Aftermath (ML / Adult) (Complete)

[Breathless]

Winner - Round 5













Round 4 Winner













Round 3 Winner













Zan



Zan

Aftermath
Author: Debbi aka Breathless
Email: dao2027@aol.com
Category: Max and Liz
Rating: ADULT
Disclaimer: I don’t own Roswell, and have no association with one who does.

Author note: First off, apologies to DMartinez for any name similarities between her fic, Aftermath of War, and this one. No infringement on her title is intended. You can find hers on the UC/Slash board.


This story is rather dark and angsty, and parts of it may be hard to read for some of you. As the title says, it deals with the "Aftermath" of what Max was subjected to in the White Room. The show never really dealt with that, other than touching on it in ARCC.

The first four parts will track closely with Destiny, until the end of part four when we go off in "my" direction. Some of the dialogue and scenes will be the same, some will be VERY different!

We begin at the start of Destiny. Everything up to this point is the same as what you saw on the show. Michael and Valenti have broken Max out of the facility Pierce held him in. Max climbs in the car with Liz and they make their escape, with Michael and Valenti splitting the cars up and driving in different directions. Shots ring out and Liz loses control of the car.

Liz and Max flee into the night . . .



Aftermath
Part 1

They were running through the darkness, running for their lives, with their pursuers close behind. They could hear them in the near distance, growing closer as their own energy waned. The boy’s lungs burned from the exertion and his legs were ready to collapse. The girl’s sides ached and the cold night air could do nothing to ease the fire that burned in her throat. His arm was around her, holding her close, knowing it was only a matter of time before they were captured and he would be returned to the torture of the White Room.

Only this time, Max knew he wouldn’t be the only one. This time, they would have Liz too. He couldn’t let that happen.

Their footsteps echoed as they raced across the blacktop, and suddenly he was blinded by headlights. He squinted in the sudden brightness, but he didn’t need to be able to see to know who it was. The bad men were here. They’d been found. There was no escape behind them, no escape in front of them. Max looked wildly around, in a panic to protect Liz, and then they raced for the abutment. They climbed onto the stone wall and looked down into the forbidding water below, both knowing it was their only option, their only chance for survival.

Looking silently into each other’s eyes, they knew they had no other choice. They kissed, knowing their odds weren’t good, a kiss full of longing for what would probably never be, and then they looked down into the swirling water, and they jumped . . .

* * * * *

Liz trudged carefully over the rough terrain, trying to remember when her life had spiraled out of control. Was it the night at the carnival when Max had been captured by the FBI, or was it that rainy evening when she looked outside the Crashdown window and saw him with Tess? Or had it happened even before that, on one sunny day in the month of September, when the sound of a gunshot changed her entire world?

Concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, she could feel his cold hand in hers. Max. Max Evans. The boy who had changed her life. The boy who had saved her life. The boy who had healed a bullet hole two inches below her ribs, with only the touch of his hand. And in the aftermath of that eventful day, she – Liz Parker, would never be the same.

How could she be, when the boy she’d know since childhood, the boy she’d dreamt about for years, the boy she knew would never give a science geek like her a second glance, risked everything to save her life. He’d bared his soul in doing so, and turned her world upside down. For it was at that moment when she first learned Max Evans wasn’t like any other teenage boy she knew.

How could he be, when he wasn’t even human.

“We've got to hide,” Liz looked around seeking some type of shelter. They had climbed out of the water minutes, maybe hours ago, and Max was exhausted. He stumbled along behind her, letting her lead the way, holding her hand tightly, as if he was afraid she would disappear. He fell again and she stopped to help him up, feeling how wet his clothes were from the river.

Pain wracked his body as his leaden feet stumbled over the rough ground. Physical pain. Psychological pain. Emotional pain. His body was exhausted from the torture the FBI had inflicted on him and his psyche had been pushed to the limits. But the worst part, the thing he’d agonized over for years, his worst nightmare, seemed to be coming true.

Liz Parker was in danger, and it was all because of him. The guilt of it was nearly more than he could bear.

Seeing an old abandoned delivery van ahead, Liz pulled on his hand, urging him along. “Come on, in here. Come on, Max. Come on. I think we'll be safe in here for a while. They don't know how far down river we got.”

She led him into the van and Max stumbled over to an old threadbare couch. He sat down heavily and she hovered over him, checking his condition, touching his cold face and brushing back his damp hair. Their eyes locked on each other and they were drawn together in a kiss. The horror of what they’d done to him flashed across her mind and Liz reeled back from him, staring at him in shock.

“Max . . .”

“Liz . . .” he uttered, wishing she hadn’t seen. It was a curse, this alien wizardry that allowed them to connect, for her to see the images he could project with his mind. A curse he couldn’t control.

“Oh my God, Max. What they did to you . . .”

“Don’t think about it, Liz,” his eyes looked up at her pleadingly. “It’s over.”

Her mind assessed everything she had seen in the flash and she numbly sat down next to him. His capture in the mirror maze. The torture he suffered in the White Room. The truth written on the pages of the Destiny Book. She had seen it all and the truth was stark and cold.

“So everything Nasedo told me was true,” Liz said, trying to be strong. “You and Tess were meant to be together.” She was crushed, devastated by the knowledge.

“Liz.” The pain he saw in her eyes, heard in her voice, was breaking his heart. He watched her as she rose to her feet, wanting to reach out to her, to make it all go away.

“I mean, it's your destiny, right?” She paced across the van, not able to look him in the eye, not wanting to see the awful truth there. He belonged with Tess. He was made to be with Tess. He was never meant to be with her.

“I wish I could go back, Liz,” Max trembled inside. “Back to when things were normal.”

“Me, too,” she was drowning under the guilt of what he was going through, because of her. “I just wish that I could have stopped you from saving my life that day in the Crashdown.”

“Don't say that,” Max pleaded, shaking at the prospect of a life without her.

“Max, the day that you saved my life, your life . . . just . . . ended.” She was grief stricken over the knowledge that in saving her, it had brought him only suffering.

“No,” Max avowed, “that was the day my life began.” Seeing the look on her face, he knew he had to make her understand. He couldn’t keep the truth bottled up any longer.

“Liz, when I was in that room, and they did . . . what they did to me . . . you're what kept me alive. The thought of you. The way your eyes look into mine. Your smile. The touch of your skin. Your lips. Knowing you has made me . . . human. Whether I die tomorrow or fifty years from now, my destiny is the same. It's you. I want to be with you, Liz. I love you.”

Liz stared down at him, absorbing the words she had just heard. Did he really mean everything he said? Looking into his eyes, she knew the answer was yes. In wonder, her answering words came straight from her heart.

“I love you.”

She leaned close and their lips touched, their hands caressing the face of the other, both of them needing the reassurance that they were alive, and together. She felt his body shudder and she wasn’t sure if it was from chills caused by his wet clothes, or from remembering the torture he’d endured.

“Max,” she held him tightly with his head cradled under her chin. “You feel so cold. We need to get you warm.” She looked around the van for something, anything, that she could use and she spied a blanket in the corner. She retrieved it quickly and spread it around his shoulders but it wasn’t enough. His eyes looked so miserable and his lips had a bluish tint and all she could think of from the first aid class she had taken was body heat could stave off hypothermia.

“Max,” she said, peeling off her wet jacket and draping it over an old rickety chair, hoping it would dry by morning. “You need to get those wet things off before you go into shock. You can’t heal yourself, not in the condition you’re in. You need to . . .” Her voice trailed off as she looked around for another way and realizing they had no options, she let the scientific side of her brain takeover. She reached for his shirt and his eyes grew wide as she began to pull it up and over his head.

“Liz . . .?” Max asked in a small voice, watching her as she methodically removed his shirt and looked for a place to put it so that it would dry. She found a box to drape it over and then his eyes grew even wider when she removed her own top and placed it next to his.

“Body heat, Max,” she said efficiently when she turned back to look at him. “We’re in the desert. It’s going to get cold tonight and if we stay in these wet things, we’re going to be in trouble. Especially you, as weak as you are right now. If we huddle together, under the dry blanket, our body heat should keep us warm.” She returned to him and knelt in front of him, noticing the way he was trying not to stare at her chest and then flushing in embarrassment when he saw that she saw what he was staring at. Cupping his cheeks with her hands she smiled and said, “Don’t worry. I won’t take advantage of you.”

He gave her a self-conscious smile in return and her hand dropped to the button on the front of his khaki pants. She noticed how he swallowed hard, and as her fingers began to lower the zipper he noticed how she swallowed hard too.

“I’ll do that,” Max said hastily, having finally found his voice. He reached for the zipper and her hands fell away, turning her attention to his feet. She untied his shoes and slipped first one off and then the other, turning them upside down and watching a stream of water fall to the floor from each one. Shaking her head she set his shoes aside and then pulled off his socks, wringing the moisture out of them before laying them out to dry. Max lifted his hips and lowered his pants and then sat back down while Liz pulled them free.

He was clothed in only a pair of scrub pants now and Liz could see that they were also wet. “That has to come off too,” she pointed at the scrubs while rising to her feet. He looked down, remembering how earlier he had just slipped his pants on over the scrubs when he was in the car with Liz after escaping from the White Room. There hadn’t been time to change properly.

His attention returned to Liz, watching her search for a place to hang his pants to dry, and then the breath caught in his throat when he heard the sound of her own zipper lowering. His eyes were glued to her as she wiggled free, sliding them down her hips and slender legs until they pooled on the floor. She hung them next to his, side by side on hooks on the van wall, and the sight of her walking around in only her panties and bra burned into his brain. His gaze dropped to the floor when she turned around and the transparency of the material became apparent, and then she was kneeling in front of him once more, with one hand on his thigh.

A look of anguish spread across her face and her fingers hovered over his chest, just above a long and blood encrusted incision mark. “Oh God, Max. How could they do this to you? Dear God, are they monsters?”

“Yes,” came his choked one word reply. She looked up into his eyes, eyes that showed the horror that he had been through, and her heart cried for him.

A shiver wracked his body and Liz reminded him the wet scrubs had to go. She hooked her fingers in the waistband and said, “Lift up. I’ll help you.”

“No,” he said hastily and covered her hands with his. Shaking his head he drew her hands away. “I . . . they . . . can’t . . . there’s nothing underneath,” he finally admitted.

“Oh,” Liz said, slowly taking that in. She forced her scientific mindset to the front again and insisted, “It doesn’t matter. The pants have to come off. They’re soaking wet. Here,” she reached for the edge of the blanket. “Cover yourself with this and then take ‘em off.”

Max looked at her, embarrassed and uncomfortable and miserable and in pain, and yes, he couldn’t help it, looking at her wearing nothing but her underwear, he was a little bit aroused too. She was standing there in front of him in wet undergarments that had turned transparent, and she was telling him to take off his pants. If only this had happened under different circumstances.

She pulled the blanket over his lap and he did as he was told, removing the scrub pants and letting her take them from him. She crossed the van to find a place to drape them to dry and when she turned around she surveyed the old threadbare couch he was sitting on.

“Lay down and close your eyes, Max,” she instructed and after a short hesitation he did as she asked.

Liz hesitated for just a moment and then she saw another shudder course through his body and she quickly reacted. She removed her wet bra and panties, set them out to dry, and crossed back to him in quick strides, sliding under the blanket and pressing up against him. His teeth were chattering and she drew his head to her upper chest, wrapping her arms around his back and entwining her legs with his, trying to use her body heat to keep him warm. Her hand rubbed swiftly up and down his arms and then over his back and then his shoulders to create friction to warm his skin even more. Under her hands, she could sense how his body was filled with tension, and his muscles quivered skittishly as she touched him.

“It’s going to be all right, Max. We’re going to be all right,” she spoke soothingly to him, trying to chase away the terrors he’d been subjected to.

Max lay with his head against her chest, hearing the rapid beating of her heart, knowing his was racing just as fast. Tremors were shaking his body and it wasn’t just because he was cold. He’d been subjected to horrendous torture by Pierce, torture that the man had seemed to enjoy inflicting. The evidence was in the wound running down his chest where they had started to flay him open alive. It was inhuman what they had done to him.

He shuddered again and Liz pressed her body closer to his. “Shhhhhh,” she whispered soothingly. “Shhhhh. It’s over now. We’re safe.” Her hand was in constant motion, rubbing over his skin, stroking through his hair, brushing across his cheek.

He seemed to quiet a little and then she felt his breath on her chest as his pain wracked voice said, “It’s not over Liz. Pierce . . . he knows what I am. He won’t stop until he gets what he wants. And he wants . . . me.”

“We’ll figure out a way out of this, Max. We just need time, to think. When we meet up with the others, we’ll come up with something. Max,” she said, clutching him tightly to her. “If we have to, we’ll leave. We’ll run, however far away we have to go. I won’t let them get you, Max. I won’t.”

Max stilled in her arms and then he slowly raised his head. In the dim moonlight coming in through the window he looked into her eyes and asked, “You’d do that Liz? You’d come with me?”

Liz stared at him and wondered how he could even ask. “Of course I’d come with you, Max. Wherever you are, that’s where I want to be. Wherever you go, that’s where I’ll follow.”

A range of emotions swept through him, relief and joy that she’d be willing to do that for him, and grief and sorrow that because of him she might have to, but the overriding emotion was love. His deep abiding love for her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, and that’s when he became fully conscious of the fact that they were both naked. As in no clothes on. Not a stitch.

Her breasts were pressing into his chest, her soft belly flush with his hard stomach, and his body’s reaction was swift. His cock swelled despite his weakened physical condition and pressed hard into her stomach. Her eyes widened in surprise and Max wasn’t sure what he should do. She said they were supposed to stay close together to keep warm, but he didn’t think she meant this close. Finally, feeling shame for not being able to control his body, he tried to swallow past his dry throat and said, “Sorry, I . . .”

“S’okay,” she said when she finally found her voice. “Ummm . . . I . . . I don’t know if that’s good or bad Max,” Liz tried to make light of his condition, to put him at ease. “To prevent shock, you’re suppose to keep the blood around your vital organs like your brain and your heart, not your . . .”

Her voice trailed off and she was thankful that he couldn’t see her pink cheeks in the meager light.

“Well,” Max tried to match her light tone. “I . . . I guess that depends on . . . which organs you consider vital.” Seeing the surprised look on her face, he hastily added, “Sorry. Not a good time to joke.”

Her pink cheeks took on a red glow and her eyes dropped from his. His lower lip twitched nervously, but she had nothing to fear from him. He knew he wasn’t capable of any physical activity, no matter how much he wanted to. When Max tried to shift away from her, her hand inadvertently brushed across the wound on his chest and she saw the pain flare in his eyes. He turned onto his back and as he did, his body shook again with another bone jarring shudder.

“Turn over Max,” Liz told him and there was no room for disagreement in her tone. “Turn your back toward me and curl up.” He silently turned away from her and he drew his legs up toward his chest. Liz scooted close to him, plastering her front to his back, making sure the blanket was tucked securely around them. He folded his arms in front of his chest and his legs pulled up in a fetal like position. Liz wrapped her arms around him and her body spooned against him, trying to use her heat to keep him warm.

She felt his hand close over hers, squeezing it like he was holding on to her for dear life, and then he drew it up to his lips where he kissed her fingertips gently. He trembled again and she could hear the ragged way he pulled air into his lungs. He quieted and then a minute later another shudder coursed through his body.

“Shhhhhh,” Liz tried to calm him. “Shhhhh. Go to sleep now. I’ll take care of you.”

Max closed his eyes, wondering how in the world he was suppose to sleep when he could feel her naked breasts against his back, her hip bones against his butt, her naked thigh draped over his leg. It was impossible for him to sleep, but her body was warm, and her voice did and so comforting, and his eyelids were so very, very heavy . . .

She felt his tremors begin to lessen and it wasn’t long before his deathlike grip on her hand began to relax. His breathing turned into the rhythmic sound that indicated sleep and Liz breathed out a sigh of relief. What he needed most right now was undisturbed rest, and she was going to watch over him and make sure he got it.




And here are the links to a few of my other stories:
Repost in progress:
A Special Kind of Love
Completed fics:
Maxeo and Lizziet
Captive Hearts
A Walk in the Park
Downfall
Pieces of the Past
Echoes of Tomorrow

[Breathless]

Aftermath
Part 2



Pierce moved with a cat like grace around the room, looking at Max like he was the mouse caught in his trap. His footsteps echoed hollowly in the White Room as he circled his prey, watching as the boy struggled at the restraints on his wrists.

“You thought you could get away from me,” Pierce said menacingly. “You were wrong.”

“Why are you doing this?” Max’s voice trembled. “We’re not a threat to you.”

“No?” Pierce raised his eyebrows. “I know better. You’re the advance wave of the invasion. The others are coming. I know the others are coming!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Max cried out in frustration.

“Are you sure about that?” Pierce asked in a deadly calm tone. Max flinched as the man touched the raw wound that ran down the middle of his chest. Fiery prickles of pain caused his vision to blur and nearly made him pass out.

“I want the truth, Max!” Pierce shouted in his face. “I want details! If I don’t get them from you, then I’ll have to get them from someone else,” he said menacingly.

“No!” Max begged. “Don’t hurt her! She doesn’t know anything.”

Pierce walked over to the heavy curtain that covered one wall and drew it aside with the flare of a magician on stage, revealing his finale. Max felt the blood drain from his face when he saw what was on the other side – who was on the other side – and his stomach heaved like he was going to be sick. He struggled at the restraints that bound his wrists and his legs, but it was all in vain. He couldn’t get free.

In the next room, Liz lay on a steel table, looking small and frightened, with her arms restrained at her sides. A blue sheet covered her body from the chest down. Her shoulders were bare and Max was terrified he knew what was coming.

“I told you she doesn’t know anything. Let her go. Please, just let her go.” A tear spilled on to his cheek and his voice trembled as he begged, “Please don’t hurt her.”

“That’s up to you Max,” Pierce’s tone was uncompromising. “Tell me what I want to know,” he leaned forward and traced his finger down the wound in the middle of Max’s chest, “or this will seem like child’s play.”

“Oh God, please. I told you I don’t-”

“That’s not what I want to hear,” Pierced hissed and pressed the button on the remote control unit in his hand. The restraints sprang free and Pierce jerked Max to his feet. Dressed in only a pair of blue scrub pants, Max was hauled over to the window and shoved in front of the glass. Pierce nodded to one of the attendants hovering over Liz and Max watched horror struck as the sheet that covered her was drawn aside to expose her upper body.

“NOOOOOOOO!” Max screamed as the attendant lifted a scalpel from a tray and set the blade against the pale skin between her breasts. She looked at him through the window, her face pleading with him to help her, and then her mouth opened in a silent scream as the scalpel sank into her flesh. Her blood began to flow, spreading over her pale skin, while the blade sliced her open from her breastbone to her navel . . .


The sound of his whimper broke through her light slumber and Liz was instantly awake. Max was moaning in distress and thrashing about and Liz was certain he was in the midst of a bad dream. His hands fought off unseen ghosts and Liz had to duck to keep from getting hit. He cried out her name in his sleep, sounding terrified, and then his tortured shout tore into the night.

“NOOOOO.”

“Max,” she spoke softly near his ear trying to soothe him. “Max, shhhh.” She grabbed for his hands trying to prevent him from hurting himself and she raised her voice over his cries, “MAX! Wake up. WAKE UP!”

He bolted awake with a start and sat upright, looking around him wildly in the dark. Sitting next to him, Liz could see the frightened look on his face as he tried to focus on where he was, and who he was with, and then recognition dawned in his eyes. He grabbed her upper arm with one hand and the other tore the blanket away from her chest. His eyes swept over her and his trembling hand touched the smooth skin between her breasts, tracing an imaginary line from just below her collarbone all the way down to her navel.

“God Liz! Are you okay? Are you okay?” he repeated, as if he was sure that she wasn’t. “God!” his voice cried shakily. Seeing no evidence of blood on her skin, Max cupped the back of her head and pulled her against his chest, holding her tightly in his arms as the panic of the dream began to subside.

“I’m alright, Max,” Liz felt the frantic pounding of his heart beneath her ear. Her hand rubbed up and down his bare back, feeling the tremors coursing through him. “What’s wrong,” she cried into his chest. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Dream,” she heard him whisper against her ear. “It was just a dream.” He was shaking again, not from the cold or stress this time, but from out and out fear. Her arms wrapped around him, clutching him tightly to try to help chase away the nightmare.

“What happened, Max?” she asked. She knew he should talk about it, let it out, chase away the demons, the monsters, talk about the terrible things Pierce had done to him instead of keeping it inside.

“It was just a bad dream,” Max shuddered and tried to shake it off. “It’s over now.” His fingers threaded through her hair and then he lifted her head from his chest. Looking over her face and then back down to her exposed chest, he whispered, “You’re okay . . . You’re okay.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

“Of course I’m okay Max,” Liz assured him. “I’m with you.”

“Oh Liz,” Max sighed, drawing her forehead to his lips. She’d never be okay as long as she was with him. It was wrong to ever bring her into this. He never should have admitted to her what he really was. He should have stayed away from her, and then she’d be safe now, instead of hiding out in the dead of night in a dirty old abandoned van in the middle of nowhere with the FBI breathing down their throats.

“Max,” she cupped his cheek with her hand, sensing his inner turmoil. “Nothing’s going to happen to me. Don’t feel guilty, because of . . . this,” she said, looking at her surroundings. Stroking her fingers over his brow, she assured him, “I’m here because this is where I want to be. With you. Wherever you are, that’s where I belong.”

“Liz, you’re in danger, because of me-”

She cut him off with the tips of her fingers against his lips. She wasn’t going to let him walk down that road of regrets and recriminations. She was here, where she wanted to be, and he just better get used to it. His hand wrapped around her fingers, pulling them away from his lips and they stared into each other’s eyes in the meager light spilling into the van. The moment was suspend in time, and then their lips slowly came together. They couldn’t stay apart.

“Liz,” he whispered just before his lips touched hers. He couldn’t resist her softness, her sweetness, the strength he garnered by just being close to her. She made everything better for him.

“I’m here, Max.” Her comforting voice calmed his wildly racing heart. The dream was fading, the nightmare sent back into the recesses of his mind, but not forgotten. He felt her soothing tone, her soft touch, relaxing him. “I’m here.”

His eyes fell to her lips, then returned up to her eyes, back and forth, wandering her face, seeing the pure love there. He didn’t deserve her, but he couldn’t face the world without her. Their lips came together, with Max cupping her face, caressing her with his own gentle touch. His lips were soft and reverent, her kiss was all for him, only him, opening herself to sooth him, to comfort him, to share what they both needed.

She drew his hand to her side, with his fingertips touching her back and his palm resting against the swell of her breast and their kiss deepened. Her hand glided up his arm, over the muscles in his bicep, up and around his shoulder until her fingers became tangled in his hair. The movement provoked an answering call in Max, burying a hand in the hair at the back of her head, and turning their contact into something much more than just a kiss.

An urgency took over, in place of their earlier hesitance, and their heated contact spiraled into a need for more. While she’d watched Max sleep, Liz had come to the realization that all they had was the here and now. Tomorrow might never come. He was an alien from another planet, sent here for God only knew what reason, on the run from the FBI. Whatever happiness they would have might be fleeting, and they needed to seize it when and where they could. For them, a long term future might be nothing more than just a dream.

But here, at this very moment in time, they were together and Liz didn’t want anything to keep them apart. With their lips still locked together, she leaned backwards, pulling him down to the couch. His hand moved slightly, inching forward until the fullness of her breast filled his palm. She felt his sudden inhalation of breath as her nipple hardened at the contact and he lifted his lips ever so slowly from hers.

He stared at her with a look of utter longing on his face but he shook his head, reluctantly resisting what he knew he could never have. She wasn’t meant for him. His life was too dangerous for her.

“Liz, we can’t . . .”

“We can,” she said with certainty. She’d never wanted anything more in her life, except his safe return. Her hand covered his and she squeezed him hard against her flesh. “I almost lost you, Max. Right now, all we have is tonight. We don’t know what tomorrow will hold. I don’t want to let the moment slip away. Unless . . . you can’t . . .” she said haltingly.

He could. Of that he had no doubt. The hours he had spent sleeping in her arms had given his body a chance to start the healing process, and while he had a long road ahead to full recovery, loving her could only help him along the path. The question wasn’t whether he could, but whether he should.

“Do you want me, Max?” she asked.

“Want you . . .?” he sputtered out. God! How could she even ask? He looked from her eyes, to where his hand was on her breast, and then back to her eyes. How could he not want her? He’d only been in love with her from the moment he first saw her. His cock had sprung to life the instant that their lips had touched, and was now pressing insistently against her thigh. “God yes, I want you,” he declared, knowing there was no sense denying it.

“We need this, Max. We deserve this,” Liz reasoned. This might be the only chance they ever got to love each other and she didn’t want to waste a moment of whatever time they had together.

Max stared down at her, with his eyes sweeping over her face. The fullness of her lips, the depth he could see in her eyes, the paleness of her skin, all these things he took in as he looked at her, reminding himself how things could change in an instant. He’d almost lost her that day in the Crashdown, she’d almost lost him to the hands of an alien hunter. Life could be fleeting, and death could strike at any moment.

What was the point of denying what he wanted most in the world? He was here. She was here. All they had was each other. Tomorrow didn’t exist yet, yesterday was in the past and this moment was all that mattered. In the near dark, she drew him down to her and he followed without hesitation.

Their lips touched, soft and tenderly at first, while his hand caressed her breast gently and her fingers lovingly stroked over the muscles of his back. They were in new territory, never having been this intimate before, and their touches were awkward and tentative at first. The couch was cramped and gave them little room to move, but they didn’t need much. Liz lay on her back with her hair spread out around her, Max stretched out beside her, molded to her side, with their fingers and their hands touching and caressing each other.

He lifted his leg and his powerful thigh draped across her softer one, with his erection throbbing restlessly against her hip. His kisses were turning from tender to insistent, almost desperate in his need for her. For years, he knew that he could never have her, never hope to be with her, never dare dream of what they could be like together, but now, feeling her naked breast beneath his hand and breathing in the scent of her aroused sex, he could finally let himself dare to believe.

Her back arched into his hand as his thumb stroked her nipple. He’d never touched her before, not like this, not free of the constrictions of clothing, or of their own self-restraint. They’d never allowed things to escalate to this point before, there was too much that always held them back. But now that they were here, there was no stopping them. After all they had been through, they needed this. They needed each other.

Her hand stroked over his shoulder and down his back, all the while pouring her love for him into her kisses. He tugged heatedly at her lower lip, her tongue darted inside his moist mouth to taste him, to touch him, just to feel like she was a part of him. Her hands roamed over his naked flesh wanting to learn every square inch of him, but avoided touching his chest. She knew how painful that would be for him.

Her hand moved over the small of his back and on down over the curve of his muscular butt. His skin was taut and smooth and relatively free of body hair and she found that highly erotic. The hair that he did have, under his arms and on his thighs and lower legs, seemed so much sexier than the normal male. There were still other places on his body she didn’t know about yet. It was dark, and her hand still had many places to explore.

His lips moved from hers, slowly traveling down her throat and along her shoulder, kissing her skin and loving the taste of her. His hand moved from her breast to her ribs, feeling how delicate and tiny she was and he felt a fierce protectiveness for her take hold of him. She was his and no one else would ever possess her. His lips kissed a trail down her chest and when he reached his destination he sucked her hard nipple into his mouth. She moaned loudly and dug her fingers into the muscles of his butt, almost causing him to spill his seed right then and there.

He tugged at her breast, loving the way she arched in the air in obvious arousal. He was doing this to her. He, Max Evans, was making Liz Parker arch up with need written all over her face. He could hardly believe this was happening.

Her hand lingered on his hip and then slowly moved forward, knowing what she wanted to touch. Her fingertips brushed along his muscular thigh and then up over his balls, immediately feeling them tighten at her touch, pulling up toward his body. She heard him drag in a ragged breath of air, giving her a sense of power that she could cause such a reaction in him.

Her hand rose upwards, leaving his sacs and her fingers explored his manhood, stroking up and over the length of his aroused member. She didn’t know what she expected, but she’d never imagined he would feel like this, so soft, yet so incredibly hard at the same time. His thick sex jutted out from a patch of curly hair, and she stroked the length of him, memorizing the wonderful sensation.

His mouth had stilled on her breast, distracted as he was by the way she was touching him. He’d imagined this moment so many times, wondering what it would feel like to have her small hand on his hot flesh. Now he knew. It was enough to take his breath away. Her hand stroked him up and down, circled the ridge around the head of his cock, touched the indentation at the tip and he wondered how anything could feel better than this.

Holding him in her hand, she knew how much she wanted him. It was equaled by his need for her. Her hand, rhythmically stroking him, was causing his hips to move against her and his breathing was becoming decidedly more labored. As if their thoughts were in tune, his knee pressed between her thighs and he shifted his weight above her, while she opened up beneath him, spreading her legs wide.

They stared into each other’s eyes, him hovering above her, her with her hand surrounding his cock, and drawing him to her core. His legs were between hers now, his thighs between her thighs, feeling her soft and pliant body under his. He had waited so long for this moment, and suffered through so many fantasies of what their first time might be like, but never had he imagined it would happen in a place like this, under these circumstances. He couldn’t help thinking she deserved something better than this.

She drew him between the wet folds of her sex and all thought left his mind. He was in another world now, one where all that existed was Liz, and him, and how right it felt to love her. Her hand drew him along her sex, stroking him over her intimate places and coating him with her juices as his cock spread apart her lower lips. She positioned his head at the entrance to her passage and withdrew her hand, leaving it to him now. He rocked forward experimentally, dipping inside of her and for the first time in his life he felt a sense of truly belonging. Here, with Liz, in Liz, a part of Liz.

Her hands cupped his butt, feeling his muscles tighten as he rocked forward and then he was inside her, creating a fullness she had never felt before. His hips pulled back and she urged him forward again with her hands exerting pressure on his butt to send him deeper. His thick sex stretched her walls and that sensation of being full returned. It was a good sensation, she decided, one she could become addicted to.

A groan escaped his throat as he surged into her again, feeling her tight walls surrender to his advancement. He penetrated her slick passage, slowly easing into her as she adjusted to his size, feeling the resistance of her inner walls as he pressed forward.

He hovered above her, staring down into her eyes in the dim light, and he paused. His arms trembled, from both the strain of holding himself above her and his raging desire to be buried deep inside her. Her hands moved up his arms, feeling his muscles quivering, and then over his shoulders until she reached his face. She cupped his cheeks and lifted her head, arching up to kiss his lips before laying back down, ready for what was to come.

He settled his weight on his elbows, moving closer to her and lowering his lips to hers, wanting to be connected to her at the moment of their ultimate joining. Her arms surrounded him again and her legs lifted to do the same, holding him in the circle of her warmth. He pulled back his hips and paused at her entrance, and then swiftly plunged forward, tearing through her hymen and stripping away their virginity.

Her chest arched in the air at the sudden flash of pain, striking his chest and causing a stab of pain to jolt through him. They both cried out at the white hot fire, hers in the center of her body, his radiating from the wound on his chest and his arms gave out, collapsing his weight on to her. They froze for a moment, neither one wanting to move as they adjusted, Max with his face pressed against her throat, Liz with her cheek against his head and her fingers buried in his hair.

A tear trickled from her eye and ran down her face, joining the tear that dropped from his eye to her throat, tears caused by the emotion of their joining, and by the pain that joining brought. She could feel his breath on her throat and then on her cheek and then warmly drifting over her ear as he gently asked, “Do you want me to stop?”

He silently prayed that her answer wouldn’t be yes.

“No,” Liz spoke softly with her cheek pressing against his, “I don’t want you to stop.” Her fingers stroked through the hair at the nape of his neck, begging him, “Please, don’t stop.”

He lifted his head and his lips sought out hers while she desperately hunted for his. Their mouths met hungrily, pushing their respective pain to the background, and their bodies began to move together. Max held her tightly, one arm around her shoulders, the other wrapped around the small of her back, while her arms and legs clung to him fiercely.

Their bodies moved in a rhythm, his hips lifting, hers pulling back, and then they flowed together, his cock penetrating deep into her inner core, her walls pulling him in. His thrusts escalated, in pace with their rising passion with his breath rushing from his lungs with each forward surge. He could hear and feel her sharp inhalations as well, each time he plunged into her, and he hoped it was from building pleasure and not from lingering pain. His own chest, pressing against hers, was on fire but he wouldn’t let himself feel that right now. He was concentrating on a different kind of fire building in his groin and ready to explode at any moment.

Her moans broke the silence of the night, increasing in intensity as her body hovered on the verge of something new. With each stroke of his cock into her depths she could feel the change coming. Her nerve endings were humming, her body tensing in anticipation, feeling the building excitement at the center of her world, but it was Max she concentrated on, giving all of herself to him, and taking all of him in return. His vigorous thrusts took them higher and higher, like they were floating through the heavens, until the stars exploded behind her eyes. Her cry of ecstasy was followed by an unrestrained cry of his own.

His seed burst from him in one powerful surge after another, filling her inner chamber and blending with her virginal blood. He plunged into her hard, spasming with each climatic surge, unable to control the movements of his body, until he finally came to rest buried deep inside her. They lay together in the aftermath, hearts racing, lungs heaving, Max spent and glowing with rare internal peace, Liz feeling the warmth of their loving suffuse her body, knowing that what she had given him had far surpassed mere physical needs.

Her eyes filled with tears from the beauty of their joining, knowing that they had given each other a precious gift, the sharing of their love on the most intimate level, into the very depths of their hearts. Liz was the first to move, lifting her hand to stroke her fingers gently through his hair, while Max basked in the glory of her love, feeling their hearts beating in a matching rhythm, his body still joined intimately with hers.

He slowly lifted his head from where it was buried in her throat, staring down into a face he found more beautiful than any sight in the universe. Her cheeks were flushed red, her lips moist and sensual, her hair in wild array around her head. Her eyes were what held him, though, two dark orbs that sparkled with a brightness the stars couldn’t rival.

“God, I love you,” he cupped her cheek with his hand, and brushed his lips over hers.

“And I love you,” she cupped his hand with her own and kissed his palm. “Forever.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that,” Max smiled, feeling more relaxed that he had in weeks, or was it months?

“It’s an easy promise for me to keep,” she pledged.

Wanting to take his weight off of her, Max lifted his chest from hers and her smile gave way to alarm. She was staring at him in shock and he looked down to see the streaks of blood her fingers were touching on his chest. Their physical contact had caused his wound to open and his blood had mingled with the sweat on their bodies.

“Oh God, Max,” she whispered, touching his chest gently.

“It’s okay,” he answered back, covering her hand with his. He kissed her fingertips to tell her he was fine, then waved his hand over her skin, removing the blood and the sweat that had pooled between her breasts. His powers were just beginning to return after what he had been subjected to in the White Room, and while he couldn't heal yet, or protect them from harm, at least it appeared he had suffered no permanent loss of abilities.

Reluctantly, he pulled his softening member from the warmth of her body and glancing down he was momentarily confused by the blood that coated him there. Understanding dawned as he realized this was her blood, caused by the loss of her virginity, and he quickly removed his weight from her to stretch out beside her, letting his hand rest lightly on her belly just above her pubic bone.

“Are you okay?” he asked with concern. How much had he hurt her? Was she still in pain? Why had he done this to her, here, in a place like this? He should have left her alone –

“I’m fine,” Liz smiled, hoping he would believe her. “More than fine. But . . .” her hand hovered just above his chest, wishing she had the ability to heal him. “What about you? Are you okay? Are you still in pain?”

“No, no pain,” he lied, shaking his head. “I’m fine, Liz.” What was a little white lie if it eased her mind? His chest was aching fiercely, but she didn’t need to know that. There was nothing she could do. When his powers returned, he would heal it and try to put the nightmare behind him. Looking into her doubtful eyes, he smiled for her benefit and insisted, “Really. I’m fine . . . now that we’re together. You make everything better, Liz.” He brushed his fingers over her cheek and then kissed her gently, letting his lips linger on hers.

Shifting position on the cramped couch, he turned onto his back, draping his arm around her so she could snuggle close to him. Her head rested on his shoulder with her body molding to his side and her legs entwining with his, carefully hiding from him the discomfort she was feeling from the loss of her virginity. It would only stress him if he knew.

Unaware, Max smiled in the warmth of her arms, realizing just how right she had been earlier. Her body heat had kept him warm, and then some. He was literally radiating heat now and he knew hypothermia was the last thing he needed to worry about now. He wanted to talk, to make plans for what they should do tomorrow, but he was bone weary. His body craved to return to the healing power of sleep.

“Tomorrow –” Max began but Liz stopped him with her fingertips to his lips.

“Shhh,” she silenced him. “We’ll talk about tomorrow when it gets here.”

It was still hours before dawn, plenty of time to get more of the rest his body desperately needed. He smiled a tired smile, and as Liz watched over him, his eyelids grew heavy and his breathing evened out as he surrendered to sleep. There were many things they needed to decide. What were they going to do next? Where could they go? Was anywhere safe for him now that the FBI knew about him?

But they could worry about those things tomorrow. For now, all Liz wanted was for Max to have a dreamless, peaceful sleep.

[Breathless]

Disclaimer: The next two chapters will mirror certain events from Destiny. Some action and dialogue have been borrowed directly from the episode. No infringement is intended.




Aftermath
Part 3



Liz watched Max as he slept, seeing his face looking peaceful and finally relaxed. His long lashes rested against his cheeks and his dark hair fell gently across his forehead. His full lips were slightly parted and she noticed the color was starting to return to his skin. He’d had no further nightmares and as the new day dawned, she knew she should wake him.

She’d been awake for ten, maybe fifteen minutes now, but she didn’t have the heart to disturb him. He’d suffered so much and these minutes of sleep, this soothing peace, was what he needed most. He shifted under the scrutiny of her gaze and the blanket pulled away from him, exposing more of his chest and one bare leg.

With the morning light spilling in from the windows, she could see him in a way she hadn’t been able to last night. She brushed his bangs aside and her eyes filled with tears at the sight of the circular marks on his forehead and his temples. She touched the burn marks and the flash she’d seen last night filled her mind with the sight and the sounds of him screaming when Pierce turned the dial and sent jolts of electricity into his brain.

“Oh, Max,” she whispered softly and silent tears spilled from her eyes. He was so gentle, how could anyone do this to him? Pierce thought he was a monster, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. He would never hurt anyone, not intentionally, not the Max she knew.

He shifted and she wiped her tears aside, not wanting him to see it. He wouldn’t want her pity, and he wouldn’t want to see her cry. She needed to be strong, for him. She shifted into clinical mode, checking him over for other injuries that Pierce may have inflicted. She knew he would probably try to hide it from her later, after he awakened, healing his wounds in private so no one would ever see what was done to him.

She checked and found blood encrusted in his right ear from where they had probed him without concern for the pain they had caused him. She knew the left ear would look the same. The dark circles were still evident under his eyes, but not as prominent as the night before. Rest was helping. His color was improving, too, and his cheeks and chin were covered with a fine stubble, a five o’clock shadow.

His throat looked bruised with what looked like finger marks, from a hand that had threatened to strangle the life out of him if he didn’t give up his secrets. But the irony was, Max didn’t know the answers to those secrets. Pierce knew more about him than Max knew about himself. In the flashes, she’d seen him begging Pierce, telling him he didn’t know, but Pierce wouldn’t believe him, and would have stopped at nothing in his vicious quest. It was only his rescue that had saved Max.

Her eyes dropped down to the angry red incision running down the middle of his chest. Her fingers touched the skin around it and Max shifted again, perhaps sensing the pain even in sleep. A frown drew his eyebrows together and then he relaxed again and his features smoothed out. In addition to the horrible mark down the center of his chest, Liz could see bruising on his ribs and upper arms. She touched one, remembering the hands grabbing him in the flash, man-handling him, forcing him across the room and into a tub of cold water, holding him down until his brain screamed for oxygen. She caressed his skin gently, crying inside over what they had done to him.

She forced herself to keep going, checking further down his arm, seeing the purplish bruises at the inner junction of his elbows where they’d injected drugs and removed his blood. His wrists were scraped and abraded, stained with reddish streaks of dried blood from struggling hard at the restraints that had kept him bound. His fingernails were torn and ragged, too, testament to how hard he had fought against his captors.

Her fingers plucked at the blanket, lowering it to check the bottom edge of his wound to see how his injury was healing. She drew the blanket down, past the mark and on below his navel, before releasing it. The incision was encrusted with his blood in places, and puckered in others, and all of it was an angry red. She knew it must have been excruciatingly painful when the blade sliced through his skin. He would heal it when his powers returned, but she wondered if the horror of the experience would ever fade from his mind.

With the blanket lowered, she could see his left hand resting lightly on his chest, near the dark circle of his left nipple and her attention was drawn to the other, intrigued by the rich color of it. She touched it lightly with her fingertip, and this time when Max shifted, he didn’t seem to be in pain. His features smoothed out even more, and Liz thought she could see his lips curve in just a hint of a smile. Under different circumstances, looking at him this way would have been enough to take her breath away, but it was now tempered by the physical torment he’d been subjected to.

But that hint of a smile on his face was enough to encourage her that they could get past this, that with love and support, he could overcome what they’d done to him. Her hand touched his warm skin, moved over his ribs, on down to the tiny circle in the midst of his washboard stomach, barely an indentation in his skin, and she wondered once more why he even had one. A navel. A belly button. The point of contact for the umbilical cord to deliver nourishment from the placenta while in the womb.

But he hadn’t been nurtured in a womb. He had floated in an artificial device, a pod created by alien hands. Had he formed there from a single cell, multiplying and dividing, taking on the human characteristics of his DNA? Had it taken forty years for his cells to grow, for the process that created him to be complete and ready him for his emergence into the world? Had the pod served as a womb, delivering nutrients through the umbilicus to his developing entity, or had it merely been a storage device, holding him in stasis until a predetermined time?

Would they ever learn the answers to the questions of his existence?

Max mumbled in his sleep and his hand moved slightly, brushing over his nipple and coming to rest on his ribs. The blanket shifted again, just enough to expose a line of dark hair that disappeared below the covering and Liz reached for the material, intending to cover his exposed skin. Instead, telling herself she was just checking him for injuries, she lifted the blanket and pulled it aside.

She hadn’t really seen him in the dark last night, and now she drank in the sight of his naked splendor. His right leg stretched out straight and his left leg bent slightly at the knee. His thighs, lightly covered with a sprinkling of dark hair, looked powerful and strong. His penis was soft and sleeping on a cushion of dark kinky hair, and she remembered how he felt in her hand last night, his skin so soft on the outside but so rock solid on the inside. She knew he would feel different if she touched him now, in this relaxed state.

Her tongue darted out to moisten her dry lips and her breath hitched a little in her throat just looking at him. That wouldn’t be so wrong, would it? Just to look at him while he slept? Would he mind that she found him fascinating to look at? His left leg straightened and her eyes widened as his shape began to change. As she stared at him, she could see his penis start to thicken and his balls, hanging loosely a minute ago, now seemed to constrict a little. Intrigued, her hand moved to rest on his hip, feeling the heat of his skin, and her own heat building inside her. Her cheeks felt warm, flushed, and she bit at her lower lip, enthralled by the workings of the male body. She knew men got erections in their sleep, but it was amazing to watch it actually happen.

His size grew, swelling before her eyes, and she lifted her hand from his hip, hovering it just above him. She knew she shouldn’t touch him, not when he was asleep, not when he wasn’t aware of what she was doing to him. It would be an invasion of his privacy, an act subjected to without his consent, and he’d been violated enough already. She pulled her hand back and glanced up at his face, and was mortified to see his eyes open and staring at her. Her cheeks flushed deep red.

How long he had been watching her? Had he been awake the whole time? Did he think she was perverted for watching him like a voyeur when he was asleep? Her hand fluttered over her upper chest and she stuttered, “Max . . . I . . . I didn’t mean . . .”

Silently, he lifted his hand from his chest and reached for her hand, drawing her back to his rapidly hardening cock. “Don’t be afraid to touch me, Liz,” he said softly.

He placed her hand around his thickening member, watching the look of wonderment on her face. He knew how she felt. The sight of her naked body filled him with a sense of awe too. He never believed this would ever happen to him. He had reconciled to living a solitary life, never to experience the joy of sharing his hopes and his dreams, let alone his body and his heart, with another.

He was an alien, living among humans, and he didn’t belong. That is, until now. Liz Parker had changed all that. Liz Parker had opened up her world to him and he didn’t feel like an outcast when he was with her.

His cock stood rigid in her hand and Liz experimentally moved up and down, caressing him with her fingers. He let his eyes drift closed, enjoying the sensation, yet knowing things could easily escalate out of control again, like they had last night. He never should have let it go that far, but it had been impossible to stop. They had needed each other, and comforted each other, but they had played with fire, too. Who knew what his semen might do to her?

He might appear human on the outside, but on the inside his cell structure was different. Would the insertion of his bodily fluids into her body cause her irreparable harm? There was no denying the fact that they were sexually compatible, they proved that last night, but were there consequences for their actions that they would still have to face?

He doubted a pregnancy would ensue from their union. His cells were too different from hers. He doubted her womb would ever bear the fruit of his loins, but sexually, there was no barrier between them. His equipment was fully functional on a human level.

“I . . . I don’t know what you like,” Liz said haltingly.

His eyes opened and he answered her simply, “I like you touching me.”

He moistened his dry lips with his tongue while his breathing escalated. His hand covered hers and brought her fingers up to the rim of his cock, showing her the area that was the most sensitive. She explored him in the morning light, looking at him in wonderment, seeing the first drops of fluid forming at the tip.

What a way to wake up in the morning, he couldn’t help thinking, lying naked beside her with her hand bringing him to life. He could get used to this. His eyes swept over her, taking in the sight of her disheveled hair, and the rich color in her cheeks, and then lowering to take in the rest of her. This was his first good look at her, too. Her shoulders showed the beginning of a summer tan, in contrast to the paleness of her rounded breasts. Her nipples stood high and erect, two rosy buds that were too tempting just to look at. His hand lifted to touch her ribs, shifting closer so he could taste her, but the movement jarred his chest and he flinched with the pain of it.

Shifting her focus, her eyes darted to the angry red incision that sliced down the middle of him. She touched his skin gently and he winced again, both from the jab of pain it caused, and from the remembrance of how it had gotten there.

“Max,” she said softly, wishing she could take his pain away.

“It’s okay,” he tried to ease her mind. He turned onto his back to test his powers, closing his eyes and touching his hand to the wound. He concentrated hard and she saw a golden light spread out over his chest. She stared at him in awe as his beatific face turned toward the heavens with his chest arched upwards and then it was over, and the light faded, and he removed his hand to reveal smooth unmarked flesh.

“Wow . . .” Liz sighed, awestruck by his ability to heal, but it came at a price. Using his healing powers drained his energy and she could see the strain on his face.

Her fingers roamed over his unblemished skin and he smiled, rejoicing in how it felt to have her touch him. His physical pain was gone now, and in its place was the overwhelming desire to be with her again, like they’d been last night.

“That’s better,” his voice took on a huskier tone and the amber color in his eyes flashed darker. His arms surrounded her in the limited confines of the couch, and his lips chased after hers, wanting to give her a proper good morning kiss. She let him catch her, smiling as his lips covered hers, happily letting him push her down to the couch, giggling softly at the feel of his stubbled chin scratching across her skin. In the blink of an eye, his kiss turned from a friendly, good morning greeting into something more heated.

His hand rose up over her ribs and continued upward until he was covering her breast. He was almost pinning her to the couch now with his insistent kisses, pressing his lips hard against hers with his hand on her breast holding her down. His muscular thigh lifted across her legs and his cock was rock hard and rubbing up against her leg. Things were escalating out of control again and it was up to Liz to be the sensible one.

“Max . . .” she tore her lips away and tried to catch her breath.

“What?” he asked breathlessly, moving his lips along her chin and down her throat. He continued down, planting small kisses over her chest and then he reached her nipple. His tongue darted out and circled her rosy areola, smiling at how erect her nipple became and then his lips closed around her. He felt her arch up to him and he sucked harder wanting to please her.

“We better get dressed . . .” she breathed out huskily. His tongue flicked across her erect nipple and despite her protestations, she felt the fire growing inside her.

“Ummm . . .” Max was listening, but he’d rather do this. Why would they want to get dressed when they could be doing this? His hand lowered from her ribs, down over her stomach and then furrowed through her patch of dark curls. His finger slid between her lips, noticing how wet she was, how wet for him, and he wanted to touch every inch of her, listen to the moans he caused deep in her throat, feel her body spasm at the moment she cried his name –

“Max,” she covered his hand with hers, stilling his movements. He lifted his head from her breast and she reminded him, “It’s getting late and we need to find the others, before . . .”

Before the FBI finds us, Max came crashing down to reality. His dream from last night resurfaced in his mind, reminding him he wasn’t the only one at risk now. Pierce would stop at nothing to get him back in the White Room, and Liz could be his next victim.

“You’re right,” he nodded, wishing that she wasn’t. He couldn’t risk that ever happening to her.

“We need to get dressed,” Liz repeated, trying to be practical. Besides, she didn’t want him to know that she was too sore from last night to be able to enjoy a second encounter. He would insist on healing her, and that would sap his energy even more. There would be time for loving later, after things settled down and the FBI wasn’t dogging their every step. She needed to believe that.

Max reluctantly removed his hand from her and sat up, pulling her with him. He threaded his fingers through her hair and kissed her on the nose, smiling at how cute she looked with her cheeks all flushed and her hair all messy and her nipples all pert and pouty and – he reminded himself not to think about that now. She was right, they needed to find the others, and soon. This place wasn’t safe.

Max rose to his feet and drew her up beside him, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close to him for just another minute. His hand slid along the silky skin of her back, lovingly caressing her, smiling down into her sweet face. He kissed her gently on the forehead before saying, “When we get out of this, and we will get out of this, don’t forget where we were.”

“I won’t,” Liz smiled shyly, feeling his erection pressing stiffly into her stomach.

He leaned down, touching his lips gently to hers, silently telling her how much she meant to him. As they slowly parted, he rested his forehead against hers and said softly, “I love you, so much.”

“And I love you,” she whispered back, “with all my heart.”

They shared a lingering kiss and then stepped apart, retrieving the clothes Liz had spread around to dry the night before. Max saw the scrub pants he had been forced to wear while he was under Pierce’s control and he shuddered in revulsion. Turning his back, he never wanted to see a pair of scrub pants again. He lifted his khaki’s off the hook Liz had put them on and though they were dirty and stiff, at least they were dry. He slipped them on over his bare skin and then found his shirt and pulled it on.

Liz was nearly dressed too, and Max returned to the couch, sitting down so he could put on his socks and shoes. Strange, Max thought, as he slipped a sock on. His biggest fears and his wildest dreams had all come true within the space of a couple of days. His alien status had been found out by the worst possible people. He’d been captured by the government and tortured until he had silently begged for death. He’d put everyone he loved at risk of death or worse in their attempt to free him.

And he’d made love to Liz Parker, the love of his life, the girl he couldn’t live without.

He could live with the memory of all the pain and torture in the world, as long as he had Liz to chase the nightmares away. She was his stability and his strength. The thought of her, when he’d been stuck in the White Room, had been what kept him sane. What would he do without her? He never wanted to find that out.

“Max, do you have any idea where we are?” Liz asked as she slipped her own shoes on.

“No,” he answered, tying his right shoe. “I was pretty out of it when we were running through the woods. I recognized the bridge, I know where it’s at, but once we went in the water I lost all sense of where we were. What about you?” he asked, looking up at her face.

She met his gaze and shook her head. “We’re in Frasier Woods somewhere, but other than that, I don’t know. Maybe we should follow along the river. They say when you’re lost, you should follow a water source. It always leads to civilization.”

“Maybe I don’t want civilization,” Max rose to his feet and crossed over to her. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her hips close to his, and his lower lip twitched enticingly as he said, “Maybe I want to find a love shack in the woods that no one else knows about, and I can have my way with you, over and over again. Who needs civilization?”

“Well you do have a point there,” Liz smiled shyly with her hands touching the hard muscles in his chest. Making love with him over and over again sounded nothing short of wonderful. “We could-”

She froze suddenly, and they both heard the sound of an engine, off in the distance. They held their breaths, praying that the sound would dissipate, and leave them once more in their own little world, a world where the FBI wasn’t chasing them and Max was nothing more than a teenage boy trying to seduce his teenage girlfriend.

But he wasn’t a normal teenage boy, and the FBI was chasing him, and the sound of the engine grew louder. He grabbed her hand, holding on to her for dear life, and they ran.

They fled the old van running blindly, not knowing where they were going, just trying to stay ahead of the sound of the engine that was pursuing them. Max thought fleetingly of telling Liz to go, to keep running, while he waited behind to confront whoever was behind them but the sound of the engine was so close. What if she didn’t get away? What if they caught her and did to her the things that they’d done to him?

He was in a panic, too weak to fight, to slow to escape. The sound of the engine roared loudly and he stole a look behind him, and it made his blood run cold. A vehicle with two occupants inside was barreling right at them. It didn’t take a genius to know who they were. His mind screamed in fear and he held on to Liz tighter, trying to run faster, knowing there was no way to outrun them. Would this nightmare never end?

Suddenly a Sheriff’s vehicle appeared in front of them and hope sprang up as Max recognized a familiar face through the window. Michael jumped out and held his hand out in front of him and Max heard explosions coming from behind him as he and Liz raced toward the car. They reached Michael and Max turned to see smoke coming from the destroyed hummer.

“What did you do?” Max blurted out, shock, fear and relief all rolled up into one.

“I don't know,” Michael shouted as they jumped in the car.

“What do you mean you don't know?” Max demanded in near panic. How could Michael not know what he had just done?

“I don't know! Just go!” Michael shouted and then screamed at Valenti, “Come on, go. Go! GO, OR GET OUT!”

Max clung tightly to Liz in the back seat, trying to will his heart rate to slow and his breathing to settle down. That had been close. Too close. He didn’t want to think about what would have happened if Michael hadn’t been there. Looking at Valenti in the front seat, driving like a maniac, Max realized he owed a debt of gratitude to him, too. He’d spent his whole life afraid of the Sheriff, and now he’d just saved his life. How ironic.

They traveled in silence, Valenti lost in thought with a million questions going through his head, stealing glances at Michael, and then looking at Max and Liz in the rear view mirror. Michael sat beside Valenti in the front seat, silent and brooding, aware of how much their lives had changed in such a short period of time. Max sat quietly in the back seat, with Liz wrapped tightly in his arms, looking exhausted and wondering what was going to happen now? Where were they going to go? What were they going to do? Liz sat in the circle of his embrace, trying to will her heart rate to slow and not think about what was going to happen next.

Valenti pulled the vehicle to a stop in front of an old abandoned mine and when he turned off the engine, he let out a relieved sigh. “We'll be safe here for a while.”

Michael stared at him and uttered as he slid out of the car, “There is no safe anymore.”

Liz opened her door and climbed out with Max following behind her. Glancing at the sheriff, he knew he had to talk to him, he just wasn’t sure what he was going to say. Liz could feel his tension, see it in the set of his jaw, in the hard edge in his eyes, feel it in the way his hand was squeezing hers.

Max looked down at her and forced his grip to relax, trying to reassure her with his eyes that things were going to be okay. He didn’t want to be apart from her for a single second, and neither did she, but he needed to talk to the Sheriff. He knew she understood.

He nodded toward the entrance of the mine and urged in a soft voice, “Go ahead. I'll be right in.”

Liz reluctantly stepped away, holding on to his hand until the last possible second, and then still not wanting to let go. He clung to her like she was his lifeline, and then he felt the loss, the emptiness, as her fingers separated from his and he watched her walk to the entrance of the mine, pausing to look back at him before going inside.

When she was gone, Max turned to look at the Sheriff, waiting for the older man to break the silence. It didn’t take long.

“Tell me what just happened back there, Max,” Jim Valenti said, still not believing what he saw. “All this time, I thought it was just you. It's Michael, too, isn't it?” Max nodded and Jim added, “Isabel?” Another nod confirmed it. All this time, right under his nose and he never suspected a thing, until that day at the Crashdown. “My god,” he exclaimed. “Man!”

“You swore to me that we could trust you,” Max said cautiously. “I need to trust you right now. It's our lives, Sheriff. There's no time for doubts.”

“Well, it's my life, too,” Jim stressed. “I need to know everything.”

Max stared at him, waging an internal battle, deciding in the end to trust the man he had been afraid of for so long. “We don't know where we're from,” he started quietly. “We don't know why we're here. Liz, Alex and Maria are the only ones who know. And now you. We don't want to hurt anybody, Sheriff. We just want to stay alive.”

“I keep thinking about my father,” Jim said, suddenly flooded with so many emotions he couldn’t think straight. “He was right.”

“But he would have turned us in,” Max reminded him. “What are you going to do?”

* * * * *

Max entered the mine alone, having left the Sheriff outside with his thoughts. It wasn’t everyday that you learned aliens were living among you. Jim needed time. Even before he adjusted to the gloom, Max let his eyes sweep the room looking for Liz, needing to be near her again. He didn’t know if it was because of the heightened emotions he’d been through in the last few days, or if it had something to do with the level of intimacy they had shared, but he had to be near her. He physically ached if he was away from her. She hurried over to him and he wrapped her into his arms.

Tess watched through narrowed eyes, disgusted by the display. Hadn’t he listened to anything she had told him? This infatuation of his with Liz Parker had to stop. Eyeing the two of them closely, she felt the hackles rise on her neck. There was something different going on between them, something different than before.

Sure, Max always looked at Liz with those sappy looks, like a lost little puppy dog, but this was different. This was disturbing. Something had changed. They were acting way too . . . way too . . . intimate. Her eyes grew wide and Tess had to hold her rage in check. Had Max fucked Liz last night? That would ruin everything!

In the condition he’d been in the last time she saw him, she never would have thought him capable of even finding his prick, let alone using it to fuck one prissy little Liz Parker. But they had been gone all night, and they had been all alone . . .

That Bitch, Tess fumed inside. Turning her eyes from Max in disgust, she made a silent vow. This didn’t change anything. Max still belonged to her, and it wouldn’t be long before little Miss Parker realized that. It didn’t matter if Liz had had him first. Tess was going to have him when it counted, and Liz wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it.

[Breathless]

Disclaimer: This chapter will mirror certain events from Destiny. Some action and dialogue have been borrowed directly from the episode. No infringement is intended.



Aftermath
Part 4



Max stood in the shadows of the UFO Center, trembling inside and trying not to show it. He couldn’t let Pierce see his fear. He couldn’t show his vulnerability. He couldn’t let the monster see how scared he was. Just being near him, even with Pierce tied to the chair, his stomach twisted violently and he thought he might be sick at any moment. A memory resurfaced, a nightmare that was real, of what the human monster had done to him less than 24 hours ago.


“Hold him down!” Pierce shouted. “Damnit, get those contacts on him!”

Max struggled against the hands that were holding him down but there were too many. His wrists were bound to the chair with metal cuffs, and white circular electrodes were slapped against his temples and his forehead. A man dressed from head to toe in white wheeled a machine up next to him and the blood drained from Max’s face. His breathing came in short gasps as the man attached the electrodes to the machine, while Pierce taunted him.

“The easy way, or the hard way, Max?” Pierce’s voice dripped with venom. “It’s up to you.”

Max closed his eyes and prayed for a miracle, but he knew it wouldn’t be answered. He was living in hell, with no way out.

“Where’s the fleet?” Pierce’s angry face was just inches from Max’s. “Where will they land? Where will the invasion force strike first?”

“What invasion?” Max cried out in misery. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Stop the lies!” Pierce screamed in his face. His hand shot to the dial on the front of the machine and Max watched in dreaded shock, holding his breath, praying that this wasn’t happening, and then the white hot pain shot through his head. His body jerked off the chair as the electrical jolt tore through him and the smell of his burning flesh filled the White Room. His agonized screams echoed off the walls . . .


“Max,” Michael touched his friend on the arm and Max nearly jumped out of his skin. He came slamming back to the present, but the smell of his own burning flesh still lingered in his mind. The man across the room had been the one who had caused him more anguish, more pain than he thought was humanly possible to experience and still live, and now it was time for him to exact his revenge. He walked out of the shadows and made his way slowly to Pierce.

“Good evening, Agent Pierce,” Max said menacingly while circling his captive like an animal circling his prey. Pierce glared at him with hatred blazing in his eyes. He fought against the restraints that bound his wrists and chest, but to no avail. He was just as much a captive prisoner here as Max had been the White Room. “You know who I am,” Max continued. “I know who you are. And now, you’re going to tell me everything.”

“I’ve got nothing to say,” Pierce answered in a controlled voice.

“We can do this the easy way, or the hard way,” Max taunted Pierce with his own words from the White Room. “What happened to Nasedo?”

Pierce’s jaw clenched and he refused to answer.

“Is he alive? Did you capture him?” Max stood behind Pierce and for the first time in his life he honestly believed he could take a life. The man seated in front of him had no compunction about killing or torture, and he deserved no sympathy from Max. He was the worst element of humanity, a man without a conscience, and it was only Max’s own humanity that prevented him from killing Pierce on the spot.

“Did you kill him?” Max stood behind Pierce and then leaned down and shouted in his ear, “TELL ME!”

Pierce struggled at his restraints, just as Max had done in the White Room, but there was no escape. He could only cringe, wondering what Max might have in store for him next.

* * * * *

Max wandered through the UFO Center, taking a break from his interrogation of Pierce. He wasn’t cut out for this, threatening a man’s life, no matter how inhuman the man treated others. Some men could kill easily, to protect their home, their families, their country, but Max was a healer. The hatred he felt for Pierce weighed heavily on him.

“You okay?” Liz asked quietly, hesitant to intrude on Max when he looked so deep in thought.

“Liz,” he turned quickly at the sound of her voice. She stood just a few feet behind him, looking at him with concern, and love, and thoughts of Pierce left his mind.

“Do you want company? Or . . . I can go back with the others,” she pointed over her shoulder, “if you want to be alone.”

“Why would I want to be alone?” Max closed the distance between them with two quick strides and wrapped Liz in his arms. “I think much better when you’re with me.” He kissed her gently on the lips, and some of his tension fell away. She thought his face still looked stressed, though, and his body was wound tight as a drum, but he hid it well behind a brave smile.

“I want to help you,” Liz caressed his face with her hand, “in any way I can.”

“You do,” Max let his lips linger over hers. “Just being with you helps me more than you’ll ever know.”

Tess watched the display between Max and Liz from the shadows, feeling disgusted by his blatant gushing over Liz. When was he going to realize that she was nothing but an inconsequential human, good for nothing except maybe servitude to a superior race. Why was he so blind?

* * * * *

Max walked toward Pierce, ready for another round of interrogation, with Michael and Valenti following right behind him. It was a simple plan, to occupy Pierce’s thoughts so Isabel could get inside his mind and ascertain Nasedo’s whereabouts, but simple plans didn’t always turn out simple. As Max neared, Pierce rose to his feet with a gun leveled straight at his chest.

Max felt the gut wrenching panic he’d experienced in the White Room taking hold, and then all hell broke loose. Valenti pulled his gun and fired, with Pierce ducking for cover and firing off a round that missed Max’s head only by inches. Michael pushed him down to protect him, and a burst of power shot from his hand, lifting Pierce off his feet and slamming him into the wall behind him. Pierce crumpled to the ground, and Max could tell by his posture that the FBI Agent wouldn’t be torturing any more aliens, or humans, ever again.

Valenti checked his body to make sure Pierce was dead, but the sight of the gun in his hand filled the Sheriff with dread. “It’s one of mine,” Jim said in confusion, wondering how Pierce could have gotten a hold of it. He looked around and his eyes fell on a sight that made the blood freeze in his veins. Kyle lay on the floor behind him with a red stain spreading across his chest.

“Kyle!” Jim cried out and fell to his knees next to his son. He could see the life draining out of him and he rocked back and forth with Kyle in his arms, sobbing, “Kyle . . . Kyle . . . no . . . Oh God, no . . .”

Max took a step closer, feeling his life spinning out of control. Pierce lay dead on the floor, and Kyle Valenti was going to join him quickly, if Max didn’t do something soon. His self-preservation instinct was telling him to run, to escape Roswell and all that had happened here, and then Valenti’s tortured voice broke through.

“Help him . . . someone help . . . Save my son. Please.”

Liz came up beside Max with her eyes full of tears and she looked at him without saying a word. She knew he had every right to walk away, to save himself from further exposure, but she hoped that he was the kind of man she thought he was. He proved her right when he knelt down beside Kyle and placed his hand on his chest. Jim watched spellbound as Max’s hand began to glow, and a fatal bullet hole to his son’s chest miraculously healed.

The others watched it all in silence, while Max collapsed to the ground next to Liz, drained physically, and emotionally, and hanging on by just a thread. Liz held him, and tried to comfort him as best she could, glad that he had made the right decision in saving Kyle, and sad that it was a decision he had had to make.

* * * * *

Liz stood in the background, pressing against the wall of the luminous chamber, watching as Max and Michael carried the body of the man they called Nasedo into the chamber. Of course ‘man’ wasn’t the right word. Nasedo wasn’t a man at all. He was what they called a shape shifter, a creature that could imitate another form, make his appearance look like anything he wanted it to be.

He was dead, and Max was going to try to bring him back to life. Max, and the other three. They set the body down on the ground and Max immediately rose to his feet and crossed the chamber to Liz.

“Are you okay?” he asked and reached for her hands. She looked scared, like a lost little girl. She looked tired too. On edge. It’d been a long day.

“I’m fine,” Liz answered, and the sound of it made Max look at her with arched eyebrows. He knew better than that. He’d spent a lifetime studying her face. He knew when something was bothering her. She smiled nervously and added, “Really, I’m fine. I just think . . . everything’s catching up to me.”

So many events had happened in the last 48 hours, her head was spinning. Max had been captured by the FBI, and then rescued, in large part by the efforts of Sheriff Valenti. She and Max had spent the night hiding from said FBI, a night that had resulted in the two of them bonding together, making love for the first time. The FBI had nearly caught them again, and Sheriff Valenti had come to the rescue once more. Max had admitted the truth to Valenti, about him and the others, and instead of the enemy they had feared he would be, the Sheriff had become an ally. Michael had killed Pierce in self-defense. Kyle had been fatally wounded by his father’s own gun, and Max had healed him, revealing his true nature to yet another human. Nasedo had been killed by the FBI and now they were in the cavern where Max had been ‘born’ and they were going to try to revive him.

Could her life get any stranger? Liz decided she better not tempt fate by asking that question out loud.

“I want to show you something,” Max said, drawing her deeper into the cavern. His hand slipped into hers, holding on to her securely, and she walked beside him trusting him completely in this alien setting. They came to a stop and Max pointed to four round structures embedded in the wall, glowing a luminous green.

“What are-” she started to say, and then she knew.

“That one’s mine,” Max pointed to the lower right pod. It was old, and shriveled up, but Liz could imagine what it had once looked like. “It was full of some kind of amniotic type fluid and we just . . . floated inside until it was time.”

“Time?” Liz asked.

“To be born,” Max stood staring at the pod, remembering what it had felt like to break through the membrane. “I came out first, then Isabel,” he pointed at the pod directly above his. His hand motioned toward the pod to the left of Isabel’s and then added, “then Michael.”

“So . . . that one . . .” Liz gestured to the pod on the left of the one that had harbored Max.

“That belonged to Tess,” Max answered and his hand squeezed hers tighter.

“Oh,” was all she could think to say. She had noticed right away how the two pods, Max and Tess’s were linked together. Was there a significance to that? Was there a reason that Max and Tess had pods that connected, and Michael and Isabel’s connected as well? Was there some alien meaning for the grouping? Max and Tess. Michael and Isabel.

“Come on, Maxwell,” Michael interrupted, holding out a healing stone for Max to take. “We’re wasting time. We need to do this.”

Max looked at Liz, silently apologizing for Michael’s rudeness, and then he took the stone out of his friend’s hand. They followed him back to where Nasedo’s body lay sprawled on the chamber floor and then Max motioned for Liz to stand over by the wall, not too far away, but not too close in case anything unusual happened.

Liz watched as Michael, Isabel, Max and Tess knelt beside the body with the healing stones cupped in their hands and their eyes closed in concentration. She felt like she was witnessing a ritual she wasn’t supposed to see. She didn’t belong here, in this alien world.

She felt like a fifth wheel, watching the four aliens perform some strange healing rite while the body at their feet changed shape in front of her eyes. She’d felt out of place as soon as she walked into the chamber and even more so when Max took her to see the four pods embedded in the wall.

She knew Max was an alien, had seen him perform unearthly feats, had felt the direct results of his healing power, but walking into this alien landscape, she felt his true alienness for the first time. She didn’t belong here. Is that how Max had felt all these years? Had he spent his entire life feeling as out of place in her world as she was feeling right now in his?

Watching the four kneeling around the body on the ground, she felt like she was intruding, an interloper, unwanted and unwelcome. Max was the only one that made her feel like she had a right to be here, in this place of his alien birth. Isabel and Michael had ignored her, which wasn’t unusual; they usually treated her as if she was insignificant. Tess, on the other hand, had been sending out vibes of disdain, contempt even.

It wasn’t hard to see that Tess wanted Max, and felt she had a right to him, and that Liz had no right to him at all. She knew the Destiny Book, the one Tess retrieved from the library, showed Tess with child, standing beside Max. Nasedo had told her all about it. Gloated about it. Insisted that Max and Tess were engineered to be together, but she thought he’d been lying, or making everything up. What if he wasn’t? What if it was all true?

The chamber filled with light and to Liz’s amazement, Nasedo returned to the outward appearance of Ed Harding and bounced to his feet as if he had never been injured, never been dead.

Tess threw herself at him and gushed, “I knew you wouldn't leave us!”

“You're not ready to be left alone,” Harding replied, staring at Tess and then giving the others a once over.

“You're right,” Michael insisted. “We need you. Show us how the orbs work.”

Ed Harding stared at Liz like she was a freak in a side show and said with unconcealed scorn, “She doesn't belong here.”

“She's with me,” Max said pointedly, making sure there was no doubt in any of them that Liz did belonged here. Referring to the orbs once again, he said, “We want to know. You're the only one who can show us.”

“It's not my job to show you,” Nasedo insisted. “My only job is to keep you alive.”

“Your job?” Max asked in surprise.

“Well if your only job is to keep us alive,” Michael demanded, “then tell us. They're communicators. They communicate with who?”

“You're not ready to know yet,” Nasedo insisted.

“They communicate with our home planet, don't they?” Michael pressed for more. “Why don't you want us to contact them?”

“Because you don't know who else you may contact in the process,” Nasedo said ominously.

“Who else is there?” Isabel asked.

“Set off those orbs, and you have no idea who you may be leading straight to us,” Nasedo threatened.

“You don't know, do you?” Max said as the realization struck him. “You don't know how to use the orbs. If you knew, you would've already used them. You're here to protect us, but not to lead us, you said it yourself. But if you're not the leader, who is?”

Liz watched the exchange and noticed how all eyes, even hers, turned to Max. It was automatic, as if they all knew without a shadow of a doubt that Max was in charge. He looked surprised, and then resigned, as if he had already accepted the burden, and acknowledging it was just a formality.

“If you really want to know what the orbs do,” Nasedo said flippantly, “you can find out for yourselves, I can't stop you. But do it at your own risk.”

“If you're really here to protect us, there's something you have to do,” Max told him. “The only way we can ever go back is if nobody's hunting us anymore.”

“Pierce is already dead,” Michael reminded him.

“He'll only be replaced, unless . . . we replace him.” Max turned his eyes back to Nasedo and a knowing look passed between them.

A white light glowed around the shapeshifter and his appearance changed from a middle age balding man, to the handsome features of Agent Pierce. Only Liz noticed the shudder that passed through Max when it happened.

“Now that I'm the head of their Special Unit we'll have all their resources,” Nasedo declared. “You'll be safe now.” With a nod to Max and after a long look at Tess, he left the chamber.

Max picked up the orb and stared at it before crossing over to stand beside Tess. “I want to know,” his eyes moved from Tess, to Isabel and then Michael. “Maybe if we just focus . . .”

Michael and Isabel held one orb in their layered hands, Max and Tess the other. They closed their eyes in concentration, while Liz watched them closely, feeling totally left out. This was a part of Max that she could never share, never be a part of. This was his alien side.

Max felt the orb giving off heat as he cradled it in his hand and he wondered, would this give him the answer to the riddle of his existence? Why was he here? For what purpose? Why did Nasedo infer he was the leader? He wasn’t the leader type. He spent his whole life hiding in the background. What kind of leader was that? Were there others like him, like the four of them, here on Earth?

A white light rose from the orbs and the chamber filled with the sound of a familiar beeping. A light shot up from the glowing emblem in the center of the orbs and met in the air above them. It floated downward and hovered not twenty feet away and a woman, glowing and dressed in white, took shape in front of them. The image wavered, crackling and indistinct, and then began to solidify. The five stared at her as her features came into focus, and then she spoke.

“If you are seeing me now, it means that you are alive and well. I take this form because it will be familiar to you, and it will help you to understand what I am about to say. You were sent to Earth on an urgent mission, to save our dying world.”

“Dying?” Michael let out in a panicky tone. He’d waited his whole life for someone to come and take him home, and now there was no world left to go home to? Max and Isabel looked at him, stunned by what they were hearing and concerned about their friend. They both knew how he had been pinning his hopes for years that someday, someone would come for him.

“Each of you was carefully selected for the skills you possess, paired so that you would enhance one another, and sent to this new world. Your essence was duplicated, cloned and blended with human genetic material so that you could survive here. Activation of this orb means that your Unit has reached maturity and you are ready for the next phase to begin.”

Isabel stiffened when the woman’s image was replaced by one of her own, standing with Michael, in an intimate embrace. She balked as the disembodied voice filled the chamber. “The constellations have aligned in a pattern that has awakened your biological drives.” It was Max’s turn to gasp next as the image once more changed, causing the blood to drain from his face. There before him was a sight that he railed against, him and Tess in the desert, on the hood of the jeep, lovers in the heat of a passionate kiss.

“No,” Max uttered a desperate cry that died on his lips. That couldn’t be right. He turned his head, glancing apprehensively at Tess and not liking the look in her eyes. He felt her lean closer to him and a pang of dread shot straight to his heart.

Liz shrank back against the wall, shocked and crushed by what she was seeing. Max and Tess. Lovers. It was what they were meant to be, just as Nasedo had told her. Oh God.

“Your mission is to find. . .” the voice suddenly cut out and the image blurred out of focus.

“What the hell –” Michael started to bark but Isabel cut him off.

“Quiet!”

Tess jumped at Isabel’s harsh shout and the image wavered wildly in and out of focus with the voice making undecipherable sounds. Max looked down at the orb in his hand while Isabel concentrated on the garbled noise. Tess stood next to Max with her eyes closed, while Liz stood in the shadows feeling alone and insignificant.

The unearthly image solidified once more and the woman’s voice filled the chamber, “–hone your skills, follow your biological directives to release the knowledge that is stored inside your minds so that you can complete your mission.”

The woman held out her arms as if she were encompassing the four of them and said her final words. “Know this. You hold the key to the survival of an entire race. Be careful. Your enemies are legion.”

“I always knew there was a reason we were here,” Michael declared. “But I had no idea how important it was. The survival of our entire race depends on us.”

Max stood in stunned silence, still trying to take it all in. Biological drives? Like in a sexual way? No, that couldn’t be. The message must have been damaged in the crash, that’s why it cut in and out like that. He looked around at the others, Michael looking like he finally had purpose, Isabel looking shell shocked, and Tess looking – he wasn’t sure how to describe it. Relieved? He didn’t know how to read her.

“Max?” Isabel looked to him for answers. “What does it mean?” Were she and Michael destined to be together, just like Tess had kept insisting? Some alien plan to save their planet? Were they programmed to be this way? Did they even have a choice?

“Whatever happens, we have to stay together,” Max said, and set the orbs aside. “It's the four of us now.” His eyes settled on Tess, knowing she was a part of this, whether he liked it or not. Whatever their ‘mission’ was, they would have to work together as a team to try to figure the puzzle out. The message hadn’t given them much to go on, but the urgency was clear. Their race was depending on them.

Liz watched in shock as Max looked from Michael to Isabel and then Tess as he finished that last sentence. ‘It’s the four of us now.’ Nowhere had he mentioned her. She didn’t belong here, not with them. The four of them had a mission, to ensure the survival of an entire race, and Liz knew she had no part in it. It was Michael and Isabel, and Max and Tess. Four aliens, two couples, made to be together. It was all so painfully clear.

“I knew this was meant to be,” Tess fell against Max, claiming him as hers.

“No,” Max stared down at Tess, shaking his head. Her clinginess repulsed him. He placed his hands on her shoulders and moved her aside, and headed straight for Liz. The look on her face scared him, and for the first time he realized how the message must have sounded to her ears. “Look, everything I told you before is still true.” He fought the rising panic, feeling her pull away. “This doesn’t change anything.”

“Max, you do have a destiny.” Liz felt devastated, reeling from the message sent from another world. “You just heard it. I can't stand in the way of it.” Everything Nasedo had told her was true. Everything.

“But you mean everything to me,” Max felt his heart breaking. His voice was despondent as he stared at her. What did she mean? Was she backing away from him? Because of what she’d just heard? He couldn’t live without her. She was his whole life. Nothing mattered without her. He felt her hand gently cup his face and then her lips were on his, but it wasn’t a kiss like before, not one filled with passion and love. No, this kiss was filled with pain and heartache. God no, she couldn’t mean . . . she wasn’t saying –

“Goodbye, Max,” Liz broke off the kiss and tried not to let him see the tears in her eyes. She needed to be strong. She needed to let him go. He didn’t belong to her. She wanted to die.

Max felt her hand lift from his cheek, leaving him feeling empty inside and then she was gone, rushing out of the chamber.

“Liz,” he called out as she disappeared through the entrance of the cave. “Liz.”

He followed her out to the cliff face, watching her scrambling down the rocks and he called to her again. “Liz, wait.” She turned to look at him with the most devastated look on her face that he had ever seen. She held his gaze for a moment and then turned away, fleeing into the desert. He moved to run after her but a hand closed around his arm, holding him back.

“You gotta let her go,” Michael said gently.

Max watched her lift her arms to her head, like she was covering her ears, too late to block out the words she’d heard in the cave. A sound drifted to him on the warm desert air, the sound of a sob and he shook Michael’s hand off his arm and raced after her.

“Max!” Michael cried out as he watched his friend race down the rock face.

“Liz!” Max called out as he chased after her. “LIZ! WAIT!” His foot slipped in his haste to catch up to her and he almost fell, swearing as he regained his balance. “LIZ! DON’T GO!”

With tears streaming down her face, Liz came to a sudden stop. She could sense him just a few feet behind her, feel his hesitance to come any closer. She heard the crunch of the rocks under his feet as he slowly narrowed the distance between them and she closed her eyes when she heard him speak in a voice that sounded like his heart was being torn apart.

“I love you, Liz. Please don’t go.”

With a catch in her voice she looked down over the desert floor and said, “You told me once that we were never meant to be together. I guess you were right.”

“No . . . I wasn’t,” Max countered, wishing he’d never said such a stupid thing. He took another step toward her, praying she wouldn’t run again. “I was completely wrong when I told you that. I do belong with you Liz. We belong together.”

“Max,” Liz looked over her shoulder in his direction but kept her eyes on the ground. She couldn’t bear to look at his face. “I heard what you heard, in the cave. You were made to be with Tess, for the survival of your race. I . . . I-”

“Liz,” Max came up behind her, standing just inches from her. He could see the tension in the set of her shoulders, feel the strain in the air all around her, and he knew he had to make her understand. “I don’t care what we heard up there in the cave. I love you, only you. We’ll find another way. I won’t give you up . . . unless . . . unless you don’t . . . want me.” He saw her back stiffen and he wondered if that was it. Slowly, hesitantly, he lifted his hand to her shoulder and said, “I’ll understand if it’s all too much for you. I wouldn’t blame you for walking away.”

“Oh Max,” she crumbled, leaning her cheek against the back of his hand. “I love you so much-”

“Then that’s all that matters,” Max spun her around and cupped her face with his hands. “I’ve loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you and I won’t give you up. Don’t ask me to.” His lips descended on hers, emphatically showing her just how much she meant to him. Her hands pushed against his chest, trying to push him away, but he wasn’t going to allow that. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her tightly against his body in a desperate attempt to get through to her, to prove to her that their love was strong enough to survive this.

His lips pressed desperately against hers, and then she was kissing him back, just as forcefully. Her arms stopped pushing against him and instead grabbed at him, deepening the kiss even more. They stood in the heat of the desert sun, holding each other tightly, unwilling to give up on the love that they finally had admitted they felt for each other. Nothing could tear them apart . . . could it?

Michael was joined by Isabel and Tess, watching the display on the rocks below them. Michael frowned in displeasure, wondering what Max thought he was doing. Hadn’t he heard a single word of the message in the cave? They were here for a reason, and that reason didn’t include Liz Parker.

Isabel stared at her brother in sympathy. She’d known Max had been in love with Liz for years, but sometimes you couldn’t have what you wanted. Sometimes you had to sacrifice for the good of the whole. He might not see that now, but he would. Max would do the right thing, even if he didn’t want to.

Tess narrowed her eyes, seething inside as she watched the display below her. The sight of the two of them, together, was an insult, an affront to decency, an outrage. Max had just been told he belonged with her, not Liz, yet he was ignoring his duty, his destiny, for the sake of that stupid little human bitch.

But not for long, Tess silently vowed. Max was too caught up in his human side – his weaker half – but that would change soon. The message she’d made them see in the cave was just the start. Michael was already playing into her hands, and Isabel was crumbling. Max would be the hard one to turn, but it wouldn’t be long before all three of them cast off their humanity for a better way of life. An alien way of life.

And then Tess was going to make Liz pay dearly for trying to take her man.

[Breathless]

Since this is a Roswell Fanfic site, I admit that I just assumed using lines and scenes from the show to be “acceptable”. In this story, I have used generous quotes in part 3 and 4, passages right from the script, in order to set the tone for what’s to come.

That said, part 4 left Roswell season 1 behind, and part 5 ushers in my version of season 2. As I said in the beginning, the first 4 parts of this story followed along the show with a few MAJOR exceptions, those being that Max and Liz made love the night they spent in the van, and later, at the end of part 4, Max didn’t stand “passively watching” while Liz ran from the cave. He chased after her to prove to her that their love was worth fighting for. Many of you had stated that you didn’t want Liz running from Max, but that wasn’t what bothered me in the show. I could understand why she did. Max standing there, letting her go, was where the show took a nose dive, in my humble opinion. So I changed that, and my Max went after her.

Also, I had a hard time accepting the whole “King” thing. It never seemed believable to me that an advanced race, capable of interstellar travel, would still submit to rule under a feudal society. In Destiny, the mom-o-gram called Max “the beloved leader of their world”, and it wasn’t until season 2 that that somehow morphed into King Zan. So for the purposes of this story, Max and his band of aliens are NOT the “Royal Four”. They did NOT live a previous life. Tess was never Max’s (or Zan’s) “wife”. Is Max the leader of this band of aliens? Yes. What does that mean? What kind of leader? You’ll have to keep reading to find out.

So, that said, off we go into my Roswell land, where Max loves Liz and Liz loves Max, and Tess is . . . choose your own SAT word.





Aftermath
Part 5

Michael paced around his apartment waiting for Isabel to show. Tess watched him from the threadbare furniture that could barely be called a chair it was so old and pathetic, and with the shadows playing across her face, her emotions were hidden.

They were so weak, Tess thought contemptuously. Michael and Isabel and Max. Especially Max. He couldn’t see beyond the sappy eyes of a dark haired girl. A human. Didn’t he know how far beneath him she was? Couldn’t any of them see how inadequate the human race was? How inconsequential they were? Why was Max wasting his time and his energy on that little worthless bitch?

The front door to Michael’s apartment suddenly opened and Isabel entered, looking around the room cautiously. Michael was agitated, she could see that right away as he stopped his pacing to stare at her. Tess, on the other hand, was impassive. Totally unreadable.

Isabel had no idea what was going on behind those icy blue eyes, and that disturbed her. She could read Max like an open book. Michael too. She’d spent her entire life with them and they shared secrets no one else could ever know. Tess was like them, an alien bioengineered to look human, but there was something different about her. Something . . . alien. Isabel didn’t trust her.

For the first time in her life, she found herself believing more in the humans she had shunned for so long, than in one of her own kind, and the knowledge was disconcerting. Everything used to be so clear. Who she could trust and who she couldn’t. It had always been her and Max and Michael. They didn’t need anyone else. But in the last few months, ever since that day Max saved Liz Parker’s life, everything had gone crazy.

Looking around, she could see that Max wasn’t here and with her brows knitting together in a frown she asked, “What’s going on here? Where’s Max?”

“Where do you think he is?” Michael nearly spit out the words.

Isabel could see that Michael was angry, or maybe it was just frustration. Wearily she asked, “Why did you call me here?”

“We need to talk.” Michael fixed her with an unblinking stare.

“Without Max?” she questioned. Max was the leader. They never discussed important things without him being present.

“We need to talk about Max,” Michael stressed.

* * * * *

Max sat in the booth watching Liz as she moved around the diner. He picked up a cold French fry from his plate, absently chewing on it as she filled coffee cups and topped off water glasses. He was good at this, watching Liz Parker. He’d had a lot of practice over the years.

Tonight was different though. In fact, all week he had seen her in a different light. A week ago, a month ago, a year ago, hell his entire life, he had been in love with Liz Parker. And now, since the tumultuous events of the last week, now he knew just how much she loved him back. His mind, body and soul hummed with the knowledge.

His pulse quickened as her eyes met his and she walked in his direction. The bottom snap on her uniform had come undone and he couldn’t keep the image of her soft creamy skin from flashing across his mind. His stomach grumbled and he felt the tightening in his groin. The heat rose within him as she slid into the booth across from him.

“Hi,” he said with a grin plastered to his face.

“Hi,” she smiled back, feeling the intensity of his gaze.

“When do you get off?” he hoped it would be soon.

“A few minutes,” she noticed the way his eyes flashed.

“Can we go somewhere?” he asked.

“Like where?” Their fingers were drawn together, interlacing on top of the table.

“I don’t know . . .” he hesitated and dropped his eyes. But he did know. He knew exactly where he wanted to take her. He knew exactly what he wanted to do with her when he got there. If he got there. If she’d go. Lifting his eyes up to meet hers, he said, “I thought, maybe, we could . . . go up to Buckley Point.”

“Max . . .” Liz dropped her eyes from his and pulled her hand back.

“Liz, please,” he reached across the table to take her hand again.

“Max, we agreed to take things slow . . .” she reminded him.

“I know,” he hastened to say. They’d been walking on pins and needles since last week, when they’d seen the message in the cave. He’d convinced her that his destiny was with her, not with Tess, or he hoped he had, but she still seemed uncertain. “I just want to be alone with you, just for a while. It’s quiet there, and we can talk . . .”

“Talk.” Liz raised her eyebrows and he felt his cheeks flush.

“Whatever you want, Liz,” he squeezed her hand. “I just want to be with you, alone, somewhere where no one will bother us.”

“Max-”

“I just want to talk. I just want to be near you. We won’t do anything you don’t want to do.”

Seeing the wistful look in his eyes she sighed inwardly. She still wasn’t sure she was doing the right thing. Her brain said she should walk away, that she shouldn’t interfere in the life he was meant to live. But her heart couldn’t give him up. She loved him too much to let him go.

“Okay,” she said softly and smiled as his face lit up. “Let me just . . . let me . . . I have to . . .” she pointed over to the customers standing by the register, ready to pay for their meal. Max could make her so flustered sometimes, just by the look in his eyes.

He glanced over toward the front of the Crashdown and then quickly back at her when he felt her rise from the booth. He squeezed her hand, reluctant to let her go even if it was only for a few minutes. Her fingers brushed back the hair on his forehead and she said, “I’ll be right back.”

Max watched her as she finished her shift and then she headed toward the back to change. Even though he tried not to, he couldn’t stop the image that leapt into his mind. The memory flashed over him from a week ago, the sight of her lying beside him in the old van still as fresh as the night it happened. The passionate moans that escaped from her lips that night still rang in his ears. The feel of her soft flesh pressed against his still made his skin tingle. He wanted her in the worst way, but he had to be patient and wait for her.

His breath caught in his throat when he saw her come back through the swinging door. She’d changed into that red sweater that he liked so much, the one with all the little white buttons down the front. Her black skirt hugged her hips and showed off her shapely legs, and the black leather boots made him stand up and take notice.

“Let’s go,” she held her hand out to him when she reached the table. His hand slid into hers and as he slipped from the booth he wondered if she could tell how much she affected him. He should have worn a looser pair of pants.

When they reached the street, Max helped Liz climb into the jeep. He felt the urge to cup her ass with his hand, to feel her soft roundness, but he fought it. He was sure groping her right here on the street wouldn’t fit her definition of taking things slow.

As he walked around the jeep to the driver’s side he uttered a profanity under his breath. Not for the first time, he was cursing the day Tess showed up in Roswell. Everything had gone to hell when she appeared. He just wanted her to leave him alone so that he and Liz could get back to the way things were.

A nearby streetlight hummed and then flashed as it burned out, and Max’s reaction was swift. He dropped to his knees, crouching on the ground, feeling the hair rise on the back of his neck. For a moment he was back in the White Room, tied to a chair with the machine next to him humming, sending bolts of electricity into his brain, burning his skin, killing him –

“Max?”

He flinched at the hand that touched his shoulder and then looked up to see Liz hovering over him, with concern etched on her face. It took him a moment to shake off the memory of his torture, and he tried to cover as best he could, even though he was shaking. He didn’t want to worry her.

“I dropped my keys,” he picked them up from the ground and showed Liz. He rose to his feet, hoping she wouldn’t notice the way his hand was shaking.

She noticed.

“You okay?” she asked in a small voice.

“Fine,” he lied. He just wanted to protect her. He didn’t want to burden her with his nightmares.

“Okay,” she said, and slowly walked back to her side of the jeep. She knew he was having a hard time coping in the wake of his ordeal; Pierce, and what they’d done to him in the White Room, and then the responsibility of the message in the cave. She didn’t want to add to his stress by forcing him to talk about it before he was ready. His life had been through enough hell in the last week to last him a lifetime.

Max settled in behind the wheel and asked, “All set?”

“Yeah,” she nodded and silently, they drove out of town.

* * * * *

“Isabel,” Michael raked a hand through his unkempt hair. “It’s been a week and Max is still holding hands with Liz and acting like nothing has changed. We’re not getting any closer to the answers.”

Isabel stared at him in exasperation. She wished she’d never heard that damned message in the cave. They weren’t alien, or human, but something in between. Alien/human hybrids. Freaks of nature, with secrets hidden inside their minds, waiting for their biological drives to unlock them. All of it felt so wrong.

“What do you expect him to do? Drop Liz and run to Tess?”

‘Whatever it takes to get the answers!” Michael snarled back, letting his frustration show.

Tess felt a surge of adrenaline as she heard Michael’s support swing in her direction. Her eyes flashed in triumph and then she quickly hid it so they wouldn’t see.

“Is that what you expect from me?” Isabel folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes in anger.

“Isabel, I . . .” Michael sagged a little. He didn’t know what to say to her. He was as confused about the things they’d seen and heard in the cave as she was. He couldn’t deny that the dreams he and Isabel had shared, as upsetting as they were, had given him a sense of belonging he hadn’t felt before. The message in the cave supported those dreams. They were made to be together, but at the same time, something just didn’t feel . . . right.

“It’s what’s meant to be, Isabel,” Tess tried to sound sympathetic. “It’s what we were created for. You and Michael, me and Max. It’s our destinies.”

“Our destinies?” Isabel was shaking inside. “So I’m suppose to just hop in his bed?” she waved her hand at Michael. “How is that supposed to unlock our memories?”

“It’s chemical,” Tess fought hard to keep her voice calm and level. “Nasedo told me that sexual activity between two hybrids causes chemical changes in our neural pathways. Those chemicals dissolve the neural block that keeps our secrets locked away. The more intense the sexual activity, the more chemical is released. Our creators wanted to keep our purpose hidden until we were old enough to understand what we were sent here to do.”

“So we’re just –” Isabel choked back the tears and turned on Michael. “You’d do that to Maria? You said you loved her!”

“Leave Maria out of this,” Michael said though clenched teeth and turned away from her.

“Michael, we were in the pods for 40 years! And we don’t even know how long it took to get here. Maybe our race doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe no one else survived.”

“We don’t know that!” Michael spun around to face her. “That’s precisely why we need to unlock the secrets that are inside us. To find out the truth.”

“I’m not a robot that can be programmed when to eat and when to sleep and who to sleep with!” Isabel fumed. “There must be another way.”

“No!” Tess heard the over reaction in her voice and she forced herself to calm down. “No, it’s the only way. You heard the message. Don’t fight it Isabel. It’s what we were meant to do. It’s our destiny.”

“Michael,” Isabel recoiled. “You’ve been like . . . I’ve always thought of you as my brother. I can’t . . . I can’t . . .” she covered her face with her hands, wishing she’d never seen that message in the cave.

“Isabel . . .” Michael softened and sat next to her on the couch. He felt the same way she did. They were family, had been ever since they emerged from the pods. But he’d spent his whole life wondering who and what he was, and finally the answers seemed so close. He draped his arm around her shoulder in a brotherly gesture and said, “Maybe the book. If we can decipher the Destiny book, maybe we’ll get the answers there.”

“No!” Tess blurted out, and then cringed when both of them turned to stare at her in surprise. Shit! She’d almost blown it. She needed to keep control of the book. They were only allowed to know what she deemed appropriate for them to know. Trying to turn their focus in a different direction, Tess said, “Well . . . there’s . . .”

“There’s what?” Michael and Isabel pounced.

“Well,” Tess hedged. It could buy her more time and it wouldn’t hurt. “I could try memory retrieval. Nasedo taught me how.”

* * * * *

“C’mon,” Max uttered with a shy smile and reached for her hand. Bending his head so as not to bump into the soft top of the jeep, he squeezed between the front seats and pulled her into the back. It was a warm June night, but he didn’t want to take the top down. He wanted them to have as much privacy as they could get.

He settled in the back seat, giving Liz’s hand a tug so that she would join him. She squeezed between the seats just as he had a moment ago, and then his hands were on her hips, pulling her onto his lap.

“Max,” she pressed her hands lightly against his chest. “I thought you wanted to talk.”

“I do,” his breath was warm on her throat as he kissed and nibbled her. His hand rose up the back of her neck, burying his fingers in the silky strands of her hair and then his lips found hers to take her in a heated kiss. His right arm wrapped around her hips, pulling her tight against him.

“Max,” she sighed when they finally broke for air.

“What do you want to talk about?” he mumbled, with his lips brushing over the skin at the base of her throat. She could feel his hand rising up her ribs and then she felt the shock of it as he grazed over her breast. His pulse quickened when he heard her sudden inhalation of breath and then his fingers were moving over the small white buttons of her sweater, slowly unfastening one after another.

His lips dropped down from her throat, inching lower down her chest as her sweater opened to reveal her creamy soft skin. He reached half way and his hand developed a mind of its own, forsaking the buttons and cupping her breast through the soft material of her top. God, he wanted her so much, wanted to touch her, and love her and feel her loving him back.

“Max,” she said and his lips covered hers to silence her.

His hand squeezed her, feeling her nipple harden even through the fabric. The moans coming from her throat were enough to drive him crazy with need and he remembered the first time he heard her moan like this, in the kitchen of the Crashdown, when he’d come to see her that night. He hadn’t been able to stay away from her then either, even though he had tried to convince himself that he should. He’d walked through the front doors and stopped in his tracks, seeing her on the floor with strawberries spilled all around her. God, she made his blood boil that night.

He’d followed her into the kitchen and as she moved around the room his temperature kept rising. Things had been tense between them since his drunken episode the week before and he’d tried to lighten the mood by joking about him having orders from his planet to take over the earth. When she’d said they could be friends, just friends, he instinctively reacted, knowing that just friends would never be enough. He’d grabbed her arm and pulled her to him and as he kissed her, the room filled with her sounds, her moans, and through their connection he knew she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

He felt it now too, heard it in the sounds escaping from deep in her throat, those moans that were meant only for him. Even as her hands pushed him back, he could feel how much she wanted him to take her, right here, right now, right in the back of the jeep.

“Max,” she pulled her lips back from his. “We said we were going to take things slow.”

“Slow,” he murmured as he fumbled for the clasp on the front of her bra. He buried his face between her breasts and when the clasp finally came undone, his lips moved in quickly, taking one pouty nipple into his mouth. Her back arched with pleasure as he licked at it, teased it, sucked it past his hungry lips.

Max,” she cupped his face between her hands and pulled him up until they were nearly nose to nose. “What about Tess? What about what the message said? You’re supposed to be with her-”

“No!” he denied it emphatically. His hands rose to flank her face, staring deeply into her eyes. “I’m supposed to be with you. Only you. I’ve always known it. From the moment that I saw you, I knew you were the only one.” He kissed her heatedly to emphasize his words.

“But Max, what about the cave?” she asked plaintively. “You heard what I heard.”

“We’ll find another way,” Max vowed. “There has to be another way.” He stared into her eyes, willing her to let the message go. There was no way he could ever give her up, not to fulfill some programmed destiny he didn’t want any part of. Fuck destiny. He’d spent his whole life denying himself what he wanted, and he wasn’t going to do it any more. He wanted Liz, to be with him always.

“I love you, Liz.” The words begged her to believe him.

“Oh Max,” she sighed, surrendering to her own desires. “I love you. So much.”

He could see it in her eyes, the truth she couldn’t hide from him. She loved him just as much as he loved her. She didn’t want to give him up for some ‘Greater Cause’, any more than he was willing to let her go to complete his supposed ‘Destiny’.

His lips locked onto hers and he chased her down to the seat, loving her with his mouth and his hands. He peeled the sweater away from her, feeling no resistance from her now. Her eager hands tore at his hair, his shirt, wanting the closeness they had shared before. He shifted position, lifting from the seat and hovering above her. His hand closed around her left leg, guiding it to his right side and as her legs parted his hips slid between them.

He kissed her hard, pressing her down into the seat, pressing his weight down on top of her. She could feel how much he wanted her, how hard he’d become and she remembered how it had felt to feel that hardness inside of her. She wanted to feel that way again.

“Max,” she said heatedly as his lips kissed a trail down her chest. She wasn’t trying to be sensible anymore. She just wanted him. His mouth covered her nipple and she arched upward as he worked his magic with his lips and his teeth and his tongue. She felt his hand go to the front of his jeans, heard the rip of the zipper as he tore it open, releasing him from the tight restriction. His hand moved under her skirt to cup her butt and he lifted her up against his stiff cock, with only the thin fabric of their undergarments separating their heated sex.

He moved against her, wanting her so much and knowing she wanted him, when suddenly the sound of an engine broke the quiet of the night air. A motorcycle engine. A light pierced the darkness, wobbling back and forth as the bike bounced over the rough terrain. Max sat up hastily, pulling Liz up with him and she sat on his lap facing him with her legs flanking his thighs, trying to clutch her sweater to her chest. Max surrounded her with his arms, holding her close to protect her and to shield her partial nudity from prying eyes. Michael’s face appeared in the window of the driver’s side door and Max did a slow burn, pissed beyond words at the intrusion.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Max barked out, glaring at Michael with fire in his eyes.

Michael swept his gaze over Liz and then focused his steely eyes on Max. The tone of his voice was tight when he said, “We need to talk.”

[Breathless]

Aftermath
Part 6



Liz could feel Max’s anger as they drove in silence toward Michael’s apartment. She’d been terribly embarrassed when Michael caught them in the back of the jeep, and Max had been so mad he’d inadvertently made the headlight on Michael’s motorcycle explode. For a minute she had thought Max was going to deck Michael and she’d had to come between them, holding them apart until they both calmed down.

“Whatever they want to talk about,” she ventured forth to break the tension filled silence, “it must be important.”

Watching him from her side of the jeep, she could see the way his jaw clenched in anger, his brow furrowed in a deep frown, his mouth set in a grim line. When he spoke, his tone was harsh, harsher than she’d ever heard it before.

“They never care about what’s important to me. They never care about how I feel. I’m tired of always feeling like I have to apologize because-”

He shut up suddenly and darted a look in her direction, kicking himself for what he’d almost said. It didn’t matter though. She already knew what it was.

“Because of me,” she finished for him. They didn’t approve of his relationship with her. They never had.

“No,” he looked over at her with his melancholy eyes. “Not you. They don’t have anything against you, Liz. It’s . . .”

“Us,” she finished. “They don’t want us to be together. Especially now.”

“Don’t Liz,” he covered her hand with his. “I don’t care what they think. I don’t care what anyone thinks, except you. Don’t let this come between us.”

“But what if this is wrong, Max?” she asked, trying not to let her voice quiver. “What if we are wrong?”

He whipped the jeep over to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes. Turning to face her, he put his hands on her arms and squeezed tightly. Fear of losing her was driving him. “We are NOT wrong, Liz. Us being together is the rightist thing that has ever happened to me.”

“You don’t know how much I want that to be true,” her voice quivered.

“It is true, Liz. Don’t ever doubt it.” He crushed her to him, holding her tight, wishing things didn’t have to be so complicated.

* * * * *

They pulled to a stop in front of Michael’s apartment and Max sat there for a moment staring through the windshield, steeling himself for the coming encounter. Yanking his keys from the ignition, he climbed from the jeep and as he walked around the front he could see Liz sitting in the passenger seat, unmoving. His step faltered, wondering what she was thinking as she stared toward the lighted windows of the apartment building, and then he slowly came up to her side of the car.

“What’s the matter?” he asked softly through the open window.

She turned her eyes to meet his and then dropped them down to stare at her hands in her lap. “Maybe you should just take me home first. I . . . I don’t belong here.”

“Yes, you do,” Max reached through the window and cupped her cheek with his hand, lifting her chin until her eyes met his again. Locking onto her gaze, he underscored it when he said again, “Yes. You do.”

“They don’t want me here,” Liz shook her head.

“I want you here,” Max stressed. “Liz, I’m not going to let anyone chase you away. We’re together in this. In everything, right?”

She nodded slowly and a look of relief crossed his face. His fingers brushed over her cheek with that soft touch she knew so well, and then he opened the door and reached for her hand to help her out. He could hear her take a deep breath as they began the walk toward Michael’s door, and he slipped his hand into hers, lacing their fingers together in unity.

* * * * *

Tess heard the sound of the door swinging open and her head turned in that direction expectantly. It was about time Max finally made an appearance. It was time for him to start accepting his – and then she saw her. What was wrong with him? How could he bring Liz here? Narrowing her eyes she felt her anger rise. He was holding her hand like some lovesick puppy.

Max led Liz into the apartment, feeling her discomfort at the eyes that had turned to stare at her. Her hand tried to pull away from his and he held her tighter, unwilling to let her go. He wanted everyone to be quite clear on this. Liz was his, and he was never giving her up. Michael was frowning. Isabel was looking like her best friend had died. Tess looked impassive. Max steered Liz over to the couch and sat down, pulling her down next to him and draping his arm around her shoulders possessively.

“So,” he said patronizingly to the others, “what did you want to talk about?”

Michael took a deep breath, trying to hold his temper in. He didn’t need Max’s holier than thou attitude.

“We’re here to talk about trying to figure out why we’re here, on this hell hole of a planet,” Michael reminded him.

“If I remember correctly,” Max said snidely, “the message I heard said our planet was dying, so it looks like this ‘hell hole of a planet’ as you call it is all we have.”

“Will you both just stop it,” Isabel snapped. “For once, can we have a civil conversation here?”

“Isabel’s right,” Tess said smoothly. She smiled inwardly when all eyes turned to look at her, smug in the knowledge that they were so easily manipulated. Outwardly, her appearance remained serene. “Can we just talk about this calmly?”

Max closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and finger. He was still pissed about Michael coming out to Buckley Point to track him down.

“Look, there may be a way to make this work,” Tess offered. Max focused on her again and she felt her anger flare when his hand took Liz’s and held it in his lap. Keeping her disgust in check, she said, “Nasedo taught me some things, because we didn’t know if we would ever find you. There was the very real possibility that I’d always be alone and he wanted me to be able to take care of myself.”

She noticed the way Max’s eyes softened at that and she sensed he was feeling empathy for her, that she had been raised alone while the three of them had grown up together. This was good. She made a mental note of it, certain that the information would be useful.

“Like what?” Max asked.

“Like memory retrieval,” Tess answered.

“What?” Max perked up. He sat forward, listening intently.

“Yes,” she smiled demurely at him. “The message said we have memories locked inside us that will explain our mission, our purpose here. I may be able to help you retrieve yours.”

“How?” he asked.

“We’d have to connect,” she said and when his jaw tightened she hastily added, “Not in a sexual way.” His visible relief made her fume inside, but outwardly she remained calm. “We would have to connect mentally. You’d have to open your mind and let me in and then I could show you how to do it. Walk you through it.”

“You know how to do that?” Max asked and then looked at Liz, wondering if she was thinking the same thing he was.

“I’ve never tried it before on anyone else, but it’s worth a shot, right?” she smiled sweetly.

“Yeah,” Max could feel the pressure lifting. If this worked, maybe the rest of them would get off his fucking back. Maybe they’d leave him and Liz alone, and they could be together without any repercussions. He could see the relief on Isabel’s face too, and Michael’s. He knew deep down that neither one of them wanted to go through with the other option, the one they’d heard in the cave.

“We won’t know until we try,” Tess fixed him with her crystal blue gaze. She might enjoy this little game. Once Max willingly let her into his mind, she could make him see just about anything she wanted to. She had to fight the urge to laugh out loud.

* * * * *

Max walked Liz to the front doors of the Crashdown, wishing that their evening wasn’t coming to an end already. There was unfinished business between them, just ask the lingering ache in his groin. Was she feeling as unsatisfied as he was? Damn Michael anyway. Could his timing have been any worse?

He’d only made love to Liz once, that night in the van on the run from the FBI. After the message in the cave the next day, Liz had wanted to slow things down between them, to make sure that they were doing the right thing. Did she still feel that way now, after hearing what Tess said tonight?

“Do you think your parents are still up?” he asked and then his mouth did that cute little twist he always did when he was nervous. She thought it was adorable.

“Maybe,” she hedged. “Maybe not.”

“Do you . . . can I . . . is it okay of I-”

“Meet me on my balcony?” she said shyly.

“Yeah,” Max grinned. There went his stomach again, grumbling loud enough to wake the dead.

“I’ll meet you in two minutes!” she laughed and raced for the Crashdown doors. He watched her insert the key in the lock, the whole time she kept turning around to look at him with that sexy smile on her face. As she pushed through the restaurant doors, Max ran for the ladder in the alley. He climbed quickly, beating Liz to her room, and stood in the dark on her balcony waiting for her bedroom light to flicker on.

After what felt like an eternity, it finally did. He could just barely see her standing in her doorway and then the sound of her muffled voice reached him. So her parents weren’t asleep yet after all. He thought he heard her say “Goodnight” and then there she was on the other side of her window, smiling at him through the clear glass.

“Did you miss me?” she asked as she raised the windowpane.

“You know I did,” he whispered back and dropped down to her level. His eyes drifted past her shoulder to her bed, wondering what it would be like to spend the night there, with her, on a soft mattress with clean smelling sheets instead of a musty old couch in a deserted wreck of a van. He saw her eyes drop and her cheeks flush pink when she realized where he was looking, and he tried to rein in his one track mind.

“It’s warm. Do you want to come outside?”

He didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable. This was her bedroom and her parents were just down the hall. He had to be good, even if it was going to kill him. How many cold showers was he going to have to take in this lifetime?

“Okay,” she said softly and he backed up, giving her room to climb through the window. He drew her to her feet and they made their way across the balcony to the lounger by the brick wall. It wasn’t really big enough for two, but they always found a way to make it work. Max sat down first and then stretched out, pulling Liz down on top of him.

“This is more like it,” Max smiled and his teeth gleamed in the starlight. Her body stretched out over his and she felt so light, her weight was hardly noticeable. He was, however, highly aware of her hips pressing against his and her stomach flat on his and her breasts squishing against his chest.

It was torture. Pure torture. Sweet, beautiful torture.

Lying on top of him was sending her into heaven. His body was hard, in more ways than one. His chest was like steel, his stomach rippling with muscles and that hard sensation poking into her stomach wasn’t his belt buckle. She decided it should be illegal to have a body as gorgeous as Max Evans’.

“My parents . . . aren’t asleep . . .yet . . .” she stumbled over her words feeling tongue-tied.

“I know,” he sighed and smiled when he saw her eyebrows rise. “I heard you tell them goodnight.”

Reluctantly, he shifted her over until she was stretched out beside him and he wrapped his arm comfortingly around her shoulders. They lay side by side, staring up at the stars, while they pointed out the constellations to each other.

“There’s the Big Dipper,” Max pointed high in the sky.

“And the Little Dipper’s there,” Liz pointed lower.

“And there’s Orion,” Max pointed to the south.

“We should take Astronomy together in the fall,” Liz suggested excitedly. “We could sign up for it now!”

“That’s a great idea!” Max beamed. He wanted to take as many classes with her as he could. He didn’t want to be apart from her for a single moment if he didn’t have to.

“Well, that’s settled then!” She fell silent for a few moments while they studied the stars and then she brought them both back to reality when she softly said, “I wonder which one is yours?”

Of course he knew right away what she meant. His planet. The world he came from. Which point of light up there was the one he could call home? Could they even see it from here?

“It’s important that you know,” Liz said softly. “Isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Max admitted. He glanced at her quickly and then looked back up at the points of fire that twinkled above them. “We’ve spent our whole lives wondering where we came from, and why we were brought here.” He turned his eyes on her and his fingers brushed over her cheek. “It’d be nice to know the answers.”

After a long pause, she asked, “Do you think Tess can give you the answers? I mean,” she added hastily, “through the memory retrieval?”

Her eyes were so dark and so round and he felt so protective of her, he was willing to say anything to set her mind at ease. He wasn’t so sure about the memory retrieval, but he didn’t want her to know that. He didn’t trust Tess. She had seemed almost too eager to try it. Did she have some ulterior motive in mind? She was different than the rest of them. Not as . . . human.

Despite those feelings, he tried to sound encouraging. “I think so. It’s our only good option right now.”

He held Liz close and they talked about the stars, and space and traveling across light years. They talked deep into the night, about inconsequential things so that they wouldn’t have to talk about the things that were bothering them the most. They lay within the warmth and security of each others arms and it wasn’t long before the day caught up with them and first Liz, and then Max, fell silent as sleep claimed them.

And with sleep came the dream . . .



“Do you know what this is Max?” Pierce asked as he turned around, showing his captive the silver metallic object he was holding in his hand. “We found this in the ’47 Crash.” His cold eyes rose from the object, piercing Max with his steady gaze. “It’s not from around here.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Max begged. He didn’t know how much more of this he could stand. The torture had been relentless and his body had the scars to prove it. Sweet, merciful Jesus, please bring this to an end.

Death would be welcome over this never ending pain, but then he’d never see Liz again. He had to fight, keep going no matter what they did to him, hoping beyond hope that somehow he’d escape this hell, and find his way back to Liz.

“Make the orb work!” Pierce demanded.

“I don’t know how,” Max cried out and then Pierce turned up the dial, sending another stab of electricity coursing through his convulsing body . . .



Liz woke to the sounds of a tortured animal coming from close by. Momentarily confused, she wondered where she was. She wasn’t in her bed, that much she knew right away. She felt movement next to her and her surroundings came into focus. It was dark, and she was on her balcony, and she wasn’t alone. Max was lying next to her, struggling in his sleep, fighting against some dream phantom. His legs were twitching and his arms were pushing against some unseen demon that was haunting him. The tortured sounds coming from his throat didn’t even sound human.

“Max?” she said softly, trying to wake him. “Max.”

“No. NO,” he cried out in his sleep and his arm struck out trying to defend himself. His hand grazed her shoulder, knocking Liz sideways and almost out of the lounger. She sat back up quickly, grabbing at his hands to quiet him.

“Max!” she shook him, trying to wake him. “MAX. WAKE UP!” She darted her eyes toward her bedroom, hoping her parents couldn’t hear what was going on out here on her balcony. Turning back to him, she shook his shoulder harder. “Max. You have to wake up.”

He bolted up from his dream with terror in his eyes. Pierce. The White Room. Needles. Ice. Pain. So much pain. Death. Death was waiting for him in The White Room, and it wanted him back. A scream caught in his throat.

“Max!” Liz grabbed his arms. “It was a dream. Just a dream.”

He sucked in a deep breath, fighting back the scream, and his eyes slowly focused on her face. Liz. His Liz. His friend. His lover. His life. His ragged breathing slowed as the dream retreated and her reassuring presence calmed him.

“Liz,” her name tore from his lips and he clutched her, burying his face against the warmth of her chest. She could feel him trembling, shaking from the horrors of the dream, and her arms went around him, comforting him with her soothing touch.

“It’s over,” she consoled him. “It’s okay. It’s over now. No one can hurt you anymore.” Her tone was quiet and calming and her fingers stroked through his hair, offering him whatever comfort she could give him. She kissed him softly on the forehead, highly aware of the way his hands clenched her sweater in tight fists, and long minutes passed before she felt his grip start to relax.

He lifted his head and began to pull away from her with his eyes downcast, and he said in dismay, “I’m sorry . . .”

He was avoiding eye contact with her and this disturbed her more than his reaction to the dream. She brushed his hair back from his face and cupped his cheeks, raising his chin until his eyes met hers. “Sorry? What are you sorry about? Who wouldn’t have nightmares after what you’ve been through?”

“You shouldn’t see me like this-” he shook his head back and forth.

“We’re in this together, right? Through the good and the bad.” She stared into his lost eyes and her heart cried for him. He’d been through so much and he was keeping it all locked up inside. “Max, I want to help you. You’ve been through something horrible and it wouldn’t be human not to have it leave scars on you.”

“But that’s just it, Liz,” his eyes lowered again. In a small voice he said, “I’m not human.”

“You’re more human than anyone I’ve ever met,” Liz countered. His eyes met hers again and she could see a spark there, a lessening of his despair. Trying to ease his stress, she smiled and lightly teased, “You didn’t take that as an insult, did you?”

“No,” a small smile played over his lips. “You can call me human if you want.”

He only wished that were true. If only he could live a normal life, as a normal human being, with normal teenage problems like passing the next history exam. Instead, he had to worry about the FBI wanting to slice him open to see how he worked. Or the fate of an entire world, locked up inside his head.

“Let me help you, Max,” she wrapped him in her arms, feeling his cheek press into her breast.

“You do, Liz,” Max closed his eyes, breathing in her calming scent. “Just by being you.”

[Breathless]

Aftermath
Part 7



Max rolled his jeep to a silent stop in front of his house, having cut the engine half way down the block. He didn’t want anyone to hear him coming home at this hour of the night. It would be daybreak soon, and hopefully he could sneak back into the house with no one the wiser that he hadn’t slept in his own bed.

His thoughts were full of Liz, wishing that he was still with her now, sleeping contentedly in her arms on the lounger out on her balcony. But the nightmare had ruined what should have been a peaceful night, and after she calmed him, he’d reluctantly headed home. He hated being apart from her, knew that he only felt right when he was with her, but staying with her all night wasn’t an option. Not yet. Maybe someday.

He climbed out of the jeep and made his way around the side of the house to his bedroom window. He heard a sound, the snap of a twig or the flutter of a leaf, and he jerked his head to the left to see what had caused it. His heart was racing, expecting white clad figures to come running at him out of the shadows, to grab him, to drag him screaming back into the White Room. He stood rooted to the spot, frozen by paralyzing fear, but the night stayed quiet. He let out the breath he was holding and quickly made his way to his window. He placed his hand on the lock and when he heard the familiar click of it disengaging, he slid the window open, and quietly climbed inside.

He tossed his jacket on the floor and fell backwards onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling in the dark. He put his hands behind his head, shaking off the fear he had felt outside and choosing to concentrated on Liz instead, smiling as he remembered how soft her skin felt earlier, when he was touching it. Kissing it. Tasting it. Sucking on it. He felt the tightening in his groin once again as he thought about how soft her skin felt in his hand, how sweet she tasted, how hard her nipple turned when his lips touched her, when his tongue flicked across –

“Where ya been?” a deep voice broke the silence.

“FUCK!” Max hissed and bolted up on the bed. With his heart hammering wildly, he clutched at his chest and stared bullets at the shadow sitting in the corner. “You scared the shit out of me!”

Michael reached over and turned the switch on the desk lamp, chasing away the shadows as the room filled with light. He looked Max over closely, noticing his rumpled clothes and his five o’clock shadow, and he said, “Well?”

“What are you doing here?” Max raked a trembling hand through his hair, trying to regain his composure. It was none of Michael’s business where he’d been tonight. Everybody better get that through their thick heads. He’d stayed away from Liz for years because of them and he wasn’t going to do it anymore. If they didn’t like it, that was their own fucking problem.

Michael could hear the harsh tone in his voice and he drummed his fingers on the desktop, not meeting Max’s cold stare. He was different now, changed from the Max he thought he knew. Max always avoided confrontation, or at least he had before the FBI got him. Before Pierce did those things to him in the White Room. But he had a hard edge in his eyes now. Michael knew if he weren’t careful, they’d only end up butting heads instead of working together.

“So how’s Liz?” Michael tried to sound nonchalant. He saw Max’s eyes narrowing and his jaw clench and he hastened on with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’m just asking. She’s been through a lot lately, too. I was just wondering how she’s holding up.”

“She’s fine,” Max answered stiffly.

“So you two have gotten . . . um, pretty close-”

“Michael,” Max warned. “What happens between Liz and me is none of your business-”

“Yes it is,” Michael cut him off and then tried to soothe the situation. “I mean, if you’re having sex with Liz, I need to know if there’s anything strange about it. I want to know what to expect, in case Maria and I, you know?”

“I thought you broke up with Maria,” Max said, avoiding his question.

“Well I did, but . . .” Michael stumbled. “I might want to take her back.”

“Oh! How magnanimous of you Michael,” Max jeered. Leaning back on one elbow he said, “Did you ever think that Maria might not want you back?”

“Did she say that?” Michael frowned.

“Michael! You broke up with her!”

“But it was for her own good! I was just trying to protect her.”

“I know,” Max said gently. He knew what it was like trying to protect the one you loved. Sitting up on his bed, he shook off the anger he was feeling. “Look . . . if you and Maria get back together . . . you don’t have to worry about anything. I mean,” and then his eyes took on that familiar shy look of his. “Well . . . there wasn’t anything . . .”

“So you and Liz . . .?” Michael prodded.

After a hesitation, Max nodded slightly.

“And . . .?”

“And . . .” Max shrugged. He wasn’t comfortable telling Michael intimate things about Liz. “It was . . . normal. I guess. No alien weirdness, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No flashes?” Michael pressed.

“No. Just . . . normal . . .”

His voice trailed off, getting lost in the memory of making love to Liz in that abandoned van. The way she felt, her soft skin, the heat of their bodies as they moved together, the way her fingers moved across his skin, her breath on his throat, her lips, her cry of ecstasy followed moments later by his own when he exploded inside of her.

“I gotcha,” Michael smirked at the sappy look on Max’s face.

Max fell back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling with his hands resting lightly on his chest. He couldn’t stop grinning.

“Rub it in,” Michael said jealously.

Max wasn’t even listening now. He was lost in pleasant thoughts. Michael wasn’t as happy, though. He’d been hoping that Tess was wrong, that a human and a hybrid together would be enough to unlock the secrets inside them, but evidently not. If it didn’t happen when Max was with Liz, as close as they were connected, then the human factor would have to be ruled out.

* * * * *

Max lay on his bed, listening to the sounds of the house. A creak of floorboards here, a settling of timber there. Expanding and contracting. Another snore drifted up from the floor from where Michael lay stretched out on a sleeping bag in his usual fashion. Max idly wondered if one of those breathing strips across the nose would help Michael’s snoring problem, and then he thought maybe it was something he could heal. A deviated septum maybe? Didn’t that cause snoring? He could put his hand on Michael’s nose and cure that awful racket. Then on the other hand, he could just pinch his nostrils closed, cover his mouth too, and smother the life right out of him. That would cure the snoring.

Oh well, it didn’t matter. Michael could snore as loud as he wanted, because Max wasn’t going back to sleep tonight anyway. Not after . . . the dream. He felt a shudder course through his body and he tried to shake it off, but it was still there. Pierce. The White Room.

Fear. Torture. Pain.

He touched his hand to his chest, feeling the skin below his shirt. Not long ago, an ugly wound running down the center of it had marred that smooth skin. He could still feel it, the blade as it cut into him, the blood as it welled up and spread over his chest. Pierce had enjoyed it, watching them cut him open like an animal.

He’d enjoyed other things too, standing on the sidelines and watching while the men in white stripped him bare, strapped him to a table and examined every inch of him, poked and prodded him, probed him – everywhere. They injected him, scraped tissue samples, poured acid on his skin to test him, even pulled a molar from his mouth. His tongue probed the hollow spot where an upper right molar used to be, and he felt the hard point of where a new tooth was starting to poke through. He was surprised that he was regenerating another tooth, and glad that Pierce never found out about that. He might have wanted to cut off an arm, or a leg, to see if it would regenerate, too.

Pierce thought Max was a monster, but the real monster had been him. He was glad Pierce was dead. The only regret he had was that Michael carried the mental scars from killing him.

But maybe they could put that all behind them now. Nasedo had sent word that the Special Unit of the FBI that had been tracking him was in the process of being shut down right now. By the end of the month it would be disbanded and the files closed. If all went right everything related to Roswell, New Mexico in general, and Max Evans specifically, would disappear. Then maybe things could get back to normal. Or as normal as things could ever be for him.

Then all he’d have to worry about was that God damn message they’d heard in the cave. God knows he wanted to know where he came from and why he was here, just as much as Michael and Isabel did, but he wasn’t going to listen to some pre-recorded message telling him what to do, and who to do it with. Fuck that shit. He didn’t owe anybody anything.

Then why did he feel this immense weight on him? The weight of a world, waiting for him to figure out what he was supposed to do. It was his responsibility. He was the leader of the unit. He was supposed to set the example, keep the others in line, focus on the mission. But what fucking mission? The mysterious mission the cave message had intimated was locked in his mind? Well, there was one thing he was certain of. He wasn’t going to sleep with Tess to find out. If the memory retrieval that she suggested didn’t work, then the hell with it. They’d have to find another way.

Maybe the book, he thought as he rolled off the bed and headed for his closet. He touched his hand to a spot on the wall, low down by the floor and a silver handprint appeared. It lined up perfectly with his own handprint and he willed the segment of the wall to disappear. Reaching through the hole in the plaster, he retrieved the Destiny book and took it back to his bed.

He sat down at the head of his bed and propped a pillow behind him, and flipped through the strange pages. The symbols looked familiar, like he should be able to read them, but he couldn’t. He turned another page and four faces looked up at him. Isabel, Michael, Tess and his own. Grouped together. Two pairs. He turned the page again, this time looking down at his own likeness, standing next to Tess. A pregnant Tess. A child growing inside her womb. Was it supposed to be his child? Was he expected to mate with her? Was that part of the mission? Did the survival of their race depend on Michael and Isabel, and him and Tess, mating and bearing children? The dreams Isabel and Michael had shared showed them with a child, and here the fucking book clearly showed Tess pregnant with his baby.

Never, he shuddered. NEVER! He belonged with Liz. Only Liz. He didn’t want to be with anyone but Liz.

He slammed the book closed, frustrated beyond words. His body ached to be with Liz. To touch her. To hold her. To love her. Again. Once was not enough. He craved the feel of her tender skin. Last night, in the back seat of the jeep, before Michael came along and ruined it, they’d been so close. He’d broken through her defenses, convinced her they belonged together, and just when she was opening up to him, letting him in, Michael showed his big ugly face. Damn him anyway.

Feeling restless, Max took the book back to his closet and hid it in the wall once more. He waved his hand over the opening to reseal it, leaving no cracks or holes behind to hint at the mysteries hidden there.

Across town, Tess sat in the living room of the large home she shared with Nasedo. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Nasedo wasn’t here anymore. He was in Washington, closing down the Special Unit of the FBI.

Nasedo. Where had they come up with that name? Ed Harding had gone by a lot of names, but Nasedo had never been one of them. Had they gotten the name from the old Indian out on the reservation? River Dog? How much did he know? Maybe she should take a trip out there, have a little ‘talk’ with him. Head off any problems before they develop. ‘Head off’ she laughed at her own little joke. She’d been taught how to take care of people who could cause her trouble.

Opening the box at her feet, she pawed through the pictures. Max at school. Max at home. Max at work in the UFO Center. Max in the Crashdown, mooning over that mousy little Liz Parker. Max in his bedroom, sleeping innocently in his bed. How many nights had she snuck into his room, watching him as he slept, him never knowing she was there? She’d listened to him whisper her name as he dreamt about her. Liz Parker. Always Liz Parker. He was just going to have to get over that little Miss Parker.

Reaching into the box, her hand came into contact with something hard, cold, unearthly. She’d made a little trip out to the pod chamber earlier in the week, while Max had stayed behind making eyes at Liz. He never even noticed she was gone. For a leader, he sure wasn’t very good at keeping his eyes on the troops. She’d been able to sneak into the pod chamber and take one of the orbs and no one was the wiser, least of all Max. She pulled it out of the box now, and held it in her hand.

Nasedo had warned her about it, told her that should the others find it first, under no circumstances were they to know what the message really said. They weren’t ready to accept the responsibility of it yet. They hadn’t been properly conditioned to comprehend the reason why they were here.

A shiver passed through her and she shied away from where her thoughts were taking her. She concentrated on the orb instead, cupping it in her hands, wondering if she could make it work on her own. She should be ready for the message that was hidden inside. After all, Nasedo had been conditioning her for years. She closed her eyes in concentration, like she’d done with Max in the cave, but after several minutes of effort, the orb remained cold and silent. Maybe it did take both of them to activate it.

She set the orb aside and reached into the box once more. Her fingers found another metallic object hidden among the pictures and pulled it free of the container, remembering the night she had first seen it. She’d gone to the Library and retrieved the Destiny Book, just as Ed Harding had told her to. She’d brought it home, wondering what it all meant, but Harding had told her ‘later’. The answers would come later.

That night, looking at the Destiny book for the first time, she’d stared smugly at the depictions of her and Max, side by side, especially the one showing them holding hands, her with child. His child. Her destiny. He was hers, the two of them created to be together. He belonged to her. It was what she’d always been told. He was the leader and she was his mate, and together the world would be theirs.

But then she’d turned the pages of the book, and she’d seen the other drawing. The one toward the back of the book. The one that showed the girl with the long, dark hair. There was no mistaking who it was. Liz Parker was in the Destiny book. Why, she didn’t know. She’d taken the page out of the book, so no one would ever see it, not even Nasedo. No one would ever know. She should destroy it, but until she could figure out the reason why it was there, she couldn’t.

She stared at the strange symbols that surrounded the etching of Liz Parker, an alien language she couldn’t read – her language, wondering why Nasedo had never taught it to her. But then, he always kept things from her. He doled out only what he thought she needed to know. No more. In some ways, she was just as ignorant about her purpose here as the others, but that was going to change. When Nasedo returned from Washington she would insist he teach her how to read it.

Until then, all she could do was stare at the image of a human girl on the page of an alien book, and wonder what it all meant.



Stop by next Sunday for the next part

[Breathless]

Aftermath
Part 8



The four stood in a tight circle in the nearly empty cafeteria of West Roswell High. Max, Tess, Michael and Isabel. Their voices were low, secretive, whispering words not meant for human ears.

“Look, Pierce said there were four,” Max said as he looked at the others. “Two died in the crash. Two didn’t.”

“What are you saying?” Isabel darted her eyes around, making sure no one was near.

“What I’m saying is . . . Nasedo, Ed Harding, whatever you want to call him, I think he was assigned to Tess. Her guardian or something. To watch out for her until she was old enough to take care of herself. There were four of us, and four of them. Ed Harding, the two that died in the crash, and the one that got away.”

“And what’s your point, Max?” Michael asked irritably.

“There’s still one out there. A protector that belongs to one of us. He might have some answers.” Max turned his eyes to Tess, wanting more than anything to find those answers without having to resort to what the message in the cave suggested.

Tess felt her ire rise when she saw the way he was looking at her, like she was some kind of disgusting thing. Her protector had made it clear. Max was meant to be with her. When was he going to get that through his head? The outcome of their entire race depended on what the four of them did. Wasn’t that more important than his little Liz Parker?

Across the commons, Liz pulled open the door with Maria following close on her heels. Confiding in her best friend, she continued their conversation. “I woke up and he was in the middle of a nightmare. I don’t know what it was about, he wouldn’t tell me, but I know it had something to do with what Pierce did to him in the White Room. He-” and then she saw him, standing across the room. With Tess at his side. They were deep in some conversation, and Tess was almost rubbing up against him. Liz froze in place.

“You didn’t get caught, did you? By your parents? Liz? Liz? Earth to Liz.” Maria turned her gaze in the direction Liz was looking and then she saw them. Max and Tess. Michael and Isabel.

“No,” Liz answered distractedly, standing rigidly in place and blocking the school entrance. “We didn’t get caught.” She got bumped from behind and they moved to the side, away from the doors.

“What are they doing over there?” Maria frowned. Some secret alien mumbo jumbo? Did you need a special decoder ring to join their club?

“I don’t know . . .” Liz felt a sinking feeling. She was back in the cave again, watching Max and Tess, Isabel and Michael, healing Nasedo, looking at the image of the woman. She didn’t belong within that inner circle. That alien union. She was an outsider. A pall fell over her and she said softly, “C’mon. Let’s go.” She turned away, with Maria walking by her side, glancing back to look at Max one last time as they headed down the hall.

Max focused on Tess, asking her, “When is Nasedo coming back?” Out of the corner of his eye he saw a glimpse of something and it drew his attention. He lifted his head looking down the hallway, seeing Liz’s familiar long dark hair.

“He said he was-”

“Liz,” Max called out to get her attention. “Liz!” His voice rose a little louder and he began to move in her direction, pushing past Tess.

“Max. I thought you wanted to know-” Tess whined.

“Later,” he brushed her off. He looked back at the three of them and said pointedly, “We’ll talk about this later.” With that, he rushed down the hallway to catch up with Liz.

“What the hell was that?” Michael lifted his hands in frustration. “I thought we were talkin’ here. Jesus Christ!”

“Michael,” Isabel cautioned, warning him not to push it.

Tess glared after Max, watching him push through the growing crowd of students who were arriving for another day of school. He was almost running in his haste to reach her. How pathetic.

* * * * *

“Hey,” Max called out as he neared her. “Liz!”

Hearing his voice, she stopped and turned quickly, holding her books in front of her. “Max! Hi.”

“Hey, Max,” Maria smiled, noticing how he seemed slightly out of breath.

“Hey,” he acknowledged her with a quick smile of his own and then focused on Liz again. “Didn’t you see me? In the commons?” he pointed back in the direction he’d just come.

“I think this is my cue to leave,” Maria arched her eyebrows and scurried away, headed for her locker.

Max eyed her as she left, wondering what she meant by that, and then turned back to Liz. “I was waiting for you.”

“You were?” Liz stumbled over her words. “I didn’t . . . see . . . you . . . I was talking to Maria . . .”

“I was hoping we’d get a chance to see each other before class starts,” Max smiled at her uncertainly. Was something wrong? She seemed so . . . distant. “Liz? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” she said hurriedly. “Fine. Everything’s fine.” Turning her wrist to look at her watch, she said, “Um, we still have fifteen minutes before class starts.”

“Great,” Max’s smile broadened. Letting himself relax, he took her books out of her hands and held them against his hip with one arm, and draped his other around her shoulders. He was proud to walk down the halls of West Roswell High with the prettiest girl in school.

* * * * *

Maria was lost in her thoughts as she opened her locker and took out her books for her first two classes. She was trying to focus on her English test, thinking what a sadist Mrs. Moreland was, giving them a test today, on top of the final slated for next week. She’d come to the conclusion that teachers were the devil’s minions, out to put students through living hell. She jumped in fright when someone slammed into the locker next to her.

“Hey, Maria,” Kyle flashed a smile.

“Damnit Kyle! You scared the crap out of me!”

“Sorry,” he smiled with that impish grin of his. Turning serious, he asked, “You seen Liz?”

She nodded and said, “Moondoggie’s got her.”

“Moon . . .?” he started to question, and then he got her meaning. He rolled his eyes, acknowledging that he should have known. She was with Max. He couldn’t help the flare of jealousy. What did Max Evans have that he didn’t have? Besides the magical healing hands. Besides the deep soulful eyes. Besides the poetry and the flowers. Besides the . . . oh never mind.

“You need to talk to her?” Maria asked, reaching for a notebook.

“Yeah . . . no . . .” He saw Maria arch an eyebrow and he shrugged, saying, “Just tell Gidget I was looking for her.”

“Okay,” she laughed as he ambled off. A minute later the locker next to her again nearly collapsed as a shoulder hit it. She dropped her books and clutched at her racing heart. “Kyle! Would you stop it!”

“Stop what,” Michael asked, wondering what her problem was.

“Michael!” Maria narrowed her eyes. He watched her as she bent over to pick up her books, rolling his eyes when they kept sliding from her hands and falling to the floor again. His arms folded over his chest, watching her gather her things together, and then she lifted her eyes up to look at him.

Correction. She glared at him.

“What?” he said in confusion. What had he done now?

“Are you gonna just stand there?” Maria looked at him like he was a three headed monster. And maybe he was, she decided. Who knew what his alien form was really like? Maybe he had six heads and only one brain to share with them all. Maybe that’s why he was such a prick–

“Let me have those,” he bent over and scooped her books up.

“What do you want, Michael?” she asked, mad at herself for feeling that familiar pang of attraction toward him.

“I thought we could have lunch together,” he said offhandedly, like it was no big deal.

“Lunch?” she gaped. Didn’t that violate his ‘I can’t get involved’ rule?

“Yeah,” he shot back at her. “Lunch. You have to eat today, don’t ya?”

Maria tried not to roll her eyes toward the heavens. Was he trying to worm his way back into her good graces? Was he trying to win his way back into her heart? Was he the most pathetic excuse for a boyfriend she had ever met? Feeling herself being sucked back into the alien abyss, she sighed deeply as they headed down the hall toward their first class.

* * * * *

“Max . . .” Liz couldn’t decide whether she wanted to push him away or tear his clothes off. As his mouth smothered hers in a passionate kiss, the second option was definitely starting to win. He had given her that sexy grin of his when she finally realized where he was taking her, right to the eraser room, and now they were locked inside, and locked in a passionate kiss. Last year he had been so shy he could hardly talk to her, and now, well, right now he was Max Evans, the alien octopus.

“I always . . .” he mumbled heatedly against her throat, “. . . wanted to . . . kiss you in here.”

“You did?” Liz sighed, feeling her body tingle everywhere he touched her.

“Uh huh,” his hot breath caressed her throat. His tongue flicked out to touch her sending a thrill throughout her body and resulting in a moan she couldn’t suppress. He answered with a growl of his own and his kisses intensified. His hand slid under her shirt, roaming up and down her back, moving to her side, lingering there and then inching toward the front.

“Max . . .” she pushed at his shoulder. “Class is almost ready to start.”

“Not yet,” he mumbled and worked his way back up to her mouth. He just wanted to touch her again. He was addicted to her. Her lips. Her skin. Her smell. Her smile. Her laugh. Just her. Everything about her. He kissed her hard, loving the way she kissed him back. His hand closed over her breast, feeling her supple skin through her lacy bra and then suddenly an image flashed through his mind and his hand froze.

His lips parted from hers in surprise and his hand dropped to her waist. In confusion, he said, “You were there? You saw me, in the commons, with Michael and Isabel . . . and Tess? Why didn’t you come over?”

“I . . .” Liz stared up at him not knowing what to say. “I . . .”

“Because of Tess?” he asked, and he could see the answer clearly on her face. “Because I was standing next to Tess?” Her eyes dropped away, not able to look at him. “Liz, you have to believe me when I tell you, there’s nothing between me and her. And there never will be. Never. I’m in love with you, Liz. I always have been.” He lifted her chin and held her uncertain gaze, saying softly, “I always will be.”

“I want to believe that,” Liz looked deeply into his eyes. His face was open, honest, and she could see he meant every word he said. “I do believe that.”

“Good,” Max sighed in relief. “You don’t have to worry about her, Liz.” Smoothing his hand though her hair he tried to make her understand. “There’s times when I’m going to have to be around her. She’s one of us. One of my kind. But that doesn’t mean she’ll ever be anything more than that. Just like nothing is ever going to happen between Michael and Isabel, there will never be anything between me and Tess.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, remembering how much it hurt to see him kissing Tess that night in the rain, outside the Crashdown. “Do you still feel . . . drawn to her?”

“No,” his voice took on a soft, gentle, tone and he cupped her cheek with his hand. “I don’t feel anything for her. Nothing at all.”

And it was true. In the beginning, when Tess first came to town, he had felt the pull, drawn to her in a way he couldn’t fight, but that was all changed now. It was the one good thing that came out of the horror of his experience with Pierce. Ever since the night he spent with Liz, in the van out in Frazier Woods, the disturbing attraction he had felt toward Tess was gone.

“I’ve only got eyes for you, Liz,” he kissed her forehead and then her lips. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Liz nodded, feeling better than she had earlier. She knew Max meant what he said, and she didn’t want to come off as some insanely jealous girlfriend, but there was just something about Tess that she didn’t trust. Her powers seemed more developed, stronger than the others, and she had this sense of . . . something . . . hiding under the surface. What was she capable of?

* * * * *

The bell echoed shrilly through the halls and Tess watched from the shadows as the eraser room door opened and Max headed toward class, with his arm possessively around Liz’s shoulders. They both looked slightly disheveled, Max with his hair looking ruffled and Liz with her lips red and puffy. She’d been listening at the door and heard them going at it, moaning and groaning away.

It wasn’t fair! Nasedo said Max belonged to her. She’d waited years to find him and now that she had, he didn’t want anything to do with her. It just wasn’t fair. Why was she always on the outside? She never fit in with the humans around her. Nasedo had always kept her isolated from them, never allowing any friendships with neighbors or classmates. No one had ever come to her house, to play, to study, to watch TV.

She’d always been alone.

And now, now when she’d finally found the others, she was still alone. They didn’t like her. They didn’t trust her. They barely tolerated her. She could kill them all, all these worthless humans that interfered with her plans. Every last one of them. With her eyes glued on Max, she walked head long into an unyielding body.

“Tess!” Kyle stumbled and reached for her shoulders to steady her.

“Kyle!” she blurted out, taking a step back. Her hand fluttered in front of her mouth and she said, “I’m sorry! I didn’t see you.”

“Well,” he muttered. “It actually helps to look where you’re going. Unless, of course, your species has eyes on the sides of your head.”

“I was . . .” she stammered.

“Yeah, I know,” he darted a look in the direction of the departing Max Evans. Who would have thought Max would turn into a babe magnet? So what if he was tall, dark, handsome – and then he shook himself. So not going there!

“So . . .” Tess tugged on a strand of curly hair.

“So . . .” Kyle looked at the tiles on the floor, the light fixtures on the ceiling, the size of her ample chest.

“Um . . . I, um . . .” What was she gonna say? She couldn’t remember what she was going to say.

“Um . . . did you study for that Math final?” he asked. They were in Math together. First period. What a way to ruin the day, right off the bat. Of course, seeing her in class was easy on the eyes. That made it almost worth going. What a minute. What was he thinking? She was one of ‘them’. What did Maria call them? The Czechoslovakians? They’d fucked up his life enough, thank you very much.

If it wasn’t for that girlfriend stealing Max Evans, his life would be pretty sweet. Star of the basketball team. Football team. Hot shit jock. Ladies man. Man of action. Until Max Evans came along and stole his girl and turned his whole fucking life upside down. And then the bastard goes and saves his life, so now he’s like, indebted to him or some shit like that.

“I hate Math,” Tess turned up her nose.

“So do I,” Kyle agreed as they headed off to class.

“Mr. Harris acts like he has a stick up his ass,” Tess commented.

“Maybe he’s gay?” Kyle grinned.

Listening to Tess laugh, Kyle decided maybe some aliens weren’t so bad.


I'll be out of town next weekend, so look for the next post in 2 weeks

[Breathless]

Author: Debbi aka Breathless
Category: Max and Liz, CC/UC
Rating: PG 13 to NC 17

Author Note: I think I should mention the setup of this story again, since it departs a bit from the series. Everything up through Destiny is the same, except for what happened in the van and the end, when Max went after Liz instead of letting her run away.

The big differences to remember are: The four podsters did NOT live a prior life. Max was never a king (he is the 'leader', just not a king). There is no Royal Four. Why are they on planet Earth? That's what Max needs to find out.




Aftermath
Part 9


The Crashdown was full of hustle and bustle as the booths filled with the after school crowd. Maria and Liz raced from one table to another, taking orders, filling drinks, bringing hot steaming plates of food to the hungry masses. The bell above the door rang and Maria looked up, seeing Isabel first, then Michael and then Max filing in. Her eyes narrowed when she saw who was bringing up the rear.

Pointing in the direction of the door, Maria said to Liz, “There’s Max . . . and his shadow.”

“His what?” Liz looked up, balancing plates on her arm. She followed Maria’s frowning gaze and she almost dropped everything. There was Tess, practically hanging all over Max. Isabel and Michael moved toward their regular booth with Max not paying much attention as he followed along. He was too busy smiling at Liz. When Michael came to a stop in front of him, Max ran right over him.

“Hey! Watch it!” Michael stumbled from the impact.

“Sorry,” Max blushed in embarrassment, hearing the snickers of the kids in the nearby booths.

Isabel rolled her eyes at her klutzy brother and then slid into the booth. Tess slid in across from her, moving toward the wall so Max could sit next to her. As Michael began to drop into the seat next to Isabel, Max grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him toward the seat next to Tess. He quickly slid in next to his sister and his face broke into a wide grin as he watched Liz moving toward their booth. He didn’t see the way Tess glared at him.

“Hey,” Liz smiled when she reached the table. Max reached for her hand and their fingers intertwined while they gazed into each other’s eyes, with silly grins on their faces. Michael cleared his throat once . . . twice . . . still no response, so he kicked Max on the shin.

“What was that for!” Max glared at him and reached under the table to rub his leg.

“Can we just eat?” Michael said pointedly. “As in food?”

“Sorry.” It was Liz’s turn to blush now. She took out her order pad and tried to concentrate on her job, instead of on Max. “What would you like?”

“I’ll have a hamburger, and fries,” Michael stated without looking at the menu.

“Would that be the Buck Rogers Bacon Burger or the Captain Kirk Cheeseburger Classic, or-”

“Just a hamburger,” Michael interrupted.

“And do you want the Ferengi Fries or the Klingon Kurly Fries?” Liz asked unfazed by his attitude.

Michael stared at her for a minute and then his shoulders slumped. He propped his elbow on the table and leaned his head into his hand, acknowledging defeat with a sigh. “Give me the Ferengi Fries.”

Liz fought back a smile and took the rest of their orders while Max fought the urge to run his hand up and down her leg. He was having a hard time keeping his hands to himself. Ever since the night they made love in the van, he craved to touch her, to be close to her, to feel her skin on his. He couldn’t get enough of her. Liz headed toward the soda fountain and he watched her every move . . .

“Max . . .” Tess tried to get his attention.

. . . He watched her hand pick up a cup from the stack next to the machine and heard the clink as she filled it with ice . . .

“Max . . .” Tess tried again.

. . . She moved the cup and began to fill it with cherry coke, his favorite. The foam spilled over the top and dripped down the side and he watched as she lifted a finger to her mouth and sucked the foam off. He swallowed hard . . .

“Max.” Tess’s tone was clipped as he continued to ignore her.

. . . His heart rate doubled as he watched her finger move in and out of her mouth. Liz turned to look at him, just a quick glance in his direction, and sparks flew as their eyes met. His gaze heated, her eyes opened wide, and then her cheeks turned pink when she realized he was turned on. She pulled her finger from her mouth and her eyes dropped coquettishly.

The air suddenly rushed from his lungs when Isabel elbowed him in the side. Really hard.

“What was that for?” Max whined and rubbed his ribs. They were beating the hell out of him today. What was up with that?

“Are you deaf? Tess is trying to talk to you!” Isabel scolded him.

He glared at his sister and then turned his unenthusiastic gaze toward Tess. “What?”

“Nevermind,” Tess fumed inwardly.

“I’m sorry,” Max tried to placate her. “I didn’t hear you. What did you say?”

“I . . .” Tess stuttered and looked at Isabel. The impatient look on her face was saying, ‘You have his attention now, so just say whatever you were going to say already’. Tess felt the weight of their stares, Max, Isabel and Michael, waiting for her to speak. She shifted uncomfortably. Focusing on Max, she said, “I thought maybe we could try the memory retrieval tonight.”

“Tonight?” Max arched his eyebrows. He glanced over at Liz, thinking about how he wanted to spend the evening with her. He wanted to take her out to dinner, or maybe just sit with her on her balcony, or maybe go over to Michael’s place since he was working the closing shift and they could be alone, or maybe drive out into the desert in the jeep and sit under the stars. Looking back at Tess, he frowned and said, “You want to do that tonight?”

Exasperated by his tone, Tess retorted, “Do you have something better to do?”

“Well,” Max started to reply. “Liz and I-”

“God forbid finding out about the secrets of our existence interfere with your playing footzie with Liz,” Michael huffed.

“Michael,” Max warned.

“C’mon, Max!” Michael raised his voice, trying to make him see reason. “Where are your priorities?”

“Okay!” Max nearly shouted. Reining in his temper, he lowered his voice and repeated, “Okay.” Turning to Tess, he asked, “What time?”

“How about 7:00?” she asked. She was shaking inside from the humiliation of the way he looked at her, like she was some kind of pariah. Why couldn’t he love her the way he was supposed to? Nobody ever loved her.

“7:00?” Max balked. Liz got off work at 7:00. That meant he wouldn’t get to see her at all. Damnit. “Can’t we do it earlier?”

“Like when?” Tess said irritably. Did everything have to revolve around Liz Parker?

“Like,” Max glanced at his watch. “In an hour?”

“No,” Tess held her ground.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I’m busy in an hour. I have plans.”

“What plans?”

“Plans!” Tess shot back at him.

“What’s the problem, Max?” Michael interrupted. “She can do it at 7:00. So do it at 7:00.”

“Fine,” Max gritted his teeth. “7:00.”

* * * * *

Max pushed his plate back and sensing a lull in the restaurant, he rose to his feet and headed over to the counter to see if Liz could take a break. Isabel and Tess had left an hour ago so he wouldn’t have to put up with their disapproving looks, and Michael was already in the kitchen starting his shift in preparation for the dinner crowd.

“Hey,” he leaned against the counter, watching Liz pour a drink.

“Hey,” she turned and smiled.

“Can you take a break?” he asked hopefully.

“Sure,” she looked around the Crashdown, seeing how empty it was. “Let me just take this . . .” she indicated the drink and grabbed a straw to take it to a customer. He watched her as she moved, seeing the way her hips swayed back and forth. She wasn’t doing it on purpose but he couldn’t help the tightening in his groin. What was the matter with him? He couldn’t get sex off his mind!

So sure, he’d always had sex on his mind, at least when it came to Liz Parker, but damn! Now he could hardly control himself. He used to be able to keep it in check. All those years Liz never had a clue how much he loved her, and wanted her. Now, he couldn’t keep his hands off her. Was it an alien side-effect of making love to her? An alien sex drive kicking into high gear? Or was it just the oversexed hormones of an average all American teenage boy, wanting to get a little? Okay, wanting to get a lot.

“Only two more hours, and then I get off,” Liz sauntered over to him and played with the buttons on his shirt.

“Yeah, about that,” Max gave her a vexed look. He glanced around the Crashdown and then taking her hand in his, he pulled her into the back room.

“What’s up?” she asked as she trailed along behind him. They usually just sat in the booth when she was on break.

Max poked his head through the swinging door, relieved to see that her father was nowhere in sight. Pulling her through the door, he swept her into his arms, kissing her breathless. They stumbled backwards with their lips locked together until her back was pressing against the wall, with his body pressing against hers, feeling her soft curves against his hard muscles.

Heaven, Max couldn’t help thinking. Holding her like this was heaven.

“That was nice,” she smiled when they came up for air.

“It certainly was,” Max agreed and kissed her again.

“I can’t stay back here long,” she mumbled between kisses. She could taste the Tabasco sauce on him. On his lips. In his mouth. So spicy and tantalizing. So Max.

He groaned at the feel of her tongue darting into his mouth, making his kiss turn more heated. He could devour her, right here, in the back of the Crashdown. He could strip her clothes off and ravish her, right on the floor. He could lift her up and tear her panties off and have his way with her, right against the wall. He could . . . hear her father’s footsteps coming down the stairs.

Max bolted away from her, running his hand nervously through his hair as he tried to compose himself. His cheeks were beet red, certain her father knew each and every thought that had been going through his mind. He really needed to adjust himself, but he knew he didn’t dare.

“Lizzie, I-” Jeff said as he hit the bottom stair and then he saw him. Nodding politely, he said, “Max.”

“Hello, Mr. Parker,” Max nervously scratched behind his ear.

“Aren’t there customers out there waiting for you Liz?” Jeff asked.

“I’m on a break, Dad,” Liz drilled him with a look.

“I was . . . just . . .” Max stuttered. Just what? Ravishing your daughter? Stealing her virtue? Thinking about doing the nasty with her?

“Just what?” Jeff raised his eyebrows.

Max stood there with his mouth hanging open, not knowing what to say.

“Max was just saying goodbye,” Liz saved his butt.

“Yeah!” Max perked up. “I have to . . .” he looked back and forth between Liz and her father and then finally spit out, “go. I have to go.”

Jeff gave Max the once over and then nodded. “Goodbye, Max.”

“Goodbye, Mr. Parker,” he echoed and then let out a sigh of relief when the older man pushed through the door into the restaurant. Turning back to Liz he rolled his eyes at his ineptitude and then lamented, “I really do have to go.”

“So, will I see you later?” she asked. “After I get off work?”

“I can’t,” he dropped his head in disappointment. “Tess is coming over to the house to try the memory retrieval.” He looked up in time to see her crestfallen face and he pulled her into his arms, trying to soothe it over. “Look, the sooner we get this over, then the more time we can have together, right?”

“Right,” Liz nodded, trying to put up a good front.

“Maybe I can see you afterwards, if it doesn’t take too long,” he suggested.

“Call me?” she looked at him hopefully.

“You know it,” he leaned down and kissed her lips. When they parted, Liz watched him leave through the back door into the alley. Later, she sighed, still tasting him on her lips, in her mouth. Maybe she’d see him later.

* * * * *

Max sat at his desk trying to finish his English paper when he heard her voice. Tess. It grated on his nerves. He’d felt uncomfortable around her ever since she showed up in Roswell, and his discomfort continued to grow. Maybe it was the way she looked at him, or talked to him, or maybe it was the disdain she seemed to feel for the people that he liked and cared about. His friends. His family. Liz.

A part of him understood that she hadn’t grown up in a loving family or a stable home, but neither had Michael and he didn’t treat the humans around him like crap. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, Max acknowledged. Michael didn’t relate well to humans either. Just look at how he treated Maria. He was nuts about her, but he was constantly pushing her away. What was it about Michael and Tess that made it so difficult for them to connect with humans?

Would he and Isabel be the same if the Evans hadn’t found them? They’d given them a loving home, supported them through everything for all these years. He and Isabel hadn’t even been able to communicate at first. They didn’t even know how to eat with a fork, or how to use the bathroom. It must have been so strange for his parents in the beginning, but they’d stood by them every step of the way. How would he and Isabel have turned out if they had been raised in foster care, abused and neglected? Or raised by an alien like Nasedo?

Maybe that’s why he and Isabel seemed more comfortable with their human side, while Tess, and to a certain extent Michael, shunned their humanity.

“Max,” Isabel poked her head into his room. “Tess is here.”

“Okay,” Max closed the cover on his book and pushed it aside. He rose to his feet with the intention of meeting Tess in the living room, when she breezed into his room. Like she thought she belonged there. Like she owned the place. She was pissing him off.

“Hi, Max,” she said sweetly.

“Tess,” he said and then tried to avoid looking at her by concentrating on Isabel. “I thought we could do this in the living room. Mom and Dad won’t be home from Bitter Lake until late.”

“Okay,” Isabel started to turn in that direction and then stopped when Tess spoke.

“That’s not going to work,” she shook her head.

“Why not?” he frowned at her. What was she talking about?

“We have to concentrate, Max,” Tess tried to explain to him. “We need privacy. Just you and me.” She turned to Isabel with innocent eyes and said, “Sorry.”

“You mean I can’t be here?” Isabel was surprised and Max was alarmed. He didn’t want to be alone with Tess.

Shrugging her shoulders, she again said, “Sorry. It’s incredibly hard to do, the memory retrieval. I need to be able to concentrate one on one, without any outside influences. So does Max. It won’t work otherwise.”

“Okay,” Isabel said uncertainly and then left her brother’s room, feeling like a third wheel. Max watched her go with growing apprehension.

“So . . .” he didn’t know what to say. She wanted to do it here? In his room? Where were they gonna sit? He only had one chair. He could get one out of Isabel’s room, or one out of the kitchen –

“Let’s just get comfortable,” Tess suggested and crawled onto his bed. She sat in the middle of it crossed legged and Max looked desperately at the empty doorway before he unenthusiastically joined her. They sat facing each other, knees almost touching, and Tess smiled reassuringly. “Just relax Max. Close your eyes and relax.”

He did as she instructed, just wanting to get this over with. Yes, he wanted to know the secrets that were locked up inside his head, but wasn’t there another way? Remembering the option he’d heard in the cave, he knew he didn’t want to do that so this seemed the only other choice. He better cooperate, before the others started pushing him toward Tess again. Being intimate with her was the last thing he wanted to do.

“Just let your mind drift,” Tess said soothingly. “Don’t think about anything. Just relax, like you’re floating in water. Drifting on the surface.” Her hands rose from her lap, touching his face and he pulled back, overreacting to the contact. Reluctantly, he leaned forward again letting her hands cup his cheeks and her fingers settle over his temples. She closed her own eyes, concentrating on what was in his mind.

“Anything?” Max asked tensely.

“You’re not letting yourself relax,” Tess cautioned. “Let your mind drift.”

How was he supposed to relax? He was sitting on his bed, with Tess touching him, the last person he wanted to be near. How was he supposed to let down his defenses, to relax around her, when he didn’t trust her?

“Max, you’re too tense. Think of something pleasant, and then let your mind drift from there.”

A small smile came to his lips as his mind wandered over pleasant thoughts. A familiar image filled his mind, a balcony, warmth, comforting darkness beyond soft glowing lights, her hair soft and shiny, her lips, his lips, their lips touching for the first time, his arms around her, his hand buried in her hair.

Liz. Always Liz. Forever Liz.

Tess balked at the image and almost broke contact with him but she held on, pushing past his obsession with Liz, seeking the deeper recesses of his mind. More images floated at her, moments in his life. She pushed past images of Liz, a nearly endless stream of Liz, at home, at school, in the Crashdown. Liz at 16. Liz at 12. Liz at 8. Finally, she dove deeper into his mind . . .


They were huddled together on the hard bench with the harsh light hurting their eyes. Blankets covered their pale skin though they weren’t cold. Three figures stood together several feet away, glancing over at them as they spoke quietly, words that the two of them couldn’t understand.

One figure broke from the group, a female, and knelt before them speaking foreign words. They watched her mouth move, confused by the sounds, but unafraid. No, her touch was soft and gently, not something to be afraid of. But the other, they were afraid of the other. His coverings were distinctive and the shiny metal symbol on his chest triggered an instinctive fear reaction. But it was the look in his eyes that scared them the most. The suspicious, cold look in his eyes.


Tess opened her eyes knowing the memory she had just seen was from the night the others had emerged from the pods. Max and Isabel, sitting in the Sheriff’s office where the Evans had taken them after finding them wandering in the desert. Michael was nowhere to be seen.

“Anything?” Max asked hopefully with his eyes still closed.

“Not yet,” Tess lied.

Max sighed anxiously. This had to work. It just had to. He could feel the fate of his entire race resting on his shoulders. He was the leader, but he didn’t know how to lead. He was supposed to bond with Tess, but he didn’t want to. It went against everything that he felt in his heart.

Knowing the memory retrieval was the only way, he opened up his mind and Tess was waiting to walk right in.



Come back next Sunday for the next part.

[Breathless]

Author: Debbi aka Breathless
Category: Max and Liz, CC/UC
Rating: PG 13 to NC 17



Author note: After part 9, it seems that the general consensus is that Tess is an evil bitch and she must die! The line forms right over there, but like Joscelyn says, technically, Tess hasn’t really done anything yet. I’m sure she will soon though.

Also, most of you are questioning Max’s reasoning skills, allowing Tess into his mind, but the poor boy is under a lot of pressure here! He’s getting pressure from Michael and Isabel (hummm, could that be so that THEY don’t have to do anything?) and he feels responsible because he is the leader. Sometimes I think we forget that Max is just a 17 year old kid, with the weight of a world resting on his shoulders.

Sniblette, you were the only one that commented on that. Maybe nobody else noticed.




Aftermath
Part 10



“Don’t even try to use your abilities, Max,” Pierce said menacingly. “The serum we injected you with – very effective in suppressing the neurotransmitters in your cerebral cortex. Experiments on the alien in the forties taught us that that’s where most of your powers come from.”

Max slumped in defeat and his face said it all. His was trapped here, with no way out.

“Come on,” Pierce urged him into a chair. “Sit down. It’s all right.” Once Max was seated, Pierce eyed him as he walked around him, like a hawk circling in for the kill. “That’s not your real weakness, though, is it? You know, I’ve been going about this the wrong way the whole time. It’s not that you’re part alien . . . it’s that you’re part human.”

At the press of a button, restraints clamped around his arms. Max struggled against them, but it was useless. He was held tight. His face was full of fear, wondering what horror Pierce had in store for him this time. Powerless to fight it, Max felt Pierce force a visor down over his eyes.

“You have feelings,” Pierce stepped back and clicked a button on the remote in his hand. In the visor, Max could see Michael’s familiar image. “Emotions,” Pierce clicked the remote again and the imaged changed to Isabel. “Friendship.” Maria and Alex appeared before his eyes. “Love . . .”

Liz. Her beautiful face filled his vision.

The image suddenly changed and her smile disappeared. Blood covered her face now. Blood . . . because . . . because she was . . . dead. “No! NO!” Max screamed.

“Trick photography, Max,” Pierce assured him.

“NO! NO!” The image still burned in his brain. Liz. Dead. DEAD. Oh, dear God, NO!

“Max, Max!” Pierce tore off the visor and shouted for his attention. “Computer rigged. Virtual reality, Max,” he explained. “It’s not real. It’s not real. We didn’t kill her.” As Max quieted Pierce leaned in closer. “We didn’t kill her. I just wanted to show you what can happen. What will happen . . .”

“You’re evil,” Max whispered. The images were too terrible to bear. Not Liz. They couldn’t do that to Liz. A tear spilled from his eye onto his cheek and his body trembled in hopeless despair.

He couldn’t take much more of this . . .


“Tess?” Max said again, trying to get her attention.

“What?” Tess startled back to reality.

“I said, we’ll have to try again,” Max suggested as he drove through the streets of Roswell, taking her home. He glanced at her sideways, wondering why she was so quiet. He’d become used to her harping about shit all the time, and now that she wasn’t, he didn’t know what to make of it.

Tess looked at him sharply, expecting a snide comment and was ready to come back with a harsh rejoinder, but for once she didn’t see aversion on his face. He wasn’t looking at her like she had snakes for hair and one look would turn him to stone. It looked like he was actually trying to have a conversation with her. She didn’t know how to act.

“Maybe this weekend?” he said with his eyes facing the road again.

“Sure,” she nodded, watching him out of the corner of her eye as he drove. Before he’d spoken and startled her out of her thoughts, she’d been thinking about the things she’d seen in his mind earlier. Pierce, and the horrible things he’d done to Max in the White Room. His body and mind tortured unforgivingly. His will to live stretched to the breaking point. His survival tied to the image that kept reoccurring in his mind.

Liz. It always came back to Liz.

“Maybe I’ll be able to remember something . . .” Max said quietly, almost as if he was talking to himself.

They drove the rest of the way in silence, Max thinking about the memories that were locked inside him, Tess wondering how she could use to her advantage the things she had seen there. When he slowed to pull into her driveway, Max frowned and asked, “Why’s the front door open? I thought you said Nasedo isn’t due back before the end of the month.”

“He isn’t,” Tess went on alert.

“Stay here,” Max warned and climbed from the jeep, carefully closing the door so it wouldn’t make a sound. He made his way slowly to the front of the house and peered into a window. Inside, the house was torn apart.

“What happened here!” Tess exclaimed from behind him and raced for the front door.

“Tess!” Max hissed. “Come back here!” She disappeared into the house and he swore heatedly and chased after her.

Tess stood in the middle of the living room with furniture tipped over, cushions spilled to the floor and paintings hanging askew on the walls. She rushed into her bedroom and her stomach twisted at the ruin she saw there, too. Her clothes had been pulled from her dresser, the drawers hanging open and empty while the contents lay in heaps on the floor.

“Let’s get out of here!” Max squeezed her arm tightly and pulled her toward the hall.

“No-”

“NOW!” Max ordered. It wasn’t safe here. They had to go. Now!

She struggled against him, trying to break free. She had to know if it was still there. Was the box still in its hiding place?

“LET’S GO!” Max growled and pulled her down the hall and out of the house. Pushing her ahead of him, they raced for the jeep and jumped inside. Max slammed it into gear, whipped it backwards, and pulled out into the street without even looking. He burned rubber as he floored it in his haste to get away from there, with only one destination in mind.

* * * * *

“I didn’t know where else to go,” Max stood uncomfortably just inside Valenti’s door. Looking at Jim apologetically, he said, “I can’t have her stay at my place. My parents would ask too many questions.”

“Sure, Tess can stay here,” Jim nodded. “No problem.” He drew her into the living room and Max followed hesitantly behind. “So what did the place look like?”

“It was torn up pretty bad,” Max answered worriedly. “Ransacked. Like maybe whoever did it was looking for something.”

“Anything you can think of that someone might have been after?” Jim asked, staring at Tess intently.

“No,” she said too quickly, and then turning on the innocence, she said it again. “No, nothing.”

“It reminds me of that time your place got ransacked, Max,” Jim said, turning his gaze on the young man. “Did you ever figure out what they were after?”

“Not really,” Max answered, not wanting to waste time on that. Topolski had been behind that. This was something different.

“Well, Tess can stay here as long as she needs to,” Jim assured them with a smile and Max nodded gratefully. After hearing that message in the cave, he felt responsible for Tess, whether he liked it or not.

“What should I do now?” Tess asked. “All my stuff is there.”

“I’ll send Hanson over to check out the place,” Jim reached for the phone.

“And then what?” Max asked.

“I doubt whoever did it left any clues behind, but I’ll take Tess over in the morning so she can see if anything is missing. Until then, none of you should be alone.”

“You’re right,” Max nodded, and listened to Jim give Hanson instructions. He was so glad the Sheriff was on their side now. It felt strange confiding in him, after so many years of being afraid of him, but it was a good feeling. Jim Valenti was a good man.

“What about Michael?” Jim asked as he hung up the phone.

“He’ll be staying with us for now. He always crashes on my floor anyway, so my parents won’t think anything of it.”

“Good,” Jim nodded. “That’s settled then.”

* * * * *

Max parked down the street from the Crashdown and cautiously made his way to the ladder that would take him to Liz’s balcony. He watched the shadows all around him wondering if anyone was watching him. Anyone or anything. He didn’t know if the hair on the back of his head was standing on end because something was there, or if he was just scaring the piss out of himself for no reason. Monsters lurked in the shadows, FBI agents hid behind windows, shapeshifters pretended to be lampposts. A catfight erupted in the alley and Max nearly jumped out of his skin. He ran for the ladder, climbed it quickly, and threw himself over the top wall, landing on Liz’s balcony in a heap.

“That was quite an entrance,” Liz turned in her chair to look at him. She closed the journal she had been writing in and set it on the table beside her. As he stepped out of the shadows, the smile on her face faded and disappeared. Sitting up straight, suddenly tense and alert, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Tess,” Max said in a serious tone as he crossed the rooftop to her.

“Tess?” Liz whispered. What did that mean? What about Tess? Was the shoe about to drop? Was her worst nightmare about to come true? Had the memory retrieval proven to him that he belonged with Tess?

“Her place got ransacked tonight,” Max slid into the chair across from Liz and reached for her hands, squeezing them tightly.

“Are you serious?” Liz said with concern. “Is she okay?”

He nodded, saying, “She wasn’t there. She was still with me. Her front door was open when I took her home and we found the place that way. I took her over to Valenti’s. He’s going to let her stay there.”

“Max!” Liz said in alarm. “You could have gotten hurt! What if whoever did it was still in the house? God! It could have been the FBI or the military or –”

“The place was empty,” Max brushed it off and then tightened his grip on her hands. “But I’m worried about you.”

“Me?” Liz couldn’t hide her surprise.

“Yeah, you,” he pulled her out of her chair and onto his lap. Wrapping his arms around her he held her close to his chest, letting his fingers thread through her hair. “Tess is linked to Michael, Isabel and me. And I’m linked to you. What if somebody goes after you next?”

“Oh,” Liz understood his concern now. She let her cheek rest against his shoulder while they both thought about those ramifications.

“I don’t know what I’d do if anything ever happened to you,” he spoke softly, fearing that by saying the words aloud, it might make them come true.

“Nothing is going to happen to me,” Liz pulled back and looked up at his worried face. “The FBI can’t touch me. My record is impeccable. I’m a model citizen.”

“I wasn’t thinking about the FBI,” Max said with trepidation. He saw the understanding dawn on her face followed by a look that he had hoped never to see darkened her features. Fear.

“Oh . . .” she said slowly.

“I’m worried about you,” he looked into her deep brown eyes. “You can’t protect yourself. Not from . . .” aliens.

“I’ll be alright,” Liz couldn’t hide the uncertainly in her voice.

“I’m staying here tonight,” he told her, his tone leaving no room for discussion.

“Max, what if-”

His fingers touched her lips to silence her and he shook his head. This wasn’t up for debate. “No ‘what ifs’. I’m staying.”

“What about Isabel? She’s all alon-”

“Michael’s there. They can take care of each other. Right now, all I’m concerned about is you.” He saw her glance apprehensively toward her window and to set her mind at ease, he said, “I’ll stay out here. You’re parents won’t even know I’m here.”

“You won’t be comfortable spending the night out here,” Liz fussed. “And the forecast said it might rain. How are you going to sleep?”

“If I leave, I’ll go nuts worrying about you. I won’t sleep a wink. I want to do this, Liz,” Max brushed her hair back from her face. “I need to do this.”

“Okay,” Liz lifted her hand to touch his cheek. “If you feel that strongly, you can stay.”

Half an hour later, at Max’s insistence, Liz was huddled under her covers, snug and warm, with Max sitting on her window ledge, swinging his legs back and forth as they talked.

“So it was Michael’s turn to serve the ball,” Max was having a hard time getting it out, he was laughing so hard as he related today’s PE exploits. “He tosses the volleyball into the air and smacks it, and bam! It hits Kyle right in the back of the head! It nearly knocked his ass out!” Max fell over sideways, he was laughing so hard.

“You’re kidding!” Liz’s side was splitting from laughing too.

“No! I’m not!” Max wiped the tears from his eyes. “So –” he sputtered and started laughing again. “So Kyle gets up, shaking his head, and then he sees Michael and he takes off running at him! Now Michael is about a thousand feet taller than Kyle, but Kyle doesn’t care and Michael takes one look at his face and starts running the other way!” Max was dying again, clutching at his aching side he was laughing so hard.

Liz couldn’t stop laughing either, mainly because it felt so good to see Max relaxed like this. She’d never seen him laugh so hard before. The sound of it was like sweet music. She could have listened to it all night long, but of course, they were never that lucky. A knock on her door made her bolt up in bed.

“Lizzie?” her father called through the closed door.

Max scrambled out of the window and slid it closed before running over to lean up against the brick wall, hiding in the shadows there. When he was safely out of sight, Liz raised her voice and answered, “Yeah, Dad?”

“You decent?” he opened the door an inch.

“Yeah,” she arranged the covers around her. “Come in.”

“I thought I heard something . . .” he looked around the room, leaving the sentence hanging.

“I was listening to the radio,” Liz said without batting an eye. “Some comedy thing. It was pretty funny, but it’s over now.”

“Well, we’re going to bed now, so keep the noise down. In fact, you should turn the lights out too. It’s late and you have school tomorrow.”

“I will,” she nodded and leaned toward him as he bent to kiss her on the forehead.

“Goodnight Lizzie,” he smiled and headed back for the hallway.

“Goodnight Dad,” she smiled back.

With the door closed securely behind him, Max appeared once more at the window. When Liz gave him the all clear sign, he slowly opened it and climbed inside. He tiptoed over to her bed and knelt down next to her, saying, “I guess I better let you go to sleep.” His hand cupped the back of her head and pulled her to him, giving her a goodnight kiss.

As their lips parted, she stared up into his honey toned eyes. “Stay with me . . .”

“Liz, I . . .” he felt his pulse start to quicken.

“I don’t mean,” she said hurriedly. Flustered, she stumbled, “That’s not . . . what I meant was . . . I just . . .”

“You want me to stay with you,” Max smiled.

“Yeah,” she smiled shyly back.

Max rose to his feet and walked to her bedroom door. His hand closed over the knob, sealing it closed so that they wouldn’t get caught during the night. Coming back to the bed, he slipped off his shoes and his jacket and still wearing his pants and his shirt, he climbed onto the bed. He stretched out beside her, Liz under the covers, him above them, and he wrapped his arms around her. With her head resting comfortably on his chest, he didn’t think he could feel more contented.

The bed was soft. The sheets were clean and sweet smelling. The room around them was welcoming and familiar. Max knew that this could not become routine, but for tonight, this was where he needed to be. To protect her and keep her safe from harm. With the house quiet around them and the warmth of his body so comforting, Liz soon found her eyes growing heavy.

Just before sleep claimed her, Liz said sleepily, “I love you.”

In the dark room, Max smiled, and with a tender kiss to her forehead, he sighed, “I love you too, Liz. I love you, too.”



Come back next Sunday for the next part.