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

[totallizfan]

Drama...thanks for the update.

[Stefuh]

I'm glad that everyone is okay (except maybe for Liz's husband!). I cannot wait for Max and Liz to talk!! And I do love drama, so... can't wait to see where their new reunion will lead.

[RoswellFan68]

It sounds like Liz met Brady almost as soon as she left Roswell. I wonder if Mariah was an unplanned pregnancy.

[keepsmiling7]

Yes Max, Liz has returned.......with her family.
It's gonna be difficult for Liz with River looking so much like his mother.
Will Brady survive this????

[Parker1947]

At the same time, across the room. Liz had gotten up because she needed some space. Some fresh air, but she did not have the energy or the freedom to actually leave the hospital and try to gain it. Because she needed answers. And none were coming to her because she had to sit here, and wait, and she hated waiting. She was not used to it. Because her life had been on the go. Since she was old enough to gain the independence and certainly since she had become a parent. Mariah and Lex kept her on the go. There was always something she had to do. And if it was not the kids, or even her husband keeping her busy. It was her career, and how she had risen to the heights she had even though she had largely stayed as a researcher. Because it gave her the freedom to raise her kids, and to be there for their important milestones. She never regretted the choice, and she did not now.

Still, she stood there, and she ached for information. Nothing was being told to her. She needed to know what was going on with her husband, and even her son. All she knew was her husband was in surgery. And she knew that was bad news. She had been told someone would come to see her, but they had not and that meant it was not going well in the surgery theatre or wherever they were now. If they had not come out by now, she knew it could take awhile. And the waiting was eternity.

As she thought of her son. She thought of Lex so alone where he was. Twelve years old, as he would be a teenager in just weeks with his birthday coming up in the mid January. So, the picture of his father Brady she thought. The man who had made her love again. Someone who had been kind and patient in those early days when she was not sure she wanted love at all. She did not know how Brady Anthony had managed it but, he had…

Especially when she had just walked away from the most intense love of her lifetime. Not even Brady could touch what she had felt for Max when she was fifteen, sixteen or even eighteen. And those three years had been a time of transformation for her, and she had gone to Northwestern when Max decided to keep her son. Forgoing an engagement that would have certainly led to marriage. Because she had not been ready to be a mother to a child who held such memories to her.

Of a woman who had taken away such a close friend, and who had betrayed them even though they should have seen the treachery coming, because there had been red flags from the very moment she showed up in town. Given how she had come to town and set her eyes on Max and played with his mind to try to get her hooks into him, and of course if it had not been for her Liz, then maybe it might not have happened because Max had resisted, and only had wanted her.

But she had believed Future Max, and to that end, she had pushed Max away, and eventually she would push him right into another’s arms. The someone who would have a child with Max. Why could Future Max not see that, or did he and did he used me? She shook herself out of those thought because she had moved too far from those days to wonder anything more about those days. Yet she could not help but ruminate about it because by listening to the future version of Max. She would create the chain of events that would end up taking Alex away them, and ultimately leaving Max with a symbol of that time, a son who created a lot of resentment in her when she was eighteen. Even though she had tried not to take it out on a little baby. She could not help it, because looking at the baby, she could see only Max and Tess, and she especially had seen Tess Harding.

So, the fact Max changed his mind after it seemed to dawn on him that Tess could be lying about the baby’s status which was not that farfetched when you knew the woman she thought, and she had known Tess after all, and had been betrayed by her, and plus, the kid was a baby at the time. How did we know she thought? I changed she thought, and I was only saved from certain death by a mystery man from another planet she mused. Kyle was not, so the track record of changing when saved by Max was awfully thin, so we did not know but baby Zan was very much a product of his birth mother, and birth father, so how did we know she thought. Really know, so no, we did not she thought.

So, he had changed his mind, and she took the out he gave her, and she reassessed her priorities, and taken the acceptance from Northwestern, and gone to Chicago and had not looked back. Still, she had not expected to find love so quickly.

In those early days. She had found sex, and plenty of it. But she had not expected to fall for Brady. But she had, and they had tied the knot quickly, and their anniversary had just been a few weeks prior, right before they left Chicago. And now she did not know what she was looking at, or what kind of life she would be looking at.

And so, she did not need to see Max.

But she spotted him staring at her, even though River was on the other side of her daughter, and none of them talking since he had sat beside her daughter. She saw the boy, and his looks was all Tess, but there a kindness to him in how he approached her daughter. Which was something she appreciated, and it was something she hoped that stayed. Because that is all Max she thought, so she yeah, did not need to see Max, but she did.

She was saved by his need to approach her by the doctor coming out of set of swinging doors. “Mrs. Anthony?” came a gentle woman as Liz’s thoughts turned from the past, who turned away from approaching by the arrival of the doctor, and Liz appreciated it even though she could not believe how sexy he was looking all grown up. I should not be thinking this she thought as she drilled her brain to think of her son, and her husband. Yes, Brady, she told herself. The man who saved me in ways that Max never was able to. She nodded as her daughter also saw the arrival of the doctor, and stood up, aching for information on her brother. “You were asking about your son, Alex Anthony?” she asked.

“Yes,” Liz asked as she did turn her attention away from her past to her present, as she had to focus on her children, and knowing what to expect with her son. “How is my son, Lex?”

“Yes, I am aware that is what he goes by” the doctor smiled. “My name is Dr. Debra Goring,” she said as she gave her hand to shake. “As you would expect. I cannot speak to what is going on with your husband because I am told he is still in surgery, but someone should be out when they have more of a sense of how it will go?”

“I understand,” Liz murmured. “I am a doctor myself, so I know the protocols” even if she hated those protocols at the moment. She needed something, she needed a reason to hope because so much of her history was taking things away from her and she had thought she had gotten something with Brady, and their kids.

“Yes,” Dr. Goring murmured. “And I am also aware that you accepted an invitation to join our staff?” she asked.

“Yes, to start after the New Year,” Liz confirmed as she took her daughter’s hand as Mariah chose to grab it tightly as they both reflected on how they were newcomers to this town. Liz certainly felt like one because this had not been her home for more than sixteen years. “Although I will primarily be concentrating on research. Now, about my son, how is he?”

‘Fortunately, we have determined that he will make it” Dr. Goring assured with a smile for the fearful mother. “Unfortunately, in the crash, your son did break both of his legs, and he will need casts on both, and he will be using a wheelchair, and probably will need rehab once the casts are off…” she commented as she looked down at her chart. “But we will not know that until the healing starts to take place…”

“God,” Liz muttered. “That will be painful for him because my son is a highly active boy. And he plays multiple sports, and especially hockey in the winter, and he was looking forward to joining the local team.”

“Unfortunately, it will be quite a while before he’s allowed to be that stressful to the joints,” Dr. Goring murmured. “Although with his age, and his youth to help him, there is certainly a possible he will be able to get back to his normal energy level relatively fast, but everyone is different with how they heal?”

“How is he?” Liz asked as she nodded to the theory that everyone was different. She knew her daughter tended to heal in whatever maladies she suffered relatively fast, but she had not experience something like this and her son had been relatively healthy, which had been a surprise to her because she knew how active boys can be, so she hoped that it would aid her son in his recovery. “When can I see him?”

“Other than those injuries of which I have commented, he got lucky” Dr. Goring confirmed. “While he inhaled some of the smoke from the flames, but fortunately for him, his lungs are starting to clear, and he should be okay in the long run, with no issues” she assured. “So, yes, you can see your son just as soon as we move him to a hospital room.”

“And how long will he need to be in the hospital?” Liz asked as it sounded like it could be while, since he was going to be moved into a room.

“We will want him to stay for a few more days, until we start to see how his progress is going with the injuries, and that there are no complications because it was an extremely serious crash, and problems do not always appear right off…” Dr. Goring sighed as she thought of the unseen injuries. “But we are extremely confident that your son will be in the clear.”

“Yes, I know” Liz nodded as thought of those unseen injuries, but her son was young, and strong, and she knew that was half the battle. “Can you let me know when it is safe to see him. We are anxious to see him.”

“I will,” Dr. Goring confirmed. As it always pleased her to be able to tell a mother or any parent encouraging news. “So that you know, seeing what your son has just experienced and what you do not know about your husband. I feel confident in say that the boy that saved him, he is quite the hero” Dr. Goring smiled. “Because it could have been quite different for your son if he was saved when he was…”

“Yes, he is” Liz thought as this was news to her because she did not know all the details of the crash, so she had been told of how her family had been saved. So, she accepted what she had been told, without anything different, and what the doctor was saying. “I will tell the surgery floor that you are waiting for information on your husband…”

“Thank you,” Liz sighed as she was starting to process what she and her family would be in for, in the coming weeks as she watched the doctor walk off. “Let us sit down,” she told her daughter as she noticed River had vanished. “Where is your friend?”

Mariah shrugged.

*

“Are you sure you are alright?” River was asking his cousin Jessie and Jaime as they stood, or he stood with the others still in the wheelchairs hospital protocol until they were checked out, and so far, so good. All three; Mac, Jessie and Jaime looked all fine, and no worse for wear but still knowing what they had been through, it was a lot for River to think about as Mariah had needed space, and he had known it, so he had walked off, going towards his friends to see how they were. And it was not hard to see how his father had reacted to Mariah’s mother. And he could not help but have questions, even though he had gotten an odd look by Mariah’s mother as he sat down by her daughter as if she knew him, but he had no memories of the woman that stood in their emergency room on the cliff, looking down at the sea as the waters were looking to sweep away the life she had known. River knew he tended to have insight into others. More so than any of the others in his clan. He tended to see more, and experience more, which is why he took the combative relationship between himself and his father badly, because he so wanted his father and him to make sense, to be father and son, and for his father not look at him as a symbol of a mistake he had made, that was left with life-long consequences, him.

Maybe getting out of this town will help us, he thought. Certainly, living in this town, and together has not helped us he mused, and he snapped back to reality.

“Going to have quite the headache in the morning, when I come down from this” Mac muttered. “And it did not help that I got busted by Grandpa…”

“The beer?” River asked as he knew he should have taken it away from his friend, but he did not because he was focused on Mariah.

“Yes,” Mac asked a little miffed about getting caught and reamed out about it. Although he knew he had been skating on a very thin pond, and he was lucky to get out of it, how he did although he did not look forward to whatever creative grounding his parents would dream up for him once he got away from this nightmare Maybe Mom will be so fixated on Aunt Liz that she will forget me Unlikely, but he was hopeful. “They said I was taking a chance?”

“You were,” Jaime muttered.

“You came along did you not?” Mac muttered to the fourteen years old. Someone who was too goody goody for Mac’s taste but was amusing in her own right because of her crush on River. Unlikely to ever come to anything so it is fun to watch “So, yeah, I am sorry but it’s not like we were ever in danger, and the true danger came from another source” he sighed as he thought of Mariah’s father and knew this was going to cause angst between the two families, and that was not what they needed. “Which none of us expected, although I feel for Mariah and her family.”

“You never mentioned knowing her?” River asked.

Mac laughed. “I know a lot of people River, and so do you know, and you never mention them all to me do you. You would not have known except she was moved here by her parents, and it is not like I have had a lot of exposure to her because she usually stayed back at home in Chicago when her mother would come here, and it was not a lot over the years. Mom went to see her more than Mariah’s mother came here…”

“Yeah,” River asked.

“Yeah,” Mac murmured as he thought of Mariah, and what he had seen earlier in the evening. “And I have to ask why that was, and maybe I got my answer, and maybe it was because of your father was the reason why Mariah’s family stayed away until now,” he smiled at the surprise in River’s face which got some amused glances from Jessi and Jaime. “Do you think that is possibility, just maybe?”

“Why do you say that?” River asked as if he had not gotten a good glance at it after seeing how his father had responded to Mariah’s mother.

“Intel I have picked up over the years, and from you, that your gut and even family told you that your father lost someone important to him when he was our age, and that person moved on, away from him, and that was one of the reasons why he was as bad off as he has been with you, and in his own life all these years, and I am thinking it was Mariah’s mother, and now she’s back, and it cannot help but make me wonder where this all this will be going?” Mac muttered.

“I think you are a tad off base,” River thought even though he had to wonder. “My father may have lost someone, which is what I heard, but I never got a name, but I doubt it was Mariah’s mother” he muttered as he glanced at both Mariah and her mother, and how they were taking solace in each other as they waited for something, anything to tell them where their future will be.

“Why do you say that?” Jessie asked.

“Because he does not want it to be true,” Jaime muttered with a hint of amusement and happiness. “Because it makes whatever he feels for her daughter slightly immoral,” she laughed and got a death glare from River. “Seriously, look at the situation River,” Jaime insisted. “Just look at how your father looks at Mariah’s mother. Like she is the missing piece she muttered to herself. “For years, the stories coming down the families has been your father has been craving someone he could not have because of chosen they had made in this youth,” she asked. “Which is why they told us to be careful?” Jaime asked as he pointedly looked at Mac, who also sent a glare, not as deadly as Rivers, but had some heat to it. “We only live once…”

“Although for some, they get the pleasure more than once” River thought as he thought of his father, and the story he had been told that his father had died, and then came back to life because of an old love, but life came at them, and took each other away from each other. Him he muttered so, yeah; he was not too excited about the possibility that Mariah’s mother was the love that had gotten away from his father.

“That is true,” Jessie smiled because she knew the stories too. While the world was not let into their little coven and its secrets, and how special the first and now newest generation was. Still, their grandparents knew, because of their own sleuthing that had caused heartache to the family for several months, and it only took him coming to live with them with his father as his father adjusted to being a single, and a teenage parent to get them over that hurdle. Although it still heated up occasionally but was largely settled ground.

“Mariah and I are only friends,” River sighed. “I did not even know her until tonight,” he said pointedly at Mac who had never mentioned the fact he had known of her, or that she was coming their school.

“Given the way your father is looking at her mother, that might be all you will ever be?” Jaime said rubbing it in, even more. Jessie while she took great delight in the ability of her stepsister to rib her cousin. She knew River had the ability to erupt, like his father, and therefore she did not want Jaime to be on the side. “Let’s get going, because I think your Dad is more than ready to leave this place?”

“Right,” Jaime muttered because she too wanted to get out of this place because she remembered the last time, she had been in it. She might have been only about four years old but to see her mother dying had case enough grief for her, and she hated this place. And Jessie knew it, which is why she wanted to get going as she took her stepsister by the shoulder and guided her towards Kyle. Someone who had loved her mother as long as she could remember, because she had been born with the cloud of Kyle’s love for her mother Jessie thought.

So, Uncle Max loving Mariah’s mother is not that far fetched. But she felt for her cousin. Because she knew this was going to get messy. Someone had to make Uncle Max so miserable, and so much a hermit she thought as she and Jaime chose to forego the wheelchairs they had been sitting in “We are fine Kyle,” she smiled as she and Jaime walked over to where her mother and Kyle was standing. “My advice sis, is leave River alone.”

“Why should I?” Jaime asked.

“Your father is about to marry my mother one of these days,” she smiled. “Which will make us family, officially even though you have been in River’s life all these years because we have been family to River, so wanting to be anything else is a losing battle.”

“It does not mean we are blood,” Jaime thought and said as much, and Jessi just smiled. “River is older, and he’s not going to look at someone like you when he has other options.”

“You think?” Jaime asked.

“Trust me,” Jessie smiled. “You should find yourself someone who will love you for who you are, and not who you are now,” she sighed as she thought that Jaime did not have the baggage of being Jessie. She was normal. She was happy, and well adjusted and that was a good thing. It was something that would cause trouble if she got tangled up in their world. She already had a in because of being in the same house at Isabel and Jessie, but still Jessica would rather her sister go for someone who did not have baggage galore, and River had plenty even if you took his status out of the equation. So, she was trying to steer her stepsister away from River, and plus, they would really be family one of these days whenever their parents got around to formalizing their relationship with vows. As if they were not already like family already because their parents had been together for a decade.

“I am fine,” Jaime muttered as they could see the concern in her father’s eyes. She knew her father held memories from her mother’s illness that had rocked their world while her parents were mutually deciding their marriage was over. Teri Valenti could see her husband was hung up on Isabel who had not seen that she had some special in Kyle yet and was still dealing with the fallout of her marriage to Jesse, and his tragic death while raising their daughter alone. So, he would find Teri, and they would marry but the marriage did not last long, and they would mutually decide to separate only for her to learn she was sick, and went downhill fast, too fast for either father or daughter liking. And suddenly Kyle was a single father, and it seemed Isabel’s eyes finally opened, and they eventually took a chance on each other.

And now they were engaged, living together, and raising their daughters together.

“You should take the girls home Kyle,” Isabel smiled. “I need to stay here for my brother’s sake, and River’s” she sighed as she hated to be the intermediator between them, which she was often called upon to be for her brother, and her nephew.

“I think I will, call when you are headed home” Kyle smiled as he leaned into kiss his fiancé. Acknowledgement of the tragic events of this night was all ever their emotions.

“I will,” Isabel murmured as watched as Kyle signed the release papers and took the girls back to the home they shared.

“At least one tragedy was prevented,” Maria muttered as she and Michael walked over to keep Isabel company.

“And another one still might be on the way,” Michael muttered. “Why have we not heard anything about Brady yet?”

“It was a bad scene,” River muttered as he walked into the situation as she did not want to be near his father as he focused his attention onto a woman who had got away, because the more he was seeing his father react to Mariah’s mother. It meant she has got the one who walked away back when I was a baby he thought. Of course, I was the reason he lost her he muttered to himself. And so, he had come over to where his aunt was…

“How bad?” Maria asked.

“I am amazed he survived to this point” River thought as he thought back to the scene of the crash, and how Mr. Anthony had looked when he had gotten him and his son out of the car. Only the son had life in him, but he was unconscious as he remembered how Mariah had instantly went to be by her brother’s side.

“And did you do anything to aide in his ability to survive until the paramedics arrived?” Isabel asked as she knew her nephew and knew what he had the ability to do although for all the kids of this generation, who had some ability. Which meant River, Mac, and Jessie. They were good at keeping it lowkey and blending in much like their parents at one time she thought.

“I did my best,” River conceded. “But the paramedics came quick, and they took over” he sighed. “Not like Dad believes me.”

“Oh River, yes, he does” Isabel murmured as she felt for her nephew as she looked over at her brother, still in his whole other world.

“I think I will go and check on Liz” Maria murmured as she grasped her husband’s hand. Relieved to have her family still intact as she felt for her best friend, and what they did not know, and she knew needed to be with her friend.

Liz River thought. Yes, I have heard that name he thought. Not from his father, but from his family, meaning his grandparents and his aunt. Not his father. Never his father he thought because he knew his father loved to wallow his pity, and his unfortunate circumstances and he never uttered the name around River. His son had to go to other people to get any intel, but still there was a lot he had not been told.

“You were a big help,” Isabel murmured.

“I hope so,” River thought as he glanced over at Mariah. As she looked so lost, and so on the edge of cracking. As he glanced over his father who was across the room, and still glancing at Mariah’s mother and there was absolutely no, certainty at all now to River. “Can I ask you something?” he asked of his aunt. “Am I the reason Dad lost Mariah’s mother?” River asked as he glanced over at his aunt and Michael who was his godfather. “Am I the reason my father is the person he is?”

[totallizfan]

Questions......looking forward to the answers.

[RoswellFan68]

Poor River, I don't think he wants to know the answer to that question. How on earth are Isabel and Michael going to answer those questions?

[Parker1947]

Neither Isabel nor Michael knew how to answer the boy’s question. Because to the adults it might be sixteen years later, but it was plain as day to see and there was no grand mystery to the question. Max was still mooning over the Liz Parker. The Liz Parker he had met when he first showed up at school in third grade as he adjusted to being on a new land, and in a new body. And the girl he could safely pine from afar until he got a chance to go for his dreams when they were on the cusp of sixteen, when a shooting would rock their worlds, and changed everything, for everyone.

Not only for Max would it change.

It would bring Maria into Michael’s life and ultimately would bring Kyle into their life, fully, although initially he was just boyfriend of Liz, and it would be a relationship that would die early on. And it would be years before Isabel gave him the time of the day. But in the meantime, what started on that day in September 1999 would lose them Alex, all because of a betrayal that had cut deep when they realized it far too late. Alex had just wanted to help, and it got him sent to the morgue instead. But it was too late for Max and Liz because Max by that time had slept with Tess and had gotten her pregnant. Even though Liz had some culpability in that pairing. Still, it had caused a lot of heartache and angst even though Tess would disappear with the baby after conning them one more time, until she came back upsetting their worlds and Max and Liz newly reunited relationship which had gone through some rough patches in her absence. She would eventually go out in a fireball of glorious betrayal. Leaving the baby in their midst. And while Max had wanted his son for the whole time he was gone. Still, reality of being a father would hit him once he could stare into the eyes of his son. Although fear of what Liz might do if he were to keep the baby. And because he loved her too much to take a chance at a life without her. So, he would choose adoption and then came Tess’s final betrayal…

If you could call it a betrayal. Michael did not know, but it proved she did not know the truth.

Lying to them about the status of her son. For making them believe he was human. Max was almost ready to give him up, to a new life. With a family that could raise him, away from the mayhem that was their daily routine. And sometimes he still wondered if he should have made that choice but, in those days, following his decision to go the adoption route. Sleepless nights because of nightmares, and the feeling that if he did choose to sign the papers and make it official and legal. That he would be making a mistake.

So, he rescinded the adoption and chose to keep his son.

And with that act, he watched as Liz walked away. Not that any of them could blame her and when Max was honest with himself. He could not blame her either, of course she was a saint in his books. She could do nothing wrong Still, she had been unable to handle being a mother to a boy who was not hers, and only reminded her of who she had lost. And choices she had made because Liz was to blame too, and it was not all on her brother Isabel thought now. But you tended to blame the one who went there, and could have stepped away, and not seen the traitor in their midst while Liz had always a wary relationship with Tess.

Never trusting her.

They had, and it had cost them big time. It cost us Alex she thought. Isabel had a lot of feelings, conflicted mostly over Alex. Someone good, and someone solid. But someone who she had not been right for. But it did not mean Isabel wanted to see him die. And to be taken out of this world by one of them. She thought back to Liz’s accusations back in the day. It was the truth, she had to admit. But she hated to have to admit it.

And now Isabel did not want to admit to her nephew that yes, he was the reason Max lost Liz. Why fate was so cruel to them, and especially to both Max and Liz. So, she stayed silent, and so did Michael as he was thinking similarly.

River took that as an admission, and he walked away. Much to the grief of Isabel, “I hate this?” she muttered to her friend.

“But it’s a reality,” Michael muttered. “If not…” he asked even though he did not want to say the words out loud.

“I know,” Isabel sighed. “But it does not get us anywhere, today, and now. The past is in the past, and we cannot go back and redo it.”

“Tell me about it,” Michael sighed. Because there were certain things I would love to take back “I think I will try to get your brother back to reality,” Michael muttered as he walked over to where Max was standing.

“Good luck,” Isabel sighed as she watched as Maria and Liz were talking…

*

Maria and Liz were not just talking. Liz was pacing the area she was in. She had been told her son would be moved to a room, and yet she had not been told where it was, or when she could see him. And then she had no idea of what was happening with her husband. And she had a daughter that was one step from a meltdown. Although if she was able to diagnose it than she knew she was close to one herself. As Brady had always been someone who was her shoulder for sixteen years since she left the life she could have had.

For the unknown.

Brady Anthony had been the one who made her want to succeed, and to be happy again and now he was on an operating table, and she did not know if she would get the same man back, or if she would get him at all.

And it was not easy either knowing her past was across the room, staring at her with intense searing eyes, like if only she had chosen differently. She could have a whole different life today than she did now.

I would not have Brady, and I would not have Mariah and Alex she thought. Lex, she corrected herself.

She needed to know what she had know. There is no going back and living in the past because the past is over, and now is the only life we can live she thought. “I need to know something. Why are they not telling me anything?” she muttered out loud and into the room.

“You are a doctor; you know this is routine” Maria said as she was consoling her friend.

“I am a researcher,” Liz muttered. The doctor before my name is only a formality.

“You have that doctor title in front of your name,” Maria laughed as if she could read her mind, which is something she could not. No one close. Not even those who had unbelievably unique talent, although she supposed Isabel would come as close as anyone. “You are just as talented as the front-line workers….”

‘I know, I know” Liz sighed. “I am not used to this. I need to know something. I cannot sit this room, not knowing what is happening with my husband and son.”

“You know Lex is doing okay,” Maria asked. “And about Brady, I take no news as good news….” she asked as they both thought of Brady, and what fate was waiting him and for his wife and children. And Maria hated it, because she had wanted her friend’s life to be happy, and she had known how much these past years had meant to Liz because she had gone to Northwestern giving up on a love of lifetime, only to find something special. And something that gave her sanity, and something normal. When so much of the previous years had given her the opposite.

‘I am a doctor, and I know that it a fool’s notion,” Liz thought. “No news means it bad news,” she muttered because it meant things were more complicated as it was a simple repair job, and time was ticking away, if they were not coming and telling her the truth of his condition. Which meant she knew how dire things were for her husband.

After all he was not alien. And he did not have the capacity to self heal. Brady is all too human and that is what she loved about him. His normalcy, and his human status because after three angst filled years. It gave her something she did not have, something to settle down with, and not to worry and now she was worrying, and resenting the fact he was not an alien, and could just heal himself after a period of recovery.

“There you go, thinking of yourself as a doctor again” Maria smiled, and she got a smile out of her friend as her friend’s eyes went across the room again squarely directed at Max once again. Which was something that Maria had been noticing had been happening for much of her friend’s stay here in the Emergency room. “You know, you can go over and approach him, and see how he is?”

“No,” Liz murmured simply as she resisted the temptation because she had worked too hard these years for it all to go by the wayside just because thy happened to be in the same room together. Which was going to be tendency to happen in the future if she was going to be living in this town once again. “What is he doing here anyways?”

“He was here to support his sister over the kids being hit in the accident” Maria murmured.

“Right,” Liz said as she was forced to remember the accident. And how her daughter had been a on-looker to the devastation, “And it was his son who helped my husband and Lex, right?” she asked as she saw River across the room talking to Maria’s son Mac. “River?”

“Yes,” Maria confirmed as he was surprised that her friend knew Max’s son new name. Because he was still under the name Zan when Liz left town “You must be asking?” she murmured anyone would ask “Yes, he changed the name, when…”

“He revoked the adoption, and changed his mind?” Liz asked as she said those dreaded words “When he chose to raise his son?”

“Yes,” Maria acknowledged of the painful memories for her friend, which brought back a time that had given them more pain and angst than they could have experienced in a lifetime in a span of three years, “Max could not let the boy go through life with that name, because it brought back too many memories…” she murmured of the name that Tess had chosen for her son which seemed natural at one time, but only brought on sadness in the end. And so, Max elected to bring about new memories. Except, he could not move on Maria thought, and that in the end had hurt him and his son much more…

“Yeah,” Liz sighed as she thought of the same memories “And he chose River?” she asked of the name “I guess, it is a better name to be honest?”

“Well River Dog was kind to us, before life got totally out of our control,” Maria murmured as she drifted back to those years, and how things had progressed from crazy to completely out of the control in a blink of the eye. “Although of course, one could say that life has been not always treated either of them that kindly?”

“Really?” Liz asked as she did not want to know, and yet she was taking the tidbits that Maria was so willingly able to give her when Maria should know it does no one any good to go back into the past and reawaken old times that were successfully buried by the movement of time “I thought you said he did not even live-in town?” Liz asked.

“As I said, outside of town. River goes to the high school with Mac, and Isabel and Kyle’s daughters, Jessica, and Jaime. He is now seventeen, or we think he is” she allowed since they never knew the truth about River’s birth and Tess had not been one to tell the truth, so how could they know if what they had been told once she did, was the truth?

“We all grow up,” Liz thought at the thought of the little baby in Max’s arms was now seventeen, and capable of being a hero. “Is he?” she asked of the question she always had all these years. A lot of resentment sure, but the baby was, well, a baby, and therefore one never could tell whether he was truly normal or maybe he was special until he grew up and had a little more independence and control of his own body. “You know?”

“Like Max?” Maria wondered as anyone could sense what her friend was wishing for, and she knew Liz needed to assurance that Max’s decision, and therefore, her own decision was the right one. She had been a supporter of theirs, and she had hated to see Max and Liz end, but Maria could not deny that it had been right choice for her friend. While she, Maria, had made the opposite one. She had been unable to walk away. She loved Michael too much, but of course, she had been asked to raise a child that was not her own, and she did not have a chance to further her education, unlike her friend. So, yes, she did support her friend’s decision in getting away from their town. “Yes.”

“So, I guess then that Max was right to raise him?” Liz asked as she thought of the reason that outweighed all others in Max’s determination to raise his son. “Because I cannot imagine what would have happened if you know, he was out there in the world, and you know…”

“I know,” Maria allowed. “Of course, we have had to teach our children to blend in, and to be low key, like some of their parents before them so it is hard to know exactly what kind of kids they are in terms of their abilities, because at the end of the day, just being human can cause trouble” she thought of the mayhem her own son was capable, who was normal to some extent at the end of the day, despite his abilities. And was quite capable of giving them normal level anxiety.

“You have got that right,” Liz sighed as she thought of their lives. “One can never know,” Liz sighed.

*

“You might want to take your eyes off your ex-girlfriend for just a minute and concentrate on me?” Michael asked as he approached his friend and was trying to bring his friend back to reality and had it had been an onerous chore since he arrived with the mission of knocking some sense into his friend. Of course, he had not expected it to be easy because this was not the first time that he has dealt with the man his friend had turned into. “It is pretty noticeable, because I mean your son is even beginning to ask questions about it” he muttered. “So, earth to Max, you might want to come back to our reality,” he sighed as they both glanced across the room to where Liz and Maria were having their conversation and could see his friend’s eyes trained in one direction. “Yes, Liz is here, but she is not going to vanish anytime soon.”

Well, she did once before Max thought as he turned his attentions away from his ex-girlfriend and back to his childhood best friend, and back to reality and settled back into the emergency room. As he could see that the waiting area had was a little emptier with Kyle taking Jessica and Jaime back home. Mac was still around and talking to his son. “How long have I been out of it?” he asked as offhand and clearly still distracted.

“About eighteen years,” Michael muttered as he could not help but think that once that shooting took place. There was no turning his friend’s attention away from Liz Parker, even though the insanity of his friend’s unrequited love had started a decade earlier than that day. And it was a large reason why his friend was the way he was because Liz had given him the time of day once he became her savior.

When he saved the day.

There was no going back to how it was before, when Max could fixate on Liz Parker from a booth in the Crashdown and imagine how it could be if she said hello to him in ways that were more than being chemistry or biology partners in their science class. Because everything changed after the shooting, and Max had a chance to grab that chance to be with his dream girl. And what did he had to show for it. A lot of heartache, and ruined lives, and a horrible relationship with his son or the undeniable fact there was no one else but Liz for his friend.

“Michael,” Max muttered.

“It’s the truth because you have not been the same since that day” Michael asked. “Maybe you should come back to reality and see what is before your eyes before you lose it?”

“River and I are fine,” Max lied.

“River and you are not fine,” Michael muttered. “I know what dysfunction is…”

“I am not Hank,” Max bristled at Michael’s remembrance.

“I am not saying you are,” Michael asked. “But punches do not have to be physical. They can come in words, and you and River are both combative with each other, and you stand to lose him if you do try to fix things and staying in the past will not get you a relationship with your son. Assuming you want one?”

“I kept him, did I not?” Max bristled again as he remembered that yes, he had kept his son. And unfortunately, he ultimately had spent all these years making sure the boy never forgot that he could have been given away.

“Yes, you did” Michael agreed as he thought of the boy his godson was trying to be. “River is not Tess. And he is not you,” he asked as he thought of their families. “I know that when I look at my own son. They are their own people, and we need to understand that and make sure they do not do anything crazy. Your son was a hero tonight, and all he hears from you is blame…”

“I did not blame him,” Max muttered. “And can you not see that I am trying, but I do not know how to be anything different than who I am??”

“Then maybe you should take yourself out of past and concentrate on your now” Michael asked. “Your son did something remarkable tonight. And you should be celebrating that…” he thought. “But all you can think about what if it backfires on us, and if the Sheriff department asks to many questions when we both know Jim has our backs, at great cost to himself, as we have seen in the past. We can trust that this will go alright…”

“I know, I know” Max muttered. “I trust Jim, and I trust that this will not backfire on us,” he allowed. “But I cannot help it. After all you trained me to be suspicious and to question everything…”

“Then forget that training,” Michael muttered because he did remember that he was once as paranoid as Max currently was, and willing to second guess every single gesture as their life was about to explode. And most of the time back then, their lives were about to explode, with lasting consequences. But still, life has taught him to take things easier.

“I will try,” Max muttered.

“Good,” Michael muttered even though of course he knew it was funny of him to espouse the virtues of father and son relationships when he was out on his own at sixteen and until Maria, the only other stable relationship he had achieved were his two best friends, in Max and Isabel. So, who am I to talk if Max wants to ruin his relationship with his son?

And yet Max’s eyes went back towards Liz… and Max could only shake his head.

And hoped this had a good ending?

*

Time was slowing and Liz could feel it as she looked around and she did not recognize this new world of hers. She did not even go back to looking at Max, even though she certainly had felt the heat and weight of his eyes on her, but she did not turn around and look at him. She needed answers, and she was finally going to be getting some as a doctor finally came to tell her that her son had been moved. And as soon as he was settled in the room. Then a nurse would come and get her if she still wanted to see her son.

Which she did. She needed to make sure he was going to be alright. Even though she had been assured by the doctors. Still, she needed to see with her own two eyes. And as she sent off her daughter, Mariah to the drink machine. She got up from her seat. Needing to stretch and get some movement into her limbs because the wait was getting torturous and she now sympathized with her patients when she was in medical school, before she specialized in research, and their wait for information.

She was now in the same position now, and she hated it. How can anyone deal with this?

Brady had been so healthy up to tonight. The more she was hearing of the circumstances of this night. She could not understand how he could allow the car to get out of control. Especially with Alex in the car with him. She knew he had allowed Mariah out of the car because she wanted to spend time shopping and viewing main street, which was fine with her because Mariah was fifteen years old. Old enough to handle herself. After all she had grown up in Chicago.

But Alex stayed in the car with his father because Brady was picking up an early Birthday present for his new room. A stereo. A combination Christmas and 13th birthday present and Alex wanted to go to pick it up, or at least arrange for it to be delivered, so Liz did not understand it. She and Brady had been married sixteen years now, and she knew her husband to be insanely healthy. He was always working out, and making her feel guilty because she was not, she mused. He never got on her case about it. He always said it was one of his quirks that made them different.

She had thought nothing of it because she had been with another healthy guy, and that was for a whole other reason. So, she took Brady’s good health in stride, and they went through the years together.

Until tonight.

She knew Jim would want to interview her son because he had been in the car. “Honey,” Liz thought as a doctor, even if her career had been focused on research in the pursuit of answers most people could not imagine finding answers to, but it helped with rare diseases and finding hope for families that did not have hope.

“Yeah,” Mariah asked as she returned from the drink machine and handed her mother the drink that she had been asking for…

“Was anything bothering your father before you got out of the car. Did you notice anything bothering him?” Liz asked.

“No,” Mariah shook her head. “It was normal. Like any other time, I was in the car with Dad and Alex,” she said. “Dad wasn’t complaining about anything, except maybe the snow, but that was normal for Dad, so I do not know why it happened either because it never happened before…

“The car?” Liz asked.

“You drove it last; did you notice anything?” Mariah asked. “My driver’s lessons don’t start until next month…” she thought as her sixteenth would be in March…

“I know,” Liz thought as she was not looking forward to that day even though Brady told her that they could trust their daughter, and she knew he was right. They could trust Mariah, but life when you grow up can get confusing before you even realize it.

She trusted her husband that Brady would have come to her if he felt anything was wrong, and he would not have taken their two kids in the car even if Mariah were so close to driving age, and would be able to handle it, if she were forced to take over, since she knew that her daughter had been studying the driver’s manual for weeks even though lessons did not start until after Christmas. So, she was confident that he had not seen what was coming or so she hoped, and she prayed. “Please do not leave me Brady,” she whispered to herself I am not sure I can start over again…

Not again she thought.

“Mom, Dad will be, okay?” Mariah asked even though she knew the situation and had seen how River was looking at the situation once he got her father and brother out of the wreck. Even to her, she knew it looked bad for her Dad. But she could not help but pray along with her mother. “He has to be, right?”

“Let us hope,” Liz murmured as they sat back down and waited.

*

Max stayed and watched. River had enough of it and had gotten permission to drive Mac home to the Guerin house, and he would stay for a sleepover so to keep a watch on his friend for his parents who were not ready for to leave the hospital. As they kept their own vigil for their friends, for different reasons. Maria was not going to be leaving Liz until she knew more, and Michael was not going to allow Max to stay and make a fool of himself if he left. Isabel had long gone home to Kyle and their girls.

Now it was almost midnight. It felt late, and it was late. And nothing was happening. All Liz could get from the nurse was the surgery was still happening, and they would let her know when they had news. Which did not help Liz and now she hated for how they made patient families wait for news.

Maria sat beside her friend as they kept wait for news.

Michael stood by Max. Mariah was asleep in the chair next to her mother, and Liz was ready to cause havoc if she did not get something soon…

She needed something, and that is when it happened. The door opened, and out came a doctor in their hat and mask, and she knew. They did not have to say anything, but she knew. She had seen it too many times when she was in medical school herself. The times she had to give the news that no family wanted to hear, but still she got up.

“Mrs. Anthony?” came the man next to a younger doctor who likely an intern or a resident. Liz did not know which, and right now she did not care…

“Yes,” Liz murmured. “Is my husband alright?”

“Unfortunately….”

And then Mariah who had woken up and stood next to her mother, and godmother in Maria. Both knew.

“Unfortunately,” Liz asked, as she was forcing them to say the words.

“There was too much damage, and we were unable to save your husband. We tried our best, but your husband died on the table before we were able to get his heart to beat again, I am so sorry Dr. Anthony.”

‘It is Mrs. Anthony,” Liz thought. She did not want to hide behind her profession this time because for sixteen years she had been Elizabeth Anthony. Brady’s wife and now she was not, she was worse…

“I am sorry…” came the doctor.

“You are saying my husband is dead,” Liz asked numbly as she felt faint. She did not know she could feel like this. Not again. This was deeper. This pain was horrific. She had already felt it once before, and she got her miracle, but she knew her miracles had run out this time. She had asked for too much and was given too much.

And now they were making her pay… And suddenly she felt like she was going to fall, and she did, but she did not hit the hard fall, but she fell into a soft landing…

Into someone arms, and she did not have to look behind her to know who it was…

It was Max.

She had fallen into Max’s arms. But she did not care, all she wanted to do was close her eyes, and make this pain go away…

“Mom,” Mariah cried as did not understand why her mother would fall into River’s father’s arms, and why he was acting like he was given a gift…

[keepsmiling7]

This is going to be very complicated!

[RoswellFan68]

It is so sad for Liz and her kids to lose their husband and father. The car accident seems strange. Brady would know how to drive in winter weather, living in Chicago. I wonder if their is foul play of the alien nature.