Ordinary Moment M/L AU TEEN [COMPLETE]

Finished stories set in an alternate universe to that introduced in the show, or which alter events from the show significantly, but which include the Roswell characters. Aliens play a role in these fics. All complete stories on the main AU with Aliens board will eventually be moved here.

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SnowWhite22
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Ordinary Moment M/L AU TEEN [COMPLETE]

Post by SnowWhite22 »

HI guys!
I know, I disappeared after I finished the story. But I wanted to repost it so I could get the creative joices flowing, so to speak. Please feel free to leave feedback and any critiques you would like! In fact, I implore you, PLEASE! Leave feedback! Thanks guys!

Snow White


Ordinary Moment

M/L fic
AU

Rating: YTEEN-TEEN

Summary: This is an alternate universe fic, although the aliens are still aliens. The basic storyline is that Liz is in college at Stanford and about to meet a mysterious man who she will never forget.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Roswell, including these characters. The storyline however is all mine.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Cookie for all her support and for being a sounding board for me. I’d also like to thank all my faithful readers. Without your support this story never would have made it. Also, Nate, my inspiration. Wherever you are, I am always thinking of you.

Part 1

12:46 pm

Liz Parker snapped the lock on her suitcase and surveyed her Palo Alto apartment. Her third year at Stanford University behind her, she was looking forward to a summer without research papers and disapproving TA’s. The silence seemed deafening. Her roommate and best friend, Maria DeLuca, had already left for the summer. Maria was Liz’s friend and sometimes her saving grace. She was Liz’s exact opposite, bubbly when Liz was serious, dramatic when Liz was level headed. But most of all, Maria was the reason Liz had come up to Northern California. Having been friends for years, when Maria had decided after high school to move up to Northern California to work in San Francisco, Liz had forgone her first year at a junior college and decided to jump right into her education at Stanford. Now a junior and on the dean’s list with Stanford’s biology department, Liz never regretted moving out of their hometown of Covina, California. Now the apartment they shared seemed massive. Liz had a whole day before her flight to Los Angeles. Liz was anxious to see her parents again for a whole summer but she knew she would miss the laid back Northern California atmosphere.

Liz tucked a long strand of her dark hair behind her ear and walked from room to room. She and Maria had already picked out a new complex to move into at the end of the summer and it was up to Liz to shut down their apartment. Her boxes packed, her bed stripped, Liz had nothing to do but wait until her flight the next nite. Spending the nite alone didn’t appeal to her at all. Her fingers itched to pick up the phone and call Maria to make sure she got into Covina okay, but Maria had only been gone a few hours. Liz switched on the television and channel surfed for a few seconds before switching it off again. Liz screwed up her face and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. “I gotta get out of here.” She muttered as she grabbed her purse and headed for the door.

Liz headed downtown into the sunshine. She liked the area of Palo Alto well enough but wondered when it was going to feel like home. She never felt settled here, as if she was just in transition until something bigger and better came along. She was looking forward to the summer to see if maybe this time she felt at home in Covina. But even when she was growing up, she had always known that she wouldn’t settle in Covina. It was a place to live, not a place she felt she belonged.

Liz settled into a booth at the local Starbuck’s and opened her magazine. Even though the quarter was over, Liz liked to keep up with all developments in biology. She was going over the latest scientific journal when she spotted someone in the booth next to her talking loudly on a cell phone. Stirring her coffee slowly, she couldn’t help but overhear the conversation.

“No, Max, I understand. Yeah, I guess. Just get here when you get here. I’m mainly packed up anyway. Just a few things left and I can do that tomorrow. We are going out tonite. No way you are coming into town and we not go out.” The girl on the phone pulled out a compact and freshened her lip gloss. “Uh-huh. Love you too. Bye.”

“Hi Isabel.” Liz said when she hung up the phone. Liz had seen Isabel Evans around her apartment complex all year but had yet to have a real conversation with her. Mainly it had been short exchanges in the laundry room or when passing each other on campus. Liz admired the way Isabel carried herself, always so confident and untouchable. Isabel had been nice enough when they had spoken, but Liz wondered what it would be like to really get to know her. Isabel seemed to stay by herself a lot as if she had some knowledge about things that wouldn’t permit her to socialize on an average level with the other college kids.

Isabel turned to study Liz. “Oh, hi Liz.”

“Was that your boyfriend on the phone?” Liz asked as she sipped her coffee.

Isabel glanced at her phone and then back at Liz. “You were listening to me?”

“No! I mean, I couldn’t help but overhear...” Liz tried to explain.

Isabel waved her hand. “I’m just kidding.”

“Oh.” Liz gave a small smile. “So it was your boyfriend?”

“No.” Isabel gave an exasperated sigh and slipped her phone into her bag. Sliding into Liz’s booth she shook a sugar packet into her own coffee. “It was my brother. He was supposed to come into town yesterday to help me finish packing but his flight was delayed. He’ll be here later this afternoon. I have to go pick him up at the airport in a few minutes.”

“Oh.” Liz shut her journal and studied the girl beside her. Isabel was beautiful, statuesque. Liz felt unwashed and greasy next to her. She had been packing all day and didn’t think about cleaning up before coming out. Now she wished she had taken a shower before leaving her house. Liz cleared her throat. “Are you leaving tomorrow?”

“Yes.” Isabel took a long sip of her coffee.

“Where are you from?” Liz asked politely.

“New Mexico. Roswell.” Isabel told her.

“Roswell? Isn’t that where they had all those alien sightings and stuff?” Liz asked.

“What do you know about those?” Isabel raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, nothing really. It’s just...” Liz sat a little straighter in the booth. “One of my professors in the biology department is really into that stuff and I helped him do some research last year on extra-terrestrial phenomena. I got extra credit for it.”

Isabel smiled. “It’s a lot of crap, really. I’ve lived there for as long as I can remember and there’s no aliens running around. It’s just for the tourists.”

“Oh.” Liz smiled.

Isabel glanced at her watch and leaned back into the booth. “So where’s your little friend? You know, the blond one I always see you with.”

“Maria? She left for home already. I don’t leave until late tomorrow nite. So I’m just kinda killing time.” Liz said.

“So you are staying by yourself?” Isabel asked.

“For tonite, yeah.”

Isabel nodded. She glanced at her watch again and pulled herself out of the booth. “Well, I was going to take Max into San Francisco tonite.” She paused for a minute as if considering something. “If you have nothing to do tonite, you can come out with us. I’m just going to take him to the touristy stuff, but you can come along, if you want.” Isabel sounded unsure of herself.

Liz thought about it for a second. The biggest thing she had on her plan for the nite was a few DVD’s and some junk food. Spending the nite by herself didn’t really appeal to her. Liz nodded and smiled. “I think I would like that. Thanks.”

“Okay.” Isabel scribbled out a number on a piece of paper. “Here’s my apartment number. Come by around 8. See ya.”

“Yeah, see ya.” Liz tucked the paper into her pocket and went back to her coffee.




Part 2

6:19 pm

“So, we’re all packed up and as soon as the manager checks me out, we are all done with this place.” Liz said into her cell phone. She was pacing around and discarding outfits.

“Sweet. Girl, you have to get back here soon. I forgot how dead it was around here. I’ve only been home a few hours and I’m already going crazy.” Maria sounded exasperated.

Liz grinned. “Tomorrow nite.”

“So what are you going to do tonite?’ Maria asked.

“OH.” Liz felt in her back pocket for the slip of paper that had Isabel’s apartment number on it. “I..uh....ran into Isabel and she invited me out.”

“What? No way.” Maria’s voice grew. “Isabel? That girl who barely said two words to ANYBODY this whole year? You are going out with her? Wait a minute! YOU are going out?”

“Hey.” Liz leaned back against a wall. “I’m not totally socially hopeless.”

“I’ve been trying to get you to come out for months. All you do is stick your nose in a book.” Maria pointed out.

“Yeah, well..” Liz shrugged. “I just don’t feel like staying in tonite. I just feel like...I don’t know. Like inspired or something.”

“Well, live it up girlfriend. Let me know what the ice queen is like. Oohh...let me know what she wears. I would die for her clothes. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Maria was laughing when she hung up.

7:53pm

Liz took one last glance at herself in the mirror before heading out the door. Walking across the complex, she felt goose-bumps crawling over her back. Liz shook off the feeling and smoothed a hand over her hair. “Relax.” She scolded herself. The feeling intensified as she got closer. Liz tried to laugh it off but it just grew. Something was waiting for her.

Liz could hear laughter when she came up to the door. The radio was playing muffled behind the door and Liz could hear conversation. She knocked loudly and waited.

Isabel opened the door with a flushed face and a bright smile. Liz smiled in return. She had never seen Isabel look so relaxed. Almost as soon as Isabel realized that Liz was standing there her smile dropped a few degrees. Isabel angled her head. “Oh, I’m glad you could come.” she said coolly.

“Thanks.” Liz said as she stepped inside. Looking around she noticed the bare walls. “Looks like my place.”

“Yeah, well, I’m moving home. I’ve been here for four years and I want to get back to New Mexico. I’m going to finish up at Las Cruces University.” Isabel explained. “It’s not, you know, STANFORD, but it’s home.”

Liz nodded. “Must be nice.”

Isabel patted her hair with a careless hand and looked at her watch. “So, we were just waiting for my brother to get back from the store and then we were going to hit the road, okay?”

“We?” Liz started to ask when a tall man with shoulder length hair came out of the bathroom.

“Is he back yet or what?” He asked.

“Michael.” Isabel looked pointedly at Liz. “Liz, this is Michael, a friend from home.”

“Oh, hey, nice to meet you.” Liz offered her hand.

Michael looked her up and down and then looked back at Isabel. “What’s she doing here?”

Liz was taken aback by his tone. The look he was giving her made her uncomfortable. Isabel caught his eye and frowned. “Excuse him, Liz. Michael never learned his manners. She’s coming with us. I invited her.”

Michael looked confused for a second and didn’t say anything. The look he and Isabel shared seemed to say more than Liz wanted to know. Liz started to wonder if she had made a mistake. “Look, I’m just going to...”

“Hey, I finally found a store.” The door opened behind Liz and she turned to see who had come in behind her. Then the world stopped.

Liz locked eyes with a tall man with amber eyes. They were wide and full, looking into hers as if they had been doing so for years. She took a step forward involuntarily. She couldn’t break off that intense stare. It was like she was stuck in time, rooted in that one spot. “This is it.” Her mind seemed to say. “This is what you were waiting for. This one moment.”

“Hi.” He said it so softly she wondered if she had actually heard it or if it was just in her imagination.

Liz let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding in. It burned in her throat until she was able to speak. She struggled. “Hi.”

Isabel came up behind Liz and put her hand on her shoulder. “Liz, this is my twin brother Max.”

“Max.” Liz could feel herself speaking but didn’t know what she was saying. She shook her head and tried to regain some sense. “Hi. Nice to meet you.”

With that, his gaze dropped to the ground. “You too.”

Liz pried her eyes off Max and turned back to Isabel. “So where are we headed?” She watched Max out of the corner of her eye go into the kitchen and put down a grocery bag. His body was lean and he carried himself strong. He looked over his shoulder at her and she averted her eyes. He seemed to be studying her. But unlike when Michael had stared at her, his stare gave her a warm jolt, like when a small charge goes through your body. It warmed her belly and Liz had to take a deep breath. “Um, Isabel, where’s your bathroom?”

Once alone, Liz tried to regain some control. It was like the second Max had walked in the door, everything Liz had been questioning was suddenly answered. There was something about him that she couldn’t deny. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she was going to find out.

8:04 pm

“So what was that about?” Michael demanded when Liz had left the room.

Max tried to shrug. “What do you mean? I just got here.”

“Right. You two were staring at each other. You think I didn’t see that?” Michael nodded towards the door.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Max shrugged again and turned his back on Michael. He didn’t have an answer for Michael’s questions. All he knew was that the girl he had just met was breathtaking. Her eyes seemed familiar to him, like out of a dream. He hadn’t been able to stop looking at her. He struggled to keep a straight face and turned to his sister. “Who is she?”

“Just a girl from down the hall. She was all alone tonite so I invited her out.” Isabel said.

“Nice of you to let us know.” Michael muttered.

Isabel whirled on him. “What’s the big deal, Michael? She’s just a girl I know.”

“What do you know about her?” Max asked.

Isabel shrugged. “She’s a biology student here. She’s quiet. Doesn’t go out much. She’s nice enough. Look, she’s just a girl, okay? Relax.”

“You’ve never invited anyone out with us before.” Michael said.

“You’ve never been here before.” Isabel pointed out. “Look, you want me to tell her to leave? Would that make you relax?”

“No!” Max stopped her. He glanced at Michael. “We’re just being paranoid. It’ll be fine. Anyways, we’re leaving tomorrow. It won’t matter. We just have tonite.”

TBC


Part 3

8:39 pm

Liz shifted uncomfortably in the back seat of Isabel’s car and tried to readjust her legs. Max sat in the back with her trying to keep as far to his side as possible, which was difficult in the compact car. He kept his eyes out the window instead of on her, which was where he wanted to look. Her hair was dark and shiny and framed her face to give her the look of an angel. Her eyes, dark like her hair, seemed to study everything, analyze them, size them up. He doubted she missed anything. She was biting on her bottom lip and every so often she would steal a glance at him. Her voice was low and soft when she apologized for brushing against him. Max focused out the window and realized he hadn’t even noticed they had crossed over into San Francisco.

Liz’s body seemed to be humming. All of her senses were heightened. As the bright lights passed by them, Liz wondered if she would ever feel the same after meeting a stranger again. Would she always search for this feeling that seemed to be churning through her blood? Or would she be able to go about life as if she had never met Max Evans? “Don’t be ridiculous.” She murmured to herself. “He’s just a guy. A regular guy.”

“What?” Max asked.

“Oh.” Liz smiled as she looked over at him. “Nothing.”

“Do you like Stanford?” Max asked. They had said very little to each other since they left the apartment and Max needed to break the silence. Isabel and Michael were arguing over where to go first in the front seat and not really paying attention to the silence in the back.

“I like my classes, if that’s what you mean.” Liz said.

Max nodded. He stretched an arm over the back of the seat and turned to look at her. “But not the school?”

“No, its okay. It’s just not...home, you know?” Liz shrugged.

Max seemed to get a faraway look on his face when he nodded. “I know what you mean.”

“Have you always lived in Roswell?” Liz asked. The question made Michael turn in the front seat.

Max looked at Michael quickly and then turned back to Liz. “As long as I can remember.” Max said quickly. Michael turned back around and looked out the window.

Liz couldn’t miss the look that was shared between the two. Isabel was quiet now, too. Liz felt awkward and out of place again. She cleared her throat. “I’m from Southern California. You know, LA area.”

“LA? Really? I’ve always wanted to go there.” Max said.

“You’ve never been to LA?” Liz asked.

“I’ve never been anywhere. But here.” Max shrugged.

“You should see it.” Liz said. “If you ever get there, I’ll show you around.”

“Really?” Max had a half smile on his face.

Liz looked down at her hands. “I just mean, it’s hard to believe. You just have to see it for yourself.”

“Maybe one day I will.” Max said.

Liz looked back at him and found herself smiling. She had never really been able to flirt with guys before. She had always been determined to achieve her goals and hadn’t let relationships get in the way. Her one serious relationship, a football player in high school named Kyle Valenti, had turned into more of a platonic friendship before she left for Stanford. Now she and Kyle were best friends. Since living in Palo Alto, Liz hadn’t gone out with many guys. But looking at Max as the city lights blurred behind his profile, Liz wondered what it would be like to have him as a boyfriend. Would he always smile at her like that, so that she could feel him in her fingers? They had just met, but she could almost picture what they would be like together. Images of dancing in pool halls and ice skating in misty snow played in her mind. “Easy there, girl.” Her mind screamed. “You don’t even know him.” But her heart reached out and Liz could feel herself relaxing around him.

“This jackass is driving way too slow.” Isabel muttered as she cut off the driver next to her. Liz was pitched across the backseat and into Max. Max’s arms went around her to anchor her as Isabel swerved the car. Liz could feel his skin through the sweater he was wearing and her fingers itched to grab a hold and not let go. He smelled like soap. When the car was steady again, Liz waited for Max to let go. Instead, his fingers played with the ends of her hair. She looked up into his eyes and smiled. Settling against him, Liz watched the busy city streets go by.

8:51 pm

Liz had been to San Francisco before but it was always fun to see it through the eyes of a newcomer. Max seemed to take in everything at once. They walked along Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39. They ordered clam chowder bowls from a street vendor and sat along the water, eating and watching the sea gulls dip in the cool night air. It was May, but the air was chilly and thick with fog from the water. Michael and Isabel were shopping in a poster shop on the Pier and left Max and Liz alone to take in the sights. Liz leaned back against the bench and sighed. The Pier seemed alive with the music from the street performers and the dull hum of tourists walking by.

“I always liked it here.” Liz said suddenly. “When I get stressed with school or something, I sometimes come into the city and just sit and watch the people go by.”

“What do you see?” Max asked.

Liz shrugged. “Life, I guess. Common people, events. But for one ordinary moment they are in my life and I am in theirs. Then they are gone again and on to something else.”

Max nodded and ran the ends of her hair through her fingers. “Do you think you are noticed by them? That they will remember you when you are gone?”

Liz turned to look at him. The summer sun was dipping lower in the sky and over the water. “I don’t know. I suppose that depends on what they think when they see me. Or if they even do.”

“I don’t know how anyone could come into your life and not be touched by you.” Max said.

Liz’s heart thudded hard at his tone. He looked so sad for a moment. Then his eyes met hers and they cleared. She took his hand into hers and held it in her lap. “Thank you.” She whispered.

TBC
Last edited by SnowWhite22 on Tue Oct 28, 2003 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Dreamers aren't hopeless romantics. They are romantics full of hope.

My fics:
Say Nothing
Moment to Breathe (Sequel to Ordinary Moment)
Ordinary Moment
http://www.roswellfanfic.com/viewtopic.php?t=3895
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SnowWhite22
Enthusiastic Roswellian
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2002 10:42 am
Location: So Cal

Parts 4-6

Post by SnowWhite22 »

Part 4

9:25 pm

“Do you know where they could have gone?” Liz asked Max as they strolled along the pier. The sun had now set and the sky was a brilliant indigo color.

Max shrugged. “You know this place better than I do.”

“It’s your sister.” She pointed out.

Max flashed a quick grin and Liz felt her heart leap up into her throat. “They could be anywhere.” He leaned against a large post and looked out over the water. “So this is the ocean?”

“No.” Liz pulled a strand of hair out of her eyes and caught Max’s attention. “This is the bay. The ocean, the real ocean, is down the coast a bit more.”

Max brushed her hair out of her face before he could stop himself. “I’ve never seen the ocean.”

Liz caught his hand as it brushed her cheek and held it there. His fingertips were cold against her skin. “I’ll take you there.”

Max started to say something when a vendor in ratty clothes wheeled a wooden wheelbarrow beside them. “Buy a rose for your pretty lady, man.” The old man wheezed.

Max looked at Liz and started to fish out his wallet.

“You don’t have to do that.” Liz said.

“When your man buys you a rose you don’t complain, lady.” The man said. His skin was thin and spotted and the clothes he had on were ragged. He wore a holey T-shirt that read “I escaped from Alcatraz” and he wasn’t wearing any shoes.

“Can I get that white bud there?” Max asked.

“Sure.” The man handed over the flower and tucked the bills into his back pocket. “You’re a lucky man, a lucky man. Any man with a lady pretty like this one has everything in the world.”

Liz bit her lip and smiled. “We’re not together. We just met tonite.”

“You’re not?” The bum rocked back on his heels and whistled through the space in between his front teeth. “Well, you should be. What’s wrong with you, man?”

Max shrugged and handed Liz the flower.

“You need to ask this girl out to dinner. Take her out to a nice place and buy her flowers.” The bum winked.

“I would. I want to.” Max said softly. “But I’m leaving tomorrow.”

Liz heard his words echo in her head and she looked out over the water. He was leaving tomorrow. She had only known him for an hour or so. The words now clung in the air. Hearing them out loud had broken that spell. She had been indulging in some fantasy. She felt her stomach harden and she ran the tips of the bud through her fingers. Bringing it to her nose, she brushed the petals against her face and waited.

“That’s a shame. A flaming shame. Better enjoy tonite.” The bum wheeled his cart down the pier, shaking his head and muttering to himself. “Can’t find love like that anymore. A real live shame.”

Liz forced a smile on her face. “Thanks for the flower.” She straightened her shoulders. “Should we go find Isabel and Michael?”

“In a minute.” Max was frustrated with the look in Liz’s eye. It was like she had shut him off. He knew that it was crazy, that everything he felt when he looked at her was impossible. But he had never known was it was like to connect with someone the way he did with this stranger. It was like she was burned into his heart and he had just been waiting to meet her. The past hour he had been able to forget who he truly was. He had been able to be real for a minute and for the first time he had felt like he belonged on this crazy planet. For the first time he felt there was reason he was here. And not just for his safety and those of his people, but because he belonged here. “It’s idiotic.” he muttered to himself as he walked away from her. “This is crazy.”

Liz started to follow him. “What is?”

“This!” He threw his hands up in the air. “You.”

“I’m crazy?”

“No! I mean...” Max was at a loss for words. “I don’t know what I mean.”

“I do.” Liz said the words before she knew they were in her head. “It is crazy.”

Max stared at her for a second. “I just met you.”

“I know.”

“I’m leaving tomorrow. I’m going home.”

“So am I.”

“I’m probably never coming back to this place.” Max looked around him.

“Probably not.” Liz took a step closer to him.

“There’s things about me that you don’t know. You can’t know.” Max put his hands in his pockets. Otherwise, he was going to hold onto this stranger and not let go.

“But I want to.” Liz said softly.

“Things like this don’t happen to me.” Max said. “They can’t.”

Liz nodded and kept her eyes on his. “But it did.”

Before either one could speak again they were holding on to each other. Max dipped his head low and brushed his lips over hers. Liz held onto him, timidly at first, then hard and strong. His kiss charged through her and she clung to him like a anchor in a storm. The kiss deepened and Liz lost all her senses. She was flying through a night sky, she was swirling through space. She could see herself on the pier with the sun kissing the water. She saw Max holding a baby. She didn’t know what was happening to her. All she knew was she was never going to be the same. Max broke off the kiss quickly and they stared at each other, breathing heavily as they held onto each others arms.

Liz swallowed hard and kept her eyes on Max. “What...was...that?”

Max let go of her so quickly Liz had to struggle to regain her feet. He turned his back on her and gripped the handrail. “I’m sorry.” Max finally said. His voice sounded rough. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Max...”

“No.” He cut her off. “I’m sorry. Please don’t tell Isabel or Michael. Please.”

“But why?”

Max finally turned to look at her. “I would just prefer if..” He trailed off when he looked over Liz’s shoulder. Liz turned to see what he was looking at. Michael and Isabel were standing behind her. Michael was glaring at her and Isabel was standing expressionless with her arms folded across her chest. Max swore under his breath and brushed past her, leaving Liz to look out over the water as the night stars came out.

TBC



Part 5

9:31 pm

Liz knew that she had breeched some unspoken etiquette when she had kissed Max but she had no idea what it was. The way Michael had reacted was bizarre, almost frightening. After Max had left her on the pier, Michael had stared at her as if she was the cause of every problem he had ever encountered and then stormed off after Max, leaving Isabel to take care of Liz. Isabel just sank down onto a bench and joined Liz in looking out over the water. Neither spoke.

The images Liz had experienced when she had kissed Max wouldn’t leave her. It was more than her mind’s eye at work. She was left stunned, breathless. She had plugged into something that couldn’t be turned off. The brilliance of the colors, the emotions that coursed through her when they were joined. That was it. It was like they were connected, bonded in that one moment when their bodies spoke to one another. Liz’s mind screamed for her to get a grip, to act realistic. She had just kissed a boy that she knew nothing about. That wasn’t like her. But her heart seemed to overpower her mind. And her heart was aching for more.

“What the hell is going on here?” Liz finally said.

Isabel kept her gaze on the waterline. “What do you mean?”

“What do I mean?” Liz asked. “I just kissed your brother, who I know nothing about. I don’t even know anything about you! Your friend Michael there can’t stand me for reasons I have NO idea about and Max almost had a heart attack after he kissed me.”

“Which is unlike him.” Isabel said.

“I don’t know. How could I know how he reacts after kissing people?” Liz said sarcastically.

“I mean, its unlike him to go around kissing girls. Or even getting along with them the way he is with you.” Isabel said.

Liz was somewhat mollified by that. At least she had some effect on him the way he was on her. Liz looked at Isabel and tried to size her up. She didn’t seem mad. More like she was reflective. Like she was considering some great matter.

“Isabel, Max didn’t want me to say anything about our kiss to you. Do you know why?” She asked.

Isabel nodded and gave a tiny shrug. She put a smile on her face and tried to look Liz in the eye. “I’m just protective, you know? He is my brother. Michael is too. Michael is more family than anything else.”

Liz wasn’t buying it. “There’s more than that.”

Isabel lost her smile. “What else could it be?”

“I don’t know.” Liz said. She thought of the way her body had felt when she was against Max, the way her system had come alive when they had kissed. Of the images she had seen.

“Isabel, I saw things when I kissed your brother.”

“Saw things?” Isabel laughed. “Don’t tell me you saw stars.”

“No.” Liz said slowly. “More like a galaxy. And images.”

Isabel looked at her very closely. “Like what?”

Liz suddenly felt very uncomfortable discussing it with Max’s sister. She shook her head. “Never mind. It was probably my imagination.”

Isabel kept her eyes steady on Liz. “Do you know why I invited you out tonite?”

“No.”

“When you were talking to me I felt like you were someone I could get to know.” Isabel said. “I haven’t felt like that about a person in a very long time. I have friends here and I know people, but I got a feeling about you. So whatever you want to say to me, you can.”

Liz nodded. “You too.”

“Max is my brother, and I love him. And I have never seen him act like this with anyone before. Not even his girlfriend.”

“He has a girlfriend?” Liz felt icy inside. She hadn’t even thought to ask something as simple as if he had a girlfriend. It would explain why all of them were acting so strangely. But if it was true, Liz knew it would devastate her.

“I mean, ex-girlfriend.” Isabel corrected herself. “It was a long time ago.”

“And there was a baby.” Liz said to herself.

Isabel froze. “He told you about that?”

“No.” Liz ran a hand through her hair. “I just guessed it.”

Isabel stood suddenly. “We have to get going. Lots more to see.”

“Maybe it would be better if I left.” Liz watched Isabel’s reaction carefully.

Isabel put on a brilliant smile. “Of course not. I invited you out. Plus, you probably know the city better than I do.”

“Right.”

9:33 pm

“I can’t believe I just saw that, Maxwell. I mean, what the hell were you thinking?” Michael had Max cornered by the car.

“I wasn’t thinking.” Max shot back. “Look, lay off. She’s just a girl.” Even when he said the words he could feel himself choking on them.

“You are starting to lose it!” Michael said angrily.

“I’m fine.” Max said. “Leave it alone. Where are they?”

“Isabel is finding out what she knows. Who knows what you let slip out?”

“She’s what?” Max was furious. “I didn’t give her permission to do that.”

“Good thing I did.” Michael said. “Second in command, remember?”

Max got up in his face. “Under me. I want both of you to lay off. Leave Liz alone.”

Michael was quiet for a minute. “What’s really going on here, Max? You’ve never acted like this before. You’ve known this chick for an hour.”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

“You out of all of us are the most careful around strangers. Especially after Tess. So what’s the deal?”

Max turned his back to Michael and braced his hands on the hood of the car. How could he say what he was feeling when he wasn’t even sure what it was yet? He wanted to see her. Maybe looking at her would help it become clear in his head. “She makes me...feel things, Michael. I feel like I know her. Like I was meant to know her.”

“Did you see anything during that kiss?” Michael sneered.

Max looked at him for a second before turning back around.

“Oh, man. You did. What did you see?”

“Private things.” Max said.

“None of us ever had vision when we kissed others. I thought Tess made it up.”

“So did I.” Max said.

“Remember when Isabel and I tried? We ended up laughing more than anything else.”

Max smiled. “I remember.”

“Yeah, well, I still don’t trust her.” Michael said.

“Do you trust me?” Max finally turned all the way around.

Michael shrugged. “With my life.”

“Then leave it to me.”

“Are you guys ready?” Isabel came up behind them followed by Liz.

Max cleared his throat. “You know what I want to do? Let’s go on one of those trolleys. Can’t it take us into the city?”

Isabel nodded. “Why not?”

Max held out a hand to Liz. She looked at him for a second before accepting it. “Friends?” He asked under his breath.

Liz nodded. So much more needed to be said but not right then. “Friends.”

TBC



Part 6

11:22 pm

Per Max’s request, the four caught trolley’s from Fisherman’s Wharf downtown and window shopped in Union Square. After hours the shops were all closed but the city was still lit up like a dreamland. After walking through Union Square, and running through Chinatown, by the time they caught the last trolley towards Ghirardelli Square, Liz was almost starting to feel normal again. She had even been able to laugh with the three who were obviously much closer than family. They seemed to read each other, play off each other’s actions. Liz envied their close bond. The closest thing she had to that kind of bond with was Maria and she was 300 miles away. But after the tense feeling that seemed to hum in the air after Liz and Max’s kiss, the easy change was nice. Even Michael had lightened up. Whatever he and Max had discussed had obviously worked. As they departed the trolley and walked up the hill towards Ghirardelli Square, Max turned towards Liz and offered his hand again. This time, she accepted it with no hesitations.

The wrought iron gates that marked the entrance of the famous square were open although the shops were not. “What’s in here?” Michael grumbled.

“During the day there’s a lot of shopping and restaurants, but at nite its just a pretty place to walk around.” Liz said.

Michael paused at the gates. “I gotta find a john.”

“I’ll go with you.” Isabel pointed up the street, leaving Max and Liz alone for the first time since their moment on the pier.

Liz wasn’t sure what to say. Max had been easy with her since they had left Pier 39, almost charming. He seemed shy, like he wasn’t sure how to handle her. It was endearing. He listened to her when she spoke and always came up with some question about the city to ask her. Every time he asked her something directly, he would look her in the eye and she would forget where and who she was. Then he smile and Liz would disregard every argument she had for why she should not let herself fall for him. He had been careful not to touch her, but as the time went on the barrier seemed to fall. She could feel herself gravitating towards him. She was pulled by a force that was beyond her control. When they had been walking around Union Square, they walked in pairs, Isabel and Michael in front, Max and Liz following a few steps behind. When they were casually strolling down Powell St. and had wandered into Chinatown and a toothless woman with broken bottles surrounding her had warned them about Chinatown after dark, Max had grabbed her hand with a hesitant smile and the group ran laughing to the trolley station. His touch was natural. He held her hand on the trolley and had helped her off the car by putting his hands on her hips and guiding her down. Even now as they walked around the cobblestones in the square, his hand was on the small of her back, pressing lightly as they walked.

Liz paused in front of a small fountain. The coins on the bottom made the fountain seem to glitter under the lights decorating the buildings. Liz got two coins out of her purse and handed one to Max. He stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders.

“When I first moved here, I was so nervous about starting over somewhere new. I had lived in Covina all my life and I didn’t know how I was going to do in a new city, in an ivy league school.” She said. “Maria had come with me and was working in a nightclub here in the city. On our first weekend we came here and we stopped at this fountain. The nite was quiet, like this one. She told me then all I had to do was wish here. She told me to wish for the strength to start out and that I would do fine.”

Liz smiled and leaned back against him. “For that one moment, I believed in every story about wishing wells and fountains I had every heard.” Closing her eyes she threw the nickel into the water and turned to face him.

Max was mesmerized by her. Her skin seemed to glow in the light. Her eyes were shining and all he wanted to do was kiss her again. He traced a finger over her jaw.

She suddenly felt self-conscious about all she had shared about herself. “I don’t know why I told you that.” Liz said with her head down.

Max waited for a moment and then linked his arms behind her waist. “I’m glad you did. I feel as if every second that goes by I am getting to know you better.”

“We know so little about each other. I don’t usually share things like that with people I don’t know.” Liz said.

Max’s face turned serious. He was quiet for a minute. Liz allowed herself to lean back against his arms. He was so solid. It was more than the muscles she could feel under his skin. It was something deep inside him. It was a quality ingrained in him. Liz imagined he was like that even as a child.

Max spoke quietly. “Liz, just for tonite, let’s forget that we don’t know each other. Let’s forget we have never met before and just enjoy being here. Right here, this moment, I’m happy.”

The words comforted Liz. He looked as if he had shared some deep secret with her. “I am, too.”

Max leaned in towards her. Liz thought he was going to kiss her again, but instead he gently kissed her forehead. Disappointment mingled with a measure of relief. She wanted him to kiss her again, but not if he was going to react as he had the last time.

“What did you wish for?”

“Uh-uh.” She smiled wider. “That’s cheating.”

Max nodded and brought the coin to his lips. He kissed it and then brought it to her lips. With her eyes on his, she kissed his fingertips. Max threw the coin into the water and then backed away, taking her hands with him. Max sat on a bench and pulled her with him so that she was settled against his arm. The embrace felt automatic. Liz wanted to believe in what he had said. Just for this nite they could forget logic and just be. But she needed to know something first. Something had been plaguing her since her talk with Isabel and she needed it out in the open before she could relax.

“Max, I have to ask you something. You can tell me if you want that its none of my business and I’ll understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but I just have to ask.”

Max turned to face her so he was looking her in the eye.

She looked down at her hands. “It’s just that..umm...when we kissed last time I kinda got an image of something. I thought maybe I was crazy, but something Isabel said confirmed it.”

“What is it?” Max sat up a little bit straighter.

“Do you have a baby?” The words sort of tumbled out of her mouth.

Max froze. He kept his eyes on her. She was almost unnerved by how intense his stare was. He was looking at her as if she had just given him earth-shattering news. She quickly started to backtrack. “It’s none of my business. Forget I said anything.”

“No, no.” He stopped her. “Just wait a minute.” He had to tear his eyes off of her and look out over the fountain. The water trickled mockingly back at him. He couldn’t even question how she had known. He had seen things in her too. A blond girl with an easy smile, a cupcake dress on what he assumed was Liz at a young age. All the images had brought him closer into her. He hadn’t really considered what she had seen in him. He had assumed that she hadn’t seen anything. But now it was definite. She had seen his child. He wondered how much to tell her and then realized he wanted her to know it all. It wasn’t a question of whether or not to share it with her. He wanted her to know him. He bit back an oath. There were things he had to lie to her about. It was going to kill him, but he couldn’t share everything with her. It was only a matter of time before she started questioning how she had seen it. He would deal with it when the time came. All she knew about him right now was that he had once had a child. At least he could give her that.

Max turned back to face her. “I did have a child, once. My high school girlfriend and I had a baby.”

“Oh.” Liz nodded slowly. “Had? You don’t have one anymore?” She asked gently.

Max cleared his throat. “He, uh, he died. About a week after he was born.”

“I’m so sorry.” Liz took his hand in hers. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“No.” Max looked at her again. “I want to.”

Liz waited for him to go on. Max was quiet for a few more seconds. He held her hand in his and played with her fingers, running the tips through his fingers, tracing the lines of her palm. He compared how small her hand was to his. He was looking at their joined hands when he spoke again.

“You could say that Tess and I were preordained to be together. It was something that was meant to happen between us. Our parents had wanted it.”

“Did you?” Liz asked.

Max shrugged. “I didn’t question it. When I met Tess I was a sophomore in high school. She already knew who I was because of our families’ history and it just seemed logical that we would be together. We dated for a long time before she got pregnant.”

“SHE got pregnant?” Liz interrupted. “That’s an interesting way to put it.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. What I mean is, she got pregnant on purpose.” Max explained.

“Why would she do something like that?” Liz couldn’t explain the contempt she felt for this girl she didn’t even know.

“See, Tess wanted us to leave Roswell.”

“And go where?”

“It doesn’t matter. She wanted to leave and thought getting pregnant was a way to convince me.” Max quickly skimmed. “But I wanted to stay. She wanted to go back to where our families had come from. She pushed for us to go but I didn’t believe her. If I had, I would probably have a son right now.”

“What do you mean?”

Max looked up at the sky. The stars were shining through a hole in the heavy clouds. “The baby was born premature. He was seven weeks early. Once he was born, we couldn’t leave because it would have been too risky to travel with him. But he only lived a week. He died and Tess blamed me. She said that if we had left when she had wanted to that he could have survived. After he died, she left and I haven’t seen her since. That was almost four years ago, at the end of my junior year.”

Liz squeezed his hand. “What was his name?”

Max smiled when he looked at her. The fact that she had asked the question showed her compassion. “Zan. It’s a family name.” He gave a small shrug. “You know, I was so uncertain about being a father. I was freaked out that I was going to do something that would destroy all our lives when he was born. But when I held him, and I looked into his eyes, I knew what it was to love something absolutely. For that one, simple moment when he was in my arms, I felt like I belonged to something.”

“That was a good moment.” She said. Her heart ached for him. To lose a child, for anyone would be devastating. His strength amazed her. “It’s not your fault, Max. She was wrong for saying those things to you. It’s not your fault.”

Max nodded and leaned into her. Her arms went around him and he buried his head in her neck. He wanted to stay like this, buried in her scent. Her unconditional comfort rocked him to the core. Michael and Isabel found them like that, wrapped up in each other’s arms and unaware of the world around them.

TBC
Last edited by SnowWhite22 on Sun Apr 04, 2004 3:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Dreamers aren't hopeless romantics. They are romantics full of hope.

My fics:
Say Nothing
Moment to Breathe (Sequel to Ordinary Moment)
Ordinary Moment
http://www.roswellfanfic.com/viewtopic.php?t=3895
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SnowWhite22
Enthusiastic Roswellian
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Parts 7-10

Post by SnowWhite22 »

Part 7

11:43 pm

Liz knew she was being swept away. And she now longer cared. Who cared about time and familiarity and incessant little details when it was so easy to just be carried off like this? There was an intimacy between her and Max now that was undeniable. She looked over at Max in the car as they climbed a hill. His profile was framed by the streetlamps. He was so strong. After the private, personal things he had shared with her she couldn’t deny these emotions welling up in her any longer. She wanted to know more about him. Every moment they were together, every time they touched, accidental or just to feel each other closer, she could feel her heart opening to all new possibilities. She had never been one to indulge in crazy fantasies like love at first sight. She considered herself logical, even methodical about things like that. She had to be. A scientist had to look at all sides of an issue and not give into the luxury of fanciful notions. But secretly, in a place deep in her heart that she had never let herself open, she was a true romantic. That was the place that Max was touching. That was the place that Max was seeping into. She wouldn’t let herself think about what would happen when the sun came up. For now she was going to do what Max said. She was going to enjoy the moment and forget that time wasn’t on their side.

Liz caught Isabel’s eye in the rearview mirror and smiled warmly. Isabel was still regarding her with a cautious shield, but it was slowly folding. The easier it became between her and Max, the easier it became with Isabel. It was funny she had known Isabel longer, so she was the one that she should naturally feel more inclined towards. But it was Max she talked with the most, Max she wanted to have beside her.

Michael was a different issue. He stared out the window with the closest thing to a pout Liz could imagine. The protective routine was starting to get a little old. Liz wasn’t sure what it was Michael thought she was going to do to them. He had warmed up a bit, but Liz knew from the way he studied her he had a long ways to go before he would talk to her the way Isabel and Max did. But he listened to Max. Whatever Max said went. Liz wondered about that too. So many little things would catch her attention; Michael’s tendency to hang on every word that was exchanged between her and Max, Max’s innate ability to almost command Michael. In her bones she knew it was more than just what had happened with Max’s ex-girlfriend.

But how could she find out what it was? Was it her place to? As happy as she was just knowing a person like Max, the little things were starting to prick in her mind. Why had she seen something like a baby when she was kissing Max? It had been so clear. Max on a porch on a sunny afternoon, his arm cradling a baby with a blue blanket wrapped around it. She could almost feel the warmth on her shoulders. More than that, she could feel his love and protectiveness over what she now knew was his own child. Even if he hadn’t told her the story of his past, she could feel in her blood his connection with the child. Or the brilliant stars she had flown through. She had felt almost suffocated. She could smell the gas hanging in space and the heat from the stars. It wasn’t a whimsical daydream. It was real. It had all been mixed up in the power and desire she had felt charging through her in that brief kiss. She had just had a simple taste, but she craved more of him.

Liz wanted to hit her head against something hard. He would think she was crazy if she told him what she was thinking. She was halfway convinced of it herself. Senseless, bizarre things such as visions and connections and electricity. They went against every rational argument Liz lived her life by. But yet it was happening. In the span of four hours, her life had been changed. A series of innocent, ordinary moments, and her life was altered and Liz knew in her bones it was never going back.

Isabel climbed the hill off Lombard St, pulled the car over and pulled the emergency brake. “Okay, Liz, your show.”

“What is this place?” Max asked as he held a hand out for Liz to climb out of the back.

“Well, since its getting late and most of the good places to see in San Francisco are either going to be closed or deserted, I thought the best way to see the city would be from up here.” Liz nudged them up the hill and into a circular parking lot that sat atop a steep hill. “This is Coit Tower.”

A huge monument rose stories about them, standing guard over the city. The city lay out beneath them like a glittering blanket. The heavy clouds had cleared and the stars hung so low Liz could almost feel them above her. The stars from her vision pushed into her mind but Liz focused on what was above her. She didn’t want to think of those visions right now. If she was crazy, she was going to wait until tomorrow to worry about it.

The dark bay framed one side of the lookout point while the city lay quiet on the other. She and Max walked around the deserted parking lot and sat on a pair of rocks below the walkway. She settled against him and let the wind howl around them. Michael watched them settle into one another. Shoving his hands in his pockets he turned and walked up to the monument steps.

Isabel followed him. “Pretty view.”

“He’s going to blow everything!” Michael picked up a discarded soda can and tossed it with force across the parking lot. “What do we know about this girl? Nothing! And every chance he gets he is all over her. This is more than hormones, Isabel. She’s getting to him.”

“You’re right.” Isabel sat on the steps and waited for Michael to face her. “She is. But why is that a bad thing?”

“How can you of all people even ask that?” Michael said. “After what happened to Alex.”

Isabel set her teeth. “That’s not fair.”

“I’m not trying to be mean here, Is. But it’s the truth.” Michael said.

Isabel looked out over the city and leaned her head against her hand.

“Look.” Michael knelt down in front of her. “I know what happened all those years ago killed you and that’s why you left Roswell.” He started gently. “Alex was important to you and he was the only one that knew the truth about us. But look where it got him. Tess used that and killed him.”

“We never proved she had anything to do with that.” Isabel sounded weary.

“Come off it. We all know she did. When the baby died, she used Alex to get the info she needed for the granolith. Max never found that key or whatever was needed for it. So she used Alex and took off on a one way trip home.”

“But she’s gone now. She’s not coming back.“

“Doesn’t mean something like that can’t happen again.“ Michael said. “And this time it could be one of us. It might not be Tess behind it, but we let someone else in and the risk goes up. I thought you guys understood that.“

Isabel took a deep breath and let her fingers go to the heart ring she wore around her neck. Alex had given it to her on their first date, so many years before. She still wore it next to her heart. “I loved him, Michael.” Isabel said softly. “And for a long time I thought that he died because of me, because he knew what I was. But in the end, it didn’t matter.”

“What do you mean?” Michael said.

“I’ve lived my live up here in a cave.” Isabel said, finally looking him in the eye. “I’ve been so terrified that someone was going to get close to me and I closed myself off to everything. I haven’t even lived and that was the whole point of me leaving! I haven’t lived since Alex died and I’m sick of it. And I’ll be damned if I let Max go through his life like that.”

“So what are you saying?” Michael challenged her.

“Maybe we know nothing about this girl but I can tell you what I feel from her. She’s honest. She’s good. She’s brought something out in Max in the past four hours that I haven’t ever seen. Can’t you see how much he lights up around her? Or are you too worried that she’s going to EXPOSE us?” Isabel’s voice was rising.

“She could, damnit! Why am I the only one worried about this?” Michael threw his hands up.

“Because you’re afraid!” Isabel got up close to him. “You’re afraid of losing Max, the same way you were afraid of losing me when Alex and I met. I’m still here Michael. You were like this when Tess showed up too until she did some parlor tricks to prove she was like us.”

“That’s different!” Michael protested. “She had been searching her whole life to find us.”

Isabel looked over to where Max and Liz were laughing quietly together. “I think Max has been searching his whole life for her.”

“What!”

“I’m serious, Michael. I believe in her. She’s a good person. Don’t let your own fears get in the way of something great for Max. It’s just one nite. What can it hurt?”

“It just takes one moment for things to go to crap.” Michael narrowed his eyes.

“Or for them to go right.” Isabel said.

Michael closed his mouth and looked over at Max and Liz again. Liz was saying something that had Max laughing. Her hands were flying about in huge gestures and Max caught them in his own and brought them to his lips. Michael sat down next to Isabel, and was silent.

TBC



Part 8

11:51 pm

Max watched Liz as she relaxed against him, their hands linked together. The lights from below gave her an ethereal look. Her skin was dusted with bright stars. She was luminescent. She fit so perfectly against him. Not against him, TO him. She fit so perfectly to him. Telling her the things about Zan had been natural. He had known in his heart that she would not only listen with an open mind but that she wouldn’t judge him.

Max felt consumed with guilt. He had censored so much of what he had told her. Part of it was the natural inclination to keep secrets. He had never questioned the decision to hide in plain sight as they had been doing for years. He had never broken the pact to keep their true identities hidden, especially after what had happened to Alex. Alex had always been a good friend to him. The whole mess with Tess had taught him the value of discretion. But here, under the stars and curled up with the one person on this planet that made him feel safe, Max wanted to tell her everything. He was sick of hiding, he was sick of having to conceal his true self. He could be himself with Liz. He could feel it humming under his skin. “Liz, I...”

“Uh-oh. We have an audience.” Liz grinned up at him and gestured behind her.

“What?” Max was thrown off. Following her gaze, he looked over at Isabel and Michael sitting on the Coit Tower steps. “Oh. We’re not really alone, are we?”

“Not really.” She shrugged.

Max bit off an oath and gripped her hand tighter. What was he doing? He was about to tell Liz intimate details that could destroy her life? And Michael and Isabel’s. If it was just him it would be one thing. But he was in constant awareness of Michael and Isabel’s welfare as well. It was his responsibility as king. He knew it and had accepted his destiny long ago. Until now he had no reason to question. But here, with this simple girl he knew that fate was stepping in and taking over. Perhaps this was his destiny. Liz seemed to be the missing puzzle piece in the chaos he called his life.

And tomorrow he would have to leave her. She had her whole life planned out. He was fascinated with the drive and ambition he saw in her. She knew from a young age what she wanted to do and she wasn’t going to stop until she got it. He couldn’t interfere with that plan. He cared and respected her too much to do that. He couldn’t tell her the truth about himself, no matter how much he wanted to share himself with her.

“What were you going to say?” Liz asked, tilting her head back to nuzzle against his chin.

He smiled at the show of affection. “Oh, um..just that I’m really happy you brought us up here.”

“That’s not all.” Liz said. “I have one other place I think you are going to really like.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Liz laughed. She couldn’t stop smiling.

Max ran a hand over her hair. He stared at her in wonder. “You are so beautiful.”

His tone stopped her. He was looking at her so intensely. Her breath caught in her throat. “Thank you.”

“I just wish...” Max cut himself off and looked up at the sky.

“You just wish what?” Liz said slowly.

Max shook his head. The words wouldn’t come. His eyes searched the sky. After a few seconds he pointed to a cluster of bright stars. “You see that star off to the right? The one a little bit lower than the rest.”

“Yeah.” Liz followed his point.

“A king used to live there. He ruled for a long time as a fair and just king. Until one day when his peaceful throne was threatened by a evil man. This man had a lot of influence and the country was sent into civil war over who the ruler should be. This man was charming and handsome and he seduced the king’s sister into giving up her brother, his bride and his second-in-command, the princess’s own fiancé. But when the man overtook the palace he betrayed the princess and he slaughtered the royal family. But the king’s loyal advisor had a plan in case such a thing should happen. He caught the soul’s of each of the royal court and gave them new homes. With the king’s mother and family behind him, he sent their souls into space, to be reborn in new form. That way, one day, they could come home and save their home from the tyranny of the evil man.”

“What a sad story.” Liz murmured. “Where did you hear it?”

“My mother.” Max said, his voice low. His eyes were closed as he drifted off in memory.

“So what happened?” Liz asked. “Did the king ever get home?”

“Not yet.” Max smiled. “He found a new one. His bride ended up turning against him as well and she returned home, taking their only way back with her.”

“I think he’ll get back one day.” Liz said as she settled against him again.

“Do you?” Max asked carefully. “What if he didn’t want to go back?”

“But he’s the king. I think he would do what is right and save his people.” Liz smiled.

“Yeah.” Max felt his heart dropping. Liz didn’t know how true her words were. Max’s responsibilities wore heavy on his heart. He had to think about his people that lived on a planet light years away. He couldn’t indulge in the dream of living a normal life on this planet any longer. With Isabel coming home, it was time to own up to his duties as king. But it meant leaving everything behind.

Max kissed Liz’s head and closed his eyes. He would take this one nite with this girl who was reaching parts of him he hadn’t known. It was ironic that the one that would show him his true path would be the one that he wanted to stay with. Time no longer mattered. Max wasn’t going to deny himself for this one nite. At least when he was far away from here and Liz had gone on to live her life as planned and forgotten all about him, he would remember what it was to sit under the stars and fall in love. He would never forget Liz.

“It’s a nite for fairy tales, isn’t it Max?” Liz said dreamily. “I feel like anything could happen tonite. With you.”

“It can.” Max said softly, his eyes burning with regrets. “Tonite is the nite for it.”

TBC



Part 9
12:29 am

Max dreaded the next 30 minutes. Out of all the powers he had he wished for the one to stop time in its tracks. That way he could spend forever looking into Liz’s eyes. He could feel her smooth skin against his arms and he could have this sense of feeling and belonging for all time.

But he didn’t have that power. And as soon as Isabel finished pumping gas, they were back on the freeway and the nite would end. They would pull back into Liz and Isabel’s complex, he and Liz would try and squeeze a million words under Isabel and Michael’s watchful eye. He had the sense that Isabel was okay with the bond between him and Liz, but he knew she was far from allowing him to do what he most wanted to do; share himself with this amazing human. He knew that the minute they got back to Palo Alto, he would have to say good-bye and be satisfied with the small taste of happiness he had in the past four hours.

Max shook his head to himself. It wasn’t possible. He needed more time. He needed just a few more hours with her. He wanted to see the sun come up with her hand in his. He wanted to see the light shining in her eyes as they greeted a new day together. That would be enough to last him. It had to be.

Michael watched Max in the mirror of the sun visor. Liz had gone to the restroom and Isabel was paying the cashier. “You all right, man?”

“I’m fine.” Max mumbled. His eyes were on the restroom door.

“Hey, Maxwell, I uh...” Michael waited until he had Max’s attention. “I think it’s great that you met someone you really like.”

Max frowned.

“I’m serious.” Michael said as he turned in the seat. “I see how you look at her. I know I’ve been riding you all nite, but its just hard for me to trust like you can. But if you feel this strongly about her than I will too.”

“Thank you.” Max said. “That means a lot to me.”

Michael shrugged and turned back around in his seat. “Just too bad you gotta say good-bye in a little while.”

“Yeah.” Max mumbled to himself. “Too bad.”

“What‘s too bad?” Isabel poked her head in the front seat.

“That Max is going to have to say good-bye to Liz.” Michael nodded in Max‘s direction.

Max didn’t say anything.

Isabel settled back in the car and fastened her seat belt. “I know you like her, Max, but you said it yourself. We just have tonite. We’re leaving tomorrow. We have to get back to Roswell.”

“Why? Why?” Max suddenly burst out. “Why do we HAVE to be back in Roswell?”

Isabel looked at him incredulously. “Are you kidding me? You are the one who has been after me to come back for months. All the answers are there. The anniversary of Tess leaving is next week. The only time we can get what we need from the granolith is then. You know that!”

“I know. I know.” Max looked out the window again at the bathroom doors.

“No. I am not the bad guy here.” Isabel said. “Max, look, I like Liz too. I like her a lot. She’s a nice girl. But she has her life and you have yours. And yours affects all three of us. So get whatever you are thinking out of your mind.”

“I’m not thinking anything.” Max said quietly. “I need some air.”

Michael watched Max’s back as he headed into the store. “I can’t believe how much this is affecting him.”

“I know.” Isabel said slowly. She watched Liz come out of the bathroom and head into the store. “He’s going to be okay though. He has to be.” She leaned her head back against the headrest. “For all our sakes.”

12:32 am

Max’s heart pounded as he pretended to browse the candy aisle. He wasn’t even looking at the shelves. All he could think is what Isabel had just said. We just have tonite If that was true than tomorrow didn’t matter. All the answers he had always been looking for were wrapped up in this tiny girl who looked at him as if the world made sense. He would take this nite and make it matter. He would take these moments and turn them into the nite he had always wanted. But he had to break a few rules.

Liz came up behind him and shyly put her arms around the back of his waist. “You okay? You look like you were in outer space.”

“Pretty close.” Max said as he turned around in her arms. He stole a glance out the window and could see Michael and Isabel talking in the front seat. It was now or never.

“Liz, will you do something for me?”

“Like what?” Liz started to laugh and then caught the serious look gleaming in his eye. “Max, what is it?”

He took her hands in his. “We’ve had fun tonite, right? You like being with me?”

“You know I do.” Liz put a hand on his cheek.

“Good.” Max pulled her in a little closer and brushed a small kiss over her cheek. “Then let’s go.”

“Go?” Liz pulled back and started up at him. “Go where?”

“Anywhere. I don’t care. Let’s just go.” Max said. “Let’s just leave.”

“What about Michael and Isabel?” Liz asked. Her heart was starting to pound. Max looked so intense, as if he was asking her to rob the store instead of just leaving it.

Max tensed. “They’ll never let us be alone. Trust me. They think its for my own good but they don’t know. They don’t know what its like when you look up at me like you are doing right now. They can’t know what it is going to be for me to say good-bye to you. And if we stay that is going to come too soon. And I can’t say good-bye yet. Not yet.”

Liz felt shivers running through her arms. His words were overwhelming her. Everything that had been between them up until now had been in heavy glances and unspoken words. But he was saying them out loud and she needed to hear the words just as much as she needed to feel his strength under her fingertips. She wanted these words more than she wanted to take another step. She would have jumped off the Golden Gate at that moment if he had asked her.

“Not yet.” Her words were barely a whisper on her lips. “No good-byes yet.’

“Then let’s just go. Give me a few more hours with you, Liz. Please.” He ran a hand over her hair and kissed her fingertips. “Let’s see the sun rise together.”

Liz knew she was diving in now. There was no turning back. Whatever happened from here on out would no longer be a fantasy or a romantic dream. It would be real and harsh and more true than anything she had ever felt before. “Okay.” She couldn’t even find her own voice. “Okay.” She said louder. “Let’s go.”

Max broke out into a smile that had Liz laughing. “Okay.” She said again as he picked her up. “We have to hurry.”

Max held onto her hand and ducked behind the shelf. “They can’t see us leave. They’ll stop us. Senor?” He called to the attendant at the cash register. “Do you have a back door?”

12:39 am

“What is he buying in there?” Isabel twisted in her seat to try and see in the store. “What is taking so long?”

“They’re probably pawing at each other in the candy aisle.” Michael muttered. He straightened up in his chair. “Did Max tell you he had visions when he kissed Liz?”

“No, but Liz mentioned something about it.” Isabel strained her neck to see in the windows.

“Liz?” Michael said. “What did she say? What if she catches on?”

“Relax.” Isabel told him. “I played it off. I don’t think she took them seriously. She probably just thought she was dazed or something. I’m going to get them. I want to get home.”

Isabel pushed open the doors to the store and quickly scanned the aisles. “Max?” She turned to the attendant. “Uh..did you see a guy and a girl in here?”

“Si. Vamen.” The attendant pointed towards the back door.

“What!” Isabel sprinted out the back door and ran a few steps. The back parking lot was deserted. “Great!”

Isabel ran for the front and kicked Michael’s side door. “They took off!”

“What!” Michael bolted upright in his seat.

“They slipped out the back. Damnit!” Isabel kicked the car again. “I should have known. I know that look in his eye.”

“Well let’s go! They can’t be far.” Michael said.

Isabel blew out a hard breath and got back in the car. She started the car and leaned her head against the steering wheel.

“What are you waiting for?” Michael exploded.

“Max isn’t going to do anything stupid.” Isabel said slowly. “We’ve always trusted him.”

“That was until he took off in the middle of the night with strange girls.”

“Let’s give him a few hours.” Isabel said as she pulled the car into traffic. “Then we can kill him. Just give him a few hours.”

TBC



Part 10

12:45 am

“Max, Max! Wait! We have to stop.” Liz protested. They had run hand in hand for seven blocks already, turning corners and cutting through alleyways in case Isabel and Michael decided to follow them. But now Liz pulled hard at Max’s hand.

Max turned towards her. Her shoulders were heaving from the heavy run. She was looking up at him expectantly, her eyes wide, her breath short.. Without even thinking, Max pulled her hard against him and crushed his mouth to hers. Liz melted against him. He ran his fingers through her hair, trying to bring her in closer. Liz was being consumed, she was drowning. His desperation, his passion, his frustration poured into her. She responded without words. There under the streetlamps on a deserted San Francisco street, she spilled her soul into his and welcomed all he had to offer.

The electricity running through her triggered more images. His life, his baby, his home. All so crystal clear and mixed with an urgency that had her forgetting her own mind. Liz embraced them. With a last shudder, Max broke off the kiss and stared at her. “Let’s not stop, Liz. Let’s just keep going. We can’t go back now.” His voice sounded almost desperate as he ran his fingers over her cheek.

The second she and Max broke apart, Liz felt her body go cold. Reality was rushing up to greet them. She shook herself and took a step back. “What’s going on here?”

Max gripped her hand tighter. “What do you mean?”

“I..I..” Liz didn’t even know how to say the words. “I see things when we kiss, Max. I saw you.”

“See things?” Max asked. His heart sank. She sounded so unsure of herself.

“Don’t do that, Max. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I am talking about.” Liz could feel heat in her belly. This was more than just an amazing meeting. There was something about the way he kissed. Something that sparked her soul. Something allowed her to see into him. Liz shook her head. “I’m not crazy. I did see things. I saw your home and your child. What is going on here?”

Max let go of her hand and took a few more steps up the street. He suddenly whirled around to face her. “I saw things too.”

“What does this mean?” Liz demanded. “How is that possible?”

Max chose his words carefully. “It’s something I can do.”

“Why?” She asked. “Are you psychic or something?”

“If I was, would it change you being here with me right now?” Max asked, his eyes measuring her.

Liz wanted more than anything to soothe the fear in his voice, but she didn’t know why he was afraid. She didn’t even really know why she was running away with him in the middle of the nite. Or why she knew she would never be touched like that again.

“Of course not.” She said slowly. “I just don’t know what it means.”

“Liz,” Max took a step forward and put a hand on her shoulder. “I know its confusing, but I promise you, I could never do anything to hurt you. Okay? Do you trust me?”

“I don’t know you.” She murmured quietly.

“You know me.” Max said as he tilted his head down to look into her eyes. “I never in a million lifetimes thought that I could meet someone like you. But I have and I’m not ready to give that up yet. We just have a short time together. Please don’t give up on me yet.”

Liz was torn between logic and impossibility. The nite was filled with impracticalities and fantastical ideas that Liz had always denied herself. But in that one moment when they left the store, she had left all normal logic. With Max, the impossible seemed the most true. The second they had left the store, Liz had felt a great adventure was set out ahead of her. Instead of running away from good-bye, she was running to something larger than just her and Max. She was running to something that was settled in her soul.

“Will you promise to explain this all to me?” Liz asked. “Like why we had to run away from your sister?”

“When you’re ready.” Max said. “But for now I just want to be with you. “

Liz was almost satisfied with that. She couldn’t deny that she trusted him. It wasn’t even a question. She knew from the moment she saw into his amber eyes that he was someone that would change her life. Now that he had kissed her she understood how. She wondered how she would ever tolerate any other person touching her without feeling her the way Max did. She nodded slowly and licked her lips. They couldn’t run through the streets of San Francisco all nite. “Okay, let’s just calm down for a moment. We need a plan.”

Max gave a half smile. He looked around the buildings and the deserted streets. Parts of San Francisco died after 11 pm and the area they had run through was no exception. It suddenly occurred to him that he had no idea where they were or how they were going to go anywhere in the city. “I didn’t think this out very well.”

“Me either.” Liz shrugged with a smile. “But we can’t wander through the streets all nite.”

“I don’t care where we go.” Max pulled her in closer. “We could sit here on the sidewalk and stay here until the sun came up. I just want to be here with you for a while longer.”

Liz was silent for a second. Part of her wanted to be logical. Part of her wanted to scream out at the absurdity of the whole situation. But that part wasn’t looking into his eyes at that moment. That part of her was silenced by the force in his eye and the gentle brush of his skin against hers. Despite the warm weather, Liz shivered. Max wrapped his arms around her and Liz tilted her head back. She felt drawn to him, pulled in by some magnetic force. Their mouths were just breaths apart...

“Lincoln!” Liz suddenly exclaimed, her eyes wide. She pulled away, but kept her arms linked around him. “That’s it!”

Max was thrown off. “Huh?”

“We can go to Lincoln! I should have thought of it before.” Liz wrapped her arms around Max’s neck and squeezed.

Max ran a hand over her hair. Frustration charged through his body and then was replaced with curiosity. “What is a Lincoln?”

“It’s a he.” Liz explained. “He is a manager at Maria’s club. He lives here in the city. AND he has a car he lets Maria and me borrow on the weekends.”

“And maybe he wouldn’t mind you borrowing it in the middle of the nite with a stranger.” Max finished her thought. Liz had already told him all about Maria and what it was like living with a nightclub singer.

“Exactly. Then I can show you the place I have been wanting to all nite.” Liz said. “We need a cab.”

1:04 am

“Just let me do the talking.” Liz said as they got out of the cab in front of a dark building. “Lincoln is a bit much to take but he’s generally a good guy. Just be warned. And don’t take anything he says seriously.”

“He doesn‘t care about people coming by in the middle of the nite?” Max asked as he glanced up at the building. Some of the windows were broken or had tape across them. The bricks were faded to a light pink color and were crumbled in the corners. “What does this guy do?”

“He’s a friend of Maria’s cousin, Sean. I think they met in jail. But now he is one of the nite managers at the club Maria’s sings at. He’s clean now.” Liz reassured him.

“Right.” Max looked suspiciously up at the front walkway. Liz pressed a buzzer and pushed open the door. The hallways were dim and gray. Max could hear loud bass pumping through the walls. Liz knocked on a door that was cracked half a inch open and pushed it all the way open. “Lincoln?”

“I’m sleeping!” Came a muffled reply from behind a closed bedroom door. Max followed Liz into a cramped apartment with stale air. Clutter lined the walls and the floor. Max stuck his hands into his pockets and held his breath.

“Lincoln? It’s Liz.” Liz called.

“Parker?” A crash came from behind the closed door, followed up by a curse and a feminine giggle. Liz gave an embarrassed smile up at Max and waited.

The door swung open and a shirtless man came out rubbing his eyes. He was lean and had tattoos decorating his pale chest in bright shades. His hair hung in his eyes with streaks of blond and purple. He ran up to give Liz a bear hug but stopped short when he saw Max.

“Who’s this?” Lincoln asked pointedly. “You bring a date to my place?”

Liz cleared her throat. “Lincoln, this is Max.”

“Hey.” Max said as he held out a hand. Lincoln studied his hand for a second and then shook it lightly. Turning back to Liz, he pulled his long hair back into a ponytail. “Where’s DeLuca?”

“Oh, she already went home. She’ll be back in a few weeks. I’m leaving tomorrow but I’m staying for the whole summer.” Liz explained as she followed Lincoln into the kitchen.

He lit up a cigarette and blew the smoke out in Max’s direction. “So you came by to say good-bye? I’m touched.”

“Actually, I came to ask a favor.” Liz looked up at Max and then back at Lincoln. “We need to borrow your car.”

“The car?” Lincoln tapped the ash of the end of the cigarette. “Need a place to neck? What’s wrong with the couch?”

Max shifted back and forth on his feet, uncomfortable. Liz cleared her throat. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“It always is, Parker.” Lincoln stabbed out the cigarette and started shuffling through drawers.

“I can get it back to you tomorrow.” Liz said.

“Yeah, yeah.” Lincoln opened a few cabinets and tossed out an empty cigarette cartons and old lighter.

“Linc?” The opening of the bedroom door had all of them turning. A lengthy blond with a holey sheet wrapped around her stuck her head out.

“Hold on a sec.” Lincoln called out. He dug a set of keys out of the back of a cabinet and tossed them to Liz. “Parker, this is Nina.”

Nina looked Liz up and down and then did the same to Max. Her eyes widened and a slow smile spread across her face. Lincoln glared at her. Wordlessly she went back into the bedroom and shut the door.

“Sorry, Lincoln.” Liz said after a moment. “We didn’t mean to uh...intrude.”

“No worries.” Lincoln gave Liz a hug and looked over Max again. “You straight, man?”

“Uh.” Max looked at Liz and shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Be good to her. She‘s a 10. Don‘t make me hunt you down.” Lincoln ruffled Liz’s hair and went back into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

Liz bit her lip to keep from smiling at the baffled look on Max’s face. “He’s really a good guy. You just have to look over the purple hair.”

Max nodded and shrugged. “He’s right.”

“About what?” Liz asked as they left and went out into the street.

“You are a 10.” Max said. Liz smiled and unlocked the door to a rusty Plymouth parked on the street.

Starting the old engine was like revving a gravel truck in the dead of nite. Liz pulled out into traffic and waited at a stop light. “You up for a little drive?” Liz asked.

“Yeah.” Max said.

“Okay.” She looked over at him and linked hands. Max traced the lines of her hand with his fingers. Liz squeezed lightly and pulled the car onto the freeway.

TBC
Dreamers aren't hopeless romantics. They are romantics full of hope.

My fics:
Say Nothing
Moment to Breathe (Sequel to Ordinary Moment)
Ordinary Moment
http://www.roswellfanfic.com/viewtopic.php?t=3895
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SnowWhite22
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Location: So Cal

Ordinary Moment Part 11-13

Post by SnowWhite22 »

Part 11

1:35 am

Highway 1 was dark and solitude as the Plymouth curved along the road. Liz hummed along lightly to the radio as they drove. Every once in a while she would look over at Max and smile. They didn’t talk much and that was okay with Liz. She was so overwhelmed by everything that had gone on in the past few hours that a few moments of peace felt good. Too good. She was amazed at how easy the silence was in the car. She didn’t feel awkward or uncomfortable. She felt relaxed, almost happy. Content. Max was holding her right hand as they drove and had his head back against the head rest. His eyes were closed and Liz thought he might have dozed off, but then every once in a while he would squeeze her hand or smile at something she commented on.

The peace in the car didn’t do much for the questions that still loomed between them. Liz wondered how she could feel so close to a person she had so many questions about. His life, his past, his power over her hovered in the front of her mind. But her heart had no doubts and that was what she was depending on. Too often she gave up her heart to do the smart thing, the logical thing. But tonite was a nite for anything but logic. Her usual compulsion to question and figure things out was put on hold by a need to keep Max near her. She couldn’t pinpoint how she knew if she pressed Max for the answers to the unusual things it would jeopardize their time together, but she knew it would. And she couldn’t spare that right now. So whatever doubts she had were pushed back. A few more hours, she thought to herself. I just need a few more hours.

Max watched the streetlights race over Liz’s profile. Every few moments her face was lit up by the light and he would be stunned at how breathtaking she was. Her hair was glossy and he remembered what it felt like when it trailed through his fingers. Her eyes were focused on the road but he could feel them stealing glances his way and it made him smile. Her skin was smooth and Max wanted to feel it against him again.

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to stare?”

“What?” Max snapped back to attention and straightened in the seat.

“You keep staring at me. You are going to give me a complex.” Liz looked like she was ready to laugh.

“Oh. Sorry.” Max said as he turned to look out the window. The roads were lined with tall trees. Above that, Max could see the sky, now clear and bright with stars. Out of habit, he strained to find the star that was his marker towards his planet. He remembered Tess telling him the story of how they could see the same star on both Earth and their home. Max shut his eyes quickly and looked straight ahead. He didn’t want to think at all. He wanted to lose himself with this girl. Then maybe for a little while he could be real.

He had a hard time understanding what was real anymore. For so long it had been living for the good of Michael and Isabel. He had been young and naïve when Tess had taken advantage of his trust and betrayed them. He hadn’t let another person in after that. Alex had a been a good friend, and the love of Isabel’s life, and losing him had convinced him that the three of them really DIDN’T belong on this planet. It was a means to an end, as the message from his true mother had said. It was a way to keep them safe until he could return to rule.

After learning of what he believed his true purpose was, Max didn’t object to training for battle. He and Michael had spent the last four years learning all they could on how to get home and what to do once they got there. Once Tess left and they had discovered who the true enemy was, Max had spent the next four years preparing himself for what he had believed was his destiny. But now, seeing Liz’s face light up when she looked at him, feeling her body and soul respond to his own, he felt true doubt. He had always believed destiny was a predetermined path that you had no control over. But once he had kissed Liz, his world tipped upside down. He had never wanted another human close to him the way he wanted Liz. And he knew that if he didn’t take this time with her now, he would never understand why he was on Earth in the first place.

She looked at him with such trust and every time she did, Max felt a stab in his heart. She would walk away from this without ever truly knowing him. He didn’t know why it was so important that she know him, the real him, but it was. He was desperate for her understanding. But he couldn’t put her in danger. They had ducked the FBI after his child had been born, when they hadn’t realized how close they were being watched, and then again after Alex died. For a few years now things had been quiet. That’s the only reason he had allowed Isabel to come up to Stanford. He knew how much she craved the chance to live life. But the time had come and she was needed in Roswell. He had looked forward to this week for years. Now it had arrived and he couldn’t believe his own resistance. And all because he had met a girl.

Not a girl, he corrected himself. The girl. The one he had always been sure would never come. The one he had convinced himself had to be light years away, otherwise there was no reason for him to remain on Earth. Yet, here she was, pulling a strand of hair out of her eyes and tapping her fingers lightly against his palm to the beat of the music.

He felt a buzzing against his hip and dug his cell phone out. Isabel’s home number flashed for the third time. Max hit the power button and slid the phone back in his pocket.

1:41am

“He’s still not answering.” Isabel hung up the phone and rubbed a hand over her face.

Michael paced back and forth in her living room. “Try him again.”

“I’ve tried three times already. He knows we are trying to get a hold of him.” Isabel pulled out a kitchen chair and dug into a grocery bag on the table. Pulling out a bag of chips, she opened it and started eating mechanically.

“Amazing.” Michael glared at her.

“What?” Isabel asked.

“That you can sit there and snack while he is out there hanging us.” Michael said.

“What do you want me to do, Michael?” Isabel shot back at him. “I have no idea where they are.”

“But you could.” Michael slapped his palms on to the table.

Isabel stared up at him a second. Realization hit her and she shook her head emphatically. “No. No way.”

.”You’ve done it before.” Michael said.

“Life or death situations, Michael. I’m not dream walking him right now.” Isabel objected.

“What the hell do you call this?” Michael answered.

“He’s out with a girl, not the feds.” Isabel said. “Plus, I’m sure he’s wide awake right now. I can’t get in like that.”

“Damn!” Michael swore. “I can’t believe this is happening now.”

“I know.” Isabel said quietly. “The timing is kind of ironic.”

“That Max meets this girl and she’s some soul mate or some crap almost four years to the day Alex dies and Tess takes off?” Michael said. “Some kind of coincidence.”

Isabel was quiet for a minute. “Maybe it was meant to be like this.”

“Meant to? No. We all know what our destinies are and I guarantee Max’s doesn’t include this chick.”

“How do you know?” Isabel said.

“I just know!” Michael said. “If she was supposed to be with him, don’t you think whoever was plotting out these little destinies would have had them meet way before now? When we get the first chance to go home since the granolith was activated?”

“Maybe we’re not really supposed to leave.” Isabel said slowly.

“Of course we’re supposed to leave. What’s for us here? Nothing. This isn’t a life. Our lives, our families have been waiting over 50 years for us to come back and take care of things. This is the last chance we get. So when the granolith returns in two days, I’m getting on it. You and Max better be with me.” Michael shoved away from the table.

“Wait.” Isabel stood and grabbed his arm. “Wait. I know you’re right, okay? It’s just hard to think about leaving. But you’re right. Everything at home depends on us. I have been waiting four years to make sure Tess gets what she deserves. I’m not going to pass that up.”

Michael sank back down and grabbed the bag of chips. “He isn’t going to either. Max is a good leader. He’s trained for this. He knows what he has to do. Ever since we found that diary of Tess’s that explained how the granolith worked he’s been waiting to get back home. When he read it would take the granolith four years to return and could be only be used in that 24 hour period, he’s been a madman trying to get ready. He’s not going to give all that up now.”

Isabel nodded. “So let’s trust him. We’re not leaving until tomorrow morning. He has until morning.”



Part 12

2:03 am

The world seemed to end. Just drop of into nothing. Liz pulled the car into a deserted parking lot on the edge of the world. Max could see a knee high stone wall illuminated by the car’s headlights and beyond that nothing. It was blacker than anything he had ever seen. Liz squeezed his hand and pushed open the car door. Max followed and stood just listening. The roar of waves filled the air. The air was thick with salt. Max took a deep breath. The ocean.

Liz came around the front of the car holding a large quilt. “Lincoln is always prepared.” She said sheepishly.

Max nodded slowly and took her hand. The ground quickly turned from concrete to sand. Max stood at the top of the staircase leading to the sand and just watched. The beach was covered in holes and divets, small hills and valleys. But beyond that there were waves. They crashed onto the packed sand over and over, a steady rhythm Max could feel in his body. Max felt like he was standing on the edge of the world and beyond the horizon he could barely see in the starlight was the edge.

Max tore his eyes of the waves and looked down at Liz. She was watching him, her eyes shining, a small smile on her face. Max wasn’t sure which was more beautiful, the ocean he had seen for the first time or this amazing girl in front of him. He cleared his throat. “Where are we?”

“Half Moon Bay.” Liz said. “It’s a little bit nicer beach than some of the ones in the city. And its quiet. Not much surf. In the fall its really good for crab fishing, but its too early in the season for that.” She led him down onto the beach more. “I just thought you would like to see the ocean.”

“Wow.” Max murmured under his breath. “You always hear about how powerful the ocean is but this is indescribable.”

“I know.” Liz smiled. She was somehow relieved. She had always felt the same way.

“Can we walk?” Max asked.

“Yeah.” Liz kicked off her shoes and tucked the blanket under her arm. Max slipped off his shoes and reached a hand out for Liz’s shoes and the blanket. Liz handed them to him and slipped her hand into his free one. They walked slowly across the cool sand away from the lights of the street, each quiet, letting the heavy breeze curve around them and the stars light the ocean’s surface. The stars seemed to be low in the sky, clear and brilliant. They walked low on the sand and let the waves wash foam over their feet.

Max was the first to speak. “I’m really glad you brought me here. Thank you.”

“Oh.” Liz nodded. “I just thought you should see the ocean before you leave California.” She shut her mouth after that. She didn’t want to think about him leaving. She just wanted to enjoy this peace in this one moment, with the water tickling her feet and his hand rough in her own.

Max picked up on what she was thinking. “If it was possible for me to stay longer, I would.”

“Really?” Liz looked up at him.

“If it was possible for me to stay with you even one hour longer than I can, I would.” Max said softly.

“But you can’t.” Liz nodded. “I understand.” She looked down at the ground again.

“No, you don’t.” Max said, suddenly frustrated.

“Okay.” Liz said, confused. She stopped and waited for Max to speak.

Max put the blanket and the shoes wrapped inside on a rock and put his hands in his pockets. He looked up at the clear sky and tried to find the words.

“There are things I have to do, Liz, when I get back to Roswell. There are things that are my responsibility. I can’t turn my back on them.” He started.

“Max, I never asked you to explain. You have your life.” Liz put a hand on his arm. “I know that.”

Max looked down at her and put a hand to her cheek. “Why couldn’t I have met you before this? Why couldn’t it have been a year ago? Or ten years ago?”

“It wasn’t the time.” Liz said. She turned into his hand and let his fingers brush over her eyes. “It wasn’t meant to be before.”

Max’s blood ran cold at that. Meant to be. For so long he had known what was meant to be in his life. But now he wanted to take everything predestined and run for his life. He wanted to be the one to say what was meant to be in his life. “What about now, Liz? What do you think about this moment?”

“This is a good moment.” She smiled. “This is one I will remember. This is meant to be.”

Max leaned in and kissed her lightly. Her nose was cold from the nite air but her breath was warm. Max brushed his lips over hers softly, almost like a tease. Liz felt her own lips curve under his and pulled him in closer. Her fingers tugged lightly at the ends of his hair. Instead of being intense and earth-shattering as their other two kisses, this one was light and easy. Soothing, like remembering something comforting. Liz felt her heart go light as if it was going to float right out of her chest. Max eased off and smiled, his forehead against hers. Liz couldn’t help but smile back in return.

“Come on.” Liz took his hand again. “ I know a good place to spread out.”

2:29 am

“And then you get down like this,” Liz bent her knees and got into a three point stance, ”and the center snaps you the ball.” She looked around for something to use as a football and grabbed her shoe. “Then you yell HIKE and then,” She jogged backwards for a few steps and pretended to spiral the shoe down the beach. “TOUCHDOWN!”

Max started to laugh from his vantage point on the blanket. She was so small but she was trying to look so tough as she showed him how to do a spiral pass.

“Hey!” Liz kicked sand at him. “What are you laughing at?”

“You.” Max grinned. He got into a three point stance in front of her. “Try it now.”

Liz narrowed her eyes and put one hand on the ground. “Get ready to eat my dirt, buddy.”

“Right, right.” Max tried to straighten his face.

Liz put the shoe on the ground and counted it off for herself. “Ready, set, hike, hike!” She faded back with the shoe in one hand and an arm up to defend herself. Max charged her full on, ready to tackle her. She was inches away when she suddenly dodged and changed directions. She blew past him and Max lost his balance. He hit the ground in time to see Liz do a mini victory dance.

“Okay, wise ass.” He said. “One more time.”

Liz raised an eyebrow and sauntered back over to their imaginary line. She called it off one more time and faded back again. But this time, Max anticipated her dodge and caught her hard around the middle. She yelped and started to laugh. She started to drag him after her but he anchored her in one spot. Liz lost her footing and collapsed against him. The sudden force of her falling sent them both sprawling out over the sand, laughing and wrestling over the shoe.

“No fair!” Liz was breathless. Max started tickling her to get the shoe out of her hands. He had maneuvered himself above her and used his legs to trap her underneath him. She pulled hard against him but her limbs were weakening. Max sensed her easing the struggle and used her last giggling breath to pull her in closer. Their mouths were inches apart. Liz felt the laughter inside her dying out. She licked her lips and kept her eyes focused on his mouth. Her body was suddenly very aware of how close they were. Her hands went from pushing him away to pulling him in closer. Max used his elbows to brace himself over her and dipped his head into her neck. She smelled like salt and strawberries. He kissed the curve of her neck lightly and then closed his eyes. He wrapped his hands around her and rolled so that she was laying to his side instead of underneath him. Looking up at the sky, he tucked her in close to him and took deep breaths.

Liz swallowed hard and nuzzled her head against his shoulder. She fit there, curved against his body under the sky and stars. She traced swirling designs over his shirt, feeling his warm skin through the fabric. He stilled her hand with his own and pulled her fingers to his lips. Liz closed her eyes as he kissed each one gently.

Max had his eyes closed but he was all to aware of how close she was to him. Every time she shifted it sent a spark through his body. But she was shifting a lot. “Hey.” he whispered. “Are you comfortable?”

“Yeah,” She said absently. “Except for..” she trailed off and dug underneath. She pulled out their temporary football and held it up in the air. She started to laugh. “I was laying on the ball.”

Max could feel her shaking with laughter beside him. It set off his own. “So who won?”

“We both did.” Liz tossed the shoe and snuggled closer.

TBC



Part 13

3:01 am

Max lay against the hard sand with one arm behind his head and the other wrapped around Liz. His eyes were to the black sky. He suspected Liz had fallen asleep but he didn’t want to move to find out. She was tucked against this body and Max could feel her warmth through his shirt. The temperature had dropped about ten degrees since earlier that nite. It didn’t bug Max but he could see goose-bumps rippling across Liz’s arms. The area they had spread the blanket out in was like a mini cove with rocks on all sides that blocked them from view of the rest of the beach. Max felt like it was their own piece of the world. For the first time, his mind was on nothing. He wasn’t thinking about his planet or his people or the welfare of Michael and Isabel. Laying there, searching the nite sky with Liz next to him, he was content. Liz stirred slightly when Max wrapped the edges of the blanket around them tighter.

“Like a little love burrito.” She murmured sleepily.

“What?” Max said.

“We make a little burrito.” She yawned and rubbed at her eyes. “What time is it?”

Max felt for his cell phone in his pocket and ignored the blinking message of five missed calls. “A little after 3 am.”

“Oh wow.” She sat up. “I didn’t realize it was so late.”

“Yeah.” Max straightened the back of her shirt when she sat up. “We dozed off.”

“Well, do you want to head back to Isabel’s?” Liz asked.

Max stared at her for a second. “No.” he said slowly. “I want to stay right here.”

Liz was caught by the look in his eye. Like he could go on looking at her like that forever. What was more intense was the way she was responding to it. She felt a warmth in her belly that was thawing her out. “It’s cold. It might get colder.”

“I want to see the sun rise with you here.” Max answered. “I’ll keep you warm.”

“Ooo.” Liz grinned. “Promise?”

Max tugged on the elbow she was bracing herself on so she collapsed on top of him. Kissing her nose, he whispered. “Promise.”

Liz nipped at his bottom lip lightly, teasing him. He went to pull her in closer and she dodged playfully and went back to nibbling on his throat. He growled low in his throat and made her smile. “Are you growling at me?”

“Yes.” Max said. “You’re teasing me.”

“Never been teased before, big man?” She laughed.

“A king is never teased.” Max said solemnly. A quick grin flashed as he started to go for her ribs when Max realized what he had just said. He quickly backtracked. “I mean..uh..”

“A king?” Liz narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know what all those OTHER girls you’ve been with have called you but you have yet to prove to me that you are a king.” She laughed afterwards.

Max shrugged and gave an inward groan. She had thought he was kidding. If she had thought he was being serious she never would have been laughing. Max wanted to feel relieved but instead he felt uncomfortable. There was so much about him she didn’t know. He had to keep repeating in his mind that it was for her own good. He was protecting her. And his people. He snapped back to attention when Liz poked him hard in the ribs.

“Hey. Where’d you go?” Liz propped her hands under her chin on his chest.

Max recovered with a half smile. “Sorry. I’m here.”

Liz sighed and turned so she was looking up at the sky. “Isn’t it amazing in one moment your whole world can change?”

Max smiled at her mood. She sounded like she was daydreaming.

“I mean, one minute you can be living life the way you always do, not being aware of the possibilities destiny has laid out for you. Then BAM! One seemingly insignificant thing can happen and you can’t look at the world the same way again.” Liz turned to see his face.

Max stroked a hand over her hair. “Like when I saw you tonite.”

Liz was quiet for a second. She traced a finger up his ribs and over his chin. “Exactly what I was thinking.”

“I’m not going to be the same after tonite, Liz. After meeting you and...feeling like this.” Max trailed off. “I didn’t think it was possible for me.”

“Me either.” Liz’s voice was barely a whisper over the crashing sound of the waves.

Max took her hand and turned so they were face to face, laying on their sides. “And after tonite I know I won’t feel this way again.”

Liz swallowed hard and nodded. He was saying everything she had been thinking all nite. Just laying there, caught in those amber eyes, the whole world passed away. She couldn’t hear the waves or feel the breeze over her bare arms. All she could feel was Max and how close they were. Her body molded to his. They had been made to lie together, two pieces of the same puzzle. She closed her eyes and leaned in, drinking in his lips, his breath, his soul. She couldn’t feel the cold anymore, just the rushing waves within her own body. Warm, thick waves of strength and heat she knew she was absorbing from him. She ran her hands down over his back, pulling at his shirt. She was desperate to feel his warm flesh under her fingertips. She was desperate to bring him in as close to her as humanly possible.

He moved solidly against her and sent sparks running through her body. She rolled so he was on top of her and she could feel his weight over her. Liz felt dizzy from the potency of his scent, the force of his kiss. He was tracing her hot skin with his fingers and every trail he made seemed to set a fire in her. She was burning inside.

Liz broke off the kiss to gasp at cool air and Max dipped low on her to leave a trail of wet kisses down her throat. She tilted her head back and sucked in more air. The barrage of images that raced through her could barely be acknowledged before she was sent careening through space. She was flying through those stars that had hung so low in the sky only minutes ago. Her body sang as he ran his fingers over her ribs, trailing down her stomach and along the hem of her jeans. Her fingers flew up to pull at his shirt and bring him in to kiss at the same time. When their mouths were fused together was when she felt the most alive.

The feel of hot skin against his own bare chest shocked Max into reality. How had their clothes come off? How could it have gotten his far already? Max leaned back to look at Liz. She wore arousal and desire on her face. Her skin and lips were a deep red from their heavy kisses. Max had never known desire like this before. He had never known what it was to want another person so deep inside your soul you might die if you don’t have them. Right now he wanted Liz more than he wanted his next breath. But he had to be sure.

“Liz?” His voice was rough. “Are you sure you want this?”

“Max.” Liz put a hand to his cheek. “I shouldn’t. This is crazy.” She pulled him back down to kiss softly.

“We barely know each other.” Max whispered.

“You’re leaving tomorrow.” Liz whispered as Max kissed low on her throat.

“I can’t help it.” Max murmured against her skin. She tasted sweet. “I want you.”

“Whatever happens tomorrow, Max, I don’t want any regrets. No regrets.” She said when he looked her in the eye.

“No regrets.” He echoed. His hands were at work again and the way she was responding to him was driving him crazy. She was so soft, the softest thing he had ever touched. Feeling her against his skin was the strongest aphrodisiac. Before Max knew what was happening, their mouths were together again and Max could no longer think.

Liz couldn’t see, only feel. She couldn’t hear anything around them, only sense. Her body seemed to sing with every stroke of Max’s hands. He was slowly undressing her, pulling gently at her pants hem, running his hands lightly over her stomach. Wherever his hands went, his mouth followed. Liz swallowed the cry dying to escape and moved restlessly underneath him. This was why she had been born. This was why she had met Max. This one moment, with the stars she could see under her eyelids, to the feel of his body so perfect over hers. This one moment. She had been made to feel this way.

Liz’s eyes flew open when she realized she was pulling at Max’s jeans. “Max, wait.”

Max froze and gasped for breath. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry Liz. It’s too fast.”

“No, no.” Liz almost wanted to laugh. Her body was almost shaking. “We just need,” She swallowed hard, “protection.”

“Protection, right.” Max wanted to curse and laugh at the same time. He didn’t have any human means of protection but he could protect her with his powers. “I can protect you. Don’t worry.”

Liz tilted her head back against the sand and closed her eyes. “I can’t worry when I’m with you. I trust you.” Her lips went back to his throat.

Max closed his eyes as he ran his hands down the sides of her body. He knew he could protect her with his powers, but he couldn’t concentrate. Liz was moving against him, igniting his body. He was responding against his will. His body was waking up, reacting to hers. He wanted to be inside her, feel her soul touching his. Max let out a deep moan and kissed her deeply. He was quickly losing control. Max pulled her up against him and took her body in a swift motion that had both crying out.

Liz couldn’t even hold on to reality. She was rocketing through space, her body being taken higher and higher until she was sure she would never see earth again. Every time she started to drift back towards earth, Max would take her to another level. Her body was trembling, sending waves crashing through her. She clung to Max like an anchor. Her eyes met his and they stared into each others eyes until fulfillment was a need building in both of them. The sensations running through her seemed to tangle and collide, making it impossible to even breathe. Max held her, his forehead against hers, kissing her lips, drinking her in as she flew. Max was nearing his own fulfillment rapidly and coaxed Liz’s body to join him. Liz felt wind screaming in her ears and felt like she was riding along with it. Before she could gain control, Max’s body shuddered with hers and they exploded together, quaking together before drifting back to earth.

Max fought the need to lose himself as they floated together and struggled with control. He needed to protect Liz. Placing a hand over her lower abdomen, Max kissed Liz to distract her from the soft glow warming her skin. She reacted as if he had shocked her and she shook heavily. Max gasped as the charge ran through him and blew into her. A power surge ran from his fingertips and was absorbed into her body. Max broke off the kiss as Liz cried out. He was sure he had hurt her until he saw the smile on her lips. Her body shook with the aftershock, still reeling from the fulfillment she had gained only seconds before.

Max shook his head in confusion. What was that charge? He wondered if that was simply a reaction to making love to a human, or if it was because he was trying to protect her. Whatever it was, it had shaken him to the core. Liz had her face buried in his neck and was kissing his skin lightly. Max turned his attention to her lips and let her wash over him.


TBC
Dreamers aren't hopeless romantics. They are romantics full of hope.

My fics:
Say Nothing
Moment to Breathe (Sequel to Ordinary Moment)
Ordinary Moment
http://www.roswellfanfic.com/viewtopic.php?t=3895
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SnowWhite22
Enthusiastic Roswellian
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Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2002 10:42 am
Location: So Cal

Parts 14-17

Post by SnowWhite22 »

Part 14

3:40 am

Liz wondered if she was ever going to be able to move again. Her body felt thick, weighted, as if she had suddenly become a part of the sand instead of just laying on top of it. There was something wonderful in the heavy way her body was feeling. The aftershock of the way Max had touched her, the way he had made her body fly were still running through her. She could feel the charge from her fulfillment at the tips of her fingers, tingling through her legs. Liz rolled her neck against the blanket and smiled. Max was trailing his fingers over her bare arms and she wasn’t sure if the chills were coming from the cool night air or from the way he was teasing her skin with his lips. Eyes closed, she curled towards him and let out a sigh.

“Are you okay?” Max asked.

“Hmmm?” It was the first words they had said since they had made love. “Yeah.” Liz said lazily. “I’m fine.”

“Just fine?” Max kissed her shoulder.

“Maybe a little more than fine.” Liz rolled on to her side to face him. “Max, I’ve never experienced anything like that. That was.almost,” Liz searched for the words. “Out of this world.”

Max quickly looked down at their joined hands. He couldn’t meet her in the eye. “You aren’t regretting it?”

“No!” Liz almost sat up but his arms kept her in place. She bit her lip. “Are you?”

Max didn’t respond at first. He threaded his fingers through the loose ends of her hair fanned out over the blanket. He kissed her softly, barely grazing her lips. “No.” His voice was a whisper.

“Oh.” Liz brought a hand up to his face. “Remember? I said no regrets. We are here because we want to be, right?”

“Right...” Max wished he could just take her in his arms and stay like that. He could picture it so easily it was almost painful to think of reality. He could imagine himself laying with Liz beside him, morning after morning. Max shoved the thought out of his head. If he couldn’t have all the mornings with her, at least he could take this one. Max pulled her in so her head was tucked under his chin. He could feel her relaxing against him and willed himself to do the same. Just feeling her against him like this had a calming effect on him. Max closed his eyes and could smell her hair, salty like the air around them. Just five minutes like this, he thought. We can just lie here like this for five minutes and the world will go away.

Liz felt the instant Max was asleep. He looked so serious in his sleep, same as when he was awake. As if he was trying to carry the world’s problems on his own shoulders. The closeness they shared on that beach was unlike anything she had ever shared with another person, but she still felt there was more to him. There was a part of him he wasn’t going to share this nite and she had to struggle to be okay with that. It was difficult to know her place with him. After their intimacy, she was ready to give everything to him, but knew he wasn’t ready to do the same.

But she could have this. She could take these moments and tomorrow she could turn them into more. She wasn’t sure how yet but how could she be satisfied with just one nite? He had to feel the same. She smiled at that. It was so simple to relax with his arms around her and the energy of their love making keeping her warm. Her last thought before falling asleep was how could she face another morning without him beside her?

5:37 am

Max woke as the last of the stars were winking out. The sky had turned to violet as the sun barely stretched behind them. Automatically Max’s eyes scanned the sky for the V constellation that marked his planet. He was always able to spot it first in the sky. It was low over the black water, ready to dip low into the ocean. His eyes trained on it, Max wished almost violently for the ability to change anything. The situation, the circumstances that had led up to this one moment. But he knew there was nothing he could change. His life had been leading up to the next 48 hours. His own desires didn’t matter, not in the long run. There was more at stake than just his own happiness. No one knew that better than him.

Max rubbed at his eyes and scanned the rest of the sky. Violet was giving way to rosy pink as the sun climbed higher. Liz was still breathing deeply. His chest tightened at the sight of her. The connection they had made only hours before was nothing to the image of her sleeping beside him. They had barely moved throughout the nite, their foreheads pressed together as they slept. He hadn’t thought it was possible to sleep like that, but there were a lot of things that had happened in the past ten hours he had never dreamed possible.

Liz moaned in her sleep and tucked one leg over his. Max quickly ran his fingers over her shoulder and pulled the blanket down an inch when something caught his eye. Liz’s stomach, her neck, her chest were covered in light streaks. They shimmered in the morning light. Max almost swore out loud. There was no way he could have made love with a human without some alien consequences. Everywhere he had kissed her was now slightly glowing. Moving quickly, Max held his hand over her body and removed the streaks illuminating her body. Liz shifted lightly and seemed to stir in her sleep. Keeping his eyes on her face to make sure she didn’t wake up, Max finished running his hands over her legs and up over her stomach. When the last of them had faded, he relaxed again and berated himself for not thinking of something like this happening ahead of time.

What had he been thinking? He hadn’t been thinking of anything accept for her, he reminded himself. She had overwhelmed him beyond control. But the way their bodies had reacted together had thrown him. Like the charge that had raced through him and into her. He didn’t know if it was a reaction to his protection of her or if it was simply the way their bodies reacted together due to the fact that they weren’t compatible. He shook that thought off. Their compatibility wasn’t an issue. Making love with Liz was like awakening his soul. It had never been like that with Tess. With Tess it had simply been a means to an end. They had done it because that was the way he believed it was supposed to be. But with Liz, every sensation, every touch was like reaching something inside that he hadn’t known existed.

Then what had the charge been? At least Liz hadn’t noticed it. She probably thought it was part of the orgasm that had been racing though her at the same moment. He could be thankful for that. There was no way he would have been able to logically explain what had happened. He didn’t even understand it himself. Max’s attention was averted when Liz’s arms found his chest. She tightened her grip on him into a hug and sighed.

“Mmm.” Liz yawned without opening her eyes. “I feel as if my whole body is glowing.”

Max thanked whoever was watching out for them she didn’t know how accurate her words were. Giving her one more quick look over, Max leaned in and lightly kissed her lips.

Liz opened her eyes as he was slowly drawing away. Her eyes locked on his, she smiled and ran a hand through his hair. “Is it morning?”

“Barely.” Max said. He leaned his head back to the see the streaks of deep red and orange beginning to spread over the sky.

“I can’t believe we spent the whole nite out here. I probably have sand in places I don‘t even want to think about.” Liz yawned again and stretched her back. Reaching for the blanket, she pulled it tighter around the two of them. “I thought we would freeze.”

“Told you I would keep you warm.” Max murmured. He couldn’t explain the lump in his throat. It felt hard to even breathe. She was so beautiful in the morning light.

Liz closed her eyes and smiled again. “Mmm...you did good.” She brushed her hair off her face and sat up, holding the blanket against her. The waves were crashing lightly over the sand and the water glistened with the morning rays. “I’ve never seen the ocean at sunrise before. It’s amazing.”

“You’re amazing.” Max said before he could stop himself. He swallowed hard when Liz turned to look at him. “Liz, I...”

“Hey.” Liz put a hand to his cheek. “Why are you so serious?”

“I just...” Max broke off. He couldn’t even think of the words to express the way his heart was pounding. He shook his head. “I’m just really happy you stayed with me tonite.”

“Me too.” Liz said softly and turned to look back at the sky. While the water reflected the deep oranges from the lightening sky, the sky directly over the water was still an indigo blue. “You can still see the stars.”

Max tightened his hold on her fingers. The new day was approaching fast and he wanted to take all it had to offer. He had been telling himself he only had this one night with her. But why? He was king. It was he who decided his fate, not anyone else. Why should he give up all he had on Earth if he could so clearly see a life here with Liz? Waking with her, seeing her smiles, hearing the wonder in her voice as she experienced the meaningless moments in life. He had never been able to picture his return to Antar as clearly as he could see building a life here with Liz. That had to count for something. What were responsibilities he knew nothing about compared to the way Liz made him feel more like a man. She made him feel human. That was something he hadn’t felt in a very long time. He wasn’t ready to give it up. He wasn‘t ready to give her up. “Liz, I have to ask you something.”

“Look! Isn’t that the star you showed me last nite? The one really low in the sky?” Liz interrupted him.

“What?” Max followed her gaze to the sky. His heart sank. She was pointing at the V constellation, her finger directly aimed at Antar. It was now almost touching the water‘s surface in the distance. “Oh. Yeah.”

“That bottom star. The one at the bottom of the V shape? Isn’t that the one you told me the story about?” Liz strained to look at it and missed the expression on Max’s face.

“Yeah.”

“I think I had a dream about it last nite.” Liz said.

“Really?” Max sat up next to her.

“Yeah.” Liz grinned and shrugged. “Something about the king and umm...his bride I think. He went back to his home and there was a war but he won and saved his people. There was a lot of celebration. But he was sad. I just remember him feeling really sad. It was like I was the king and I could feel what he was feeling.” Liz shook off the chill that had come over her and leaned in closer to him. “Weird, huh?”

Max’s stomach went icy, then turned to stone. “Yeah” he echoed. “Weird.”

“Oh my god! Look at that!” Liz pointed at the V constellation that suddenly jumped to life. Bright streaks traced the sky to be buried beneath the ocean’s horizon. “What is that? They look like meteors.”

Max leaned forward and braced his hands against the cold sand. His fingers dug into the sand as he watched the violet sky illuminate from the vivid streaks coming from his constellation. He knew this phenomena happened only once ever four years. It was almost time. The granolith would be fully functional within the next 36 hours. He had to get back to Roswell. It was a sign. His place wasn’t here on Earth. It was there, far off in the sky, light years away from here. It was time he came to terms with that. Stiffly, Max grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head.

“It’s a meteor shower.” Max told Liz. “Happens every four years.”

“How do you know that?” Liz asked playfully.

Max wanted to smile but turned away instead. “I know a lot about astronomy. Here.” He handed her a few of her scattered clothes.

Liz frowned. “Thanks.” She leaned in and ran a hand over his shoulder. “Maybe we should curl back up and keep each other warm.”

Max fought back the need to stroke a hand over her hair. He kissed her once, then pulled away. “I uh...gotta walk for a minute. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.” Liz couldn’t explain the sudden wariness she felt. When Max ducked behind the rocks blocking their view of the rest of the beach, Liz pulled her clothes back on and settled on the blanket, watching the last of the meteors fade away.

TBC



Part 15

6:02 am

By the time Max came back to Liz, the sky had faded from rosy orange to light blue. The stars were barely a memory over the ocean. Liz looked up at him, her arms hugging her knees. “Hey, where did you go?”

“To use the bathroom and to check my messages.” Max got down on his knees. “Isabel and Michael blew up my phone last nite.”

“Oh.” Liz bit her lip. “Were they really mad?”

Furious, he thought, but just shrugged in response. “Not really. Just confused on why we took off.”

“Oh.” Liz reached out to take his hand in hers. “Did you call them?”

“No.” Max let her toy with his fingers for a few seconds, then gently pulled his hand away. His heart cracked when he saw the confusion on her face. Max forced a smile and sat all the way down next to her on the blanket. His fingers itched to take her into his arms, so he stuck them in his pockets. “I just figured I’d talk to them when we get back.”

“Right. When we get back.” Liz tried to shake off the feeling that Max was putting up a wall, but the coldness in the air was unmistakable. She tried a different tactic. Turning to face him, she smiled coyly. “You weren’t thinking of going back too soon, were you? I was thinking maybe some more sand football.”

Max knew how easy it would be to just lean forward and take her in his arms again. He could still taste her on his lips. But the signs were clear. He had seen the meteors marking the granolith’s return with his own eyes. The nite was over. It was time to face reality, no matter how much it killed him. “I wish we could, but we should head back soon. Isabel, Michael and I have to leave this afternoon.”

Liz stared at him for a few seconds, then shrugged. “Right. I have to leave this afternoon too. We should go.”

“Right.” Max stood and brushed off his jeans. There was nothing more he wanted to do than stay right here in their cove. Once they stepped out into the real world, he would only have the memories of their nite together. He dreaded the next few steps.

Liz watched him carefully as he folded up the blanket and picked up their things. He seemed to be paying very close attention to what his hands were doing. “Hey, are you okay?”

Max looked up at her quickly and then turned back to the blanket. “I’m fine.”

“Fine.” Liz nodded and shook her head. Following him up the beach, she walked a few steps behind him and kept her gaze on the water. Whatever heat they had shared hours before was cold now. Liz could almost taste the chill in her mouth. She fought back the urge to question him further. He was his own person. He could act and say anything he wanted. She had no control over him. However he acted should have no bearing over her or her feelings.

Even as she was thinking it, Liz knew she was fooling herself. She craved the way he had looked at her earlier. Her arms almost tingled with the need to have him beside her. The way he was acting now, it was if they hadn’t shared the intimacy she could still feel in her blood. It was going to drive her crazy if she didn’t find out why he was acting this way.

“Max,” Liz pulled on his arm as he started up the beach. “Wait.”

“What?” Max found it hard to even look at her. Every time he did he saw the confusion and wariness she was trying to control. She wasn’t stupid. She knew he was pulling away but Max couldn’t think of any other way to let her go. Once they got back to Isabel’s apartment, the fantasy was over. He hated himself for letting things get this far. He had been to wrapped up in her, in the moments they had together to think of this morning. Guilt seeped in. He had taken advantage of her. By the time they got back to the car, she would realize that. He shifted the blanket to the other arm and slowed to a stop, looking out over the water.

“You aren’t regretting what happened tonite, are you?” Liz hated she even had to ask.

“No.” Max shrugged. “I had fun.”

“Fun?” Liz repeated.

Max swallowed the need to take that look out of her eye. Confusion was giving way to hurt. Soon hurt would turn to anger and then Max knew she would be gone. Then she could go on with her life, even if he would never be able to go one with his. He had to give her this. He looked at her a moment and then tried for a smile. “Yeah, fun. Didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah..” Liz trailed off. When his eyes wandered over the water again she got in his line of vision. “But fun isn’t the word I would use to describe tonite.”

Max leaned back against a rock. He felt sick to his stomach. “Oh. Sorry. What word would you use?”

“I can’t think of just one.” Liz took a step closer. “So many things were indescribable.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Max tightened his grip on the blanket to keep from making a fist. He had to step away from her or he was going to grab her and never let go. He shoved off the rock and started back towards the car again.

Liz held back, stung. He sounded so nonchalant. He wasn’t even looking at her the same way. “How would you describe tonite?” She called out to his back.

Max stopped and fixated his eyes on the ridge of sand ahead. He had to get a grip on himself before turning around or she would read everything on his face. He had to turn away. Once he was gone, she would be glad. And safe. She has to be safe, he thought to himself. I have to keep her safe. This is the only way. Taking a deep breath, he shrugged and turned slowly.

Liz was standing with her shoes in one hand and the other hand holding her hair out of her eyes. The wind was catching the ends of her hair and making them dance. Her eyes were steady on him and even from the distance between them, Max could see that they were bright. She looked like she was waiting for him to smile, or start laughing, or something that would say he was just joking. But he couldn’t give her that. He set his mouth in a firm line and took a few steps towards her again. When there was less than two feet between them, he put the blanket down on the sand.

“I think I know what’s going on here.” Max started as he hooked his thumbs in his pockets. “The nite’s over. You’re feeling a little insecure about sleeping with some guy you barely know. Hey, it’s okay. You did great.”

Liz went white. She looked like she had been stunned. She took a step back.

“I mean,” Max had to put his hands in his pockets to keep them from shaking. “Better than I expected. I never thought I would get laid tonite.”

“Stop it.” Liz whispered. “You don’t mean that.”

“Mean what?” Max folded his arms over his chest and dropped his gaze to the ground.

“Why are you saying these things?” Liz felt sick. She didn’t know this voice. These words were coming from a stranger.

Max shrugged and turned away again. His chest felt tight. Shrugging again, he tried to smile but it came out a lopsided. Liz recoiled another step and kept her eyes on his face.

“Answer me.” She said softly. “Why are you doing this? Why are you suddenly acting so different?”

“Hey, I’m just being me. But you don’t really know me, do you?” Max wanted to choke on the words.

“I know you.” Liz nodded. “This isn’t you.”

“This is me, babe. We just met, remember? We hung out, had a few laughs, the sex was great. But what more did you expect?” Max picked the blanket up again off the ground to keep his hands busy.

“But what about...” Liz couldn’t wrap her mind around his words. Her chest felt like it was screaming. This couldn’t be true. She couldn’t have been so wrong about him. Her heart had never been so sure about anything as it was when they were together. Now it was breaking. “What about everything you said tonite? You said so many things. About me. About us.”

Max felt his throat burning but couldn’t swallow. The pain in her eye was gripping him like a vice. Her eyes were pleading with him to stop. “I got caught up in the moment. I don’t even remember half the things I said tonite.” It’s not true! He wanted to scream. [/I]I’ll never forget any of it.[/I]

“No.” Liz started shaking her head. “No, you’re lying.”

“Sorry.” Max shifted impatiently. “Sorry I have to let you down like this, but I just thought you were cute. I wanted to see what you would be like in bed.”

“Stop it!” Liz yelled. “Stop lying to me!”

“I’m not lying!” Max couldn’t stop himself from yelling back. “Finally I’m telling you the truth!”

“No!” Liz put her hands over her ears. “Why?” She took a step closer to him. Tears were burning the back of her lids but she didn’t let them fall. “Why are you doing this?”

Max felt his soul crack with the heartbreak in her voice. The way she was looking at him was killing him. He turned towards the ocean again. “I’m not doing anything. What do you want from me?”

“If you are so freaking psychic, you know what I want! Tell me the truth! ” She screamed at him. She couldn’t hold back anymore. She wrapped her arms around her middle and held on.

“The truth is you were a cute girl that I thought I could get lucky with.” Max choked out. He was thankful she was staring at his profile instead of his eyes. Every word was devastating him. “Don’t get all bent out of shape. I’ll never forget this trip, thanks to you. I’ll be sure to bring all my friends next time so they can see how fun San Francisco girls are.”

“Bastard!” Liz slapped him across the face and raced up the beach. Max reeled back, stunned, then chased after her. She was almost to the car when he whirled her around. She slapped him again and fought against him. “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! You freak! How can you be like this? You aren’t even human!”

Max let her go so she stumbled back against the car door. She was gripping the side mirror, her shoulders heaving from anger and panting breaths. The tears that were on her cheeks were hot and Max felt like she was almost burning him. But when she looked up at him, her eyes were dead cold. “No one with a shred of humanity would treat another like this.” She said so low he could barely hear her. “How could I ever let you touch me?”

Her words sliced through him. Max cleared his throat and had to stare off into the distance. If he looked at her it would destroy him. “Well, you did. I didn’t make you do anything. Sorry it had to end like this.”

“I’m sorry for a lot of things. Now.” Liz wiped the tears from her eyes and went to the driver’s side of the car.

TBC



“Firecracker” by Buffalo Creek

Part 16

6:43 am

The lines on the highway were blurring together. Liz blinked a few times but she couldn’t seem to focus on the road. She was staring so hard at the road she couldn’t even see it anymore. Max sat in the front seat next to her, but the distance between them seemed to grow by oceans with each passing mile. Not like when they had first driven off together. Then, they had been holding hands, sharing small glances, enjoying each other’s silence. Now, the silence seemed to choke them. Liz grabbed blindly in the backseat for an unlabeled CD and shoved it in the player. Even as the silence turned to strumming guitar, Liz didn’t feel anymore at ease with having Max so close to her.

She had to restrain herself from just leaving him there standing in the beach parking lot. It would have served him right. But Liz couldn’t justify leaving him there when she knew that Isabel was expecting him at home. No matter how much of a shock it had come when Max had shown his true nature, Liz liked Isabel. She wasn’t going to leave her brother stranded, even if he was, now, a complete stranger.

His true nature. His true nature. Liz heard herself thinking the words but couldn’t bring herself to believe them. He had been right when he had said cruelly that she didn’t really know him. The reality of their situation had hit her so hard Liz felt physically ill from it. All in one moment, she had went from flying in a fantasy to crashing to the ground. And the thing that kept running through her head was “Why?”

No matter how she tried, she couldn’t answer it. Liz was a logical girl. She knew how to work through problems and look at angles of a situation. But this time, she couldn’t use her head. No data or facts were going to solve the ache in her chest. Because this time the problem was with her heart. For the first time, her heart was ruling over her head.

So many things didn’t add up. The way Max had pulled away from her when they first started to become close, the way he seemed to look at her as if he was figuring out all the world’s problems. The way he made her feel when they touched..the things she saw. Stars, his past. It was like being in his soul. Liz sat up straighter in the seat and pulled a strand of hair out of her eyes. She had actually seen things. They hadn’t been a part of her imagination. She had experienced things when she and Max had kissed. When they made love it had almost been a barrage of images. Had sex, she corrected herself. Not made love. Now that she felt cold inside, the whole nite spun through her head. What was it about him that made her see things? Was it true he was psychic? She had never gotten a straight answer out of him.

Instead of feeling mystified and dazed by these unexplainable things as she had earlier, she was now apprehensive. It made her uneasy to just be this close to him. He WAS a complete stranger to her. His words from the beach played over and over in her head, drowning out the sound of the music. Liz shuddered and turned the music up louder.

“When the roses start to hang their heads
that’s when you need new flowers for your vase

But the day I found out I couldn’t be your man
I lost one thing that I might not replace

And I’d just like to thank you
For letting me hang around


Max stared out the window. He couldn’t even bring himself to look over at Liz. The tall trees would soon be replaced by freeway and Max knew they were going to be back in Palo Alto soon. They were going to be back at Isabel’s apartment and he would have to say good-bye to Liz forever. Max shook his head. There were no good-byes for them. Liz had closed off. She wouldn’t look at him, wouldn’t acknowledge that he was sitting less than a foot away from her. He was lucky she had even let him back in the car. He wouldn’t have blamed her for leaving him there in Half Moon Bay. He didn’t deserve to be this close to her.

Max knew he was doing the right thing, but for the first time in his life he actually questioned what the right thing was. He had never questioned the right path before, just his own judgment in being the one to determine it. He knew the right thing was to let Liz go on with her life as if he had never been a part of it. He had been far too selfish in the first place. He should have never let things go as far as they had. But he had actually been able to delusion himself into thinking maybe he had a chance at a normal life. It had taken this one girl only one moment to show him what life on Earth could be. But that didn’t matter now. He gave it up when he lied to her as the new day started. He got his wish. He saw the sun rise with her. And had lost the only thing that ever made him feel human.

Love’s a fire burning nuclear reactor
Always seem to wind up paying for it after
Lift this strand, never end
I just watched it blow up in my hand
Such a firecracker

It’s such a firecracker
It’s such a firecracker
It’s such a firecracker


Max’s body was wound like a tight string. He could feel himself almost vibrating from it. He needed to get away from her. He needed to be where he couldn’t smell the sea still in her hair or imagine the way her skin felt like velvet against his own. Or the way she had felt when they had made love. Max groaned and leaned his head against the window. It took everything in him not to have her pull the car over so he could show her the way he truly felt.

Even though I still get lonely
I get through with you around
I bet you get tired of hearing songs about you
But you might be getting used to that by now.

Not so very sorry
There’s nothing that I hate quite like sorrow on your brow.


The look in her eye when she slapped him made him cringe. She was going to leave hating him. He was going to have to live with it. He had done it to her. He had made her hate him so that he could feel okay with leaving. But she was going to be safe when he left. There would be no one after her, no one to connect her with aliens. He would be a memory in her mind.

Have I ever told you you’re my benefactor?
I get richer every [time] I hear your laughter
When the money’s tight and it’s late at nite
Pretty soon I’ll sleep alright
You’re such a firecracker

You’re such a firecracker
You’re such a firecracker
You’re such a firecracker

When the money’s tight and it’s late at nite
Pretty soon I’ll sleep alright
You’re such a firecracker


When he went back to his planet, she would be the reason he felt hope. He had wondered, after the death of his son, why he was even bothering with any of it; saving a world that was no longer his, making an existence in a world he didn’t belong in either. There was no place he knew to be his. Until Liz. Until the moment he had seen her, felt her in his heart. Then he knew he was home. In a few hours, he would leave home forever. But he would always have the memory. That would have to be enough to get him through. Even though she would hate him after he left, he would get through. He had to make sure that she would too.

Max turned sideways in the seat and turned the radio off. Liz stiffened as he did but didn’t say anything. Max cleared his throat. “I like that song. Who was that?”

“Buffalo Creek.” Liz answered in a monotone voice. “They play at Lincoln’s club.”

“Oh.” Max let a few seconds go by. “Are you okay?”

“Why do you care?”

Max sucked in a breath. “I deserved that.”

Liz didn’t say anything in response.

“Liz, I just want you to know that..”

“You know what, Max?” Liz finally turned to look at him. “I really don’t care what you want me to know. Got it? I really don’t care about anything you have to say at all.”

Max stared at her for a few seconds. “I’m sorry.” He mumbled.

“What?” Liz snapped.

“I’m sorry.” he said again slowly. “I didn’t mean for things to get this far.”

“I don’t believe you.” Liz shot back. “Which Max am I talking to now? The one who just wanted to have fun? Or the one who convinced me in the middle of San Francisco to run like our lives depended on it? Or is this some other Max I haven’t met yet?”

“I..”

“No. Just stop!” Liz gripped the wheel tighter. “God, I am so stupid for ever trusting you. You can’t even give me a straight answer on anything! I can’t believe I let myself even near you.”

Don’t say that! Max screamed in his head. I can’t let you believe that is me!

Liz felt a burning in her throat but swallowed hard to get rid of it. She was done letting this person rule her emotions. Someone she had known for barely 12 hours? No. No. “No!” She finally said out loud.

“No what?” Max asked quietly.

“Don’t talk to me.” Liz raged. “I don’t want to talk to you!”

“Liz, look out!”

Liz’s attention snapped back to the road where the car was swerving closer and closer to the lane of oncoming traffic. Liz yanked the wheel hard to right the car and spun out of the oncoming lane back into their own. Overcorrecting, she fishtailed and the car skid across their lane and into the guard railing. Slamming on the brakes, Liz lost control of the wheel and the car skid against the railing before screeching to a halt against a post.

TBC



Part 17

6:50 am

The whole world seemed still. Max sat stunned for a second before regaining his senses. The silence in the air was punctuated by his own heavy breaths and the ringing in his ears. He had hit his head against the window and was bleeding but he knew he wasn’t seriously hurt. Liz. Liz. Max shook himself out of his daze and tried to unfasten his seat belt. He couldn’t even hear her breathing. Liz. Liz.

“Liz? Liz? Are you okay?” Max leaned over and pulled her face into his hands. She seemed dazed but her eyes were wide open. Max shook her. “Liz? Can you hear me?”

“I..” Liz blinked a few times and Max focused on the gash on her on her shoulder. Blood was beginning to ooze on to her shirt. The seat belt must have cut into her deep when they slammed against the guardrail. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he pretended to wipe at the blood while healing her. She was fixated on his eyes, her pupils large and steady. She sucked in a large gulp of air and winced. Her body was starting to shake and Max took that as a good sign that she was coming out of shock. “What happened?”

“We hit the side of the road.” He wanted to pull her against him but if she was hurt he didn’t want to hurt her further. Max checked her for other injuries but she seemed okay, just stunned. “Are you hurt?”

“My shoulder..” Liz trailed off while rubbing at her shoulder. She looked down. “I’m bleeding.”

“No.” Max was pulling at her seat belt and wiping the blood away before she could spot it. “That’s from me. See?” He showed her the blood on his hand from his forehead.

“Oh my God. We crashed. Max, you’re hurt!” Liz sat up and put a hand to his forehead.

“No, I’m okay. It’s just a little scratch.” Max tried to take her hand in his but she pulled away and shoved out of the car.

Liz stumbled out the door and onto the pavement. She crouched down on the ground and braced herself against the concrete. Her mind was spinning but her senses were slowly starting to come back. Her body was beginning to ache. Liz rubbed at her shoulder again. It hurt like fire but she wasn’t cut at all. Had all the blood on her shoulder really come from where Max had been holding her? Liz never became queasy when it came to blood before, but now it was making her stomach lurch. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Max came around the side of the car and crouched down next to her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Liz said with her eyes closed. “I just...I just need a minute.”

“Okay.” Max stayed crouched down next to her.

Liz put one hand on his shoulder to support her weight and swallowed hard. “I’m okay. Just a little shaken.”

“We hit pretty hard. Are you sure you’re okay?” Max tried to get in her line of vision but she pushed off his shoulder and stood up.

“Yes.” Liz threw her head back and shook herself. She reached for Max‘s forehead. “That cut must have been bad to have so much blood. Let me look...”

“No.” Max ducked away. “I’m fine.”

Liz froze. “I’m sorry.” She said stiffly.

Max closed his eyes when she walked around to the other side of the car. He couldn’t have let her examine him. There was barely a cut left to heal. Then she would start asking questions, he would have to explain why the gash over his forehead really was just a scratch now, then...Max fisted his hands and shoved them into his pockets. Spinning around, he came around to where Liz was examining the front end of the Plymouth.

For as hard as they had hit, there was little damage to the car. Liz ran her hand over the side paneling where long gashes had cut into the paint but had left the body of the car intact. She gave a sigh and checked the rear. “Linc is going to kill me.”

“He’ll understand, won’t he?” Max asked.

“Sure. Just like he understands why I borrowed it in the first place.”

“I’ll help pay for it.” Max supplied.

“Don’t bother.” Liz said as she walked back over to the driver’s side. “I’ll take care of it.”

Max watched her as she ducked into the car. “Hey, are you sure you are okay to drive after that?”

“I’m fine.” Liz said again. “Right now I just want to get home and forget this whole nite ever happened. So you can stand out here on the side of the road or you can get in and do the same.”

Stung, Max wordlessly got into the front seat.

7:11 am

Liz pulled into her complex and shut off the engine. They sat silently in the front seat, each waiting for the other to speak. The morning air was still a mist over the grass and Liz knew at home in Southern California her mom would be getting up to make coffee. She missed her parents right then. She wanted to curl up in her old bed and watch movies with Maria. She wanted to come downstairs and see people she could trust, not strangers who had overwhelming effects on her.

Finally Liz looked over at Max. “Just tell me one thing, Max.”

“What?”

“Was it all really a lie? Did you really say everything you said tonite just so we would sleep together?” Liz had her hands draped over the steering wheel and was resting her chin on them.

Max was staring up at Isabel’s apartment. The shades were drawn down but he knew Isabel was probably up, waiting for him. “Why does it matter?”

“It matters because I have never been so wrong about one person in my entire life.” Liz said slowly. “It matters because I...never mind.”

“No. Never mind what?” Max turned to face her.

Liz looked at him at him coldly. “I felt things tonite I had never known true. And if it’s all a lie then I want to know.”

Max couldn’t look her in the eye. Everything she said came out so detached. All the warmth, the life in her voice was dead. Max blew out a sigh and grabbed for the car handle. “I wish I could give you what you want, Liz. “

He shoved the door open and stepped out into the cold morning air. Before stepping all the way out, he turned back to her. She was staring after him, her hair hanging just over her eyes. Max wanted to freeze the moment before he had to walk away forever. Max pulled a strand of hair out of her eyes. “Good-bye Liz.”

Liz waited until the door was shut and Max was on the stair before dropping her head onto the steering wheel. In that last moment, he had looked at her the way he had when they first saw each other and her heart had actually leapt into her throat. But then he had walked away and Liz couldn’t feel anything anymore. Not pain, not hope. Emotion wasn’t what caused the tears to fall onto the vinyl of the car seat. But they ran, nonetheless, and Liz couldn’t bring herself to stop them.

7:29 am

The sound of water hitting the tile in her bathroom filled the apartment. Liz was grateful for any sound right now. Her empty apartment felt huge and solitary. Undressing methodically in her bedroom, Liz stared at herself in the full length closet mirror as the shower warmed up.

Was she really the same girl who less than 12 hours earlier had been so naïve? She had been on a roller coaster for the last few hours and now that it had stopped, Liz felt dizzy, shaken. Like she had been living a whole lifetime in the span of one nite. One moment she was Liz Parker, honor student and friend. The next moment she was Liz Parker, lover, soul mate and cast away. It was almost too much to take in all at once. And all because she had met someone like Max Evans. No, not someone like[/I[ Max Evans. She had met Max Evans. There was never going to be anyone like him again. She knew the passion, the hope and especially the pain would never be recreated in her.

Liz pulled off her top and went to unfasten her bra when something in the mirror caught her eye. Walking closer, she wiped at the glass but the image wouldn’t come off. Liz leaned in closer. Her shoulder in the mirror was glowing. Liz rubbed harder. Liz looked down and stared. It wasn’t the mirror. Her skin, just above her chest where she had been sore from the seat belt was glowing. The skin felt heated and Liz could see the outline of a glowing handprint. Liz brought her fingers to it and was sent into shock from the electricity running through her. Liz fell back against the closet and screamed.

TBC
Dreamers aren't hopeless romantics. They are romantics full of hope.

My fics:
Say Nothing
Moment to Breathe (Sequel to Ordinary Moment)
Ordinary Moment
http://www.roswellfanfic.com/viewtopic.php?t=3895
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SnowWhite22
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Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2002 10:42 am
Location: So Cal

Ordinary Moment 18-Conclusion

Post by SnowWhite22 »

Part 18

7:35 am

“You call me reckless? What the hell were you thinking?” Michael raged.

Max lifted his head off of his hands and shrugged. “I wasn’t.” He put his head back down.

“No shit! You call yourself our leader? You could have exposed us all!” Michael spun around.

Isabel shoved away from the kitchen table and sat beside Max on the couch. “All right. Enough.”

“Enough? Enough? There’s never going to be enough to make up for what he did!” Michael shot at her.

“I said enough!” Isabel put her arm around Max’s bent shoulders. “He knows he screwed up.”

“That’s the understatement of a lifetime.“ Michael said against clenched teeth. “How can you defend him?”

Isabel bent her head down low. “Max, are you okay?”

“No.” Max closed his eyes. All he could see was the way Liz had looked at him, her eyes so cold, her body hunched away from him in the car. “I hurt her, Isabel. I didn’t want to.”

“What do you mean you hurt her?” Michael stood in front of him with his arms crossed.

“I mean I hurt her!” Max looked up suddenly and Michael stepped back. “I hid who I am, WHAT I am from her and I hurt her. All so we could protect our precious secret. So I didn’t tell, Michael. I know that’s what you are dying to know. No, she doesn’t know I am an alien.”

“Well, that’s something at least.” Michael said in a low voice.

Isabel turned Max so that he was facing her. “What do you mean you hurt her? What did you do?”

Max needed to move, to grip something, to do something to get rid of this burning rage inside his gut. He shoved off the couch and paced the room. “It doesn’t matter now. She never wants to see me again.”

“Why?” Isabel prompted.

“Because I lied to her.” Max suddenly spun around. “I had to. Otherwise I was going to stay with her and she would be in danger. So I told her it was just an one nite stand.”

“Stay? What the hell are you talking about? Stay with her?” Michael got in his face. “You don’t even know this chick!”

“I know her better than I know myself!” Max stood eye to eye with Michael. “And she knows me.”

“Oh my God.” Isabel said slowly. “You had sex with her.”

Max glanced down at Isabel, then back at Michael.

Michael stared at Max. “You had sex with her? Are you crazy? Do you know what could have happened?”

“I protected her.” Max narrowed his eyes. “I don’t have to justify myself to you. I did what I wanted to, for once. And I’m not sorry.”

Isabel put her hands to her head. “Okay, just calm down. Michael, sit down.”

“Calm down. Right. When our king is willing to go sleep with any girl that comes along.” Michael lowered himself into an armchair.

Max grabbed him by his shirt and hauled him up to his eye level. “It wasn’t like that, got it? Not with her. We were meant to be.”

“Do you hear yourself?” Michael pried Max’s hands off his shirt. “You weren’t meant to be with her. You’re meant to be back at home, saving our world.”

“Don’t tell me what I am meant to do.” Max lunged for Michael again when the front door slammed open.

Liz charged through the front door. Max let go of Michael and stared at Liz. She looked like a wild animal, cheeks flushed, her eyes raging. “Liz, what...”

“What did you do to me?” Liz cornered Max against the wall. “Who the hell are you?”

Max looked out the corner of his eye at Michael, then back at Liz. “What did I do to you?”

“What the hell did you do to me!” Liz yanked at the sleeve of her shirt until her shoulder was bare. The glowing handprint lit up her face. “You touched me and now I...I...I’m glowing! What are you?”

“Liz, calm down.” Max went to put his arms on her shoulders but she backed away into a coffee table.

“I can explain.” Max kept his distance.

“You can explain why my skin has a handprint on it? You can explain why when we kiss I can see your past? Or why you suddenly went from telling me how much I meant to you to telling me that you had lied to me?” Liz’s voice shook but she didn’t move.

Max looked at Isabel out of the corner of his eye. She had risen from the couch and was standing with Michael, both watching Liz as if they were waiting for her to turn on them too.

Liz started to pace around the living room. “It’s not possible. Nothing from tonite is possible. I thought I was crazy. But I’m not. I’m not imagining it. I saw your son. You touched me after the accident and now I’m glowing. The accident..” Liz stopped suddenly and turned to Max. She approached him slowly, her eyes narrowed. Max backed up against the wall.

Liz grabbed his arms and pulled his sleeves up. “Where are they?”

“Where are what?” Max asked.

“Your bruises. Your cuts. Let me see your eye.” Liz demanded. She brushed his hair back roughly and Max winced. “They are gone. How did that happen? We were in the same accident less than an hour ago.”

“They healed.” Max said slowly and stood straight against the wall. Liz dropped his arm and backed away. Max took a step closer but Liz held her hand up.

“No.” She took another step back. “That’s not possible. That’s not...not human.”

Max didn’t say anything. He took another step forward.

“Stay back!” She shouted. “Don’t come near me. I don’t even know what you are.”

“I’m Max.” He said softly. “Liz, you know me.”

“There is no you.“ She cried as she went against the opposite wall. She leaned back against it. “You’re not real.”

“Liz, please, listen to me.” Max wanted to reach out to her but she was getting further and further away. “Liz, you and me. We sat at your fountain. We ran through the streets together. We watched the sun rise. That’s me. The real me.”

“No, no.” Liz was shaking her head.

Isabel stepped forward. “Liz, please. Just listen to him.”

Liz looked at Isabel as if seeing her for the first time. She slowly stood up straighter. “Oh God. You’re both in on this. You and Michael. You’re like him. You’re not...human.”

“Aliens, you mean?” Michael suddenly spoke up.

“Aliens?” Liz repeated the word in a whisper. Her eyes focused on Max. “You’re aliens.”
Max couldn’t find his voice. She looked so vacant. Her eyes were steady on him, her lips slightly parted.

Liz dragged a hand through her hair and looked at the ground. “I had sex with an alien.”

Max took a small step forward again. Any other time that line would have been funny but all it did now was cause a rock to form in Max’s gut. He looked at Isabel and Michael. Isabel nodded and pulled Michael from the room. She shut her bedroom door and left Max and Liz facing each other.

Max wanted to do anything to take the empty look out of her eye. “Liz, I lied to you.”

Her head snapped up to meet his.

“I lied to you about what I am and I lied to you about what I wanted from tonite.” Max reached a hand out, then let it drop to his side. “I didn’t mean what I said about you when we left the beach.”

Liz put her hands to her head. “Wait, what?”

“What I said about using you and about it just being about sex. I lied.” Max repeated. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

Liz’s head was spinning. She dropped her gaze to the carpet. “Don’t do this.”

“I have to.” Max reached out again. She was inches from his fingertips. It felt like miles.

Liz wrapped her arms around her waist. “This is too much.I can’t”

“Liz, you have to know the truth.” Max wanted to pull her in his arms again, but stopped himself. “I didn’t want to say those things to you.”

“Then why did you?” Liz finally looked up at him.

Max wanted to swear with frustration. “To protect you. You don’t know what happens to people who know us. ” He thought briefly of Alex. “They get hurt.”

“But it was okay to sleep with me?” She flung at him. “Okay to sleep with a human but not to trust one. God, a human.” The enormity of what she had just said hit her.

“No. No, its not that. You don’t know how much I wanted to tell you. But I had to protect you first.” Max was desperate for her to understand. “Liz, I never wanted to hurt you. You have to believe me. I’ve never felt like this about anyone. You’ve changed me.”

“You’ve changed me!” She pulled at her shirt. “I’m glowing for God’s sake!”

Max pulled her to him before she could move and put a hand over her shoulder. The glow faded into nothing. He let go of her abruptly. She fell back and put her hands to her shoulder, her eyes wide.

Max ran a hand through his hair and grabbed her arm with the other. “You see that? It’s gone. It was never there. But what you’ve done to me will always be here. Here.” He pulled her hand over his heart. “You feel that? Just like yours. My heart beats just like yours. We’re not so different. That’s where you’ve got me, Liz. It’s not going to fade away. Ever.”

Liz stared at her hand against his chest. His heart was pounding against her fingertips. She had felt it before, against her own chest, when they were wrapped up together on the beach. Liz put her other hand up against his heart. Max put a hand over hers and held them there. He stepped forward. Barely a breath was between their bodies. He used his other hand to thread through her hair. Liz was focused on their hands, her eyes moist. Max closed his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Liz.” He whispered above her head. “Forgive me. I’m so sorry. I never wanted to hurt you.”

Liz bit her lip and closed her eyes. His heart was pounding so fast against her palms.

“I’m so sorry.” He murmured. “I never wanted to lie to you.”

“But you did.” She said inaudibly.

“What?”

“But you did, Max.” Liz’s gaze flew up to his. Her hands dropped away. “You lied to me. You’re not human. Oh God.” She backed away and put her hands to her mouth. “I can’t even comprehend that.”

Max dropped his hands again.

Liz turned her back to him. “So what are you? Where..uh..where are you from?”

“Antar. It’s in the Aries constellation.” Max said softly.

“Aries? The V.” Liz turned around. “The constellation you showed me.”

“Yes.”

“The story you told me.” Liz’s mind were snapping pieces together. “You didn’t make it up.”

“No.”

“You really are...an alien.” Liz spun around to face him. The room seemed to be closing in on her. Liz felt dizzy. She gasped for air. “I need to get out of here.”

“Liz!” Max reached out for her but she ran from the room. The front door slammed behind her. Max stared after the closed door and sank against the wall.

TBC




Part 19

8:03 am

The miles between Palo Alto and San Francisco seemed to go forever. Liz didn’t know where she was driving to or why. She just had to get out of that room that had suddenly become so small. She barely touched the wheel as she sped along the freeway, one hand limply at her side, not even feeling the vinyl of the car seat. Her speed was up to 92 mph but Liz was in slow motion. She was swimming through everything around her. The freeway walls, the bumps in the road, the now clear blue sky. All of it blurred and spun in front of her eyes. The sky was almost too blue, so blue it was hurting her eyes. Liz flipped the car visor down as she approached the bridge into the city.

8:04

Isabel cracked the doorway of the bedroom open and peeked out. Max hadn’t moved. He was still slumped against the living room wall as he had been when Liz had bolted from the apartment. Isabel walked slowly out and stood in front of him.

“She’s gone?” Max said so softly Isabel had to crouch down to hear him.

Isabel peeked out the window. “The car you guys used is gone, so yeah.”

“She’s gone.” Max ran a hand over his eyes and rolled his shoulders.

“Long gone.” Michael echoed as he came out into the living room. “Look, Maxwell, I didn’t really understand..I mean, I didn’t get..”

Max looked up at him. “You were listening to us?”

Michael gave him a look and shrugged. “You were right. I didn’t realize how much she..uh...meant to you.”

Max pushed off the wall and stood up. “Yeah.”

Michael shoved his hands in his pockets. “Jeez, how the hell was I supposed to know this would happen?”

Max shook his head and gave a half smile. “Forget it.”

Isabel righted the coffee table Liz had knocked over. “We have to leave soon, Max. Especially if we want to be back in Roswell on time. Are you going to be okay with that?”

Max looked out the window. The sunlight streaming in warmed his face but all he could feel was cold. “No. But I’m going to have to be.”

8:34am

Liz pulled the car into a parallel parking spot and blinked. Except for a few seagulls and opening vendors, the pier was relatively empty. Liz couldn’t even remember driving herself to this spot, but there she was, where it had all began. Stumbling out of the car, she gripped the driver’s side mirror for support and looked around. She almost expected to see Max getting out of the car beside her. But the parking lot was empty.

The smells and sounds from the awakening pier had her walking towards a less occupied area of the pier. It didn’t feel like 12 hours had passed since she had last been here, but it was true. It felt like lifetimes. Their kiss as the sun set over the San Francisco Bay, the way he held her hand at the fountain, how clear the stars had been and how his voice almost ached as he told her the story of his home.

His home. Liz trailed her fingers along the wooden guardrails over the water. Her first inclination as a scientist was to find out the truth. All her logic told her Max was delusional. Somewhere along the way she had been swept up in his fantasies. But she couldn’t ignore what was in her heart. The truth wasn’t so black and white now. Not when her heart was involved.

Liz stumbled onto a bench and sat down hard. Her hands shook as she dragged them through her hair. Scanning the boardwalk, she leaned back and let her head rest against the back of the bench. Early rising tourists had already started to cover the pier. Liz let them flow around her, sitting back unobserved as her eyes watched dully. For a moment, she was sucked into the world she was watching. She became a part of the noise and the hustle of tourists and vendors. Then she was on the outside again and she was utterly alone on that pier. Every person that whisked by her had their own lives to deal with, something else that they belonged to and suddenly it wasn’t enough anymore to observe for an ordinary moment. Liz wanted to belong to something. She just hadn’t realized how much until Max had entered her life. When she was with him, she was a part of something greater, something real. And not just for a brief moment. It was something everlasting that had captivated her when she first met him. She had known the second their eyes had met he was different. “He’s an alien.” She muttered to herself and pulled her feet off the ground to tuck her knees against her chest.

An alien. Liz wanted to choke on the words. What did that even mean? Her eyes had seen what he could do. She had touched the spot where he had made her glow. She had seen in her mind the things from his past. Those were terrifying enough. Liz hugged her knees tighter. Terrifying? No, that wasn’t it. Max didn’t scare her. Even when she was confused and anxious about what she had seen, she was never scared of him. Her eyes warred with her heart. Did she trust the facts or did she trust the feeling she had never had before?

Liz balled her fists against her eyes and pressed hard. The need for something solid to grab onto was almost choking her. She couldn’t get a grip. Max refused to leave her mind. It was too much. His life, his need for her to understand something so fantastic, the way he had been afraid to even touch her as he pleaded with her not to leave. His eyes. “Oh God.” Liz moaned and shut her eyes to stop the burning that had begun. His eyes as they met hers for the first time, his eyes when he had fought with himself over kissing her, his eyes when they laughed with her on the beach. They had been lit up with what Liz had thought was cruelty when he had broken her dreams but now she knew it had been his own heartbreak. And how scared they were when he finally told her the truth about himself. They were so scared and despite everything that had been swirling around her, Liz had wanted to soothe him. He was telling her the wildest, most unbelievable things and all she had wanted to do was take the fear out of his eyes! “What does that tell you, Liz?” She said out loud. “You’re an idiot.”

“Talking to yourself, Parker?”

Liz jumped and looked nervously over her shoulder. Lincoln stood behind her with a cigarette dangling crookedly off his lower lip. Liz blinked against the sun and slowly set her feet back onto the pavement. “Linc? What are you doing here? It’s like 8:45 in the morning.”

“Oh.” Lincoln gestured behind him half-heartedly as he sat down next to her on the bench. “Love those funnel cakes. Had to get here early.”

“Where’s...um....?”

“Nina?” Lincoln blew out a thin stream of smoke and tilted his head back against the bench. “She lives like a block from here. Walked her back to her place then came to get some breakfast.”

“You walked here? Linc, that’s like 7 miles.”

“Well, someone still has my ride.” He said pointedly.

“Oh, God, Linc, about the car...oh, I don’t know how to tell you this.” Liz sat up straighter. “I got in a little...”

“Accident? I know. I saw it in the parking lot.” Lincoln stabbed the cigarette out against the bench.

“I am so sorry.” Liz ran a hand through her hair. “I’ll pay to get it fixed, I swear. I’ll take care of it.”

“Okay.” He shrugged and hooked an arm over the back of the bench. “You okay?”

“Me? Yeah.” Liz looked out over the water. “I...uh....just had a rough nite.”

“That guy, Max? He do this to you?”

“Do what?” Liz looked at Lincoln out of the corner of her eye.

“Make you look like....this.” Lincoln gestured to her up and down. “You look like shit.”

“I haven’t been home yet tonite.” Liz rubbed underneath her eyes and tried to straighten her clothes.

“No, not that. I recognize the walk of shame when I see one. But you look.....sad. Not like earlier.”

“How did I look earlier?” Liz asked carefully.

“Better.” Lincoln said simply. “Happy. I’ve never seen you like that with anyone. You know. In love.”

“In love?” Liz tried to smile but couldn’t bring herself to do it. “I just met him.”

“Parker, give me a break. You had so many stars in your eyes I’m surprised you remembered my name.”

“Yeah, well, it didn’t last. He’s not....he wasn’t what I expected.” Liz focused on the ground. The sound of the water hitting the posts of the pier made her think of the water on the beach. And the way Max had looked when he saw the ocean for the first time.

“Did he do something wrong?” Lincoln asked. “Do I have to go kick his ass? Cause you know, he looked pretty buff.”

“No.” Liz didn’t have to fake the smile this time. “Thanks though.”
Lincoln watched her face for a moment, then pulled out a pack of cigarettes and tapped them against his palm. He lit one quickly and took a long drag. Running his tongue over his teeth, Lincoln gave a long sigh. “So are you going to tell me the problem or not?”

“No.” Liz shook her head and bit her lip.”Sorry. It’s just.....complicated.”

“Yeah, you said that before. What’s so complicated about it? You’re into him, right?”

“I don’t really know him.” Liz said monotonously.

“That’s bullshit. You like him or not?”

“It’s not that easy, Linc. There’s other stuff.....”

“Yes it is, Parker. It’s a yes or no answer. Do You Like Him?”

“Yes.” Liz whispered.

“And he’s obviously all about you, right?” Lincoln blew smoke out into the wind.

Liz watched the smoke dance on the air. “Yeah, he feels the same.”

“Then the rest is just details.” Lincoln shrugged.

“No.” Liz got up in front of the bench and started pacing. “It’s not that easy! We can’t be together. There’s no way.”

“Why?” Lincoln got up and faced her. “Is he a psycho? A murderer? A rapist?”

“No, God, nothing like that. He would never hurt anyone.” Liz raised her chin.

“Really? How do you know? You just met him.” Lincoln tossed her words back at her.

“I know his heart and he is a good person. He’s got this amazing soul and he could never, would never do anything to hurt me. I mean, anyone.” Liz corrected herself.

Lincoln rocked back on his heels. “Sounds like you know him pretty well then. So that’s not the problem.”

“I...” Liz stopped and stared at Lincoln. He grinned and sat back down on the bench. “Very smooth, Linc.”


“I try.” He took another drag off the cigarette.

“There’s things about him that I found out that I don’t know if I can deal with. And I can’t tell you what they are so don’t ask.” Liz sank down beside him.

“He has a girlfriend. No, wait, a wife.”

“No.” Liz rolled her eyes.

“A love child then. That can’t be it. You love kids.” Lincoln pulled a strand of purple hair out of his eyes.

“He did have a son, once. But he died.” Liz felt a lump form in her throat. The image of Max and his son filled her mind and she had to push it away before it flooded her senses.

“Oh man. That’s.....rough.” Lincoln cleared his throat. “Not everyone could deal with that.” He looked at Liz and threw his cigarette on the ground. “Is that it? You can’t deal that he used to have a kid?”

“No, of course not.” Liz swallowed hard. “I respect him so much for how he dealt with that. I mean, I didn’t even know him, but I can just feel how it affected him, you know? When he talks about his son, he has so much love in his voice. It’s beautiful.”

“Liz, come on. Are you listening to yourself? How can you say you don’t want to be with him?” Lincoln put an arm around her shoulders.

“I do.” Liz said softly. She shook her head. “I mean, I DID. He’s different. He’s got a whole world that I can’t be a part of. It’s just not possible. No, I mean it.” She held up a hand when Lincoln opened his mouth to interrupt. “Don’t. I won’t go there. I can’t. It’s too much.”

Lincoln pulled his arm back and sat forward on the bench. “Too much.” He repeated. “Right. You know what’s too much, Parker? You. You are thinking too much.”

“Why are you fixated on this?” Liz demanded. “Why do you care so much? You saw me with him for five minutes.”

“Because in those five minutes I saw more life in you than I had ever seen. It was in your eyes. Whatever it is about this guy that makes him so different was lit up inside you like a freakin’ firecracker and I think it’s pathetic you are willing to just let that go away. So he’s got a life you’re not a part of. So what? Who doesn’t? You become a part of it.” Lincoln turned to face her. “Parker, of all the girls I have known, you are one of the best. I’m serious. I always knew you were special. Last nite, I saw why. This guy may have some issues, but whatever it is can’t be as important as how he looked at you. He was head over heels and I know you feel the same. So stop all this thinking bullshit and just go for it. What have you got to lose?”
“My sanity.” Liz muttered.

“Overrated.” Lincoln waved a hand in the air. “Who said you were sane in the first place anyway?”

Liz snorted and gave a half smile. “He’s leaving, you know. Today. He’s leaving and he’s not coming back.”

“That sucks.” Lincoln raised his eyebrows. “What are you going to do about it?”

“Nothing.” The lump in her throat had hardened into a rock. Everything Lincoln had said was echoing in her head like thunder. What did she have to lose? Suddenly the facts didn’t seem so important anymore. All she could focus on was this ache in her heart. It was getting harder to remember her reasons for running out on Max. It was getting harder to imagine never seeing him again.

“Nothing?” Lincoln echoed. “You chicken shit, Parker.”

Liz turned to face him like something out a dream. “I’m not chicken shit. There’s things working here. Bigger than me. Bigger than me and Max together. I can’t interfere with that.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Lincoln sat back and stared at her like she had just suggested he jump into the Bay.

“Nothing.” Liz shook her head. “I can’t stop him.”

“Whatever.” Lincoln shrugged. “I’m sick of trying to convince you. You want to hang out at my place for a while?”

“Sure.” Liz said absently. She started to follow him when she was gripped with fear. The fear that had driven her away was crippling her. Now it was the fear that he was going to leave. Leave town, leave the planet, it didn’t matter. He was going to leave and she was never going to have the chance to see him again. She wasn’t going to stop him from leaving. She couldn’t. But she had to do something to ease the ache in her chest. Or it would consume her. “Linc, wait.”

“What?”

“Take me back home, please?” Liz looked at her watch. 9:11 am. “Oh God. Hurry, please. I can’t be too late.”

TBC



Part 20

10:04 am

Liz had her hands on the dashboard of Lincoln’s Plymouth, her fingers digging into it. “Can’t you go any faster?”

“Parker, look, I can’t make the other cars disappear. It’s rush hour. We’re lucky we’re on the road at all.” Lincoln was leaning back against the seat, one hand on the steering wheel, the other hanging out the open driver’s side window.

“Damnit!” Liz strained her neck to see around the still line of cars on the freeway. “Damnit! I can’t miss him. We have to get there in time.”

Lincoln swerved suddenly and cut off a sports car with tinted windows. A loud honking followed. Lincoln stuck his hand up in the air. “Same to you, jackass!” He turned back to Liz. “Can’t you call him and tell him to wait or something?”

“I don’t have his cell number.” She said absently. She started chewing on her index fingernail. “He’s going to leave. I know it. He’s going to leave still thinking I hate him.”

“So you’re over whatever you were so pissed off about?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know!” Liz blew out a breath and kicked the dashboard.

“Hey! Easy. You already dented the doors.”

“I won’t know until I see him. I have to get there, Lincoln. He can’t leave without me seeing him.”

“Okay, I heard you the first time.” Lincoln swerved the wheel again. “Hold on.”

10:35 am

Isabel scanned the trunk of her car. “That’s the last of it. Everything is out of the apartment, right?”

“Yeah.” Michael came out the front door carrying his duffel bag. “You have everything you need ready for when we get back? We’re cutting it close.”

“Yes.” Isabel pulled a small wooden box out of a suitcase. The top was plain and smooth. “I have all my healing stones, one of the orbs and my translation of the book. Are you sure we should be taking all this stuff with us?”

“It’s all we have of our home. We are probably going to need it. What about everything else?” Michael threw his duffel in the back seat and leaned against the car door. “Are you ready to say good-bye to Earth?”

Isabel bit her lip and nodded. Inside the box, besides her alien artifacts was a picture of her parents, the heart ring Alex had given her on their first date and a worn copy of Walt Whitman’s ”Leaves of Grass.” “I can’t believe this is all I’ll have of Earth.”

“Hey.” Michael put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead. “We have known this was coming.”

“I know, I know.” Isabel wiped at her eyes and straightened her shoulders. “Where’s Max?”

“Um....the bathroom I think. He’s been in there for like 45 minutes. He said he was going to take a shower.”

“I think he just wanted to be alone.” Isabel tucked her box back into the trunk and slammed the lid. “Let’s go, okay? He’ll be better when we are out of here and on the road.”

“I’m fine.” Max came up behind them carrying his duffel.

“Are you?” Isabel asked, holding his chin in her hand.

Max jerked away. He threw his duffel in the front seat and spun around to face both of them. “It’s over. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Max...”

“No.” Max interrupted Isabel with a wave of his hand. “It’s over.” he repeated. “Let’s just go.” Max couldn’t stop himself from looking around the parking lot. The rusty Plymouth they had taken was no where to be seen. Max bit off an oath and yanked open the car door.

Michael and Isabel exchanged a look. Isabel shrugged and let Michael in the back seat. Settling in the driver’s side, she turned to Max. “Max, are you sure? We can wait to see if she comes back.”

“We can’t.” Max said, his eyes staring straight ahead. “We don’t have time. We’ve got to get back to Roswell in time for me to adjust the settings on the granolith to fit all three of us. That has to be done by tonite. So let’s go.”

“But Max...”

“She’s gone, Is.” Max finally turned towards her. He put a hand over his eyes. “She’s not coming back. I messed it up. It was too much for her.”

“I could have told you that.” Michael muttered.

“Shut up.” Isabel said without feeling. She took Max’s hand. “I’m sorry Max.”

Max wondered if his chest was always going to feel like his. He wondered if from now on he was always going to have this rock squeezing his heart. Just thinking about Liz caused it to squeeze tighter and Max was having a hard time breathing. He closed his eyes and was flooded with the images of her on the beach. He could almost smell her skin, like salt and strawberries. Max felt his stomach lurch. “Just drive, Isabel.”

“But Max...”

“Just drive!” Max cut her off sharply and sat straight in the seat. He had to get used to his life now. His life without Liz.

Isabel pulled out of the parking place and started towards the rear exit of the apartment complex. Max flipped down the sun visor and aimed the mirror towards Isabel’s apartment. He kept his eyes steady on the empty sidewalk getting further and further away. He could just imagine Liz standing there, waving good-bye, love and tears in her eyes. He could imagine what it would be like to kiss her one last time and to know that she understood why he had to do this, why he had to leave her. Her arms would go around him and she wouldn’t be angry or hurt by him. Max wanted to close his eyes to shut out the fantasy but every time he did he was bombarded by her memory, so he kept his eyes trained on the mirror and the wavering image of good-bye.

“What is that noise?” Isabel asked suddenly as she reached the car exit.

“Someone’s honking at us.” Michael twisted around in his seat to get a better look at the parking lot behind them.

“What?” Max turned towards Isabel, then looked back in the mirror. His eyes widened and he jolted in his seat. Liz was running across the parking lot after their car. Max sat straight up and spun around. It wasn’t a fantasy. She was really running after them. He could make out her face but couldn’t hear what she was yelling. “Isabel, stop! Stop!”

“Wait, what?” Isabel started to slow down.

“Stop!” Max was out the car door before Isabel had even fully stopped. He stumbled for a few steps, his hands slapping the concrete before he got his balance and started running. Liz was in his arms before he was past the car.

“I couldn’t let you leave!” Liz buried her head in his chest. “I thought I was too late. I thought I was going to miss you.”

“Liz...” Max lost his words when her arms wrapped around him. Her face was buried in his shoulder and Max tucked his head into her hair and breathed in deep. He pulled her back to stare at her face. She stared back at him, wide eyed and breathing heavy. Max felt his heart shake and he pulled her against him hard, his face tucked into her hair. His hand gently went up to touch her hair. When the strands fell from his fingers, Max let out a small cry. “Are you here? Are you really here?”

“I’m here.” Liz leaned back to see his face.

“I thought I would never see you again.” Max let his fingers brush lightly over her cheeks.

“I thought so too.” She bit her lip.

“Liz, I am so sorry for what I did to you. I never wanted to say those things to you. Please, please, you have to believe me.” Max had his hands on her shoulders.

Liz kept her eyes on his. “I do.” She said finally. “A part of me knew something was wrong. But you were so cruel. Why did you have to be so cruel? You broke my heart.”

“I didn’t want to. God, I didn’t want to.” Max pulled her in close again and ran a hand over her hair. “But Liz, you don’t understand what happens to people who know the truth about us. Or even get close to us. I was so afraid that you were going to be in danger. I was so selfish to let things go so far between us. It was the only thing I could think of to keep you away from me after last nite.”

“You are the least selfish person I have ever met.” Liz said against his shoulder. She leaned back and pulled at his hand. “Plus, it was me who drove us out to the beach. I seduced you, remember?”

Max stared at her for a second. A slow smile spread across his face and suddenly Max wanted to burst out laughing. “You seduced me, huh?”

“Yeah.” Liz caught his smile and swallowed hard. “I wanted to be with you, Max. I knew you were different from the first moment.”

“And now that you know the truth?” Max’s smile slipped away. “Now that you know HOW I am different?”

“It’s so much to deal with, Max.” She put a hand on his chest and felt his heart beating hard under her fingertips. “I thought I was crazy or maybe you were.”

“And now?” He pressed.

“If I’m crazy, then I never want to be sane again.” Liz whispered. She pulled him down to her level and pressed her lips hard against his. Max wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the ground. Liz clung to Max as the world faded away. It was the just the two of them, kissing under a brilliant sky and their lives stopped around them.

Max didn’t want to put Liz down. He wanted to hold her to him like this until time ended. But Michael knocking hard on the back window of the car had him crashing back to reality. Taking Liz’s hand, he led her away from the car. Linking their fingers, he pulled her in close again and tucked her head under his. “I want to stay like this.” He said against her hair. “I don’t want to leave.”

“But you have to.” Liz pulled away and put a hand to his face. “Max, that story you told me last nite about the king and his people. And that dream I had. I was dreaming of you, wasn’t I?”

Max nodded.

“Then you have to go. I understand.” Liz turned to study Isabel’s car.

“Do you?” Max tilted her chin back towards him. “Do you really understand why?”

Liz shut her mouth quickly and fought back the tears burning the backs of her eyes. “I have to. You have a life you have to live. You can’t change that because of me.”

“But I would.” Max took both of her arms in his hands. “I would this instant if I thought we could be together.”

“No, don’t do that.” Liz shook her head hard. “Don’t make this harder.”

“How can this get any harder?” Max said fiercely. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

“But you are going to do it.” Liz said softly. “You’re going to get in that car and you are going to leave. It’s the right thing to do.”

“How can it be right if we’re not together? I don’t care if I just met you or what my destiny is. Damn what I am supposed to do. What kind of life am I going to have without you?” Max let go of her abruptly and paced a few feet away.

“You will have me.” Liz said softly to his back. Max turned slowly and watched as she came closer. Taking his hand in hers, she held it to her chest. “You are always going to have me. Right here. Remember?” She held his hand to her heart with one hand and put her other hand to his chest. “This will never fade. You are the one who told me that, just a few hours ago. Right here, we’ll always be the same. We’ll always be together.”

“It’s not enough.” The sight of tears in Liz’s eyes was causing the lump in his own throat to consume him. “How can that be enough when I know what it is to see your smile?” He swallowed hard. “Hear your laughter?” He pulled her closer to wipe at a tear under her eye. “Feel your skin against mine? It’s never going to be enough.”

“I know.” Liz couldn’t stop the trembling in her fingers. “It’s not enough. But it will have to be.”

Max took her hand in his and kissed her fingertips. “We don’t know what is going to happen, Liz. We don’t know where we will be in five, eight, ten years. I don’t know when I will be able to come back, or even if I can. But if I learned anything tonite, it’s that you can’t predict what is meant to be. I never thought I would meet you. I never thought I would figure out why I was put here. But now I know. It was to meet you. It was to know you.” He wiped at another tear trailing down her cheek. “I can’t predict what will happen. But from now on I am making my own destiny. And it’s going to include you. I promise you that.”

“You can’t.” Liz said as she leaned into him. “You just said we can’t predict what is meant to be. If we are meant to be, then we will be.” She pressed a small kiss to his lips and tried to keep from crying out. “I believe in us, Max. I believe in you.”

The car horn honking had Max turning. He turned back to her. “I don’t know how to do this.”

Liz lifted her eyes to meet his and felt her heart falling away. She fell into him and wrapped her arms around him, willing her mind to remember every scent, every detail of the way his body felt to hers, every touch as his hands dug into her back.

Max lifted her chin and kissed her softly, their lips barely grazing. He could feel her lips trembling against his and drank in her taste. Leaning his forehead against hers, he tried to calm his erratic breathing. He clung to her clothes. His fingers refused to let go and Max had to will himself not to give into his own tears. Pressing a heavy kiss on her forehead, he whispered softly “Remember me?”

“Always.” Liz closed her eyes and struggled with herself to let go. She reached up and put a hand to his cheek. His eyes were on hers. “Always.”



Epilogue

11:40 am

Then he was gone. Liz sat still at the window facing the parking lot and let the tears stream freely. She could still taste him on her lips, still feel his arms around her, but he was gone. A couple of times her mind had tricked her into thinking that Isabel’s car had turned back into the parking lot and Max was on his way up the stairs to take her in his arms again, but it was all a fantasy.

Liz’s body was tired, as if she had been taken for a sixteen hour roller coaster. She was mentally and physically exhausted. Pulling herself away from the window, she stretched out on the floor of her apartment and traced patterns across the ceiling with her eyes. She kept tracing his eyes in her mind. He had watched her out the window of the car until she couldn’t make out his face any longer. When she had gone back to her apartment, it was like opening the door to another world. As hard as it was, she stepped through and closed the door to her fantasy.

The whole nite ran like a surreal circus of images though her mind and Liz began to smile. She never felt more alive then she had in Max’s arms and she wondered when in life she was ever going to feel that way again. Maybe she never would. Maybe she only had one chance to feel like that and then that was it, bam, game over. Liz shook her head and rolled over to her side. She couldn’t believe that. Even though he was miles away by now, she could still feel him coursing through her and she knew in her soul he was thinking of her the same way.

Liz fought back the need to just stretch out there on the floor and let herself drift off to sleep. At least in sleep she could relive the nite with Max. But that would be giving into fantasy and Liz refused to live her life from here on out like that. She had to be able to accept that she could live without him.

Pulling herself off the ground, Liz methodically began putting the last of her things in her suitcase. She had less then an hour before she had to be at the airport to head home. Grabbing the jacket she had worn all nite, she held it to her face and breathed in deep. His scent was still there, lingering, teasing her. Liz closed her eyes and let the scent drift around her like a cloud of comfort. “Maybe I can ziplock this and have it always smell like that. It’s all I’ll have of him.” She muttered to herself. Folding it over to tuck it into the suitcase, she watched a small white bud fall from the pocket and land at her feet.

Crouching down slowly, Liz tenderly picked up the bud. It was from the flower Max had bought for her on the pier. Liz brushed the petals over her face. The edges were starting to wilt a bit, but other than that it was perfect. “Thank you.” She whispered to the empty apartment. Liz tilted her head towards the window and watched the parking lot. “Thank you. Good-bye, Max.”

The ring of her cell phone cut through the silence. Liz zipped up her suitcase and picked up her phone. Maria was talking before Liz had even answered. “Girl, are you out the door yet? Why aren’t you at the airport yet?”

Liz felt like laughing. “Maria, I am so glad you called. I have so much to tell you. I’m in love.”

The End
Dreamers aren't hopeless romantics. They are romantics full of hope.

My fics:
Say Nothing
Moment to Breathe (Sequel to Ordinary Moment)
Ordinary Moment
http://www.roswellfanfic.com/viewtopic.php?t=3895
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