The Story of My Life (CC, Mature) - Chapter 75 - Completed: 04/25/2021

[keepsmiling7]

Everyone knows Zach helped Olivia.....
Return to the pilot........Liz was shot.....
Hurry back, this is tense!

[Parker1947]

“She was, maybe in 1999 but not now” Michael response was as immediately Max sat up to take in his surroundings. This had not what he had anticipated. Michael did not know why he did not anticipate it. But he had not, and he saw the confusion his best friend’s eyes, and on his face. Not clear to Michael was if his friend’s memory was impacted by whatever he had gone through in that prison. “So, you might have questions,” he sighed as it was clear that they were the only two people in this cavern of caves. “FYI. This was all Olivia’s doings, with a little help from my own children who will be getting their share of a lecture later” he muttered as Max was clearly grasping for a clue to what was going on, so he stopped and wondered if something was more the matter with is friend. “Max…”

“Wait, where are we?” Max wondered as his mind was going into different places and none of them were connecting to where they were right now. None of it made sense. One minute he had been in the dreamland of the Crashdown engaging with his true love, before events took them in a direction that neither could have foreseen on that day, and then snapped out of that daydream, to come back to reality, it was clear to Max, and his memory was not finding cohesion on any one set of faces, as he stammered Olivia. Michael’s children, what?

“Snap out of it,” Michael laughed as he saw the confusion on his friend’s face. “I know you have to be a little disoriented, but you do not know where you are, right?” he murmured as the eyes changed and it was clear that it was beginning to make sense for his friend, and instant relief came to him.

Max did not know how to respond to the moment. “It was a dream, was it not?” he murmured. “I remember being in the Crashdown, and watching Liz, you were there, and then there were sounds of shots, and then I was snapped out of there, and came back here” Max murmured. “You confirmed that Liz was shot, but when?”

“1999,” Michael muttered as it was probably only natural that Max would go back to a time before time was complicated and had changed their very souls. Sometimes he wanted to go back when it was all so easy, when he was beginning to know Maria, before it all became so serious “Who knew that the coming of the new millennium would change our lives, and give us everything, and make us lose just as much” he murmured.

“So, we are not in 1999?” Max asked as it was clicking for him, the knowledge that they were not in those days anymore. “Where are we?”

“2019, nearly twenty years from that day” Michael murmured with weariness Where did the time go as flashes flooded Max’s mind, of the shooting, saving Liz, kissing her, losing her, proposing to her, and their wedding day, and then a day in a courtroom, when it all changed for them as he was led away in cuffs. “Oh god” as it all came back to him.

“A rush of memories, there, huh?” Michael muttered as it was clear that it was all coming back, the good and the bad for his friend. “Your mind must have gone somewhere deep because we could not get you to wake up. Not that we had any special power to do so, unlike you,” he muttered. “But we tried…”

“Who is we?” Max murmured as the rush of memories flooded his brain and all he could see was a young teenager with brown hair. A beauty. Someone who was the spitting image of his dream girl. Liz. But it was clear that she was not Liz but her own unique self.

“Olivia, Zack,” Michael muttered as he thought of the lecture he would have to give to his own children. While they might have started here in the cave, still this was not the life they wanted their children to mimic. Twenty years ago, it was bad enough to go through that, and he did not want to live through that in the actions of his own children because they had barely made it out of there. “And my own twosome?”

“Amelia and Alex” Max asked as more memories were making a connection. Of course, he had never met the two, but he had heard enough of them to feel like he knew them, and the history of time was coming back to him, and everything, even the angsty moments as a teenage boy, with striking blonde hair popped into his mind. “Zack is my son with Tess?”

“Right,” Michael sighed “I am sure you would have wanted in that dream you had to wipe that experience right out of your life,” he smiled. “Of course, dying did help with that, but still you happened to go and create Zack…”

“Right,” Max murmured as his mind worked through the insanity of his back story. To the average person it did not make sense. To anyone who believed in the rational would think it was a movie, but no, to Max, he knew it was real life. And his life story. As he now sat up with more force as it all came to him, and their surroundings became recognizable. Jesus “We cannot be here, right?”

“But we are,” Michael laughed. “It was your daughter’s bright idea” he sighed. “When she broke you out of prison…”

“She did what?” Max stammered.

“She only did what we all wanted to do but had not muster up the courage to do as of yet” Michael muttered. “Of course, she did have Zack to help” he sighed of the sibling twosome who had bonded over these weeks, and yet still did not see each other as family. But would team up to commit a kidnapping…

“That is crazy,” Max muttered.

“It is,” Michael muttered. “Which is why we are in the chamber. This was the only place she could think that the authorities would not be able to reach in and find them” he sighed. “It’s pretty clever when you think of because only a select few have the ability to access it?”

“Isabel” Max asked.

“She had to get home, so that she could get some sleep, and explain herself to her husband” Michael muttered. “You should know that everyone was here…” he sighed. “But appearances had to be made…”

“Everyone…” Max murmured as his voice trailed off.

“Yes, Liz was here…” Michael murmured as Max glanced around once more, but it was clearly evident that they were the only ones in the chamber “She wanted to stay but she had to get home to your daughter?”

“Olivia?” Max asked.

“Yes,” Michael murmured. “A chip right off the old block”

*

“What the hell are you doing here,” came the incredibly angry words of Isabel Evans Valenti as she walked into the home that belonged only to her sister-in-law and niece, and no one else. “You have no business being here,” she continued with the outrage on her face as the tag team father and daughter team of Isabel and her father Phillip came rushing over when they heard the federal government had invaded Liz’s house.

Fear for both her brother, but most of all, her niece caused Isabel to storm into the house, and was in a showdown with Agent Barker.

“We do when we have a fugitive to find,” came the agent who watched the emotion on the face of Isabel and Phillip. As an agent he knew the reputation of both Evans, and he knew he would at least be seeing one of them. Most likely the younger one because he had been aware that the eldest Evans had all but retired from the law. And had not done much in the seventeen years since his son’s conviction except the odd case. His son’s crimes had blunted his reputation in town. And he did not have the desire. His daughter though had taken on the mantle and made herself quite the career, not only in her practice, but in her Innocent Project type organization, The Sunshine Club. Taking on cases who had been hard done by in the system, and winning freedom in some cases, but most of all, bringing their causes into the light of the day. Agent Barker knew the only that was whale of causes was her brothers, and one she had dreams of getting to come true.

He knew his employers would not want that day to arrive and would fight to make sure it did not come. And now that Evans had vanished, he did not know how the story would end.

For any of them. But if he wanted continual employment than he needed to make sure they found Evans even if it meant the worst days for the fugitive’s wife and daughter, or other family members for that matter even thought he had the sense that they had seen plenty of them in their days.

“Given that my brother does not have a vested interest in this home” Isabel muttered as she knew her sister-in-law had strived for years to be able to afford this house. To be able to give her daughter a home, with a white picket fence. The dream Isabel also knew her brother had for his wife. If fate did not allow him to be in her life, then he wanted the whole nine yards for his wife. And Liz had worked overtime to make it happen, and unfortunately Max had not seen it come to fruition. “You say you are looking for him. Then you are looking in the wrong place”

“But you would agree that your brother does have a vested interest in his wife, and daughter, do I have that, right?” Agent Barker asked. “So, why would he not seek them out?”

“And put him at danger from people like you,” Isabel mumbled with distain. “My brother would want the nothing more than to make life simple for his wife and daughter,” she sighed that is why he sacrificed himself… she told herself and while she knew her brother regretted a whole bunch of things from his life. The one thing he did not regret was protecting Liz, and now that he knew, Olivia existed. Olivia was number one on that list, tied with her mother, and Max would do nothing to put them in danger. Still, she could not help remembering the murky circumstances that her brother disappeared under. “And really, they cannot be thinking that my brother left of the use of his own two feet, right?” Isabel asked. “Because we have been told that my brother was suffering from some malady, that the prison did not fill in neither myself nor his wife, who by the way is next of kin?”

Agent Barker could see that Isabel was a very powerful advocate for her family, as Phillip as stood and watched, without commenting because he could see that his daughter, and daughter-in-law could handle their own fight, and yet he was impressed to see his daughter going toe to toe with the federal agent, and he could not help but suspect that during her career, and too much during her teen years, that she had the experience unfortunately to be able to keep her own with someone so seasoned professionally. “I have been instructed to look in all the places where Mr. Evans would show up, whether he is of able body or not” he murmured. “Obviously, you are right. No one is accusing him of getting up and walking out of the door of the prison, but someone took him somewhere, and it would have to be someone who cares for him, very much. And that leaves two people in this house.”

“Two people who were kept from him…” Isabel muttered if she did not know she was on sketchy ground but would fight to keep the suspicion from falling onto Olivia, or Zack for that matter.

“We do know Ms. Parker’s car was missing…” Agent Barker countered as he could not explain the ambulance also missing, but he knew the car had disappeared from the parking lot.

“Are you accusing someone?” Isabel muttered as her back was getting up, and the agent sensed it but kept going. Knowing that he was on a path that he had no evidence to back up but kept going because he was acting on a gut feeling.

“All I am doing is speaking of what we know right now,” Dave murmured. “We do know from the surveillance tapes that the daughter was seen at the prison, with her mother,” he murmured as Liz’s eyes went lethal and the three adults that cared, well, they were thanking god that Olivia had finally got to bed, and was fast asleep, and it was just the adults talking. “She then disappears, along with her mother’s car while her mother still at the prison?”

Fear coursed through Liz as she knew that the agent was not eying her, but her daughter. And she could not help but wonder if it was the same fear her own parents faced once upon a time. When she was too young, and too rebellious “Olivia wanted to come home,” she muttered because she needed to get suspicion off her daughter. “I did not need my car because I figured I would be at the prison if the warden allowed me to see my husband, and my daughter knew it, as we had talked about it on the drive up to the prison?”

“Your daughter did not want to stay?” Agent Barker asked dubiously.

“She’s sixteen Agent,” Liz muttered as she one last time cursed the age. “The last thing she would want to do was spend the night at a prison. We both know that if I was going to get a greenlight, then she was not going to be able to come in, and so I wanted to come on back to Roswell, and she had a sleepover to get to” she muttered obviously lying, but thankfully only Isabel and Phillip could guess she was engaging in one lie after another at the moment.

“So, you said, but she was clearly home” Agent Barker asked my goodness, she knows how to tell a story. Yet he was unable to tell whether she was lying or not “Yet it is clear you were not that up to what your own daughter was doing, and that would lead loads of time to where she was unaccounted for because as you said, you were with the warden when your husband was reported missing?”

“She had to get to her sleepover,” Liz muttered. “But as she told you herself, well, it did not work out.”

“Why not?” Agent Barker asked.

“It so happens that she was recently involved intimately in a relationship with her best friend’s brother, and they have broken up, and it has been very awkward situation for all involved” Liz muttered as she was on safer ground, but still lying through her teeth as she was alluding the baby. “Given the situation they have to deal with, and while they are friends, still the ex has feelings for my daughter. My daughter was the one who wanted the breakup. At the moment, well, she is very moody and changes her mind constantly, and so she felt it was on safer terrain for her and her ex if she came home and did not finish the night over at their house” she muttered as she glanced over at Isabel who nodded as they both were muttering to themselves, we are too good at coming up with these bold lies on the spot. “I have been in the middle of the drama ensuring my husband, and she hadn’t been able to tell me.”

Phillip was watching and again could not help but be impressed at how easily his daughter, and Liz could come up with a story to past muster and then he remembered how easily he and his wife had been duped by stories their children were telling them.

“Impressive,” Agent Barker whistled as he could almost applaud the performance Liz was giving. Still, he did not know the woman well enough to know whether it was an honest or not, but he had the sense there was a lot of genuineness in her words.

“How is that?” Isabel asked as he had the sense that the agent was believing their story to a point, but only to a point and that left them in a grey area that was murky for all involved.

“I do have to commend you because it does seem as if you have an answer for everything?” Agent Barker muttered.

“It is not a story, or an answer but it is the truth,” Liz murmured.

“Is it?” Agent Barker wondered.

“Do you have anything to say it would not be the truth?” Phillip muttered as he maneuvered into the conversation. “Do you?”

Dave could only smile. Because of the tension in the room. Which had been ratcheted it up since they had been joined by the other visitors. The agent had to admire the tenacity of the women, and obviously they were fighting for someone they cared for, but he had a job “I am aware of your past,” Agent Barker murmured as he turned his glance back at Liz.

“And that means?” Liz asked as she could not get a sense of what he was after.

“I am aware that you were arrested along with your soon to be husband in the autumn before the army base massacre, in the state of Utah, Salinas to be exact. Armed robbery, and while the charges were eventually thrown out. You almost went to prison, and it was only a technicality that got you released. Mr. Evans here, represented you for a time in the case?”

“And how is that relevant?” Liz muttered and it was more than a technicality that got her released she muttered to herself It was coldblooded blackmail of federal agent not so removed from this Barker fellow she continued to tell herself. If not for what Max and Phillip had done, and gotten that powder residue tested, then she might have really gone to prison. And who knows where her story would have gone with her parents as she sighed as she glanced over at Phillip who still felt guilty over how that adventure would lead to the events that would take Max from them. She did not fault him. Because it was on them as much as it was on their parents. They had been too suspicious. If only Max could have trusted his parents or known they could trust them. How could their parents not have pickup clues? Still, it eventually spun out of control to such an extent, that it ended up setting up the circumstances that took Max from them, and she knew Phillip felt guilt for that…

“It is just that you are not some average small-town girl” the Agent could not help but mutter. “My records indicate that you are capable of a lot of things, and so is you husband which is why he was convicted, and your daughter is probably just like her parents, as they say, it does not often stray from home, but you are right for now. I do not have evidence to back up my theory, as I have checked you house. And I have seen no sighs for the fugitive we are looking for, so I will go on my way. But I want to make sure you know that I will be back…”

“Why?” Liz asked as if she did not already know.

“Because this night will not be the end of the story,” Dave muttered as she walked to the story. “Make sure your daughter knows that someone will be watching your family…” he murmured as he opened the door and walked out of the house. “You have not seen the last of me.”

Leaving Liz, Isabel, and Phillip back inside the house unsure of what to do next. None of them like the possibilities.

“Oh god,” Liz muttered as she thought of her little girl. “They suspect Olivia, do they not?”

“Yes,” Isabel and Phillip murmured in unison. “Olivia is going to have to walk a very thin blurry line to get out of trouble,” Isabel could not help but say. “Your story was believable, but only to a point.”

“Well, I have had practice evading the truth” Liz murmured as she concentrated her attention on Isabel. “It was one of the first things you guys taught me, once I started to know you people,” she muttered. “There are many things I am too good at because of these past twenty years.”

Isabel could only nod but also sigh. Because it was one of those legacies that she was not proud of because here she defended people who wanted to get out of trouble, or truly were innocent, and yet she herself had a very murky history and she was very lucky that she was not in prison along with both of her brothers, with Michael included.

“I am not going to allow her to be dragged down by this,” Liz swore. “I will not let my daughter to get dragged into the mess.”

But none of them knew how she would not be as upstairs, hidden from view, was Olivia who had been observing, and doing what she did best, eavesdropping and she now knew the agent was suspicious of not her Mom, or even Zack but her, and she was hanging out there on a tight rope, with the bar she was gripping failing…

She had always prided at how she had been able to get through whatever scrape or hole she had fallen into as she grew up, but she did not know how to get out of this one.

“How am I going to get through of this now?”

*

Back at the chamber. Max was now fully mobile. Awake, and taking stock at the change of events. That the walls surrounding him were not bars, or cement but one of rock, and one that held another whole world. One that the non-believers could not even begin to understand if they knew what the cave held.

Time was ticking down. But his health was returning in full, and he was almost back to his old self.

Still, he did not know what it all meant. He had to give it to his daughter for thinking of this place. A place he had not given a lot of thought to in the last seventeen years when he was forced to play human, and normal in a prison cell. When this place was evidence that he was different. They all were different. Only select people were able to get in, which is why this was indeed the perfect place.

Because it was the one place, the authorities could not find, or penetrate.

But he knew he could stay here. It was no place to live, but it was quiet, and all he could do was watch those pods. Green, and glowing. And proof of how he came to this country, to this land.

Engineered, and created, and hatched.

His children had it easy. Or at least Olivia did. Because he had no idea of how Zack had been born really… Yes, on another planet, but who was now, thriving teenager, full of questions.

Too many that were like how he once was. Max had believed he was giving his child a chance. But now, he only knew he was giving him questions.
And abilities.

And his daughter, Olivia, a picture-perfect replica of the only woman Max could love. Tess had been one night, and a regret because of how it happened. When he was weak. When everything was falling apart. And he had given Tess the one thing she needed to deceive them, and the betray them.

It all started here…

“Max,” came Michael who was still in the chamber and observing as Max was in his reflective trance as he was pacing the chamber. Neither knew they could open the doors, for fear of what could be outside, waiting for them.

“Yeah, what?” Max murmured as his trance broke and he faced his best friend. It was a quite different life than the one they lived so long ago. When both were different people. Michael wanting off the planet. While Max wanted to stay, and to be able to love Liz.

Something he was able to do, while Michael found that there was a place for him here too…

“I just wanted to make sure you had not checked out on us,” Michael murmured because he knew that his friend was in a quandary of his circumstance.

“Us?” Max murmured.

“Yes, us,” came a voice as someone new showed up in the chamber. A tall blonde woman came and showed herself. She had come in while Max was in his trance of reflection, and she was relieved to see that he was awake and could communicate.

“You,” Max muttered as he recognized Serena Scott, or Scotti

“Yes me,” Serena admitted as she glanced around the cave. A place she had not been to, and did not have access to, except to be let in by Michael because this had not been her birthplace. She had come to this land, by a ship, that was now ash, and metal and no one would be able to piece together. “I have to hand it to your daughter because she had proven to be the one that we needed to act. I had thought it would her brother, but she proved me wrong…”

“You will find that on this planet. Women are strong, and they can outthink anyone” Michael murmured as he thought of his friends, and most of his wife, and daughter who have proved to be mighty.

“So, she has shown” Serena muttered.

“You are not at the prison?” Max asked. “Keeping watch…"

“I gave my notice,” Serena muttered as she glanced around again, and then back at both Michael and Max. “This was the perfect place, but you do know that it cannot last…”

“We know,” Michael murmured as he glanced at his friend because neither of them knew what to do now…
Where to go.

All Max knew though, was he needed to see Liz…

“Liz,” Max murmured to himself and even out loud. “I am not going anywhere until I see Liz…”

“Naturally,” Michael quipped.

[keepsmiling7]

The agents were making the rounds.........Phillips was amazed at the stories Liz and Isabel were telling.
It's a shame that Phillip's past involvement gave help to the police.
How will they get out of this mess????
Scotti on the scene.......and Max isn't going anywhere until he sees Liz.

[Parker1947]

It was later in the morning now than it had been before, and Olivia had been able to get some sleep, but now she was at her computer trying to get motivated to complete an on-line exam for one of her classes. All she could think of what her father. It did not matter to her that she was thin rope with the FBI, and they were seriously looking at her for her father’s vanishing. She knew they did not have evidence to back up their suspicion, but she knew her mother, aunt, and grandfather were preoccupied by it, and stressed because of it.

Still, she was staring into space of the computer screen. This test should be a piece of skate. Something she could complete in her sleep. She was living on no sleep, and yet, she still could not drum up the motivation to complete the test, so she was going through the motions, until she clicked the final the answer.

And she exited the exam. Not convinced she gave it her all.

Of course, she had done better before…

Before her life became constant turmoil. Alex had warned her of what she was opening by visiting her father. But she wanted to see the man. To know the person who her mother loved so much that she was not moving on.

She had not expected all of this.

The chaos. Some of it was self inflicted she knew, and she should know better. She had been hearing the stories for years, to be careful.

To do better, than what the original generation had done.

But she had to be herself and go her own way. She did not regret finding her father or knowing him.

She also did not feel repentant about the fact she liberated her father from the prison. She just prayed they did not find him, because going back would be worse than how it would be before. Because he would be thought to have escaped.

How they could keep him out of there, she did not know.

So, she opened a file of photos her aunt had done of her father, and her mother from back when things were good. If it had ever been good because now that Olivia knew the truth of the love story. She knew it had been intense, and one rocky moment after another, and yet her mother longed for the guy who saved her life, and who had loved her, and given her everything.

Even though she had long lost that guy, and who he was now, was completely different.

Smiling when saw some clips and looking at the photos on her computer. She put on some music. Shuffle of some old love songs because she was in the mood.

Even though she had enough of love for a long time.

Still her parents had loved each other so much…

So, she looked up when a song started playing, and the lyrics rang way too eerie to her parents love story. Neil Diamond’s The Story Of My Life"

The story of my life
Is very plain to read
It starts the day you came
And ends the day you leave

The story of my life
Begins and ends with you
The names are still the same
And the story's still the truth

I was alone
You found me waiting
And made me your own
I was afraid
That somehow I never could be
The man that you wanted of me

You're the story of my life,
And every word is true
Each chapter sings your name
Each page begins with you

It's the story of our times
And never letting go
And if I die today,
I wanted you to know

Stay with me here
Share with me, care with me
Stay and be near
And when it began
I'd lie awake every night
Just knowing somewhere deep inside
That our affair just might write

The story of my life
Is so very plain to read
It starts the day you came
It ends the day you leave

*

At the same time as the music was playing in Olivia’s room, and after it ended, she played it again… Liz pulled up into the desert. Outside the chamber. She had been called by Michael, and been told Max was awake, and asking for her.

Only her.

She had not told Olivia because she knew her daughter had an exam to concentrate on, and she needed time. Still, she was not sure what it meant to be here, and still she had been careful with how she had come. So, she was not followed.

Getting out of the car. Looking around to make sure she was indeed not followed. She walked up the incline to the cave. She did not know how it would go.

Too much was different.

She had responsibilities as she kept telling herself. She knew their daughter was one step from being picked up. She did not know how far they would go.

Which was a repeated theme for them, as the song continued to play in the background because it did not make sense.

But then none of this made sense as moments later, the cave opened, and Michael walked out, and she walked in.

Neither of them having to say a word. Serena had bee with Michael as they exited the cave. “You think it was wise to leave them alone?”

“It’s Max and Liz” Michael murmured. “We do not have to see their reunion to know it will be intense” he muttered. “Yeah, they do not need company. So, you need a drive somewhere?”

“Nope,” Serena muttered.

“So, what happens now?” Michael asked.

“If you find out, tell me” Serena muttered. “We are in unprecedented times…”

“Tell me about it,” Michael muttered.

As inside the cave. The words of the song continued to play without reason. You're the story of my life,
And every word is true
Each chapter sings your name
Each page begins with you

Liz could almost hear it herself to know it was true. As she walked in, and Max took one glance at her, and he was lost.

A lost cause.

Nowhere he could go and not be with Liz. She was his heart, and the whole reason he was alive. Liz Parker was his reason for being.

It did not make sense and he had screwed it all up, but she was the love of his life. “Liz,” Max whispered as she entered his eyesight. He still was full of bruises, but he was better in spirit. Just seeing the beauty that was his wife made it all more bearable.

“Max,” Liz breathed.

“Liz,” Max said again as they moved towards each other. Both knowing this was ludicrous to be in bated breath when he was basically in hiding. Because their daughter had engineered his departure from the prison, he had sacrificed himself to. They were bigger than this, but were they, when looking into Liz’s eye’s and knowing that she was the only person he wanted to see, and he would risk anything to be with the woman he loved once again. “You came?”

“Could I stay away?” Liz murmured. “No, I could not” she asked as she walked closer to him. “I wanted to be here when you woke up. And I know Olivia wanted the same thing…”

“But you could not stay?” Max asked. “Michael told me that real life beckoned?”

“In more reasons that you know,” Liz murmured as she did not want this moment to be rained on by the reality of the situation or the fear that existed for their only child together, their daughter. Nothing about them had been realistic or logical. Given that she was in love and married to an alien. Mere glancing into his eyes, and she knew she would do anything for him if only they could be together.

Which had been them in the past, and could be very much their present, and their future.

“It does not matter, nothing matters, because you came… to be with me” Max murmured as Liz came closer, and they were now inches from each other. “You can never know how much I have been dreaming of this moment…”

Wincing at the bruises and the reality of their situation. Liz was taken back into the past, but she could not stay there because they were two different people today, and yet they were drawn to each other. Inexplicably, none of it made sense. It caused her curse the gods once again “I cannot believe that they almost took you from me again” Liz asked.

“But they did not because we are here, together” Max murmured as finally he took her into his arms as it felt natural, and something that missing from his life. Which it was, as warmth of her body, and the feel of her skin was intoxicating. “Oh god,” he whispered as he could not even think rationally because she was in his arms. “You are beyond perfection” he could not help but whisper as finally had her grasp.

“Max,” Liz whispered “What on earth…” she wanted to say because they did not make sense, and it was not of this earth’s rational sense that this could make sense. To feel his touch on her skin, and even though this had not been the first time they were together. Yet this time, there were not any camera’s that risked filming them. They were utterly alone, and far away from that horror story that was the prison.
Yet with a lot of risk, and in that this was the last place they should be.

“I love you,” Max murmured as they finally found their lips on each other, and they were captured by each other as their hands began their search of each other. Lips explored, and the passion that was always within their core erupted as she pushed him against the wall as they kissed…

Finally ridding this place of the nightmare that had existed almost twenty years ago when it almost ended them… When it told them that it was Tess that was his destiny, and his soulmate.

When they were wrong, because to Max.

Only Liz was his destiny.

*

“You know you need to be careful you know,” Maria was telling her children as they sat in the kitchen eating a late breakfast because they had slept late into the morning. And now she had just given them a lecture. One that was years in the making. Almost since she was their age that it was building and especially since and Michael had taken a chance on each other, and become parents, and watching as the odds of their kids repeating sins of their day became greater with every past month, and year.

“You told me a million times already,” Amelia muttered. “Can I go over and see Olivia?”

“No, not yet” Maria muttered. “I am serious honey. Liz and I went through too much when we were your age, and we do not want your kids to have to go through that…”

“What if we want to go through it Mom?” Alex muttered. “Isn’t that how we grow up and become stronger. You would not be the same person if you had not gone through what you had. I am sure Olivia’s mother is the same way?”

“We would have loved to have not lived through what we lived through,” Maria muttered as she glanced around the home that she and Michael had been blessed by a lot of luck to be able to build and looking at the two children they had been gifted to have. “You can look at Olivia’s life and see that it should have been different. You father and I got lucky by the life we have had been able to have, and we do not want you to have to go through any of the pain we did. You can become strong in other ways…”

“All we did was help out a friend in need,” Amelia muttered. “Would you not want us to help Olivia from getting into trouble.

“Yes, but we do not want you to risk your futures,” Maria muttered. “You two have been fortunate, and the authorities are in the mix, and we do not want you to be swept up okay?” she asked as Amelia got up from the table with her plate and took it to the dishwasher. “Think before you act next time?”

“Yes Mom,” Amelia muttered. “Can I go see Olivia?”

“Fine” Maria murmured because she was not sure she had gotten through to her kids. She should be happy they were willing to stand up for a friend, who was in trouble. But as a survivor of those kind of days, and just because she committed herself to a life with an alien did not mean she wanted her own kids to revisit that path, whether they were special and gifted or not to put themselves in the path of trouble. “You have anything more to say?” she asked of her son who only shook his head, as he picked up his basketball and headed back outdoors. As Amelia left the kitchen, to go get ready as Michael walked in the door that his son had just used. “Michael, finally you are home?”

“So, I see our kids were not that receptive to your lecture,” Michael murmured as if he could read her mind, but it was something different. “I could hear Alex cursing as he went to shoot some baskets.”

“At least he kept it for outside,” Maria muttered as she wanted to concentrate on something more than her fear for her kids. “So, if you are home, what does that mean?”

“Max is awake” Michael said simply.

“Really?” Maria asked with hope “So, how is he?”

“Medically clear as far I could guess but he of course only wanted to see Liz,” Michael muttered. “She was arriving when I left,” he sighed as they heard a door slam shut. “And that was?” as if he did not know because he had already known where the other one of his kids was going at this hour.

“Amelia?” Maria simply. “I do not know with those two…” she sighed. “The last thing I want is for them to get is swept up by the abyss Michael…”

“It will be okay Maria,” Michael muttered even though he had the same fears. “At the end of the day. The drama is still minor in comparison to what we went through.”

“You might want to rethink that because Liz called me Michael” Maria murmured as she thought of the call she had with her best friend. Which had put fear into her heart, and even if she suspected maybe nothing would come of it, but one could never count on anything regarding their clan. “The FBI was sniffing around her house Michael…”

“So,” Michael asked. “They know Liz was at the prison last night…” he murmured because at least it kept the suspicion off Liz at least in that they knew she was with the warden when Max’s disappearance was noticed. Of course, it put the doubt on everyone else in their clan, whether they were innocent or not.

“But Olivia wasn’t, and they might have figured that out,” Maria murmured. “If they are going to go after anyone than it might be her Michael” Maria muttered.

“Fuck,” Michael muttered.

“Right,” Maria muttered as she thought of her own two kids that she had just seen leave their house. “So, tell me again I should not fear the kids getting swept up in this drama?”

*

While at the same time back at the house. Finishing with the pictures Olivia was trying to concentrate on her schoolwork, because she had reports and other tests to prepare for, but she was still thinking about other matters when she felt a sock being thrown at her, and she turned around, and smiled when she saw her visitor. Someone who could take her mind off her worries. “What are you doing here,” she said as her best friend.
Amelia Guerin was staring at her…

“You were far away,” Amelia smiled as she stood before her, as she had come into the room after finding the door unlocked when she arrived at the Parker home. She had come straight away once she woke up from her slumbers and endured the endless lecture from her mother on priorities, and risky behavior, so she instead of doing what Olivia was trying to do. Homework. Instead, she had come calling on her friend because she needed a diversion before she met up with Greg for lunch at the Crashdown.

“I did not hear you come in?” Olivia muttered.

“Obviously,” Amelia smiled. “Which is why I was throwing the sock at you, to wake you up. Where were you?”

“The chamber,” Olivia sighed. “I guess…” she allowed. “I think that is where Mom is off to, because she would not tell me where she was headed off too…” she murmured as it did not bother her because her mother deserved to have some time with her father. She just hoped it led to something that did not relate to the federal government coming down on her…

“I know,” Amelia murmured as once again she could not believe the unbelievable life, her friend had. “Before I was allowed out of the house, to come here, Dad came home, and I heard him telling Mom that your father was awake, and your mother had just arrived when left the chamber…”

“Fantastic,” Olivia sighed That is one for us she muttered to herself “I do not want him alone.”

“How was it this morning?” Amelia asked. “At least you did not have to get a lecture from your parents on risky behavior?”

“No, because I had already done enough of that to last a last time,” Olivia murmured. “In more ways than you know…”

“And your mother actually approved of your stunt,” Amelia muttered as she remembered the lecture she and Alex got after waking up and being told that they were risking too much to ever do it again.

Amelia knew it but still it was a rush, and she could not help but wonder if her own parents had felt that back in the day…

“She won’t like it if the FBI comes down on me…” Olivia murmured she sighed because that was the last thing her mother, or her family needed. She did not regret her path but still it made it a lot more serious, and risky, and made for a very tenuous. She was just a few weeks ago worried about being a parent at sixteen, and now her freedom might be at stake… just like it was for Dad and this was the first time she did not want to be exactly like her father Oh hell.

“What the hell,” Amelia said.

“Yeah,” Olivia muttered as she got up from the computer, and they went downstairs so that she could get a drink, and snack as they were both forced to reconcile the mere possibility. “You do not have to worry because you and Alex are on safe ground?”

“Screw safe ground,” Amelia muttered. “What do you mean they suspect you?” she wondered as they walked into the kitchen and stared at the fridge as Olivia went for something sweet, and then took out the tabasco sauce to improve its spicy taste. Amelia just took a can of soda pop, and they went and sat down.

“They know Mom was with the warden when they noticed my father was gone, so it is a process of elimination and they have come up now, and it did not help matters when I showed up at home and Mom had already lied and said I was at your place for a sleepover…”

“Smart of her,” Amelia said approving.

“Except I showed, and we had to come up quick with a story that passed muster with the federal agent who had invaded our home in his search for Dad. You know federal crime. So, they sent a federal flunky to look for him. And because this was our home, well, they had to search it, and we had to lie through our teeth” she sighed as she still did not regret her actions if it saved her father. But she did regret that her mother had to be dragged into the one and had to lie to federal agents for her.

“I am sure it would not be that much of a hardship for your mother,” Amelia could help but remark. “She will always want to protect you,” she allowed.

Olivia could only shake her head as she was sane enough to know her impulsive actions could have real side effects for her, and for the family, “You are looking at this from the outside,” Olivia muttered. “It’s not a very good feeling inside to be in the inside…”

“I am not actually an innocent party in this,” Amelia smirked as she remarked. “I might not have done much of the actual crime, but still I am not an innocent party in this, but I know at the end of the day that you did something right. Because your father dd not deserve to be in that place. Now, he is out, and the future can go on.”

“But what is that future going to be?” Olivia muttered. “It will not help matters if they dragged me into that hellhole in place of my father…”

“Think positive,” Amelia commanded of her friend. “You Mom and Dad are together, and you did something good and do not count yourself out before you have to. Something tells me you will never have to go to that place.”

Olivia could not count herself to be so positive. Because she was worried that the fallout will be massive, and unpredictable…

And if it did not land on her, then it might land somewhere else.

[keepsmiling7]

Have I thanked you for the very prompt updates? Well consider it done.
I am always pleased to see more in this saga........but I still can't figure out how this will come out well.

Good question Olivia.....How will you keep your father out of that prison??
The music was just perfect......hence The Story of My Life!
Liz of course couldn't wait to get to the cave.

But, the fallout out with all of this is going to be massive.

[Parker1947]

In the chamber. Max and Liz felt in another world. And in some ways, they were. Sealed from the outside world by an entrance not no mere mortal could open. To the citizens around them. It was just a cave, but to Max and Liz it was so much more. It was a secret hiding spot. Where they could be in each other’s arms. Away from the pressure that was raining down on them, ready to suck them up, and break up their dream…

To be together.

One that had been cruelly denied to them for nearly seventeen years. And now they were in each other’s arms, and the outside world was going on like it did normally, and they were in a bubble of their own making as they ended up the floor, naturally…

And they did not care that this should be the last place for this reunion. And that their people looking for him, who were ready to make their lives a living nightmare…

As if these last seventeen years have not already been a nightmare Liz murmured to her inner thoughts. For too long she though she had come through the nightmare that had been given to her when they took Max from now. But she new, it was just one long nightmare where she was able to live day to day.

Raise Olivia and make something of herself. But now, she felt like her heart could beat again because she had Max in her arms.

Not to say she did not like the life she had created for herself and her daughter. But she rued the world that took the dream from her of spending it with the one she loved. The one who she had battled to be with her but had taken her just when everything was becoming right for them.

That the three-year journey they had been on had been a warmup for the life they could have together. Whether on the run, or in Roswell. No, the world showed just how much they could change everything when they decided to take Max from her.

Of course, he had chosen to confess. But the gods had given them the circumstances that would make the confession a necessity. Being in Max’s arms, and hearing him breathe, righted a lot of wrongs, and gave her hope.

Hope that this long saga could end in their favor.

Maybe she was hopelessly a dreamer. She almost had to be to deal with this life that had given to her when she was fifteen and saved by a heavenly figure that was her own personal alien who could bring people back from certain death.

Not everyone they would find out. But it had been her, that Max had saved.

And to Max as he felt Liz in his arms. He could do all this all over again. Sit in that cell for seventeen years if it meant his true love was alive and had a chance to be in this world but it did not mean he did not savor the touch, and her body being connected to his as they laid on the sheets pulled from the makeshift bed, now being used for a much better reason… “Liz,” he whispered as they laid in this bubble.

“This does not feel real,” Liz said in a whisper because the chamber seemed to magnify everything. “This feels like it a dream. An incredible one, with tinges of being bizarre too…” as the acknowledged their circumstances, and where they were, and how she was not anxious to get up, and leave this chamber, and leave Max and go back to the responsibilities that were calling her…

“I know, I never figured of this moment when we first became aware of this place” Max chuckled.

“Good thing our witnesses left…” Liz murmured as they kissed once more. “I should be sensible, and I should be telling our daughter what she did was the last thing she should have done, because of the danger it brings to her, but feeling you, and touching you, and most of all, kissing you. It feels like common sense goes right out of the window when I see you…”

“I know,” Max murmured. “I dreamt of the past,” he sighed as he thought of the memories he did have of his unconscious state. “When I was out…” as they clung together as if they did not want the world to tear them apart.

“When you would not come back to us,” Liz murmured at the memories of the fear in her heart when he was not waking up.

“Yes,” Max murmured. “My brain was telling me to be careful. That the past is the past, and I cannot change it no matter how I might want to, which is true, because we do not have a time machine to go back and make sure the events of the past can go right this time,” he also murmured as Liz ruefully reflected on the future version of Max who had messed up their chance of a future, and how he had been able to achieve one, but she never would want to go back into the past except to change a few limited events, and yet they were why they were today. Of course, if she could have changed things maybe than she would have had Max these past seventeen years, but then who knows whether they would still have their daughter as she nodded as she continued to listen to her husband and accept that things were different, and there was no going back into the past. “And then I went back to the beginning. To those days before you gave me the time of day.”

“You mean before the shooting,” Liz murmured of the unbelievable event that changed her life and brought Max into it.

“Yes,” Max murmured. “I was remembering when I couldn’t speak to you without being speechless, and my hands sweating and my heart fluttering, and yet it was all so easy, and to see you bustling around the Crashdown. So confident, and so full of life, and then…”

“The shooting happened?” Liz murmured. “But Max, you saved me…”

“And changed your life,” Max muttered.

“You saved it Max. You gave me a chance that would have been lost at sixteen. Of course, it was not the easiest of roads. But when you think of the alternative. I will take it because every life is full of challenges. Of course, most lives are not full of intrigue and danger like us, and they are not separated by the government over an army base explosion that was done by either your vengeful ex or another disgruntled alien. When I fell in love with you. I knew you. I might not have known everything to do with your life. But most couple do not, and they learn along the way. So, we did the same thing. I got lucky because I was able to love you. And we have our daughter, and I will never regret that…”

“Me either,” Max murmured. “I only wish I could have known her when she was growing up?”

“Me too,” Liz sighed as they kissed. “But she and our grandchild are the reason to get this right, because it can easily go so wrong, and we have seen that ourselves the hard way” she murmured as she leaned into take his embrace. “We have to get it right, for them.”

Max nodded as they kissed once more, and they fell back into each other’s arms and forgot about the nightmares that existed outside of the special cave bubble they were… Neither wanted to think about what happened now because they wanted each other.

And only each other.

*

While at the same time Zack was at the Crashdown after dragging himself to work without any sleep after the middle of the night escapades. He was downright amazed he was still able to handle the grills, but his special gifts were a life saver as they had been one day so long ago for Michael when he had the same job, manning the grill. It got him through those days that dragged, and this was one of them. But he had to pay the rent on his motel room because he was resistant in getting apartment because he did not know how long he would be in Roswell. And plus, technically he was not officially allowed to be on his own. Therefore, he did not have the ability to sign a lease. So, the motel it was… Now, he was now taking a lunch break and he was sitting in a booth having a burger, and fries and a milkshake when he frowned when he saw Greg Simpson walk into the Crashdown.

A reminder of that he did not trust Amelia’s boyfriend. Amelia had yet to be in and knew if Greg were around than Amelia would not be long, and he should be bigger than this given that he and Jennifer were still together, and they had plans when she headed his way once exams were finished and she spent some time with her family. Still, everyone said Greg was a good guy, and on the outside, he could see it, but then on the other side of it when he remembered the phone call he had overheard.

Could be innocent like Alex wanted to believe, but then Zack did not know. Greg saw him sitting at a booth and approached. “You are Olivia’s brother?”

“Half brother,” Zack corrected because Olivia would have said the same. They might have teamed up to kidnap their father from a federal penitentiary, but it did not mean they saw themselves as siblings as the ice might have started to thaw on the side of his half sister but does mean it was completely gone. “Same father, different mothers.”

“Right,” Greg muttered as it was still coming to terms with the changes to this town since he left at Christmas time and all the secrets that were spilling out “It just a surprise. I lived here all my life, until recently of course, and I do not remember hearing about it” he asked because this was a small town after all, and secrets fairly stayed under the surface. “Olivia never mentioned it.”

Zack could not help by smile. “What can I say, you can call me the black sheep? I am the family secret than many wished had been wiped away”
Zack murmured with a swipe of one my clan’s magical powers.

“And you are okay with it?” Greg wondered as he was standing in assessment of the guy who looked too longingly at his girlfriend, and who was new to town. And Roswell did not take well the newcomers.

“Sure,” Zack murmured. “Because I have a great family. They love me, and I love them” Zack thought as he did think about his family back home, and each day he was grateful that he had gotten the love from his family and had the environment to thrive. Still, it was not making him want to go back home. Roswell for some reason had a hold on him, and he did not know why. “I am only in this town to find out more about my origin story,” he murmured. “Of course, it is not so cut and dry as I am finding out new things every day…”

“And yet you stay, why?” Greg asked. “You obliviously know more than before you did come here, and neither your biological parents are around, so why stay?”

“Is it any of your business?” Zack asked. “Why I stay is my call, as I said the story of my life is not so cut and dry. There are new discoveries always popping up but still it is my call when I do leave, and why am I telling you this? I do not have to defend myself to you of all people. As you said it yourself. You lived here until recently and the way I see it, it seems as if you are headed right back out of town once this celebration weekend of Amelia’s is finished. So, I repeat, what business is it of yours?”

“I am only looking out for Olivia,” Greg smiled. “After all she is a friend. She and Amelia are like sisters, and I do not want either of them hurt by someone who might be wondering out of this town sooner than later…”

“Olivia and Amelia are perfectly fine with me being here,” Zack murmured we did commit a crime together he murmured together, “So, you do not have to worry about them although maybe I should ask whether you are planning to hurt Amelia before you leave town once again?”

“Why would you think that?” Greg asked through gritted teeth.

“Call it a hunch,” Zack murmured. “I mean. I might not know Amelia as long as you do obviously, and she is pretty strong. She can handle a lot, but only to a certain extent and if you are going to hurt her, then you might think twice” he murmured as he saw Amelia through the window of the restaurant as she had stopped to talk to a friend before entering the establishment. “Do not hurt her…”

“Stay out of my relationship with Amelia,” Greg murmured as he saw Zack looking through the window at his girlfriend. “We are together…”

“I am not looking to interfere,” Zack murmured. “I am only giving you’re a friendly suggestion. Keeping secrets will not help you in the end. Amelia has a knack of finding them out, so if you are going to be honest, that would be my best advice.”

“Whatever,” Greg muttered as he stormed off as he went to greet Amelia and they re-entered the restaurant and head to the other side of the room from where Zack was sitting, and all Zack could do was burst out laughing as he went back to work, feeling fully awake for the first time all day.

“Were you talking to Zack?” Amelia asked of her boyfriend.

“It was nothing,” Greg muttered.

“Okay,” Amelia nodded as they leaned into exchange a kiss and a hug as Zack noticed it through the kitchen window, and he groaned, and went back to work.

*

Meanwhile Isabel was in a showdown with the federal agent that was too interested in their clan. She was in her office. When she wanted to be at the chamber with her brother. But Michael had told her that Liz had been with Max, and they both knew that it was lousy idea to get in the middle of her brother and Liz’s reunion. Whether it was the most appropriate place or not, still Isabel knew better than go over now, and her intention of working on unrelated clan cases when she got to the office was washed when she saw the federal agent waiting outside in the waiting room. “What do you want?”

“It’s Dave Barker” the agent murmured as he looked around the empty office. “Are you sure you are a successful lawyer because I do not see many clients.”

“I do not recall asking for your name,” Isabel muttered with annoyance. “And my clients are my business,” she sighed. “What do you want?” she asked. “Are you prepared to leave my sister-in-law, and niece alone?”

“Should I?” Dave asked.

“It would solve a lot of problems,” Isabel murmured because she knew they were on the cusp of seeing Olivia’s future get marred because she was wondering down the same line that led to her brother screwing up his future. The last thing Isabel wanted was to see her niece stare down the same fate. And that would not happen if that were the last thing Isabel did.

“And why is that?” Dave wondered.

“Because you are barking up the wrong tree” Isabel said as irritation was etched on her face and in her voice as this encounter was the last thing she wanted to do “I did not ask you to come by?” she sighed. “I cannot help you with whatever you came here for…”

Dave only paced the office as he was aware that she had joined her father’s firm after law school as Phillip Evans was barely hanging onto the practice after what had transpired with his son. Having his daughter join the firm had transformed the practice into something bigger, and Phillip had retired not long after with part-time work in the remaining years “You are your brother’s lawyer; do I have that right?” Dave asked as they walked into the actual office as Isabel put down her briefcase on her desk as she stood behind it.

“Yes,” Isabel murmured. “Obviously.”

“It was only last month did you sign onto your brother’s case” Dave Barker muttered “Why did you wait that long?” he wondered. “You have been in the business a long time now, and I would have though he would have been the first client you would have taken on?” he asked. “When you founded your organization?”

“How is it your any of your business?” Isabel mumbled as the last thing she wanted to do discuss polite talk or anything about her family with a federal agent whose mission was the explode it once again. “My family is my business. And why I became my brother’s lawyer is none of yours”

“I am looking for your brother,” Dave murmured. “You are his lawyer therefore I came to seek you out to see whether you have any information as to where we can find him.”

“You came to wrong place as you will not find him here,” Isabel muttered. “So, you were only wasting your valuable time by coming here, and assuming I knew anything. Which I do not. If I knew where my brother is, then I would worry, and my brother does not want to me to worry.”

“You are his lawyer,” Dave asked.

“So, that he could get released from prison,” Isabel grunted obviously. “So, you can stop assuming he wanted the prison break to happen because if he had than he would not have wanted me to represent him. Instead, he would have put all his attentions into breaking out of that place. And he would not have lasted seventeen years, because he would have been out on day two…”

“You certain of that?” Dave asked. “That your brother would want to protect you, and his family?”

“Yes,” Isabel murmured as she moved some papers around his desk. “Otherwise, he would not be in prison in the first place.”

“He confessed,” Dave sighed as the whole case felt funny especially considering the confession. Who confesses then moves to want to be released after so much time “And he was convicted of a crime related to his girlfriend at the time?”

“Which makes my case for me,” Isabel murmured. “That was a funky conviction,” she murmured even though she knew she should not be telling the agent this simply because no one in their right mind for believe her because of the footage. But it was worth a try “My brother is all about sacrifice and protecting the woman he loves, and his wife is the last person who he would want to hurt,” she muttered. “The footage is bad I grant you. But there are circumstances are behind that night, and if he had seriously hurt his wife, then he would want to be dead. All my brother loves are his wife and now his daughter. She is the only one he has ever loved, and he would die if she were hurt by his hand,” she said in defense of her brother. “So, my brother sacrificed his freedom to protect his family for reasons you will never be able to fathom, so if he were to be conscious right now. He would stay away to protect us. Why would he come out into plain sight when whoever took him, took him when he was unconscious?”

“Do you know anything about his disappearance?” Dave wondered.

“Why would I?” Isabel asked “All I am is his lawyer…”

“His wife has an alibi in that she was with the warden at the time of his disappearance. But his daughter disappeared at the same time. And you only showed up at the prison after it was all done,” Dave wondered as his assessment of Isabel Evans Valenti had changed. Isabel was clearly shrewd and knew how to play a role. All of them do but most of all is the sister. “Should we be looking at you?”

“Why does it matter?” Isabel asked as vibe of the encounter was changing and a strike of fear came to her. “Agent, so it is not only brother, or my niece, right. You are actually coming for all of us?”

“I do not know what you mean,” Dave Barker muttered, and Isabel suspected she was right. The Agent was not just looking at only Olivia. And it might not just be the disappearance that Agent Barker was after and it was changing the complexion of the situation. “Although, I am aware the government was also looking at you in the beginning were they not?” Dave asked. “There was a videotape discovered at your parent’s place when they were in pursuit of your brother after explosion. You were being suspicious, weren’t you?”

When was I not suspicious Isabel told herself as she took herself back to that time when things were falling apart in her marriage to Jesse? The truth had destroyed them because she had been too good at being a liar. More than ten years of training had torn her new marriage apart because she had entered it without telling Jesse the truth, and when he did come to find out. Jesse did not really want to know who she was. He had not been able to take it.

Kyle was someone who did know how to handle it. She was forever sorry for confusing Jesse’s life, and their divorce had the right thing for them. Both were happy where they were. Jesse held her secrets close to his chest, and she had kept his close to her heart as well because he had gotten out when things were still going to overwhelm them. Still, she was led into a scenario in her family home where it allowed her full truth to be exposed, and it cause a lot of hurt for all involved because it led to her brother sacrificing himself to protect his wife, and her…

From being exposed. She could see the agent was only fishing and did not have a clear grasp of what was on the videotape, but it was still concerning to her, and to know he might be after them all. It was becoming complicated.

All because Olivia had wanted to meet her father and opened a lot of worms and closed doors on the past for all involved. Damn it

“It was not my brother who they were after,” Isabel muttered softly. “But you will not believe me, so I do not know why you are here because you won’t win in the end.”

“I find my man Ms. Evans,” Agent Barker murmured.

“It’s Valenti” Isabel murmured. “I won’t help you destroy my family…”

“We shall see, will we not” Agent Barker as he picked his jacket and left the office, and left Isabel to think about the past, and the present and how tenuous their future was.

*

The glow of their reunion was over. Max and Liz were up and standing, fully dressed, and just sitting together. Enjoying spending time together, away from everyone who might interrupt but they were themselves coming back to reality of the moment, and their situation. Now they were taking solace in each other, holing hands as if this were any other reunion and not a complicated one that had stakes for everyone. “I am sorry, you know” Max murmured as they sat together.

“For what?” Liz murmured.

“For mustering up the nerve to talk to you,” Max murmured.

“You saved me Max,” Liz said. “What I said before, it was the truth. I would be dead without you, and so I will never not regret that I am alive, and I had a chance to love you” she sighed. “I might not have wanted the circumstances that life dealt us, but I will take every moment I had with you because you made me feel special. Loved.”

“That cannot be the past tense Liz,” Max murmured. “I can never love someone other than you. It would be foolish of me to even try. I am totally different person without you in my life. The last seventeen years have been torture, because I did not have you in my life,” he swore as they kissed.

“At least I knew I was protecting you and protecting Olivia without even knowing it at the time.”

“You still are,” Liz murmured with another kiss. “You still are…” as they felt the rumbling of the cave door opening. And meant the reunion was over, and someone was coming back and since it only meant a very select few, then they knew it meant someone they liked, or they hoped but still it was a moment of tension and apprehension for Max to realize that they would not be alone anymore.

“Hello,” came Max’s voice in a haunted voice.

No answer came, and it gave both Max and Liz some pause as to who it could be because they knew the only people who were allowed to come into this place were the few who had been born here or was a direct descendant of those four.

“Who is it?” came Liz’s voice as she grasped Max’s hand and he also grabbed it with force, as they saw someone coming around the corner, and into their section of the chamber. “Olivia?” she said with instant relief as she saw the figure come closer into the cave. It was dark in her, with the shade of blue, and green glow light “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to be here,” Olivia said softly as she made her appearance fully know. “Mom…” she murmured as she saw her mother, but she also she could not help but keep her glance from going towards someone else, who was next to her mother, and someone who was incredible meaningful to both women.

“Olivia,” Max said softly as it was a different experience to see his daughter outside of a prison visiting room.

“Dad,” Olivia said softly as she approached, and Max put his arms out, and his daughter ran into those arms, and the embrace closed, as for the first time ever the sixteen-year-old was able to be with both of her parents, and to experience being held by her father. Daddy she murmured to herself because she still could not believe it.

Liz could feel tears coming down her face as she saw the father and daughter embrace.

And to see that life was righting itself. But with the knowledge that it was not over, not by a long shot…

[keepsmiling7]

Zack is just working away at the Crashdown......
Not happy about Amelia and Greg being together.
Zack described himself as the black sheep.
But appreciates the family he grew up with.....
Sad......Olivia had the first embrace with her father.......finally.

[Parker1947]

This was a reunion that should not have taken this long to happen Liz was telling herself as she watched as father and daughter reunite. Neither knowing who the other was today. Of course, Olivia had the benefit of being raised with the knowledge of her father, for good and for bad and unfortunately Max had only come into fatherhood in recent weeks, and it was a wakeup call that life was a very different beast than when he vanished from Roswell nearly seventeen years. Seeing the tears in his daughter’s face, and on his wife’s face. It made this moment even more worth it. Still, this is not the place for this…

But it was the place where it was taking place as Max did not care if this went bad, because almost everything in their story finds a way to turn bad but for this moment Max lived within the moment. Acknowledgement that he and the woman he loved shared a child together, and that child was a living link to them, and their past. For so long he was forced to live with regret and wishing that if only life had gone a different way. But now, his dreams had come to fruition, and he and Liz had a memory of their past together. Before events allowed those memories to become compromised and so much was then taken away from them.

“Dad,” Olivia whispered as the event she had always wanted was finally occurring. Sure, not in the way she wished it would have, or could and she had undertaken actions of great risk to make it happen, but this was why she did not regret it. Because she could hug her father and have her parents together.

Even if it would be only a brief reunion.

After all, her father was a fugitive because of her. And he could not come home with her mother and her at the end of this encounter.

“Olivia,” Max smiled as his daughter stepped back and they both took in the unreal circumstances of this day and no matter where this goes, it would be something he would always remember and treasure “I guess I have a lot to say abut all this…”

“If you are mad I did it,” Olivia murmured as she stepped back and faced off with her parents as Liz could not help but be amused by it because it was trademark for her daughter and Max was getting a look at their daughter in her most stubborn. “I do not regret it,” she sighed. “If only someone could have done it back in those early days?”

“And then your mother and you would have been put in more danger if someone had,” Max murmured as the truth of what it all meant became clear. “I would never want you and your mother to be hurt by my actions. When I confessed and went to prison it was to protect your mother, and you, even though I did not know it at the time” he murmured. “I would want none of my family to be in danger because of me, and you all would have if I had broken out, or let someone break me out, because if we had fled. They would have come after us,” he sighed as glanced at his wife. “Your mother and I did that once, and it was a hell of an experience.”

“I would have had you and Mom in my life” Olivia muttered stubbornly muttered even if she would concede her father was correct.

“As I have said before, it would have been no life for you and your mother to have lived” Max murmured. “I would never have wanted to take your mother and you from your family here in Roswell…”

"Humph,” Olivia grumbled under the breath, and Liz was amused by the disgruntled in their daughter. She could also feel it, and she had experienced it with Olivia in the past. “What?” Max asked as he looked between his daughter and wife as they both knew something he did not, which was not so far fetched given he had been away from them for all these years. “Am I missing something?”

“Olivia only means that my parents do not exactly have the best impression of you at the moment,” Liz conceded, and Max could only nod because he once or twice had been on the other side of Jeff Parker’s anger, and their last meeting had led to angry words from both sides and ground had not been patched when he did report to prison, naturally. “So, Olivia probably thinks it would have been not a tremendous loss to not have her grandparents in her life…”

“You do not have to make it seem so bad” Olivia muttered. “I mean, I do love them Mom, I do, but come on, it is Dad” Olivia murmured as she could not take her eyes off her father as it was such a unique experience for her. “Grandpa and Grandma are being so unreasonable…”

“No, they are not” Max murmured as for once he could see why Jeff and Nancy would be protective of their only daughter, and now their granddaughter as he was becoming acquainted with the feeling. “All they are doing is for you, and for your mother” he sighed. “I was not here for you and your mother. They were, and I will always appreciate that even if we never patch things up. Because Olivia, I know your mother has been filling you in on our history so if you were put under some of the stuff, I put your mother through than I am sure you mother and I would feel the same way.”

“Still,” Olivia murmured.

“Still,” Max smiled as there was a break within their conversation and the three of them just took in each other, as it finally occurred to Liz that her daughter was there, and she had no idea how she would have come to get here because she had the car.

“Honey, speaking of something I should have asked before now,” Liz murmured. “How did you get here?” Liz asked.

“I got a ride,” Olivia said simply.

“Please do not tell me that you took a ride on Zack’s motorcycle” Liz muttered as Max looked surprise at the mention of his son with Tess, and a motorcycle. “I thought I told you that I did not want you to be on that thing…”

Motorcycle Max thought as he watched his wife and daughter go at it…

“Mom,” Olivia smiled. “I think you should trust me by now…” she murmured as if she could almost read her mother’s mind “About that at least” she muttered out loud and both her parents chuckled, which was a new experience for Olivia to experience. Both of her parents in the same proximity. “Amelia is more prone to that thing than I am.”

“So, you did not?” Liz asked as she knew that Maria had already given her own daughter her own thoughts about riding on that motorcycle with Zack, as Liz did not envy her best friend as both women were finding that being parents of a teenage girl was the pits especially because they were also prone to make their mothers revisit choices they had made at the same age. Max was never the bad boy to ride a motorcycle, but Michael had been, and Maria had loved every minute of it. Even if Michael had settled down over the years, and so to see her best friend’s daughter fall for the same motorcycle type who rode such a bike and wore a leather jacket was good for a laugh. Because Liz could not help but remember when she fell for her own leather jacket rebellion.

“No,” Olivia muttered. “Although it would have been easier but no, Zack is working today, and therefore I could not reach him, so I decided to take an Uber out here, and they let me out nearby, which I figured was easier for all involved. You know, no questions when all they want is money.”

“Uber?” Max muttered.

“Oh,” Olivia sighed. “I forgot you are not exactly fashioned to be in our decade,” she laughed. “Since Mom only has one car, we share” she sighed as she glanced at her mother who nodded. “So, Uber is a car sharing business started many years ago. It is like a taxi, but anyone can use their car, and drive people around and it is easy to use even if our town is small and you can walk almost anywhere. But with Mom, gone, well, I needed a driver who would not ask many questions and so I used an Uber.”

“And you used what to pay it?” Liz muttered.

“My emergency credit card,” Olivia murmured as she turned to face her father who was amused by the interplay between mother and daughter. It was obvious he was missing out on a lot to do with current culture, and life while he was stuck elsewhere. “I was planning to find a job, most likely at Grandpa and Grandma’s restaurant this summer but you can see, reality messed up that plan.”

Liz sighed because she had known her daughter had been looking forward to working at the Crashdown. But real life had other ideas, and it would have to wait. “Maybe next summer” she sighed as Olivia nodded. “If you are back from New York…”

“New York,” Max asked as he sighed as he knew he was out of the loop on a good many things in his family’s life. By choice, and by circumstance.

“Long story,” Olivia murmured as she turned to her mother who nodded as a text came on her phone. With no cell service in the chamber. She saw the text message was from Amelia. “I am going to return this call. Outside,” she sighed as she saw tension on her mother’s face, “Mom, I think you can trust me to be okay” she sighed. “I am the last person you should be worried about,” she laughed as she thought of her abilities. “I am totally armed and can handle anything.”

“I trust you,” Liz smiled as Olivia left them in the chamber as she turned to face her husband. “You see now that it is not such an easy job to be a parent to Olivia, even if she has been a model daughter up to these last few months.”

“I am seeing that” Max muttered. “You asked our daughter about Zack. Are they close?” he wondered even though he had not wanted to mention his son with Tess because of how angsty it had been back in the beginning even if his wife had stuck by him and even married him despite all that had transpired in those three years.

“Somewhat,” Liz said honestly. “They are trying,” she sighed. “I have not spent much time with him, but I know Olivia and Amelia have been spending more time…”

“Amelia?” Max asked. “That is Michael and Maria’s daughter?”

“Yes,” Liz nodded. “Twin sister of Alex,” she sighed as a lump still came to her throat when she said the name even if Alexander Guerin was very different from the Alex she had loved and missed every day as she though of the Alex she had lost back in high school “They were born two months after Olivia was born” she muttered. “Honestly, it was a surprise for Michael and Maria and something they did not plan for, but it was something that seemed to gel them together, and they got married, and they have been Teflon strong up to this day.”

“I am glad,” Max murmured with satisfaction in his heart that at least there were some who had gotten to be happy. “You all deserve happiness.”

“Well happiness is always in the eye of the beholder,” she muttered. “I could never have been happy without you Max” she sighed as she thought of the long years she had without the love of her life. While everyone had found their love and been able to settle down. She had been alone, and she had been without the one she loved. Which is why she did take solace in her daughter on Valentine’s Day and closed off her heart. But now her heart back open, and she was feeling every bit of it.

“You had Olivia. You made something of yourself. Which is all I ever wanted for you,” Max sighed as he thought back then when he had cost Liz the track she had been on when they met and fell in love. She had been going somewhere, and everything changed on that September day. “I think back to those days when I was pining for you. Before we started anything. I never wanted to hurt you. I in fact worried that I would,” he muttered as he remembered his fears back in those early days “I always wanted the best for you Liz. So, everything I did back then was because you deserved a chance, and I am glad you were able to get it.”

“Only because I did not have you,” Liz muttered as they took each other’s hand.

“You still got the chance at a life,” Max murmured as they kissed as Olivia walked back into the chamber and was stunned at the intimacy and the connection between her parents. A simple scene she had not been able to experience before, and it made her yearn for all she been denied because of circumstance and because of fate being too cruel as she got a sense of when her mother said that she only loved one man.

Her mother was not lying. Olivia was now seeing that was the truth. And it was eye opening as she turned and walked back out of the chamber.
Leaving her parents together.

*

While at the same time back in the town limits of Roswell. Amelia was finished with her lunch with her boyfriend. And Greg had gone off to meet up with his mother and grandparents. She was finding it hard to leave Crashdown because if it meant she was going home to yet another lecture of the risk she had gotten into by assisting in Olivia’s grand scheme. Amelia was not in the mood, especially considering knowledge that the FBI was looking at Olivia. Which scared her. She had looked at the kidnapping as public service done for a good cause. She and her brother, and even Olivia had heard stories over the years, but they did not have to live the danger their parents had.

So, of course, Amelia did not see the risk in going against the authorities. She had a good lunch with Greg, but it also was telling her that she was different, and she was becoming aware that she was different than who she was in December when her boyfriend left for England. Seeing him after four months was a wakeup call even if she loved him, and wanted to make it work, and yet there was someone else who looked good as she watched Zack finished off his morning shift. And punching out for the day.

He came through the doors, and stopped when he saw Amelia, alone. “Hello,” she said as he was putting on his jacket. “Heading back to your room?”

“That was the plan,” Zack allowed as his need for sleep had suddenly evaporated and he was now fully awake, for the first time, all morning. “I did not get much sleep before work.”

“Me either,” Amelia nodded.

“So, everything going alright with the boyfriend?” Zack wondered as his plan had not been to stop for small talk but with Amelia, the urge was something he could never resist. “Where was he going?”

“He had plans with his mother and grandparents,” Amelia only shook his head. “It was fine, and his name is Greg, you know” she muttered as she did not know why Zack made her swoon when she had a boyfriend, and he had a girlfriend for that matter. Still, Greg was a good guy who had come from another country to see her and spending her birthday weekend with her because he knew how much it would mean to her so why would I give it up?

“I know,” Zack muttered.

‘Then why do you not use it?” Amelia asked.

“Because it bothers you when I don’t” Zack laughed at her frown on her face. “So, the big party is tomorrow night” he asked as he brought up Amelia’s big sixteen birthday party. An event that had been dwarfed by recent events. “Are you all ready?”

“Almost,” Amelia allowed as they both knew Zack had not been on the invitation list because it would be something her parents would not approve of, nor Greg, and Zack was fine with it because those kinds of parties were not for him. Plus, he was working anyways, and did not want to go to some party and see Amelia fawn over some other guy he mused to himself as she tried to look all affected by it.

“Time flies,” Zack murmured without saying anymore more.

“Yes, it does” Amelia nodded. “Look, about last night” she sighed as she though of the unreal circumstances of the night before…

“It is nothing,” Zack sighed as neither noticed that outside the restaurant, a black vehicle was pulling up in front of the establishment, and moments getting out of the car. It was Agent Dave Barker who was walking into the alien tourist establishment.

Neither Amelia and Zack would have recognized him and that was still the case as he walked to the counter. “Do you need a table or booth?” came a waitress.

“No, I am looking for Jeff Parker?” came Dave.

“He’s out of the restaurant for an appointment but should be back within the half hour” said the waitress. “Should I tell him you stopped by?”

“No, I will wait” Dave murmured as he took a seat and the counter, and accepted a copy of the menu, as he took a look it as he slyly looked around and observed the restaurant. A long running establishment since the Parker’s took it over when their daughter was only small girl. Dave knew they lived over the establishment, and Liz had lived with her parents until she graduated from high school and married her husband. And had not lived with her parents since even during the hard years when her daughter was a baby, and she would have likely needed the support. His information told him that the Jeff and Nancy Parker did not approve of their son in law, and that had caused tension in the past with their daughter even if they had largely been able to have a loving relationship with their daughter, and granddaughter.

So, he looked around the bustling restaurant who had embrace the myth of the Crash back in 1947 and had taken the lead in the town’s tourism industry with this restaurant. Popular with those who visited, but also locals.

Therefore, Dave waited to ask Jeff what he knew of his son-in-law’s disappearance.

*

Jeff Parker had gotten out of his car and was headed into the restaurant when he heard “Jeff” and he turned, and it was Phillip Evans. A sight he was seeing more often these days, and he could not help but wonder why that was. After all these years, he was seeing more of his daughter’s in-laws than he had seen in the years since his daughter’s husband was taken to prison. While Phillip had not been a stranger from his establishment.
Still, they had not stopped to talk even though there were no hard feelings among the man despite the well-known opinions that Jeff held regarding his daughter’s husband.

And how he had endlessly tried to persuade his daughter to file for divorce back when his son was on trial, and first taken to prison.

Liz refused.

And therefore, was still married and Jeff had been restrained in the years since of his opinions. Although Phillip knew it was hard to bite his lip. And felt for Jeff, but for Jeff to see Phillip, it was odd. “Hello Phillip,” Jeff murmured.

“I saw you and could not help but stop and talk” Phillip murmured as he almost stopped when he saw that Amelia Guerin was in the restaurant and was talking to the boy who would have been his grandson if his son had not given the baby up, Zack Mason. Phillip had done some research on the boy since he met him briefly.

And knew the kid was a generally good kid. 17 years old. And had been traveling the roads since leaving home the year before, with the approval of his adoptive parents. Legally, Zack did not have the authority to act on his own. He had not been emancipated but his parents had allowed him to leave home and do his own thing. And his searching had told him that Zack had gone home once or twice, but only stayed for a few days at the most before leaving home again, and finally making it to Roswell the month before…

“I hope all is well with you and Diane” Jeff murmured. “I have heard you know…”

“Oh,” Phillip stopped. “It’s insane, I know.”

“Yes, it has been” Jeff allowed as the news had broken that morning that Max had disappeared from the prison, and no one could account for where he was. Olivia’s grandfather had yet to go to his own clan as suspects, but he did have a sense something was off. And Philip showing up only added to it. “Are you and Diane, okay?”

“Diane is confused, and so am I” Phillip allowed.

“Confusion is the name of the game especially since our children became acquainted,” Jeff commented of the endless parade of conflict and danger that had come into their lives since the shooting in his restaurant.

“Jeff,” Phillip murmured.

“It’s okay Phillip,” Jeff muttered as he opened the door. “To get through the days, I have had to make peace. I wish things could be easier, but it is what it is. All I want is for my daughter, and our granddaughter to be happy” Even if it means one day Max might come back into their life. Jeff might not accept it, but he wanted his daughter and granddaughter to be happy.

“So, do I” Phillip murmured as he felt the chasm that had between father and daughter over the subject of her husband, and Max’s father could tell it weighted on the man even if his eyes were drawn to someone at the counter. “Damn,” he muttered out loud as Jeff looked surprised because he had not seen such a reaction from Phillip in their limited interaction.

“What is it?” Jeff wondered.

“That man,” Phillip pointed out as both men looked at the one in a black suit at the counter. “You should not tell him anything, and do not believe anything he might say” he muttered as Dave could hear Phillip and Jeff talking, and knew his appearance had been given away from someone who knew his face.

“I can see tell my appearance has been promoted in advance,” Dave murmured as he walked towards the men, and he flashed his badge at Jeff who immediately stopped in his place. “The name is Agent Dave Barker, with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and as you would expect we are looking into a recent prison disappearance. Of one Max Evans. who I am told has a very personal association to your family,” he asked of Jeff who immediately could not help but freeze in place?

Right in sight of a talking Zack and Amelia who also immediately froze.

[Stefuh]

I'm on chapter 20 and I'm really loving this so far, it's so entertaining and interesting!!
After that, I'll continue reading the Reunion trilogy and If Walls Could Talk, and then I'll read Lost & Found!
Sorry if it takes me a while to do so!

[keepsmiling7]

Glad father and daughter had a good reunion.
FBI agent on the scene......
Zack overheard their conversation, wonder what his reactions will be??