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

[keepsmiling7]

What could possibly happen now...........you tell me!
Great question, would Liz have come back if she knew the truth earlier???
Maria comes to help Kyle out........her advice is to "deal with it". I love Maria, she gets to the bottom of situations.
River updates Mariah on all of the "way too crazy" details of the pod squad.

It's going to be very interesting to see how you untangle this mess.

[Parker1947]

Three months later,
March 27th

It was twenty-four hours before Mariah was going to be turning sixteen. River’s fear proved true because Mariah had been unprepared for the scope of what she was going to be learning, and while she eventually ended up at home. Relations between mother and daughter would continue to head south, and things grew more difficult. And the easy-going daughter Liz had known in Chicago, and early in their stay in Roswell was now a distant memory.

And she had someone who was distrustful and testing every limit. Even more so than Liz had done at her age. It made Liz think of her own time in rebellion against her parents as tame, and Jeff and Nancy also who were looking on with dismay at how things were going because they could not understand it.

As neither of them was able to get through to their granddaughter. Even when their daughter had explained to them the truth of Mariah’s paternity, which naturally had shocked them. Although not too much because they remembered how intense those years were, and especially senior year, and how their daughter was engaged to Max for a short time, but they also figured she was gone too long to figure that Max was in the running to be their granddaughter’s father.

It did not even cross their minds, when maybe it should have…

I guess he was not out of the running Jeff thought now, as he stood and watched the tension in the house. As he was visiting his daughter.

Things were not going well. But one thing was… And it was her son’s recovery. Alex or Lex as he liked to be called was now living back at home. Down to one cast. And recovering with greater speed than Liz or the doctors would have predicted. And he was now up in his own bedroom, and able to handle walking on crutches, and quite able in his mobility.

Which was some relief to Jeff’s daughter’s state of mind.

But she had so much more, but for the moment. Lex was the perfect contrast to his sister. Although her son was not liking the fact that there was so much tension at home for which he was sitting in the dark because only a few people knew the truth, and Mariah nor her mother saw fit to tell her son who was now thirteen and was on home on-line study for the rest of the school year, because his teachers figured it would not help him to come back to school for so little time because he had very little time to make friends, and because the school had green lit the plan for him to skip and year, and head in high school a year early. Any social progress would be lost when he moved up a grade.

So, Liz had already registered him at her old high school. Hoping that by September, Mariah would be back to her old self and able to help her little brother get used to his new school. She knew it was a tall order, but she was hoping against all hope, but at least he had Jaime Valenti as a friend, and she was someone despite being older, seemed to be a good friend to her son and Liz knew her son needed it.

So, Liz had hired her to do some tutoring so that her son could catch up, and so far, it was working as there was a doorbell ring. She was hoping it was not about her daughter, who was wandering with more frequency these days, and she had no idea where she was going to find her next. Because she had heard about her wandering out into the desert on New Year’s Day, not from her daughter mind you but from Max who had heard from it from River of all people. Both did not like what could have happened to the girl if River had not interceded out there in time, and even then, they were aghast to realize what River had filled Mariah in on.

Or how Mariah had not been prepared to hear it. And as a result, her daughter had now spiraled downward in the weeks and months to come. And unfortunately, she had taken it out on her life and on her mother ever since.

Thankfully, it was Jaime at the door. “Hello Jaime, come on in” she said welcoming in her son’s friend. “Lex is upstairs if you want to go on up” as she knew the study session would be in her son’s bedroom. A child she did not have to worry about, and she trusted Jaime because she had been able to see how much the girl was like her father, and even maybe the mother she did not know but heard of over time.

“Thank you, Mrs. Anthony,” Jaime said as she walked into the house and saw that it was quiet, but she saw Jeff Parker.

“It’s just Liz,” Liz said softly because she was bristling more and more about being called by her married name, even though she was not moving to change the name because it was the name that her children carried, so she did not want it too different from them, otherwise, it might pose problems in unintended ways.

“Liz,” Jaime said. “I can go up?” Jaime asked as she knew to confirm it.

“Sure,” Liz said as the fourteen-year-old raced up the stairs to find Lex. As she smiled at the energy in the girl, as she remembered how her own daughter shared that same energy once upon a time. When she was younger, and when Liz could understand what her daughter might be up too, but now her daughter was a mystery.

Jeff could only watch and think of how his own daughter had changed when she turned fifteen, but not because of the death of a parent, or unforeseen paternity issues cropping up into her life. No, my daughter changed because of a boy. And it was a boy who was forever going to be a link to his daughter, in ways neither of them could have imagined or dreamed of over these years while Liz was away from Roswell.

But his daughter was now back, and he could not help but think what would have befallen his daughter if she had stayed away. Because this is getting a bit much he thought. “Do you need help looking for her?” Jeff asked as he knew his daughter was worried for his granddaughter.

Mariah was somewhere, and no one knew where she was.

And that was troubling.

“No, Dad, I am fine,” Liz said. “I can handle it,” she said. “But maybe if you could stay here and monitor the study sessions upstairs?” she asked of her father who nodded. “I trust both my son and Jaime, but someone should be home.”

“Of course, honey,” Jeff nodded.

“Good,” Liz smiled. “You do not have to get back to restaurant, right?”

“No, your mother is dealing with the late afternoon, and I have time before the dinner rush really gets going” Jeff smiled because this was a dream, to be able to come over and see his daughter whenever the chance arose but of course he did not wish for this tension with his granddaughter on his daughter.

Even if as parents, there was a level of amusement that Liz was battling her own angsty daughter just like they had at one time. But that amusement had dried up a long time before. And now he just wanted some peace to break out, and for his granddaughter to be happy again.

“Tell Lex where I am going?” Liz said softly.

“Where would that be?” Jeff asked.

“Truthfully I do not know,” Liz admitted. “But I will call if I am going to be later, and I can always call someone else to come over if you have to go back to the restaurant?”

“Honey, that does not matter, so, go ahead, and do what you need to do…” Jeff said softly as he watched as his daughter walked out of her home and he changed directions and headed upstairs.

To keep an eye on the one grandchild that did not want to self-destruct.

*

Upstairs,

Lex was working on his computer, on his bed to give his legs a rest because he had his rehabilitation session just that morning. Something he was doing even though he was now living back home, but it allowed both of his legs to regain its strength even as he was back on his left leg, and now it is about getting his right one back in shape. The crutches helped, and it did not detour his ability to be back in his room.

The room that he was beginning to think of his own because it was. Not that he had a lot of experience in it before everything went haywire, but he was back at home. He should be headed back in school but nope, the teachers thought it would be unnecessary since he was moving up a grade, into high school come the fall.

So, it was on-line learning for him.

Not that he was not acing the work. But he missed seeing kids his own age, and there was only so much socializing her could as his door swung open, and Jaime came rushing in. “Sorry I am late.”

“I did not know if we had a set time,” Lex said with a smile as he finished up with what he was doing. “Thank you for coming.”

“No problem,” Jaime smiled. “I could use the chance to get out of the house, with no classes this afternoon,” she said. “I saw your mother downstairs, I thought she would have been at work?”

“She was, but my sister is up to her tricks again, and disappeared and now Mom is home, worried about what is going on with her,” Lex muttered.

“Are you worried about your sister?” Jaime murmured because it became apparent early that Lex did not know the biggest secret to come through their circle in a long time, and so she was not going to be the person who gave Lex the news, so she stayed quiet, and as far as she knew everyone else has been processing it over the last few months.

“Sure,” Lex said. “Because I do not know what has gotten into her,” he muttered. “I mean she had a habit of having her moments back home in Chicago, mostly when Mom was working, and nights when Dad was busy, and she would disappear usually with her boyfriend or a friend or two, but this is new for her,” he thought as he could sense something was different. How there was now tension in the house. “Because it feels different, and more dangerous…”

And he could tell it was not only the grief that was refusing to go away over his father’s untimely death. It was something different. More angsty, and more problematic and the relationship between his sister and their mother has not been the same. And that became apparent when he finally was allowed to come back home.

He had walked cautiously into a very different house than was even apparent at Christmas.

“That sucks,” Jaime murmured. “What do you want to focus on today?”

“You pick,” Lex said as he was happy to sink into something that was not about the messed-up dynamic of his home life as there was a swing of the door open, and in walked his grandfather. Jeff could smile at the friendly atmosphere, “Yes, Grandpa?” Lex asked as it was odd for him to know he can often see his grandfather now, when for much of his life that had not been possible. It was his other side of the family, and they were not as warm as his Parker grandparents, and it was nice to see.

“Your mother had to go out, but I am here, if you need anything” Jeff said as it was nice to see his grandson making friends despite the unfortunate circumstance of his accident. “You know what to do, right?”

“Right,” Lex nodded as he said of the intercom button by his bed, as it had been installed to create more security with the house, now that Brady was no longer there, and once Liz started working at the hospital. There were times when the kids were home alone, with no babysitter. “Where did she go off too?”

“To deal with your sister,” Jeff said with sigh even though he was not completely sure that is where his daughter was headed…

Lex nodded. “Oh, great” Lex muttered. Simply great. What has gotten into you Mariah?

*

In the Park

“Are you in?” came at a grunge looking Mariah. Looking totally different than she had several months before, and now on the cusp of sixteen. Dressed in black, and her hair was now shorter than it was, and it was wilder, and most of all she did not care if she was disappointing her family and annoying her mother because did not care about much of anything. She was wanting to have fun and to break some rules. She did not care if she attended school or not, but fortunately, she was on break this week, so it was officially sanctioned free time, and she and her friends were having the time of their lives.

And using Mariah as a way to get out of trouble, and the teenager was not stupid, and did know she was being used, but she was fine with it because she was not game to stay behind the line that her family wished she would stay.

So, now she was being asked to escalate her behavior, and the girl she was a few months ago might have had pause to stop all this, but that was not the girl she was now, I am too different. Thanks to my mother… She was trying to forget the life she once had, and yet she missed it at the same time. She knew she baffled her mother with her behavior, and she should be bigger than when your life is completely different than what you were led to believe you were, you did not care how you looked. Because she wanted find some semblance of normal, and not be defined by the discoveries of a whole different world that was out there, and so she found acceptance in this group of people.

Who were not looking at her like she was a freak, or an accident?

She probably should care that they liked to cause trouble. In ways that made Mac’s wishes and antics tame in comparison, but all she was looking at it as if she were trying to let loose.

“I am in,” Mariah said pulling up her hood of her sweatshirt, and walked off…

*

River knew about messed up home dynamics as he finished up his shift. Yes, he was working. After talking himself into a bartender job at Cow Patties and he was working the afternoon shift on this day, because there was always a need for alcohol, and it was busy no matter the time of day. And he did not have any classes on this day because they were on Spring Break. But instead of playing, he was working. It did not matter to them that he was underage, because they do not know he thought because he had fudged his age with his abilities. They thought he was at least eighteen. But the job was something that gave him money from the tips to top up his pay because he was still on the hook for the park freak out.

Despite Liz’s plan for Mariah to take ownership of it. River and Mac turned down that idea, and continued to assume the damage, and they were almost finished paying it off. Which is why Mac needed something more than a job at the Crashdown because he did not want to use up his savings, for the park, when he had plans for that money.

After all, he still planned to flee this town. Which was now only a little over a year away, but it allowed him to make money. And it was not like he consumed the substances served. He was being good. Sure, okay, he was known to cave but only on days when he knew he was working a long shift, and he was not driving.

It was all so tempting, but he mostly restrained from the temptation.

Not that anyone cared if he had the odd slip, because no one knew of his real age, or his origins, or that he was only a junior in high school.

So, he put his head down and did his job, and only certain people knew of the job. And one of those people was not his best friend because he knew Mac would take advantage of his position. Even if he had the time to get away, and let loose, which he did, because he was still grounded and volunteering at the Sheriff’s Department.

And…

Working at the Crashdown. Doing the job, he did not want, although he was not convinced the owners would hire him because of who he was related too. After all his father was the man who led their daughter astray back in high school. Yes, River had been investigating more of his father’s back story. He did not have the full story, but enough to know his father had led quite the life before Mariah’s mother left him broken hearted because he had screwed up and gotten his birth mother pregnant.

Which is what his mother had wanted, according to the legend of their family.

And since no one had a good word about her, he was beginning to believe it. Anyways, Mac was now working in the Crashdown so he had very limited hours to be foolish.

Which is how his parents wanted it.

And generally, Mac had been on better behavior over these months, but River was not wanting anything to disrupt so when his cousin and his friend Sierra came rushing into the room. They were the only ones who knew of his job. Sierra who was also a junior, and they had been becoming friendly with each passing day over these months, and some might even call it going out, but he did not because he was not going tie himself down when he planned to leave this town in a year.

But Sierra was a good friend, and someone who was a fun time when he felt like having fun. But he handled it a whole lot differently than Mac did his relationships because Mac was now on his second or third relationship since the whatever it was that was, he and Mariah had on New Year’s, and Mac did not seem to be getting the message that you should not be playing the field, because it would lead to a lot of heartbreak.

“What brings the two of you here,” River wondered as he picked up his jacket from his locker. “And please none of your disapproval of the fact this is my job,” he muttered to his cousin who only shook her head because while she had not opened her mouth to family about River’s job, well, she did disapprove of it being in such an adult place when he was not even eighteen yet. But then she supposed her was too goody goody to partake, now Mac would have no hesitation she thought.

Still, she thought the job was too much for her cousin, but she was not about to tattle on her or to the authorities. But it made her come and pay attention to her cousin every once awhile because he knew living with her uncle, the moods can elevate wildly even though relations between and father and son lately had been remarkably improved itself, but who knows whether there would be a breach within the peace pact between them.

But that was not why she was here, “As long as you are being good, no words from me, at least not today.”

“Thank you,” River said softly. “Sierra what are you doing with Jessica?”

“We were browsing after meeting for lunch,” Sierra said softly as she smiled at River, who also smiled at Sierra, and Jessica just stood amused that someone seemed to be capturing some form of her cousin’s heart. Who knew she thought even though she knew River still had plans to head as far as he could from his town, but at least he was not looking at Roswell like it was the last place he should be in?

“I like this flirting between the two of you and all, but we have more problems than whatever you two are calling yourself” Jessica said with a smirk. “Why we came here is because he could not help but see trouble brewing…”

“Mac?” River asked wearily, “I thought he was working at the Crashdown?” and wondered if his best friend’s time of restraint were now over because Jessica would not come seeking him out unless there was trouble, somewhere.

“No, fortunately” Jessica said. “It’s Mariah…”

“Oh god,” River muttered as this was not the first time a warning had come his way about his newfound half-sister. Not that she wants to acknowledge that we are family he thought. Because Mariah was as far away from accepting as you can get without being oblivious to the fact. And the last three months have been trying because while he understood why she wanted to be denial, because she had a great life and now it was all crumbling down.

So, naturally she could not help but spiral.

And River could not say he blamed her, but suspected this was all foreign to her, because of course they had only met on that December night, right before everything turned upside down for the both of them, and River knew Mariah did not seem like the type, but then when you are completely blindsided by a discovery you did not see coming.

You either pull yourself together and understand more, or you go down the rabbit hole of denial, and that was his half-sister.

“Yeah,” Jessica muttered as she could understand what her cousin might be thinking of her other cousin not that she and Mariah had time to really feel like family. But Jessica knew that River felt different for Mariah. “And with it being Spring Break, not that Mariah has not been using the last semester as a long break,” she allowed, and River nodded because the three of them knew how much Mariah had not been in school. Most days she was absent, and on the rare day that she showed up, well, she was not in a good condition.

“What now?” River asked.

“We heard some concerning rumors,” Sierra said softly. “Of a party?”

“Geez,” River muttered. And knew Mariah was going in the midst of this party, since she had attracted a new gang of people in recent weeks. The rougher side of their school’s element, and the ones who were looking for trouble.

Not that we have not seen trouble, but we usually cannot help it because trouble usually finds us, and he knew the cache of how she had been in the mixed of some damage to the park, had given her a reputation that she had taken on even though she never been the one to say, she had done it alone.

That crowd knows not to mess with us he thought. “Mac is not in the middle, because is he not at work?”

“Fortunately, yes, he is,” Jessica nodded. “And we know he is there as we speak because he was bitching about it when we were having lunch there, and he’s not getting off his shift until later, so he does not know of the party, because we only came onto it as we were leaving.”

“Where is this party?”

“We will show you, if you want to come along” Jessica asked.

“Of course,” River muttered. As he knew that this was going to be tricky, as they quickly left Cow Patties as a car drove into the parking lot and did not see them exit. Because the driver was meeting a friend.

Not a friend she thought. My past.

Unfortunately, the driver said, as she looked into the mirror and wished life were easier. Why did my life get this crazy?

But it was.

She was newly widowed, and a single mother now to a daughter who would be turning sixteen the next day, and a son who was growing by leaps and bounds, but fortunately was the least of her worries these days.

Because her daughter was having an identity crisis.

And Liz had not seen it coming.

Yeah, I should have seen it coming she told herself for the millionth time she thought as she sat in her car and thought. But I did not she muttered as she got out of the car and looked around and saw someone familiar because they needed to talk.

Which they had not done much these last few months.

“Thank you for meeting me,” Liz said softly.

“Anytime,” Max said. “Although I am surprised you wanted to meet here?” he asked as they referred to the country and western bar.

“I figured we could use the friendly environment, and it would be less stressful” Liz said softly. “I know we have not talked much since that day back in January?”

“Only because I was giving you time,” Max said, and I needed time to adjust he thought although if he was honest with himself, then he would admit that he would always have the desire to see Liz. “But if you want to be here, then that is fine with me.”

“Thank you,” Liz said softly as they walked silently into the bar, which was fortunately not that busy for the time in the day. It was just before the night flow would start, and she knew meeting anywhere else might be too much, so now they were meeting and sitting down at a table and giving their drink orders.

“Are you okay?” Max asked as he could see his former girlfriend was just as overwhelmed as she had been back in January, or maybe even more so…

“Barely,” Liz said softly.

“I am always here, if you need to talk” Max said simply. “Not only today of course, but anytime. You do not have to be shy about it, because you are important to me, and that does not change because our history has changed…”

“I know you have been, and I do need to talk” Liz admitted. “Of course, I know I have Maria and even Kyle, but it is getting too much, and I needed some space, and to talk to you…”

“I assume this is about Mariah?” Max asked.

“Yes, it’s about our daughter…” Liz said simply.

[keepsmiling7]

So sorry you stopped there.......I've been waiting for this talk!
Wonder how it will turn out??
And where is Mariah??
I can expect difficult times ahead for everyone.

[Parker1947]

Our daughter Max thought. Those are not the words I would think I would have heard he thought, because no, they were never the words he would assume he would be hearing from his ex-girlfriend. The girl he had been loving since third grade when he first put his eyes on her face when on the playground at their elementary school. She surrounded with friends and playing with Maria and loving life while he was new to the planet. An outcast, who was keeping inside himself and sure, while he had been here for a while, but he needed time to get used to being on a vast and new planet, and one that he could not adjust too until he could, and then he and his sister started school, and he remember locking his eyes on the brunette in the school yard, and knew she was the one he should be paying attention to.

He did not know why. He has never known why. Because it has never made sense.

But then what about them has made sense? Max would think now. But that was third grade. And it would have been silly to do anything about it, and plus, she did not know him from Adam. He had only been some other classmate in the many numbers of them over the years. Someone who was just there and would roll through the grades with her, but barely would they interact, even when in Sophomore Biology class, and being partners.

They did their work, and went home at the end of the day, and did not talk. Until that day in September when it all changed for them. And he stepped into action and changed both of their destinies and brought her into a world she could not have comprehended before that day, and maybe still did not and it touched off an avalanche of discoveries.

And not all of them were pretty. And they tended to overwhelm them, but in the course of it all, they had fallen in love.

Until it all ended.

Not that he had ever stopped loving her. But knowing her, gave him a chance to discover her in a whole new way. She was beyond perfection. Not that she was always worthy of being on his pedestal, and she would chafe against it, but to him, she was always perfection. Even when it was going badly.

She was the one.

Not that she believed it after Tess came to town, and Max now was chagrined to realize how it all went so badly, and how he got fooled, constantly he thought. Why could I not see Tess for what she was, until the end he thought.

Still Liz had been the one, someone special. She had been his destiny, but destinies did not always end well.

And yet now they had link, but it was a tenuous link because he had never gotten a chance to know his daughter, the one thing they shared from that time. When it was all brand new, until when it finally all crumbled apart, and she had walked away from him only to move on, with someone else.

And have children with someone else.

But they did not know how she had not gotten away unscathed from their time together, and because of that, they did share a daughter.

A daughter who did not want any part of him, and he was still trying to grasp it. “Our daughter, yes,” he said softly as he stared in the eyes of the only woman he would love. Sure, Tess was a one-time mistake. But it was never anything he would have willingly of done if it had been any other time than it was, at the lowest time in his life that was before Liz finally left me, he thought because then that really was when he sunk to new depths.

“I am sorry Max,” Liz murmured.

“For what?” Max asked. “I am the one who should be saying those words,” as a waitress came, delivering their drinks. Beer for him, and white wine for her because she thought it would be best to keep it at that…

“Why would you say them?” Liz asked, looking for any diversion from the talk they needed to have even though there was no good reason why they were having this discussion, because it was not like he could do anything about it. But it was about their daughter, who was on the eve of her sixteenth birthday.

Which meant she was only that much older, and the authorities would take more notice when you turn sixteen, because before, you are a juvenile. But then at sixteen, depending on the crime, you could still be, but the way her daughter was going. She did not know how much leniency she was going to be getting from the authorities.

Even if they counted the town Sheriff as a family friend.

But Jim could only provide so much rope for her daughter to save herself before getting into trouble with the town he was sworn to serve and to protect.

“You should not have to be dealing with all this,” Max murmured.

“But I do, because I could have prevented so much of the heartache our daughter feels if only, I had questioned, or not allowed myself to a build a life that was built on a lie,” Liz murmured. “I do not know what would have happened back then if only I had wondered about you and I and our time together. It was all so stuck together, you and I got together, we were engaged, and then we were not, and then I walked away from you, and I found that I had a need to hide from the pain I was feeling, and then I found Brady. And even when I found out I was pregnant, I wondered if it was not Brady, if it was any of the other men, but I never wondered about you, and I should have…”

“You said it yourself our daughter came after most traditional periods of pregnancy,” Max said softly. “I know babies can be early, or they can be late, but I do not think we were existing in the universe to think, because even when I found out that you had married Brady, and eventually you would have a baby…”

“You did?” Liz asked as she never found herself questioning how Max was faring back here, to hear that she had moved on. Because she knew it had been quick. She had been so invested in her relationship with Max. And months later, she was married to someone else, and soon to be a mother to her own baby.

“Yes,” Max nodded. “I think we both know that I loved you deeply, and probably a large part of me still does,” Max said with honestly that this situation did warrant. And he would have been lying to deny the love he still had for Liz, and it was deeply uncomfortable for Liz to hear him say those words, even if they were true, when she knew that I did move on, and I did love my husband she thought. In my own way. “We were engaged to be married. Even if it ended before it started. It stung deeply to hear that you married your husband so soon after we ended, and then a few months later I heard that you had started a family. But I did not let it enter my head about you and me, or whether I could have been the father?”

“Probably because you would have thought I would have returned if I had known…” Liz asked.

“Maybe, but still, I did not allow myself to go there, and for you to think you let down our daughter because you allowed her to grow up under an identity you had no reason to need to question. At least she has been happy, and I know you had to have raised our daughter to be strong. And well adjusted. While I am sorry that I was not part of it but also know how my life these last years has been, and I was in no position to be a parent. If you doubt me. You can ask River, and he can tell you that I was no role model for a growing child. I barely was a father to my son that I had in my own house, and our relationship is currently fractured, maybe beyond repair in many ways because of that. So, I hate to think of what would have happened if I had known about Mariah?”

“It might have been different for you, and for her” Liz murmured because she had to think so much might have been different for Max if only, he had known she sighed. If I had known.

“I would not have known that for certain” Max murmured. “Because quite honestly. If you had not returned to me and you have elected to stay with Brady. It probably would not have been better for me. Or for our daughter. Because she would have still had Brady as the ideal father figure, and a second family, and if I did not have you, I might actually have been worse off. Even if Mariah is our link to ourselves. So, in many ways Mariah was probably better off living the life she did because she would not have wanted to be in River’s position,” he sighed of the many what ifs and Liz hated having to question what she would have done.

She and Brady had been happy. And if Brady had wanted to raise Mariah with her,

Yet she had loved Max so much. It had been intense. The rush of those three years was like an addiction she could not shake.

But then she walked away, and she found Brady.

And he was different for her. Something she needed. But if there was our daughter, would she not have been at a risk of relapsing with Max. And maybe creating that life that we should have had. But then there was Brady.

And there had been the baby who would turn out to be River…

Still despite all her angst about her past with Tess, and what the blonde had taken from her. She knew her daughter would have needed to know Max. So much of what she is facing now is because she did not know she muttered. “Whether you would have been the person who would have been able to raise our daughter, or not, and I happen to think you would have been better than you think you could have been” Liz said and maybe that was her romanticized of the way things were, and she had not been here for the hard times between Max and River. After all, all she knew was now, and she knew that Max and his son were trying to be better with each other. “Still, Mariah feels different, and she cannot handle it because it so different from how she was before, as she is starting to change. And I know that feeling well Max,” Liz thought. “I remember when I was you know…”

“Changing?” Max asked.

“Yes,” Liz nodded with a sigh. “Too most, it would just be the facts of life, something we all have to go through… Which is growing up. But to be who she is, and who is different than even her brother, or me, because I while I am different in some respects, still, I am a lot more normal because of who I am, but we both know that Mariah has different genetics than even I have, so when you do feel different than you were as a child when life is easier, you have a hard time handling this life. And coming as it is as she a teenager, being a teenager is hell even on the easiest of days…” she murmured.

“Yeah,” Max conceded.

“We encounter a lot of changes, mood swings and such” Liz murmured as she was taking stock of where they were, and all they could say. But she had known it would be dicey to go to Max’s home, and be alone with him, so she had chosen the better alternative. “And coupled that with you know…”

“Yes,” Max nodded. “I know how it was for you.”

“I was older and had even experienced more hardship than Mariah has to this point, but still, it was difficult coming to terms and given the life she had lived before now was so different. We had a different life in Chicago than we do here Max,” Liz murmured as she thought of that life she had in Chicago, and yet she did not have a desire to go back, because she knew that would not solve her problems. Not for herself, nor would it for Mariah. “She was able to grow, and be well adjusted without any real worries, but coming here, and right off the bat losing Brady, put her behind because she’s still grieving. She loved the man she believed to be her father, and Brady loved her. To lose him, and almost immediately after that to discover what she did, and in the manner she did, well, it has taken away what she could count on at the end of the day. The stability of knowing who she was. She loved her father in Brady Max. And we took that away from her.”

“She can still have Brady as her father,” Max murmured. “I am not asking anything from her…” he said as his heart broke.

And Liz could see how much Max wished things could have been different, and how much he wished their daughter could accept him and think of him as her father. “I know you do not, and I appreciate that Max, even though I know how much it hurts you to say something like that. But she does not feel like an Evans and most of all, she does not feel like an Anthony, and with Brady gone, she does not know if her father would have accepted her if he had known and added to all this is coming to terms with being your daughter, and everything that comes with that…”

“Yeah,” Max murmured. “I would never want to be hurting because of who she is. I wish she could still be normal. And it had bypassed her generation…”

“So, do I” Liz admitted. “Because being different in this age is not easy. Any difference is going to be magnified she muttered even if she feels like the most normal of teenagers she thought because she knew how her own differences threw her off and had led to the end for herself and Max.

She did not want that for her daughter.

She wanted an easier life.

But she was not going to get what she wanted for her daughter, and she was having to come to terms with that and it did help to be here with Max, and to talk to him because talking was something they had always done well. Once upon a time, they had a friendship under that foundation of their relationship. And while, that did not always serve their love well because of how messy it had come, still, when the chips were down, she knew she could talk to Max and feel like it all could work out.

“Thank you, Max…” Liz said softly.

“All I want is for you and Mariah to be happy,” Max said. “I know how much our daughter is hurting and if there is anything I can do to help her, or to help you?”

“I appreciate that,” Liz said softly as they looked at each other’s eyes, and felt too much…

*

Roswell,
The Park,

“Where is she Roxy?” came an irritated River as he along with Jessica and Sierra broke up the little day party in the outskirts of the park, out of the limits that security would be keeping an eye, and of course it was still daylight, so there was not much security around, because they had other concerns, so the teens knew they had free range to come here, and to party.

The town knew this but unless it got out of control. They did not have the resources to be able to monitor all aspects of the park. It was also Spring Break, which meant it was useless to try to keep the antics down. Although it was daylight, so the music had not started yet, but River and the girls knew where to find the party.

Because the element of the school’s trouble squad had tried to recruit River early on when he began high school and was high in his angsty disengagement from his father, as becoming a teenager had made things go from bad to worse between Max and River because his son was growing up, and Max did not want to do what it took to be a father to River, and River took the independence as a badge of honor, and was playing with the freedom, and Roxy and her crew had found him, and tried to get him to be one of them.

Roswell’s version of a gang.

But River said no, and had stayed away from him, because the few times they had not, well, he made sure they knew that he wanted to be left alone, and finally they took his word, and departed the scene, and he focused on his education with plans on getting out of this town. Once it occurred to him that there was life outside this town.

And now he could see his half-sister slowly falling under their spell, and because of who she was, and she had not been raised to keep whatever abilities she might have undercover, unlike me he thought. One of the things drilled into him, Mac and Jessica had been to blend in, and not to be so public with any use of your abilities and mostly he had kept what he had the ability to do behind closed doors. With some liberal use for his education, but it was not in him to cheat, so he came by his grades naturally and by spending time studying.

After all, he was not prone to get into trouble unlike Mac.

“I do not know what you mean” Roxy Turner murmured as she looked at the threesome who had come their way, busting their little party. “River, it has been a while since we tangled,” she said with a smile that River was repulsed by, which only made her laugh all the more. “But you are invited to join us if you want to have some fun?”

“You are not our version of fun,” Sierra murmured as she was not going to play with Roxy’s insinuation of a past between her and River.

“Oh, really?” Roxy said eying both Jessica and Sierra and the girls squirmed from her attention.

“All we want to know is where is Mariah?” River said. “And you are to stay away from her, do you hear me?” he murmured as gave his most threatening posture. While he tended to hide behind the good guy label still, he knew how to be threatening if necessary, and especially if he was trying to protect who was where important to him. “I have proven in the past that you are not play games with us.”

“Why?” Glen Peters asked as he came to Roxy’s assistance, “She’s a big girl is she not?” he asked as he looked at both Jessica and Sierra, and he knew River and Jessica were related. “I thought you were dating Sierra here, so why all this interest in Mariah Anthony?” he asked as he glanced at Sierra with a lecherous glance which made both Jessica and River want to deck the guy, but Sierra could handle herself as he grabbed her arm and she stopped it, by yanking her arm away, and then doing what the others wanted to do, decking him.

And he flew to the ground.

Which impressed both River and Jessica with the degree of the power in Sierra, hmm they both thought.

“Oh, you want to do that, do you?” Roxy and the others came, and soon they were in a fight. With a lot of fists, and a lot of bruises to come before a town security guy who was going through the park on the way to another part of town, heard the fight, and stepped in to stop it.

And called in the Sheriff Department.

Unaware that the Sheriff Department was also being dispatched to yet another part of town.

*

Nearby,

A disgruntled teenager climbed the wall up the structure and made sure the security was off in the window and tested the bars outside the window mirroring what was once outside the Sheriff Department back in the late 90’s, now only time and technology had been increased but in a small town like Roswell, well, not everywhere had top notch security. And especially not when the structure she was breaking into was closed for the week, because the building was on Spring Break.

She knew what was right and what was wrong. And knew what she was doing was wrong, but she could not help herself. Because she was looking for trouble.

She should not be.

But she was.

She did not like what she was doing. She did not know why she was listening to Roxy, because she knew the teen was bad news, but she could not help but see if she could do it.

Especially as she was coming into abilities, she did not even know she had, and she was not going with the blend and cause no problems approach that she knew River had mined with great success. When it could have gone the other way.

Slow down Mariah she was telling herself. You know Mom will hate this and have a fit she thought. Are you asking for trouble and for no university to touch you? she asked herself. But Mariah did not care about university now when she was only about to turn sixteen the following day.

She was crying out for attention.

So, she jumped through the last hurdle, and unaware that she had triggered a silent alarm, she finished the process of jumping into the room, and leaving open the window, and quietly moving through the office. And went to work.

She was looking for Roxy’s cellphone that a teacher had confiscated right before break, and she needed back or so she told Mariah. And Mariah was under instructions to change some grades, so she was ruffling through the desk.

Before she stopped in place at the shine of lights. “Stop where you are…”

Shit Mariah told herself as she was yanked and put into handcuffs.

Maybe yeah, I was stupid she thought as reality was quickly returning for the girl.

[RoswellFan68]

Roxy sounds like bad news. I hope Mariah will start to see that her mom, brother and father want to help her.
Liz may need to see if her dad still has the contact information for the boarding school in Vermont.

[keepsmiling7]

I feel trouble is on the horizon.
Liz and Max had an adult talk, now what will happen?

[Superman86]

Hope all is okay, been checking every other day for updates. Hope to hear from you soon, missing this fic

[Parker1947]

Neither Max nor Liz knew that their children were getting into trouble. One out of protection for the other, and the other was having potentially her future threatened in ways that both of their parents would know well because it was the same way for them, but most of the time we did not get caught they both thought. We got lucky.

Although Liz could also remember that not every time would they be able to get out of their schemes cleanly, and without consequences. She was fortunate once or twice, but eventually that would run against the wall of life, and they were downright fortunate that she got the miracle shot of being allowed out of prison on the edge of eighteen. And therefore, she would never forget that time or that months later she would have to leave this town and go off and achieve her dreams.

So, of course, she knew that she had been fortunate once upon a time.

But right now, they did not know that their children were revisiting their past, and mimicking their actions as they spending time talking, and trying to forget their problems. Max was just happy to be able to spend time with Liz because that was always something he would want to want to be able to do, but for so long he was unable to do. “I see this place is as happening as it was back in the day?” Liz asked as she was looking for any tidbit of small talk to be able to talk to Max when she knew she should be heading back to town in search of her daughter. Which is after all what she had told her father she had planned on doing. And why she had to leave.

Instead, she had come looking for Max.

“They have managed to make a go of it, yes” Max said. “Not that I have spent much time here,” he thought because he had kept his drinking to behind closed doors, and he had become too much of a hermit over these years, and yet that was now changing.

And yet he did not know how he react if at the end of this, Mariah rejected him, and went back to her old life. The life she had been raised to embrace. And yet it might be the best thing for her, because he knew how much being who they were, had changed them all, and they could not exactly be normal.

So, he felt Liz’s burden.

“I know you are worried about Mariah,” Max said softly as he was trying to ignore the fears that were pestering his brain.

It is not about me Max thought as he could see how overwhelmed Liz was, and unprepared she was to have a rebellious daughter.

“Yes, I am” Liz thought as this was one of the reasons, she had come here even though she knew that Max could do very little because if her daughter was rejecting her support, then there was no way she was going to take Max’s support given she was rejecting all sparks of the past, and she was rebelling because of it.

“I am almost wish it was some boy I was hating her seeing,” Liz muttered, and Max smirked. “That I can control or deal with because I have some knowledge for that because of what we went through,” she thought of how her own rebellion because of her parents forbidding her from seeing Max. And how much she had rebelled against it, and if it had just been some boy that her daughter wanted to see. Josh or someone else, she could handle that Liz knew because it would seem easy, she thought. She could not handle this, she told herself not this “This is something I cannot deal with because I can criticize her all day long, and try to ground her, but until she realizes she has found her rock bottom, and start to climb back then it all so useless because unfortunately there are hours where I am at work, and my neither of my parents can stay at the house all the time because they of course have a restaurant to run and I have my job at the hospital,” she sighed. “Which is why I hate this.”

“I know you do,” Max said softly. As he could feel the heartache in his former girlfriend. “How is your job going?”

“Interesting, because there are new discoveries to make all the time and being at the hospital is helpful. I just wished I did not have to worry about Mariah,” Liz said softly because she was enjoying the job at the hospital. And there were a lot of challenges that she did not have to face at the last lab she had worked, but she could not put her whole attention on it because of the worries at home, and the knowledge she did not have Brady at home.

A mother worried about her daughter, wow, a change from me Max thought and he nodded. “It will all make sense one of these days. I doubt it did for your parents until you reached that point…”

“Yeah, but it took me walking away after graduating to get some semblance of normal and for my parents to stop worrying about me. Mariah is not turning sixteen until tomorrow, and she has so much time to go before mistakes she makes now affect her future.”

Max nodded as he did not need the reminder that she had walked away.

*

As back in town, at the Anthony residence. Jeff was helping his grandson downstairs, with Jaime’s support. Luckily the thirteen-year-old was very adapting of his circumstances and this time he used the chair lift that his mother had installed, and, on this day, he felt like using it, and now he was getting to the bottom of the stairs, and Jaime was bringing down the crutches when there was a knock on the door. Oh great, Jeff thought as he was preparing to drive Jaime home before returning to the restaurant while Lex watched some television downstairs. And he stopped in place when he saw who it was as he opened the door.

“Jim,” Jeff said as the tip of the hat. “What can we do for you?”

“Grandpa,” came a surprised Jaime.

“Jaime,” Jim said with pleasure, but he too was surprised to know his granddaughter was here, but he did know of the friendship she shared with Lex Anthony. Someone he did not know well because for a long time, he had been at a rehab facility and only returned home a short time before. “I was wondering if your daughter was at home Jeff?”

“Sorry, no, she had somewhere to go” Jeff said. “I was in fact going to drive Jaime home to her parent’s home, before returning to the restaurant. I was holding the fort here at the house for my daughter. “What is this about?”

“Your granddaughter,” Jim said with the hat of the town Sheriff. “I was passing by when I got a call from dispatch, and I figured I would take care of this because yes, I do need to talk to her as soon as possible.”

“Have you tried calling her?” Jeff said with a hesitation because he did not know what had gotten into his granddaughter although I do, he thought. She is falling apart because of being different than she was raised he thought.

Jeff wanted his granddaughter’s life to make sense.

And he wanted his daughter to be happy.

“Yes, we did” Jim said.

“That is strange, Mom is always on the phone” came a voice, and they turned and saw that it was Lex who was dismayed to hear that his sister was causing trouble, yet again. “Mariah is okay, right?”

“Yes,” Jim said. “Physically at least…”

“Do you need me to deal with it?” Jeff asked as he was not looking forward to having to relive nightmares of old times within himself, or when it was his own daughter that he was having to get out of trouble, and thankfully he had but only barely okay it was Phillip Evans although he was not sure at the time if Max’s father could pull it out of his hat because of how serious it was for his daughter.

But luckily, they managed to defeat it, so therefore, to see it come back to haunt them in their granddaughter was not exactly something they want to see play out. Therefore, Jeff prayed Mariah would come to her senses before it was too late.

“No, just if you can reach your daughter as soon as possible,” Jim murmured as he turned around. “Do you need a lift home?” he asked of his granddaughter.

“No, I can take the bus home,” Jaime said. “I guess this is my time to go,” he said. “Call me when you want to come back,” she said of Lex who nodded. “Mr. Parker, I do not need a drive home, because obviously you have a lot to do.”

“I do, but I can drive you home” Jeff offered.

“That is alright,” Jaime said as she reached for her jacket, and was gone before they knew it, and it left Jeff to think of his granddaughter as they watched as Jaime watched off, and he could not help but wish his granddaughter were as carefree. “You have a great girl there,” Jeff said to Jim.

“Her father and Isabel have done a great job with her, and her sister” Jim said as Lex had walked off with is crutches to gather his phone, and he started dialing. “I am calling Mom,” he said to his grandfather and the town Sheriff that he did not know well, but by the nature of being here, well, he had to know this was bad news.

*

Max and Liz were both out in the parking lot now, gathering up the courage to leave because yes Liz did know she had to go find her daughter, because this could not continue especially as she was turning sixteen the following day and the older, she would get than the more the ramifications that arose from criminal actions became more severe. Liz did not need to see that repeat in her daughter and knew Brady would not want to see it either. “I guess, I better go” Liz was saying. She had only one glass of wine, and felt she was fine to drive. Although her blood pressure was only amplified by the circumstance.

And being close to Max.

No, this is not what I need Liz thought. “Are you okay to head home?”

“Sure,” Max said with a smile. “My tolerance level is much better than when we were young,” he said of that incident that instantly came to their mind. I do not need this Liz thought, to remind herself of that night. A night that had been so unexplainable. A blind date with the wrong person had turned into a night of dreams. And it was very memorable by the end of it. She remembered how low his tolerance was, although they suspected it was because of who he was. But then who knows she thought. It was one for the books she thought.

Max remembered it, even though at the time he said he did not.

How could I not remember it, but he was embarrassed by the circumstance of that night because it was so soon into their association and he did not know how she was going to take it, so it was easier to say the alcohol had caused momentarily amnesia.

“That is good,” Liz said softly as she had no idea of how to respond to Max. “As she hung onto her purse and looked at her car. “Thank you for talking to me.”

“Anytime Liz, anytime.” Max murmured. “If you need help with Mariah, just call me.”

“I will,” Liz promised because even if her daughter was not ready to accept that she had another father. Brady cannot never be forgotten or replaced she thought but it was obvious that her daughter needed some kind of support.

And Max might be the only person to help her.

Because she, Liz was too normal and human.

Max did not want it to end but knew it had too because she had too many other responsibilities, but the inside of himself was smiling and he knew he would treasure this day even if he wished she were not so overwhelmed by life.

Getting ready to get into the car, she was startled by the sound of her phone, and she grabbed it. And was put on guard when she saw that it was her son’s cellphone because both of her kids had their own phone for years. It was a safeguard to know where her children were, but unfortunately her daughter these days was too smart and was able to dismantle her ability to keep track of her.

Which is why she did not know where she currently was…

“Yes,” Liz said as she answered her phone. “Lex?” she asked of her son.

And Max was reminded that Liz had a past that was more than Mariah, and that she and Brady shared a child together, that would always link them in ways that even he did not have a link with her with in regard to Mariah because Mariah did not want to acknowledge him. “What is it?” he heard Liz say, and he drifted back to the conversation and the present.

And the now.

Perfect Liz groaned. “I understand, pass the phone over to him” she murmured as a moment later she could only say, “Jim, what is it?” she asked into the phone and Max was immediately put on guard because until they met up here at Cow Patties, well, she had a daughter she was looking for, and who was obviously up to some level of mischief.

He remembered when they would do that, and their parents would have not an ounce of knowledge.

Blissful ignorance Max thought and came back to the conversation. “How long?” was all Liz could say. “Yes, I understand. I will meet you there,” she said as she put down her phone and looked at Max.

Her daughter’s biological father.

“What is it?” Max asked.

“It’s Mariah, because apparently Jim stopped by the house and needed to speak to me, and so Lex phoned me, and well, I have to go back to town.”

“Why?” Max asked, as if he did not know Mariah he thought.

“Our daughter,” Liz said. “She’s been picked up by the Sheriff’s Department for breaking and entering…”

Shit Max thought.

“Yeah, pulling one of my greatest hits” Liz muttered as she could not help but remember a time where she had done something she should not have, but she had done it for a good cause to know who killed Alex “So, I definitely have to end this and get back to town,” she said of her plans for the day had been dramatically altered as if her plans had already taken a detour.

“I am coming with you,” Max said.

“You do not have to Max,” Liz said softly. “I will let you know what happens because if you come, well, she is not going to be happy…”

“Well too bad,” Max murmured because maybe it was time Mariah realized that he was not going to give up on her even if they had not known each other as Max’s phone went off, and he groaned. And looked at it and was surprised by the number. Fuck he thought because he could sense that this call would not be a joyous occasion. “What now, why would the Sheriff Department be calling me?” he muttered.

Liz did not have an answer for it… so she waited before getting into her car.

But Max would find out, “Yes, this is Max” he would say as he answered his cellphone. Oh god he said. “Yes, I am River’s father, I see, well, thank you for telling me,” And with those words, Liz paused at the mention of River’s name. “If you speak to my son. Please tell him that I will be there as soon as possible, and yes, he has a lawyer” he murmured so do not think of getting him to talk without legal representation he thought to himself as he ended the call and gave his father a quick call. “Hey dad, I need you at the Sheriff’s Department. It is both Mariah and River, but I do not have time to let you know what it is all about, but I do not think that it more than a formality, so, no, I do not know how serious the situation is, but they could use your legal advice?” he said softly as he was looking at Liz. “Thank you, Dad.”

“What is it?” Liz asked even though her eyes went up at the use of Phillip for her daughter’s legal issues. But allowed it to pass because she was not going to turn down a lawyer’s advice assuming it turned out to be more than just a prank her daughter got caught up in.

“Mariah does not have a vote whether I show up, because now I have a reason to head for the Sheriff Department in Roswell,” Max muttered “My son got himself arrested…”

“What on earth, what is going on with our kids?” Liz wondered and Max could not provide an answer as they both got into their cars and drove into town, wondering how this all happened, and what this all meant.

****

Sorry, I kept you waiting. I was out of town, and it was a little longer than I initially intended for a new installment. I hope you enjoy what is upcoming...

[Parker1947]

To give her credit. By the time Mariah got paraded through the doors of the Sheriff’s Department. Reality seemed to have finally returned and found its place in her brain, and she figured that she had probably done it this time, and she might not be forgiven so easily for her actions by her mother, or even by the Sheriff Department. Especially with this being strike two for her, even though the authorities would not know the true circumstances of those events of New Year’s Eve.

Or how they were keeping them the dark. Whether the Sheriff knew, it was anyone’s guess, but it was not spoken of in polite company. As they were trying to ignore and move on, until today Mariah could not help thinking, I have done it now, have I not?

So, she knew she had really stepped into it this time.

Why? was the prevailing sentiment in asking about why she had done this. When she knew better.

Although it was answer she could not give. Because she knew it was stupid. And she was not stupid. And yet she had done it anyways.

And now one of the lowly deputies under Jim Valenti’s command was the one who escorted in, because the boss was off the clock. “Where should I put her?” came officer Oscar Timmons as he asked his superior, Deputy Aaron Duncan who was on duty on his day as his boss was off with his wife or was supposed to be he thought because he had just called his boss to advise of two arrestees, one that was now coming into the station. And was told that the Sheriff would handle notification of the parents.

Duncan did not care because he was supposed to be handling the office as the Sheriff’s number one Deputy. “Put her in holding” came his response as he looked up and saw the female coming in, wearing a hoodie, and was agitated, who was clearly in shock that she was putting in the cell. “She will have company in there,” he murmured. “Sheriff Department,” he said as the phone rang.

As he went back to his assigned duties.

While Mariah was then escorted down the hallway to the holding cell and once at the set of cells, he opened the door. The walk was intimidating even though the jail was not a big one. The value of being a small-town department. While she had been fortunate not to experience it in Chicago, she knew she would have found a very different environment if she had been back in Illinois, and in Chicago. But I am not there she thought. I am here she thought as she finally having to come to terms with the fact she was no longer in Chicago, and now she was being walked down the hallway towards the few cells that were in the department, and before she knew it. One was opened. “There, you will need to wait here until we deal with you once a parent comes to collect you” he said and Mariah looked around, and hard truth of what she had finally dawning on her as she stopped her assessing as she saw two girls in the one, she was in. Recognition was starting to set in. “Wait, I know you?” Mariah was startled because she knew one of the two in the cell with her, “You I do not know?” she said of the other teenager in her cell.

“Yes, you do, but not very well but hello Mariah,” came Jessica Ramirez Evans as she turned around as she had been sitting on the bench and reading whatever obscenities that were written on the wall, for some amusement as she waited for whoever was going to be bailing her out to show up. And she and Sierra were sitting there peacefully, amused by the whole thing, when they heard the commotion of the officer bringing someone new. And she openly laughed to see who it was, and now the other resident of their cell was behind locked bars. So, I see you did something to get you thrown in here?”

“What did you do?” Mariah muttered as she was not willing to give Jessica an answer to what she had done.

“We were trying to save you,” Jessica muttered. “Not that it helped us in the end,” she allowed. “Although you might want to thank River…”

“Why would I do that?” Mariah asked as she had known she had spent much time with her newest family member since that day in the desert. Where it had all gone badly, yeah, a lot has gone badly she thought of these last months.

“Because we wanted to protect you, not that you wanted us too” came the only resident of the other cell. Because the hoodlums behind the fighting had already been released, and now it was only the ones who you would not think would stay in, here, and Mariah was startled to see that her half-brother River who had been laying down taking a nap before the shit hit the fan, woke up, and sat up.

And faced Mariah. “You really done it this time, haven’t you?” River asked.

“What about you, you are in here, why?” Mariah muttered.

“Because he tangled with Roxy and her crew because he did not want you to go and get into trouble, and he was too late, wasn’t he?” Sierra muttered. “You had to go and take the challenge of whatever Roxy has dreamt up for you to do?”

“How would you know?” Mariah muttered as she glanced at the dirty blonde. As she and Sierra had not spent much time together over the weeks since New Year’s Eve, when she became friendly with River and eventually the whole group, because like Mariah, she had relocated the previous summer, but she had been at the other high school in Roswell Goddard High, but she hated it there, so she was had transferred to West Roswell with her mother’s approval.

“Because I know the type,” Sierra thought, “My Dad is unreliable on his best day, always going for the big score, which is why I took my mother’s name when I transferred to school here in Roswell,” she thought. “I know the type, and you are not the type.”

“How would you know my type?” Mariah muttered we do not know each other as she was instantly in a combative nature. While River and Jessica let it happen, because they did not want to be the heavies when everything with Mariah’s acceptance of the family was extremely tentative and nonexistent, so they were fine with Sierra potentially making an enemy in Mariah.

“Because River tells me you are not,” Sierra said softly.

“River barely knows me,” Mariah muttered. “We are simply connected because of one night in December…”

“And because of biology,” River said finally stepping into the conversation. “Look no one is asking you to accept the fact my father was responsible for helping you come into the world. If you want to go through this world as Brady Anthony’s daughter, fine, no one is asking you accept my father or change your name to Evans. Heck my father has not even asked you to accept him. We know you had a happy life before you came to Roswell, and now it is full of angsty moments. I know something about an angsty relationship with my father. Sure, we are trying to move past it, and will we? I have no idea. At least we are giving it a try. So, I know from what I speak. I know it’s a lot to deal with but at least you should be relieved at least a tiny part to know at least that your parents loved you. All three of them. Sure, Dad does not know you very well, but I know for a fact that he loves that he is your father. Even if it stays in in blood only. Still though you should be happy that your parents loved each other. Which if you were to believe any of the stories coming from their time in high school. I know for the fact that there is no one else for my father if it were not your mother, so, having parents who love each other even for a short amount of time is not something I can claim,” River muttered as he will always feel the burden of being unwanted. It did not matter whether his father torpedoed his relationship for him or not. Dad would change history if he could in a minute he muttered. “You were created in love, while for me it was because my birth mother wanted to trap our father…”

The girls in the cell could not help but wince at River’s words, because for all the unhappiness in her core. Mariah did not have a response to that.

Still, she did not know how to handle it. She hated knowing how much her mother loved another man, whether that man ultimately was responsible for creating her.

Once upon a time I had a different life she thought. “You do not know what it is like to have your life ripped away from you?” she would say as she thought that it was obvious that River had many issues that were unresolved within his relationship with his father, and even his birth mother, so why should she want to get to know a man who could not raise his son to grow up with issues?

Yes, why should I want to know the man? Why, could I not be Brady Anthony’s daughter?

“And no one is asking you to accept it,” River muttered. “You can keep your old life if you want because look Mariah, I know I am responsible for escalating your hatred of the situation. I am sorry for that day in the desert. I should not have laid it out on you like that. You did not ask for it all to be laid on you when you had only just learned the truth, but I figured knowing was half of the battle. If you knew the gritty part of our family, it would be easiest to decide what kind of life you wanted. I now know that it was too much too soon. I should have waited to let you know. Or let you come into the knowledge yourself so yeah, so I know it is a lot. Fortunately, or unfortunately if you choose to look at it like that. Jessica and I have long grown up knowing the gritty side of our family. It’s easy to forget how it would be for the uninitiated,” he muttered as he glanced at her cousin who nodded because both teenagers had long grown up knowing the warts of their family history. “So, you do not have accept us or join our little fraternity. Certainly, if you want your old life. Then you can go back at it and believe in that life. No one is asking your that you accept it,” he sighed. “Because it must be hell to think that you were only thing, only to discover something else, entirely?”

“Yeah, it sucks” Mariah muttered, and she should be relieved to know more about her legacy that she had before that day, but it has been yeah too much too soon. Everything was unraveling, and to know she was not completely human, or that her biological father did not come from this planet.

Too much.

“Jessica and I do not know that feeling you know,” River said softly. “Yes. we were raised in this family with a history that would make the fiction writers a killing,” he said as he and Jessica were coding the words they were saying because they knew Sierra did not know the truth except for the fact Mariah was River’s half-sister because of a relationship in high school between their parents.

“River is right,” Jessica said as she thought of how her life could have different and was still in a way. “Although I know a little bit of what you are feeling because my biological father is dead. He was killed in a car accident right before I was born, and my mother eventually jumped into a new relationship and therefore I have a mother and a different father today, which I am fine with because at the end of the day, I still have a part of his life when I visit his mother, my grandmother,” she said softly. “She does not know all we know, and so I have to live a double life of sorts every summer when I visit because she does not know. When I go to Arizona, I have to put on a different face for my grandmother. So, yeah, I know that it is hell to have to be someone different than you are. Although there are days where I relish it, but at least I know who I am, and that knowledge started when I was a baby, but Mariah I do know that you did not know…”

“I wish I did not,” Mariah sighed as she wanted that old life she had in Chicago. “I want my old life back…”

We all want to be who we were once Sierra thought. “But acting out and going about life like this is not the answer,” Sierra murmured. “Breaking the rules is fun at times but sometimes it comes with hell of the consequences, and you play by the blurry lines long enough, you will face them, and something tells me you are better off accepting who you are,” she sighed “Even though of course I do not know all that goes on with your family, but I know by having a unreliable father, and you do not want that…”

“You do not know what I want,” Mariah muttered.

“No, I do not…” Sierra agreed.

“That is enough,” came the loud voice of the law as a man walked into the room. Jessica knew him well because he was her grandfather. “Grandpa…” she said in a warm voice even though given the predicament she was in; she should not be happy to see him.

“Jessica,” Jim said. “I hear there was quite the commotion at the park?” he asked as he did not think his granddaughter was capable of it. Although from the little he knew, it all started because they were trying to get Mariah out of trouble.”

“Can you let us out of here?” Jessica asked…

“Your parents may have something to say about that,” Jim said as he focused on River and Mariah in particular “All of them…”

*

And those parents, were all starting to arrive at the office. Which was located down the hall. Isabel and Kyle were the first ones there, due to their proximity to the office when they received the call from Jaime to saying that there was a message from the department on the answering machine. Which she had overheard once she got back to the house. Knowing she could not wait until her father and Isabel returned home. She reached out to the adults. Isabel and Kyle who were shopping for a wedding venue even though they had not narrowed down the date yet, but they were thinking of sometime in the near future, but they still felt no rush.

After all, they had been together a long time, so they were waiting for the perfect moment. But they needed to be looking at possibilities because Isabel wanted it to be different from her first wedding. Her inner planner nature was coming out, and she wanted to make sure they had plenty of time to plan. “Where is my daughter?” Isabel asked as she walked into the department and stopped in front of Deputy Duncan. “Is the Sheriff in yet?”

“He’s down in holding, dealing with the teenagers we pulled in.” the Deputy Duncan muttered as the office was starting to feel full.

“Which would be my daughter, Jessica Ramirez Evans?” Isabel asked as she held her fiancé’s hand. “And my nephew, River Evans?” she asked as on the drive over the station. She and Kyle had been apprised of the situation of which was now taking both her daughter and nephew into its spell. There had been some kind of incident at the park, and both were swept up into the chaos.

She did not know how serious it was.

“Yes,” Deputy Duncan nodded as her confirmed those facts. “We are waiting for his father, and Ms. Anthony’s mother?”

Surprised to know that Mariah was in the mixed. That is a new one Isabel murmured. “What was Mariah Anthony doing?” Isabel asked as she knew it was hard not to pull the family rank or spell out that the girl was now family because she knew the girl had yet to accept her new standing within the family, and it made wonder what kind of situation had enveloped her niece. Because the whole clan knew that Mariah was shaken, and had taken the news of her paternity badly, and was looking for trouble. The deputy only shook his head and refused to give out any information when the door opened, and a red head walked in with Phillip Evans a moment later, and Isabel looked surprised to see her father but then knew it her brother must be in the know and was the one who would have made the phone call to their father. “Dad?”

“Isabel, Kyle” Phillip said as he had rushed over the station as soon as he received the call from his father. Unaware that his granddaughter Jessica was in the mix. Thinking that his daughter was coming to the station to deal with whatever that was going on with his growing family. “You are here because of River?”

“No,” Isabel shook her head, as she took her boyfriend’s hand for support. “Jessica got swept up in the mess.”

Phillip could only shake his head of the fact all of his grandchildren were now in the mix, this family he thought. Although he was still getting over the fact, he now had an additional grandchild. That is some kind of occurrence. So, the fact the granddaughter he had known of, was mixed up in something was oddly reminiscent of the past. “That is a surprise, your brother did not mention it.”

“Max might not have known,” Isabel murmured as she could not help but glance over at the newcomer to the room. “And you are?” she asked of the woman who was looking like this was the last place she wanted to be in. Isabel knew that feeling of course, but she was too much of a veteran not to take this in stride.

“We spoke outside of the station for a moment. She said she was needed here, that she was called to come in?” Phillip would say to the room as even he was not giving out the stranger name.

“And you are here for?” Deputy Duncan asked as he trying to take some control of the room. As it was now becoming inundated with parents coming in trying to seek out information on their kids.

“Sierra Cruise,” the woman next to Phillip would murmur as she took in the grouping and did not care for fact her daughter had been dragged into this. “She is my daughter,” the woman said. “My name is Kate Cruise, maiden name as her father is not in the picture right now,” she said he could be dead for all I care she thought of her ex-husband as she took out her wallet and showing her identification to the officer. “Can I please see my daughter?”

“Right,” Deputy Duncan nodded as he accessed the identification. “The Sheriff will be able to speak to you on that, should not be too much longer.”

“I am the legal representative for River Evans and also Mariah Anthony,” said Phillip murmured. “And you can add my other granddaughter, Jessica Ramirez Evans,” he said having to add on another one of his grandkids as he wanted to make it sound like he would be handling the three kids. Still unsure of the situation with the kids. Because his son had not informed him of what he would be needing to handle. “I think you can say that we are all a little in the dark. Could you please fill us in on what went down in the park?”

“Three of the teenagers. River Evans, Jessica Ramirez Evans, and Sierra Cruise are charged with the same altercation.” Deputy Duncan murmured. “One that was started in an unpatrolled section of the park. A group of teenagers were in the beginnings of an unwise party. The Sheriff will be able fill you in on the rest, but Ms. Anthony was involved something different as she broke into the high school, which will make her breach more serious” he was saying as Liz and Max came rushing into the Department.

Amazingly arriving at near the same time. You would think they came in the same car?

They did not.

“Where is my daughter?” Liz demanded. “I want to see her right away.”

“And my son…” Max braced for what was going to happen as he did not dare say that Mariah was also his daughter, because he knew only certain people knew the truth.

*

Twenty minutes later,

Isabel and Kyle were dragging a released Jessica home. Because fortunately for them, the three charged in the park mayhem were being given a slap on the wrist and being released into the custody of their parents without any action being pressed against them. Which Jessica was grateful for the fact nothing would be held against her because she knew it was stupid to get into the fight at the park but then Roxy and her crew were extremely annoying at times, and on this day, they were bad news, and it was not like they were even at fault right, because Sierra had every right to throw the first punch which was told the authorities, and that is why Jim was able to allow his granddaughter to head home with her relieved parents without processing her into the system.

While Sierra and her mother had been the first ones to leave. “Come on Sierra, you have a lot to explain,” she muttered as she dragged her daughter out of the office. Followed by Isabel and Kyle.

Which only left a few people in the office. Including Max and Liz in the office of the Sheriff. While it was easy to deal with River’s situation and like the others, he was indeed released, but he was sticking around because Mariah still had to be dealt with, and he was curious to know how it was going to go, and he knew his parental unit was not going anywhere, because he was also Mariah’s father.

But Mariah was still behind bars because Liz did not know how to handle this. Jim was of the opinion that she needed a scare, and Liz knew this was true. As she was reminded the last time Jim was of the opinion of giving a teenager or teenagers plural a scare, when back in the beginning, he was not his most enlightening of selves and had not yet been allowed into the fraternity that had been their secret.

Only a few people were allowed in back then, but then as time dawned, more would come in, and they were better for it.

Still, to the majority of society, they lived a closed off life. But Liz could only remember how back then, being in jail even for a few hours had allowed Alex to come into the secret because she had finally caved and told him because she could not bear how angry and pissed off with her secretive nature.

Her and Maria’s new life. Once the shooting happened, and they closed ranks once she told Maria, and they knew by then the weight of the secret. So, telling Alex did not seem like the right move because it brought more people in, and that made Max and Michael paranoia come out. Which was never a good thing, especially Michael’s, she told himself.

Liz did not blame them. How could I? she asked herself. It was an incredible burden and a secret.

And I want my daughter in this life? she was asking herself now.

But she did not have a choice. The boulder was too far down the mountain to stop it. She just had to pray it would not cause damage.

But that was then, and it was not her secret. She just had the benefit of knowledge, but Jim was on their scent and when circumstances happened, at a high school party, that seemed tame in comparison to life today, still, it had ended with her and Alex in jail.

And she had caved and told Alex.

And therefore, he had come into the mystery. And ended up dead. Not that she thought that could have happened by telling Alex the secret, but time would bring that to be, and she was forever sorry for it.

She knew back than Jim claimed it was about scaring them straight, because they had been caught holding a beer that really was forced on them by another teenager, but in the case of the Sheriff. It was really a way to see whether she or Alex would tell him what they knew, and at that moment in time. Alex had known very little, but she knew too much.

Now her daughter was repeating old moments. But with more consequences attached to them even if they had a town Sheriff in their back pocket. She would never allow Jim to compromise his job for her daughter.

Because she knew how much it cost him once upon a time. Fortunately, he was back in the job he loved, and that was his calling.

To serve their town and protect it.

No matter how much she wished her daughter could be home right now, planning her birthday or getting into a fight with her over what she might want to do for her birthday, but that was not to be, so she was allowing Mariah to stew behind locked bars.

As she now paced the office. “I hate this…” she thought. “Maybe I should I go talk to her?” she asked the room. River knew he could not go and talk to her, because Mariah did not want to hear from him, and really, his half-sister needed to deal with on her own before turning to him for any advice, whether that would actually happen, well, River did not know.

“I do not think she will want to talk to you,” River said honestly. “She’s still mixed up, and distrustful of everyone.”

“Well, she is going to have to talk to someone” Max muttered.

Are you one to talk? River wanted to talk. Not talking is something you do best he thought. “If her mother is a bad choice, then you are even worse Dad,” he though. “The last thing she wants to be is reminded of what is true about her life right now.”

“River is right Max,” Liz said softly. “Mariah needs to accept what is going on in her life at her own pace, and it should not be forced up on her, and talking to you is probably not going to help the situation.”

“Well, maybe she needs to see me make an effort” Max said softly. “I am not going to be pushing her into anything. It would be foolish to even try. She does not even have to accept me, but she needs to know that she is not alone anymore. That she has people who do want to help her, and that at the end of the day, that is not the worst thing in the world” he muttered it is always better to have people on your side and I know this because for so long, I kept people out he thought.

And River knew this. Yeah, you are one to talk he muttered to himself. But wisely stayed mum this time.

Max decided to take the leap and left the office and went down the hallway towards the cells. And being left behind, Liz was fearful of this making this worse.

But something needed to get through to her daughter. As Phillip was observing from the back of the room. Because it still stunned him to know he and Diane had another grandchild. Someone who at his point was not accepting their biology. Or family claim. It had stunned them when Max had come to them with the news.

The fact his son had a child with Liz Parker, and her fifteen-year-old daughter was his granddaughter still yes, stunned him and he watched as his son walked down to try to get through to his daughter.

*

Mariah was not seeing how anyone could get through to her as she paced the cell. Now it was empty, and she was alone. And she knew it was only because her mother was teaching her a lesson. All I did was simply break into a closed school, she thought. It is not like I betrayed national secrets she thought. But she also knew deep down she had been stupid to do what Roxy wanted, all to get the admittedly bad girl to notice her so that she could have a group to belong. Because she knew those type from back in Chicago, when they were even worse than anything Roswell could offer, and she had not run in that crowd. She had stayed on the right side of the tracks and spent time with Talia and Josh, but that was then, and this now.

Right, this is now she thought. She was in a brand-new town even though it had been her home for more than four months now, still, she felt like a newcomer and with acceptance to be wanting even though she knew people would want to accept her if she wanted them too, but she did not and that was not wise.

Because now she was pacing in a jail cell of her own making. Because she should not have gone there. But she had been on the kick of proving people wrong. Or that she was not who they thought she was, because of course that was what she was finding herself to be, not who I thought I was.

She wished it were as simple as growing up, and into a different person.

But nope, because it was because dear old mom did not get out of this town fast enough, she thought. Or did not question it enough to make sure I knew who I was she thought as she did not know what kind of life she would have had if her mother had questioned her baby’s paternity, because all she had to do was look at River’s life and see what kind of life, he had been given by growing up with their mutual biological father.

A pretty uneven and shitty one she thought as she paced the cell. On one level she loved her family and the life she had lived in Chicago. It was nice and normal, and it was the perfect one she thought. But it was all a lie.

Because I am not one of them, she thought, as she could only look at the skills, she had to be able to deploy in her little crime spree that day. She would never have gotten through the window if she had not had those abilities, nope, she muttered to herself even if she knew she had set off one of the silent alarms.

Now, she was someone completely different she thought. I am like Mom she though as the flashes came of those little blips of abilities she had seen and largely overlooked, and then she read her mother’s journal and knew why.

And why she was like this, because Mom slept with the wrong guy she thought, and that man was coming through the door, and looking at her with sadness in his eyes, and a for a second, she felt disappointed that she was disappointing a man she did not even know she thought. Why am I thinking this because I have the father any girl should have in Brady Anthony, and his memory stays in me, but this man is why I am here on this earth.

Because he loved her mother so much that it allowed it to destroy the rest of his life, and her half-brother’s formative years.

So, she was aiming to keep her distrust of the man to her very core. “What do you want?” Mariah asked as she stopped pacing, and just looked at the man who was the reason she was this way, or why her mother had to leave this town in the first place and stay away from it until now. “I do not want to talk to you.”

“Too bad,” came a sadden Max because no father, whether it was only on paper, and by a biological link because you did not have a role in how the child you helped create was raised, not as a baby, and not as she was able to turn sixteen. So, yeah, no father wanted to walk into the room and see their child in a jail cell.

Even though I probably should have been in more jail cells over those three years he thought than the one he had found himself in senior year, but quickly relieved of the burden of being in there but Liz had spent more time in it he thought, and barely by the skin of her teeth did she get out of it, and he did not want that life for his daughter, or his son.

Neither child should have an ounce of the path their parents had gone through when they were younger and going through the battles to be stronger today than they were back then when everything was so new.

“It’s none of your business,” Mariah muttered.

“Maybe that is true, but it is your mother’s, and you are currently breaking her heart” Max murmured as she thought of the pain his ex was feeling over what was going on with their daughter.

“Well, she broke my heart by not being the person I thought she was, or allowing me to live a lie,” Mariah murmured as Max could see the pain on the teenager’s face, and he wished he could relieve it.

“She gave you the only life she knew she could give you,” Max murmured.

“How can you say it given I was kept from you?” Mariah asked. “If only she had come back and told you, then maybe things would be different. But she did not, and she allowed my dad to raise me thinking I was his…”

“Yes, she did not tell me, but I believe her when she did not know, and the circumstances of the time allowed for her to believe the man who has raised you could be your father, and not me,” Max said. “I know how much that time cost your mother, and how she needed to walk away from it, and from me.”

“She would have stayed if not for River,” Mariah asked.

“Which might be true, or she might still have left. I do not know the answer and she also probably does not know but at the time I needed to raise my son, and your mother knew I had too, and because of the way River came into the world, it would have been a disservice for your mother to stay and help me raise him,” Max said softly even though I wish she had stayed he thought. “I would never have wanted that for her. Because I know how much I hurt you mother by what I did. At the end of the day, it is all a mess and I wish she had stayed, even though River’s mother was not in the picture, still the reality of him was too much for your mother at eighteen. Or probably any woman. So, I do not blame your mother for walking away, and taking you with her, even though neither of us knew the truth,” Max said. “She was given a chance at a normal life for herself and yes, for you. Because a life being here with me, might not have been given that for you. You should not think I that I would not have loved to have been your father, because I would have but I was not the man I should have been back then, and you might not have been given a chance you might have had if you had stayed here and had me for your father.”

“You only were who you were to River because of my mother, and because she left you?” Mariah asked.

“That might be true,” Max said. “As I said, I would have loved to have known you, but I know you had a chance at a normal life, which is something I would want for you and for River. But life was not like that for River, but it has been for you, and therefore I am not trying to snatch you from your life as an Anthony. And even though I did not have the luxury of knowing your father, Brady, and none of us know how he would have reacted if he were to have known, but something tells me he would have accepted you…”

“How do you know that?” Mariah asked as she felt the pain in her heart over the loss of the father she had known. “You cannot possibility know that?”

“No, but I know he loved your mother. And I know for a fact how special your mother was, and if he fell for her, and wanted her even though she was reeling, and was in no condition for another relationship that quickly, then he probably was willing to handle whatever life would bring to your family.”

“Well, I cannot possibility know that because he cannot tell me, because after all he is dead,” Mariah spat.

“And I know how painful that has got to be for you” Max said. “It is never easy losing someone you love. No matter the manner it happens in but acting like this is not the answer,” he said softly. Yes I know I am a hypocrite to be speaking these words “Yes, you are young, and you are angry with how life is treating you, and you probably should be because we all want life to be easy, or different from what it is giving us, but something tells me, that the man you knew as your father would not want you to be acting out in this way, and yes, breaking your mother’s heart with your actions. And by rejecting her when she wants nothing but to help you…”

“She cannot help me,” Mariah muttered. “No one can…”

“But she can. She was once the novice in unbelievable life. A life I gave her to her when I saved her life. And brought her into a world she did not ask for and could not explain. I did not tell her before that day and the shooting that rocked your grandfather’s restaurant. She only found out after a bullet flew into her,” Max murmured, and Mariah winced at the knowledge that her mother could have been shot. It was in those pages of the journal that she read. Those parts were not edited for content she thought. But still it was another thing to hear them out loud. And now she flinched at the thought of her mother dying. “Yes, Mariah, think about it. Your mother was a few months younger than you are now, and she was leading a different life. And then that day, and she was shot, and I jumped in, and took her into a new world. One she did not ask for but one that was inflicted on her because she was now in different world. And of course, she had to know why certain things were, and I had to tell her, and it all had to be kept a secret. She could not tell anyone…”

“She told Maria,” Mariah murmured.

“Yes, and I am grateful she did. As she needed someone to be there for her because I was leading a different life than she was, and I never could be able to think of it in the way she was, someone coming into it from the outside, unaware of everything was happening. Sort of how you are looking at it. Sure, you were born with some of it, and away from it, but you have led a different life, just like your mother. You have a different outlook for yourself. I look at River, and he has an outlook that is extremely different because he was raised in this life. He did not have any choice. But you do, because you have a chance to understand what you are doing with whatever choice you are going to make for your life.”

“Some choice,” Mariah murmured.

“Yes, it is.” Max murmured. “I am not asking you to pick me as your father or to accept me. I would love if you did but if you want to have Brady stay your father, then I am fine with it, because it sounds like he was a good man.”

“He was the best,” Mariah said mournfully as she desperately missed her dad.

“I am glad,” Max said softly as he looked at the young woman his daughter was today. So beautiful even with the dark makeup and the hoodie. Because as much as he would love to find out Brady was an ass, but he knew that would not serve either Liz or Mariah, but the knowledge that Brady Anthony was a good man and a fantastic husband and father, well, it allowed him to be content even if he had wished he could have been part of Mariah’s life. But sometimes life does not give us what we want from it he muttered. “But I could be a help. Because even if do not want me as your dad. Although anyone could use more than one Dad, but that cannot be decided now, but I can help you.”

“Why would I want your help?” Mariah muttered.

“Because you are sitting in a life you do not know. Yes, I know River did tell you some of it and I wish he had waited” Max muttered because he had not been happy to know River had laid what he did on his half-sister out in the desert. And it had led to one of their biggest fights, that would fester for days before peace started to win out, because he knew it had to be gentle in the way Mariah learned her heritage. It could not be done all at once because it will only make her run, he had told his son, and it has to this day where she was standing pacing in a jail cell. “But it is only fraction of what you should know,” Max said. “It is all in your court, so if you do not want to know, you do not have to. But I would love to help you understand.”

“I do not know,” Mariah said even though she was tempted because there was so much, she did not know, how could I know she thought. Mom kept me away.

“Then how about you say you are sorry, and we can get this cleared up, and you can go home and celebrate your birthday tomorrow and start fresh. I am not pressuring anything on you, nor is your mother. All we want is for you to be happy. You are growing up, and it is not going to be easy because it was not for either your mother or me, but you can look at your birthday tomorrow as a fresh start.”

Mariah did not know if she wanted to have a fresh start.

“Max is right,” came a voice from behind him, and neither of Max nor Mariah had known they had been watched for nearly the totality of their conversation.

“Mom,” Mariah asked.

“Yes, it me” Liz said as she had been watching as she stood with Phillip staring at the conversation taking place, because she had been worried about how it would go. And she had been standing along with Max’s father as they both were trying to see how Max was going to be able to defuse the moment. And amazingly it was working.

Sure, she saw the weariness on her daughter’s face. As if she did not trust Max. But she could see that it was not downright hatred. Sure, she did not know where her daughter would go from this moment on, but at least she knew she had Max’s support.

“Can you get me out of here?” Mariah asked as she wanted to forget the glances between her mother and the man who was her biological father. She was not ready to acknowledge how much it looked like her biological father still loved her mother, or how her mother was looking at someone who was not the man who had raised her.

“We will see about that,” was all Liz could say as her eyes drifted away from Max, and towards their daughter.

Anyone in the room could not help but notice.

Especially not the not couple’s daughter.

[keepsmiling7]

Where do we start?
Mariah has just gotten the shock of her life.
Max has a daughter he never knew about.
Phillip is at the local jail representing an untold amount of his grandchildren.
Could life get any more complicated??

Please hurry back!