Til We Meet Again (CC, Mature) - Chapter 84 - Completed - 09/01/2022

[totallizfan]

Very sad time for Liz and her children.

[Parker1947]

She loves him Max uttered with his first words once they had gotten to the Guerin household. While still at the hospital, Max’s quick nonmedical assessment of his former girlfriend was that she had only collapsed due to the shock of the notification from the doctors. There was nothing else that was ailing her. She would be alright, at least medically Max thought emotionally was another story all together. Medical professionals were quick to come the fallen wife’s aide, and they confirmed what Max found, and would have admitted her for rest as a precaution. That did not happen because it had been Mariah’s insistence that her mother would not want to be admitted unless there was a medical need to be. And extreme shock was not one. While the doctors were hesitant to allow it, but Maria convinced them that they should heed what the teenager’s wishes because she was the oldest, next to her mother, her mother’s proxy. Maria would not lay it completely on the fifteen-year-old as they promised to keep the lookout for Liz, and Mariah at their house for the night. And the hospital allowed it, and now they were here at the house.

Which was good because Mariah was not anxious to go home, so it was the best situation that could be thought of, and it did get everyone out of the hospital. And yet Max had not been able to stay away yeah, I know I am acting like a stalker he admitted to himself, but I need to know Liz is okay he reasoned with himself, and Michael knew it also as he let his best friend into his house for the first time in months. As Max tended to stay away from the town limits if he could help it. And it took a blue moon to make him come through the doors. Or in this case, Liz, he muttered himself at his friend’s insistence over the months and years were that he was finding all he needed on the outskirts of town, by the desert and where they had been born.

Isolating himself, and if River had not taken it upon himself to engrain himself into society, maybe isolating his son too. It was not the Max he had known back in high school. That Max had been going places. Even if had a acknowledge pact that they were to stick together as a little group because of the unknowing circumstances of who they were. But he and Isabel figured that Max was going to go places and find him a life. Settle down or do something, anything that was more than the life they were living in their small hometown. And he would have probably gone along for the ride and found a life wherever it led.

Of course, he had not bargained in finding Maria. Thanks to Max saving Liz’s life and bringing the two girls into the circle. After a lot of clashing, steps back, push and pull. Michael would agree that he had found the love of their life. Both of them had. But it had allowed Max to face his greatest heartbreak. Once that did happen Max had cut himself off with the ensuing years, once he was on his own, and no one could draw him back into their town.

No one, and certainly not River had been able to do it, to the detriment of their father and son. The boy was seventeen now, so close to graduation. Michael knew something about family baggage, but Michael also never expected it from his friend. But then Max had to look into River’s eyes, and see his hair, to know Tess ran through his past. Unfortunately for River, and it was going to take a lot of work to not see River as a symbol of why he had lost the woman he loved. Even though Liz was the one who chose to leave.

So, on this night. Michael allowed Max to enter his house. Not like I would keep him out he thought. Maria might and yes, Maria might have if she did not know her husband would have overruled her as she addressed the situation to her old friend. “She is sleeping upstairs. Mariah is downstairs in the basement,” she thought of the suite they had made in the basement. Which Mac had been voicing his wish to move into, but they were resisting but it was completely set up for a guest? “If you are wanting to take your son home than he is sleeping in Mac’s room?” she said of their friend’s child.

Max flinched, because he knew he looked to Maria like a neglectful father and he could be classified one, and it did not make him feel good about it. But I cannot help but be me “No, I expect he will want to stay there, and here tonight” Max said softly as he thought of his son. “He can come home in the morning.”

“Naturally,” Maria commented from the outskirts of the room.

Max could bat back Michael’s quips about his parental habits or even abilities, but he was unable to do it with Maria therefore he just bypassed it completely. “I needed to be able to see her to make sure she’s alright?”

“And some might consider you to be a stalker?” Maria accused.

Knowing that he would even classify himself as one and had previously but still something that was drawing him to this house, and to upstairs. And Max needed to know she was safe. “That might be the case” he would allow. “But I need to see her,” he would mutter and walked up the stairs, and Maria could only look at her husband with a glare plus a little amusement of the escalating situation. “Of course, it takes a tragedy to get him back into this house,” she muttered. “And not his son?”

Unfortunately, Michael mused to himself. Of course, he was not one to be judgmental about parents, although he had just given his friend a dose because he knew father and sons can be complicated. He might not have a father, just an abusive foster father Hank who taught him not to do with his own son Mac, but it was hard to see how far his friend had fallen because he had not gotten the girl. Still, he had hope that one day that Max and River might see eye to eye. “You will have to think that they will make peace one day,” Michael muttered even though he did know if his words would come true.

“We might be waiting an eternity for that,” Maria muttered as they walked up the stairs following the track that Max just had made. As they walked down the hall and saw Max standing by the door. Next to the spare room, with the door open, and he was just staring into the room, and at the bed that was now occupied by a grieving woman.

A woman Max loved, and who knew she was not grieving for him. As all Max could think of was on the drive was that Liz had crumbled over some other guy. It is not me anymore. He knew she had to love her husband to react like that, and he hated it, even though he had wanted her to be happy out there in the world. But to know she had been that did not help to the state of his mind. “She loves him?” he asked as he looked at both Michael and Maria.

“Yes,” Maria admitted as she knew that it was hell for Max to watch the woman, he loved move on, and truly be happy with someone else. And to know she loves someone else “It was different than you and her, but she was happy with Brady,” she sighed. “Brady made it easy for her Max. She and the kids had a good life with him.”

“I am glad,” Max said as he watched as Liz slept.

“No, you are not,” Maria muttered because they both knew Max, and knew the last thing he would want for her to actually be happy with someone else. What mattered to him would be that she was safe, but to know she loved someone else. It was hard for the ego. And to knowing it and view it. So, she knew she had to make sure Max did not do more harm to himself. “Do you want to stay on the couch tonight?” she asked as she sighed as she looked at her husband who nodded, because they both knew Max should not be on the roads out of town in his mood, and the snow had picked up, so the roads would be terrible in trying to get back to house, which was located out of town.

“Can I?” Max asked.

“As long as you do not make it harder for her Max,” Maria warned. “You were her past, but Brady was her present and you need to give her time, and don’t push her…”

“When have I ever pushed her?” Max asked slightly to hurt at that thought because that is the one thing, he never had been about pushing Liz. Of course, there were times where he wanted her back but still, he could not handle to see her in pain, but he knew she did not need him, not right now as this was about making sure she was alight. Not trying to pick up the pieces because he knew that was unlikely to ever happen, whether her husband was dead or not. “I just need to make sure she is alright. I have never wanted her to be hurt, and I know tonight hurt her, and I am sorry for that, and I wish it could all be different.”

Maria nodded as she walked to get the bedding for the couch downstairs, leaving Michael and Max to keep guard over the room, that had a devastated wife who had just lost her husband in it. Neither moving. “I wanted her to live…”

“I know you did,” Michael asked as he thought back to that day when if he could have chosen it. He would not have had Max jump in because it had been risky, and of course the ensuing days, months and even years had proven it right but they both knew Max could not have had it on his conscious, not to save Liz. No matter how bad it might have gotten.

“You were right too,” Michael conceded. “She is alive because of you.”

“I just wish she had been able to get her happy ending. Even if it was not me, then I wanted her to be happy. I never cared about me, it always about her…” Max asked “only her” as he was sickened to think that fate could be so cruel to the woman he loved in high school and still did because no one was capable of capturing what Liz had been to him, and to know he had ruined it. To others in the know. And even Liz knew that she had a part in it. But to Max. Liz had always been on a pedestal and had remained there despite the challenges that had come their way. And nothing was going to bust that view of his former girlfriend in Max’s eyes, and so he found it unfair to think Liz could be hurt in this way.

“I know,’ Michael said softly as they did not know the door to the boy’s room was slightly open, and there were ears who could hear Michael and Max talking, and he was getting an earful into how his father felt for Mariah’s mother. And River knew that his father was speaking the truth that his father was willing to destroy his life if it meant the only one, he loved could be safe and River did not know how he rated with his father.

As he wondered once again why he had been kept at all…

“It’s not your fault you know,” came the words of his should be sleeping friend Mac, despite his head injury. All signs were that he was fine, but he had woken up by the movement of his friend to the door. “Your father cannot help it.”

“I know,” River muttered. “When you happen to love someone…”

“Which is why love sucks” Mac muttered with a slightly laugh in his voice. “Which is why you should play the field. Settling only gets you nothing but trouble?”

“So, says the kid with the two parents together, and the tendency to find trouble wherever he goes?” River laughed at Mac’s motto to play field which was quite the contrast to the life he had while growing up. The idyllic two parent household, and lots of family, and grandparents, whether they were his by blood or not. Still, he had a lot, and now he was playing the field, and not interested in settling. Of course, he was only fifteen.

“We are not our parents,” Mac mused “I am me and you are you, so I suggest that you go to bed, and figure out your life tomorrow.”

Which is what River did as he returned to the other bed, and the boys fell asleep thinking of two vastly different lives they were dealing with, and their plans…

*

Downstairs, Mariah felt on the edge. She was feeling lost. Nothing made sense to her anymore. A few hours before she had a family who loved her. The ideal setting for a life. A mother and father who loved her, and a younger brother who was into everything, and it was a fun existence, and then she had tonight, and she had now.

Which meant her father was dead? All because of car crash, and Mariah was blaming herself because she had not been in the car with her father and brother. Instead, she had been admiring the sights, and the Christmas decorations and talking to River. When her father had needed her, and especially when her brother had needed her. Lex is only twelve she thought. I could have done something if I had been in that car she thought. But no, I had to have gotten out because I did not want to go to the stereo store.

Why could I not have gone? She thought as she was overwhelmed and feeling ready to crack. She knew her mother was sleeping upstairs, and all she could think was that she had messed things up. Why did we have to come to this town? she asked herself. If we had stayed in Chicago, then this would not have happened?

She did not know if that were true, but she felt like it was, and she hated knowing she could have had a different life if only things were different, and they had not been forced to move away from Chicago to this town she thought. Roswell, she muttered.

She was all over the place. She could not sleep. All she felt was that she was changing from the girl she was, to something different. She did not know why. It had been going on for months, and it had only increased since they moved to this town.

If we were in Chicago, I would have been the same person I was last summer she thought. As she did not know what their life would be like from now on. Would they even stay in this town? Something tells her that they would, whether she wanted to or not. Because this is where her grandparents were…

Unfair, she thought.

She wanted her father, and she wanted the life she had yesterday.

As through the house, the lights were turned off. And its occupants were trying to get some sleep. Although some had done so more successfully than others.

*

Liz also wanted the life she had the day before as she woke up in the early hours of the morning and realized she was not in her bed or any bed she recognized before she remembered it looked like the spare bedroom of Maria’s home. The home she shared with Michael and their son Mac she thought. And immediately memories of the previous night came rushing to her, and they were not welcomed memories. They were of a tragedy that had been so great, and this time no miracles would come and bring him back to her.

Because Brady is not an alien she thought. And you can only get kind of miracle once in a lifetime she thought as she sat up in bed and saw that she was still in her clothes, and she immediately thought of what she would have to do. And she hated every one of them as then her son came to her, and she knew she would have to go to the hospital and explain to a twelve-year-old on the cusp of being a teenager that his father was dead.

And Mariah she thought. An almost sixteen-year-old was even worst she would imagine. Especially with a girl who was changing with each day. Because she remembered her time as a sixteen-year-old, and how she had changed. And now Mariah would not have her father to be there for her. She and Brady had been remarkably close.

Just like I was to mine… Liz would mutter to herself.

Despite Mariah becoming older and becoming more independent. Brady seemed to get their daughter, and yes, like Liz had been once with her own father.

They had a bond.

And now that bond was broken by death, and there was nothing she could do to bring her child’s father back to her, and to them.

She did not have the power to heal. She had the power to see the future, which is why she had an ominous feeling that something was going to happen, but she had not seen losing Brady she thought. What good is my powers if I cannot prevent my husband from dying, she thought. But she knew she was not as powerful as Max, Isabel, or Michael.

It had been what she wanted from her life. Now. She wanted to be different. She wanted the ability.

But it will not change yesterday.

And suddenly there was a knock on the door, and she gave a yes as she remembered this was not her house. And the door opened, and it was Maria sticking in her head. “Are you awake?”

“Yes,” Liz sighed. “Although I wish I was still asleep,” she said honestly as she would rather burrow under the covers and never come out of it. “How long have I been asleep?” she asked as she checked the alarm clock, and saw that it was early, but still a little too early for her liking…

“Since you collapsed at the hospital?” Maria asked softly.

“And they did not want to admit me?” Liz asked as she was surprised the hospital would wave her off to the care of her friends, even if they were quite capable of caring for her.

“We had someone who could access that it was only stress that befell you,” Maria said with a smirk. “Although we had to let the professionals assess you to confirm that opinion because you did make a scene. But your daughter said you would not want to be admitted unless it was a medical reason.”

“She’s right, because I would not have wanted to be” Liz said softly as she though of the only person their group knew that could make a reasonable assessment, and that was her ex-boyfriend, who was decidedly not a medical professional and yet he had the ability, that no mere mortal could claim to have. “You asked Max to look at me?”

“I did not have to ask, because you fell right into his arms” Maria smiled. “And the least he could do was check you over…”

“I did?” Liz asked as she clearly did not have such a memory of it.

“Oh, you don’t remember?” Maria asked, obviously worried that she might have to break the news to Liz about Brady, which was something she would not want to do, if only because she did not want to have Liz react in the way she had before when she was told the news.

“You should not worry because I remember,” Liz said softly as the memories of the night before, of the doctor telling her the grim news pounced in her head, and she wanted the memories to go away. She wanted to forget the sadness, she wanted to just go back to sleep and stay asleep until she could wake up to a reality and a life that made sense. “Although I do not remember you know…”

“Falling into Max’s waiting arms,” Maria smiled. “Well, you did, and he immediately could tell that you had only fainted, and there was not a medical reason for it. And given how much stress you were under, it was only natural,” she thought. “Liz, I know you will not want to hear it from me, but I am sorry…”

“That my husband is dead?” Liz asked. “I guess I already got my miracle shot at resurrecting someone in the past, so I cannot have that again, so of course something like this would happen once I return to thistown…”

“Oh Liz,” Maria murmured as she both knew what happened sixteen years before, and how Liz had gotten such a miracle, and it was not possible this time.

“I want to sleep,” she said softly as tears came to as she remembered her husband, and how sweet and patient he had been with her. “Brady rescued me Maria,” she thought of those early days when she went to school, and was acting out, and spending too much time with other men, and regretting her actions the next morning. And then she walked into a class one day, and Brady was there, and he became a friend, and a shoulder to cry on, someone who had not expected anything in return. She would come to see that he had seen her crying out but did not take advantage of her, or the fact that she was clearly reacting to a loss of something in her life. She was, even though she had been the one to break her engagement and to walk away from Max over the life they could not share.

Still, she was dark and twisty once at school. And Brady had been there, and he had helped bring her back, and they got married quickly, probably too quickly for some and certainly back here in her hometown as they questioned her quick marriage, but then Mariah had come quickly enough afterwards, and so they figured that would have been the reason why they had gotten married. And Liz knew it partly had been, but it was because with a ring on her finger, she could try to forget Max. And the life she could have been having if she had stayed in Roswell. And especially once Mariah arrived. Having a child that was her own and not having to settle for raising someone else’s gave something to strive for, and to protect.

She hated resenting the baby River would turn out to be. But she knew at eighteen she could not have been the person Max wanted her to be, and so she and moved on. Brady had been that someone who had helped her and been the one to show her that there was a life to live outside of Roswell, and away from the chaos of her formative teenage years.

Which is why she had not gone back with the kids. Because she had not wanted them to be exposed to it, to the memories.

Now she was back, and this has happened she muttered. And Maria could guess that Liz was blaming her return. “Petunia, you do not know this would have happened only here in Roswell. There are a lot of questions that are unknown to us?”

“I know this place has given me a lot of dangerous times,” Liz thought. “I stayed away not only because of what Max meant to me, but because of what those three years were like. And once I am back, Brady is struck down.”

“Wait until you know okay before you paint this town with brush it does not deserve,” Maria asked she thought. “You are grieving Brady, but Brady would not want you beaten down. He would want you and the kids to try to move on, knowing he loves you, and still does.”

Liz nodded but did not have a response for that.

“Anyways, you might get some answers?” Maria asked.

“What, what do you mean?” Liz asked as sat in the bed and glanced at her childhood best friend. The friend she had all kinds of dreams with, and they had shared those three years transformative years together, and yet they stayed tight, like sisters.

“I came up not to just see whether you were awake, but to let you know Jim is downstairs. And he has some things to say?”

“About last night?” Liz asked.

“A strong likelihood, and the coroner is with him” Maria muttered softly. “I think they might have some of those answers you crave, although they cautioned to be, it is only the beginning hours in all this…”

“Really?” Liz asked and yes, it is only the beginning. “This quickly. I do not remember signing off for an autopsy for my husband?”

“You were in no state to greenlight anything,” Maria murmured. “Once word came, and given the situation the crash was under, I think Jim wanted to make sure they had all the answers they could possibility have before they proceeded with any investigation?”

Liz nodded. So, they know if they have someone to blame or not, and whether they could blame the car She wanted to blame the car.

“So, I’ll let you change, and you can meet me downstairs?” Maria asked as she turned around to go for the door. “And I thought you should know Mariah is awake, and downstairs too, and she is determined to hear what Jim has to say.”

“Thank you, Maria,” Liz sighed as she thought of her daughter, and the two people she has to live for now, Mariah and Lex need me she thought “For everything, for giving my daughter and I your home for last night.”

“You welcome,” Maria smiled. “I will always be here for you and the kids, and I know you would do the same for me if the time were to ever come?”

“I would,” Liz thought as the door closed a minute later, and she looked around the room. And knew she had to wake up, get out of the bed, and deal with the realities of her life. A life that no longer had Brady in it. But she had her kids, their kids, and she was back in the past, in her hometown. Which was a whole other adjustment…

Because it meant Max she thought.

*

Mariah was indeed awake, and downstairs and glancing at Max with wary eyes. And Max knew he deserved it. River and Mariah had been surprised to wake up to see that River’s dad was still there, and had slept on the couch, and had shown no willingness to leave. Max knew that all Mariah knew of him was the brusque and bristling relationship she could gather he had with his son by the mere seconds they had spent together the previous night, at the hospital.

Yes, that is right. All Mariah knew was how Max and River related to each other Badly she muttered to herself as even though it was morning, and whole new day. And still, they did not seem like a normal father and son. Anyone in the house knew this, and even Max and River knew this, but it was their normal routine. Neither talking communicating, nor even acknowledging each other unless they were forced too. For, Mariah it was a completely opposite of the life she had seen her father have with her younger brother, Alex, aka Lex she thought. They had always spent time together, and Lex had wanted to go to a simple store with his father, not because it was his birthday present, they were supposed to be picking up, but because they liked spending time together.

She was seeing that not every family was this way.

Some have serious dysfunctions. Especially when you have a relationship built up over years, and neither father or son was trying that hard to fix it, despite the frustration and the maneuvering by other parties.

So, Max knew Mariah had a reason to distrust him. And he could not blame her, because he could not see how he could help the situation with his own son. I blame myself, and I know it he told himself as he glanced at the young woman who had been raised by Liz and her husband. A marriage he did not want to admit had happened but given that he was a father himself. Life moves whether you want it or not he told himself. Mariah was such a vision of her mother, and he presumed her husband, even though he had met the man while he was alive, nor had he seen him while he has been dead. If I were there he wondered. If he had known, could he have changed it or was Brady meant to die? We all die sometime. And sometimes more than once and he felt bad that he could not have saved the one person he knew Liz would want to have lived.

While Maria walked downstairs and could see the tension in the room, while Mac was watching amusement and she could only shake her head because her son was a whole other story, and she did not know how to handle his wildness, and his ability to be his father, Michael she muttered. Someone prone for the rash. Although the one thing Michael had never really done, was drink because his limited experiences went badly, she thought of the New Year Eve that ended up with an experience of a lifetime, but not for her and Michael, because they had been taking one of their breaks.

Now, they were together, and in marriage that was solid, and they had a son who was just as wild as his father and then some she thought. Even though Mac still was largely a good kid. But she did not like was growing up and doing things that she did not want him to do, and she knew once this all settled down, she and Michael would have stamp it out, or delay the inevitable. You can only use that you are the Sheriff’s grandson so many times as she came down and addressed. “You mother is awake,” she said speaking a clearly grieving Mariah. “And I told her that you two were here to see,” she said as she spoke to her father-in-law, and the coroner.

“Thank you, Maria,” Jim said. “Your mother will over later.”

Maria nodded as she watched as the tension filled the room. “You did not tell me before I went to see Liz, but do you have answers?”

“I have to talk to Liz,” was all Jim said as Max was watching, and she knew from the vibes of the room that he should not be here, but he could not help himself and then he knew he could not leave unless Liz herself asked her to once she saw Liz walked down the stairs a few more minutes later, clearly in distressed.

But awake, and alive.

And that is how Max wanted her, as he saw her eyes go wild to see him at the back of the room, but neither of them said anything. Instead, she addressed Jim.

“You wanted to see me, Jim?” Liz asked.

“Yes,” Jim said as he watched as a devastated Liz walked down the stairs and settled in the living room. No one could miss how Max’s eyes had gone to Liz as she did the walk down the stairs, or how Liz had noticed, but tried to turn her attention from the very past in the room. “I was not able to say it at the hospital, but I am extremely sorry for you, and your children.”

“Yes, my children,” Liz murmured as she remembered her children, as she saw Mariah badly needing her, and she did not know how Lex was handling his injuries “I need to get to the hospital so that I can be with my son?”

“Which is why I wanted to do this as early as we could today since I do know you will want to go back to the hospital at the first moment you are able to,” Jim acknowledged. “We have done some preliminary investigating into the crash” he sighed as he had stayed up all night, and had his office going all night, trying to nail down some answers, even if they were early.

“And?” Liz asked. “Whose to blame, do you know. Is it my husband or my car?”

“We only have early word,” Jim cautioned.

“I understand, but I need to know so I can look my children in the face and tell them the truth,” she murmured as Mariah walked closer to her mother and took her hand. “We need to know the truth, whatever it is?”

“Early assessment is that your car seems to be not the problem,” Jim murmured and Liz’s heart broke, as she so wanted to blame the car for getting out of control for some reason and it was not human error.

“So, it was Brady?” Liz asked softly.

“We are having the car completely looked over,” Jim murmured as he assured Liz. “What we have is only the early assessment of how the technicians saw the car when it was delivered to them, and there is nothing to indicate a malfunction or anything…

Liz nodded as Mariah grasped her mother’s hand tighter.

“Kirk, here, our resident coroner has something to tell you” Jim said. “Dr. Kirk Vance,” he said introducing their town coroner.

“Mrs. Anthony said the coroner because of how he was not known to the room. He struck with an air of professional. “I wish this was not how we have come to meet, although there probably is not too many other circumstances, but we have done a preliminary exam of your husband, and we have found a few things” Dr. Vance murmured. “We have not gotten back any toxicology results yet because those could take a few days in the least because of how small our office is. We have to send them to the bigger lab in Las Cruces.”

“I understand,” Liz murmured. Not everywhere is Chicago she thought. Roswell will always be a small town. “But you found something?”

“Yes,” Dr. Vance nodded. “And if am correct than I can only conclude is that what happened to your husband and son is just a tragic accident, and very little could have stopped it from happening…”

“Why do you say that?” Liz asked.

“Because we have found your husband to have been suffering from an undisclosed, and unknown heart defect” Dr. Vance announced the room, and there were gasps all around. “I have seen your husband’s most recent medical records, and they do not indicate any professional he had seen either in your old place of residence which I believe was Chicago, or here would have known but your husband was suffering from a heart condition, and unless he had gone for an exam and they had known what to look for, then the other way it would show up is if the person suddenly dies.”

“Oh god,” Liz asked. “Brady could not have known?”

“Right,” Dr. Vance nodded. “As his medical records did not indicate that he knew, or that they had tested for any heart conditions in the recent past.”

“So, it was an accident if something does not come up with the car?” Liz asked as she looked at Jim who nodded.

“The investigation is on-going but yes if something does not come up to conflict with the assessment of the doctor, and of course if any toxicology tests come in, but we have to conclude right now, that it was unintentional.

“So, it was Brady’s fault, but not his fault at the same time?” Liz asked to both Jim and the coroner, and Dr. Vance spoke first.

“You have indicated to the Sheriff that nothing in your husband’s recent health indicated this condition?” Dr. Vance asked.

“Yes, that is right” Liz admitted. “My husband has always been very much a health nut. He exercises religiously, which is why this finding is such a surprise to me and this would be the first time it would have come up because yes, he runs, and does other exercises, and he has indicated nothing has been wrong with his heart in the past?”

“Sometimes it happens like that, with these types of undisclosed conditions” Dr. Vance acknowledged. “Sometimes the fittest athletes can be healthy, and able to do their sport for years before something strikes, and it is found out. Although…”

“What?” Liz asked as from the tone of the voice said by the coroner. There is more, she sighed. As if her senses were finally engaged and telling her that there was something else that she needed to know, something that she would not like, or find easy to accept.

Dr. Vance could tell how this had to be a shock to the deceased’s wife. And what else I have to say will not make it any easier he thought. “I have exchanged talks with your husband’s family doctor out of Chicago, and I have warned them that they might need to do some testing on your husband’s side of the family…”

“Why?” Liz asked as she took Mariah’s hand even more tightly.

“Because I am afraid to say the condition that there are chances that the condition can be inherited. So, it is likely, your husband could have inherited it from someone in his line, most likely his parents, or a grandparent. But if that is the case, it could also mean…”

Hell, no she whispered to herself as the bombshell settled in on the room. And it was clear everyone in the room knew what the doctor was saying. “Mariah and Lex?” Liz asked instantly as fear crept into her cells, as she looked over at her daughter, and into her eyes, and she knew her daughter understood what the doctor was saying to them.

“Yes,” Dr. Vance acknowledged with a deep sigh. “Your children may have inherited this condition, and they should undergo testing as soon as possible to see whether they do or not, and if they do, you know that we can manage it. Otherwise, if it left untreated….”

“They could die?” Liz asked. “Just like their father?”

[keepsmiling7]

How much more can Liz take?
Testing the children, now I am curious as to what happens in this area.
Great story!

[totallizfan]

Testing.....What will it reveal.

[RoswellFan68]

Wouldn't Lex be able to confirm if something happened to his dad before the crash? Maybe Max can help Liz's kids if the tests indicate they have the same problem.

[RoswellFan68]

Another thought. Where are Liz's parents? Wouldn't they be there for their daughter and grandchildren.

[Parker1947]

One hour later,

The house was quiet as Liz and Mariah walked into their new home. They were only two weeks into their stay in Roswell and now their lives had been changed forever, as they looked at the Christmas tree standing by the window, and the angel on top as they both remembered the delight on Brady’s face as he helped to put it on the top of the tree, only days before when the family had put the tree up, and they both knew they would not be having Brady coming into this house anymore.

They were on their own.

Neither had the desire to come here, come to the home that was barely their own, but they needed to change before going to hospital where they would see Alex and see how he was managing but also so that her daughter could undergo an exam so that they knew whether she had her father’s heart condition. A condition that one day could kill her if left untreated.

It was all a blur for Liz as she looked around. Mariah did not want to look at the Christmas tree because it was a symbol of how it all went wrong for them as a family. The coroner had assured them before he left that there was nothing anyone could have done if they had been in the car, except maybe grab the wheel she thought. If only she had been in the car? Then maybe she could have grabbed the car and saved her father in time. The coroner could not answer Mariah’s question whether her father had been awake when the crash happened, or was he simply unconscious, and the resulting injuries had killed him.

Maybe Alex has the answers she thought. But then her twelve-year-old brother would not have known better to know, and he could not have helped, no matter how smart he was, and he was smart and gifted, and had moved ahead a class in school when he started when they moved to this town. Now, they were without their father, and in a strange town. A town their mother knew, but they did not know.

At this point. She only knew River, but it was obvious that River’s father had a history with her mother, and she did not want to know what kind of history that was, because she knew that she would probably not like it if she did know.

So, she went upstairs, and slammed her bedroom door shut as she looked around and saw a room, she did not recognize because she was in a life she did not recognize and now she was to go undergo testing to see if she also had her father’s heart ailment.

She hated her life. As she heard a knock on the door, and a soft “Mariah?”

“I am fine Mom,” came Mariah even though she knew she was not, as she went to the door and saw her mother, already changed into a black dress. “I know we have to go?” she said as she thought of the hospital. Even though she did not want to go back to that place, that claimed her father.

“Yes,” Liz said. “Are you okay honey?” she asked as she knew she had thought too much of herself in these hours since everything had happened, and not enough about her daughter, nor her son in the hospital, and who she had not seen at all in more than twenty-four hours since he had left for school because Brady had picked the kids up at school because she was getting ready for her gathering with Maria and Kyle.

“It’s okay, you do not have to worry about me Mom” Mariah assured her mother because she knew her mother did have other worries than only her. “We have to worry about Lex now.”

“I can worry about you too you know,” Liz muttered as she did not know how to deal with a daughter who was grieving. “I am sorry…”

“For what?” Mariah wondered. “For the fact that my father is dead, or that I may have the same heart condition that killed him, or that we are also in a new town, and nothing makes sense anymore…” she asked as she muttered in a groan. “Why did you guys have to make us move to this town,” she cried. “If only we had been back home in Chicago?”

“You heard the doctor himself, that it would have happened in Chicago” Liz murmured as she also did not believe it herself so how can she expect her daughter to also think it. Because she wanted to believe it was the curse of being in Roswell, and the curse of the alien invasion and it would have led to a different fate if only they had stayed in Chicago, but no, she was way too smart, and she was also a doctor herself, and even worst, a researcher, and therefore she knew the truth. The heart condition had been a ticking bomb in her husband, and it would have gone off whether they had been in Chicago, or here in Roswell. “One day it would have happened. If it was not today. Then it would be tomorrow. Nothing we could have done except maybe know but your father was not at that point where he would have known?”

“He might not have been in a car, or I could have been in the car with them, and I would have known…” Mariah muttered with sadness in her voice. Liz did not know how to handle this. Both of her parents were still alive. She had lost her grandmother Claudia, but she had been older, and it was a stroke. Not something like this, not this tragic and not this sudden. It was senseless which is something I will agree with Mariah on.

“Known what?” Liz asked as she was not sure of what her daughter was thinking of or maybe she did? “You think if you could have saved the day by grabbing the steering wheel and known what to do because you have memorized the driver’s handbook for your lessons,” Liz asked with a slight smile at how by the book her daughter was, and so like her, and her daughter was known to prepare something wholeheartedly. “No, you do not know you could have Mariah. Because I do not know if I could have been if we had been in the car together. You saw the crash, and you know how bad it was,” she said as she flinched at the memories of the charred-out wreck she had seen at the crash site. “If you had been in there, who knows, you might have been hurt, or even worst, killed…”

“You do not know that?” Mariah muttered.

“You have said it yourself, you told River who was in the car, and you got to the car in time. If there had been any more time gone by, and your brother could have also been lost. And if you had been in the car, you might have been lost too” Liz murmured at the horror of that idea. “I would have died if I had lost you and your brother in the wreck, and if I did not have you both today.”

“I could have done something,” Mariah muttered.

“Honey, you did” Liz murmured. “I am immensely proud of what you were able to do. Your father would also be proud of you,” she smiled. “So, you should not be faulting yourself. Because it was not your fault honey, because your father would not have wanted you in that car with him, because he would not have wanted your brother in it and your father would be comforted by the notion that both of you survived, even if he could not have had the same thing happen to him.”

Mariah nodded.

“Why don’t you change, and we will then head to the hospital?” Liz asked.

“And find out if I have a death sentence attached to me,” Mariah muttered yeah not so much as she had a funny feeling that she was too different to be like her father. Because they had always told her that she was too much like her mother, and not enough like her father. So, it made her wonder if she were sick too… or was she different?

“Honey,” Liz sighed.

“I’ll change,” Mariah muttered as she went to her closet as Liz only shook her head and hated how her life was going to be different now as she dealt with a grieving fifteen-year-old, and a twelve-year-old with injuries that would require a lot of recovery. As she knew her life would be different from now on.

She exited room, and Mariah could sit down on her bed and look at her open closet door and wonder what would happen to them next.

*

While Liz was dealing with her devastated daughter. Max was walking into his home. Snow was all over the desert, piled up, and they had park farther down then they have in the past since he would need to shovel something to get my aggression out, he thought. Once again, the ride home had been quiet. River had come home, not by choice, but because he had little choice in it because he had no one else to give him a ride because the Guerin’s car was out of commission. A write off, and Michael was dealing with the insurance company as they left the house. So, River sat in his father’s car, and they did not say anything on the drive out of the town limits, and towards their house.

Walking into the house. It was cold. The heater had broken down during the night Just great Max thought as he knew he would have deal with that, as school was a lost cause for any of the kids caught up in the adventure of the last hours. Fortunately, they had another day before their exams. So, River planned to spend time studying, and trying to ignore his father. Although his father finally decided it was time they talked.

“Son, can you sit down?” Max asked as it was the first words, they had spoken to each other since the previous night. “We have to talk.”

“Why?” River thought. “I have exams to study for…”

“You had time last night to study, and obviously you did not take it?” Max muttered and River wanted to flip off his father but wisely chose not to, and they engaged in a stare down with each other.

“Well, I saved the day did I not?” River asked.

“You knew Mac was drinking or planning too, and you knew he was underage, and was driving you and your cousins around?” Max muttered. Why am I doing this? he asked himself. Engaging in a pissing contest with my teenage son when I should be happy, he was the hero last night?

“Mac is his own person. Like I could tell him anything,” River muttered. “And it is not like I was in a mood after our fight to be driving. I might have gotten in my own crash, and maybe you would have liked that, would you not?” he flung at his father, and his father actually flinched at the words. “Then I might be the one dead, and you do not have to look at me as a symbol of all you have lost…”

“River…” Max sighed.

“Look I know from the way you looked at Mariah’s mother the last twelve hours or more. She was the one you gave up a chance on, because of me, and I am the reason she married someone else and had that guy’s children when it could have been you?” River ranted finally as they got into a battle that had long been brewing between them.

Crap Max muttered.

“I know you did not want to keep me,” River muttered. “I know you planned to give me up, and you changed your mind at the last minute only because of who we are, and not because you actually wanted to be a father…”

“That is not why I kept you?” Max tried, and knew it was flimsy because that was exactly why he kept him as a baby because his conscious told him not trust Tess, and finally he listened to it, and finally he looked at the situation as he should and in the end, he was right, because River might be powerful as his parents, he and Tess, but no, you could not say the boy was powerless, and it made it a wise decision not to let him go, into the world with parents who would not know how to grasp the complexities. “I never would want you to be dead?”

“Is it not?” River asked. “You could have kept your girlfriend if you did not have me?” he muttered. “You would not have lost her, if I did not exist?”

“Mariah’s mother, Liz chose to walk away, and yes, it was not my choice” Max muttered, finally giving some honesty to his son. “And yes, we have a history, but I never wanted to give you away. But your birth mother told me you were human, and only then I chose to give you up…”

“You changed your mind?” River muttered.

“Only because my conscious told me you were special and did not let me sign those papers. So, yes, I chose to keep you, and obviously, it has been an the right one. But even before that, once I knew you were coming, I wanted you, and wanted to be there for you” I wish the circumstances were different, and you had a different mother he mused too only himself. “Unfortunately, life turned out to be the way it is…”

“You lost you girlfriend because you stepped out on her, and because of me?”

‘’Yes, Liz walked away but only because actions of your mother. I did not step out on her. We had broken up because of it being what Liz wanted because life had become too overwhelming for her to deal with being with me. I wanted her back, and circumstances happened that prevented us from getting back together until after your birth mother and I were together. By then I knew you were on the way, and I wanted to be there for you, but we also were too young at the time, and events happened that led her to walk away from me. She chose to go, and I chose to let her go…”

“Because of me?” River asked.

“Partly,” Max allowed with some honesty that he felt their talk needed, as obviously River had figured it out. “But it was more your mother that was overriding it, and Liz might have learned to get over it, but I did not want her to have to, so it was for the best. I always wanted her to be happy, and to live a life she deserves. I never wanted to hurt her but being with me hurt her more than I wanted, and we were both better for ending, and for keeping you…”

“You were planning on getting married?” River asked. “Aunt Isabel told me you had proposed, and you planned to get married, but you changed your mind on the adoption, and kept me, and you lost your girlfriend because of me?”

“Because of your birth mother,” Max muttered. “Tess created a large shadow that was hard to get by, and she chose to walk away.”

“I represent what you lost, and what you hate in my birth mother?” River asked. “I have seen the pictures, and how I look like her?” he asked of those few pictures he had been able to locate of his mysterious birth mother who died in an army base explosion in the months after his birth. Finally, he found a picture in an old yearbook of his fathers, and therefore he knew she has blonde hair. And he had years of dismissive and downright hostility from his family about her to know things were bad between his birth parents.

“Genetics cannot be helped,” Max muttered unfortunately as he finally was seeing the boy his son had grown up to be, and how close he was to being a man “Look I know I have been a crappy father to you, and I am sorry for that and I cannot begin to make up for what has been done in the years past, but I hope that you can see that you were wanted…”

“Only because you screwed up” River muttered. “And neither you, nor dear old Mom believed in abortion?”

“The decision was always to keep you,” Max muttered. “And even if I wanted to choose differently, it was not my choice. Your birth mother wanted to have you, and because you were coming,” because your mother engineered the situation to fit your creation, he wanted to say but kept it even though he suspected River had picked up enough hints over the years that yes, he had been engineered and had been born out of a clearcut agenda. Still, he did not say this to his son. Because it was not warranted this showdown of theirs. “I was planning to be there for you, no matter where that took us?” and the plan was to go back to Antar he thought. “You were always the one I was thinking of, and that fact alone cost me a lot…”

“I knew it,” River muttered.

“Yes, Liz and I ended because of you” Max muttered saying the dreaded words. “But she knew I had to be your father, and you deserved a chance to be around us because you are special, and I hate to think of what your life would have been like if you were living elsewhere, and you did not have the support of the family?”

“Some support you have been,” River muttered. “You can barely look at me, because I look like her?”

“Unfortunately, I have not been there as much I should have been, and I am sorry for that” Max murmured. “I let my self pity because of how life has gone get me and that has affected you, and I am sorry about that…”

“Are you?” River asked.

“Yes,” Max muttered.

‘Then I guess that is something,” River muttered as he walked away, not wanting to engage with his father anymore because he had too much on his mind and Max could only shake his head and watch his son walk away and wondered if he had waited too long to have the epiphany that he had had in recent hours, that Liz was better off away from him.

So, she shook the look of distrust and hurt in his son’s eyes and suited up and went out and shoveled, as River could only look out the window as his father was shoveling, and while he should be helping. All he wanted was to be alone, as he soon dived into his books and tried to better himself so he could get away from this town.

To a life that had to be better than one he was living now…

*

While at the hospital. Alex “Lex” Anthony was laying in his bed, with his legs in traction and he hated it. He was trying to watch television, but the uncomfortableness of his position only caused problems, and the pain was growing despite being on pain medication. And he was bored, as he was not used to laying still. All he wanted to know was, what was going on with his parents, and his sister Mariah? How they were, and if they were okay. Sure, he remembered his sister by his side when he became conscious at the crash site. But then he fell into a deep sleep and woke up here, after surgery, and with his legs in casts, and immobile.

Why did he want to know? He asked that of himself. Because he suspected if he were to find out what was going on then he would hate the news, because he suspected it was bad news especially since no one would answer his questions or tell him about his father. Flashes came to him of how white and ghost like his father looked before the crash, and he could not remember hearing his father’s voice when they were being rescued and he had seen his sister on the scene, and now he knew it was a new day and he was in the hospital with both of his legs broken. He knew that much at least.

He knew nothing else, much to his annoyance.

“Your mother and sister will be here very soon,” came the last nurse who had come to get a status check on him, “They called to check in on you…”

“Where are they, and what happened to my Dad?” Lex muttered as he knew to this hospital, he was Alex, but he always wanted to be known by Lex because that was unique, and since he knew his name came from someone who his mother lost when she was in high school. He did want to be reminded of a ghost.

He wanted to be himself.

And his mother had been fine with it because he knew it still brought tears to her to remember her lost friend, and now he was Alex to the hospital. If he was alive, he guessed that was okay with him, but he prayed for his father, and wanted to see his mother and older sister.

“They will explain once they arrive,” said the nurse who went on his way.

“Why can’t you the professional tell me?” said Alex muttered.

“Because they do not want to get sued,” came a voice of a stranger by the doorway. He turned and saw a brunette watching him, with interest…

“Who are you?” Lex asked.

“Jaime,” came the brunette watching the patient she had seen the night before because of circumstances too unbelievable. “Doing community service for school credit,” said the brunette. “The name is Jaime Valenti” she smiled. “You are Alex Anthony, are you not?”

‘How do you know, and no, my name is not Alex. It’s Lex” came the boy in the hospital bed.

“I saw you come in last night,” said Jaime. “I was at the scene…” she smiled as she still felt some aches from the incident the previous night but given the circumstances. She knew she was a heck of a lot better than Alex here, “And it’s already beside the door, of your room” she smiled as she walked in. “Alex Anthony?”

“Oh,” Lex murmured as flashes came to him of the screaming, and the silence out of his father. “Did we ram into you?”

“No,” Jaime shook her head. “Although I was nearby and had a headache this morning but not enough for Dad to keep me away from my duty here,” she sighed even though she hated it, but it gave her credit for school, and was better than dealing her grandfather’s office. Which was her other option. She did not want to spend so much time with her grandfather, so the hospital gave her credits. While her stepsister Jessie was handling the department this morning for her own credits towards her diploma down the line.

“I am sorry,” Lex murmured. “That we made a scene?”

“It livened up the night for sure,” Jaime said softly. “You look in pain?” she said. “Your name is Alex, right?”

“Lex,” the boy confirmed. “I hate the name Alex.”

“Why?” Jaime asked.

“Because I was named after someone who had died, and therefore I wanted my own name. So, I modified it instead of changing it outright.”

“Yeah, I guess you might not like to be reminded of someone who died” Jaime thought as she did not know what had happened to Alex’s father because she had left the hospital before the news had come, and her father and stepmother to be did not tell her when she woke up. “My stepsister is named after her deceased father, but she’s embraced the name.”

“People are like that,” Lex murmured. “You have a stepsister?”

“Technically our parents are not married yet,” Jaime muttered. “But Jessie short for Jessica is my stepsister because our parents have been together most of our lives, and just getting around to getting married. I know something about inheriting a family name because I was named after my grandfather. Of course, I am a girl, still Jaime is different…”

“Yes, it is” Lex smiled at the chatter box the girl was being and he found it comforting it because at least it was keeping his mind off what he did not know. “Do you know anything that can help me about my father?”

“Sorry, I am just a candy stripper for the morning shift. They do not tell me anything,” Jaime smiled. “You were on my route, and I wanted to say hello because I remember you from last night, and it’s nice to see you are awake” she sighed. “Lex…”

“Thanks,” Lex nodded. “School credit?” he asked. “I did not think that was possible?”

“It is always possible. In this day and age, well, they are trying to liven up our education and make sure we are ready for the real world, and so they offer credits for real life experiences, and this is mine. So, yeah, I am a freshman in high school, West Roswell High.”

“I might be in high school come fall” Lex murmured. “They skipped me a grade when I came here, and they will reassess how I do after next semester” he allowed. “Although my older sister is at West Roswell…”

“She is?” Jaime smiled.

“Mariah…” Lex murmured.

“Oh, I think I saw her last night,” Jaime murmured. “Before you know, what happened?”

“Yeah,” Lex murmured as for a minute talking to Jaime had allowed him not to think about the previous night, and what he did not know. “She was not in the car with us, you know, when the accident happened. But I remember seeing her at the scene with me, before they took me away, and before they took my father away,” he whispered as worries came to him of how his father was. How he was doing was meaningless in comparison to what he did not know…

“Again, I am sorry” Jaime murmured as she could sense he was thinking of her father.

“Yeah, right” Alex murmured as then the door opened further and instead of another nurse or even doctor coming through the door. Instead, in walked his mother, and his sister. “Mom” he whispered at he recognized his visitors.

“Oh god, Lex” Liz murmured as she rushed in and over to her son, as she saw Lex. Mariah was taking it slower as she came onto the room. Both she and her mother were now dressed in black, and Jaime could only guess why that was, because flashes came to her of when she had been forced to wear black when her mother died. Which is why she tended to wear any color except black as she was growing up.

Mariah was the first one to see Jaime but did not say anything as she walked over and assessed her brother. Taking comfort in the fact he was live. Awake and talking that is something she told herself. Only partly she muttered. Because she knew all to well the active boy her brother was, and this was going to be painful for all of them in the weeks and months to come.

“I am fine Mom,” Lex tried to say to both his mother and older sister. “You both know me Mom, so I will get over this as quickly as I can so that I can join some kind of team in the New Year…”

“We will see when we get there,” Liz murmured as a doctor herself. She knew the recovery would be more time consuming because not everyone had the capacity to heal like those she remembered in the past. Trying to come back from those memories. She finally saw that they were not alone in the hospital room and saw the young girl. Slightly older to her son. “And you are?” she wondered. “Another patient?”

“No,” came both her son and the young girl. “Jaime, Mrs. Anthony” came Jaime. “This room is only your son’s. But I was on shift. School credit, candy stripping this morning, and your son was on my route, so I stopped in to see him, and we got to talking…” she said as she smiled at, and Lex smiled at Jaime.

And Liz felt some relief, in the smile from her son because she knew it might be the last one for awhile.

“I am glad you had someone to talk to,” came Liz as she tried to focus on her son. “I did not think they still had candy stripper these days, but any experience is good,” she thought of her own when she was growing up and before the alien invasion happened and she tumbled down a mountain into a lot of challenges before she left town for a new life, and then as she glanced at the girl, she saw an air of familiarity and then she put the pieces of together of the name. Because this was Roswell and a certain segment of it was certainly a small fraternity. “Jaime, now I recognize it?”

“Then I am surprised,” Jaime smirked. “Most do not. It usually takes hearing my last name which is Valenti,” came Jaime as Liz’s eyes went wide as she recognizes the girl who was beside her son, and in the hospital room.

“You are Kyle’s daughter?” Liz asked with a smile despite the circumstances they were under. “Jim’s granddaughter?”

“You know my father and grandfather?” Jaime asked, a little surprised.

“We go back to high school,” Liz said and then some she thought. “We are still particularly good friends. Yes, your father has mentioned you, and I have seen your pictures. Unfortunately, we did not get here often enough so I did not see you grow up, but I know your father loves you a great deal…”

“And I love him,” Jaime smiled and given they were getting into talking about fathers, she recognized that she had to get going. “I have to go, but nice talking to you Alex, I mean Lex,” she smiled. “Maybe I will see you again while you are in here?”

“Yeah, maybe” Lex smiled as Jaime walked out as he turned to his mother and sister. “You really know her father?” he asked as this was the first time, he was hearing that his mother had such a past. While he and Mariah did know their mother came from Roswell, and they had grandparents here and everything, but they had been kept away, and so they did not know the depth of their mother’s history.

“Yes,” Liz smiled. “We go back a long way,” she thought and fought many battles together she murmured to herself but did not say it because she did not want her son and daughter to have to face her past battles, and old memories. They would have enough now that they were in Roswell and facing the weight of their own ones to come. As she tried to move back away from the past, and back to the present. “I am sorry I was not able to be here before now, but I know you were well taken care of…”

“I was,” Lex conceded. “But what is going on with Dad?” he asked as he glanced at the tears coming from his sister’s face and knew. “He’s dead, isn’t he?” he asked, as he was trying to put a brave face on it, I knew it, but did not want to believe it.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Liz said in a soft voice as she still did not want to believe it. “Your father’s injuries were just too severe to overcome it” she said softly as she immediately took her son in her arms and they all felt tears coming down as they all cried for someone, they all loved. As finally she stepped back and wipe the tears from her face as she glanced at a grief-stricken Mariah. “Your sister and I are happy you were able to make it, and I know your father would also be happy were he to know” she sighed as she glanced and encouraged her daughter to come into the hug, and all she could do was hug her two children and hope for a future that made sense and gave them some sense of normalcy.

Even though she knew, that was going to be unlikely.

[keepsmiling7]

It's sad to see Mariah feeling so guilty. She takes on the world's responsibilities.
The children all had interesting names, with the history attached to them.
River sure let his dad have it........deservedly so!
Hurry back, can't wait to see what happens next.

[Parker1947]

“Feel better Ronnie,” came Jaime outside in the main part of the floor she was working. It was not long since she left Lex’s room. She was closing up her shift, and about to sign off as she left Ronnie Jenkins’ room. She checked the clock near the nurses’ desk, and it confirmed to her that her shift was finished for the day. Signing because she knew she had a lunch break and then she was expected to be at school. Since she did not get a pass like her sister, Mac and River did. After all they were all older and had different classes.

She was younger, and she was only a freshman. And she actually did want to go back to school. She liked her classes, and it was good to get some final studying in before her exams began tomorrow since she was on a different schedule as the others. They finished earlier than she did. Anyways, she could not help but think of Alex or Lex she thought Weird name,and he actually wanted that one himself. She would have gone with Alex, whether it was for a dead person or not. All I can think of is the name Lex Luthor she thought of the Superman movies and television shows she had seen over the years since her father was a fan. Jessie was even a fan because the actors tended to be hot. Alex, she thought as she walked past the door, and saw the name on the door. Those injuries are going to mean he will be here awhile she muttered. As the name Alex pinged in her brain as someone her father would talk about in a tense way that her stepmother did not share. She had fond memories of an Alex from the past, who had died when they were in high school. But she sensed when she saw her father react to the same name that there were bad memories attached to the name. She knew enough not to ask too many questions, and therefore she did not know the depth of what had happened with her parents were their ages. And she definitely did not know the Alex Lex was named after connected them all. As she walked into the locker room, and she changed out of her uniform. And was prepared to walk out towards the bus stop, which was her normal routine when she stopped when she saw her stepsister sitting and reading her phone. “Jessie, what are you doing here?” she asked. “Is everything okay,” she said stopping because it was not only her who had been thrown by the blast. Jessica had taken one too, as she had shielded her, which had lessened the impact on her head she was told. Otherwise, she might have been looking at a different life today than a return to normal life, and school.

Jessica Ramirez Evans smiled at the concern on Jaime’s face. Jaime is one of a kind. She suspected that this foray into the medical realm for school credit might end up being Jaime’s calling because her stepsister, whether official or not, she was a special someone. While uniquely normal compared to Jessie, Mac, and River. Jaime was compassionate and always wanted to help. So, she was quick to assure the teenager. “All is fine with me health wise, it is just that Kyle and Mom wanted me to make sure you got to school safely, after you know, last night” she smiled as she watched as her stepsister came out of the locker room that had been given to the volunteers. She had known the room well because she had done her time here one summer. But she was quite happy to be rid of that experience. It was not her. She was now moving onto other pursuits. And right now, for her own credits towards graduation. She was working out of the Sheriff’s department. Aiding her grandfather. After all, Jim Valenti was as much her grandfather as her grandparent Evans were or her grandmother on her birth father’s side, Grandma Ramirez who she saw for a few weeks each summer because Jesse’s mother had moved to Arizona after her son’s death, and therefore she was not as present in her only granddaughter’s life, but Isabel still wanted Jessica to be involved with her Ramirez family. She was Jessica Ramirez when she visited her grandmother.

“I thought you had your own shift this morning?” Jaime asked. “Dad and your mother did not seem that concerned this morning when they mandated that I keep my shift,” she thought and then she stopped in her place when she saw how her stepsister was looking. “It was not them, but it was you? You were the one concerned?”

“I did have my shift, and I just got off” Jessie smiled. “I figured I might as well be nice and considerate, and we can head home, and then you can head to school on your own if you want because of I have more studying to do but I wanted to make sure you were alright…” she thought. “Last night was terrifying, and you did not get out of it unscathed, so I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Thanks,” Jaime murmured. “I am fine, and you know it” she thought of the text messages that her father had sent her, and she returned all of them. “I give them a hard time, but Dad would not have sent me to school if I showed any lasting marks from last night,” she thought. I really do want to go to school. She found staying home boring which is why she might bitch about these credits she was claiming here at the hospital because of the memories, but still it was something to do.

“Which is something I know,” Jessie allowed because she knew their parents would have kept either of the home if they had been truly hurt. Still, Jaime was the only sister she had. Whether they were blood or not. They had been each other’s lives since their parents had started dating. And therefore, they were family and yet Jaime was different than she, or Mac or most of all River who was the most gifted of them all. She and Mac were ruled by their half heritage to the other side. River had two biological parents. Still, she and Mac were gifted in many ways that Jaime simply could never be because her father was normal, and so had her birth mother been. “But you are not like River, Mac and me” Jessie allowed as she thought of the ways Jaime was different from her. “You are too human, and therefore you scare me, and so I wanted to make sure you are alright…”

“The curse of being normal and being me,” Jaime muttered.

“You are actually lucky,” Jessie smiled. “The only time I get to be normal is when I visit my Grandmother Ramirez. Because she did not know before my Dad’s death about you know…”

“Your mother,” Jaime asked as they knew that only Jesse had been told of his wife’s status after the wedding, but he had never told his mother and so Isabel never wanted to her late husband’s mother that her only granddaughter was indeed special and had abilities so whenever Jessie went to Phoenix for the summer. She was as normal as possible. She liked it, but then she liked her life back here in Roswell where she could be who she was, around those who did know. At least Jaime got to be normal all the time.

Have worries that she, River and Mac never had to deal with, as they walked to the bus stop together. While you would not hear River, Jessica or Mac complaining about who they were, but they had more of a burden than Jaime did. Because you had a limit to how you could act out, even though Mac likes to blur the line Jessie muttered. She knew she was bad for allowing it the previous night, and she certainly had gotten the lecture when she got home from the hospital but the full weight of the lecture that she would get into the car with Mac knowing he was driving and not River was postponed until later, because of the fact that they were nearly killed by a speeding car was overriding that other concern. Jessica knew Mac was up to no good, but they did not know until later that River was in no mood to drive.

“Right,” Jessie smiled.

“It was only some aches and pains, but I am fine” Jaime thought. “I am not like that kid that was in the wreck?” she muttered as she thought of the weight of Alex’s injuries, Lex she commented to herself. Now he is going to have to deal with the effects of last night longer than we will…

“Who?” Jessie asked as she was not making the connection.

“Mariah’s brother,” Jaime muttered. “You know the one River wants a chance with?”

“We both know that River does not have a chance with Mariah,” Jessie smiled. “He’s only deluding himself if he thinks he does, and by now, he has probably gotten a clue, but still, he does not have a chance with her” she said of the fun scene they had seen the night before mayhem had completely come and disrupted things.

“Why do you say that about your cousin?” Jaime asked as she was looking for some intrigue. Sure, she might be crushing on River, even though her stepsister told her to cut it out, but she did not have the ins of the family gossip vine because she could tune things out because she was not special. She was normal, just like her father.

Although she lived in a house that was anything but normal.

“Just a hunch I have,” Jessie smiled. “Even before last night. I doubt that he will get anywhere other than to friendship land with Mariah…”

“What do you know?” Jaime asked because she knew like her stepmother to be, Jessica tended to have strong hunched about events, and people. Jessica might look like a mix between her biological father, and her mother but definitely was her mother in terms of her abilities. She tended to form opinions fast on people and see more than you should.

“Why would I tell you when you will use it to further your useless crush on River,” Jessie smiled as they stepped onto the bus once it arrived. “And plus, I really do not know anything. Just a hunch I am playing with…”

“Or something that comes from your special brand of seeing the future?” Jaime muttered as the one thing she did miss by not being special was the ability that the others got from seeing things differently and having instincts that she just did not have, and it was not because she was fourteen, but it was because she was normal.

“Maybe a little, but really, it’s a sense I get that is all” Jessie murmured. “And especially now that Mariah’s father has died, you have got to be wondering if they will stick around at all?”

“What?” Jaime asked shocked. “Mariah and Alex’s father died?”

“Yes,” Jessie nodded. “I heard it at the station this morning. It is all over the place as they investigate the crash,” she sighed as she hated the idea of there were other teenagers who would now know what it was like to have a parent that had died. She might have had hers die before she was even born, and she had ten years of Kyle as her father figure but still it hurt to know she did not have a father. Same with Jaime, who did not have her birth mother in her life because she had died when she was just barely four years old.

Now two more kids would be coming into the club.

“That sucks,” Jaime thought as they got off at the stop, in front of the house they shared with their parents. “It was obvious that Lex did not know when I was talking to him?”

“Lex?” Jessie asked.

“I guess his birth name was Alex, but he was named for someone who died, and so he goes by Lex” Jaime muttered.

“Death sucks,” Jessie sighed as her eyebrows did raise at the name Alex because she like Jaime knew there had been an Alex in their parent’s past. One that they rarely discussed. “Which is why I am going nowhere near it when I get older…”

“Well, it’s sometime unavoidable,” Jaime commented as they walked into the house where she would have lunch, and before she went off to school as Jess threw herself into her studies before she went back to work at the Department because they needed more staff, and they paid, and so she was taking the offer and helping out.

“Yeah, I know” Jessie commented.

*

A few hours later,

Sometimes death was unavoidable but Mariah sure as hell wanted it to avoid her because her mind was too overwhelmed with grief over the sudden loss of her father as she sat on the exam table and took in the room that she was sitting in. Everything had gone smoothly, or so she was assuming as they were finishing it up because that was the vibe she was picking up. She was alone in the room as her mother was sitting outside the exam room, waiting for her, but Mariah had not wanted her mother in the room because she did not need to see the burden on her mother’s face over the fact they had not known this could be possible, and the fear on her face was also unmistakeable as Liz had spent the last few hours with her son, and then visitor’s hours for the afternoon was cut off, and now Mariah was undergoing testing to see if she could avoid her father’s fate, or if she was like her mother, and did not have a deadly heart condition.

That had claimed her father and could still claim her and her brother if they shared the same gene as their father.

For years she had been told she was like her mother, so she was hoping that would hold true today. Even though if she was, then she would fear for her little brother, because he was like their father in every way that she was like their mother. But that did not mean her brother would have the same condition she had heard her mother being told. Everyone was different, but it did appear the condition was genetic.

So, she waited to be told whether she had the same condition and soon the exam was officially over, and now they were taking blood. She hated having blood drawn. She had not had it done in several years, and it did not bring fond memories “Why do this, I thought it was only my heart they wanted to check?” she asked of the nurse who was taking the blood because the doctors had moved onto other patients. And it was only the two of them in the room.

“We need to make sure there is nothing else, and you never what might take place in the future” said the nurse and walked out of the room after putting the label on the vial. And a moment later, her mother came in. “Mom,” Mariah said with some relief even though she had asked for her mother to wait outside “Why did they need my blood?” she asked. “I mean, it was my heart right, that they wanted to check?” she asked as she could not understand why they would have wanted her blood. “Right?”

“Probably trying to make sure everything is healthy,” Liz said as was surprised by the development, but she took it in stride. “Are you okay to go home?”

“If we have to?” Mariah asked as she was not too sure she wanted to see home.

Understanding of her daughter’s reluctance to return to their home. She too was not that anxious to return to their home that would be lonely without those she loved. So, she was fine with delaying it some more, as she took her daughter’s hand for support. “Why do we not take our time before we do go home. Why do we not go over to Grandma and Grandpa’s place for dinner” Liz asked as the establishment that had tied her parent’s hands and prevented them from rushing over to the hospital or to Maria’s home because they were short staffed, and they had no one to fill in for them but she had talked with them, and she had told them not to come when they had the ability because she had not wanted to see anyone. And now she did want to see them. After all, she did feel guilty because she had not spent that much time with them since they had relocated back to Roswell.

You stayed away because of one person she thought. She knew she had stayed away from the Crashdown because of the fear of running in Max had been overwhelming even if she now knew he did not live-in town anymore, still, she had largely kept away. So, this was probably necessary.

“Can we?” Mariah asked. “I want to see Grandpa and Grandma,” she sighed. People she knew in this town, and she had not seen them much since they had come to Roswell, because everything had been so busy and now this had happened, and it beat going home to a house that quiet, and alone, and did not have her father or Lex in it.

“Then how about we do it,” Liz smiled as he wanted to give her daughter this and plus, she was not that anxious to return to their house as well because the memories it would hold, and she wanted to delay it as much as possible. “Why do you not get changed, and I’ll call the restaurant and tell them we are headed over there…”

“Thank you, Mom,” Mariah said softly as she knew she did not fully understand how all this was for her mother. She had been thinking about herself. She hated missing someone she had gotten used to having in her life “I miss Dad already…”

“I know you do honey, and so do I” Liz sighed as she hugged her daughter one more time as she glanced into the eyes that brought flashes of so much happiness. And of someone who had rescued her from the depths of despair, when she felt that she had nothing left even though she had been the one to leave the person who had loved her, worshipped her, and wanted to be there for her. Instead of accepting that life that was all laid out for her, she had walked away from that life, and once she did, she had come to realize that the world out there was cold, and different and not that appetizing for someone totally on her own. And then Brady had come into her life and made it all the better, and now he was gone from this world once more, and she was alone, and she had to figure out how to handle her life without him in it. And what was more important. She needed to figure out how to make it work for their daughter, and their son.

Because Brady was gone. And he was not coming back. When she knew they had not had many nights alone without each other since they got married, despite her sometimes-working nights, and now she was facing a life of being alone. I hate being alone. But still, she smiled when she saw Brady in her daughter’s eyes. As she turned, and headed out of the room, and waited for her daughter by checking with a doctor.

“When will you have the results?” she asked of her daughter’s exam.

“We should know soon, but the lead cardiologist is on vacation until after the 1st, and his replacement is off today. So, it might take a few days, because have a lot piled up, but we understand the significance of your daughter’s testing, and we will contact you when we do run it past him” the nurse said as she recognized the concern on mother’s face.

“Thank you,” Liz murmured as she looked around the at the walls of the hospital that would be her new home come the New Year. And it was a home she had not expected to be making, and now she was going to have to as she spotted Mariah coming out of the exam room, having changed back into her black sweatshirt, and she knew this was her new reality as she took her daughter’s hand and they walked out of the hospital.

And only moments later, a passing nurse commented to the nurse that Liz had just talked to. “You know you that you did not mention the difference in her daughter’s blood type?” the other one said.

“They were already dealing too much,” said Intern Jackson.

“She’s going to need to know that her daughter does not match either her or most importantly her father and brother,” said the other nurse. “And that she has a rare RH factor associated with her blood. So, if she does have an issue?”

“I know,” sighed Nurse Jackson as she knew all this. But she had not felt like she could be hitting a grieving widow with the fact that her daughter might have a paternity issue. She was not an expert, but it was going to be pretty easy to tell that Mariah Anthony had not inherited her father’s heart condition. She knew Elizabeth Anthony would love to hear that, but she would not like to know that it was unlikely Mariah as Brady Anthony’s biological daughter. While her brother, Alex “Lex” Anthony did match his father in every respect, with his own heart test pending, but Mariah did not, and did not match her mother either…

Which meant she was unlikely not going to be sick pending a look at the ultrasound, but it meant so much more…

“We have scheduled Alex for his check tomorrow” came the nurse. “Alex Anthony does match his father’s blood type, which makes it more problematic, and it might mean he has the same condition.”

“I will let his mother know,” Nurse Jackson muttered as she knew the newest issue was not going to be something Liz wanted to know.

*

While Liz and Mariah were oblivious to the newest addition to their drama, as they drove across town to the Crashdown while outside of town. River had borrowed the family car and driven into town because he was having dinner with his grandparents without his father because he had not wanted to be in the same house as his father. Even though for once, his father was not wallowing in self pity, but he was having company. Company that River would probably approve of because it was his aunt, Isabel but River was annoyed with his father and did not want to be in the same house with the man.

Even though he loved his aunt. “You laid a lot on him, as if he had not already gotten an eye full in these last twenty-four hours” Isabel muttered as she sat at the table with her brother, and they shared a drink before having dinner. Which was going to be pizza that Isabel had brought with her, that she had picked up from in town. Max had not wanted to go back into town, but because the furnace and water heater was still on the fritz, and someone could not come out and deal with it until tomorrow, their planned dinner was something that Isabel could run and pick up and bring that did not involve heating or cooking which Max was bad at. Which had led to arguments between father and son over time. Although anything was liable to get them fighting Max muttered. Isabel had only decided to come out and seek her brother’s company at the last minute because Kyle was taking the girls out to dinner before Jessie had to the Sheriff’s department for some additional hours.

Where she would be getting paid this time. She saw how the office was overwhelmed due to incident in town, and how they wanted answers, so she offered her time. Even if the cause of the crash was because of Brady’s health and was unintended and yet it had caused a big mess. So, the office was being slammed so Jessie had offered her time, and her grandfather had accepted. So, Kyle was dropping her off after dinner at the Crashdown with the girls.

The three of them had wanted to see what kind of mess Max would be on in this night, so they picked a better alternative, but Isabel had pleasantly surprised by the condition of her brother upon her arrival. It could have been worse she thought to herself. Because she had expected a more coherent mess because that had his prior way he had dealt with his bad days. And his bad days had been pretty often.

Max had told his sister about his confrontation with his son. A battle that had been brewing for months, and maybe even years, and had it finally taken place and Isabel had not been surprised to hear it. “I never wanted this for him?”

“Well, it the life you gave him,” Isabel thought of the life her brother had been dealt either by choice or by circumstance. And it was sixteen years later, and Max could not completely blame the fate life gave him when he chose to make this his life, and to subject himself and his son to the coldness that could not help but exist. “When you effectively blamed him for Liz leaving you.”

“I did not blame him for Liz,” Max thought and stopped himself. Maybe I did he allowed himself. He had not meant to. But it was lot of his life. The one he gave when he made it seem like no one was important to him than memories of the past.

“You know you did, even if you probably did not intend to” Isabel muttered. “It was a rotten way for you and Liz to end. It was a hell of a situation. But you were right to keep River Max,” she thought. “Knowing what we know of our own questions about being adopted. And given that we are better informed about what can do, and what it all means. I would not even want to think of what it would mean to have him out there or with a family that would not have known any better,” she sighed. “We both know from our own experiences how that goes…” she sighed as they both knew what it meant to grow up in a family and have your parents unaware of just how unique you were. It had been a burden because of the need hide who they truly were because they had not known how their parents would have reacted? Sure, even to this date, there was always an element of hiding she thought. Because their kids still had to hide from the general public but at least they could be who they were meant to be at home. Assuming the kids were being upfront with their parents, and she knew firsthand that that was no easy assumption to make because kids live to mislead their parents, and to hide their true selves.

No matter the age she thought. Which was the fun side of being a parent. Not so much Isabel muttered.

“I always had this naïve ability to trust Tess until it blew up in our faces,” Max sighed. “I knew what it would cost me, but I came to the conclusion that because she could never stop herself from lying, that maybe she was lying,” he thought of those nightmares he had in the days after deciding on adoption. “Or maybe she honestly did not know because who knows what a child is capable until they are grown up and influenced for good and for the bad…” he mused out loud. “None of us really know, even to this day?”

“No, we do not” Isabel agreed as she hated to give Tess the benefit of the doubt. But she had to agree with Max on this one. Maybe Tess really did not know she thought. Still Tess did a lot of harm in her time “But still you could have been more present for your son, and been a father to him, instead you blamed him for the lot in your life that you chose for yourself,” she asked “Yes, you and Liz loved each other, and you were planning a future together. But you also were with Tess, and therefore, the two of you had a son together. And Liz could not get past that, and you could not get past that you could not make Liz happy enough to forget the memories, right or wrong, that were attached to the creation of your son.”

“Liz was right to walk away,” Max muttered. “I have never blamed her…”

“No, you did not, and but you still took it out on your life and on your child,” Isabel sighed. “Even if you did not know you were. But you let it consume you, while she walked away and was able to create a new life on her own, with someone else…” she asked because it was evident to her that Liz did have that ability to move on, and find someone else, and form some kind of happiness.

“I know that” Max sighed even though he did not want to know that… Why could she not be as miserable as me? he asked himself. Did she not love me?

But love does not get you far, Max muttered to himself as he continued to stare into space before snapping back to reality. “I wish so much could have been different?”

“But it was not, and therefore you have to figure out where that leaves you now, and whether you want to be there for your son because he on the cusp of leaving you behind, and unlike the rest of us, he will not be back,” she warned because she knew her nephew and knew River was not the type to want to come back to a rotten situation. She did not blame her nephew because not many people who would want to give Max the time of day given the type of man; he had been capable of being over the years. Yet for Isabel and their parents. Still, they could not stop loving the boy Max had been once before and held hope that he would come back to them. But she knew something about family dysfunctions given that she was married to a grandson of a man who pushed his family away. And her husband and father and law almost lost their relationship because they could not see the way through it until it almost too late, but fortunately they were able to mend fences. But it had taken a near death experience for it to happen. Which Isabel hoped did not happen to her brother and nephew.

“I know,” Max sighed as he thought of his son who was in town having dinner with his grandparents. He could not help but know how stubborn his son was, and the chance was going to be unlikely if he allowed his son to leave town without mending fences. River would not be back unless there was something for him to come back to…

“He’s a good boy Max,” Isabel sighed as she thought of her nephew. “He’s not his mother?”

“I know that” Max murmured.

You have certainly given the impression you have Isabel wanted to say but did not. “You should be proud of him, and how he raced into the fire yesterday” Isabel murmured. “He did not have to, and many might not have…” she thought of how her nephew had taken a chance and become a hero because of that chance.

Oh, I know that Max murmured. It takes a special breed to race into danger, and to help someone in need, opening the risk of exposure he thought. He had been that person once before, when he had stepped in and helped, and by doing so, he had saved his own dream girl.

Isabel could only smile this once because she had to know her brother was thinking of Liz. Nothing can stop him she knew. She had not been that day, when her brother had broke the top of pandora’s box, and let out into the world a massive amount of angst that would quickly engulf them and change them all…

For the good and for the bad…

“What are you going to do about your son?” Isabel asked as she was trying to get him off thinking of his former girlfriend as if that was ever a possibility as Max’s thoughts were in space, and she spotted her phone, and a text that Kyle and the girls were having a good time at the Crashdown.

“Max?” Isabel asked.

“What?” Max asked as he came back to reality.

“You and River?” Isabel asked.

“I do not know Isabel,” Max murmured as he thought of the complexities that existed between him and his son “I want to try, but it is hard?”

“Life is always hard,” Isabel muttered. You only have eighteen months she thought before River disappears “But trying is half the battle…” she sighed as she felt the coldness of the house as she could not understand why her brother did not just deal with the heater on his own. We are equipped with these powers for a reason she thought. My brother is not Kyle who has to hire someone if it was too complicated for Isabel to manage on her own. “Are you sure you do not want to come and spend the night at our place tonight,” she asked. “How can you last in this house?”

“I want the cold,” Max muttered because he knew that was the status of his heart all these years, and his personality. It fit the situation that was on hand.

“Naturally,” Isabel smiled. “But it is good to feel the warmth too,” she asked. “It’s an iceberg in here?”

“It feels just right,” Max muttered as Isabel could only shake her head and wish that life would be a little easier for her brother. She had a chance to find love again after heartbreak. Even though she would admit that she and Jesse had been a recipe for disaster I do not let Jessica know that she thought although she knew her daughter knew a little too much of her parent’s marriage, but she had kept some of it from her.

It would be a weight she did not want for her daughter. Especially seeing how her brother and nephew were dealing with the ghosts in this house.

One living, and one dead.

She felt for her brother and prayed for the situation to get better.

*

While his fiancé was trying to provide comfort to her brother, ever the hopeless cause as far as Kyle was concerned. Kyle at the same was treating his girls to dinner at the Crashdown. Before Jessica had to show up at the station to do a night shift. Paying back and giving service to her community. Not simply because it was for school credit during the day. Or that she was Sheriff’s granddaughter, Jessica had simply seen that the station was being overrun by the latest calamity to hit their fraternity. Thank god the girls were not hurt more he muttered himself. Jessica was back in school tomorrow, and then exams would be upon them. And before they knew it, the holidays would be upon them, and Kyle could only feel heartache instead of holiday bells because he knew full well how it was to lose someone.

And he did not want Liz to be feeling it today, but she was.

Teri and I might have been over, but it still cut deep to lose her Kyle thought. And he hated how quick it had been. Once detected, it had been downhill from there, and before he knew it was a single father to a grieving four-year-old. After all he was just getting used to his marriage being over and being the cause of it.

Even though Teri had not blamed him because she had entered the marriage knowing Kyle had been at one time smitten with Isabel, but Isabel despite the loss of her husband had not given him the time, and so he had fallen for someone he had met at Cow Patties, a fellow customer, and they had married, and were rewarded quickly by the birth of their child, but then their marriage quickly fell apart, and they had separated, and he got used to being a weekend father to his daughter although he would see Jaime one night a week. It was something his mother had not done with him. He had not wanted to see history repeated with his daughter.

And then the diagnosis came and suddenly he was picking up the pieces and having to be the support system for his estranged wife, and his daughter.

Before they knew it, she was gone, and he was the only parent Jaime had.

Only things for him and Isabel to turn, and suddenly they were a team and raising their daughters together, and wedding was in the offering whenever we got get a chance to plan, he thought. When you have been together a decade, the rush is not there he thought.

But he loved the family they had formed together, as he knew there was always happiness at the end of the rainbow. You just have to find it and make peace with it. As Jaime got up from the table, “I am going to check the dessert chart” she said, as he spotted Jessica making a phone call on her cellphone. Meanwhile Kyle watched his daughter, already fourteen he thought. A freshman in high school something he was in denial about the fact his daughter was already in high school. It would mean before they knew it, she would be out of the house.

And then Kyle watched as the door and Liz and Mariah walked into the restaurant…

Loss sucks Kyle thought as he smiled, and Liz smiled because they both knew what it meant to have a friend when it counted.

But Mariah was still too grief stricken as Jeff Parker saw his daughter and granddaughter walk into the restaurant and come running, and Kyle knew his friend needed every ounce of the support her parents could give her.

“Who was Mariah’s mother to you Dad?” Jaime Valenti asked as she walked back and saw the familiarity between Lex’s mother and her father. And she remembered how Lex’s mother had responded to her name back in that hospital room.

“We are old friends” was all Kyle said as his daughter brought the ice cream sundae back to the table and sat down and started to eat it slowly. As he spotted Jessica still on the phone. Before long they would have to leave for the station, and then it was home for Jaime to start studying for her own exams.

“Is it that all?” Jaime asked.

“Yes,” Kyle murmured.

Because he was aware that he had always been chump change compared to one who had gotten away from his former girlfriend.

Max.

And as Liz and her daughter were passing by them. Kyle swore that he could see a sliver of Max in Mariah’s eyes. Oh boy he muttered as he saw the teenager fall into her grandmother arms as Nancy also saw the new arrivals and quickly approached and they just as quickly moved away from the gawking crowd into the back room.

[RoswellFan68]

It looks like Max is the mystery father.