha?” Maria asked.

“Thankfully, she’s standing. If you hear her talk. You would not think she was hurt. Because she is only worried for her mother, and her baby sister and her own pain is not something she is remotely concerned about. Which I guess is about right for a seven-year-old. Carl unfortunately did a number on her too because she has a black eye and a fractured arm, which was not from this incident apparently, so it could have been worse. Especially when you get a look at Liz and see how brutal Carl could be when he wanted to be…”

“Where is she?” Maria asked as it struck her as she remembered how she was next of kin for the little girl if there were any medical emergencies in relation to the girl if Liz was unable to be there at her daughter’s bedside “Jeff and Nancy?”

“No,” Kyle shook his head as he though of the estrangement. “But they do know now that they have a seven-year-old granddaughter, and a new baby one too” Kyle admitted and left it at that because it was still amazing at how far Liz had pushed her parents away when he had known how close they had been at one time “But about Natasha. She’s been admitted into the hospital” Kyle muttered

“For Christ sake Kyle, you just told me it was only a black eye and a bad arm” Maria asked frantically as she thought of her goddaughter. “Why is she in the hospital?”

“It was all Max could think of to keep her out of the system,” Kyle sighed as he thought of the little girl. “They were poking around, and since he knew the last place that little girl needed to be was in the system when we all know how hard it will for Liz to get her back once she’s fully recovered, and the baby for that matter and since we also knew you wouldn’t be here until today, so he took drastic measures…” he admitted of his future brother-in-law. “It’s not costing Liz anything because Max is picking up the bill.”

“Max,” Maria asked. “Are you kidding me?”

“Yeah, he’s a regular saint that one is” Kyle murmured as he was still amazed at how devoted Max was to Liz and to Natasha, and he knew that many other guys wouldn’t be that same way, but then it was Liz and knew Max would always love think of Liz as his wife even if she had someone else’s name But does she have someone else’s name he mused to himself as he thought of the documents back at his home he shared with Isabel as he now had major questions about the legality of Max and Liz’s divorce, and therefore Liz’s second marriage might be as a result, null and void.

Maria on the other hand did not know any of this but thought of the idea of Natasha or the baby being placed in the system because she knew Carl had a history. Liz never wanted to talk about it, but she knew that life had to be hell and she knew the system would not want to allow those kids to go home again, unless Carl was out of the way. If only she had come back to New Mexico, and physically taken Liz out of the house or staged an intervention as they drove onto their parents’ street.

Stopping in front of the Valenti household. Honking the horn, Kyle got out and started to help unload the car. Fortunately, Jim was at home at this early hour and heard the commotion of outside as both he and Amy both got a load of their children out front. “Maria,” Amy said as she came rushing out of the house and Maria swept into her mother’s arms, as it was the first time in a long time, they had seen each other.

Another reason for Maria to feel guilty, as Jim took a load into the house. Finally, the car was cleaned out, and Kyle said his good-byes and got back in the truck and returned it to the shop where he would make sure the car was dealt with for Maria as she walked into home with her mother. “You don’t have to say it Mom?”

“I am not saying anything Maria, because I am just happy that you are home.” Amy smiled a she wanted to say but you’re too thin but knew to refrain from it because at least she had her daughter back in her home, and she just prayed it would a visit to remember no matter how long her daughter stayed.

“Yeah, I am home, alright” Maria murmured as the door closed.
User avatar
Stefuh
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:55 pm
Location: Quebec, Canada.
Contact:

Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 5 - 05/10/2020

Post by Stefuh »

I'm glad that Max was able to reassure Liz about the fact that he kept her children safe and that he would pay for Natasha's stay at the hospital. I really, really want Kyle to tell Liz that she is not married!! Also, I guess Faith wants to check if Natasha is Max's or not! :shock: And I hope that now that Maia is here, she'll be able to make sure Natasha and Sarah Rose don't go into the system. :(
RoswellFan68
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 543
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:52 am
Location: Charleston, WV

Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 5 - 05/10/2020

Post by RoswellFan68 »

Stefuh wrote: Sun May 10, 2020 12:23 pm I'm glad that Max was able to reassure Liz about the fact that he kept her children safe and that he would pay for Natasha's stay at the hospital. I really, really want Kyle to tell Liz that she is not married!! Also, I guess Faith wants to check if Natasha is Max's or not! :shock: And I hope that now that Maia is here, she'll be able to make sure Natasha and Sarah Rose don't go into the system. :(
I think Faith maybe protecting Natasha. If Max is her father, he would be able to take care of her.

I'm glad Max was there for Liz.
User avatar
Parker1947
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 642
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:34 pm

Holding out for a Hero - Chapter 6 - 05/12/2020

Post by Parker1947 »

A few hours later, Maria rolled out of bed in the spare bedroom of the new and improved Deluca Valenti household. Since their marriage, Jim and Amy had spruce the formerly bachelor pad and it was now a real home. Amy had sold the place she and Maria shared for so many years in her childhood. And Maria had been given an unofficial room within the walls of the spare bedroom. Now that Kyle lived with Isabel. It was empty. She looked at the mirror in the bathroom after getting up from her short nap. She knew this was not the life she had thought she was running away for when they had split town on the day of her high school graduation. But then on the other hand, she could bet any day of the week that she gotten the better bargain than what Liz had given when they fled town.

Of course, neither had known what they were in for on the road. Maria and Michael had tried to be happy, but their relationship had always been one blown fuse away from implosion, and it had happened on the road once they had separated from the gang of misfits. Many questioned why six teenagers were roaming the open roads together. Celebrating their high school graduation only worked for so long… And especially when you had two committed couples, and two singles. So, eventually they split into couples, and went their own way.

Only for that decision to turn into a nightmare. Still those early days had been good ones for her and Michael. It was remarkable now that Maria had time to think about it, now. They truly acted liked they belonged together, and that they could make it work and then Vegas happened and things started to changed when a drunken night in the gambling capital had turned their newly reunited relationship into a commitment with a ring on both of their fingers. When they woke up the morning after, well, they were not prepared for the harsh realities that the sunlight would bring to their newly committed and legal relationship. Which is very typical for us Maria mused now?

They tried. But then everything went haywire with Max and Liz. And they had tried to vain to hold onto the fact at least they had each other but the days crept by and she began to get scared herself that Michael would be scooped up. While they both knew that Max would never give up Michael or Isabel, still the government had their ways. At the same time, Michael was worried for Maria. Despite her human status and the fact, she never been saved like Liz had been. So, she never had any special abilities. Still, if they were upping the torture by taking humans. Then he was afraid that Maria could be taken simply because she loved him, and due to their marriage. Only for when the dust cleared did they come to realize that the world had real consequences. Because their story got played on television when the whole sordid secret came out. She got noticed and was offered a role in Hollywood.

She took it. And that had done in their marriage. Michael stayed in Roswell because by now Max was nursing his broken heart. And she went off to fame and fortune, only to learn that that show business was a cruel business with a lot of bodies and compromised values along the way. Like she had been in New York, she was not ready to compromise those values she held, so she struggled.

And now she was back in her hometown. Single yet married.

And with a husband who was still in this town. She knew before she left Roswell again, she would have to get Michael to sign those papers because it didn’t do them any good to stay married when they didn’t live together, and their marriage was only on paper… Sighing, because thinking of Michael only brought memories of the rare good times. She needed a distraction, so she did not think of her husband.

She got it when she heard the doorbell.

She did not know if her mother was home. Because she had not heard commotion and figured her mother would let her sleep, and she figured Jim was at the office by now. But she knew her mother always had something on the go. Amy was good at filling her days. So, she walked into the empty house, and she went to the front door and opened it.

She was shocked to find…

“Max,” Maria said softly as she viewed the love of her best friend’s life. As she knew Liz had never gotten over her first love, and her only love.

“We heard you were town, and we couldn’t resist” Max murmured as he glanced at his best friend’s wife, and the only woman Michael could love and who was the chief cause of why he was slowly destroying what was left of his life.

“We?” Maria asked looked around and did not see anyone else. “You look to be alone?”

“I am not alone” Max admitted. “But someone did want to see you,” Max murmured as he stepped to the side and she saw with a wince and a gasped a small child.

“Aunt Maria!” Natasha said with extreme happiness as she jumped up and down at the sight of her favorite person.

“Natasha, my goodness” Maria whispered as she winced at the black eye and arm in the sling… as she took in her goddaughter for a hug as she looked back at a concerned Max. “Baby Doll, what has happened to you… Oh my goodness,” she murmured as she looked back at Max. “Thank you for bringing her. I didn’t know how much I needed to see her, but I thought she was in the hospital?”

“She was…” Max said simply.

“Come in, come in” Maria said as she welcomed Max and Natasha into the Deluca/Valenti household. “Sounds like we have a lot to discuss?”

“Yes, we do…”


*


During the night Max had found himself waking up and making his way to Natasha’s hospital room as he observed the small little girl asleep in her bed as the fractured arm now in a cast was not in the sling, but laying limply by the little girl who had a black eye and he felt rage at the asshole who could do that to small child. A precious little girl who did not do anything to bring on such anger. The vision of her mother as small girl. Memories flooded his mind of her mother at that age. So full of life, so compassionate and so wise.

He promised Liz he would protect Natasha and he would hold up to that promise. He had promised her once before that he would help her, if she ever had a child who needed his help. Just like she had sacrificed so much to help him when he did not deserve that support. Just because she might have someone else for a father didn’t mean she was all her father, when she looked like her mother, and she didn’t deserve to become a victim in the war her father had with her mother, and with life.

Watching the child sleep brought peace as he sat down and just watched. As Max fully knew he was lending himself a disservice by continuing to spend time with Natasha when she was someone else’s child and Liz did not even belong to him anymore. She had a different name, and a different life. He had barely made it through the last time he had lost her, and now he was setting himself up for a great disappointment. But he could not stop himself as he watched as the child and found himself falling asleep.

Nurse Jackson who was working the night shift looked in and shook her head at the sight of Max by the child’s bedside. He is a one in a million, that man is she muttered to herself as she walked off to another patient’s room.

Max slept, only to hear a soft voice calling at him, through his dreams that were all of Liz and were of him and her, with children around them throwing snowballs in a fight outside of a house, with snow on the ground. Christmas cheer was all around, and Max stopped and took Liz into his arms and they kissed as the girls giggled as the older girl led her little sister into the house. Leaving Max and Liz outside in the falling snow as they stopped kissing and he patted the bump she carried. A new little prince or princess to join their family… as Max was treasuring the dream and vision when she heard a small voice cut through the dream, “Hey,” he heard as he his eyes opened and he looked up at Natasha staring down at him, not from her bed, but on her feet. “You fell asleep…” she asked. “Why were you saying Mom’s name?”

“I was,” Max said as he sleepily was trying to wake up. “I don’t remember if I did…”

“Yeah, you did” the seven-year-old mumbled. “You were saying Mommy’s name,” she asked as she did not mention how happy he seemed as he said he mother’s name as he slept. As she had woken up and realized she was in the hospital room and looked over and seen Max asleep in her chair.

“What time is it?” Max asked.

“Don’t know, but it’s early” Natasha said as she saw that someone had turned off her television over night. “How long have you been here?”

“Not long,” Max muttered as he got up and saw Natasha still without the sling. “I guess we better get that thing back on you, if you’re going to be out of bed.”

“Why do I need it?” Natasha muttered. “My arm feels fine.”

“But it wasn’t alright,” Max murmured as he thought of her operating under such an old injury and needing the cast in the first place. “This allows less pressure to placed on your arm…” he said as he slipped the sling on and put her arm back in it.

“Why do you even care?” Natasha asked of Max who looked surprised at the question. “I heard you and Mommy have a past. And she left you for my Dad, so why do you care about me, if because of me, you don’t have her in your life anymore?”

“My sister and friends talk too much,” Max muttered as he did not relish knowing Natasha knew some of the past. “All you have know is that it wasn’t you,” Max sighed as he felt compelled by the aura of an old soul in this little girl despite her young age, she was so innocent and so much a vision of her mother. “Yes, your mother and I did have a history a long time ago, but we broke up for reasons that have nothing to do with you. Your mother found your father and had you and now your baby sister. We both lived different lives, and I only wish I could have prevented the pain you and your mother had to go through…”

“It’s my fault.” Natasha asked. “Mommy is not bad…”

“Why do you say that?” Max asked.

“I should have told her a long time ago what Dad was doing… But I did not, and I thought I could protect her from it…”

“You are only seven years old Natasha,” Max murmured. “It’s not on you to protect your mother nor is it your fault, what ultimately happened. What happened between your parents is because of them, and not you. You didn’t bring this on?”

“If I hadn’t slipped and told Dad that we went to that funeral, then Dad wouldn’t have gotten so upset with Mom?” Natasha asked as Max’s heart broke at the thought of Liz having to keep secrets, and how her showing up at his parent’s funeral had started the ball rolling to this day. “Dad somehow got it out of me. I promised Mom that I wouldn’t tell him, and he made me…”

“Then that is on your father for how he treated you and your mother. You did not ask for it, nor did your mother. So, it is neither of your faults” Max sighed as he knew that Liz was going to feel guilty. “Your mother doesn’t blame you Natasha.”

“She should…” Natasha muttered.

“That is silly,” Max murmured as he checked his phone and saw a message from Maria saying she was now in town. “How about I give you something to cheer about. Your mother still needs to rest for a little while longer before you see her, but I hear someone special is back in town and she would love to see you…”

“Aunt Maria?” Natasha asked as her face brightened.

“Yes,” Max nodded. “How about we go and pay a visit?”

“Will they let me go?” Natasha asked as a degree of uncertainness came through her.

“Leave it up to me,” Max murmured and minutes later he was officially getting her discharged as the blood tests came back all clear, and she was medically cleared.

“What about tonight?” Natasha asked as left the hospital. “If am no longer an official patient. Where am I going to be tonight?”

“Let me think about that…” Max smiled as he thought of the fact that he had a plan. One way or another, Natasha would be safe, and by having her save then Liz could recover without the worry or burden on her shoulders.


*


“Do you want a drink?” Maria asked as they stood in the kitchen, and she handed Natasha a drink with a straw that she had found in a package in the closet from her mother’s supplies of alien supplies Mom likes to keep these around to remind of the ludicrous circumstances I got into, and to keep her entertained I guess she mused to herself as she thought of how unique their circumstances were. “It’s early…”

“When did you get in?” Max asked. “If it were not early, I would say I wanted something stiffer. But coffee is good” he sighed as he smiled at the straws. A memory of the Crashdown. When life was simpler. “I’ll join you…”

“So, how is she Max?” Maria asked. “I got in first thing this morning. Drove through the night…”

“You can ask me yourself you know?” Natasha snarked.

“Smarty,” Maria laughed. “I know you’re going to give me your side, but I want something more reliable” she sighed.

“Hey,” Natasha muttered but when back to her drink.

“You can see, she’s fine. The fracture is healing, and everything is else is minor. Last night was precaution and because she did not have anywhere else to go for the night. And it was either that, or the system would want to give her a home.”

“You didn’t try Jeff and Nancy?” Maria muttered.

“I could see that Liz’s relationship with her parents is strained, and I didn’t think she would want that and so it was a good compromise and by being in the hospital than we knew she would be safe, and there be no way that Carl would get to her…” Max sighed. “Your warning scared me a little, so I wasn’t taking any chances.”

“Dad wouldn’t come after me,” Natasha muttered as she thought of her father. “He knows better than that, unless he’s been drinking, and then that is a whole other ballgame” the seven-year-old sighed but did not elaborate. “Can I watch television?”

“Sure, go ahead…” Maria nodded. “I don’t know what channels my mother and stepfather get because it’s been awhile since I been here,” she admitted as she looked around the house and realized she had been out of the loop on a lot of things in Roswell, and she didn’t know how to feel about that.

Once Natasha had vanished into, the living room, which left Max and Maria alone. “What was that?” Max asked.

“How should I know?” Maria muttered.

“You know Liz Maria. You have been around her, and Natasha. It is obvious that little girl looks up to you. You are the fun aunt. Naturally and quite obviously, I am in the dark,” Max asked. “I mean, she bats off any concern she has about her father. She seems to think she can handle him, why is that?” he asked. “When her arm was badly hurt by the man?”

“She talks a good game, but she’s only seven” Maria sighed. “And I am just as much in the dark as you are Max. You would think Liz would have talked to me. I mean it was obvious it was bad. But she didn’t confide me in because she knew I couldn’t stand the man and wanted her to get out, and was always trying to get to leave him, and so, yes, I knew he could be a ass when he drank and things weren’t probably easy for my best friend but I didn’t know this was happening otherwise I would have done something about it. She knew it and she knew if I knew then I would have called in reinforcements,” Maria went silent and Max went silent because he knew just what kind of reinforcements Maria would have, and they both had so many if only’s. “So, we talked but we didn’t talk at the same time” she allowed. “She lately had been talking more about the baby, or how Natasha was… Carl was never discussed, otherwise our calls would have cut short and then of course at the same time during these last months, well, my own life was unraveling in Los Angeles, so I haven’t been as present as I would have liked.”

“I am sorry,” Max sighed. “I realize we all have lives and we can’t have our eyes on what we want to see all the time” he muttered as he thought back six months. “I mean, when she came to the funeral, I could see that life wasn’t easy for her and it was like she wanted to tell me, but I never imagined any of this…” he sighed. “But of course I am the ex-husband, and the idea she would have told me what was happening in her life, especially if it was as bad as it was obviously because she knew I would have done something about it?”

“Yeah,” Maria muttered as she though of what that something Max might have done to protect the one that got away “She mentioned she went to your parent’s funeral. She also mentioned that Carl was in the dark about it, so I guess that he found out” she asked, and Max nodded as both were reminded of Max’s loss. “Again, Max, I am sorry. I know I sent my words of sympathy and well wishes for you and Isabel when I heard, but I can’t believe how it happened?”

“Thank you,” Max acknowledged as he still felt pain over the loss of his parents. “Each day is easier but still it’s not the same…”

“It makes me feel guilty that I have treated my mother so cavalierly when I know how easy they can be taken from us,” Maria sighed. “Your parents were special people. When they found out the truth, they did not judge. They went to bat for Liz, and all of us…”

“I know,” Max nodded. “I regret that I held onto the secret for so long because I feared their judgment when I should have been honest, and upfront when they started to ask questions. It would have been nice to know we had more than you, Liz, Alex, Jim, in our corner.” Max allowed. “Even then, because of what happened with Alex, we feared the danger… Still, they proved that we should have been upfront with them, and should have told them the truth a long time before we ultimately did…”

“It was hell of a time,” Maria muttered.

“It was,” Max sighed. “So much happened that I wished I could take back, and yet even then, I had some good times. I just the good times could have lasted”

“Don’t we all,” Maria sighed. “Neither you nor Liz deserved your fates…”

Max nodded.

“Michael and I had it easier, and still we managed to screw it up. So, don’t feel bad that life can get you down because it seems designed to want to give us only pain…”

Max nodded although neither broached the dreaded topic of Michael. So, they just left it alone as she looked through the door and saw Natasha fixated on the television as she was reminded why she was back in her hometown. “Max, how bad is it?”

“She’s extremely lucky that Natasha called 911 when she did” Max allowed. “If she hadn’t been there…” he stopped himself because he did not want to imagine what it would have been to know they were too late. “At the same time, to know Natasha stayed, and witnessed it…”

“I can’t imagine,” Maria sighed.

“No, you can’t, and I can’t either. That little girl has seen too much. Her eyes were so vacant when she arrived at the hospital. To know what she had to have witnessed…” Max asked. “Liz told her to run. If she had listened. I don’t know if Liz could have made it, and the baby wouldn’t have had a chance…”

“God Max,” Maria whispered at the mere thought. “The baby. Kyle said it is a girl. I knew from Liz that is what she suspected…”

“Yeah, a baby girl. 2 pounds 6 ounces.”

“Shit, that’s small…” Maria frantically asked. “Can she make it Max?”

“It’s going to be a long road. But they can, and have… But it is not going to be easy as she’s going to have to be monitored, and there will always be chance of complications from her low birth weight, and being born so easy but so far the signs are promising”

“This is so unfair,” Maria muttered. “Liz didn’t deserve any of this…”

“No, she didn’t” Max agreed.

“Liz’s condition?” Maria asked.

“Still critical. The delivery relieved a lot of pressure from her, and still they had to patch up a lot of injuries. The injuries were horrific Maria. She is lucky to have lived. But her chances are now extremely high. Still, she’s going to need a lot of time to get on her feet?”

“To think what could have happened?” Maria sighed. “I wish I could have seen the signs. I did visit, and still I should have done more…”

“At the end of the day, she made the decision and still she now has a chance” Max muttered as he though of how bad it was, and how much pain she must to have suffered in silence to endure and still didn’t seek help. “If only…”

Maria muttered and she saw how this was torturing Max, and still it was insane to think she was here talking to her own friend, and how life had treated them both. Still, she could not help but frown as he could see the impact it was on Max. Max saw the frown and could not help but comment on it.

“What?” Max asked as he had seen Maria’s frown.

“You’re a glutton for punishment, aren’t you?” Maria murmured.


*


Meanwhile at the same time Kyle was in the office… as Isabel walked in. He looked up from the investigation he was doing at his desk. He was supposed to be in the office only a few hours before joining Isabel at the hospital as they planned to visit Liz. Still, he could not help but be drawn into investigating the case of Max and Liz’s divorce. It did not add up. Phillip was by the books for so much of his career. And he did not see any errors in most of all the work he was auditing. He did not know if he was doing it because he knew Max and Liz were special. If Phillip bended the rules, then it was because he was doing because they were family.

But still it did not add up. Why do it? Liz went on to remarry or they believed she had moved on and remarried. And had two children under that union but there was now question in the legal document that signified the divorce of Max and Liz had errors in it. It should have been green flagged and returned for correction, or complete revision. Yet as far as he could tell, it was filed.

As far as the State of the New Mexico were concerned. Max and Liz were divorced and yet there were holes in their divorce agreement. Anyone should have seen them. Which meant it could be quite easy to revoke the divorce and declare it null and void by either of the parties. And it also meant Liz’s second marriage, which took place in Boston was on quicksand if the divorce in New Mexico was faulty. As it led to numerous other implications.

Of course, Liz could not have gotten a marriage license without showing evidence of her divorce. So, should not she have seen there noticeably clear errors or at the very least Boston should have seen something was funny before issuing a license to Liz in her quest to marry Carl. Although other state marriages are always funny when you were originally married cross state lines, yet Boston was not a small town where a lot could slip in between the lines. Boston was a major city. So, he could not stop thinking that something was funky when he heard a familiar voice. Of the woman he loved, and whom he planned to marry.

At least he knew his divorce was a genuine article Neither she nor I wanted any ties at all he thought. He had made sure because Phillip had taken care of it for him, and his divorce was on the up and up. That was a giant mistake. You should never marry someone when you are stuck on someone who went back to her husband after an illicit affair when you were on the road fleeing for your lives from insane government agents.

“What’s going on?” Isabel murmured as he tiptoed up and surprised her fiancé with a kiss. “You seem to be very drawn to your paperwork?”

“The life of a lawyer,” Kyle smiled. “You should have known this by now”

“I do,” Isabel laughed because both she and Kyle liked to joke that she had a type it seems. Still, she knew she and Kyle were a better fit than she and Jesse, and despite her ability to make her marriage with Jesse work. Still, she knew it did not have a hard shell surrounding the marriage which is why they never attempted to have children. But with Kyle, she knew she had a genuine guy who loved her, for her and didn’t care that she was special or how special powers and they had plans for the whole nine yards once they got married and she couldn’t wait for that day to come.

“I didn’t expect you to stop by?” Kyle asked as he got up and gave his fiancé a kiss. “What brought you by?”

“Remember, we were going to go over to the hospital to visit Liz, and the new baby?” Isabel asked. “We talked about it earlier this morning before you left the house.”

“Oh right,” Kyle muttered as he checked the clock. “I didn’t think I would be still be so deep into this work when you arrived.”

“Do you need to stay?” Isabel asked as she saw the files in front of her boyfriend.

“No, just give me a couple of minutes to finish up and then we can be on our way and I’ll close the office since I don’t have a any clients until tomorrow”

“Sure,” Isabel murmured as she looked around the office. “I see you’ve managed to merge the office files and such from Dad’s to you…”

“It’s still a work in progress,” Kyle allowed as he looked up and knew his fiancée was still sensitive about the passing of her parents, and her father and given her late husband also worked in this same office, there were memories all around for her. “But I am closer. Most of the clients are sticking with me, but there have been a few who want to find new representatives.”

“Which is natural I guess with any major change,” Isabel murmured as she sighed as still, she saw her father such a force of life and nature bustling around the office. While he had slowed down a little since she came home from Boston and he took on Kyle at the practice, still he was a force in the legal world. And his name was even more sought after once everything went down with the federal government.

Kyle was over at the file cabinet, filing a document when Isabel saw a familiar name on his desk, and she looked and was shocked to see that her brother’s divorce agreement was on the desk. She picked it up and looked over. “What are you doing with Max and Liz’s divorce agreement on your desk?”

Shit Kyle thought as he saw his girlfriend looking at the document. “It’s something I was looking at, not seriously. You know the merging of the client bases…”

“But the divorce is over?” Isabel muttered. “Years ago. Why look at it now. Has Max come to you asking for advice or something?”

“Why would he?” Kyle murmured. “Your brother stays out of a legal office if he can help it,” she laughed. “Like most people go ice cold on hospitals due past bad experiences. Your brother treats this place like the plaque He hasn’t said one thing about whether he wants me to represent him in any matters in the future, and I haven’t asked…” he sighed as he thought of how the battle with the federal government had badly burned Max, and given he lost his wife, and marriage in the wake of the battle, he didn’t come around the legal office if he could manage it. Since he, Kyle has been on staff. He had not seen Max at all. Any lunches Philip went on with his son before his untimely death, well, they always met at the restaurant or wherever they were meeting.

“Then why are you looking at my brother’s divorce agreement. It’s like 8 years old, right?” Isabel muttered.

“Almost,” Kyle allowed.

“What’s going on Kyle?” Isabel asked in her most serious voice like she was using her special gifts to check whether he was being truthful. He hated it when she gave him that look, whether she had that kind of power or not, and he knew she did not, still he was sensitive about how she conducted her gifts around him. While he fully accepted them, still to have them be used on you, that was a different story.

“Isabel…” Kyle muttered.

“Don’t Isabel,” Isabel allowed. “What’s going on. I know something must be up, and I before you accuse me of using my gifts. I am not. This is an old divorce. Max and Liz had long moved on. Or okay, Liz has moved on and remarried, and Max is as static as ever, but I can think of no reason why you would be looking at their divorce.”

“I am just curious…” Kyle muttered.

“Why?” Isabel asked.

“With Liz back in town. I can’t help but be curious, so I looked it up,” Kyle lied.

“Now I know something is up. Because Kyle, Liz is remarried. Maybe to the asshole of the century. But you have no reason to wonder about my brother’s divorce if it is over with, and filed, and completed. Unless for some reason it’s come up again…”

“Why would it?” Kyle allowed.

“Kyle… you have something that you know, and I don’t…” Isabel asked as she was now definitely on the scent and Kyle knew he was in trouble and he might as well fess up and try to get some advice himself from Isabel on why her father would do what he did in regards to the divorce. “You know something, don’t you?”

“Fine,” Kyle sighed. “You should know first that I didn’t go looking for the divorce papers Isabel… they found me.”

“What are you talking about?” Isabel asked.

“I found them in a locked file of your father’s” Kyle muttered as he did not relish having to blame a dead man, but it was the truth. “There was a drawer I couldn’t get in, and it was locked. For months I have been looking for the key. Because I couldn’t find the key in any of your father’s things but it was his file cabinet, until something dropped onto the floor when I was in his office removing a client’s file that was still on his desk, and when I leaned to pick it up, I found the key taped to under his desk. That is when I checked the locked drawer and got it open right before you called me about Liz. But Isabel, I found the key taped to the underneath of your father’s desk Isabel”

“What?” Isabel mused. “Why would my father have a key hidden like that…” she murmured. “He was a small-town lawyer?”

“That is what I would like to know, but I don’t know why…” Kyle muttered. “And I can’t very well ask him because he’s dead.”

“I know,” Isabel muttered.

“I am sorry for invoking those memories,” Kyle sighed as he felt shitty about having to do such a thing because he did know how long it had taken Isabel to get even partially over her parents loss “Anyways, as I said, I did look into the drawer. I found your brother’s divorce papers in them. It was the only file in the drawer Isabel and it was locked, and I didn’t intend to even read the file but it got swept up in some files I took home because of the rushness of getting out of the office because I heard of Liz and only later did I realize the impact of the file in my possession and since then, it’s had a life of it’s own.”

“What do you mean?” Isabel asked.

“This was supposed to be the filed copy of the document that is kept by the lawyer, but look at it, Isabel, really look at it. Most importantly, look at the final page, and what is not there… or is there, and shouldn’t be…”

“What,” Isabel asked confused but read the document or scanned, it and got to the end… “What, there are obvious errors on it, and it’s not signed by my brother… God Kyle, it tortured him at the time, but for Liz, because it was obvious, she was wanting to move on. I remember him saying that he signed the papers.”

“I remember that too,” Kyle muttered. “So, I don’t know what it means…”

“Are you something my father knew this, and still went ahead and filed it?” Isabel asked as she tried to grasp the meaning of what her boyfriend was trying to tell her. “That is unethical?”

“I don’t know for sure,” Kyle murmured. “But chances are yes… and yes, it is.”

“That is crazy…” Isabel asked. “So, what are you saying?”

“If this is legitimate, then there are questions about the validity of your brother’s divorce from Liz…”

“Are you really saying that Max and Liz might still be married?” Isabel asked eye fully open as she realized the impact.

“Yes,” Kyle murmured.

“Shit!” Isabel stumbled in shock.
User avatar
Stefuh
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:55 pm
Location: Quebec, Canada.
Contact:

Re: Holding out for a Hero (CC, Mature) - Chapter 6 - 05/12/2020

Post by Stefuh »

I'm glad that Isabel knows about the divorce papers! I really want Max and Liz to know about them... And I love that Natasha is now with Maria, that's where she's going to stay, I guess?
RoswellFan68 wrote:I think Faith maybe protecting Natasha. If Max is her father, he would be able to take care of her.
I'm really grateful for her and I hope she'll find that out! :)

Can't wait for the next chapter!
Post Reply