Lost & Found - Chapter 18 - 12/14/2018
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 2:22 pm
“Unbelievable,” Maria was muttering to her husband as they were doing chores around the house. Betty was now up in her room reading a book, and so it left her parents to talk as Michael looked over some paperwork from the office. Maria was gossiping about Liz and Max.
“It’s ten years in the making,” Michael muttered.
“What do you think it will mean?” Maria asked as she was also working on her laptop as she was doing some research for a story idea she had for when she returned to work.
“As long as they come to some peace and earn some forgiveness on both sides” Michael said. “I don’t know if we can expect much else…”
“The electricity is still there,” Maria commented.
“Which is a double edge sword because that brings a lot more emotion to whatever they decide, but then after a decade and it was the first time seeing each other. It was natural.”
“I don’t want Liz hurt,” Maria muttered.
“She’s a big girl who needs this Maria. Regardless of where it might take them, both need this. It’s obvious that Max has had some hard times as well, and the both need to revisit the past to finally put it to bed… so the next chapter can begin.
“It appears he has a life in California, and Liz has a life here…” Maria muttered.
“Circumstances changes, but you can only take things one step at a time” Michael advised. “Until today they hadn’t seen each other in a decade, so let’s not rush, and as we all know… anything can happen”
“That is true, anything can happen” Maria mused to herself as she thought maybe of doing a segment on “lost loves” for work. She took her laptop and went upstairs to do some work while Michael concentrated on his paperwork for his office.
“Tell me about her?” Max asked Liz as they continued to talk, and the talk had drifted back to Bella. Max could see his ex was tortured over how life had handled her such a defeat.
“She’s perfect. She was so beautiful, and full of life” Liz sighed. “She was into everything. She and Betty were thick as thieves, always up to something even though Bella was older, but you couldn’t find two children more in sync. Bella loved life. She was into dancing, into sports too. Kyle was coaching the girls’ softball team she was on with Betty. Betty stopped when Bella went missing. Kyle finished the season, but it wasn’t the same, so another parent took over this year.
“What happened that night?” Max asked. “Do you remember…”
“I can never forget,” Liz sighed. “Bella and I had been at Kyle and Isabel’s engagement gathering at the Crashdown. The wedding hadn’t been set yet, but they wanted a party, and it was an intimate little gathering, and Bella was so happy about the wedding. She was full of energy and talking about being the flower girl at the wedding, and since she had a day full of activities and I was taking the Saturday morning shift. I put her to bed around 10 p.m., and she was in bed as I checked around midnight…because I was working on the accounts for the restaurant when I went bed, minutes after midnight and I checked, and she was asleep. She was in her bed, I know it. But then the next morning since I was working the early shift, so I woke up early to get Bella ready to get going, and she was gone… I went crazy when I realized the doors were locked, and there were no signs of my daughter…”
“There were no signs?” Max asked.
“None,” Liz muttered. “I immediately called Maria and Michael, and Kyle of course even though he was out of town as he was quick to come back, and he helped with the search but nothing…”
“You were out that night, right?” Max asked.
“Yes” Liz nodded.
“Whom ever did it could have broken into your place and hid in and waited for you to go to bed,” Max commented.
“The officers commented on that as a liking cause when they looked at everyone in our orbits.”
“Everyone?” Max asked.
“Yeah,” Liz nodded. “Given I was divorced twice and was sharing custody with Kyle at the time. While I had her most of the time, he did get her one night a week and one weekend a month unless he was coaching, and we usually switched it up. Kyle was great with her and Bella loved him, and Isabel was also great with her, and Kyle will never forgive himself because Bella was supposed to be with them that weekend once the party was over thru Sunday, but he had a game he needed to be at as part of the summer team thru the high school he ran because his assistant couch was sick, and so he needed to be there for the game… and he left after the party, so we switched weekends…
“So, Kyle and Isabel would have had her that particular weekend,” Max asked.
“Yeah,” Liz shivered at the memory of the devastation on Kyle’s face when he realized she was missing…
“So, did anyone else know you switched weekends?” Max asked.
“The family, and of course Maria and Michael. Your parents,” Liz sighed. “I don’t know how it would have been known. I was just planning on sticking close to home and working so it’s not like I had plans or anything, but then she came home with me…”
Max nodded.
“They checked everyone?” Max asked.
“Yeah, and given the circumstances, yes, they checked everyone out. Jim had some outside help conduct the early days until everyone was checked out given his conflict in the investigation.”
“Right,” Max nodded.
“Ms. Parker,” came a voice as it entered the room and they looked up and Liz frowned when she saw a nurse coming with a wheelchair. “You’re needed for some testing…”
“More tests?” Liz frowned. “Haven’t you poked and prodded me enough…”
Max chuckled because that was how he felt when he spent all that time in the hospital after his return from his secret mission. “Is she okay?” he asked the nurse.
“And you are…” the nurse smiled as she hadn’t noticed this visitor before.
“An old friend,” Max smiled, and Liz smirked “Old friend, yeah right…” she muttered.
“Dr. Johnson wanted some updated blood work,” the nurse answered.
“I guess,” Liz sighed as she walked towards the wheelchair. “Will you come back?”
“You can bet on it,” Max smiled as Liz could only shake her head because she could feel herself responding to him, and she didn’t especially relish that feeling because so much time had gone by and they were different people.
Max could feel the same thing as he watched her go off. Sighing, he checked his messages and frowned that there was one from Serena. Checking it, he erupted when he heard message about Molly. What the fuck! He thought as he went to go and call Serena back, when he bumped into a someone he hadn’t seen in a long time…
“Sorry,” he said as he bumped into a blonde.
“It’s okay,” came the voice and he was shocked at the shivers it sent as he looked up as they saw each other. “Tess…” he muttered…
“Ava,” the doctor said. “Dr. Ava Johnson,” she said and then her own shock came when she realized who it was… “Max.”
“Ava,” Max asked.
“When did you get back?” Ava asked.
“Yesterday. I was visiting Liz,” Max said softly. “I didn’t know you were around…”
“I settled back in Roswell after you had left,” Ava sighed. “I got my act together, and now a doctor.”
“Unbelievable,” Max muttered as even years later and the knowledge of the situation. Ava still looked like Tess.
“Yeah,” Ava nodded as she watched Max walk away muttering to himself as he dialed his cellphone and tried to reach Serena. “Come on partner, call me back. You can’t tell me something like that about Molly and leave the rest of the story out of it. Call me…” he murmured into the phone as he stopped when he saw Jim.
Hanging up, he nodded. “Sheriff.”
“I heard you were back,” Jim acknowledged at he glanced at his old ally.
“I am…” Max acknowledged and knew that life was changing, and he didn’t know if he could be the same after what he had experienced in only a few short hours.
“I am not here to disrupt Liz’s life,” Max was saying to Jim as they sat in Cow Patties after agreeing to go for drinks, but he elected for iced tea while Jim had a beer. “You can say Roswell has been my demon for a long time, and I came back to conquer it.”
“Why stay away?” Jim asked.
“I stayed away for a lot of reasons,” Max admitted. “I am sorry for hurting everyone by staying away.”
“Liz has had a tough ride for too long,” Jim said of his former daughter-in-law. He still had fond feelings for her and knew the marriage hadn’t been right for either his son or Liz so there was no hard feeling about the divorce, and he saw Bella as his granddaughter, and divorce didn’t change it. “She doesn’t need to be hurt.”
“None of us do, and I am not looking to hurt her, okay?” Max asked.
“Same with your sister,” Jim advised of his newest daughter-in-law.
“Look I know there were a lot of hurt feelings,” Max acknowledged as he knew he was facing a reckoning “I am trying to make it up to them and make peace with the past. I can only do what I can do.”
“I know,” Jim said as he took a sip of his beer and glanced at the man Max was today and not the troubled teenager back at eighteen. He didn’t know what to think of the man Max appeared to be, as he looked to be a changed man and to have faced hard times and wondered just how it would affect his town along with his family.
“When did you become Sheriff again?” Max asked as he became aware of the badge.
“A number of months after you left, I started to climb back, and Hanson eventually left for another job and so I was reappointed, and I have stayed…”
“I am glad, the town needs you.” Max smiled. “They should never have taken the badge away from you…”
“I just wish we could find Bella” Jim asked as he cited the one case that had gotten away from his department.
“Michael and Liz have told me some about the case,” Max nodded. “I hate that it happened. Liz didn’t deserve it. Do you really believe that her ex-husband might know something?”
“I have checked on it,” Jim admitted as he thought of Amy’s nephew. “I wish I could deny it because it would be a load off all our minds, but I can’t say one way or another at this point.”
“Why would he have done it?” Max asked.
“He was pretty angry when he was hauled off to jail, and Liz’s testimony put him in prison. He could be vindictive at times during their marriage, but then I don’t want to believe he would make her pay like that...”
Max nodded.
“So, I never imagined you a cop?” Jim asked. “What made you decide that kind of career move?”
“It’s not a career move I anticipated, or thought was for me, but one that kind of found me and it’s been a job that I have gravitated to over time,” Max said. “The future has always been a mystery to me, and I guess it just found me.”
“Do you see your future in it?” Jim asked.
“I really don’t know what the future entails, and never have…” Max muttered as he took a sip of his drink.
“Sounds like you’re at a crossroads in your life?” Jim asked.
“It’s one of the reasons I wanted to come here and face the past,” Max muttered. “I needed to make peace with the past and figure out where my life stands.”
Jim nodded as the phone rang, and Max answered it. “Finally, I was waiting for you to call,” he muttered into the phone with a low chuckle. “I am actually busy, so maybe I can call you when I get back to my sister’s place or you can call me but first tell me, ‘how is it that she doesn’t exist’? Are you kidding me?” he asked. “Okay, definitely, good, I am glad. Talk to me later, and we can talk further,” he said as he hung up. “Sorry.”
“What was that about?” Jim asked.
“A case. Involving a young girl, and unfortunately some complications have arisen in her case and my partner was filling me in.”
“The life of someone in law enforcement,” Jim cursed.
“I know,” Max nodded. “I wish I could take this nightmare away from the girl in my case and for you, I hope you can find Bella for Liz, and for everyone…” he thought because he didn’t want that pain for Liz.
“I pray every day.”
Meanwhile Molly was sleeping in her room after falling asleep while watching television. Dreams of a man taking her flashed through her room. Coming into in her room and forcing her to come with him as another man was with him, as they yanked her and covered her mouth when she wanted to yell. “Shut up brat,” came the dark voice.
Carried away as a picture frame of the child with a woman in dark hair as they smiled together in the park fell on the bedside table and smashed the glass and she left the room that had big letters that spelled BELLA on the wall.
Molly eyes opened, and they grew wide. “What…” she squeaked.
Her eyes closed, and she fell asleep…
“It’s ten years in the making,” Michael muttered.
“What do you think it will mean?” Maria asked as she was also working on her laptop as she was doing some research for a story idea she had for when she returned to work.
“As long as they come to some peace and earn some forgiveness on both sides” Michael said. “I don’t know if we can expect much else…”
“The electricity is still there,” Maria commented.
“Which is a double edge sword because that brings a lot more emotion to whatever they decide, but then after a decade and it was the first time seeing each other. It was natural.”
“I don’t want Liz hurt,” Maria muttered.
“She’s a big girl who needs this Maria. Regardless of where it might take them, both need this. It’s obvious that Max has had some hard times as well, and the both need to revisit the past to finally put it to bed… so the next chapter can begin.
“It appears he has a life in California, and Liz has a life here…” Maria muttered.
“Circumstances changes, but you can only take things one step at a time” Michael advised. “Until today they hadn’t seen each other in a decade, so let’s not rush, and as we all know… anything can happen”
“That is true, anything can happen” Maria mused to herself as she thought maybe of doing a segment on “lost loves” for work. She took her laptop and went upstairs to do some work while Michael concentrated on his paperwork for his office.
*
“Tell me about her?” Max asked Liz as they continued to talk, and the talk had drifted back to Bella. Max could see his ex was tortured over how life had handled her such a defeat.
“She’s perfect. She was so beautiful, and full of life” Liz sighed. “She was into everything. She and Betty were thick as thieves, always up to something even though Bella was older, but you couldn’t find two children more in sync. Bella loved life. She was into dancing, into sports too. Kyle was coaching the girls’ softball team she was on with Betty. Betty stopped when Bella went missing. Kyle finished the season, but it wasn’t the same, so another parent took over this year.
“What happened that night?” Max asked. “Do you remember…”
“I can never forget,” Liz sighed. “Bella and I had been at Kyle and Isabel’s engagement gathering at the Crashdown. The wedding hadn’t been set yet, but they wanted a party, and it was an intimate little gathering, and Bella was so happy about the wedding. She was full of energy and talking about being the flower girl at the wedding, and since she had a day full of activities and I was taking the Saturday morning shift. I put her to bed around 10 p.m., and she was in bed as I checked around midnight…because I was working on the accounts for the restaurant when I went bed, minutes after midnight and I checked, and she was asleep. She was in her bed, I know it. But then the next morning since I was working the early shift, so I woke up early to get Bella ready to get going, and she was gone… I went crazy when I realized the doors were locked, and there were no signs of my daughter…”
“There were no signs?” Max asked.
“None,” Liz muttered. “I immediately called Maria and Michael, and Kyle of course even though he was out of town as he was quick to come back, and he helped with the search but nothing…”
“You were out that night, right?” Max asked.
“Yes” Liz nodded.
“Whom ever did it could have broken into your place and hid in and waited for you to go to bed,” Max commented.
“The officers commented on that as a liking cause when they looked at everyone in our orbits.”
“Everyone?” Max asked.
“Yeah,” Liz nodded. “Given I was divorced twice and was sharing custody with Kyle at the time. While I had her most of the time, he did get her one night a week and one weekend a month unless he was coaching, and we usually switched it up. Kyle was great with her and Bella loved him, and Isabel was also great with her, and Kyle will never forgive himself because Bella was supposed to be with them that weekend once the party was over thru Sunday, but he had a game he needed to be at as part of the summer team thru the high school he ran because his assistant couch was sick, and so he needed to be there for the game… and he left after the party, so we switched weekends…
“So, Kyle and Isabel would have had her that particular weekend,” Max asked.
“Yeah,” Liz shivered at the memory of the devastation on Kyle’s face when he realized she was missing…
“So, did anyone else know you switched weekends?” Max asked.
“The family, and of course Maria and Michael. Your parents,” Liz sighed. “I don’t know how it would have been known. I was just planning on sticking close to home and working so it’s not like I had plans or anything, but then she came home with me…”
Max nodded.
“They checked everyone?” Max asked.
“Yeah, and given the circumstances, yes, they checked everyone out. Jim had some outside help conduct the early days until everyone was checked out given his conflict in the investigation.”
“Right,” Max nodded.
“Ms. Parker,” came a voice as it entered the room and they looked up and Liz frowned when she saw a nurse coming with a wheelchair. “You’re needed for some testing…”
“More tests?” Liz frowned. “Haven’t you poked and prodded me enough…”
Max chuckled because that was how he felt when he spent all that time in the hospital after his return from his secret mission. “Is she okay?” he asked the nurse.
“And you are…” the nurse smiled as she hadn’t noticed this visitor before.
“An old friend,” Max smiled, and Liz smirked “Old friend, yeah right…” she muttered.
“Dr. Johnson wanted some updated blood work,” the nurse answered.
“I guess,” Liz sighed as she walked towards the wheelchair. “Will you come back?”
“You can bet on it,” Max smiled as Liz could only shake her head because she could feel herself responding to him, and she didn’t especially relish that feeling because so much time had gone by and they were different people.
Max could feel the same thing as he watched her go off. Sighing, he checked his messages and frowned that there was one from Serena. Checking it, he erupted when he heard message about Molly. What the fuck! He thought as he went to go and call Serena back, when he bumped into a someone he hadn’t seen in a long time…
“Sorry,” he said as he bumped into a blonde.
“It’s okay,” came the voice and he was shocked at the shivers it sent as he looked up as they saw each other. “Tess…” he muttered…
“Ava,” the doctor said. “Dr. Ava Johnson,” she said and then her own shock came when she realized who it was… “Max.”
“Ava,” Max asked.
“When did you get back?” Ava asked.
“Yesterday. I was visiting Liz,” Max said softly. “I didn’t know you were around…”
“I settled back in Roswell after you had left,” Ava sighed. “I got my act together, and now a doctor.”
“Unbelievable,” Max muttered as even years later and the knowledge of the situation. Ava still looked like Tess.
“Yeah,” Ava nodded as she watched Max walk away muttering to himself as he dialed his cellphone and tried to reach Serena. “Come on partner, call me back. You can’t tell me something like that about Molly and leave the rest of the story out of it. Call me…” he murmured into the phone as he stopped when he saw Jim.
Hanging up, he nodded. “Sheriff.”
“I heard you were back,” Jim acknowledged at he glanced at his old ally.
“I am…” Max acknowledged and knew that life was changing, and he didn’t know if he could be the same after what he had experienced in only a few short hours.
*
“I am not here to disrupt Liz’s life,” Max was saying to Jim as they sat in Cow Patties after agreeing to go for drinks, but he elected for iced tea while Jim had a beer. “You can say Roswell has been my demon for a long time, and I came back to conquer it.”
“Why stay away?” Jim asked.
“I stayed away for a lot of reasons,” Max admitted. “I am sorry for hurting everyone by staying away.”
“Liz has had a tough ride for too long,” Jim said of his former daughter-in-law. He still had fond feelings for her and knew the marriage hadn’t been right for either his son or Liz so there was no hard feeling about the divorce, and he saw Bella as his granddaughter, and divorce didn’t change it. “She doesn’t need to be hurt.”
“None of us do, and I am not looking to hurt her, okay?” Max asked.
“Same with your sister,” Jim advised of his newest daughter-in-law.
“Look I know there were a lot of hurt feelings,” Max acknowledged as he knew he was facing a reckoning “I am trying to make it up to them and make peace with the past. I can only do what I can do.”
“I know,” Jim said as he took a sip of his beer and glanced at the man Max was today and not the troubled teenager back at eighteen. He didn’t know what to think of the man Max appeared to be, as he looked to be a changed man and to have faced hard times and wondered just how it would affect his town along with his family.
“When did you become Sheriff again?” Max asked as he became aware of the badge.
“A number of months after you left, I started to climb back, and Hanson eventually left for another job and so I was reappointed, and I have stayed…”
“I am glad, the town needs you.” Max smiled. “They should never have taken the badge away from you…”
“I just wish we could find Bella” Jim asked as he cited the one case that had gotten away from his department.
“Michael and Liz have told me some about the case,” Max nodded. “I hate that it happened. Liz didn’t deserve it. Do you really believe that her ex-husband might know something?”
“I have checked on it,” Jim admitted as he thought of Amy’s nephew. “I wish I could deny it because it would be a load off all our minds, but I can’t say one way or another at this point.”
“Why would he have done it?” Max asked.
“He was pretty angry when he was hauled off to jail, and Liz’s testimony put him in prison. He could be vindictive at times during their marriage, but then I don’t want to believe he would make her pay like that...”
Max nodded.
“So, I never imagined you a cop?” Jim asked. “What made you decide that kind of career move?”
“It’s not a career move I anticipated, or thought was for me, but one that kind of found me and it’s been a job that I have gravitated to over time,” Max said. “The future has always been a mystery to me, and I guess it just found me.”
“Do you see your future in it?” Jim asked.
“I really don’t know what the future entails, and never have…” Max muttered as he took a sip of his drink.
“Sounds like you’re at a crossroads in your life?” Jim asked.
“It’s one of the reasons I wanted to come here and face the past,” Max muttered. “I needed to make peace with the past and figure out where my life stands.”
Jim nodded as the phone rang, and Max answered it. “Finally, I was waiting for you to call,” he muttered into the phone with a low chuckle. “I am actually busy, so maybe I can call you when I get back to my sister’s place or you can call me but first tell me, ‘how is it that she doesn’t exist’? Are you kidding me?” he asked. “Okay, definitely, good, I am glad. Talk to me later, and we can talk further,” he said as he hung up. “Sorry.”
“What was that about?” Jim asked.
“A case. Involving a young girl, and unfortunately some complications have arisen in her case and my partner was filling me in.”
“The life of someone in law enforcement,” Jim cursed.
“I know,” Max nodded. “I wish I could take this nightmare away from the girl in my case and for you, I hope you can find Bella for Liz, and for everyone…” he thought because he didn’t want that pain for Liz.
“I pray every day.”
*
Meanwhile Molly was sleeping in her room after falling asleep while watching television. Dreams of a man taking her flashed through her room. Coming into in her room and forcing her to come with him as another man was with him, as they yanked her and covered her mouth when she wanted to yell. “Shut up brat,” came the dark voice.
Carried away as a picture frame of the child with a woman in dark hair as they smiled together in the park fell on the bedside table and smashed the glass and she left the room that had big letters that spelled BELLA on the wall.
Molly eyes opened, and they grew wide. “What…” she squeaked.
Her eyes closed, and she fell asleep…