Walking the Road (CC / Adult) (COMPLETE)

[Deejonaise]

Winner - Round 5











Author: Deejonaise (but you can call me Girl With No Willpower)

Coupling: M/L, M/M, K/?, I/?

Rating: Adult

Disclaimer: I don't own Roswell but I do have a strong addiction for it which is beginning to alarm me.

Summary: Read And the Road Shall Lead You Home first (Boy, that's a mouthful). This story takes place the very next day.

Author's Note: So it occurred to me last night as I lay in bed writing this story in my head that I would never be able to wait until the end of May to post it. That being the case I decided (like you're surprised by this) to post it now. Unfortunately, my life is about to explode in the next three months and my time will be very limited. Even so I think I'll be able to update at least once a week, perhaps on Thursday mornings. However, the moment my schedule clears again (which I can't see happening until the end of May) I'll probably resume my usual posting frenzies. In the meantime, please bear with me and the weekly updates. And that's about it. So without further ado:


Chapter 1

Max reluctantly untangled his limbs from the sheets and Liz’s delectably warm body when an insistent knocking sounded at the door of their motel room. She barely stirred with the disturbance, but merely snuffled once and shifted positions to bury her tousled head deeper into her pillow. Max smiled at the sight of her, amazed at how she managed to be so exquisitely beautiful even when she was snoring quite indelicately.

However, he wasn’t surprised to find her so exhausted. They had talked well into the early morning hours, setting matters straight between them and making promises both were intent on keeping. Afterwards they had made love for the first time but not the last, melting into each other with a greedy and unrestrained hunger. Later they had curled up into each other’s arms to fall into a contented sleep, impervious to the fact that their family and friends were likely worried sick over their absence.

That contented sleep would have most likely continued had it not been for the persistent knocking sounding at their door just then. With a daggered glare at the door and a long-suffering groan, Max ripped back the covers, shivering convulsively as a draft of cold air wafted over his nude form causing chill bumps to raise up immediately on his flesh. Reluctantly, he resisted the urge to recover himself with the blankets and snuggle with Liz once more. Still he did linger for a moment longer, half in, half out the bed, vacillating between leaving and staying.

Unfortunately, the former won out because whoever was on the other side of their door was determined NOT to go away. As another round of pounding ensued and increased in volume Max hurriedly tugged on his pants, his suspicion and curiosity peeked as to the identity of their visitor. It was unlikely that the person was one of their friends. None of them had any idea where he and Liz were.

Instantly on guard, Max snuck a surreptitious peek out the peephole but then threw up his hands in disbelieving vexation when he saw who it was. He yanked open the door to reveal Jim Valenti standing outside on the walkway, his deputy’s hat in hand. “Mornin,’ Max,” he drawled with an affable smile that was just as evasive as it was engaging, “I couldn’t help but notice your car out in the parking lot.”

Conscious of the fact Liz lay sleeping in the bed less than eight feet away, Max stepped out into the chill morning air and carefully pulled the door up behind him. “Is there something I can do for you, Sheriff?” Max replied almost casually, though he was intensely aware of his bare chest and equally conscious of the conclusions Valenti had drawn because of it. But even greater than his embarrassment Max had to wonder what had brought Valenti to his door at such an early morning hour in the first place. He didn’t have a long wait for the answer to that question.

“I thought you’d be interested in knowing that your parents are looking for you,” Valenti provided neutrally, “So are Liz Parker’s parents. They called the police this morning. I’m assuming she’s with you now.”

“Yeah…she’s sleeping.” Max had difficulty meeting Valenti’s frank stare because he could easily read the reprimand in the older man’s eyes.

“Maybe you should think about getting home soon, Max,” Jim suggested, “They’re pretty worried.” He made the statement almost casually but Max knew an order when he heard one. He also knew better than to refuse.

“Sure,” Max agreed, keeping his eyes scrupulously averted, “Can you just let them know that we’re okay and…and that we’ll be home later this morning.”

“All right,” Valenti agreed drolly, inclining his head in a cordial nod, “I’ll see you later at Michael’s then.”

When Max regained the sanctity of the tiny motel room he wilted back against the door with a lethargic sigh. So there could be no further avoidance of the inevitable. Paradise was lost. He would have to face his parents, Liz’s parents and the resulting chaos of the decisions he’d made the night before. Though he had known that hiding here with Liz would serve only as a temporary solution Max ached physically with the loss of solace. What he wouldn’t give for the ability to freeze time and live in the present moment with Liz forever.

With yet another sigh Max trudged over to the bed to awaken Liz. For a moment he leaned over her, a smile ghosting his lips as he studied her sleeping form wrapped so snug in the bed blankets like a human burrito. His heart flipping a little just a the mere sight of her, Max lifted his hand to touch her hair. In gentle, unhurried strokes he brushed the skein of her unruly darkness back from her face, allowing his fingertips to meander lightly over the ridge of her cheek. After a few moments Liz sleep slackened countenance stretched out in a drowsy grin though her eyes remained closed.

“You’d better have a good reason for waking me up when I’ve only had about two hours of sleep, Max Evans,” she warned him laughing tones.

“I actually have an excellent reason,” he whispered, nuzzling a soft kiss to her temple, “Our parents are looking for us.”

As Max expected her eyes popped wide open with his disclosure. Liz bolted upright, almost knocking Max from the bed as she did. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed in sheer horror, “What time is it?”

“Six o’clock,” Max answered sheepishly, but he needn’t have bothered because Liz had already tossed away the pillows and remnants of their discarded clothing to find the digital clock and see for herself.

“Oh my God,” Liz uttered again, this time pitching herself from the bed in a frantic search for her clothes, “My parents are going to kill me! Damn! I was supposed to help start the shift this morning! Where the hell are my socks!”

“It’s a little late for that I think,” Max commented, avidly studying Liz’s attempt to wiggle back into her pants sans underwear, “Valenti was just here. Your parents called the cops this morning when they found you missing.”

Liz deflated with the revelation and crumpled back down onto the bed, flopping onto her back with a heavy groan. She made a comical picture with her bra flapping on one arm, her pants only pulled halfway up her thighs. Max couldn’t quite suppress his snicker despite the dire circumstances. Unaware of Max’s laughter, Liz stared up at the ceiling and released yet another long-suffering groan. “I’ve said this already,” she remarked thoughtfully, “but it bears repeating. Oh. My. God.”

“So we have to decide what our next move will be,” Max suggested calmly.

“Death, Max,” was Liz’s succinct reply, “Death is our next move. My parents will kill you and then likely ship me off for boarding school that is if they don’t kill me, too. Not good scenarios.”

“I was thinking more about telling them the truth, Liz.”

She rolled a look over in his direction, her straight brown brows knitted together in a wary frown. “The truth about what, Max?” she asked with slow deliberation.

“About me,” he clarified, “I think it’s time we told your parents that I’m an alien.”

For the second time that morning Liz shot into a sitting position, motivated by unadulterated panic. “Have you lost it?” she burst out frantically, “Max…hello…I really don’t think this is the time to tell my parents something so explosive, particularly because I doubt you’re their favorite person right now.”

“Liz, I get what you’re saying,” he said gently, crawling down beside her so that they lay chest-to-chest, hip-to-hip, “But I don’t want to lie anymore and I don’t want you to lie either, especially not to your parents. They need to know who I am. They deserve to know the truth about the man who loves their daughter. I’m not ashamed of it.”

Liz fingered his jaw line; pressing fleeting little kisses there. “I know you’re not ashamed, Max,” she whispered, “Neither am I but… You’re already dealing with so much with the impending arrival of your people. Do you really want to add my parents to your list of worries?”

“This is our clean slate,” he persisted quietly, “I don’t want to do anything to spoil it.” He framed her face in his hands, his eyes pleading with her. “Please, Liz? I think it’s the right thing to do and it’s definitely time.”

“O…Okay,” she agreed hesitantly, “If it’s what you want…”

He smiled and rewarded her acquiesce with a sound kiss. “Thank you. I love you, Liz.”

“And I love you.”

“Okay so now that part’s settled,” Max announced, leaning forward for another kiss before rolling from the bed, “Now we need to get cleaned up so we can face the parentals. Why don’t you hit the shower and I’ll clean up in here?”

Liz scrunched up her nose in distaste. “Is that your underhanded way of implying, Mr. Evans, that I stink?” she sniffed disdainfully.

“Actually no, it’s not, Ms. Parker,” Max replied slowly, deliberately climbing back into the bed so that he straddled her body. He leaned down for a deep kiss, sliding his palms sensuously up her torso to cover her quivering breasts. “You smell like me,” he whispered into her mouth, “and I like it. I think it’s sort of sexy.” But when Liz crept her hand down between their bodies to prove to him just how “sexy” she could be Max rolled away with a frustrated groan.

“What?” Liz asked, lifting up onto her elbows to regard him, her lower lip pouted with pretty disapproval.

“The condom last night was the only one I had,” he replied, “And I don’t want to take the chance of getting something started we won’t be able to finish…at least not without consequences.” An odd look passed over Liz’s face with his explanation and she sat up abruptly and repositioned her bra, reaching behind her back to deftly refasten it. Max regarded her erratic movements with a bewildered frown as she stood up to tug her pants up around her hips.

“Did I say something wrong?” he queried carefully.

“No. Nothing,” Liz denied, but the tension in her shoulders said otherwise, “Have you seen my shirt at all?”

Max halted her elusive rooting around in the sheets by grabbing hold of her hands and bringing her knuckles to his lips for a sound kiss. “Tell me what’s bothering you,” he coaxed gently, “What did I do?”

“It’s just you…” Liz replied in irritated vagueness, “You’re just so…diligent about making sure we’re protected and I just wonder why you couldn’t have been that careful with Tess.” She recoiled from the wincing look he gave her, reflexively folding her arms across her middle. “I know it’s hypocritical of me to even say anything to you about it but… I can’t help it. I’m sorry if that hurts you.”

“First off all, it doesn’t hurt me,” Max replied patiently, “I want you to be honest with me, no matter how brutal it gets. We owe that to each other, right?”

“Right,” Liz agreed faintly.

“So you want to know why I wasn’t protected when I had sex with Tess,” Max prodded with an expansive sigh, “It’s simple. I didn’t have anything. At one time I did usually carry a condom in my wallet but that was for you. That night after I saw you with Kyle I didn’t think I needed it anymore and it hurt to see it there every time I opened my wallet so…I threw it away.

“By no means does that excuse the fact that I was totally irresponsible with Tess that night but I wasn’t just being nonchalant about it, Liz. I didn’t have…there wasn’t anything available that night. That’s all.” By the time he finished they were both blushing to the roots of their hair and eye contact was at a minimum.

“So when did you put it back in your wallet?” Liz asked him, thinking that he had been quite prepared last night when they made love.

“Put what back? You mean the condom?” Liz jerked her head in a mortified nod. “That night after we danced at your graduation party. It’s not that I thought I’d get lucky or anything,” he rushed to elucidate when her eyes flared wide, “But I knew I was attracted to you and that you were attracted to me… I just didn’t think that either one of us could afford to have another unplanned pregnancy on our hands just in case things got out of hand.”

“You’re right,” Liz granted, ducking her head shyly. She was rather surprised and deeply touched by the newfound maturity Max had acquired.

“What about you?” he asked timidly, “Did you use anything when you were with Mr. Wonderful Pants? I’m assuming that you didn’t.”

Liz laughed at the disgruntled jealousy she heard in his tone. “Actually we did and we didn’t,” she replied vaguely, which earned her nothing more than a befuddled grimace from Max. “Put it this way,” she clarified, “Believe everything they say about pre-ejaculation, Max.”

“Whoa-ho!” Max exclaimed, clapping his hands over his ears, “Too much information there! Just tell me I’m the best you’ve ever had and we’ll leave it at that.”

She smirked at his ribald teasing and brushed a playful kiss across his lips. “You’re the best I ever had,” she whispered with dramatic flare. And then she sobered somewhat, cradling his jaw in her palm. “Besides it shouldn’t matter, should it?” she whispered, “You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted, Max.”

“Ditto,” Max croaked in return.

It was the only thing he could manage to push past the giant lump of emotion clogging his throat.

[Deejonaise]

Well, since I'm going to be updating every Thursday from now on I just figured I'd start with this one.



Chapter 2

“What the hell is taking so long?” Kyle demanded tersely after glancing at his watch for the twentieth time in a thirty-minute span, “Weren’t they supposed to be here like an hour ago? This is ridiculous!”

Kyle Valenti was being paranoid and snappy and he knew it but the internal reasoning did nothing to ease his anxiety. Since seven o’clock that morning he had been stewing at Michael’s, ready to gnaw his hands off in pure nervousness. His anxiety didn’t spring from worry over Max and Liz, however. His father had reassured them all that morning that the two were just fine and holed up together in some little motel on the outskirts of town so Kyle had very little doubt they were good to go.

No, what had Kyle ready to leap headfirst through the nearest window was the daunting and unwelcome knowledge that, as he languished fretfully on Michael Guerin’s sofa, an entire fleet of aliens was en route to Roswell. Now on a positive note this newest plan Evans had devised was definitely preferable to the one where he left the earth completely but it wasn’t that much better. Aliens invading the planet was never a good thing. Perhaps that rather gigantic fact didn’t creep out anyone else but it scared Kyle spitless!

Really, with the exception of Max Evans and the two aliens presently in the room with him Kyle wasn’t all that keen on the Antarian race. What little he had gleaned about them outside of his immediate circle of friends told him that they were mercenary, emotionless beings perfectly willing to sacrifice any and everything to fit with their agenda. He had seen and experienced their abject cruelty firsthand. And now he could look forward to an entire planet full of them. The idea alone made him sick.

What was Evans thinking, Kyle wondered caustically. He just didn’t get it. Hadn’t Max learned enough already about trusting his kind? It hadn’t fared so well for him in the past, just look at the results of his having trusted Tess Harding. They had all suffered for it, especially Alex. Kyle would have assumed by this stage in the game Evans would have bought a clue. Apparently not.

Yet what completely flabbergasted Kyle almost to the point of laughing hysterically was that everyone seemed wholly nonchalant about the entire deal. They were already talking about potential “touch down” spots for the ship. It didn’t seem to occur to anyone that they might be inviting a host of potential mass murderers to colonize the planet. The entire idea was ludicrous, but it seemed that Kyle was the only one to recognize that fact. He couldn’t shake the feeling that they were all opening themselves up for another helping of alien sized trouble.

Of course Maria would say that this was his bitterness talking. These days she had appointed herself as his psychoanalyst and personal advisor. According to his almost stepsister, Tess’ betrayal of him had been so monstrous, so unforgivable that consequently he had labeled the entire Antarian race, outside his friends, as a reprehensible and untrustworthy species. He had a prejudice, Maria charged, a bias all brought on by personal trauma and grief.

Kyle could conceivably argue several points with her that none of his dealings with the Antarian race had given him any reason to think highly of them but he knew to debate with Maria would be pointless. She would mostly likely trump the argument by sighting Max, Michael and Isabel as the exception to the rule. He couldn’t disagree with her there, but then Kyle had never bothered to point out to her that they were the “exception” only because they had been raised human.

The bottom line was that he didn’t trust these Antarians and he didn’t want them on his planet. What he couldn’t figure out, what he struggled with minute by painstaking minute was why his friends did. Kyle couldn’t understand how they could all be so blind. Even his own father had been duped into this scheme. It was as if Kyle’s entire world had gone mad. He seemed to be the only sane person left.

Were it not for his intense love and loyalty for his friends Kyle might have even been tempted to bring government officials into it. That was how desperate he was to prevent another Tess-like disaster. But just that one brief consideration, even with the lightning speed in which he’d discarded it, filled Kyle with shame and self-loathing. He knew better than to think that way. He had only to look at his grandfather and Max Evans’ experience in the white room to know that the government would offer no assistance.

Still, Kyle hated feeling helpless and vulnerable and this latest plan of Evans’ had him experiencing both emotions in spades. His last hope was that he would somehow manage to talk some sense into Max before the deal was incontrovertibly set in stone. And he would talk some sense into him, Kyle decided grimly, as soon as he got there.

With another disgruntled glance at his wristwatch Kyle grumbled a curse under his breath. “Are you sure he said he would meet us here, Dad?” Kyle interrogated his father impatiently, “You were clear about the time, weren’t you?”

“Kyle, get a grip,” Michael intoned gruffly, “They’ll get here when they get here.”

“Kyle, they’re okay,” his father soothed calmly, “Why are you so jumpy?”

“I’m not jumpy,” he denied. But he was and they all knew it.

Just then the front door to Michael’s apartment swung open and Max and Liz swept inside hand in hand. “Hail the conquering hero,” Kyle muttered under his breath. He ignored the dirty look Isabel shot him as she leapt off the sofa to enfold her brother in a fervent hug.

“I thought I’d never see you again,” she espoused with quiet emotion, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Self-conscious and extremely aware that four pairs of eyes were glued on his face at that very second Max gingerly pushed out of his sister’s viselike hold. “Isabel, I’m fine,” he reassured her, stepping back to loop his arm around Liz’s shoulder, “We’re both fine.”

“Mom and Dad were so worried,” she burst out, “Have you seen them yet?”

A guilty look passed between he and Liz. “No, we’re saving that for last,” Max replied, “I knew how important this meeting was and…let’s just say that I don’t see myself getting out much in the very near future after Mom and Dad get a hold of me.”

“God, Max! When you didn’t come home last night…” Isabel murmured, “I didn’t know what had happened.”

Max cut Michael a sharpened glance. “Didn’t you tell her?”

“Yes. I told her,” Michael spoke up, “But I guess it’s one of those cases where seeing is believing. She wouldn’t be satisfied until she saw you for herself.”

“Well, I’m okay,” Max reiterated, “Liz and I just had a lot of stuff to talk about.”

“I’ll just bet,” Maria muttered loud enough to garner a snicker from the others. Max and Liz blushed a rather becoming shade of pink. However, at least one person remained unimpressed with the cutesy scene.

“If you’re done with the family reunion,” Kyle interrupted rudely, “I’d like to get down to business.”

“Sheesh,” Maria grumbled beside from across the room, “Ever since you started getting powers you’ve been so moody lately.”

“Yeah well…if you zapped yourself in the face every time you tried to get a shave you might be a little moody, too,” Kyle grumbled in reply, “Can we please get down to business now?”

“All right,” Max said, easily slipping into his commander mode, “I’m assuming Michael’s informed everyone about our plan to evacuate Antar and bring the refugees here.”

“I spoke to Larek first thing this morning,” Michael interjected, “He’s already sent the first couple of ships. They should arrive by the end of the summer.”

“Wow,” Liz murmured, “He is efficient.”

“He also said that he’s going to try and launch another in a few weeks,” Michael elaborated, “He hopes that staggering them might keep Khivar in the dark about what we’re really doing.”

“That’s good,” Max commended, “The more people we can get to earth safely the better.”

“Hmm…” Kyle spoke up skeptically, “I hate to be the voice of dissent here but… Have any of you even taken two seconds to think about what you’re going to do once these…’refugees’ get here?”

“I really hadn’t thought beyond saving their lives, Kyle,” Max replied with a definitive edge. However, Kyle Valenti, West Roswell’s star athlete, was not intimidated.

“Well, you might want to start thinking about the beyond,” he charged shortly, “When these people get here, these hundreds of people they are going to need jobs, money, clothes, and places to sleep. And, unless English is the official language on that planet of yours, you’re going to have to teach them to read and write as well. Not to mention that while you’re accomplishing that you’ve got to find a place to hide these hundreds of people. My house isn’t going to cut it this time. So what about that Senor Presidente?” he finished triumphantly.

“Kyle’s right, Max,” Isabel interjected reluctantly, “Extremely rude, but right. I think it’s a wonderful thing that you’re trying to do but…”

“…It’s a swiss cheese plan, Maxwell,” Michael concluded flatly.

However, Max remained undaunted by Kyle’s very relevant questions or his friends seeming agreement with him. He was fortunate enough to have a girlfriend who thought of everything and they had already covered that base together. After much soul searching and agonizing Max had finally decided on a course of action. Liz knew his plan and she was on board. Unfortunately, the others might not be as eager to embrace his plan.

“Well,” Max began slowly, “I don’t see that we have any choice but to come out to the world, so to speak.”

“Excuse me?” Isabel enunciated with perfect deliberation, “You want to what?”

Max took a hefty breath before continuing. “When the ships land,” he clarified, “I don’t think we should make any attempt to hide them. That way when they land the whole world can see.”

“Are you crazy?” was the most immediate and general response.

“What the hell is the matter with you?” Michael ranted, “Did Liz put you up to this?”

“It’s insane, Max!” Isabel fretted sharply, “We can’t come out to the world. You’d be signing all our death warrants!”

“No. I don’t think that I would,” Max protested with utter calm, “It’s highly improbable that the U.S. Government would simply shoot a UFO out of the air without provocation.”

“Without provocation?” Isabel gaped at her brother. “Are you forgetting Pierce and the Special Unit, Max?”

“I could never forget, Isabel,” Max replied gravely, “But this is hardly the same.”

“Max is right,” Valenti said, speaking for the first time since Max and Liz had arrived, “The Special Unit was a secret branch of the government. I doubt even the President knew about its existence. However, what Max is planning will be a public revelation and the U.S. government will have no choice but to handle it publicly. The first thing they’ll want to do in a situation like that is establish contact. It’s unlikely they’ll attack unless they’re given a reason to.”

“And if they’re given a reason to?” Kyle wondered aloud. Six pairs of eyes snapped to his face. Kyle read a myriad of emotions in those eyes, everything from dismay to disgust. “I’m asking a valid question,” he tossed out defensively, “How do we know we can trust these people?”

“They’re Zan sympathizers,” Michael snapped impatiently, “They’re on our side.”

“Yeah,” Kyle replied, unconvinced, “But then Nasedo and Tess were supposedly ‘on your sides’ as well and we see what happened to them. What if, when these Antarians get here, they like the planet so much they decide to take it over?”

“You’ve been watching too much Independence Day,” Maria mumbled dismissively.

“What?” Kyle queried, “It’s not an unlikely prospect. None of you know what kind of agenda these people have.”

“I’m pretty certain that the thing they want most is to stay alive,” Max replied tightly.

“But you’re right to be concerned, Kyle,” Liz added quietly, hoping the lessen the building tension in the room, “There aren’t any guarantees with the Antarians. But then there aren’t any guarantees with humans either. Some of us are capable of great good…like Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa and then some of us are capable of unspeakable evil like Adolph Hitler and Agent Pierce. It might be the same with Max’s people. We just don’t know. But that doesn’t mean that hundreds should die for the shortcomings of a few.”

By the time Liz had finished with her impromptu speech Kyle was properly cowed and Max was beaming down at her with an open expression of unbounded love and pride. “Okay, so we’re agreed that our only option is to bring them here,” Kyle conceded reluctantly, “What about the rest of it? You’re talking about letting the entire world know that aliens exist.”

“More importantly,” Michael interjected, “You’re talking about letting the whole world know that we’re aliens. Once that happens, Maxwell, life as we know it is over.”

“It’s already over, Michael,” Max replied quietly, “It was over the day I chose to save Liz’s life that day in the Crashdown. It’s just taken us this long to accept it. We’re not human and…it’s time we stopped hiding that fact from everyone. I’m tired of running.”

[Deejonaise]

Chapter 3

“Well, my parents are here,” Max sighed heavily after he cut the engine to his car. He shifted around in his seat to regard Liz sternly. “This isn’t going to be pretty, Liz,” he prefaced with the utmost seriousness, “I’m not entirely sure how they’ll react to our news especially because I’m sure they’re all probably of the mindset to ground us for life.”

“We could always run away,” Liz suggested in meek hopefulness. However, she didn’t expect that idea to fly with Max and she wasn’t disappointed.

“Come on,” he said, shoving from the car and jogging around to her side and open the door, “Let’s get this over with.”

“Okay, let’s get a few things straight before we go in there,” Liz said as they strolled across the street hand in hand, “Under no circumstances are we going to stand for it if they try to keep us from seeing each other.”

“And what do you suggest, mon capitan?” Max inquired wryly, “They’re the parents, remember? They make the rules and we’re supposed to follow them. It’s an ageless tradition that dates back as far as Adam, Eve and the forbidden fruit.”

“Not this time,” Liz replied, “Not when it comes to you.”

They reached the entrance of the Crashdown just as Max was nodding his agreement. At that very second he was assaulted with an overwhelming since of de ja vu. He and Liz had faced their parents like this before, the night they had found the communicator in the desert. That time they had managed to talk their parents out of forbidding them to see one another and had been subjected to two weeks of punishment instead. Max suspected that the parents wouldn’t be as accommodating this time.

With one final reassuring squeeze to Liz’s fingers Max pushed open the swinging doors to the Crashdown. The restaurant had already started to fill up in spite of the early morning hours. But the few patrons milling about inside didn’t obscure the fact that both sets of parents were calmly awaiting their arrival over near the take out counter. Max and Liz approached them on jellied legs and with pounding hearts.

“So nice of you to finally join us,” Philip scolded his son crisply. Max, at least, had the grace to appear chastened, humbly ducking his head in deference to his father.

“Let’s take this upstairs, shall we?” Jeff Parker suggested with stiff courtesy.

As Max and Liz trailed dutifully behind their parents they both exchanged mutual looks of dread. It was definitely not looking too good for the home team. His father had been positively stony as he regarded them and Jeff Parker…he hadn’t even deigned a look in Liz’s direction. Only their mothers seemed to show any sort of compassion but the disappointment flaring in their eyes had made it difficult to maintain eye contact. When they finally made it upstairs the shutting of the front door was like the slamming of a jail cell. Max and Liz literally jumped with the impact.

“So we won’t even ask where you’ve been,” Jeff Parker began an almost frightening calm, “That much is pretty obvious already but…I think it’s way past time that we established some ground rules for the two of you.” Again Max and Liz traded timid glances. “You might as well sit down,” Liz’s father invited, “You’re going to be here for a while.”

Max didn’t like the sound of that at all nor was he particularly fond of the lean and hungry look Jeff Parker was sending him at the moment. He looked as if he planned on picking his teeth with Max’s bones. Max gulped audibly, resisting the urge to run and dropping down onto the sofa as Mr. Parker had instructed. Liz followed suit, but made the mistake of launching into an explanation instead of remaining silent.

“Before you guys say anything just please understand this,” Liz implored, “Max and I love each other.” She grabbed up Max’s hand for emphasis, as a show of solidarity. “We never meant to disrespect you or worry you. We just wanted to be together and the night got away from us.”

“And we’re not disputing that,” Philip Evans replied evenly, “We’re not even denying that you and Max do indeed love each other.” However, Max and Liz’s commencing sighs of relief were halted when he finished grimly, “But that doesn’t mean that you two are good for one another.”

“Dad, now wait a minute--,” Max protested.

“No! You wait a minute!” Jeff Parker exploded in interruption, his outer façade of calm completely shattered in the blink of an eye, “In the time my daughter has known you she’s become a complete stranger to us! She keeps unaccounted for hours, she lies to us constantly, her grades have fallen, she’s completely erratic in her behavior and, not four months ago she was pregnant by some guy she barely even knew, something that was completely out of character for her before she met you!”

“Dad, that’s not Max’s fault!” Liz cried.

“Don’t tell me it’s not his fault!” Jeff roared, “You ran away from Roswell to get away from him! Do you think your mother and I are stupid? We know why you wanted to go to that private school in Montpelier, Vermont, of all places! We know it was because the little bastard cheated on you with that Harding girl and you couldn’t get farther enough away! He broke your heart, Lizzie!”

“The hell you say,” Philip bellowed, not one for standing by passively while his son was insulted, “Your girl did her share of heartbreaking as well! That summer she broke up with him and left for Florida Max was barely able to function. He didn’t eat, he had nightmares every night…Diane and I feared he might actually try something stupid he was so depressed. We had him in therapy for God’s sake! And your sainted daughter did all that!”

Max released a long-suffering groan over his father’s angry admission, wanting to sink down into the sofa cushions. Beside him, Liz gave his fingers a reassuring squeeze, her heart contracting guiltily when she heard what a difficult time Max had endured after she left. She had heard it before from her friends but the account was wholly different coming from a parental viewpoint. Liz knew they wouldn’t glance over the details just to spare her feelings. They had truly feared for their son’s life.

Seeing the guilt and remorse cloud Liz’s expressive eyes, Max brought her fingers to his lips and kissed their tips softly as if to tell her that everything would be okay. Neither of them realized that Max’s tender gesture had not gone unnoticed. Diane watched the two exchange tender caresses while her husband and Liz’s parents verbally duked it out.

“Don’t blame your son’s mental instability on our daughter,” Nancy Parker interjected quietly, “Did you ever stop to consider that perhaps Max gave Liz cause to break up with him that summer?”

“Oh, I’m well aware of the reason she broke up with him!” Philip sneered with a disdainful glance in Liz’s direction, “And I’m pretty sure that if she didn’t have the guts to stick with him then that she probably won’t be sticking with him now.”

Max leveled his father with a quelling stare. “Dad, that’s enough,” he intoned quietly.

“It’s the truth, Max!” his father insisted irately.

“Just wait a damned minute!” Jeff snapped, “What are you trying to imply here? Are you saying that my Lizzie did something wrong?”

“She’s definitely not the saint you think she is,” Philip bit out caustically.

Murder exploded behind Jeff Parker’s eyes right before he launched himself in Philip Evan’s direction. “You son of a b--,” Everyone was scrambling to their feet in an instant but it was Liz who managed to come between the two combatants in time and prevent her father from throwing a punch.

“Dad, don’t do this!” she cried out desperately, “Stop acting this way! You’re all standing around here explicating and evaluating our relationship when you know nothing about it!”

“And whose fault is that, Liz?” Nancy asked calmly as she stepped forward to pull her husband into a more neutral corner, “You’ve never volunteered anything to us about your relationship with Max. It’s always been something you kept secret.”

“I had my reasons,” Liz whispered gruffly.

“I’d certainly like to know what they are,” Jeff said wearily, sagging against his wife abruptly, “For God’s sake, just talk to us.”

Liz slid a questioning glance in Max’s direction where he stood not far from his mother. He gave her a slight nod, silently granting his permission. Philip Evans deciphered their voiceless conversation a second before Liz opened her mouth. “Are you sure you want to do this, Max?” he asked his son in a throbbing whisper, “These people don’t have your best interests at heart, son.”

“They deserve to know the truth, Dad,” Max replied tiredly, “Besides…it’s not going to be a secret much longer and I would much rather they heard the truth from me and Liz.”

“Secret?” Nancy and Jeff echoed simultaneously, “What secret?”

Jeff leveled his daughter with a probing stare that was tempered with anxious fear. “Liz, what’s going on?”

“Dad, do you remember that day in the Crashdown when the gun went off,” Liz began tentatively.

“Of course I do,” her father replied with a vague nod, “It scared the hell out of me… Why? What does that have to do with you and Max?”

“Do you remember how the police couldn’t find the bullet afterwards?” Liz pressed on.

“Yes, I remember that, too,” Jeff replied patiently, “As far as I know the police never came up with an explanation for that.”

“Well, I have an explanation for it,” Liz returned quietly, “The police couldn’t find the bullet because the bullet was inside me.”

“What?”

“I was shot that day, Dad,” she clarified shakily, “I was shot and I would have died if Max hadn’t…” She trailed off for a moment, her courage fading as she noted the blanching of her parents’ shocked faces. “Max healed me that day,” she rushed on quickly, “He placed his hand across my stomach and dissolved the bullet and healed my internal organs. He saved my life that day.”

“That’s impossible,” Nancy Parker breathed, dropping down into a nearby chair, as her knees would no longer support her, “That’s just not possible.”

Liz scrambled forward to kneel before her mother’s shaking form and gathered Nancy’s ice-cold hands into her own. “Mom, it is possible,” she insisted quietly, “Max is very special. He’s a healer.”

“So it wasn’t just ketchup on your uniform that day, was it, Lizzie?” her father concluded quietly as he stood above them. He grunted to himself in evident shock. “To this day it never made any sense to me how you managed to spill ketchup that way…not with the story those witnesses told. But I wanted so much to believe you…” He shook his head, pressing his fists into his temples as if he felt like his head would explode. "No," he denied when he glanced up again, "That's just too fantastic to believe."

“I asked her to lie,” Max interrupted, immediately garnering the attention of the entire room with his softly spoken admission. “I didn’t want anyone to know what I could do, what I was so I asked her to lie for me…and she did.”

“And what are you, Max?” Jeff asked in a shaking voice.

“I’m not like you,” Max replied quietly.

“What does that mean?” Nancy demanded hysterically, “You’re not like us? Stop talking in circles, dammit!”

At long last Diane Evans stepped forward and added her voice to the conflict. “My son isn’t…human,” she revealed tentatively, “Max is from another planet.”

To everyone’s surprise Jeff Parker sputtered a laugh in the wake of that startling revelation. The sound erupted from his throat in a series of halting coughs but before long had burgeoned into an almost maniacal mirth. “You people are insane!” he wheezed, “My God!”

“Dad, it’s true,” Liz insisted, rising to her feet to regard her father in earnest appeal, “We’re not crazy and we’re not making this up. Max is an alien. And the ’47 crash? It was real, Dad.”

“Next you’ll be telling me that Santa Claus exists and I’m on the Tooth Fairy’s most wanted list,” her father snorted, “Lizzie, is this drugs? Are you on drugs right now?”

“It’s not drugs, Dad,” Liz protested weakly.

“I can prove what she’s saying,” Max added softly as he took a few tentative steps forward to stand behind Liz. With his eyes trained directly on Jeff Parker’s disbelieving face Max slowly dragged his hands down the length of Liz’s forearms, lengthening the sleeves of her light cotton tee as he did.

Nancy Parker gasped audibly with the display. “Oh my God!”

“That could be just slight of hand,” Jeff said, shaking his head in denial, “It doesn’t make you an alien.”

“We can do more than this, Dad,” Liz explained, “But…you’re not ready to see and we don’t want to shock you.”

“We?” Jeff rasped.

Liz deliberately reached up to touch her hair, lightening the glossy brown strands to a burnished gold. This time Nancy Parker didn’t just gasp; she started to cry. Jeff fell back from his daughter in stumbling steps, his expression a mixture of shock, dismay and mild revulsion. “What the hell did you do to my daughter?” he accused Max quietly.

“He saved her life,” Philip intoned ominously.

“Hmm…yeah,” Jeff agreed shortly, “And turned her into a freak show as well.”

“Dad,” Liz whispered painfully, “I’m still the same. Please don’t turn away from me.”

“I need some time Liz,” her father uttered, stumbling over to comfort his weeping wife, “You need to give us some time.”



AN: Cristine aka Lolita Behrbuns made me a kickin banner! Go check it out. It's brilliant! She's brilliant! She captured exactly where I'm trying to go with this story.

2nd AN: I can't get the picture to show up so just click the link for now.

[Deejonaise]

Well this will be my last update until Thursday. I have to work the weekend thru Wednesday so my next opportunity to write and post won't be until Thursday morning. I'll miss you guys in the meantime. *sniffle*

Dee


Chapter 4

“I really like this one.”

Maria watched in detached interest as Isabel and her mother sat at the kitchen table and pored over bridesmaids dresses in the latest copy of Modern Bride, rolling her eyes in unconcealed exasperation over Isabel’s comment. She had barely been engaged a month and already her wedding was becoming some uncontrollable entity that she didn’t even recognize. Though there was a part of her that understood all the frenzied excitement there was also a part of her that wanted to tell both her mother and Isabel exactly what they could do to themselves.

Though Maria realized that they were only getting carried away with the plans because they were genuinely happy for her Maria couldn’t help but feel suffocated. She couldn’t entirely squelch her bubbling resentment over it either. Here she’d had barely any time to even enjoy the idea of being engaged. Even with the ring on her finger the idea still seemed totally unreal. Michael had proposed so abruptly and with the full knowledge that he’d soon be leaving the planet. And then, when that idea had stalled, they still hadn’t been able to celebrate because now they all had to prepare for the imminent arrival of Michael’s people. It was like they could never get a break.

She couldn’t help it. She resented the lack of peace. Yes, she had known what she was signing up for when she pursued and fell in love with Michael Guerin. Yes, she had known that her life would get complicated but Maria had never imagined it would get this complicated. She scarcely knew which way was up anymore.

Last night she and Michael had managed to enjoy a semi-private reunion but their tender moment had been predictably shattered when Isabel phoned somewhere around three in the morning to inform Michael that Max and Liz had never returned. As a result Maria and Michael had spent the early morning hours fending off questions from worried parents and calling all over town trying to locate the errant couple. Maria had spend much of that time suspended between anxiety and annoyance herself, the annoyance taking over completely when they learned from Valenti that Max and Liz had decided to spend the night together in a local motel.

Consequently, she was functioning on less than five hours of sleep and she’d spent even less time with her fiancé. Simply stated, Maria was tired and cranky and quite close to meltdown. The noon hours were fast flittering away and she still hadn’t heard from Michael or Liz and, to make matters worse, both Isabel and her mother seemed totally oblivious to her foul mood, which only served to aggravate her more.

Pushed past the limits of her patience, Maria scraped back her chair from the kitchen table and began to pace the floor in short, anxious circles. “Maria,” her mother admonished with an exasperated huff, “You might want to try paying a little attention here. How are we supposed to pick out dresses without your input? This is your wedding. You might want to try being more involved in the process, dear. Isabel and I can’t do it all ourselves.”

“Don’t you think all this planning is a little premature?” Maria burst out in frustration, “Michael and I haven’t even set a date for the wedding yet! We’ve barely even spoken since he proposed.”

“Stop being ridiculous,” Amy dismissed, returning her attention back to the bride magazine, “You and Michael talk all the time.”

Maria growled under her breath, resisting the urge to stomp her foot in frustration. She leveled Isabel with a meaningful glare over the top of her mother’s head. “Isabel,” she intoned politely through clenched teeth, “Do you think I could have a moment with you in the other room?” Her look clearly warned that if Isabel didn’t move of her own volition Maria would gladly do so for her.

Ever the polite hostess Isabel calmly got up from the table and politely excused herself. She followed a stiff backed Maria into the living room, only mildly curious over Maria’s churlish demeanor. She was always acting flighty and unpredictable so Isabel didn’t find her behavior that afternoon too alarming. The moment they were alone, however, Maria’s churlishness manifested itself into outright fury.

“What are you doing?” she cried in her trademark Maria way, her hands flying wildly in time with her words, “Now is not the time to be making wedding plans, Isabel! What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking it’s the perfect time,” Isabel replied in a perfectly serene tone, “God knows we all need a distraction right now. This latest plan of Max’s is just too ludicrous to contemplate and I needed a stress reliever.”

“A stress reliever?” Maria echoed shortly, “A stress reliever? I don’t want to be your stress reliever, Isabel, because your attempts to relieve stress are stressing me!”

“Maria, calm down,” Isabel soothed, rubbing a comforting hand up and down the length of Maria’s forearm, “Now take a breath.”

“Stop it,” Maria snapped, easily shaking off Isabel’s touch, “This isn’t a game. In a few months everything we know is going to change. As we speak my boyfriend is conducting a meeting with yet another alien to plan for the impending arrival of his people on this planet. My almost stepbrother is out there somewhere practicing his newfound alien powers and ‘preparing for war’ as he puts it. My best friend is currently revealing to her clueless parents that her on again, off again boyfriend of two years is an alien! And you…you, Isabel, are busily planning a wedding that’s not even guaranteed to happen! The weird factor in our lives couldn’t get any bigger right now! So please just stop it!”

“Maria, you need to get a grip right now,” Isabel admonished in a sharpened tone, “You don’t think I know all this already? I do. It’s in my head every second of every single day. I know how crazy my life is. I’ve always known. You’re the one who’s just beginning to realize so welcome to my world. Is it so bad that I grab on to a bit of normalcy whenever I can?” And then Isabel deflated, much of her icy demeanor melting away. “I didn’t mean to take over your wedding,” she sighed in apology, “I just needed a distraction.”

“I understand that,” Maria whispered, most of her ire having faded with her tirade, “I know what it feels like to need a bit of normalcy sometimes. Believe me I could use a distraction myself right about now. But Isabel…planning my wedding…you might want to hold off on that for awhile.”

“What are you saying?” Isabel asked tremulously, “Don’t you want to marry Michael?”

“Yes,” Maria replied fervently, “Yes, I do. I just don’t know if now is the right time. Michael doesn’t seem to have room for me in his life right now.”

“That’s not true,” Isabel denied, “Things are just really crazy at the moment.”

“Isabel, you know better,” Maria countered sadly, “Things are always crazy! Your people’s arrival on this planet is going to change our entire lives. I mean…my God…you’re a princess, Isabel! And Michael? He’s your…betrothed. Have you forgotten that? In the eyes of your people…you and Michael belong together and I’m just going to be seen as some human interloper.”

“Maria,” Isabel said with a gentle smile, “Michael loves you. Granted he does have a hard time expressing that love sometimes but I know for a fact that you’re the reason he even breathes. You’re everything to him and that’s not going to change simply because our people are on this planet.”

“But what if they expect it, Isabel?” Maria wondered meekly.

Isabel just laughed, as if it were the most ridiculous question she’d ever heard. “I thought you would know your fiancé better than that by now, Maria,” she teased lightly, “Michael Guerin never does what’s expected of him.”

********************

“Here are some clean linens for you,” Diane Evans said, pressed an armful of neatly folded towels into Liz’s arms, “You’re welcome to stay here in our guestroom as long as…well, until you get matters straightened out with your parents.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Evans,” Liz replied in a voice made raspy by unshed tears.

Finding extremely painful to look into the young girl’s angst ridden features Diane directed her attention to her son who was hovering lovingly at his girlfriend’s side. “Max, why don’t you help Liz get settled in?” she suggested softly, “Dinner should be ready in another hour or so.”

“Thanks Mom,” Max whispered, leaning forward to kiss her cheek. He then slipped a protective arm around Liz’s slumped shoulders and led her into the bedroom. Diane didn’t linger long enough to see him shut the door behind them but she did hear the definitive click of the lock as she walked away. Her heart contracting a little with the sound Diane hurried down the hallway.

Philip waited for her in the living room, staring blindly out the window into the falling night. Even from a distance she could decipher his inner turmoil, easily discerning the worry etched into his ravaged features. Diane crept up behind him and encircled his waist, pressing her cheek against his solid back. Just as she hoped Philip settled into her embrace, tightening her arms about his waist. She needed that. She needed to comfort him almost as much as she needed the comfort herself.

“Do you think we’re doing the right thing?” Philip sighed after a long, pensive silence had passed between them.

“She had nowhere else to go, Philip,” Diane answered dully, “Her parents aren’t ready to deal with the truth yet.”

“She has friends surely,” Philip considered, “She could have gone with one of them.”

“And Max would have gone with her,” Diane concluded, turning him about in her arms so that they were face to face, “You know that, don’t you? Is that what you want? Do you want to lose him over this?”

Philip shrugged out of his wife’s arms and went to stand over near the fireplace mantle. On the very edge was a framed snapshot of Isabel and Max playing together at the beach. The sun had highlighted the grains of sand scattered in the hair and had kissed their shining faces a golden bronze. They couldn’t have been more than seven or eight in that photo. And so very innocent, so trusting. Almost without awareness, Philip reach out his hand to trace the curve of his son’s face with his fingertip, lamenting that lost time. When he turned back to face his wife his features were stony with resolution.

“She’s not good for him, Diane,” he announced, “She walked out on him once because of who he is…and after he’d endured unspeakable horror. What’s the guarantee that she won’t do it again?”

“She’s just a child, Philip,” Diane defended.

“And so is he!” Philip snapped in return, “She nearly killed him the last time. And I seriously doubt that if she hadn’t twisted him into so many knots to begin with he would have ever turned to that Harding girl in the first place! He would have never…” He trailed off before the mention of his grandson, his throat aching painfully with the thought of him.

“I’ll never be sorry for Zan,” Diane whispered quietly, “He brought absolute joy to our lives…to Max’s…”

“I’m not saying he was a mistake,” Philip declared intensely.

“Then what are you saying?” his wife demanded, “You can’t lay the responsibility for Max’s decisions on Liz’s shoulders. He chose to let Tess Harding into his life! He chose to sleep with her. And it was Max’s own carelessness that got her pregnant. Liz had nothing to do with that.”

“Why are you defending her against your own son?” Philip asked in an accusing whisper.

“I’m not defending her,” Diane sighed despondently, “But I can see with my own two eyes how much Max loves her and…if we make ourselves her enemy we’re going to lose our son, Philip. That’s not a risk I’m willing to take.”

“And what if we lose him anyway?” her husband queried, “Diane, Zan has been dead barely three months and I have watched Max struggle with that reality everyday. I have sat through breakfast after breakfast watching him stare at that damned highchair until we finally got rid of it. I hear him cry himself to sleep at night when he thinks he’s alone. He’s suffering, Diane, and that girl is only going to make it worse.”

“She’s making it better,” Diane argued quietly, “He’s smiling, Philip. He’s living again. He’s happy and she did that. She has an effect on him that I’ve never seen before.”

“That’s right she does,” Philip agreed flatly, “And as happy as she’s making him now we both know she has just as much capacity to destroy him…and she will. She’s not strong enough to accept who and what he is. She’s proven that once before. He won’t survive it if she walks away again.”

“So what are you going to do, Philip?” Diane huffed impatiently, “Are you going to alienate her? Are you going to badmouth to your son? Do you think Max is just going to clap you on the back and say, ‘Gee, thanks, Dad, for helping me see the light.’ No. I don’t think so,” she said, answering her own rhetorical question, “Haven’t we learned that our son is perfectly willing to walk away from us if the need warrants it?”

Though Diane had with her the comforting knowledge of how much their son adored them both expressed in the heartfelt letter he’d written she could not forget, would not forget that he would have walked out of their lives forever. He would have walked away and never looked back and simply because he believed he had no other choice. If Philip backed him into a corner about his relationship with Liz, Diane didn’t doubt that Max would hesitate to walk away again. She had seen but a glimpse of his protectiveness at the Parkers. Max wouldn’t simply stand by and let her be hurt no matter how justified his parents’ anger might be.

“I won’t let you say anything to them, Philip,” she declared in a significantly calmer tone, “I just won’t.”

“He’s my son, too, Diane!” Phillip bellowed, “I have a right to tell him how I feel, to have a say in his future!” And then he lowered his voice to a fiery hiss. “You do realize that they’re probably sleeping together, don’t you?”

“I gathered that,” Diane conceded evenly.

“And you invited her here anyway?” Philip burst out incredulously.

“She didn’t have any place else to go, Philip!” Diane reiterated tightly.

“Well, that’s just great, Diane. I’d like to say that I could trust Max to be responsible and make the right decisions for himself,” Philip said, “But he’s already proven to us that he’s not so diligent in that regard. And his girlfriend…well she’s not much better. The last thing Max needs right now is to deal with the responsibility of another child!”

“I know that better than anyone, Dad.” Both Diane and Philip whipped around at their son’s unexpected entrance, only mildly embarrassed to discover he had stumbled in on their heated and somewhat loud conversation. “You’re wrong about Liz,” Max whispered quietly, “She’s not bad for me. She makes me better, stronger. And I love her, Dad. I love her more than anything.

“As for the rest of it…what I do with Liz is private but I can put your mind at ease by telling you that we’re being careful. Liz and I both know what a tremendous responsibility a baby would be right now and neither of us are ready for that.”

“You weren’t ready the first time either,” his father reminded him quietly.

“And I’m still paying for that mistake,” Max replied, “I’ll probably be paying for it for the rest of my life, but that doesn’t mean I’m repeating it.”

“How do I know that?” his father lashed out, “You’re repeating your same mistakes with that Parker girl!”

“That’s not fair!” Max ground out, “I told you all those things about her because I wanted to be honest. If I’d have known you were going to throw my words back in my face I would have never said anything at all.”

Max’s quiet accusation caused his father to slump with guilt. “Max, I love you. I just don’t want to see you make another terrible mistake. And whether you realize it or not, being with Liz is a mistake,” his father pleaded in a throbbing whisper.

“That’s your opinion, Dad,” Max intoned stonily, “It’s not fact.”

“Please, son,” Philip implored, “…for your own sake. Leave Liz alone.”

The three Evanses were so preoccupied with battling it out, so locked in their own private battles that they never noticed a stricken Liz as she crept back around the corner and disappeared down the hall, her fist crammed tightly into her mouth to muffle the sound of her tortured sobs.

[Deejonaise]

So I got off from work earlier than I expected and here I am. And, since I'm waiting for max and liz believer to update Love by Any Other Name, I decided to post a new part.

Chapter 5

“Life generally sucks!” Liz declared with a dramatic swan dive onto Maria’s bed. The bed springs groaned in bouncing protest of her weight before finally creaking into silence.

Maria clapped her hands lightly in succinct agreement. “Amen to that, sister,” she heralded, curling up alongside her forlorn friend. Though Liz had already been at her house for two hours now and they had binged on everything from potato chips to vanilla ice cream Maria still wasn’t any closer to discovering the reason behind Liz’s abject depression. She propped herself up onto an elbow and stared down into her friend’s distraught features with a pitying frown. “So you sticking around or what?” she asked, “Kyle’s coming over later to watch some movies. You’re welcome to stay.”

Liz flicked Maria a surprised glance. “Since when did you and Kyle become such good buddies?” she wondered dryly.

“Ahh…since the parentals started knocking da boots,” Maria replied with equal dryness, “We figure marriage is just around the corner or they’ll, at least, start living together.”

Liz choked a laughed at Maria’s deadpan expression. “Oh my God,” she giggled, “You’re too much. I love you, Maria.”

“I love you, too, chica,” her friend replied, “It’s good to see you laugh again. I haven’t seen that in a while.”

“It’s good to laugh,” Liz agreed, “I haven’t had much reason to do that lately.”

“So are you ready to tell me why you’re here with me instead of snuggled up under that boyfriend of yours?” Maria asked gently, “You guys aren’t having problems already, are you? Because that’s a record even for you two.”

“Max had to work today,” Liz explained laughingly, “And I didn’t feel comfortable going back to his house after my classes were done so here I am. Besides,” she continued, rolling into a sitting position, “I wanted to spend some time with my best girl anyway. Is that a crime?”

“It is when you’re using me as a distraction,” Maria accused meaningfully.

Maria didn’t know how much of a misstatement that was. Liz would need a complete frontal lobotomy to forget about her mammoth sized problems of late. As if it weren’t bad enough that her own father could barely stand to look at her, she had also recently discovered that she wasn’t on the top of Philip Evans’ well-liked list either. The realization definitely made for an uncomfortable living arrangement, even if it was temporary.

Yet while the disapproval from Max’s parents was hard to bear what was slowly killing Liz was her parents’ reaction, namely her father’s. Though her mother had proven surprisingly compassionate and understanding throughout the entire ordeal, her father had been like a complete stranger. The reversal in their roles had thoroughly disconcerted Liz.

Nancy Parker had phoned Liz every day in the four days Liz had been away from home just to make sure her daughter wasn’t in want for anything. Her voice was always quavering with unshed tears whenever she called, a fact that filled Liz with a mother load of guilt. Every so often Nancy would beg Liz to come back home but the invitation was never given without a condition and that condition always centered around her never seeing Max again. For Liz, that wasn’t even a consideration.

Her father, on the other hand, refused to speak to her at all. Liz supposed that she was most hurt and surprised by his actions because he had been so incredibly understanding during her pregnancy. However, as Liz had learned from her mother, Jeff Parker’s understanding had come as a direct result of never allowing himself to feel the anger and disappointment in his daughter. Whereas Nancy had readily let it out, Jeff had kept his own emotions bottled tightly. Liz had been so needy and so vulnerable at that time that all he had wanted to do was protect her. But her latest reunion with Max Evans had sent her father over the edge.

Jeff had apparently become fed up with what he viewed as Liz’s uncontrollable and unpredictable behavior, Nancy Parker revealed. He felt enormously disappointed in her and very deeply hurt. And, as Liz understood it, not only for her actions of the last few months but because of the constant lies she’d been telling them both for the last few years. Liz was slowly coming to recognize that the rift with her family would be no easy fix.

“So I assume from that look on your face that the situation with your mom and dad hasn’t improved at all, huh,” Maria said, gently breaking through Liz’s morose reverie.

“I’ve talked to my mom every day since I left,” Liz replied lightly, “She wants me to come home. She even says that my dad is in total agreement. I don’t know if I believe her though. He still isn’t talking to me.”

“I doubt your mom would be trying to get you to come home if it weren’t alright with your dad,” Maria reasoned.

Liz shrugged. “Hmm…maybe.”

“Then why are you still hanging out at the Evanses’?” Maria wondered, “Girl, go home.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because they only want me to come home if I break up with Max first,” Liz clarified crisply.

“And that’s not going to happen…right?” Maria prodded.

“Right.”

“So how do Max’s folks feel about you crashing at their place indefinitely,” Maria asked carefully, “You guys aren’t sleeping in the same room or anything, are you?”

“No, I’m still in the guest room,” Liz replied with a rueful sigh, “But I’m pretty sure that I’m quickly wearing out my welcome there.” She flipped over onto her stomach and bunched up a pillow on which to rest her head. “I don’t think Mr. and Mrs. Evans like me very much,” she revealed in a suffocated little whisper.

“Why do you think that?”

“I overheard them talking to Max the other night,” Liz confessed, “He thought I was asleep and I guess he went into the living room to set them straight about a few things. Anyway his dad was going on about how I had hurt him too much and how being with me again was a mistake.”

“Whoa. What did Max say?” Maria asked slowly.

“He told them they were wrong,” Liz said, “And that he loved me. He said some other stuff, too, but I didn’t stick around to hear the rest. I was sorta crying by that point.” Even as she recounted the events presently Liz felt the sting of tears at the back of her eyes.

“Oh Lizzie, Lizzie,” Maria crooned, bending down low to squeeze her friend’s shoulders in a tender hug, “Have you talked to Max about what you heard?”

“No,” Liz whispered meekly, “He’s got so much stuff on his mind already. I didn’t want to make things worse by telling him that his parents hate my guts.”

“You’ve got to talk to him, Liz,” Maria advised.

“Maybe later,” Liz considered, burying her face into the pillow so that her words were muffled, “I just don’t really want to think about it anymore.” She then flopped back onto her back and forced an over-bright smile to her face. “So…tell me how your wedding plans are going.”

“It’s still hell,” Maria told her, “I’ve barely seen Michael these last few days. If he’s not working then he’s out somewhere strategizing with Max. I can’t pin him down and, honestly, I’m tired of chasing him.”

“Sounds like you’re the one having trouble in Paradise right now,” Liz murmured.

“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” Maria brazened. But then, without warning, her brave front crumbled and the vivid animation in her features fell still. “You know my mom and Isabel are all for this big, traditional wedding,” she said wistfully, “They’re so excited about the dresses and the decorations and…the only thing I can think about is that I don’t have anyone to walk me down the isle.”

“Oh, Maria…” Liz breathed sympathetically.

“I haven’t thought about my dad in years,” Maria went on, whisking away the mutinous tears that fell on her cheeks, “But something like this… He’s a deadbeat, I know that, and I’m probably better off without him but… Sometimes I wish, you know.” When her tears continued to flow despite her best efforts to blink them back Maria groaned, “God, look at me. I’m blubbering all over myself. It’s so undignified and such a waste! If this is what happens when I’m missing Michael then I really don’t have any choice but to marry him!”

“Stop being so brave,” Liz whispered, reaching up to enfold her friend in a sisterly hug. “If it makes you feel better to know…I’d walk you down the isle, Maria,” she offered solemnly.

Her heartfelt proposal startled a teary giggle from Maria. “You can’t do that,” she laughed, “Not unless those powers of yours let you can be in two places at once.”

“Two places?”

“You’re my maid of honor, you silly!” Maria cried in exasperation, “I couldn’t have it any other way, Liz.” The two girls shared another laugh, tenderly wiping away the tears from each other’s cheeks. “We’re gonna get through this, Lizzie,” Maria said, hugging her friend close, “I know we will.”

********************

Kyle rounded the isle of the video store and stopped short when he saw Isabel Evans standing in his path. “I didn’t know you were into action flicks,” he remarked casually, startling her so badly that she dropped the movie onto the floor.

“God, Kyle! You scared me!” Isabel exclaimed, pressing a hand to her pounding heart, “Why were you lurking around that way?”

“I wasn’t lurking,” he said, bending easily to scoop up the fallen video in one graceful move. In a reflexive action he glanced at the cover before passing the movie back to Isabel. “The Terminator?” he inquired drolly, “I would have never figured you to like that one. Isn’t it a little intense for your delicate, feminine nature?”

“I’m up for a little blood and mayhem,” she answered with a smirk, “I’m a versatile girl.”

“What about that precious rep of yours? Sounds as if not everything is sunshine and roses in the life of our very own sunshine cadet,” Kyle ribbed sardonically.

“Not hardly,” Isabel snorted, “My mom and dad were having one of those tense family dinners where it’s all silent and uncomfortable and every sound is amplified to about a hundred! The scraping, the chewing, the clinking of silverware against teeth! Ugh…I had to get out or go insane!”

“I thought Liz was hanging at your place,” Kyle remarked, “Couldn’t she provide a distraction for you? You could have had a nap at least. I love her but…you get her talking about biology or some crap like that…it’ll put you right out.”

“Well, she never came home after school,” Isabel replied, “I don’t know where she is…probably hanging out with Max at the Center. She’s done that a couple of times this week.”

“So I hear things are still pretty bad with her folks.”

“I guess…” Isabel hedged, “She doesn’t talk to me about it but I’m sure Max knows what’s going on. Mostly I hear her crying. The whole situation is pretty bad.”

“I don’t guess your parents are too thrilled with her staying, huh?”

“My mom’s okay with it,” Isabel said, “At least as okay as a person can be with that sort of thing. But my dad…he’s not going for it at all. He and Max are constantly fighting. It’s like a war zone at home. It’s so bad that we haven’t even had the opportunity to tell them about…you know…the other thing.”

“You mean the fact that an alien species will be invading the planet in another two and a half months or so?” Kyle prompted tersely, “Yeah…you might want to tell them about that.”

Isabel didn’t miss the dripping scorn in his tone. “In case you’ve forgotten…I’m that alien species, too, Kyle. You hate them, you hate me.”

“No, that’s not true at all,” he protested softly, “You’re nothing like them, Isabel.”

With those softly spoken words an affable and innocent conversation quickly turned into quiet and provocative. It was as if they were seeing each other for the first time and noticing something significant they had missed earlier. The moment was profound and scary. Their eyes skittered apart in uncomfortable silence as they both tried to pretend that nothing had happened. Isabel picked at the jagged edge of the plastic movie case. Kyle coughed and shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other.

“So…uh…I guess I’d better get going,” he finally said after a long moment, “Maria’s probably ready to put out an APB on me.”

“You’re going to Maria’s?” Isabel asked as he startled to sidle around her, “You mind if I come with?”

“You’re not planning on sneaking any chick flicks in, are you?” Kyle asked, his blue eyes twinkling with a teasing glint.

“Not a chance,” Isabel replied, “It’s blood and gore all the way, baby.”

Kyle smiled at her and hooked an arm around her neck, the relaxed camaraderie between them restored with only a lingering tension remaining. “That’s my girl.”

[Deejonaise]

I'm not even going to say anything because I'm sure you've come to expect this from me by now.


Chapter 6

“Since when did you start smoking?”

“Holy shit!” Michael exclaimed, whirling around so quickly that he banged his shoulder painfully against the metal side of the giant dumpster. Turning away hastily, Michael ground his cigarette into the sole of his shoe and flicked it into the nearby trash. Though he tried to appear nonchalant his cheeks were flushed with guilt. “When did you get here?” he demanded, but his casual air was ruined by the fact he was still choking on smoke when he said it.

“Answer me,” Maria declared curtly, “How long have you been smoking?”

“Two days,” Michael mumbled vaguely, turning away then and scrambling back into the Crashdown through the back door.

Undaunted, Maria stalked after him, catching the back door right before it slammed shut. “Michael Guerin! You’ve been smoking for two days,” she wondered in confusion, “Why would you even start in the first place?” She grimaced her disgust, looking at him as if he were some kind of axe murderer. Michael couldn’t help but feel a bit aggravated with her over dramatic response, especially in light of his long, exhausting day.

“Oh please don’t give me grief about this,” Michael groaned in frustration, “One of the grill cooks said it would help me relax so I thought I’d give it a try.”

Though her first inclination was to tongue lash him within an inch of his life Maria forced herself to be patient and understanding. She reminded herself that those were qualities she’d have to acquire if she was going to spend her life as Michael Guerin’s wife and NOT kill him. “Okay,” she said, taking a deep, cleansing breath, “So why do you need to relax? Did something happen?”

“You mean other than the fact I’m planning the mother of all come-outs,” Michael retorted derisively, “Nah, I’m pretty good.”

“You’re worried about Max’s plan,” Maria concluded with a nod.

“Worried?” Michael echoed with a short laugh, “No…terrified is more like it. I am terrified. Do you know what Max and I did this morning?”

Again Maria had to swallow back a smart retort. She hadn’t seen him at all that morning, nor had she seen him the previous night though he had called her once she got home from work. The past few days they had been like two ships constantly passing each other in the night. A fact that seemed not to bother Michael in the slightest. Patience and understanding, Maria chanted to herself, patience and understanding.

So in the spirit of things she asked with a serenity she didn’t necessarily feel, “What did you and Max do this morning?”

“We met with a reporter,” he said.

That caught her interest. “A reporter?” she asked, “Why?”

“She’s a friend of Valenti’s. They went to high school together or something like that,” Michael explained wearily, “Anyway…he promised her the exclusive rights to our story if she could keep it under her hat until ‘the arrival’.”

“And what did she say? Did she agree?”

“Only after Max and I provided some ‘proof’ that we were the real deal and not just yanking her chain,” Michael said, “After that she couldn’t get on board fast enough.”

Maria frowned, detecting a mild tone of scorn in his words. “I don’t get it,” she replied, “I thought you’d be happy. I thought this was what you wanted.”

“No, this isn’t what I wanted,” Michael sighed despondently, “This is my worst friggin nightmare, DeLuca.” He stared down at his shoes, his entire body suddenly trembling with the panic he’d been suppressing for days now. “I’m scared,” he mumbled shakily.

Maria forgot her anger then. All her pent up frustration and resentment dissipated completely under the fierce and sudden need to comfort and protect. She stepped forward and lovingly took Michael’s shaking body into her arms. He curled around her, burying his face into the crook of her neck as if he thought he could find some solace there. “Shh, shh,” she crooned softly into his unkempt hair, “It’s fine. Michael, it’s fine.”

“No, it’s not,” he rasped into her throat, “All my life I’ve stood on the edge of society when all I really wanted was to belong. I wanted to belong somewhere… Now I never will. The whole entire world will know me as just another freak show.”

Maria leaned back to cup his face in her hands and gently feathered her fingers through the silky, thick hair at his temples. “You belong with me,” she whispered, whisking away the salt of his tears with the tip of her tongue, “You always will, Spaceboy.”

That was the moment she saw it, the flicker of unadulterated need in his eyes. All this time she’d thought he’d been unaffected by their separation. He was Michael after all, a loner by nature and by choice. If he didn’t have companionship he just went on because that was what he did. He shelved his emotions and did what he had to survive. Maria knew that Michael loved her but never, never has she believed that he needed her, not until that very second.

“I’ve missed you, DeLuca,” he said, offering her a crooked smile, “It’s been hell without you these last few days.”

Maria smooshed his cheeks between her hands and nuzzled the tip of his nose. “Ditto.” However, when he leaned forward to kiss her she twisted out of his arms. “No, no,” she said, “I don’t think so, ashtray mouth.”

Michael threw back his head and expelled an accommodating groan. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

“Nope,” she answered, smacking her lips loudly for emphasis.

“Okay. Okay,” Michael relented, “If I can’t kiss you can I, at least, talk to you? I’ve got about ten minutes left on my break.”

“Sure,” Maria agreed, following him over to the well-worn breakroom sofa. “So what else did you do today?” she asked gamely, “Besides outing yourself to a reporter and filling your lungs with tar and nicotine?”

“I was actually scheduled off today,” Michael told her, “But I switched shifts with Johnny because I saw that you were supposed to work. I thought working with you was better than not seeing you at all.”

“Well I switched shifts with Agnes because I knew that you had the day off,” Maria returned with an ironic laugh, “Boy, are we a pair.”

Michael slumped down into the sofa cushions. “We’ve got to find a way to work this out, Maria,” he said wearily, “I mean…you’re going in this direction and I’m going in that… We hardly have time to talk anymore. We haven’t even discussed the wedding or what you want to do--,”

“About the wedding,” Maria hedged in interruption, unconsciously fiddling with her engagement ring, “We can just…call that off…you know, if you want…”

Michael’s gaze ricocheted to her face sharply as he lurched upright. “Are you saying you don’t want to marry me?” he demanded sharply.

“No,” Maria sighed plaintively, “I’m saying that I know why you proposed to me and… I’m just saying I won’t hold you to it if you try to back out, you know?”

“You think I want to back out?” Michael queried in disbelief. Abruptly, he swept up her hand and pushed it within inches of her face so that her engagement ring was eye level. “Do you see that rock?” he demanded, “Do you know how much overtime I had to work to pay for it? Do you realize that I’ve been living almost exclusively on Spaghettio’s for the last six months just so I could get you something as nice as this? A man does not do that just to make an easy out for himself, DeLuca!”

“So you’re serious about this?” Maria asked, snatching back her hand, “You really want to marry me?”

“Damned if I know why!” he cried in exasperation.

“This is serious,” Maria warned him, “Because if you say it…if you say that you’re really serious about this I’m holding you to it, Michael.”

“Oh for Pete’s sake!” he exclaimed. With lightning quick speed he slid from the couch and dropped down on one knee before her. After dutifully sweeping up her hand and giving it several reassuring squeezes he asked, with the utmost seriousness, “Maria Alejandra Marisol DeLuca, will you please, for the love of God, marry me?”

“Yes,” she whispered, leaning in to kiss him, “ashtray mouth” and all, “Yes, I will.”

********************

“Hey,” Max said when he turned around after locking up the UFO Center and found Liz waiting for him on the sidewalk. “I was expecting you sooner.”

Liz turned her face up for his lingering kiss and offered him a soft smile. “I figured you’d be busy,” she whispered, “I didn’t want to bother you.”

“You could never bother me,” Max replied as he slipped his arm around her waist and they began strolling together in no general direction. It was a gorgeous night out, with a sky full of stars and only a mild breeze. The perfect conditions for a leisurely walk.

“Are you sure you weren’t avoiding this place for another reason?” Max asked.

In a purely provocative gesture, Liz slipped her hand into the back pocket of his jeans and gave his butt a playful squeeze. “Are you implying that I might be avoiding my parents?” she asked, blinking up at him wide-eyed.

“That is exactly what I’m implying,” he said, reaching behind to lift her hand to a more neutral area, “And stop trying to distract me. Tell me what’s going on with you.”

“Same as yesterday,” Liz said with a shrug and a sigh, “The only way I can come back home is if I stop seeing you. And before you say a single word…that’s not going to happen, Max.”

“Maybe it would be easier if we cooled things--,”

“No,” Liz objected firmly, “You’re one of the few bright spots in my life right now, Max. Don’t take that away from me.”

She had an uncanny way of making him feel like the king of the world while simultaneously ripping his heart to shreds. He hated being at the center of the conflict with her and her parents. He hated being the reason she couldn’t go home. But Max would equally hate the idea of being without her. Liz said he was the only bright spot in her life at the moment and Max echoed the feeling.

Looking across the dining room table at Liz’s beautiful face in the morning somehow made it easier to cope with Zan’s absence. Breakfast was no longer this painful ordeal that couldn’t end fast enough for him. Instead now he lingered at the table, chatting with Liz until it was time for her to go to class. Even with the dreadful tension between him and his parents Max still garnered the greatest joy from having Liz at his house. He liked the idea of going to sleep and knowing that she was only a few doors down. Of course, he’d like it even better if she were sleeping right beside him.

Max groaned, his thoughts taken a sudden detour from the matters at hand. Liz slanted a curious glance up at him. “What?”

“I was just thinking we haven’t had any time alone in almost a week,” Max considered aloud, “Not any real time alone, anyway.”

“Meaning?” Liz prodded with a cheshire grin.

“Meaning I want to steal you away, Liz Parker!” Before she knew his intentions he’d hoisted her in his arms, startling a surprised yelp from her, and began twirling her in dizzying circles until she squealed with laughter. By the time he set her back down on the pavement they were both laughing and breathless and weaving with vertigo. They kissed right there on the sidewalk, feasting on a banquet of each other beneath the low light of a streetlamp. “Come to my room tonight,” he cajoled sweetly when they broke apart.

“Are you crazy?” Liz laughed, “We’ll get caught for sure.”

“No. I know what time my folks go to bed. They sleep like the dead.”

“I don’t know…” Liz hedged.

“Please?” he enticed charmingly.

“No, Max,” she protested with a playful push to his shoulder, “Your parents already hate me enough. I don’t want to make it worse.”

His teasing smile faded abruptly at her words and Max fell back a few steps. “What makes you say that?” he asked speculatively. It was then that Liz realized her slip up. Liz studied the street sign above his head in a most assiduous manner, but Max could tell she was merely trying to avoid his gaze. “Liz, come on,” he urged quietly, “Tell me why you said that just now.”

Really the moment wasn’t how she envisioned telling him at all. She had thought of a dozens solutions to the problem with his parents, including crashing over at Maria’s, anything to avoid the dread filled look Max was giving her right then. However, she had dismissed the notion of staying with Maria as quickly as it had come. Liz well knew that if she left Max would very soon follow her and she didn’t want to do anything to exacerbate their already rocky situation. As long as the Evans were willing to let her stay she would remain. Yet, Liz also recognized that she couldn’t go on keeping her feelings bottled inside.

She stared up at Max with pain-filled eyes. “I heard you talking to your parents the other night,” she confessed quietly, “I heard what your dad said about me.”

“Ah, Liz,” he groaned, snagging hold of her wrist and pulling her into his arms, “God, I’m so sorry you had to hear that. He didn’t know what he was talking about. It was my fault for saying anything about you to them to begin with.”

“How was it your fault, Max?” she asked in a suffocated little voice. She buried her face so deep into the lapels of his jacket that he barely heard her next words. “Your dad was right. I did run out on you. I’m not surprised that he doesn’t think I’ll stick around.” That was perhaps the worst of the entire situation because Liz felt she had no one to blame for Philip Evans’ low opinion of her except herself. Evidently, Max had an altogether different opinion about that.

He gently took hold of her chin and tipped up her head so that their gazes met. “It doesn’t matter what my dad thinks,” he whispered fiercely, “I know you’ll stick around. I trust you, Liz. I love you.”

“But--,”

“No, buts,” he interrupted, pressing his index finger to her lips, “We both know why you left for Florida that summer and we’ve made our peace about that. You can’t listen to my dad about anything, Liz. He’s just making assumptions about you when he doesn’t have all the facts. At the time I told him what happened between us I didn’t have all the facts, but I promise you that I’ll set him straight about that, both of them.”

“They’re still entitled to their feelings,” Liz argued stubbornly, “You can’t make them like me.”

“But their feelings really aren’t the issue, are they?” Max countered, “The only thing that matters is how we feel about each other. What happened back then is no longer an issue between us. We’ve moved on and that’s all that matters…right?”

When he put it into such succinct terms how could she disagree? He had forgiven her and she had forgiven him. What their parents thought mattered little since she and Max were the ones in the relationship. In the end, they were the ones who had to make it work, with or without their parents’ approval.

“You’re right, Max,” Liz murmured tremulously, wrapping herself tight in his embrace, “That is all that matters.”

[Deejonaise]

...and sneaking out

Chapter 7

“Mom!” Liz nearly lost her balance and tipped backwards into the floor when she yanked open the front door and found her mother standing alone on the Evans’ front porch. Dubious wasn’t even an adequate word to describe her reaction right then. “What are you doing here?” she asked deliberately.

But her mother reacted as if she were merely taking an early morning stroll. “Can’t I drop by to see my baby girl?” Nancy asked lightly, sweeping past Liz and into the house without waiting for an invite. Her ponytail swished lightly across Liz’s cheek as she passed by. Once inside she peeked around the empty living room in avid interest. “Is nobody home today?” Her demeanor was casual, nonchalant almost, as if she’d been there hundreds of times before. In contrast, Liz was clearly shell shocked.

“They’ve…uh…all gone to work…except Isabel. She’s still asleep,” Liz explained blankly, unsure of what to make of her mother’s impromptu visit, “So…um…we shouldn’t wake her.”

“Hmm, must be nice being a princess,” Nancy murmured more to herself than to Liz.

You don’t know the half of it, Liz thought with a hysterical inward giggle. She was so taken off guard by her mother’s arrival that she felt a bit lightheaded. Just to keep her balance Liz gripped the back of a nearby recliner and prayed that she wouldn’t fall flat on her face. She also prayed about what her next move should be.

Truly, Liz really didn’t know what to say or do or think or feel at that moment. Even while she knew she was standing there gaping at her mother like the village idiot, while precious minutes she could be using to haul ass to school ticked away, Liz could not move. She remained there, in that one spot as if she had put down roots there. She felt like she had entered into a dream and had no choice but to play it out to its completion.

Noting Liz’s shocked reaction Nancy stepped forward and enfolded her daughter in a tight hug. The moment of contact was one of intense discomfort for Liz and she stiffened involuntarily in her mother’s arms. Very gradually she allowed her body to go limp but her attempt to return her mother’s unprecedented embrace was impeded by the cold fear of actually doing so. In the end, Liz endured her mother’s hold with tolerant passivity. “I wanted to do that from the first,” Nancy whispered into Liz’s hair, “But I didn’t know how you’d react. I’ve missed you, Liz.”

“You could have come to see me at any time,” Liz accused, shrugging away in mutinous betrayal, “I still don’t get why you’re here at all right now.”

“I brought you something,” Nancy whispered, reaching down into her purse to extract a long, cream-colored envelope. With a near giddiness, she passed it to Liz.

“What’s this?” she asked shakily, not bothering to look down and discover the answer for herself, “Is this from Dad?” Her heart thudded with a slow dread at the prospect. If her father had written her a letter obviously it was to say the things he could not say to her face. That could be a good thing, but then…it could be a very, very bad thing as well.

“It’s not from your dad, Liz,” her mother assured her, “But it’s still pretty important.”

“What is it?” Liz asked suspiciously.

“Look for yourself.”

“Can’t you just tell me what’s inside?”

“Liz, look at the letter!” her mother prodded excitedly.

Spurred on by her own encompassing dismay rather than her mother’s eager tone Liz deliberately slid her gaze from her mother’s beaming face to the envelope in her hands. The curving calligraphy on the front read in big, bold scrawl: Harvard University. Liz’s heartbeat quickened instantly, fluttering in her chest like a distressed bird. Her eyes skittered back to her mother’s face.

“Is this what I think it is?” she asked breathlessly.

“This is what you’ve been waiting for, baby,” her mother said with a proud smile, “Go on and open it.”

“I don’t know,” Liz hedged, turning the envelope over in her hands, “It’s pretty thin. You know they’ve rejected you when the letter is thin and pitiful like this.”

“Elizabeth, open the damned letter!” Nancy commanded with a good-natured laugh.

Unable to resist any longer Liz tore into the letter, palms sweating and heart pounding. Her eyes quickly scanned the contents of the enclosed form, her heart flipping over in her chest with each word she read. When she was finished she released a painful, staccato sigh, realizing belatedly that she’d been holding her breath the entire time.

“Well?” Nancy prompted impatiently.

“I got in,” Liz revealed with a faint smile.

Her mother actually squealed in delight and hugged her hard. “You got in! You got in! Of course, you got in,” Nancy chanted, “We knew that all along, baby. You were destined for Harvard!” She pressed a sound kiss to Liz’s temple. “My God! You got in!”

“The admission is contingent on my summer transcripts though,” Liz prefaced, “I have to do well in my summer courses and--,”

“Which we both know will be a piece of cake for you,” Nancy interrupted.

“—And I’m on academic probation for the fall semester. I can’t slip below a 3.0 grade point average or I will lose my scholarship.”

“Done and done,” her mother said, “Harvard here we come!”

Liz wanted to share her mother’s enthusiasm. After all, this was the moment Liz had been waiting for most of her life. Her father had been giving her brochures for Harvard since the time she was old enough to read. She’d had her own aspirations since the ninth grade. But now that her dream was finally fitted so perfectly in the palm of her hand Liz found that the acquisition was joyless. She didn’t want to leave, not when she and Max had just found one another again. Not when his world was about to explode apart. Not when she had promised him that she wouldn’t leave him again.

“We have to celebrate!” Nancy exclaimed, “Why don’t we go out for some breakfast? Your father will just go over the moon when he hears the news!”

Suddenly everything seemed too much for Liz. Harvard, the prospect of seeing her father and the very likely ensuing confrontation…she just wanted to flee, hard and fast and far. “Actually I have class,” Liz replied lamely, fumbling with her bookbag, “And I’m already late--,”

“You can miss one day,” Nancy inveigled, “You deserve to revel today.”

“Mom, I don’t want to go!” Liz burst out sharply.

Her protest echoed throughout the living room, bouncing in Nancy’s ears again and again. Very gradually her proud smile became replaced with an anxious frown of dismay. “Liz, what’s the matter?”

“I can’t believe you’re asking me that!” Liz cried. “What makes you so sure that Dad will care whether I’ve been accepted into Harvard or not?” Liz asked stonily, “I’m just a freak show, remember? He hasn’t spoken to me in nearly a week, Mom. Why is that suddenly going to change now?”

“He was…shocked, Liz,” Nancy whispered mournfully, “and taken off guard. We both were. These…abilities of yours…we don’t understand them, baby.”

“You could have just asked,” she whispered in haughty contempt, “I would have told you whatever you wanted to know.”

Nancy scrutinized Liz’s brooding features, looking far past the angry façade to the vulnerable and deeply hurt little girl beyond. It twisted her inside to see her daughter in such pain but as badly as she wanted to reach out to Liz, Nancy was afraid. Afraid of the inexplicable changes going on inside her daughter’s body, afraid of what her child was becoming. Six days ago the very idea that aliens existed seemed completely ludicrous to Nancy. Now she had to accept that not only did they exist but that her only daughter was sleeping with one of them. Nancy shuddered at the thought.

She didn’t like the idea, in fact, it sickened her a bit. But she was sickened even more at the prospect of losing her daughter, not just physically but emotionally. She and Liz had gained a remarkable closeness in the preceding months and Nancy did not want to lose that now, not if she could help it.

Her throat working in spasmodic trepidation, Nancy stammered out in a whisper, “Is…Is that all you can do, Liz? What we saw the other day?” She swallowed again, having to force out her next question because truthfully she didn’t want to know. “What other abilities do you have?”

Liz couldn’t quite mask her astonishment over her mother’s question despite her best efforts to keep her face unreadable. For the second time that morning Nancy Parker had left her temporarily speechless. Finally she asked, and she hated the meek little girl tone of her voice as she did, “Do you really want to know?”

Nancy really didn’t want to know but she knew that Liz really wanted to tell her and that was enough. “I really want to know,” her mother said gently, leading Liz towards the sofa as she did, “But first…tell me everything about you and Max, from the very beginning. Tell me how it happened.”

Liz found it almost laughably strange the ease with which the story flowed from her. For two years plus she had been doing everything within her power to keep Max’s secret, to hide his identity from her parents. Never had she imagined that she would ever get the chance to sit down with them and simply pour her heart out, to express her anxieties, her fears, her pain and her love for Max. To finally be able to tell them the complete truth and leave nothing abridged was like breathing again after being trapped under water for a long, long time. It burned painfully that first second the air filled the lungs again, but oh how sweet was the relief. Liz wondered if that was how Max felt when he finally told his parents the truth.

“It all makes so much sense now,” Nancy murmured pensively, “The late nights, your sliding grades, the secrecy about your relationship with Max… My God, Liz, the burden you’ve carried all this time.” Nancy cupped the underside of Liz’s jaw, stroking her fingers over daughter’s cheek as she regarded Liz with shimmering blue eyes. “The things you’ve gone through,” Nancy muttered hoarsely, “They’re so much more than any one person should have had to bear.”

Nancy Parker was aching all over. All those nights when she and Jeff had lain awake, contemplating their daughter’s future, fearful that she might have gotten into drugs or worse Liz had been out risking her life time and time again. She had been brutalized, terrorized, kidnapped, and shot at. She had endured threat and suspicion from her own government, a system that had been instituted to protect its citizens. Her brave, amazing, beautiful little girl had given up the love of her life to save the world. She was brilliant and wonderful in so many ways that Nancy had not even imagined.

“Mom, don’t look at me that way. I did it all to protect Max,” Liz whispered fervently, “He would have done the same for me and he has. You have to realize what he risked to step forward and heal me in the Crashdown that day. I love him, Mom, so much it’s hard to breathe sometimes. Now do you understand why I can’t leave him, why he means so much to me?”

Nancy didn’t doubt that Max Evans meant the world to her daughter. After all, Liz had risked her life for the boy again and again. However, that didn’t necessarily mean he was deserving of such loyalty. “Liz,” her mother began carefully, “I understand that you care for him and…my respect for you has grown leaps and bounds because of it, knowing what I know now. But I really don’t think this can work. Honey, don’t you see that Max’s life is complicated? Much too complicated for anyone to bear, especially an eighteen-year-old girl.”

“I’ve been ‘bearing’ it since I was sixteen, Mom,” Liz replied gruffly, “I can handle it. I’m not leaving Max. Not ever again.”

“I don’t see that you’ve got a handle on it at all,” Nancy countered stiffly, “What I see is a battle scarred young woman who has given up too much of her life and her dreams already for a boy who will bring her nothing but heartache and ruin in the long run. You’ve got your own problems to solve without dealing with his.”

“Mom!” Liz cried, pushing off her mother’s comforting touch and leaping from the couch, “Didn’t you hear a word I said? Max Evans saved my life!”

“And then proceeded to endanger it again and again and again and again,” Nancy interjected quietly, “Lizzie, I’m afraid for you. You’ve already begun changing and--,”

“I’m not ashamed of those changes, Mom,” Liz cut in softly, “In fact I’m glad for them because they connect Max and me in a whole new way.”

“Do you really believe you have a future with this boy?” Nancy demanded dubiously, “Liz, all I see is heartbreak, mayhem and death on the horizon. My God, I don’t want that for you. Neither does your father.” Nancy crept up from the sofa, reaching a tentative hand out to her daughter, which Liz stubbornly refused to take. Liz’s rejection broke Nancy’s heart all over again but she was too determined to sway her daughter over to her way of thinking to let the rebuff deter her. “Please come home us, baby,” Nancy begged tearfully, “We’ll sit down with your father and you can tell him everything that you just told me. Let us protect you.”

“Max protects me,” Liz declared, “He’ll always protect me.”

“How can he protect you when he can barely protect himself,” Nancy cried.

“Please, Mom,” Liz begged miserably, “Please don’t do that. Don’t use my words against me. Don’t make me regret having told you.”

“I don’t want you to regret it but…he’s killing you, baby,” her mother whispered, “and you don’t even see it. Liz, you’ve already had a miscarriage because of the danger surrounding his life. Before that you’ve endured a multitude of inhuman horrors just to protect him. Are you telling me that you’re seriously prepared to lay your life on the line for him? Are willing to die for him, Liz?”

“Yes, Mom,” Liz replied without hesitation, “If it comes to that…I am.”

[Deejonaise]

...well one of my babies is sick and so I'm home and you know what that means. She's asleep and, since I've been up most of the night, I'm posting a new part. Like this surprises you at all.

Chapter 8

“Here, Michael,” Liz said, pushing the warm casserole dish into his hands as she and Max swept into the apartment, “This is for you.”

Michael sniffed the dish suspiciously and then shot Max a questioning look as Liz went over to join Isabel and Maria in the kitchen. “It’s crab dip,” Max explained, answering Michael’s silent query, “Liz made it herself. It’s really good.”

“Seriously,” Michael said and then he held up the casserole dish and yelled across the room to Kyle, “Hey Valenti! Now this is the kind of stuff you bring to an engagement party!” He quickly crossed over to set it alongside their smorgasbord of chips, salsa and beverages.

“Whatever Guerin!,” Kyle threw back in non-affront, “You know a party just isn’t a party without tortilla chips and beer!”

The apartment filled with discordant laughing over their bantering exchange. After nearly four weeks of endless planning, incessant working, and nonstop anxiety the group had reached the unanimous decision that it was time to kick back. Larek had already launched the second fleet of ships and tensions were running very high. There were still very mixed emotions about how to proceed with the “arrival” but rather than bickering about it further the group decided to shelve their debate for another time. In the meantime, it had been Isabel’s idea to throw an engagement party for Michael and Maria as a means of relieving the tension. So far the idea seemed like a good one.

“So are you getting nervous,” Michael asked Max as they strolled into the living room together. Michael slouched down onto the sofa alongside a munching Kyle while Max perched on the armrest. “Just another month or so to go,” Michael went on in observation, “And I, for one, am ready to crack. This has so much potential for badness it’s not even funny, Maxwell.”

Michael had made no secret of the fact that he didn’t trust Valenti’s reporter friend, even with all the confidence Jim had placed in her. He couldn’t help it really. Michael had learned over the course of time that most of the people who had his best interests at heart were present in the room with him. Michael was very reluctant to trust anyone outside that immediate circle.

“Haven’t I been saying this the entire time?” Kyle interjected wryly, “But does anyone listen to me? Nooo.”

“Don’t you have any confidence in your dad’s judgment?” Max charged Kyle derisively.

“I’m just saying I don’t trust reporters,” Kyle replied smoothly, “I don’t care how far back she and my father go.”

“Well you don’t have to worry. Everything is right on schedule,” Max responded calmly, “Lauren isn’t going to spill the beans about us until the time is right.”

“Oh, it’s Lauren now, huh?” Michael drawled out, “What happened to Ms. Davis or, better yet, that ‘reporter chick’?”

“I’ve laid my life bare to the woman,” Max retorted shortly, “I think that warrants being on a first name basis, Michael. Anyway, she’s all set to cover the landing and broadcast it on her local news station. I’ve already pre-taped my interview with her so everything is set there. Also, I’ve even been studying with Larek on how to communicate with our people when they arrive. I’m prepared for this, gentlemen. My entire life has been leading up to this moment.”

Max had recently learned from Larek that the Antarian people had no written or spoken language. His people were a nation of telepaths, therefore and consequently they expressed themselves by projecting mental picture fragments and flashes. At long last, Max finally had an explanation for why he could see into Liz’s mind and vice versa. It was yet another puzzle piece placed in dark picture of his enigmatic past.

Smiling to himself at the thought, Max said, “This is going to work out, you guys. I feel it.” Kyle merely grunted in response but Max staunchly ignored the sound. “Besides I’ve got bigger worries on my mind right now,” he muttered, unconsciously leveling his rueful gaze on Liz.

Michael followed his friend’s line of sight knowingly. “Your dad still giving you shit about Liz?”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Max replied, rubbing the tense muscles at the base of his neck, “He wants her to leave and my mother wants her to stay so they’re fighting about it all the time. Mom keeps him off my back for the most part but the tension is getting pretty unbearable.”

“I’d think that was every guy’s secret fantasy,” Kyle remarked with a touch of envy, “To have your girlfriend live at home with you and with your parent’s approval, too. It’s a sweet deal.”

“Believe me, I’m not benefiting from it any,” Max grumbled moodily.

Michael slanted an incredulous look up at him. “You and Liz aren’t…well, you know?”

“Not at the house, nimrod!” Max retorted shortly. He then heaved an ironic, inward sigh. “And not very much out of it either now that I think about it. Between the problems with my parents and the problems with hers Liz hasn’t really been in the mood for that kinda stuff.” His shoulders slumped with pent up sexual frustration. “I don’t mean to be insensitive or anything but…is it normal to want it all the time?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Michael snickered. Beside him Kyle dissolved into choking laughter.

Steadfastly ignoring the fact that his friends were laughing at him, Max pressed on. “I never felt that way with Tess,” he reasoned in a mortified whisper, “I never thought about doing it with her ever again. Just the thought made my skin crawl. But with Liz it’s like…it’s all I can think about.”

“Of course it’s that way,” Michael agreed with uncharacteristic wisdom, “You’re in love with Liz. I feel that same way with Maria. It’s an unfortunate male curse, Maxwell. Once you delve into the pleasures of the flesh your energy source leads the charge from that moment on and you’re a slave to passion.”

“Great,” Max muttered in exasperation.

“Sucks for you, man,” Kyle said, tipping up his beer for a drink. And then he leaned down to grab another bottle and tossed it to Max. “You look like you need it.”

Max hesitated, staring down at the bottle as if it had come alive in his hands. “Eh…no…you know what happens to us with alcohol.” However, Kyle refused to take it back.

“No, Max, it’s fine,” Michael assured him, “It’s non-alcoholic beer.”

Max scrutinized the label carefully. “It says here that there’s alcohol in it,” he replied suspiciously.

“A very small percentage,” Kyle said, “You’ll barely even feel it, you wuss.”

“It just gives you a nice, little buzz,” Michael added, “And you could definitely use a buzz right now.”

Max was inclined to agree with that statement. After one last skeptical look, he twisted off the cap to his beer and took a long draught.

“So have you told him yet?” Isabel asked in a whisper as she and Liz arranged cheese and cold deli meats on a platter.

Liz resisted the urge to roll her eyes in frustration. For three weeks now Isabel had been hounding her with the same question ever since she’d overheard Liz’s conversation with Nancy Parker in their living room. Oh, there had been different variations such as, “When are you going to tell him,” “Are you going to tell him,” “You should tell him,” but the meaning was all the same. Isabel was evidently growing impatient with Liz’s persistent procrastination.

“I’m waiting for the right time,” Liz replied, self-consciously lowering her gaze from the unbelievably intense look Max was giving her right then.

“Liz, you can’t keep putting it off,” Isabel scolded, “It is just going to make it harder to tell him in the long run.”

“Isabel’s right,” Maria threw in sagely, nibbling casually on a square of cheese, “Your summer school classes have already ended. You aced every course, Liz. College is the next logical step. Max is going to start wondering what your plans are.”

“There’s no reason to tell him if I’m not going to go, right?” Liz tossed out churlishly, deliberately turning to grab a Coke from the refrigerator so that she missed her friends’ reactions.

“You’re not serious,” Maria hissed, coming to join Liz at the counter, “Going to Harvard has been your dream forever, Liz. I mean you’re the only person I know who’s had her major picked out since the ninth grade! Not to mention the fact you totally made it in by the skin of your teeth. You can’t pass up this opportunity!”

“I completely agree,” Isabel joined in, “My brother loves you but he’d never want you to make that kind of sacrifice on his behalf. He wants you to be happy, Liz.”

“And what am I supposed to do, Isabel,” Liz asked in a furious hiss, “Leave for Boston when I know what Max is up against in the coming weeks? He’s going to need all of our support. I can’t just leave him.”

“I’m doing it,” Isabel returned softly, “I’m leaving for New Haven near the end of August. I received my acceptance papers to Yale last week and I’m going.”

“You’re what?” Liz exploded in low tones, “Isabel, how can you do that to Max?”

Because she’d been prepared for such a reaction Isabel took no offense at Liz’s accusatory tone. “He’s the one who encouraged me to do it, Liz,” she replied calmly, “He’s not expecting me to sacrifice my future for his decisions and he won’t expect that of you either. Staying here in Roswell to oversee the landing is his thing, not yours.”

“Besides you won’t really be leaving him, Liz,” Maria reassured, “You don’t think Max will be flying up to Boston every single chance he gets?”

“Liz, think about it,” Isabel urged quietly, “My brother is about to reach celebrity status. In a couple of months he will be presented to the world as the boy king of an alien nation. He’s royalty and that’s gonna be enough to fascinate people for a good long while, which means that his life, and our lives by association, will be a media feeding frenzy. Max would want to spare you that sort of scrutiny, Liz, even if it meant letting you go off to Boston without him.”

Unfortunately, Liz wasn’t given an opportunity to respond because Max had suddenly entered the kitchen. All three girls fell into a guilty silence the second he approached but that fact seemed to go unnoticed by Max. He eased up behind Liz and encircled her waist, burying his face in the crook of her sweet smelling neck.

“If it’s a party then why are the three of you in here,” he murmured playfully.

“Because if we didn’t prepare food for you geniuses you’d drown yourself in beer all night,” Maria returned glibly, “Speaking of which, it looks like Spaceboy is exceeding his limit. Excuse me.”

As she exited the kitchen Isabel quickly fell on her heels, muttering something about disgusting PDA’s under her breath. Max smiled down at Liz, bobbing his eyebrows lasciviously, elfish grin in place. “Do you I know how to clear a room or what?”

Liz uttered a half-hearted laugh over his teasing, her mind still churning with all the things Isabel and Maria had said. “You’re certainly in a playful mood tonight?” she remarked, turning round in his arms so that she could look up into his beautiful eyes, “What are you up to, Max?”

“Can’t you tell?” Max nudged her with the lower half of his body, feeling decidedly playful with the mellow, intoxicating buzz flowing through his blood stream.

Feeling the solid evidence of his desire against her groin, Liz blushed hotly. “Stop it,” she admonished in a low whisper, giving him a teasing shove and whirling out of his hold, “They can see what you’re doing.”

However, Max didn’t seem at all concerned with that prospect. In fact his eyes gleamed with the reminder. He stalked her around the kitchen; impervious to the audience they had in the living room. “Don’t you miss it at all, Liz?” he asked in a liquid whisper, “I miss it. I want you, Liz.”

“Max, this isn’t the place,” Liz said behind a pasted smile as he pinned her purposely between the counter and his solid body.

“I miss you,” he said, bending to nuzzle her forehead and temple and jaw, “Don’t you want me anymore?”

Liz didn’t know whether she should laugh outright or sink through the floor in acute mortification. She slid sideways glance in the general direction of their friends. Though they made a great production of being otherwise occupied Liz was fully aware that they were getting an eyeful of Max’s attempt at seduction. However, at the same time Max’s insistent nuzzling and nibbling were beginning to get to her, as well as the sensual flashes he was periodically sending her of the two of them naked and intertwined.

“Do you really want to do this here?” she murmured in challenge, “With everyone watching?”

He lifted his head to pluck at the neckline of her shirt. “Maybe you just don’t want to anymore,” he considered, “Maybe you think I suck in bed.”

“I don’t think you suck in bed,” Liz chuckled with a low laugh.

His eyes lit with boyish delight. “You don’t?”

“No,” she whispered provocatively, “I don’t. I just…I didn’t know if you wanted to. You’ve been under so much pressure and stress lately…I didn’t want to bother you.”

“Do you know what’s a great stress reliever, Liz?” The slow, answering smile Liz gave him was reply enough. With a purely wicked, answering grin, Max took hold of her hand and began dragging her from the kitchen. The last thing they heard as they stumbled merrily from the apartment was Michael’s laughing voice calling after them.

“Thanks for the show! And please come again!”

[Deejonaise]

...it's easy to post fast when the parts are already written.

Chapter 9

“Did you receive any of those images I projected?”

Max fell back in his chair with a grimace of discouraged self-disgust. “I still can’t get the hang of it,” he huffed in frustration, “This is much easier to do when you’re kissing.” Larek gave him a strange look. “Er…uh…not that I want to kiss you or anything,” he amended swiftly. Larek didn’t even crack a smile.

Note to self, Max thought wryly, Antarians apparently have no sense of humor. But then again he might not be taking matters as seriously as he could have. Larek was working very diligently to teach him the nuances of being an Antarian monarch and still Max couldn’t help but be a bit nonchalant. Everything was currently right and warm with his world. He had spent the most glorious night making love with Liz and the morning sharing a cozy, romantic breakfast with her in a local café. It had been a pleasant change from the stony silences that usually dominated the dining room table at his house.

Sadness had only come when the time had come for them to part ways. After several lingering kisses and sweetly whispered words of love Max dropped Liz off at Maria’s and then headed off to work. However, he hadn’t been organizing the inventory for an hour before Larek made his appearance and his workday became an Antarian tutorial instead. They had been embroiled in “lessons” ever since, but the tedium was quickly overtaking Max as his mind continued to wander back to his night with Liz.

Noting the drifting expression on his master’s countenance Larek said with some impatience, “This lessons are important, Zan. It would behoove you to pay close attention.”

“I am paying attention,” Max protested defensively, “But we keep going over and over the same thing and I’m just not getting it.”

“You are not trying,” Larek said to him, “It is of the utmost importance that you learn these things, Zan. The people will need reassurance from you when they first arrive on this strange planet. They will not be comfortable if you are not comfortable. Your human form will be off putting to them so you must find some other way to relate to them and put them at ease.”

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to reassure them when I don’t know what’s going to happen myself, Larek,” Max sighed, “I have no idea how the general public will react to knowing that aliens really exist.”

“Most likely there will be a tremendous scandal and you should prepare yourself for the likelihood,” Larek considered, “The U.S. Government has been hiding the truth from its citizens for some time now. I imagine there will be quite an outcry over such a betrayal.”

Max nodded his agreement. “I think we’re preparing nicely for that probability,” he assured Larek, “But in the meantime…how are things progressing on Antar? Do you have any reason to think Khivar suspects what we’re doing?”

“Khivar fights like a demon here,” Larek replied, “His only concern is war and he makes it all across the planet. It is his avarice for power that will prove to be his downfall. He seems to notice none of the chaos around him.”

“That’s exactly how I want it,” Max muttered to himself in embittered tones, “He wants power…I hope he chokes on it.”

Larek slowly pushed to his feet and began to circle Max’s chair in pensive, pacing steps. “It occurs to me that in time you will need an advisor,” he said, “Someone who can serve as an intermediary between you and the people.”

Max twisted a look in his direction. “I thought you were doing that,” he considered with a frown.

In response, Larek leveled Max with a steadying stare. “I will not always be here, Zan,” he replied without preamble, “You must prepare yourself for that prospect.”

To hear Larek speak of his approaching death so casually caused a shiver of apprehension to trickle down Max’s spine. They had always known from the very beginning that in carrying out Max’s orders Larek had very little chance of escaping the planet alive. Still Max had a difficult time with how casually Larek managed to discuss his death, as if it hardly mattered at all. He couldn’t help but wonder if all Antarians were this emotionless.

For some explicable reason Max felt strangely compelled to mimic his demeanor. “Do you have someone in mind as a successor?” he asked evenly.

“My daughter Diadne,” Larek answered without a beat.

Max’s aloof veneer melted away as quickly as he’d erected it. He gaped at Larek in shock. “You have a daughter?” he cried in surprise, “You never mentioned a daughter.”

As usual Larek didn’t betray a flicker of emotion. “You never asked, my lord,” he replied evenly, “Diadne will serve as a worthy advisor to you. She is young, but she is strong. I am entrusting you with her safekeeping.”

“I’m assuming she’ll be on the first ships then,” Max remarked shakily.

“Of course, my lord,” Larek replied, “After all, you did delegate to me the responsibility of deciding who lived and who died.” Max inclined his head in a vague nod, shocked yet another time by his advisor’s unpredictable behavior.

Perhaps Antarians weren’t so emotionless as he’d first supposed.

********************

Liz hummed a happy, little ditty under her breath as she fried herself up a perfectly perfect grilled cheese sandwich. She was so engrossed in her task that she didn’t hear Maria’s entrance until her friend was directly behind her.

“In a good mood?” Maria inquired lightly, “I’m assuming your night went well.”

The beaming grin on Liz’s face provided adequate answer. “I thought you were sleeping in,” Liz remarked as she shook her sandwich onto a plate. When she sailed past Maria to the kitchen table her entire face was alight when an irrepressible, dreamy look. However, her look plummeted into a frown of reality with Maria’s next comment.

“I suppose your unusually good mood means you didn’t tell Max about your acceptance letter to Harvard,” Maria deduced flatly. Once again Maria didn’t need a verbal response to discern the truth. Liz’s expressive face told her every thought. “You’re lying to him, Liz,” Maria charged in disappointment, “…again.”

Liz heaved a weary sigh, shoving away her plate with a sudden loss of appetite. “I haven’t even decided what I want to do, Maria,” she lamented, “Can I get a break?”

“Maybe if you just talked to Max about it you wouldn’t feel so torn apart right now,” Maria considered gently, dropping down into the empty chair across from Liz, “I’m not trying to attack you here, Liz, but… Haven’t you already learned the hard way that secrets don’t help?”

“You don’t understand, Maria,” Liz mumbled defensively, “I know Max. He’s going to tell me to go and follow my dream even if it’s the last thing he wants, even if he needs me to stay here. I don’t want him to do that for me. We’ve sacrificed so much to be together, Maria…why can’t we just be happy for a while longer?”

“Going to Boston doesn’t necessarily mean your relationship is over,” Maria replied sagely, “And look on the bright side…it’s better than Max blasting off for another planet. You can still see each other.”

“Somehow I doubt you’d be this calm if Michael were going to leave the state,” Liz charged sourly, “You’d be sobbing all over yourself right now.”

“Point taken.”

Her rueful tone caused Liz to instantly regret her snarkiness. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I don’t mean to be a bitch.” With her fingertip, Liz traced the edge of the table, the anger gradually draining from her. “You don’t think I want to tell him?” she whispered, “This wouldn’t be so hard if there wasn’t a part of me that really wanted to go, if for no other reason than to get a break from the alien madness. You were right about what you said the other night. Harvard is my dream and I’m lucky that I’ve realized it, but how can I just leave Max to pursue it?”

Maria reached over the table and stilled the nervous drumming of Liz’s fingers with her hand. “That’s all the more reason to talk to him about your fears, Lizzie.”

“I tried to tell him last night when we were together,” Liz replied with a muffled sob, “But he just seemed so happy and I didn’t want to ruin it.”

“Waiting isn’t going to make it easier,” Maria advised, “You’ve got to do it clean, like loping off a gangrenous limb.”

“Thank you for that rather vivid analogy, Maria. Comparing a relationship to a festering wound is always the way to go.”

“Be sarcastic if you like,” Maria tsked, “But you know I’m telling you the truth. You’d better tell him soon, Liz. You don’t want him hearing about your acceptance from someone else, do you?”

“No,” Liz replied, recoiling mentally at the thought, “No, I don’t want that.”

“Then tell him soon,” Maria said, sweeping up Liz’s abandoned grilled cheese and helping herself to an enormous bite. “I promise you’ll feel better afterwards,” she concluded around a mouthful, missing Liz’s disbelieving grimace, “Hey, this is pretty good.”

********************

Max heard the mechanical beep above the UFO Center entrance twang and, without glancing up, he responded with an automatic, “I’m sorry, we’re closed for the evening.”

“I’m not here for the exhibits,” Jeff Parker revealed tightly, causing Max’s head to snap up in absolute horror, “I’m here to see you.”

As Jeff Parker slowly approached Max felt his blood freeze in his veins and he gulped audibly. Max was painfully aware of the fact that he was the only employee present in the center since Brody had taken off earlier due to a “headache.” Only a few museum patrons straggled around in the very back still perusing the exhibits but Max would certainly be making the last call soon. And then he would really be alone with Jeff Parker and there would be nobody to hear him scream.

Max had been expecting this moment for some time now, ever since the moment Liz packed her overnight bag and walked out. Yes, he had been expecting this but that didn’t mean that he was ready for it. And he wasn’t.

“Mr.…Mr. Parker,” he stammered nervously, “I…I really don’t think this is the place for us to do this.”

“Well, I really don’t give a damn what you think, Max,” Jeff replied in a cordial tone that were in direct contrast with his caustic words. He continued advancing on Max until they stood nearly nose-to-nose. “There are a couple of things you and I need to straighten out. But don’t feel you have to stop work on my account. I can wait.”

His words had a decidedly ominous pitch to them, one that left Max trembling with nervous fear. He somehow managed to mask that anxiety as he said good-bye to the last of the UFO Center patrons but once they were gone Max had to stamp down the wild urge to run after them. After taking his sweet time to turn the hanging sign from “open” to “closed” Max took a deep breath and pivoted around to face Mr. Parker.

“You wanted to talk to me, sir?” Max asked obsequiously.

“I haven’t seen my daughter in nearly a month, Max,” Jeff began with an alarming calm, “Do you have any idea why that is?”

Max had to swallow several times, taking a few moments to word his reply as prudently as possible. “I’m sure you think that has a lot to do with me but--,”

“It does have a lot to do with you,” Jeff declared curtly, “It is because of you. Liz won’t come home to her family because she thinks she owes you something.”

“No, I disagree with that, sir,” Max replied in his most respectful tone, “Liz hasn’t come home because she doesn’t believe that you will accept her. She’s afraid of your rejection and, honestly, I’m rather inclined to think she’s right about that.”

“Are you?”

As his fear gradually gave way to indignation Max felt freer with his words. “You haven’t wanted anything to do with her ever since you found out that she has powers,” Max charged, “I know how she watches the phone everyday just hoping you will call and I know how she cries in the evenings when you don’t. I don’t understand how you can do that to her, Mr. Parker.”

“You want to talk about what I’ve done to her,” Jeff whispered in hissing anger, “How about the things you’ve done, hmm? My wife filled me in on quite a bit. She told me how Lizzie was involved in breaking and entering, tampering with evidence, shoot-outs with the FBI…and all because of what you are. You’re a danger to my little girl, Max.”

The accusation stung because on some level Max recognized that Jeff Parker spoke the truth. Max had, in fact, brought all manner of chaos into Liz’s life and he was fated to bring more. Understandably that sort of existence would be the last thing a parent would want for a child, however, there also had to come a time when a parent recognized that the time for making decisions for their children was over. Jeff Parker had not yet accepted that fact.

“First of all, Mr. Parker,” Max replied deliberately, “Liz isn’t a little girl anymore. She’s a grown woman and, whether you approve of me or not, I’m the man she’s chosen to spend her life with. She loves me and I love her and we’re going to be together. The sooner you accept that the easier this situation will be for everyone, sir.”

“You love my daughter, huh,” Jeff considered, tapping a lone finger thoughtfully against his lips, “So why don’t you explain to me, if you love her so much, why you’re letting her give up her dream of attending Harvard University to stay here in Roswell with you?”

The question took Max off guard, stunned him into momentary silence. He drew his brows together in a bewildered frown. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you know already?’ Jeff queried haughtily, but the blank expression on Max’s face at that moment said that he didn’t. Jeff found the realization singularly paradoxical and he chuckled a little over that irony. “Well…I suppose this means that you don’t know my daughter nearly as well as you think you do, huh Max?”

“What are you talking about?” Max asked again, his growing irritation evident in his tone, “Just say whatever you have to say.”

“Liz has been accepted into Harvard University,” Jeff revealed triumphantly, “She’s due to start in the Fall. Now I wonder why she wouldn’t tell you, the supposed love of her life, that?”

[Deejonaise]

Chapter 10

He was angry and hurt, but Max felt more hurt than anything else.

On the drive home from the UFO Center Max replayed the conversation with Jeff Parker over and over in his head. He hadn’t appreciated the man’s smug attitude one iota, but despite all his anger Max couldn’t stamp out the tiny voice whispering in the back of his head, telling him that perhaps there was some truth to Jeff Parker’s charge. After all, if Liz couldn’t tell him a fairly small thing like the fact she had been accepted into her dream college of choice what would happen when the big problems arose? What hurt even more was that Max had thought that they were far past the time of keeping secrets from each other. It filled him with sorrow to realize he’d been wrong.

In his mind, Max comprised several approaches to his current situation with Liz. There was a part of him that thought he shouldn’t confront her about it at all just to determine if she would volunteer the information on her own. Taking that approach would certainly go a long way in telling him where her heart was at, but it felt too much like a game and Max was sick of playing those. In the end he knew facing the problem head-on would be the best solution.

But then that created another dilemma. There was yet another part of him wanted to stalk into the house and ream her out for lying to him period. However, that wouldn’t do either. Max had always hated the idea of fighting with Liz and, having done so plenty of times in the pasts, he realized that placing blame had never gotten them anywhere. In truth, the biggest part of him just wanted to know why, after all they had endured together and after how far they had come as individuals and a couple, why did Liz continue to feel that she couldn’t talk to him?

The question simply would not stop nagging at him and Max couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps he had done something wrong. Obviously Liz had confided in her parents about the acceptance and she was barely speaking to them. And it was likely that she’d also shared her news with Maria as well so why hadn’t she come to him? What had he done to make her feel she couldn’t share her news with him?

By the time Max dragged into the house he just felt drained and damaged and incredibly confused. He wasn’t sure whether he should be angry with Liz for keeping the secret or angry with himself for not being accommodating enough so that she might be inclined to share it. Max knew one thing for sure. This communication problem between them would never be solved unless they both put their fears out in the open and dealt with them.

As Max pushed his way into the foyer he noted the quiet darkness of the house and realized with an aching heart that no one was home. He started to trudge off for the direction of his bedroom when he caught the faint sounds of a radio coming from the back. His heartbeat drumming down to a slow hammer, Max followed the muted tunes down the hallway until he came to Liz’s bedroom door. It was slight ajar and a thin sliver of yellow light peeked through the opening and spilled out into the darkened hallway.

Without knocking, Max carefully swung open the door to reveal Liz sprawled across her bed clad in one of his large, faded t-shirts and nothing else, her nose buried in a book. For a second he was caught by how beautiful she looked that way, her hair falling haphazardly about her shoulders, her sock covered feet bouncing mid-air in time with the music. It actually hurt to look at her.

But he must have mad some imperceptible movement because a moment after he’d entered she hastily scrambled upright and shoved the book she’d been reading beneath a nearby pillow. The reaction made Max immediately suspicious and filled him with renewed anger. In an effort to calm himself before confronting her Max deliberately took a moment to close the door before facing her again.

When he turned back she was sitting in the middle of the bed, her legs folded beneath her and her gaze wide with happiness…and something else. “I…I wasn’t expecting you for another hour,” she stammered, her cheeks flushed with color as she favored him with a trembling smile, “You’re home early.”

“Brody didn’t feel well,” he clarified wearily, “And it was a slow day so I decided to close the Center early.” He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it onto the bed. “What were you reading just now?” he asked pointedly, nodding towards the pillow alongside her hip.

“Oh…that,” Liz said, her guilty blush darkening considering, “That was nothing,” she dismissed, “Just some brochure.”

“Some brochure, huh?” Max echoed speculatively, leaning back against the door and folding his arms over his chest, “It wouldn’t happen to be a Harvard brochure, now would it, Liz?” He hadn’t really planned to attack her that way but the words had spilled from his mouth of their own volition.

“H…Harvard?” Liz stuttered out in a staccato breath.

Max’s heart crumbled a bit at her stricken expression. Any hope he had that her father had been taunting him or perhaps had been mistaken died instantly. Max expelled a fatigued sigh. “I know you were accepted, Liz, so…please don’t lie to me about it.” She still didn’t say anything. Max suspected that she had no ready response despite all the sputtering she did. “When were you going to tell me?” he inquired softly, “Were you going to tell me?”

“I wasn’t going to lie to you, Max,” she replied weakly, “We agreed about that, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember. But I don’t guess you were going to tell me about it either, huh?” Max countered, his voice thick with emotion.

“That’s not true,” she whispered.

“A lie of omission is still a lie, Liz.”

“Who told you?” she asked, a hard edge of resentment beneath the tone of her trembling words.

“Does it matter who told me?” Max wondered, “You should have been the one, Liz.” She actually flinched with the accusation. “So why Harvard, huh?” he asked, but the casual air to his question was ravaged by painful emotion.

Liz wanted to cry just looking at him. “Max, don’t--,”

“Tell me!” he cried sharply, “Tell me why it’s important to you! Don’t I deserve to know?”

“It…it was something my dad wanted for me since I was a little girl,” she revealed faintly, “B…But it wasn’t until I was in the ninth grade when I read this…article by Dr. Laura Holt that I really knew. It changed my life.”

“So it’s been your dream for awhile?” he asked, his expressive eyes glinting with tears that he held back religiously.

Liz wasn’t so successful. She cried openly at the pain displayed so plainly on his face. She had to look away because seeing firsthand how much she had hurt and disappointed him was tearing her apart. “I hadn’t decided for sure what I wanted to do yet,” she whispered, “That’s why I didn’t say anything, Max. I really was going to tell you.”

“You were going to tell me,” he laughed sardonically, “When? The day you decided to leave? Were you just going to be like, ‘oh Max, by the way…’”

“I told you that I haven’t made up my mind yet,” she insisted.

“But you were thinking about it,” he accused, “You would have never been looking at brochures otherwise.”

She was sobbing by this point, cursing herself for not telling him sooner. He had already jumped to his own conclusions about her motives for keeping him in the dark and Liz could see clearly that he was blaming himself somehow. “Max, this had nothing to do with you. I didn’t keep it a secret to hurt you,” she whispered, crawling across the bed towards him, “I wanted to tell you the truth so many times but I was afraid.”

“Afraid of what, Liz?” he charged hoarsely, “Did you think I’d ask you to stay?”

“Just the opposite,” Liz murmured, shaking her head sadly, “I was afraid you’d ask me to go and I don’t want to leave you, Max! I don’t want to leave you.”

Her tearful candor was his undoing. He could hardly remain angry with her in the face of such a fervid confession, which was why when she held her arms out to him he went into her embrace readily. “God, Liz!” he uttered gruffly, “Don’t you know you can tell me anything? You don’t ever have to be afraid of my reaction! I just want you to be happy.”

Liz hugged him hard, clinging to him almost desperately. “I know. I know,” she wept brokenly, “I was just so scared…and we had only just gotten back together…I just thought if I ignored it that it would go away.”

“Liz,” Max whispered, sinking down onto the bed with her, “I don’t want you to sacrifice your dreams for me.” When she started to protest he pressed his fingers to her lips gently to stifle the flow of words. “I know you want to go,” he murmured sadly, “I can see it in your eyes. I don’t want to take that from you.”

“But what about you, Max? What about us--,”

“Shh,” he admonished quietly, “Boston isn’t another world, Liz. We can still see each other.”

“You’re not just saying that?” she asked hopefully.

“This is your dream,” he whispered with a trembling smile, “Who am I to stand in the way? Besides we’ll still be able to communicate.”

“You mean like email?”

Max nodded. “And talking on the phone,” he threw in.

“Your phone has free long distance at night and on the weekends,” Liz considered.

“Yes, it does,” Max agreed, “And there’s always the holidays and school breaks and any other time I could get up there to see you or that you could visit home.” He hugged her hard, though his heart was breaking at the prospect of losing her. “We can make this work, Liz.”

“Are you sure?” she asked meekly.

Max threaded his fingers through her hair and caressed the soft tendrils back from her face so that he could stare into her beautiful, dark eyes. “I’ve waited too long to be with you again, Liz Parker,” he whispered ardently, “I’m not about to let a little distance discourage me.”

She reached up to caress his chin, her fingers playing over his full lower lip. “I love you, Max,” she whispered and leaned in to his him, tracing her tongue along the seam of his lips for a tentative taste.

He knew what she was doing. She was trying to soothe the burn of her leaving. She was trying to reassure him with her mouth and her hands and her body that she loved him and, no matter where she went, that would remain unchanged. And Max let her. He let her kiss him and he let himself kiss her back, let himself drown in her.

Her fingers crept over his shoulders to caress seductively at the base of his neck before meandering lower. Locked as one, they gradually fell back into the bed, their mouths fused and their bodies straining to be closer. Only when Liz reached for the hem of his t-shirt did Max break their wild kiss.

“Where is everyone?” he asked breathlessly.

“I don’t know where your parents are,” she said, “Isabel’s hanging at Valenti’s with Kyle and Maria until Michael gets sprung from the Crashdown.”

Max glanced over at the digital clock beside her bed. It was already well after five o’clock. His parents should have been home by now and the fact that they weren’t made Max think they’d decided to spend their evening elsewhere. Lately that sort of thing had been happening rather frequently so he wasn’t especially alarmed by their absence. Likely he and Liz had plenty of time to be alone.

“Max?” Liz whispered, snapping him from his thoughts, “Is everything okay?”

He smiled down at her. “Everything’s fine,” he reassured right before settling his lips back against hers.

When she reached for the edge of his shirt again Max didn’t hesitate this time, but allowed her to inch the material up his back and over his head. Their mouths converged in another torrid kiss, hands seeking, caressing, and dancing over other another’s skin with reverent urgency. They arched against one another; exposing flesh and touching the most intimate places as they breath came in harsh, shallow pants. A fever settled deep in their skin, an undeniable wanting heightening by the electric brilliance of their mental connection. They stopped kissing only long enough for Max to slip Liz’s panties down the curve of her hips, toss them away, and fumble around in his jacket to retrieve the condom from his wallet.

By the time he was finished Liz had lifted up onto her knees and was beautifully naked. Her hair fell in disarray over her shoulders and breasts, her eyes danced like sparkling marble, made intense with the heat of desire. She plucked the condom from his limp fingers and settled her lips to his once more. As she gently ate at his mouth her agile fingers roamed down between their heaving bodies to find the snap of his jeans. With painstaking slowness she eased his zipper down over his aching erection. Max moaned in response and she deepened her kiss, sending her tongue deep even as her hands were tenaciously pushing his jeans lower.

Almost the moment his erection sprang free a tentative knock sounded at the door, throttling their mutual groans of longing. Liz scrambled away just in time to retrieve her t-shirt and slip it over her head and Max managed to finish readjusting his pants when the door yawned wide. “Liz, I was wondering if you’d--,” Diane Evans’ beginning question was choked off abruptly when she found her half-naked son and his equally half-naked girlfriend scuttling around on her bed and blushing like there was no tomorrow. It took her approximately two seconds to assimilate what was going on.

“Oh dear,” she mumbled softly, clearly horrified, and quickly shut the door.

Impervious to his shirtless and shoeless state and groaning with embarrassment, Max took off after his mother, cursing under his breath all the while. He caught up with her in the living room just in time to catch his father asking her, “What’s wrong? Why do you look so flushed?”

Before Diane could sputter out an apposite excuse Max volunteered shakily, “Mom just walked in on Liz and me.”

His father’s gaze snapped to Max in surprise, his brows dipping into a deep vee of disapproval. “What do you mean she walked in on you?” Philip demanded irately.

“We weren’t having sex!” Max burst out defensively.

“You were certainly close enough,” Diane muttered under her breath.

“Okay, that’s it!” Philip boomed angrily, having heard his wife’s reply despite her mumbled tone, “This situation with Liz can not go on! She has to go, Max.”

“But…But Dad,” Max sputtered in growing apprehension, “She doesn’t have any place else! She’s hardly here as it is and you know that she’s not on good terms with her parents right now!”

“That’s not my problem,” Philip returned stonily, “I’ve made no secret of how I feel about your continuing relationship with that girl. For your mother’s sake I’ve made an effort to be civil and accept your decision but no more. You want to be with Liz…I can’t stop you, but you’re going to have to do it somewhere else, Max!”

“Fine!” Max agreed, “If that’s what you want! I’ll leave tonight!”

“Philip, no,” Diane protested, “You’re being rash!” She couldn’t think of a possible worse result than Max leaving the house. For the most part Diane had never truly minded Liz’s being there, though she did worry that perhaps she and Max were moving much too fast. However, asking Liz to leave had never been an option because she knew if that happened Max would follow close behind. Diane suspected that Liz knew that as well and that was why she’d stayed as long as she had.

“Please, don’t let this get out of hand,” she pleaded with her husband, “It was just a horrible mistake.”

“Being with Liz isn’t a mistake for me, Mom,” Max replied gruffly.

“Do you hear him?” Philip demanded, “Do you hear how he defends her? She’s already got him so twisted up that he thinks we’re the enemy now!”

“Stop it, Philip!” Diane cried, “You’re only making this worse!”

“It can’t get any worse, Diane!” Philip replied sharply, “I can’t just stand idly by and watch this go on any longer.”

“You’re right, Mr. Evans…you can’t.” Three pairs of eyes swung around in startled surprise to regard a pale and anxious Liz, standing at the edge of the living room, suitcase in hand. She deliberately avoided Max’s gaze, knowing that he was on the edge of panic right then. “I’ve obviously worn out my welcome here, sir, and I apologize,” she continued softly, “But I appreciate you and your wife putting up with me as long as you have. You went out of your way to be hospitable to me and that means a lot.”

“Liz,” Max hissed urgently, crossing over to her side, “What are you doing? Where are you going to go?”

“Back to my parents’,” she whispered, “I’ve avoided them long enough, Max.”

“You don’t have to do that,” he said, “We can go to Michael’s or Valenti’s. We can go wherever you want. It doesn’t have to be like this.”

Liz offered him a cheerless smile. “Max,” she replied gently, “Don’t look at me like that. We’re not breaking up. It’s not like I’m going to walk out the door and you’ll never see me again.”

“Then why does it feel that way?” he muttered miserably.

“This can’t go on,” Liz reasoned, “You know it can’t go on. You and your parents have been basically supporting me for the last month and that’s not fair. Not to them and definitely not to you. I can’t go to Maria’s because I spend too much time there as it is. I need to stop hiding out here and make some effort to fix things with my parents. It’s for the best.”

“But they want to keep us apart, Liz,” Max fretted in a whisper.

Surprisingly, her smile flared with hope and determination at his words. “But they won’t, will they?” She lifted up onto her tiptoes to brush his lips in a kiss good-bye. “I’ll call you tonight…I promise.”